Hello From Fresno!

August 29th, 2016

Hello back at home! It was a great week his week full of lots of adventures and blessings! No baptism this week, but there should be at least one coming up pretty soon! Armando has been continuing to progress and going in the right direction. We also have another family that has a ton of potential that we are very excited about! The work has been going very well and I have been loving every second of it! I couldn't ask for a better ward and investigators!

Something cool that has been happening the past couple weeks is that we have been teaching my companions uncle and aunt! My companion is actually from San Jose California, so it is only a couple hours away from here. They have a Jehovah Witness background which makes things interesting. They have been taking the lessons with us for about a week or two now. It has been such a cool experience to see my companion getting to teach his own family. It makes it even more special what we are doing. Not only are we bringing others to Christ, but we are bringing his family closer to him!

Gerardo has been doing really well. He is so full of the spirit. It is so cool to see the change that happens when someone is recently baptized and receives the holy ghost. 

It is a great time to be a missionary right now! Every moment is precious! I hope you all have a great week back at home! 

Elder Roberts

Here are some pictures getting to see some of my good missionary friends after a meeting. I have made some incredible friends here in the mission!

Below are pictures of August's Mission Leadership Conference from the mission blog:

August 15th, 2016

What a great week here! I can't even begin to share how \much I am enjoying this time of my mission. I will try and share a little bit of it with you now!

As I talked about before, Gerardo is going to be baptized this weekend. It is incredible to see how much he has changed and how much the gospel has blessed and influenced him.

Another great story that we have is about a man named Armando. Armando is the husband of a member here in the ward. He has been closed off to the church for years and has always seen it as not the thing for him. A couple of months ago, he came to a ward party for father's day. I met him there and got to speak to him for awhile. He was a little closed off at the time, but seemed to have a good time. Months passed until I met him again. As I was in church two Sundays ago, I see him dressed in church clothes walking around with his wife. I went and said hello and asked him how he liked church. He ended up having a great experience and allowed us to come over to teach him. We have had two lessons with him talking about the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Plan of Salvation. He came prepared with questions, thoughts, and discussion points based upon the readings that we left with him. He said that he has loved church and meeting with us.  He has recognized the peace that the gospel brings as he lives it. He accepted a baptismal date and is working towards it.  Great experience!

It is truly a great time right now! I am trying to enjoy every moment of it! I found out that I will be with Elder Vargas this transfer. He was my first companion here in California. I have spent more time with him then any other companion in my mission. I can't wait to be with him again! It will be so cool to see how far we have both come since the beginning of our time together.

I hope you all have a great week! Keep on working hard and consistently and life will continue to go well!

Elder Roberts

Here is a picture of my companion taking a bite out of his cake! Mexican tradition! The other is of us getting lunch at Costco. It is a tradition in this area. 

August 8th, 2016

Hey everyone! I hope that this has been a great week for everyone back home! It has been a good one here in the mission field! This last week was a great one! We started it by going to the Sequoias, a temple trip, and Birthday festivities! 

It was this last Friday that we went to the temple. It is always such an awesome experience! I feel so grateful that we get to go quarterly here. There is nothing like the peace that it brings as you can sit and simply enjoy the spirit. 

One of the cool things that has been going on here is with one of our investigators named Gerardo. He is part of the Reyna family that we bapized about a month and a half ago. He wasn't that interested in the church or listening to us when his family was baptized. As time continued, he saw the changes that were happening in his family. He saw the happiness that the gospel was bringing them and how they were all changing for the better. One day when we stopped by to visit his family, I got talking to him for a minute. I invited him to come in and listen. At first he seemed a little hesitant, but then finally accepted. Ever since, he has been reading, praying, and coming to church. His baptism will be on the 20th of this month. It has been awesome to work with him and see how much the gospel is blessing his life. 

That is my little update for the week. I hope things continue to go well! 

Elder Roberts

Here is a picture of some the birthday festivities. Hispanics love birthdays! The tradition is that you have to take a bite out of the cake before you eat it!

August 1st, 2016

This past week was a great week! We had an awesome zone conference that was really great along with a couple other great experiences. 

Gerardo, the son of a recent convert family, came to church this last Sunday. Before he was pretty closed off to listening to the missionaries, but as he has seen the change in his mom and siblings he has decided that he would give it a shot. He has been reading daily and doing everything that we have been inviting him to do. It is great to see how the Lord has prepared his heart for the message. 

At the zone conference, one of my old companions gave his last testimony. It was hard to see him up there giving his testimony for the last time in front of me as a missionary. Remembering all the times that we had together and the lessons that I learned with him came flooding back into my memory. It is incredible all of the experiences that we have in such a short amount of time. I will ever be grateful for them. 

I learned something about vision this last week. There is something in the scriptures referred to as the law of the harvest. The principle is, we reap what we sow, meaning if we plant an apple, we will get an apple tree. That one seed that we plant will result in more than only one fruit, but it will multiply and there will be many apples. This same principle applies with us. If we have a positive thought, it will then turn into a good thing. From that good thought, it will multiply and create many other good thoughts. I realized how powerful our thoughts are in showing our faith. 

Another great lesson I learned this past week was about having high expectations. I have come to see that those that have high expectations achieve greater success than those that do not. Sometimes it isn't in the Lord's will that we have a ton of success right at that moment, but if we demonstrate our faith by expecting great things, they do eventually come. As an example, if we expect to become very financially well to do, then we will do what it takes to get us there. The Lord will help us along by helping us to acquire jobs that will help us go in the right direction. Sometimes we may go through a rough patch in the road where we may not have that success, but if we continue forward with faith and continue to have that expectation of financial success, it will eventually come if it is in accordance with God's will. 

I hope that I could properly explain some of these thoughts that I have had the last week. Have a great week!

Elder Roberts

We also got to go to the Sequoia National Park today! Here is a picture of the largest living organism on earth!

 

Following are pictures from recent Zone Conference (from mission blog)

Above:Elder Roberts bottom left pic

Below: middle left pic