Hey!

This is going to be short and to the point, but there are a few things that I would like to share. Yesterday we had ward conference in the Summit Ward. Bishop Dow and President Sears spoke. Prior to them speaking I was asked to sing the song that I prepared for the baptism. I sang I stand all amazed. After i was done I stood all amazed that I didn't mess up and that the spirit was so strong. Sometimes I feel as though I have been a member of the Summit ward for years. President Sears spoke with a lot of power as he normally does. It amazes me how he can take such simple doctrines and teach them with power as if he was revealing them for the first time. It wouldn't surpise me if he went on to be a mission president. Later that same sunday we had a lesson with a less active man named Robert who hadn't been active for many years yet his family is. We had the big guns with us. We had President sears on our left and Bishop Dow on our right. It was such a spiritual lesson. Robert spoke of how he hadn't recognized the spirit before. We all testified and eventually prayed to recognize the spirit. When we had finished our prayer President Sears asked him "how do you feel?" He responded "good, I feel like this is right" Presidemt Sears told him boldly that what he was feeling was the spirit. He replied again  with tears in his eyes saying "It feels good." I hope to see this family in the holy temple in the near future. I wish we could have the stake president and the bishop at every lesson we teach.:) Well in a weeks time I will find out what my fate is going to be for this next transfer. I will keep you posted.

Dear Fam and Friends

It is weeks like this one that have made my mission worth it. Wednesday we got a text from Casey Carroll saying "they are here can you come now? I don't think I can keep my secret any longer." We knocked on there door and Stephen (a returning less active) answers the door. As a part of our plan he acted like he did not know us as he reluctantly let us inside. We pretended to introduce ourselves to Stephen, Casey, and their daughter Abby. We also introduced ourselves to Stephens Parents, who are the unsuspecting victims for whom we have planned all of this. We asked "may we share a short message?" They agreed and we began to teach about the Book of Mormon as if we were at square one with the Carroll Family. The older Carrolls sat waiting for us to finish, not even imagining what we were about to unveil. After explaining the role of the Book of Mormon and how Jesus visited the Americas we explained how you can pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true. With a more somber voice my dear companion Elder Paget said "we are grateful that Casey has come to the knowledge that Jesus Christ lives, that the Book of Mormon is true and she is getting baptized this Saturday at 4:00." An Infatic silence followed. The parents who have prayed for years for their son and daughter in-law to be a part of the gospel found out just days before the baptism that their prayers were answered. Stephen's mother was the first display emotion saying "What!" and embracing Casey. It still had not sunk in for Stephen's father as he sat staring at the floor trying to comprehend what we had said. The tears were flowing at this point as they asked how this had happened and when. Casey explained that the they felt that something was missing in their lives and they didn't know what it was. They felt they needed something more. They had that conversation on Friday and Saturday. It was the Sunday, the very next day that we knocked on their door. Simply a miracle. Stephens Father embraced us and said thank you. It was one of the sweetest experiences of my mission. The only memory to top it was the baptism of Casey Carroll. A small fortune was spent in flying out Stephens whole family for the event. The program was beautiful with talks from Stephen's mother and brother. Right before the actuall baptism, I sang an arrangement of I Stand All Amazed. It was hard to keep from crying as I sang a song about my savior. It wasn't the best performance of my life but I felt that I had sufficiently shared my testimony of what was about to take place. They stepped in the water and Stephens father got chocked up as he said the prayer. more than a third of those present were non-members and it was clear that they felt the magnitude of the event with the rest of us. Most of Casey's family came to the baptism including her father who was more that apprehensive about her joining the church. A lot more good was done that day than just a baptism. On Sunday she was confirmed and her family sat on the front row to witness it. Casey was in tears after the ordinance was completed. Another miracle was we had an investigator family come to church who we have struggled with for awhile. Success felt really good. The sacrament meeting was even more spiritual because the bishopric was changed. Brother Dean was made the 2nd Councilor. Brother Dean has been a ward missionary since I have been here. There is are few men in this world I respect more than brother Dean. He was planning on moving within the next two weeks. When President Sears (another hero of mine) came to his door and said The Lord wants you to stay. He is staying. I love my mission. I don't want it to end. Thank you for all of your support.

Elder Roos

p.s We can email anyone now, so drop me a line.  

