Week 100 - See y'all in a week

Life has been interesting. I definitely still don't feel like I am going home in a week! I haven't packed anything. I feel like on Saturday I will get a call telling me where I am going to go next transfer and who my companion will be and then I will be transferred and life will go on normally and I will just be a missionary for the rest of my life. That is basically how I feel right now. I am going to have to force myself to start backing because I wont have time if I leave it all until the end of the week because then I wont have any time. It is weeiirrddd!!

I love the gospel. It is so obvious to me that it is the true gospel that we are living. I love the perspective that it gives me on life and helps me understand what things are important and what are not. I am especially grateful for our knowledge on families and the importance of them. Yesterday we showed up to a house of a family of investigators that we are teaching. When we got there and "knocked" (here you don't knock, if you have read Christian's emails you "knock" the same way here, screaming into someones house until they come out.) Nobody answered, but they were obviously home because the door was wide open.

Eventually the husband came out and he was very sad. This is an awesome family of a recently married couple who both are in their 40s and they are raising 3 children together. They have been very happy and have been to church about 4 times (The reason they haven't gotten baptized yet will be obvious in a sec.) He was leaving to go somewhere and was obviously upset about something. He asked if he could talk with us in private and we got into his car to talk. He goes on to explain that he thinks he is going to have to get divorced with his wife. His wife is a good lady who once was part of the evangelical church but has since left it. She also has a huge drinking problem. It is something that we have been working with for a long time. She, and basically every other Christian in the country, knows that it isn't good and that she needs to quit but believes that even though she is sinning and knows it, she has accepted Christ as her Savior and believes that she will be saved in the end.

Last week we had a very strong lesson with her about what it means to actually accept Christ in our lives and we read 2 Nefi 28 with her, we felt the spirit strongly but he told us that after that lesson she still hasn't changed and he said that it has gotten worse, to the point where she has put it in priority over her family. We didn't really know what to say especially because we can't really counsel him. So we told him to pray and to seek guidance from the Lord and if he wanted he could talk to the Branch President. But I left that car very sad. Very very sad. It is such a good family that Satan is trying to destroy. I am so thankful for such a good family who has always taught me gospel principles, even if I didn't always want to follow them. The family is sooo important in the plan of God and it is so important that we always stay close as a family and all families have a Christ-centered home and relationship, I know I still have some time before I have a family of my own but when the time comes, I will definitely try and model it after our home. Thank y'all for always being so strong in the gospel. Y'all are the best!

Speaking of families, I don't know if y'all remember from last year but Mother's day here is two weeks after Mother's day in the states so we celebrated Mother's day again yesterday and I just wanted to take a moment again to say that I have the best mom in the world!!! The branch had an activity and it turned out super well! But it made me miss Mom a ton! Mothers are awesome!! Especially mine!! I love you Mom!

I can't wait to make some awesome memories this summer! I can't believe it has already been two years since the last time we were all together! I can't really describe how weird it is going to be coming home, let alone going back to the United States. I am SO excited to eat food!!! There is so much food that I miss from the States, mainly dairy products! Milk here sucks. So I mean if y'all wanted to have a gallon of milk waiting in the fridge that would be dope, also a block of cheese. Man how I miss cheese. Also, maybe some Ben and Jerry's Phish food ice cream? :-) Also I still haven't decided if I want to go to Torchy's or I want y'all to bring it to the airport. I think it will mostly depend on when I am going to get released. If we have a lot of time before President Germann can release me we might as well just go straight to Torchy's and eat and talk there.

President Smith sent me an email last week telling me that in our last interview we will be discussing my goals and my plans FOR THE NEXT 12 MONTHS!! That is a year!! I barely have plans for the first day the I will be back! I mean in our mission we don't do My Plan or anything similar. He just told me to start making some plans. I mean I have thought a little bit about rules and stuff but I gotta think about the whole year! That is crazy! It is weird finally letting myself think a little bit about home. I have put it off trying not to get "trunky" but I feel like I have to start making some plans because I don't want to get there with nothing. It is WEIRDDDD!!!.

