Time Marches On

Happy Birthday Dad! 

Like I always say, another week down. This week went by just as quick hahha. We got back at it with proselyting and finding and teaching and all that stuff. Tuesday morning we also took a missionary to the airport who was finishing his mission just 2 weeks early, so that was quite fun. Then we had to regain our focus on our missions hahah. Last Sunday a guy by the name of Arnold attended in our ward. It turns out that he married a Peruana whose brother in law was the excommunicated member that just got married in our ward. He was from Elko, Nevada, and he was quite cool. They invited all of us to a big Family Home Evening on Sunday. We ate real good and spoke a lot of English.  It was quite fun.

Yesterday we took a trip to Nauta, which is about an hour and a half from the City where we are, to go look at houses and sign some contracts and stuff. It was kinda fun. In this city of Nauta there's just a district of 4 elders and a small branch. Being there reminded me a lot of Nephi. It was quite a drive through straight jungle. It was an interesting day for sure. 

Lately I've been studying lots of conference talks. This week I just kinda searched by topic, I started with pride, and then the Plan of Salvation. I learned lots. I've found lots of old old talks, like older than me, and its interesting to see that the Prophets and Apostles have always had the same message, they just have to adapt it to the current days problems. I've also been reading lots of Jesus the Christ lately, just at night and during lunch and stuff. It is interesting to see the different perspective that Talmage gives about the Savior and His life. 

Some missionaries also came from Pucallpa to do some legal stuff for their documents and all that sooooo we asked them to buy a bunch of Mountain Dew from the Mall there, and they did it and we enjoyed it thoroughly. American soda is so good but so dang expensive here. 

I'm not gonna lie, I lowkey got behind on my work. I was gonna do a bunch last night but but when we got back from our trip I was just gassed honestly. Too tired to do anything. 

We also had an earthquake a couple nights ago that woke us up pretty good. It is kinda spooky hearing about how the world is changing and the scriptures are being fulfilled nowadays. 

I don’t really have much to say about this week. It is been getting warmer and warmer, which means that summer is getting close. I've heard that the summers in Iquitos are pretty brutal. Last summer I was in Pucallpa. We'll see the difference. I feel like I blinked and February is already ending. Dang.

Last week in Church we sang the Spanish translation for I Stand All Amazed (Asombro me da). During my mission, and even a little before I've really come to love that Hymn and what it means. 

Lately I've been collecting coins like crazy. I'm hopin' that by the end of my time in the offices I'll be able to get all of them. In total there's 40 somethin. I'm stoked.

Well guys, it was a pretty calm week. I hope next week is like that as well. This week were entering the last week of the transfer, and I think that it is nuts to see that I've already been in the offices a full transfer. Time marches on.

Elder Roper

Another Week In The Books!

Another week in the books hahah. This week was crazy. We didn’t get to teach a lot mostly because we’ve been slammed with work in the offices. Elder Newell and the APs have been doing transfer stuff and Elder Macz and I have been pretty busy searching for new houses for missionaries and signing contracts and all that good stuff. On top of that, on Wednesda,y Elder Fallabela of the Area Presidency asked for a report that has all the stats of baptisms in the year of 2018, BUT. He wanted to know of that number, how many were referrals and how many of those people were found by the missionaries themselves. And he wanted it by Friday. Thursday night we called almost every missionary in the mission and asked about their converts. We got home at 10:40 pm. Awesome, right?

This week my strong box was acting up again, but this time they determined that it wasn’t fixable, SOOOOO they called a specialist, and they destroyed the box. Literally. It took almost all day. 

And then the next day they brought a new box for us, one a little bit less expensive a little more practical as well for us. 

The old box is currently outside haha. It weighs tooo much for anyone just to swing by and take it, so it might be here for a while.

They also made the new announcement this week that missionaries will be able to call home more frequently. I find that very interesting. I personally feel like that would distract missionaries more than help them focus, but I guess that the Brethren feel otherwise.  Very blessed to be in the offices during this time to have free internet, and internet that as above average than the internet cafes here in the city. We will have to coordinate when and how and why hahah. Probably on Dad's birthday. We'll see hahahh.  I'm not sure how much I wanna do it, it’s not that I don’t wanna see you guys, it's just that  I know how hard it was to refocus after Christmas hahah. We shall see. The mission is all for it. 

This week I got pretty ahead on my work, even though weve been pretty slammed. While the other guys are busy, I don’t have much to do, and can't leave alone. So I just did all the stuff that I would do during week 6 of the transfer hahaha.

Our Atheist guy and his son came to church last week, we picked them up and they decided that they wanted to go for a walk. So we went walking to church with them. They loved it and told us that they would expect our next visit Tuesday night. We went, and taught lesson 1. And they loved it. We set the next appointment for Thursday but that’s when all hell broke loose with Elder Falabellas request. We stopped by last night, and only the son was there. We talked to him and he said that they really were bummed that we never visited them. That’s always the worst, but we're gonna go visit them today. 

 This here is a part of a talk that I found  in my studies this week. I quite enjoyed it. 

“Alma also prophesied that “he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and … he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. …

“That his bowels may be filled with mercy, … that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.”

Late one night lying in a hospital bed, this time as a patient and not as a physician, I read those verses over and over again. I pondered: “How is it done? For whom? What is required to qualify? Is it like forgiveness of sin? Do we have to earn His love and help?” As I pondered, I came to understand that during His mortal life Christ chose to experience pains and afflictions in order to understand us. Perhaps we also need to experience the depths of mortality inorder to understand Him and our eternal purposes.”

 - Kent F.  Richards, April 2011

This week, we found a ………. Bakery that has…………….. DOUGHNUTS. They're not the same, like Dunford's or anything, but they get the job done. They're great!

I hope you all have an excellent day and that everything is well back home! February is slowly slipping away!

Elder Roper