Elder Roberts and Elder Utley! Awesome!

On a bike in Kearns

This week was pretty good. My new area is really small but I am enjoying it. I only cover three wards. I dont have a car anymore so I am on a bike, so I love that. I am a lot more focused throughout the day because I am constantly riding. The wards here are so small. They are smaller than my spanish branch. Yesterday I went to all three wards. The first one was at 9 and me and Elder Merenda had to pass the sacrament and do the opening and closing prayers. THe next two wards were at 12:30 and we had a confirmation in one ward and we were speaking in the other. We hurried and did the confirmation and then ran over to where we were speaking. Me and Elder Merenda both prepared 15 to 20 minute talks and right as we walked into sacrament meeting we were up to speak and they told us we only have 5 to 10 minutes so it was kind of hard to pick what to talk about and what to leave out right on the spot. But both of our talks went really well. I talked on members in missionary work. We really need that here. Even though I am in english, I am still in kearns so I get a few opportunites to speak everyday. I now get language study so thats really good too. Thats a bummer about BYU. Everyone here are big Utah fans so they are all pretty happy. My landlords were watching the game and they are big Utah fans so I loved hearing them yelling and getting into the game but sunday morning they kind of rubbed it in my face. It is nice to participate a lot more and understand people's concerns. I am teaching a 15 year old kid Jose right now and we are planning to have him and his sister baptized on October 12th. I love teaching him because his parents only speak spanish so I get to talk with them and it helps me a ton. I am loving it here right now. I have learned so much. I love the scriptures more than anything! Thanks for everything! Love you!

Elder Roberts

ps  I got a letter today from some visa department. It just said that they are grateful for my service here and the church is trying their best to get it. They said as soon as they get it they will notify my mission president here. But I am loving it here, but continue to pray for my visa and fast for my visa. You guys are the best in the west! Love you

In Kearns - English speaking!

Well an elder in my zone had to go home so they put me in his spot. I am still in Kearns but I am english speaking now so I am kind of bummed about that. I am with Elder Merenda. He is from Pennsylvania. He is way cool. This week was really good though! My old landlords have a trailer, so me and my companions spent a night in it! It was awesome. It rained that night so it reminded me a lot of camping! Me and my companions started to just speak spanish to each other and it was really helpful. But now I will just be speaking english. We would run into people on the street and my companions wouldn't speak any spanish so it was really hard but it was way fun. Saturday I got to go to the South Jordan temple and do baptisms with recent converts in the ward. I got to baptize and confirm and it was all in spanish so it was way fun. My new place is bigger but not as nice. I am still in a member's basement. I have loved the weather lately especially when it rains! I am loving it here! I am kind of bummed about the english assignment but it will be alright. That is awesome about Max winning student counsel!!! His poster was awesome! Thanks for everything! I love and miss you al!! I hope grandma bliss starts feeling better. Tell her I miss and love her so much and I am constantly praying for her. Remember to pray for my visa!

Elder Roberts and Elder Merenda!

Living in Kearns!

This week was really good. That is awesome about BYU! I would have loved to watch it with Grandpa! This week I gave a blessing in Spanish. It was so scary! I was expecting my companion to do it but after the oil annointing he just said "your up. It went alright. I hope it made sense. I went to the stake baptism on Saturday and they had nothing prepared so right before it started they asked me to give a talk on the Holy Ghost and it was all in spanish. I was pretty scared but it went pretty good. I love the food here. People from Salvador eat these things called papussas and they are delicious! Some things aren't very good though. Last night for dessert a family was making snow cones and I was super excited because the flavoring bottle said tigers blood! It was not tigers blood. It was like rotten fruit. It was really disappointing. I loved the rain on Saturday! Spanish is really hard! I still don't speak it enough, but its getting better. I miss you guys! Love you!

That is so sad about Grandma Bliss. I will for sure keep her in our prayers. Tell her that I love her!  

