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
