Week 80

Elder Neves and I went out in the morning and we looked at a bunch of shops and we bought some key chains and all that. It was a fun morning, but it sure was hot. Right now, we're gonna head to the airport to drop off a good friend Elder Bustios. Today is his last day. He's going home 4 weeks early in order to catch up with studies. So basically bye P-day again. But it'll be alright, we'll be able to eat lunch out by the airport. (the airport is a half hour ride from the office in a moto BTW) So I'm hoping to be on later this afternoon to chat with ya'll a bit.

Goodbye Elder Bustios 

Hey all! This week........ not very surprisingly flew by! Elder Neves and I spent a lot of time getting to know the new area and found some good people. We're hoping that they can progress and that we can have a baptism soon. Speaking of which we have one, but it technically it isn’t ours, the APs have done all the teaching. But we're stoked about that. It should be a good way to finish a P-day. 

This week one of the Elders that is in my last area (Quistococha) came to the office and we talked a lot about the area and the people they’re teaching. It made me miss it so much. Quistococha was honestly the Promised Land. I learned so much during my 3 and a half transfers there before coming to the office. The Cordova Lopez Family is still active and killing it. They said that they haven't missed more than 4 Sundays since they were baptized. The dad, Roman is also in the process to receive the Melchizedek PRIESTHOOD. So that’s big news to me. I really wish I could go back to visit them, but they live even further than the airport. So tough luck there.

This week there were some emergency transfers, which is never good. One of the new guys that got here just 2 weeks ago had a mental breakdown and is already home. Rumor from the APs has it that there are more similar cases like that going in the mission right now. Which is really really sad, but it honestly makes me wonder how they get into the mission in a mental state like that.  Missions are dang hard and they require a lot of preparation so things like that don’t happen. But… what can you do?

Presidente Li is officially in his last 12 weeks as Mission President. Right now he and his wife are in Lima doing a big Mission President Seminar with (according to Presidente) President Oaks.  It is crazy how fast time is flying. We are stoked to receive Presidente Parker, but we're sad to see Presidente Li go. 

Also my package came Thursday night!!! So I'm pretty stoked about that!!!!  I'm still in denial that I'm gonna turn 20 years old here in a bit!!! And have 19 months in the mish. Life is too crazy. I'm excited to read all the letters from everyone!! 

My birthday package

It has been SOOOOOOOO DANG HOT lately. Summer months here in Iquitos are rough.

 That’s all folks! Have a good week! Enjoy the nice spring weather!!!

Elder Roper

My new haircut

Sometimes the clouds look unreal here

Thursday night I spent 2 hours doing payment

18 Months!

This week was week 1 of the transfer! And quite long to be honest. Usually week one is a drag because of transfers and getting everyone to their new areas smoothly. It’s fun and chaotic, but man were usually dead by Wednesday. Elder Newell took off Wednesday afternoon to…. Pucallpa! Lucky duck is going to the hottest city(but also one of the best) in the mission as a zone leader. He was pretty stoked to leave after being in the office for 6 transfers hahahah. 

We just got back from cutting our hair and it looks awesome. We cut our hair in an interesting place. They're all super young like us but just super worldly. Lots of tats and loud music and all that good stuff. But they’re good people and they know who we are and respect us. So it’s fun. Plus they gave us discount cards for being “loyal customers”.

Like I said last week, we (Elder Neves and I) are now assigned to the APs area, so we’ve been doing splits with them to figure things out. I’m pretty stoked actually. It’ll be fun getting to know a new part of the city. 

This week Presidente invited us to lunch with him to celebrate a new personal secretary. He took us to a really pituco place (rich). I got a big plate of chaufa with chicken like always, and was stoked to eat it but I barely ate half of it just because there was so dang much of it. It was too good, and a good time to be with everyone in the offices and Presidente Li.

Normally I don’t do the Come Follow Me readings, just because it’s a mission rule that we can´t. I really liked the focus on Easter this week and all the inspired questions and stuff that’s in the book. I read Matthew 26 where the Savior suffers in Gethsemane and I quite enjoyed it. 

The office has definitely been different ever since Elder Newell went to Pucallpa and Elder Chavez went home. Change is hard, but it’s part of life. Things don’t really ever stay the same, and there’s not much we can do about it. 

The new plans for the SLC temple were released and it’s actually awesome! We’ll have to go once more before they shut it down when I get back. It would be really interesting to see the open house, just to see how “open” it is. That temple is full of secrets. 

And to finish, I read a talk yesterday called “The Virtue of Kindness” by Elder Wirthlin. Lots of times kindness just kinda gets thrown out and we treat everyone how we want. But. That’s not what the Savior wants us to do. Elder Wirthlin said “The things you say, the tone of your voice, the anger or calm of your words- these things are noticed by your children and others” And Jesus Himself said it “Wherefore by your fruits ye shall know them”. As I’ve been in the mission you really meet a lot of people with a lot of different qualities. Prideful, shy, meek, humble, arrogant, patient, impatient, happy, serious. Everything. All those different qualities can be changed through the Atonement. Lots of times we just say (I did it a lot) “ahhh I’m just too shy” or “I’m just an impatient person, it’s how I am” When we do that we're actually denying the power of the Atonement and saying that it can’t change us, when it surely can.

I HIT 18 MONTHS THIS WEEK THAT’S TERRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!! TIME NEEDS TO SLOW DOWN.

I think that’s all for this week! Thanks for your love and support!

Elder Roper

Time Is Running Out

Well, I blinked and this week was over. Where to begin…  The APs went on a trip to Pucallpa with Presidente Li this week, so the offices were pretty empty and the house was quiet. The first night they were gone, Elder Macz and Chavez thought it would be funny to try on Elder Jacobsons clothes. He’s 6 foot 9, and they’re both under 6 foot. It was quite entertaining hahah. 

