Final email from Elder Roe, as a missionary 07/08/13

Family, We had a pretty good past week. Rather slow with the holiday but went well. We went to the temple to do baptisms this past Friday with a recent convert and it was an amazing experience for him and us. We got to be apart of it all. He had a couple ward friends there with him so it was a great time for everyone. We also went to our Mission President's Devotional at the Independence Visitor's Center last night with a different convert. It was pretty sweet. Time sure has been flying by. As this is my last email before I get home, I would like to write my last testimony as a set apart representative of Christ: I bear testimony that this church is true. I know that Jesus Christ restored this church through Joseph Smith and that we have a prophet today, Thomas S Monson, to lead and guide us. I know that Christ has suffered for us all and that through His atonement people can change. I have seen many times on my mission changes people have made. My mission has been the best experience for me and I have learned a lot and I have let my mission change me. It has been a long, tough 2 years but I am eternally grateful for it. I love the people of Kansas and Missouri. I know how important missionary work is and I am grateful for the choice to serve because it was a huge learning experience for me that I can not get anywhere else. I am grateful for all the love and support my family and others have shown for my mission. Thanks for everything. I encourage everyone to go on a mission and see the change it can have with you is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior, Amen. Elder Roe

Email 07/01/13

Family, We had an awesome week. On Wednesday we got to go to the temple as a whole mission for zone conference. It was a sweet experience. It was great to be there as a whole mission. The new Missouri Independence mission as our mission was split and the just created the Kansas Wichita mission last week. Great stuff. Then on Saturday we had a baptism. It went great. She is 20 and getting married this weekend to a member that lives in Colorado. Her parents came to the baptism and we hope to teach the parents when they get back from the trip. Elder Andrus baptized her and I got to confirm her. It was a great experience and awesome miracle to find, teach, baptize, and confirm her. Her mom was with her the whole time and has a great spirit so we hope to teach her more and that she would continue to come to church even though her daughter will have moved to Colorado here soon. Good stuff going on here. Thanks for all the prayers and support. Love, Elder Roe

Email 06/24/13

Family, We have had a busy week of planning visiting with people. We have a baptism this weekend of a young lady who is getting married to a member that lives in Colorado. She had a desire to be baptized with the support of her mom who is learning from us, before her wedding so we are having the baptismal service this weekend. Exciting for them both. It was truly a miracle to find them so I was really happy to be here to see it all. I was also happy to hear that a spanish guy I taught for some time in Marshall, MO and baptized/reactivated his family finally made the choice to be baptized and was baptized this past Saturday in Utah. Very exciting time. We had an amazing missionary broadcast yesterday. Very awesome, historical announcements. Kinda sad that I finish my mission relatively soon and won't get to see some of the announcements take place in our mission but exciting nonetheless. I loved the broadcast. I looked but didn't notice Sister Ryder in the audience. Exciting time to be a missionary now. I appreciate all the love and support I have had so far on my mission. Thanks for all you do. Love, ELder Roe

Email 06/17/13

Family, We had a great week of miracles. All because we are working hard and trying to help the area more. We were at dinner Wednesday night when we got a phone call from a sister working at the family history center that night and said 2 ladies walked in, live in our area, want to have missionary discussions and 1 of them wants to be baptized. It was a great miracle. We are now teaching them and helping them progress well. Then we were out with a guy in the ward for a teaching appointment, already running a couple mins late when he stops and is like "You elders want to go to sonic and get a shake?" We cant pass that up so we are in the drive thru when this worker takes trash out stares and asks, "Are you Mormon elders?" We said yes and he responds, "I've been looking for you guys!" He was baptized a member in 2008 and hadn't been to church since and recently moved to Leavenworth and has a renewed desire to come back to church but didn't know where to find it. So it was a great blessing. He came to church with us yesterday for the first time in years. He told us that he wasn't even supposed to take out the trash but did anyway, just as we weren't really expecting to be at sonic, already late for an appt. God's hand was in all that happened that night. Great to see those inspirations help others. We are doing great here and enjoying my time here. Thanks for all you do! Love, Elder Roe

Email 06/10/13

Family, We are doing pretty good here. We had a pretty productive week and got to teach quite a few people. We have a couple people that are doing good but mostly a lot of people that are struggling to commit to things. It's been a tough one to get people to read the scriptures but the times they do it, is always rewarding for them. I'm pretty excited about the coming weeks. We are looking to find more people to teach and Elder Andrus is learning the area pretty fast. We will have a zone conference sometime soon which I am excited about. Good stuff coming soon. I am finishing strong and that makes me feel pretty good. Mission has been great so far. Thanks for all you do. Love, Elder Roe

