Week 60

Hi,

Well, it's been an interesting week.  We got transfer calls this week, Elder Torres and I are staying here in Central.  It's a bit of a challenge.  We get along well, the problem is the ward.  Yesterday a sweet spirit of contention filled our testimony meeting.  We are both feeling a bit worn out to be honest.  But I´m still happy.  I challenge anyone to find a happier missionary than me! :)

Oh, BTW my debit card expired. Can you send me a new one by chance? Thanks. 

To shake things up a bit I decided to add a true or false seccion to my email. If anyone gets all the answers right I´ll send them a hand written letter. 

1. I like Tapachula more than Tuxtla.

2. My companion is from Tamulipas.

3. I have eaten over a kilo of peanut butter in the last 11 days.

4. Elder Torres and I missed our bus to Tuxtla this week. 

5. I´m the old man in my zone (the one with the most time in this zone, not total).

6. I finally bought new shoes.

7. All of my companions have been Mexicans.

8. My toilet works.

9. I haven´t been seriously ill since I left Tuxtla.

10. You can recieve a remission of sins without baptism.

11. A girl kissed my companion this week.

ok, all of those are pretty easy. 2 hard ones.

11. The organ in the tabernacle is one of the 10 largest in the world.

12. The church publishes materials in more than 175 languages.

No cheating.

Ok.  I had a good spiritual experience this Saturday.  The sister missionaries in the district had a baptism and the person that was going to be baptized asked me to do it.  I was feeling a bit tired of all the problems in my area.  I´d been praying for weeks and weeks,  seemingly to no avail.  In the baptismal service the sister missionaries sang ´´A Child´s Prayer.´´  The song touched my heart, and I knew that God listened to my prayers.  I had tears in my eyes as I baptized the woman.  It was awesome!

On to your emails.  Dad sent me a ton of questions this week. 

Dad - Have you ever not overdone it clearing out the backyard? ha. 

1.  Tell us something you learned this week. 

1. Something I learned - The only common attribute I have found in every great missionary, leader of the church or member is that they never give up. Most of them struggle greatly, including some who die having seen no fruits of their labors.  But none give up.

2.  Tell us of some service you performed for someone else this week.  

2. Service - The members hardly ever let us do anything.  It's gotten to the point where we just start doing stuff without them knowing.  Like washing their dishes until they catch us and yell at us.  haha

3.  Tell us something about your companion that is unusual. 

3. Something unusual about my companion - umm... my companion.  No, just kidding he is pretty normal.  Something a bit unusual is that he is a convert of 2 years and the only member in his family.  And he eats tuna salad on cookies...

4.  Why did you go to TXG?  You said it was a Mission leadership meeting.  Are you a leader or something?

4. I went to Tuxtla for my immigration stuff.  I didn´t tell you but I´ve been illegal the last month.  ha.  Oh, and the other time we had a conference.  You could say that. :)

5.  How do you communicate with your leaders?  Cell phone?

5. Cell phone and smoke signals.

6.  Have you had the opportunity to eat anything that Andrew Zimmern would consider Bizarre?

6. Not too much.  That said, most of the time I really don´t know what I eat. ha.  But nothing that tastes like ´´pocket change´´ lately.

7.  Tell us of a success you had this week with an investigator?

7. We are teaching a woman named Bersabé.  Her husband is a member and it seems like every time we see her she is happier to see us.  It's always fun to teach her. 

8.  Where do the drunks get the money for their alcohol?

8. They walk around the streets harassing people for money.

9.  What scripture spoke to you this week?

9. Alma 38.  Shiblon gets very little attention, but he was true at all times. His father teaches him a tiny bit and tells him to go and keep serving.  I feel like Shiblon. 

10. How is your progress at rolling your R's?

10. good. I don´t have any problems with it. 

I hope things go well with the merger and with HC. I love you Dad. 

