Week 56 - A Mini Mission

This week was a good one and full of some good times. We saw a lot of good people this week! SALINA HAD HER BABY!!! She's at the hospital right now and so we're going to visit her after this. So I'll send pictures of that next week. It's funny that you brought up youth conference because that's totally something that happened here too. Except our stake did a mini mission! It was super cool. We got two of the youth (Tim, 18, and Jacob, 16) to go with us and it was super fun. They were really enthusiastic about the work and we all had a ton of fun together and got a ton of work done. The main things we did with them were:

Friday Night

• Saw Kary and Tracy (two of Salina's roommates) and taught them about faith. Both of them were able to testify about faith and share personal expierences about how faith has changed their lives. Tim shared such a powerful testimony that it brought Kary to tears. It was incredible!! It was also super hot in their house so we all came out drenched in sweat. But it was worth it!
• Visited Vanessa and had a wonderful lesson with her where we committed her to do missionary work this week. She's doing awesome and the boys got to see what it was like to be in a members home and to teach them.

Saturday Night

• Knocked doors and had them do some contacts all on their own! They did wonderfully!! We were able to find some awesome potentials and even a woman who asked us to come back in an hour. It was really fun but we did rejected a lot. So it kinda showed them both sides of contacting people.
• Taught a lesson to the Long family and helped them remember the importance of the Restoration. They both committed to do missionary work by talking to someone about the restoration. The two boys were able to practice their teaching using the pamphlets so it was awesome!
• Went back to the lady's house who we found knocking doors. Her name is Dorothy Davis and she is 89!! She is very spritely still. She invited us all in and we had an awesome first lesson and committed her to read the pamphlet and pray about it!!

It was an awesome experience with them! We were able to, at least I hope we were able to, show them how great being a missionary is!

Elder Collins and I are doing great. We are working hard on being as diligent as we can so that the Lord can trust us and bless us with miracles! It was a great week and this one will be even better :) I love all of y'all so much!

Love,

Elder Robertson

This is how hot it is when we come back to our apartment every night since we have to turn the AC off when we leave. Yup.

Week 55 - Learning so much from my mission president

Buenos Tardes Familia!

So this week was one of interesting lessons and a baptism!!! So first off, the baptism :D Brianna was baptized and confirmed this last week. It was awesome. We also found quite a lot of new investigators through the baptism! It's amazing how powerful the baptisms are... The spirit is just so strong there! So that was awesome.

We taught someone this past week that tried to tell us about how religion wasn't real because science was. OH how frustrating it is that people don't understand that science is just our mortal explanation with our finite minds about what God did and does. Furthermore, when we understand that, we are able to see how important science is and how much more we appreciate God for what he has given us!

We also taught Salina's roommates.. They (about 2 months ago) told us we were allowed to come over but to never ever speak to them about our church or anything. Well the other night we went in and they asked us to explain the restoration to them. We did and the spirit was so strong there! Salina in her prayer said, "Heavenly Father, thank you for your spirit tonight, I know it was here because I felt it" And you could tell that feeling was mutual. Well, her roommates told us that they wanted to come and check out the church! So whoooaaa that was so awesome. It's amazing the miracles that Elder Collins and I are witnessing. This work is the greatest.

I really am learning so much from my mission president and I know that I need to follow his council as much as I can. I know that I not only was sent here to the Fresno California Mission for a reason but I was also put with President Clark for a reason. I have truly seen that already in my work and know that I will continue to see it as I strive to to work hard to follow his council.

I love this work more than I can describe. I love it on a level that I didn't even know that I had. I am so grateful for this opportunity that the Lord has given and the trust he has placed in me. I know that I need to continue to improve myself so that I can be who he wants me to be, fully and completely. I love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the sacred opportunity to carry around the apostolic title of Elder for these two years. In like manner, I love the family that I come from and the wonderful things that I learn from y'all all the time. I am so grateful to carry y'all's name as well on my chest. I love y'all so much and hope y'all have a wonderful week :)

Love,

Elder Robertson

Week 54 - Staying in the Fresno Mission

This past week was good. We were able to see a lot of investigators and they're showing a lot of progress. Brianna should be getting baptized this weekend so that's super exciting! She is the 9 year old daughter of a less-active family! They are awesome and getting revamped and reactivated so they can help their daughter be baptized. It is truly inspiring to see.

We also have 7 people with a baptismal date right now so that's suuuuper exciting! They all need to get everything together and better prepare. So if you could please pray for them all you can. It's Brianna, Max, Alex, Nancy, Ana, Cecilio, and Abigail! Oh it's so incredible how many prepared people are here in Chowchilla. Speaking of which.............

I'm staying in the CFM. As well I'm actually staying in Chowchilla (I'm never gonna leeeeave!) And even more crazy Elder Collins and I are staying together another transfer! It's exciting we'll really be able to just work our hardest and leave everything here as we've already gotten adjusted to each other and know how to work together!

It's gonna be weird when the mission splits.. But we'll just have to work harder since we're losing so many people! It's amazing how much the Lord is hastening his work! I'm kinda sad though... I haven't gotten any of y'all's letters yet in the mail :'( tear tear. Just joshin but I do hope they're coming soon!

I love y'all so much and am so grateful for your support and your incredible example! I love this mission so much and am so grateful for everything that I am learning. I hope that each of you knows how much you've impacted my life and how proud I am of all of y'all!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Sisters horning and warnick and I on pretty much our year mark! So crazy.

Week 53 - Learning about the Atonement

I'll update y'all next week on the mission split and everything... we find out Saturday ahhhh. We'll see what happens! I don't wanna predict anything cause I honestly don't have the slightest clue.

