Week 83 - I Forgot to Put on my Shoes

Wow...As of tomorrow I only have three transfer left. TIME IS GOING BY TOO fAST!! Transfers came and I am leaving Sabana Grande de Boya. It was a good little run here. I am going to an area called El Cristal. It is the area right next to one of my favorite areas where I had my first baptism, Lotes y Servicios! I am super pumped. This will most likely be my last area. It is a the only branch in the whole stake so I am pumped to go in with the same goal that I had in Valiente. I know it doesn't lack much to be a ward so I want to do everything that I can to help! I am really going to try and find out what the Lord's will is for me and for the people in El Cristal in my last little time in the mission!

It was a pretty good last week here in Sabana. A little dissapointing because the parents of some kids of a family that we were teaching didn't give them permission to get baptized. We know that they will really soon. I am excited to hear about what happens here in the coming weeks.

Okay I have a story that I totally forgot to tell last week but it is hilarious!! When we have zone conference we have to wake up really early and leave because we are so far away from everything. So we get up and I got ready and was ready like 30 minutes early so I started working on a tie that I wanted to wear that day, I had to fix it up a little. But long story short I didn't get it finished by the time the guagua came, but it was almost done so I just took it with me and finished it in the guagua (we rented a small private one to get there all together.) We had been out 30 minutes so we were far away from our house. I am sitting there looking out the window just thinking about life and tapping my feet up and down and I realize that something didn't feel right down there. When I realized what happened I felt my blood turn to ice, I turned to the Elder sitting next to me and said "I made a big mistake." I fORGOT TO PUT ON MY SHOES BEfORE I LEfT!! I still don't really understand how it happened or how none of the other 5 Elders saw that I left the house in my flip flops but it happened and we were super far away and couldn't go back. It was one of those nightmare moments where you are sitting there right before a big presentation and realize that you are in your underwear or something but it was happening in real life! I didn't know what to do! I was freaking out because I knew that at the start of every zone conference all of the zone leaders get up and give a report of how the work went in the last month, so I was in trouble. Luckily my old companion Elder Prosman came in clutch and brought some shoes for me but it was super funny. I'll attach a picture.

My new companion is going to be an American! That means 3 out of the last 4 companions will have been white, that is super weird! He just got out of his training. I don't know him but I hear he is a good worker so that makes me happy!

Next question on the list! What leadership trait have you observed has the most impact in influencing others for good?

This is kind of a hard question to answer because there are many, basically all of the attributes of Christ. I might cheat and I am going to pick three, charity, obedience and service (not really an attribute but still.) I am pretty sure this has been the answer for some other questions but they are so key. Charity is just so important, realy Christ like love. If people don't feel that you genuinly have charity for them it just isn't the same. If you have to correct someone and they know that you love them and you always show love for them they will actually listen to you, if not I have seen mainly that they just get annoyed and nothing really changes. Obedience would be most for an example. If a unit of any sort is going to be obedient it has to start from the top. If the mission president isn't obedient all of the people that follow him wont be. If people see that someone, especially a leader, is obedient to everything they need to be obedient to and is happy about it they will normally try to be more obedient also. That definitely helpd me be more obedient when I see that my leaders are trying to do everything they can to be obedient. And obviously service. Leadership really is nothing but more opportunities to serve more people. I guess you could relate this back to charity because if you love those you serve you will want to serve them more but a leader who doesn't serve is just a boss ordering people around and no one really likes that.

How have you dealt with the change of mission presidents?

