March 16, 2014

March 16, 2014

To start off I would like to just give a little shout out to a beautiful girl named Morgan!!! Happy Birthday last week!! Hope it was a good one!

This week has been a little slow nothing to exciting except last Friday was pretty interesting… You will probably think that I am a bad missionary for this but I guess that kind of is half of the reason, just my normal Braden Roberts side coming out but it is also because my Chinese is bad and so I just say what pops into my mind!! haha Anyways we were on our way to a less actives house and a tai ke (punk kid) drove by with his girlfriend on the back and he yelled hello trying be funny and speed by us but luckily for me the light just down the road turned red so I pick up the speed a little so I could talk to him and I cruise up and skid up next to him and this is how the conversation went:

Me: wow hello handsome boy!!! ( with a huge smile)

Him: hello.... ( kind of embarrassed but happy because a white guy just called him handsome in front of his girlfriend)

Me: how’s your day?

Him: not to bad!

Me: Oh cool, so where are you off to?

Him: I’m going home....

This is when I decide to have some fun haha I get a little grin on my face and look back at his girlfriend then back at him and say:

Me: Oh that should be fun.... haha

Oooops probably shouldn't do that as a missionary.... but those are the words that came to my head.... the guy just smiled and the girl got super embarrassed and put her face into the guys back and wouldn't talk to me.... haha I talked to him a little more but the light changed and they left and I had a good laugh about it and kept on my way to the less actives house. This less active was super cool!! He plays the guitar and a Chinese version of a violin, but that isn't even the cool part.  He lives on the beach and has a beach front house!!! But wait there is even more!!! haha His job is to take people scuba diving and they take harpoon guns!!! We went and visited him at 7 pm and when we were leaving he started to get ready to go to work.... it is dark and it is like 8pm!!!  But I found out they go out from like 11pm to 4am. There is no way you could get me out in the middle of the ocean at 1 in the morning to go hunting for fish that are bigger than me!!! They are crazy!!!

Earlier Friday we had another funny experience one that Elder Ng says he has never seen before and he has been here over a year!! We were out riding around contacting and a big buss full of like high school students was turning in front of us and they were all staring at us.... so I decided to smile and wave at them. In the back of the buss I noticed some girls were already waving so I looked at them and waved then they started to blow me kisses, that was awkward at first, I went to blow them back but then I thought I was a missionary so I probably shouldn't do that! Then it got really awkward so I just smiled and kept waving... haha just part of a day’s work as Elder Roberts :)

The church is true and will bless you more than anything else! This week I read one of my favorite chapters in the book of Mormon!! Alma 14! It is so good you guys should read it and tell me what you think!! I know that through our Faith we can accomplish anything!! Stay strong and stay on the Lords side and you will see miracles! 

Love you guys!! Just another Week in PARADISE! I’m about to take off!!! Hope you feel the same way about your life if not then change something so it is paradise!! Your day will only be as good as you make it!!! 

Love you lots!!

Love Elder Roberts!!!!!

March 9, 2014

March 9, 2014

Wow Mom You still know what I am thinking even though I am on the other side of the world! Pretty much everything you said in your email I have been thinking about this week! I kept wondering if you guys had got the cars fixed yet haha that’s weird! I don’t know why that came to mind! About Brett’s baseball game, of course he is a favorite haha look who he is coming after LOL he is such a stud tell him good luck and I wish I could be there! Oh what I would give to sit and watch a baseball game with my family right now :) Then just this morning we were talking about Garrett hitting his year mark and when I left he was around his 5 month mark. We also were talking about how close Rob and Amy are to having a little girl!! When is she due? :) That is so awesome I wish I could be there to hear you speak! You will be fine. Let me know how many times you cry ;) haha I gave my 5th talk in sacrament Sunday but it was in Chinese so a little bit more complicated. I use pretty much every single word I know and it barely lasted like 3 minutes. So fun! They called me Saturday night when we were planning and asked if I could give a five minute talk on Sunday in sacrament meeting. They kind of just think since we are missionaries we don't need any preparation we just have it ready which kind of is the case but still. Elder Brinely got asked 5 minutes before priesthood meeting started if he would do a 5 minute spiritual share to start class...... haha no pressure! :) I'm sure you will do great mom good luck!!!

