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.

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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

Week 71 - My new release date is June 29th

First, just so y'all know. I got my new release date. It is now June 29th. So that will now be the day that I'm coming home. It is sad that I'll have to wait a little longer to see y'all but I'm so grateful for the opportunity to get a little more time here in the field.

This past week was a successful one. We found a lot of new people to teach that seem really solid and are excited to learn more. We had one of the families that we are teaching come to church. We call them the "bola" In Spanish that means group. I think I might have already told y'all that. but they came to church and it was really awesome to have them there. They've got such good spirit and desire to learn. I'm very excited for the future that they have. It was really fun to have them at church even though they only made if for Sacrament meeting. Even though they really did make it for the whole thing. They just got lost trying to get there so they went back home cause they didn't want to call us for directions cause they thought it would be a bother since we were in church. But long story short we helped them get to church and they loved it. Bartola should be getting baptized in two weeks. She is the grandma of the family. We're super excited for her!!!! It's so amazing to watch people progress in this gospel!!

I've been learning more and more over time htat faith is an action word. I've learned how faith is only made manifest by our works. It talks about that in James 2:18. It talks about how through our works we are able to manifest our faith. I got to thinking a lot about that and realized in the end. Faith won't help us a whole lot. We won't be able to look Heavenly Father in the face at the last day when we are receiving judgement and say, "Father, I believe in you a lot. Let me live with you." It won't do us any good. We will be looking into his face and we will know him. We will have knowledge at that point. That is why works are so essential as well. I strongly believe that faith and works are inseparable.

I love y'all tons and am so grateful for the support you give me. I hope that y'all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Us at a wedding of a less active member's family member for dinner

Us at a wedding of a less active member's family member for dinner

We all ate a habanero chile... it killed us. hahah

After the habanero chile.

After the habanero chile.

The missionaries in our ward and branch playing soccer!

Doing Service

Doing Service

The awesome member that lets us do laundry at his house! We do service for him a lot.

Week 70 - I'm extending!

I am fully on board to Ponderize as well! I love the idea to have a new scripture every week that I can think about and relate to my studies. The scripture I chose this week is Juan 17:3. It's gonna be a fun week! My companion and I are doing it together.

This last week was a bit crazy. We had exchanges with the zone leaders which consisted of us going to their area for a whole day... lame. It was fun but we had to miss all the opportunities to teach in our area! We also had President Interviews which were nice. He's seriously such an amazing man and president. We talked about how I'm winding down in my time a little and I made the decision to extend... he said this will mean I'll atleast stay until June 9th instead of May 18th as originally scheduled but I might stay longer as well.. He's gonna let me know. Just wanted to let y'all know that :)

We did a service in Fresno where we got to translate for people who were getting free dental care. The service was HUGE! It was in a giant convention center and there were tons of people there. It was cool. We had to put in a lot of time so that was kind of a bummer cause we missed some confrence and some precious proscelyting time but it was excellent to get into the community and rub shoulders with them. They were suuuper grateful for our service.

We are teaching a family that is planning on getting baptized in the middle of this month that is so awesome! We refer to them as the "bola" because in spanish that means a group of people and their family is HUGE. But they are so awesome and want the gospel so badly. It's so fun to teach them and see them progress!!

Everything is going great here. Just trotting along trying my best to be the best I can be! I love the mission and am so grateful for it! Conference was amazing and I'm so grateful for the opportunity that I had to listen to it and receive such amazing inspiration. Me encanta este evangelio. Esta llegando a ser un poquito dificil explicar mis sentimientos por esta obra.. son muy fuertes. Yo realmente se que vive mi senor y que el me ayuda cada dia para llevar a cabo los milagros que estoy viendo cada dia. Una cosa que me gusto mucho de la conferencia era la tema de regresar a los basicos. Que no importa cual es su duda o cual es su problema.. las cosas que te ayudaran, son leer las escrituras, orar con frequencia, y la asistencia a la iglesia! Hijole! Que sencillo!! Les amo mucho y gracias por todo su apollo y amor. Tengan una semana buenisima!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Us looking too cool in our car

On the way to our service project

My companion is crazy