First Week in the Mission Field

Hello Everyone!

 

     First week in the mission field. I have got a lot to say! I don't have a ton of time to write so I will try to get as much in as I can.

 

     I was assigned to serve in the Atlanta East zone. The area I am serving in is called the Lithionia area. Atlanta is much different from Utah. Hahaha. I am the minority. When I go into a store I am usually the only white person in there. My trainer's name"S" are Elder Hansen, and Elder Heimuli. Yes, I have two trainers. Hahaha. They are the zone leaders for the zone and Elder Hansen is going home in 6 weeks. So once he leaves Elder Heimuli will be my companion. Let me first start off by telling you how incredibly blessed I am. I know that God knows me better than I do. I know he loves me and cares about me IMMENSELY. I know this because I have been assigned to serve with two of the greatest people ever. Elder Hansen is a carbon copy of my Dad, and God knows that there is no one else I'd rather train me in the mission field than my Dad. He is loving, caring, understanding, and an incredible leader. The other missionaries call him "Prophet Hansen." He is really smart and spiritual. My other companion is a really tall Tongan. God also knows that I love Tongans and love people that like the same things I do. Elder Heimuli is me in Tongan form. We listen to all of the same music and have very similar style. In the MTC I did not meet one person that knew who Brand New was or even Taking Back Sunday. HE LOVES THEM, and I love him for loving them. Hahaha.

 

     So I'll tell you about my experiences so far. I am already in an odd situation by being trained by two zone leaders. To add to the oddness we are white-washing an area and creating a new zone. So I have had my work cut out for me. When you white wash an area you replace both of the Elders in the area. So we have no one telling us about the people or where we should go. Besides the notes they left us. We have met some amazing people. I will tell you about three people. I do not have a lot of time. The library I am at only gives you an allotted time for the computers. So I am sorry if I can't get everything in.

    

     The first person Brandon Corely. Brandon has been a member of the Church for 1 year. He was the first person that we taught. Brandon looks a lot like Ludacris and talks like him too. He has two young kids, a boy and a girl (they are both adorable). Brandon doesn't have a phone so we just dropped by. We dropped by because he was on the less active list. When he opened the door I was not expecting the reaction he gave. He opened the door smiled and said, "Elders, where have you been? I have been waiting to meet you!" and gave us a good handshake and a hug. Brandon just recently got out of jail and has been on probation. I don't think I should go into detail but he has had a rough life. He found the gospel and has been cleaning up his life. He wants to receive the priesthood and get sealed in the temple to his family. He has an amazing testimony. His testimony of Joseph Smith is inspirational. He knows that Joseph Smith was a prophet. He has read all about Joseph Smith from both sides (the LDS side and the Anti-LDS) side. Nothing can shake his testimony. It was really funny hearing him talk about Joseph. He looks up to him so much and wants to endure to the end just like Joseph did.

 

     The second person that I want to talk about is a man named Bro. Burgs. The best way to know what this man is like is watching finding Nemo and analyzing the character "Crush". Or going on youtube and watching the channel goodneighborstuff and watching Kyle do his cool guy impressions. He is the coolest man I have ever met. He is from our ward, the Twin Oaks Ward (I'll tell you more about it in a second). This man is a tall skinny guy. He is married and has two kids. He doesn't do up his top button and won't have his tie done up all the way. He looks like a surfer punk. Yet this man is a testament to the saying "do not judge a book buy it's cover". This man is full of love and the spirit. He is hilarious! Bro Burgs volunteered to be a scout leader (Well he more of just asked the bishop if he could do it) haha. After church he came up to us and asked us if we could go home teaching with us. We said we could. He went home and dropped the family off and came back and picked us up. He came with sandwiches, jones soda, cheese, and gum. Haha. When we got in the car he told us, "Elders, I'm brother Burgs. I like to have fun, I am a laid back guy, but don't worry I obey all the rules." I don't know how to explain this man other than sincere and real. He wasn't trying to impress anyone by being "cool" that is just the way he is. On the way to the appointment he told us all about his mission and his experiences with the atonement. When we got to the appointment we talked for awhile and then he went right into the lesson. He gave a great lesson and listened to the spirit. This guy is living proof that you can still live the gospel, obey all the rules, and still be a fun cool person to be around.

