Monday, September 28, 2015

Ramro Manglubaar!

Well, stuff went down this week. and now there are not 2 ASL companionship, but 3! we are now the "East Elder." but I prefer the "North South East" Elders, because we cover all the way south, all the way north, just the east side, while the other two comps split the west side. Which means that our area is HUGE!!! Also, it drives Boekweg nuts, so that is a huge plus.;)

J. went really well this week! She has been progressing very well, and I have so much hope for her! I don't think she fully understands the purpose of the Book of Mormon, and it's super fun!! We're going to try to commit her to baptism this week, and focus on the Book of Mormon! I know that if she doesn't realize the power in that book, her progress will cease. We tried to commit her to baptism this week, but she was hesitant. "I've been my religion for so long!!" Flipping traditions of their fathers. I tell ya.

Also. along with ASL, I am now fluent in Nepali! We have this one guy we teach named T. who is a refugee from Nepal! He is so hard to understand. His ASL skills are minimal, and he is hard of hearing, which means he can actually speak pretty well. Nepali, that is. So randomly during our last lesson, he decided to write a couple of words in Nepali, and show us the sign for them. So let's just say next transfer, President Mortensen would be crazy to not send me Nepali speaking.;)

Love you all!

Haami gayau!

Elder Roberts

PS the subject is "Good Tuesday" in Nepali, because that's the only reasonably understandable statement i could make out of the motley bunch of words he taught us. I don't even know the names of the rest of the days of the week.

Monday, September 21, 2015

BUT WHAT ABOUT SECOND DINNER?!?!

This week has been pretty good! Had a very good lesson with Josephine! Taught her the plan of salvation again, because she didn't understand it the first time, and gave her the Book of Mormon Stories book to help her understand the Book of Mormon, and she read it all. Like. crazy! we meet with her again tomorrow, and I cannot wait! 





Other than that, this week went by as usual. Me and Elder H made a giant map of the bus routes and it's completely hideous. Most of the lines only barely connect and it's crooked and I love it. I don't know why Doctor Frankenstein hated his monster so much, because I love mine.:)


Also! went to the temple!!!! It was amazing!! WAY too beautiful! ah. it was perfect.:) 

Hope everyone is good! love you all!:)

Elder Roberts

PS I forgot to explain the subject! We don't get fed by people everyday, but, almost guaranteed if we get fed once, we will get fed again that day. As in I've come home feeling like a hot air balloon way too many times to admit because I've had to politely eat a ton at a house, and then unexpectedly have to eat a ton AGAIN like 30 minutes later. Oh man. The enemy is making dangerous progress in this battle.

Monday, September 14, 2015

Church and Running and Bees

Well, this week was pretty swell, if I do say so myself!

I love meeting people, and this week was very much full of meeting new people! One of the amazing people I was able to meet is named J. She is a nonmember and was actually a referral the missionaries decided to drop a while ago because she was always super busy. But we visited her Monday to check up on her, and she invited us in with the biggest smile on her face ever! oh. it was awesome to be welcomed so warmly! As the lesson progressed, i was in trouble. She's probably around 60 or 70, and her signing is incredibly hard to understand. like, I pick up the bare minimum to know the topic of what she's saying, let alone what is being said about it! At one point, we were talking about the Apostasy, and how all the churches interpret the Bible different and junk, and she was like "ya!" and then just went OFF on a five minute rant about some story of her Paster drinking and her calling him out on it, and him saying the bible said it was okay, but she disagreed. but of course, that is the very watered down, Elder Roberts sucks at ASL version.

Now! the miracle! we invited her to church, and she said she'd come! BRILLIANT! So happy, we are waiting outside of our first hour class (they do it backwards, sacrament is last) and she isn't showing up. So of course, my hope starts to slowly dwindle. and Elder H eventually says we should probably just go to class, and she prolly isn't coming. I was bummed, but decided to not lose faith. As in I prayed probably a thousand million times for the next hour. I wanted her to come soon bad! and boom. 10 minutes before Sacrament, she calls and informs us she's in the back parking lot! HECKA!!! so we go out to get her, and SURPRISE! her deaf and blind husband is with her! 

