Leaving Home

  I am leaving Dunwoody. I was told that I am going to be the new District Leader in the new area that I am going to. I was also told that I will need a bike. It's an exciting time for me. I feel very ready to leave Dunwoody. Not because I have disliked the area, because I have loved this area, but because I feel that my work here is done. I really feel like I am leaving home for a second time. Yesterday in fast and testimony meeting I had the opportunity to bear my testimony. It was really hard for me to get a word out because I was so overcome with emotion. As I looked at all the members, the Roldan Family, and my favorite investigator Tony I reflected on all the amazing experiences that I have had over the past 30 weeks. I told them that when I first came on my mission I thought that leaving my home and family would be the hardest thing I'd have to do. But I've come to realize that leaving the members, and people you've taught and come to love so dearly is much harder. I know I'll see my family again, but I don't know if I will see some of the people that I've met on my mission again. 
      Sunday was a great day. I got to bless the Sacrament with Brother Roldan and Gerardo. Tony came to church without his girlfriend Jamie, who is a member. So the fact that he came without her showed me a lot. Saying goodbye to the Roldans was hard. I knew that it wasn't really goodbye though. I will see them again. Saying goodbye to Tony was very difficult. I don't know if I have wrote a lot about Tony, so I'll tell you a little about him now. Tony is getting his PHD and Georgia Tech for Chemistry. He is the most intelligent person I have ever taught. He is a genius. I really look up to Tony. He is such a nice guy and extremely focused on the things that really matter. He is constantly finding ways to better himself. We get along so well. We listen to the same music and have a ton of similar tastes in things. We both love logic and reasoning. He has been my favorite investigator to teach because he just gets it. It makes sense to him. Saying goodbye to Tony was the hardest goodbye I had yet on my mission. I care so much about him and really hope that he continues to meet with the missionaries. He would be the best member of the Church. He would be the next Eyring.

Elder Romero and Tony

      We had dinner with The Beavers family last night too. That was a hard goodbye. I love the Beavers so much. Brother Beaver is the coolest guy in the ward and has done so much for me since I have been here. We have had such good times when he has come out with us to teach investigators. He is the best team up because he can make the investigator laugh with one comment and then immediately bring the spirit with another comment. 

      It is strange that I am almost at a year. Time has flown by. I want to write about a dream that I had recently that really had a profound effect on me. In this dream I was home from my mission. I don't remember how long I was home for, or if I was home early, or what. All I knew was that I was no longer on my mission and therefore I could listen to the music that I have missed sooo much. And so I grab my headphones and pop them in and start listening to music. Then I realize, I'm not happy. And I think to myself, "Why am I not happy? I am doing my favorite thing in the world, listening to music." Then I immediately have the thought, "I just want to go back to preaching the gospel. I want to go back on my mission. I was much happier then." And that is the dream. I woke up. That dream made me realize a lot about myself. I realized that people, especially me, usually tell themselves "I'll be happy when...____" Fill in the blank. And sometimes, especially during the rough times, I'll tell myself this. That dream however made me realize that the moments that I have had on my mission truly have been some of the happiest times of my life. I wouldn't rather be anywhere else in the world than sitting in Tony's living room and teaching him the Gospel. Or sitting next to Gerardo in his baptismal clothing. These are the times that I will never forget. 

      Well I love you all so much. Please don't send mail to my old address. Either send it to the mission home or wait till next week when I have my new mailing address. 

-Elder Ryan Romero.

New Transfer-Breath of Fresh Air

 I love the start of new a new transfer. It is like a breath of fresh air. I have a new companion. His name is Elder Barraclough (bear-uh-cluff). Not one person has been able to get his last name right. He is a nice kid. Very very quiet... But has a strong testimony of the Gospel. He is from Kentucky and was going to school at the University of Louisville. He was studying Mechanical Engineering just like me. So we often have nerdy conversations about Math and Physics. He is a nice kid and I am excited to serve with him. 

