december 29, 2014 letter

Dear Family:
This week was super awesome. It was really one of the most busiest times that i have had on my mission. It just seems like i was running around like crazy all week. And holy cow it was crazy to finish my first 6 months. Before you know it I'll be home and be playing ball. Wow thats pretty scary. I definitely don't want to come back to the real world yet and i dont want to play football yet because i would get smashed with how weak i am right now! But i know that the Lord will bless me for being out here and doing his work!

It was such a cool experience to be away from home during the christmas holiday. Yeah i missed everyone back at home, but it was so nice to be out here and be focused on the Lord. One way that elder perryman and i always think of it is a Father and sons outing for two years. We are just out here with our heavenly father for two years having so much fun helping bring back his children(:

Really one of the most amazing things happened this week. There is a recent convert family that we have been helping out for a long time. I have been working with them since the day i got here. At first they seemed to be against some things and not really wanting to do some things and the dad didnt want the priesthood because he cant read and didnt feel worthy of it. So they had to postpone the baptism of their son for a while. It was so heart breaking. But just a little while ago they had this huge change of heart and we were able to give him the priesthood and its like they made a 180. Now hes getting ready to baptize his son and he is going to everything and is even memorizing the prayer to bless the sacrament! It was one of the craziest things I've seen. It's like hes a new person now(:   On the 24th it is a huge hispanic holiday so we went around all day just eating food with people and talking with them and the last person we had on our list was this family. We get there with all the other missionaries and president pister and his family, and when we got there, there was absolutely no one there and they were just cooking food. I could tell that the mom had been crying for a while and the family just seemed super sad. We didn't say anything but just went and tried to liven up the party and help them feel loved and that they had friends(: it was super weird because we were expecting to see so many people there because they have such a huge extended family. But come to find out just yesterday that none of their family decided to come because they had to decided to be join the church and be LDS. Their family is super rooted in their catholic beliefs and it just seems to be hard for the both of them. But it was so cool to see the mom and dad stand up for what they believe. They are some of the nicest people in the world and i love them to death. It's amazing to see how truly converted they have become (:

Also this week we went to go see another family. They are about a 30 minute drive away so we are only able to see them once a week. They come from some serious poverty and it just breaks my heart to see them. The mom just loves her kids to death and is taking care of them by herself and her kids don't ever treat her well. She literally works day and night with almost no sleep to help her kids. The member that we are taking with us is the same way and just loves her kids and works all by herself 24/7 to put food on the table. But the family is really coming around and they are showing some true desire to be baptized, her only problem is that she just thinks any church is good, It'll just take a little time to let her connect the dots that we have laid out for her. We are excited for them and the son who is 16 said he wants to come out and play basketball with us on Wednesday with all the youth, so we talked to all them and we are going to have a huge lesson with all of them on Wednesday so that will be super good(:

Well nothing too crazy happened this week, just a lot of parties and a lot of talking to people!! i love you all and miss you so much!

Love, Elder Romney (:

december 23, 2014 letter

Sorry this letter is going to be a little short, because we dont have a bunch of time and because i will be able to see you on thrusday which will be ten times better!!! This week was literally just full of singing. haha We have something called our Christmas Concert where all of the missionaries get together and they sing for members and investigators in the chapel on one day. I was on the traveling  choir so I got to go to the other zone conference in Lebenon which was super fun! All of the people in the traveling choir packed into a huge white van and drove the hour or so to get there. Since it wasnt our conference we didnt have to stay there when president started talking for the conference, so we were able to go out to people and carole to them and invite them to go to the concert. I was with 3 other male missionaries that spoke spanish, so we took our little spanish hymn books and knocked door to door and sang to them. It's funny because normally when you knock a door they are just rude to you and shut the door on you, but we wouldnt give them the opportunity to say anything to us and just sing to them instead. They actually were really appreciative of it and loved it and we didnt get any doors slapped in our face the whole time (: and then later that day we were able to sing to all of the members and investigators that came. It was a huge event with probably around 500 or so people at it! And then a couple days later on Sunday, Elder Perryman and I and Pres. Pister and his son sang a song in church which turned out to be really fun(: We sang the first noel and they designated me to sing the high tenor part in the chorus and I was like pooping my pants I was so scared to try and hit that high note, but luckily when it came to game time it worked out just fine(: And then just yesterday we had to go up to Forest Grove, which is an hour away and is a crazy drive up there and we had to drive ourselves. I've literally never seen roads like this. They're all up and down and left and right so half the time you're having to slam on your breaks because you don't even know what is ahead of you! We drove up there and we did another conference up there and it was super fun(: We had to do some skits as zones and my zone did one where we did renditions of songs but put to words that missionaries would say it, like contacting  situations on the streets, It was pretty funny. Elder Perryman and I had to do a newsies songs and then sing a pitbull song while we danced.. that was probably one of the most embarrassing things... haha but it was way fun and then a guy in our zone rapped at the end and we all jumped out and through a bunch of candy canes at everyone while some girl in our zone who can break dance did this awesome handstand pose thing at the end! Anyway, much of this week has been crazy driving everywhere! I had to drive home from the conference and that was pretty nerve racking because the fog gets so thick out there you can only see a couple feet ahead of you and we were going on crazy windy roads, so we made sure and said a prayer and everything turned out fine and we got home safe (:

The other day right after church one of the sisters investigators came up to Elder Perryman and was like, umm.. can i talk to you guys for a little bit and we were like sure! and then he started asking us some pretty deep doctorine about like kolob and how mary got pregnant and stuff like that and so we pretty much answered as best as we could but told him that he wouldnt be able to have a testimony about any of it without praying. so we ended up talking to him and he told us he didnt like the church and this and that, so we took him over and sat him down and was like, is there something else that is going on right now? and long story short, we spent 3 hours in the chapel talking about his past and how he has resentment for churches because of his experience in the catholic church as a baby and seeing exorcisms and things like that and how he hadnt eaten or slept in 3 days. it was crazy to hear all of the things that were on his shoulders and just give him an opportunity to vent and let the spirit take over in his life and replace the bad with the good. He is such an amazing guy and i love him to death. I cant wait to see what the future holds for him.