 

     Alright, last but most certainly not least. Leesa Postelli. This women is an investigator. She has been around to every church. Investigated every Church. She has even been a preacher in a Southern Baptist church. This women is educated as all get out. She knows the bible. One day she decided to go to the LDS church. She got in contact with the Elders before us. She took asked them questions and visited with them and absolutely fell in love with them. When she found out that they were going to be transferred her heart was broken. She called the mission president and told him to please not take them away from her. She was very hesitant on meeting with us. She was scared that we weren't going to be like the other Elders, but she agreed to meet with us. We met with her in a members home and she poured her heart to us. It took some work, but we got her to open up. We asked her about the Church and why it interests her and she told us that when she met the members, and met the Elders, that there was just a light in them that she has never before seen in her 48 years of living and searching. She says, "it must be in something you guys drink." as a joke. She knows that it is our religion and she wants everything that we have. She has a desire I have never seen before. I am so blessed because I bet some people go their whole missions without meeting people like Leesa, but we've found her within the first week of my mission. She has an unbreakable testimony of Joseph Smith. She is reading the Book of Mormon and starting to accept it as scripture. She is amazing.

 

     Alright, I am completely out of time. I have to use some of my companions time so I can just send this email off. I will try to put some physical letters in the mail today. I have a lot of pictures for you all. I have so much more to tell you but the computers and the library won't allow me to have the time to write it all...

 

     I know that God loves all of us regardless of who you are or what you believe. I know he is there watching over all of us.

 

I haven't got any letters yet... Get to work! Love you all!

 

-Elder Ryan Romero.

 

 

End of Week Two

Hello family and friends!     

     This week has been an busy week. It definitely went by faster than the last one. They are keeping us really busy here at the MTC. They have every second scheduled out. You don't really have a second for yourself besides the 30 minutes they give you at night to write in your journal and pray to your Heavenly Father. I am very exhausted and sometimes doze off in class. I really try hard to stay awake though. Sometimes I just stand up out of no where and start walking around to stay awake. I have some great teachers too that know how hard it is and put forth an extra effort to keep their students awake. Some of them have us dance, sing songs, or just go out and get a drink.

     I am becoming really close with a lot of the missionaries here that aren't in my district. I am really close with a companionship that is going to Finland. Their names are Elder Batey and Elder Jefferies. Batey played basketball for Weber and is an awesome kid. Jefferies went to BYU Hawaii and danced for the PCC. He is crazy buff. Jefferies and I have become really close because we both value are health. I told him that I want to be as fit as I can before I get to the mission field and there is a goal weight that I am shooting for. He has put me on a strict diet. Each morning I usually have a bowl of shredded wheat or grape nuts (the grossest stuff ever) and I slice a banana in it. Then I have 4 boiled eggs (just the whites) and 3-4 cups of water. Those are usually the only carbs that I have throughout the day. For lunch I usually have just protein, and then at dinner I try to have just veggies. I try to not eat anything else after I have dinner. It is tough. If I am going to discipline myself in every other aspect of my life then why not discipline myself in the way I eat? I have only lost 5 pounds so far but I am noticing a change in my body and the way I feel. I run every day to try and get out all my anxiety. It is one of the few releases that I can find here in the MTC.

    Sometimes I long for my guitar. I miss my music a lot. We sing a ton in the MTC. I like it a lot. I feel like I have become a better singer since being here. Even though I don't have many ways to release my feelings I am learning how to do it in other ways (I am sure that this was the intent of the people who designed the MTC). Prayer, scripture study, and writing in my journal have been what has been getting me through these past two weeks. They give us 30 minutes to ourselves each night and I cherish those 30 minutes. It gives me a chance to reflect on my day and my feelings. It helps so much to write them down. It clears up all the jumbled thoughts that build up throughout the day. Then I get a chance to read my scriptures and ponder on those. My favorite of all is getting on my knees and praying to my Heavenly Father. Sometimes in the MTC you feel like you have no communication with the outside world, and no communication with people that you know truly love you. When I pray I know that I am talking to somethone truly loves me, cares about me and knows what I am going through. Sometimes the at the end of the day the burden seems so heavy that all you can bear to do is kneel. While praying I can feel that burden being taken off my back, and I can feel his love for me. Most of the time, that is just all that I need. Love.

