Week 100 - See y'all in a week

Life has been interesting. I definitely still don't feel like I am going home in a week! I haven't packed anything. I feel like on Saturday I will get a call telling me where I am going to go next transfer and who my companion will be and then I will be transferred and life will go on normally and I will just be a missionary for the rest of my life. That is basically how I feel right now. I am going to have to force myself to start backing because I wont have time if I leave it all until the end of the week because then I wont have any time. It is weeiirrddd!!

I love the gospel. It is so obvious to me that it is the true gospel that we are living. I love the perspective that it gives me on life and helps me understand what things are important and what are not. I am especially grateful for our knowledge on families and the importance of them. Yesterday we showed up to a house of a family of investigators that we are teaching. When we got there and "knocked" (here you don't knock, if you have read Christian's emails you "knock" the same way here, screaming into someones house until they come out.) Nobody answered, but they were obviously home because the door was wide open.

Eventually the husband came out and he was very sad. This is an awesome family of a recently married couple who both are in their 40s and they are raising 3 children together. They have been very happy and have been to church about 4 times (The reason they haven't gotten baptized yet will be obvious in a sec.) He was leaving to go somewhere and was obviously upset about something. He asked if he could talk with us in private and we got into his car to talk. He goes on to explain that he thinks he is going to have to get divorced with his wife. His wife is a good lady who once was part of the evangelical church but has since left it. She also has a huge drinking problem. It is something that we have been working with for a long time. She, and basically every other Christian in the country, knows that it isn't good and that she needs to quit but believes that even though she is sinning and knows it, she has accepted Christ as her Savior and believes that she will be saved in the end.

Last week we had a very strong lesson with her about what it means to actually accept Christ in our lives and we read 2 Nefi 28 with her, we felt the spirit strongly but he told us that after that lesson she still hasn't changed and he said that it has gotten worse, to the point where she has put it in priority over her family. We didn't really know what to say especially because we can't really counsel him. So we told him to pray and to seek guidance from the Lord and if he wanted he could talk to the Branch President. But I left that car very sad. Very very sad. It is such a good family that Satan is trying to destroy. I am so thankful for such a good family who has always taught me gospel principles, even if I didn't always want to follow them. The family is sooo important in the plan of God and it is so important that we always stay close as a family and all families have a Christ-centered home and relationship, I know I still have some time before I have a family of my own but when the time comes, I will definitely try and model it after our home. Thank y'all for always being so strong in the gospel. Y'all are the best!

Speaking of families, I don't know if y'all remember from last year but Mother's day here is two weeks after Mother's day in the states so we celebrated Mother's day again yesterday and I just wanted to take a moment again to say that I have the best mom in the world!!! The branch had an activity and it turned out super well! But it made me miss Mom a ton! Mothers are awesome!! Especially mine!! I love you Mom!

I can't wait to make some awesome memories this summer! I can't believe it has already been two years since the last time we were all together! I can't really describe how weird it is going to be coming home, let alone going back to the United States. I am SO excited to eat food!!! There is so much food that I miss from the States, mainly dairy products! Milk here sucks. So I mean if y'all wanted to have a gallon of milk waiting in the fridge that would be dope, also a block of cheese. Man how I miss cheese. Also, maybe some Ben and Jerry's Phish food ice cream? :-) Also I still haven't decided if I want to go to Torchy's or I want y'all to bring it to the airport. I think it will mostly depend on when I am going to get released. If we have a lot of time before President Germann can release me we might as well just go straight to Torchy's and eat and talk there.

President Smith sent me an email last week telling me that in our last interview we will be discussing my goals and my plans FOR THE NEXT 12 MONTHS!! That is a year!! I barely have plans for the first day the I will be back! I mean in our mission we don't do My Plan or anything similar. He just told me to start making some plans. I mean I have thought a little bit about rules and stuff but I gotta think about the whole year! That is crazy! It is weird finally letting myself think a little bit about home. I have put it off trying not to get "trunky" but I feel like I have to start making some plans because I don't want to get there with nothing. It is WEIRDDDD!!!.

Mom that doll house you made looks awesome! You are so talented!!

I am looking forward to this week! I got one more week to leave it all out here! Gotta give it my all!

I love y'all a ton!! I will see y'all in a week!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Week 99 - I got called Ugly

HELLOOO!!!