Now everyday we get the chance to go and help a lady in our ward at 2:30. She is a tiny old little lady and her son got in a car accident when he was 20 a few years back and split his head open and had to have brain surgery and is now a complete vegetable and isnt able to do things on his own, so she has been taking care of him night and day since the accident, and just moved to a new house and the way the room is set up she isnt able to work the device to pick up her son and put him in the wheel chair. So she called us last week and asked if we could help and we told her that we would love to. It must be so so hard for him because he can understand everything that is going on and can communicate with blinks and grunts and stuff. It just makes me feel so bad for him because he is trapped in his body and there is nothing to do. Its just like he is paralyzed. But interestingly enough the doctor said that there is a possibility that he could walk again and that it would just take time. I've never seen such a little lady with so much faith. She always tells us, i know he is going to be healed, i know he is going to be healed. I hope and pray that the lord will one day heal him, but i know that He has a plan and its perfect whatever it may be. And she has an amazing testimony as do we, of the after life and that his body will be completely perfect and restored (:

I can't wait to hear from you on thursday!!! I love you all,and make sure you've got some good stories and your spanish A game on (;

 love you, love, 

Elder Romney (:

A carful of travelling missionary singers

At the Christmas conference

Spencer and Elder Perryman doing their skit at the conference

december 15, 2014 letter

Dear family,

This week was a pretty good one! it really just feels like the christmas spirit is just coming out of everyone(: 

Literally one of the nicest things that have ever happened on my mission happened on Sunday. I had to pass the sacrament that day and as I was doing it I looked over the aisle and saw that one of the investigators of the sisters was sitting by himself. So right after it was over, I picked up all of my stuff and went over and sat by him. Now you have to know this guys. He is literally one of the sweetest guys in the world and is so shy. he is super selfconscious about his weight and so he doesnt ever really want you to talk to him, so he doenst really have many friends in the ward to be with. I decided I would go sit with him and try and spark up a little conversation with him to try and make him feel better. I went over there and asked him if I could sit by him and you could just see the light on his face because someone wanted to sit next to him(: I just talked to him for a little bit, but I wanted him to be able to listen to the talks, so i kept it really short. I was so tired that day, and I was literally trying so hard to stay awake, so I finally crossed my right leg over my left to try to try and make it tingle so it would keep me awake! haha As I was doing that he saw that I had a hole in my shoe ( they are some really cheap dressier shoes that i bought for 15 dollars and only wear on Sundays with my suit, so i wasnt really that sad). It was really hard to understand him in the meeting house and it kind of mumbled his Spanish, but I finally got what he was saying and he said, "do you want some new shoes?" and i told him, haha no im good, (: and he was like, "no, really im going to get you new shoes". He doesnt have a lot of money and so I kept telling him no, like really, im okay. but he insisted on giving me new shoes! So literally that night he calls me at 8 at night as was like "where are you, can you meet me at the chapel"? and i was like of course, thinking that he just was having a hard time and need someone to talk to. so when we got there his old beat up white van pulls up and he gets out and is like, holding a box in his hands, "i hope you like these shoes...". it was literally one of the sweetest things on my entire mission and i wanted to start bawling! he told me about how thankful he was that i would come and sit by him and be his friend and that he would do anything for me if i ever needed it. He is one of the nicest people in the entire world and I would do anything for him. I want to take a picture with him today at fhe and I will send it to you(: He looks kind of like a rugged guy, but he is one of the sweetest people in the world.

The other super awesome story that happened this week was when we went to an investigators of the sisters house for dinner. Her name is alejandra and is so so sweeet too. Any time that we dont have dinner she always calls us and makes sure that we are fed and is just a sweetheart. We went over there and right now she is trying to quit smoking so she can be baptized here pretty soon and this was her first day being completely off of it and she said that she was having a really really hard time, so we taught her about blessings and offered to give her one and she accepted! I have come to love blessings so so much. There is no way that you can describe the peace and wonderful feelings they bring. We promised her that if she read and prayed everyday then she would be able to overcome her challenges of smoking. I'll have to get a picture with her as well and send it to you(:

Today when we were at walmart shopping, some random white lady came and walked behind me and put her hand on my shoulder and was like, hold on just a sec. and she bent over and was trying to rip off a string of my jacket. haha i just stood there pretty much in shock! haha so yeah, i got my bum touched but some completely random stranger today too, so that was interesting!

We were also able to go to a baby shower this week of some random people that we helped do service for, and found a family of eleven people that want to hear about the gospel, so i am hoping for good things from that(:

I love you guys so much and I cant wait to see you at Christmas (:

Love,

Elder Romney

This is a picture of a guy who was shot when he was 17 and is partially paralized! I love him so much and his conversion story!! And that is his mom who takes care of him (:

Outside of one of our investigators houses with an elf (:

This is when we were practicing for doing the skit today! its Perryman and me and Elder Anzures, who i love to death. I hope he is my companion one day!!