Mom - NOO! the M5! ha.  I don´t remember when the fridge was in your room, but I do remember watching Deadliest Catch with Roy under the plastic tarp in my room.  It was soo hot ha.  That was a long time ago.  I was 13 years old.  Inspired questions are indeed what its all about.  I think they are the most effective teaching skill, given that regardless of a persons knowledge and conversion level, a question can inspire self revision and repentance.  If you have to move, be sure to tell me.  I don´t want to go home to an empty house like in the RM haha.  I love you Mom.

Andee - Thanks for the Cougars update.  KVN is a senior right?  It's a bummer I won´t get to see him play.  He such a beast.  Hopefully Roy gets over the #hashmark phase soon.  haha.  What a dork.  The first lesson is pretty sweet huh?  We teach it to our members so that everyone gets to hear it.  Thanks for the email. and keep on rocking. 

Roy - I hope all is going well.  Have you already started your applications? 

Michael D enters the MTC pretty soon right?  That's awesome.  From what I´ve heard Chihuahua is pretty sweet.  Missionary work is hard.  This is without a doubt the hardest thing I've ever done.  But I love it.  It's going by so fast. 

Brethren pray for us. 

Elder Roth

Week 59 - 5 for 5

Hi,

Guess what!  I got to go to all 5 sessions of General Conference!!  Yeah baby!  It seems like a bit is lost in translation but it was still pretty awesome.  I was able to re-translate a couple of things and capture the humor - ex. Deiter: I´ve fallen and I can´t get up.  And I caught The Great Gatsby quote too.  Also Elder Dube has the sweetest accent ever!  ha.  A couple of the speakers made their own translation in Spanish: Elder Scott, Elder Valenzuela and Elder Ochoa.  It's cooler when it's actually them speaking, not a translator, but it's all cool.

I really like Elder Valenzuela´s talk (BTW he came to reorganize our stake a month ago. When he got up to speak there was a general reaction similar to Buddy the elf´s famous "I KNOW him!" ha).  But anyway, he spoke of the power of small and simple things - like one song from a visiting teacher softening the heart of her visiting teachee.  :)  I have a testimony of small and simple things.  The Lord has permitted me to see many mighty miracles worked by simple means.  I also liked Elder Uchtdorf's Saturday morning talk.  Its just what our ward needs to hear (unfortunately pretty much no one showed up...).  But patience is good. 

Dad - Sounds like a good movie.  Jackie Robinson was awesome.  If I´m not mistaken 42 was retired universally in the major leagues right?  haha  It's awesome to hear that Dan Uggla didn´t make the cut ha.  It still bugs me that the Braves traded several players including a batting champion candidate for a sub-Mendoza hitter.  It kills me.  I miss Omar.  ha.  Your notes where cool, thanks for sending them to me.  I still remember when you made the excel spreadsheet for the topics the speakers addressed. Classic Richard Roth.  haha, my arm always kills after battleball as well. But I´m glad to hear you joined in the mayhem.  :)  I miss my Jax Beach ward sometimes. 

Question time (several people have commented on your curious ability to ask tons of questions, BTW. Everyone is jealous):

1.  Tell us about your trip to TXG this week. Bus ride, food, reason for going, what you did, etc.  Whatever.

1. The trip to Tuxtla was good.  We rode on an Aexa bus with a crazy driver that would have made you so sick.  Luckily I´m the kind of guy that likes flying in turbulence and riding with terrible drivers, so its all good.  We went for a mission leaders council.  It was a bit crazy.  7 hour bus ride up, sleep 4 hours on the ground in the mission offices, 6 hour meeting, 7 hour bus ride back.  It was fun though.  I´ll probably go back to Tuxtla this week for my immigration papers. 

2.  Did you get the package we sent you?  Did you get everything that was in it?  There was a letter that said what we packed.  I hope you got it and that you like it.

2.Yes, I got the package, complete with peanut butter, hot tamales, Tinactin, gum, mints and letters.  The mints made me laugh because I used to buy them by the gross.  I sucked on them during sacrament meetings early in my mission because otherwise I would fall asleep ha.  A lot has changed since then.  Thanks for the letters.  They were my favorite part. 

