Week 96: thrust in our sickles

Josiel (9) and Milton (14) are brothers. All these kids are all cousins. The girls are Yensi (10), and Lesly (12). Lesly is going to live in Amapala. She will be a good convert out there.  Milton is the one that Elder Owen and I just baptized in September. He has been a good example for his cousins and his little brother.

Soo- this week was really good! We had some good results. Margarita, Margarita and Angelo are really excited to be baptized. Lyssi, Katherine, and Emily our other investigators are still progressing, we are still working with them, they are still interested and I think we can still help them a lot.  We will see what happens. 

Changes are tomorrow and I am officially going to be staying in Tizatillo to finish my mission. It will be my last 6 weeks. I had already expected it, but now it is actually happening. I'm also going to be staying with Elder Arzac he is now officially “my murderer” (my last companion, the last one I have when I leave the mission). 

The zone is also going to be receiving more missionaries. Pretty cool! Yeah, it means more work, but it also means our zone is going to be getting more contacts made and more missionary work done at the same time. I am really looking forward to this next change. 

Everything seems to be going for the better out here in Loarque, we just have to put in some more effort - we have to “thrust in our sickles” with all our might. It's what I'm looking to do in my home stretch! 

Looking forward to this next change and what may come. I hope all is going well back home with all of you guys as well as with our fechas. There are a lot of new people that we will be able to teach. We have a new family we have been teaching I hope they keep progressing. They told us they were going to try and come to church this next week. I hope they do! 

I love you guys! 

Im taking some pictures on our way to Ojonona.

The Wind Turbines are a energy source for the people here, they are really kind of a landmark now 

This is one of the bigger shops here in Ojojona.  It is kind of expensive. Ojojona is a quiet town but a tourist stop
and everything is hand made in other places throughout the country and then brought here to sell

This is a picture from yesterday. Me with Elder Tun from Vera Cruz Mexico. He is currently serving in Manatial. He is the companion of Elder Maughan. We had a meeting together.

Check out this GIANT MOTH! It was BIGGER than my hand! Remember MothMan!
We found him while teaching a lesson. He was interested.

Week 95: putting on the jets

 Interchanges
This is Elder Ozoria, he is assistant to the president. We are eating in a pupusa place in Loarque.

It has been another good week. Elder Arzac and I are staying on top of doing the ten contacts daily. On Friday we had interviews with President and it was really good to talk with him one on one. He talked a lot about finishing strong with the little time that I have left. So that is what I plan on doing. He also told me I will probably be staying in Tizatillo to finish off my mission! Pretty cool right? 

On Friday we had interchanges with the assistants to President. It was good, we found some people and we also were able to talk to some of our people with scheduled baptismal dates and make sure they are still progressing. The truth is, we have a lot of people who want to be baptized which doesn't seem like a problem until the times that you can go to meet with each of these people and it is pretty much at the same time! It is really kind of stressful. We have to put the jets on most of the time, and run off to appointments. Lots of fun, but stressful, that's the only problem with the area right now is that we are so full of people that it feels overbearing at times. 

We have currently six people progressing for the 16 of November to be baptized. They are Margarita, Angelo, Margarita, Lyssi, Emily, and Katherine. Please put them in your prayers. They are really interested and I feel the extra faith will bring about miracles! The six have left behind coffee and most have already gone to church. I'm very happy we were able to find these people who have been prepared by the Lord to receive his gospel. 

Well, not a whole lot to write this week, but just know it was a good one. There are lots of cool things happening here in the mission. We are currently receiving more missionaries than are leaving now, so a lot of areas are being opened! The mission is changing a lot. Most of my mission we have only had 130 to 140 missionaries and now we will soon be at 150 to 160! So now there will be more areas in Honduras opened which are more areas and more people here being talked to about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! 

Love you all tons! I'm loving my mission! I hope you all have a great week.  

It's the end of the school year! A little Amusement Park for the kids to go to with their parents.
The school years here are from February through November.
(a great contacting spot for the week)

the Lord only asks us to prepare to teach, he doesn't promise the whole class will show up

week 94: best week ever!

Our whole zone went to the temple on Thursday. President Mejia has changed our schedules so that now us missionaries will have a trip to the temple twice a year. left to right: Elder Chinchilla, Katashima, Medrano, Caal, Tun, Maughan, Arzac  and Hermana's Taminez and Marroquin

This week will go down as one of the miracle weeks here on my mission! One of the best weeks I have had. I have truly felt the influence of the Lord in my daily actions. I´m glad He still sees me as a worthy and useful tool out here! I originally thought that our new daily assignment of 10 contacts was going to be really hard to do but in reality it is something that we as missionaries can do very easily and it brings great blessings. Honestly we are almost to the point of needing to run to our appointments we have so many people on our schedule. It also helps us crack down on losing time out here when we have a free moment we are now knocking on doors or talking to people on the street. I´m telling the truth when I say that I haven´t felt more like a missionary while on my mission than like now.

The 10 daily contacts is one of my favorite things to do! At times it seems that we won´t have time in the day but we always end up finding people and being able to seek the people the Lord is preparing for us to speak to. Sometimes it seems we find people who are just looking for a fight, but it gives us some funny experiences. Elder Arzac is really good at turning the conversation and making people think kind of like Jesus with the Pharisees. We also feel by being challenged to have 10 daily contacts we have to be out spreading our message more. We have more meaningful conversations and feel like a lot more people are hearing from messengers of Christ. 