Wow this week was a crazy one! But AWESOME!!!

Okay the biggest story of this week was Jafreisy and Rosangeles!! I don't really even know where to start here! We met them a few weeks ago walking through one part of our area. Their dad called us over because he wanted to talk to us about getting a new wheel chair. As many of y'all know, the church give away wheel chairs to people who need them. In the family there is an 8 year old kid named Soni. He is one of the funniest kids I have ever met, but in his 8 short years of life he has had 6 strokes. Luckily he is slowly getting everything back and he is fine in his head and can talk and comunicate normally but he can't really use his body, and a few years ago the church gave him a wheel chair but it is now too small and they wanted to see if they could get a new one. Well of course we said we would see what we could do and asked if we could come back to talk about the gospel. They accepted.

We later found out that their mom was a member but has been less active for over 20 years. We started teaching them but the only people who were really interested were Jafreisy (17) and Rosangeles (9). Rosangeles reminds me EXACTLY of Elise! I know I have said that about a few people here but this girl is by far the most similar, she is so sweet and innocent and sheds light wherever she goes. But anyways, they wanted to get baptized yesterday, but the family was planning to move a few streets away that same day and the dad had already paid a moving van. They said that because of the move there wouldn't be any time that day to have the baptism, so with special permission we showed up at their house at 7 in the morning on Sunday to help them move. It didn't look like we were going to make it but with minutes to spare we finished the move and Jafreisy and Angeles got ready and we headed to church.

During church we had to fill up the baptismal font and when we tried, there wasn't any water. We didn't know what to do. One of the members was going to come look at it but we didn't know if it was going to be able to happen. As we were trying to figure that out we found another problem, all of the baptismal clothes that we had prepared and were in the church had somehow disappeared. Nobody knew where they went. We had to grab a member and go to the nearest church building which would be about the distance from our house to LTHS and go find other clothes. During the course of all of this and after many prayers we found out that the water miraculously started working and it was filling up way faster than it usually does. It was going to be tight but it looked like we were going to make it. But, right before the service we remembered that our old Ward Mission Leader who always made the agenda for the baptism was released a few weeks ago (he got called to be the new EQ President) and we didn't have someone to lead the baptism. But luckily the second counselor came in clutch and winged the whole thing and it turned out to be a very spiritual baptism. God is amazing and definitely works miracles. They were so happy after their baptism!!

Something I was studying this week was opposition. I was meditating on the words of Lehi in 2 Nefi 2 where he says "es preciso que haya una oposiciòn en todas las cosas." He talks about the need for opposition in all things and I started to think about something else. In the council before the world was, two plans were presented. Satans plan was a plan where we didn't have agency, we wouldn't have been able to choose between right and wrong and therefore, never would have experienced opposition. Satan's plan is a plan without opposition. Any time that we start to think that we don't want opposition or just wish that everything was easier we are starting to want to follow more the plan of Satan. God's plan is that we live a life of opposition and gain experiences. It has changed my perspective of a lot of things. It is always for our benefit.

I have had a lot of temptations to kind of give up and just cruise through my last two weeks but I know that I can't do that. God has a lot of work for me to do still and I know that a lot can happen in two weeks! Gotta stay strong until the end!

I got called ugly by a crazy hatian lady this week, we tried to talk to her and she screamed "don't talk to me you are ugly" and then ran off. So that was something.

I love y'all and I love this work!! Have an awesome week!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Jafreisy and Rosangeles baptism.

Week 98 - Happy Mother's Day

Just want to take a second and wish Mom another Happy (late) Mother's day! You are the best mother in the whole world! I could not have asked for anyone better! You have been there to guide and help me literally since day 1 before I could even talk or walk. Without you, I literally would not exist! I am glad to hear that it was a special day for you because you deserve it! It also sounds exactly like you to go out of your way to make it such a special day for everyone else also! You are the best mom in the whole wide world!!!! I LOVE YOU!!

It was awesome talking to y'all yesterday! It wasn't a great connection so I only heard about half of what y'all said! But it was still super awesome! It is super weird to me that I am going to see all of yall in three weeks! It still doesn't feel real! It is also super weird that in like one week I am going to take Zach off of the email list, one by one the names are getting shorter and shorter.

This past week wasn't bad. Nothing really new just the same old stuff. We are working with a few people who have a TON of potential! Things are progressing with my companion. We are working on our effort and still have three weeks to improve! Send prayers our way!