She asked us if we'd help him out and into his walker and stuff, so we do, and holy smokes. I'm not lying when I say this guy looked like he could eat nails for fun. He looked like the meanest, scariest dude I'd ever met. I doubted if a smile had ever cracked his face before ever. Those thoughts were soon dashed, for when he realized there were people there, remember, blind and deaf, he got the biggest smile on his face, and starting making all sorts of amazing happy noises that I will never forget! Such a happy dude! Oh man! they both liked sacrament a lot, i think! and we are meeting them again on Wednesday! Ah! They're rad.:) Not sure how to teach L., her husband's name, though... Oh well. The Lord provided for us already, he'll do so again!

So, what I'm about to inform ya'll about will probably blow your minds. I've run the past couple of days. AND! here is the kicker, I've actually had to harness my inner Jacob Stone, and forced someone else to run with me!!! As in where I once had barely enough motivation to get myself to run when I had 7 people begging me to, I now have enough motivation to get 2 people to run! and it truly is a wrestle every morning. like, literally. Today, I had to slide his mattress of the bed and prop him against a wall, and then quickly remove the mattress to get him to stand. It's a party, and I probably burn more calories getting ready to run than actually running.

that's about all for this week! The power of faith is unbelievable!:)

Elder Roberts

Everything is bigger in Texas. Including flipping bees. Holy Frijoles! (chap stick for scale.)

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

First Companion and experiences in Houston



Okay. First off, I'm in love with flying. Ask Boekweg, I was like a giddy school girl on the plane! It was awesome!!! Second off, I love Houston! the Humidity is sooo fun! like, if you walk outside with a piece of paper, it is immediately damp. I love it! it makes me happy. which is good, because if I wasn't happy about it, I'd prolly focus on the heat and how flipping hot it is!! But I don't. and I love it.

My mission president and his wife are incredible. Totally. President grew up in Bountiful and always refers to it as the Holy Land, so that's cool. They took us to Rudys the first night, which is this flipping rad BBQ joint, and I ate a lot. Oh boy. It will be an interesting two years. The Battle of the Bulge that was fought in Europe will have nothing on the Battle of the Bulge that will be fought here in Texas.

My first week itself was pretty flipping fun! My companions name is Elder Hendrickson! which means we're prolly related somehow somewhere. He doesn't know Mr. H, but he looks just like him in my opinion! His sign name is "Haha" which means we're going to get along swimmingly. We honestly have so much fun, and this next week will be even better! the first couple days of this week were a little hard because Elder H was actually in English program for the last transfer, so we both had to get back in the swing of things. But we're there now, and ready to rock and roll!

Saturday night, we went to a family's home and taught them the restoration. They have a 9 year old daughter, who legits asked some of the funnest questions. Ever. "Who made god?" "Who is heavenly mother?" and "what did Jesus do while he was dead and before he was resurrected." Like, what kind of nine year old asks those kinds of questions?!!?! It was amazing.

Sunday was incredible. Like, beyond incredible! Church was so fun, met so many people! It's a little weird remembering people by their sign, not their name. Definitely will take some getting used to! I interpreted for priesthood meeting (the branch has a mix of hearing and deaf of each age group, either parents with deaf kids, or kids with deaf parents, so always need a interpreter) and I got multiple compliments on how well I did. Like, wut. Never saw that coming!

That evening, we met with M. and his wife. Oh man. That was prolly my favorite interaction so far! M.is this big deaf black dude who is just about the funniest human alive! He told me how, if I'm ever arrested, to enter all  big and bad, so people know not to mess with you. But. Of course, because he's deaf, he acted the whole thing out, and it was incredible! Also, his wife asked if I was deaf, and I said no, and she was like "whoa! you sign good!" so that's two compliments that made my whole day.

Love you all!:)

Elder Roberts