first letter from the mission field. august 11, 2014

Well i'm finally out here on the mission! This is crazy! I love this way more than I love the mtc! I have some awesome companions who love to work hard and who know what they are talking about! My two companions are completely different! Elder Solano is super fluent in the language and just loves to blast the music in the car and to have fun and relate stories of himself to other people and Elder Ashcraft is all about the little things and making sure that we do everything completely perfect and to a T. With them as my companions they make an awesome whole and are able to teach me the best of both of them. So on the 7th I had an interview with the mission president and I found out that I was paired with the zone leaders, which if you don't know is the second highest position behind the AP's, so i'm able to help them out with stuff and the call me the AZL (assistant zone leader). 
On the first day we went tracting and we went up to the first door and knocked, and Elder Solano looked at me and said, you've got this one. Keep in mind, they didn't ever teach us how to do this in the mtc... like how to do door step stuff or meet people in the street, just how to teach lessons. So I was pretty nervous already. But when they lady opens the door, I was rudely awakened to her yelling at me and ripping my head off and saying that she hated the Mormons and that she didn't want anything to do with us. And I just kind of looked at Elder Solano, and he just said "you got this" so I stepped right in and started telling her about the church and that she had the wrong idea about us and that we are just here to help (keep in mind she's saying stuff in Spanish and I can only pick up half of what she's saying she's speaking so fast) and she just keeps going at me, but I kept being persistent. After a grueling few minutes, Elder Solano starts laughing and I realize that she is a member and that he was just pulling a joke on me and wanted to see how I would react in that situation. He said that he was super impressed by me and that he loved how I stood in there and wasn't afraid! 
Then we played some soccer that night with some people, and you'd be surprised, with all the Hispanics, I wasn't too bad! I scored quite a few goals actually!! on the 8th we went tracting and found an awesome guy who wants to get closer to God and change his life, but he's super catholic, so we are trying to show him that the Book of Mormon can help him do that and that it will help him change his life. But he said that he wasn't buying it and said that we need to show him that there is something in the Book of Mormon that clarifies what's in the bible and maybe he'll read it. So that's what we are going to do today, and i'm super excited for that! 
On the 9th Elder Solano made me talk in zone conference, so I decided to talk about the story when Moroni took some of his army to fight the laminates but when they went into battle, the laminates "fought like dragons" and how Moroni had to go and change their mindset and remind them of what they are fighting for, that they are fighting for their homes, and wives, and children.  I related this back to us, because right now, is what they call the dry season for baptisms because everyone is working in the farms during the day and it's really hard to find people to teach. So I told them about the challenge that we were given by president this transfer, that every companionship baptize at least one person. I told them that president was our modern day Moroni and that he was calling us to remember what we are doing and what we are fighting for and that we can do these things and we need to fight against the adversary who is destroying us right now.  Elder Solano after told me that he was super super impressed by my talk that I gave to them!  
On the 10th it was Sunday and we had our first investigator come to church in a long long time! They haven't been able to get anyone to come to church in the past couple months, but this Sunday we were able to get an awesome humble guy who is 20. He loves the way we help him feel and the way that he felt at church, the only problem is that he needs glasses and without them he's practically blind, so he can't read the book of Mormon, so he's waiting for his prescription to come so he can progress more!! But he is an awesome guy and I think that we can get him and his brother baptized super soon here! i'm so excited for him!  it's awesome out here in Oregon and its so so pretty. I'm not exactly in the prettiest spot right now, but I love it here. The people are awesome and everyone is super friendly! We have a car, but the president decided to take all the Ipads away because people weren't using them correctly, so i'm going old school and sticking to paper! I guess I wouldn't know any different though, because I never had one... but dad was right, its like a whole other thing out here, because I can barely understand people. But i'm trying my hardest, and my trainer actually said that i'm super far for a greeny and that he's really impressed! I'm loving it out here, and I hope things are going well back at home! Love you guys!!
Love Elder Romney

these are my new companions! the one on the far left is Elder ashcraft from Hurricane Utah, and the one in the middle is Elder Salano, who is originally from mexico city, but moved here a little while ago! They are the zone leaders and they are super awesome guys!!