WEEK 14

The weather was insanely hot this week. Even the filipinos were complaining that it should not be this hot in november.. It has been crazy the last week. But we are still working hard. So this week we just taught a lot of less actives. Other than that it was a pretty normal week except for what happened saturday. So Elder Phippens ward had a half day mission which is where the memebers go on splits with the missionaries and we teach a few less actives. So we did that and after we went to a members house for lunch. But elder phippen was not feeling to well. And he didn't eat lunch so the members were concerned. So the come out with a hot mug of water with some leaves at the bottom and said "this is an herbal remedy to cure anything." And since we americans don't really trust that stuff we were skeptical but thought it would be a cool mission story if he tried filipino herbal remedies. so he takes a sip and says it is really bitter but takes a gulp, he hates we can tell and then he asks for a cup of juice to wash it down. so he takes a second gulp. still hates it but it looks like he will be able to finish it no problem since there are only like two gulps left. so he goes for a third gulp and this time he accidentally does a double gulp. he looks like he might die from the taste but he will be ok. all of the sudden.... his whole stomach is on the floor. it was like watching a fire hose of puke. it was sooooo funny! all over the floor and then round two came out of his stomach. and then the families dogs came in and ate it all up. Funniest thing I have seen on the mission so far. It was a classic. So how is everybody? Thabksgiving is coming up and I am really going to miss eating all that food and the traditional movie. What is it going to be this year? Is it super cold there? People here are like trying to make it cold by listening to tons of christmas music, yeah they can do that all they want it still is like a bizillion degrees here. Next week should be interesting. My companion is a little trunky and hopefully he will still work hard this week. All the americans here are saying they will extend their missions for 4 years haha.
MAhAl Ko KAyo!
Elder Robertson

WEEK 13

So it was transfers this week in the Cauayan Mission. I am still in Cataggaman area but am done with training and have a new companion, Elder Deriada he is also filipino and it should be an interesting cycle because we will have to find some new investigators. I am leading the area and it is hard because I have to do all the talking when we first get to appointments and what not and I still cannot understand a lot of what is being said but it is going fine so far. Played some bball this morning and and practicably looked like black mamba himself out there on the court. The filipinos cannot guard me cause I have an outside and inside game, all they have is drive to the hoop and throw up some weird layup and pray it goes in, sometimes it works. But americans just destroy them. I got the package this week! goldfish and granola bars are awesome! I also got grandpas package and the beef jerky was amazing!! The magazines are still the greatest thing I can get though. Gramps gave me one with every college basketball team preview and it was like 200 pages, not done yet but I read the SI really fast and will go back and read them from time to time. So this week i noticed that the 4 converts that were baptized the last two cycles have been member referrals and usually they have a member in the family or they live really close to a member. And from their example and the fact that they have just a more positive attitude makes them have a desire to be like the members. We really just clarified and guided them on what they were feeling and what they could feel and the potential that god sees in them as people and the greater purpose of life. Those are the converts that last forever. Ones who will have a friend to help them and also a responsibility, the three young men that we baptized are planning to serve missions and they have the aaronic priesthood now so we are trying to get them to bless and pass the sacrament if they show up early enough. But hopefully ericson and rowel will go on missions next year! Members are the best tool for conversion, we as missionaries only teach them for however long we are there in the area. But if the new member has a friend and a responsibility and is nourished by the good word of god (ie home teaching, visiting teaching, mutual, church etc.) falling away is not likely (President Hinckley said that). Sometimes we have to leave our bubble and talk to people. Whether they be less actives or investigators. Everyone wants a friend and the church is all about befriending everyone! We are all gods children and it is our duty as active members of the church to see that everyone gets home. Sometimes we might be rejected and a little embarrassed but that's the world. When we reach out we are scoring points in heaven which is worth an infinite times more. So this week see if you can go the extra mile and reach out to those looking for the truth or have fallen away cause as the song goes "doing good is a pleasure, a joy beyond measure" you will really feel really good that at least you tried if you get rejected and if not rejected you could do one thing to save a wayward soul. Well that's what I have to say since not much exciting happened this week. Just here in the philippines. Have a good week everyone!
Mahal Ko Kayo!
Elder Robertson

