House of the Lord

May 29, 2017

Elder Bailey and I got a ton done this week. Probably the coolest thing is the amazing little Indian family we met yesterday, though! They remind me so much of Mani and Dhan, and it's even crazier because as they read, and pray, they could super easily be ready for baptism in July. Which will be a year after Mani and Dhan's family! Kinda crazy how my first year and second year are so similar in a lot of ways. Hahaha anyway! We met them after a long time knocking to no avail. Fourth floor last door anyone?;) it was pretty dang cool. 

Something I've been thinking about, in our mission, we have started this awesome thing called "Faith Meets Families" which is basically a giant initiative to get all of the recent converts to the temple within a month of their own baptism with their own family name. A scripture I found in 2 Nephi 14:6 gives us a promise to all those who make attending the temple a priority. It describes the tabernacle, which was the Moses version of the temple, being a place of refuge and protection. 

This initiative has been a HUGE testament to this scripture! All of the Converts I've had that have gone to the temple are able to withstand all that comes. There is no coincidence that as the world is getting more universally miserable, God has inspired our prophet's to make Temples more universally accessible. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and the spirit and promises of the temple are Gods ace in the hole to combat all the craziness and lack of integrity found in the world. 

Love y'all!

Elder Roberts

Exchange 1 with Krispy Kreme:) love this elder! Served around him forever, and every time I learn so much from him!!

The crew.

Exchange 2! Throw back to Inwood!:D

Which love endureth by diligence unto prayer.

So, first thing. Aaron is doing so stinking well! We had a lesson with him, and he was struggling understanding what he was reading, so we decided to read with him! 1 Nephi 21 was the chapter he was on, so we read that and... word to the wise, don't read 1 Nephi 21 unless your prepped to give an entire history lesson on Israel, and a whole lesson on olive trees, too. Hahaha oh man. good lesson.:) He came to football again, and wrecked like normal. Seriously, he's so good. In Sunday school, we were talking about keeping the sabbath day holy, and the blessing that come and things, and he raises his hand and goes "I remember something Elder Roberts said about spiritual muscles!" and it was seriously the best. hahahaha! Crazy the little things people end up remembering! Also, just as a side note. flag football is probably the best missionary tool the Lord has provided. Every single week the crew gets bigger, and it's so much fun!

I was able to finish the Book of Mormon this week. I love that book. it's kinda funny how I'm so excited to finish it, just because I know it means I get to start all over again! Whoop! I'm going to try to finish it one more time before I come home. Which should be possible since I still have like, 2 years left. No sweat!:) Seriously though. the last couple of chapters are so dang thought provoking. I don't even know where to begin. I think one of the biggest things I received was the importance of our own effort. Conversion doesn't happen on it's own, at least lasting conversion doesn't. It has to be an intentional thing! Moroni 8:26 talks about how the Holy Ghost bringing the feelings of peace, hope, and of course, Charity (don't even get me started on charity. oh man.) 

But the line right after I think is the real key! "Which love endureth by diligence unto prayer." We may be blessed with a precious moment, a fleeting instant where we're able to see someone the way, or at least a fraction of the way, the Savior is able to see someone, but it will only be fleeting unless we work to keep, and remember that! 

This principle honestly I've found applies to everything. Moroni 9:6 is one of my new favorite scriptures, as my mission continues, and my time dwindles, but i'm starting to realize how short our time really is. We each have a labor to perform, and now is the stinking time to make it happen. It's interesting how charity (too late. y'all got me started on charity now.) is the pure love Christ. which literally means seeing their full potential, and loving them enough to correct them until they get there! Who the lord loves he chasteneth! Being diligent unto prayer for charity will give us the desire to be diligent in performing all other labors the Lord places on us! flip. I love the Book of Mormon.

Love y'all!

Elder Roberts

Us with our ward mission leader and Aaron at football! "Mormons play football?"-Aaron

One of my favorite missionaries in the whole wide world. Love this Elder.

Found this stinking sick lake.

Mmy ability in parking has not improved... parked right on the line, when we get back, this massive truck who looks like he's probably some bounty hunter is parked right next to me. flip.

Sorry it's late again...

