Week 65 - Two Really Boring Hurricanes

Okay first and foremost, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! I know it isn't for a few days but obviously this will be the only time that I will be able to say happy birthday.

Second is that I can now say that I survived two really boring hurricanes. Absolutely nothing happened and it was a really boring day where we were told that we couldn't leave our houses. So it was basically a day of planning for the zone.

Third is we had a baptism!!! This was such an awesome one! His name is Enmanuel. He is a youth and LOVES the church! The missionaries found him about 6 months ago while contacting a different reference. As they got to know him they found out that his older sister is actuall a member. She got baptized a few years ago and then imediately stopped going to church. Because of that, their parents did not want Enmanuel to get baptized. But he right away started studying the Book of Mormon and received an answer early on in his studies that the church was true. So he remained faithful. He went to church every week and always begged his parents to let him get baptized. The first time I met him I knew that I had to do everything that I could to get permission from his parents. Long story short, after many long lessons and many prayers, his parents finally gave him permission to get baptized. I have never seen a happier person in my life. He literally was jumping for joy when he called us and told us that he was going to get baptized. It was such a good service and the spirit was felt so much. To the point where his mom came to church the next day and really liked it and now we are going to start teaching her even more. I have a feeling that because of the example of Enmanuel, his entire family will end up being sealed in the temple for time and all eternity.

Fourth is that transfers came. And the next 6 weeks are going to be a little interesting. I am staying as Zone Leader 1 here in Ralma and my companion is leaving. But they moved the other Zone Leader to a different area. It is in the same zone but we live in a different house. I think this is going to be very interesting trying to plan and coordinate for the zone. But this happened because I am going to train a brand new missionary. It is actually a pattern that is in all of the mission. I don't know of one zone where the Zone Leaders are companions. And there are many who are going to train. I am so excited! I still remember the day that I got into the mission like it was yesterday. I obviously don't know who it is yet but there is a meeting tomorrow for President to pair everyone up.

That is kind of funny about BYU and caffeine. You are right mom that doesn't really do anything for me because they don't have Dr. Pepper. And it really isn't much of a change because Zach, Christian and I often went to Walmart and we often had Dr. Pepper in our dorm room so it wont be that big of a change. We will probably still do the same. Plus Swig is right there by campus and you can buy whatever you want.

That is insane how much damage there is in Houston. I totally agree with you dad about not wanting to be "less and less astonished" and always recognize the hand of the Lord in my life. Now more than ever. I have seen so many amazing miracles on my mission.

Honestly everything is going so well. I love this mission and I love this gospel so much. I hope no one ever takes for granted the amazing gift we have to be in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and that everyone realizes the importance of sharing this with everyone.

I love yall a ton!! Have an amazing week!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Awesome picture of lightning after the hurricane

Amazing sunset

A wonderful baptism.

Our ward has a sort of swap meet and I found this dope jacket.

Hurricane Maria update from Tyler's Mission President

[For those wondering about Tyler in the Dominican Republic and how he was affected by Hurricane Maria which just passed to the North of their island, here's the update we got from his mission president.]

Dear Parents,

Hurricane Maria has passed by to the North of our island earlier today. Although we are still feeling some remnants of the storm. As a safety precaution, yesterday we moved 20 missionaries who were serving in the east and north areas of the country to a safer location. I am happy to report that all missionaries are safe and healthy. None of the missionary's houses or apartments were damaged by the storm. The missionaries who were moved will return to their areas tomorrow, Friday September 22, after the storm has completely passed and is safe. Thank you for your prayers. God bless you for all you do.

Sincerely,

Bret G. Smith

President
Dominican Republic Santo Domingo East Mission

The path that Hurricane Maria has taken so far. Notice the direct hit on Puerto Rico, but passing safely by the Dominican Republic. Tyler is in Santo Domingo which is on the south side of the island.

Week 64 - Long Interview with President

That is crazy about the Stake Presidency!! I will get released and received by completely different leaders! That is nuts! But I agree that is a power house of a Stake Presidency!  I am excited to see what happens in the future!

This week was super awesome!!! We had interviews with President Smith this past week. They were originally scheduled for the Thursday that Irma passed and y'all can imagine why we didn't have them that day. So they said they would let us know and Tuesday morning they called us and told us they were that day. So we scrambled to get the Zone together and headed over to have interviews. And the lasted soooo long. Apparently President Smith likes to interview the Zone Leaders last which is opposite of what President Corbitt did. But we were there waiting and waiting and waiting and at the end of the day I was the only person from the zone who couldn't do their interview. So I had to go down to the office the next morning to have my interview. I feel a little lucky and a little selfish because I was the only person to have an interview that day and it lasted a really long time because we were just talking. It turned into a little companionship study between the two and he shared a few of his thoughts for the future of the mission and it was so awesome!!

Other than that the only big thing that happened this week is we had a cosecha in one of the areas in the zone. Let me explain a little more what a "harvest" is. It is when all of the areas in the zone go to one specific area and help and have like a crazy few hours where all of the missionaries are working just in one area. It was so awesome! I had a very interesting experience. I was sitting with a family of investigators that they have and we were trying to help them have more desire to come to church. They were giving us some excuses on why they can't come and I had an overwhelming feeling of what I can only describe in Joseph Smith's words where he felt to "mourn for his sins and the sins of the world." It was such a weird experience because I almost hurt inside because this family was letting a few little things keep them from the best thing in their lives. I love so much what Dad said about numbers. It is a very big topic here in the mission. Of course God cares about numbers because all of those numbers haave names. All of those people are children of His. He wants all of them to find the truth and I need to be the kind of missionary that He trusts them with.

