Great Skype!

This is the Dad of the branch president in Coron

Well it looks as though I am being transferred.  Next time you hear from me I'll be back in Manila somewhere.  Here are some pics of the service project on the mango farm.

So our favorite family cooked all this food for us on Christmas!  We are so lucky! This meal 

was before our Skype home.

These next few pics are of the Santa Monica Christmas party.  We had a great turnout.

I love being so tall here.  The Filipinos are short in height but not in spirit.

It's been a great week! We had our branch Christmas party this week and it was a great turnout!! We had some investigators come and some less actives that haven't been to church in forever, we stopped by their house a ton and then they actually came. With the Mendoza family we had been texting them to come. We finally called and said we are coming over to your place and we will go together, they kept laughing and kept saying don't come here we will just go on our own. So we went over anyways (we knew they would love that). They just kept laughing and said fine fine we will really come. And they did!! She sent us a text later that night, and she said, "Elders thank you so much! I've been lost from the church for so long and I want to come back now..."

That felt so good to hear that from them.

We have also been teaching a pastor. We met him tracking and have been back to his house a few times now. We went into his house, and we were really surprised to find out it was his chapel as well. It was totally his chapel for his congregation. He wanted us to teach him and his family there. We sure did. He's a humble man and hopefully he seriously reads the Book of Mormon. We promised him if he did. He would know it was true. We told him that we knew it was true. 

I love the Book of Mormon. It's so powerful. When we meet these people who love Christ so much we get so excited, because the Book of Mormon is another testament of Him, and we know they will love it. 

We had a great Christmas. The members took great care of us and we were able to spread lots of Christmas cheer. Lots of people were more open to us because of the Christmas season. 

I'm so grateful Christ was born. 

Love,

Elder Roberts 

Merry Christmas

This week has been a great week. Elder Cooper and I have really been trying to work with lots of active members. In the past I have felt I wasn't using my time wisely if I was over at their houses. But we have been getting close with them and got some referrals in the works! We are trying to use all of our sources for finding new investigators. We are trying a little bit of everything! We got some cool referrals from a less active lady. You would think that because they don't come to church that they don't really care, but they do. They still love the church and the Lord it's just a hard time for them. But we are gathering a team of us to find scattered Israel here in Santa Monica, we call them the Santa Monica Saints. The work is doing really well! Benji (the investigator who had the dream) has been coming to church and now has brought his other sister that we have been teaching! They are both really into the classes at church and just love it! 

I LOVE this area. I hope I don't leave on the 28th.......  transfers coming up on the 28th

We had a great experience this week with an old man who is less active that moved into our area from a different branch. He hasn't been to church in forever. We went over to his home and we taught him a little Christmas message. He seemed to be crying a little and said he would come to church but wouldn't promise (they all love to say that here). We told him we would come and pick him up and we would just go to church together. Sabay-sabay tayo. He really loved that idea and was grateful. We went to go get him and we went to church together, he was a little nervous because he is from a different branch and was afraid that he didn't know anybody. The members were just awesome!! All the old men came and talked to him and put their arm around him literally (they love that here) and took him to Sacrament. His name is Eddie, but they call him tatay Eddie, which just means like father Eddie. He loved church and is doing great. Its really hard to describe the feeling of being a missionary and the joy you feel even when other people keep the commandments and feel the joy from that. It's been a great week and I love the Lord Jesus Christ and being on my mission. 

After I got done with a long day of work, and the other Elder in my apartment had erected an tower of plan of salvation pamphlets.... Turns out there a spider inside of it.... Hahaha  

Still dancing Mom.  I choreographed this one.  The elder on the right struggles with rights and lefts

This family is the best They are new in the church and LOVE taking good care of the Elders 

Here are some pics of the cool reptiles and animals we see.

Love, 

Elder Roberts 

#LightTheWorld

Hello everyone!  Sorry time has been so short with emailing but things here are really busy.  Here is a service project we did this past week.  We were sweating before we started :) This was for the #lighttheworld project that the church is working on. We were able to find a service project to do for a nice part member family in the branch. 

I don't know the answer to the question you're having right now

We also had a great P-day at Bakers Hill

Really beautiful there, lots great baked foods and a cool view and a fun garden

My Comp soaking it all in

And more service. . . 

 This was after a recent training in Puerto. This is with the sister training leaders and another
companionship.

I'm hoping to write more soon, sorry it's just mostly pics because of time.  I'll send the Christmas play video of me as Caesar when we get it.  I love you all, thank you for your prayers, love and support

Elder Roberts

Crocodile Sausage, Things that make you go hmmmmm

We had lots of time to proselyte this week which was amazing! We got to go to a place in our area where there reportedly are lots of less active families. We searched and asked around but with no luck. We didn't find one of the 9 families on the list. But, we got a few new investigators out of it and made friends with all the people in the area, (Golden Valley area). 

