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.

12-9

hello everybody. This week was really good. We worked really hard this week. We've been teaching a lot of lessons. I feel a lot better about my Spanish this week and I'm feeling a lot more comfortable teaching. We found an investigator this week that is super prepared for the Gospel. We taught him about the Restoration and the book of Mormon and his mind was blown. The spirit was super strong and I'm super exited to teach him this week. I'm feeling good about this week. Elder Ronco has been in Quirihue for six months and is probably leaving next week and we really want to leave the sector strong! 

Dad- I started eating a ton of food. I'm sick of being so skinny so I just eat a ton of eggs every morning. I think I ate 36 this week. But you should give me some ideas on how to make them.

Dad- I don't know what else you want to hear about life in Chile. You need to be a little more specific but I'm exited to talk to you guys. I'm pretty sure Chilean Spanish is horrible and they say a lot of weird things so it will be funny to talk to Tyler.

Love you guys! Merry Christmas!!!

12-16

I just finished my 3rd cambio! I get a new companion tomorrow and I will be training a new missionary!!! My mind is blown. I thought I was still the new kid. I'm a little worried because my Spanish isn't the greatest but I'm super exited and I'll be traveling to Concepcion tomorrow morning to pick him up.

Me and Elder Ronco had a good week this week. We found a lot of people and have two people with baptismal dates. Church this Sunday was at our house. The presidency wasn't able to come so we got to run the meeting. We had a good assistance and a good meeting other than none of our investigators were able to come. And I don't know if I told you but Maria isn't getting baptized. Her daughters and aunt talked her out of it. It was a huge bummer but what can you do.

I got my package! Its waiting for me in the office and I'll be picking it up tomorrow! I love the tree you sent me. We have tons of presents under it from the other Elders and it is starting to feel a little bit like Christmas.

About skype. Right now I have no idea. We have a couple members that we can go to but I'll find out the details this week and let you know. Love you guys!

Elder Roberts

1. Doing some service and Chopping some wood!

2. Biggest spider i have ever seen. I almost peed my pants. I hate spiders more than anything in the world and our house is infested.

3. My district

We found a little lizard running around our house

11/26

Hi family,

This week was alright. We did a lot of traveling this week. I added up about 12 hours of bus rides and I think my head is going to explode. We did a lot of tracting this week again. I'm pretty sure I've knocked on every door in Quirihue. The heat is killing me but we are still working hard. We have one progressing investigator named Maria. She's doing awesome. She drinks a ton of coffee so we taught her about the word of wisdom the other day. She said for some reason she didn't have the desire to drink coffee for about 4 days before we taught the word of wisdom. So we are super exited about that and she has a date set for Baptism for the 14th of December. We had church in Coelemu on Sunday. Only 4 members from Quirihue came. We're doing our best but they just won't come to Church. I think they are making a decision at the end of the year to shut it down or not. I'm getting super skinny! I think I weigh around 150 pounds. Last week we had a little bowl of pasta for 4 days in a row and I almost died. I just went to the store and bought a ton of food because I definitely need to put some weight back on. I'm watching myself wither away and it is killing me. Sorry, I don't have much time today. But please tell Grandpa Clark HAPPY BIRTHDAY last week!I can't wait to talk to you on Christmas!

12/2

This week went by really fast but it was good. Maria is still doing good. She has some doubts still but she came to church and we are still planning and the 14th for her baptism. We found a less active that hasn't been to church for about ten years. We've been teaching her and she's came to church the last 2 weeks. This week we finally got the members from Coelemu to come with us and visit the members again and we had a lot better attendance of about 18. That's really good compared to last time when we had 6. It was fast and testimony meeting and I got the chance to share my testimony. The spirit was there and I think it was a really good experience for the investigator.

I have another Dog story. So usually your supposed to wait outside of the gate and yell for people to come outside but we always just walk in and knock on the door. So we walked into a gate to knock on the door and as I was knocking on the door I saw two of the biggest, most angry dogs I have ever seen running at us. I just put my hands in the air and seriously was expecting to get bit. My companion started yelling at them and then they tried to bite his leg but got his sling bag hanging over. He then opened the gate and I took a giant leap to the side walk. I've never been so scared in my life but it was a definitely testimony building experience because I knew it was because we were being watched over that we didn't get bit.

I got my package! It made my day. I love the Christmas tree, its perfect for my desk. The stockings are awesome. Sorry I couldn't resist eating almost all the candy on the top. Most of the presents were ripped open so that kind ruined the surprise. But I taped them back up so its alright. It does not feel like Christmas at all. It makes me sad because its not as big here. but I still have my Christmas music to bring the Christmas spirit.Tell Grandpa Roberts HAPPY BIRTHDAY on Thursday for me! I'm sad I won't be there. You need to let me know how they are doing and give me their emails. Love you guys! 

 played some basketball today and never felt so out of shape in my life. We played a less active that's a personal trainer. We told him if we win he has to come to church and we won of course.

We found some cool super rare eggs at a members house.

It's getting hot!

