Hey!
So this week was a lot more interesting than other weeks have been. I will get to why in a little bit. I am going to reply to Mom's letter to me first...
It is ok that you slowed down on writing me. I understand it is a busy time there and a lot to do. I have been way busy this last week. We set a goal to teach 30 lessons so we have been going crazy finding people to teach and practice with. We are getting pretty good at teaching in Portuguese. It is exciting to communicate in another language. It still blows my mind that people can understand these noises I make at them.
I was thinking of you (Mom and Dad) on Tuesday. I remembered it was your anniversary. I wish I would have remembered on last Friday because I would have sent a card or something. I am glad you two are married and have been for 25 years! That is amazing. You are a perfect example of how a marriage should be. I am thankful for you both and for the way you have lived your lives to be worthy to be married in the temple and allow your children to have those blessings in their lives. I love you both and I hope your day was great!
So my visa is probably not going to come through in the next week and a half or however long I have here. I will probably be reassigned for a time in the States. I am perfectly fine with that. I think I would actually prefer it. I think it would be a great experience to stay here for a while in the States. Maybe I will go to Philadelphia and see Bailey and Chad... Probaby not, but it is possible. Most Brazilian missionaries get reassigned to Atlanta for a while. That would be way fun to go there.
Ok, I'm running out of time so I will tell you the exciting news now...
Elder Holland came and talked to us for our Tuesday night Devotional! It was so sweet! There had been rumors floating around that he was coming, but I have learned to not believe MTC rumors, so I just kinda blew it off and didn't get my hopes up. So we skipped dinner anyway so we could get good seats just in case and it turned out that he actually was speaking. It was amazing when he walked it and we all stood up. The spirit was so strong right when he walked it.
His talk was AMAZING! I mentioned before that I watched one of his talks a while ago that he gave in the MTC in like 1997 and that was powerful. Well he gave kind of the same talk, except it was even better. He is SO passionate about missionary work. He related missionary work to playing a cello. And when you play a cello you have to tune it right before the preformance and make it perfect. He like started to scream at us and he was yelling YOU HAVE TO BE PERFECT EVERY TIME!!! It was so powerful. He was saying that our first lesson has to be perfect so people will want more. He told us to be completey obedient and he said, "if you don't want to follow these rules and you want to do it your way, then go ahead. BUT LEAVE YOUR NAME TAG AT THE DOOR!" He said if we don't do it the Lord's way then we don't have the right to wear his name on our chests. He said, "this isn't burger king. we don't hold the pickles." I thought that was pretty funny haha. You would have had to been there I think. It was funny though. And true. We learned that we are preaching the Lord's gospel, and we need to do it his way. That was the gist of the talk.
He ended by saying why a mission was so hard. He said it's hard because the price for salvation was not cheap. As missionaries we are saviors and redeemers (without the capital 's' and 'r'). We literally help save people and we are part of the Atonement in a way. And it is hard for us because it was hard for the Savior. My very favorite quote from the whole night was "The path to salvation ALWAYS goes through Gethsemene." That was a power statement for me. I hadn't ever thought of it that way. And it really explains why everything is hard. Why life is hard, and why missions and just everything is hard. If we want to be like Christ, we have to experience a little of what He did. It was an amazing talk and it made me want to get out in the world and talk to everyone. I am way excited.
Well, it was a great week and I learned so much. I am only speaking Portuguese from now on here in the MTC. Every day, all day. It is exciting. I can't believe I have learned so much in just 7 weeks. I am not fluent by any means, but I can understand well and speak pretty well. People can understand my sentences and things.
I am out of time. I love you all so much. Your support and love mean so much to me. I really appreciate it. Have a great first week of school and get good grades! Good luck in all of your activites this week!!! Work hard!
Love isaac
Friday, August 27, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
Another Week
Bom dia familia!
I don't know where to start really... I really feel bad writing these emails because they are all the same it seems. Sorry nothing crazy or exciting happens here. Let's see... President or Elder Gonzalez came and spoke to us for devotional on Tuesday. He is in the Presidency of the Seventy. I don't know if you call them President or Elder...But he gave a good talk on becoming Christlike teachers. It helped a lot on how I need to change the way I teach.
Yesterday we taught in the TRC and we did so well. The investigator was a Hindu so she didn't have any foundation on where we could start. So we had to make the foundation. We started of by telling her the nature of God and that he has a body of flesh and bones and that Christ does do. We explained that Christ is the son of God and he was the Savior of the world and things like that. Then we talked a little about prayer and how it is so important to talk to God. We told her that through prayer and the Holy Ghost, we can learn all truth. So no one was really saying anything and she wasn't really involved and so I just got the thought from the Spirit to ask her to pray right then. I figured the only way she would believe what we were saying is if she actually felt the Spirit and used a little faith. So we taught her how to pray and then she did and the Spirit was so strong. And then after prayer she felt good and I explained that was the Spirit and we then taught about Joseph Smith. The first vision was so powerful when I recited it to her. She was so interested in Joseph Smith and she was pretty convinced that there was a God if a man saw him. So we told her that she should read Joseph Smith History because she really wanted to know about Joseph. That investigator definately came closer to Christ through that lesson. Oh, and this was all in Portuguese, too. Which makes it even cooler. That was pretty much the highlight of the week. I really like the TRC's because they are really good practice. Even though the people are actors it is still really good and the Spirit can still teach them.