I am excited to talk about the way that the Savior teaches on my first Sunday back! That is something that I have been studying during my entire mission, I hope that I can come up with something good!

It sounds like we have an action packed summer! I am super excited but hope I can keep up! I don't really know how I am going to be when I get home so y'all will have to tell me if I am weird or not!

My memory card got another virus on it and I am so close to coming home that I don't really want to risk fixing it here. I want to bring it home and have dad work on it. So for that reason I don't know how many pictures I will be able to send in these last few weeks. I will try my best!! But this week I don't have any...sorry!!

I love y'all a ton! I love this gospel so much! This church is so true and I have never been more sure of that! Y'all are amazing--the best family in the world! Sorry there isn't a ton of information this week! I will try and do some crazier stuff this week to have some awesome stories next week!

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Robertson

[Tyler got to call home on Mother's Day. The connection was pretty bad but it was great to hear his voice and feel of his enthusiasm for being a missionary.] 

Week 97 - Happy Cake Wars Day!

Okay first off I now think it is hilarious that we "celebrate" the 5 de mayo in the states. There is only one little town in Mexico that celebrates this day. If y'all want a good laugh go look up the whole story, it is literally "cake wars."

ANYWAYS! I didn't know Brittany was going through the temple! That is so awesome!! I wish I could have been there! But I am excited to be able to go all together when I get home! Just got to wait a few years for Elise to be able to go with us! I am totally with dad about the drive down to the temple. I loved before the mission being able to go so often and work a little bit in the temple and it was fun because I got to drive down there a lot. It really is a super pretty drive!

This week was pretty basic! A lot of good ole down to earth missionary work, which means a lot of contacting. I actually really like contacting! A lot of missionaries don't. But I love coming up with new ways to contact people that isn't just the same old "hi we are mormons and want to talk about the Book of Mormon." Something that we have been trying to incorporate is singing, like Christmas caroling but in May and with Hymns from the church :) It has been super fun! People just need to know that we are normal people that praise God and not Joseph Smith. We have found quite a few really interested people! I am excited to keep working with them!

We had interviews with President this past week! It was my last normal interview with him, I have one more but it is the day before I leave so that is weird. My temple recomend expired and he gave me a new interview which was kind of cool. They are very similar to the baptismal interview questions. What I thought was interesting was also the biggest difference, in the baptismal questions it is "Do you know what this is? Are you willing to live and follow this commandment?" And the temple recommend questions are all "do you have a testimony of this stuff?" It was cool to meditate on how much my testimony has really grown over the past two years since the last time I was asked those questions. I really do have a testimony of this work and this gospel.

I am glad that everyone had such an amazing week! The highlight of my week is I finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish again! I love that book so much and it is the foundation of my testimony!!

This week is going to be the best week yet! I love serving God so much! Got to use all the time that I have left to the best of my ability! I love y'all a ton!!

Have an amazing week! Share the gospel with someone this week in a bizarre way!

Love,

Elder Robertson

[Note from Dad: Tyler sent these pictures home with no explanation. Gross.]

[Note from Dad: Tyler sent these pictures home with no explanation. Gross.]

Week 96 - A Voice of Warning

Alright so I don't have a ton to update y'all on this week but one awesome thing is that Yenny got baptized! Yenny is awesome! She is from Haiti. She found the church over there are was being taught by some missionaries. She was living with a guy and he wasn't really the best influence on her. She decided the church was where she needed to be and so she left Haiti and came to the DR. She found the church and told us she wanted to get baptized. The only problem - she doesn't speak Spanish. Only Creole and French. It was super interesting teaching her. Luckily her cousin, Eliza (her story will come next week) could help translate for us. Sometimes. I actually learned quite a bit of creole, just the super basic stuff enough to teach her and actually taught a good amount in creole! She loves the church so much. We were talking to her and a few of her friends a little bit ago and asked them "what would y'all do if Jesus appeared to us right now?" Yenny replied "I would beg forgiveness for not getting baptized in his church still." She was so fun to work with. I took a picture a while ago with Eliza and Yenny, Yenny is the one on the right in the white dress.