This week was alright. We did a lot of traveling this week. I added up about 12 hours of bus rides and I think my head is going to explode. We did a lot of tracting this week again. I'm pretty sure I've knocked on every door in Quirihue. The heat is killing me but we are still working hard. We have one progressing investigator named Maria. She's doing awesome. She drinks a ton of coffee so we taught her about the word of wisdom the other day. She said for some reason she didn't have the desire to drink coffee for about 4 days before we taught the word of wisdom. So we are super exited about that and she has a date set for Baptism for the 14th of December. We had church in Coelemu on Sunday. Only 4 members from Quirihue came. We're doing our best but they just won't come to Church. I think they are making a decision at the end of the year to shut it down or not. I'm getting super skinny! I think I weigh around 150 pounds. Last week we had a little bowl of pasta for 4 days in a row and I almost died. I just went to the store and bought a ton of food because I definitely need to put some weight back on. I'm watching myself wither away and it is killing me. Sorry, I don't have much time today. I can't wait to talk to you on Christmas!

I Love you guys!

Pray for the members!

Still loving Quirihue! Its getting super hot now! Walking and tracting in the sun for hours makes me so tired but we had an awesome week this week. We found more investigators than we've ever found before. We've still been working with the members a lot. We were really trying to get a lot of people to church this week because president Arrington who is thinking of closing down Quirihue was coming to attend Church with us! Sadly we had the worst attendance we have ever had. We had 6 members and 5 investigators. I don't know what to do with the members but we did have a good turn out with our investigators! And in that picture I sent you last week most of those people are from  Coelemu. We're working hard though and trying to be exactly obedient and I still have faith in Quirihue! Please pray for the members. I feel like every one of them is going through really hard times right now.

I'm so happy you sent my package! I'm so exited for Christmas. I just bought a Christmas tie that plays music for a dollar and a half so I'm exited to wear it. We went to Concepcion today. I saw my "father" Elder Jorge getting ready to head to the airport to go home. It was a sad day! We had the greatest time. He lives pretty close to Parker though so I told him to go say hi. The fleas are attacking again. My left thigh is dotted with about 30 bites and who knows how many more. Well that's about it in Quirihue. Thanks for the pictures. I love seeing everyone! love you guys!

Elder Roberts

PS Mommy I'm doing awesome!!! how are you doing? I love you mom!!! Im exited to talk to you in a little over a month! Seriously, I cant wait! In the picture -look at the tie. It's my tie of the tiger

 These are some of the crazy hills I tracted with Elder Rhodes

This is church at our house 2 weeks ago 

We played soccer with some kids in our ward

This week went alright. We're still working with the members a lot. We've really been working on a few less actives that have the priesthood because right now the missionaries are the only active priesthood holders. I think we are making progress with them. We are starting to do a lot of family nights and more activities to get the members involved. We had a great turn out at an activity night on Friday and I think we are finally starting to make some progress. We had a mini cambio this week. I went down to Tome with our zone leader Elder Rhodes. I lived with him in Concepcion so were awesome friends. Tome is amazing! All it is is giant hills. My legs have never been so tired. It is also right next to the Beach. I was basically tracting houses on the beach. And then in the morning, I went on an awesome run along the beach. I felt like I was on vacation. Mom, Happy Birthday!!!!! I celebrated for a second in my room. I wish I could have been there to eat some crab. I really miss crab right now. It is a mission rule that we can't eat shell fish because it will destroy our stomach. But anyways love you mom!!! That's crazy that Parker is in Argentina. You need to send me his pictures. So football is over? did they make it to the play-offs? I don't know if you gave me all the details. Well I love you guys!!!

Time is flying by!

I'm already on my third Cambio! Its crazy how fast time is flying. I'm still companions with Elder Ronco and staying in Quirihue so there's no changes. I finally finished my 12 week training so I should be ready to train other missionaries. I don't know about that but by December half of the entire mission will have been out on their mission only since August or later so this mission is super young! There's been a few kids training right after 12 weeks, so there's a good chance I'll have to train somebody within these next few cambios. This week was good. We've been teaching a lot of lessons and found a lot of new investigators. Church was at our house this week and we had 5 people committed to come to church on Saturday night and nobody came! It really is so frustrating. And then we only had 12 members from Quirihue at church. We're really going to have to start working with the members a lot now. The Stake Presidency came to our church this week and we got to have a little meeting with them. They want to change the focus here on reactivating and finding people that can lead the church here. Other than nobody coming to church, I really am loving it here. I'm learning so much. My Spanish is getting a lot better. It is still not that great but I was able to teach Priesthood class on Sunday. I don't know how much they understood but I felt pretty good about it. We also had the opportunity to do some service this morning. We helped an investigator milk cows. I now know why farmers have giant forearms. It was also disgusting and I hated it but I guess it was a cool experience and hopefully we can get them interested in the gospel. We've had English class for the last 5 weeks and nobody ever shows up, but this week we had someone show up! It was awesome to finally teach some English. We've been passing around a ton of fliers and I think we're going to have more people this week. Halloween was basically the same here except there's no king size candy bars so I was a little disappointed. I'm super excited to hear about Parker! Let me know what he said in the airport. Did he speak any Spanish to you guys? And how's the cold weather? Its getting super hot here and I love it. Love you guys!