3.  Do you get help from the members in your current ward?

3. A little bit.  Our biggest support is a young woman that we baptized named Itzayana.  She has given us about 485548 referrals.  She just wants everyone to listen to us.  She´s awesome. 

4.  You said your area is 10 x 10 blocks.  How far is that in distance?  How long to walk from one side to another?

4. Its about a 20 minute walk from one corner of my area to the other. Probably about a mile. 

5.  With the area so geographically small, is there definitive different areas?  Or is it all pretty much the same?

5. I´m not sure I understood the question but here´s a possible answer. The small area is different in that we spend very little time traveling.  More time talking to people.  That's a good thing.  The bad thing is that there really aren´t all that many people that live here, and after a while you feel like you´ve talked to everyone. 

Thanks for your email.  Keep on rockin'.

Mom - I thought of Brett when I heard Elder Hollands talk.  Make sure he listens to it.  NOOO!!!  You can´t sell the M5!  Haha.  Just kidding, not my will but thine be done. (is that blasphemous? - sorry if it is. I have a thing for quoting scriptures out of context as often as possible.)  I hope things go well for you at the women´s conference  (ha I know you disdain stuff like that :)).  Is it for church members or everyone?  I´m assuming church members, given that the theme comes from Psalms 46:10 - Be still and know.  An interesting phrase.  I´ve been thinking about it a bit.  Both verbs are commands.  1. calm down, 2. know.  I think those 2 things are very intricately related.  One who is ´´still´´ is calm, faith-filled, patient, reverent, and indeed will, with time, come to ´´know´´.  One who knows is capable of working miracles (Mothers Who Know comes to mind).  And the phrase doesn´t just end at know.  It's: know that I am God.  If we are still, patient, and full of faith we will know God.  BTW that reminds me of something I read that I am going to misquote here.  One of the most surprising things when we abandon this life and return to that God who gave it, will be how well we know God and how familiar his face is to us.  I think that was Ezra Taft Benson, but I´m not sure. (Here's the actual quote, it was by President Benson:  “Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father and how familiar his face is to us.” (“Jesus Christ—Gifts and Expectations,” in Speeches of the Year, 1974, Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1975, p. 313.) Pretty sweet though, eh?  I hope you're doing well.  So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.  Love you!  P.S. thanks for Kel's blog post, it made me LOL out loud hahaha. 

Andee - NO!  I put my heart and soul into carrying that TV!  ha.  Thanks for the greeting from Ingrid. (Ingrid is the name of Roy and Andee-Dawn's car)  Tell her hi for me ha.   Life is going wonderfully for me!  I hope you dominate those remaining midterms, show them who's boss.  (Did I ever tell you that I watched pump up videos on YouTube before I took my tests?...because I did.  :) )  Paul is a beast for sure.  I find new inspiration in his words every week.  Roy and I aren´t exactly what you would call ´´handymen´´ when it comes to watching kids.  I once changed Ryan´s diaper, it was a scaring experience  haha.  I don´t blame him at all.  haha what a delk. Good Spanish, BTW.  Se ve que si sabe!  ha. 

Roy- Life down south is pretty awesome.  Did you find your mission extremely funny or is it just me?  I mean, I take it super seriously but when you talk with dozens of drunks in the street everyday, you can´t help but laugh.  I like the Spanish Bible a lot.  I was surprised by how similar the translation is to what it says in English.  We do indeed use the Reina Valera. The KJV is better in my opinion, but the RV is good too.  I haven´t heard of the NRSV but I´ll give it a look see when I get back.  Tell me your favorite moments from conference!  Mine was looking at Dieter´s hair. 

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, 2nd Counselor in the First Presidency
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

 haha. jk. I´ll never stop working don´t you worry.  Love you bro. 

Well, it's been a joy to hear from you this week.  I hope all is well in Zion. ha 2 Nephi 28:21-25.  But seriously, I hope things are well.  I look forward to hearing from you next week.