This week has been so good. One of the standards that each missionary is sort of expected to get is 5 new investigators each week, and especially when you're opening a new area like Elder Barton and I are, it's even more important to find. So this week we've been finding. Basically any moment we had we'd get out and knock some, or go up on our campus (man I've missed that!) I love in preach my gospel it teaches us that finding is an act of faith. And we all know that faith precedes miracles.

 

 

Therefore, a week full of finding is a week full of miracles!!! I don't even know where to start... hahaha one night, it was towards the end of the week we had just finished knocking and things, and decided to visit a family the bishop had told us to visit. When we did, we found that they had a family friend there! Yada yada yada he's a new investigator and is totally sick. I could go on, but my time is tight. I do love and will mention something President said this week "God works according to faith, He is not limited by tactic!" This is directly referring to tracting, but it's so stinking true for everything in life. Moving forward with faith is one hundred times better than waiting to move until we know!!

 

Something else, in Ether 2, the words commanded and directed are used a lot. Interesting why? In D&C 82:10 we learn that commandments=Godly directions. In Ether 2, specifically vs 5-7 we see better WHERE these directions take us. Interestingly enough, they first lead us through the wilderness, where no man had gone before. Literally causing them (us) to leave everything we know and are comfortable doing, with the promise of something better. Vs 7. But just like mentioned above. ITS ALL PREDICATED ON FAITH.

We also had a baptism in our ward!! The sisters we split the Ward with had their investigator Marci get baptized, and she asked Elder barton and me to do the ordinances! Such a blessing. Honestly, such an honor to be able to confirm someone and give them the greatest gift we can receive here on Earth, The Holy Ghost!

Love y'all!

Elder Roberts

Us at Marci's baptism! 

Freedom!

This week was so good! Many lessons learned.

Probably the biggest one has been that of obedience, and trusting those people God has chosen as leaders. When we act in faith under assignment from those who have stewardship, miracles occure! first, yesterday after church, we knew we'd have literally no time to go finding, or to teach, or really do anything, I'll explain why in a sec, so that morning Elder Barton and I went out to do our best. However! Here is the kicker! Our rocking district leader, Elder Byrd, made us the promise the night before that if we prayed and planned for a miracle, we'd have two new investigators by the time church ended. Guess how many new investigators we found? Hahaha really cool miracle!

Also, as many people have mentioned, the missionary department of the church has decided to get rid of all but 4 of the key indicators. what. the. stink. our mission was so blind sided by that! But talking with President today was so awesome and inspiring. He said something I'm never going to forget. "I've tried my whole life to live in the shadow of the brethren. so i can't see why, but we're going to do it." I learn so much about humility and Christlike leadership from him every single day I'm around him. He's so stinking awesome!

Anyway. Big awesome news. Matthew Burrell, recent convert from this summer who was baptized just before I went up to A&M received the Melchizedek Priesthood! And President gave me permission to go back up and ordain him!!!!!!! Best moment of my mission, probably. seriously. spirit was so powerful. Gosh dang it. I love that guy. What a blessing.:):)

The rest of the broadcast was amazing, and talked a lot about what I wrote about last week, with repentance. Repentance is so amazing. But that's not really what I studied a whole bunch this week. This week a lot of what my thoughts have been revolving around is knowledge.

 

It's funny, because the whole purpose of earth life was for us to come down to earth, receive a body, and be able to learn. As we learn, the scriptures teach us we gain more freedom, i.e. John 8:32. But freedom doesn't mean the more truth we have, the more we can do whatever we want. No! The more truth we have, the more choices we gain, but in order to keep that, we must continue to choose to follow and abide by the truth that we have! As we do this, it grows brighter and brighter, until the perfect day, as Joseph Smith described.

 

It's interesting, and maybe a little ironic, I can't really remember if I'm using that word correctly anymore, how greater truth, and therefore greater freedom typically presents itself in, you guessed it, greater commandments!! Isn't that interesting?

 

The Israelites with Moses were given 10 commandments, all pretty straight forward. To the people of the new covenant, Christ took all of those commandments, and tightened them! Don't kill became don't get mad, and so on. Why? because the more we know about the Savior, the more we realize how different we are, and the more we're able to CHOOSE to give up things and become better. AND THAT IS  WHAT IT MEANS TO BE TRULY FREE. 

