#30 Trials will help us grow

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Hey everyone

Hello from the Philippines, I am doing great.  Well first fishing was really cool.  They have this closed off pond that they stalk with schooling fish.  What we did was we had a cup of food and a wooden stick with fishing line and a hook.  We only had to use a little bait that looks like clay.  What we did first is take the cup of food and throw it in the water.  It makes the schools of fish basically have a feeding frenzy.  You put your hook in the water and in like ten seconds you have a fish.  Then there is a place there that they will cook it for you and give you some rice.  Everyone caught at least one fish and then I tried some sushi and some cook fish.  Both were really good.  If you come to the Philippines after my mission I will definitely take you there.  They said the record is 52 kg of fish in one hour.  We caught one kilo and that was it because we didn't want to spend too much money. I have been teaching lots of people as usual and have some really great investigators, but this week is transfer week so we have to do a lot of stuff.  There are lots of changes happening here in the mission still but everything is going great.  I have had lots of people question me and my beliefs but I know what I teach is true so I won't stop.  I know that God loves all of his children even when we have trials and problems.  Trials will help us grow if we let them.  We need to face our problems with our eye set on heaven. 

Love,

 Elder Roskelley

P.S.   I love you guys and I made a Valentines card for you all.  

#29 It is hot!

Wednesday, February 5, 2015

Hey everyone,

The weather has been kind of hot.  Yesterday while teaching a lesson I thought I was going to die.  We were in the shade and the temperature was 95 degrees.  We had a storm but we were lucky that the storm hit mostly at night.  That evening we had to walk in the rain a bit and we got pretty wet.  Today I guess we are doing some fishing with the zone but I am not sure where.  I exercise almost every morning and I do drink lots of water. I definitely don't want a kidney stone. My companion will sometimes exercise.  After Friday he usually works out because we set new goals on Friday but he stops after Monday usually.  He is awesome but he does complain about being a little fat but is he working on it. Sorry I don't really have time to write a whole thing about this week but everything is going okay.  The work is hard but I enjoy it here. The language is coming really well.  My packages are never open they are always fine.  I hope that everything is going good at home.  I am very tired almost all of the time but it is good.  I have to go now.   

Love,

 Elder Roskelley

Here is a picture of my alarm clock that I put on our patio for about 20 min, 

it says 130 degrees, I didn't know the temperature gauge could read that high.

#28 First Baptism

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Hello Everyone, 

It has been another week in not so cold Philippines trying to learn a language that is nothing like I have ever heard before.  But despite this I love being here.  I am learning so much about the atonement and what the savior has done for us.  I thank him for his sacrifice every day and I strive to be like him.  It has been interesting this last week.  All God asks is that we strive not to overwork ourselves or beat ourselves up for the efforts that we have exerted.  We don't always give a perfect effort but I know that because of Christ the effort that we give is perfect.  Let me give you an example.  My companion and I both just hit our six month mark.  I don't know cebuano that good and my companion doesn't know the doctrines all that well, but because of the Lord we are able to help these people come closer to Christ.  I am not perfect but I know that because of the help from the Lord I am doing just fine. My baptism went  well.  It went a little too well.  When we were filling up the font we were with our bishop and he said that the water level looked good so we turned the water off and got everything else ready.  When I stepped in the water it only came to my knee.  Luckily the kid that I baptized, Randulf, is only eleven.  The baptism went fine and when I stepped out I realized that my garments didn't even get wet.  I realized I could use them for like three more days:) My zone leaders' names are Elder Fabiano and Elder Hale, both from Utah. Elder Fabiano was my trainer.  In the mission we call our trainers our fathers or Tatay in bisaya. After hearing about Elder Benjamin I am now going to make sure that I drink more water and less soda.  The main drink here in the Philippines is Coca-Cola so there is a lot of it and it is allowed in our mission.  Something interesting, I have probably drank more coke here in the Philippines than anywhere else. The ward here was at first not supportive at all because of the last missionaries that were in here, but they are super awesome now.  The whole bishopric had dinner at the first councilor’s house and they invited us too.  It was really awesome.  Our bishop said that he had never been like this with any other missionaries.  He liked that we were good people and willing to work.  It has been awesome. We have gotten other dinner appointments too, we have just eaten very simple food like rice with leave soup.  I am serious when I say leave soup.  All they do is boil some water with some leaves in it and that is what they put on their rice. I have also had some fish and here we just eat the skin the meat and the bones.  It was very hard to adjust to at first and I still try to avoid it.  When we are in the apartment we try to not have rice so that we can still be healthy. Today for p-day we are going to cook some fish and eat rice as a zone.  It will just be fun hanging out with everyone. Hope everyone is doing good.