december 8, 2014 letter

Well this week was a pretty good and interesting week! As you know we have been working with a family (of 8 people) for quite a while, about 3 months now, and they just weren't seeming to progress at all. so elder Perryman and i decided that we were going to go there and just tell her that we had to stop coming by because she wasn't keeping any of her commitments and we couldn't keeping driving forever away to get to her house. So the whole day we were thinking about how we were going to do this and how it was going to be so hard because we really do love the family so much and love the kids to death. We made it into her house and caught her before she could leave and sat down and talked to her for a while. We talked to her about how we couldn't keep coming by if she wasn't going to keep her commitments and that it was really important what we were doing and that we couldn't just keep doing this over and over again. Through all of the talking with her and trying to drop her, she eventually broke down and started telling us all about her past life and how hard things are right now and how she says that she wants the gospel but doesn't know if she can do it. We told her that we would be there step by step if she just promised to keep her promises and read and pray every night. She told us that she would. We also offered to give her a blessing and to her children, too, and she cheerfully accepted as we explained what it was. It really was such a beautiful blessing to be able to see that huge change in her, we went from about dropping teaching her, to giving her and all of her kids blessings of comfort and peace. That was such a tender moment when we did that for her. We couldn't do it in the house because the grandma wouldn't let them, so we ended up finding an old beat up chair outside and put it on there porch in the pitch black. We were all freezing and just kind of huddled around trying to keep warm in the 30 degree weather. i was given the opportunity to give a blessing to 5 of the 6 children as we asked them who they wanted to give the blessing. Each one that I gave to them was completely different and you could feel their spirit in each one. It was amazing to see the blessings that were promised by the Lord as I acted as a proxy and mouthpiece for Him. During the blessing for one of the youngest ones who was 5, we had promised him that if he stayed faithful and was baptized into the church, he would one day be a leader in the church and help change lives. I cant wait to see what happens with him in the future. The majority of the kids are boys and almost all of them have expressed how they want to be baptized and how they want to eventually serve missions like us. So in all reality their future now just hangs in the balance if there parents will follow them and be there support them because we aren't allowed to baptize them if they aren't old enough to drive themselves or if they don't have somebody who will be able to help them and guide them as they grow up, namely their parents. So it all hinges on whether she can commit to keeping her promises and be baptized eventually, because that would be 5 missionaries that would get sent out to help change others lives as well. Please keep them in your prayers and that this change of heart will be able to continue and that eventually they will be able to make that covenent with the lord and all be sealed in the temple. I really do love those kids and there futures are so bright.

Well, so i have a kind of crazy story... haha so the other day on Sunday, we went up to Mcminville for a baptism and we were going on this super super crazy and windy hilly road. like nothing you've ever seen before. I would literally close my eyes and I felt like I was on a roller coaster because we were going so fast and turning so sharp! The whole entire road is lined with trees and it was pitch black, so you couldn't see what was in front of you while you were turning until you were already there. I was sitting in the back and we had a member driving us because it was out of our area and I was thinking the whole time,"welp, if I die, I lived a pretty good life and I'll go to heaven because I'm a missonary!"  and literally as i was thinking that, jorge (the guy driving) slammed on his brakes and we go flying forward sliding of the road because there was a deer that jumped out right in front of us. I think its leg nicked the front left side of the car, but not to much damage was done to the car. We were able to get back on the road and eventually make it there safely! haha that was one of those moments where your heart just stops and all the adrenaline rushes form your face to your legs. haha, it was pretty scary, but I'm glad to know that I'm a missionary and that there is an afterlife in case things didn't turn out as miraculous as they did! i definitley know the lords hand played a part in this and that all the prayers from back at home kept me safe and made sure i didn't have antlers through my head (;

The weather here is really quite depressing. the place is beautiful, but the weather is awful. It just rains all the time and averages about 36 degrees. But no worries I'm hanging in there and my face just goes numb after a while (: but things are going well and we are still working with a bunch of families right now!

i love you guys so much!!! Love Elder Romney (:

"This was our little Christmas party that we had this past Saturday.  Santa and I were best friends (: "

With a couple of missionaries from Newberg

"These were our family pictures.  Elder Ashcraft trained all of us."

december 1, 2014 letter

Well this week was pretty fun because I was able to give a talk in sacrament meeting! it was pretty funny, just about 5 minutes before the sacrament meeting, our president came up to me and was like, well looks like you have to give a talk and you have to pass the sacrament. haha so I literally had no time to prepare anything for my talk at all, and i was the first speaker. so i was a little nervous to get up there, especially in front of everyone where they would be able to criticize my Spanish! but it was so nice, because once I got up there right after the sacrament was over, i just felt like an overwhelming peace and like i knew exactly what i was going to say and do. i opened up into 1 nephi where it talks about when lehi partakes of the fruit and how he wants to share it with his family. and i explained that that is exactly why i was here, and in fact why they were there too. its because they had tasted the fruit of the lord and now they just need to go out there and share it with others, such as there family. i then opened up to doctrine and covenents 15 or 14... don't remember, but it talks about how the most important thing that we can do in this life is to share the gospel with others. more than work or school or anything like that, it was to share the gospel and let the world know from what church they belong. i loved being able to give the talk because i could feel the spirit working through me and giving me the gift of tongues. i can speak pretty well in spanish, but it felt so much smoother this time and like i was speaking in a native tongue! 

We were looking through our closet the other day and found a bunch of old progress records sitting on the shelf and we decided to pick it up and start looking at them. it turns out that there were some people who had some dates and that they were never baptized, so we decided to go and look up those addresses. we went and tried to find this house, but literally for the life of us, we couldnt find it. it was like it was gone. so there was one house that was the closest to it but it didn't have a number, so we just decided to knock on it anyway to try and find out who lived there and if it was them! we knock on the door and we were like, so is this the lopez family? and they were like uh.... no, but come in! turns out after talking to the guy for a little while that he had grown up around mormons and that he loved the religion a lot! so we are going to be able to start talking to him and he is soo ready for baptism! ahh I'm so excited for him!

oh and today when we went to choir practice sister samulien was like, okay now who is going to sing a solo, and elder perryman started pointing at me and was like he is! he is going to do it! hahaha i was like there is no way that i am going to sing in front of 300 people alone... haha they kept trying to get me to sing, but i kept telling them that i wadn't going to. so needless to say, i chickened out pretty bad on that one. but after the thing two of the hermanas were like, so  can you actually sing or was elder perryman just making fun of you? and i was like no, i definitely can not sing. but they made me sing like 1 verse of the song and long story short sister samulien found out about it and she made me join and octet! haha so now i still am singing in front of everyone, i just dont have to do it alone (: haha i was never good at singing back at home, but maybe i just hit puberty or something and my voice came in enough to hit a few notes (;

sorry this letter is so short, i really have hardly any time because we had so much to do!

but i love you so much!!!! love Elder Romney (:

novermber 24, 2014 letter

Well another week here in Oregon and it is just getting as cold as ever!! haha but while I've been out here I've found that i am really good at being cheap with money. i think in reality my mission is just getting me ready to live on my own in college and be super super cheap with my wife when we first get married and don't have any money! i can spend about 7 dollars a week and be just fine, so that is an up, but the down is that oatmeal is now flavorless and not very good! I don't know why I'm saving money, i just feel the urge to! haha I've got like 130 dollars on my mission fund card and will be getting another 120 in a week! but I guess i just feel some sort of gratification in saving money (:

So remember how i told you last time that we have started to love getting into the deep doctrine and getting as much knowledge about the church as we can, well we just went to the church library and got 4 encyclopedias on the church and it has been one of the best things ever! there is literally every possible word and thing you can talk about the Mormon church in there and its all approved by Jeffrey R Holland(: I love being able to learn and understand more things every day and also learn those things in Spanish too!