 

These thoughts have been tumbling in my mind a lot mostly from my studies of, you guessed it, the Book of Mormon! 3 Nephi 5 ends with Mormon praising God for the knowledge he has been blessed to have about Jesus Christ, and how he knows that truth will be given again to the earth. he finds this truth freeing! however, later, the Nephites start to stink, and it talks about how they willfully, knowingly rebel against the truth they have. Big no, no! They have a skewed view of what freedom means.

Um... Diego came to church and loved it!

Yump.

Love y'all!

Elder Roberts

 

Matthew and Myself!

District Meeting pic!

 

REPENT!

This week was really really good! Elder Barton and I were able to do the 8 week training, which is basically something our president does where after a missionary has been out for 8 weeks and may make the mistake that they're getting the hang of things, we meet and president blows their minds about how to teach. It's seriously so sic. Best meeting ever. Everyone always leaves so motivated to become better. I love it!

We're also really starting to get things going in our area. It's been a little slow going, but with faith and diligence, we're getting there! Right now we have two studly people, Ivy and Diego. Diego is college aged, and took us out to breakfast today and this delicious place. We thought we were gonna pay for ourselves, Diego thought he was going to pay for all of us, and some guy we don't even know decided he'd anonymously pay for all of us. hahahaha blessings!
Diego is straight up the coolest dude ever.

Ivy is also super great. 17 years old, and just gets things. She came to church, as well as the mission president's fireside, which was so good. She texted us after just thanking us for inviting her.

I was also able to go back on an exchange to my old stomping grounds of college station! Whoop! It was actually super weird going back. Elder whitaker and I killed it, though. miss that place. Had a lesson with two of my all time favorite people ever about the commandments. Pretty sick lesson. (you know who you are.)

This week, I've been trucking through the prophecy of Samuel in Helaman. boy oh boy is there some good stuff! Something that especially stands out to me, and I can't even remember if I've talked about this before. But the idea of repentance. literally, this is probably the word satan has done the best at distorting and misconstruing the meaning! I know I always hear repentance and groan a little, because it means we did something wrong. Okay. HOLD UP! We all stinking know we make mistakes. No if ands or buts. We all know. So move on and realize what repentance really means!

Samuel says repent like a bajillion times during his prophecy, and he also talks about glad tidings! Sound familiar? Citation to Luke chapter 2 with the shepherds! What are the glad tidings? A son is born! But what does that really mean? WE CAN REPENT!!!! Repentance isn't something we should feel fear for. Or something we feel like we're being forced into, repentance is quite literally just growth. The ability to change and become better! THAT'S WHY THE TIDINGS OF THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST ARE SO GLAD! So don't be offended by my caption. It's really just an invitation to use the atonement of Jesus Christ to become the person he wants you to be! Yump.

Love y'all! no pictures... sorry.

Elder Roberts

Hola como estas?

Went on three exchanges this week. Hahaha exchanges are so much fun!
One of the exchanges was with a Spanish missionary. I'm their area.
Sleep deprivation and Lessons in a language you don't know do not mix
well. Hahahaha I feel so bad, it was like an hour and 15 minutes, and
I can only account for maybe 55 Hahahaha but elder Curtis is a champ.
So it's all good!

Other than that, the week was pretty normal. We were able to teach a
family named the skinners. They talk a lot. Hahaha! So we only got
half way through the restoration. But it's all good. We'll blow their
minds tomorrow!

We also went tracking a whole heel this week! Which is so fun.
Honestly finding is a blast. Haha people always go "not interested"
before we say even a word, and when asked if they've seen us before,
they go "yes! You're jehovah witness!" Hahaha lots of assumptions
being made. Haha too funny!! It's all good, though. Elder Barton is
the stinking man. He's so persistent. I love it. Hahaha

Something I've been thinking a lot about is pride. Pride stinks.
Hahaha it's fascinating how when we do as the lord commands, we get
blessed, and prosper, and things go well! I've seen it time and time
on my mission. Especially this week. The whole mission hit record
highs in almost all of our key indicators. Why? Because recently we've
all truly come together and become unified in, ready for this, HARD
WORK! Haha it's seriously amazing how much working changes things.
Whoda thunk, right? But anyway. Back to what I was saying is that it
happens time and time again in our lives that we finally align our
will with God's, things start moving! Which can do two things. 1 make
us grateful, and more humble. Recognizing the additional need we have
on the savior. Or 2 make us feel right good about ourselves, and
gradually we forget more and more God's hand. So that's what I'm going
to focus on this week. Is remember God is truly the fount of every
blessing.

