Week 12 - Learning of the passing of Grandpa

[NOTE: On August 25, Matt's Grandpa Robertson passed away from an aggressive form of cancer.  Fortunately, the 25th was his Preparation Day so he was able to get this news on the day it happened.]

Wow. I did not see this coming. I've been extremely sick the past few days and have had the few hardest days on my mission. I can barely move yet somehow I'm still able to ride my bike every day and go to my appointments. The Lord is blessing me so much with that. I've had to just give everything to the Lord because I couldn't do anything on my own the past couple of days and it was an amazing experience to watch the Lord help me. I think he was in a small way preparing me for this news. Because I don't think I'd be able to handle this otherwise. But I'll definitely need to pray. 

This is going to be so hard to not be with y'all at this time. Like really hard. But I love you all so much and am so glad we have the knowledge of our Heavenly Father's plan for us. Thanks for the pictures and thanks for everything y'all do. I love y'all and love the fact that I can write you every week and know how much y'all love me! Let me know if there's anything I can do. 

Mom, Dad, I've thought a lot about my home grown up as I've been out here and seen what other peoples homes look like. My home was amazing and y'all are the most amazing parents. I'm excited to return from my mission in two years and start showing y'all that as much as I can! I love y'all so much and am so grateful to y'all for all you did! Love you and am so grateful for my eternal family.

I am having amazing experiences on my mission. Sometimes I wish that I could see y'all just so you could see how much I've changed!! The Lord is truly showing my potential and how I can get there. And while it's definitely not always easy, it is oh so worth it! It's definitely hard being so far away for this trial but I know that the Lord will help me through it since I am serving him and he's looking out for y'all too!

So at the moment we are teaching a few different people here are their names and kind of what's going on :)

Maria Reyes: Has a son named Mario who joined the church about a year ago. She knows that it is true and now we are just helping her see that since she has this knowledge what she must do with it and how she can show her faith. I think that it is hard for her because change is something that she is not a huge fan of. However, I think that with time the Lord will let us know what we must do to help her the best we can. Her mom is also a member and so is her niece so she has had a lot of exposure to the church. She is pretty much a mormon already though. She lives a great life and has an awesome family. Just needs to take the step of baptism.

Tony Alfaro: This is someone who we were referred to by his grandpa who is a member of the church. The missionaries have been teaching him for about 3 months and he is being baptized on saturday :D I'm so excited because this is the first baptism who I have actually had a big role in teaching! So I've really been able to see the spirit work through me with him. It's been kind of a rough journey because he has anxiety so it's hard for him to make decisions but the Lord has helped him on his way and he's ready to be baptized.

Salvador: A man who is new but understands that we are servants from God. We will hopefully be setting a baptismal date soon. We'll see. He was a marine and is really awesome.

Charlie: Also in the military. He has a purple heart from being shot three times. He has a lot of pride but the lord is humbling him through a divorce. I know that sounds really harsh but it's true. He's super receptive now to the gospel and we're helping him see that the Lord can help him with this and to know that the Lord has a plan for him specifically. 

There are more. But those are some of the more recent ones! I love the people I get to know here and know that I will remember them forever. Sorry, I don't talk about what I do a ton, I'll try to be better at that! I love you and miss ya!! 

Love,

Elder Robertson

Week 11 - The hardest part of missionary work

[Matt's LDS Ecclesiastical leader, called a Bishop, when he left on his mission is moving, so a new Bishop (Chris Germann) was called n his place.]

Whooooaaa!! That's crazy that Bishop Giles isn't the bishop anymore. That's super weird to imagine. Bishop Germann is going to do amazing things though. He is an amazing man. I'm glad to hear that your dad is improving, Dad. That's good to hear. I have been praying for him. I'm sad that I don't get to be with y'all during this hard time. It's been hard. But the Lord helps me. Thanks for the update. 

A funny thing about your work dad. It's so hard to try and explain to Mexicans. First off, because I know none of the vocabulary for anything that Finnell does or really how to explain IT. Also, even if I did, none of them even know what most of the high end type products are so they just stare at me blankly. So, now I just say you work with computers and websites. Haha.

Brittany, wow, you have an amazing testimony. That's so awesome that you're getting your patriarchal blessing to help you with school. Mine has helped me a lot on my mission. It is truly from God and so inspired. I'm excited for you. High School is an interesting place, but if you surround yourself with good people and do good things it can be some of the best times of your life! I'm excited to hear about your experiences and miss you!!

This week has been good :) We've been continually teaching a few people. One of which is Tony. Who is so cool. He's about 40 and has 3 kids. He's been having the lessons for about 4 months and has a baptismal date for the 30th of this month! So that's super exciting. He has some anxiety issues so hopefully he'll be ready by that date. I have a lot of faith he will be though. I learned that the hardest part of missionary work is when somebody drops you and doesn't want to listen anymore. Hh boy it's frustrating. Not that you're frustrated at them but you're frustrated at yourself for trying to figure out what more you can do for them and the only answer is to have patience. So I'm learning a lot from that.

