Week 3 - Slums and Temples

I love getting yalls emails and its so good to hear from y'all! 

Wow this week has been amazing. My district and I are getting so close. They are seriously so awesome. This week has been great. We got to go to the temple today so it was super nice to be able to get out of the CCM. The temple visitors center was so awesome! 

Mexico City LDS Temple

Mexico City LDS Temple

Mexico City LDS Temple

Mexico City LDS Temple Visitor Center

Mexico City LDS Temple Visitor Center

Mexico City LDS Temple Visitor Center

However I'm really in a dump of a place. It's so sad seeing the slums of Mexico city. It makes me realize how truly lucky we are to live where we live. 

Some views of Mexico City near the CCM

Some views of Mexico City near the CCM

Some views of Mexico City near the CCM

Some views of Mexico City near the CCM

Oh also............. I went to get a haircut and the lady just shaved everything off.. woooo.............. haha

My new haircut

I lost a lot of hair!

I'm trying to finish the Book of Mormon right now. If I finish it this week, I will have read it in about 2 and a half weeks. It really is an amazing book! Best book on earth :) 

Something from this week that I learned was from a devotional given by D. Todd Christofferson. The worth of souls is great. And I have been called as a companion to the 12 apostles and trusted with the very work God has taken upon himself to cry repentance and bring everyone back to their heavenly father and savior, Jesus Christ.

Week 2 - The World Cup and missing BBQ

I get all of the World Cup updates here from my teachers because soccer is such a big deal here. When Mexico plays, everything outside of the walls is so quiet except you can tell when mexico scores because everyone in the whole city cheers. It's crazy!  You should watch the world cup though! It's gonna be such a great year to watch.

If there's something I miss most about the states it's bbq. The food here is kinda weird so a big plate of Rudy's right now sounds soooo good!!

I'm trying my best to have enthusiasm in everything I do! It's definitely a way easier way to get through things then being down all the time. I really do love it here in the CCM however I'm so excited to get out into the field and be able to start using some of this stuff that i've been learning for 12 hours a day haha. But It will be a little weird going out into the world though because I think I'm getting used to how spiritual the CCM is all the time. So I'll have to be a little prepared for that. 

I couldn't do anything to commemorate Father's Day! It was really weird not being able to do anything. But happy belated Fathers Day, Dad.

[In answer to your question] I do get to go to the temple and go to the visitors center but not go into the temple because it's sinking into the ground.  So that's weird. But I'm kinda bummed about that. But, luckily, I have a temple in my mission.  Other than that, we are NEVER allowed to leave the CCM because it's in a not good part of town. I'm kinda bummed because I don't get to go see the culture and experience it a little bit, but I understand why they do it!

I love y'all so much! I don't have a ton more time. But this week was amazing. I got to teach more investigators which was a really good experience. My Spanish is still improving and I'm working on it every day! I'm so happy to be here and to be doing this work. I will try and share more specific stories next time when I'll have a little more time! Thank you guys for everything. I love y'all!!!!

Week 1 - Spanish, Floods, and District Leader

! mission is amazing! I'm learning so much while I'm out here. I love the CCM (MTC en epañol) and my district it's going to be really hard to leave. The CCM is sort of full immersion. We get taught in spanish and all our stuff on Sundays is in spanish but we still can ask our teachers how to say stuff because their second language is English and we talk to each other in mainly English still. 

Pero mi español es mejorando muy rapido. ¡Yo enseño cinco lecciones en espoñol! Nuestro investigator acepta un invitación a ser bautismo. Yo estuvo muy feliz cuando este a sucedido. Pero necisito a ayudar mucho antes reporto a la misíon. But I can teach a lesson alright and pray and bear my testimony in Spanish so far. So that's cool! 