Well this week we were driving by and there was a guy on the side of the road just walking, so we decided to stop and roll down our window to talk to him! We stopped by and told him who we were and why we were here and what we were doing and everything, and he was just like, I've been waiting for this for so long. He said he had a friend that was a member of the church and that he just wanted to learn more about the church and he had no idea how to! So we ended up getting out and talking to him. It was interesting, because as I was talking to him, things were just clicking in my head and everything was just running so smoothly with him and it seemed like we had been long lost best friends! I firmly believe that he is one of the people i was really good friends with in the pre earth life and he is one of the reasons I was sent here. we gave him a Book of Mormon and let him go on his way. Turns out he shows up to church next week and we were so happy for him! I'm kind of sad that elder Perryman and I wont be the ones to get to teach him and bring him to the waters of baptism, because he is in the sister's area and not ours, but it makes me so happy to see what a little thing like stopping and talking to someone! It's awesome to see how everything works together and to know that Heavenly Father has a perfect plan for us and that he will always put the right people in the right place at the right time, We just have to make sure that we listen to the still small voice.

So we went to the park to play some basketball with some kids and teach them a lesson. We got there and we had to run to the restrooms to change our clothes into street clothes. so we were in the stalls and i had just gotten out and I hear elder Perryman in the other stall like groaning. haha I felt so bad for him, I was just like, well, that Spanish food got to him, but I hear him right after say, "Elder Romney, I need you to come in here." I was like, "we may be companions, but there is no way i am going in there!!"! hahahaha but he said, "No i cant move!" haha It turns out he wasn't using the bathroom or anything, some muscle in his back froze and he couldn't move at all. haha So he made me go in there and put on his shoes and pants. If that doesn't show that I love my companion, I don't know what will! But it turns out he just had a strained muscle for a little bit and all is good. I was slightly hoping that he would have to go to the hospital or something, because that is the only justified reason for putting on another mans pants and shoes! (;

well I'm pretty excited about two things that are coming up here pretty soon! We have the turkey bowl on Thursday and I can't wait for it! I don't think I've been this excited for football in my life. I haven't played it for almost a year since i got my surgery! but one of the assistants to the president is apparently a really good football player and he heard that i like to play football to, so he is going to drive all the way here and we are going to go against each other, so i am pretty excited about that (: And I get to be on a traveling choir for the mission! Another buddy of mine in the zone and I get to go sing with a traveling group. But I'm not sure if that is going to fall through or not with all the bad weather that is coming in, but i guess we will see about that(: 

All of my investigators are doing super good and I love to see all of the changes in there lives and how much closer they are to Christ. I honestly would do that over playing in front of 3 thousand people every Friday night. I love it.

Well, I love you guys and I can't wait to hear all about Thanksgiving from everyone! love you!! 

love,

 Elder Romney (:

On Saturday night we got a call from Brother Pister, (pronounced "Pes-ter) who is a man who works with the missionaries in the Woodburn area.  This is the third call we have received from him, telling us that he was just with Spencer, and what they had been doing. He said that Spencer is a great missionary, and is working hard, and that he is doing very well with Spanish, and that everyone loves him there (of course!).  They had been at the church that evening, attending the wedding of investigators who had been married in Mexico, but didn't have their records, so they had to get married again before they could be baptized the following day.  Brother Pister took this picture and sent it to me.  Spencer and his companion will have Thanksgiving at Brother and Sister Pister's house this week.  I asked Spencer if he got a blanket or comforter for his bed yet, and he said that Sister Pister gave them blankets. They are very sweet people who have a missionary out themselves at this time.  I'm so thankful for good and kind people who care for Spencer!

november 17, 2014 letter

Wow its crazy to think how fast the time is going, pretty soon here i will be a fourth of the way through my mission and it feels like it just started. i am learning so many things out here and i am growing so fast spiritually and physically! i even have to shave every morning because it gets to long! haha i thought id just add that in, because it makes me feel pretty manly (; but i really am learning so fast and the great thing about getting a new companion is that you learn from them and the analogies that they use for people and the little things they do in there scriptures to mark them and stuff. just little stuff, but it is all really interesting and i love trying to take the best in my companion and incorporate it into myself and leave behind the things or bad habits that i don't want! i think if you saw me now, you probably wouldn't recognize me. you just get a new spirit to you that you didn't have before the mission!

speaking of growing and learning, one of the things that elder perryman and i have in common is that we are both really really interested in deep doctrine so every night we can stay up for hours just talking about the ins and outs of the book of mormon and bible and share the knowledge that we have.

so the other day we went knocking on a house in what we call "la encarseria" (not sure if that's how you spell it) but that means the prison in spanish! haha its like a little town of just 3rd world. its nuts. but for some reason i absolutly love it and want to go there all the time. so i made elder perryman go with me one night and go knock on some doors. not to say the least the people didn't look to friendly and neither did the chickens trying to peck at me, but it was fun! haha the whole time elder perryman had the phone in his hand with 911 dialed, and i thought that it was the funniest thing ever! but it was a fun experience and i cant wait to go back. we also went tracting right next to there and knocked on this house. a guy answered and because it was freezing cold he was like, hurry come in, i dont want it to be cold! so we went inside and there were 7 thirty year old hispanic men sitting at the table eating dinner. we ended up talking them and they thought it was super funny that two white guys in suits could speak spanish to them! so they let us sit down and talk to them for a while and through the course of our lesson literally 20 more guys walked in and out of the house... haha it was crazy! they were all from mexico and guatemala and were here just working on the fields and sending money home to there families. so we talked about families to them and they were so amazed by it and asked us to come back again! so we are hoping to get all of those guys baptized (lofty goal, but still possible) and we can turn our little branch into a ward (:

Yesterday night we knocked on a house of a person that we had accidentally ran into the other day and this time he let us come in and talk to him. come to find out he had 3 brain surgeries 2 heart surgeries and back surgery and is doing super good. he told us about a story that he had where god had helped him and he told us that he was positive that there was something out there that the lord needed him to do or else he wouldn't have survived that many times! we told him that he kept on surviving those surgeries to hear about our message and to help him help his family to accept it as well. the only set back is that he isn't in our area, so we have to hand him off to the sisters! but it'll be so good to see him baptized sometime soon (: 

This week was good, still a little frustrated that baptisms aren't following through like we plan, but we are just trying to help them realize the importance and that is all we can do! I love you guys and i cant wait to hear from you! Love, Elder Romney (:

By a burned house

november 10, 2014 letter

Well i don't have a bunch of time to write today, but i will just tell you a couple of stories that i had this week(: there was this girl that was standing on the side of the road, so Elder Perryman and I decided to pull up to her and give her a card. we immediately started talking and she seemed super interested in what we had to say! At the end of the conversation, i said," pues gracias por su teimpo y tenga un buen dia!" and she looks at us and says, "no se precupen, son buenos"  haha so i said, thank you you too(: haha we drove away and elder perryman starts cracking me up, because son buenos translates to mean that you guys are sexy, but a little bit more inappropriate... haha so that was an interesting thing, and we are definitely going to hand her off to the Hermanas!!

Sad day  because we found out that we have bed bugs in our house... luckily they aren't in my  bed! elder Perryman woke up and found all of these marks all over his legs and found out that he had had bed bugs for the past little while and just never noticed! luckily we were able to get an exterminator out here and get that all figured out, hopefully none of that will happen again!

This week i played a ton of sports!! i ended up playing basketball two times and soccer three times! its all because we contact into people and they want to play us in sports, and it really helps us get investigators, so we always go out with them and play something with them! well in all of this time, turns out that i am really good at soccer! i hadn't played since i was five and i just picked it up on the mission again! maybe i missed my calling in life(; but it was really fun and we ended up playing soccer with six kids and got them to listen to out message and now we have a return appointment with them, and they are all really good potential investigators! i think the lord blessed me with athletic ability not to get a scholarship, but to guys to listen to us (; 

So we had another experience with a guy that wanted to come up and bash on us! we were contacting on the street and this short white guy comes running up to us, and we thought he was a bishop at first, but then he says to our investigators, i just wanted to make sure that you weren't listening to the mormons! haha at that point we stop talking to our investigators and start talking to him and ask him to please leave, and he wouldn't. so he started ripping into us saying we had "magic underwear" and there was no proof of the book of mormon, and nothing was true. by the end of the conversation, we had literally answered every question of his with a logical answer and he finally said, "well, you were able to answer all of my questions, and they make sense... but i have to go." haha the spirit of discernment is true and it is such a big gift!!

oh and i happened to talk elder Perryman into trading me a 400 dollar tie for two of mine, so it was a good week (;

but i love you guys so much and i am so excited for all of the baptisms that we have coming up soon!!

 love elder romney!!

Spencer braiding a tree

This is Spencer's mission family.  He and Elder Perryman were both trained by Elder Ashcraft (far right), who is now also training Elder Joly (far left)

november 3, 2014 letter

Well, after being with Solano for so long, he is finally home!! haha but I couldn't be more hapy and excited to have my new companion! his name is elder Perryman and he is 6 foot 4 and is one of the nicest coolest kids you'll meet ever! He and I hit it off probably within the first hour we were together and we just started to teach a bunch of people! one of the things that he told me about that he did in his past district was something called SAM's it stands for (super awkward moment, super awesome moment, and super awesome miracle) so pretty much when you go tracting you just look for those oppurtunities! haha it was one of the most fun times tracting that I have ever had! We decided that we were going to talk to literally every person that we passed, so needless to say it took us literally 2 hours just to get 300 yards away from our house. It was such a cool and fun experience, and for the most part, people accepted us and let us teach them for a little bit! just a couple of examples of SAMs that we have had so far: This one time we saw a guy riding on his bike on the side of the road, so we literally pulled up next to him, drove his speed and taught him a lesson about the gospel through the window(: haha that was super awesome. And then there was one time where we saw 2 people walking away about a hundred yards away, so we immediately pulled the car over, parked it, and jumped out of the car and ran as fast as we could to catch up with them. obviously they were a little startled but thought it was hilarious that we chased them down and they listened to us! We ended up talking to them for an hour and teaching them a huge lesson about families being together forever! And another SAM was when we met these two girls out of no where and gave them our number and told them to call us when they had read a chapter out of the book of Mormon, and they texted us that night and now they are one of our new investigators! haha but SAMs are some of the funniest things in the world, and I have probably another 20 stories, I just don't have time to write them! oh and with all these lessons we are teaching, we tied the record for the most lessons taught in a week and we got 38 lessons taught in one week!

