Week 30 - I'm getting transferred to Chowchilla

Ama!! Tu hablas espanol?! Que glorioso! La verdad es lo que quiero hablar con ustedes en espanol para siempre. No me gusta mucho ingles horita. La mejor idioma en el mundo para mi es espanol! Pero se que todos ustedes son guerros entonces no podemos placticar en espanol. Les amo!! 

So first thing I wanna let y'all know is that I am getting transferred :'( I was really bummed the night that I found out because I truly love this area! I'm getting moved to a little dinky town called Chowchilla where I will be serving in an English ward with a Spanish group. So I am a little bit bummed about that because I won't get to use my espanol as much! But it's all good. I've come to terms with it now and I am excited to go there and see what the Lord needs me to do there! White people here I come! haha So I'm humbled that you have all willingly taken my challenge to apply a Christ-like attribute! It will literally bless y'all's lives so much. So one thing I would add to what y'all are doing is to share what you're learning. I have such strong testimony now of how sharing what we learn is an absolute necessity!! 

So this week was good.. not a ton to really report cause I just talked to y'all haha. Pretty much the only thing is that I'm getting transferred! So this'll be a short email! But it's just cause I just talked to y'all. I love y'all so much and the next time I talk to you I will be in a little secluded town! Have an awesome week! Oh and tell grandma yes I got her letter! I will write her personally, but you can let her know not to worry and that I got it and I am sooo grateful for it :D

Love,

Elder Robertson

The aftermath of presents.. yeahhh

Banana fight on christmas eve at the Hernandez family house

Christmas at the Kuhn's house right before watching Frozen!

A gift from a recent convert in our ward. It's a sweet tie! 

The Juarez family! We ate there on christmas eve

Week 29 - MERRRRYYYY CHRISSTMMAASSS (early)

MERRRRYYYY CHRISSTMMAASSS (early)

It sounds like y'all are just having a wonderful time so far on your christmas season thingys. First thing that I want to say, is that I love all of y'all so very much. This christmas season really has made me realize how much I miss and cherish our home and our family. (Be it known, that it is not unrighteous missing though! I am still very focused) But just know I am thinking about all of y'all a lot this week. 

So this week was really awesome! We have had some really cool things happen this week. So first off, we have 6 baptismal dates!!!!! It's so awesome how much the Lord is hastening his work. 

So the first one is Geraldo! Oh my goodness, first off, he came to the ward christmas party and had a great time. He even danced!!!! (he was still a little shaky from the effects of alcohol for 16 years but he had a great time.) He's still sober and going strong. And THEN! He came to church for all 3 hours!! And he set a baptismal date for himself in two weeks. Oh, I can't explain to you in any way shape or form the incredible joy I have for this man. 

So then also, Maria De Leon came to the Christmas party too! She came with her whole family!!! Even Emma (her 16 year old daughter who really isn't interested in talking to us at alll) And they had a wonderful time. There was a cool dance part and the end of the party, which was really cool. I love the mexican culture so much. It's just so much fun. Their dancing is way cool. But emma loves to dance and just had a great time and opened up. So that was awesome to see. The Lord really is opening doors for us to work hard and bring his children unto him! As well, even though their daughter (Neida) was sick they came to the party and ate some pasoli and mingled. Twas an awesome night. I'll send a few pictures that I took. 

So this past week, I have been studying humility. We had a training in District Meeting to study one Christ like attribute and try to repent and change to become more like the Savior in that one way. So as I studied this I recieved so much personal revelation. I really have been improving in this aspect. Poco a poco, because it's pretty hard one for me to be humble! Pero estoy trabajando! I encourage all of you to do this this christmas season! It has really helped me get closer to the Savior than anything else I've really done on my mission!

I love all of you soooo stinking much!! I can't wait to talk to y'all on Thursday :)

Love,

Elder Robertson

Geraldo at church with Elder Perez

Geraldo after the christmas party

All the mexicans getting their dance on at da fiesta de Navidad

Cool picture of the mountains from outside our apartments

Sooo just two giant bins of rice and beans.. VIVA LA MEXICO! jajaja

Crazy truck full of corn outside wal mart

Week 28 - Remember: "HE IS THE GIFT"

Thank you for all of your letters. It makes me miss home thinking about this time of year, with the holidays and also all of the basketball! But I'm glad that you're all getting to enjoy it for me :) Plus I'm having a pretty amazing time out here!

Dad, I absolutely loved your insight on eternal families it is my absolute favorite thing to teach people because of the pure joy it brings. In fact we have two investigators right now that are probably going to get baptized this month who we had a huge lessons about eternal marriage this week and it was such a powerful lesson. Both of them at the end of the lesson told us that they know the church is true! 

Their names are Alberto and Leticia! They are sooo awesome. They came to church this last Sunday. They were all dressed in a suit and a dress it was so awesome. In Priesthood Alberto stood up to introduce himself saying: "Hola, Soy Alberto Lopez, y esta es mi primera vez aqui. Gracias a ustedes para aceptarme. Y muchos gracias a Elder Robertson y Elder Perez por todo que hicieron para mi." Pretty much thanked me and my companion in front of everyone three or four times. It was really sweet and you can really tell that he is so appreciative of finding this gospel and the happiness that it has started to bring him. So that was absolutely awesome! I totally agree with the eternal family and everything that goes with it! I just love the Plan of Salvation that we have it seriously brings us so much clarity and purpose in this life! 

