Testimony

Hey Mom and Dad,

Hows it goin?  Good to hear that life is good.  And yes Dad you are right, not everything is as peachy and I pitch it but hey, I've only got and hour to type and if I looked for all the tough stuff I'd miss the good stuff =P  Especially this week.  We had some stuff happen that wasn't very helpful but we already know what our problem was.  Lack of Faith.  We were expecting it to fall apart and it just did what it was expected to do; had we thought differently we for sure would have had different experiences.  But lesson learned haha.

We went to the temple today!  It was awesome, I got to see other missionaries from my group in the MTC and a day in the house of the Lord is never a downer.  I took some more pics so I'll send those too today.

I've learned so much this past week.  First of all I learned that my companion knows how to cook, that is a blessing from the heavens, also a smile makes a 100 percent difference, that I'm in the area with the most places to fish on the mission, and other stuff slightly more useful too.  This last Sunday Luan bore his testimony in sacrament meeting.  That was an awesome experience.  He convinced me to do it too so I went with him.  He really is converted; it made me stop and think about my level of conversion.  Luan is the only member in his house, every other family member is against the Church, but he doesn't even seem to let it touch him.  When I go to teach a lesson some times I think that I need to say something profound and that just blows people's minds but I rarely if ever do and it used to bother me.  Now I realise that that's the last thing I should worry about.  I have a testimony, its very simple.  I heard the truth and I believed it.  The most important thing I can do is tell is how living it has changed everything.

Its all true, and I know it!
 

Elder Romm

Batismo

Hey Mom and Dad,

So we have been havin some good days lately.  We had the baptism of Luan this last Sunday and it was really awesome.  Not a single member of Luan's family went to watch his baptism.  When we asked him if anyone was gonna come to church with him to see his baptism he said that nobody from his family would be there, but the Lord would be there and that is family enough already.  This kid is a stud.  Also we saw a kid riding his bike on the street that we met at the house of one of our investigators Saturday night.  We invited him to go to church and he said he would, then when we went to pick up one of our investigators he was there waiting to go to church Sunday morning.  Halfway through the sacrament meeting he leaned forward and said "Elder, when can I be baptised?" Hmmm.  That was a pretty sweet experience.  His name is Delon and he is getting ready to be baptised this Sunday.  Also when we were walking to one of our other appointments, and as we rounded the corner, our investigator saw us and came running down the road screaming "I know when I want to be baptised!  This Sunday!!!!"  "I prayed and I feel prepared now!"

My companion and I are really tryin to be worthy of all these blessings.  We are overwhelmed with gratitude for the prayers of this ward and of our families who are no doubt contributing to all the progress our investigators are making.  So keep the prayers coming because its working!!!  We are working hard and it looks like we are going to need to work even more now, the Lord seems to never let you get ahead!  Its pretty intense to be able to see the opposition in all things here on the mish.  Its like a race.  We know that its us two here working for the side of good and so we know there are at least two others workin for the other side, and if we don't check up on our investigators the enemy does.

 
I got to go fishin today, my hands smell like fish and I did some worm hunting this morning.  Life is good.
I hope everything is well at home, I love you guys and THANKS for your prayers, we need them!!

Love ya,
Elder Romm

"Son"

Dear Mom and Dad,

Wow that was a ton of guitars.  I want to buy an acoustic to play in the house but then I think of how I could spend that time studying or sleeping and then the desire passes =P

So this last week has been really great.  Every single day we had at least one lesson super spiritual.  Elder Van Horn and I really started to teach the needs of people by the spirit.  Of course when we finally figured it out he got transferred lol.  Yesterday I went to pick up my new comp. fresh from the MTC, he's got a whole 20 days on the mish so far.  We've only been together for about 20 hours and I've already learned a lot.  Mostly about things that i need to do better.  I sense that the next 5 weeks all my impurities and faults will be ripped out of my chest with a dull spoon.  But the Lord qualifies those he calls.  Or so they tell me.

My "Son" is from Rio Grande do Norte, which means I didn't understand a word he said for the first 10 hours, but now we are understanding each other lol. He's already a great missionary and I really hope I can help him start out his mission right.  I remember how hard it was for me in the beginning because it was literally like yesterday.  He's really stoked to be a missionary and is ready to roll so that is a huge helper too.

I have been studying a lot lately about forgiveness and about how we can receive it and how we make ourselves worthy of it and I'm learning a ton about the atonement.  The Lord is very, very long suffering with us.  We are teaching a 13 year old boy and we asked him to read 3 Nephi 11. When we went back to talk with him about how it was we asked him what he felt about it and what he learned.  He said, "Well I was reading it and I learned that we need to be baptised because if not we won't get forgiveness for our sins, and well I just sat there thinking, Man, I need to repent about all these sins and be baptised if I want to be saved."  He was able to explain perfectly what happened in the chapter and we were able to show him how he could get rid of all those sins of his.  He's going be baptised December 5th.  It was really awesome when we invited him to be baptised he was like "Of course i will!"

Well, the steelhead must be getting good because the instinctive urge to go fishing is growing stronger everyday.  I hope everything is well at home. I'm praying for you guys everyday.  And I ask your prayers so that we can find and baptise these people here.  I love you both!  Have a great week!

