Transfer 6 Week 1

Hello Everyone,

    Guess what? I got transferred again! XD 7 areas in almost seven months, I think that's a record. This time I'm serving in the Durham 5th Spanish Branch with Elder Salazar. So far we have been able to do a lot of good in the area. We have taught a few lessons, set a baptismal date and have discussed several ideas for finding new investigators. I hope to make a difference while I am here. I know that the Lord will use me as an instrument in bringing His children closer to Him and His Son Jesus Christ.

    I have had some pretty amazing study sessions the past few days. Most of them focused on the heart and where we place our focus. We are taught in the Book of Mormon that God will grant unto His children according to the desires of their hearts, whether it be unto salvation or destruction. I mentioned in an earlier blog about Laman and Lemuel and how their hearts were set on their riches in Jerusalem, this disqualified them from revelation and caused their hearts to be hardened against the Holy Ghost and led to their apostasy and the creation of the Lamanite culture. Lot's wife was another example of how having one's heart in the wrong place can lead to destruction. When she disobeyed God and looked back at Sodom and Gomorrah longingly she was transfigured into a pillar of salt. These examples not only show a lack of love for Heavenly Father, but also a lack of faith and hope in the promises that He has made unto His children. We can renew our faith, knowledge and hope in these promises by heeding His holy Prophets, reading the scriptures that they have provided and by cultivating a personal relationship with God through prayer and pure worship, meaning emulation or trying to be like His Son Jesus Christ. A great way to hearken unto the Prophets which God has provided unto us is by listening to the General Conference this next Saturday and Sunday. During the General Conference many subjects with both eternal and temporal importance will be addressed. What a great blessing it is to have men and women called of God to administer His message unto them! I would invite all to participate in this conference this weekend and to come with a question to be answered. I know that as you do so in faith, that that and other questions will be answered.

    I am so grateful for this gospel, for the opportunity to share it and see how it changes my life and the lives of the people I serve. I am  grateful to have a Prophet and twelve Apostles on the earth who lead and guide us in the path Jesus Christ has set. I am grateful for the Plan of Salvation which contains simple, yet marvelous principles and doctrines that tell us who we are, where we came from, why we are here and where we are going. I am grateful for the direction that the Gospel of Jesus Christ brings into my life and for the testimony I have of the truths therein. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the church of Jesus Christ, that same church that He set up, restored again through a modern day Prophet. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and is another testament of His Son Jesus Christ and of His love and plan for each and every one of us. I know that we are all children of Our Heavenly Father and that He knows and loves us. These things I leave with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

With Love,

Elder Roberts

Transfer 5 Week 6

Hello everyone,

    I cannot believe it is Monday already and not only that, but the end of the transfer as well. These past 6 weeks has flown by. This past week I was able to volunteer at Meals on Wheels, Helping Hands and the library while also finding time to help the missionaries and attend the Temple. I also gained a greater love for genealogy and will be starting shifts at the Family History Center this week.

This I found out that my good friend Elder Chupin is being transferred along with Elder Rodrieguez from the Garner Spanish area tomorrow and I will miss them both. I know that they are going where the Lord would have them go though. It has been really crazy this last transfer. We've had a few baptisms, found many new investigators and learned and taught quite a bit.  I have found a greater love for my Heavenly Father and have felt His love and His Spirit more abundantly as I have been laboring in His vineyard. I may not be the smartest, well equipped or best missionary, but the Lord knows when I am trying and where my weaknesses lie and He has found the most tender ways of using me to bless the lives of others, even using the weaknesses. I know that the Lord has a plan for all of His children. Not only here, but all over the world. He is not the God of one people or one nation, but the God of the whole earth and everything in the universe. He knows each and every one of His creations and both notices and loves them. However, we, as His children, are particularly dear to Him. Enough that He sent Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, to show us the way home. We lived with our Father before, we can live with Him again. As we come to follow the Savior and His teachings we will find ourselves on the path back to Our Father and into His kingdom. I know that we have a Prophet on the Earth today, who leads and guides this Church as a mouthpiece of God. When he speaks, he carries the marvelous messages that Our Father would have us know. As we follow him we come closer to the Savior, as we come closer to the Savior, we come closer to The Father. In so doing we move closer and closer to life eternal where we will know "the only true God and Jesus Christ whom [he did send.]" These things I know and leave with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

