Week 91: sprint to the finish - new comp, same area

My new comp- Elder Levi Nahuel Arzac from Houston, Texas.  He's a hard worker and has 11 months. I feel like I will learn a ton from him in my last weeks... it's like conditioning in baseball, sprint to the finish and finish strong!

SO this past week was changes and I got a new companion. My new companion is Elder Levi Nahuel Arzac.  He has 11 months on his mission and we both want to work really hard.  I've been looking forward to picking up the zone a little bit and from what I've been hearing is that Elder Arzac may be the missionary that I finish my mission with.

We had a really good week. We will probably be having 2 baptisms this Friday. We also had 3 new people go to church for the first time on Sunday, and they loved it! The Lord is helping us with the zona Loarque and showing the people that He can work miracles out here. 

We have a family who has been going regularly, they are the family Martinez. There are five of them and they have gone 3 straight Sundays! SUPER COOL. They love the church and I think they will keep going. We have challenged them to baptism, they just want to have a little more of preparation. Then there is Margarita Angelo, and Margarita. The first Margarita is the grandma and she is really into the church which is a big blessing. It isn't normally that way, it normally takes a little more work, but she is really into it. I am excited for what I hope will become of them.

I hope you all can have a good week and that I have more to write next week!

Love, Elder Roberts  

I'm baggy- it expires after I'm home!

He likes biscuits, is really fun. I'm going to learn a ton from him. He's cool.

This is a new missionary I met at changes. He is from Idaho Falls, Idaho.  Elder Maughan just arrived last week and said that he and his parents have been reading my blog.  My mom says that there is a Facebook group that was just started in August that is current and has a lot of conversations and questions that are answered by missionary parents that have sons and daughters currently serving in the Comayaguela mission. The Facebook link is below...  she wishes there would have been something like this 2 years ago when I opened my mission call.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/277186046214692/
once accepted to the group introduce yourself by posting a picture of your missionary with the mission reporting date and where you are from etc.

Week 90: pedal to the metal

this is Otto, he is a member in Ojojona.  He helped Elder Katashima and I out with our table activity.  We sat around and contacted people in the plaza.  Otto has no fear, and was crazy good at contacting.

This was Elder Owens last week and it went well. We worked a lot! 

On Saturday Elder Owen got to go to the temple for a sealing that one of the converts in one of his old areas had. Elder Mattison invited him because he can't go alone and Elder Owen has also served in that area. While they went to the temple I got to go to Ojojona with Elder Katashima. 

Elder Katashima and I put the pedal to the metal while we were out there. Currently Ojojona has had some trouble putting on dates so that was the focus while I was there on the interchanges. We had some really good lessons with some people they had been teaching. We had a good lesson teaching the first vision and the restoration. Then we had a very good time finding people and I think/hope they have some very good people to teach in the future. 

I'm looking forward to changes tomorrow and I don't know who my new comp with be, but all I know is that I'm staying and most of the zone is changing so I'm looking forward to having some new missionaries in the zone. I hope you guys have a good week and that you can all find the love of the Savior and the Lord's hand in your life. 

Love, Elder Roberts

Week 89: Baptism and a package - Ojojona

Ojojona is really calm quiet town, many people say that nothing ever happens in Ojojona.  It is a little town and they are so happy to have missionaries there.

So this week was a good one! We had a baptism, his name is Milton and he is going to be a really good addition to the ward.

I got my bday package from home delivered by Mission On the Fly to the mission office. It was a really good thing, and something that got the energies up for Elder Owen and I. Spaghetti sauce from home! There was some Hunt's tomato sauce and some even better noodles! Elder Owen and I threw in our own pizazz. 

We had interviews with president which went really well. He taught me about trying to become better in all the facets of life, a lesson I needed. 

Other than that not a whole lot happened. The week was very successful in the fact that the study I have had has been very worthwhile. I truly can see the knowledge and love I have for the Savior of the World growing everyday. I combine the study of these two inspired books (The Holy Bible and Book of Mormon). It’s something I really needed as I have been looking to appreciate the circumstances the Savior found himself in in His mortal life.  I really enjoy the observations of James A Talmage in his book about the Savior and the prophecies that come to pass within the Book of Mormon.  I can also feel the love I have for the Savior come out as I testify of Him as the Redeemer of the World.

