Week 82 - Christmas was amazing

Christmas was amazing. It's so awesome to be able to be on a mission during the Christmas season. People are busy but way more open to listening about Christ. We even found someone on Christmas eve that told us we could come teach them on Christmas day!! It was super cool. She has an awesome family and we're excited for her.

Christmas was also incredible because of y'all. It was so fun talking to y'all and getting to just chat for a little while. It's crazy to think that this is the year that I'll be returning home. I can honestly say that it doesn't feel like that. Which I like. I hope that it will be able to stay like that. I feel like I'm just finally figuring out all of this stuff and so I'm excited to see what more the Lord has in store for me.

Other than that there isn't a whole lot to report. As far as the website goes... It's going well.  It's hard because I'm rusty and there's a lot I have to learn and it's like a side project. It's not my main focus by far. But it's been cool seeing the way the Lord is blessing me to learn faster than normal because ultimately the website is for him.

I do appreciate the place for the administrative side of things. I've seen how much it can help.. But it is something that doesn't even compare to ministering. My call really is to minister as well. The only reason I administer, I feel, is to make the ministering more effective. It's been hard to balance it. Not with time necessarily but with thoughts. It is something that I think about a lot and I'm trying really hard not to think about it a lot. I'm getting better at being able to stay focused when I'm away from the computer. The Lord really is helping me a ton! It's amazing how much the Lord compensates when we are doing his work in all aspects.

I love my mission and my Savior. I love how this gospel blesses families. I believe so very strongly in the common phrase "I have left my family for 2 years so that yours can be together forever." I know that that is why I'm here. I am here to help people come unto Christ and receive salvation and exaltation. I love y'all so much and hope that y'all have an amazing New Years!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Christmas!

Our christmas tree and gifts

My new tie for Christmas. Thank you!

My new shoes for Christmas. Thank you!

Week 81 - Merry Christmas!

Hello family! Good to hear from y'all. Love y'all so much. First off just the responses:
-I did get one of the packages and will get the other one on Wednesday at Zone Conference.
-THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE PACKAGE!! It really does make me feel like I'm somewhat home for Christmas when I get a big package full of goodies. It will make Christmas morning amazing with all of my presents. :)

This week was super busy for us... we had an exchange with the Assistants up in Fresno which was cool. Their area is oober rich.. It's ridiculous! I got to go into the nicest houses that I've been into on my mission during that exchange. It was cool to be with the Assistants. They're really awesome and great friends of mine! One of them is actually from Texas as well! He's from Plano East..... or west.. Whichever one was really big and good at football. So it was cool cause we had heard of each others' high schools and got to talk about that a little bit. It was fun! Bummer to hear that LT didn't pull out the win though. As well for BYU.... Come on that's just embarrassing. We can't let Utah show us up like that!!

We got to go to a few baptisms in the zone this week which was cool. It's amazing the caliber of missionary that is being sent out right now. Every new missionary that comes in I'm just blown away with. Even if they're not the most personable person in the world it's amazing how they can still articulate the points of the gospel so well. It truly is amazing how the Lord is able to work through all of us no matter what our current skill set is. We had to be out of our area this week a lot which was super frustrating!!! But we hopefully will have a lot of time this week to make it up.

This website is suuuuper weird. We have pretty much free roam of the internet for putting it together. Never thought that would be a thing on my mission haha. But my companion and I are definitely excited for the learning opportunity and ultimately the blessing that it is going to be for the mission! I've enjoyed serving with Elder Speer a ton. He is very intelligent and we are able to just talk about anything. It's super cool. He's the first companion that I think I jive with on pretty much all cylinders. It makes the work much easier. It's just all about getting work done and helping people access salvation. What could be better than that!?