I hope y'all have an amazing week this week! And remember HE IS THE GIFT. I am so grateful that I get to spend this Christmas on my mission. I get to focus on our Lord and Savior and his wonderful birth. That would be my christmas wish this year! That y'all will be able to focus as much as you can on Christ! I love y'all soooo much. You're all beautiful inside and out. You are da best. Stay sweet!

Love,

Elder Robertson, your son, your brother, your missionary.

Cool nativity outside the temple

Our investigator on our little temple trip to show her what it was! She loved it, and felt the spirit soooo strongly.

Giant cross. Hmmm.

The best mexican food thing ever. Its like a giant bugle but way better and tastier.

Our zone!

My hood companion

Week 27 - Another chapter in the Geraldo saga

So here we go, have I got a story for y'all today. So it starts about two days ago. I was on an exchange with my district leader, Elder Wither. We were going to see if we could catch one of our investigators to invite them to a baptism. (the one who has been hiding with his gang). He's back at home, I guess he got it worked out quicker than he thought he was going to. But anyways, he wasn't able to come to the baptism because he had to set up for his brothers birthday or something like that. So we were a little bit bummed cause we were excited for him to come to the baptism. 

So at this time it was about noon. And something about being a Spanish speaking missionary is that literally nobody, and i mean nobody is home at noon. They all have work, every single one of them. Especially on a Saturday. This was all happening on Saturday. So we decided that we would go see if we could find Geraldo. We went by the house that we normally find him at and he wasn't there. I kind of just figured that we'd go do something else. But no, the Lord wanted us to find Geraldo, as we were heading somewhere else we saw him stumbling around on the side walk walking somewhere. We knew that for some reason we had to talk to him. So we jumped out of our car and went over and talked to him. 

And oh, he was sooooo drunk. I mean he could barely stand drunk. We hadn't really ever seen him that bad. So we commenced to help him to go cash a check he had. Long story short the store wouldn't cash his check because he didn't have ID. We started walking back with him and I had the idea that I could go cash it in for him at my bank, cause there was a chase bank pretty close. We decided we would walk him to Juan's house (the house where he normally hangs out) and then go cash the check. 

On our way back however, he randomly stopped. We turned around and asked if he was okay. He then proceeded to fall backwards right onto his head and got knocked unconscious. I legitimately thought I watched him die right then and there. A lot of thoughts went through Elder Withers and my heads. It was a scary moment. 

But after about 10 minutes of nudging him and talking to him he became coherent again, well somewhat. We picked him up and sat him in the shade and had him endorse the check to me. He did so and we went and got the cash for him. When we got back we told him that we were going to give him $20 back and then give $80 to Juan. We did this because that was the money that we had been praying for to find so we could get him into the rehab center! He agreed that this was the best idea and thanked us so much for our help. 

So we helped him back to Juan's house where he stayed the night. Then yesterday, on Sunday, December 7, 2014. We admitted Geraldo into the Rehabilitation Center! There are so many more little miracles that happened that have helped him get into this place. We are so grateful to God for helping us so much with him. 

He's going to do it. He's going to get sober. I am so excited for him! I love the Lord soooo much. It's hard to really express my feelings on this situation because there are just so many. So we visited him today and he's already doing better. He's drinking less today then yesterday and hopefully by the end of the week he will be completely sober! 

That wasn't the only thing that made this week incredible. We had a temple trip and zone conference! So much revelation!! Haha. It was amazing. Oh, watch the [LDS "He is the Gift"] christmas video! It's so stinking amazing. I'm so impressed with the amazing way that the church is using technology! I love it. 

Thanks for all your prayers for this work I know they are helping us. I love y'all so much and hope that y'all have an amazing week. Let me know if there's anything I can do for y'all!

Love,

Elder Robertson

P.S. Dad, will you email your brother, Mike, and tell him that he is kind of a legend here among the Hmong missionaries! and also tell him that Sai is still a strong member and that her husband got baptized and her father in law as well!

Yeah selfie Yeah. And yes. I'm getting fat. Don't Judge.

YES SUSHI YES

HE IS THE GIFT / EL ES LA DADIVA

My Companion, Elder Perez, getting ready for bed

Panoramic of my apartment!

Diamond, one of our investigator's many chihuahuas

Week 26 - Happy Late Thanksgiving!

HAPPY LATE THANKSGIVING!! :) 

So thanksgiving was awesome! We had a great time. It was super fun. We went to a member who has a really cool house and a really cool conversion story. It made me miss home a little bit because Thanksgiving was such a great time with y'all! But it was good. I'm glad y'all had a good thanksgiving! 

This week was good. It was intense. We stopped by one of our investigator's house and asked if he was home. His sister told us that he's not going to be home for a while. We then heard a story about how he was shot at and has to go lay low with his gang now. Sooo that's intense. haha.   

Oh, and Elder Feltner in my zone wanted me to give you a message: "I am Elder Robertson's friend and Echo Leader.  Thank you for raising him to play basketball...I finally have someone to play with."  Elder Felter's pretty cool. he's good at basketball. It's fun.

We have like no time to write this week because we went to the temple! I'll send an awesome letter next week! I promise. I love you all so much. I love serving the Lord. Thanks for all you do! I'll send some picture's though!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Temple trip yeah! a little blurry. But this is my zone

Our thanksgiving dinner we had on wednesday night!

Our thanksgiving dinner we had on wednesday night - after we got done!

A picture with our hosts. They are a super family. It was really cool that they hosted us.

Our second thanksgiving dinner...we were fat that night.

All the missionaries in our ward.