Well, love you guys a ton

there are three main churches in Ojojona. El Calvario, San Juan Bautista and El Carmen.  This is a picture of San Juan Bautista, a really old church. We met Elder Huscroft and his companion Elder Duarte (he's from San Pedro Sula).  Huscroft came to buy recuerdos (souvenirs). He heads home on September 19th just like Owen. Huscroft is serving in the Bulevar as his last area. He got permission to come meet us in Ojojona on Pday.

Elder Owen likes Mtn Dew!
I think it's my favorite drink here and in the states

We are in the same district as Elder Mattson and Elder Katashima. They were with us in Ojojona too. 

We baptized Milton Adonis Martinez Estrada (14).  His aunt brought him to church and we started teaching him.  We are teaching his 8 year old brother, Josiel right now. (the mom doesn't want to give him permission to be baptized for now.  We are praying.)

Happy Birthday to me! Mission On the Fly delivered my birthday package.  All of the Golden Knights stuff I love a lot.  I'm told there is only 6 more days until the new season starts. Go Knights Go!

Noodles and Spaghetti sauce from the states!  We pizazzed it up with some onion and Quesio, it's like a stringy cheese down here.

your favorite elder is at Hermana Rosas.  She is a really nice member who always gives us food to eat.  She feeds Elder Owen and I at least one meal a day Thursday to Monday. We love it!

Hermana Rosa's son, Elvin is the second counselor in the bishopric of the ward.  He gives us dinner on Tuesdays.  The whole family is really great!

I was just fiddling with my camera and pretty much always catch this guy smiling.

Tizatillo House

This is where I live in Tizatillo

the best part is that we live in a residencial that has security, so we are pretty safe here.

Elder Owen, my companion in front of our house

this is our living room. the bathroom has the mirror on it and the hall behind Owen leads to the kitchen.
We lug our water from a shop that is only about 5 houses down here in the residencial

Elder Owen is showing my desk. The tall shelf on the side is for pamphlets, and the small one is for miscellaneous stuff. 

This is Elder Owens' study area. (He's hilarious)

door 1: bedroom door
door 2: closet door
door 3: bathroom

We don't have the AC unit like I had in Juticalpa, the fan is the only way for cooling in Tizatillo. Our fan broke in Santa Fe, so this is nice!

This is where I sleep in Tizatillo.  I found the bubblegum pillow in a mega paca (it's like a swap meet)

The bathroom: We have hot water here and we do a good job of changing cleaning duties

closer view of front door- you can't really see our house from the street because of all the trees.

Week 88: plans to bust!

This week was a really busy week! The entire week we were in multi zone conferences and had almost no time to work as we topped off Friday with meetings all day! President has been focusing a lot on obedience and always exhibits his confidence in us, his leaders. He wants the mission to get out of the rut it's in. And by the end of the day Friday’s we hit it off with a leadership council. President shared his feeling of what we can do to be better missionaries by sharing 1 Nephi 16. He spoke of our “liahona” which is the Holy Ghost and how we need to be worthy and diligent in using it. He basically gave all of us a super huge much needed pep talk. If you guys are asking if President has been checking houses he checked my house in the Santa Fe which was really clean and he hasn’t checked my house in Tizatillo yet, but don’t worry mom its clean!

The rest of Friday's meetings focused on what we can do as missionaries to have more success. President is getting really on top of missionaries being clean and finding fifteen new people to teach every week. It's a hard task for some, but Elder Owen and I are up to it! We are going to bust this week for the second to last week of this change because honestly the time here with Elder Owen has just flown by and he is all about making the most of it! We are ready to kill it these last couple of weeks and Happy 100 days left mark to me! I never thought I would make it here. It has always felt soo far away! The whole mission experience has been the best, but got to keep going and loving the people.  Love you guys! I hope you all have a fantastic week.

I bought this poncho is Ojojona.  I am going to be going there today to get some souvenirs. They have a lot of stores there that sell some really cool stuff.

This is my area.  Our house is up by the base of that hill with the radio tower. We took this picture on our way to church.

We took a crazy detour and had to scale some crazy countryside paths to get to this spot, but it was totally worth it!

This cat ran up to me, so I picked it up.  I have a rule... I love cats if they aren't mine. This one was nice.