email recieved 5/5/2010

Hola!

so life in the missionary work..... well they weren't the best but I've only been here a week - we've had appointments fall through and some go through (those have been good) - for the ones that didn't work out we tracked and visited members or less active or inactive or old investigators etc. it makes me mad because i want to be in homes most of the day and no one here wants to listen or even acknowledge us saying hello to them. it drives me nuts. we had a really good lesson last night with a couple who lives in our apartment complex - they are very very smart and know the bible from cover to cover and are very active in their church - we intro'd the BoM to them and the husband was receptive but the wife didn't want anything to do with it and after a few minutes she agreed to study it or at least look over it. it was great!

we try and do most contacts in Spanish but we have done some in English. either way it works and if we get an ingles invest. we will give them to our English missionary's.

my area - well I'm in red bank and i don't like it that much - the roads are very bad and the sidewalks are not smooth or wide enough for even 2 of us to walk side by side. there are a lot of trees, lots of trees and it is green and grass everywhere. our area is pretty big and the northern most part is i think by the Hudson river and we can see NY city from it - my picture didn't come out very good. there are a lot of black people and latinos (mex, puerto rican, el salvador etc.) and white people. i guess a pretty good mixture.

i am in a branch of maybe 60-80 members.... Im not positive. as far as understanding the people - its coming along but it is still hard to understand b/c they drop so many different sounds and speak pretty fast still i cant tell if some words are actually one word or 2 words etc. again its coming along and I'll pick it up soon, hopefully this transfer.

i just emailed Luke back and told him that i do have the pin # written down but its in one of the tubs at Jason and amys, probably in a folder or book - it's actually probably still the paper i got when i first received my card so if someone wanted to go through the books and folder to find it they can but i don't want to hassle anyone with that (pulling it all out and putting away again). whatever is easiest though - ordering a new card would be fine b/c mine expires in 2013 anyway. i would say lets just order a new card and re-pin it etc - I'll probably be in this area until the missions change so at least 5 more weeks - my address to my apartment is:

#2 MollyPitcher Village Apartments

Red Bank NJ 07701

I don't think it matters for the street name.... i got a bike for $60 from a guy my comp knows - it's not a brand new bike or anything. we had to use cash and seeing as how i couldn't remember my pin# my comp gave the guy $60 bucks so i need to pay him back before this next transfer in case we are split so I'm trying to get that done. other than that i don't know that I'd need to pull out cash too often, if ever but it's nice to be able to do if i needed to. anyway back to the bike, I didn't want to spend a lot b/c after the missions change i don't think I'll need a bike, at least that's what pres. winegar told me but i am not positive. if i need a bike after the missions change i will buy a nicer bike or get one from a missionary who has left a bike behind.

transfers are every 6 weeks and with having only 5 weeks left of this transfer and 3 weeks after that (before the missions change) it's likely I'll stay in my area with the same comp but anything can happen so i am not positive. it hasn't been that cold at night but we do have a cooler in our room that we have been turning on - it's been kinda chilly. sister winegar lent me some blankets to use until i get my own - julie wanted to send the comforter i had to me and that would work fine I'm sure if she/you wanted to send it (if you send the blanket, send it to the mission home, not my address - i might not be at my home when it comes so it'll be safer in the mission home).

I'm sorry i couldn't be there to help move everything - sounds like it was fun and I'm sure the kids loved it. I'm sorry you got sick and i hope you are feeling better now. i don't know if you've taken pictures of all the changes but if you have would you send one to me please? it'd be cool to see what it looks like and any other changes too. I'll try to remember to bring my camera next week and send pictures of my apartment so you can see what it looks like.

as far as calling home on Sunday - it's a crazy day b/c elder Holland is going to be here to speak to us Sunday night and we need to be at the chapel early for seats and it's about 1 1/2 hours drive from where i am - i think the best time for to call would be before you go to church in the morning - I'm pretty sure Arizona is 3 hours behind NJ so in Arizona time it'd be best to call between 8am and 1030am (i think your church starts at 1030) - i don't know if you have meetings or not but i was thinking you could have a counselor go in place of you if possible..... i hope this is ok and works out. I'll email mom and let her know. i don't know if she wants me to call her separate or if she'd like to just be there with the family? i know its kinda early but with elder Holland coming (no one wants to miss that) it's harder to figure calling home out.

I'm glad Emily was able to have fun with Susan and Luke and vie and Shelby and Paul and Blanca over the weekend. i hope that they enjoyed the temple open house - I was kinda mad I wasn't going to be there but oh well.

weather - well I had my first rainstorm and windstorm - haha wow. so we were on our way to an appointment and it started to pour rain on us as we were riding our bikes down the street a long with strong winds - i was soaked and my backpack was too. unfortunately, i had the rain jacket with me but in my backpack and i didn't think it was going to rain - after we decided to stop riding in the rain, we locked the bikes to a pole and walked into a store a member owns and 5-10 minutes later, the rain stopped and it was sun the rest of the day. it was fun. yesterday we did a street meeting and kinda the same thing - we carried a table to the train station - it was sunny and windy - we had the table set up and a few minutes later these clouds move in and we figure "well we're going to get drenched again" but it didn't rain - it was just wind, very very strong and annoying wind. again, it all went away and it was fun.

I'm glad everything is going good. thank you for your prayers and support. i love you all and keep you all in my prayers. we'll talk on Sunday. thank you for everything.

love elder Roberts