Wow I could talk for so long about this one. I think I have dealt farely well with it. But I know that is not the case for everyone. from my very first interview I got a pretty strong spiritual confirmation that he was the perfect and right man called of God to come and lead the mission. But because he was new he obviously had to have some time to figure things out. President Corbitt was an incredible mission president and I don't think I will ever meet anybody like him. It would not surprise me at all if he was called to be a general authority very soon. By the end of his time here he had raised the mission to a level it has never been before. When he left a lot of things changed. There are still a lot of missionaries that are very loyal to President Corbitt because of a few of the changes and haven't really accepted President Smith and the new man to lead the mission and that makes me really sad. I know once all of the missionaries are on board and try as hard as they can to follow the councils of their leaders this mission will be raised to the next level and in a very short time there will be more wards and stakes and I wouldn't be surprised if the mission, by the time President Smith goes home, is close to being divided into two missions. But the time when that will start I don't think will be until the group two groups after me goes home because then all of those people who don't want to accept the change wont be here.

I love this mission and I am super excited to get to work in El Cristal! I love y'all a ton!

A picture of my house here in Sabana Grande

My shower in my house

My favorite p-day activity, sleeping. The problem is it was really light in the room, lucky this little 50 cent eye cover came in clutch, but the other Elders took pictures of me. Also it was like 75 degrees this morning up here and I was freezing, pajama pants, jacket, two blankets.

Week 82 - 19 Months today whoa...

Well today I hit 19 months out here in the field. That is NUTS! It feels like just a few days...

But this week was AWESOME!! The best part of the week was zone conference. The zone conferences since President Smith got here have been interesting. Each zone conference you can tell that he is getting more comfortable and each one has been better and better. This past week was amazing! We talked a lot about the Spirit and also the power of the Lord to heal and save. It was all out of the Book of Mormon. That book is so great. If there is one thing I am learning on my mission is how amazing the Lord is. I loved the picture of the black board because there are so many reasons that Jesus is important. I have been reflecting a lot on the hymn How Great Thou Art. President loves to climb mountains and he has shown us some incredible pictures of the creations of the Earth and it is humbling to think about. One of the awesome things about being out here in the boonies is that the stars are awesome at night. Sometimes I just look up and think about how much is really out there and how God has every star numbered and knows them by name. Many, MANY times in my mission I have stopped and truly said the words, How great thou art.

There was also an awesome anouncement made... ELDER RENLUND IS COMING TO THE MISSION!! On the 10th of February he is coming to visit our mission, JUST OUR MISSION!! We get 3 hours to have a conference with him and I really don't know what is going to happen but I am SUPER PUMPED!!!

Other than that the week was good! A little disappointing because we are having a little trouble getting people to church. That is the biggest challenge here in this area. It has been a little difficult but we have some ideas to try and put in practice this week!

I am glad yall finally got my letters! I sent those like a month ago! They actually got there a little quicker than I thought they would!

I agree with you Dad about the simplicity of life. I have seen that a lot here on the mission as the church has continued it's process of "reducing and simplifying." It is something I have been pondering a lot on and know that it is something I need to keep in mind my whole life.

Answer to another Question!!

What is the key to being a good companion?

This is a good question. I don't know if I have the exact answer to this. It kind of depends on your companion but I would say the best companion is one who follows the rules and works hard. I would say a key to any companionship would be service. If each companion is always trying to find ways to serve the other, good things will always come of it. And as always probably the most important thing is charity. I heard once that companions only get along in two situations, either they are both trying to be obedient together or they are both willing to be disobedient. I have been fortunate to have been blessed with more companions who want to be obedient. But obedience, hard work, service and charity is what I would say would be the keys to being a good companion.

There is an awesome family here!! They are members and the son is 18 and goes out with us a lot! There is a little girl and she reminds me of Elise SO MUCH!! She is a little younger than Elise is but if we really think about it when I left Elise was 11 and then before that I was at college so really I still kind of think of Elise as 10.. (sorry Lulu) But this little girl is the exact replica of her, just Dominican and a little crazier (but not much ;P)

That is about it for this week! Transfers are next week! We find out on Saturday! I predict I will stay the same here with my companion. We will see!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

A great family here in the D.R.