Still no visa... a district that is going to Brazil just got reassigned to Alabama, Nebraska, and California temporarily. We are now the oldest district in our branch which is kind of weird. That means we have been here for a long time. It seems so short though. I can't believe I will be going somewhere in 3 more weeks. I have a lot to learn.
The language is coming a long great. I can understand a lot of it when teachers and other people speak it and when I read, it's just a little harder to speak because I still don't have very many words memorized. I am doing well and progressing every week though.
Um.. we speak a lot of Portuguese now. Last week we English-fasted on 4 days, and this week we are doing 5 days of no English. Sometimes it is frustrating to do that because our conversations are limited, but it helps so much. That is probably what has helped me the most is just forcing myself to quit english. I am glad I took some spanish in high school, that has helped a little with sentence structure and grammar a little. The grammar is a little different, but pretty similar I think. The big difference is just the pronunciation of words as far as I know. I am probably completely wrong on that but thats how I see it. I can understand all of the Spanish Elders so that is a nice benefit of portuguese.
Well, I'm out of time. Sorry my emails are all the same. I will try to make something AMAZING happen this week to write home about. I love each of you so much! Thank you for the support and help while I'm gone. I love you!
Love, Elder Robertson
I don't know where to start really... I really feel bad writing these emails because they are all the same it seems. Sorry nothing crazy or exciting happens here. Let's see... President or Elder Gonzalez came and spoke to us for devotional on Tuesday. He is in the Presidency of the Seventy. I don't know if you call them President or Elder...But he gave a good talk on becoming Christlike teachers. It helped a lot on how I need to change the way I teach.
Yesterday we taught in the TRC and we did so well. The investigator was a Hindu so she didn't have any foundation on where we could start. So we had to make the foundation. We started of by telling her the nature of God and that he has a body of flesh and bones and that Christ does do. We explained that Christ is the son of God and he was the Savior of the world and things like that. Then we talked a little about prayer and how it is so important to talk to God. We told her that through prayer and the Holy Ghost, we can learn all truth. So no one was really saying anything and she wasn't really involved and so I just got the thought from the Spirit to ask her to pray right then. I figured the only way she would believe what we were saying is if she actually felt the Spirit and used a little faith. So we taught her how to pray and then she did and the Spirit was so strong. And then after prayer she felt good and I explained that was the Spirit and we then taught about Joseph Smith. The first vision was so powerful when I recited it to her. She was so interested in Joseph Smith and she was pretty convinced that there was a God if a man saw him. So we told her that she should read Joseph Smith History because she really wanted to know about Joseph. That investigator definately came closer to Christ through that lesson. Oh, and this was all in Portuguese, too. Which makes it even cooler. That was pretty much the highlight of the week. I really like the TRC's because they are really good practice. Even though the people are actors it is still really good and the Spirit can still teach them.
Still no visa... a district that is going to Brazil just got reassigned to Alabama, Nebraska, and California temporarily. We are now the oldest district in our branch which is kind of weird. That means we have been here for a long time. It seems so short though. I can't believe I will be going somewhere in 3 more weeks. I have a lot to learn.
The language is coming a long great. I can understand a lot of it when teachers and other people speak it and when I read, it's just a little harder to speak because I still don't have very many words memorized. I am doing well and progressing every week though.
Um.. we speak a lot of Portuguese now. Last week we English-fasted on 4 days, and this week we are doing 5 days of no English. Sometimes it is frustrating to do that because our conversations are limited, but it helps so much. That is probably what has helped me the most is just forcing myself to quit english. I am glad I took some spanish in high school, that has helped a little with sentence structure and grammar a little. The grammar is a little different, but pretty similar I think. The big difference is just the pronunciation of words as far as I know. I am probably completely wrong on that but thats how I see it. I can understand all of the Spanish Elders so that is a nice benefit of portuguese.
Well, I'm out of time. Sorry my emails are all the same. I will try to make something AMAZING happen this week to write home about. I love each of you so much! Thank you for the support and help while I'm gone. I love you!
