June 1, 2015

Hi family!! 

It has been a sad week for me but happy because of what's ahead!! 

I did indeed did get transferred!! Wednesday was a crazy day!! I kind of felt like I was being dropped off at the MTC again and I was saying bye to all of my investigators and all of the members!! haha But I am happy to see what the Lord has in store for me in my next area!! 

 I am now serving in the Millersport area and am in the Lancaster ward!! I am once again in an even smaller town and am surrounded by cornfields!! (We live in a small house about 2 miles out of the town)  My new companion is Elder Black and even though he has a great last name we don't exactly see eye to eye!! haha But I am sure that with the Lords help we will be able to figure everything out!!

My new area has been a little sad. Completely dead!! We honestly have nobody to go see! So for the first time in my mission i left the apartment at 10 AM and tracked until 9pm!! It wasn't exactly the funnest thing I have ever done but I am happy to be doing the lord work!  I have faith that in the next coming weeks that this will turn out to be my favorite area!! I haven’t met a single person that has been rude to us yet!! Some dont want to talk but they are polite about it!! 

I am so excited to be back in a ward!! This week was stake conference for the stake that I am in now but I have loved all of the ward members that I have met!! 

Sunday was a great day for me!! I attended one of the best stake conferences ever!! There was an area 70 there named Elder Kunz!! He was awesome!! He did several things that i have never seen before but absolutely loved!! I only have time to tell like one but he did several things like this!! He stood up and asked all of the primary children to stand up and sing i am a child of god so they did. Right after they were finished the spirit was so strong and he stood back up and asked everyone to think of a name of a person that they know that could be baptized in the next 6 months and then to write it down!! It was amazing to watch everyone pull out a piece of paper and write their name down!! He then told us much more about the spirit and how it works!! He told us that if we truly pray and have faith that he knows that our name that came to our minds can and will be baptized!! 

For the rest of his talk he talked about the Gospel of Jesus-Christ! He told us that the gospel of Jesus Christ is simply the missionary purpose "Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end."

He then went through and talked more about those 5 points!! The spirit was so strong for and for some reason this was one my favorite meeting that I have been to on my mission!!

I love being a missionary!! I know that this church is true and that this is the only true church on the earth today!! I know Jesus Christ lives and stands at the head of this church!! I love being a missionary and feeling the spirit each and every day!! It is so fun for me to be an official representative of the church and i love testifying to people about what we believe and helping them grown closer to Jesus Christ!! 

I hope you all have an amazing week! 

Love Elder Roper

This is where we live.  The basement is a chiropractic office of a member of the ward!! Sometimes I feel like I am in a scary movie because there are corn fields on all for sides of us!  I love it

May 26, 2015

HI family! 

I had a very exciting week!! Tuesday we once again had a great lesson with Randy and the Family.  Monday night we were stuck during planning and couldn't figure out what we should teach them the next day! We both felt prompted that we needed to show them a conference talk but we had no idea which one to show. So we pulled out our notes from conference and decided to show them the talk Called Choose To Believe by Elder Clayton. It's the one about the plane crash and following the light.

We didn't know exactly what they would think about it but as it ended the room was silent and the Spirit was SO strong!! I felt prompted to invite them to be baptized on June 13..So I did! hah and they accepted!! It was so amazing!! I Love following the prompting of the spirit because you can never go wrong!

Friday we were in Columbus for Ipad training. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting though. I thought they were going to teach us how to use the apps and how to use the ipads but it was all about how the i pads are a tool for use to use and it isn't a missionary.  They said that we aren't becoming and ipad mission but that we will be missionary's with an i pad to help us enhance the work. 

One of my favorite talks that I read this week was Stay by the Tree By Elder Pearson. It hit me so hard during Personal study that I read it several times!!  It made me think of my mission in a different way! He says That to "hang in there" Is not a principle of the Gospel and that if we are Enduring to the end than we are constantly coming unto Christ and being perfected in him!  He says that casual obedience and lukewarm commitment weaken faith!!I have been in Greenfield for 6 months now and looking back sometimes it's has been easy to have casual obedience and leave lukewarm commitments with investigators and with myself. But later in the talk he gives 6 things that we can do to help us endure to the end!! The reason this week was so great was because I was trying my hardest to do those 6 things and rely more and my Savior and let him help me be Obedient and have 100% commitments!! I loved this talk!!

I will probably be transferred on Thursday and i am so sad to be leaving here!! This place seriously feels like home!! Even though I am scared to death to get a new area and companion I know that with the Savior I really can conqueror anything!!:) So I cant wait to see what happens this next week!! The lord never promised that it would be easy but he did say that it would be worth it!! I know that we all have trials and sometimes they seem impossible but I also know that we can get through them with the lord and be made stronger from them!! 