This little girl reminds me of my sister Elise so much

Week 81 - I will miss our Prophet

Feliz cumpleaños hermano!! No puedo creer que ya tienes 23 años (casi)!! Espero que tu dia sea feliz y lo disfrutes mucho! Te Quiero!!

The biggest event of last week was our beloved prophet passing away. That was hard to hear. We were told at the meeting that we had and President and his wife were pretty broken up about it. It was hard to hear considering most of the real memories I have and things I can remember has been with him. I don't remember very well the last change in the Prophet but it is going to be interesting to watch while I am here on my mission. And even more so it is going to be a change when I am doing a baptismal interview or teaching someone about a living prophet and who it is. But I love President Nelson and am super happy to see what will happen. But I think the saddest thing that happened was the reaction of the world. There were so many people who were so unaware of such a big event. There was one person who stopped us in the street and asked us, "so I heard one of your pastors died or something like that." I actually got sad in that moment because there are so many people who don't realize the importance of a living prophet much less realize that we have one here on the Earth. But it was a good moment to be able to testify of such things. I will miss President Monson greatly and will always admire the example he gave.

Alright I have a little bit more time so lets see how much I can update yall on. There wasn't a ton that happened last week so I don't have to update a ton about last week but lets see what I can do!

Last week we spent almost the whole week in the area. It is very uncommon for me to spend the whole week working in the area. Most of the time we have at least one day sometimes more. where we have a meeting and have to travel 2.5 hours to Santo Domingo in a bus that they call a "gua gua." Imagine like a hippy bus from way back when but like two times bigger. That is basically what it is. We only had one meeting that started super early so we were able to get back and work most of the week in the area. So we focussed on finding some new people and getting work done. We found quite a few potentials. We found this one family and we are teaching their 4 kids. The parents aren't super interested right now (which is very common here) but they gave us permission to teach their children. They are 17, 15, 13 and 11. Things are going well. They have a baptismal date and they like the church but we will keep working with them to see what happens!

This past week was a good one. This one we really did spend the whole week in the area and that was great! We did an unplanned intercambio with one of the areas in the zone. In our zone there are 3 branches with missionaries in them (there are 4 but one is closed for now.) We are in total 12 missionaries, one of the smallest zones in the mission. The problem is that we are super far away from each other. We are in Sabana Grande de Boya, and from here we have to take a 30 minute gua gua to Monte Plata which has only Sister, and then from there another 40 minute gua gua to get to Bayaguana. So it takes a lot of time to travel when we have to do things. In Bayaguana is one of the District Leaders so we have to do their interviews. To not lose a ton of time we met up in Monte Plata and did an intercambio but it the interview went longer than expected and we ended up having to stay in the intercambio (sorry I actually don't remember what these are called in English, exchanges? Like where two companionships switch companions) because there weren't anymore gua guas that could take us back. The problem is that then we had 4 Americans in one house and that always means trouble but it was fun to talk with all of them and talk in English for a bit.

The work here is going really well! We have a new investigator named Edwin who showed up to the English class that we are having. He came to church the next day and in Gospel Principles he asked what I like to think of as the golden question that any investigator can ask, "What I just don't understand is, if there is only one God, why are there so many different churches in the world?" All six of us missionaries in our branch stopped and looked at each other and we all started silently arguing whose invesitgator it was because we didn't know where he lived. It turns out he is in our area and I am super excited to start teaching him and help him find out the answer to that question.

Okay I will answer one question this week because this email is already super long.

How have you learned to deal with disobedience from other missionaries?

