Ano Nuevo!

1/5/14

Buenas días familia,

                             Well this week has been a week that I will never forget in my mission, nothing out of the blue happened, but just the change of everything is kind of crazy. My first District meeting went well, I was nervous and kept forgetting the names of the sisters in my district, but they are very kind and understanding, so everything went fairly smoothly, and well I know that revelation is real, because I got through the whole hour without any big hiccups.

                             I love my knew companion, he is really helping me to progress, he is a grate missionary, and he teaches with a lot of passion and energy, he is helping my to see the things that I need to improve on and well more that anything we are having fun busting our buns to get the 11 investigators to Baptism and to the Temple.

                            I didn´t think I was going to like being back in the city, but I do. If you put away the noise and pollution, Lima is a very nice place. I love the members in our ward and it feels so strange to be in a real ward again. The world here is night and day from where I just came from. The members are more educated, regarding both secular and Church knowledge. Everything is a lot more organized, and well to be frankly honest, I have a lot less things to worry about. However I do miss my little branch in Pisco, you grow to love someone or something more when you struggle together. I think that{s why God wants us to really understand the Atonement of Jesus Christ, because when we learn and understand all the he suffered for us, we can know that he is not just watching us struggle and spooning us extra strength when we need it, but he is right there next to us, suffering with us, telling us that we can do it, because he did. 

                            I love you all and I know that you all are going to have an incredible week, go make someone´s life a little better this year! Happy 2015! Love Elder Roos.

12/29/14
Ether 12: 25,26,

                 Well, it happened the sent me to another area, but that´s okay because the good news is that my area is still there. This week we has 46 people in church, which is not the 100 that we were hoping for but apperently they found hope for the little branch of Independencia and the have this next year to get to 100 members attending church every week.

                   I was a little sad to leave my companion, but I was very happy to train him, and now I am going to try my luck as a District leader. They have sent me to an area that is right next to my first area in the mission. Just over the hill of my new little home is where it all began, I have already ran into someone from my first ward, and it lets me know what a small world this is. My new area is called Villa Salvador ( la Villa 1) and I feel humbled to be a District leader and hope that I can do what God expects of me, and I know if I trust him I will. 

                  My new companion is Elder Calave from Bolivia! It´s funny I knew him in my second area, and we spent a lot of time together in Chincha, and he always told me that we were going to be companions, and I never thought that it could happen, but here we are. He is a very powerful missionary and I am lucky to have him as my companion. I as ready to see what we can accomplish here and what we are going to see with the help of the Lord.

                 I was very sad to leave my old area in the country and come to the city after so much time, but I know that God know what he is doing. I am going to miss our old investigators in Independencia. Brother Luis Carbo is on fire over there, every day when he goes to work his fellow workers give him a hard time for taking the lessons, and he  told us that they say all kinds of think to make him rethink what his is doing, and to discourage him, but he never gets down he is still reading, still praying, and his daughter and best friend (who is a Jehovah´s witness) are also taking the lessons. I am so happy that our father in heaven helps us find and accept the Gospel if we will be humble and listen. I know that this church is true and that Jesus is our savior, and that this gospel blesses families! I love you all and hope you have the best week in the world. Love Elder Roos

(If you have any questions let me know I want to write longer E-mails)

12/22/14
Wow Christmas,

                     I can not take it in that this is my last Christmas, I hadn´t really thought about it until Sister Douglas  (the president´s wife reminded me) haha I love them so much. We had an incredible Christmas devotional, where we watched a movie called Gifted Hands, it was amazing and kicked in the motivation to do all I can in the ending part of my mission.

   We are working hard here in the branch, and we are teaching some wonderful people, Brother Luis is the best, this week at church he was asked to pray like three times, and in his last prayer, he asked God to bless all of the people who do not know this message. This is the fasted I have ever seen anyone accept the gospel, and I thank our Father in heaven that I was able to at least start to teach him. This week are transfers and no one really knows what is going to happen, but at this point I don´t know if I can imagine leaving this place, I feel like there is too much of me here.

                      My companion is doing very well, and he is counting the days until he leaves training (I don´t blame him) But we have had a great time and we have both learned ALOT!