Dear World,

It has been a few weeks! It was a Thursday like any other. We had just got out of Missionary Leadership Council and we were picking up supplies to bring to missionaries. President Godwin entered the office with unusual speed. He asked if we would all step into the chapel. Perplexed, we all sat in the first few rows awaiting what he had to say. I was expecting a speech on how we need to find more investigators. Oh, how I was wrong. He said that he had received a message that morning that the mission boundaries were changing. Effective July 1st The California San Bernardino Mission will be split into two missions. In the West there will be The California Rancho Cucamonga Mission, and in the East there will be the California Redlands Mission. We are in some of the last months of the existence of the mission I was called to more than a year and a half ago. The Rancho mission will comprise the stakes of Rancho Cucamonga, Upland, Ontario, Chino, Hesperia, Victorville, and Apple Valley. The Redlands mission will also take some stakes from the Riverside Mission. It will have the stakes of Fontana, Rialto, San Bernardino, Redlands, Palm Desert, yucaipa, and a couple of others that I can't remember. My last transfer in the mission will won't be in the mission I came to. When President Godwin goes home the California San Bernidino mission gets to rest as well. This has motivated us as much as ever to acheive our goals. This is the last stand of this mission. Transfers have brought many changes to the Fontana Zone. We have more missionaries than ever. We even have a sister missionary from Germany! The zone is working hard and we are focusing on Discipleship to be our motivation. I made the zone a promise that Letting their faith in Jesus Christ and Discipleship sink deep into their heart will motivate them in this work more than anything else will. I also said that if keep it that way we will baptize more than the Fontana Zone ever has. I pray that we will be worthy for these blessings. Another bit of news that is worth mentioning was that a family I taught a year ago went through The Redlands Temple to be sealed. I had permission to go and see that event. It is amazing how the blessings of going on my mission seem to be perpetually coming even long after I leave an area. I'm sure I will keep seeing them long after I am home. I taught the Rogersons when I was in Running Springs. I hope I won't forget what Jason said to me when I said goodbye outside of the temple. He said "you changed this life." It is humbling to know that his statement was false. I have been a witness of what The Lord has done. I am grateful he has given me a ticket to sit on the front row and watch.

Love,

Elder Roos

No I did not watch the superbowl, but we got an update from everyone we tried to see. Not very many people want to meet with the missionaries when the superbowl is on. :) When I heard about the final score, the the thought of Aaron yelling at the tv came to my mind. I'm sure it wasn't a happy night for him.   I don't have much time left to write so I will keep it brief.  Yesterday had the honor of meeting with the high council. We presented how we were helping members do missionary work in the summit ward. President Sears showered us with undeserved praise. I have been here seven months and I have created quite a repor throughout the stake.

I was extremely happy with the twenty new investigators we had last week, but I thought "no, we couldn't possibly maintain that number when our average has been ten." I am happy to be proven wrong. We ended this week with twenty two new investigators! A new record since I have been here. The zone is working really hard. We had the chance this week to go on exchanges with all of our District Leaders. It is a great experience to see how their areas are doing and how we can help each other improve. It has also been an interesting experience going to the Spanish wards on exchanges. I feel pretty useless in most of the lessons we teach, but the food is really good. :) It seems that we are always trying to come up with ways to help the zone. One of the ways we have come up with has been a zone competition titled "FONTIKI." As a zone we are setting goals each week and when we accomplish them we move one more step up the Island of FONTIKI. We also have a companionship competition. The companionship who invites investigators to be baptized on a specific date at the most first appointments gets to hold on to the sought after tiki mask for the week. The companionship who wins at the end gets to keep the mask and they will be the guests of honor at THE ZONE LUAH WE WILL HAVE! (assuming we make it to the top of the island by the end.) We have talked to the Palmetto Tongan Ward and we will have entertainment and some Bwaka (a pig). Our zone is pumped for it. In other news we had a great miracle happen in our area this last week when we went to an appointment to see the Carrols. They are a part member family that we started teaching. Casey, our investigator, is a lot more solid than I thought. We asked "how has the Book of Mormon reading been coming." She said "really good! i'm in 2 Nephi chapter 10. I am doing a program where I will finish it in thirty days." As you can imagine that doesn't happen to often among the people we teach. Towards the end of teaching the restoration I asked "Casey have you felt the spirit before?" She explained that she has never felt anything that she could call the spirit until sunday. She has been to church many times in other places that they have lived but she said that this experience was different than all the rest. She said that during one of the talks at church an overwhelming feeling came over her. She said that everything that was happening became clear and she new this was the right thing to do. I asked do you feel like this was your confirmation to be baptized. She said "yes." Unfortunetly they will be out of town quite a bit and she has requested more time than most do before her baptism, so we set her date for March 16th. I am confident she will be baptized on that day. As a side note we had a breakfast with the zone this morning where we had Brother Miller of the stake presidency speak to us and get us ready for a great week. This next week we will have zone confernence and a few other things. AMANDA CONGRATS ON THE MISSION CALL! That mission sounds perfect for you. (well I know it is:) Spanish sisters are rare. In fact our mission has never had one. We are getting our first spanish sister this next transfer. If your mission is similar to ours in that respect your trainer will be a speaker of spanish already (maybe even foreign.) I would love to have you as a sister in our zone, but I guess your my sister wherever you are. :) Thank you all for reading.

