Week 26 - Feliz Navidad

I'm actually not super sure what to say in this email because I just talked to you guys yesterday. But Hi again!!!

I guess I can tell you what we did for Christmas because it was kind of cool. Christmas eve an Christmas day are a little crazy here. And by a little crazy I mean that everyone is out in the streets drinking and dancing and President has decided that it probably isn't the best environment for preaching the gospel. So on those two days, the 31st, the 1st of January and the 6th of January (it is called the "day of the Kings" here and it is kind of weird but that is when Santa comes and gives all the gifts because the celebrate it as the day the wisemen arrived and gave Jesus his gifts.) so all of those days we have to go home super early, like at 6, unless we have a member who invites us to eat and then can drive us back to our apartment. Well nobody in my ward ended up inviting my to eat so I ate at a members house in the ward of the missionaries who I live with. And it was super awesome!! They cooked so much food and they are such great people. But then we went home and still had a ton of time to kill. So on both days we climbed up onto our roof and roasted smores (I taught two of the guys because apparently that is only an American thing) We roasted Starburts which are actually really good, drank cider and just talked and it was super awesome!! I took a ton of pictures so I will try to send it.

Other than that the work is going pretty well! We have a few investigators with a lot of potential but the ones I am most excited about is a family of four, J****, R****, M****(9) and N****(5). They are such an amazing family and the really have a desire to follow Christ. I explained a little about them yesterday. He is the guy who is technically divorced in the States but here he is still married so I'm not sure what we are going to do about that but I am super excited because they really do want to do everything they can to get baptized and follow the example of our savior.

Speaking of I decided to start reading Jesus the Christ (I got the other book and asked President if I could read it and he advised me to read Jesus the Christ first.) It is an amazing book and he does such a good job of explaining the life of Christ and making connections to the time period and just everything about his life. Yeah it is a little long, cough cough 800 pages cough cough, but I would advise everyone to go read it because it really is amazing.

And finally I didn't have time for this yesterday so here ya go mom:

yo sé que vive mi Salvador. Yo sé que él nos ama y nos conoce. Yo sé que este evangelio que estoy predicando es verdadero. Yo sé con todo mi corazón que La Biblia y El Libro de Mormón es la palabra de Dios y por eso yo sé y testifico que José Smith fue un profeta llamado por Dios para restaurar el evangelio en este época. Yo sé que estoy exactamente donde necesito estar y que el Señor ha preparado muchas personas que si estamos dispuestos, podemos ser herramientas en sus manos. Tu y yo. De nuevo quiero testificar que Dios y Jesucristo nos aman mas que podemos entender. Él murió para nosotros y mediante su expiación podemos vivir con Dios otra vez. Comparto todas estas cosas en el sagrado nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

Tyler Skyping Home

Ty's missionary buddies photo bombing the Skype

Here is the awesome nativity my family sent me. I'm not sure why but we all agreed that the missionaries belonged there too

Christmas at my apartment

There is a strange tradition to burn a tie when we reach six months in the mission.

Week 25 - Ward Hip-Hop Christmas Party

Hey everyone!! I don't have a ton of time or really a ton of things to talk about haha.

Just a couple quick things that happened this week. First of all a big Happy Birthday shoutout to my main homegirl Taylor Swift, I probably should have done it last week but yeah there is that.

We had our Ward Christmas Dinner this past week and it was super fun! A little different than how we do it in the states. Like it isn't really focussed on Christmas and it is really just a talent show but it was still really awesome! Although it is a little funny when Dominicans are dancing to some really inappropriate songs like songs by Drake and Wiz Kalifa but yeah it was still fun to see all the ward together and see their talents!

So the DR has like a subway thing called a Metro! And as a zone today we went and sang hymns on the Metro and it was super awesome! We took a lot of videos and we are going to see if we can put it on the mission website because it really was super awesome!!!!!

That is awesome about LT winning State!! We haven't won one of those since my freshman year so that is super awesome and incredible about Charlie Brewer!! I am excited to see and hear about all of those guys and how they do at the next level!

I am kind of going crazy here at Christmas time and decorating our house, I'm not done but I will send pictures of everything next week because it is aweomse!!

The last thing I got is there is a old guy in our ward named B****. He is 86 and a little bit crazy. But we went to go visit him and when we started talking he told us to wait because he had to go get his "Machete" we were both a little concerned but we waited and he came back with his scriptures so I asked where was his machete and he told me that he calls his scriptures his machete because he can cut down all the evil with them and I actually thought that was really awesome and a really good lesson we could all learn from Benjamin that we really can cut down all the evil if we read and study the scriptures.

Sorry I am a little fast today but I love you guys and I'll talk to yall next week!!

FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!!!!!!!

Elder Robertson

Oh yeah and we went to Wendys today!

Hanging out

Week 24 - One of the biggest miracles of my mission

Okay so first and foremost I saw one of the biggest miracle of my mission this week. There are two kids in my ward named A**** and R****. A**** is about to turn 12 and R**** is 9. But I am going to focus on A**** because most of this happened with her. So they have been actively attending the church for 3 years with little to no support from their parents. Elder Madrid and I actually thought they were members for most of our time here because they were so active in the ward, more active than most of the members. It wasn't until a couple weeks ago when we found out that they had never been baptized. So we talked to A**** and set up a time to go to their house to talk to their mom about baptism. Not too long into the lesson her mom made it very clear why they haven't been baptized. She is kind of an interesting person and I'm not 100% sure that she is all there but she kinda just went off. Explaining how A**** is a kid and she knows her and if she lets her get baptized she is just going to change her mind and leave the church and how she was already baptized in the Catholic church and a whole lot of other ugly stuff that I don't really care to repeat but basically her parents have rejected missionaries for almost three years on baptism.