This week has been interesting. President sent me a talk called "A Voice of Warning." It is awesome. It talks about the importance of warning people about the consequences of sin, but doing it with love. I have been trying to study that this week. As of right now everything is going pretty well. We have developed a good relationship and have some good goals. Dad, I am actually a little sad but I really have never asked a ton about your mission. Of course now I have millions of questions but funny enough there is one story that you told me a looong time ago that I have never forgotten, and it is that exact story, that story popped right into my head as soon as President explained the assignment. I know that the Lord has a plan for each and every one of us. Elder Gamas has a ton of potential as a missionary, I am excited for the next few weeks to learn and grow together.

We will coordinate everything with the Skype call this week to know for sure before next Monday, I will be able to call basically at any time. What time are y'all in church? My church is from 10am-1pm my time. It would be best for me if it was after church but it depends on what y'all can do.

This week I am going to try and just buckle down and get to work. I have to use all the time I have left the best I can! I love y'all a ton! Weird to think that Britt is done with school and back at home! Hope everyone has an amazing week!!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

An older picture of Yenny. She's on the right. 

Week 95 - The start of my last transfer...

This past week has been one of a lot of reflection. I am sure both Dad and Matt and anyone else who has served a mission can testify that there is a little bit of anxiety to see what is in store for your last 6 weeks in the mission. I wasn't exactly sure what was going to happen. I have been in a little bit of a weird situation with a couple different areas and a couple different companions. Friday while I was riding my bike I get a call from President. My last transfer is definitely not going to be a basic one. I won't go into a ton of detail but President gave me a special assignment. There is a missionary in our mission who is having a hard time. He is farely new in the mission. President explained the situation to me and said that he feels like I need to be this missionary's companion. I am grateful for the opportunity but I know that it isn't going to be an easy transfer. I have been pondering a lot about how I can help him and I feel like it would be pretty easy to get him to change his behavior for a transfer but I feel like I can try and do more. President sent me a talk to study about correcting with love. I don't know a ton right now but I will be finishing in El Cristal. Prayers would be appreciated!

Dad I totally agree about what Brother Lynn said! Zach, Christian and I were actually talking a little bit about that a little while ago, how right now we don't really feel any of those same temptations that we had before the mission but a big part of that is probably just because we are in a place where none of that stuff is really available. I have been making a plan and I am still working on it but I know that a lot of missionaries think that they are the exception and I don't want to think that, I want to make sure that I stay strong.

I don't have a ton of awesome stories this week. I have been studying in 3 Nefi and it is always a very humbling experience to read about the Savior's personal ministry among the Nephites. The part that always strikes me is the love he showed. He focused on the "one." The people came "one by one" until everyone had seen and felt. The part that most stuck out to me was the importance of being firm until the end. The importance of applying the doctrine of Christ in our lives always, every day, continually.

I am excited to have all of those adventures with y'all! I am super excited to go and visit all of those sites with y'all! I have always wanted to do it! It is true that we are going to have some awesome memories but a little sad because then we will all part ways again.

That is crazy that Elise is home alone! But even crazier that Britt is getting ready to come home and then go out on her mission!!! It is crazy how fast life changes! I realized the other day that I graduated from High School 3 years ago! I feel like it was the other day! It is crazy how fast life goes by!

I love y'all a ton! I attached a few pictures from last week! The pictures of Wilfrin and Neroliza's wedding and baptism and also some (not great) pictures of Luis's baptism! The Lord is doing awesome things here! I can't wait to see what he has in store for me these last 6 weeks! Love yall!!!

- Elder Robertson

Wilfrin and Neroliza's baptism

Wilfrin and Neroliza's Wedding

Wilfrin and Neroliza's Wedding

Luis's Baptism

Luis's Baptism

We aren't allowed to have pets but this is Duke (Elder Arnold and I named him) he is our neighbors dog but he loves us 

Week 94 - I love this work so much!

GOOD NEWS!! I took a ton of pictures this week! BAD NEWS I am on a weird intercambio and I don't have my camera with me....sorry. I will send them when I can!

Alright so last week I promised y'all a great miracle! And more came than I was expecting! There are four of them actually! Their names are Luis Arturo, Sulema, Wilfrin and Neroliza!!

Okay I will try and make this quickish.

SULEMA!