Love,

Elder Roskelley

#27 "Ha, I am invincible."

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Hey everyone,

This week like all has been awesome.  One thing that was really funny that happened on Sunday was with me and my companion and the other companionship that is in our ward.  We were waiting in front of the church and my companion pretended to shoot one of the other missionaries.  The other missionary, Elder James, yelled, "Ha, I am invincible."  My Filipino companion then yelled, "Ha, I can still see you."  It was very funny and the two Americans just started laughing.  This is just one example of what challenges you face while learning a language. My companion is pretty good at english but sometimes I have to use bisaya because he understands that better.  We are encouraged to use english inside the apartment and bisaya outside so that both cultures can learn a new language. Bisaya is the language that I actually speak.  Cebuano is just a dialect.  They have another dialect on Bohol but it isn't that much different so they just say bisaya.  Another dialect is Waray Waray. It is spoken in Tacloban but not everywhere. It isn't that hard to switch to these dialects but they are considered different.  What is really confusing is when they use tagalog.  I understand a lot of Tagalog but it is harder to speak. My companion has done many things like this before but this is just the most recent.  I love my companion.  He is very fun and he loves the gospel. I gave our Christmas card to my companion as a remembrance and he really liked it.  He always says that when we go home together he is just going to go to Idaho with me. Today for p-day we are going to SM which is a huge mall and it is a lot like an American mall.  I went there last week but not for too long.  We already played basketball this morning and I had an interview with my district leader. I do still have my first baptism scheduled for this Saturday.  He passed the interview just fine.   I know that we must rely on the spirit when we teach and that the spirit is the real teacher.  I know that all of these people are amazing because they are all children of God.  

Love

Elder Roskelley

#26 Finding members

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Hey everyone,

Well this week like all weeks has come with many changes.  Because my mission president is kind of new and there are a lot of new missionaries our president has a huge job right now.  My companion and I got to talk with him for a while and he seems like he is doing very good and he has a great vision for the mission.  For our area we have had to do a lot of finding.  So far I haven't really had to do that too much but this last week we did a lot.  We have a lot of good members here and we have lots of appointments for dinner but they are very busy so we don't get much help during the week with work.  It is just something that is part of the area.  We just have to adjust and keep our goal in mind.  Remembering my goal has helped me so much this week.  This last week one really cool thing happened.  I got to talk with a former AP of a different Philippines mission and I was asked to give a talk about an hour before I had to give it.  It was pretty cool.  My companion is awesome and he is so humble. Oh mom, one thing that I wanted to say is that your letter that you sent me that you typed has helped me so much.  I read it a lot and it really helps me.  I know that I can do hard things and maybe next week I will be able to tell you about more of the hard things that I am doing.  This last week one hard thing we did was talk to an area captain.  Here we have big neighborhoods that are connected to the government.  We talked to someone that was almost like a mayor's assistant.  He said that we could schedule a meeting with him so we will see where that goes I have thought so much about the Savior this week.  I have seen similarities with the things that He has struggled and the things that I am struggling with.  I encourage everyone to do that with their life.  The Savior knows you and He loves you very much.  He is always helping you.  