Email 06/03/13

Family We had transfers this past week. My companion left and I am now serving with Elder Andrus from Anchorage, Alaska. It is pretty funny because he knows my MTC comp. So funny to serve with someone from Alaska again. We are doing good stuff though. I am enjoying my mission. We are working and focusing on the ward to build it up. When Elder Quentin L Cook came to the mission, he had told us that we are having a successful mission if the ward is doing better and leave it better than when we got here. So as I come to the latter part of my mission, I am trying hard to help the ward as much as possible. Really exciting time. Thanks for all you do. Love, Elder Roe

Email 05/28/13

Family, We had a decent past week. We are working good stuff with the ward and we are doing good. We have great people to teach and looking to find more. It is just great to see the gospel work with people to help them change and turn 180 in their life. We have great ward members to help those we are teaching too. It is great to get the fellowship that we have had. We also had a good memorial day here. It is a big thing around here with the large military population. We went to a ceremony on base here and it was a great experience. It is really cool to see the love of the troops here. We also took a tour here of the fort and that was really cool. We have transfers this week but don't know what could be happening. Things are doing great here tho. Thanks for everything! Love Elder Roe

Email 05/20/13

Family, We had a decent week this week. It was a little tougher and we are struggling to find a lot of people to teach but we are doing better in the area. The ward is helping out more and giving us more opportunities to teach their friends which is great. It was a slow but rewarding week. We are working with some great people and trying our best to get them to church. I have noticed how hard it is to get people to come to church but I also noticed that once they do, they skyrocket. We have had some crazy weather here but it has since slowed down a little. I would love to see a tornado here but have yet to see that. We are doing good here though. Thanks for everything. Love Elder Roe

Email 05/06/13

Family, We had a good week of teaching people. We are working with this awesome couple that is living with some members. Both are wanting to learn more and working to get married and get baptized soon. We are seeing lots of miracles after members stepping up to share the gospel with others. It is really great to see the fellowship of others and the ward. We also set up a time for a family to invite friends and we will be there to share a lesson and visit with them all. Things are doing great here in Leavenworth and working with the ward to keep our teaching pool up and doing service. We have interviews with our mission president this week which will be great. Good things going on here and excited to serve. Talk to you on mothers day! Love Elder Roe

Email 04/29/13

Family, We had a great uplifting weekend. We worked hard during the week to find more people to teach and help the members talk to their friends. Then we had a special missionary conference with ELder Quentin L Cook, Donald L Hallstrom from the presidency of 70, Dean Davies from the presiding bishopric, and Elder Achoa from the 70. It was a great meeting. We got to shake everyone's hand which was great. Elder Cook was the executive director over missionary work when preach my gospel came out so he had great insights about that. Overall it was a great meeting with everyone. Then, on Sunday we had a special stake conference with Elder Hallstrom presiding. That went really well also. So it was a great week of meetings and meeting apostle and other general authorities. I learned a lot about how to help members and be more concerned with helping build the ward than baptisms. I saw that when I was able to go back to Marshall and see the great improvement over the coarse of a year or so. So we had a great week. Thanks for everything. Love Elder Roe

Email 04/22/13

Family, We had a tougher, but great, end to our week. One of the recent coverts we baptized a couple weeks ago received the priesthood yesterday so that was sweet. Good things going on here. We had a couple baptisms so now we are, like, out of people to teach and in the finding stage of things. It is going okay and members are starting to help us more. We have a new ward mission leader so that will be cool to work with someone new. We had a couple people come to church that we didn't expect which was great. It was a great sacrament meeting and perfect for some of the people that came. Great how the spirit works like that. We are hoping to start teaching this girl who is living with a member-friend soon. This coming week should be exciting bc we have a special stake conference with Elder Quentin L Cook and several other top general authorities. There will also be a special meeting with the apostle and missionaries. He had some extra time so he asked to meet with some missionaries. At first our stake wasn't going to be included in the meeting with the apostle bc we were too far away but I asked again and pleaded to go bc we aren't too far and we get to go now! So that will be exciting to meet an apostle and hear him. Exciting stuff. Thanks for everything! Love Elder Roe

Email 04/15/13

Family, We had a pretty good week. We had a baptism for Vaughn. He is 18 and graduating high school soon. He is a way cool guy. He was found after his really good friend, who is a member, invited him to church. He came and wanted to learn more and was just baptized this past Friday. I was able to confirm him yesterday. It was a great experience. The past 2 baptisms here have been a result of members talking to their friends and inviting them to church and learn more. As a result someone gets baptized and both are enriched. I was happy with the emphasis of members at general conference bc we can't do it without them. We are seeing the fruits of members doing their part to talk to their friends and it has been a great boost for the ward. Thanks for everything! Love Elder Roe

