Go To the Temple!

Hellooooo :)

        Love the pictures! Okay before I go any farther.... This keyboard likes to type random a´s so I’m sorry for the bad grammar haha. Anyway... looks like Ty is a dancin fool! ;) and love the mustaches Haidyn :) And of course mom´s always the one who has to embarrass everyone and wear a huge diaper to school.... 

        Anyway it was a good week here :) I think we got rid of the bed bugs yay!!! :) I’m pretty happy about that :) 

        Our investigators are doing great. Buuuuut.... they didn’t come to church :( we went and tried to pick them all up and they didn’t even answer the door. Daniel did but Mary is sick so they couldn’t come :( man it was a bummer but hopefully this week. But this coming weekend is elections here in Piura and it’s against the law to have meetings of any type soooo we don’t have church :( and we don’t get to watch conference either :( but on the bright side, it’s also against the law to drink during elections so that should be soooo stinking great :) 

        We also had intercambios this week, which was super fun :) I was with Hermana Finlinson. She’s in my group. And SO funny! We were knockin on doors and she straight up got pooped on by a bird. Funniest thing of my life hahaha. Oh man. She felt it and was like, "Please tell me I did not just get pooped on...." but sure enough her back was covered in some smelly yellow stuff lol so then the person answered the door and just started laughing at us. Safe to say she definitely didn’t let us in her house.... But she did give us some toilet paper to clean up a bit lol. Stupid birds. 

        But I learned a lot from Hermana Finlinson. She’s great. She has a lot of confidence in herself as a daughter of God. We were talking and she was like, "If we complain about the way we are, it’s like we´re telling God that His creation isn’t good enough. When we don’t love ourselves, we are insulting God. We are so amazing! Inside and out!" It’s so true. We´re all different, but we´re all amazing. 

        I’m so glad you got to see the Women’s Conference Broadcast! How great was that? Wow! I just came away feeling SO dang loved. We all did. God loves me TODAY. And tomorrow. And the next day :) and always! It’s so great! Okay that was random... Anyway.... I’m excited for conference :)

        Okay so kinda funny story. Elder Allan and Elder Riquelme are in our ward here in Ignacio Merino. They were teaching the Plan of Salvation and asked the little kid which kingdom he wanted to go to, the celestial, terrestrial or telestial (I have no idea how to say them all in English gosh dang it) and the little kid says, "I think I wanna go to the Telestial Kingdom cause that’s where all the famous people are gonna go." Haha good one. So I guess if the Celestial Kingdom seems a little too difficult to reach, we can always chill with Justin Bieber in the Telestial Kingdom ;)

        I love teaching little kids!I think I’ve found like 10 kids in this area that I wanna put in my suitcase and take home. This area definitely has the cutest little kids! Just sayin :)

Okay really... Not much has happened this week so I’m rambling... But it’s about time too go now anyway :) Hope you all have a great week! :) 

        Hey wait. I remember something I wanted to tell you guys. Go to the temple! And do your family history! They talked a lot about that at the women’s broadcast and I loved it. I think sometimes we forget how blessed we are to be so near to temples. In Utah there are temples everywhere! Here they have to drive 16 hours! We are so blessed. Anyway... Go to the temple :) 

        Okay now time to go. Have a great week! I love you all soooooo much and pray for you all every day :)

Love,

Hermana Roper

I look like I have chicken pox!

Bed bugs aren't very fun at all :(

Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite

Hey there everyone! :) 

         Okay first of all... I need you all to remember how much you love me as you’re reading this letter okay? And remember how you are all excited for me to come home? I’d like you to keep that thought in mind during this letter haha.

         But let’s start with all the good things that happened this week okay? :) So the Leyton family (Mary and Daniel) are married!!! YAY! We had to think of a way to make them tell us and my companion was like, "Gringas are always more nosey so just ask if you can see pictures of their wedding" haha. So I did :) And they didn’t show me but they talked about their wedding so its all good :) it worked! The best part was that Mary was like, "We only got married here in Piura, but the temple is next. But we need to get baptized first right?" Right! I told you guys. They’re so great. 

         The other family that I didn’t have time to tell you about is Victor and Sujail. Victor is a member. He’s an RM and is inactive. But we went and visited them and his wife is dying to get married in the temple. He’s told her about it and she loves everything about it. She has a baptismal date for the 18th of October. She just needs to attend church. To get baptized now, they have to attend 3 times, all 3 hours and pay a fast offering so she needs to come to church 3 Sundays in a row. She needs all the prayers she can get haha. She has 3 little Chuckies as kids (remember that movie with the crazy doll?) and so we’re gonna go over on Sundays to help get em there on time. We’ll see how it goes :) Love them though! 