      Ward did not get baptized this week. He got kicked out of the house that he was staying at and we currently don't know where to find him. His phone is shut off and has fallen off the face of the Earth. There is more to the story but I don't know how much I can really share, but I think saying that he is gone with suffice for now. On the other hand Beth wants to be baptized on May 18th and she is pretty confident on that date. She says that she took work off for that date and told her family. She has been off coffee for four weeks now and is very proud of it. I am excited for her. Satan has already started to work on her immediately after she set that date. She ran into anti-Mormon literature for the first time this past week, but she seemed to handle it pretty well. Pray for her, she is going to need all the prayers she can get. 

      The members of the Dunwoody ward are pretty surprised to see me stay another transfer. Brother Asper was pretty happy about it. I think the other members are too. When I first came to Dunwoody I never thought that I would be serving here for this long... I have enjoyed it though. I have become very close with the people here. I have made lifelong friends. I am so grateful to have families in the ward that truly love me and care about my well being. Brother Asper and I are going to be lifelong friends. I am so excited to keep in touch with him over the upcoming years. He believes that I am going to be a Mission President one day, but I think he may be shooting a little high with his prophecies. Although it was nice to know that he has such high expectations for me and it really pushes me to live up to them. I am going to miss the people in this ward when I leave. 

      Other big news. The Dunwoody ward has been split into a Northern and Southern areas. The Elders (us) are in the Southern area and the Sisters are in the Northern area. This was a big change. It will be good though. The Sisters are in the wealthier part of the area and I think that they will do better getting into the people's homes than we would. I can't begin to tell you how hostel the wealthy people are to the Elders. I really prefer tracting in an apartment complex rather than a nice neighborhood. 

     Well it P-day. Every P-day we meet as a District and play basketball. I have gotten really good at basketball over the past little while. I dare say I'm the best in the district, haha. But seriously, I love basketball. Well, the Church is true. Somebody asked me this week what the most important thing that I have learned from my mission thus far. I told them that now I KNOW without a shadow of a doubt that this Gospel is true. Of course I had a testimony of this Church when I came out on my mission, or else I wouldn't have come out. What I have now is different than a testimony though. I don't quite know how to explain it. I am converted, I am changed. I just know it is true. I have deduced through my studies that if this Church is not the true church then there is no hope for Christianity, period. The Book of Mormon was the best thing to ever happen to Christianity, but people are still in the cave and choose not to view it that way. Of course the only way to truly know it is through the spirit, and I've had that spiritual confirmation. I don't think that any other of the skills that I have learned on my mission such as being able to work with people, organize, lead, and cross people over in basketball will help me more than knowing that God and Jesus Christ are real, and that they love me. Nothing. 

     Well I love you all. 

-Elder Ryan Romero 

A Rough Start

This week was definitely a test for Elder Greene and I. I think that he is learning right at the start of his mission that things don't always go as planned in the mission, but I hope that he notices that when someone closes there door on us, God is opening a door for us somewhere else. This week has been full of bad luck. Brother Asper told us, "If you guys didn't have bad luck this week, you wouldn't have had any sort of luck at all!" He was there for us every step of this rocky week lifting our spirits and buying us girl scout cookies.

     This week everyone of our appointments fell through. They either canceled or just weren't there when we would knock. We had promising people bail on their comittments with us. To add on top of all of these people falling through, my iPod got stollen right out of our car while we were in a lesson. It seems like things were just coming at us one after another after another. This week was pretty Grim. At times I seriously felt like just giving up and falling on my knees. Door after door slammed in our faces. It really tested me, and I am sure that it tested Elder Greene. Now I know that this letter may be starting to sound like a downer, but please keep reading. God is good, he loves his children, and I know that he loves me. I knew this doctrine to be true, and I know that God's love will manifest itself in my life in many ways. While everything seems to be going wrong, and the walls on my mission life seemed to be crashing around me. I realized that I just need to change my point of view.

      The thing that has really kept me going was the relationships that I have built here in the Dunwoody ward. The relationship with the Aspers, the Wombles, the Beavers, the Kellers, the Bishop's family, and the Bennett family. I realized as everyone is rejecting me, and how Satan is wanting me to fail. I have a team of people here, back home, and in heaven rooting me on and wanting me to succeed. The Aspers, I can't even describe to you how much I love this family. My heart is filled with love everytime I step foot in their home. I know that my relationship with Brother and Sister Asper will last till the day we day and long after that. They are my parents in Georgia. When these members noticed how tough of a week that we were having they really stepped in and picked us back up. God's love for me manifested itself through the saints of his church.