Love,

 Elder Roskelley

#25 Transfer to Labogon

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Hey Everyone,

This week was transfer week.  I got to my new area of Labogon which is very city, it is crazy.  We have a grocery store here called “Save More” and it looks so much like Walmart inside. It is very clean and it has so much American food.  It was very shocking for me on my first day.  I am in a very city area which is part of Mandaue city. My new companion is Elder Ramada.  He is from South Luzon.  He is one of the best missionaries I have met.  He has been in the mission just a transfer longer than I have.  He is very nice and very fun. .  My companion and I live in a house together by ourselves but we have lots of fun together.  This morning we went and played basketball with some Elders in our district.  I have not gotten the package you sent with hymnbook yet.  Also I want to ask a favor. Can you send me another Ironman watch sometime.  I have two watches right now but my companion really likes my watch and his watch isn't very good.  I am just going to give him my ironman watch and use my other watch for now.  I don't need another watch right now and I can always buy one here but I really like my Iron man watch.  It holds up better than the other watches here.  For the language I am still kind of struggling with it but that is from my perspective and I can only compare myself to my filipino companion.  I am learning a lot but I still have so much to learn.  I love the work here though. I have met some of our investigators and members and everyone here has been very nice. A lot of the members are RM's and they love the missionaries.  One experience that I want to share with you is about Randolf  Cabase.  He is an eleven year old kid that is not a member.  His father and older brother were baptized a couple months ago but my companion said that he wasn't ready at that time.  He said that he never listened in the lessons and he just was crazy.  Right now we are teaching him and he will only listen to me.  He has a baptismal date set for the 25th and I know he will be ready.  I also got to teach his Sunday school class which was super fun.  I guess the teaching swim lessons was just practice for teaching him.  This will be my first baptism for my mission and I am very thankful to God that He prepared me to be here to help him.   I am loving the work and I can see how God puts us where he needs us.  I know that God knows us and our talents, and our aspirations.  He also knows our potential and he will do what he needs to to help us reach that potential.  I know that God loves all of his children very much and has a plan for each on of them.  He wants us all to return and live with him.  

Love

Elder Roskelley

          Barangay Labogon, Mandaue City(Mandaue City, Cebu)

#24 Happy New Year

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Hey everyone

Happy New Year! For new year's eve we worked until 5:30pm and then we went to the church and watched two Disney movies.  The first was Despicable Me 2 and the second was Frozen. So this week has been a little crazy.  We found out that our area is going to be split and that sisters are going to take the new area.  I also found out that I will be transferring tomorrow to Labogon.  I don't know much about it but I will let you all know.  Also on Sunday I had the opportunity to teach 4 Koreans that a member had brought.  They are english students so I had to use very simple english.  I taught the plan of salvation.  To be able to teach I thought of how I would teach it in Cebuano and then I translated it into english.  If I were to teach in just english I would have used to deep of words for them to be able to understand.  It was way cool.  Today we got to go see some waterfalls, we went to this place called Danasan.  It has a cool adventure park with atvs and ziplines.  We went on their waterfall hike. It was beautiful but it rained a lot and the hike was pretty hard.  I am very tired and I will definitely sleep good.  New Year’s here is actually bigger than Christmas.  All night fireworks were being lit off and it was a little hard to sleep. I love the work here and I know that the Savior loves all of his children no matter where they are.  I know that the savior will always love us and he wants the best for us.  Sometimes we will experience trials and change but that is what life is for.  I love everyone and hope all is well.  

Love Elder Roskelley

Kind of wild turkeys they just roam around but someone does own them and 

everyone  in the area knows who it is so they still go where they want

Heading to an investigators house

A mystical hike

Elder Davies and Elder Murdock, both from Tacloban. One is my

 Zone leader and the other is my District leader. They are two of my favorites.

Me and my companion. It was kind of weird to find this sword in this little house.  The dad is just a motorcycle taxi driver, but he is the first counselor now and his son would usually work with us.  

These investigators gave us these fresh coconuts. He really likes our teaching

 but he hasn't come to church yet. Some sister missionaries are now teaching him.

Elder Davies messing with my camera