Anyway. My emails seem way more boring recently. Sorry. Love ya.

Elder Roberts

We are all enlisted!

Well first week in a new ward is always exciting! Westfield is where I've been transfered to, and holy guacamole! it's a great place! my new companion is Elder Barton, who is a total stud. we're going to kill this transfer! I haven't been in the area for very long, so I'm still trying to get to know the members, but literally, this area is the promise land! haha we talk to everyone we see, including talking to people at stop lights through the window, yes that means I also have a car again! Whoop! Haha we've seen so many miracles because of this, and honestly had some stinking good times! The northern part of our area has some somewhat richer areas, and of course, everyone needs the gospel, so we go tracting up in there quite a bit! It's been super fun. Get so many random responses, it's hilarious.

In my personal study, I'm still in the war chapters of Alma. haha studying the Book of Mormon has easily become my favorite thing in the whole wide world. It makes me so happy, I've always wanted a relationship like this with the scriptures, and it's no surprise it comes now, when all I'm doing is talking about it with everyone! This week, I realized how much the wars of the Nephites is like the war in the pre earth life! Revelations 12:11 talks about what it took of us to defeat Satan, the blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimony, and lastly, not loving our lives unto the death, meaning not getting so caught up in what we want that we lose sight of the bigger picture! All of these were needed then, and are needed again in the Book of Mormon time! Moroni is such a great example of these, as well as the stripling warriors!

 

Now of course, these 3 things are just as vital for us today! And want to know the best part? WE'RE ALL FIGHTING FOR THE SAME THING! In the Book of Mormon, we learn they were fighting for their freedom, their god, and their family! Think about what we're fighting for now, isn't it the same? As well as in the war in heaven, it all comes down to those three things. Moroni calls this the "cause of the Christians!" so fitting! and anyone that calls themselves Christian is enlisted! We need everyone! I know as we continue to depend on the blood of the Lamb, deepen our testimony, and love not our lives more than we love God, we will come off conqueror as did Moroni!

  

Anyway! love y'all!

Elder Roberts

2K17 it's go time!

Well, transfer calls came yesterday and I'm leaving. Bums. I've loved
this place so much. Honestly, this area has taught me so much. It's
gonna be sad to leave. Like. Super sad. Some of the members took us
out to breakfast today, and it sucked. Hahaha I'm gonna miss them so
much!!

Also. For New Year's Eve, a couple guys in the ward went across the
street and lit off a firework for us to see. Seriously so nice.
Hahahaha it was also really funny. Hooting and hollering all over. God
bless em.:)

Other than that this week we had a conference thingy with president.
It was so good. Like always. Literally president is the smartest human
I've ever met. Hahaha we decided together that for 2017, our goal for
convert baptisms is 630. It was such a cool, unifying experience! It's
amazing what a difference is made when a bunch of insignificant people
get together to dedicate themselves to something so much bigger than
themselves. Miracles happen.

Jason's parents came to church. Hahahahaha they don't speak a lick of
English! They're visiting from china, and so during the sacrament, I
just passed them my iPad with the Chinese Doctine and Covenants! Super
neat. I think they liked it.

I've been reading the war chapters in Alma, so like 45-55ish. I'm
learning so much. Hahahaha I feel so bad that for my whole life I've
read the Book of Mormon and literally never understood diddily squat.
Gosh dang it. Hahaha some of the things that have stood out to me is
the leadership qualities of Moroni. He's so amazing! Hahaha I love in
chapter 50 especially. It says that Moroni's army was being added to
daily because of the trust that his people had in him! As a leader,
friend, teacher, whatever, you can't get people on your side until
they trust you, and know you love them.

Anyways, love ya!!

Elder Roberts