      This letter I don't want to go into too much detail about the details of this week, because I pretty much covered everything that has happened. Although, I do want to tell you that I know without of a shadow of a doubt that this Church is true. Even if I leave this area without baptizing a soul, I will leave this area with a stronger testimony of the truthfullness of this restored Gospel than I've ever had before. This Church is true, and I am going to do all that I can to proclaim the truthfullness of this Gospel to the world. I have learned so much from the members of this ward and from my own personal studies that this Church is in fact the Church of Jesus Christ restored to the earth. More importantly I have had the spirit wittness to me that it is.

       I have learned so much on my mission, and I have room to learn so much more. Every day I learn something new. I am so excited for tomorrow and for what I going to learn from the scriptures. They are an endless source of knowledge. They are so true, and we need to read them.

 

       Well I hope that everyone back home had a good week. I hope to hear from anyone that reads this soon! I love you all so much and miss you all so much.

 

-Elder Ryan Romero

Week Three in Dunwoody

     This was a good week. I can see God's hand in this work. He is helping me grow, and helping the work in this area grow. I can tell that I am truly getting lost in the work. The things in the mission are now far more important to me than things of the world. I am realizing what is important in life. My relationship with God is growing. My knowledge of him and his nature is growing. I can feel myself changing. I can feel the atonement working in my life. I just need to work harder, and trust in the Lord with ALL of my heart. I need to trust him that things back home are going to be taken care of. I need to trust him and have faith that he will take care of me and the people that I love back home. I know that if I can do that that I can get further lost in the work and grow even more.

     Things with Joe and Junior haven't changed much. Joe is still smoking, and Junior is smoking less. I have other people that I would really like to talk about right now, so I am going to majority of this letter talking about them. I want to talk about a family. This family is called the Roldan family. Everyone in the family except the 21 year old daughter who attends BYU is not a member. The daughter joined the Church two years ago. She is a very very strong member now and is encouraging her family to investigate the Church and become members. He family has been through 10 sets of missionaries since the daughter joined. We are now the eleventh set. I have faith that we are going to be the difference in this family's life.
     The Mother, Father, Son, and youngest Daughter are not members. The Son and Daughter are both very active in every program of the church. The son even goes to early morning seminary. The Roldan family is one of the most active families in the ward. They come to Church every Sunday without fail. The Mother and Father don't go to any other hours of Church besides sacrament. The children stay for all three hours.  This family is amazing and would make great members of the Church. They are such a strong and loving family.
     The Mother and Father both have a Catholic background. We have been able to answer a lot of questions for them that the Catholic religion just has not been able to answer. Yesterday we got them to come to Sunday school for the first time ever! They loved it so much. We met with them later that night, and they told us, "No other missionaries have ever got us to do the things that you guys have helped us do. Thank you for pushing us. I can tell that something is different about you two." They have a lot of questions about the Church. I love answering questions for people. I feel like there is not one question that this Church doesn't have an answer too. I love the hard questions because they push me to find an answer. We have been able to answer all of their questions so far. I can't wait to see what else they are going to throw at us in the next meeting.
      I know that this family is special. God has seriously played a HUGE role in their lives. He cares for this family as he does every family. This family is prepared. I am so excited to see what happens with them.

     Being in the "Bible Belt" I have really gotten to know the Bible well. I know the Bible quite a bit better than most people out here. I have grown a deep love for the Bible, especially the New testament. The Bible absolutely testifies of the truthfulness of this Church. There is not one thing that does not support our religion. Our Church uses every teaching in the Bible to its fullness! I wish that people could just realize that! If you truly read the Bible (not just one part of it) and study it (not just one part of it) then you will come to the conclusion that there was an Apostasy, and there was a need for a Restoration. It is so clear in every page of the Bible.

     Elder Grassley's birthday was on Saturday. We had a good time. I took him out to this great burger place and talked and shared stories. He is a great kid. We get along so well. His head is still bothering him but we are going to figure it out.
He is a great missionary and a hard worker.

     Well I hope to hear from anyone that reads this over the next week. My time is up, I have got to go. I love you all so so much!

-Elder Ryan Romero