may 25, 2015 letter

Dear Family:

Sorry I wasn't able to write to much last time, we had just finished with zone pday so we were running way behind. 

This week has been another really good week. I went on exchanges twice. Once with elder Gessel in his area and the other one with elder Chandler in my area. It was a pretty tough exchange with elder Gessel because for a large part of the time we just walked the trailer parks trying to talk to people, but they all already knew the Elders and weren't interested. I've found the thing that is the toughest is when I have nothing to do. When I don't have to teach a lesson or do paper work or talk to people, it really drives me up the wall! Haha funny right? You'd have never heard me say that back at home... But I guess I enjoy that now! Anyway, we walked for a while until I finally just said, Elder Gessel, we need to think outside the box and find a way to get these Hispanics to come to us, so we sat in the sun and brain stormed for a while and came up with some really good ideas to try and help us find the the Hispanics so we could bring them to Christ. And it was a little tough at first because my Spanish wasn't as sharp as I would like. But I finally got back into the mode of speaking Spanish and it was awesome to teach in Spanish again! We ended the night with two really good lessons and I could feel the power of tongues working through me, it was incredible! Elder Gessel is an awesome elder, we are super sad that he is getting transfered!! I've truly grown to love that elder since the first day we were comps in the mtc. There's no doubt we'll be close even after the mission. 

I also went on an exchange with elder Chandler down in my area and we had some awesome lessons. We had one with a part-member family, and the mom said that she would read the Book of Mormon and was interested in coming to church. She was gone this Sunday, so she wasn't able to, but we have high hopes next week (: And we had a lesson with another investigator again and it was so good! Some members were with us and we re-taught the restoration and asked her to be baptized and she said yes and we decided in a date of June 28th for her baptism. It is going to be so awesome for her. And her husband who wasn't interested just a couple of weeks ago came with her to church and seemed to really enjoy it. We can't seem to get them to stay for the rest of church, but at least they come for the most important part which is Sacrament Meeting.

On Sunday we went over to some more part-member families and potentially have two new investigators with members in their home that are really interested! And there's a 9 year old girl who has been coming to church for 3 years said that she wants to be baptized, but we have to find out if the parents would let her or not... So keep them in your prayers that the parents hearts will be softened!! The confirmation was yesterday for the baptism we just had and was so good. His parents came to church and were just engulfed by the members and really enjoyed it. They said they want to take things a little slower, which is fine, but the spirit is gonna start working on them pretty hard and they'll be members before they even realize it (; they really pretty much are already members. They just have that appearance of members, you know? And they even answered questions in Sunday school. And the girl is being baptized this Sunday and got special permission to be baptized and confirmed on the same day. They normally make converts wait until the following Sunday, but president Samulien gave us permission. 

Things are going really well here and the zone is doing amazing. I'm just a little worried with us prospering like this, satan is going to hit us really hard. So Elder Adams and I are trying to receive revelation of what we can do to keep this fire going and not let satan in. So keep us in your prayers for that as well!! 

I love you all and happy Memorial Day!!

Love, Elder Romney

What most of the roads we drive on are like

Me, just being me (;

What I use for a bookmark....

may 18, 2015 letter

Dear Family:

This week was probably the best week of my entire mission!! I would label this my MIRACLE WEEK. So this week I went in an exchange with one of the district leaders, Elder Schmidt, and it was probably one of the most fun ones I've ever been on. Elder Schmidt is from Lehi Utah and I probably played all 3 sports against him in junior high and stuff. He is one of the best elders in the mission. He is in a completely walking area so we had a fun time walking from house to house. That is one thing I wish we did in this mission, more walking, but in that time we reactivated 2 people who are less active and then found 4 solid new investigators.  We also found an old man in a wheelchair who couldn't get himself in the car, so we spent about 2 hours trying to help him make a little contraption to help him get in each time and then helped him in and out of his car. It felt a little like the savior helping this poor guy who couldn't do anything for himself to get in the van. I know now a little more how the savior must feel helping someone who can't help themself. And we also met this girl who rapped to us while we talked about Christ. It was the best. I wish I had been able to have recorded it. And there were a bunch of other awesome things (: Elder Schmidt said after that he wouldn't ever forget the exchange and that it was one of the best he had ever been on, and I'll never be able to forget it either. And that guy who we helped in his car basically said that he wanted to be baptized!! 

And then the baptism this week was so amazing. We had 107 people come to his baptism to support him. And then after the baptism we took their parents on a church tour and had one of the most spiritual lessons I've ever had and at the end we invited them to be baptized and they accepted!! So the whole family will be baptized be in a couple weeks(: It was the best lesson ever (: 

This week was truly one of miracles. I know that they never cease and they never will if we are brave enough to act on the impressions of the Holy Ghost. I'll tell more about it in my video journaling. I can't explain it well enough here.