Sulema is an older woman. She is the mother of a member who joined the church a while ago. Sulema lived in the south of the country but had recently moved here because of a sickness she is struggling with and can't really live on her own. Her entire life she had been a devout catholic. Her daughter invited us over to their house to share with her about the restoration. She couldn't understand most of it but everything changed when we got to the part about Jospeh Smith, in simple words we explained the importance of the restoration and what Joseph Smith did and who he was. We could feel the spirit very strongly and she accepted a baptismal date. It just depended on her health. She can't go to church and was worried about that but we talked to the Branch President and we are working with some members to get her to church and when we can't, have the sacrament taken to her. She has been amazing to work with.

WILFRIN AND NEROLIZA!

Wow. Okay so quick side note. I am currently working in La Victoria, another "out in the boonies" area in our zone. Last monday, about 15 minutes after I stopped writing I got a call from President, when you are a normal companionship on a monday afternoon and you get a call directly from President it usually means something is up. He started off talking to me in spanish like he always does and trying to word it carefully but then just switched to English and said "Elder Robertson I need your help, there is a missionary in La Victoria that is going home early and I need you to go finish the transfer up there." That would have been perfectly fine except the fact that the missionary up there is, well something special. It has been an interesting week together. He is a Dominican named Elder Lopez and he is 27. Lets just say he likes to have things his way. Anyways we have been working fine and working really hard with an AMAZING couple. They came in contact with the church a little bit ago while praying for guidance about where God wanted their family to be. They have had a lot of doubt and a lot of questions. But finally after going to church and hearing every single person who isn't a member talk bad about the church he thought to himself "well this church isn't at all what they say, if everyone talks so bad about it, it must be the true church and Satan is trying to take me away from it." Furthermore he said he was always impressed that we never talked bad about the church, even when he purposely gave us opportunities to do so. He started to investigate further and said he wanted to get baptized. On Friday they got married and on Saturday they got baptized and they were both so happy! The Relief Society put a little celebration together for them. It was super fun and such a big testimony builder. They have seen so much opposition but they haven't let it effect their testimony at all!

LUIS ARTURO.

Wow. I don't even know where to start with this kid. He is a 20 year old kid who is really good friends with Ysmael. I think he may have been in a couple of the pictures that I sent home of his baptism. He is the really tall one. We have been working with this kid since I got here. He is one of the kids we play basketball with every Monday. He has known the church is true for so long. He has had doubts about Joseph Smith, and temples about missionary work and just about every other thing you could think of. He hasn't wanted to get baptized for a long time. We have had lessons and lessons with him and we were stumped on what to do with him. He had resolved all of his doubts and he had a testimony but there was still something holding him back. We decided that the only thing we had left to do was to have a fast for him and as we did, we felt inclined to have him get a baptismal interview, I still don't know what happened in the interview but he finally decided that he was ready and HE DID IT!! I am so happy for him! Probably the saddest I have been in my mission is that I wasn't actually able to attend because I got moved to La Victoria and he is in El Cristal. His baptism was the exact same time as Wilfrins and Nerolizas. But I talked to him on the phone to congratulate him and I was so happy for him! The Spirit is so real and the Gospel is so true. I have never had a more sure testimony of that than I do in this moment. This was the biggest miracle that we had!!

I don't have a ton of time today, like I said I am on a weird intercambio but there are so many good and amazing things happening! I have to work harder than I ever have worked to make sure that I don't regret not working harder! I am glad to hear that everything is well at home! I did find out, after studying the church manual 2, that it is in fact the Stake President that calls the EQ president! Still got a ton to learn about the church!

I love y'all a ton!! I hope this week is amazing! Sorry about the pictures! Here is a couple that my zone leader took of me getting my hair cut and him putting some weird cream out of nowhere all over my face and then washing it off! Also we made tacos, my zone leader is Mexican, and not going to lie, kind of disappointed by his taco making skills, still looking forward to Torchy's :)))))

I LOVE YALLL!!!!!! COMPARTAN EL EVANGELIO CON ALGUIEN ESTA SEMANA!! GOD IS GOOD AND REAL AND I LOVE THIS WORK SO MUCH!

I will know more about the skype call next week after I get my last transfer call... super weird.

LOVE YALL!!

Elder Robertson!

This video below will give you a little insight on what a majority of the churches here are like... Yes, the guy in the black shirt is a preacher...

We made tacos. I'm still looking forward to Torchy's.

Getting my haircut and him putting some weird creme all over my face and washing it off.

Getting my haircut and him putting some weird creme all over my face and washing it off.