August 25, 2014

Zach's a Trainer Now!

THIS IS MY SON ELDER ROBERTS!!!!!!!!! this is when i picked him up from the office, in my spiffy new bday tie haha(:

This is also Zach's Mission President and his wife

Hey!!

my week has been crazy haha. so on sunday right after church i got a call saying that i was leaving to go spend the week in a city called Olhão with an elder named Elder Fossati until our greenys got to portugal. Elder Fossati is from Southern Cali and had a street bike before the mission, and so we were super friends right away haha, and it was a blast serving with him for a couple days in his area. then wednesday night him and i went up to Lisbon, and we spent the night there. then Thursday morning all the newbys arrived, and i met my son Elder Roberts!! Elder Roberts is from Beaver Utah. He grew up playing a bunch of sports and is really cool, he's just a little stressed haha. he actually reminds me a lot of Elder Arnold, my MTC comp. He's having a little bit of troubles with the language, which stresses him out a bit, but he's handling it really well. I cant help but think that i totally got called to be his trainer because so far it has been a lot like the MTC, only this time i know how to help my comp a little better haha. Im loving serving with him and we're already seeing a ton of miracles this week, so im super stoked for this transfer!

okay, and this is from last week.

3.) Denise is a friend of a woman named Mila. Mila was baptized when she was 13, but for the past 15 years or so she has seperated herself from the church. she never lost her beliefs or testimony, just stopped going. but before i got here in Beja, my last comp Elder Boyd and his comp were knocking doors, and they knocked the door of Denise's house. But whats funny is that Mila was there at the time, and Mila is the one who answered the door. so they started talking with Mila and found out that she's a member. Then the week after I showed up here, and we worked for a few weeks to reactivate Mila, and now she's fully reactivated(: And Mila and Denise are always together, and so we passed a lot and began to be friends with Denise too, But Denise didnt want too much to do with church. then we had a mini activity (the one with s'mores and we did a tour of our chapel) and when we showed them the Baptismal Font, we explained what you have to do to be baptized and why we're baptized, and Denise decided she wanted to be baptized too! so we started teaching her, and a week later she was baptized! And now what's happening is Mila (the member for a long time now) has a daughter named Joana. and Joana is best friends with Denise's niece Nadia. And this coming weekend, on August 30th, Joana and Nadia are going to be baptized together!! WE'RE GONNA COMPLETE A FAMILY!!!

and i still have not gotten the packages. I'm a little worried that they got lost somwhere in the mail system :/ Because you guys, grammy and grandad, and Holden all sent me packages, but i havent gotten any of them. i may get them during this coming week, but if not they probably got lost somewhere:/ but no worries :)

Yesterday we had a really cool expirience. Nadia (Denise's niece who wants to be baptized) needs her moms permission to be baptized because she's only 12. so yesterday she called her mom and asked her, but her mom said no. Nadia's stepdad is super catholic, and wouldn't allow her to get baptized. So Nadia started crying because she wants to be baptized super badly, but there wasn't anything we could do :( eventually we had to leave and go to other stuff, but while elder Roberts and i were walking, i got the impression to just stop and say a prayer. both of us were really bummed to see Nadia so sad, so we just sat down on a bench on an empty road, and i said a prayer in english (hahah like the first one in like six months) and we asked The Lord to touch the heart of the mother and change her mind. well we continued on with our day. at the end of the night when we returned home, while we were planning for our next day, we got a text from Denise saying that the mother had changed her mind, and Nadia could be baptized!!! the first thing we did was get down on our knees and we thanked the Lord for changing the mother's heart. it was just so incredible to get such a powerful response to our prayers(:

well i don't have much time left, i just got to say the I know God lives. and He does more than just live, He loves us. He's always there to help, we just need to take the leap of faith to ask Him(:

i love you guys so much, and i'll talk to you all again next week!!

Pictures from the BBQ/Zach's Birthday Celebration

i can't remember what was so funny, but i think our Branch Pres said something hilarious or was making fun of my comp or something hahahaha. this was while they were singing happy bday to me haha

I absolutly LOVE this picture of Zach!! It shows how much fun he is having as a missionary!!

 Here's my last comp Elder Boyd and I at our big branch BBQ/my birthday party... i was batman and he was spider man haha

the branch pres.'s family got me a cake(: "parabéns" means congragulations, but its how they say happy birthday haha

 so it goes Elder Mubai (from Mozambique), me (in my sweet pink tie that some members got me for my bday hahaha), my son Elder Roberts, and Elder Beckstrand (him and i were in the same district my first two transfers here in portugal) all 4 of us live in the same house now. cuz our area split to a 4 elder area, and now we party all day (when we're in the house haha)

and this is one more of me and my new son Elder Roberts... IM A DADDY!!!!!