I am so grateful for my Savior. Especially at this time of the year. I love teaching about him and being able to really teach in His place. That is what my call is to do and I try to take it more and more seriously every day as I come to understand it more and more. I am so grateful for His Atonement and the implications of what that means. He loves us more than we can comprehend and can help us love more than we know. I love the spirit that comes with Christmas as most people try and come closer to Christ!! It gives us a little bit of a glimpse of what the millennium will be like when everyone has come unto Christ! It'll be like Christmas time for a 1000 years! Oh the joy :D. I love y'all so much and hope that y'all have a great Christmas! I will talk to y'all in 4 days!!!! yeeee.

Love,

Elder Robertson

[We got to Skype with Elder Robertson on Christmas morning. It's the highlight of our Christmas Day for sure!]

Week 80 - It's an amazing time to be a missionary

This past week was awesome!!! WE BAPTIZED!! Three more kids!!! That's like 6 baptisms in one month!! haha. It was super awesome and the service was absolutely beautiful. The parents of the kids (recent converts) sang at the baptism and did an amazing job. It was just a beautiful service and the ward helped out so much by showing their support.

We also found 6 new investigators this week!!!! ALL of them accepted to be baptized. Elder Speer and I are working super hard and are being as obedient as we can and we are seeing so many miracles. It's amazing how many people's hearts are being softened because of this time of the year. It's an amazing time to be a missionary and a very special time to go teach of Christ! I love it!!! I love being a missionary!

President Clark has assigned my companion and I to pretty much build an entire website that is going to run the mission. So woohoo for that. Who knew that I'd ever be using the stuff I learned from computers like that on my mission. More on that later though because we still don't know a whole lot of details for that right now.

Thanks for all your letters and pictures! I love seeing y'all. It's good to know that the family traditions are still alive. As well, it's good to hear that LT is taking care of business!! Football is something that people bring up a lot more here than anywhere else on my mission because everyone is white here! haha. Before it was all about soccer. I'm super excited for Christmas as well.

Other than that. Everything is going well. I'm excited for Christmas and wish I could get all y'all gifts... but if I did it would be with y'all's money which is kind of pointless haha. I love y'all so much and wish that I could come up with a new way to say that so it didn't sound like I was just repeating myself every week!! Les amo mucho! Ay familia oigan!! Tienen que aprender español! Cuando regrese yo.. no voy a poder hablar en ingles siempre y quiero que plactiquemos juntos!! Les agradezco por todo que hacen. Les amo y quiero y extraño mucho!!!!

Con amor,

Elder Robertson

BAPTISM!! Of the Baker kids!!

What we made in our apartment!! haha boss status. the steaks were puny though... but hey it was steak

The scissors catching on fire when we were cooking... we're still learning

a little kid joining us for our closing prayer on his own!! haha

Our Zone!

my suit pants got a huge hole in the crotch.. haha  so I had to take them to get patched up and everything and dry cleaned and all that good stuff.

Week 79 - It's a good exhaustion

So I'm super crammed for time because I have to stinking gut the apartment I'm in because it's a travesty and one it's nasty to live in and two it's a horrible example of a zone leader's apartment. So I am now in the Hanford 1st ward which is an ENGLISH WARD!!! It's so weird.... I don't serve Spanish anymore haha. I am with Elder Speer. He is from South Carolina. He's legit. He's one of the smartest people I've met on my mission. It's super fun because our conversations are always super awesome. We're able to really talk about some really cool things. He also created websites before his mission and likes computers so we mesh well. We are working crazy hard though. My body is exhausted!!! It's a good exhaustion though. I love it. I feel for really the first time that I'm giving the Lord everything. I know that that should of happened sooner but literally we are so busy and going 10000 mph that there's no room for anything but missionary work. We eat dinners in the car a lot because we're having to run all over the place! It's crazy but crazy good!

This past week was insane because we had a lot of meetings and had to help with all of the new missionaries. But we were still able to have an effective week and find 5 new people to teach! Which last month this area found only 1..... IN A WHOLE MONTH. So that was good to start getting more people into the teaching pool. It was awesome to be able to meet so many new people. It is super weird to be in an english ward... first of all because it is actually organized and well run. That's new for me haha. As well as the fact that english people are way different than spanish people. They are super busy and always have a million things to do and don't just chat with you. It's crazy how much of a culture shock it is for me serving in this ward. And I know that's backwards because I grew up in an english ward and it is my first language. It's just been the first ward that I've served in as a missionary.

