December 29, 2014

Hello everyone,

This week has all just been a blur in my head but I made sure to write it all in my journal because it is one that I never want to forget. 

Wednesday was spent doing service all day. Our Mission President said not to be tracting or spend too much time in people’s homes so we decided that doing service would be a great thing to do.  We started out the day by walking this less active lady’s dog because she had surgery done on her knee and it needed to be walked.  After that we headed over to the Hall’s new house. They are one of the amazing family's in our branch who I love dearly!  Basically we spent the rest of the day at there house building a deck/roof.  It was so much fun and we got a lot of work done.  Then we headed over to the Borsini family.  They had us over for a nice Christmas Eve dinner.  They drove us around and we got to look and some sweet Christmas Lights. The highlight of the day was making cookies there and doorbell ditching them to less-actives and investigators in the Branch.  I love doing service when nobody finds out who did it.

Thursday was a marvelous day.  We were invited over for lunch/dinner at the Murphy home.  She had all of her kids there which was fun because non of her kids were members. I love the He Is The Gift video and we showed it to all of them and they all loved it too. Then we headed back over to the Borsini to Skype home.  This was so fun.

I loved being able to see my family and talk to them.  One of the highlights was being able to hear my brothers voice and talk to him for a minute even though he is clear in Chile!.

I went into Skype telling myself that I would not cry while I skyped but after hearing Cameron’s voice and saying bye to him I would be lying if I said I didn't cry for a minute.  But I didn’t cry when I said by to everyone in Utah so that is always good.

  

I loved spending Christmas on my mission and wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. One of the reason it was so great is because I didn’t spend the morning thinking about what I had gotten or what I wish I would have gotten, but spending a few min reading my scriptures and just being thankful for what I had. 

Friday and Saturday were SO productive it was crazy.  We found 4 new investigators and were supposed to have 7 at church the next day. We had another AMAZING lesson with Karen. She is down to one cigarette a day and plans on dropping them all on the first. We put her on date for the 10th and she is so excited. 

Sunday was an interesting day. We had PEC early that morning and had to leave 4 times because we got 4 different phone calls from investigators telling us that they were sick and weren’t going to be able to make it to church.  To be honest it was a little depressing but everything happens for a reason. Sacrament meeting was one of the weirdest meetings I have ever sat through. My Mission President and his wife drove down to talk to the branch and while President Daine’s was speaking this crazy lady in our branch spoke up and asked if she could ask a question and before he could respond she started kind of yelling and telling him about a bunch of drama and stuff that shouldn’t have been said in front of everyone. 

After the stake president and branch president told her to be quite several times she finally did.  It made for an interesting meeting and kept everyone on the edge of there seats.  I guess it was kind of good that we didn’t have all 7 investigators at church because they would have probably never came back.

I am so grateful for this time of year. I loved thinking tons about Christ and giving this Christmas season and have already started thinking about goals that I want to set for myself for the next year.  I hope that we can always remember Christ not only at this time of year but throughout the year.  I know that Christ knows each of us by name and that prayers are answered.

I love you all,

Love Elder Roper