On the 29th, we had one of the best days ever! We were able to get a family on date and now we have 10 people on date for baptism(: Ahh it makes me so happy to see their lives change and how much the gospel is starting to mean to them(: Then that night right after our lesson with the family we went to the church super late just before we had to go home, to print some stuff of for the next day, and we ended up running into a member who was really struggling with things in his life and how he was addicted to some stuff and he didn't know what to do about it! We read him Jacob 5:66 which promised him that if he replaced the bad thoughts with good thoughts, eventually his roots, or himself would completely change! It was such a cool experience just to see that he was put in our path like that! (and that has happened with so so many SAMs its crazy!)  We decided after the lesson in the car to say a "thank you prayer" just to thank heavenly father for blessing us and that guy that night. and while he was praying I got the distinct impression that the day wasn't over and that there was still someone we had to see even though it was already past curfew. Right as we had finished praying, we both looked at each other and said at like the same time that there was still someone we had to see tonight. I was thinking about it and got the distinct impression to go to the gas station right next to our house and that there would be a female at the cash register and we had to talk to her and just tell her that god is listening to her. So we got to the gas station and open the door and walk up to the counter where there was a girl just like we had gotten in the impression and we just stood there for a couple of seconds. I finally looked at her and said, I don't know why we are here, but we got the feeling to come here and tell you that god loves you. At that moment, another guy walks into the store and I get the feeling that I need to go talk to him, so I leave elder Perryman to talk to the girl and I went and talked to this guy, so we are teaching two lessons at once. Turns out the girls starts bawling and thanking us for coming over to her, and the guy was a less active and hadn't been to church for a year! So we were able to help them and that was one of the coolest things ever(:

Elder Perryman and I have literally been working non stop. we are constantly either texting someone, or talking to someone, or something! We have gotten so busy that we don't take lunch and dinner anymore and we pretty much just fast so we can talk to people! I really do love elder Perryman so much and we are able to work really well together as a team and we try to follow every impression that the spirit gives us! I've never worked at something so hard in my life as I have the past couple days, and I've worked pretty hard at football and weightlifting! It's so crazy! Some other highlights was that I got to go and translate at a doctors appointment and help set up the trunk or treating this week has been awesome and I cant wait to see what is in store for next week(:

I love you guys so much!!(:

Spencer and Elder Perryman, his new companion 

october 27, 2014 letter

sorry that you haven't got any pictures for a while, its because my camera broke, and I don't know how to fix it, so hopefully I can get that up and running here pretty soon! but I am getting a new companion tomorrow and his name is elder lafrance, and he is from Canada, maybe French Canadian? who knows... but I am excited to meet him. hes 5 5, and is a two time black belt, so maybe he can teach me how to kick some guys trash while im with him(:

so this last Monday we went to the mall and just out front of the doors, there is a group of people whose names are the gospel guys. we walked past and the guy came up to me and started talking to me about things. the guy was about 6 foot 6 and had the ability to talk like a car salesman. so he knew how to talk to people. so he came up to me and started talking about my life and all these different things and then he brought in the gospel, and started telling us why we were wrong and why we shouldn't believe in this or this, and how we are wrong and how Christ is god and everything. he had a companion too but it was pretty much just me and him going back and forth, and every question that he had and every rebuke that he threw at me, I was able to answer it back at him and tell him how he interpreted in wrong with other scripture. we went on for about half an hour until I finally just told him that we had to leave. its really crazy how much my knowledge of the facts has grown out here on my mission, both spiritually and factually. before I had left, I would have had absolutely no Idea what the guy was talking about, but with diligent studying and with the lords help, I have been able to grow so much in the gospel! one of my favorite books right now is Jesus the Christ. it is literally one of the best books and gives you an insite into the bible that you would never be able to get, I love it! and I love how much this mission is changing me already(:

i may not be in nearly the shape i was when i was playing football, but i still have some of my speed left (; the other day one of our investigators is the fastest girl in the state and kills everybody when she is racing them, so we decided that we were going to race before i left! so we showed up to here house one night to raise. she had some nice nikies on and i had my  bare feet... hahaha it hurt really bad to run in the road by the way without shoes) but it was still fun(: but i ended up winning! haha i may not be in shape anymore, but i've still got some wheels (; haha hopefully my new campanion and i can get in shape together!!!

I also went on splits with an English elder this week which was an interesting experience! haha it was different because now I had to say everything! so we went to a house and this guy comes out and starts ripping on us in Spanish for about 20 minutes about how church should be on Saturday, because in Spanish, Saturday is sabado, which is also sabbath, so its even harder to convince them that the resurrection changed the day of worship, anyway he was just going on and on about this and that, and I really tried my hardest to answer every question and explain things to him, but I just couldn't say everything that I wanted! that's probably the most frustrating thing on the mission right now, because I can understand people when they talk to me, but I cant always say exactly what I want to, so its like I just have to take a beating all the time! but the language is going to come more and more with time, so I am excited to be able to express myself fully here in a little while!

yesterday, we decided to do something different and just go to every house on a street and try to give them a book of Mormon. haha I almost felt like a salesman, but it was fun! it was pouring rain and we were soaked and so were our books, but we just tredded on going from house to house(: when we got to one house, there was a little dog that run up and bit elder Solano on the leg, haha I felt so bad fro him but luckily it didn't break any skin(:

Fall is so so pretty here and the leaves are starting to change and fall off the trees. and there are literally trees everywhere here! the other day we were driving and a big wind storm came in and was blowing all the leaves off the trees, so there were these red and orange leaves just flying and falling every where, it was like it was snowing leaves for a little bit(:

but things are going well and we are still trying to help our families take the big step of baptism!! love you guys!!!

october 20, 2014 letter

Hey guys! another awesome week in the mission! its pretty sad right now, because elder Solano is leaving in a week, and him and I have gotten really close! I gave him mom and dads number, so hopefully he will call you guys sometime when he isn't too busy at home! oh and he wants to run by and see the family sometime because in January he will be in Utah going too lds business college! so he won't be too far away! and I told him that my mom and sisters would make sure he was fed really well (; but I am excited for him and I am excited to see who my new companion will be!!

