January 26, 2015

Hello family, 

Well another week in Greenfield has come and gone.  Lots of things have happened and last night we ended with a bang.

We taught Rob Several times this week and he is progressing well.  He told us about lots of stuff that is going on in his life and about how Satan is trying harder than ever to not let him get baptized because he knows the power that comes once we receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.  I Hate Satan.  Because of some anxiety reasons he asked us not to push him toward baptism or he would have an anxiety attack and wouldn't be able to meet with us for a while so we have been trying to go slow but also leave him with little things that will help him feel the spirit.

Saturday when we met with Rob was SO amazing. He told us that he wants to quit smoking and be baptized on the 14th!  This is going to be crazy hard for him because of his other drug addictions that he has just recently over come smoking has kind of been crutch for him as he was quitting heroin. I don’t know if I told you last week or not but he just returned from Florida like a months ago from a drug addiction thing. But all on his own he came up with the dates and asked us what we thought of them.  We obviously loved them and helped him fill out a smoking chart that we came up with. He is keeping track each day how many cigarettes he uses and each day he makes sure that he doesn't use more than he did the day before.  We are trying to keep him crazy busy so that he isn't tempted to relapse. Rob could defiantly use your prayers.

Saturday we spent some time up at Martin and Karen’s.  We helped them cut down some trees and help them clean up their house and stuff.  We are a little bit stuck with Karen.  She again has promised us that she wants to be baptized on the 7th but we don’t really know what to do because she has done this to us several times. They have become really good at coming to church and I am praying that this is the one.  We are finding out more and more about Karen every time we go there her daughter is there and we figured out that in February she will be going to prison for some things she did.  This is one of the reasons that Karen is so stressed and hopefully once she gets in there Karen wont have so much stress and will be able to quit.

Yesterday was just amazing.  We figured out earlier that week that not only L Tom Perry was supposed to come but that D Todd Christopherson was supposed to come as well.  We got a text that said that L Tom Perry had fallen on some ice and wouldn’t be coming but that Elder Christopherson would be.  So Martin agreed to come see him with us.

Sunday night we all piled into brother Borsinis truck (6 of us) and drove 2 hours to Columbus to hear him speak.  It was SO powerful and I loved everything that he said.  My favorite part was Watching Martin feel the spirit as he was speaking.  I love how when he came into the chapel how we all stood up and the spirit was so strong.  He talked on the importance of baptism and about how Christ was not baptized for a remission of sins but to be obedient to the Father.

I am out of time but I hope you all have a fabulous week.  This church is so true that it is crazy.

Love Elder Roper

From the Mom:

I asked Brandon for an example of what is hard in his missionary work right now.  This was his reply:

So you asked about my hard times and the bad and ugly!! Well it seems like everyday there is just a hard time! My comp is very Trunkey (ready to go home) He only has 5 weeks left and is just done with his mission.

He is always talking about home and has kind of lost his desire to work.  My mission President and I talked and he said that there isn’t much I can do but just hold on and be strong.

 I love being on my mission and wouldn't change being out here for anything but there are definitely times where it is just hard to be out here. But I am doing great. 

I love you