Another transfer has raced on by and we are on to the next. I am afraid to blink thinking I may wind up on a plane the next time I do. :) I have under seven months left and if I could buy more time I would. I know what your thinking seven months is still a good chunk of time. You see good friend, a mission is like a roll of toilet paper the closer you get to the end the faster it goes. That means that my six and a half months is going to feel like a few weeks around the corner. Elder Cox's five weeks will probably feel like days. For me to do all that I have been asked to do I need to go the extra mile for these last six months. The signs that scatter our area saying "no stopping at any time" will be a good reminder for me of this commission. :) Let's see there is so much to report. Well one big thing worth mentioning is that we had a mission goal to get 500 baptisms by years end. We ended at 520! The mission has never broken the 500 barrier so this was an exciting feat for all of the missionaries to be a part of. Our mission president never ceases to remind us that it is not the number but the people following Jesus Christ that we are after. It brings fulfilment for me knowing that I had the chance to be a part of one of the highest baptising zones in the mission during this fruitful time. I pray that our zone stays up to speed to accomplish much more in the Lord's service. For our area we have seen much good happen. This last transfer we found many new investigators, which also means we lost many investigators. I am happy to say that we have a teaching pool and we are hopeful to see some baptisms this next transfer. I will keep you posted. Elder Paget and I have more time together and I am excited to see what we can do with it. I love this work and it will be hard to give it up. This week we will have six new missionaries come into our zone. I hope they are ready to get to work. :) On Sunday we had stake conference. Elder Nelson D. Cordova, an area seventy, was in attendance. He was so funny! Him combined with a talk from the Fontana Stake President, Michael Sears, made it a meeting one I will not forget. One of the greatest things I have been able to learn here in Fontana has been leadership skills in the church. President Sears is someone I look up to so much. I could go on but I will not. Well until next week (hopefully). 

December 17th, 2012

Hello! Christmas is getting so close. Time has been flying on by. We have been working at a very high pace for our area and our zone. It has been a bit stressful lately. :( there is a lot of pressure on us for our zone to succeed. our area has been doing well we have been finding people like crazy! we set seven baptism dates this week! (only a couple of them are solid) I will tell you more about it when we have a chance to talk face to face! as far as a time goes I am not sure we will text you the day before to confirm a time. :) Sorry about running my other account down I made a couple of dumb purchases.. like shoes.. my old ones were dead.. I didn't have money in missionary account to afford them so I did use t-shirt money... :( I will be more frugal.. thank you guys for thinking about my return.. though i don't want to be babied.. I need to fend for myself one of these days ... :) I love you both so much I can't wait to update you more in a week.

 

Dear Family and friends

There is so much to say today, so here we go. Last Tuesday I got a new companion. His name Is Elder Joshua Paget. He has been on his mission for 17 months and he has spent most of his mission serving in San Bernardino. An irony of us being comps is that he was comps with Elder Sevison at one point as well. :) Things have been very different since Elder Sevison and I split up. There have been many good things that have come from it. including Me stepping up to be the senior zone leader, It has given me a new boost of motivation, and Elder Paget has taught me an amazing way to find new investigators! I was a little skeptical at first when Elder Paget told me that we were going to pray, a random street name would pop up in our heads, and we would proceed to put it in the gps to see if it was in our area. Every time we have done this a street that neither of us new existed in the area has come to our minds. Every time we have done this we go to the street and we find the reason that the Lord has lead us there. It has been miraculous. So far we have three new investigators from doing this and a building list of potentials. In this area that is a feat that requires divine intervention. One example of this was when we prayed and the street "Martingale" popped up in my mind. We put it in the gps and it was just around the corner. when we arrived there we had no clue what we what to do or rather what door to knock on. We saw a man parked in his car and we went up and offered him a dvd. He responded with "wait, are you guys missionaries?" We said "yes." He then asked "so do you guys knock on doors?" We again responded "yes we do." What he did next I did not expect. He flipped around a badge and said that he was under cover looking for a fugitive on the run. He asked if we would go and knock on the fugitives mothers door and do our missionary thing, and if we see him or signs of him to let him know. We agreed and we went to the door not knowing what to expect. The woman who answered began talking with us and she has studied with the missionaries before! She lets us in and we teach her the restoration! We stayed for awhile. When we left the agent wasn't there. Keep in mind that we were led to that street through prayer and in our time of need it seemed that God had a way to lead us to the very door that we needed to knock on. This was a more dramatic case of being guided, but we have been seeing miracles like this for days. I pray that they do not stop. Another great strength for me lately has been to go the Redlands temple twice in the last week. we first went on Saturday where Elder Sevison and I were able to temporarily be comps again to go and see a couple of our recent converts go do baptisms for the first time.  I had the chance to do some of the confirmations. It was another one of those experiences I hope never to forget. Keith was especially wowed by the wonder and the spirit of the temple. Today we went to the temple as a zone. and of course we went to Cafe Rio afterwards. I have been wondering a lot lately if I will be remembered in past areas I have served. I have thought a lot about if I am remembered and appreciated in the Running Springs Branch. In answer to my concerns The Branch President Craig Davis and his Brother Brian Davis were there at Cafe Rio! In our conversation he told me that I was still remembered and appreciated. I told him I would be by to see him in about eight and a half months :) Well it is about time I draw this letter to a close. I love the Zone. They are working so hard. I love the Summit ward. We have a lot of work yet to do here. and I love my mission. I can't believe It has been sixteen months since I left home. Most of all I love my family and my friends.