The other night for dinner, we ended up having dinner at a members house with all of the sister missionaries too, so there were six of us sitting around the dinner table eating fried fish and tortillas! they had this salsa that was yellow, and the member was like, be careful with this salsa, it is really hot! haha but me and Solano don't really care, so we just piled it on our plate and started eating! haha it was pretty spicy, but wasn't too bad! we asked what kind of chili it was and she pulled it out and showed it to us. it was this tiny chilli so elder Solano and I dared each other to eat it! haha lets just say that was one of the spiciest things I have ever eaten. I was literally sweating and tears were running down my face, not because I wanted too, but because they made our eyes water so  bad! I could feel the spice running from my mouth to my throat and in to my chest and stomach! haha it was a good experience, and now we are going to go eat a habanero this week(: the one we ate is the third spiciest in the world just behind the habanero!

so funny story, this week we went tracting for a couple of hours. it was my turn to go up to the door and do our little spiel. so I walked up there to knock the door. a good way to get people talking is if you talk about some thing else other than just religion at first, like their lawn, or their pictures in the house, or their car, so they get comfortable to you and they aren't just abruptly intruded by 2 young men. so I walked up to the door, and all of the Spanish words are running through my head and I was so ready for a Spanish guy to step out and say hi to me, but this teenage kid opened the door and was like, what do you want?? haha my mind went completely blank, because the whole time I was thinking in Spanish and I couldn't think in English! it was so bad!! haha so I liked paused for a second and saw that they were selling a desk outside, so i was like, hey, I've been looking for a desk for forever, and i wanted to know how much this one cost? hahahaha the guy was like, Oh!! let me go ask my mom! long story short, i almost bought a desk that i didn't want... haha i just had to keep playing the story and slide the gospel very sneakly into the conversation! haha well it worked, and instead of getting a desk, i got an investigator (:

speaking of investigators, we have so many!!! its ridiculous! i was counting the other day and we have close to about 30. and about 15 or so that are super super solid. we just have to help them take that big step of baptism! its super hard to see because we know that they know its the truth, and they want the truth, they just sometimes don't want to make that big change in there life! we are hoping to put a lot of them on date here pretty soon, we just need lots of prayers to help them have the faith and courage to take that big step! Things are going well out here and i cant wait to see our investigators dressed in white, it just makes me smile to think about it(:

I love you guys! know I'm always praying for you!! 

Love Elder Romney (:

october 13, 2014 letter

So this week was super good because we were able to go to the temple, which is like one of my favorite places ever!! it was so spiritual and I loved it so much! we were able to do a session and were in the celestial room almost till they kicked us out, because we just wanted to stay there the whole time. but the temple here is gorgeous and I cant wait to go back there again. we are hoping to take one of our families there soon, so I'm excited for that as well(:

We are teaching this family, and they are a bunch of sisters who all live right next to each other and they all have kids and then their grandparents live right next to them, so they all, about 15 of them are always outside of the grandparents house playing basketball or what not and so we go there and we teach them all the time. The other day we went there and none of the parents were there so we were just outside shooting some hoops and talking to them for a while, while it was getting dark. I told them to all go grab their books of Mormon so they did and we sat on our car and on their grandpas car and turned on the headlights and read a chapter from the book of Mormon! haha they are the best family in the world, and every time we go over the little kids are like, when are we going to read from the book?? haha its the best. One of my favorite little kids always runs up to me and gives me a hug and tells we about what he read in the book of Mormon that last time, hes really such an amazing kid and if we can get them baptized he would end up being one of the best missionaries ever! But it was so cool to see all of the excitement of the little kids, they are from ages 8 to 13, and they always just gather around and go silent when we start reading. It may have been an odd situation to be out there in the freezing cold reading off of the headlights of our cars, but it was one of the most spiritual moments, and I want nothing more than to see them dressed in white. I really do love those kids.  Its crazy how much you grow to love the people that you teach, I just met some of these families a couple of weeks ago, and I already love them with all of my heart. It's crazy how much I care about them, and I can only imagine how much our Heavenly Father loves us.

But my Spanish really is getting better every day and I am trying so hard! its tough especially because everyone else here had at least taken some years of Spanish in college or high school and already knew how to do stuff in Spanish, but I came out knowing hola... haha the gift of tongues is definitely real! I finally feel comfortable with my Spanish and I can talk In preterit, progressive, gerund, future, present, all those things! I just have to make sure that when I get home my Spanish is better than Daniels (; haha that's my goal(:

But nothing really too exciting or different happened this week other than we are still getting lots of people to church which is so good!!

 Love you guys!

 Love elder Romney(:

I bought some pictures at the store and then i hung up  some of the family pictures(: i'd like to think i'm kind of an artist(:

These are a couple of those kids that I was telling you about that we are teaching. at the end of the lesson I gave them all some of the candy that aunt shirley gave me! haha ps, my ears are almost overflowing with candy, and i'm getting fat, so I don't need anymore for now (;

october 6, 2014 letter

Well its finally another week, but the new thing about this week is that I'm super old now! i'm practically an old grandpa that can barely move! haha but that's really how I feel sometimes... but this week has been super good and exciting!!

So this week I went on some exchanges with a greenie who has only been out for 2 weeks. haha so it was me and him out together, me driving the car, and we were out in Salem tracting the whole day while our companions were at MLC. but this was probably one of the funnest days! we somehow ended up at a huge field with all these huge torn down houses and buildings and stuff and we ended up finding a guy to talk to! he was the manager of the place and turns out to be a Mormon! haha but while we were talking to him we found out that this place used to be an insane asylum and that it is in the book of world records as one of the most haunted places in the world! haha of course I asked to go inside, but he quickly said that he would never go in there! haha at least I gave it a try (: 

and then later we tracted into a gangster. no like a literal gangster. haha. he opened the door and I could have sworn that he said hola, and so I gave my little spiel in Spanish, and he stepped out of the door and was like who the crap do you think I am? Hispanic? (with some much not nicer words) haha but then I was like, no sorry, I thought you said hola, and then he went on and on about how cool it was that I could speak Spanish and how he wishes he could have spoken Spanish back in cali so he could have gotten more girls... haha it was quite the experience and he let us come in his house and teach him a bit and he told us all about his life! thought I was going to get stabbed the whole time, but he ended up being super nice to us because we taught about jesus(: and then later that day I got pulled over... hahahaha but its okay, it was just because the back lights were acting funny and weren't working! but the cop was super nice to me and admired that we were our serving missions and let us go(:

so probably one of the funniest days was when we got up at 10 to go to an appointment and then at the end of the appointment we got locked out of our car... so now we have to treck all the way to never never land where the hermanas live and pick up there car and drive it to new berg to get a new key. well on the way, we decided to take a short cut though the field which ended up being the worst Idea ever. we were stuck in grass chest high and it was soking wet from the dew. and then we had to jump a river to get there.  I was able to make the jump, but it was sad for elder Solano because he just missed it and slipped in the river! haha it was the funniest thing ever(:

my birthday was super good and I got to spend it with the rios and they all bought me some presents(: the oldest girl went to a byu game this last Saturday and came back and brought me a jersey that she got!! it was super nice! I love the family to death and we cant wait to get them baptized(:

but I love you guys and keep working hard back at home!! 