Email 04/08/13

Family, We had a great week this past week. We worked hard and invited lots of people to General Conference. We also set up different sessions to watch with members and this guy, we are going to have baptized this Friday. He is really cool guy and excited for his baptism. He is 18 and has lots of friends in our ward and the other ward that go to high school with him. So, he has a great fellowship and we watched a couple sessions of General Conference with him. I really liked the focus of missionary work at conference. With the surge of missionaries I thought it was great for the general authorities explaining how members can help and keep the wave going. We are working with that here in the ward so I'm excited to see things moving forward. Things are going great here though. Thanks for all you do. Love Elder Roe

Email 04/01/13

Family, We had a baptism this past weekend. The elders in the other ward met this guy who was dating a member and came to church with her. He wanted to learn more so the other elders started to teach him and then realized that he was actually in our ward. So, we taught him everything and worked with the other elders and the 2 wards, to get him baptized on Saturday. It went great and he was really excited. He is an awesome guy. We are also working with a couple other people that should be progressing more and more. We had a great Easter yesterday too. We had the confirmation for Jeremy that went smoothly. Then we had a great dinner with this family and like 5 other families. It was great. Then we played some games with them and walked to enjoy outside before the kids had an easter egg hunt that we helped put together. It was a great time to spend with the families. Lots of fun. We also had zone conference this past week. Our mission is growing lots and lots of good stuff going on. We found out the new mission boundaries and that missionaries going home around the mission split (like me) will stay in the Missouri Independence mission to end in the mission we started in. So I am excited for that. Lot of good stuff going on. Thanks for everything. Love, Elder Roe

Email 03/18/13

Family, This has been a good week. We are working hard and have lots of great stuff on the horizon. We currently have 4 people with a baptismal date and they are doing great. We have a couple set for April and end of this month so we are excited to work with them and see the spirit work with them. It is starting to warm up pretty fast here and I don't like it. I've gotten so used to the cold here that I prefer it than the 60-70 degrees we have been having. Not a lot of time but we are doing great and loving my mission. Thanks for everything. Love, Elder Roe

Email 03/11/13

Family, I was transferred this week. It was really sad to leave Marshall. I spent a little more than half my mission there but it has been a great experience and I love the people there. I am now back in Kansas. Leavenworth, Kansas. Big military area with Ft. Leavenworth and big, historical correctional facilities and jails. Interesting historical city to be in. So far it has been a nice place. The ward is nice. There is not a lot of spanish at all here so it is really different and strange to be here. I felt really strange and lost not blessing the sacrament, translating all sacrament meeting, having classes in spanish, etc. So strange but makes me appreciate spanish more. I hope I can keep up the language!! This area is nice and doing really good. There is lots of potential and baptisms coming up soon. It is great to be apart of it all. Thanks for everything! Love Elder Roe

Email 03/04/13

Family, We had another snow storm roll in this past week. Another foot or so of snow. We have lots of snow around. They closed down school for a week. Because of the snow we had a slower week. Not as many opportunities to visit people. We shoveled lots of snow and pushed cars that were stuck. Including ours lol. I am not used to driving in the snow but it works. Kinda like driving in the mud or heavy rain storm. So we helped lots of people this week. Nice to visit with people and members helping them out in the weather. We are good now and out teaching. We finally found this family that we have been looking for since they moved. They didn't know how to contact us but we finally got to see them. It was great to see them again. I helped teach and baptize part of the family when I was first here. Then they split up and moved to a different place. So it was great to see them again and he was excited to see me too, back in Marshall. We have transfers this week and I think that I am leaving but not sure yet. Time is flying but it is really fun along the way. Hope all is well. Thanks for everything. Love, Elder Roe

Email 02/25/13

Family, It has been a crazy week. Good beginning then we heard news of a big snow storm on Thursday. I woke up at 6:30 and it was fine and clear out then by 9am it was pounded. Came really fast and took everyone by suprise. We went out in the blizzard like storm to help some cars stuck around 1pm then got a ride with a cop to a members house where we stayed all day stranded. We weren't able to drive for 2 days. The roads were horrible and not cleared til 2 days after the storm. Bad but kinda fun to be in. Friday we spent time shoveling driveways and stuff. Then Saturday morning, we had interviews with the mission president. We found out that our mission will be split. We are the largest mission in the world (regarding number of missionaries) from what I understand and the split will happen when I go home. So I won't be affected by the mission change, but cool to see that missionaries will have their mission changed and that our mission is doing really good and needs to be split into two. It will be the Missouri Independence Mission and Kansas Wichita Mission. Crazy bc I served some time in Wichita so cool that they will get their own mission now. We don't know boundaries yet but President Keyes will be talking with the prophet and mission department next week or 2 and find out the boundaries. We guess that Wichita Mission will be the whole state of Kansas. Crazy news. Then we found out that we get another snow storm tonight, just as bad as what we had last week. Probably another foot of snow or so. So, we are trying hard to stay warm and bundle down for the next couple days. Thanks for everything. Love Elder Roe