Sorry this letter isn't super long. it will be longer next week I promise. I just want to end with my testimony. I know that my Savior lives. I know that he suffered for me and for everyone so that we can go back and live with our Father in heaven. I know without a shadow of a doubt that that is the sole purpose that I was sent on a mission. I am here to be able to understand better and to experiences the incredible blessings of the Atonement so that I can learn to use it for the rest of my life. More importantly, I was sent here to help others be able to access it. There is no other way right now that anyone in my ward boundaries can fully access the Atonement except through Elder Speer and I.. That's a huge statement but it's true. The only way one can fully access the Atonement of Jesus Christ is through baptism for the remission of sins by somebody who holds the proper authority from God. The only way that someone can enter into the waters of baptism (besides 8 yr olds of members) is through the missionaries. It's why what we do is so important. It's why I am so humbled and inadequate for this calling. It's why I am so grateful that the Savior did what he did so that He can help me be able to help everyone around me. I love being a missionary and I love the opportunity I have to help these people. Thank y'all for everything that you have done and do that helps me be who I am and has helped me come on a mission. It really is the greatest thing ever. I love y'all so much and hope that y'all have an amazing week!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Week 78 - Becoming a Zone Leader

Good morning!!

I've been trying really hard to put myself in the shoes of the members and investigators more and making sure that the commitments I'm extending are ones that I would do outside of the mission as well. It definitely helps me extend more powerful commitments as I make sure that I am converted to the commitment and principle that I'm extending. It's so true that steadfast faith is so much stronger and reality necessary in comparison to the one large act of faith. While the large act of faith can spark something it's the steadfastness that really makes a large flame of conversion and righteous living.

[Matt had to get emergency dental surgery.] So first, I'll update y'all on the whole thing with the teeth. So... the surgery went well and everything was smooth. I didn't actually act that crazy after the anesthesia which was a bummer. Plus my companion didn't record me anyways so it wouldn't have even mattered.. he blew it! haha. The recovery, however, was much harder. It was just pretty miserable. There's nothing to do in the apartment and we don't have couches so I was stuck on the bed. It was rough to say the least. Plus I had to cook all my own food and everything. Let's just say it was a rough 4 days.

I got the package y'all sent two days after my surgery which was actually awesome! I felt kind of ticked with everything since I didn't feel good and opening the package made me feel a lot better! Plus the Ice pack thing was amazing. I used it a ton. So thank you for that! I know I just complained a lot and I'm sorry!! It probably wasn't that bad. It was just a little rough but I'm out of the woods now. Everything's healing well and I'm getting back to normal so no worries! It'll be nice in about a week when everything's done with. Thanks for all y'all did to help me through it! It's gonna be a huge blessing.

Second, MIRACLE BAPTISM!!!!!!! So we baptized this last Sunday. We baptized 3 kids of a member who has been waiting on permission to baptize her kids forever. Elder Rearte and I have been working really hard to be able to see success and it just wasn't coming. We headed into our last week full of faith that the Lord was going to help us have a baptism that week, we just didn't know who. Throughout the week it unfolded that it was going to be Alma's kids, Jordan, Stephanie, and America. It was a beautiful service and they all bore the most amazing testimonies after they were baptized! It was awesome. I know that the Lord rewards us for hard work and especially for being exactly obedient. I've gained a huge testimony of obedience on my mission. It really is the only way to live. Any other way just brings sadness, doubt, and laziness. It was an amazing miracle and since I'm getting transferred it was an amazing way to leave the area!!