Elder Roberts

Hola Familia!

8-26

This week was good! I am starting to understand a lot more now but I am still pretty lost. I love the food here! It is the greatest. At church, me and my companions got to teach the Priests. They all spoke english so we did it in english so that was good for me because it was on marriage and that would be tough for me in spanish. After church yesterday it was someones birthday so the whole branch had a party at the church. They gave us a lot of weird foods. I asked my companions what some of it was and they just said to not worry about it and just eat it. Most of it was good but a lot of it was not the best. We have got two investigators that are getting baptized! I am way excited for that. We invited a investigator to a family night with a family and it was a blast. It reminded me of family night with our family. We sang some songs, had a short message and then played a lot of games and at watermelon and ice cream. The investigator loved it! Two of the people we are teaching, we are also helping them out with english. It is a lot different being on the teaching end- but a lot easier. I am loving it here more and more each day! The people are so nice! Still pray for my visa. I talked to a sister waiting for hers and she said they are having missionaries stay here in the states until they get there normal visa so keep on praying. I miss and love you all!

 

Elder Roberts

9-1-13

 This week was good! I had my first Baptism on Saturday! It was awesome! His name is Oscar. He has only been in America for like 8 months so he speaks no english. He works at cafe rio in sandy and a sister that just returned from her mission in Chile brought him to us. He was way ready for the gospel! Spanish is really hard but it is getting better! I can understand it if we're talking about the gospel but anything else I am still lost. I still don't get to speak it that much but it is getting better. We have been teaching this lady the whole entire time I have been here. She has been taught by the missionaries forever. She is totally ready to be baptized but she works on Sundays and can't come to church. We are trying to get her to talk to her boss or try to find a new job. But we got her to come to church so that was awesome! We were excited about that. I have loved the cloudy and rainy weather! It has been the best! Thanks for everything! I love and miss you all!!!!

Elder Roberts

My room and closet in Kearns

I'm going to SALT LAKE CITY!

Elder Dave Southwick picking up the missionaries. He was Wayne's boss for many years. (What are the odds of that?) He passed along this package to Parker! Thanks Dave!

August 14 

This week was really good! I am getting really excited to serve in South Salt Lake. I still can't believe I am serving there! On Sunday I had to give a 5 minute talk in Spanish! It went pretty well. The last few days have been pretty lonely because my whole district left. It is weird not seeing them. Yesterday for the Tuesday night devotional I got to hear from Richard G. Scott!!!!! It was awesome. He talked about prayer and the spirit was so strong. It was really good. At the end of his talk he gave a Apostolic blessing to every missionary learning a language with the gift of tongues! It was so cool! I am so glad I was able to hear him speak. Yesterday I went to the dentist so I got to go off campus. It was way fun. The shuttle driver who drove me to the dentist lives in the room right next to Tyler. It was fun to talk to him. I loved hearing the mtc lady talk to you guys on the phone. I think it was Jaxson that answered the phone and I loved hearing that. Ya the lady at the dentist was so nice! I hope you loved the picture! Packing was pretty hard. Mom I wish you were there to help me. My big bag weighs exactly 50lbs and my small one weighs 35lbs and my backpack is like 25lbs, but they are all packed with stuff. I am getting on the front runner at 12:50 so I am excited for that. Well maybe I will see you in the next few weeks! I love and miss you all!