WEEK 12

How is everyone! It is sure an exciting week for the Cauayan Philippines Mission! President announced that we get 100 new missionaries by next year! most of those will be sisters too haha. So right now we have 148 missionaries in the mission, by next year we will have 250!! they may have to split the mission! And the philippines in general gets another 1000 missionaries by next year!! apparently this time of year there is 700 applications but this year there have been over 5000!!! So yeah the church is definitely growing here. It should be exciting! So this week we just focused on less actives and finding people to teach because tranfers are this week. So I should be staying here but I could get transferred so next week i will update you guys on that. but this week we had some fun harvesting habaling, the beetle larvae that I tried a few weeks ago. we have a less active family in our ward who does it for a living and we helped them for 4 hours, hopefully you can watch the video. and see the pictures. but lets just say doing that everyday would suck. I am definitely going to college now cause manual labor is no fun. But for one day to say that I harvested beetle larvae it was fun. We also had stake conference this week and the missionaries had to go to EVERY session and every session was two hours and always started and hour late. I would say i had a spiritual experience but the talks were all in tagalog and it was hot and i didn't feel like trying to understand what was being said...so I just fell asleep. Other than that stake conference was pretty good. And it rained a solid two days here and I was wet the whole time cause our roof leaks. And since all souls day (philippines halloween) is coming up everyone is seeing ghosts and demon possesions all over the place... apparently a sister in our zone was attacked by an evil spirit for half an hour. These people are very superstitious. There are stories all over the mish about evil spirits in apartments beig cast out by the mission president. So yeah that's whats up in the philps. Having some fun and working hard. Happy Halloween!!  Have a good week everyone!
Mahal Ko Kayo,
Elder Robertson

elder robertson harvesting beetle larvae

beetle larvae

elder robertson eating a beetle larvae

WEEK 11

Well this week we had the four baptisms, the picture should be attatched. The one in front of me, her name is letye. then next to letye is kristine jane, then maribel, and then ericson and elder llorin. It was a really good baptism cause right before the ward had an activity so everyone just went from the activity to the baptism! hopefully ericson will serve a mission in a year. the other picture is of the three kids we baptized all getting the aaronic priesthood. hopefully they will all serve missions! However, we have no investigators now, so back to square one. We will teach a lot of less actives this week cause elder llorin gets transfered next week on the 1st. So it will be interesting to get a new compamion to see how some one else works. Time is going pretty fast right now. The philippines is starting to become home (except for the dairy products, ovens, really good food, and sports, and air conditioning) and I am starting to better communicate with the people here and working hard. I played basketball this morning, I may have bruises for a while cause filipinos have no concept of a hack. everytime i would get the ball inside 15 feet. hack hack hack hack. I still scored and swatted a few kids. there were three other americans playing and they weren't bad either. It's starting to get colder here, I actually had to turn off my fan last night even though it was still like 70 degrees or something. I can't imagine how cold it is at home. Last night we were having scripture study with a family and they were in 3 Nephi 10. And the voice of christ says 4 times to the people 'and how oft will I gather my people like a hen gathers her chicks" I took this to mean that no matter how many times we fall and no matter how far we fall christ can always bring us back into his wing of love and mercy. He is all knowing, all powerful, and all loving. he wants the best for all of us. I know that no matter how far we think we have gone, no matter how bad or lonely or guilty we may feel, he can always heal us. He can always bring us back into the fold. I read somewhere that the only thing that keeps us from being forgiven and accepting the atonement and the enabling power (see elder bednar on lds.org good talk) and the amazing gift of exaltation is...surprise! Ourselves. He is there for us, he always will be. I know that, and I have seen it here in the philippines on this mission. well thats about it for today. A interview with president Carlos tomorrow so we'll see how that goes. Take Care! Love y'all!

Elder Robertson

elder robertson, letye kristine jane, maribel, ericson and elder llorin

elder robertson and llorin with 3 boys they just baptized

 

WEEK 10

So i got to watch conference this weekend and it was amazing! Elder Holland, Ballard, Bednar, Eyring in priesthood and Nelson (ASK THE MISSIONARIES!) were a few of my favorites but all the talks were so good! Shout out to elder oaks for mentioning the philippines! So This weekend we have 4 baptisms! It should be really fun! Our investigators have been prepared and they were all uplifted during conference so I am excited. Also this week we had president Carlos speak to us in zone conference, he asked one question. Who are you? both as a missionary and a man. he elaborated on the importance of the priesthood in missionary work and family life and how we can be successful in the field and at home after. There is just more and more emphasis on the family as evident by conference. But i was especially hit by how they always say to prepare for a mission, when I feel like I didnt really prepare, but with looking back my whole life was preparing. I am using everything I learned in Primary, Young Men, Sunday School, College, Dads.......discipline experiences. All to further the work of the lord here in the philippines. It is hard work and at times doesn't seem worth it but when i get to see someone come unto christ and be baptized makes it all worth it. I hope we are all sharing the gospel as much as we can through our example. I did'nt know how much people watch us until talking with investigators. They really do see something different in us and they want (and I quote) "glow of happiness, cheerfulness" so lets follow the counsel of our prophets and apostles and live the gospel. whoever the lady speaker that said "I'm a mormon, I know it, I live it, I love it." Anywho, I ate duck this week and full shrimp and more beetle larvae....gramps you might win cause I am getting curious about balut now and kind of want to try it. vegetables are still a challenge haha. Time is going quick! Pretty soon it will be Christmas! Well have a good week everyone!
Ingat Kayo,
Elder Robertson

