25 de Mayo

Zona Iquitos

Hello all! This week was interesting! We just got back from getting our haircut! 

For starters, yesterday Pres called the APs asking about the chapels in Iquitos and where we could do a big zone conference with everyone because Elder Bednar is coming Friday. So we crapped our pants thinking that ELDER DAVID A BEDNAR was going to be in Iquitos and more than likely the office………………… but. The APs went to President's house yesterday to finish some stuff with transfers and sure enough……….. he's not coming. He will be in Lima and will do a transmission. Either way still pretty cool. Just not as cool as it could be. 

Today we got up and instead of cleaning the house, Elder Neves and I went to the chapel to clean the font for our baptism today. We got to spend some good time with Dennis and eat some jerky.

I´ve been following the Prophet´s visits in the Pacific pretty closely on the church website this week. I absolutely love to see all the good that he is doing. His messages are so awesome to the people. Not much more you could ask from the Prophet. 

Monday the 13^th we went to teach English classes in the church and we received a pretty awesome referral. Her name is Liz and she is 23 and is well prepared to receive the gospel. Last Sunday we taught her in the church and we watched the Restoration video and she understood it really well and seemed quite interested. She is going to go to our baptism tonight and we're hoping to teach her there as well and invite her to be baptized!

Elder Macz found a function on his camera that makes everyone look pretty silly. We've had some fun with that this week.

Tuesday on district meeting the zone presented a cake and soda to Hermana Blake(Idaho) and I because we have May birthdays! It was pretty awesome and the cake was on point as well! Hahah

Birthday celebration in the zone

The best part of having a gringo companion is that you just have the same culture and you just seem to understand each other really well. Elder Neves and I have come to the conclusion that all Utah moms like Diet Coke with lemon and the small small cubed ice. And lots of other things like that hahah. We talked about the book “Oh the places you´ll go” by Dr. Suess this week and how we are basically living that book as we are on our missions in IQUITOS PERÚ.

Being in the office, you really get to know who all the “chupamedias” are (brownnosers). It is quite frustrating, but just something that will happen here. 

I busted another pair of pants this week but they should be fixable hahah. The joys of being an old missionary.

 I think that’s all for this week! 

Elder Roper

This Mason church is our neighbor

A wasp that we burned in the office this week

We always have buckets all over the place because the A/C leaks 

Lunchtime - what we call sandwichitos!

Lunch - que rico!

Roger - a former neighbor from Quistococha - an awesome friend!

19 Months? That Was Fast!

Hello all! This week was quite eventful, so I´ll get right into it! Tuesday we had a really good day of work. We found a bunch of people who were interested and were able to teach some quick lessons to them. We shall see how well they progress. One of these guys was an old contact that the APs had a bit back named Darwin. We stepped into his house and I about pooped my pants. He had posters and souvenirs and collectors stuff of about every major rock band I liked back home. So we talked about that for a bit, he told us that he had been to Germany and all over studying and getting to know the world. He told us that because of that, he had seen so many different forms of religion, and he basically came to the conclusion that God is who He is depending on what part of the world that one is in. Which in reality is sad. He went on and we kinda determined that he was basically atheist. But, he said we were always welcome in his house. We´re gonna go back this Wednesday and I am going to take some dope pics with his stuff hahah. After that we went and stopped by a guy named Agosto´s house. Hes a sweet old man (like 70ish) that is super smart, but does nothing with his knowledge. We gave him a Book of Mormon and hes been reading it, but he told us that he thinks that its just a novel. We then invited him to take Moronis Promise and he then proceeded to tell us that God and the Heavens are closed and that it is impossible for  God to speak to Man. We tried and tried and tried, but he is still convinced that God does not speak to man. ( Para que voy a preguntar a Dios, Dios no te va a responder, sería en vano) hahah I love the mission man.  But Elder Neves and I were talkin about that. It is really sad that he thinks that when we know and understand that yes God is more than willing to talk to us, we just need to talk to Him first. 

