RINCON!

2-17

hola family,

This week was alright. We've found a lot of investigators the last few weeks but this week we just couldn't get a hold of them. We're trying to work with the members but we ended up tracting a lot. We found a new investigator named Carlos. He understands everything and is doing really good. The only problem is he has a special needs child that he can't take anywhere or he just destroys everything in his path. He wasn't able to travel to Coelemu but he said he'll be able to come to Quirihue this week. We had a super awesome activity at our house on Friday. We did a game that we played a long time ago with our stake. You have to follow a rope blind folded with an egg in your hand and there's Satan's temptations trying to break your egg before you reach the end of the rope or eternal life. It was hilarious and everyone loved it. Not much else happened this week. My ping pong skills are improving a lot! The new Argentino in our house is really good and we've been playing a lot. Being district leader is really hard but I love it. I'm starting to recognize the guide of the Holy Ghost so much more and all the blessings that we receive every day. I love this work and I know its true! Love everyone!

Elder Roberts2-24

Hola Everyone, 

This week was not the greatest. Everyone is on vacation and we've been having trouble finding people to teach. Half of our contacts don't even live here. Vacations are now over so this week should be a lot better. We found out one of our good members Miguel Gaillard just has a few days left to live. Before church on Sunday we got to go to the Hospital and give him a blessing. It was a really good spiritual experience. It is really sad because everyone in the branch has been friends with him for years. It would be great if you could keep him in your prayers.

On Saturday we went to faria that they have every Saturday here. A long road with people selling tons of random things. We have some members that sell there so we set up a table with pamphlets and book of Mormons. We sat there and made contacts for about three hours and it was actually really successful. We had the greatest time and set up about sixteen appointments between the four of us. I think that will now be a weekly activity.

This week my fear for spiders just increased. I was on a mini cambio a few weeks ago and found a lady that lost two fingers and now has a whole in her stomach from a spider called a Rincon. This week we were contacting and talking to some lady and all the sudden she yelled and said there was a spider on my back! The spider ran up to the collar of my shirt and then she told me its a Rincon! I freaked out and my companion hit it off and killed it. She then told me she saved my life and because I'm a servant of the Lord and he's watching over me. Its so true! Well I love you guys!

Elder Roberts

2-3

This week with the cambios we got a new missionary in our house from Buenos Aires, Argentina right where Parker lives. He has a weird Argentina accent. My first week being a district leader went awesome. There's only six missionaries in my district so that's really nice. The Elders I live with and then two sister missionaries. We are all super young in the mission! Three of us have six months, one has 4 months and two only have a month and a half! We all have a lot to learn but we're actually doing super good. We have a good group of investigators right now. Last night we found a couple that just had a baby. We had an awesome lesson with them. The husband has a few doubts but his wife accepted baptism! They have definitely been prepared and I'm super excited to teach them. Church was in Coelemu this week. We were out picking up some of our members before church and we decided to invite some guy that we taught a few days ago. He smells horrible and has a huge beard full of food. Its disgusting but we invited him anyways and surprisingly he came. During church he kept running out of the room pretending to talk to people on the phone in English. It was funny because he knew like ten words in English. He then started pushing buttons and making his phone beep. Everyone was just staring at him the whole time, It was horrible. He then left again for another phone call and then left the building and disappeared. I think something is wrong with his brain and I don't think we'll be visiting him anymore. Thanks for the package mom! Love all you guys!

Elder Roberts

2-10

Dear Family,

This week week went super good. Being a district leader is a lot more work but I'm loving it. I got to go to a new leader Conference in Concepcion on Tuesday so I got to go stay in a place called Dichato for a night. When the earthquake happened, Dichato got hit worse than every other part and got destroyed. It was super fun to work there. I stayed with Elder Mitten from my MTC group so that was awesome. The conference went great, I've learned so much these last few weeks. I also did my first baptismal interview This week. The other Elders in our house baptized an 18 year old kid named Eric. At his baptismal service I accomplished one of my mission goals to play the piano at a meeting. I played "God speed the right" the only song I know and my companion sang a solo. It was hilarious because my companion had to follow my rhythm which was way off, and I messed up like 7 times but I finished the whole song so I was pretty proud of myself.

We worked super hard this week and found a lot of people to teach. We had 8 investigators committed to go to church Saturday night! I was so excited for Sunday until not one of them showed up and we had about 12 there total. Super, Super disappointing. I guess it just means we need to work on our commitments to go to church. We are finding a lot of people though and we have a lot of people to work with this week. Love you guys! Take advantage of the snow while you can!

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.

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.