    Yesterday my companion and I taught out investigator. His name is Nickson. He is from Kenya and talks really quietly and so it is hard to hear him. The MTC brings in investigators for the missionaries to teach. Sometimes those missionaries and members acting, or converts acting like their investigator self, or they are real people that get paid to be there. Nickson is real. A lot of the time you can tell because you can see if the person is endowed or not. Nickson is not. Yesterday Elder Price and I talked to him about the restoration, and talked to him about his Heavenly Father. While going through the lesson I was explaining to him prayer, and how his Heavenly Father wants to hear from us and loves us just as an Earthly father would. After I told him that he said, "If my Heavenly Father loves me then why doesn't he just tell me that this is right, or show me what to do? Why doesn't he, or an angel, reveal themselves to me and assure me that there is a life after this and that the church is true." Sometimes I have wondered this, and sometimes I have wondered why sometimes I don't get an answer to my prayers or have a whisper in my ear as to what I should do. When I answered Nickson I realized I was answering that question for the both of us, and at that instance the spirit was filling my mouth. I told Nickson to imagine he had a son. I told him that it would not be wise to hand your son money and tell him to go buy what he wants. I told him it would not be wise to tell your kid what to be and hold his hand until he becomes what you want. I told him that these are not wise because they do not show love and they do not build and strengthen people. He understood. I told him that you show your kid how to work for what he wants encourage him to work towards his goal. I told him that you let your kid decide for himself what he wants to be from his own experiences and encourage him and show him love as he strives to be the best he can (and sometimes we do have to make course corrections for our children). These will make him strong. He understood and agreed. I told him that it is no different with out Heavenly Father. He will not give us the answer to all of life's questions for ourselves without doing the work to earn that answer. He will not hold our hand and tell us where to go or what to be without going through those life experiences to decide for ourselves. He does that because he loves us. He does that because he wants us to become strong like him, because if he didn't we would learn nothing and we would be nothing. Nickson now understood as did I. I realized at that instance that my mission is going to be tough. It is going to be the hardest two years of my life, but they are hard because my Heavenly Father loves me and he wants me to be like him. He wants me to be strong. He wants me to go through my own Garden of Gethsemane to grow and understand the atonement. He loves me so much that he gave his son for me so that I can make it through this and so when I do make a mistake he can help me make my course correction.

   Well, time is up. I hope to hear from you all the over next week. I love you all so much. I leave to Atlanta on the 10th.

One Week Down....but who is counting?????

Well I am all finished with my first week of being a missionary and being at the MTC. It has been a lot harder than I had expected.

 

I'll start off by telling you about the stuff at the MTC. My companion's name is Elder Price. He is from a very small town in Utah called Kingston. He is an awesome kid. He has a sweet southern Utah accent and loves talking about his farm back home. He is very smart and knows the scriptures better than anyone I have probably ever met. He inspires me to do better and study harder. Elder Price is also going to Atlanta. The rest of the kids in my district are awesome. There are eight of us. Four of us are going to Atlanta and the rest are going to Charleston WV. They are all the nicest kids I have ever met. My love for them grows each day. We are all very close and I am so blessed that I got a good district and a good companion. My district leader is named Elder Gautnavi (pronounced Now-ta-vigh). He is an amazing kid and has an amazing spirit. He is a big Polynesian. He has worked hard so he could come on his mission. He is turning 20 soon. He previously had a mission call but had to decline it due to worthiness issues. I admire him for taking care of things and being willing to come back on a mission. He is very inspirational. Probably my favorite kid in my district is named Elder Land. He is a big black boy from Wisconson. He has been a member of the Church for two years. He makes me laugh every day and really makes my time at the MTC easier. I am so grateful he is in my district. He is the only member in his family. The rest of his family consists of Jehovah's Wittness's and muslims. They do not condone him being here. He is an inspiration to me and I would really appreciate it if you guys would be willing to support him on his mission also. No one really emails him, or sends him letters. I can't imagine how hard that would be.

 

Now I will get to how I have been feeling in the MTC. It is true, the MTC is like no other place on Earth. Our teacher told us a joke the other day. He said what is the difference between the MTC and prison... Prison you get a phone call. Hahaha. I can't tell you how true that is. When you come on a mission they take everything you rely on. Your family, your friends, your cell phone, and your music. They take everything from you so you can learn to rely on the spirit and Christ. I have been learning how to do that. It is nice to know that how ever alone you are you will always have those comforters with you. This first week has been really hard. The first couple days I have felt so alone. It is difficult when everyone in your district gets mail and you don't =(. Hint Hint. Haha. The first 5 days have been the hardest. I have never really felt so alone that I have had to turn to Christ and the Holy Ghost before. Usually you can just turn to your parents or your good friends. I have realized this first week that I always do have my Heavenly Parents with me and my good friend the Holy Ghost with me that know me better than anyone. I am so thankful for that.

 

Through my time on my mission my main goal is to become more like Christ. We watched this talk by Elder Bednar and it was exactly what I needed. He talked about how becoming more like Christ is going to be what converts people. That is what I am going to do throughout my mission. I want to develop all the characteristics of Christ. Throughout studying, praying, and being obedient. I have come to realize my change. I am learning to love everyone regardless of their circumstances. The love for people that already exists just keeps growing. I know that this is where I am supposed to be.

 

I love you all. Please write me. While I am in the MTC you can send my letters through www.dearelder.com. It is convenient because I get those letters the very day you send them (If you send them before 4PM). For emails I can only write once a week on my P-Day and I only have time to read, and write everyone in 30 minutes. So please try and contact me via the resources you have.

 

Once again, I love you all and you are all in my prayers.