So Elder Madrid decided to let it go because her mom said if A**** changes then by next December she would give permission for her to get baptized. But I had a feeling that we could do something. And because she was one of our investigators we started to get to know her better. And from very early on this girl was really special to me because she reminded me so much of Elise. As I got to know her I learned that she gets almost perfect grades in school and is super incredibly smart. She is super friendly with everyone and always tries to help people and include people. She is on her dance team in school and basically is just an amazing little girl and pretty much the Dominican version of Elise so full disclosure I may have been a little bias against the whole thing but I knew we could get her to get baptized and I wanted to so much because of the main reason she reminds me of my sister, she wanted to be baptized more than anything in the world because she had a good genuine desire to follow Christ and live in a way he would want, exactly like Elise does.

When Elder Oliveira got here and met her he had the same feeling that we could do this. But the problem was, it was Thursday and we were having something special called a "white night" on Saturday. So we went to her house on Thursday and spent two hours there talking to her mom and she was still being super hard with us. But let me tell you at the end of that lesson I have never felt the spirit so strong or seen the spirit so clearly touch the heart of another person. Especially when we asked A**** to bare her testimony of the church to her mom. And after three long years of both A**** and R**** wanting to be baptized their mom finally gave permission and what made it even more special is A**** asked me to baptize her and it was by far one of the most spiritual experiences of my life. I am so incredibly grateful for this gospel and this opportunity to share is with everyone here and watch it change lives. I am so thankful to our Father in Heaven and the miracles he works through his obedient and diligent servents. If we are worthy he will show us miracles.

As for other things that happened this week, we found a pretty dope hamburger place and it was so good that we went back the next day and after one for lunch I was still hungry so I got another. And then the next day...yep we ate there again. I took pictures of all of them I will send them haha.

Also I have gotten very used to Dominicans "talking" English with me. Or rather saying little phrases in a really bad latin accent like "Hey how ya doin ma fren" (Say it out loud if you need to) or a lot of things like that. But this week I was taken very off guard when a short Dominican walked up to me and with a very American accent said "Hello Elder Robertson, How are you doing?" it turns out he was born in Philly and get this, GREW UP IN DALLAS!!! I didn't realize how much I missed having a normal English conversation with another human. We didn't have a ton of time to talk but it was super awesome to meet someone from my own state! SPEAKING OF TEXAS I FOUND DR PEPPER TODAY AND THAT NEVER HAPPENS AND I AM SOOOOOOO HAPPY!!!!!!!

Yeah other than that Dad do you have any more updates on that scripture in Matthew? It is very interesting to study and I am actually using part of my personal study to study the same thing and how I can apply it to my investigators.

I love you guys so much!!! Until Next Week!!!

Our amazing baptism this week

Our amazing baptism this week

We found hamburgers!

Hamburgers!

Delicious Hamburgers

I can't get enough of the hamburgers we found

Elder Oliveira and I

Week 23 - I'm staying in Lotes y Servicios

So as far as transfers go I am staying here in Lotes y Servicios for my third transfer. I am getting a new companion however his name is Elder Oliveiro. He is from Brazil and he is super awesome. He has more time than me so he is technically named the senior companion but because he doesn't know the people or the area I am now in charge of doing everything so that is kind of weird because I have really taken charge in a whole bunch of lessons or anything. But I am super excited because I have learned that although I can follow orders and be under the direction of a leader, I really like being the one in charge a lot better hhaha.

But yeah I am probably going to keep this kind of short because the computer I am on isn't working very well so I want to get this sent off. But just a few things.

The Christmas Devotional was super awesome!! (Although yes I had to watch it in Spanish.) I don't remember who was talking about it but my favorite this that was said is something like Christmas time is the time to remember the mortal life of the savior, to remember what that means in our lives and what his purpose here on Earth was. And then to.... wait for it..... SHARE IT WITH OTHERS. BOOM! It is one of the best times to invite people to come to church and to check out the message that we have about the savior. Ask you missionaries for the little Christmas cards with give out to your friends! Last December the church had something like 1,300,000 investigators or I think a little more come to church but we want to get 2 million this year so talk to your friends! Especailly on Christmas Day!!

No the last thing is we had a zone conference and a Seventy named Elder Zivic came to talk to us and he said a ton of really good stuff but the best was a quote that is now the motto of my life:

"I want to live my life in a way that when I get up in the morning Satan will look and me and will say, "Oh no, He's awake"

I just thought that was super awesome! Okay I love you  guys so much!! I will talk to yall next week!!

Week 22 - Happy Thursday the 24th!

Thanksgiving was super weird here. It didn't feel like a holiday at all. It was just a normal day. I actually didn't even realize it was Thanksgiving until like 10 in the morning. We went to our District meeting like usual and when I got there our Zone Leader (American) said happy Thanksgiving and I was like oh yeah.

But I did happen to make myself a pretty dope Thanksgiving dinner! I will attach a pic and shoutout to my amazing parents for providing the food (and the same Zone Leader for the pie.) We didn't do anything special really! We all ate together as a Zone and we all said something we were thankful for so yeah that was about it. I was really missing you guys and home and turkey and all of the fun traditions we do and dad does making the turkey. And I also missed stuffing a lot. But yeah that was my thanksgiving so yayyy. But next stop CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!

One thing that I'm not sure why I haven't mentioned this but I have been working in two areas. There was an Elder who got super sick and had to go home so a ton of weird moving around we ended up with me and 3 other Elders living in my house working in 3 areas. But the problem is the other area (named La Victoria) is HUGEEEE!! It is one of the 3 areas that have bikes, which my body painfully reminded me the morning after the first day that I haven't ridden a bike in a reallllyyyyy loong time. But it is fine and fun so I am helping out there. It is kind of fun because now Elder Call lives with us and he is another American so I get to speak English a little more. But a quick little fun story is one day we were riding down the street and for some reason he tried to start arguing with me that BYUI is better than the original. I didn't have to argue long because like 3 minutes later we saw a kid strolling down the street with a super awesome BYU hat on so that shut him up pretty quick. But it was awesome and I asked to take a picture with him and I will attatch it.

