Week 9 - We got a hurricane

Okay first of all thank you for all the prayers but it was a little too much because we got a hurricane this past week haha. However it was super weak and I dont even know for sure if it was a hurricane because I heard that from a member so who knows. However I am super thankful for it because I got suuuuuuuper sick this past week...

Like puking, aching no energy, a lot of bathroom trips, and 103 fever sick. It was super bad and I would not have been able to be out walking if the sun was out so it was super nice. I am almost better. I know you guys (Mom) are probably going to say it was dumb for me to go out which I know it was but we had so many  important appointments to go to that I couldn't miss, so I just said a prayer and pushed through it. The good news is I don't think it was anything major. It just hit me and is now moving on.

Fun little fact about here: They drink hot chocolate a lot. Which is awesome but when I first had it, it kinda stinks because you are drenched in sweat more than you already were after you are finished drinking it! However it kind of has an inverse affect as it does in the states. Here people actually drink it to feel colder. Because when you drink it you get super warm inside and then when you walk outside it actually feels a little colder than it is so that is kinda cool.

Speaking of, I really miss milk. They don't have real milk here and it is all fake and tastes nasty so I really miss good milk that I could drink.

I also found out that Dominicans like to sit really close for no reason. At church we had 5 investigators come and so we were sitting by a few and they sit right up next to you! I was sitting there with an investigator squishing me on both sides with so much room on the bench! And I am like, "Friend, there is so much room and it is already so hot in this country and we dont have AC so move down please." I dont actually say all of that but I do ask them to move down a little and I am not joking when I say they move down 2 inches. So that was interesting.

The last weird fact about the country is that everybody yells! Expecially when we are coming by you always Hear little kids yelling "way Americanos!" And then you also have people who just have fruit in carts walking down the street yelling like "platanos cinco peso." Like could you imagine if we did that in the states? "Hey Asian! Come here!" Or walking down a street "APPLES 10 cents!!" I was talking about that with one of our zone leaders and we were chuckling about it.

Anyways the week was super good! However I am a little bummed because we had many lessons fall through. But, it is okay. I am trying to find people to teach as hard as I can. This week has been super hard and felt super long but I couldnt have gotten through it without the Lord's help. It is crazy seeing his hand in my life and in the life of other people. He truly will bless you if you ask him for help with a sincere heart and a good intention.

I also invite everyone to read second Nephi. It is such a good book and is filled with so much information! And yes I know Jacob quotes Isaiah a lot but if you take the time to study everything it is so worth it! That is what I have been doing this week and my scriptures are just marked up. It is so cool reading about the prophecies of the restoration in the Book of Mormon.

Anyways I hope everyone has an amazing week and I miss and love you guys so much!!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Week 8 - I live in a Sauna

Well yay I've officially been out here two months today!! And I've been celebrating by staying in a sauna all week... Not really but it hasn't been raining this week at all and there haven't been any clouds in the sky so all day is just super hot and super humid so pray for rain in the DR haha..

Okay also, thank heavens for american healthcare!! There is a guy down here named E**** and he is a recent convert to the church and his apendix burst. So he went and got it taken care of and went home the next day! But it's okay because he goes back every day to get it "cleaned." And what I mean by that is he has his arms and legs strapped to a table, then gets his stitches removed from the wound, has a doctor climb on top of his and squeeze out all the blood that has built up, and he has to keep doing that until the blood comes out clean... All of the stories he has been telling us has made me really glad for American healtcare.

Okay I want to tell you about a family that we are teaching. So it is a part member family and the daughter and mother are the members. Then there is a 18 year old son named A**** and the dad whose name is J****. So they have been working with missionaries for over a year. They are always really nice to the missionaries and they progress at times and then other times don't. But they wouldn't get baptized for different reasons over the past year but they have been pretty certain about it, especially J****. So we decided to really focuss on the this month. We have been talking and teaching and extending invitations. Finally in one lesson we were talking about eternal families and the importance of them. I felt inspired to talk about my family and how important it was to me to be with my family forever and then I extended a baptism invitation and THEY BOTH ACCEPTED!! It was amazing! We even set a firm date with A**** and we are working with J**** to get one. Also with them the next time we met with them we didn't have anything planned to teach them because we stopped by when an appointment fell through. So they ask "so you guys got a message for us?" We kinda stopped for a moment and then both had an impression, we looked at each other and both said "prayer" and as it turns out they hadn't been praying as a family and we think that is really going to help them as a family and help J****. It's just crazy how things work like that.