 Elder Romm

Miracles Happen

Hey Family!

It was good to hear from you guys this week.  The pictures of that fish made a little bit trunky but I'm nearly over already.  (I sent it to my President so he'll be trunky too for sure).  How is the weather there these days?  Looks cold and awesome.

This Monday is the end of the transfer so we're gonna see who stays and who will go.  My comp is a lil nervous, he wants to stay and baptize these people we are teaching right now because he's been working in this area forever without a baptism.  I hope he stays because we are about to baptize a family that have become amazing friends of ours.  Fabio and Danielle.  They are pretty great.  They only need to get married to be baptized.  We had a really great experience with them this last week.  We didn't know how we were going to teach them about the law of chastity because we didn't want to offend them because we started teaching them like 2 weeks ago, but they need to hurry and start their papers to be married if me and Elder Van Horn will be here to baptize them.  So during companion study one morning we prayed to make a lesson plan that would help them feel the spirit testify to them that they should get married and in a way that would help edify them.  We planned on teaching based on the family.  We used a piece of paper and drew a picture of a family in the center of a heart.  We explained that Heavenly Father cares about every one of his children more than we can imagine and for that reason he desires to send them to families with a firm foundation where they can learn more about the gospel and one day return to live with him.  We put the heart there to symbolize marriage and said that when we are married we are doing what Heavenly Father wants and so he puts us under his protection and blessing.  Then we drew a bunch of sharp arrows aimed towards the heart and I explained about all the things that exist in the world that we are warned will destroy our families, and which things are prohibited by this law of God called the law of chastity.  Now, I have never cried in a lesson, even during a really spiritual first lesson I have only gotten choked up in the first vision a few times.  But in the moment that I started to testify about how much the Lord is personally concerned about each and every one of our families and how each one of these dangerous arrows would destroy our families if we didn't avoid them; I felt the most intense feeling of love come over me.  I could not possibly describe for these two people in front of me how much the Lord loved them and was waiting for them to make the right choices so that he could bless them.  I said with tears running down my face and my voice shaking "Fabio and Danielle, the Lord knows what he's doing, my family has lived this law, and I cannot express to you the love that I have for my family, and how strong a relationship we have.....We want this for your family."  

Mom, Dad, thank you so much for you love and examples through the years.  I love my family more than anything and am so grateful to be here serving the Lord to try and give just a little back for all the millions of precious moments I have been able to share with my family because of the blessing of the atonement and gospel of Christ in my life.  If I can help but one family experience what I have experienced in my home it would be worth all the trials Brazil can throw at me.

At the end of this lesson Fabio bore his testimony of how he knows that the things we have taught them are true and said "I know that i want this for my life.  I'm going tomorrow to see when we can be married."

This Gospel is true, the Lord is very much involved with this work and with our families.  Miracles do happen.

Elder Romm

English?!

Hey Mom,

Congrats on the new job! I'm stoked for you.  I hope Clark and Gordão are giving you a good workout.  I need to find a workout that doesn't involve so much physical movement then things will be just perfect. 

So the area is good.  Things are going slow but we keep finding good people, eventually the testimony will stick on one of them.  We are gunna baptize a young couple after they get married.  We are pretty stoked about that.

Oh and its official, I have forgotten the spoken English language.  You guys will get a good laugh this Christmas.  My companion gets a good laugh now and then when I try to speak English to him but have to stop and ask what the English version of a word is.  My zone leader was trying to ask me questions about English this week but after about 10 minutes of doubting my answers about the grammar rules I was passing to him he decided to ask a different American.  Good choice. 

Well I hope everything is going well at home.  The days are growing longer and hotter here so it must be summer time.  I'm looking forward to some good constant weather lol.  Alright I got to go but I love you and have a great week!!!

Elder Romm

Beast of a Man

Mom,

Hows it going in Alabama? Its good to hear that you are enjoying yourself there. I already got that one picture of Jesse's homecoming, yea he's a fetching beast of a man already. I was hoping that the mission would have that kind of effect on me but I'm rapidly losing hope. Cam comes home in May right? Wow, the time went pretty quick. Its getting pretty hot here. But the weather is still not sure what it wants to do. the day starts out really cold and then rises to like 90 degrees and then back down again. Let me know how my sisters are doing, and let them know I'm praying mightily for them. I love you.

Elder Romm

"tie-tan-line"

Hey Family,

Well this last week flew by compared to the week before.  We started working in another area because we were kinda sick of being rejected by the same people and we didn't really feel like it was the place we should be working.  We moved our focus to another area and we've already met some awesome people.  I love teaching about the restoration.  Its so awesome.  And I think we are starting to learn how to get in houses better too.  We just give a big ol' smile complimented with a strange accent =P

Its officially become hot.  I've already gotten started on a pretty sweet missionary tan.  The "tie-tan-line" hasn't taken full glory yet but I'm hopeful for the end of the month. 

I hope everything is going well at home, stay strong and stay happy.  Its tough but very do-able.  I love you!!

Elder Romm