                      Remember that this time is to remember Jesus, his birth, life, death, sacrifice, and example. When we try to be like Christ we remember Christmas. I love you all and hope you enjoy this week, and enjoy the blessing that the lord gives us all. Love you all, Elder Roos.

12/15/14
Good morning,

                  We are working hard here in Independencia, we are finding and teaching some amazing people here, and the time is gong by by way too fast. We are in week five of this second transfer of training. Every day seems to bring something new, and everyday it gets a little hotter and my face gets a little more sun burnt.

                   This week we had Stake Conference, and we had a Branch goal to bring 100 people, but we were only able to muster 60, how ever let me tell you that we moved rivers and mountains to get this goop of 60 to the stake center. I think we knocked on almost every door in this little village to get some one to leave their house and go to church, a lot of the people who promised to come didn´t show up or didn´t have the time, but I think that's the same song sung for every missionary in the world. Something fantastic that happened is Brother Luis Carbo.We found brother Luis Saturday, while we were looking for his daughter, whom we had made and appointment to visit, about 4 days before. We taught him about the restoration, and he liked it a lot. He had always had the question, where do we go when we die, and what church is telling the truth. Well after the lesson we invited him to the conference, and he said he´d show up (like they all do) and we left him our number and bid him farewell. The next day at 8:30 in the morning, Luis called us and said I´m here at the church, and there is no one here, I don´t think I have ever heard words so sweet in my life. We all went to the conference, and we had the chance to talk to President Douglas, for a short moment, to make a long story short, Luis is now telling everyone that he is getting ready to be baptized.

De Dos Meses de Cartas

10/27/14

Bueno que puedo decir,

                 I´m still here and we are still breathing, so I would say we had a good week. in reality, this week was very good, Elder C.'s attitude is getting better, and we are starting to laugh instead of getting over frustrated.

                 I have learned that god really answers prayers, and in the moments that I need the most help is when I feel the most like god is right there helping me. The weather is getting hotter, and everyone likes to make fun of my glowing red cheeks, but I don´t mind I have gotten use to being a white guy in peru.

                Our investigators are starting to really get on board and the adversary is really starting to show up, but we all know who is going to come on top every time. We are working with a family named Marcos y Sonia, and they are really amazing people, Sonia has been in a wheel chair for about 10 years, and Marcos has been working to support the family. This week sister sonia got sick and was bed bound so she wasn´t able to go to curch, and Marcos is suffering from some kind of heart condition. We are healping them find faith in Jesus Christ, and helping them know that all that they are going through is to help them be stronger, and to trust that God is stronger then all the needs that they are faceing.

                We are finding a lot of new families to teach and a lot of them are really good people, but the biggest problem is that very few of them are married, and so we are trying to plan like 3,000 weddings. haha Our branch is still moving forward, this week we dropped to 45 members in church, and the stake president like to push the fact that if we don´t get to 100 by December they are going to shut down the branch, and all the members will have to go to the ward 45 minutes away, which is going to effect many people. Well we all know that God knows what he is doing so it´s time to grit our teeth and look for the hand of god in all things and see what happens in the End

10/20/14 

 Lets just say we had a fun week, my comanion was a little under the weather... and we can just say that I am now more redy than ever to be a father of a cranky teenager. But afer getting through a few few day of cold verbal abuse, my companion is starting to calm down. He is a really great missionary, but the mission life kind of got to him, and we both king of had to push through this last week one step at a time. But I told him that I understand, because I wasn´t exsactly a fan of my trainer ither. How ever, we have seen alot of amazing things this week. 

                      We were going to an appointment, and I was so sure that the door we were knocking on was the door that we were looking for, and all of a sudden, a lady that I didn´t know opened the door, and just looked at us, and said, with a smile on her face, "oh good I just got home too". She let us in and called her husband, and explained that they had talked to the missionaries before, and they really liked the message, but the missionaries just stopped coming to their house. Well We shared, a second time the message of the restored gospel, and they said that this was the first time that they really understood the reason behind why there are so many churches in the world, and Brother Christan came to church yesterday, and he loved it, and he is going to bring his whole family next sunday, and they are very excited for our next visit this Wednesday.