Our area is pretty cool, we are in a 4 man so it is like a party all the time, especially at night! Me and Elder Brinely are getting pretty close, he is only one move call ahead of me so we are kind of in the same spot of our mission but his Chinese is way better than mine! In our apartment it is pretty packed! It isn't much bigger than a normal one but there is twice as many people so it gets pretty squishy!! It is super fun being in a 4 man though but hard because there is always someone to talk to so you have to stay focused! My companion is super awesome, he is so humble and caring! He reminds me of grandma almost haha for example I farted when we were getting ready and it was a pretty good one so I warned him and then he pulls out his febreze and sprays over by me then waits about 30 seconds and asks if that is better and if I’m ok? He sprayed the febreze so I wouldn't smell it anymore.... haha silly guy :)

The area with investigators is really slow right now but I am hopefully going to change that.  That is my goal at least!  We don't have any baptismal dates and like 0 progressing investigators.... not sure what was going on before but we have a couple interesting eternal investigators (they have been investigating for like 6 months) one of them I met with by myself and we talked about baptism and I asked him like why he hadn't been baptized and he said he doesn't have any motivation and no goal.... so I jumped on that and gave him a goal that he accepted at first then at the end of the lesson he decided not to and said he hates goals and he has had a lot and they don't do anything, it really confused me but he said he knows the church is true and so we just need to find the one thing that will help him get the motivation. The other guys just kind of wants to hear about the church and learn more so I’m not really sure what to do with him he doesn't really have any interest in baptism.... so wish us luck with them!

The ward here is awesome though!! They are so willing to help us and do missionary work with us it is amazing! People say that this is one of the best wards in Taiwan so I feel really lucky to be here and a lot of people speak English so that makes it even better!  We have one RC (recent convert) he is 87 and we went and played ping pong with him and got completely embarrassed!! He totally dominated us!!! haha he is super cool! 

We did a lot of tracking and finding this week and we had some funny experiences! We knocked on a door and an older lady came out and started to talk to us in Taiwanese and Elder Ng (ing) knows some so he talked a little bit and most people act like they don't know Chinese because they don’t want to talk to us, which is what she was doing! haha but we aren't that stupid and Elder Ng slowly worked the conversation to Chinese, silly lady forgot she knew Chinese I guess. We also went and visited this really old guy named fu bei bei (few bay bay) and when he opened the door he said he didn’t have time because he was eating.... haha so we talked to him a little bit then he started to get really mad at us and start to tell us how we never bring him anything and he is super hungry and doesn't have any food.  He eventually let us in and talked to us how he doesn't have food or warm clothes, but he was wearing a sweater with a vest and then he also had food all over his face!!! haha it gave me a good laugh!

This week we had a really amazing miracle happen to us! I think it was this last Wednesday we were trying really hard to get lessons set up for in the morning but we couldn't get anything until lunch and so Elder Ng decided to take me to one of our secondary areas to show me around, he says we don't go over there very often but it would be good for me to get to know the area, so we headed over there right out the door. As we were riding down the road contacting, some members pulled up and asked if we could go with them for a little bit because they needed help. So we said we could because we didn't have anything going on for a little bit and it seemed like they really needed our help! When we got in the car they started to tell us what was going on and they said one of their friends is going in for surgery tomorrow because he has a tumor on his back and they wanted us to give him a blessing. They had been trying to get a hold of us but they couldn't find our number and so they said they had just been praying that they would be able to find us or run into us and geng hao we were both at the same intersection at the same time!! Such a miracle that they were able to find us and that we were able to help them! We were kind of frustrated not being able to set things up but that just shows that God know better than us and knows where we need to be and what we need to do!

Put your faith in the Lord let him lead you and your life will work out a lot smoother!! He knows what we need and what is best for us! Stay positive and follow his words and you will be happy! I love you guys and miss you. I hope everything is going great for you!

Your day is only as good as you make it so why not make it PARADISE!!! :) Love ya!

Love Elder Roberts

P.S. make sure ky is going to mission prep!! It is so important and I really wish I would have taken advantage of it while I could!! Everything you do there and learn there is what you need for your mission! It will make life a lot easier when you get to the field if you already know how to teach the lessons!!! Love ya!