Week 14

November 4-9, 2013

This week was kinda crazy!!!!!!!!

Tuesday: Elder Porter got transferred so his comp. was with us for the next 2 days!

Wed: We had to go to the big city of Maputo and pick up marriage documents for Joao and Zita!!!!!! and that took like all day so we didn't get much work done!!!

Thursday: we had to pick up marriage papers for Carlos and Joanna!!!! woot woot!!! and that again took most of the day!!! hahah

Friday: we had two weddings!!!! We were at the chapel like all day we helped set up one wedding for Joao and Zita they wanted a little  party so we helped set it all up they got married and it was awesome he cried a little during the wedding!!! and at 8:00 at night we had our other couple get married and they just wanted to sign the papers so they could get baptized they didn't want any party or anything!!!!

Sat!!!! We had 2 complete family's baptized and 1 young man!!!! and our mission president came to watch the baptism!!! I was kinda nervous because I had just barely memorized the prayer for baptism!!! Everything went well and everyone was so happy no one could stop smiling!!!! It was a great day!!!! and you could totally feel the spirit there!!! especially when they bore their testimony's!!! It was awesome!!!!!!! I had a great week and it was one of the happiest things ever seeing the smiles on there faces because they knew they were following the lord!!!! It was awesome!!! I love you guys tchau!!!

Week 13

October 28- November 1, 2013

Heyy mom I'm sorry about the email but last week while I was writing the power went out so I couldn't do anything about it!! I got the short email off and I was typing the other one and down went the power!!!!  I loved the costumes hahah yours looked pretty scary what was Tobie and Saydi for Halloween????   I'm sure dad didn't dress up or he went as Bishop Roberts!!! hahah  I am doing good we had transfers today and I am staying in Magoanine with Elder Robinson!!!!! And I got some recipes from her but not a lot!!!! We haven't had the weddings and baptism yet because when we open the wedding process it takes 2 weeks to go through and we can pick them up on Wednesday so the baptisms will be this week we have 2 families getting baptized and one youth who is 16!!!  So this will be a good week  and we also hope to have 1 or 2 other families starting on their papers so we could have 4 families baptized this transfer if we work our freaking butts off and everything goes right!!!!!  I will try to explain the photos better from now on and yes that was the baptismal font and my companion is the other blonde haired one!!!! And the one who got his call is Alexio and he is going to Angola!!!!!!  And yes we have 3 albinos in our ward but they are really cool guys!!!! One of them has served a mission and the others haven't yet but they will!! Believe it or not there are a lot of albinos here I have seen about 30 in my area!!! The names of the albinos are Bennindito, Naldo, and Edmundo!!!

Monday:it was raining so we went and cleaned the house and then played a card game called munchkins and it was freaking fun!!! and I won!!!! hahah later that night we went to our best family's house  Carlos and Joanna! they will be baptized this week!!!! but they were prepared by the lord!!!!!!

Tuesday:we have had a tough few weeks finding new investigators and getting contacts we walk around all day and talk to 100 people and get lessons with like 7  it is very tough and frustrating!!! but we had one lesson with a youth today it was good we taught him about the 10 commandments and before we started he had some friends over studding for midterms and one kid asked if we thought George Washington was going to heaven and I said yes and then he was like but he wasn't a member of your church!! hahah What 16 year old from Africa asks that kind of question!!! We told him if he came to church we would answer his question!! hahah

Wednesday: we went on divisions with the zone leaders I was with Elder Peterson!!! He is the one Uncle Mark knows!! hahah We had like 2 lessons  it was a crappy day and we got like 3 contacts!!! We also had about 6 lessons fall,  it sucked!! But my stomach hated me that day  I had the runs for the first time since I've been here!! hahah but we were in a lesson with one of our investigators Alberto and Carolina and I thought I was going to explode hahah I made it out of the lesson and we ran home and I made it safely!!!

Thursday: today was another crappy day we had 8 new lessons fall!!!!!!!! but we did get  one more new investigator that night and he came to church so that was good and we did get to have dinner at Carlos and Joannas house they always feed us like every time we go over!!!! Its great!! They fed us chima and colvey!! chima is just corn flour and water mixed and heated untill it becomes like a really really thick mashed potatoes with no taste!! hahah and colvey is a plant and I don't know whats in it!!! hahah

Friday: was another slow day!!! We had all of our 6 1st lessons drop but we did get a lot of contacts!! so that was good.