                       I am realy enjoying being a trainer, it is hard, but I am learning so much, and I get to see the both of us growing, which is the best gift of all. I loved conference two weeks ago, and my favorite of all is from President Eyring, and the sunday morning talk on personal revelation, because I got to see the face of one of our investigators light up at every word that he said.

                     Life in general is good, it is getting hotter, and more fruit is starting to come in, but I just feel like time is going by too quickly, but I am going to use and take advantage of every moment. I love you all and it is so good to hear from you all every week,you are all in my prayers, and I thank you for yours. Love Elder Roos

10/08/14

 This week I got my wish... I am  a trainer! (I hope that is spelled right.) Anyway, I am haveing a ball, I just picked up my new companion yesterday, and he is the best! His name is Elder Carrillo, and he is from Chilli, he is 21, a convert of a year and six months, and he is really powerful. Today we contacted the whole taxi, we gave everyone pamphlets, and everyone was talking and laughing, he just has an energy, and I am so happy to be his trainer, and I know that I am going to learn so much in these next two transfers, and we are going to see a lot of amazing things.

                        I really am so happy to finally have this chance, and it is something I have wanted to do my whole mission, and I have just been waiting for the chance. I know that this is what Independencia needs, because the best things always happen when a missionary is in training. 

                       Two of our investigatores are geting close to their baptism dates, and they are doing very well, they are Bertha and Braulio. The other day we contacted the mother of one of our investigators, she is a wonderful woman, who is now confound in a wheel chair. She has been through a lot in her life, and she is part of another church, but she was telling us a lot about the problems that she has had, and she started to talk about how her children are the most important thing in the whole world for her, and I asked her if she knew that she could live with her family forever, and she said HOW!? and today we will tell her love you all.

9/29/14
This week we saw another work of god's grace, and we went up by two in church which really is amazing because for the past six months or so they have been dancing around 25 or 30 members in the church. Something funny about this next week is the country of Peru will not go to church. Nesxt sunday it will be illigal to have a church meeting, because of Elections. When they have political elections here in peru it is maditory that everyone votes, and in they don{t vote they have to pay a heft fine to the government. So I don{t know how I am going to be able to go a whole week without inviteing poeple to go to church. Life here is cary during election time and it is really funny. It feels kind of like the part of high school when people ran for class president. people are running around in the street basting songs that sing about why people should vote for a specific person, and there are thousands of bill boards and a lot of other things that I don't want to take the time to explain, but yeah that is life here for the moment.

                 We are seeing some really wonderful things passing with some of our iinvestigators we are working with a sister named Birtha who has been talking to us for some time, and she has just gone full blast into the gospel, and she is taking her whole family with her. She and her husband have baptism dates for the 18th of October, and her 19 year-old son now wants to be baptized, because his mother is sharing the book of mormon with him, and all three of them went to church. We also found a sister named Sandra, who was really excited to hear our message, and came to church practically on her own (I say practically because we passed by her hours to remind her) but she was already getting ready to go. We are seeing the members light up and they are starting to get addicted to missionary work. Oh boy I love this gospel.

                   We are working hard, and putting on sunscreen almost everyday because the sun is starting to get hotter. Me and may companion are starting to cook more in our apartment, and I am going to be a pro at cooking rice and chicken. I love you all and hope you enjoy the wonderful colors of fall, because they don{t really have that here, it's just like Summer and Cold Summer. I love you all and hope you are happy and healthy.

9/22/14
It was a good week. We saw a lot of miracles this week, starting with a few wonderful new investigators that god led us to, and A lot of progress with some of the less active members. They have said that if the ward doesn't grow by December they are going to close down the branch here, so we have been praying and working very hard to see the members come back, and to have, well success. The first week I came here we had, 31 people in the church, second week, 32, third week, 32 again, but this week we had 50 people who attend church! It really was a merical! 50 is the goal that the ward had set to maintain the branch here in Independencia, and in one week it happened. I would like to say that we have been working our tails off, but really rally all things came down to the Grace of God. I feel so ready to keep working and to keep seeing things like we have seen this week. Well that is just about everything interesting that happened this week, I love you all so much and thank you for your prayers and thoughts

