Love the Ponce Family

This week was great! The ward is super excited about the Ponce family. They are so awesome! Lucas, Facundo and Sergio received the priesthood yesterday! Johnny and Andrea are incredible people! They came to church again yesterday! The ward has done a lot for them also. Our Stake President also went and visited them this week! Johnny and Andrea have so much faith. Andrea told us she wants to get baptized so bad and they both love learning about the temple. They told us this week that their son won't return to them but they have to return to him! Thanks for the prayers and keep praying for them! The area is going pretty well right now. We really need to find new people right now. We are working with Magali right now. She is another member of the Ponce family. She could get baptized this week so please pray for her. The mom of the family also is doing great but we cant see her Monday through Friday because of her work schedule. She has been coming to church and really likes it. She smokes a lot so we are trying to help her with that. Her name is Eugenia. I am loving this ward. This ward is amazing. Everyone is so united and involved! Thanks so much for all the prayers! Love you guys!

Sweet Bastian!

Hola!!!! This week was awesome but also really sad. I don't know if you remember Johnny and Andrea. They are awesome investigators. They go to church and everything, but they cant get baptized because Johnny doesn't have his DNI and they can't get married. This Thursday, their 3 yr old son was hit by a motorcycle and killed. The story is so sad. The guy that hit him, robbed the motorcycle and when he hit Bastian, he gunned off and they can't find him. Friday we went to a funeral thing that they held for Bastian and it was so sad. Johnny and Andrea are devastated but they are also so strong. Sunday they went to church! They both have a testimony of the plan of salvation. They are huge examples. The ward is also devastated. But the members are doing so much for them, it's incredible. Please pray for them. Yesterday 5 members of the Ponce family got baptized! It was so awesome! This family is incredible! This family has a ton of potential and they will do great things in the gospel! We are working with a kid named Andres. He went to seminary everyday this week but we are struggling to find time to teach him. We have only taught him once. He went to church yesterday and really liked it. Please pray for him! That's about it for this week. Please be praying for johnny and Andrea! Love you guys!!!

Conference weekend

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Conference weekend was awesome!!! I loved the talk Elder Ringwood gave on Saturday! I also loved Elder Holland's talk! My stake center is the mission office of our mission, so I got to watch it in English in the mission office! It was super nice. My Stake President here got called to be in the Seventy!! He is a super nice guy! Yesterday Pablo got baptized! It was a good experience. His brother Ariel last minute decided not to get baptized but I think he will do it this week. A lot of Pablo's family came to the baptism! His uncle that's not a member started clapping when he got baptized but quickly stopped when he saw that no one else was clapping. It was kind of funny. The family Robles did not come to conference. They really need help. Keep praying for this family. We found an awesome family this week! Its the ponce family. The whole family went to the Sunday morning session! One of their sons, Sergio, is super awesome. He is 21 yrs old and went to every session this weekend except for one. We didn't even invite him to the Sunday evening session and he showed up! Please pray for this family! This week President Ayre came out and worked with me and Elder Bonilla one night! It was a super good experience! I learned alot from him! Thanks for all the prayers! Enjoy spring break! Love you all!

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Hola familia!!! Tell Jaxson happy birthday from me!!!! This week was great! Ariel got baptized and had a great experience! He has a really rough life. We have been working a ton with the Ponce family this week and they are progressing super well. Two of them, Lucas and Facundo, went to seminary everyday this week and they love it! A lot of this family could get baptized this week so please pray for them. Its an incredible family! They surprise me every time we teach them! This ward is so awesome! The Bishop here is amazing. It is so impressive what he has done in this ward and what he is doing! The converts here are so strong! Felipe the guy that got baptized a bit ago shared his testimony in Sacrament Meeting yesterday and it was awesome! He is such a funny guy. Everything is going super well here! Thank you so much for the prayers. Keep praying for the Ponce family! Love you all!!!

Elder Bonilla is my new companion

Letter from Parker

March 24

Hola!!!! I am writing today because today is transfers. Me and elder Molina will be separated. I have loved being with him for the second time. He is such an awesome companion. I am going to miss him a ton! My new companion is Elder Bonilla from Honduras! It is very possible that he is my last companion in the mission. He got baptized when he was 12 yrs old with his whole family. He is 21 yrs old! I have never had a companion younger than me in my whole entire mission. I am super excited to be with him!! This week Derek got baptized! It was an awesome experience! We found him one day in the street and found out that he lives with a family that are members. He was really prepared! He is awesome! We are working with a few investigator right now. A few weeks ago we found Maria Jose. She got baptized 20 yrs ago and is inactive right now. Her kids are Ariel and Pablo. They are 15 and 11 yrs old. They have been going to church for two weeks. This week Ariel went to seminary a few times. They could get baptized this week but they will need a lot of help. Please pray for them. We have been working with Brian. He is 15 yrs old and his grandma is a member. He has came to church for three weeks so please pray for him. This week we will be working with Jose and Janina. They have a family with 5 kids and are struggling right now. The parents went to church for the first time Sunday and talked with the bishop. The church is going to help the family with food and things like that. We taught them once and they had nothing in their house. They didn't want to sit on the floor so we had to teach all standing up. But the lesson went great. Please pray for them. Thanks for everything! I love you all!

March 30

HOLA!!! That is sad news about Spencer's dad. Spencer is such an awesome kid. That would be so hard. 