Mom that doll house you made looks awesome! You are so talented!!

I am looking forward to this week! I got one more week to leave it all out here! Gotta give it my all!

I love y'all a ton!! I will see y'all in a week!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Week 99 - I got called Ugly

HELLOOO!!!

Wow this week was a crazy one! But AWESOME!!!

Okay the biggest story of this week was Jafreisy and Rosangeles!! I don't really even know where to start here! We met them a few weeks ago walking through one part of our area. Their dad called us over because he wanted to talk to us about getting a new wheel chair. As many of y'all know, the church give away wheel chairs to people who need them. In the family there is an 8 year old kid named Soni. He is one of the funniest kids I have ever met, but in his 8 short years of life he has had 6 strokes. Luckily he is slowly getting everything back and he is fine in his head and can talk and comunicate normally but he can't really use his body, and a few years ago the church gave him a wheel chair but it is now too small and they wanted to see if they could get a new one. Well of course we said we would see what we could do and asked if we could come back to talk about the gospel. They accepted.

We later found out that their mom was a member but has been less active for over 20 years. We started teaching them but the only people who were really interested were Jafreisy (17) and Rosangeles (9). Rosangeles reminds me EXACTLY of Elise! I know I have said that about a few people here but this girl is by far the most similar, she is so sweet and innocent and sheds light wherever she goes. But anyways, they wanted to get baptized yesterday, but the family was planning to move a few streets away that same day and the dad had already paid a moving van. They said that because of the move there wouldn't be any time that day to have the baptism, so with special permission we showed up at their house at 7 in the morning on Sunday to help them move. It didn't look like we were going to make it but with minutes to spare we finished the move and Jafreisy and Angeles got ready and we headed to church.

During church we had to fill up the baptismal font and when we tried, there wasn't any water. We didn't know what to do. One of the members was going to come look at it but we didn't know if it was going to be able to happen. As we were trying to figure that out we found another problem, all of the baptismal clothes that we had prepared and were in the church had somehow disappeared. Nobody knew where they went. We had to grab a member and go to the nearest church building which would be about the distance from our house to LTHS and go find other clothes. During the course of all of this and after many prayers we found out that the water miraculously started working and it was filling up way faster than it usually does. It was going to be tight but it looked like we were going to make it. But, right before the service we remembered that our old Ward Mission Leader who always made the agenda for the baptism was released a few weeks ago (he got called to be the new EQ President) and we didn't have someone to lead the baptism. But luckily the second counselor came in clutch and winged the whole thing and it turned out to be a very spiritual baptism. God is amazing and definitely works miracles. They were so happy after their baptism!!

Something I was studying this week was opposition. I was meditating on the words of Lehi in 2 Nefi 2 where he says "es preciso que haya una oposiciòn en todas las cosas." He talks about the need for opposition in all things and I started to think about something else. In the council before the world was, two plans were presented. Satans plan was a plan where we didn't have agency, we wouldn't have been able to choose between right and wrong and therefore, never would have experienced opposition. Satan's plan is a plan without opposition. Any time that we start to think that we don't want opposition or just wish that everything was easier we are starting to want to follow more the plan of Satan. God's plan is that we live a life of opposition and gain experiences. It has changed my perspective of a lot of things. It is always for our benefit.

I have had a lot of temptations to kind of give up and just cruise through my last two weeks but I know that I can't do that. God has a lot of work for me to do still and I know that a lot can happen in two weeks! Gotta stay strong until the end!

I got called ugly by a crazy hatian lady this week, we tried to talk to her and she screamed "don't talk to me you are ugly" and then ran off. So that was something.

I love y'all and I love this work!! Have an awesome week!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Jafreisy and Rosangeles baptism.

