Returned With Honor!!!!

June 29, 2015 Last Email From The Mission Field

This week was really good.  I tried working my hardest and it went really well.  We had an excellent week.  It went by really fast.  Subway would be really good for lunch and I think for dinner I want stuffed potatoes! :)  That's cool Bro. Farley said to talk to him when I get back; maybe we could go over there right away on Friday.  I would like to work as soon as I can. 

I don't really know anything about the trip home, they don´t tell us until the last day.  I think I will have time to go to the Temple Thursday in Santiago so that should be cool.  Wednesday I will be in the mission home all day.  I will spend the night in a hotel and then Thursday sometime in the morning I will go to Santiago.  I think my plane leaves Santiago sometime at night.  It should be a good trip.

Maria Jose is really good it was the birthday of her son Saturday.  She will get baptized here soon.  She wants to wait a little bit which is fine.  She is super cool.  It has been cool to be here in Volcan.  The branch is really awesome.  Recently they change the branch president and he is awesome.  He is making lots of changes for the better.  This place is going to grow a lot.  The cambios should be pretty crazy!  Haha, I'm kinda glad I'm leaving. They are juntándose los dos zonas (combining the two zones).  I don´t know how to say that in English.  Villarrica and Los Lagos is going to be one huge zone!!!!  Well, I don´t know what else to tell you, haha, I´ll show you all the pics this week when I get home! :)  I'm kinda excited for my bed!

I'm really tired!  Haha.  It will be weird going home.  It still really hasn't hit me that I'm going home in a couple days!  It will be wierd and a really long trip.

Love you tons!  See you soon

Elder Robertson     

I thought it would be appropriate if I sent two scriptures home to you guys.

2 Timothy 4:7
"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."

1 Corinthians 13:11
"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."

I like to think I've changed!  Haha, but I'm just kidding about the second scripture I'm still a kid! :)

June 22nd, 2015

Thats fine if we don`t go anywhere.  It will make it easier to start working faster and be able to work more.  I'm excited for this week.  We have some big plans.  Maria Jose is awesome.  We found out this week that her husband is probably going to start working in the mines up north.  He will be up there around 30 days and will be home 15.  That would be a crazy way to live but I guess he will make a lot more money.  She said that she is going to need the church a lot more, so that should be good.  She is going to be an awesome member some day.

There have been a couple of sunny days!  Haha, but now it's just freezing cold.  But it's better than the rain!  The zone has been progressing a lot!  It has been really cool to see the progression of all the missionaries.  At the beginning of the cambio we set some goals and we are almost reaching all of them.  I love being a missionary.  It's been a cool experience.  Don`t worry about me not working hard, i'll finish strong! :)  I`ve tried to give it my all everyday of my mission and be 100% obediente.  Part of me doesn't really want to go because I know I won't be able to do it again until I'm an old fart and I go with my wife! Haha, in like 100 years. 

I'm excited for this week it's going to be good.

Love Elder Robertson 

Last P-day we went to the house of Max and his parents.  The mom of Max, Marianela, taught us how to make bread.  It was really good.  We made ham and cheese sandwiches with the fresh bread.  I don't get how I haven`t gotten fat!

This is the selfie we took right before. 

I miss good food.  I bought this last P-day.  It was Awesome!!!!!!!!!!! Could we go eat lunch at Subway when I get home?

This is the first day it stopped raining.  The volcano was covered in snow!

This was a Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) we had with Max and his family.  After the lesson, we played a game called The Papa Se Quema or Hot potato.  You have to pass a ball around while one person says "la papa se quema, la papa se quema" over and over until he says, "la papa se quemò" and the person with the ball gets a mark on the face.  Haha, it's pretty fun!  I don't know if that made any sense but it's a really funny game. :)

June 15th, 2015

Hey fam!

This week was good!  The work has been going good.  Luis is doing great.  He sold his house so he will leave to Santiago on July 16 or 17.  It has been cool to share with him he has changed a lot.  He quit drinking and he has practically quit smoking!  We didn't really know if we should baptize him here or if he should just do it in Santiago.  So we prayed about it and decided that it would be better for him to wait until Santiago.  I hope everything goes great for him; I know he will be a good member.  Maria Jose was sick yesterday so she couldn't come to church.  Luis came, so that was good.

Maria Jose is really cool.  She started reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning.  She had a close friend die in a car accident the other day so we gave her a blessing.  It was neat because when we went into her house I felt like I was going to give her a blessing.  We shared with her and then at the end she told us about her friend and all that was going on and how she felt.  So Max, our ward mission leader, told her about blessings and she said she wanted one.  Then she asked me to do it.  It was neat because I already knew I was going to do it.  The spirit is awesome.  The blessing felt really good.  Max is a great lider misional.  He just went to the temple recently.  He has only been a member for a year but is awesome.  Max leaves with us all the time to work!

We have been slacking off with contacts a little so we have tons of goals and plans to help us do contacts!