 Love, Elder Romney(:

may 11, 2015 letter

Dear Family:

Sorry that this email will be a little bit short, it has been a pretty crazy day, but things are going great here. It was so good to see everyone yesterday, it definitely made me so happy. Thank you all for all that you do for me, it really means the world to me and I couldnt be more thankful for that. 

Not too much has changed since yesterday when we talked, but we have zone conference this week and that will be another like 10 hour meeting, so we will be busy with that, and getting trent interviewed and interviewing lily who is someone getting baptized within the zone. 

Sorry this letter is so short, but I'll make up for it next week (: 

I love you all so much!!!

 Love, Elder Romney (:

I was so excited to eat the cake I didn't realize it was all over my face...(:

Driving and driving and driving

Driving back from bowling with a bunch of Elders

Those are all flowers (:

may 4, 2015 letter

Dear Family:

This week has to go down as one of the busiest weeks on my mission! It was super good. We have basically been running around like chickens with our heads chopped off trying to get everything done and also teach our investigators, and I'll be honest, that's probably when I'm the happiest, when we are just crazy busy. It just feels good at the end of the day to finally lay down in bed exhausted and know you did everything you could that day.  

This week is probably going to be even busier. On Sunday we had to present our numbers for each district in the Stake report, and then today, along with our p-day, we have to figure out every companionship's goals and names to back up each number and pray to see about getting another car for the zone and the ups and downs for that.  Then tomorrow we have a big zone conference call with everyone in our zone and then we have to colaborate with the STL's (Sister Trainer Leaders) about how we are going to present ZTM (Zone Training Meeting) and that same day we also have to have another conference call with president Samulien and the STL's about MLC (Missionary Leadership Council) and our SWOT (our Strengths, Weaknesses, Obeservation, and Tactic for the zone).  Then on Wed. the 6th we actually have MLC where all the leaders get together and discuss things about the mission and whether to progress into the next stage of the I-pads.  That meeting  will take 8 or so hours to do, and that same day we have an exchange with the AP's (Assistants to the President).  Then the 7th we have to correlate with the STL's about what we learned in MLC and what we will train on in ZTM and we have to prepare and study for ZTM, and then Friday we have to present ZTM (which is basically a huge training with all the missionaries in our zone.) And  during all of that we also have to get two investigators ready for baptism in the next couple weeks, progress our investigators that we are teaching now, and find new ones! This is the best!! 

Some super exciting news is that we were able to teach both of our solid investigators this week. The boy has a baptismal date set for the 17th of this month, and the girl is on date for June. We had an awesome lesson with them the other day on the restoration, again to catch her up on what she had missed and she loved it and accepted to be baptized when we invited her to do so. The parents are super on board for both of the baptisms and actually want to help out with refreshments and stuff. We haven't personally had the oppurtunity to meet the parents yet, but the member family that is helping teach, is super on the ball and have been such a huge blessing in helping them get to this point. So we are really excited for them and to see their baptisms coming up pretty soon! 

This week we also went to the temple with a family. It was a really good experience and the husband, having told us just a couple weeks ago that he wasnt interested at all, really enjoyed it and thought that the temple was so beautiful. We also got to watch Meet the Mormons with them at the visitors center and they both loved it a lot and it seemed to open his eyes to the fact that we are just normal people! And then after that they wanted to take all of us out to eat at Benihana's. It was cool because they prepared the food right in front of you and performed tricks and stuff like that. It was a little loud and obnoxious to me, as a missionary, but was a cool experience! And the chef was from Guatemala and had been in the states for about 3 years so it was fun to talk to him. And then the other family, the ones who drove us, had to pick up his son in Portland. We aren't supposed to go there, but had no choice really, given that they were our ride home! So I was in Portland for a while and that felt super weird... I definitely like Banks Oregon a lot better!

We had a really good lesson with someone. He's 38 and was baptized about 10 years ago and hasn't been to church in about 6 or 7 years, and we stopped in to teach him. We taught him the restoration and it turned into the strippling warriors and how we have to fight for what we believe in. It related really well to him because he served in the military for years and loves fighting for the country. So at the end I said "I invite you to take a stand for what you believe in. You aren't in a fight with the enemy of the country anymore, but in a fight with Satan, and in order to be ready for that fight you have to do what we ask you to do." It really struck him and for the first time in several years he came to church and said that he wanted to keep coming!! So that was an awesome miracle. Additionally, a man came to church for the first time in a really long time! We are definitely seeing the fruits of our labors! 

We also went and contacted a girl who we had met just a few weeks ago.  She was interested in family history, but every time that we tried to sit down and teach her, she always said that she was too busy. So we decided that we weren't going to let that happen again, so instead of asking if we could teach a lesson, we just went right into on the porch. She ended up opening up a lot and we offered her a blessing and she accepted. It was such a cool experience to give that to her on the door step! 