With Love,

Elder Roberts

Transfer 5 Week 5

Hello everyone,

    This past week was amazing. I assisted the missionaries in moving a lot of people progress towards baptism, attended the Temple and still found time to volunteer at Meals on Wheels and The Helping Hands Mission. There were two baptisms on Sunday for the Spanish Branch and I had the sweet experience of being able to baptise Enrique while Hermano Juanico baptised his wife Estella. I was still a bit nervous since my last baptism was a couple of years ago and in English as opposed to Spanish, but all went well. I've really gained a stronger testimony and conviction of the commandments of God and the standards of the Church. In the places I volunteer I have been able to see how living at various levels of law can really affect freedom and personal happiness. There is a distinct difference in the feelings of comfort and peace that attend those who keep the commandments and the feelings of frustration and contention that attend those who do not. It really hurts to see people living certain lifestyles when you know that they are missing such an important thing in their life. It reminds me of Alma and the Sons of Mosiah when they saw the Lamanites and their murderous and wicked ways. They wanted to bring them to a knowledge of the false traditions of their fathers and bring them into the light of the gospel. They suffered all manners of affliction: being smote on the cheek, stoned, bound with cords and cast into prison, spit upon and mocked. They suffered all this that "perhaps [they] might be the means of saving one soul." For in doing so they supposed they would have joy. So, they pressed on in spreading the word, bearing affliction with patience and faithfulness and their success was so great not only in the quantity of souls, thousands, but in the quality of the conversion inasmuch as they did never fall away. I hope to develop such a zeal for the redemption of my brethren.

    I know that this is the Gospel of Christ unto the salvation of everyone that believeth. I know that this Church is the Church of Jesus Christ and that He leads and guides this Church as of old, through a modern day Prophet, even Thomas S. Monson. I know that salvation cometh only through the Lord Jesus Christ and there is no other name given whereby salvation cometh, but that He came not to save people in their sins, but to save them from their sins. I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He has prepared a way that all might repent and come unto Him. I know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God and that through him the Church of Jesus Christ was again restored on the earth, with a foundation of Apostles, Prophets and the Chief Corner stone, even Jesus Christ. I know the Book of Mormon to be the word of God and that man can come closer to God by abiding the precepts and doctrine therein. I know this because I have sought and gained a testimony for myself, by the power of the Holy Ghost, who reveals all truth to the children of Man. These things I leave with you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen

With love,

Elder Roberts

P.S. Have a wonderful week!

Transfer 5 Week 4

Hello everyone,

    It seems like just yesterday I was typing my last entry. I am officially 6 months old as of Saturday! I cannot believe so much time has passed, and yet it seems like so much more. To those of you who have sent me letters, thank you!!!!! There is nothing like getting mail from the outside world.

    This past week has been a pretty interesting one, I was invited to baptise one of our investigators this coming up Sunday. It will be quite interesting for me since I have never baptised someone in Spanish before or anyone taller than my little sister for that matter.  ^^ I also started to volunteer at Helping Hands and spent the first day there fighting off all sorts of viruses on one of their office computers and setting up software so that the printers could run. That reminds me, they wanted me to set up their printer on the computer I cleaned up. I shall have to do that on my next visit. On my second visit I assisted them in delivering and picking up donated items, but we had the misfortune of a flat tire on the way back. I guess that the weight of the dryer was a bit too much for the back tires. I continued my usual services at the Meals on Wheels organisation and met a really sweet couple on one of my stop bys. I was glad to spend a little time with them and swap stories of our lives and those that mean the most to us.  Finally, I helped the Spanish missionaries out by taking them to appointments and helping where I could.

