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.
9/29/14This 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.
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