Trabjando Siempre

9/29/14

This week we saw another work of god's grace, and we went up by two in church which really is amazing because for the past six months or so they have been dancing around 25 or 30 members in the church. Something funny about this next week is the country of Peru will not go to church. Next Sunday it will be illegal to have a church meeting, because of Elections. When they have political elections here in peru it is mandatory that everyone votes, and in they don{t vote they have to pay a heft fine to the government. So I don{t know how I am going to be able to go a whole week without inviting people to go to church. Life here is scary during election time and it is really funny. It feels kind of like the part of high school when people ran for class president. people are running around in the street basting songs that sing about why people should vote for a specific person, and there are thousands of bill boards and a lot of other things that I don't want to take the time to explain, but yeah that is life here for the moment.

                 We are seeing some really wonderful things passing with some of our investigators, we are working with a sister named Birtha who has been talking to us for some time, and she has just gone full blast into the gospel, and she is taking her whole family with her. She and her husband have baptism dates for the 18th of October, and her 19 year old son now wants to be baptized, because his mother is sharing the book of mormon with him, and all three of them went to church. We also found a sister named Sandra, who was really excited to hear our message, and came to church practically on her own (I say practically because we passed by her house to remind her) but she was already getting ready to go. We are seeing the members light up and they are starting to get addicted to missionary work. Oh boy I love this gospel.

                   We are working hard, and putting on sunscreen almost everyday because the sun is starting to get hotter. Me and may companion are starting to cook more in our apartment, and I am going to be a pro at cooking rice and chicken. I love you all and hope you enjoy the wonderful colors of fall, because they don{t really have that here, it's just like Summer and Cold Summer. I love you all and hope you are happy and healthy. Love 
Elder Roos. Chaú

9/22/14
Hola Familia,

                  It was a good week. We saw a lot of mericals this week, starting with a few wonderful new investigators that god led us to, and A lot of progress with some of the less active members. They have said that if the ward doesn't grow by December they are going to close down the branch here, so we have been praying and working very hard to see the members come back, and to have, well success. The first week I came here we had, 31 people in the church, second week, 32, third week, 32 again, but this week we had 50 people who attended church! It really was a merical! 50 is the goal that the ward had set to maintain the branch here in Independencia, and in one week it happened. I would like to say that we have been working our tails off, but really rally all things came down to the Grace of God. I feel so ready to keep working and to keep seeing things like we have seen this week. Well that is just about everything interesting that happened this week, I love you all so much and thank you for your prayers and thoughts. Love Elder Roos.

Independencia, la mas bonita.

9/15/14
 Things are still going well,

                    So we are still working hard here in Idependencia, however the attendance in sacrament meeting has only gone up by one, but hey I am not one to complain at progress.  a few interesting things that happened this week is that the branch president made us Goat for lunch, which was really good, I will never look at food the same way again after all of the things that I have eaten here, but that´s a good thing. 

                 We are working so hard to help people understand why keeping the Sabbath day holy is important, which is hard when you live in a Catholic Culture. Everyone and their dog knows that God wants us to go to church, but they don´t understand that the commandments don´t change even if the prices are better on Sunday.

                To really convert the members here, we have started to use the big guns, The Book of Mormon! We are giving all the less active members the challenge to read the book of Mormon in four months, and we are giving them a little paper with a cool little pathway, which has stepping stones representing every chapter of the book of Mormon that you color in after you have read it, and they all seem pretty happy to start it, but we will see how well it goes.

                My companion showed me a video on his camera from the CCM(MTC), and I was so embarrased, because in the video Elder Cayetano asked my where I was from, and I said (Soy donde Idaho) which in English (I where I Idaho) and then I looked at the camera and said ¡Me Gusta Queso! (I like Cheese) because that was the only thing I knew how to say well in spanish. I have come such a long way, I went from nothing to where I am now. God has blessed me so much, and I have really learned to want something so badly to really work for it. I know that God gives us things that make us suffer sometimes, but it is just because he loves us and he knows what we need to make us stronger. Well I love you all and I hope that you are all Happy and healthy, and I love you all and pray for you. Have an awesome week, Love your Goofy little missionary, Elder Roos

9/08/14
So week three,

                    it was fun to hear that it is fair time again, I have heard that they do practically the same thing here, but we have never gone to one.

