Getting Transferred!

November 30, 2015

Well, I am off to another part of the mission! I found out saturday night that I was getting transferred, but they tell us tomorrow morningwhere I am going more specifically. Now it is just time to wait and see where I am headed off too and who my new companion will be!

All is going well here, and I am about to go and play basketball for my last preparation day here in merced. We have dinner with one of my favorite meals here, so tonight should be great. I will send more pictures next week. Hopefully the pictures will suffice for the lack of my words this week! Love you all!

Elder Roberts

We had three thanksgiving dinners, so we were fed well, don't worry. the picture with a drawing behind it is with an investigator that I helped with family history. The drawing is from my ward mission leader. He draws a picture every week, they are always funny!

Happy Thanksgiving From Cali!

Nov 23, 2015

I just want to start out and give a big thanks to all of my family and friends and how much they mean to me. It is really special to have such an incredible support system and so many prayers going in my behalf. Know that I love and appriciate each one of you and that is what I am grateful for this thanksgiving! It will be nice to actually celebrate thanksgiving this year! 

So this week we had a super great experience! We were walking to the car to go out proselyting and there was a women (Mrs. Green)  going to her car. She is about 65 I would say, African-American, and a rather large figure. I went up and started talking to her, and she asked me a question. I was blessed with the impressions of the spirit on how to respond, and she just sat there for a minute, staring at the ground thinking. She then looked at me and said, 'Wow, that was deep! You just hit me real good right there.' We then asked her if she would let the English elders stop by and visit her. She said she would love for it. Anyways, the next night, we come home from proselyting and I hear, 'Mista Rawberts, Mista Rawberts!' It was Mrs. Green yelling from her apartment. She told us to come over for a minute. We went that way and she handed us a home made sweet potato pie! She said, ' I hope you fellas like it, and mista rawberts, I been thinking about what you said the otha day. You really got me thinkin.' It ended up being such a special experience for me, and the pie was super great! 

All is going great here. I continue to enjoy every day and the incredible experiences I am having. God is really guiding me in the direction he wants me to go. How incredible it feels to be an instrument in His hands. I love you all and hope that all is going well back at home or in the mission field!

Elder Roberts

Subject: The Work Continues, The Miracles Too!

Nov. 16th, 2015

In the past two weeks we have found five new families--husband, wife, and kids. Each one has been a little miracle within itself. The latest one was a family named the Robles Family. We have tried visiting them three or four times in the past. They were a reference from one of the members here in the branch. We ended up going over yesterday and trying again and this time they immediately let us right in! The wife is from Brazil and only speaks Portuguese, and the husband is from Mexico. They have four children all of the age to be baptized.  We taught her in Spanish and she would reply to us in Portuguese. It was incredible to see that we actually understood her! We haven't got to meet the husband yet, but we are hoping and praying that he will be receptive to the message. They have an 18 year old son that was with us during our appointment yesterday, and he said one of the most heartfelt prayers I have ever heard, and it was in Portuguese. It is incredible to see how the language barrier can't stop the Spirit!

The Lord continues to bless the work here. I feel so excited to be a part of it! Conversion continues to come and faith continues to be followed with miracles. I hope that all is going well for you back at home! I love you all and know that I feel the power of your prayers!
Elder Roberts

Oh I forgot to mention that we had a baptism. We reactivated the mom and baptized her daughter. I got to give her the Gift of the Holy Ghost yesterday. Awesome! 

Another Great Week! Yosemite!

Nov 9th, 2015

Great experience again this week. We talked with these three guys that were outside installing there new sound system in there truck. I talked with them a little bit about there cars and got to share a little bit of our message. They seemed kinda busy and not super interested, but we still got there info to come back another day. We came back to try and contact them a couple of days later. It happened to be a super rainy, wet, cold day when we went back. It was dark out, and I wasn't really thinking that either of them would turn out. We knocked on the first one, and he wasn't there. We then went to the second one, named Mike. As we knocked, I remember thinking, 'I wonder how he will explain that he doesn't want to listen to us.' hahah, I know it was bad, but in spite of my little faith, he answered the door and immediately invited us in. He had just gotten home from visiting Las Vegas and had fallen asleep. He offered us some water and asked us some questions. We started sharing with him when he said, 'man, not very often that you talk about deep stuff like this. And I don't even know you two!' A little while after, he said, 'I feel like I don't know what God wants me to do. I wish he would just tell me so that I could do it.' Well, as you can see, another incredibly great experience. Turns out he doesn't speak spanish, so we have to pass him off to the english elders, but still great to be an instrument in the Lords hands. 

Also got to go to Yosemite Natiional Park today. It was incredible!!! I will attach some pictures. But everything is going great! Love you all and will write more next week!

Elder Roberts

Doing God's Will

Nov 5th, 2015

Incredible incredible great week! Sorry I am writing a little late to you this week, we went to the temple and so it changed our preparation day from Monday to today. oh, and happy birthday to Katelyn on the first, totally missed it!

We had some crazy fog roll in this week! I will send a picture. It continues to get colder and colder here as the time goes on, but hotter and hotter with the missionary work. Really got to see some miracles this week. With one, we talked with her husband as he was getting into his car. He seem semi interested, but the classic 'I don't think my wife wants to listen' excuse. Well, his wife then comes out from the house an so we talk to her. We share a little bit about the Restoration and then ask if we can come back to share more. She said yes and so we set up an appointment. We went back on the scheduled date and when we knocked she immediately let us in. We got into the lesson and a asked her a question that I can't remember. But she opened up and told us that she had listened to a ton of other churches but had felt that she had lost hope. When she saw us talking with her husband the other night before, she came outside to come and tell us that she wasn't interested. When we got done sharing the message, she said that something inside of her told her to say yes to a return appointment. She is truly prepared and ready for the message. 

I learned an important lesson that day. God calls us for specific assignments, in certain places, for certain reasons. There are things that God wants to accomplish through us, but that is only if we are doing His will. If I hadn't overcome my thought that that man was too busy getting in his car to talk to us, we never would have had that experience, and thus never met that family that was prepared for the gospel. This work is meant to be done in His ways. 

Well, don't have time to write anymore, but know that all is great and that I love you all! Here are some pictures of the fog and the temple, and maybe something else, I don't remember!

Sincerely,

Elder Roberts