Leadership Council

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Temple Trip

 

Summertime Blues

Well, these past 2 weeks have probably been the hottest and wettest 2 weeks. We are in "Winter" here or basically when it has gone from hot to hotter and from humid to more humid. 

These past 2 weeks have been pretty fun though, 2 weeks ago we found Guillermo. He is the brother of an inactive member and he went to church the first week so he now has a baptismal date for the 16 of February. 

This past week we finally had a couple of the families that we have been teaching pull up to church. They have been going here and  there and hadn't gone for a long time but they finally went again! It's been pretty cool to find a couple of families and actually teach them as a family and see all of them progress and see that change in their heart lesson after lesson. 

Honestly there isn't a whole much more after that, Elder Toombs and I have been doing a lot of exchanges and we are exhausted when we get to the end of the week. It is pretty cool to get to know the Elders invidually and get to know their families, and stories for why they came out to serve a mission. I have learned alot from Elders who have a lot less time than me. 

Almost forgot to put this in here but last p day we decided that we would go bowling and our district leader was going to pay for the pizza since we hit out member reference goal. We were waiting for the hermanas when a guy came up to us and told us that he wanted to pay for our lunch and gave us $40 to use. When we finished ordering we tried to give them leftover money back to the guy and bro just disappeared. It was pretty cool and reminded me when that happened on my way to Ecuador. 

Finally, lately while reading the Book of Mormon, I can really tell that is has been written for our day. I can also testify of 2 Nephi 28:30, that as we study the word of God little by little, precept upon precept we understand more and more and we are able to apply more and more in our life.

Miss you guys 

Elder Roper 

Go BIRDS

A Few Pictures From This Week

Por Fin Tuvimos Cambios

Well, as you can see we had transfers. I was honestly ready to start a new transfer with a new comp and have a fresh start. My new comp is Elder Toombs, he is from Draper Utah and went to Corner Canyon high! I don't know how many of you guys paid attention to high school basketball but he won state at Corner Canyon and was ranked the #1 player of 6a for basketball, bro's a dawg. 

To start out this week it was just a normal week with Elder Tzul and I working and then Wednesday we had a call with the whole area since the Tabernacle Choir is visiting the area in February and we had to figure out a way to give out 300+ invitaciones in our sectors. 

Then Thursday, after transfers, Elder Toombs and I were walking to a lesson and we had this guy named Dave call us over in English saying that he was interested and wanted to learn about the "Mormon" church haha. He talked to us the whole entire time in english and we got his number and ended up teaching him Saturday in english. It was pretty weird because we were just mixing in english with Spanish and he could understand. The spirit was there so strong and he had the question of the verse in John 10:16 where Jesus Christ Says that he has ovejas in a different Redil and he needs to go visit them. Dave knew that there had to be a different book or story and the Book of Mormón perfectly explained his question. I'm pretty excited to teach Dave, he's only here visiting family but lives in Maryland so we'll just pass the reference when he ends up going back. 

Then to finish the week off we had an earthquake last night, I think it was like a 5.1 earthquake and the epicenter was pretty close to us maybe 20-30 minutes. Gratefully it was before we went to bed and we were still doing Totales because if it happened at like 12 I wouldn't have fallen asleep after

I'm pretty excited to see what happens and what the Lord has planned for this next transfer! 

Miss you guys 

Elder Roper 

Transfer Day

Keaton was assigned a new companion today-

Elder Toombs from Draper, Utah!

How Great The Wisdom and The Love

 Well, what a week it's been...

To start, this week was New Years and so the work was super super slow. I feel like almost every door we knocked they were either super busy or just not home. Not to help that whenever there is a holiday, birthday party, or even soccer game they drink there lives away haha. But I got to see what New Years is like down here in Ecuador. It's the craziest New Years celebration I have probably ever see and ever will see. It was the normal fireworks and firecrackers but everyone takes out these paper mache figures and start to burn them.  In Ecuador, it's tradition to build a paper-mache figure for New Year's, write your wishes on paper, place them inside, and then burn it. The people have been making them since October to prepare for the new year and they make whatever comes to mind, Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Toad, Mario, and many others. When they burn them they also put these big firecrackers só when they are burning they explode too. 

Other than that though it has probably been the slowest week of my mission just because of the work and the holidays plus being tired from all the music and fireworks going off until sunrise. This week we start a new transfer and I am ready for a new start and hopefully a new companion. 

This past we had a devotional on New Years Day from President and Hermana Suarez that talked about consecration and how we can become more consecrated. They explained how Jesus Christ was the most consecrated missionary and that he was humble enough to do the Fathers will always. We have seen a lot of miracles as a mission this past year and we will see tons this next one too. For example, I think January 2024 we had maybe 30-40 baptisms and in December we ended up having 94!

I almost forgot too, but this past week I hit a year in the mission! It feels weird to think a year ago today I was doing home MTC just starting this journey of being a servant of the Lord but it has gone by quick. I have learned a ton but still have tons to learn. 

Hope you guys had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Miss you all

Elder Roper