WEEK 18

we had three kids who were baptized (see pic) and a christmas devotional. I had to dress up as nephi, i thought my days of acting were over after elementary school. Well the cycle is almost over, and my endurance is almost over (hopefully) then i get to start again! hopefully. updates next week on the happening. This week teaching wise was pretty good, we have one girl on date for december 29 and a mom and a daughter on date for the 12th of januarys so hopefully those will happen. It is requiring sacrifice though, it takes a whole day to teach those two lessons and costs 100 pisos to travel there and back but if they get baptized it will be worth it. We also got to go to the first presidency christmas devotional, i was especially touched by pres uchtdorfs talk about being good recievers, no problem there for me especially when every letter and package is like manna from heaven haha. Also our ward is planning a christmas party, yeah it is going from 2pm until 7 pm, they are going all out for this thing and apparently all they do is sit around and talk. filipinos love to just linger and chat. one of their favorite things. and it gets annoying cause they are always late because they talk. but patience is a virtue haha. so to conclude this letter this week i will include part of the newsletter from the mission, it is quite the story and i was susrprised it worked out but cool all the same.

Christmas Love

My son, Nicholas, was in kindergarten that year. It was an exciting season for a six-year-old. For weeks, he'd been memorizing songs for his school's "Winter Pageant."
The time for the performance came and I filed in 10 minutes early, found a spot on the cafeteria floor and sat down. Because the public school system had long stopped referring to the holiday as Christmas, I didn't expect anything other than fun, commercial entertainment - songs of reindeer, Santa Claus, snowflakes and good cheer. So, when my sons' class rose to sing, "Christmas Love," I was slightly taken aback by its bold title.
Nicholas was aglow, as were all of his classmates, adorned in fuzzy mittens, red sweaters, and bright beanies upon their heads. Those in the front row-center stage - held up large letters, one by one, to spell out the title of the song. As the class would sing, "C is for Christmas," a child would hold up the letter C. Then, "H is for Happy," and on and on, until each child holding up his portion had presented the complete message, "Christmas Love."
The performance was going smoothly, until suddenly, we noticed her; a small, quiet, girl in the front row holding the letter "M" upside down... totally unaware her letter "M" appeared as a "W".
The audience of 1st through 6th graders snickered at this little one's mistake. But, she had no idea they were laughing at her, so she stood tall, proudly holding her "W." Although many teachers tried to shush the children, the laughter continued until the last letter was raised, and eyes began to widen. In that instant, we understood the reason we were there, why we celebrated the holiday in the first place, why even in the chaos, there was a purpose for our festivities.

For when the last letter was held high, the message read loud and clear:
"C H R I S T W A S L O V E"
And, I believe, He still is.

Love ELDER ROBERTSON!!!

elder Robertson and the 3 kids he baptized with companion