The Zone is really good.  We have seen lots of change for the better.  Everyone is working harder and things are just getting better!  I think this next combio they will baptize lots!  It has been a really good cambio.

I can't believe it, but it's still raining!  Haha, when I get home all my stuff is going to smell like smoke and mold!  But I have gotten used to being wet all day!  I've gotten to be a fire builder/starter expert!  Haha.
.
I have thought time has flown my whole mission but now it's really flying!  Haha, I can't believe it.
I thought that was pretty cool.

I found this quote reading the conference.

"One cannot forget mother and remember God.  One cannot remember mother and forget God.  Why?  Because these two sacred persons, God and (our earthly) mother, partners in creation, in love, in sacrifice, in service, are as one."
                                       -Thomas S. Monson

I thought that was pretty cool.  Thanks Mom.

Love you Family!  Don't be too Trunkie! ;)

Elder Robertson

June 8th, 2015

This week has been really good.  I have sucked my whole mission at writing in my journal but I decided to write in it every day this last month.  So that has been really good.  This week was really good.  We fasted with Maria Jose and Luis!  For both of them it was the first time fasting!  It was really neat.  Maria Jose Fasted for her parents because they are sick and for her own family.  It was a really cool experience and strengthened my testimony of fasting.  It's so sad that hardly anyone fasts, they are losing so many blessings.

Saturday there was a baptism in The rama(branch) Ancahual.  It was a family baptizing their 8 year-old son.  I felt really bad for the branch president because nothing was planned out so it was pretty bad.  We ended up doing everything... haha.  The guy doing the baptism was really nervous so he couldn't remember the words at first and the first three times he did the baptism some part of the kid came up.  We ended up telling everyone to go back in and wait and then we did the baptism again.  That time everything went under the water.  So they finished the program and then ate tons of food (on a fast weekend.....).  We were there talking about the baptism when we realized the guy had done the baptism with his left arm to the square..... hahahaha.  So after all the food they had to change back into the wet clothing and do it again.  It was a long baptism; we were there for 4 hours!  But it was a neat experience because I learned the importance of planning but better than that, after the final time the kid was baptised we felt the spirit really strongly, something we realized hadn't been there the rest of the times.  Ordenanzas(ordinances) have to be done exactly right, every time.

We are working a lot with Maria Jose and Luis, hopefully they will get baptized the 27th of June.  It should be really cool.

I'm still wet :)  It seems like there is just enough time at night for things to dry out (kinda) and then the next day they get wet.  I liked the picture of Dallin and Ellie in the ponchos in the rain.  The other day I bought a Chilean poncho!  It's super cool.

This week went by really fast.  We had intercambios with the APs and then with Pucon.  It's cool to have Elder montiel in the same zone.  We get along a lot better this time around.

I can´t think of anything else to say so I asked my companion what else I could write and he reminded me!  We saw a dog that had an epileptic attack.  (I had to write that because I couldn't spell siezure?  My companion can´t remember either he just put convulsing :).  Lots of shaking.  It was crazy.

Well thats all

Love Elder Robertson

June 2nd, 2015

Sorry my email didn't work yesterday it was super weird.  It didn't work for like half the zone!  But, whatever, we are about to have district meetings.  This week has been really good.  I think all that rain from Texas came here; it has been raining for three days straight without stopping.  Last night I walked through a puddle that was deeper than my boots so they filled with water!  Haha, it was funny.  Elder Hazard is really cool we get along great.  Maria Jose is really neat and Luis is good too! 

May 25th, 2015

This week was really good.  Both Maria Jose and Luis came to church.  They are both really cool.  It's really cool to teach Maria.  I have learned there are two types of people that accept the gospel.  The first accepts the gospel because they have to.  They are at a point in their lives so low that it is the only way they can be humble enough to accept the gospel.  The other type are the people that accept the gospel because they want to.  It doesn't matter where they are in their lives, they want to accept the gospel.  It's cool because Maria Jose wants to accept the gospel. 

Surprise!!!!!  So Monday night, after we had planned all the cambios, the APs called us and told us we had cambios too!  Elder Meneses went to a place called La Union.  And my new companion is named Elder Hazard.  He is from Nevada.  He lives in Reno!!  But he doesn't know Aunt Carla.  Oh well, he has just over a year and a half in the mission so he will probably end here.  We get along great!  He is a really good elder.  He is tall!!!!  I didn't take any pictures but I will this week!  We are going to focus on finding people and helping the zone be more animated (excited in Spanish/English translation).  The elders in our house stayed the same, so that's cool. 

I was thinking and I don't know if I want to go on a vacation when I get back.  I just want to work and save money for school. :)  It would be good to work at the theater and then maybe I could get another job for the summer as well.  But we will see. 

Things are going really good!  I'm excited to be here in Villarrica.  The work is going really good.  It's our goal to talk to 140 people this week!!  It's going to be a good week!!!!!! :)

Love,

Elder Robertson