This week was good. My new companion is awesome! He is a super hard worker! The ward is progressing a ton! Yesterday the bishop came out and worked with us and he told me before I leave this ward they will split the ward in half and make two separate wards! I am excited to see what happens. A year ago this ward was a Branch and it is growing so much. Everyone is so young. The bishop is 30 yrs old. One of his counselors was baptized only 5 yrs ago. All the leaders in the ward are like 20 something yrs old. For the last hour of church yesterday, the bishop got the whole ward together and taught about missionary work. It was so awesome! This Friday we will do a church open house!!! I am way excited! In my last ward there were baptisms that came out of a church open house. We are still working with Ariel and Pablo. They are progressing very well. Please pray for them. Also pray for Brian. He is feeling a lot more comfortable in church and is progressing very well. We are going to start working with the Robles family again. This is the family that their dad passed away 5 months ago. They are so awesome! The weather here has cooled down a ton. Its so much better at nights. Its officially fall right now! Dad, in my area there is a huge GSK building! I was really surprised when I saw it. Welp that's about it for my week. Thanks for all the prayer! Love you guys!

Elder Roberts

Happy Birthday!

Hows it going?? Mom, I did my interview with president Ayre. It was very simple and fast. My birthday was great! I got 3 different cakes!!! We went to the city this morning and so I practically have no time to write but this week was awesome! Alejandro got baptized!!! He is such an awesome guy. He makes me laugh so much! He had a big change in his life. He was so prepared for the gospel. We got to know him two weeks ago and he progressed perfectly! We also found several new people to teach this week. We had 9 investigators at church yesterday! Please pray for Derek. He could get baptized this week. Also please pray for Maria, Pablo and Ariel. They are an awesome family we found this week. We are working a little with Felipe's wife Daniela. She is scared of the water and says there is no way she will put herself in a baptismal font. The Robles family didn't go to church but please pray for them. Their dad passed away a few months ago and they really need the gospel! That's about it for this week. Thank you so much for all the prayers! Love ya!

A visit from Elder Zaballos

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This week we had a mission tour. Elder Zeballos of the seventy came and talked to the whole mission! It was super good. We learned a lot. He talked a lot about his mission and also about learning Spanish and English. He said those that speak Spanish and English can communicate with 80 percent of the members of the church. We had to promise him to keep studying Spanish after the mission. We are still working hard with Felipe! He is down to smoking like 10 everyday! On the days that he reads the Book of Mormon, he hardly smokes. But when he doesn't read, he smokes a lot more! We have the goal with him to quit this week and get baptized this weekend but it will be a miracle so please pray for him. He is such an awesome and funny guy! Johnny and Andrea are doing good but they have the worst luck ever. They are committed to get married but Johnny doesn't have his dni, so he has to get a new one and for his job. He works with a lot of cement and he doesn't have fingerprints because they got sanded off in his work, so he has to wait for his finger prints to grow back. We are hoping this week they will grow back enough. But they are awesome! They share the gospel with a lot of people so we are finding a lot through them. My area is another area where Austin Collie served. I met one of his converts this week. She showed me a ton of pictures of him. That's about it for this week. Love you all!!

Hola!!!! Thanks for the birthday present mom!!! I can't believe I will turn 20 this week. It's so crazy. This week was awesome! Felipe got baptized this Saturday! It was a huge miracle! In like 2 or 3 weeks he went from smoking 40 cigarettes daily to nothing. He says he wakes up every morning with chest pains but he is fully committed to never smoke again. He is so awesome! After his baptism he shared his testimony and it was so strong. He testified that this is the true church and that God did a huge miracle in his life to help him get baptized! He is also the funniest guy I have ever met. You guys would laugh a lot just talking to him. We are working with Felipe's wife right now and she is awesome! Please pray for her. Her name is Daniela. We found some awesome investigators through the members this week. We are working a lot with Alejandro. He is Felipe's nephew. He can be baptized this week so please pray for him. Also please pray for la familia Robles. They came to church yesterday and really liked it. Also if you could pray for Derek and Brian. Thank you so much for all the prayers. That's awesome news about Chelsea's mission call! When does she leave??? Tell Jake to write me before he leaves! Love you guys!!!!

Elder Roberts3-11

Baptismal Interview by boat

Hows it going??? This week was good. My mtc companion elder thurgood is in my zone and I went and did a baptismal interview for him and his investigator lives on an island!!! We took like a twenty minute boat ride to get to his house! It was so fun to be on the water!!! The island floods a lot so all the houses are on stilts. It was super cool! This investigator will be the first person to get baptized on the island! The area is going good. We are still working with Felipe. He is struggling to quit smoking. I think we will give him 1 more week and see if he improves so please pray for him! Today we will pass by johnny and Andrea and see if they did the paper work to get married. If not we will drop them but keep praying for them. They are super awesome! We are working a lot with the Robles family. They all committed to come to church but only two of them came. Please pray for this family. We have another investigator named Damian. He is a cool guy. Most of his family are members and a few years ago he was going to get baptized and didn't pass in baptismal interview and got offended and never came back to church. He said he would like to give it another try so we will see how it goes with him. Elder Molina played ping pong for his city in Chile so we have been playing some ping pong. He struggles to beat me but we have some intense games. Welp that's about it for this week. Love you guys!

Buenos Aires- no hills anywhere!