I hope you all had a wonderful memorial day!! For my memorial day we went to an amazing BBQ where they smoked a pig!! haha Then we played some serious Corn hole! I love Ohio!! Be grateful that you don’t have humidity!Make it a great week! 

Love Elder Roper

May 18, 2015

Hi Family,

It was yet again another great week here in Greenfield. Monday we had an amazing district activity. It was a lot of fun, basically we ate, golfed, played a little bit of rugby ( 2 hand touch) and just had a good time, but I really do have like the greatest district in the mission.

Wednesday we had District meeting, and...I played the opening and closing songs on the piano with no mistakes!  I played sweet hour of prayer and choose the right. Every P-day I go to the church and practice for like 30 minutes and I guess its starting to pay off.  So mom all of those years of piano lessons weren't a waste!  I do wish more than ever that I wouldn't have quit though. Ben keep playing the piano it is so worth it!

The rest of the week was pretty normal I went on an exchange to Madison lake for a day and that was fun. 

The best part of the week had to be church. All of our investigators that we are teaching came. It was so awesome.  We had 8 Investigators at church and our Gospel Principles lesson in church was on our heavenly family and it was perfect.  The spirit was so strong and the talks in sacrament meeting were even better. This church is so true and there really is nothing more fun than watching my investigators progress and grow their relationship with Christ.

This is just a side note but we got a call from our zone leaders yesterday congratulating us for our amazing week.  My companion and I have been focusing a lot on making sure that we have a face with each of our numbers and not just putting down a number unless we cover every point that preach my gospel says.  Missionary work is just great! 

I love planning each night and praying to know what we should teach our investigators and then have the spirit help us plan an amazing lesson.  Then we go preach this lesson and let the spirit teach and then have our investigators say to us that it was exactly what they need to hear.

Having the spirit with us is just like the greatest thing ever!  

I Love My mission! Life is just Great!:)

Make it a great week!! 

Love Elder Roper

May 11, 2015

Well folks,

Happy Mothers Day! 

It was so fun talking to you yesterday.  I can't believe that we got it to work out where I could not only talk but also see Cameron. That was awesome! 

I basically told you everything that happened in my week yesterday but right after we finished skyping the Stanley’s invited us over and we put him on date for the 6 of June. He is so excited and so are we!

On Wednesday we were in Columbus for zone conference.  It was probably the best meeting I have been to on my mission.  My Mission President is just amazing!  It all about understanding the Atonement and how we can better use it in our lives.  He told us that the atonement is the most basic fundamental of the gospel and yet the least understood.  I love the atonement and I am so grateful that we all have the opportunity to study and use it in our lives each and every day.

This church is SO true and I really don’t know where I would be with out it.

I love going out each and every day and trying my best to share the gospel with everyone that I see!! Life is just great!

I love you all so much. 

Make it a great week:) 

Love Elder Roper 

May 5, 2015

Hey family,

This was a crazy week and a little disappointing.  We had to go to Columbus 3 different times and that always takes up so much time.  My comp and I have started parking our car more and walking and riding our bikes.  It is always sad for me to be driving and passing all of the people that I could be talking to and tell them about how the true gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth.

We had a zone meeting on Wednesday and  this Wednesday we have another one. This month is going to be a crazy one.  We got news that we will be getting iPads at the beginning of next month and will have a lot of training this month to prepare for them.

My investigators are all progressing very wel.  We have started teaching Misty’s mom and she will be at church this week.  It has been a little weird at church lately because 2 weeks ago we had a broadcast and last week we had Stake Conference but luckily our investigators area still coming.

My companion and I are realizing that in everything we do our attitudes and efforts are the only things we can control.  So this week that is what we have been working on.  President Monson said that "So much in life depends on our ATTITUDE”. The way we chose to see things and respond to others makes all the difference.  We all have hard times and difficult situations but if we can always keep a good attitude and give it our all then everything will work out.  I love my mission and am so excited for the warm weather because people are finally starting to come out of their houses! 

On Saturday we went mushroom hunting with Randy and Misty.  I guess that is a big thing our here.  Ha-ha we basically went into the wood and walked around and looked for mushrooms then went home and fried them up.  I don’t even like mushrooms but I guess the lord has blessed me with no taste buds while I’m out here because I didn’t even make a face as I ate them! ha-ha. 

Thanks for everything! 

Make it a great week!!  

Love Elder Roper