Email 02/04/13

Family, We had transfers this past week. Elder Manoa was transferred home to California. So sad to see him leave but he had an awesome 2 years and excited for him to finish his mission. My new companion is Elder Christiansen. He has been out for around 6 months or so. Good missionary. Excited to work. We are doing good stuff here in Marshall. I love the people here and we are working hard with baptisms on the horizon. The Micronesian family is moving toward their date for the 23rd. They have really been progressing great. They need to get married and so they are going to talk to the branch president on a day to get married here soon. I am so excited for them. It will be a huge step for them. They are reading the scriptures and feeling really progressive and motivated to do good. We are also working with a 8 year old that wants to get baptized. Her grandma is a member but parents arent. She comes to church every week and is great. We are working to move her baptism sooner so we dont hold her back from what she wants. A spanish family we are working with is going okay. We are going to work with them to have FHE at their house every week. THat would be great and think they would draw closer as a family as a result. I am really enjoying my mission and loving my time here in Marshall. I have been here in total about 9 months and it is great. Hope all is well. Thanks for everything! Love Elder Roe

Email 01/21/13

Family, This has been a pretty good week. We have been working hard. We have walked a lot everywhere we go to see more people and save miles. It has been very cold here but we are trying our best to stay warm. Marshall is doing pretty good. We have people to teach and they are doing better. We are going to have to move back the baptismal date for the Micronesian family. They have been struggling, but we are working a lot with their friend who is a member of the church to continue to see them and work toward a new goal for them to be baptized. Another spanish family we are working with is doing really good too. Lots of good stuff coming up in this area. I am really excited about it all. Spanish is improving and helping out those we are teaching. My companion is going home in less than 2 weeks but he is still really hard working. We are doing great together and I am excited for him to have a good last part of his mission. Exciting. Not much happening other than lost of busy work and trying hard. This week we have a zone conference with Elder Eduardo Gaverret. He is in the first quorum of the 70. So we are excited for that. Should be pretty sweet. Thanks for everything! Love Elder Roe

Email 01/14/13

Hey, This has been a pretty good week. We have been working hard on some people that are close to getting baptized. We had a little setback when we got a decent cold snap and lots of ice and little snow that they cancelled church yesterday. Pretty crazy that they cancelled church and funny to explain to investigators that they didn't need to worry about coming to church because it was cancelled. So we are working hard on these people that we have and it is going good. The Micronesian family is doing pretty good and doing better. We are also working hard on this spanish part member family that is doing better and working toward a baptism. My companion and I are doing good stuff here. It was a slower week with lots of meetings and me with the flu but good week overall. I am doing good here in Marshall and loving it more and more. Not a whole lot going on other than the really cold weather and ice. Thanks for everything. Love Elder Roe

Email 01/07/13

Hey, This has been a busy week. We had a lot of driving. I had to go to Warrensburg, which is like 60+ miles away to do a baptismal interview in spanish. I am the only district leader around that speaks spanish so I had to drive out there to do the interview in spanish and translate for the missionaries there. It was pretty cool though. My spanish has improved a lot. I am struggling speaking in english now but I know the word in spanish. Very flip-flopped lol. I have been speaking spanish a lot more recently so that is really fun. Only way that I have improved is to spend as much time as I can on speaking it and being around it all the time. We were able to get another person with a baptismal date. A young 8 yr old whose parents aren't members but her grandma is and she wants to get baptized. I remember her when I was first here when she turned 8 and she came up to us and told us that she wanted to get baptized so it is really cool to be back in Marshall and get to see that it will happen. It won't be for a couple months because she is going to school in Kansas City and living with her mom for awhile but she will be back to get baptized here in Marshall. The Micronesian family that we have on baptismal date are doing really good as well. They have some problems with smoking and stuff so we had an awesome lesson yesterday and the committed to give it all up. We are really excited for them. Very cool to hear them pray in Chuukese and still feel the spirit. Pretty neat stuff. Nothing much other than being really busy and trying to stay warm. Doing really great here. Thanks for everything. Love Elder Roe

Email 12/17/12

Family, We had a pretty good week this past week. We have been teaching this Micronesian family for a little bit and we were able to bring a member with us to teach them and they clicked really good. We had an awesome lesson about the importance of faith and baptism and committed them to be baptized on February 2nd. We had been a little worried because they don't know a whole lot of english but they have been understanding a lot better than I thought and doing really good. They speak Chuukese which is kinda cool and we are working to have materials in Chuukese in case they don't understand things but they have understood really good thus far. We also had a Christmas party/dinner at the branch and it was really sweet. We had lots of people there and they had a great time. Good food too. Crazy how fast Christmas is coming up. Time is flying. Not a whole lot happening tho this close to Christmas. Thanks for everything. Love Elder Roe