Thanks for reading,

-Elder Roos

Dear friends

It was a Saturday like any other. We were at a baptism for the Spanish ward because Elder Sevison was called upon to play the piano. We were in the hall before it started where we received a call from President Godwin. The second I saw his name on the caller ID I knew what was happening. President Called to ask Elder Sevison if he would be his assistant. My Comp is the new AP! After the baptism and dinner we were rushed to our apartment to pack his stuff. We had it done in about fifteen minutes. (which is quite the feet considering he has been there for six months) In a whirlwind my companion was gone and I am currently with a couple of Elders in the Baseline Ward. Despite the craziness I still had the chance to go to sacrament meeting in our ward. During the testimonies Elder Sevison sends a text asking if I would stand and bear my testimony in his place. It was difficult to hold back the tears as I told the ward that he had gone. I expressed the love he had for them and I proceeded to bear one of the strongest testimonies I have ever given about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I haven't been that emotional speaking at the pulpit since my farewell. :) The spirit in that meeting was so strong. Keith, one of our recent converts, arose and bore his  testimony in sacrament meeting for the first time. After the meeting, many visitors in our ward came to him in awe asking for his email to ask him more questions about his conversion. It reminded me how much of a miracle his life is. A memorable line in his testimony was "It takes me about 12 minutes to get to church, but the first time I came here it took 40 years." In Priesthood meeting we laid hands on his head and gave him the Aaronic Priesthood. Brother Walker his new home teacher had the chance to do the ordinance. I look forward to this coming week. I will get a new companion tomorrow morning and I have six more weeks of working hard in the Summit Ward in Fontana. Until next week,

-Elder Roos 

Hello people, Among many other things, I am thankful for the week I just had. On Wednesday we helped for a big event called "Eat and Be Well" hosted by the city of Fontana and a lot of different churches. The event was to help homeless and needy people get a thanksgiving meal. Though there were many volunteers involved, The guys in the white shirts and the name tags stood out. :)We had our entire zone come to volunteer serving food. It was an awesome opportunity for missionary work. It was funny to see 'higher ups' from other churches staring at us like we had come from a distant planet. :) Though a few tried to razz us a bit, we didn't have any problems. :) On thanksgiving day we had two full blown meals! Luckily they were spaced out a bit. The first was at one and the other was at six. One O' clock was with the Taylor family. Sister Taylor was just made the head of the School board here. She was the one who gave us the idea to help with the event. The second dinner was with Keith and his awesome family. That was one of my favorite dinners I have had. During dinner we were laughing so hard at different stories everyone had to tell. After dinner we got our Keith's nice telescope and did some star gazing. We were also able to watch a mormon message with the family, which is the closest Keith's family have allowed us to teach them so far. I am thankful for so many things. My mission hasn't had the grandeur that Ammon's did, nor has it been enjoyable all of the time, But there is no way I would give up the experiences I have had. They have shaped my perspective in astronomical ways. I do not see through the same eyes.(alma 32:40) I hope you gave thanks to God this week as I was able to. Until next week. Elder Roos

Drum roll please.............................................................. This week the San Bernardino Mission broke our record for the most baptisms in a week! we ended at about 28 baptisms! (eight of those coming from the Fontana Zone) For us Saturday felt like a baptism marathon. At eleven a family of five got baptized in the Palmetto Tongan ward! I loved that baptism. Elder Sevison and I taught Koko and her family the first two lessons. and then when Elder Allen came to be Elder Pauga's Companion we stepped out of the picture. I have never been to a baptism where more tears where shed. The Tongan people are so loving and so sensitive to the spirit. Towards the end of the baptism Bishop Tu'itupou got up and brought a young girl with him. He told us that she was the one who invited Koko's family to the Luau, which put them on a fast track to baptism. Think again if you were under the impression that a single invitation to a seemingly uninterested family will not make a difference. Of course we had to stay and eat a lot of food after the baptism as well. :) Towards the evening there were three others baptized in the Randall Spanish ward in the Baseline Ward. It is great to see how well our zone is doing in taking those with baptismal dates all the way to the font. We had a fast a few weeks back that we would be able to do so. I feel like our faith was a factor in this successful weekend. On somewhat of a side note Keith told us something that he hadn't before that almost grounded me. He told us that one night before he met us he was reading and pondering the Book of Mormon. He told us that he thought to himself and to God "well how do I know if this is true." As he thought that he opened the Book of Mormon to a random page. He turned to precisely Moroni Chapter 10 verses 3-5, where he read Moroni's promise. He prayed and now knows it is true. He is currently having some financial problems with his law firm, so please pray for him. We are teaching him a lesson tonight with a future missionary who was called to the Omaha Nebraska mission. We were able to be at the Wildons while Daniel opened his call. That brought back the funny memory of me opening my call. Anyway I will have more to report on next week. I am still loving my mission. I am where I need to be for me and others. Thanks for reading. -Elder Roos