Lately we have been trying to change the way we do things. So instead of knocking doors and just trying to teach, we made a plan to try to share a video with the people as the first lesson. Which, has worked sorta. We´ve been using the “Because of Him” video that came out a while back, mostly because its short, sweet, and really invites the Spirit. We´ve even done it with some members. Its pretty great.

This week I was thumbing through some Ensigns/Liahonas and found some dope articles. I sent them in my google drive. Feel free to take a read! I quite enjoyed them. They go along perfectly with some of the stuff that was said in general conference just barely in April.

The APs have been traveling like mad men with President Li lately. He is doing his last couple mission tours, and they get to go with him. Lucky ducks. I´m a bit worried about the budget, but I figure the area will understand. Hahah. We are still anxiously waiting for Presidente Parker´s bio to pop up on lds.org. we got an email from him a while back. 

Monday was fun! President came into the office and he knew there was a birthday but the man just has so much going on in his life he couldn’t remember. So we told him that it was yours truly, anddddd he felt bad that he forgot. He promised that we would go to lunch this next week (hopefully Monday) and then the offices sang to me and alllll that good stuff. No better way to turn 20 than in the mission!! I ate some dangLittle Debbies cupcakes in Iquitos. They were too good. 

We found out that the elder who had received an iphone from his family is going home on Monday. Pretty sad.

Lately I have felt so much gratitude for the decision that I made to serve a mission (mostly because I'm realizing that I have little time left) I feel like being here in Iquitos, among the poorest of poor, the humblest of the humble, has really changed the way I see people. I see pictures of other people in their missions and the things they do and the fun they have, and it looks awesome, but they have things that will probably never exist here in Iquitos. Paintball, cars, carpet hahahah. It makes me sad sometimes, but then I remember that my purpose as a missionary isn’t to come goof off with members on Pdays. It´s really just to help others in any way possible. Lots of times I feel like we achieve that goal in ways that the numbers aren’t able to show. You learn things that just set you up for life. Things that you can’t really be taught anywhere else. It´s taught me to really appreciate the small things in life. There's one of the District videos where the Elder says something like this “if you´re worthy and able, and just don’t go, I would say that you are making one of the biggest mistakes of your life. It really is those best 2 years.” I agree with that 100 percent.

And to wrap up this week I have a scripture……  Proverbs chapter 23 and it sayssssssssssssssssssss7 For as he ^athinketh in his ^bheart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.¨

I took that to heart, and have been trying to apply it in the work.

We have a baptism interview tomorrow, and if everything goes well, we shall have a baptism on the 25^th!!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes!!!!

Elder Roper!!!

 

20 in 2 days? Well fetch.

Hello all! This week really didn’t seem real. They have been painting the office lately in order to prepare for the arrival of President Parker, soooo someone has had to stay in the office at all times just to be with them. So we didn’t really get much proselyting done. Although we did get some stuff done in the office with contracts for the houses and stuff. So it goes on. 

This week we talked a lot about the arrival of Presidente Parker. We're really excited to meet him. I think we check the church website daily trying to figure out when they’re gonna upload his little bio thing. It will be completely different having a gringo MP here. We´re thinking that it’s gonna change how the mission operates as well. 

This week I had been calling around to find out some stuff about pensionistas and their payments and stuff and I “just happened” to have to call Maraline, my very first pensionista that was so dang good to us. So we got to chat for a second and talk about her payments as well. It was so awesome to hear her voice. I honestly felt like I was at home there. Mi mamita peruana!!!

The APs got back from Tarapoto on Thursday afternoon with President Li. It´s always interesting when they travel, things get really quiet in the office when it’s just us 2.  

Monday I had a training with my boss, Hermano Fransisco Fierro. We did it on Microsoft teams and he made it so we shared screens and was showing me all sorts of stuff. In July when Pres. Parker arrives I´ll have to sit down with him and really discuss the budget and everything, and then we'll file for the budget for the year of 2020. It didn’t make a lot of sense over the phone, but my boss said that he would basically walk us through it. He also said that he is planning a trip to come do an audit at the end of the month/beginning of June. Sooooo I´m kinda nervous about that. He kept saying “no venimos allá como policia, solo queremos que las cosas mejoren” (we don’t come there as police, we just want things to improve) So, we´ll see how that goes. Plus I´ll get to meet someone from the Area. I imagine it will be like when Peter, the regional manager at Oakley did his “work visits”. It should be interesting for sure.

