District Leader in Quirihue

Cambios again! I had the biggest surprise ever last night! We usually find out the cambios in the morning but last night I was getting ready for bed and got a call from President! I am now district leader in Quirihue! I was definitely not expecting that at all but I'm super exited to take on the challenge. I'm going to be finishing the training of Elder Judkins and I'll probably leave Quirihue next cambio. We had an awesome week this week. We had church in quirihue and had 30 people there! That's the most people we have had since I have been here. The branch is definitely growing and the members are willing to work with us. Were starting to give them assignments in church. We even have some less actives giving talks and teaching classes now! I am excited to see how it grows this cambio. We have 3 investigators right now that have accepted baptism. They weren't able to come to church this week but hopefully we can commit them for next week. I think I'm still losing weight. I'm trying to eat a lot but I just don't care anymore. I could come home looking like a skeleton. Thanks for the package mom! And my guess for Taylor is Curitiba, Brazil. Love you guys!

January 13

Hello family, 

P-day was awesome today. This morning  we went to a less active's house that works at a chocolate store and we helped her make chocolate all morning! It was definitely the best service project I've ever done. I ate so much chocolate I'm going to be sick. We then went to the plaza again and rode those little bikes again.They're so much fun and every time we go we get a crowd of people watching us. This week went really good. We are still really trying to work with the members. At church we had 3 less actives that hadn't been to church in years. We're starting to get a lot more referrals and the members are starting to get involved in the work. We still have a lot of work to do but the branch is definitely getting stronger. We weren't able to get any investigators at church on Sunday but we did find a lot of people this week. This area has been tough but I've been learning like crazy. I know God is just preparing me to be a better missionary. The harder it is here, the more I try to perfect every little thing I'm doing wrong. Thanks for the "Just keep Swimming" article, that's exactly what I feel like. I know with exact obedience we'll find these people that are prepared.

My companion is doing good. He's a pretty funny guy and likes to talk to everyone which is awesome. The other day he chased a guy down on a bike and made a contact while running with him. We've had some good experiences and were doing awesome! 

Love,

Elder Roberts

January 20

Today we had a nice relaxing day at the beach! We went to a little town about 40 minutes past quirihue in the middle of nowhere where the weather and everything is perfect. We played Frisbee and watched like 100 sea lions, it was amazing. This week we had interviews with the President again. That was the fastest three months ever. It went good. He said he's not planning on closing down quirihue any time soon so that was some good news. I'm a little nervous for next week though because we have cambios again and I don't really want to leave yet. We are starting to make some awesome progress with the members. I also had a mini cambio with Elder Dabel. The last time me and Elder Dabel had a mini cambio I had a month and a half on the mission and he had about 2 weeks and it was horrible because we both knew no Spanish! So this time went a lot better! We could actually talk to people and we had a lot of awesome lessons. We are still working a lot with the members and we are seeing a lot of progress. This week we had church in Coelemu. Not very many members came because it is so hard to get people to travel! This next Sunday is in Quirihue and I think we will have a lot of people there. We also have a few good investigators. One with a baptismal date. We've only taught her once but I really hope she can start progressing this week.

Love you guys!

Happy new year!!! It's crazy how fast that year flew by! This will be my first full year on the mission and I hear that this year will go by even faster. New years was awesome. We made some rootbeer floats with coke and ate a bunch of chips but then we had to be in bed before the new year.

We had a good week this week. We're starting to work with the members a lot more and were starting to get referrals. We're really going to focus this week on strengthening the members. Church this week wasn't the greatest. Not one member from Quirehue came to church in Coelemu so we definitely have some work to do. My companion is improving a lot. He's a pretty funny kid. It's hilarious watching him learn Spanish because he says a lot of funny things. Sometimes he forgets we're speaking Spanish and just speaks English to people. I'm really trying to speak as much Spanish to him as I can so that doesn't happen again.

This week we had a mini cambio. My companion had to go to a new missionary conference and I went in a trio with the zone leaders in Tome. Tome is amazing! I seriously feel like I'm on vacation every time I'm there. The weather is always perfect and running on the beach is the greatest. I really hope I get to work there sometime on my mission. Other than that, nothing really happened this week. We are working hard, teaching a lot of lessons, being obedient, and really making progress with the members. Sounds like you guys are doing awesome! Enjoy the cold weather. I'm getting fried here and cant wait for the winter! Love you guys!

The third picture is us riding these little bikes in the plaza. It costs like a dollar and we go every P day.