I love an miss y'all so much. The more and more I see people's lives and how messed up and sad they are, the more I realize how eternally lucky I have been to grow up with the gospel and with such an amazing family. I miss y'all and hope the start of school goes well!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Week 10 - Finding Comfort in Jesus Christ

[A little background on this letter.  The weekend prior to this letter, Matt's Grandpa Robertson went into the hospital and was diagnosed with Cancer.  -- Scott Robertson]

Oh my goodness. That was so unexpected. I will pray for him every chance I get and ask my companion to do the same. I love y'all so much and am glad that he's feeling a little better and hope he will continue to do so. Please keep me updated as you find out more. 

This week was really awesome. I got to see Viri get baptized. She's such a strong little girl! It's amazing to watch a little girl go through with baptism! If there's anything else I can do to help with Grandpa please let me know. Also could I get an address that I could send a letter to and it would get delivered to him? That would be excellent. 

We can do impossible things. We are potentially eternal beings however, we seldom act like such. It is a hefty thing to live up to but something that I know we can all do with the Lord's help. I've been really studying repentance and faith in Jesus Christ the past little while as I'm trying to get more familiar with the lessons. It truly is humbling the fact that we are able to repent. If you take a step back and look at the big picture..Wow. Jesus Christ did something impossible. This single impossible act is the reason that we can take comfort even though grandpa's sick. That is an amazing blessing of the gospel. In my mind one of the greatest. 

I love this gospel and love y'all!! My prayers are with y'all!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Week 9 - GUYS, I LOVE THE TEMPLE!!!!

Okay just had to say that. Anyways, I love this mission. And I love that I have this opportunity to really change peoples lives the most of which is my own. I already know I am a different person. And I love the person I am becoming. It is true that through the Savior we can do all things! 

To answer your questions: Letters/packages go to the mission office and my zone leaders will get them to me. It's not too long of a delay they bring them to district meeting every week. So I'll get them pretty fast. They just suggest that you don't send baked goods in the packages. I guess that's been a problem before...haha. 

I've been learning how well family history and missionary work go hand in hand. Mom, you were right. It is important. I'm sorry I didn't listen enough on that. This week has been really awesome. The Fresno temple is really cool. It's pretty and small. It was a different experience going through while on a mission. The work that goes on in the temple is the reason I am here. I am trying with all of my strength to help the children of God be able to get back to their heavenly father. I'm realizing how much work that is on my part to become the best tool I can be in my Heavenly Father's hands. 

Mom and Dad, I am so imperfect. I don't say that in a beating myself up way I say it in the most humble way. I have so much that I fall short on that I know Heavenly Father can help me get to. For the first time I am truly realizing the potential we all have because we are true sons and daughters of a God. I'm currently still in my purification challenge which is starting with a 24 hour fast and listening to the spirit on what you need to purify yourself on. You make a list throughout the day on what the spirit tells you. You then covenant with Heavenly Father to do everything in your power to cleanse yourself of those things. You do this for 40 days. It's so hard, let me tell you. It's already showing amazing blessings though. It is helping me grow closer to my Savior. 

We watched a video in a training yesterday in which Elder Holland expressed that we as missionaries "are standing shoulder to shoulder with the best life this world has ever known (The Savior) in this work. So of course it is going to be hard. It was hard for him." That's paraphrased a bit so sorry. But it made me realize that if this work isn't hard you're not doing it right. But man even though it's hard. It's hard to wake up at 6:30 every morning because you are sooo tired because you're biking all day in the 100 degree weather. And it's hard to run every single morning to follow the mission rules. But I testify to y'all that I have never had so much strength to do that which I thought I could not do than on my mission. 

I have gained a testimony that the devil will have good men do good things to keep them from doing great things. This life is a time to prepare to meet God. This means that we should always be progressing which means we should never be content! We are sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father and one day hope to become like him. That's something that takes at least a lifetime to try to prepare to do. I love this work and I love y'all so much. You don't understand and probably never fully will how much you have truly prepared me for what I am doing. Every soul that I am able to help bring unto Christ is partly attributed to y'all. You are the reason I'm who I am. And I know the Savior knows that and will bless you. 

Estoy agredicido por mi Salvador. El es el mejor razon puedo hacer estas cosas. Me encanta este obra. No se todo pero se que el evangelio es verdadero. Jose Smith fue un profeta de Dios y vio Dios y su hijo amado Jesucristo. Les amo ustedes. Estoy agredido por ustedes y el conocimiento han dadome. Tengo muchos gracias por la oportunidad a sentir el Espiritu muy fuerte aqui en mi mision. Me encantan las escrituras. Dos anos no es tiempo seficiente. 

We have a baptism this week and I'm so excited. This field is truly white and ready to harvest. You just have to become the proper sickle that the Lord can use. Her name is Viri (said bee-dee). She is 8 and about the cutest kid ever. She is getting baptized even though her parents don't really go to church at all because she knows it's important. I can't believe the faith children can have. It's truly inspiring. Everything in this work is helping me grow in every way. I just have to keep working on my Spanish. I can speak it okay but man understanding it is hard. Although it's not like what Tanner has to go through it's still tough. It's hard to understand it when natives speak it because it is just faster. But I will keep trying! Y'all are the best ever and I love you so much :D I hope everything is going well!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Vanessa and Irving before their baptism. My companion is the blonde shorter one.

Vanessa and Irving's wedding.