We also found a couple named C**** and A**** and they are the most prepared people I have ever seen! Right off the get go they had so many questions for us and seemed so interested on what we had to talk about. We came back for the second lesson and they had read a ton in the Book of Mormon and had so many questions for us that we didn't have time for our planned lesson and we actually had to stop them because we had been there for so long and had to get to our other appointments. And then even more than that, when they came to church (less than a week after we met them) they knew, and I am not exaggerating, 10 different members of our ward (which is like a third cause we have a small ward) from different ways. It was so awesome!!!

To answer a few of Dad's questions from last time, No my area is quite small, it takes us about 13 minutes to walk from one end of it to the other. My mission president is amazing!! I haven't had a ton of time to get to know him but he is super fun and energetic and just a really good guy. They culture of the mission is very obedient. President Corbitt has really helped the entire mission be super obedient because we want to be. And we are seeing the benifits! Last month the mission had 213 baptisms and we expect that number to keep growing! And the food, it is super amazing, if it is cooked by someone who knows what they are doing... Otherwise it can be very hard to eat! But for the most part the mission is super amazing and I am loving it!!!

Now, something to ponder. What does it mean to do something in the name of Jesus Christ? Because we all do it in every prayer, testimony, class or anything religious. We always end in the name of Jesus Christ, I wear his name on my chest every day! I would especially love insight on this. What I have come up with so far is it means that we are always desciples of him. In every action and thought, at all times of the day and in every place. If we want to be able to do anything in the name of Jesus Christ we have to try and live as he would live in all times and in all places. Following him in only what we want to follow him in only makes us "almost disciples" and not complete ones and if we are not full desciples of Jesus Christ we shouldn't be allowed to testify in his name.

Anyways that's all for this week!! I miss you all and love you all so much! I hope yall have an amazing week!!!!!!!

Elder Robertson

Week 7 - Life in the D.R.

Okay in this letter I want to talk a little more about my area and the DR because I had absolutely no idea what I was in for while I was in the CCM. First off, mom, you would love it here (sarcasm) because in an average day, I see about 50 or 60 stray dogs and even more chickens just walking around the streets. You can not walk more than 20 feet without seeing a dog or a chicken. Unfortunately I can not pet a lot of them because they are nasty and probably carrying deseases. The people here are truly amazing but they do a few things that are different. One of my favorites is the use of the word "Okay." They use it as almost a "me too" kind of word. As in a lot of times I'll say like "nice to meet you" or "thank you so much for something" and they just respond in a very sarcastic monotone type voice "okay." In the states the way they use it would sound very rude or disrespectful so it's funny to hear.

Also I didn't really believe when I heard 2 hours of electricity a day, but sure enough we are lucky to get two hours of power each day and it's just at random times. We do have a tiny little inverter thing that charges while the power is out but it really is only big enough to power our two fans when we go to bed and a light when we need it. But I'm very thankful for the fans because sleeping would be miserable without them.

The showers here are awesome. There is not enough pressure to have a head on them so they take them all off and it's just a small stream of really really cold water, which I actually don't mind a ton because it is always hot here. It rains at least once a day and the drainage system in my area doesn't really work so if it rains hard enough so many streets flood. The Danskos I wear are amazing because they are water proof. Also when it rains the front room in our apartment floods. All in all it's really not bad and we have a pretty nice apartment that can fit like 4 to 6 Elders and it's just Elder R*** and me.

Oh, a fun little fact about the churches here. There really are a ton of them. I watched a video about the DR and the progression of the Church here and in 2014 there were 234 church buildings! Wow!