But yes other than that we went to the temple this past week and it was AMAZING! I love the temple so much and it was kind of hard because I went a TON when I first got endowed, like once or twice a week and then I went to the CCM and went once every week and then boom now you have to wait like 4 months. It was a little interesting because in the CCM we had headsets so we could do everything in English but then this time they just didn't give it to us and I was a little nervous because I didn't know what to expect but it was super neat and most of the time I forgot it was in a different language because I just understoof everything. So that was super awesome. The other thing is we had a chance afterwards to have lunch and talk with President Corbitt in a downstairs room and it was super awesome because he know SO MUCH about everything and we could just ask him questions and he shared some really neat insights.

Really I just love this mission so much and wish I studied soo much more before my mission because when I learn something I just want to spend forever studying and learning about it but there just isn't time on the mission. So anyone thinking about going on a mission just read and study everything you can find!

But yeah this week was actually pretty awesome and I love and miss everyone so much!! I hope you guys have an amazing week and I can't believe it is almost December!!!!!

Until next week!

Love,

Elder Robertson

At the temple with President Corbitt

The Thanksgiving Dinner I made with the food that my family sent me. Not bad.

The Thanksgiving Dinner I made with the food that my family sent me. Not bad.

A nativity near the temple.

Cool BYU hat we saw on a kid just walking down the street.

Week 21 - Running to a baptism...literally

Okay so we had another baptism this week!! Her name was M**** and the story is kinda fun so here we go!

I met M*** when I first got here like 10 weeks ago! She lived next to a member and actually always went to church. We met with her at times but she never seemed to interested in listening to us. But she always went to church so we would spend one week wanting to srop her and then the next week trying to talk to her and it was just kind of a cycle! Until two weeks ago we decided to give her one last chance. We went over to her house and before we even said hello she cut us off and said "I want to be baptized what do I have to do?" Like OKAY thats fine! We can probably make that happen!! So we started setting more and more firm appointments with her and teaching her all the lessons and it was actually super easy because she has been through like 3 sets of missionaries so she already knew everything! But the day of her baptism was a little crazy.

So we went to the bishops house the night before and got her baptismal clothes but right after we had to go to a different area to do a baptismal interview (Elder Madrid is our district leader) and we were running late so we didn't have time to run back to the house to drop of the clothes. But we were going to go to the church early the next day to clean the font and set up so we would just grab it then. But what we didn't know was there were people coming to clean the church the next day really early in the morning. We didn't have a ton of time because we actually had to do another baptismal interview and we had to move the baptism a lot earlier because there was a stake activity so long story short we had about 20 minutes when all was said and done to find these baptismal clothes. So we called the Elders quorum president who told us who was in charge of cleaning the chapel that day, and so we ran (literally ran) to that house and asked if she knew where it was. She said she didn't and we would have to ask another member who did not live close to her, so we called her but of course she didn't answer so we took off running again to this house. We asked her where they were and she said she didn't clean the bathrooms (where we left the clothes) and we would have to talk to ANOTHER member who we didn't have the number of. So yes we ran to that house and she said that she put them in the one closet in the church that we don't have keys for. So when all was said and done we ended up just waiting for the bishop to arrive at the baptism and finally could get the clothes haha. But that wasn't all.

Originally M**** said she wanted the bishop to baptize her but then for whatever reason she changed her mind like 15 minutes before the service and said she wanted me to baptize her. So we continued with out workout and had to run to our house so I could grab my baptismal clothes.

But it all turned out to actually be an amazing service and we were all super happy afterwards!

The other quick story is that Yesterday we, as a mission, decided to have a Holy Day where the entire day we were exactly obedient to all of the rules. We did pretty good until it was time to leave our last appointment and it was super hard to leave because they weren't letting us. But it was getting really late and we wanted to get home on time, we finally got out but were realllllllly far from our house, so what did we do? Naturally we started sprinting. It was a long way we probably ended up running about a mile and a half and when we got home we were drenched in sweat and exhausted but we got home literally seconds before we needed to so it all worked out.

All in all I had a pretty good week!! I am super happy and super grateful for the opportunity to serve here and serve the Lord! Oh also fun fact I am almost finished reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish so that is fun!

I love you guys so much and I will talk to you next week!! :)

Love,

Elder Robertson

Our baptism

Week 20 - We had power all day!

Man I kinda feel bad when I have weeks like this where nothing super eventful happened so I don't have a ton to write about. It has actually been kind of a weird week. Like REALLY uneventful. It's weird we are trying to be the best missionaries we can be and the most obedient that we can be and it seems like everything is falling through! On Tuesday we taught one lesson. We had 8 planned. 7 of them fell through and even when we just tried to go contacting nothing happened! And it has been kinda like that all week. I'm not sure what happened or why but I'm not going to let it get me down! I always try to look for things to learn from experiences like that and I am always grateful for opportunities to grow!

Oh one super weird thing happened this week! On Wednesday we had power ALL DAY!! That never happens! Elder Madrid said that hasn't happened in his mission and he has 15 months out here. So there was one awesome thing that happened!!

Nah but really we are just always trying to find the people that we know the Lord has prepared and I am trying my best to be in tune with the spirit so I can be led where I need to go.

A random lady who I have never seen before at church randomly asked me to sing in sacrament meeting. I think she has a stake calling or something but she asked me if I would sing a solo but we will see because it is after the transfer ends so I told her that if I am still here then we will see.

Life at home seems to be crazy! It is weird hearing about everyones lives and how much is changing. I have had at least 4 different people email me and tell me about a friend who is now engaged or married so that is SUPER weird!! Christian just turned 20 and now I'm the next one in our little trio to be headed for that and I don't feel that old yet jajaja.

The mission is going by crazy fast!! It is crazy to think that some of my friends, like Emma, are almost under a year away from going home! And I almost have 5 months! And then next month I get to call home!!!!!! :))))) that is going to be so weird after six months of not seeing you guys! I will have more information on how that is going to go down after the 6th of December because it totally depends on where I am.

