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 |