These are the missionaries in the Santa Branch.

Sacrament attendance was great.  We had the primary program this week, lots of part members and less active members came to watch their kids. The kids did a great job!! It's never a dull moment with the primary up there. The investigators enjoyed the program as well. 

This week we went to follow up with a man we had met tracting. He quickly let us in again and introduced us to his family, and then quickly ran to get one of his sons. One of sons, has been in the hospital for 4 weeks with an intestinal problem. He immediately wanted us to give his son a blessing. The Catholics have something similar to a blessing, it's where they put there hands over them and call it a pray over. So they assumed we did something similar and asked for this "prayer over". We knew what he meant and were so grateful for their faith and the opportunity to bless their really sickly son. We get to go back next week and so we will see how he is doing and how the family is. They really seemed to enjoy the restoration. They are a really well off family too. They own the Almonte farms here. Should be great to see how it goes. 

We went to the crocodile farm last p-day. It was awesome!! We got to hold them and it's crazy how big those things get...

We will have our nativity program for the mission Christmas party next week. I'll be Caesar of course. Apparently they film it so I'll send the video when they give them out haha. 

We had a returned missionary come back to the island with his parents.  It was great to meet the Thompson family.  They said they loved it here, but who wouldn't.  

It's been a week of lots of good work, laying the foundation. I learn new things everyday and really am giving it my all. The Lord has His timing in all things, that's a principle that I'm seeing over and over again here on the mission. I love it here

Love,

Elder Roberts

Paperwork in to make Puerto a stake

We are doing lots of preparations to help get Puerto into a stake! We make a lot of reports and have been working with the district presidency. The papers are now to the first presidency to see if we get to be a stake! So they will pray about it and we will see. 

This is short this week but he had an investigator who had a dream after the first time we had visited him, it was really a powerful experience. He told us had never had a dream like that before. Long story short, he woke and just could not stop crying and didn't know why he felt like that. He loves the Book Mormon. It was the member referral from last week. He came to church and had and really enjoyed it, he agreed to be baptized on Christmas Eve.  I heard it snowed in SLC!  I'm not going to lie, the snow actaully does sound really nice right now.  It's been a great week, Elder Cooper was sick for some of it, but we still got to work a lot.  Isn't that neat that Elder Monson got called here.  We saw him when he came off the plane.  You should have seen his face!  He is down south of Palawan, where there are many muslims, but a very cool area.  We will be going to the mainland again next week, which will be awesome.  

Life is good. 

Love,

Elder Roberts 

Christmas time starts really early. . .

We were not able to work as much as we would have hoped for this week. Elder Cooper got sick (nothing serious). But we couldn't work five days this week. But we still we able to get out some nights and a few days. 

I switched missions!!  Just kidding, we found a Christmas tree while on exchanges with Elder Bermudez...  

We had a very spiritual experience with a less active family we have been working with. We taught them about the temple and brought them a picture of the temple to put into their home. They are all members but not yet sealed and have not been to the temple as a family yet. The mom has been reactivated with the kids, but the dad has really been working on things and has been wanting to go to church. When I first got here, he would just hide from us and we could hear him telling his kids to tell us that he wasn't home. But now he's smiling and said they will go to the temple in May!! He's come a long way. He's ready to have family night and family prayer and family scripture study. He wants to go to church with them now. It's been years since he's come to church. It's been a miracle and he's doing great. 

On a different note. The nurses we have been teaching unexpectedly dropped us last night. We got a text from the husband saying they aren't looking for a different church at this time. We felt sad for them and felt the wife was actually really interested but the husband doesn't seem to feel it's the right time. Hopefully the missionaries will find them again someday. 

This awesome family in the pic below, moved to Palawan after the Super typhoon destroyed their home.  All their worldly possessions we swept out to sea. All they had was their family... It's a miracle they all survived... 

The kids love the Elders and the dad wanted to take a picture...

 

Incredible family!

We had a great member referral last night. It was really out of the blue. We were going to an appointment and the student we were visiting was busy so we just kinda stood there waiting for who knows what, just kinda thinking what we should do but then a member came up to us and said "come in and teach my brother!" We didn't even know the member she was just a boarder, but we were able go in and teach the brother and lots of the cousins who were there. 

We have connected with some great members this week.  We had a good appointment with a less active family we have been visiting. They stopped going because their son punches all the auxiliary leaders in the face and gives them bloody noses. He's 3 but he is wild. We went to their house and had breakfast with them, we ate bananas. But they aren't the bananas you at home are used to, they're cooking bananas and they are really thick. But we have been building a good relationship with them and even got a referral from them!! 

Christmas season is really heating up here. It's never too early here... 

Love Elder Roberts