                    So the work goes on here in our little branch. we reactivated a less-active member that will help the progress of our branch a lot. We are in such need of strong leaders here, almost off the members are less active, but the fact that this family came back, and so strong lets me know that nothing is impossible for the Lord. I have never felt such a love for the people, or such a need to work as I do here in Independencia. It´s kind of fun to work with less active members until they start to whine and complain about petty selfish things that don´t have anything to do with anything, but I like to see the look on their face when we start to explain everything that Jesus did for them D&C 19:15-17

                      It is truly lovely here I hope to send pictures next week, I am loving it here, there is a lot of corn, avocado, grapes, and a lot of other plants that I don´t know but I love you all

Love Elder Roos.

9/01/14
Hola todos,

                So This week was a good week, I am really enjoying my new area, and my companion. My area is the most beautiful that I have had in all of my mission life. There are a lot of green fields, and everyday we see birds that aren´t pidgins, and we continue to eat a lot of fruit. However we received something new...well new for me, Sugercain.  I have eaten it here before, but this was the first time that some one has given us big poles of sugarcane, usually people sell them in little bags already to go, but this time, this member took us out to his part of the riverbed next to his hove and hacked us four big poles of sugar with his machete.

                Like normal we have talked to a lot of people who are catholic, but just don´t have time to attend, and keep explaining the importance of the sabbath day to members who can´t find the time to go to the true church, but we are teaching a lot of young families who need to follow the law of chastity, but my favorite part about teaching families that are going through hard problems, is telling them that they can when the whole world tells them that they can´t. That they really can have a happy life together, and that one really can be married and get through every single problem and trial that comes their way, if they only put their trust en Jesus Christ. I like to see the hope that comes in to their eyes when they discover that these things really are true. Well I love you all, and hope you are ally happy and healthy, Have a great week. Love Elder Roos. 

8/16/14

I got transferred,

                     So I am now in Pisco, which is a little further south then where Canete was. It is really beautiful here with a lot more fields, and trees, and everything. I can not put into word how happy, excited, or pumped to have my new companion. His name is ELder Cayatano, and he is in my grupo from the CCM. He is super funny, an extremely hard worker, and he just loves to be here on a mission. we have a lot of work to do here, because they are talking about closing down the area. It is a really small branch, with about 35 people who go to church, but there are 180 members who live here. Me and my companion are the 1st and 2nd counselors in the Bishop rick. I am so happy to be here, I just feel good. I can't wait to see what is ahead of us here. I am am in one of the hotest arieas of the mission, but the heat wont really kick in for about a month, so that is something nice. They eat alot of fish here, so that is something that I am looking forward to. I hope you all have fun at the fair, and remember that I love you all and you are all in my prayres. Love ELder Roos

Tres Semanas

8/18/14
Hello again my friends and family.

                                       Si we are on the last week of this transfer, and I most likely will end up being changed to another area this coming week, because I have four Transfers here. This week I was thinking about how much I love this area, and how many miracles I have seen in the last six months here. Yeasterday I has happy to see Brither Renauld in the Branch Council as second counselor of the Elders Quorum. I remember the second time that we met this funny little man, he was so drunk that when we showed up the next day he didn´t remember that we had passed by the day before, but now his life has completely changed. 

                                         Brother Jorge is very excited to receive the preisthood this coming week, and we are working with alot of really good families and I have eaten alot of really good food this week. Something Cool that happened is yesterday, in branch council, I was sitting next to the frist counselor of the EQ and it turns out that the contact that we found about two weeks ago (brother Fredy= is his uncle and he has been wanted him to find the curch for along time, and he had no ideah that we where teaching him. Well life is going well down here I hope all of you are happy and healthy. Love Elder Roos.