So to explain the pics of President Parker…. Elder Jacobson has a friend that is in a mission in Oregon, and President Parker is in the mission presidency? Something like that. Anyways, his friend sent him those pics a while back before we even had Pres Parkers name. They look superfun. I’m stoked.

Cool to see that Wyatt got married! Trevor looks good, It’s also his birthday this month. We're so old hahahha

So dad to answer your questions about the missionaries in October…. We have a program called IMOS that has a profile for every missionary in the mission. As soon as they send their acceptance letter to the Brethren, they show up in our system. So we can see exactly who is coming clear until November. It is a bit weird knowing that I will probably not be able to meet those missionaries!! Excel sometimes throws me for a loop, but I feel like I´m figuring it out. I´ve put together a couple on my own and they seem to work pretty well hahha. 

Moms questions… Ummm Skyping time I’m not sure. We´ll have to create a schedule here in the offices in order to make sure that everyone gets a time to call. There´s 6 of us and only 2 cameras and headphones. We were gonna ask Presidente permission to buy another set yesterday, but he snuck out of the office before we got the chance.  Birthday Celebrations… well I’m just hoping that Presidente takes us to lunch, but there’s lots of going on so well just have to see!

 I think that’s all for this week! Happy may !! The flowers in the yard will look awesome as always!

Elder Roper

PS If you have free time and are wondering what to do…. GO TO THE TEMPLE!! Peruvians here would do anything to drive 20 minutes to a temple.  

 

My new belt

Happy Star Wars Day!

4 de mayo! 

Hello all! This week was crazy. Thursday was Zone Leader´s Council (again, it feels like we just had it) so it was somewhat stressful getting everything planned and ready, BUT at the end of the day everything worked out fine. So it was great. It’s always such a great time to get to see people there that you don’t normally see every day or week. It’s a bit trunky knowing that a majority of the Zone Leaders are in their last weeks and that sooner or later I’ll be there soon. But the Mish goes on.

David and Maralin, the first family that I stayed with sent me a whole bunch of bread that they make. They had a big oven and David was a baker and we would always help him and sometimes take some of his bread and they knew how much I loved it. So now that Elder Newell is back in Pucallpa (he was in the same area as well with this family) I´m assuming he went to visit them and then they sent a whole bunch of stuff for me with him. I was pretty stoked, but I ended up sharing it all with everyone because if not, I would’ve ended up weighing 98 kilos by today. It pays to have good friends and be friend with the members!!

It’s been hot and rainy lately. Really off and on. Pretty much normal Iquitos weather. What can you do?

Elder Jacobson also received a package just barely and he got American Oreos. So this morning we did an experiment to see if there was a difference between American ones and Peruvian ones….. and we determined that American ones are better hahahha. And bigger. 

This week we got another companion. Kind of an emergency transfer type of thing that could possibly going home because he is not mentally sane. I guess he was saying things like “podría quemarles vivo y tu no sabrías nada” and he was dead serious. (I will let yall translate that one hahah)  So were just kinda waiting around to see what happens with him. I’m not gonna lie it is a really awkward situation with everything going on.  

I also got an email from Elder Neves which is known in the mission as the “correo trunky” (trunky email) which just means that he’s in the process of buying some flights to Lima and then from there to SLC. It’s amazing how fast time just kind of disappears. I hate it. 

I´ll finish with a scripture I found this week. It is Revelation 21:4 and it reads…. “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” Sorrow is part of life, but at the end of everything we're meant to be happy. Everything we face in life is temporal if we have an eternal perspective of things. I remember clearly Dale Schipaanboord (not sure I spelled that right) said in a testimony the summer before I left that “in the end everything will be alright. If everything isn´t alright, it’s not the end” or something like that. Having an eternal perspective was also a big focus in Seminary as well. It is hard, but it is something that we can do. 

I think that’s all for today! Happy May! Shout out to Mom and Jack for graduating!!!

Elder Roper