elder Robertson, elder Llorin and two other missionaries

beetle larvae that elder Robertson eats

elder Robertson rode this for 2 hours it is called a tricy

WEEK 9

It was a good here in the Philippines and an interesting one at times. We had a baptism, his name is tonton and he is 15, his cousins and sisters really helped with this kid cause they were such a good example for him and so literally all we had to do was clarify the lessons and then baptize him and then we were done! We also have a few more baptisms coming up so details with those as they get closer, hopefully we will baptize four people on the 20th. So saturday before the baptism we had a really good experience with a less active. We were teaching her and she was really old and really unresponsive and defensive to us for some reason. when it came time for the closing prayer she tried to make me say it but i wasnt about to let her. So after about 10 minutes and a lot of praying from my part and silence I felt like i should say something that i can't remember. So I said it and the tagalog felt like I spoke it forever and natural and after another minute she said the prayer. I dont know what I said but the spirit worked and she said the prayer. the spirit really works in this work and we should be worthy to have the spirit with us at all times. With this change in age for the ability to serve missions, the high school boys and 18 year old girls should all prepare to serve a mission. The spirit is certainly sensitive to us. I notice that depending on my attitude and the quality of my thoughts and keeping my focus on the work the spirit will be with me and I can speak tagalog easier. But if I am not living in accordance with the teachings of the BoM or the modern prophets. no spirit. So prepare now!! Pray in the morning and the night! STUDY the book of mormon for at least ten minutes a day. The more you are prepared the easier it will be when you actually get out here.Thats cool that boys can leave at 18 and girls at 19! Our ward should have a lot of more missionaries soon! How is everything else going? I got the manila envelope this week and the gummy bears were awesome! So I tried beetle larvae this week! they look disgusting but were just really salty and crunchy haha. We went to callao caves this week and i think some more caves next week so I might be late again. I can't wait to watch conference this weekend and listen to president carlos on thursday for 4 hours at zone conference haha. It should be a good week





 

 



 

 

 

 

Elder Llorin, Tonton, Elder Robertson

 

WEEK 8

There is no such thing as halloween here, they are just counting down until christmas..84 days is posted all over the place haha they even play christmas music all over the place! So is everyone ready for conference? this weekend you have the opportunity to listen to prophets and apostles like moses, peter, james, and john and joseph smith. We are so priveleged to live in a time where their teachings are so readily accessible. we should all take the opportunity to listen to their talks and not next month when the ensign comes out be shocked that we missed all the great things that they said. I have to wait a week and will watch it on the 13 and 14 of this month. I cant believe that september is over! that month was one of the fastest ever! if every month is like that then this mission may go by really fast. And I've been told that once you get the language down time goes even faster. so only 4 months before i actually start understanding stuff. But still people keep wanting to listen to us, either it's because I am an american or the spirit....we had four new kids listen to us this week and I can't tell if they are genuinely excited or just curious about the paleface in their country. I've spoken with a few other americans i see in mcdonalds (surprise thats where the americans go haha) and they are a little loopy and wanting to run away from their problems. So we have to separate the investigators that are genuinely interested and those who just want to see an american. so if people don't keep commitments we drop them sadly. Anyways we are still having good success and planning on a baptism almost every weekend this month. Well the work is going good. We have a meeting down in Cauayan this week so it will be another six hours of traveling on thursday and prolly another bad movie, so exciting. On saturday we had a stake activity of family day and our ward played a basketball game so I decided to join in, I was serge ibaka down low. 10 swats in ten minutes haha. the crowd went crazier than ever before my bishop said because of me cause I have been the only elder to ever play basketball with them haha. I was totally gross afterwards and soaked with sweat but it was worth it. it is fun being on a mission and even better knowing that i'll come home in two years knowing that i worked my hardest the whole time with no hot showers haha.

Elder Robertson

 

                  excerpt from the conversation we had with elder Robertson

 

Dad: Just waiting, how is it going

Elder R:  good, only had 18 lessons this week but we had a typhoon on wednesday. but nothing really bad happened and a funeral we had to go to yesterday.

Mom:  How does a typhoon look? How is a Filipino funeral? How was church today? Investigators?

 

Elder R:  dark, rainy and windy. like a feast and gambling and party. but the members are a lot more normal than I thought they would be, a lot of plan of salvation talk. 5 at church so pretty good.

Mom:  Do you have to stay inside during a typhoon? Did you get any mail!

 

Elder R:  Yeah or you get soaked in like ten seconds. no but we get mail again tomorrow so hopefully tomorrow haha

Mom:  Did you eat at the funeral? Are they big gamblers? Do you ever teach or anything at church?

 

Elder R:  Yeah just rice and noodles. They love to gamble here its nuts with a lot of money for poor people. Yeah we teach a couple kids who live a long ways away but are still in our area.

Mom:  How is your recent baptized kid doing? Whose your next baptism? 

 

Elder R:  good, he wants to go on a mission next year! next is tonton he is 15.

Mom:  So what do you do for general conference?

 

Elder R:   we go to the stake center next week to watch it so we have to wait a week.