Wednesday night we were out and about and we ran into a member (Dennis I sent a pic of him a while back) and all our appointments that day had fallen through, so we decided to visit him and his wife. We had known that the Adversary was testing their family. Dennis is working 60 hour weeks trying to make ends meet and study at the same time, his wife is searching for work, but honestly can't find anything. And they’re really struggling. It was a cool experience to go in to their house not really knowing what to share, doing a small How to Begin Teaching, and then just following the Spirit. Elder Macz whipped out “and in as much as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land” and stuck with it forever. After that told us about how they pray and pray and fast and fast and go to church and study, and things just don’t go their way. Now right then I remembered an email that dad had sent me a while back. I had about the same question as this family. Dad reminded me about the story of Nephi when he broke his bow. He was doing everything right and… things still didn’t go his way. I brought that up and we talked about the conference talk about unanswered prayers. So shout out to you dad! Thanks for that one! Hahah after that we talked some more, and the two just broke down. It was a humbling experience to see them like that. We left with a prayer and the next day they sent us a text thanking us for the visit and that they were feeling better about things. Like I said, it was very interesting to see how we entered their house without a plan, and things just kinda fell into place. 

General Conference was amazing!!! It was awesome to see that I don’t have to worry about mission time being changed!! In the 3 conferences that I’ve had as a missionary I came up with some questions, and every single one, in one way or another, has been answered. Awesome to see how the Spirit works. I also loved the Hymn that they sang “Jesus Once of Humble Birth”. I’ve always sung it in spanish, but it never really rang a bell in my head until they sang it in conference.

This week I made and ate lots of French toast. 

Our teaching area is in the dump. I’m excited to take the AP´s area over. Over the course of 12 weeks, the 4 of us have contacted about 75 percent of the area. (15 percent of our area being stores and shops where we can’t really do much) and this week… we didn’t really know what to do about it. So were just kinda waiting for next transfer, and to have a new fresh District Leader. 

Elder Newell goes to his area on Wednesday and I’m sad still. He’s a great friend. Things are a lot better now, I think we just had trouble adapting to having a 5^th companion.

Last Leaders Council, all the gringos were talking about school and college and stuff. A majority of them are going to Utah State University. They are diligently striving to get me to go there. It sounds like a great idea, and I really want to go there. I just need to figure things out hahah.  It would be better to that sooner rather than later. 

Transfers are on the 16^th (HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM &DAD!!!), and I’ll be entering my 13^th transfer and possibly the half way point of my time in the offices. Time has flown. 

Elder Roper

Happy Conference Day!

This week was nuts! We didn't get alot done. This week was Zone Leaders council, so we spent a bunch of time preparing for that, and recovering as well. All the zone leaders from the jungle parts of the mission fly in, and that’s always fun to see everyone. This time a couple flights were missed, and we ended up having to find some places for them to stay the night, so ex AP Elder Ruiz stayed the night in our house, and it was so much fun to have him back for a bit!

I hate to admit it but this week got the best of me, and I didn’t quite get to study that much. But yesterday I busted out a good one. In Chapter 4 of Preach my Gospel it talks about the guidance of the Spirit in the work, and how we should always have it and what not. And this caught my attention - “…recognize that your Heavenly Father knows what you need better than you do. Rely on the Spirit to know what to pray for.” Sometimes we can ask for unjust things in our prayers, and those prayers often remain without answers, therefore its important that we put this in practice in order to get answers from our prayers. 

Yesterday the APs had a baptism, and Presidente Li and Hermana Li were there. President actually baptized and confirmed him (because of Conference today, and because he has the keys to make that decision). It was quite the experience. They let us sing our song “Brillan Rayos de Clemencia” (Brightly Beams Our Fathers Mercy) and it was quite awesome actually. 

I'm stoked for Conference today! Even though we lose our P-day pretty much. In a bit were gonna run over to the stake center to watch it with everyone. I dunno how well we will be able to chat today, but at least I'll get my email off. Everyone is saying that they're gonna change the mission service time….. if it does………….. I'm staying until October  that’s what I signed up for, and that’s what I'm gonna do. I am in no rush to get home and back into the world. (: I am pretty excited to see the new announcements though!!) It should be a great experience. Humbling to know that next conference I'll be able to watch it in my PJs or in the Conference Center itself. 

This week my pants decided that they wanted to crap out on me. Two pairs are getting pretty worn out and holy, I got Elder Jacobson to patch one (he taught me as he did it - don’t worry mom hahah) but last night we got into a moto and they tore a bit again. I think that’s just a sign that I'm getting to be an oldddddddd missionary. 

Thursday I was in the bank taking out a reimbursement, and a lady from Poland was at the next window, and the poor lady didn't speak any spanish, and no one in the bank spoke english but me, so "yours truly" was able to translate the whole transaction. It was quite fun hahahah. She had a ton of money and had seen lots of the world. It was interesting to see that it was just kinda right place, right time, and I told her that we were missionaries and all that, and she said in broken English.. "so let me guess, you're from Salt Lake?" and i just lost it laughing and said yes. Fun experiences in the bank! I still think it would be fun to work in a bank. All the zone leaders this week were pressuring me into studying at USU, and it sounds like a good idea. I just don't wanna think about it yet hahahah. Time is winding down quick. Once Presidente Li goes home in July, that’s when I think it is gonna hit me.

A quick invitation!! Invite someone to watch Conference with you, or to go to church or to read the Book of Mormon or the Bible! The worst that they will do is……….. say no thanks!!!! Don’t be afraid to give a referral to the local Elders or Sisters! Chances are it'll make their day!! A lot of the great missionaries I know here were referrals from the friends back home! We never know what the outcome will be!

Elder Roper