Third, transfers. So I'm getting transferred tomorrow. President is doing something new where we actually won't know where we're going until tomorrow. We have a "transfer meeting" where we will get assigned to our new companions. So Elder Rearte and I are going to be driving up there tomorrow and are going to have to part ways. It'll be sad cause he's awesome but good to have some change. This area's been super hard... haha. With everything that's gone on with the mission leader and with the surgery. It's been an interesting area. But the branch mission leader gave me an awesome good bye yesterday and we're on good terms. It's amazing how the Lord has helped that relationship. But another thing about transfers. I'm becoming a zone leader! Woo. It'll be cool to be able to be a zone leader and work with all the missionaries. I bet it'll bring some challenges but I'm excited for them. The thing I'm focused most on is to continue to be an example of obedience and hard work. I know that I fall short in so many areas as a missionary but the one that I never want to be accused of is not giving it my all to be obedient and to work hard. I'll let y'all know next week where I'm going though.

I love y'all so much and get to talk to y'all in 25 days!! TYLER I"M SO PROUD THAT YOU STARTED YOUR MISSION PAPERS!!! The mission is the best thing ever and I thank Heavenly Father every day for it. I hope that y'all have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

The baptism

Our District

I'm going to miss being in the District with these Elders

Elder Quintana and I saying bye to people. We aren't actually companions but are like brothers haha. So we went and said bye to everyone together since we're both leaving.

Sweet Christmas Lights

My sore mouth after surgery

Swollen cheeks after surgery

Saying goodbye to everyone in this area

Week 77 - Thanksgiving

Hello again!!!

Family, I appreciated your thoughts on gratitude. I am going to strive to give God thanks now and from now on. I know that he really does give us more than we can imagine and that all we have to do is open our eyes to start seeing the blessings.

I loved the scripture verses that you sent me last week as well and I'm still delving into them. I have grown very fond of the Doctrine and Covenants as of late. There's a lot of really neat Doctrine in those pages. Well, I mean I guess that's true for all scripture.

This week was good. We had a baptism in our branch again! Elder Quintana baptized. It was super awesome. It was a beautiful service. Elder Rearte and I are working super hard to have a baptism this next week. I know that we will have one. There's some people who are dang ready they just need to take that final step. We had a great Thanksgiving party for the branch. It was super awesome and the food was great. It was nice to get a Turkey dinner early since I won't be able to have one on the actual Thanksgiving. Other than that there really wasn't a ton that happened. It's only been a weekend since we've talked. We had 5 investigators at church so that was awesome. We had someone finally come back from her trip to Mexico, Alejandra, who is super prepared. We have an appointment with her tonight!!! It's gonna be awesome.

Today we're going to Hanford to have a Turkey Bowl with 5 zones..... it's gonna be huge!! it's gonna be tons of fun! It is crazy though that I run every morning but I'm still out of shape. It's all the delicious Mexican food I'm given. Those enchiladas and tortillas really do me in! haha

We find out if one of us is getting Transfered this saturday! I really hope I stay. Although this area has been kind of hard, I've really grown to love these people and I just want to keep helping them. Luckily, everywhere I go it will be like that! What a blessing of the mission.

Sorry the letter is kind of short. There just really wasn't that much that went on this week.

Love,

Elder Robertson

us at a lesson.. they gave us blankets cause it was so cold and we'd forgotten our coats!

us at a lesson.. they gave us blankets cause it was so cold and we'd forgotten our coats!

We went to a part member family's son's soccer games! It was fun. They tied 4-4. We got to know the family really well so there's a lot of potential there!

Week 76 - The temple was wonderful

The temple was wonderful. I really do love that place. It is such a blessing that even though the world gets crazier and crazier.... the temple never changes. You can ALWAYS go and feel the spirit of the Lord and feel at peace. What a blessing that we so desperately need in these days. One of my recent converts Charlie is going through the temple to take out his endowments in a couple of days! How exciting! However, he moved to Utah so I won't be able to accompany him.. But I'm still so happy that he's staying strong in the gospel and taking that wonderful  step.

We got to go to a Veteran's day thing and it was awesome!! It was awesome to just salute our veterans and thank them.