But yeah I apologize that this email is super uneventful but that is all I got for this week! I love you guys a ton and I will talk to you next week hopefully with better stories! I love yall!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Week 19 - Girls are super flirty here

Okay the first thing I want to do is give a birthday shoutout to my homie Christian... Yesterday but still. Feliz cumpleaños!

But yes, as you all read in my email girls here are suuuper flirty. ESPECIALLY with Americans! You could be the most unattractive guy but if you are American there will be girls who will try to flirt with you. There is a term for girls who are super flirty here and I'm not sure if it is only here or a spanish term in general but it is "Freka." Normally it isn't that bad. Just if we buy something and the cashier will make a flirty comment or something and I will respond in the nicest way that I can appropriately but sometimes they are just super direct and I don't know how to respond.

This week I had one of those times. We picked up on a new family. It is a part member family who is also inactive so we found them and put an appointment to come back. When we came back we met with the whole family. And as it turns out one of the members of the family is probably one of the most freka girls I have met since I got here. And she was not secrative about it. The moment she saw me she stopped what she was doing and said (in spanish) "Oh my you are beautiful! Hey look (talking to her friend) He is beautiful!" This continued the entire lesson.She wouldn't stop looking at me and trying to talk to me. She insisted that she sat by me and literally kept trying to hold my hand the entire lesson! But that most awkward part was when she tried to hug me at the end when I was leaving. It was just a mess. She did come to church though and it was kind of the same process the entire first hour. I mean she's only 8 years old but still!

But frekas are actually a problem here so we normally just respond with a pass along card or something from the church when they try to invite us to go somewhere and we just invite them to church.

Okay one more story is I want to talk about N****. On Tuesday we didn't have anything to do because all of our morning lessons fell through. We had 3 set lessons and not one of them was home. So we thought about what we could do. We had an impression to go try and find this one inactive member who we found in the street but she only told us what barrio she lived in (barrio technically translates to ward but I guess here it is more like a neighborhood) but she didn't have time to give us her address, which if I am being honest still wouldn't have helped much because everything here is so unorganized. We went to a member who we thought lived close but she didn't know who we were talking about. But she did give us a reference who lived pretty close. And because we still didn't have anything to do we decided to contact this reference.

We showed up and met her and she actually knew who we were because her brother is a recent convert but doesn't live with here. But we didn't have a guy with us so we set an appointment to come back. We went back on Friday but we did an exchange so I had a different companion with me and he is in the group in front of me and actually knew less Spanish than me. But it is always weird on exchanges when I stay in my area because I have to lead and direct everything with I'm not used to because for the past three transfers I have obviously been the junior companion. But that really isn't relevant soooo back to the story. We get there and start talking and she tells us that 10 years ago she had met with the missionaries and had gone to church for a year! A whole year! She wasn't baptized because she wasn't married to her husband by law and he wasn't really interested. And then both the missionaries got white washed and they never made contact with her. But she remembered a ton and we shared the first lesson and she knew it was true. But then after she said she wanted to share an something. Like 20 before we got there on Tuesday she had been thinking about her life and how it is really hard and how her Husband works and she has to take care of her two kids and one always seems to have a problem and when he gets over it the other gets some sort of problem and basically she thought her life was just hard. And she prayed and said that if she was a part of some church she knew her life would be better. And then RIGHT AFTER we showed up! She told us we were an answer to her prayers and I am so excited to start working with her!! I will give more updates on her as she progresses!

But yeah the work is really picking up especially as we are trying to be the most obedient missionaries we can!

Well I love you all a ton!! Hope all is well back homes and everything! Aren't the elections this week? Hahah good luck with that imma be chillin here for the next year and 8 months.

Until next week!!

Elder Robertson

Here's a picture of a parade I saw on the way to the internet center

Here's a picture I took walking to the internet center where I send emails

Week 18 - A golden family

Really not much has happened in the past week! We have been trying to find new people to teach because after a lot of consideration we decided that a lot of our investigators weren't really progressing and talked with them and they agreed so we found ourselves without a lot of investigators. But it was fine it just meant we had to find more. So we did a lot of contacting! And we have found quite a few people that show a lot of interest! So I will have to keep you guys posted on them as they progress more!

Our president kinda gave us a lecture today in his email about being obedient. Last month he issued a challenge for everyone to try to be exactly obedient for two months and see the blessings that come from it and today he told us that the month of October the mission showed more disobedience than normal. Granted this mission is actually super obedient but yeah this past month apparently has been worse. It was a really good wake up call thought. I have always tried these past four months to be obedient! But recently I have had some good time to reevaluate some things I could do better on so if anyone has any scriptures or anything on obedience I always love reading those. Our goal as a mission is 300 baptisms in one month so hopefully we can do that in one of these next two months.

One cool things happened yesterday. We were walking and it started raining but it wasn't that bad so we kept going. About half way to our appointment it started raining super hard and we took cover under the only thing close, which was a tree that wasn't helping a whole ton. After about 3 minutes of getting soaked we heard a whistle and a guy beckoned for us to come over to his house and take shelter. We thanked him and started talking to his family and I don't really know what the term "golden family" is supposed to mean but this family has to be the definition. They are so prepared! He had a baptism date 15 years ago but after some weird circumstances he never got baptized and he and his wife had recently visited many churches but have gone inactive from all of them because they never felt right in any of them. So we shared the Restoration with them and I could feel the spirit so strong and I am so excited to go back!

But yeah I apologize that this email is kind of boring but really not much has happened this week! We went to a cool place today called Los Tres Ojos which is just a series of caves and three big pools of crystal clear water. I took some pictures so I will try to send them.

I love this gospel and my mission and I hope everyone has an amazing week!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

We went to a cool place today called Los Tres Ojos which is just a series of caves and three big pools of crystal clear water.

We went to a cool place today called Los Tres Ojos which is just a series of caves and three big pools of crystal clear water.

We went to a cool place today called Los Tres Ojos which is just a series of caves and three big pools of crystal clear water.

We went to a cool place today called Los Tres Ojos which is just a series of caves and three big pools of crystal clear water.