Elder Roth

Recognize him?  

My second companion, Elder Martinez. 

He´s a zone leader in Tuxtla now.

Week 58

Hello Rents,

This email is heading out a bit early today because in the afternoon I´m heading up to Tuxtla Gutiérrez for a meeting.  Things are going pretty well...kinda.  It's kinda rough being in a ward without a Bishop.  When I get home I´ll be able to explain the details to you, but for now just know that its a serious challenge in this ward. 

I don't have a ton to report, things are pretty much the same as always. Yesterday something really funny happened.  We reactivated a member that lives on our street, and he´s a bit crazy.  About once a week he comes to ask for money despite the fact that we have told him a thousand times to talk to the bishopric if he has financial needs.  Well, yesterday he came.  He invited himself in and started looking through the house.  He found some dumbells that we had and proceeded to show off his strength while we tried to study. Then he started punching the wall and dancing.  I have a video of it all on my camera.  It was soo funny.  He was probably there for 20 minutes lifting weights, punching the wall and dancing.  My companion and I could hardly contain ourselves. ha

Dad - you´re the only one that emailed me on time.  ha.  I´m glad to hear your vacation went well.  You gotta watch out for those Packers from Brigham City, they´ll get you.  To answer your questions:

1.  Are you using your camera much?  Many pictures taken for posterity?

I use my camera very little.  I know I should be a better historian, but I don´t really like it.  Plus we aren´t supposed to use them while we proselyte and since that's pretty much all that we do, there aren´t too many opportunities. 

2.  Where will you be able to view conference?  Will you be able to view most sessions?

We´ll be seeing conference in our stake center.  We can go to any session as long as we bring investigators, the only free one is Sunday Morning. Obviously we´re hoping to see every session, we´ll see how it goes. 

3.  Tell us of a memorable meal you experienced this past week.

The only meal I remember for this week was yesterday´s.  It wasn´t too extraordinary rice in chicken broth.  I don´t know what she gave us to drink but it was super nasty. 

4.  Tell us of a choice experience you had this past week.

One of the highlights of the week was a lesson with Gabriela.  She is a new investigator. On our second visit we asked her how she felt when she prayed. She said she felt something that she had never felt before, and knew that what we taught was true.  The spirit filled the room, and I thanked Heavenly Father for his hand in his work.  I´ve come to realize that anyone who with sincerity seeks, finds.  It was one of the more memorable lessons from my mission. 

Mom- I love you.  ha I just got your email.  I hope the former Elder Wilcox is doing well.  Say hi to him for me.  I wish him luck in his pursuits.  My former companion, Elder Salgado, and I discovered a curious phenomenon -  President Cardenas served in this mission, and his wife is from Chiapas.

hmm. Coincidence...I think not.  I´m sure bishop Maughan is doing a great job.  I was going to send him a postcard but it got soaked and ruined haha. True story.  Anyway tell him I think of him everyday while I iron my shirt and see if he realizes why. ha.  Well time is just about up . I love you!

Elder Roth

Week 57 :)

Whats happening,

1. Did you get some pictures from me? I hope so. I don't know what type of Internet speed you get there, so I sent them medium size. 

Thanks for the awesome pictures Mom and Dad.  My comp and I are both very jealous of the view from your hotel room.  Soooo sweet.  

View of Niagara's Horseshoe Falls from Canada side - 23 stories up!

One thing I really miss is grass.  There is hardly any patches of green grass.  (the natural man in me just starting humming ´´Where The Green Grass Grows´´). 

This week was good (if you haven´t noticed yet, every week is good). Unfortunately we lost one of our best investigators, Aaron.  He´s been on the verge of getting baptized for so long.  We taught a great lesson about the atonement, and he still didn´t budge.  We had to drop him.  But I´m confident he´ll come to his senses.  In other news, its not really that hot anymore. 

I played some more soccer this morning, I gotta admit it's really fun.  Of course you guys know that my favorite sport is whichever one I was playing last.  I´m obsessed.  I spent my language study today asking my companion to teach me soccer terms.  ha.