08/11/14

Hello everyone,

                     Well we are on week five here in this transfer, and well things are going well. We are finding some amazing people. including the other night when we had nothing more to do we were walking back to the house and I turned to my companion and said wait, we still have time to save one more soul! and then He pointed the the first house with the lights on, and we knowed on the door, and made up an excuse that we were looking for some one else (not the aproche we usally use, but afective) and he looked at us and said ¨you are Elder...?¨ I said I am Elder Roos, and Have you talked to the missionaries before? Well he had, he took the lessions about four years befor, and he acepted the invitation to be baptised and well we are teaching him. 

                    The weather is starting to get to the poit where it will start to get warmer, but it´s still cold. We helped the New Missionary Couple Elder and Sister Tharp, we went shopping for couches...and we went to every strore in Imperial...which is alot, but finally we found what they were looking for. The Tharps are really cool, the have some if the most powerful testimonies I have ever seen, and they glow...and they like to feed us, so we are pritty good friends. Love you all hope you are all doing well  stay on the sunny side. Love Elder Roos. 

8/04/14
Kay and Jogre were finaly baptised!!

This wee was crazy, and the day of the baptism was the craziest, and we had to fill the Baptisaml Font with buckets of water from a local macanic shop. I am out of time but I love you all

Compañero Nuevo

Buenos tardes,

                    so I was happy to hear from mom, that my letters are okay, but I will still try to keep improveing them.

                    I hope you are all enjoying the weather down there because, yes it is starting to get very cold in this part of the world. It was a good week, my companion is the best, he is the first ¨normal¨companion that I have had up to this point in my mission, and he may never stop to make me laugh. It feels good to laugh with my companion, it´s something that I have really missed. He is a hard worker and we have seen a lot of success in just the first week that we have been together. We are working very hard to help Katy and Jorge get ready for baptism. They are starting to get a really firm testimony of the church, and they have been come to church every week. This week they ended up coming to church a little late, and we were into sacrament meeting, when there was a big ¨boom¨outside the door of the chapel, and everyone including the current speaker stopped and looked at h¡where the boom had come from, and when we all heard a little girl start to cry and a little boy yell it wasn´t me, we knew that Katy and Jorge had arrived. However little Margarita who hit her head on the door was just fine, and we all hod a good time at church.

 My Companion is from a place called Cajamarka, which is near Cuzco, and is about 15 hours in buss. So he is not super close, but the funny thing is where he is from there are al ot of white people, so we usually say that we are from the same place, He is my 3rd companion from Peru, but I think he might be my favorite. I love you all and Wish you all well. Love Elder Roos. 

This saturday Sister Saturnina, and Sister Benancia were baptized. It was an incredible experience, My companion baptized Benancia and the brother of Saturnina was able to baptise his sister. The most incredible part about the baptism of Saturnina is that her brother, Nolburto had an accident about 7 years ago, and does no have full use of his legs, and is only able to walk with the use of crutches. But with the simple help of a chair and my companion, he was able to successfully preform the baptismal ordinance. The testimony of Saturnina, and Benancia were two of the purest and most powerful that I have been able to witness in all of mission. Sister Banancia as I have mentioned before does not speak very well in spanish, but with the help of her daughter (who is member) she was able to express her feelings in a very moving way. There may or may not have been tears. (I have pictures, but I will have to send them next week)

                               The other interesting thing that happened this week, is the change of mission life, Transfers. I am still here in Imperial, Cañete. So that means that I will spend one fourth of my mission in this area, but that´s okay because I love this place. My new companion is named Elder Morales, he is from Cajamarka Peru. He has about nine months in the mission, and his is a very powerful missionary. Mom asked if my comp. goes away will I be District leader or will they change me too? The answer to that question is, the will send another one in. Elder Morales is District leader, and honestly I´m okay with that, but it is possible that I will go to my next area as District leader, but I am happy to just be focused on the people that we have to teach.

                              I am excited to see what is going to happen this next change, and I truly hope that we can work to our full potential this transfer, because this will be my last in this area. My new companion is really cool, he is relaxed, but he knows how to work hard and where to focus his energy. I think that the time we spend together is going to be an awesome experiencia. Something cool about Elder Morales is that he is a sketch artist, and he is really good, he drew my face and I felt like I was watching a camera. Well I love you all have a good week. Love Elder Roos.