For P day I got a group of Elders together and we went to the only church in our mission with an indoor baksetball court and played a lot and it was super fun.

And last thing we are supposed to let yall know again that there is a plan for our safety but I don't think it will be necessary.

I love yall a ton! I love this gospel! Have an amazing week!!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

For P-Day we went to the only church in our mission with an indoor basketball court and played a lot. It was super fun.

This picture is a little blurry but it's a picture of our zone playing basketball.

A double rainbow all the way across the sky! But you can't really see the second one very well.

Week 63 - Hurricane Irma barely touched us

Well just to throw this out there the hurricane hardly touched us. President told us that we had to spend all day thursday in the house but we totally could have gone out. There was some pretty good wind and about 2:30 in the afternoon it started to rain pretty hard but it only lasted a few hours. It really wasn't anything out of the ordinary for the Dominican Republic. But I did have an interesting realization.

Wednesday during lunch we went to a store in our area that could be compared in size to a small H-E-B because president said we needed to buy a few things just to be prepared. We went and bought like 3 things and we were waiting to buy them for over a half an hour. The lines went back half of the store. Everything was completely empty on the shelves. I didn't have my camera with me to take pictures. Everyone in the store was crazy. When I saw that that happened I sat there thinking that all of these people are so lucky to have a warning. All of these people had a big warning that there was a need to be prepared, but even then all of these people waited until the very last day they could to go and be prepared. Now in this occasion it worked out for them. They had enough time to prepare themselves before Irma came.

I sat there thinking if people have a similar attitude towards the second coming of Jesus Christ.

I had a pretty interesting realization that hit me a couple days after. I have always felt that when Jesus comes it is going to be a big thing that is going to last for a long time. That everyone will know that it is happening and for that there will be more time to prepare. But one day something hi me that it isn't going to happen like that. Of course there are some signs but really when he comes if we aren't prepared we won't have time to run to the store at the last minute. We will have to live with what we have and it is our job to be ready for that starting right now.

It does sound like the world is kind of going crazy with all of these disasters. It makes me sad seeing so much destruction. That was awesome to hear about all of the adventures in Houston. Everyone is asking me if y'all are okay because everyone knows I am from Texas. I am inspired by the church and the members so willing to help in such a hard time.

I want to end with a quote that my Elders Quorum President said yesterday when we went on splits. We were just talking and he turned to me and just said, "I love this gospel." I really do love this gospel so much and I am so thankful for the opportunity to serve the people here in the DR. I am so grateful for such and amazing family and such amazing parents. I truly feel like I have been so blessed my entire life. Thank yall for all of the amazing work yall do. I love yall a ton and hope that yall have an amazing week!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Week 62 - Preparing for Hurricane Irma

So first off we are supposed to inform y'all that the mission does have a plan of emergency especially for hurricanes. The plan basically is just buy all of the canned food that we can and lock ourselves in our houses. Yall don't have to worry because I am in a part that is really close to the capitol and all of the houses are built pretty well. So if worse comes to worse I at least wont be in danger. But even though the center of the storm is going north of us we should still receive a lot of rain and wind and the draining system isn't good at all so even though it wont hit us it will still be interesting to see what happens. But I'm not too worried.

That is so sad to hear about Houston. That is going to take a long time to get back to normal. I will keep praying for them but I am excited to hear the stories about y'all going down to help them.

The emergency meeting was awesome. It started at 8 in the morning and lasted until 5. With hardly any stops. It isn't a big surprise that the main topic was about obedience. But it was an awesome meeting that we all got together to put a plan into action about how we are going to improve. August is the first month of my entire mission where the mission didn't baptize more than 100 people. It had a lot of people really concerned. I But we put a plan into action about how to purify ourselves and how to be more consecrated.

Basically we all started by doing a fast together, during that fast we all made a list of things that keep us from having the Holy Ghost with us as a constant companion. All of the things we need to change or improve. Then we made a promise that we wouldn't do any of them for 40 days. Of course it is a process but every night we need to do a check up with the Lord and if we didn't do well in one area we have to make plans to do better the next day.

It has only been a couple of days but I have already seen a huge change in my life and in the zone!! And they aren't even things really bad but things that I didn't think were distracting me but they were. But I have noticed a huge change in my life. As I try and focus on only the things here in the mission and what I need to be doing here, I have felt like the Lord has been trusting me more to know his will. In the past two days I felt like I have received some revelations for our area and our zone in ways that I never have before but I know that they come from God. I have felt the influence of the Spirit stronger in my life and especially in our lessons which is the most important. I seriously can't wait to see all of the changes that come about from this!!! I know that we are going to see a huge change in the mission and I know that even if the other missionaries don't want to take it seriously I can at least make sure that I can do all in my power that our zone really improves and becomes more in tune with the spirit.

I know I will have a ton of stories to share next week about it all but this week we literally were only in our area one day from all of the meetings and things that we had so that was kind of stressful but this week will be calmer and we are going to have a good chance to really get some good work done. This week we also have interviews with president and I love interviews with president! I always try and take as much one on one time as I can get with him just to ask him questions and find out how I can improve as a missionary!

That is nuts that there are only three people in the house now! I was thinking the yesterday in church that our once big family that always had to sit in the middle benches is now down to only two people sitting down in the congregation! They can sit on the side bench with another family if they want! How nuts is that???

I love y'all so much and am kind of excited to let y'all know next week if there was anything big that happened here but I have a feeling that there won't be!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Robertson