Dad - You pegged it on the Book of Mormon.  Its a copy in Tzotzil.  

It's not complete though, it's only about 170 pages.  My companion was in a place called San Jose Tepeyac before he came, and he learned Tzotzil.  The only problem is that it isn't a written language, they improvised a way to write it, but most of the Tzotzils can´t read.  I´m glad you´re enjoying your vacation.  Too bad the Cougars lost, but at least the score is far less embarrassing than last time.  If I had been there I´m sure they would have won. 

2. Are you still able to get fresh fruit at reasonable prices? How would you grade your nutrition?

2. The fruit is pretty cheap, at least the fruit that comes from Chiapas.  Most of the apples are from the US so they are a bit spendy, but I buy them anyway. My diet is pretty good.  I eat lots of rice, beans, tortillas, lentils, chicken, sometimes I eat cereal for breakfast sometimes eggs.  I try to switch it up as much as I can. 

3. How much difference do you find in tortillas?  Are they still your main dietary staple?

3. Most tortillas are created equal.  There are taco tortillas, which are a bit smaller and oval shaped.  I had some a few weeks ago that taste like the ones from the mexi store near the house.  Those are the best!

4. How do you anticipate the 5 visit rule will impact the Missionary work in your area?

4. Hopefully with 5 visits before baptism there will be fewer less actives.  We are hoping it will improve the quality of missionary work.  I think it does. 

5.  Tell us about your companion

5. My companion is Elder Torres from Oaxaca.  We've been together 9 weeks and we get along great.  He is a convert, the only member from his family.  He got baptized  2 years ago.  He´s super funny and sounds like Steven from Nacho Libre.  I love him!

Enjoy the rest of your vacation.  Love you dad.

Mom - I laughed out loud when you said you bailed on the Stake Conference haha.  Classic.  It's sweet that you were in Joseph Smith's house 190 after Moroni´s visit.  I´d really like to go see those church history sites.  I´m sure you´ll enjoy Kirtland.  I´m sure you two are a bit more prudent than Roy and I.  Our trip to Nauvoo was pretty funny.  We got lost about 20 times, and were about to take a gravel farm road, but Roy babied out haha.  It was good fun though.  I haven´t gotten any Dear Elders for a while but they usually come in bunches.  And then all the other missionaries get jealous.  haha.  Have a wonderful week.  Love you mom!

Well I guess I don´t have too much to write today.  Things are pretty much the same as always.  I´m super tired, but that's ok. 

Love you guys.

Elder Roth :)

Week 56 - God Bless America

Dearest Family,

How´s life?  Mine is good.  Today I played some soccer with my companion and the elders from my old ward, Vista Hermosa.  It was really fun, but my foot hurts a bit.  I wasn´t as bad as I thought I would be, but I´m still pretty bad... OK, lets be honest, I was an embarrassment to the Roth name.  I´m really loving my mission.  Everyday.  I hope you all are enjoying everyday as well - it's the best way to live. 

This week has been really rewarding.  On Wednesday we were informed of a change in the mission; in order to be baptized all investigators have to attend at least 5 sacrament meetings (instead of 2).  That change gives us a bit more time to teach the lessons and this week we taught some really good ones.  I have no doubt that I teach the truth. 

Dad - Wow 3 emails in one week! You´ve outdone yourself.  I´ll be sure to take good care of my grinders haha.  The trip to Izapa was pretty cool.  We saw the stone which supposedly has Lehi´s dream on it.  I wasn´t too convinced, but it was cool anyway.  Afterward I played a bit of soccer, ate a bit of pizza, and hitchhiked my sunburnt hindparts back to Central ha. September is proving to be the wettest month so far - but that means its a bit less hot so I´m happy.  :)  Poor Tim Tebow - I was rooting for him.  I´m super excited for General Conference, even though its not as good in Spanish ha. 