I think the thing that made me the happiest this week is that we had previously evaluated our numbers and realized that everyone really needed to start kicking it in gear. We had set goals for them and gave them to the district leaders and told them about our vision and this week we went up in every indicator and tripled the number of people we have on date! So people really answered to the call but we need to still keep improving to reach our goals. 

This week was so awesome and I can't wait to see what next week has in store!!

Love, Elder Romney

The view from a member's house

A humerous porta potty sign

Leadership meeting

Driving along the road.

april 27, 2015 letter

Dear Family:

Well another week has passed up here in Forest Grove! I'm sorry about last week. I dont really know if any of my emails went through or not. We ended up going to the library in Forest Grove and when we got there we only had about 10 or 15 minutes before they closed. Our P day was ending pretty soon, so we didnt have time to go back to Banks and try to get onto those computers so we decided to go to the local McDonalds. When i had finished the first email, it said it wouldn't send... and so we just decided it was best to wait until Monday to email since P day was already almost over. As a result, I dont know what you really got from my last email. but it is so so so beautiful where i am right now, and the ward is awesome.  We have to drive a ridiculous amount since everyone lives so far away.  It's nice to be back in an English ward just because it runs a whole lot smoother and things get done without having to rely on the missionaries to do everything. but i sure do miss my old branch. I'm excited for you guys to come up someday and meet them all. 

This week was really good. we were finally able to get in with the two people from india. and holy cow, they are some of the most brilliant people in the world. She wasn't able to come because she was sick, but we got to meet with him and he already knew everything, and we hadn't even taught it to him yet! He loves loves to read and knows probably more about the gospel than most people in the church do, and he is only 13. We had a really good spirit-led lesson about the restoration, and we asked him questions like if he thought the Book of Mormon was true, and if Joseph Smith is a prophet, and if Thomas S. Monson is our living prophet now and he said yes to all of them. He said that Thomas S Monson has to be a prophet by the way he spoke in general conference. At the end of the lesson we brought up baptism and we asked if he would be baptized, and he said absolutely. We told him that we wanted to set a goal (date) with him of when he should get baptized, but decided it would be best for him to talk to his parents about it first and pray about it to find out when he wanted to be baptized. His comment was that he would, and that he wanted to be baptized very soon, hopefully in May.  I haven't been able to meet specifically with her yet, but I believe she is on the same page as him. We asked him if he would watch the restoration video with her and invite his parents to watch it with him and he said he would. This guy is awesome!! His parents aren't interested, but are completely supportive of them as far as we have heard. He goes home every Sunday and teaches his parents what he learned in church that day. We believe that he will be the way to access his parents... by teaching him the lessons, and then having him go home and teach that lesson to his parents because they are willing to sit down and listen to him. Things are really looking up for them, but keep them in your prayers and pray that their parents will have open hearts to the message and will let him get baptized  pretty soon here. I'll keep you updated on them. As of right now we are only having lessons with them every Sunday after church, but are hoping to change and accommodate to their schedule so we can have two or three lessons with them a week. The members that we are teaching with are awesome and said that their house is open any time and they are willing to support them. 

The members here are willing to do there own missionary work and are open to inviting and sharing the gospel, so we are hoping to capatalize on that amazing blessing from the Lord. I couldnt be more blessed. We are also excited to go to the Visitors Center this Saturday with our other investigator. Her husband is starting to soften up to the message as he sits in on the discussions with us and just listens. She was able to commit him to come to the temple with us, so we changed it from Wed. to Sat. which is super exciting! We are going to go with the Corbridges, who are in our ward. She is also inviting her friends to church and stuff too, so that is super awesome!! 

We wiped out most of our investigator list and are just focusing on those first twe,  as well as the last woman, so keep us in your prayers that we will also be able to find new investigators through our own efforts and through the ward, as well. I'm loving being up here, although it's tough leaving Spanish and that Branch, but i know I'm here for a purpose, and im ready and willing to do all I can to fulfill that!  If the only reason I spent excruciating hours to learn Spanish was for the investigators in my last areas and the little Branch, I'd gladly do it all over again. I feel like my purpose for Spanish has been fulfilled, but excited to see if I'll go back some day, and plan to try and keep my Spanish sharp for when i get home! 

I love you all so much and thank you for all that you do for me, it really means the world. 

Love, Elder Romney (:

It's super pretty here!

lock screen on my ipad

At a district meeting up in Tillamook

april 23, 2015 letter

Dear Family:

It's been a crazy week with all of the changes this past little while! I went from a suburb speaking Spanish to the middle of nowhere speaking English! It was pretty hard at first teaching and speaking in English because I would say my words backwards and stuff. But I got the hang of it after about the first week or so. It was weird because I had to get used to a language and culture that I was already used to it the past! But it was a pretty big culture shock going from my old area to my new one, but I love it here. One of the biggest differences I've seen is the dinners, obviously there is different foods but the etiquette and how you're served and everything is way different. 

