Leadership Council

Some Beach

Welp, as you can see I finally made it to the beach. Last week we had transfers and they had called up every single zone besides the zone where I am and so it was confirmed I was going to the beach. The ward where I'm at is called Santa Elena 1 and is about 2 hours west from Guayquil. 

It's very different compared to Guayaquil, first of all it's not as hot here. It is hot but the sun isn't AS strong as Guayaquil and it is not as humid. Plus there is the nice ocean breeze every now and then that is really nice. The people are a little more open since there a bit more poor. Even people from different religions will hear our first contact and at least say they aren't interested than just lie and lead us on with the commitments. 

I also had a change of comps, my comp now is Elder Villanueva from Chile. The funny thing is that about a year ago he was my Zone Leader and now we are companions. He has 20 months in the mission and is staying pretty focused which makes it nice.  He was AP for 3 transfers too. 

The work seems to he going good in the sector, we are starting up intercambios this week so it should be another quick transfer. I'm excited to be outside of Guayaquil for the first time in 14ish months and ready to see what it's like out here!

Miss all you guys 

Elder Roper 

Transfer Day

Banana Bread and Rain

Welp, it has rained almost every single day this week. We have hit the rainy season and it hit pretty hard.

This week our buddy Guillermo got baptized! We found him I think 3 or 4 weeks ago and went to church the first week, he is the brother of an inactive member and was down to receive the gospel in his life and follow the example of Jesus Christ. 

This past week we also had interviews with President Suarez, he had asked us to write a talk based on repentance. He also had asked for us to make a list of scriptures based on repentance with out testimony at the end. While I was reading President Suarez my talk it was a very cool experience. It was pretty cool to write a talk based on repentance and feel and see how much love God has for us. 

Finishing the transfer we only had one intercambio, I think I wrote a couple of weeks ago that the intercambio made me super tired and even doing 1 this week made me super tired. 

To finish up, on Saturday night we had a Noche de Hogar with the Familia Sosa, the family that we recently found and now the kids have a baptismal date for March! Elder Toombs came up to teach the family some principles and then make pizza, but with tortillas. The family seemed to enjoy it and when they go to make it again, I hope they can remember Elder Toombs and I making those pizzas with them! 

Anyways end of transfers this week so we will see what happens. I think I'm out and I'm probably going out to the tierra prometida or the beach - we will see . . . 

Miss you guys,

Elder Roper 

PS

I have eaten banana bread every single day and it is delicious!

Templo y Lluvia

Well, last week I couldn't get an email out because we were busy making cookies at the church. We'll see what I remember from last week and this week. 

Two weeks ago we went to the temple for the first time since last September, I'm grateful that we were able to go and just relax in the temple. The Spirit is always there even when you are outside of the temple. Then day after the temple we had our consejo de Líderes. President Suarez told us that our mission would be getting a phone for every missionary. It will he kind of weird for every missionary to have a phone but we will see how it is.

These 2 last weeks it has been raining almost every single day. So it has felt a lot more humid and hot. And for some reason when it rains everyone kind of closes the doors and just wants to stay inside all day so it's been a slowish 2 weeks. Doesn't mean we haven't found some cool people. Last week we found these 3 member references. They are all from Venezuela so the kids can get baptized but the mom sadly can't. De hecho the kids are on date to be baptized for the first Sunday in March and we will try and help the mom or Maria to be baptized in a future date. 

Our fecha,  Guillermo, had his interview this passed week and is ready to be baptized. His brother Carlos has been inactive for some time but now he can have the opportunity to baptize his brother. It should be a cool baptism and should be pretty fun! 

We have kept up with the intercambios so I am pretty tired after every week, we have interviews with President Suarez this week so we will see how that goes. 

This transfer has flown by and transfers aren't this week but next week! 

Miss all you guys 

Elder Roper