Questions:

1.  What is something you have used your multi-tool for lately?

 - I´ve used the multitool to punch holes in a piece of paper, cut a little piece of plastic off a button thing, and it has served as a nice decoration on my desk. 

2.  What do your feet look like?  Anything growing on them?

 - My feet look pretty normal ha.  They are super white though and the right one is a bit scuffed up.  Nothing too gross. 

3.  What is a scripture that you helped you this week?

 - This week I´ve read Mosiah 28 - Alma 7.  I really liked it all.  After I read Alma 5 I thought about all of those questions that Alma asks.  That really helped me evaluate how I can improve.  It sobering to think about the 2nd coming and judgement in the light that Alma describes it.

4.  We ate at Five Guys Saturday and I thought of you, when did you eat your last Hamburger?

 - As a matter of fact I ate a hamburger about an hour ago.  ha.  The ward had an activity and they made some hamburgers and were kind enough to hook me up. 

5.  Tell us about a Hymn you thought of this week?

 - I´m a big fan of Lead Kindly Light.  haha  And this week we sang Carry On in sacrament.  Total trainwreck.  haha.  Apparently no one knew it...Oh, also I heard Cielito Lindo for the first time.  It's Mexico´s unofficial national anthem haha.  Listen to it!

Love you dad!

Mom - Sounds like a pretty intense weekend.  I really wish I had a bike, it would be fun.  Although riding it though downtown would probably be lethal. The 3 cars eh.  M3, M5, X5?  I hope Otto ended up in good hands.  Don´t worry about my clothing (by the way my shirts are yellow not grey haha).  I´m fine with the clothes I have.  My socks are doing fine and my shoes are surviving.  (the Eccos have impressed me, they are practically like new.)  The tough actin Tinactin would be much appreciated.  I can´t really think of anything else that I need.  A hand written letter would be nice!  Love you mom!

Andee-Dawn - Life is b-e-a-u-tiful!  I am so proud to hear that you are hyper-mileing.  It does my heart good.  (I´m sure my mom can hear me yelling ´´SHIFT´´ in her head as she reads this).  Hope things are going well in school.  Have a good 'un.  haha :)

Roy - Did you drive the much coveted BYU mint green minivan again?  ha. Stanford huh.  I can dig it.  I´m rooting for MIT though haha.  I was thinking about The Narrows for some reason the other day.  haha. Oh yeah, it's because walking it the street is similar to walking in The Narrows (or the shallows as Dad calls it ha :))  I had forgotten about ´´Up the rapide!!¨´ hahaha.  Good time.  Love you bro. 

Steph - Alma 26 is the bestest.  :)  How are TY and RY?  I miss those little guys.  Thanks for remembering me :)  Have a super fantastic week.

Well, my Spanish keeps getting better, my English keeps getting worse, and the mission keeps getting better.  I love you.  Bye!

Week 55 - Just Keep Smiling

Hey,

This week was...interesting.  Last Monday after emailing you guys I went and got the worst haircut of my life.  haha.  I forgot my camera so I´ll send you the pictures next week.  Everyone in the ward was calling me baldy and the like, so its been a good opportunity to learn humility.  ha.  Recently we have been working with our members a ton, since there are lots and lots of problems in the ward.  It's been rewarding.  We have had some very spiritual lessons with some ward members that are feeling like they´ve reached the end of the rope. 

We had stake conference this week which was pretty cool.  They called a new Stake President - he´s a young guy; probably no older than 30.  He was a Bishop for two months and then got the call to be stake pres.  Pretty cool. Elder Valenzuela from the Seventy and Elder Walker, an Area Seventy, came to reorganize the stake.  They gave some pretty awesome instruction.  In other news there are apparently 2 people in the stake that play piano and I´m one of them.  So I got to play in the conference - it was fun. 

A missionary´s life is somewhat interesting.  There are so many ups and downs. It's been a bit of a rough week.  But extremely rewarding.  I love being a missionary.  Which reminds me - I try to avoid paying attencion (Clark's Spanish spelling!) to the calendar, but sometimes I realize that a good chunk of time has passed in other ways.  Ex. - today I finished off the last of my 5 jars of peanut butter.  I also realize that I´ve been here a little while when I see how white a new missionary´s shirt is compared to mine.  But I digress.