We also were able to go to the temple on Thursday. It was a really good experience.  I got to put the challenge of the prophet in practice and ask God to feel the eternal love of the Savior. It was a solemn and sacred experience for me, never will I forget it. I think it honestly has changed my life! I want to come to love and show my love as much as He has done unto me. I want to be able to show that love to you all personally if I could right now! I know He loves each of us personally and not all generally. I know He has called a prophet of God and I know that HE lives! I know that families are forever and can be so through divine authority of God. I know He has given that authority unto man and if we are worthy and faithful we will be his instruments. I love you guys with all my heart! 

love,

Elder Christian Joshua Roberts

This is Elder Maughan and Elder Tun, they serve in our district in the area of Manatial. Their area is right next to the area where Elder Arzac and I are serving. 

suit surfers 

we ate at Denny's after the temple. the food tasted SO good

view of Loarque itself

my Tuesday socks 

don't worry mom-I turned the energy off to the house
it has been smoking so I thought I would look to see what was up

Week 93:A parking spot and a New Age

last Friday's leadership conference: Elder Giraldo (my trainer), Elder Vazquez (longest companion), Elder Valdetano (stellar missionary). All three amazing missionary's, amazing examples, amazing companions. This is one of our last meetings (their last (they all leave this next change) and one of my last three)

So this week kind of went slow and then it felt that it flew by once General Conference hit! And what a conference it was! 
The changes we have seen will be the mark of a new age, literally a lot of us will remember the three hour block and the new changes with the study material. I am looking forward to these changes and how they are going to positively affect the church. 

So on to the week- We helped with a service project on Wednesday. The second counselor of our ward bought a car and needed help making a parking spot so that he has somewhere to park it. We had a lot of fun. We had to chop down some trees and then we moved the dirt so it was level and then we built a wall of rocks on the side so that the dirt would be held up and secure as the scriptures say, built upon the rock right? 

Our investigators are progressing, we are looking forward to some baptism this month and getting people ready for next month. President is putting a lot of emphasis on 10 contacts daily and we are seeing some miracles happen as we are doing it. We are starting to find some really good people to be teaching. 

I hope you all have a great week! Read the Book of Mormon and the words of the modern prophets! Love all of you 

looking to get our district out to do more service like this.  It was actually a lot of fun and helped them a lot.

Elvin is the Second Counselor in our wards Bishopric. This family is really nice.  I always feel super welcome in their home. We usually eat dinner at their home on Tuesdays.

slowly becoming part of the concrete jungle
John Rambo maybe? Chopping down trees is good for you, even if it is for parking cars.

good banana! good break!

Where do you think I learned most of my axe skills from? deodorant spray or video games?

ground leveling

Tree clearing

retaining rock wall

the talented Elder Arzac! Balancer of Hammer and Axe!

view from our house Saturday morning. rain and fog

Week 92: a week of miracles

Baptism of Rosa Linda Nuñes Nuñes (11), and Leyvi Magdiel Medrano Caseres (10).
Their parents were inactive, we reactivated them and baptized their daughters (they are not sisters)

So this week was full of miracles. 

Honestly, looking back at it there is no way man could do all that Elder Arzac and I have done in so short a time.

SO we had two baptisms on Friday. Sometimes all the planning and preparations fall on the missionaries which is fine, it just puts a little more stress on the table. So we did that, and then we managed while prepping for the baptism to get Margarita, Margarita and Angelo to attend the baptism. While there we wanted to take the time to sit down with them and teach them a little bit about the gospel of Jesus Christ. At the end of the lesson we challenged them to be baptized and they accepted! They are going to be preparing to be baptized on the 19 of October. It is a cool experience to be a part of because Angelo is really a rock for his mom. The three of them are very excited, they love the church honestly. 

At church on Sunday a sister brought her less active friend who’s daughter hasn’t been baptized and wants her to get baptized! It’s crazy that we just had two baptisms and that the Lord has doubled the number of fechas we had before the end of the week!

Elder Arzac and I got looking at all the people we have found in the last 2 weeks and it is an incredible amount of people. We could have 9 baptisms by the end of October 7 if there are not any complications. Crazy right!? I can’t believe the help that the Lord gives us missionaries when we work hard. The effort seems too small for what He gives in return. 

I love my God and my Savior for all the love that they have shown me and the people here in Honduras. I love my family and hope to be able to enjoy General Conference this weekend. I hope all of you can too. I hope we all seek for the revelations that the Lord has prepared for each of us that we can receive from the mouths of his prophet and apostles in these latter days. 

Love you guys, hope you all have a fantastic week!

Elder Arzac and I are on our way to the familia Banegas

The trail on the right goes to Yaguacire. It is a great view! Our area is Tizatillo, but we hardly ever work there. We live and work in a colonia called the Reynel Funez. It was a hot day with not a lot of success. 

This is Cesar. He is a little special, but he is so fun to be with. His mom is Hermana Waleska and she gives us dinner on Thursdays.

We made spaghetti (YUM!) at our house on one of the days that we didn't have a lunch anywhere. 

While getting ready one morning we played "the floor is lava" before leaving the house.
 WE BOTH MADE IT OUT ALIVE! lol!  We still like those kind of games