August 19

This week was pretty good! Mom I loved your package. I got it right off the Front Runner. Thank you so much for that. The dentist gave me this sensitive tooth paste and I used it and the next morning I did not feel a thing when I brushed, so my mouth is perfectly fine now! I am serving in Kearns!! They put me with the zone leaders so I am in a trio! My companions are Elder Johnston and Elder Birch. Elder Johnston is from Atlanta but his family just moved to Lehi and Elder Birch is from Arizona. I really like them. Right after I got dropped off and met my companions, we took an investigator up to Temple Square and got a tour there! It was weird being in Salt Lake, but it was fun. There is a lot of Spanish here. We are the Spanish elders for our stake so we mainly work with Spanish people but we run into a few English speaking people. I cannot understand a thing everyone is saying! It is really hard. Also because I am with the zone leaders, they are super busy so I hardly get anytime for language study, so it is pretty hard. It is pretty ghetto here.  I guess in Kearns tracting is really effective so we do that a lot. The Hispanics are really nice but a lot of the white people are not too happy when we knock on their door. They get pretty mad sometimes. We mainly tract in apartment complexes and there are a ton of those. This area reminds me of the ghetto place on the movie The Blind Side where Mike's mom lives. A lot of people smoke so I do not enjoy going into their homes. I live in a members basement. There are two rooms and a bathroom. One bedroom with 3 beds in it and all three of us have to share a closet. The other room is where we study and there is a fridge in there also. I don't think anyone here has air conditioning so I am constantly sweating. Even where I live there is no AC, so it is so hot but I am always so tired that I can fall asleep pretty fast. I don't think 8 hours of sleep is enough. I am tired throughout the whole day and it is hard to stay focused. There are times where I can't keep my eyes open. The Mexicans here make way good food! I don't know what most of it is and it is really discolored, but it's delicious! Church was kind of weird. We have Priesthood first then Sunday School and then Sacrament. I did not understand anything at church. After church we took another investigator up to Temple Square! It is fun going up there! I miss and love you all so much! Thanks for everything!

Elder Parker Roberts

Ps. I totally forgot my camera so I will send pictures next week. Remember to pray for my visa! I just read a letter from Jake Owen and he is in the Argentina empty sea. He said in September and October they are going to send all the missionaries going to Buenos Aires over there so I might only have a few weeks left here so I will make the most of it !!!

Pictures taken from the car! And yes it is fuzzy, but there is Parker holding my bright orange package!

Last week in the "Empty Sea"!

                                               Jordan's last night in the MTC! See you in 2!
Hola familia! This weeks was really good! Spanish is still really hard but it is coming along pretty well. Yesterday I got to teach a family in Mexico through skype! It was so fun! It was an old lady and her grandson and granddaughter. I had a hard time talking to the old lady so I mainly talked to the little kids. They were so funny! They loved singing songs to us. This past week my district has been the only district in our zone so when a district leaves their teachers come to our class! It has helped out because there is a lot more one on one time. Instead of having one teacher in each class, we have 3 or 4! It is pretty crazy. This past week I have worked a lot with Crayton Hardy and that's been way fun. For the Sunday night devotional Dallin H Oak's daughter spoke to us! It was really good! She is super good at the violin so throughout her talk she would play some songs on the violin! It was awesome! 

I loved seeing Tyler! I was so happy to see him! I won't be able to call you until I go to the airport which will most likely be Monday or Tuesday So if you want to hear about my reassignment have Tyler come and find on Friday! And when I call you from the airport, everyone has been leaving really early in the morning so answer the phone if you get a call 2 or 3 in the morning. Also the empty sea wont have the scriptures until end of this month so could you send me some??? Tell them to give you the missionary discount. I haven't heard any good news about visas. I hope that changes. I love playing basketball in the mornings! Its super early to play basketball but I still love it. Elder Estrada in another district has some heart problems so he got extended an extra two weeks, so he has to stay with us so our room and it is pretty full. He had to go to the mtc hospital yesterday so I got to ride in a car with him. It was pretty fun to ride in a car. Today my zone is getting two Portuguese districts! I am excited about that. That is about all that happened! Thank you so much for the packages! I love them. If you have anything else to send me, Saturday is probably the last day I can pick it up. I love you all so much! Miss you all! Have fun at the family reunion. I loved Grandpa and Grandma Clark's letter! Tell Grandma and Grandpa Roberts thanks for the package. I will send you pictures later today!