So much has happened this past week, I don't know where to begin. Classes began and wow! I learn so much. We have about half language studying and half doctrinal studying. I love both of them. My English is actually starting to get a little bit worse. My sentences are kind of put together weird and I am having a harder time spelling. It's way weird what just one week of learning Spanish all day everyday does to ya. I've been writing in my journal everyday so I'm gonna have a good record of all of my time here at the CCM. 

On Friday we met with our zone leaders who basically gave us an overview on how things are going to work regarding church and stuff and then I was called as our districts district leader! Which has been an amazing and humbling experience. I love serving my district and doing all that I can to make sure that we are all going to be the best missionaries that we can be when we head out into the field from the CCM. The next day was my first day as district leader and I'm not going to lie, I felt a little overwhelmed. With the fact that we had to prepare a lesson every day for the next day when we'd be teaching our investigator, prepare a talk every week, prepare a lesson every sunday for my district for Sunday school, learn 25 words a day, 5 phrases, and memorize 2 scriptures.  And, to top it all off, we have homework every night for language and doctrine. So I was a little worried that my plate was just a little too full. But with a LOT of prayer I have really gained a testimony in the importance of planning. I have learned to really manage my time a lot better. Now, I don't feel overwhelmed at all only busy. And in my mind busy is great. I love being busy in the Lord's work. 

I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to be out here. My district is amazing. The Elders are Elder Baughan (mi compañero) y Elder Stewart y Elder Ellsworth. And oh my goodness they are all so awesome. We get along great and have such a good time together. We always have to make sure to get to bed on time and be conscious of it because if we're not then we will be up for hours just talking about the gospel and other things. They are a huge inspiration to me and are all going to make great missionaries. The Hermanas are Hermana Clark (who was really good friends with Haley Brunsdale, Kaitlyn's younger sister) y Hermana Bowen y Hermana Warnick y Hermana Horning. They are all so amazing and have some of the most incredible testimonies of anyone that I've ever met. They are inspiring me and helping me to grow so much as a missionary and just as a person in general. It's gonna be hard to say goodbye but so exciting to hear about the things that they are going to go out and do in the mission field. 

Everyone in my district is going to California on their missions except for my compañero who is going to Denver South. I and two of the Hermanas (Warnick y Horning) are going to Fresno and the other two Elders are going to Carlsbad. The other two hermanas are going to Sacramento. So that's a cool thing that we all have in common. 

​The sign of the CCM con mis amigos

My daily schedule is pretty much that I wake up every morning at 6:20 (10 min early so that I will get a hot shower haha). It's actually not hard at all to wake up in the mornings which was a huge surprise. My body is totally happy with 8 hours of sleep so that's been way nice. Then I get ready and head to breakfast. Which the food here isn't that bad. It's actually pretty good most of the time. Plus we get Costco pizza every Tuesday night so that's way awesome! After breakfast we get to study by ourselves for an hour and I just study the Book of Momon. I'm going to try and start and finish it all in here which would be super nice. Man that book is seriously the word of God. It is so amazing. Then after that we have classes every day until lunch pretty much. 

My Room. My bed is the one with the masculine pink blanket

We learn in Spanish so that's been hard to get used to because my spanish wasn't good at all when I got here. But I'm understanding it way better now and am just striving to keep improving. We then have lunch and then after that we have something called TALL which is a program the church uses on the computer to help us learn spanish. I learn a good amount of grammer in there so that's really nice. Then we have personal and language study which is pretty much just used to memorize words and phrases so that we can actually understand people when they're talking to us. haha. Then is a great part of the day...GYM TIME! We get like an hour every day to go play basketball, volleyball, soccer, or to lift weights or run, so that's really nice. It's fun to relieve some of the stress of learning with some good games of ball. Then we plan for the next time and have dinner. Then we teach an investigator every night. 

We have been teaching Hermano Loya. It's been really awesome and a cool experience teaching him in Spanish. It has helped me a lot to speak in spanish to him and I learn a lot by doing it. After that we get to go home and read a little in our scriptures, write in our journals, talk a little bit, and be in bed by 10:30 -- even though we always get into bed at like 10:34. We try so hard to get in bed right on time but we can never do it, haha. We'll get it down soon though. 