Also street contacting is different. With Hispanics it doesn't feel as weird to walk up to someone and just start talking about the gospel, but when it's with Americans.  It's a little more nervracking. Another big change that I have seen is the education level of the people here. All of the people we teach work with Intel and are chemists and stuff, and everyone back in woodburn were lucky if they had finished the 3rd grade! So the conversations are a lot deeper, which at times makes it a little harder to wrap it back around to the gospel, but I'll get the hang of it! 

I can't even tell you how many times I've been asked in this past week how I'm related to mitt Romney... Probably about 20 times a week. I always just say he is my dads cousin, which I know technically isn't really correct... But it's close enough! But can someone find out what our actual relationship with him is? Haha we have an investigator who is absolutely in love with mitt Romney.... Like she worships him and has read every book about him. When we sent her a text and it had our last names in it, she immediately called back and was like, is that a Romney I see on the text?! Haha she freaked out and couldn't wait to meet me! It's a good thing I'm not in Portland, because then I would have to lie and say that I am not related to him because they don't really like him over there!

One thing that I have noticed about myself since I have left in my mission is that before, I didn't really like to read or anything like that, but since having been out here I'm like a sponge for information! I love sitting down and talking with the people here. There are some brilliant people here and it's fun to talk and learn from them during dinner and things like that. I've had this new hunger of wanting a ridiculous amount of information in my head and I just want to study everything, but don't have the time for it. So you best be saving up some good books for me when I get back home (; 

So, we have one investigator who is progressing really well and we are taking her to the temple next Saturday and that will be fun and then we are teaching 2 Indian kids (from India) and they are incredibly intelligent and have already read the Book of Mormon and are reading it to their friends at school and they are 14 and 15. We plan to baptize them in the next month or so. The ward here is awesome and they are super missionary minded, so we plan to capatalize on that as much as possible.

Things are going awesome here and I'm loving it and being a zone leader is such a blessing and I love serving those around me! 

I love you all so much! Love elder romney(:

On an exchange with Elder Allridge!

This is how all the roads are here.... so pretty!

april 13, 2015 letter

Dear family:

Well this week has probably been one of the most emotional weeks that I have had in a long time. I got a call this last week from president that I was called to be a zone leader in an english area. I am so happy to go and serve the missionaries out there, but it is so hard to leave everyone here. The best way to explain it is that I feel like I'm going out on my mission all over again. This literally became my home and the people here became my family. Saying goodbye to them has been heartbreakening, but I know that the Lord has a purpose for me to leave. With this new calling it means I will be teaching in English. I am sad about that because my Spanish had gotten to the point that I could explain exactly what I wanted to say and I felt comfortable teaching in it, and then I get called back to English. It's okay though, I have faith that I did my work out here that the Lord wanted me to do and there are some people in this new area that need me and I'm excited to go and find them! 

It was pretty tough saying goodbye to the people here, though. The other day in the gospel principles class they were talking about me leaving and two investigators hadnt found out yet, and you should have seen the sadness in there faces, it was so sad! I promised to stay in contact with them and gave them my email address. I truly do love them. They will get sealed in the temple next June in 2016 and I want to come back for it. They said that they would save me a spot there, so I cant wait! I hope that I get home before they get sealed so I can come back and go to the temple with them!! 

The baptism of those two was amazing. Again, I was running and running around and literally was busy till the point that they stepped in the water, and I loved it. I love being busy out of my mind and helping things go just right. It was so awesome because this time I stood in the back with her while her husband was baptized and then stood in the back with him while she got baptized. They are going to be an amazing family. I havent met a family who was so ready to be baptized and who is going to be able to help this church so much. They have such a strong testimony, and my hope and dream is that they both keep that for the rest of their lives. They plan to go back to Mexico in a while because they have a 4 year daughter there right now, so I am hoping they will stay here long enough to get sealed, and then be able to go back and help the people there in Mexico! I love this work so much, I cant even begin to tell you. The love I have for these people is what keeps driving me. 

The other night when I said goodbye to O, he offered the prayer and cried during the whole thing, wishing that I could stay, and blessing me with safety and comfort in whatever place I go. And we just went to a members house and they both wanted to offer prayers for me and they, too, cried during both of their prayers, thanking Heavenly Father for the oppurtunity to get to meet me and have me teach them. I love these people so much, it feels like I am leaving home again, but I'm ready for whatever the Lord has in store for me!

 This week was super good, lots of emotions from leaving and having the baptisms. But to sum it all up, it's been one of the best weeks I've had on my mission. 

I love you so much! 

Love, Elder Romney.