Email 11/26/12

Family, Busy thanksgiving week for us. Lots of people to see with very little time. Productive week though. We had a busy thanksgiving that went rather well. We had a good meal and pie and all kinds of food. An El Salvadorian family gave us some duck. That wasn't too bad. We had really good discussions with this guy who is wanting to be baptized. We discussed his concerns and questions that he has and went really well. We see him and his familiy everyday to read scriptures with them and talk about what we read in preparing him to be baptized. It is really awesome to read the scriptures with invesigators and I really enjoy it. Then we also started to teach another spanish guy from Florida. He is pretty cool. He and his family lived in Miami for like 25 years. So we talked lots about Florida and found out he talked with missionaries in the past in Florida and wants us to teach him and his wife. That was really cool. So things are doing pretty good around here. We stay really busy which is really good. Awesome to be here in Marshall. Loving it. Thanks for all you do. Hope thanksgiving was sweet. Love Elder Roe

Email 11/19/12

Family, This has been a really busy week. I have noticed we have lots of people who want us to see them and just not enough time in the day to see them all. So very busy week. Really cool to see all those members I remember and those who I was working with before I left Marshall the first time. We are teaching a lot and getting things done so we hope to have some baptisms here soon. I am excited for Thanksgiving this week. Thankfully, we have people to have us over and should be a good day of spending time with the members and eating some good food. This past Friday, the branch had a Thanksgiving dinner and it was great. We had lots of people there and lots of our investigators. It was a great opportunity to have them get together with those that we are teaching and get them to create friendships with the members of the branch. There were lots of people that came and I wasn't expecting to come so that is really sweet. Having already been here, I am really trying this time to have a better relationship with the spanish members and investigators. Having served here with Elder Perez, who is fluent, I didn't need to speak much spanish but I'm definitely speaking a lot now. It is working great right now and really enjoying translating and having a better contact with the spanish members. We had a cool experience this week in teaching this investigator from Micronesia. We went to stop by and see him and he was outside talking to 2 of his friends (also from Micronesia) that live next door. They were a little hesitant at first to talk to us but we warmed up with them and the investigator invited us to come in and teach him a long with is 2 friends. We had an awesome lesson about scriptures and prophets and the power of prayer. The spirit was there and really helped testify to them that what we were saying was true. It went really well and gave everyone a Book of Mormon and all agreed to have us over another time to learn more. It was really sweet and they loved the chance to learn and grow from the scriptures. Past Friday we also had zone conference over by Kansas City and that went really good as well. Lots of travel but it went really good and happy to go and be uplifted and trained on what to do. So this was a really good week. Thanks for everything! Have an awesome Thanksgiving! Love Elder Roe

Email 11/12/12

Family, Not a whole lot of time this week to talk. But I do have some good news. I got transferred and....I am back in Marshall, Missouri!!! It is really cool to be back in the area and see all the members again. Everyone is excited to have a familiar face and move on in teaching and baptizing people that I had previously worked with. It is also really awesome to see the people we helped baptize some time ago and see them continuing to progress and grow in the gospel. I am hoping to stay here long enough to see some of these awesome converts and go with them to the temple to be sealed as families. That is what I am really excited for. But other than the crazy transfer, not much stuff other than seeing all the people I taught and the rest of the members. It is really cool also to now be teaching the last nonmember in this part member family that we had worked with in the past. Right before I left we baptized their daughter, Ale, and now we are set to baptize her dad in December or early January. So it is awesome. Gotta go for now. Thanks for everything. Love Elder Roe

Back in Marshall....Home of Jim the Wonder Dog!!

Email 11/05/12

Family, Past week has been a really busy one. Lots of driving and interviews and meetings. All really good though. Our week was really slow but really productive. We talked and fellowshipped with lots of our investigators and members which was really handy. We had a trunk or treat at the church Wednesday and it went really good. There were so many people. The ward did a really good job on inviting their friends. We had fun running the donuts stand and making kids race each other to eat the donut on a stick w/o using their hands. Funny stuff. We are getting a better connection and friendship with the spanish families which is helping us meet more of their friends and we have lots of potentials to follow up on this week. Yesterday we had a pretty good day. We went to have dinner with this spanish family (they have been coming to church more which is really sweet) which we were hoping to get to teach the wife's brother who is not a member. We have met with him a couple times and he came to church last week and we have talked about him being baptized but never really set a date or goal for him to be baptized. We go to dinner though and he wasn't there which was disappointing. As we were about to give a quick message before we leave, he walks in the door and sits down to join us. It was pretty sweet. We talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ with them. Then we talked with the nonmember and set him for a date of baptism for December 1st. Very sweet. So we were excited to help them out and see him commit to a goal or date to be baptized. Other than that, a rather quiet week. Weather had been really nice. Cool today but really nice the next week or so. Doing good here though. Thanks for everything. Love, Elder Roe

Email 10/29/12

Family, This past week has been pretty good. Our area is starting to pick up so we are working really hard. We also had interviews with mission president which went all good. Lots of traveling past week. Lots of interviews and meetings. All good of course. Had a baptismal interview to do and also have one this week too. We were able to have an awesome church tour with a spanish investigator I have been teaching for awhile now. It went great. I was able to solve a lot of concerns he had and went thru the church and where he would sit and all that. He hasn't been to church yet so I really thought that if he would go on a tour with us then he would feel a lot more comfortable. It worked out. He didn't come to church yesterday but he really enjoyed the tour and said he wants to be baptized and just needs to study and read and pray a lot more before he decides to do it. So it was great to go thru that with him and solve concerns he had and questions he wasn't sure about. Church tours are great ways to get people in the church and see how it is and more times then not, people walk away a lot more comfortable to come to church because they have already see where to go and interacted with members and the building. So that was a big highlight this past week. At interviews we also got the cultural celebration dvds which was way nice to see it again. Weather has been cooling off a lot and really windy but it is a really nice change from the past really hot weather we have had here. Other than that' things are going great. Thanks for everything! Love Elder Roe