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