Saturday:  We  had  all of our new lessons fall again!! It is very frustrating but we just have to keep on at it!! We had lessons with Alberto and Carolina which was good!! He is all in to it but she doesn't get what we say in the lessons and doesn't always pay attention!! So we have to find out a way that she will listen!!! So our new big projects are to get Carolina to participate in the lessons and find a new way to find people to teach!!! Oh and our investigators Carlos and Joanna are moving on Thursday to a place like 30 min away out of our area so we are helping them move but they will still be baptized on Saturday!!!!! All is well here I just need to work hard and be obedient!!! love you guys!! tchau!!!!

Week 12

(Note to Everyone:  Another short letter from Taylor and again he was answering questions from my last email.  Its always nice to get a letter when they finally recognize what you have been teaching them for the last 18 years sinks in>)

Your week sounds interesting!!!  All the injury's and Tobie!!! hahah and the money was because i took out the 100 dollars the Hancocks gave me and that's why!!! But i'll only spend like 30-40 every month if that!!  I might be able to buy clothes that fit but I don't know where to get them!!! and I should be good on clothes for a while!!!! I'll try to remember to send the picture!!!( Mom wants a full length picture) and I am really surprised that the cat is still alive!!!  But i just want to let you know that i am sorry for being a slob and leaving dishes and complaining about washing dishes and leaving messes you you to clean!!! I know how you feel now, me and one other elder try to keep the house clean but when its 2 clean people -vs- 4 dirty people we loose!!! and we get on every body but in the end its us who wash the dishes!!!  I'm sorry!!!  And what happened to dads knee ?? hahah 

Week 11

(Note to everyone:  In this letter Taylor is pretty much just answering questions that I have asked him so I am not sure if you will be able to understand this letter , In the quotes I have put the questions I have asked him.  So here it is.)

Hey family I'm sorry but today will be a short letter, but today has been good its been raining for 3 days! We will be opening two marriage processes tomorrow!!!  On Nov. 2 we will be baptizing 2 families and one teenager!!  That's scary that Saydi drove all the way to surprise!!! But its good that she went out!! and its about time you got new tires!! hahahah and I knew she was going on her mission  (Marissa) like 3 or 4 weeks ago!!! hahah and if you send a package now it will get here by my birthday maybe!! hahah and it costs like 50 or 60 bucks to send one!!! and do you remember Uncle Marks friend who's son is in Mozambique he lives in the same house as me right now and he knows Mark!! hahah and my clothes are doing alright but two of the shirts you got me don't fit so I only have 4 short sleeve shirts and they don't fit because they are 15 1/2 regular and my other shirts are just 15 1/2  and they fit fine!  (Asking about if we can send Taylor money to help Families get married) We aren't supposed to help them but what we do is we say if you make us dinner we will pay you like 200 meticals and help them that way but we just cant give them the money!! Hey can you send me the recipe for lasagna and your special chocolate sauce and anything else that is good!!! or if you send a package send a recipe book of all sorts of food and anything!!!  I love you guys and i will talk you you next week bye love you!!

Week 10

I learned a lot this week and had some pretty interesting experiences!!! But sadly we didn't find many new families’ to teach!!!!

I’m going to write a little different this week I’m going to tell you about our  investigators!!

Joao and Zita: this family is our family closest to baptism!!! We have been teaching them for a really long time like 9 weeks!! They are a very poor family but some of the greatest faith I've seen!!!  they have one daughter as well who will be baptized!! They own a little shop and they sell stuff out of a shipping container!! They don’t have like any money but they are getting married which cost a lot here!! Like 1000 MT but they should be opening up their marriage process this week so they can sign the papers to get baptized!!!  

Carlos and Joanna: this family is awesome we have been teaching them for 3 weeks and we should be able to open up the marriage process this week!!!! They are a young family with one extremely wild 1 1/2 year old son named Wesley!!! He is the craziest kid ever, his hobbies are destroying things!!! He runs around and flirts with little girls during church!!! This family is a strong family and they have been to church 3 times and he brought one of his friends this week because he said he knew the church was true!!

Calisto and Joanna: this family is also a really young family! They live like 45 min away from the church but they still come!! He was a reference from his brother who got baptized just like 1 moth ago!! His brother lives in Beria which is in the top half of the country!! They have two kids one who is 7 and a little girl named Ika!! We had a great lesson with them about the law of chastity and that they need to get married so they can get baptized and I told him I think your brother got married so he could be baptized and he was like no he isn't married so he called him up and was like WHAT you are married!!!! And then we here my wedding is going to be better than yours  was!!!!! hahaha Elder Robinson and I just looked at each other and were like Yeah!!!!!  This family is awesome!!

