Not all who wander are lost. Then again. Sometimes they are.

First off, we found a dog this week! Hahaha on our morning jog, a dog came out of a parking lot like it was ready to eat us alive. scared the daylights out of both me and Elder M! stopped dead in our tracks and said our final prayers, and then realized the dog was super friendly. so we continue running. and it follows us all the way back to our apartment. no bigs though, because we have a gate, right? wrong. we are able to get in and shut the gate behind us and think we're home free. nope. it crawls itself under the fence and before we know it, it's running circles around us again. umm... crap. hahaha. after knocking on the doors in the neighborhood closest to where it jumped out at us, good thing we're pretty good at knocking doors, we decided it was a stray, the nicest sweetest, most obedient stray ever, and took it to the animal shelter. it was honestly hard to say good bye to it. if i wasn't a missionary, I woulda sacrificed my left food in order to keep it. oh well! 

but! as we were waiting for the shelter to open, we went to a park to study, and whilst there, i started thinking. how bizarre it is that this silly dog is so willing and wanting to be saved, and literally all I'm doing while I'm here is trying to save people, and how unwilling and unwanting to hear it! made me a little sad to think about...

as for the S. family, they are doing amazing! we brought a our ward mission leader and his wife to our lesson, and instant connection. like, to the point i was a little taken aback. hahaha it was awesome! they are such an incredible family! the little kids, as we were leaving, all gave us the bro hug. haha it was hilarious! they come up to like my belt line, but gave me a bro hug! haha it was great:) I seriously love that family so much!

i went on exchanges with Elder B. this week, which was super neat! I've missed him! L., the one who got his call last week, joined us! It was raining pretty hard all day that day, and so when we dropped L. off, we drove through a ton. A TON of water, because it was dark and we couldn't see! as in the water was covering our head lights it was so deep. so we just keep on going, and make it out! but the check engine light was on, and the car was smoking like a chimney. so we pulled over. hahahaha what an adventure!

Gave a talk about prayer in Sacrament Meeting. I've actually been thinking a lot about prayer the past few weeks, and then President Tuck asked me to give a talk, and then told me the topic was prayer, it was perfect! something I've really been thinking a lot about is how God answers prayers. I think it is so important to not only accept God's plan for us in our lives, if we ask for this, he gives us that instead, we need to remember that he knows better, and if for some reason he thinks giving us that will make us happier, we gotta trust that, but also to make sure when God answers our prayers. we recognize it. 

What if we don't see miracles very much anymore is because all miracles have been given a different name? like medicine? or luck? chance?

anyway. that's all for today! love y'all!

Elder Roberts

Angels and not quite angels...

So, to start, children are hilarious. Hahaha we are starting a family history class in sort of the poorer part of our area, and last week no one came. So we decided to spread flyers around like crazy in the neighborhood, and honestly, people were a little bit rude. I guess who cares about family history when you're broke or something, right??

Anyway. This week, we spread the flyers like mad! And in this one circle we had 4 little kids that were playing in the circle when we arrived that just swarmed us, and literally went to every door with us, and it got to the point they'd run ahead of us and leave the flyers and it was amazing! Made me think of the scripture D&C 84:88
"And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up." Hahaha really funny experience!

We also had some of the most inspiring meetings I've ever had! Zone conference, which was amazing! We learned about the plan of salvation, and how basically if when someone says the plan of salvation, and you
think the little diagram of where we were, where we are, and what's coming, your dead wrong. It was incredible. Literally, gave me new eyes! It's so easy to see the plan knowing that it really comes down two 4 things; us having agency! Us needing to grow and develop, so god making the earth, and Adam and Eve falling, and lastly, the sacrifice and atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ making it possible for us to come back! That he's suffered so much. To the point that he bled from every pore. To save us. And all he asks is for us to keep his
commandments! If we just keep his commandments, we'll prosper! Sound familiar. It's only said in the Book of Mormon like, 1000000 times. Hahaha ya. Great lesson. The other meeting was stake conference! My stake leaders here are amazing! Being a missionary just gives you so much more understanding, respect, and amazement at what our church leaders are called to do!

The work is going well. I've found that every time you start knocking doors, the first however many it takes for you to start getting discouraged don't answer! But those are always the streets where you find someone awesome! So keep at it! We also had a first lesson with a family! One of those lessons when while you walk out, you're pretty sure you're actually flying. It was amazing. 5 kids, all under 12, and asked some of the best questions I'd ever heard! Stolked for them at church this week! Yesterday they were in Louisiana. Which was too bad! Missed a stellar meeting!

Our recent convert L. got his mission call! Anaheim California!! Aug 3! So all you going into the MTC this summer, keep your eyes peeled for a big, deaf, Hispanic dude. And give him a big hug. Also. He speaks well, so you can even tell him you know me and stuff!

Me and Elder M. were invited to another church's meeting while tracting, and we decided to go, and maybe use that as a way to invite people to family history. So we go, sit down, and the preacher dude starts talking about believing in Christ isn't enough, that ya need to do something else... I actually can't quite remember what his take home message was... But! The best line. And I quote verbatim "even the Mormons believe Jesus Christ was hung on the cross for them! But they ain't saved!" Hahaha! Not sure if he saw us in the congregation and decided to roast us, or if that was part of his planned message the whole time, either way, I thought it was pretty funny.

That about sums up my week! Haha it was a good one! Love y'all!

Elder Roberts

Here's a ton of pictures of our pday at the zoo!