Week 98 - Happy Mother's Day

Just want to take a second and wish Mom another Happy (late) Mother's day! You are the best mother in the whole world! I could not have asked for anyone better! You have been there to guide and help me literally since day 1 before I could even talk or walk. Without you, I literally would not exist! I am glad to hear that it was a special day for you because you deserve it! It also sounds exactly like you to go out of your way to make it such a special day for everyone else also! You are the best mom in the whole wide world!!!! I LOVE YOU!!

It was awesome talking to y'all yesterday! It wasn't a great connection so I only heard about half of what y'all said! But it was still super awesome! It is super weird to me that I am going to see all of yall in three weeks! It still doesn't feel real! It is also super weird that in like one week I am going to take Zach off of the email list, one by one the names are getting shorter and shorter.

This past week wasn't bad. Nothing really new just the same old stuff. We are working with a few people who have a TON of potential! Things are progressing with my companion. We are working on our effort and still have three weeks to improve! Send prayers our way!

I am excited to talk about the way that the Savior teaches on my first Sunday back! That is something that I have been studying during my entire mission, I hope that I can come up with something good!

It sounds like we have an action packed summer! I am super excited but hope I can keep up! I don't really know how I am going to be when I get home so y'all will have to tell me if I am weird or not!

My memory card got another virus on it and I am so close to coming home that I don't really want to risk fixing it here. I want to bring it home and have dad work on it. So for that reason I don't know how many pictures I will be able to send in these last few weeks. I will try my best!! But this week I don't have any...sorry!!

I love y'all a ton! I love this gospel so much! This church is so true and I have never been more sure of that! Y'all are amazing--the best family in the world! Sorry there isn't a ton of information this week! I will try and do some crazier stuff this week to have some awesome stories next week!

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Robertson

[Tyler got to call home on Mother's Day. The connection was pretty bad but it was great to hear his voice and feel of his enthusiasm for being a missionary.] 

Week 97 - Happy Cake Wars Day!

Okay first off I now think it is hilarious that we "celebrate" the 5 de mayo in the states. There is only one little town in Mexico that celebrates this day. If y'all want a good laugh go look up the whole story, it is literally "cake wars."

ANYWAYS! I didn't know Brittany was going through the temple! That is so awesome!! I wish I could have been there! But I am excited to be able to go all together when I get home! Just got to wait a few years for Elise to be able to go with us! I am totally with dad about the drive down to the temple. I loved before the mission being able to go so often and work a little bit in the temple and it was fun because I got to drive down there a lot. It really is a super pretty drive!

This week was pretty basic! A lot of good ole down to earth missionary work, which means a lot of contacting. I actually really like contacting! A lot of missionaries don't. But I love coming up with new ways to contact people that isn't just the same old "hi we are mormons and want to talk about the Book of Mormon." Something that we have been trying to incorporate is singing, like Christmas caroling but in May and with Hymns from the church :) It has been super fun! People just need to know that we are normal people that praise God and not Joseph Smith. We have found quite a few really interested people! I am excited to keep working with them!

We had interviews with President this past week! It was my last normal interview with him, I have one more but it is the day before I leave so that is weird. My temple recomend expired and he gave me a new interview which was kind of cool. They are very similar to the baptismal interview questions. What I thought was interesting was also the biggest difference, in the baptismal questions it is "Do you know what this is? Are you willing to live and follow this commandment?" And the temple recommend questions are all "do you have a testimony of this stuff?" It was cool to meditate on how much my testimony has really grown over the past two years since the last time I was asked those questions. I really do have a testimony of this work and this gospel.

I am glad that everyone had such an amazing week! The highlight of my week is I finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish again! I love that book so much and it is the foundation of my testimony!!

This week is going to be the best week yet! I love serving God so much! Got to use all the time that I have left to the best of my ability! I love y'all a ton!!

Have an amazing week! Share the gospel with someone this week in a bizarre way!

Love,

Elder Robertson

[Note from Dad: Tyler sent these pictures home with no explanation. Gross.]

[Note from Dad: Tyler sent these pictures home with no explanation. Gross.]