         We also found a new family this week :) As a mission we’re focusing a ton on families, which has been great :) This family isn’t married and I forgot their names lol. We have a lesson with them this Saturday because her husband will be gone all week. Contacting them for the first time was soooo awkward though! President Rowley has made the rule that we do NOT let a family pass us by without talking to them. I love it, but sometimes it’s awkward lol. It was super awkward with them. We passed by em and I wasn’t gonna contact em but then I could just see President Rowley in my mind shaking his head haha, so we flipped around and the husband just literally stared at us without saying a word. When I’m nervous my Spanish skills go out the window so I was a stuttering mess and my companion got stage fright or something and left me there stuttering lol. But somehow we made another appointment and went back and his wife was great. She was like, "You said your message helps families. We need help in our family. We’re really interested." Yay! Worth the embarrassment! In the mission I seriously have no shame now haha. Who cares what people think? What’s important is what God thinks. 

         Okay now ready for the craziness? Remember how much you love me though, please. Okay... Here it goes.... I have bed bugs. I should’ve been using the flea collar Leigh gave me lol. Because now we really have a problem. It all started Tuesday. Well, actually it started a long time ago. My companion had been having a rash kind of thing over a month ago. The doctor said she was allergic to something and didn’t really pay attention. He gave her pills and called it good. Well, her rash kept getting worse so I made her call Hermana Rowley. Hermana Rowley came over and we sprayed our beds just in case something was there and came back in the afternoon after lunch and just laid on the floor because our beds smelled like spray. Hermana Ordoñez went and grabbed her pillow and a little bit later found a bug crawling on her arm and freaked out haha. So we were like hmmmm, maybe we should check our beds. We went and flipped em over and there were tonssss! So then we freaked out some more and called Hermana Rowley. Hermana Rowley is the best person in the world :) We spent the day with her cleaning and buying spray and trying whatever we could to get rid of em. She loved us even when we had disgusting bugs! Yep. She rocks. Anyway... We spent Wednesday with her and she let us stay in the mission home all week. Wednesday night I also started a nice rash. Yaaaay. :( Over 80 bites alllllll over! Anyway... We tried a ton of stuff but finally ended up burning our mattresses :) Die bed bugs! DIE!!! They seriously are hard to get rid of. They can go 300 days without eating! So we just got new mattresses (we wrapped them in plastic just to be safe haha) and sprayed the room down :) We are also still washing all our clothes. What a crazy week! Now we just look like we have chicken pox and are constantly scratching lol.  People just look at us like, "What is wrong with you???...." Hopefully it heals soon or we won’t be finding any new investigators.... Hopefully you guys remember how much you love me and want me home still ;) Bed bugs and all! 

         Despite all the craziness, it’s been a good week :) We are really finding great new investigators. When I got here I thought  I was going to scream because nobody was progressing and ahhhh!!!! it was frustrating. But we have really made a lot of progress this week :)  Even with bed bugs       I love being a missionary :) Nothing that’s worth it is ever going to be easy. It’s not easy, but hearing a family tell you, "I need your help", makes me feel so great. There’s nothin like it. I know God loves us. I know he is aware of everything we go through. He is there and will always be there. He understands us better than we understand ourselves. 

         Hope you have a great week! Love you all so much! :)

Love,

Hermana Roper

Bed Bugs :(

                                 

                                                      

 

 

God Has A Plan

Hi family,

         I’m so tired. We had an activity today and we’re all here in internet, soaking wet and pooped. I think we’re all gonna be sore tomorrow..... haha.  Anyway this week was good! I will say though if all of my time in this area is gonna be as crazy, I might be headed home a little early ;) haha jk but really it was a crazy week.

         I’m not sure what to think about the area yet. Hermana Ordoñez hasn’t really talked too good about it so I’m thinkin we have lots of work to do after what we’ve seen this week, but we can do it :)

         Okay let’s start with the good. We found two AMAZING families this week! Really, they are so great. I might only have time to tell you about one of them. Daniel and Mary. They were a referral. We went Wednesday night. Daniel is so great. He can barely walk. A year ago he had an accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down, but after a reeeeally long year he can now get his way around and use a few of his fingers. He inspires me! Mary is his wife (we think they’re married. We asked how many years they’ve been married and they said, "We got together 3 years ago" and didn’t want to tell us anything about marriage.) They love everything though! Mary lost her dad 8 years ago and is pretty hurt about that. She can’t seem to get over it. She loves everything about the gospel so far. She was even excited to say the closing prayer! That never happens lol! Anyway, they’re great.

         And yep there’s not much time to tell about the other family. You guys aren’t even gonna get pictures this week. Sorry! But right now we’re in Morropon. We went to a waterfall today. It will be fun, they said. It will be relaxing, they said. They lied!!!  But next week I´ll make up for it yeah? :) You’ll have lots of pictures next week!