Mom, I love Joseph Smith as well and will read those as soon as I get a chance! It's so amazing that we get to just know all of the gospel. We get to have the full comfort.. Not just part of it. I really liked that picture you sent of Jesus saying "trust me".. It's so true and probably one of the most frustrating parts of being a missionary. You offer these people so much and so many blessings and they just sometimes don't have the faith to seek them. But it makes the ones who are all the more precious. Opposition in all things right?

Everythings going pretty well. I baked cookies for the WML to help improve our relationship. I told him that I made him some cookies and all the other elders in the meeting told him that I was really trying to work with him the best that I could. I think we are starting to get on the same page. What an incredible blessing!! I have such a strong testimony that serving/loving people and just being as humble as you can brings the most precious blessings ever!!

We had a good amount of people come to church on Sunday! A family of 8! It was super cool. It was a mom and her 6 kids and her little sister. They're doing pretty well and we have high hopes for them. Her name is Isabel. She's really awesome. Besides that we're just making small progress with everyone. We really are focusing on trying to find more prepared people so that we can help them come to know the gospel! Hopefully we'll be able to find more this week. I'm excited for the holiday season though. Everyone seems to just be a little more friendly! Love y'all so much and hope y'all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Robertson

We did a challenge called the "McCoy's Challenge" You have to eat all that food... yeah we all died. It's a Selma tradition. I was one pancake away from finishing.. Food v. Elder Robertson: Winner - Food

The death by pancake group

A sweet painting that "Miss Dinuba" did in like 4 minutes at the Veterans day celebration

the 21 gun salute on Veterans Day

Us at a members house being weird.. haha

Temple Trip

Temple Trip

Week 75 - I know that this mission is changing me forever

[We asked Matt if he had heard about the recent lds policy changes on same gender marriage.] So yes I did hear all about the new policies. It's been quite a controversy here, being California and all. We get asked about it a lot. Luckily when we describe that ultimately this is something to help the kids from having to go against what's in their homes and give them double standards they are pretty understanding. I'm glad that they were able to clarify all of this before it became a huge problem. Thank goodness for revelation. It's amazing how much the world pushes back on it though. It's amazing to me how something this small can really put people in such an uproar.

Thanks for the packages again mom and dad! It's always super fun to get them! We had some great Halloween decorations. Sorry for the late giving of gratitude! It's weird that all the holidays are here already. I feel like I just had them on my mission. It's seriously crazy how fast all of this goes. It's awesome to hear that LT is undefeated and BYU isn't doing too bad either! It sounds like y'all are having a fun time and everything is still busy as ever!

This week was really awesome! But weird as well. So as the district leader with 6 other elders in my district I have a bajillion exchanges. This last week I wasn't in my area for 3 days straight. Luckily I have an awesome companion who did some awesome work and was able to really help the work progress those three days. But it was still super weird. I had an exchange on Tuesday, then a meeting in Fresno all day on Wednesday and then we had MCM that night as well so didn't get back to our area till late. Then another exchange on Thursday! Oh yeah exchanges!!

In our meeting in Fresno the Assistants really hit hard on obedience. We have a TON of new missionaries (50% of the mission has been out less than 6 months) so obedience is a focuse. It was a very inspiring meeting and made me just want to be the most obedient extremist I could!! In a righteous way of course. I came home and had a great talk with my companion where we set goals where we thought we could be more obedient and plans on how we could reach the goals. We had the best week that we've had together as a result of our efforts and I know that as we continue to strive for exact obedience that we will see miracles on miracles! It's amazing how much the little things really do matter!!

