December 7, 2015

Hi guys,

Well another week has come and gone here in the heartland of Zanesville Ohio. Christmas time is my favorite time of year.  The stores are packed, christmas trees are up, and my favorite part, Christmas Music is always playing. I love everything about this time of year.

I'm grateful for the new video and cards we get at this time

of year because it helps me remember why we have Christmas and to remember Jesus Christ.

I can't remember if I shared this or not but a few weeks ago we had a training on helping investigators pray at the end of lessons. We have been trying to get Sirius to pray for awhile but have had some struggles. But this week we were able to have him pray and it was pretty awesome. It's hard to describe but was amazing. He is doing so great.

We had a lesson on family history and helped him set an a

FamilySearch account.  Once we got him logged in there was absolutely nothing about him in the tree, but the next time we went back he had spent hours finding his parents and had a ton of work done.  He was finally interviewed for baptism yesterday and can be baptized soon.  He is praying for a date and should be baptized by the end of the year.

I loved the Christmas Devotional last night. We watched it at Jims, a recent convert,  and Sirius was also there with us.  It was like a

little family night, Hah we all sing along with motab with every song. It was a spirit filled blast!

Today I got to have breakfast with Chad Black and his dad which made my week!  They are driving from Utah to Washington, DC to work on the DC Temple. I'm looking forward to this week. Who knows we might just have a baptism on Saturday.  I'll keep you updated. Have a great week.

Love Elder Roper

November 30, 2015

Happy Thanksgiving Family,

Oh what a week we had. We have been super lucky so far this year with the weather. It's still pretty warm outside. It's the perfect sweater weather. There are some missionary's from this ward that got home a few months ago that love to come out with us and we love it. They are becoming best friends with Sirius. They had him over for Thanksgiving

dinner and everything. 

Thursday morning we woke up and headed over to

play in our wards annual Turkey Bowl! It was exactly like the one at home. Super fun, very competitive and the adults cheat out here just like they do back home! Haha needless to say it was the perfect start to our Thanksgiving day. 

The next few hours we spent just visiting with members and a few investigators. We were invited to several dinners but only went to one. We ate at a really nice house that was

way in the woods and sat right on a huge river. There were 3 member families from the ward that ate with us. We deep fried a turkey and just had a great time. That night the streets and stores were packed.  We live across the street from a mall and it was going crazy.

Saturday was the biggest Ohio State game of the year. People were going crazy.  It was the only thing people could talk about. But they won so everyone was in a good mood after that. Sunday was great. We had a fantastic Sunday.  The talks at church were great. The new Christmas

initiatives that the church came out with are great.  It makes contacting people so much easier. 

Today was fun as well. Jim called us this morning and said he shot a deer and needed help gutting it and dragging it out of the woods. So P-day started off with a fun little bloody adventure in the woods. Well things are going pretty great. We have a lot of appointments set up that sound really promising.

I hope you all have a great week!

Love Elder Roper

Elder Elzek & Elder Roper

November 23, 2015

Hi guys,

Oh, what a week!

Some of the highlights were Zone conference with Elder Cardon from the Presidency of the 70. It lasted All Day which was a little bit hard but I'm the end I loved it. It was different from other zone conferences because we sat in the chapel the Whole day and just listened and asked some questions. Normally we get up and role play, or go to different rooms to listen to trainings from other people, but for this one our

Mission President spoke for 30 mins and the rest of the time was Elder Cardon.

I totally forgot to finish writing this, sorry.  But it was a

grand week. My companion and I get along great, the work is moving forward at a quick rate, and I love being apart of it! Happy Thanksgiving,

Love Elder Roper

November 18, 2015

Hi family,

Well I emailed just a few days ago but already lots has happened. The leaves have all basically fallen and it is officially sweater weather.

My name was the last named called out at transfer meeting and the anticipation was killing me.  But I am very happy with the results.  My new companion is my 6th grade buddy Elder Caleb Elzey from American Fork!  I honestly can't believe we get to serve together but this should be a pretty good transfer. It's a 5 weeks transfer because of the holidays, but it's been good so far!

Sirius is doing great. We read him the baptismal interview questions and he should be good to be interviewed hopefully this Sunday.  We had an amazing lesson with Jim in a members home last night and then dinner. This member volunteered to let us come and help us teach him the new members lessons. They are great.  We talked about the Book of Mormon and the importance of daily scripture study.  He is doing great.  We set a date for him to go to the temple at the end of this month so that should be fun.

Yesterday in church a returned missionary talked about some blessings of a mission and I loved them so I will share them with you!:) First he said that when you leave your love for your family and there love for you automatically increases.  The second your family leaves you on the curb at the MTC you feel a sense of love that is indescribable. I didn't realize how much I loved my family until I had to leave them for 2 years!

Second, on a mission you get to grow and have a personal

relationship with Jesus Christ that you really won't get to have

anywhere else. As I represent him and tell others about him my

relationships seems to grow daily. I love it!

Thanks for the prayers, they help! I hope you all have a fantastic week.

Love Elder Roper

Elder Elzey and Elder Roper

November 11, 2015

Hi family,

How is everyone? I am doing pretty great. My week seemed a little long because p-day wasn't until today. Another transfer has already come and gone! This seemed like the fastest transfer I have had yet.

On Tuesday I got to spent the day with elder Jones from American Fork and that was a blast.

For the past few weeks we have been able to play volleyball on Friday nights with some couples in the ward and Sirius. It is SO competitive and fun.  It has become a great way to do missionary work. Members bring a friend and at the end we try to have a lesson. Everyone loves it.  This ward is amazing at fellow shipping.  

Every week after church someone seems to invite Sirius over.  At dinner on Sunday a family invited us to start teaching him the new member lesson at their house.

We got some amazing news yesterday! We finally received news that Sirus can be interviewed for baptism. It has been a long processes and we don't even know if he can be baptized yet but an interview is a step in the right direction.

We literally received the call like 30 seconds ago that my companion is being transfers. I have loved being with Elder Sloan. We have had some pretty amazing experiences happen to us as we have been together. He will be missed.  Let the adrenalin

begin! The next 24 hours are awesome. I am anxious to see who my next companion will be!

I hope everything is great back home,

Love Elder Roper

November 2, 2015

Hey guys,

I had a pretty solid week.

With the few minutes I have I'll share something that happened. Thursday was our wards trunk or treat, and with some help from Jim we went all out. We decorated the out side of his car then dressed up in camo. It was a blast!  I wasn't really expecting to many people to show up but holy cow, There were people everywhere! I have never met so

many potentials at one time. It seemed like everyone in the ward brought a family to introduce us too. It was an amazing turn out and everyone was happy!

Halloween was awesome.  We went contacting for part of the day but at night we went to a members house and did service on their farm.  We split wood under the lights until we had to go home, and I loved it.

Sunday was my favorite day this week.  Between the 2 sets of missionary we had so many people at church.  Our gospel principles class that normally is a little awkward was clear full of investigators and recent converts.  Testimony meeting was amazing. I have never seen one like it before. There was never a moment of silence. There was always a line of people ready to share what they know to be true. It was

perfect!

I have to go,

Have a fantastic week,

Love Elder Roper