Monday, February 17, 2014

It's In the Small Things :)


Hello there Roper family! :)
         Glad to hear everyone had a pretty good week :) Our week here was great! Richard was baptized! :) It was so great. The baptism was Friday at 5 and he showed up at 4:30, got dressed in white, and sat and waited for everyone to show. He was SO excited! He couldn’t even stop smiling :) He was sharing his testimony afterwards and said, "Before I felt empty. I felt alone. Now I feel happy." Awww :) Love him! (In a totally not weird way...) He has changed so much! What was super funny was the cake we ordered. So I forgot that here everyone is Catholic and baptisms are usually for babies... Well when she asked me what I wanted the cake like, I told her it was for a boy´s baptism... Well, we picked up the cake Friday and it had little blue baby booties! How embarrassing! So we somehow scraped off the booties before he saw... It’s the thought that counts right? It was a super great baptism though. 
         We found thee most amazing family! The “C” family. (Their last name means green house in English so I almost laughed when they told me their name) There´s “M”, “N”, and their little girl “E”. We´re gonna baptize an entire family! They have a baptism date for the 15th. I’ve never met such a strong family here on my mission. They’ve both had the hardest lives. Both have a rough family situation. He doesn’t have a job right now, and they’re living with her mom who is less than pleasant to say the least... “N” was telling us of one experience growing up. He said that his mom told him and his brothers that if they didn’t do their jobs, they didn’t eat. His brothers never worked or did their jobs, so they didn’t eat. Well, “N”, being SO stinkin awesome would wake up every day at 4 in the morning, do their jobs, so he could do his jobs too, and then they could all eat. They are a family that gives and gives, even though they don’t have enough for themselves. So prepared! (They’re the family with the glasses that I sent you)
         We also had stake conference this weekend. I’m not sure why I never went to stake conference before my mission haha cause it was great! One thing our stake president said was that we need to be more grateful. "We are always noticing the things we don’t have. When we notice the things we have, the Lord will make up for what we don’t have." So true! It seems so much easier to complain sometimes, when we really have so much to be grateful for. 
         President Rowley also talked and he said, "We can change the lives of many people by doing the small things." This is also true. Sometimes we want to make big changes in our lives, or change other peoples’ lives, but its not possible all in one day. If we do the small things we´re going to change lives, including our own. 
         I honestly just love this area SO much! It’s weird because at first in the mission I felt weird, and out of place, and now when I think about home, I feel like I’m gonna feel even more weird and out of place! I just love the mission. I love seeing people change. I love seeing myself change. I don’t want to leave this area! The bishop told us, "You have changed this ward. In all of 2013 we had one single baptism. We now have had 3 this year in less than two months. Thank you for the work you’re doing." Aww :) Our bishop is the best. Some days I don’t feel like I’m making a difference, but I can see that the small things really do count :)
         My question this week is when will the embarrassing Spanish stories stop?! I’ve been here 9 months almost and still can’t speak right! Haha Hermana Arce has already spent all her money for the week... Elder Caño, Elder Don’t Know His Name, Juan, Richard, and I were all making fun of her. Well what I wanted to say was, "Va a morir de hambre" which is "You’re gonna die of hunger" but one stinkin letter changes the whole meaning and I accidentally said, "Va a morir de hombre" which means "You’re gonna die of man." ALL week everyone has been makin fun of me. "EVERYONE is always like Hey Hermana Roper! Va a morir de hombre?" Reeeeeal funny, guys. Real funny. NOT. One day I will conquer Spanish! But for now I’m the ward joke...
         Welp no more time :( Love you all so much! :) Have a great week!:)

Love,
Hermana Roper 













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