    This week I have really gained a greater appreciation for a personal relationship with God. I know that being able to pray and truly communicate with my Father in Heaven has prepared me and strengthened me against the trials that have come my way. I know that being a disciple of Christ is not an easy task, it wasn't for the primitive members of the Church neither will it be, but as a young man bore yesterday in his testimony, "we have hope." We truly do have hope while we are living true to the principles that we have been taught, as we hold to the rod of iron, the word of God and His Prophets and apostles we will be carried out of these "mists of darkness" and to greater light. I know that this is the church of Jesus Christ, it bears His name and His doctrine. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that it was translated by the power of God by His Prophet, Joseph Smith. I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He lives. I know that there is a Prophet on the earth today, even Thomas S. Monson. These things I leave with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

With love,

Elder Roberts

Transfer 5 Week 2 & 3

Hello everyone,

    I apologise for not writing last week and will try to make it up by writing a good bit today. The past two weeks have been full of service and I have been able to volunteer at a few places including: the Athens Drive Public Library, Meals on Wheels and at the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. I have also spent a good portion of my time with the Spanish Elders and providing rides for them all over the newly formed Cary District. All in all it has been a pretty swift two weeks.

    In my study I have learned much about the power of covenants and the great capacity for happiness Latter-Day Saints have by living up to these covenants and by learning and living basic gospel principles. We should be the happiest people on Earth! When we are tired we can not only pray for strength, but also for the comforting power of the Holy Ghost. When a loved one dies, we know they are not so far away. When we marry, we know it can last beyond this life. When we face tribulations and trials we take comfort in knowing that they are for our good. We have the far reaching bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood that bind us across culture, race and time. We have the knowledge of a loving God, Our literal Father in Heaven. We have knowledge of His Son, Jesus Christ and His love for us. We have a testimony of His sacrifice that provides a way for us to overcome our mistakes and release us from the bondage of sin through repentance and obedience to the will of God. We have faith that "Whosoever believeth in God might with a surety hop for a better world, yea even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith which maketh an anchor to the souls of men and would make them sure and steadfast always abounding in good works being led to glorify God." As we more fully recognise the hope in our lives and the great blessings that we have, let us be sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works and glorify God for all that He has given us by sharing this great blessing with all around us. That they make partake of the Love of God more fully in their lives, which is most desirable of all that is desirable, and find a greater measure of joy each day of their lives.

    On the topic of covenants I was reading 2nd Nephi chapters 7 and 8 where Isaiah is speaking and as I look at it from the viewpoint of what Christ has promised to those who keep their covenants I found this message: Christ will never abandon us or sell us. We sell ourselves through iniquity and transgressions and in doing so sell our inheritance for pottage. Christ has all power, He is the way, the truth, the light. Only through His name are saved. We need to seek Him. He was obedient and was trusted by the Father and was given great wisdom, power and blessings. He hath made the barren fruitful, the lame walk and the blind see. We need to trust in Him to make us whole. Remember the things of the world are temporal. They are but means to a greater end. His purposes are eternal. Don't lose sight of the purpose. Be not afraid of the mocking and afflictions, for they are but a small moment, but His salvation and righteousness are eternal. He will comfort us, for He has stretched forth the heavens and laid the very foundations of the earth and all this to prepare His people for salvation. Therefore, but on purity and righteousness and cast off unclean traditions, loose thyself from the bondage of Satan. These are the power of covenants: They give power to the Redeemer to call us His and to make us His, power to cast off our filthy garments and put on purity and righteousness and in so doing loose ourselves from the bondage of Satan. To pass away to cup of fury from us through repentance and receiving strength through afflictions by remembering the power of the Almighty God to save. The power to make the barren fruitful, the filthy clean, the lame walk and the blind see. The power of cleansing and ultimately bringing us unto Christ. The promise that as we do our best we will never be abandoned by the Lord, but may always have His Spirit to comfort us. To dry up the seas before us, to wound the dragon, to help us overcome trials and temptations, to obtain gladness and joy and to have sorrow and mourning flee away. His purposes are eternal, His means are all around us. Look and live.

    I know that this is a gospel of Happiness. I know that there must be opposition in all things, not just that there must be sorrow for joy to exist, but that for every winter there must be a spring, for every death a rebirth and for every disappointment a recompense. Whether in this life of the next we know not. I have faith in the plan of salvation, that we might all return to Our Father in Heaven as we follow His Son Jesus Christ and the example He has set for us. I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is our Savior and Redeemer. He suffered and died for us by choice, out of His great love for us that we might have a way to return, as He did, to the presence of Our Father. These things bring me joy and as I have freely received I freely give to all my testimony of the truthfulness of these things. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

With Love,

Elder Roberts