We went to a cool place today called Los Tres Ojos which is just a series of caves and three big pools of crystal clear water.

We went to a cool place today called Los Tres Ojos which is just a series of caves and three big pools of crystal clear water.

This is Thor's hammer for all who are wondering.

Week 17 - Look at me, a real missionary!

Yay I am officially out of training and a real missionary. As far as transfers go I am staying here in Lote y Servicios with Elder M****. Actually we live in a house of 4 and all four of us are staying so that is kind of cool and I have grown to be really good friends with all of them! But it also means another six weeks with 3 guys who don't speak English so yay.

Okay really the highlight of my week this week were the two souls who got baptized! L**** (yall already know his story) and the second is named C****, or C****. She is a 9 year old girl. Actually she turned 9 on Friday the 21. The story with her is she is the youngest daughter of 7 kids and only the mom is a member but she went inactive a loooong time ago so none of her kids were ever baptized. A few months ago the missionaries started working with her mom, named A****, and she started coming back to church every so often. But since most of her kids were grown up besides two of them (one is a 14 year old girl who is hard core protestant and was quite openly upset with her mom for C****'s decision to be baptized) only little 8 year old C**** was left in the care of her mom and attended church with her. But A**** was very clear that she would not force baptism on C**** and she would have to make the decision herself.

C**** wasn't super enthusiastic about church and never wanted to leave her mom so she would always go to class with her mom and never went to primary. One day she finally decided to go to pirmary and absolutely loved it and I have nenver seen such a strong testimony grow so fast in such a little girl. The church orginizations truly are inspired of God. Last Sunday A**** handed us a note that said that C**** wanted to be baptized the day after her birthday, therefore putting the responsibility on us to prepare her, in a week. (for those who don't know the rule, if a child has 8 years and has a direct family member who is a member, mother, father, grandmother, that sort of thing, it falls under the responsibility of the bishop to do the process, but once they turn 9 it is the responsibility of the missionaries.) So we went over that night not sure how we were going to teach her everything she needed by the time she wanted to be baptized, but when we got there, somehow, she already knew almost everything she needed to know. That is when I really got blown away by the testimony of this little girl. She was baptized on Saturday and she was so happy as was I.

It is absolutely insane how the Lord prepares people for baptism and can even work with kids like C**** and L****. I love this work so much.

Other updates is I had to give a talk in church yesterday for the first time in spanish and really I wasn't super nervous for it but at the same time I was. Especially because it was over the Atonement and I didn't know if I could express my true feelings about it in this language. But I prayed a ton and did my best! I think it was okay. It was kind of weird preparing a talk for sacrament meeting after preparing so many lessons for people who have never heard these principles. Like I could talk about some deeper doctrine and stuff but it was cool! One thing about the States that I miss is it seems to be custom to tell the speakers that they did amazing no matter what. That isn't really practiced here but I felt pretty good about it! jaja.

But yeah I have nenver been more pumped about missionary work!! Last story I will share about this week sorry this email is kinda long. Earlier this week was kinda hard for me. I was just missing home more than usual and realizing that I am going to be gone for a long time and miss a ton so I was praying for comfort and for whatever reason felt impressed to start reading the books I had from the missionary library. I started with "Our Heritage" and that helped because it talked a lot about the hardships our ancesters went through and it is a super amazing story I highly encourage everyone to read it! But it wasn't until the end that something really hit me. A short one paragraph story about President Gordon B. Hinckley when he served his mission.

It says that he was super discouraged while over there and wrote a letter home to his dad that said "I am wasting my time and your money. I don't see any point in my staying here." he waited some time and got a very short response from his father, "Dear Gordon, I have your letter... I have only one suggestion. Forget yourself and go to work. With love, Your Father." That hit me HARD! A president of the church felt the same and the response of his father spoke to my heart. Guys this is the Church of Christ and it is our duty to share it with everyone who doesn't have it. I know more than ever that the Lord doesn't want me anywhere else than where I am right now and it is my job to figure out my purpose here. I know he has been preparing people like C**** and L**** and it is my job to find them and bring them to Christ. A former president pointed out how incredible it would be if every member in the world helped one person be baptized every year. Imagine it!! There are like 16 million members right now, in a year, 32 million, then 64, and so on. Could you imagine that? That is my invitation to all members who read this and all nonmembers, something a leader of our church, Elder Ballard, said was "do you ever wonder who Mormons are so anxious to share their beliefs, most of the time a lot more than those of other faith?

Really I just want to say that I know this church is true and that Jesus Christ is the head and I have felt so much joy from sharing it with the people here!

I love you all so much and have an amazing week!!!

Elder Robertson

One of our baptisms this week. 

This is our zone. President doesn't want to send sisters here so it is one of the like 2 "frat zones"

And here is a cute little friend we found outside our house

Week 16 - One week away from being a real missionary

Okay so first of all I want to give a huge shout out to my family and say that they are the best family in the whole entire world! I got the package they sent (I think I got it last week but we didn't get our mail last week) and thank youuuuu!!

I am one week away from being out of training so that is exciting! Transfers are a week from tomorrow and if I am being honest I don't really want to leave my area right now. I know that wherever I go I will love it and serve with all of my heart but I feel like I'm not finished with this area yet. First of all it is huge and I haven't even been to all of it yet so I know there is so much more to be done but we will see what happens.

I kinda feel bad because I don't really have any cool or crazy stories this week. The past couple weeks have been pretty slow. We have just been working and trying to find people. A lot of our investigators weren't really progressing so we are trying to find new people. One of our investigators is progressing like crazy though. His name is L****. But he calls us his Primo and tells us to call him that too. He is 18 and I will tell you a little bit of his story.

