Sister Roberts Takes Riverside: I've Got Nothing Witty to Put Here This Week, Sorry.

Hola, mi amigas bonitas! (pretty sure I butchered that grammar. Oops.)

This week has been crazy! Lots of amazing things have happened, and lots of..... interesting..... things have happened. Let's start with interesting, shall we? :)

It's been "rainy" here for most of this week, so we've gotten to go tracting. FYI, I LOVE TRACTING. :) Anywho, we tracted into this one lady's house. She opens the door, we do our thing, and she starts asking us questions about what we believe. So, pretty normal ya know? Well.... then.... She goes "I'm an annointed psalmist and a born again Christian!" Which is awesome, because she was super nice to us (though, I have NO idea what an "annointed psalmist is... pretty sure we have different definitions of annointed). And she starts going on this huge lecture about Jesus Christ's real name (which in Hebrew, is Yeshua, which is correct (as far as I know, correct me if incorrect please), along with a few other ones like Yahweh) and the history of the bible (which we actually agreed mostly) and how she speaks in tongues. She then started speaking to us "in tongues". I was expecting a bunch of jumbled together nonsense, which is usually what happens when people do that with us, but she was actually speaking a language which I'm pretty sure was Hebrew. After each sentence, she'd translate for us. In "tongues", she said that Sister Meza and I were mighty servants of the Lord, that God has a wonderful and magnificent plan for our lives, and that praise be to God, along with a few other things that I didn't catch, because she was talking so fast. She then asked us a few other questions, like if we believe that Christ and God are the same person or if we believe that Christ is the literal begotten of the Father. We explained how we believe they are separate and distinct beings, and she was super happy because she believes the same thing. She also asked a few other things that I can't remember because my mind was still stuck on the whole "in tongues" thing. (By the way, LDS people generally define speaking in tongues very differently than most. We tend to think it's more of a gift to pick up and and speak languages well, thereby helping God's children to learn about Him). She was SUPER nice and I can officially check it off my bucket list to be spoken to "in tongues". ;) She also gave us her business card, and she's a traveling minister. So! That was interesting experience number one!

Interesting experience number 2: We are teaching an investigator named Marco. :) He's awesome. He lives in the ghetto of the ghetto. We're not allowed to be there after dark, and tend not to go there often because it is pretty dangerous. But, Marco could only meet us after dark, so we had a member go with us. Her name is Sister Child and she's the sweetest. :) She was SUPER apprehensive about going to this area, but we went nonetheless. We got there, and everything was locked down around the apartment. We parked across the street, and called Marco to let us in. So, he came down, opened the locked gate, and walked us up to his apartment. His apartment complex is.... interesting. There's lots of alcohol bottles everywhere, it reeks of marijuana, and is super run down and scary with pretty scary people. I felt fine and didn't think it was a big deal, but Sister Child looked like she was gonna pass out. XD hahaha So we teach Marco and he loveddddddd it. He is a SUPER nice guy and is excited to learn more. As we walked out, he accompanied us so we would be safe, and we got in our car. Sister Child felt much better leaving than she did arriving, and she loved teaching. :) Gotta love the ghetto guys. Seriously. You find the best people there. :) (also a lot of scary ones, but eh, it's fun).

Now lets talk about the amazing!

We had a missionary fireside last night, and President Mullen came to speak to 3 wards of members and the missionaries about missionary work. He basically called all the members to repentance, but in a nice way. ;) Most people are pretty scared of President, but he's the bestttttttt. Anyways, the fireside was AMAZING. However, President asked the missionaries, all 6 of us, to do a musical number. You alll know I can't sing well, so I was terrified. But it actually went really well! We had people come up to us after and tell us that the Spirit was definitely the strongest during the meeting when we sang and told us how good of a job we did. It was pretty great and I was honored. :)

Zoey is one of our investigators. She's 13 and LOVES the Gospel. She even bore her testimony is Sacrament meeting yesterday! She was also called as the Beehive Secretary! So, she has a calling and everything, but she isn't baptized yet. Her parents are inactive members and want her to wait until she's 18, but they're warming up, so fingers crossed it's sooner. :)

Oh, and by the way, ELDER CHRISTOFFERSEN IS COMING TO OUR MISSION TO TRAIN US!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm. So. Stoked. He's a member of the 12 Apostles, so he's like.... as far up in the church as you can get without being the actual Prophet, whom he works with all the time. We're so excited! He's coming on May 21st and the WHOLE mission is getting together to hear him speak. This is a big deal because the mission NEVER does that because there's far too many of us, but this is a pretty special occasion. :) I'm so excited. Wanna know a secret? In order to get iPads in your mission, a member of the 12 has to come visit and train you, and the apostle who usually does it is Elder Christoffersen. So there's a chance we're getting iPads. Yassssss. But it's not a guarantee by any means, so I'm trying not to get my hopes up. XD hahaha

Anyways, I've gotta go. But I want to extend a challenge to you all! I want you to share the gospel this week with one person. It doesn't have to be a big deal, it can just be an email that you send with an inspiring video, or a conversation where you share a little bit about what you believe. This work is amazing guys. And all of us are essential! So! Share!

Love you all,

Sister Roberts