Dear fan, The zone did an amazing job this week. And what I hear from the APs the mission as a whole took an unexpected jump in almost everything we report on! For us in Fontana we had very high member present lesson and new investigators. Those are two of the most important things we do. One reason our finding efforts have been so solid is that Elder Sevison and I instituted a game for our zone. We have a giant white board with a football field drawn on it. For the amount of Contacts, Member referrals requested, and new investigators you get you gain yardage towards the en zone. We also have surprise plays and hail marys etc. during the week to gain extra yardage. Everyone has been working hard to gain yards. Aaron you would love it. :) Sadly for the Elders in the zone the one sister missionary companionship is winning! The winner gets to go on an extra temple trip with lunch at Cafe Rio on us. :) This has really spiced up this transfer. Speaking of sister missionaries when we were at stake coordination our mission president filled us in on some interesting statistics from Salt Lake. He said that it is predicted that in a year we will have 90,000 missionaries throughout the world and fifty percent of those will be sister missionaries! Those statistics will be reflected in our mission as well! He went on to say that every ward in our mission will have multiple companionships. It will be interesting to see how those predictions pan out. Either way there are going to be a lot more sisters in the coming months. The first nineteen year old sister will be in our mission in about a month! As for my area we are on the search for new investigators. We have been sifting through the area book like we are looking for the tiniest speck of gold. We have found a few that ended being a little on the iron pyrite side. :) These efforts have not gone in vain. We found a family that took the lesson two years ago, and who want us over again. They have amazing fellowship in the ward and after our first lesson they committed to come to church. Guess what, THEY CAME! We hope to invite them to baptism this week. I pray it goes well. Thank you for the unfailing support. that one guy in california, Elder Roos

Breaking news!

For the last month I have been writing about Keith Seagull and his amazing conversion story. On Saturday Keith had an equally amazing baptism. Keith and Brother Dean dressed in white and we took pictures in front of the font as it filled up to the final step. The program ran more smoothly than any baptism I have been to. Our ward mission leader brother Rambow gave a simple talk on baptism and then it was time for Keith to step into the font. Elder Sevison and I stepped up to be witnesses for the baptism. We warned Keith that the baptismal ordinance can sometimes be a little anti-climatic. We prepared for a month for an event that takes maybe thirty seconds. For me it seemed that everything slowed down when he entered the water. The prayer was said with feeling and Keith was fully immersed. Later Keith described the experience saying: "It was as if for just a moment I didn't exist." It was not anti-climatic. While they were dressing we watched a short video from "the district" and Elder Sevison bore his testimony. When  Elder Sevison was talking about knowing if the Book of Mormon is true or not, Keith walked in, back in dry clothes, and exclaimed "It's true!" with full confidence. With the zone, we prepared a musical number. The title of the song we sang is "Oh Lord my Redeemer." Many including myself were in tears. the lyrics speak of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the chorus goes: "Oh Lord my Redeemer thou hast done so much for me, Oh Lord my Redeemer all my love I give to thee." When Bishop Dow arose to welcome Keith into the ward he wisely called on Keith to speak. Keith told of his experience with The Book of Mormon and his relationship with Jesus Christ. It was one of the finest sermons I have heard. Later that night we ate mediterranean  food that Dina, Keith's wife, prepared for us. She is from Bangladesh and her religion is Muslim. The food was amazing. I couldn't pronounce anything that we ate. :) One of the best things that have come from the baptism was that she was able to attend. through the service she was in tears. Considering her background there is still quite a haul for her to join her husband, but I feel that Saturday was the start. I feel honored that the Lord entrusted Keith to us. Well there are other things I could ramble about but I won't. I hope you all have a great week. Our teaching pool has been down of late so we will be knocking doors like crazy.

The Luau:

So we have been planning and preparing for a stake luau hosted by the Tongan ward for a couple of months now. and now it has come and gone. It was so much fun. Food and other provisions were prepared for an army. Many pigs died in the name of missionary work. :) It was all well needed with a crowd well over a thousand in attendance. After all of the food was served and eaten it was time for the performances. Polynesian wards from all over the valley had a performance prepared. there was even a couple of performances from a catholic church! Every island was represented by a few performances. When It was time for the Maori performance to begin Me and my two companions got into our Lava lavas and joined the Tongan throng for the Hakka. With all of the tongue flashing and war screams we could muster we changed the atmosphere from the Hawaiian beach to an island battlefield. :) Don't worry not every child was crying by the end of our performance. (all of this was approved by the mission president by the way). Towards the end of the night they actually called our mission president to the stage, as well as the stake presidency. There they had a dance off. I now know that my mission president is a little better at giving motivational talks than he is at moving his hips :). We filmed the entire thing. :) He was good to let us participate to such an extent. Now was that all for nothing? I say unto you nay. This last week we set five baptismal dates with a family that started going to the Tongan ward because of the Luau. We will be teaching them again Tonight! This is going to now be an annual event. Maybe the next time I come I won't be known as Elder Roos.

This mission Tour:

We had the chance to have Elder C. Scott Grow of the seventy visit and instruct our mission. We had a Zone leader council before he spoke to the mission where he was able to instruct the twenty of us. After he trained us the entire mission had the chance to be taught. A few days before he came to our mission he was in a meeting with The first presidency and The Chorum of the Twelve. He told us that every time President Monson speaks to the general authority's in this setting he speaks on The Rescue. This is President Monson's central message for his time as a prophet. Elder Grow wants us to spend as much time looking for and teaching non members as we do with less actives. He promised us that as we do we will baptize many more than we have. He explained that the less actives are the ones who know the non-members and they will refer them to us as we teach and reactivate them. The second part of his training dealt with the way we planned. This was the most inspiring training on planning I have been given. He showed us a new way to plan which used our mission averages and which forces us to have more faith in setting our numbers than we have. He used Ether 12 speaking of an "eye of faith." We have already seen some great things come from planning this way. The trick will be to maintain this new way of planning when the times get tough for the missionaries. Well that sums up what we were taught. It impressed me that Elder Grow had a scripture for everything... literally.

