#32 Another baptism

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Hello Everyone,

 I am doing great. I actually have another baptism this week that the Lord had a lot of control over.  It is amazing that the girl is getting baptized.  The ward is pretty supportive.  We are doing pretty good here. This week has been a lot of finding.  We have gotten a couple referrals from the members and they have been really helpful.  They are all mostly RM's so they know what we are doing.  They sometimes invite us to try new food or just show us new things they get.  This last week we invited over to our ward mission leaders house to try talaba or sea oysters.  They were okay but I didn't want to eat more than one.  I am continually amazed by the kindness of these people.  Many of them love to talk to us and share what things they have.  If we go to a members house they almost always give us some little snack.  I love being here in the Philippines.  I know that our heavenly father loves all people rich or poor, big or small, short or tall.  I just keep on going.

Love,

 Elder Roskelley

Nephite flip-flops that I got

#31 Trials still help us grow

Wednesday, February 19,2014

Hello Everyone

Well I am doing really good. I love working here and I see the hand of the Lord every day.  I talk with as many people as I can and try to avoid being sick.  My companion got a little sick earlier this week but we are doing really good.  The ward here is so fun and we love them.  This Sunday my companion and I are going to be in the ward choir for ward conference. I have some good news we have another baptism this weekend.  I am excited. We are seeing a lot of progress in the work even though we have trials.  This week I have really learned about trials.  We have trials so that we can grow and the Lord gives us trials because he loves us.  I know that if we keep an eternal perspective than our trials will seem a lot easier.  I know that our savior loves us and that he died for our sins.  I hope all is well with you.  

Love,

 Elder Roskelley

This is a knife that an Elder gave me before he left for Tacloban. It is to remember him.

#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