This past week was a good one we were able to teach a ton of people. It was wonderful.. But we had sooo many people that promised us that they'd be at church and then no one showed up. It was super sad. But luckily 6 more days and they'll all have another opportunity.

I've been thinking about the Atonement. I don't think I ever really grasped it when I was at home. I hadn't really gone through anything hard enough to break down my pride to ask for the Lord's help through the Atonement. But I can definitely say that I've done it quite a lot while being out here. It's amazing to me how much he seriously helps each one of us in our own trials.. and all because he loves us. He is a literal being not just some imaginary good idea. He is a glorified resurrected person who loves each of us so much that he took all of our sins. It's amazing to me that I get to wake up every morning and just try and show him how grateful I am for what he's done. It's very humbling and I'm still not very good at showing my gratitude well.. but luckily I have 1 more year of full time service to practice and get better at it. :)

Our investigators are doing well and we're looking forward (hopefully) to Brianna's baptism this week. She is a nine year old of a less active family that we're trying to help come back to church. It's been amazing watching them work hard to help their daughter get baptized! Alex is still doing alright, we're doing our best to work with him and help him realize how powerful the Atonement really is.

Hope that y'all have a great week and I'm so grateful for all of y'all and love y'all sooo much!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Week 52 - One Year Down, One to Go!

Hello all!

We got to go to the temple today! It was incredible. I love that place so much. This has been a cool week. We've been working hard ya know doing missionary work. But I've really been able to see a change in myself. I'm really starting to do things and serve because of my love for Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. This doesn't mean that before I wasn't serving because of that... But there were definitely of other motives I think! But it's been amazing how much more motivated I am when it's for them and they're who I'm accountable to.

Update on the Modesto Mission: They are reassigning us right now and we'll find out this next transfer on June 16th or so. By "they" I mean Russel M. Nelson. Ya know the apostle. So that's exciting and crazy!! But we'll see what happens! It'll be sad though because I think that Elder Collins and I are going to get separated because he is done training. Tear tear. It'll be sad to have to get a new companion! But he's gonna go do great things!

I'm doing great and had a great week! I love y'all so much and am so grateful for my eternal family! Hope y'all have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Week 51 - Earning the Ward's Trust

Okay... I'm really doing bad at budgeting my time at this emailing thing! But this week was really good. We were able to have Alex at church!! It was amazing! He had such a good time and was loving every second of it. He even sang the songs nice and loud. He's so awesome and I'm so excited for him.

Elder Collins and I are doing well. We are having a great time trying to figure out how to be exactly obedient and find all of those that we can to teach and bring unto Christ. One thing that we are working really hard on right now is to really gain the ward's trust. We know that they like us and they know we are good people but we are not sure if that is to the extent of them wanting us to be teaching their friends and completely putting their confidence in us! So we are working on that. It's going well. We are trying our best to get into their homes and teach them and see if we can help them come closer unto Christ so that they can help all of their friends do the same.

It's been kind of surreal seeing that Javauna is home and seeing some of my friends out here on the mission go home. I don't like it... It's been kind of sad! But it's something that I know is going to be real one day. So I'm just realizing how short my time is and how much more I need to be giving to the Lord because I know he needs soooo much more than I can give! So gotta get as close as I can to what he needs and then he'll take care of the rest :) I hope that y'all have a wonderful week and get to have some great missionary opportunities!!! LOVE Y'ALL!!

Love,

Elder Robertson

Us in front of My companions like favorite car that a less active member took us for a ride in! A jeep wagoneer.

Selfie!

Week 50 - Bad BBQ

The Fair

So this was pretty much the big part of this past week... for some good reasons but also for some bad ones. So I'll start with the good ones. We got to go to a little bit of the fair! So that was fun! It was cool to get to go see and all the "fun" stuff that all of these chowchilleans have. It's totally a farming town out here! But we got to eat the BBQ there. They made brisket... bad choice. I was a total snob! Not to anyones face... but it wasn't even close up to par. Okay, it just wasn't very good in general. But the experience was fun. It was cool to be able to experience that and such. Plus we got some good contacts while we were there. It was nice. So the bad parts. I got a little sunburned.. so that was nice. But the real thing that was kinda hard was the fact that for 4 days there was NO ONE HOME!!! haha everyone was at the fair so it was super hard to do any missionary work. So we were a little bit frustrated. But Heavenly Father still led us to where we needed to go and we were able to get some good work done. I'll send pictures of the parade and stuff!

VANESSA WENT TO THE TEMPLE!!

So Vanessa, Ricardo's wife, went to the temple and took out her endowments!!! It was so exciting :D It's so cool to be able to watch these people go through these things and progress. It's truly a blessing to be a part of their lives and get to experience this stuff with them. So that was super awesome!

Black Jesus

So yeah.. this was a legitimate thing that I had to explain.. in depth. That was weird. We had a couple of investigators who, being of African American decent, were arguing that Jesus is and was black. But we pretty much just responded saying, well... if you read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and come to know that it is true than you will know that Joseph Smith saw Jesus Christ and said that he was well.. white. So yeah.

Sad Day With Salina

So she pretty much told us that she doesn't really want us to come by anymore. She is pretty content with where she's gotten to. She is happy the progress she's made and doesn't really want to go any farther. It's super hard.... and kind of frustrating but I know that we have planted good seeds and that one day she'll be able to find the full truth! But that's kind of where we are with her :(

Hope y'all have an amazing week and I love y'all sooo much :)

Love,

Elder Robertson

Ticket to the (definitely not Texas) BBQ

At the the Parade

At the Parade

At the Parade