On tuesdays, instead of teaching an investigator we get to have a devotional which is so awesome. This week it was streamed in from the Provo MTC where Elder Quintin L. Cook and his wife spoke. It was really neat and I got a lot of notes out of it. One thing his wife stressed was that ''you are your first convert'' -- which is such a true statement. Something he said that was amazing was to not be discouraged because we are called of God and we will be able to do anything and everything that he has asked of us with his help. 

Sundays here are amazing too. We just get to refill our spiritual canteens instead of learning how to and filling others. It is really nice. It's all in spanish except for the devotional on sunday nights so as of now I don't get a lot of what was taught so that's a bummer but i think I'll be able to understand more as the weeks go on. Every week though we have to prepare a talk for sunday. And then 6 random people are chosen every sunday to speak. And yes, that means give a talk in spanish. So that'll be interesting when I get called upon to give that talk. 

So that's the basic life that I'm living now and oh my goodness, do i love it!! Oh, and some crazy things happened this past week here. The CCM flooded. Yes I mean flooded. It was crazy.

​Us in front of the house during the flood. (Left-Stewart, Baughan, Me, Ellsworth-right)

​Me in the street that's flooded

The store here is awesome and has so much stuff so that's been super nice because we get about 100 pesos a week or like 8 dollars so i've gotten some good stuff from there like mexican candy! It's way good. 

I know that this was suuuuuper long and I'm sorry, I just have so much I wanna share! I have so much more I could talk about but I'll end somewhat with this. It's a scripture in 2 Nefi 2:7-8 it says:

Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered.

Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise. 

Wherefore, he is the firstfruites unto God, inasmuch as he shall make intercession for all the children of men; and they that believe in him shall be saved.

Yo sé que este escritura es verdadero. Yo es aquí porque todas personas en la tierra necisitan a escuchar sobre El Salvador y su Expación. Amo mi Salvador con mi corazón de todo. Yo sé El Libro de Mormon es la palabra de Dios. Yo sé José Smith fue un profeta y restaurado la Engelia de Jesucristo en la tierra. Agradecido por este y la oportunidad a servir un misión. ¡¡¡Amo usteds mucho!!!

Week 0 - Matt's in Mexico!

Well, I've got my name tag, so it's official!! The travel was kind of hectic but it all worked out in the end. I almost missed my connecting flight because my plane had to get jumped... It was way weird. 

I took Pres. Spears challenge to talk to someone about the gospel on my travel here. I wrote my testimony into a Book of Mormon that I brought and gave it to the man who was sitting next to me after I had explained what I was doing in Mexico. He gratefully accepted the book and thanked me for it. I ran into him later in the airport and he came up to me and wished me the best and said that he was truly grateful for my gift that I had given him. It was awesome!! 

My p-days here are going to be on Thursdays and I don't have a p-day this week so you won't hear from me for a while! I'm so grateful for the opportunity that I have to be a servant of the Lord. 

Ready... Set... Go!

Elder Robertson

The Terrific Trio! Once upon a time there were these three awesome compadres. They grew up together- going to church activities, school, played on championship basketball team together and even went to BYU for freshmen year.

At the Winter Break they all turned in their missionary papers and received their mission calls to leave all around the same time.. but all to different parts of the world!

They have worked and prepared for this grand adventure on the Lord's errand- and I can't believe its here!

We had their triple missionary open house on Sunday, May 25, 2014 where they were met with much love and kindness. We love our church family and all of our family and friends! So grateful to have Grandpa & Grandma Russell here for the Farewell. And so much thanks to the Beards for hosting it at their beautiful home.

          Matt = Fresno, CA         Tanner = Santiago, Chile          Cameron = De Jong, Korea

I am so so proud of these boys! They are the Terrific Trio indeed!