Alberto and Carolina: I love this family they have 4 kids 1 boy and 3 girls and their relationship isn't perfect but it’s getting better as we help them get closer to Christ!!! They have a little boy named Wagoner  which is a really weird name for here!!! But he is understanding everything we teach him like a boss but his wife is a little slower to understand!! It was really cool our last lesson with them he bore his testimony to us and was like I know your church is true because I just feel it and I don’t believe you would come from America to walk around every day in the hot sun and through the sand to share this message if it wasn't true!!! It was really awesome and you could feel the spirit way strong!!!!  We have been teaching them for 4 weeks!!!!!!

Amerall and Enuice: this family is awesome he is one of the top people in the military here!!! He lived for 5 years in Russia!!!! He can speak fluent Russian!!! He and his wife had a drinking problem but as we have been teaching them you can actually see the change in them he is way happier and he has a strong testimony of the church already!!! Last time we went over there they had a nice cake they bought and he said instead of drinking we eat cake now!!! hahahah they have three boys!! He is the funniest guy I know here!!  That's a little summary of our investigators!!

I have a few interesting stories this week!!  First one

We went to a new investigators house and got inside and were look at his walls  and looking at all his pictures he’s got pictures of Jesus and family all over his walls and then we look on his other wall and there is a huge picture of a naked chick!!! and were like  crap!!! and he sits right underneath it!! Needless to say we didn't stay very long!!! Yesterday I was walking down the street and this random drunk guy runs across the road and freaking shoulder checks me!!!! hahahah I didn't even see him coming but luckily I’m a big guy because he hit me at like a sprint or as fast as a drunk guy can run but he like bounces off of me and lands like 5 feet in front of me on the road!!!  I was confused on what just happened and he gets right back up and starts running and goes up to another person and scares the crap out of them and starts chasing people!!! hahah he was an interesting guy!!! hahaha but the funniest thing was it was the zone leaders birthday on Saturday so we all bought him stuff and made him a cake and we went in to his room and barged in and he had no idea we were going to do this and no one said anything to him all day so we get in there and sing to him and give him all this stuff and he is like I’m very surprised hahahah thank you but it’s not my B-Day and none of us believed him because he always does this stuff!!  So we just shrugged it off and he is like no it’s not my birthday and pulls out his ID and shows us hahah and his birthday turned out to be the next month!!!!! hahaha it was funny!!!! and that’s about it this week!!I love you guys!!!

Tchau Elder Roberts!!

Week 9

Monday: Elder Robinson and I went into the capital city Maputo to explore and we both have only been in the city once before so we were like lost the entire time but we found the one thing we were looking for!!! a restaurant called Mundos!!!! and it was freaking good!!! I had the Thai pizza it had chicken, pineapple and bacon wrapped bananas!!! freaking good!!! and later that night Elder Robinson went to get a hair cut:and half way through the power went out so he had like half of his hair cut and couldn't do anything about it!!! hahah so he had to work for like 2 hours with half cut hair!! hahahah

Tuesday:  We had zone conference and that was awesome!!! President Kretly is awesome our goal in the mission is to have 4 stakes by the end of my mission!!!! We have 0 right now!!!  We have some work to do!!!!!!

Wednesday: This week was tough we had almost all our lessons fall!!  But we have been trying to find new family's!!!

Thursday: Again we had all but one of our lessons fall and the one that didn't was with a family that is getting married and baptized in 2 weeks!!! 

Friday:  Not much happened but we did have a lesson marked and we went to meet the guy at the gas station and he was freaking drunk out of his mind!!! It was hilarious he could barley remember how to get to his house and he was tripping on everything!!!

 Saturday: We had a service project a clothes drive for an old folks home and after we had food and that was good!!! That night we while we were waiting for a member to meet us at the gas station this guy come up and is like lets go and we were like where and he didn't say anything so we just walked away and we look back and he is following us so we crossed the road and start walking back the other way he jumps the road and is coming after us again so we jump the road again and we look and hes looking around for us and were just trying to loose him and he just keeps following us so we jump the road one more time and go down a road and take a bunch of turns and never saw him again!! hahah 

I hope all is well back home!!! Love Elder Roberts

Bacon Wrapped banana pineapple pizza