The Big 16

Well, this past week I hit 16 months being a missionary, it is pretty crazy to think a year ago I was still in my training and now I am 2/3s done with my mission. Time goes by pretty fast...

Anyways this week was a pretty solid week, we had back to back baptisms. One on Saturday and then we had one on Sunday. The first one we had on Saturday went pretty much smoothly, nothing really bad happened and everyone showed up on time. On Saturday Scarlett got baptized, we had found her last transfer and hadn't missed a single week going to church and pretty much wanted to be baptized since the 2nd week when we knew her. Sadly her mom, Shirley, can't be baptized because she isn't married, but is very determined to follow her Savior and be baptized. We will see if she ends up ditching the guy she is living with or if they end up getting married haha. 

Then on Sunday our referred amigo Byron got baptized. We had his baptism on Sunday since he works Monday through Saturday 6 to 10 every single night without fail. And not this past Sunday but last Sunday we found out he needed another interview with President or one of his counselors. P day night I was pretty frustrated because I was almost certain that he wasn't going to be able to have the interview, but Wednesday night they ended up having the interview and he passed it. After being baptized and confirmed, he gave a very powerful testimony on the Prophet Joseph Smith and how the Lord guided him to His church. He said he was reading in 1 Corinthians and read Chapter 12 verse 28, which says "And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues."

After reading that scripture he felt he needed to find a church that was guided by a prophet and apostles and he was about to find it through a Facebook announcement. Fun fact is that his dad was a member before he passed away and it came to Byron´s mind to find the church his dad went to. In his testimony he mentioned that he felt his dad and the Lord guiding him to discover His church. It was a very powerful testimony and a very spiritual moment. 

Other than that nothing too crazy happened this week, we had intercambios with a sector where we had to take buses to get to different little towns and it was a little weird. Actually the Elder had a reassignment in the Iquitos Peru mission which was kind of funny to hear how that mission is. 

Anyways pretty crazy to think que solo me falta 8 meses más. It will go by super quick. 

Love you all

Elder Roper 

It Is Well With My Soul

Well, hope you guys had a happy Easter and were able to learn more about our Savior and His sacrifice for every single one of us. Thanks to the study guide of the biblioteca del Evangelio I was able to learn quite a bit about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. 

With Elder Kemp, lately we have been going crazy with the member work, working with inactive members getting to know them and getting to know their story. They have some crazy stories and even sadder ones, too but I can testify that we include the work with the members the work progresses faster and can help the missionaries in many ways! 

With the biggest miracle of this week, we were looking for inactive members just through the Preach My Gospel app and we were looking for a family and tried a house and they told us they didn't know the family and so we turned around and decided to try the house in front or al frente. A man came out to us and told us he would go put a shirt on. He goes and puts a shirt on and comes out and invites us in to his house. 

Turns out that the Mom of the family is an inactive member of 10 years and the rest of the family aren't members. They lived in one of Elder Kemp's old sectors and he actually knows the mom of the mom of the family. It was pretty crazy. In that lesson we invited them to prepare themselves to be baptized and the dad and 9 year old daughter agreed to it! The cherry on top was that they even came to church to partake of the of the Sacrament! 

We had a lot of miracles but I'm short on time to write an email but just know we have seen a miracle everysingle day this week! 

Miss all you guys 

Elder Roper 

Holy Week

Welp sorry again for not writing an email last week but it was a pretty busy p day...

I also don't think I have let you guys know but,  Elder Villanueva had transfers and I received a new comp who is Elder Kemp! He is from Eagle Mountain, Utah and is pretty chill. He has around the same time I do, I think he has 18 o 19ish months on the mission and this transfer should be pretty fun considering we also live with another Utahn that is from PG and was in the offices so we know him pretty well. 

Anyways last week was a pretty interesting week, on the weekend we had to be at home earlier than usual because of the voting and elections that they were doing but that doesn't mean we didn't see any miracles this past week. To start, Elder Kemp and I found a Peruvian guy that seemed pretty cool. We didn't find him until the next week or this past tuesday and were teaching prophets and we felt we needed to involve the gospel of Jesus Christ somehow so I shared Alma 9:27 which mentions the first principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he blatantly asked us how he could get baptized and what he would need to do to be baptized. Surprisingly and kind of shockingly we didn't really know what to do and so we said we could obviously help him and we put a goal down at the end of May to be baptized. 

This past week we have been visiting Maria Paredes or the older lady. It was a miracle finding her and she said that we needed to postpone her baptism because of her health and Elder Kemp and I felt pretty sad about that. She has been sick for 3 weeks and just hasn't gotten better, well see if she gets better or if the Lord is calling her back home. To finish that day off which was Saturday we visited Shirley and Scarlett or another family that we have found. We were finishing the plan of salvation and we asked Shirley or Scarlett if they had any other comments and Shirley just shared her testimony to us about how she had gone to different churches and just didn't quite find the right church or that it actually was the church of Jesus Christ. She then said that she felt and knew that she had found the Church of Jesus Christ and the spirit was so strong in that moment testifying to her and to all of us in the room that this was really the Lord's restored church and this is His Work. 

Finishing up the email, I honestly cant choose a conference talk that is my favorite. Every single one has a very distinct message and I need to relisten to all of the talks again in English. But listening to the Prophets talk I realized how many blessings he has promised to all of us and how those blessings and really affect and help our lives. I can testify that those blessings that he has promised us will get there! 

Miss you guys 

Elder Roper 

P.S. 

I called the GATORS BABY

Go RORY 

What is happening with my Braves 🥲🥲

This Week in Pictures

Transfer Day