Bread of Life, Living Water

Another solid week down here in the Playa...

This week has been pretty cool, I think this is the most direction and guidance that I have felt from the Lord in the work. 

We were able to have some new people come to church and some of those people have a baptismal date for this next week which is hype! If everything goes well we should be starting this next transfer with 3 baptisms. 

The 2 of the 3 are a recent convert's kids. They literally asked to be baptized and so we just need to help them get ready for their interview and then they should be fine. Another one we actually found on Friday, his name is Jose Luis!

We had been already teaching his mom, but his mom didn't seem interested.  We really needed to try with her kids, so finally we were able to have a lesson with the kids. We didn't really know what to teach but they had gone to a tarde de hogar in the chapel focused on the Book of Mormon so we taught about the Book of Mormon and then read Alma 7. Long story short, we invited Jose Luis to be baptized and he accepted for this Sunday, if we can teach him and if he can pass his interview he's going to be baptized with 9 days in teaching.

Then a couple days before that, we had the most spiritual contact of my mission. We knocked on the door and no one came out for a little bit but out came a joven named Kevin. We shared our purpose as missionaries, and he said he had gone to church before and read the Book of Mormon. In the mission we have this laminated page called "La senda de los Covenios" or the covenant path. We gave him that and he just kind of looked at it and I could tell he was feeling the Spirit. He accepted baptism and told us a story how God had saved his life in this past week and he said he how he really knew now that God existed and that Kevin's time isn't finished and that the Lord has more for him todo. Pretty crazy contact!!

This week we had intercambios in Cerecita and the Elders there have a gym so you already know we got to bench on Friday baby. 

Anyways crazy to think that this week starts the last transfer in my mission, time is flying!

Miss you all,

Elder Roper 

Thou Gracious God, Whose Mercy Lends

 Well, another week down here in the Playa . . .

We were supposed to have a baptism this Sunday, but on Wednesday night the girl who was supposed to be baptized just texted us and said she didn't want to be baptized anymore. After reading 3 Nephi 27, Mosiah 18, and the Parable of the 10 Virgins, she still didn't want to be baptized. I'm confident that she still will want to be baptized here in the future, so we'll see how we can help her. 

Nothing really else happened this week, we had interviews with President Taylor. Sadly, we had to go all the way out to Guayaquil to have the interview, but it still was a good experience. Safe to say it was kind of a trunky interview, but still a good one. I asked for some help with Wendy - the girl that was supposed to get baptized.  We got some help and then President Taylor helped me so I can lock on these last transfer of Personal Studies that I will have. 

Honestly, this week not a whole ton happened and was just kind of a normal week of missionary work. We were able to find some new people, have some come to church but still no one really wants to be baptized. We have found some cool people that do want to be baptized and then they don't come to church, which is kind of funny, but we are just trying to find those people who are truly prepared by the Lord. 

Being a district leader you have to conduct baptismal interviews.  This week I got to do a couple and they were very cool spiritual experiences of people waiting a little while or quickly learning with the missionaries and finally being baptized.  I interviewed this one couple and they will be a very strong family for the little branch Cerecita! 

It's pretty crazy that time is flying by, I am almost in my last transfer and I don't really know how to feel about it. President Taylor asked how I felt almost having 22 months as a missionary and I didn't know how to explain it...

Love and miss you all,

Elder Roper

Oh How Great is Our Joy

Well what a couple of weeks... 

Last week was a really good week on top of General Conference, I think it was the best General Conference that I have heard almost every single talk was a banger! 

Also last week our friend Marcos was able to be baptized, he got there early while we were still filling the pila bautismal and so he was ready to be baptized. This week at church he was presented to the ward and then given the aaronic priesthood! It was pretty cool to be there in Elders quorum to see him recieve the priesthood. 

Sadly enough Kevin, who was supposed to be baptized this week, wasn't able to be baptized since he started working and his work schedule is pretty rough. He works every single day with a set time to go into work, but without a time to leave. The work hours here in Ecuador are pretty rough. 

President Taylor pulled up as a surprise to our sacrament meeting and gratefully we were able to have some amigos come to church! We actually have this miracle family that we found a couple weeks ago that pulled up. We were trying to visit one of our converts and they werent there, all of a sudden a little 7 year old kid comes running up and tells us to come and visit his family. Well we go across the street and we ask if anyone was there, and out comes a mom and tells us to come in. We go in and we see the dad sat up on the bed and says that he's a member but is about 10 or 15 years inactive, and says that he wants to get back to the church. 

Safe to say Elder Womack and I were mind blown to hear that. We ended up giving the dad, Wilter a health blessing and they came to church this week! They have a daughter that is 13 years old that will also be baptized this next week too! 

It was a pretty crazy week, but a good one!

Me alegra escuchar que los Utes ganaron

Miss all you guys 

Elder Roper 

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