We've got some awesome investigators and we are really starting to work really well together as companions. I know that this is the true church and I'm so grateful to be here to find those who want to know the same. It's amazing to me how much the Lord trusts me to be able to be here to work with his precious children whom I know that he loves so much. I love my Savior and am so grateful to Him for everything that He's done for me and continues to do. I know that this mission is changing me forever and is helping me become the man and soldier that God needs me to be in these last days which are looking more and more perilous. I love y'all and am so grateful to have the amazing support of such a wonderful family! I hope that y'all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Breakfast with my zone

We did a challenge called the "McCoy's Challenge" You have to eat all that food... yeah we all died. It's a Selma tradition. I was one pancake away from finishing.. Food v. Elder Robertson: Winner - Food

a hole one of the elders put in the wall

this was in our apartment.. hope there's not more!

yeah we saw a guy just riding a horse down the street.

Week 74 - The time change is the worst!

This week was kind of a slow one with Halloween parties, actual halloween, and the time change. Y'all.. the time change is the worst. It gets dark at like 5 or 6 now! It makes doing missionary work so much harder haha. But we'll just have to adjust to it. It's just weird to think about.

No one came to church this week... again. It's been getting harder and harder to get people to church. I never thought 20 minutes away would be hard but for some people it's just too far. But we're working hard to get it done! The weirdest thing happened in church. Randomly a third of the way through sacrament in the Spanish branch, like half of the branch just got up and left. For no recognizable reason.. it was so weird! The Branch is struggling right now and we're trying to figure out how we can best help it. We're praying and waiting on those miracles as we work our hardest!!

[We got the paperwork from Matt's mission in preparation for his coming home in June. One of the questions was whether we wanted to come pick him up from the mission instead of his flying home to Austin to meet us. We asked Matt his preference and this is his response.]  So about picking me up... I've thought a lot about it actually and here are my thoughts and y'all can tell me what y'all think. So I really want to have y'all here and be able to tour the mission with y'all. I really think that would be super awesome and fun to introduce y'all to all these people who I've grown so close to. However, I think I'd rather do it after I get home. There are a couple of reasons. One, because the whole way back home to Texas I won't have been released. So we won't be able to do a whole lot and I feel like that would be weird for me haha. Also when we tour the mission after y'all picking me up I'd still have to act like a missionary in the sense of the rules and such. Not that I'm planning a whole ton different than now. Just I've told a bunch of people when I come back I'll play fifa with them or do something little like that cause I won't be a missionary. Also I kind of like the idea of the plane ride home. I feel like it'll give me some good final pondering moments as I'm returning home. I don't know. those are kind of my thoughts. I don't know if those make sense or not!

Everything's going well in the district. We're having a super good time having the new elders in the same apartment complex as us. It's pretty fun. We get to hang out a lot. It's fun having a lot of missionaries close. It makes the down hours seem fun.

Bedsides all of that there really isn't a ton of stuff that happened. But it was a good week. We found some really awesome new families that we're working with! Families are the best! Good work with the missionary work by the way!! Love y'all and hope y'all have a good week!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Our "trunk" at Trunk-or-Treat. My costume is that I'm Elder Quintana and he was me. Very original. haha

my "pumpkin" i carved at the family's house

Ward Trunk or Treat

Ward Halloween Party

Us shopping for halloween

Us on halloween night with the family who took us to their house to play games and stuff. and the district after a district meeting. It's the last district. It's changed since then.

My exchange with Elder Perkins

Longhorns

Elder Perkins. He's a good missionary

Week 73 - I'm definitely not thinking about who I'm gonna marry

Hi family!!

As I come to email every week it makes me look forward to the time that I'll have one day to sit down and talk with y'all again and catch up on everything. That will be a glorious day. Y'all talked a lot about temples! I'm definitely not thinking about who I'm gonna marry or when necessarily but I've thought about it a lot as far as how I can prepare myself for it. I've learned a little on my mission how essential it is and how much strength it can bring. I know that I've got to start preparing now to be ready for it!

This past week was interesting. We had a good week and found a lot of people and are starting to work really well with the members, but I was sick for most of the week so it was kind of slow and a little miserable. But I love the fact that I've gotten over the sickness and have this week to just go to work! It's nice that I've got another transfer here. I love it here and have grown to love these people! I can't wait to work with them for another six weeks.

