#55 Love my new companion

Monday, August 11,2014

Hello everyone,

  We are doing great here in Duero.  We just had our branch conference and we had 60 people attend.  That is double what we normally have.  Here in Duero we do a lot of walking and there is lots of sun. .  It hasn't rained at all.  It has just been hot. The members are really nice but I think I might ask some of them to move so we don't have to walk as far.:) We teach a lot of less actives here.  Duero has been open for a long time but they still don't have a strong branch.  My comp and I are getting a long very well. We both learn from each other and we have lots of fun.  I hope all is well at home.  I love hearing about everything.  

Love,

 Elder Roskelley

My comp is very big and he used to be bigger. He has a cousin 

that is a lineman on the Washington Redskins and he is thinking 

about  walking on at U of U.  People that are drunk are the only people 

that really say anything to us.  Everyone else is very apprehensive.  

My comp and a member that is hanging out with us today because

 he doesn't really have any good friends that are members.  

Sometimes people look to the missionaries for strength

#54 New area, Duero, Bohol

Monday, August 4, 2014

Hello everyone,

I hope all is well.  I am doing pretty good here in my new area of Duero.  My new comp is Elder Ika.  He is my first comp that is bigger and younger than me.  He is super fun and Duero is beautiful.  I will try to send pics.  This area we focus a lot more on less actives than we did in Talibon.  It should be pretty fun.  I will get to practice working with different types of people.  We do have one investigator that is progressing well and should get baptized at the end of this month.  Our branch of 28 is super cool too.  The church is a little beautiful house that is rented by the church.  It should be a good transfer.  

Love,

 Elder Roskelley

Duero, Bohol

Duero is a fifth income class municipality in the province of Bohol, Philippines. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 17,580. It may have been named after the Duero River in the Iberian peninsula.

Roman Catholicism was introduced to the town in 1860 by a Spanish priest. Duero was established as a municipality two years later, and a convent was constructed in 1868.

Public market

Facts & Figures

Location	:	Southern Seaboard of Bohol
Congressional District	:	3rd District
Number of Barangays	:	21 Barangays (9- Coastal & 12- Inland Barangays)
Income Classification	:	4thClass
LGU Annual Income	:	P 50,277,212.72 (2009)
Total Municipal Land Area	:	5, 889, 6966 hectares (Source: LGU)
Timberland Area	:	NONE
Alienable & Disposable (A & D)	:	2, 781.000 hectares
Soil Cover	:	Bolinao Clay, Annam Clay, Faraon Clay and Ubay Clay Loam
River Basins (Watershed Areas)	:	Alihauan RB, Lumabay RB, Inabanga RB, Corouid RB
Population	:	17, 254 (2007 Census)
	:	17, 830 (2011 projected)
	:	18, 867 (2020 projected)
Average Population Growth Rate	:	0.08% (1990-1995 NSO)
Total Number of Households	:	3, 502 (2007 census)
Major Industries	:	Farming, Fishing, Cottage Industry
Literacy Rate	:	91.97%
Higher Education Institutions	:	NONE
Number of Secondary Schools	:	3
Number of Primary/Elementary Schools	:	11 Primary Schools, 8 Elementary Schools
Number of Technical – Vocational School	:	NONE
Language/Dialect	:	Boholano (Binisaya)
Religion/Religious Affiliation (1990)	:	Roman Catholic (70.75%)

#53 Getting transfered

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Hey everyone

It sounds like stuff  at home is going good.  That is awesome.  I am doing great here too.  Our branch here is improving so fast.  They are helping in so many aspects of our work.  We are still trying to help train them so that they can be more effective at working with us but it is going great.  The teaching is going great when we can get out.  This last week my comp has been pretty sick.  He probably ate some bad food.  That just happens every once in a while.  I love seeing the progress here in Talibon and was kind of sad because of the news that I received last night.  I am being transferred to Duero, Bohol.  It is a small branch that has been struggling in the past. They say the area is pretty hard but that will be just fine. It is probably the farthest area from the mission office.  I am still the district leader. I guess I just won't get to see anyone for a while.  My new comp is Elder Ika.  He is either Tongan or Samoan but he might have lived in the US.  He is kind of a new missionary so we should have a good time.  This week has gone by so fast. I hope that everyone is doing good back home.  Love you all.  