Love Elder Romney(:

In front of one of the haunted houses(: Not the main one, but it's still one of them!

This is me just after I jumped over that river(: haha and no im not that fat... my shirt is just untucked(:

september 29, 2014 letter

Well you said that I don't send very much information in my letters so I tried to write some stuff down so that I can send you a little more information! there is definitely way more that goes on then I write in my letters, but I never remember what happens, so its kind of hard for me! haha so I tried to write down a little bit of what happened this week!

Well first off on Tuesday we went to the temple with one of our families who are the sweetest people in the world and I love them to death! (by the way we are going bowling with them today for p day) (: but we ended up taking them to the temple and they were in love with it. the whole time the two little girls were talking about how it was a castle and how it reminded them of Disneyland and that one day they wanted to go inside too. it was so cute and precious to see them so excited about the temple, which I feel we take for granted way to much in Utah! but we went there and went through the visitors center and two sweet hermanas helped us though the tour and we talked about eternal families and what goes on in the temple, and at the end we watched a video called "because of him" and it was so good! at the end of the video I talked to them about mark 5: 36 and how the things that we were asking them to do might be a little scary, because its new to them, but that they just needed to take a couple steps into the darkness and take hold of the Lords hand and let him guide you. FEAR NOT, ONLY BELIEVE. we actually got to take them into a garden that is inside the temple and let them feel the spirit of the temple, and they loved it so so much and said that they wanted to go some day! the whole trip was so awesome and it helped me appreciate the temple even that much more!

yesterday we got chewed out by a jehovas witness, which definitely wasn't very fun.  we've been chewed out by lots of people, Baptists, catholics, 7th day advenests, jewish people, Christians, and some just have wacky beliefs! haha but out on my mission I've learned that the jehovas witness is probably the closest church to having the truth, so when you talk to them about stuff you agree on a lot, but there are certain things that are in our church, that are true, that you can't explain and you just have to go by faith. like the 7th day advenests and believing that church should be on Saturday. in the bible it says that it is, but Jesus was resurrected on Sunday, and that's why we have church on Sunday. but when we were talking to this jehovas witness he told us that we didn't have the holy ghost because if we really did, we would preach for our whole lives and not just for two years, like the other prophets and so on. and then he got into why we didn't baptize or give the priesthood to black people for a while and how that if this was the true church we wouldn't have done that, because in the bible there were black people that had that opportunity for this. keep in mind this whole time he is talking in Spanish, I can understand Spanish almost perfectly when we are talking about the gospel, but when it comes to talking I cant say everything that I want yet. so it's frustrating sitting there getting bashed on and I can't really say much back. finally at the end I was like "podriamos hablar sobre este y este, pero solomente tengo una pregunta para usted... esta feliz?" which means "we could talk about this and this but I only have one question, are you happy?" and he replied to me that he was, and so I told him, "than I guess your not ready for this message". he looked at me kind of puzzled and confused, and so I said "just keep believing in Jesus Christ, and that's the most important thing you can do." and then we went on our way.

oh and also this same day that I got chewed out by the jehovas witness we ate 4 dinner in 4 hours... literally one of the hardest things ever. I would have rather eaten 5 salads than do that. the food was so good, but by the second one I was already full, so you can imagine what it was like for the other 2... haha by the last house elder Solano and I were so full that the lady, the lady we took to the temple, asked, are you guys okay? you look like you're going to throw up? well, she was right, I was about to explode out of my ears! but you'll be happy of me, because I finished all of everything anybody gave me(: and I'm proud to say that when I got home I weighed 175 pounds!! haha luckily this morning I was back to my normal weight!

this week we are on the bikes, so we had to bike 10 miles to gervais which was awful in the baking heat! haha just to give you a little backround on my bike, who knows how old my bike is because it's been passed down for so long, and the other day I was riding and the seat like fell off, so I had to ride standing up the whole time! haha it's a very very pitiful bike... but it's a bike non the less and I'm super thankful (: that night we ended up at the highschool football game because one of our investigators was there and we talked to her about the word of wisdom. we both were too cheap to pay to get into the game, so we just ended up watching from the fence and talking to her the whole time. it was fun(: by the way I miss football like crazy, and this crisp fall air is killing me because it reminds me of football season!!! but anyway, at half time, all the cheerleaders ran up to us and were like "MISSIONARIES!!" haha it was the funniest thing ever, and so we ended up talking to them for a while too and found out that some of them are members too (: but by the time it was 8:30 we were ready to bike home, but one of our investigators offered to give us a ride home in his truck, which was super nice that we didn't have to bike another 10 miles(:

oh and as a little side note, every person we walk, or drive or bike by we wave at them and sometimes they wave back, sometimes they cus at us, and sometimes they just look at us. haha and in the case that they just look at us, I just whisper under my breathe "oh hey how are you doing? oh great, what about you? oh so good!" haha its a little joke that elder Solano and I always do! so either way it's like they are saying hi to me when I say hi to them(:

October is going to be so fun! we get to watch the meet the Mormons movie, go bowling, it's my birthday, go on our temple trips, have interviews, Halloween, transfers, and conference. and hopefully a lot of baptisms! ahh i'm so excited for this month!! but its been really good out here and the work is going well! had 7 people at church again and we are hoping for more soon!! love you guys!!

Love, Elder Romney

Just messing around at the temple

One of our families and us at the temple.  It was such an awesome experience!!!!

Elder Solano and me chilling at an investigators house, waiting for her to get home.  Haha, this was a little after we had biked all day, so we were exhausted!

This is my district! The pictures behind us are some pictures that Hermana Kitchen (Cocina) drew of us and we are lined up in order underneath them :)