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!!