Love

Elder Roskelley

#52 One year mark

Monday, July 21, 2014

Hey everyone

 This week was pretty sweet.  There were many things that made it sweet. First, I officially hit my one year mark and didn't really do anything special for that.  I should probably burn a least one of my shirts.  They are starting to get pretty yellow.  Also this week we had interviews with president Tanner.  He was sweet to talk to and he has a great vision for this mission.  The last thing was the great work and support from the members.  We had 2 members that went to an investigators house without us and had a great discussion with them.  That made me really excited.  Right now we are trying to give the members more opportunities to do things so that they can receive training and become great leaders in the future.  Also we had our branch activity this week.  It was way fun and a pretty good success.  We had 3 less actives come and hopefully they can start coming to church.  We had some sweet lessons this week too.  My comp has been kind of sick lately so Elder Johnson and I have been going on splits a little bit.  Some people use the phrase "a wrench got thrown in to our plans" I would have to say "I think parts of a car got thrown in our plans but it all worked out really well.  It was really cool. I love the many assignments that the Lord gives us.  Lately I realized that I have been volunteering for more activities too.  Recently I have started translating the Church Handbook of instruction into Cebuano.  It was translated once but it was kind of bad.  They are having problems over here with leaders not knowing what to do so sometimes I feel like the branch president.  We have seen a lot of success like last week because we were talking to president he decided that we should do a branch council meeting.  It went okay.

 We receive so much help from the Lord each day.  I know that the Lord is always there and I can and will rely on him.  I hope all is well at home because it looks like typhoon season is here.  

Love,

 Elder Roskelley

Mom's post on instagram: 52 weeks! I can't believe it has been 52 weeks, a whole year! Some days it feels like he left yesterday and some days it feels like longer that a year, In a recent email he said this describes it best, "I can't remember the time when I wasn't a missionary and I am not close enough to the end to believe that I won't be a missionary some day." Love my missionary!

#51 Temple prep class

Monday, July 14, 2014

Hey everyone

 I am doing awesome here.  We continue to have new challenges which also means more solutions.  I helped a member prepare about 8 names to take to them temple and I am also teaching her and a couple other members the temple prep class.  It has been really cool because even though I am far from the temple I can still feel its spirit in my life.  No matter how much you could have prepared for my mission I was still going to basically get blind sided.  Well except if I could have somehow known that I needed to learn Cebuano or Tagalog.  We recently said good bye to the senior couple here, the Talbots.  It was pretty sad.  They cried a little bit while we were at their house.  Last night was crazy.  We left Talibon at 6pm and arrived in Tagbilarin at 1015pm.  It was a crazy travel over earthquake ruined roads and winding mountain roads.

Love

Elder Roskelley

#50 Finding families

Monday, July 7, 2014

Hello Everybody,

 I hope all is well back home.  We had a pretty good week this week.  My companion did get sick for a day but other than that we had pretty good work.  We are continuing to find new investigators and trying to focus more on finding families.  While I have been here in Talibon we always have a crazy week with lots of changes.  This week we had zone training meeting and one of the missionaries in my district had to go to the doctor.  Nothing really worked out how we had planned it but we did get to teach an awesome part member family.  We found them a couple weeks ago and they are super nice.  They are progressing well and next week they said they would come to church.

 The senior couple from Cebu came here to check out the apartments and they bought it with them.  Apartment checks went ok too.  It is basically like when you tell me to clean my room.  They expect it to be dirty but they are a little bit more stern about it than you are, probably because they have to look at like 100 dirty apartments.   We are having lots of fun here.  I love you all.

 Love,

 Elder Roskelley