Transfers:

Elder Sevison and I are going to be together for another six weeks! Sadly we will no longer be in the Tongan wards, but we will remain in the summit ward. I am happy that not much is changing for us. only a fourth of our zone is changing so that is good as well.

conclusion:

I am happy. I am having many great experiences. Many of which show me that I still have much to learn as a missionary. Maybe by the end of my mission I will finally be who I want to be.

-Elder Roos

Dear Everyone,

CONFERENCE! and a historic one at that. I'm not sure if I would have ready at 18. In fact I know I wasn't. It would have compelled me to prepare a lot more in High school knowing at graduation I could be off on a mission. So it my opinion that psychologically it will help a lot of young men take church a little more seriously at a younger age. As far as mission presidents saying:  “Give me more 18 year- olds. They’re sweeter; they’re purer, they’re smarter.” My retort to that statement is that they haven't experienced American eighteen year olds yet. :) It will work out for the best. I hope that more missionaries come out all over the world. Maybe China will open soon or something cool like that where we need to double our missionary force. I bet President Anderson is as giddy as Holland was in the press conference. :) The Lord is hastening his work. Speaking of the work it is going well in our respective areas. We set two baptismal dates this last week! The first is a young man named Justus who has been dating someone in the Spanish ward. He lives in our ward boundaries so we get to teach him! He is solid. He came to conference yesterday with us and ate with the Tongan ward after. :) The second was for the Tongan ward. Her name is Desire and she is about college age. She also came to conference. I look forward to teaching these new investigators and the others we have. It still amazes me how the blessings of the Lord can be thrown at you. The Summit ward is being blessed. Going back to conference my favorite talk was Holland's. He gave a very similar address to the MTC a few years back. We watched it recently at a zone conference. The words "Lovest thou me" will be something that I will say ask myself throughout my life. The moment that hit me the hardest was when he said: "To every returned missionary who ever stood in a baptismal font and with arm to the square said: 'having been commissioned of Jesus Christ.' That commission was to have changed your convert forever, but is was surely supposed to have changed you forever as well." I know that this commission has changed me. I also know that I need to let it change me more. It is a commission I received long before my mission. It was a commission I have failed to live up to at times. I am grateful that when we deny Jesus Christ for me a lot more than three times, He gives us an equal amount of chances to say "thou knowest that I love thee." We say this by acting according to the commission given us when we were baptized. Anyway I'm done with my rant for today. I love conference because it gives me an extra push as I know it did for all of you. We especially liked the theme of missionary work throughout. :) I hope all is well for you. Thank you for your support.

-Elder Roos 

Dear world,

Valeti's baptism was a great experience. The Tongans know how  to throw a baptism or any other activity. Valeti has been such a wonderful lady to teach. She has been full of smiles and tears since we began teaching her, and her baptism was no exception for her. the majesty of this occasion was matched with a chapel full of beautiful Tongan voices. I have never heard better singing in any chapel before. I only wish I knew the words.of the hymns :) We proceeded with the baptism with Valeti in tears and my companion Elder Pauga ready to perform the ordinance. He worked on the baptismal prayer before hand so that he could say the prayer in Tongan. There was a hush among the spectators as she was immersed in the water. talks were given she was confirmed. Following her confirmation she bore a sweet testimony. Many scriptures echoed through my mind about those who received the Holy Ghost speaking with the tongue of angels. The closing hymn was sung louder than the rest. It felt as though the walls would burst. Then it was time for the feast ,which is seemingly a requirement for any function in the Tongan wards. We had the rare chance to sit at the table of honor with Valeti. They brought in more food than the table could hold. There were three pigs (bwaka) just for those at our table. :) There were many foods I have never seen before but they tasted great. The only thing I was used to was the piles of fried chicken. :) Let's just say I left feeling much like a balloon when all was devoured. To my surprise, after sacrament meeting we had another feast after church, because there was the primary program. :) I have begun to realize how sad I will be to leave the Tongan wards.. We taught Keith(our super golden investigator) the hardest lesson we have taught him yet. Keith suffers with Leukemia. He has been fighting it for some time now. He is doing all he can to keep himself healthy. One way he is fighting it is by drinking green tea, which contains 'egcg' a known fighter of this blood disease. We taught the word of wisdom to him focusing on green tea. We had to explain that we often follow commandments only because we have been asked not because it makes sense to us logically. He said he would stop drinking green tea. He told us that the pain in his spleen was getting bad.  He mentioned that this may be a sign his disease was going to be back in full force. We gave him a blessing promising him healing. He texted us after we left telling us that after the blessing the pain in his spleen had gone. He attributed this  to the blessing and thanked Jesus. He received results from a blood test later in the week. The doctor told him that his results were stable and he was doing fine. He has learned so much in the past few weeks that he has now moved on to deep doctrine with one of the smartest guys in the ward. :) His baptism is set for the 19th of October. Well I hope all is well for you. I miss home, but If I left I would miss it here almost as much. 