         Anyway... wanna hear the craziness that happened?! Someone died in the middle of one of our lessons! No, really. We were teaching a less active, Joel, and all of a sudden everyone starts screaming and running around and I had no idea what was going on. My companion forgot to tell me the grandpa was really sick. He just died right there! It was my first lesson with them! We just started hugging them, trying to help them out. I may have broken a few rules in the process.... I may or may not have had a guy hugging me and bawling and I may or may not have had to hold a baby when her mom just pretty much chucked her at me ha. I hope the Lord understands. But it was a rough day. We couldn’t concentrate alllll day and it was just awful. The grandpa wasn’t a member. I just hope this whole thing can bring the family together. I think it will. Joel’s wife (they’re having major issues) actually came to say the closing prayer and sing a hymn with us yesterday and I guess she NEVER comes out to see us. Little by little :) Everything happens for a reason. Hermana Ordoñez and I are scarred for life, but we know God has a plan for their family. 

         This week really has been crazy. It’s an area that I guess is really hard, but I’ve loved it here. I think I’ve worn my companion out this week, but there’s just so much to do! 

         Okay wow, time is running out sorry, sorry, sorry! Love you all so much! :) Hope you all have the best week! And Happy Birthday Saturday Tyson! Can’t believe you’ll be 18! Save me some cake okay? I´ll be there shortly :) Anywhooo i really love you all so much, more than you know :) later alligators! 

Love,

Hermana Roper 

Ignacio Merino, Here I Come!

Hello everyone :)

         Yes, I got transferred! I’m now in Ignacio Merino in Piura. It’s like right next to my last area in Piura. I’ve already seen two people from my last area so its pretty great :) I’m with Hermana Ordoñez from Lima. She’s 23 and was Hermana Rivera’s companion in the MTC. We’ve spent the day with the other sisters here shopping and eating pizza so its been a great start :)

         As excited as I am to see what happens in this area, it was super hard to leave Sullana :( I love them so much! They’re so great. We had a nice goodbye party last night and I didn’t want to leave. I now feel like I have family in Piura and Sullana. And good ole Ferron of course ;)

         It was a good week though. Jefferson got baptized and everything went great :) He’s gonna be such a great example for his family. 

And remember how I told you all to pray for Omar? Well he is the greatest! We met with him like 3 times this week. He loves everything! His dad is sick and dying and he is always home alone because his mom is with his dad in the hospital. He just told us he feels super alone. He’s seen us a lot (He lives right by Jefferson) but didn’t think anything of it. Then one day I wanted to buy some candy (Yep. I haven’t changed) and started talkin to him. He accepted to see us and since then he’s just lovin it. We told him about prophets and apostles and he was like, "Wait you mean to tell me there’s a prophet AND apostles just like when Jesus was here on Earth??..." Yep :) Then we made him pray. Yep. He didn’t want to. But we knew if he didn’t do it with us he wasn’t gonna do it. And he did it :) and it was AWESOME. He got done and the spirit was so strong and I asked him how he felt and he was so funny. He was like, "Umm... I feel like I want to cry. Is that normal?..." He’s just so great and I’m kinda bummed I wont be there to see him progress, but he’ll do good :)

         And yes, this week was Hermana Rivera’s birthday and it was great :) I planned another surprise :) And she didn’t even suspect a thing. Oh yeah! But I’m so done with eating cake for at least a month. THREE cakes. We wanted to puke. It’s definitely diet time this week. Wowzers. It was good though :) 

         We also had a cool experience this week. There was one day when seriously NOBODY wanted us! We were feeling so bummed. We were sweaty, moody, sore and just so ready to be done for the day. That’s when a guy in a moto starts shouting, "Elders! Elders!" Me, being the brat I am sometimes, turned around and was like, "Hermanas! We’re Hermanas, not Elders!" Hermana Rivera just started laughing but the guy ended up being an investigator of some of the other Elders haha. Oooops. My bad. Anyway, he just started goin off about how great we are. He was like, "You two are courageous. You have courage. Keep going. Keep going until the end. You will receive your reward. You’ve left behind so much and God is going to bless you. Just keep going. I imagine its hard, but you’re both changing lives every day." It was amazing. I honestly felt like God was talking to us through him. Hermana Rivera felt the same. It was so neat to know that God loves us SO much that he is aware of how we feel and sends people to help and lift us up. I definitely felt God’s love that day. 

         Okay well that’s about all I can remember at the moment haha. I’m excited for this new transfer :) Its getting really close to the end but I feel good knowing that I’ve done all I could do in my areas before and I feel excited knowing that there are great experiences waiting for us here in Ignacio Merino. I know that change is good. It’s good to get out of our comfort zone. That’s when we grow :)

         Hope you all have a great week! :) LOVE YOU ALL! :) See you in just three lil months :) 

Love,

Hermana Roper