Here is Justin's letter from last week and also yesterdays.He is in AMARILLO. His "p"-Day is Monday and we are to just send letters directly to the mission home address for now. As for pictures ... well .... we are still waiting. :)
Sept. 16th
I am finally in texas and i love it. Its eye opening to see for sure, but i know I'm suppose to be here. I have never seen so many motorbikes and nice cars :) but its more amazing to see the people change their lives. I'm in Amarillo - spanish ward and my trainers are the zone leaders. Elder Reyes and Rigley, both from utah but reyes is from argentina originally. The area we teach in is pretty worn down but the people are so happy. WE have a fair amount of lessons we teach both in spanish and english. We have 3 baptismal dates coming up which is awesome. I know that i am here for a reason and im truly happy. Its hot but its rained the last few days so that a plus. My mission president and his wife are great! we came into the field with 32 more missionaries so theres lots of work to be done here but alot of us are in trios. I would ask darren to find out some people or families here in amarillo if he knows any? we were doing door to door contacts and we have a lesson with a guy tonight that said, elder Roberts ya i remember you?? So i wasnt sure if darren talked to him or not but i will hopefully find out more tonight. His name is Tomas. Anyways we have a investigator that just got put into jail and we dont fully know the details neither does his wife or family so thats sad. Its been eye opening so much though. We helped him just a few days before re building the floor in his kitchen an things seemed fine. Its been hard for me to see more an more how people reject us so quickly, we get quite a few doors slammed on us but its been hard to just know what they are shutting out of there lives. I know more then ever that when we truly loose of ourselves in doing the Lord work things will work out in his plan, not neccesalry our plans. I hope that i answer most questions?? if not im sorry. the food here isnt really that different, but the spanish love beans, Texans in general love there mustangs and big trucks, spanish love the low riders and cadillacs lol.
Grandma Campbell, its looks like you had a great trip and im jealous of the water pictures, its all dry here.
LL the kids look soo happy and i miss them more then ever. But i know it will be a small glimpse before i am home so i will always work hard to set an example for them.
Sept. 23rd
well this week has been going great.
We teach alot of lessons so im not sure what you want to hear, Tomas is still taking the lessons as well as his nephew. He didnt remember darren but who knows. My companions are great, we all get along pretty good which makes things flow nicely in lessons. We have sacrement in english the split to do all the other meetings in spanish while the english( other missionaries) go to the other classes. hopefully things are going good back home, the shed is looking good. Darren emailed me some members and such that he was teaching an i already know some of them and will try to look up the others. Hopefully things go great with the move and such for Nysha and Dave and the kids. Now that schools started its the same old, its kinda like here. Its all pretty much the same, we meet some intresting ppl at the doors and get the doors slammed on us sometimes. But it all adds to the experience. We have a Zone Conference tomm that a general authority is coming to talk to us which will be sweet! looking forward to that. an we will be have a few elders staying at our apartments tonight so its not such a long drive tomm for them. we all meet up in Lubbock for the day. Its honestly the best choice i have made coming out here and learning soo much. We study alot but im using that time efficiently and loving that time set aside for it. Dad i dont think i will ever get your humour :) just kidding i love it. I love my family soo much. The pics i get from the nieces and nephews are too prescious. I hope that everyone is doing great and safe, I did try to load pics on this computer but it didnt work? i will try next week an use a different computer but i might just go print some off at walmart and send them home. We have a membership to a gym from our apartments lease so we wake up earlier to go work out and be done by 7 15. But its a great way to start the day. We have a minivan that we drive because we have to transport bikes, matresses, etc to other missionaries if need be. But we still bike on thursdays. Depending if i transfer from here some are mostly straight bikes. It will be fun. We do the apartment checks 2 an trasnfer ( 6 weeks) so that takes a few days driving everywhere. We are allowed to listen to talks and such so thats always an amazing experience. We have a cd case full and just get filled every time we go somewhere. Its great. I know that this church is true, and that through being humble ( ALWAYS) learning spanish lol but always trying to be guiding by the spirit in what we should do we see the blessings! We had a baptism this last saturday, shes 12 but we didnt show up the church to be confirmed, :( she has a hard life at home and no support so its hard to see the family not care one bit. Its been sad but i see the way i dont want to ever be for my kids. I also have been able to give a few blessings an get a greater love for the priesthood. I hold it close to my heart. Its an amazing experience. I hope that everyone home, ( family and friends) will always strive to stay spiritual fed. and intresting quote that we heard from a talk is "satan dont kick no dead dogs". Think about when we are having hard days, an how things relates.
Much Love
Elder Roberts