This is a banger because there are a lot of different ways to deal with it, and I have seen many different situations where it has been delt with. First and foremost I have had to always remember that I am not perfect and I can always improve. It is hard to try and help another missionary if you have stuff to work on, like the whole sliver in your neighbors eye and the beam in your own eye type of thing. Plus one of the most important things to do is try and set an example. No I lied, the most important thing is love. It is crazy the miracles that can be worked if someone feels charity coming from another person. But the basic answer to this question would be communication and plans. I personally don't like to take it directly to President unless it is necessary. I always urge the missionary to take it to him directly. But if you love someone, you will have the courage to talk to them about what is happening and help them see the consequences. And then if they are willing, make a plan how to improve and give follow up on that plan, and if they aren't willing to change or don't care, still try and make a plan with them to get the most done that you can. Much like that one experience that dad has on his mission with that one missionary that wanted to go home. It isn't easy and I am convinced there are a ton of better ways to do it but the nice thing is there haven't been a ton of situations where I have had to deal with real disobedience! The most important is follow the example of the Savior.

I can't upload any pictures this week sorryyyy... Next week I will!

LES QUIERO MUCHÍSIMO!!!

CON AMOR,

Elder Robertson

Week 80 - Short Letter this week

Hey everyone!! I don't have a ton of time! Just wanted to jump on and say I am alive and I love everyone! We got back late today so ther isn't time to write! But I will update yall on everything next week! Well not a ton happened this week but it was an awesome week!!

I did write a kind of longish letter to President. Since I don't have long to write, here is a part of my letter to president! We have been talking about consecration a lot and he said that it was a life long process.

"I am starting to see more and more that consecration is not a destination. I have thought about that a lot because true consecration I would have to say is quite close to perfect and we all know there has only been one person who has acheived that. But every day in my life I have been seeing changes. Big ones. I know I am not perfect, FAR from it. I still have so much to improve. But I am trying. I have found a good routine for me and feel like I am keeping to a good schedule in the morning. I felt another change this week that again I don't really know how to describe. I don't feel anymore as if the rules or the schedule or anything are things that I am required to do or follow just because I am a missionary, I feel like it is because I am a missionary, those are things that are just part of my life. They aren't feeling like burdens. It all just feels like it is part of my life, It is a hard explanation but it is a good change. But I will keep working because as you said, it is a life-long process."

I love you a ton! Next week wont be so short I am so sorry!!

I LOVE YALL!! HAVE AN AMAZING WEEK!!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Week 79 - 2018!!!

Wow I can't beleive it is 2018! I remember so clearly last New Years Eve, I was with a missionary who finished in May 2017 and he said he felt super weird because it was the year the he was going to go home and I kind of chuckled and thought to myself "at least I don't have to worry about that because I felt like I was never going home. But now here we are and I feel as if that was last week and I don't really know how I feel. I still don't really feel like I am ever going to go home. Like I just don't feel like this is ever going to change, I feel like what I am doing right now is just life and it will always be my life.

This week was awesome! It was kind of hard because we couldn't go out as much because the 24, 25, 31 and 1 are pretty much the craziest days here in the DR. We got to go to the temple though which was awesome!! I went with a lot of questions in mind especially for what the Lord wanted from me for the last part of my mission. I can't really explain everything that happened partly because it would take forever but basically I love the temple and it is by far the best place to receive revelation!

For New Years we made some bomb burritos! I now live with a missionary named Elder Myers. He is super awesome and from Arizona. We made them together and the other missionaries loved them. I attatched a picture of when we had everything prepared. Later that night we went over to a recent converts house and ate hot dogs and played dominos. I actually have gotten pretty dang good and want to teach a lot of people when I get home because it is a super fun game!

Another fun little story is the sisters had a baptism and we had to go fill up the font. When we got there we realized there was a problem, there wasn't any water. We called the other missionaries and had to figure out what to do. We worked with the water for a while but we couldn't get it worked out so we had to call a truck and fill the font up with a giant hose. It was kind of fun!

But yeah this week was a little boring because we had to stay inside a lot but I am super pumped ofr January! I know this month is going to be full of miracles and there are many people waiting to start the year of by making a covenant with our Father in Heaven.

I love yall a ton!! Have an amazing first week of 2018!!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

At the Temple with Elder Myers.

At the temple with my zone

Filling the baptismal font

Homemade burritos on New Years Day

Playing Dominos on New Years