Homeward Bound

 

Tonight is the Night of Nights

Bueno, my last week in the Playa and here in the mission.  It’s weird—my last week in the mission doesn’t feel like it, yet it also kind of does.

This week we had all of the "last stuff" . . . last interviews, last cena, and my last baptism. The final interview was good, President just dropped some mission President Consejos and we also talked about the difference between a testimony and conversion. He mentioned how almost everyone has a testimony in the church, but struggle with their conversion to the Lord Jesus Christ. Elder Bednar has a very good talk that explains the differences between the two. After my interview we went back to Playas and got back super late. 

The next day was just a normal work day for us trying to find people and invite them to baptism. Honestly not a whole lot going on right now in the sector. But on Thursday I had my last dinner and my last district council. It was a council of 12 missionaries since the Zone Leaders were with us and also the APs. It was a good consejo then we went to the last dinner. Being in President Taylor's super nice house made me feel at home even though I am still here in the mission. It was a very weird feeling, but we played some games and he asked us as a group what our trunky plans were so it was pretty fun. 

Then on Friday Marcos and his Daniela got married! It was a huge miracle that they got married and is the biggest miracle of my mission. The wedding went smoothly and was cool to see how far Marcos has come. The rest of the Friday and Saturday we didn't do anything too crazy, we just went out and worked. 

Saturday night was a little rough trying to find our friends and finding new people, so we decided to visit the Relief Society President and we found her son, who has been inactive for a time, but said he needed a visit from someone and we just showed up, he ended up coming to church yesterday! 

Sorry if this is a little long, but then we had a super cool testimony meeting! I got up and gave my testimony and then a bunch of the members got up and gave their testimonies. And actually a recent convert that got baptized 5 months ago got up and said her testimony, and Marcos got up to bear his testimony, too! He blessed the sacrament, shared his testimony, and baptized his wife! 

The cherry on top was that there was an hermano that was visiting the ward that served here 40 years ago. He actually baptized the current Relief Society President on his last week of his mission and it was a very cool experience to be there! 

Safe to say this week has been probably been the coolest week of my mission. We have seen a little bit of everything! 

Anyways, I am eternally grateful for these 2 years of service and will always have memories with me! 

See you guys on Wednesday! 

Elder Roper 

Final Mission Interview with President Taylor

 

Motions of A Hidden Fire

Well, this was another crazy week out here in the Playa...

This week we went to the temple in Guayaquil and it was a very cool experience.  It was probably the most I have learned and studied in the temple. To get to Guayaquil, we left Wednesday night and then getting back here to Playas we arrived Thursday night, so we lost a whole day of the week. 

We still had the 3 baptisms that we planned to have. It wasn't the 3 people who we thought were going to get baptized but they still got baptized!  Carolina and her daughter Yuribell got baptized, then a member's nephew got baptized with them! They are all pretty close together so it was cool to see them get baptized. With baptisms there is always oppopsition entonces dejenme contarles. 

First with Damian he had been indecisive about baptism for quite some time. We did the interview Friday night and he said he wanted to be baptized. His aunt calls us Saturday night late telling us he doesn't want to be baptized. We got a trici to take us al fondo and we simply talked to him about it and he decided to get baptized. Those 3 all showed up early for the primary program that we had but during the sacrament Carolina gets up coughing and she calls us to come out of the meeting. She tells us that that she threw up blood and she wanted to postpone the baptism. Personally I had no idea what to say but Eugenia, her friend that gave us the reference, came in clutch and was able to help her out.   MILAGRAZO

Then last week I wrote about Marcos wife coming back, well they already have a day for their wedding and Daniela's baptism is set in stone!!! That is probably the biggest or one of the biggest miracles that have happened in my mission!!! 

Anyways this week we won't have a whole lot of time to work but we will see what we can do in this week! 

Miss you all,

Elder Roper 

See you guys soon!