Week 103 - My Parting Testimony

[Elder Robertson returns home from his 2-Year Mission on Wednesday, May 25. This is his last letter home.]

THE BAPTISM HAPPENED AND IT WAS SOOOOO BEAUTIFUL! I'm just gonna send y'all my testimony for my last email and then I will tell y'all all the stories in a couple of days. :) I love y'all!!

After two years of serving the Lord every waking moment of every day, I've come to know many truths. I think the most profound and the one that has impacted me the most is the reality of the Savior's infinite Atonement.

I remember 2 years ago I always thought it was interesting and even a little peculiar how all of the seasoned missionaries would always talk about the Atonement. I had always thought of the Atonement as what we have to use when we make a mistake. On that note, I have definitely gained a testimony of that as well (that being the cleansing and healing power of the Atonement). I have come to learn the other half of it, the enabling power of the Atonement. I'm sure at some point, probably multiple, I had been taught about it in church. Furthermore, I'm sure I even thought that I understood what it was! Ha. I didn't have a clue.

With love and appreciation to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, I can now say that I know what it is. I don't by any means fully understand it or even fully comprehend exactly what it means. What I do know is that it is real. ANY challenge or hardship in my life that I am going through can be worked through with it. I know that the Atonement is real because I have felt it. I have felt my physical body and emotional self be wasted to the point of giving up and something carries me the rest of the way. I have seen my inadequacies grow to strengths so that I can do what the Lord needs me to do when He needs me to do it.

I don't think I will ever be able to effectively put into words the love I have for my Savior. I know that He is the Only Begotten of the Father. I know that He suffered and died for everyone but more specifically, for me. I know that. I know that He loves me more that I know and He will always be there for me. I know that I have a Father in Heaven who is all powerful and wants nothing more than to help me succeed in this life and in the next. I know that for that exact reason He sent His Son and the Holy Ghost. I know that with all three of them and their incredible and unique roles I can live with my Heavenly Father again.

The restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ beginning with the first vision in 1820 is a fact. It happened. There's no way it didn't. We have undeniable evidence found throughout every page in the Book of Mormon. That book is pure gold. Through the precepts and principles found in it we can gain eternal life. I know that book is true. I have seen it change my life. More so, I have seen it change the lives of so many others. Through Joseph Smith and the priesthood keys which were restored to him we can once again, in these latter days, access the precious gift of the Atonement that our Savior gave to us.

I love this gospel with all of my heart. There are so many other things that I would love to share but these are the fundamentals. I know that there is no other way to get back to heaven than through our Savior, Jesus Christ. I have served him for 2 years with everything I had. My only wish now is to serve him forever with everything that I have. I say all of these things en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

I love y'all and can't wait to see y'all!!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

The Rodriguez family baptism

And the sisters baptism! She's 85! It was super neat. It was an amazing day for sure.

Week 102 - We had 14 people come to church

I hope that y'all had a great last week! Ours was awesome. We had 14 people come to church this last Sunday!! It was really awesome. We had a new investigator that we found this last week named Juan Carlos. He's super cool and seems like he is super interested in the gospel. He gave us a maybe for church this last Sunday so we weren't really expecting him to come. But he did!! It was awesome. It seemed like he really liked it as well. We also had 2 families come which was super awesome. I love when families come. They really are the best to teach because they get to enjoy everything that the church has to offer.

The Rodriguez family is getting baptized on Sunday!!! It's going to be so exciting!! They're so awesome and prepared. Erick (the dad) and Miclo (the 15 yr old son) went on the Father Son campout with the stake. They LOVED it. They came back and were just telling us story after story of how great it was. They were also talking like they were members they kept saying oh si, todos los barrios de la estaca estaban. Conocimos al presidente de la estaca. y el hermano esto hizo esto y el otro hermano hizo esta. They were pretty much just using all the lingo. It was really cool. They were at church and are super excited to get baptized this upcoming Sunday.

We ate dinner with our bishop's family last night. They're an amazing family. He gave us a really amazing compliment. There used to be 10 missionaries serving in this ward. He told us that we are doing as much if not more work than they were doing. It was an amazing compliment and helped us stay fired up to keep working hard. He's an amazing bishop and helping the ward out a ton. I'm going to miss this ward more than I can describe!

Other than that it was just a wonderful week of teaching people the wonderful gospel and such! I love my mission and I'm excited for all the things the Lord has in store for this week. I love y'all tons!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Our bishop and his family. The Chandler Family

Us with some luchador masks!

Week 101 - Happy Mother's Day

It was so fun talking to y'all yesterday!! Oh how excited I am to be able to just hang out with y'all and talk and laugh. It'll be wonderful. Mom, happy mother's day again. I really do think it's amazing how much you have and do sacrifice for us! That goes for you too Dad! It really blows me away :)

This past week was good. I had a great time with our new investigators who all came to church, the Rodriguez family! We're really hoping for amazing things with them. I think they might even get baptized before I leave :D I'm sorry my letter is short but I don't have a ton of time! I'll talk to y'all next week. I love y'all soooo much! The Sequoias were amazing as well!!!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

[We got to talk to Matt on Mother's Day via Skype. This is our 4th and final Skype during his mission.]

One last trip to the Sequoias before I head home.

A really big tree

Week 100 - ¡¡Felice Cien!!

It was really weird yesterday because it was my last fast and testimony meeting on my mission. I, of course, got up and bore my testimony. I'm super sad that I'm having to do my "last" of some things... it's really weird.

It was a great week though! Elder Olsen and I found 10 new people to teach!!! WOOOO!! We also got to see the amazing baptism of Angelica and Moises. It seriously went amazingly. I loved watching them get baptized. I loved especially seeing Angelica's husband, Javi (short for Javier), baptize his wife. It was a very special day. Angelica shared her testimony at her baptism and it was so beautiful!!! She talked about how she knew that she had taken one step closer to heavenly father and that he will always be there with her through the hard times. It was a very amazing testimony as well as an amazing service. They are doing so well and have already talked and are working on setting a date to be sealed!!!!! Moises also loved it and shared with us some really neat things about how he knew how important it was that he had gotten baptized. He's 11 and seriously understands the gospel so very well, it's amazing.

Maria and her family didn't come to church though... that was sad! We were really hoping for them to come. But I'm sure they'll be there next week. They're going to get baptized soon as well which is super awesome! It's amazing how many prepared people there are here! We met with this really cool Salvadoreña family last night and met more of their family members! One of them was even talking about how he wants to learn from us so that one day his son can go on a mission! How cool!!!

Although Maria and her family didn't come we had a cool miracle happen! His name is Jose! He walked into Sacrament meeting and says that he wants to be a part of our church! He stayed for all three hours and loved the classes. It was suuuuper cool! It was a really nice blessing as well because we were pretty down about Maria not coming. He's an older gentleman but very spry. He's around 80 yrs old or so!! He knows his Bible very well though. Hopefully he'll see the truth in the church and progress!! We're very excited!

I love y'all a ton and love my mission. There is no greater place on Earth than being where God wants you to be! I know that where I am is that place. I love this gospel and I love my Savior! Gracias por todo lo que hagan para mi!! Les amo mucho!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Angelica and her husband Javier who baptized her

Moises before getting baptized

Moises before his baptism