We have this other investigator named A**** and she has been an investigator for a really long time because her husband doesn't want to get married (that is the number one problem here). But we still go over and work with her and teach her and Elder M**** and I were kinda determined to get something going with her. They live at the house of the Mother of her Husband. But for some reason almost every time we went over, L**** would show up. Either just passing or coming to say hi because he was pretty good friends with A****. But he was never really serious but we offered to teach him. And the first two or three times were superrrr hard because he would never pay attention or would always change the topic so we told him that we couldn't keep teaching him if he wasn't going to take it seriously. So he said he would stop and we actually taught him a good lesson.

We were then talking about baptism and he said he didn't want to and that he wasn't ready. He said he needed a lot of preparation. We tried to put a date with him as a goal to work towards but he said he would think about it (this was at the end of September and he said he would probably want to be baptized at the end of November). We were actually in a lesson with A**** and he randomly showed up and told us he prayed about it and needed to be baptized on the 22 of October. And ever since then he has been doing really well and progressing like crazy and is super excited to be baptized! It is crazy how the Lord can answer prayers so specifically and how he prapares people.

Yeah other than that not a ton to report on. The language is going super well. I started reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish and I am in Alma right now. Guys Alma the younger was a BOSS missionary!! If you want to get motivated to go do missionary work read the end of Mosiah through like Alma 17. It is really awesome. Also I have a question, so any insight is welcomed. Really it's not a question but if anyone has some awesome insights on the Atonement send them my way. Because the Book of Mormon talks soo much about it and how everyone was saved by the blood of Christ but he hadn't even come to the Earth yet and shed any blood and I know the Atonement is all encompassing but how does that work if it can be effective if it hadn't even happened yet?

And the last thing and this is kind of a weird thing but everyone should go listen to the song "If The Savior Stood Beside Me" and listen to its lyrics and really ponder on what they mean because that song is POWERFUL and says some really awesome stuff! My favorite line is "So I'll be the kind of person that I know I'd like to be" or something to that affect like not the person I have to be or I should be but the kind of person I want to be. Do it it is super awesome!

But for now that is all and I will have transfer news in my next email but I love you all so much and hope everyone has an amazing week!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

And an awesome picture of me in front of a statue with a dude on a horse

Week 15 - I finally got rejected!

Okay so there are a lot of things I miss a ton from the US, mostly comfort things, but one thing I heard before I came out here and is something for which I am grateful is that nobody here rejects you! Everyone at least invites you inside or accepts one appointment and from there you can usually tell who has potential and who is just being nice. But this past week I had three really interesting experiences while teaching.

The first is, yes, I finally got rejected. We contacted this one house that we found in the old investigators part of the area book. Apparently they moved and it was a different family. When we arrived only the 13 year old daughter was home so she told us to come back the next day when her grandparents would be home. We did. And we met the Grandma. And she went on a little rampage about how we are selling fake salvation and are of the devil and a few other things that I don`t really care to translate.. jaja. But she told us not to come back and that was the first time in my mission that I have been rejected!!

The second was a girl of 18 years. We were contacting and found her sitting on her porch listening to music. When we met her she was really receptive to us and our message but we didn't have a guy with us so we couldn't go in and teach her (this happens most of the time when we are contacting because women never work here and the guys are always gone.) So anyways we had already handed out all of our lesson 1 and 2 pamphlets so we only had the pamphlet on the gospel of Jesus Christ. We gave that to her and she promised to read it before we came back.

We were super excited because we thought we had found a investigator with a lot of potential! We could tell she probably liked to go out on weekends and party and she had a lot of piercings but we were hopeful! Well long story short we went over and started teaching, we got through the first principle which is faith and moved onto the second principle of repentance and extended an invitation to repent. I will translate her direct quote, "No, no quiero arrepentirme porque me gusta pecar mucho." or  "No I don't want to repent because I like to sin a lot." So, at that point we kinda gave up on her...for now.

The third was another girl who we found pretty much the same way but she had just had a baby so we gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet. When we came back we started talking and introducing this amazing and marvelous plan that our Father in Heaven has for all of us. I told her that we know that families can be together forever, that she could be with her beautiful baby boy and her husband for eternity. I then asked if that was something she would want and she simply just said "No." Uhhhh... "¿Por que?" "I don't know I just don't want to."

So this week I got rejected, told that a girl doesn't want to repent and that a girl just doesn't want to live with her family forever. It was kind of a bizarre week but for the most part it was still pretty good.

As for hurricane Matthew. It missed us and we just got a lot of rain from it. It kinda came out of nowhere too. I will attach a picture of Elder M**** and I after we got caught in the rain. But there isn't any damage to my area so that is good. No clean up to be done.

One super awesome thing is I saw a kid wearing a BYU shirt! He was about 10 and looked like he was on his way to baseball practice but it was a shirt that had a number 2 on it and I thought I saw the BYU "Y" at the top. So I called him over and sure enough! And on the back where the name would go on a jersey it said Cougars and it was totally a BYU shirt. I don't know if it is his team shirt or what but it was super awesome and made me super happy to see! I asked him where he bought it but he was super shy.

And, once again I am super grateful for American healthcare. One of the Elders I live with had to get his wisdom teeth removed while he was here and he is on really crappy pain killers and they pretty much did a hack job so he is super miserable and I am just so grateful I was raised in America.

The last last thing is I read a talk from last conference by Elder Holland and he was the last speaker and talked about how after such an amazing spiritual experience like conference the world has a way of coming down on us and trying to ruin it. My invitation would be to go back and reread your favorite talks from conference and always try to think of how you can apply those talks in your own lives (cough cough especially the talk by Elder Oaks). Also you can go read the talk by Elder Holland last conference--it is super good!

But I miss you all and love you all so much and send my love and prayers to anyone who got affected by the hurricane up there! Also Haiti needs y'alls prayers! There are a ton of people who had to evacuate and a ton of people who died. So everyone know that us as an entire mission are praying for all of the victims of the hurricane! Y'all are the best!!!!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Getting caught in the rain of Hurricane Matthew.