A few other funny things about the people here, none of them can sing. Haha. Our sacrament meeting songs are so terrible but at the same time so amazing. They also sing hymns realllllllllly fast. Like 3 or 4 times faster than you should be singing them. Anything English here is super popular especially on clothes. The problem with that is sometimes you'll get someone that has a shirt that is super crude and they have absolutely no idea. The area I'm in, the people aren't super educated for the most part so it can be really hard to commit people to read the Book of Mormon or other commitments. But the people are so incredible and I really do love being here.

It has been super hard because we have so many people who are so prepared to hear the gospel and get baptised but there is always something holding them back. One of the biggest issues here is getting people married. It costs quite a bit of money to get married here especially if you are a foreigner, and even more money to get divorced so people just don't get married and it can raise a lot of problems. It is raising a lot of problems with a couple of our investigators.

This week has been so amazing and I can see the Lord blessing me so much!

I love all of you and miss you guys so much!! I hope everyone has an amazing week!!!

Elder Robertson

Week 6 - GUYS I'M A REAL MISSIONARY

Okay so first off I'm sorry for all of the spelling errors I may have. But because everything here is Spanish that includes the computers so it says that every one of my English words is wrong. Also because I've only been in Spanish mode my English spelling has gotten bad.

BUT ANYWAYS....

This week has been INSANEEE!! I have so much to say I hope I can get it all out in time! Okay so first off being out here and being a real missionary is super awesome and way better than being in the CCM!! I can't believe it's only been a week because I feel like I've been here forever! My trainer's name is Elder R*** and he is awesome! We are the same age and actually attended BYU summer term together. We didn't know each other but we had mutual friends because he lived on the floor above me. He has 10 months in the mission and speaks fluent Spanish so he is helping me so much. And luckily he is super obedient so that is also really good. He is super smart so we are always having super crazy conversations and it's awesome. We are already super good friends!!!

My area is called Villa Esfuerzo and the people here are amazing!! But it is SO hot!! Actually the heat doesn't really bother me it's just so humid! Like take the most humid day it's been in Texas and multiply it by 100 and that's what it's like every day. The people here are super funny. Because Elder R*** and I are both super gringo and obviously from the states, all of the kids try to speak whatever English they know. The kids have to take English classes just like we took Spanish classes in elementary so they don't know much, one phrase to be exact. Every day we get asked at least 20 times, "what's your name?" but we can't respond because that's all they know. It's super funny but for real all the people here are incredible.

We have a ton of people we are teaching and I can't talk about all of them but I'll mention one in particular. His name is B****. So the missionaries contacted him a couple months ago but then they lost contact. Elder R*** and I went by to just see if we could find him, we did, and it turned out this entire time he had been reading the Book of Mormon and he knew it was true. However, he is having some relationship troubles that we are working with him to get resolved so he can get baptized. Anyways we took him to church with us (first time he has ever been) and he gets up to bear his testimony in fast and testimony meeting!! Like WHAT? It was so awesome so hopefully we can work through his troubles.

We have a ton of other people we are teaching including a couple who have just stopped us on the street and asked who we were and seemed really interested in the church. It's insane all of the miracles I've seen even though I've only been here a week and how the Lord prepares people in different ways to hear the gospel.

But it's also crazy how big of an influence Satan can have. A huge problem here is Law of Chastity issues. And also any time we are in a lesson and we are feeling the spirit, something always seems to happen that interrupts and ruins it and that has been super hard but we have been working the best we can!

The last thing is there is a family here who has a guy who is my age and his sister is Britt's age and the way they act and talk to each other reminds me a lot of how Britt and I used to act and that sometimes gets hard because then I start missing home a lot but it's okay! The Lord has been blessing me more than I can imagine!!

My Spanish is getting so much better! It's crazy how much it's improved in the last week alone. I'm still not near fluent and it's not really conversational yet but in a lesson Elder R*** and I switch off parts and I feel like some of the words are coming naturally to me and it's super awesome! But I still have a LONGGG way to go! But I'm working on it and I can tell the Lord is helping me so much!

I know I'm forgetting things because there is so much that has happened but that is the big picture. Man I miss everyone so much especially not being able to talk to everyone the past week and a half. But I hope all is well and I hope everyone has an amazing week!!!

Love,

Elder Robertson