-Elder Roos

Soooooo,

I have decided that I should never expect an uneventful week. A missionary in our zone was sent home for surgery and we have a new companion named Elder Pauga. Elder Sevison trained him when he first came on his mission and now we are all in a tripanionship! An added twist to all of this is that we will be covering three wards now! In addition to the summit ward we will be covering the palmetto Tongan and Rancho Cucamonga Tongan Wards! Since I came out on my mission I have always wanted to serve in the Polynesian wards, and now I have my chance. The cultural difference between the palangi (white) wardsthat I have served in and these Tongan wards is something I need to get used to. On Sunday a non-member family showed up for church to sing for the ward, and they held a feast for them after church! (a big feast) After the non-members got their food they asked usto come next. They treat Elders like we are royalty. One night we were eating dinner with a lady named Mafi who was recently baptized. when we showed up she went into her room to get into her Sunday best. It is humbling to see the amount of respect they show towards us. This week we will be fed by a Tongan family every night. I will need to get the stomach expansion. :) This week we started teaching a lady name Mele, who will be baptized this week on Saturday! She only knows Tongan so we have to share a simple principle and then wait for one of the members we bring to translate for us. At the end of each lesson we have with her she cries without fail. She expresses her gratitude to God for the chance she has to be baptized. She understands the lessons better than many I have taught without a language barrier. It is amazing to see so many prepared by the Lord. The next item of news I have is back in the Summit ward. We got a text-referral on our phone for a girl named Cora Kane. We knocked on the door and the high school aged girl named Cora answered. She is very eccentric and she has a love for musical theatre. We asked why she was interested in having us come over. She told us that she had just went to L.A. where she saw The Book of Mormon the musical. :) She told us that after she had seen the musical she felt like she wanted to learn more. I wondered if that musical would effect my mission. We taught her The Doctrine of Christ and committed her to be baptized. Despite her concern about her parents being obstinate she agreed to set the date for the 10th of November. Her little sister is interested too; her name is Kathryn. I think it is awesome that I can relate with Cora, seeing that I know a few musicals myself. :) I hope she stays as enthused about the church as she was in our last lesson. We have been blessed in so many ways this last week. I am happy. I just hope that my mission doesn't go too fast.

Ofa Atu

Read this,

It is going to be difficult to write with clarity about the miraculous weekend I just experienced. Serving in this area has been a unique experience. The Summit ward is well known throughout the mission as being a very slow area (or dead). The average income is quite a bit higher here than the rest of the mission, therefore the humility level may be somewhat decreased. This area has had some amazing missionaries in past years, and even then there were no baptisms. Recently they took missionaries out of this ward altogether. This weekend the ward had it's first baptisms for a very long time. On Friday we held a baptism for Addison(14) and Alexia(10) Shindling. Their dad was less active and we have been teaching them since I got here. They are the sweetest girls and they had a baptism to match. Addison couldn't hold back her tears as she was baptized by her father, and Alexia was beaming as she entered the water. There were so many in attendance that we had to move the service to the chapel. The other baptism that we had was on Saturday for Aaron Percy. As I have mentioned before Brother Percy has been meeting with the missionaries for years. The ward was stunned when he made the decision to be baptized. We taught him the lessons and then he was interviewed by President Godwin last Tuesday. The baptism was as spiritual as the last. Many came to support Brother Percy as well. The Stake President, President Sears, performed the baptism. While they were getting dressed our ward mission leader caught me off-guard and asked me if I would bare my testimony. I bore my simple testimony that Aaron Percy was following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ by being baptized by a man who held the authority from God. When Aaron Percy and President Sears came back from the dressing room, Aaron was surprised by a special musical number by his two kids. It was touching to see his two children singing "When I am Baptized." The meeting lasted longer than expected with additional talks and testimonys given. Elder Sevison and I were able to be the witnesses for the baptisms and we participated in the confirmations of all three the next day. The ward deserved this success after not seeing baptisms for three years. I'm sure no one was expecting to have three in one weekend. :) Now as if the hand of The Lord was not apparent enough the last few days, there came another miracle on Sunday, which is one of the greatest miracles I have seen on my mission. We met Keith Seagull because another set of missionaries told us that someone came to there church one Sunday who wasn't a member. He also lives in our area! We met him at the church building where he explained to us why he was coming to our church. He explained that he has been going through different religions his entire life. from Catholicism to Hinduism. He recently took a trip to Yellowstone National Park. Him and his family stopped at two Marriott Hotels on there way there and back. He told us that he has been trying to get a hold of The Book of Mormon for some time now out of shear curiosity. He found The Book of Mormon in the drawer at both Marriott's and when he asked the front desk if he could have the copy in his room both Marriott's responded "no." Continuing on their road trip they went to Zions Canyon. In one of the rock shops there was a stack of Book of Mormons with a sign attached saying "take one." Keith took one. He told us that he has been reading The Book of Mormon since August third. He told us that since he has been reading it he has felt closer to Jesus Christ more than he has in his entire life, and he said that he has been more happy this last month than he has ever been. When he went into these details I couldn't stop tears from coming to my eyes. I have never met anyone on my mission more prepared by the Lord than Keith Seagull. We taught him the Doctrine of Christ and set a baptismal date for the 29th of September. We met again with him last night with Brothers Rambo and Weins from the ward. It seemed everything that Keith said blew me away. Like when he said that he felt he knew Jesus' personality more by reading of him blessing the children in Third Nephi, and when he said that his entire life he has been walking through a desert looking for water and that The Book of Mormon was a tall glass of ice water that he has finally found. I feel like I could go on and write about that lesson for pages upon pages. I hope that when I read this down the road my memory can fill in the rest. I am excited to see how he progresses further in The Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is clear that God is at work here in the Summit ward and throughout the world. It seems all that I am doing is standing as still as I can as I witness the salvation of God. This will be a weekend to remember. I hope to have others like this and I hope to be worthy of them. I should stop typing before this gets included in The Journal of Discourses. :) I love ya all. This Church is true!!!!