Week 14 - Things I have taken for granted

Okay this past weekend was soo awesome! I did get to watch conference and most of it was in English! We got it set up on the computer in the secretaries office but sometimes the power would go out so we had to watch in Spanish because the tvs were hooked up to their generators. And really my week was super uneventful and the hurricane barely missed my area so we have just been getting a lot of rain and nothing more. So it hasn't been that exciting so most of my email I am going to focus on conference.

This conference was amazing! I mean I don't know if it is because I am a missionary or whatever but this conference was super good and I learned so much from it! I Wish I could show you guys all the notes I took but it was so amazing and I don't know if I have ever felt the spirit more in conference than this past weekend.

Okay so really I have about 12 different favorite talks but I only want to focus on two of them! The first one is the very first talk given by President Uchtdorf. That talk was soo powerful and gave me a chance to really evaluate my life. If you didn't get a chance to hear that one I HIGHLY recommend looking it up and reading it. He talked about a lot of things but one of the main things is he talked about taking things for granted. He talked about how when he was first dealing with computers he was hopeless. This new technology and he had to learn how to type and he was hopeless. But now he owns a smartphone, tablet, laptop, etc. And he said that he realized that he totally takes all of them for granted. Then he compared it to the gospel.

Do we sometimes take the gospel for granted? Do we sometimes forget the magnitude and amazingness that is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ? One thing I thought about was do we sometimes take for granted the fact that twice a year we get to hear from the living prophet of God and all of his Apostles and other church leaders? We legit get to hear revelation that they recieved for us directly from the Lord which is something I have definitely taken for granted and and kind of sad about all the times where I was bored during conference or doodling or anything. Because all of this stuff is super awesome!! It is something I invite everyone to do is read or reread that talk and then evaluate your lives and think about this amazing gospel and all the blessings it brings in your life.

And once you do that.....

Reread the talk by Elder Oaks. So yes this one is probably because I am a missionary but holy moly this talk was amazing! Especially because Elder M**** and I want to focus on how we can involve the members more in our work! I don't even know if I have a ton to say about it because he says everything so perfectly. But I think a lot of missionaries (Including myself at the beginning of my mission) think that the missionary work in this area is for the missionaries, and them alone. Sure the members can help us but we are in charge of the work. And boy was I and every single missionary who thought that super wrong. As Elder Anderson said there was once a time where the missionary work belonged to the full time missionaries! But now members play a huge role! When members and the missionaries work together, amazing things in this work can happen. I can personally testify that the absolute best way for people to become interested and more importantly stay intersted and active after they get baptized is for those people to be introduced to the church by members.

I want to leave you guys with two challenges. One is to really think about how the church has blessed your life and think of who would want to hear the message the missionaries have to offer. And the other is something I have been thinking about personally. We have about 60 active members in my ward right now, but when I got my ward list from the bishop I about cried. We have 400 members in our ward. That means in my area there are 340 members who are inactive. That is rediculous!! And I don't have time to try to reactivate all of them! Not unless I want to put a stop on finding and teaching investigators.

So I was thinking that probably the best way to reactivate all of these less actives are through the members in the ward. If each family agrees to take two or three families and tries to be their friends I am convinced that we could get every inactive member back to church. So my other challenge is work with the bishop or the missionaries and get a list of the inactive people in the ward and as a family or individual try to bring these souls back to the truth. If they are members it means they accepted and have felt the love of the Savior before, we just have to remind them of what they once felt.

The last thing is something at the end of Elder Oaks talk. Now I heard this part in Spanish so this is a rough translation but he said something along the lines of,

"How we feel about the gospel is reflected by our willingness and desire to share it."

I love you all so much and miss you guys. I love hearing about your lives and all of your adventures! Go have an amazing week!!

Elder Robertson

We got to watch the 2nd day of conference in the high council room at the church.

We finally moved to a new house and we have running water again! When we were moving, we had to use our little mission truck. 

Week 13 - I'm pretty sure I witnessed a miracle

Doctrine & Covenants 18:15 has been the only scripture on my mind until now. And I did not know or understand what it meant until two days ago. I got to participate in my first baptismal service! It was so incredible!! Her name is N**** and she has been working with the missionaries and been going to church for a really long time but has never wanted to get baptized. She had a super strong testimony but for some reason just didn't want to take that step. When I got here she was one of my first appointments and so we started working with her and we felt like the best thing to do was to just be her friend. She ended up opening up to us and sharing a lot of things and a lot of her concerns but ultimately made the decision that she wanted to be baptized! And then even more, she asked me to baptize her!!! Of course I accepted but I was freaking out because I had never done that before let alone in Spanish! I didn't even know what I was supposed to say in Spanish!!

We had to go prepare the font for baptism and apparently the ward I am in hasn't had a baptism for a while so we had to completely clean out the font because it was nasty. We told her to get there early so we could get changed and take pictures and all that good stuff. We got there around 5:45 and she wasn't there. So we waited, and waited. And finally around 6:20 she showed up. It actually wasn't that bad because apparently a lot of the sisters in the ward don't have a lot of priesthood holders in their lives so when the ward has a baptism a bunch of people show up and ask for blessings. So before we had the service we gave like 4 different blessings but luckily Elder M**** knew I was scared to death to give a blessing so he let me just assist for all of them.

Quick side note about one of the blessings. It was this old lady who looked super sick and came hobbling up to us really slowly and asked up for a blessing. We went in and had to help her into the chair and everything and I felt super bad for her like she could have called us and we could have gone to her house. I felt bad that she came all the way to the church. So we go on with the blessing and Elder M**** gives a wonderful blessing in which we could feel the spirit so strong. Apparently so could she because as soon as we said "amen" she jumped up out of the chair (literally) shook both of our hands and strolled out the door laughing and smiling so I'm pretty sure I witnessed a miracle there.

Anyways back to the story. So N**** finally showed up and we got dressed super quick and she was sooo nervous. We tried to ask her why but she just didn't know. All she said is she was just very nervous. But it's okay because I was kinda freaking out too. But the service actually ended up being beautiful and the spirit was so strong there.