Thanks for your emails.  Its always a pleasure to hear about your weeks.  You guys never fail to make me chuckle. ha. 

Roy - In your FACE Texas!  ha.  I´m confident you and Andee have kept the ´´KILL!!´´ tradition alive.  ha.  It's a bummer that you guys won´t be there next year.  But all is well.  You destroyed the GRE!! holy cow! I hope you get into your preferred school. (btw what is your #1 school?)  Advanced Probability sounds pretty legit, but then again it sounds pretty tough . But, then again the only spot on your record came from a freshman level geography class ha. Love you bro.  Thanks for the email. 

Dad - Taysom Hill eh? I approve.  I´m glad to hear the Braves are Rocking, and the Jaguars are embarrassing their fan base, as always.  11 punts in a day is pretty impressive.  haha.  How´s Dunn Avenue doing?  I liked what you said about preparing yourself for spiritual things.  You really have to get in the zone, so to speak.  Let faith overcome your doubts and follow the admonition of Christ.  ´´Be not afraid, only believing.´´  That's awesome that Tom is on a Indian reservation.  Hopefully he´s been able to resist the cheap liquor haha. (is that racist?)  if it is, my apologies.  Anyway, on to the questions.  

1.  Tell us about the streets flooding.  How does that happen. It looks like there are hills. Doesn't the water keep moving?

The street flooding is amazing.  Within a minute the streets can do from dry to covered with 6 inches of water.  There are hills indeed.  Which function similarly to the endless wave on cruise boats.  Its genuinely impressive.

2. Tell us about an investigator.

We have a ton of great investigators.  One of our harder cases is Roberto. He is from Honduras (he´s an illegal here) and lives with his girlfriend (uhh! why!?).  He believed from the first second we started talking about Joseph Smith and can´t stop talking about how much he likes what the church teaches about families.  But...He has to get married.  Which is going to cost a ton of money (he either has to go to Honduras and do it there, or become a Mexican citizen first - a short, 7 year process).  But I´m sure he´ll stick in there till he finds the way.  I won´t be baptizing him, but someday he´ll get dunked ha. 

3.  Tell us something you either learned this week or something you know that was reinforced by experience.

One thing that never fails to surprise me is how willing less actives are to go to church.  In many cases all they need is an invitation.  I´m confident that with a relatively small, yet diligent effort to rescue the less actives, most wards could improve their attendance by 15. 

4.  You may have told me this before. But the self cooling sweat rag we bought at Home Depot and sent in your package with the peanut butter.  Does it work?  Is it amazing?

The cool rag isn´t really a miracle, but it's nice.

           5.  Do people have Internet there?  Do you have people look things up on LDS.org?  That            kind of stuff. 

Very few have internet in their house, but they all go the the cibers.  We always invite people to check out lds.org and mormon.org but they never do. haha.

           6.  What can we do to help you?

What can you do to help?  Pray.  Be member missionaries.  I would encourage you to do all that you can to participate in this great work.  If every member of the church invited 1 person to receive the missionary lessons this year, and 1 in 15 went on to get baptized, there would be over 1 million convert baptisms this year.  It can be done.

Have a great week Dad. I love you!

Mom - haha, I can totally see myself having a mission contracted disease for the next 10 years ha.  That was a cool insight from the Samaritan woman at the well. The words from Henry Eyring senior come to mind, ´´Hal, I wasn´t there for the weeds.´´ Have fun on your trip to New York.  I gotta say that I´m a bit jealous.  But I´ve got a Mexican Visa and you don´t so in Your face! ha.  I love you mom. 

A to the D - your singles ward story made me laugh out loud.  I can totally see that happening.  Luckily our bishopric was formed of older men so I never got that shocker ha.  Keep on rocking and scream your lungs out at the football games for me.  You rock, never change haha. 

