WEEK 55

I look forward to listening to President Rahlf and learning from him. So this week was good, I went on splits with my district leader. Luckily I was in my area cause his area is out in space basically. We went to his area to get my companion and on wednesday morning we left at 11 and me and my comp did not get back until 4! We had to wait for a bus for half an hour and then ride like an hour then walk for ten minutes and then wait for a boat to take us across the river for 30 minutes and then a 10 minute boat ride because the bridge to their area is flooded. And then a 20 minute tricy ride. and then all that again to get back plus more waiting. It was a nightmare and I am glad my area is in the middle of the city basically. We had a baptism this week too. She is the housemaid of the stake president. I hope she stays active even when she is done with her work at their house. But now we are shifting our focus to the nephew of the bishop here and a part member family. Maybe we will have two more baptisms this cycle. Other than that we teach recent converts and go tracting. Fun stuff.

So this week I read an awesome talk by Elder Holland. It was his October 1995 conference talk called "This Do in Remembrance of Me" I recommend reading it for FHE or something. I highly enjoyed it and learned a lot. I don't know where to start in what I like about this talk but maybe a few things. The Israelites were commanded that every year they have a feast called the passover in remembrance of the lord delivering them from captivity. This was a highly symbolic feast and was held in the highest of regards and included many intricately prepared dishes.The Israelites would prepare for months in preparation of this feast and would literally clean themselves and prepare themselves physically and spiritually for this feast. But then Christ came and gave us the higher law. He made the passover simpler but more frequent. With only bread and water and this to remind us that he delivered us from captivity and we are free. Elder Holland quotes Bruce R. McConkie in saying that the sacrament is the "most sacred and most holy than all the meetings in the church." He then asks on how sacred and how holy it is to us? Do we see it as our passover and deliverance from captivity and bondage? Then I thought, if someone saved my life how do I thank them? No price can thank them for what they did for me and I suppose just remembering them always and respecting and giving thanks to them is the best way (the jetskiing incident is a great example, I still remember those kind people and the help they gave us.) The sacrament is just that. It is a chance to set our thoughts wholly upon Jesus Christ and his life and Atonement. Elder Holland gives a few suggestions on what we can do to remember him on the Sabbath. It is one of those talks that is so full of great material I want to read it over and over. I want to try to make the sacrament more meaningful in my life and I want to work harder on remembering him always cause as the scripture says in D&C 128:22 "the prisoners shall go free" and we are all prisoners freed because Christ went on a one man rescue mission to save us. So I suggest reading it for FHE or something. Really a great talk! Well thats about it for this week! Thank You for everything!

Mahal Ko Kayo!
Elder Robertson

the river

elder robertson getting a piggyback ride to shore

he says he is "guapo"

the baptism

WEEK 53

Hello Family!

How is everyone?  It is still hot here, surprise surprise. So I got a new companion this week. His name is Elder Sogari and he is from Fiji! He is totally black too haha but he is way chill and way fun, he has been out for 8 months and is a hardworker so it should be a fun cycle with some good hard work. They split our area so it is way smaller and we have only a few members in our area so it will be a lot of tracting. The other area is sisters and the members are so excited to have them here so we may be on our own for a while cause the relief society justs wants to work with them so whatevs. One sister is a filipina and the other is a tongan. the filipina is training the tongan. The ward calls us the United Nations of Tuguegarao. I am the oldest missionary in my district! Almost everyone else is under a year or just hit their year mark. Thats a weird feeling since like 6 months ago I wasn't close to that. Thats about it for this week other than that just teaching and finding and walking. I started Jesus the Christ again this week and this time I am gonna read it a long with the New Testament so I can read the account of Christs life a long with the description and explanation by James E. Talmage. It should be a good experience for personal study. And of course I read a chapter of the book of mormon every morning too. Well thats about it! Have a good week everybody!

Mahal Ko Kayo!

Elder Robertson

Week 52

Hello Family!

Its been hot hot hot here in Tuguegarao. The storm systems of the last few weeks have been moving away so the clouds are leaving and so it is just the sun at its brightest. If the Celestial Kingdom is like the sun then really it is just a bizillion times better than the terrestial haha. So I will be here in Ward 2 for another 6 weeks which I am really excited for. I enjoy this area and enjoy the work and the members and the dinners every night. My area is splitting though and they are going to add two sister missionaries I think. So it should be interesting. There are so many missionaries coming in to our mission that areas just keep getting smaller and smaller. My goal is to talk to every house in my area in the next six weeks. It will be hard cause each house can take up to 5 minutes cause people won't say no but I can do it and am excited to try. We have a few progressing investigators right now. One is the house helper of the stake president, she is very quiet and am not quite sure why she wants to be baptized either to please the stake president or what be she comes to church every week and says she knows it is true so who knows? The other two are cousins of the bishop here. They are a bit more talkative and one has a lot of potential cause he seems to really want to know the truth and everything. So it should be interesting to see how it turns out. Hopefully they all will get baptized.

So this week dad had me read in judges chapter six and chapter seven and study about leadership. So here are a few things that I learned and studied. Gideon who is the leader in judges was a leader by example, he said to do the things that I do. So of course a leader is a good example. It says in the missionary handbook that a leader is the example of obedience and that his area reflects what an area should be. Every leader in the scriptures was obedient to the commandments and led by their example. A good follower tries to align their lives to the leader and thus will become a leader in turn. Then I read in Ezekiel 34:2-6. A leader is a shepherd and should care for his sheep. Then in Matthew 20:25-28 A leader is a servant. A leader has power so that he can serve. The best leaders spent their lives in the service of others (King Benjamin says it in mosiah chapter 2.) Then in D&C 121:34-45 that leaders lead with love and that the rights of the priesthood (or leadership) are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven and can only be handled upon the principles of righteousness. Sometimes leaders have to correct behavior or chastise but they should in a loving manner and out of concern for the persons well being. There are so many examples of great leaders in the Scriptures but I love the description of Captain Moroni in Alma 48:11-13, 17-18 He was a righteous leader in a hard time. Of course Christ is the perfect leader so the christlike attributes in PMG are a great thing to study cause a good leader tries to be like christ. Then I read a quote "A man who can master his time can master nearly anything" -Bernard M. Baruch and so a leader uses his time wisely and works on becoming a master of himself while helping others do the same thing. It was a great study and I learned alot. Well thats about it for this week. Hope everyone has a good week at school!

Mahal Ko Kayo!

Elder Robertson

Pday cake fight with the zone

 

Dinner (pizza!) with the Stake President and his family

The woman on the left is investigating the church.

 

The Mallari family feeds the missionaries every Tuesday!

 

 

WEEK 51

So this week Sister Baccay was baptized. Her husband baptized her and now we are trying to get the ward to give them callings and getting things going so they remain active and so they can start preparing to go to the temple in a year. We also baptized a kid of a less active to. It was a good baptism. We had a recent convert speak and she was pretty much in the same situation as sister baccay was with a less active husband and what not, she gave a great talk and now she is her visiting teacher. Hope she visits her. Other than that we have been busy looking for new investigators. A lot of the families here in the philippines are part members with only one or two active members. We have been trying to get to teaching families like that. We have had some success. We are teaching a couple members of the bishops family and a member of the stake presidents family. We are going to contact some more referrals this week so hopefully we will have some more investigators this week. But everything is going good in mission life right now. Working hard and will keep working hard. I am working on better self discipline right now. Just being more disciplined all the way around. Obedience wise, attitude wise, spending wise, eating wise. I figured I can be better disciplined in my life so I have been really working on that. Well that's about it for this week. I'll talk to you guys next week.

Elder Robertson

the people being baptized and companion