I can't even describe the feeling when the guy said it was time to proceed with the baptism. My heart was pounding as I went first into the font (there is only one door into our font) and she followed and then she looked up at me and was like "hey so what is going to happen (in spanish obviously)" and tried to explain it but I'm not sure how well she understood. I ended up just telling her "when I say amen, bend your knees" and I could tell she was nervous because she was cutting off the circulation in my hand from holding my wrist so tight. So I start saying what I need to (I learned what to say barely) but when I got to the part where I say "en el nombre del Padre, y del Hijo, y del Esp..." at this point she flings herself backwards and I freak out because I haven't finished yet so I am literally holding her up and the end of the prayer turns into "yelEspírituSantoamen" super fast and then baptize her.

The interesting thing is the moment she came out of the water I could tell that all of her worries were gone, as well as mine. Before both of us were feeling really nervous and now, I could tell that we felt nothing but pure joy.

I share that scripture in the beginning because I didn't know how true it was and what pure joy felt like until I got to help bring one soul unto Christ. It is a joy that I can't quite explain but it is something that I am still feeling today. It is something that I don't want to go away so now I have to focus on the next verse and work on bringing many souls unto Christ.

The only other thing I want to share because it was awesome is I cut down a giant mango tree this week with a machete! It was for service and it took foreverrrrr and my hands hurt so bad but it was awesome!!! Also mom asked me a while ago if we could eat at members houses and here in this area we can a lot more! The problem is the power goes out a lot and most of our dinner appointments are at night when it is dark so most of the time all the food only tastes like skittles (sorry for everyone who isn't in my family and doesn't get that inside joke).

But anyways I love you all so much and am always thinking and praying for you!!

Have an amazing week!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

The first baptismal service I got to participate in on my mission. It was so amazing.

Week 12 - I am having thoughts in Spanish now

Okay, so I was thinking about something the other day. It is really hard to keep animo (look that word up because I can't think of what it means in English haha) when you are in a foreign language mission. My entire first area was super hard because I felt like I didn't know the language at all and I could't talk to people or share my feelings or my testimony. It was quite discouraging.

But something weird happened when I got here. I don't know if it is because I have to speak Spanish because no one else speaks English or what but I have felt so much more comfortable speaking Spanish and I am teaching like half of our lessons and whatever it is, I am just doing so much better here! Elder M**** is awesome! We work super well together and we are already really good friends! I am in a house with another set of Elders and we all are super good friends and it is so awesome.

Elder M**** and I have been working like crazy this past week. And it has paid off. We have found so many people! We even found some people who had already been to church in the past and started teaching them again. We even put a baptism date with a few of them and one of them is for this coming Saturday!

One thing I did take advantage of is the house in my last area. It is way nice compared to this one.. The nice thing is we have power longer here. But we have no running water. So all of our water is in these big barrels and if we want to cook, clean, shower, use the toilet, or anything we have to take buckets and use them. So yes, I am showering out of a bucket every day so that has been interesting!

One interesting thing that happened the other day is that we were walking down the street and a guy called me over and started talking to me in English. He told me he was from Brooklyn and was visiting family and then asked me what I had to do to join the church! I was like hey this is awesome. So then I tried explaining our purpose as missionaries and then it dawned on me that I have never done it in English and for whatever reason I just couldn't explain it very well in English! I tried but it just wasn't working and I ended up having to explain it all in Spanish. I am having thoughts in Spanish now too and that is freaking me out!

The last thing is a quote and I can't remember for the life of me where I heard it but it applies to me as well as all member missionaries. Someone said that "This is the Lord's work and we have the privilege to participate. The Lord will do his work if we don't get in the way."And, that is so true and I am doing my best to be a tool in the Lord's hand. I have really high hopes for this area and I love and miss everyone so much!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Me and my new companion from Costa Rica.

Yes, I am showering out of a bucket every day so that has been interesting! 

A picture of all four Elders who live in my house.

Week 11 - I'm getting transfered

I am being transferred. I was only here one transfer and I am kind of sad that I am leaving because there is so much potential in this area that Elder R**** and I have been working on and next transfer we already have baptisms set and other people who we were going to extend a baptism invitation this week.  But, it's okay.

I am super excited for my new area! I am going a little closer to Santo Domingo to a little town called Sabana Perdido. My new area is called Lotes y Servicios. Also my new companion, Elder M****, is from Costa Rica and, yep, doesn't speak a lick of English.  So, it is going to be super hard because I know a lot but anytime I need to know a word or a phrase I always had Elder R**** to bail me out. So this next transfer is going to be super hard but I also feel like I am going to learn so much!! So I am super excited to go!

As for everything else, I got to take an investigator to the temple and that was super awesome!! Her name is D**** and she is going to be baptized next transfer. President Corbitt showed up and gave a small little lecture so that was also awesome.

To answer a few questions you've asked...Cooking wise, we have gas stoves so the stoves always work, we have refrigerators but we have to be careful because the power goes out a lot but usually if it is something not too fragile as long as we keep it closed it stays cold enough to keep things preserved. We eat out a little but we only get 4300 pesos per 15 days (which is a little less than $100) so we don't eat out a ton. And no we don't really eat at members houses. There are one or two in every area but we have to be super careful because a lot of families will feed us before they feed their own family so we tend to just not do it unless we know that it is cooked safely and the family has a little more money.

That is about all I have to say. I have spent all day packing and getting ready to move to a new place in the morning! I am sooo happy and love being out here so much! I am learning and growing so much!

 I hope everyone has an amazing week!!!!

Elder Robertson

This is what happens here when it rains. The streets flood partly because everyone throws their trash in the streets so it will wash away when it rains. But, the real effect is that it clogs the drains and we get this.

This is what happens here when it rains. The streets flood partly because everyone throws their trash in the streets so it will wash away when it rains. But, the real effect is that it clogs the drains and we get this.

I found one can of Dr. Pepper in a store here so that was awesome

Me and my daughter (the puppy) because the other girl says we are both blonde so she is my daughter.

My companion and I got to take an investigator to the temple and that was super awesome!!