Well I've been on my mission a year,

and what an amazing year it was. It is incomprehensible to me how time has gone so very fast. I am told that it only picks up in speed from here. This has also been an amazing week. I had part in my first Zone Leader Conference, which happens once a month. We received some great training that Elder Sevison and I will be passing on to the zone tomorrow. On Sunday Elder Sevison and I had a chance to speak in the Tongan Ward! I haven't heard hymns sung that well in sacrament meeting in my entire life. :) I spoke on The Atonement and Missionary work. It went well. I was told by many men, quite larger than I am, that my loud assertive voice woke them up from their weekly nap. :) I have grown to love their culture even more on my mission. The greatest miracle of the week happened yesterday when I met with a man named Aaron Percy. Brother Percy comes from a family of members. He went to seminary as a teenager and later married a member of the church. Through all of that he has not been baptized. For the last, who knows how many years, he has chewed up missionaries and spit them out. No one has ever gotten close to getting him baptized. A few weeks back Brother Percy was sitting in Sacrament meeting when he said a voice came in response to a friends testimony and it did not come from his head. He said it came from his chest. The words he heard was "this is true." He looked around to see if someone said something to him. He now knows that The Church is true and that he needs to be baptized. Yesterday we set a baptismal date with him for the eighth of September. Don't get me wrong, I can see why no missionaries were not able to get to him. He is a very intimidating man who works with sarcasm like other artists work with clays or paints. :) It seems we just happen to be the missionaries here while his heart has changed, and I am grateful for that. We are still working with several others whom we hope will be baptized. It is nice having a companion who isn't a young missionary. I don't feel like every responsibility rests on me. The Fontana Zone had a great week with many new baptismal dates and new investigators. It is neat looking at the work from a bigger perspective. On the Tenth of August we got the zone together for a commemorative burning of shirts and ties etc., which signify you reaching a landmark of time on your mission (6,12,18, or 24 months). I burned a shirt for hitting my year mark. As it burned I couldn't help but to think that the fire of my mission is still burning. I will have many battles, many losses, and a few precious victories still ahead of me before It is time to clean up the ashes. I hope all is well for you as you finish reading my rant-like weekly email.

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away,

So when I entered the MTC one of my roommates was Elder Sevison. We became great friends while in the MTC. When we arrived in the mission we were made roommates again serving in Hesperia! It wasn't long after that we were both in the San Bernardino Zone. He is probably my best friend in the mission. Guess who my new companion is. :) Elder Sevison and I are serving as Zone Leaders in the Fontana Zone! The day of transfers couldn't have been more nerve racking. I knew that there was a chance that he would be my companion, but he had only been a ZL for one transfer. It wasn't too likely that we would be put together. The City of Fontana is very diverse it has it's higher end neighborhoods (similar to Rancho Cucamonga) and it has it's more Ghetto areas(like San B). The entire place is covered with palm trees. The area that Elder Sevision and I are working in is the Summit Ward. It is a very rich area with a lot of young families. They haven't had a baptism in this area for three years. Luckily Elder Sevision has worked hard here for the last month and we currently have four people lined up to be baptized on September eighth! (Alexia, Addison, Teola, and Jen) We also met a family yesterday that has been taking the lessons for six years. The family is ready for baptism, but the husband isn't ready to commit just yet. I am excited to see what we can do for that family. Being a ZL isn't much different than normal missionary life. There are a few more meetings and responsibilities that we have, but all of our other time is devoted to our area. I was worried about going ZL because a lot of Zone Leaders serve in YSA wards where they do not have much work. I am glad to be in a regular ward. The work here in the valley is quite a bit different than my time in the mountains. You almost have to take a completely different angle with the missionary work in the mountains. Down here the houses aren't mostly rental or seasonal homes! I am excited for what lies ahead these next few months. I hope I rise to this call I have been given. This has been a major change for me, and it will assuredly stretch me.

Love ya guys,