Laravel converting DB query to eloquent

I'm new to laravel and have been pondering with this issue for a short while now. The main reason that I'd like to use eloquent is so that the datetime stamps work as the DB method ignores the created_at and updated_at fields. I am trying to reproduce the following query to eloquent:

    $user_results = DB::table('users')->
                    leftJoin('roles', 'users.role_id','=', 'roles.id')->
                    get();

I have the following database setup

user migration

<?php

use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;

class CreateUsersTable extends Migration
{
    /**
     * Run the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function up()
    {
        Schema::create('users', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->increments('id')->unsigned();
            $table->integer('role_id')->unsigned()->index();
            $table->string('name');
            $table->string('email')->unique();
            $table->string('password');
            $table->rememberToken();
            $table->timestamps();
        });
    }

    /**
     * Reverse the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function down()
    {
        Schema::drop('users');
    }
}

roles migration

<?php

use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;

class CreateRolesTable extends Migration
{
    /**
     * Run the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function up()
    {
        Schema::create('roles', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->increments('id');
            $table->string('rolename');
            $table->timestamps();
        });
    }

    /**
     * Reverse the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function down()
    {
        Schema::drop('roles');
    }
}

and the user model contains

public function role() {
    return $this->belongsTo('App\Role');
}

Any help would be much appreciated.

thanks.