Times Up!  Until next week Godspeed.  And Brethren, pray for us.

Elder Roth

Week 54 - Every Day I'm Shufflin'

Greetings.

First things first.  I`m staying in barrio central.  I`m going to be the ol man in the zone, but that's cool.  I really like this area, but I`m going to have to buy some rain boots.  The streets fill up with water and I`m tired of walking around with wet feet 10 hours a day. 

This week was a bit rough, but all is well.  I´m pretty good at not getting discouraged.  I just love to work.  My companion is staying here too, so we´ll have a bit more time to strengthen the ward. 

Thanks for all your emails.  It's always lovely to open up the inbox and see your names.  I love you all. 

Andee - I`m glad to hear that you survived the long board trip.  I`m sure Roy will hurt himself before too long ha.  Holy cow! 17.5 credits!  That´s nuts.  I hope it goes well for you.  Pretty cool that you got to help a Danish lady in the temple.  I´ve become obsessed with languages.  They interest me so much.  I totally want to learn German, but the length of those words scares me haha.  MULAN!! ha.  You know I love me a good Disney movie.  :)  Have a great first week at school and catch the spirit!

Roy - I hope the GRE went well.  I prayed for you.  That schedule seems pretty bomb.  (I feel like that would be a cool thing to say in 1990).  Hopefully one of those math classes is taught by Dr Grant, or the one whose name escapes me.  haha. I love the BYU math faculty.  DAUD!  Dr. Daud is his name. haha.  I think I`d go for tennis, but it's a bit of a Roth family tradition to take bowling ha.  Have a good week.  Love you bro. 

Mom - Rise and shout the cougars are in your backyard.  ha. That's pretty sweet, if you get lucky maybe you`ll see a showdown between a bobcat and a gator.  The creation is an interesting subject.  In Preach My Gospel there is a very short section on the creation.  I´ve always brushed over it in our teaching.  But the other day I decided to study it a bit more fully.  After my analysis I didn´t really learn anything... ha.  Sorry I don´t have any grand thoughts on that.  I hope Institute is going well.  I love you mom!

Dad - 
 1.  Do they celebrate Labor Day in Mexico? 
        - No. Yes. Kinda. May 1st is their labor day.  But they just get a bunch of people to stand in the middle of the street and complain that they don´t make enough money.  It's not the best holiday. 

2.  What is the result of transfers?  Staying or Moving?
       - Staying. As a matter of fact our entire district is staying. 

3.  Do you want to know what happened to the Cougars in Virginia?
       -Yes.

4.  I did not see the game, but they ended up on the wrong side of a 38-35 score.
       - That's not a question.  Who is the quarterback this year? 

5.  How are your clothes holding out at the 1 year mark?
       - haha. They don´t look too bad, but they´re pretty bad.  My white shirts are becoming yellow.  I started with 2 grey slacks, 1 pair of navy slacks, and 2 black slacks.  I now have 2 grey slacks and 3 navy slacks.  And my brown shoes have been garbage candidates for the last 8 months, but I keep wearing them haha. 

6.  Can you hold a conversation in Spanish on most any subject, or do you know mostly Church/Missionary stuff only?
      - I´m a lot more capable if we are talking about church stuff but I´m not completely incompetent in other subjects.  In the MTC a guy talked to us that served his mission in Taiwan.  The NFL network asked him to announce the Superbowl in Mandarin, and he realized that he only had a missionary vocabulary.  So he testified that Tom Brady threw true passes.  haha. Thats pretty much how I feel about my Spanish. 

7.  Tell us what you did last Thursday.
      - Thursday is always my least favorite day because we have weekly planning.  It's boring and somewhat discouraging because all you do for 2 or 3 hours is think about what's wrong with your area.  Then we go out to work. This last Thursday was pretty rough.  I think we only taught 2 lessons.  We were walking around all day.  But that's how it goes sometimes. 

Well the time is far spent.  I hope you have great weeks. 

Elder Roth