We had a baptism this past week but...it didn't happen. She kind of got freaked out by a relative and wants some more time to prepare. It's all good by me because I think that some more preparation will help her baptism mean even more to her. Her name is Bartola. She is so awesome!  We call her Abuela (grandma). She's super close to the spirit and understands the gospel super well!! We're excited for when she decides to be baptized.

Besides that everything's just going well. We are just working hard and trying to find as many people as we can. It's a great work!

So this past Sunday something happened that was kind of rough.  It was a super rough day and I left church somewhat frustrated. I went home after church and did my personal study. I studied the talk "Truly Good and Without Guile." I had the coolest experience! I was overcome with the spirit and realized how important it was to just be good. Not to worry about anything but to just be good. It calmed all of my frustrations and I was able to feel peace. I love how God can help us and help us in our little times of need. the quotes that stood out to me the most from the talk were:

“Heavenly Father knows this young man is a successful missionary, and so do I.” He added, “And now you know too, so who else really matters?”

and

"All I really want in life is to please my fathers—both earthly and heavenly—and to be more like Shiblon."

Just some thoughts from the past week. I love y'all and hope that y'all have an amazing week!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Week 72 - Just Do It

Transfers are Wednesday and nothing is changing! I get to stay and I'm super excited for that. We have a baptism this Sunday!! Her name is Bartola and she is 60 or so. She's awesome. We asked her if the knew what tithing was the other day and she proceeded to perfectly teach us what it is! It was awesome. She's so prepared. We're working really hard right now on being obedient and trying to serve the Lord with everything we've got. We're definitely starting to see miracles because of that. It's been super fun serving with Elder Rearte and I can't wait for another transfer of it.

Yesterday at Stake Conference someone gave a huge talk and related it all to backpacking. Many of the experiences he shared reminded me a lot of Philmont and the great times we had there. Mom and Dad, I'm so grateful for my childhood and all the great times I got to spend with y'all and the family. It's helped me become who I am today. As well. I just wanted to share the letter I sent to president today. It's just kind of what's been on my mind lately.

------------
Dear President Clark,

President Anderson at Stake Conference last week gave an awesome talk. He talked about the fact that "we can do it". He went into how we are given a lot that we need to do and that all too often we don't hear the reassuring words that "WE CAN DO IT". This his me hard and made me think of the mission. The feeling I'm getting right now is that everyone is at the cross roads. We have all been given the tools that we need and everything that we need to do and how to do it. It's time now to decide that we can do it and then go and "just do it" to quote Nike of course.

I'm really going to focus on this with my district. That we are to just go and do. The other thing that President went into was that we need to understand that we are committing to do it horribly when we commit to do it. Simply meaning that at the beginning we're not going to be perfect. That is the whole reason we are striving for improvement. If we never start we never have the opportunity to improve. I'm excited for the next couple of months and the things the Lord has in store for us! Love you and hope you have a great week.

Love,
Elder Robertson
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[Matt's home ward in Texas is getting split on November 1] That's so crazy that the ward has changed. So how small is our ward going to be? Is it going to even go into the gym now? That's so strange to me. We'll just have to find more people who want to be part of our ward and help them get baptized. :)

I love y'all so much and am so grateful for y'all's support and the wonderful family that i have. Have a great week! Love y'all!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

This is part of the "bola" -- the family we're teaching.

The family we're teaching made Elder Rearte a cake for his birthday and made us dinner...but they spelled his name wrong. hahah. They wrote "duarte" instead haha. But it's the thought that counts. 

@e also drank sparkling cider at another members house to celebrate Elder Rearte's birthday.

Some guys house... 'murica

The amazing breakfast Brother McIntyre made for us!! It's awesome too cause I'm texan so I love meat and Argentina's known for how much they love meat too in South america. It's the South American Texas!

Brother McIntyre also gave my companion every drink in the world this morning... haha

Elder Quintana.. I'm representing BYU well. yee yee