Love, Elder Robertson
Monday, August 16, 2010
MTC District - Back Row - Harris, Brower, Sis Voyel, Sis Johnson, Smith, Schenk, Robertson, Plewe, Fernandez
Front - Finch, Warne, Morris, Whipple
Elder Motes, Elder Kuhn, Elder Robertson - Best friends from High School all entered the MTC on the same day. Elder Motes serving in the Baltimore, Maryland Mission. Elder Kuhn serving in the Little Rock, Arkansas Spanish Speaking mission. Elder Roberson serving in the Teresina Brazil Mission.
Pictures from the MTC
Top Picture: Elder Plewe, Elder Brower, Elder Robertson and Elder Harris. MTC roommates.
Bottom Picture: Elder Plewe and Elder Robertson - MTC Companions
Friday, August 13, 2010
My Life
Hello everyone!
I don't know where to start because nothing different happened this week. I feel like all of my Emails are the same thing every week. But oh well, I guess.
On Tuesday, we finally had a real general authority. He was in the first quorum of the 70. I don't remember his name, but he gave a great talk on the Book of Mormon. He told us that we need to have investigators start reading it from the very beginning instead of good random scriptures. In the first coupld of pages of 1 Nephi it talks about the importance of families and it talks about prophets and faith and just all kinds of things that are so important to the first lesson. I never paid attention to how much doctrine is in just the first chapter of the Book of Mormon. It is pretty neat.
Well, my district is doing well. We all are still working hard every day. It is still just the 6 of us. Oh, I will send pictures home of the entire district today. I didn't send them before because the machine that prints off pictures was broken, so I never got a chance to print any off until Monday. So I will send a couple home of the district and me and my companion and stuff.
Anyway... I don't know if I told you or not, but I am companions with Elder Plewe and now a solo-sister missionary. That is a little frustrating. When half of the district left, her companion left and so Elder Plewe and me had to take her in. She is kind of weird and loves to talk. So when we are trying to study she is off talking to someone she just met for 20 minutes. It is just hard to work around her schedule because it is a little different for her and Elders. It will be fine though. I am pretty much used to it now so it's good.
Oh yeah! I taught the first lesson in Portuguese yesterday. It wasn't the first time I have done it, but it was the first time that really counted. I had given it in Portuguese to other missionaries and teachers and others, but every week we have TRC (teaching resource center) where we have actor investigators and we work all week to teach them. So we gave this guy a lesson in Portuguese and it went pretty well. I said some things that I hadn't ever said before and the investigator understood me so that was pretty awesome. The Lord really will help ya out if you work hard, ask for His help, and have faith.
There are supposed to be 70 missionaries going to Brazil that come to this MTC next Wednesday. I can't figure out the Visa system they have goin'. I don't think there is a system at all and it is completely random. I am just counting on being re-assigned to somewhere state side for a while which would be fine with me. Maybe they would send me to Philly or something. A lot of Mexico missionaries just got reassigned to the Pocatello mission. Mexico is having a really hard time with VISA's. There is a kid from the Sage Lakes ward named Jaxon O'dell that was reassigned to the Pocy mission for a little while haha. I guess they found out that is where he is from and so the changed him to Denver. That would have been pretty funny if he went back there though.
hm... Well I am alive and happy. I am getting sick of the song Called to Serve. I never really liked it before so its not good that we sing it all the time. Thats about all I have to complain about. 4 more weeks in an MTC I think. That is a little crazy to think about. I still feel like I have so much to learn and not enough time to do it. I am way excited to get out of here though.
Well, I love you all very much. I'm glad all is going well at home. Keep praying and keep being happy.
Love,
Elder Robertson
I don't know where to start because nothing different happened this week. I feel like all of my Emails are the same thing every week. But oh well, I guess.
On Tuesday, we finally had a real general authority. He was in the first quorum of the 70. I don't remember his name, but he gave a great talk on the Book of Mormon. He told us that we need to have investigators start reading it from the very beginning instead of good random scriptures. In the first coupld of pages of 1 Nephi it talks about the importance of families and it talks about prophets and faith and just all kinds of things that are so important to the first lesson. I never paid attention to how much doctrine is in just the first chapter of the Book of Mormon. It is pretty neat.
Well, my district is doing well. We all are still working hard every day. It is still just the 6 of us. Oh, I will send pictures home of the entire district today. I didn't send them before because the machine that prints off pictures was broken, so I never got a chance to print any off until Monday. So I will send a couple home of the district and me and my companion and stuff.
Anyway... I don't know if I told you or not, but I am companions with Elder Plewe and now a solo-sister missionary. That is a little frustrating. When half of the district left, her companion left and so Elder Plewe and me had to take her in. She is kind of weird and loves to talk. So when we are trying to study she is off talking to someone she just met for 20 minutes. It is just hard to work around her schedule because it is a little different for her and Elders. It will be fine though. I am pretty much used to it now so it's good.
Oh yeah! I taught the first lesson in Portuguese yesterday. It wasn't the first time I have done it, but it was the first time that really counted. I had given it in Portuguese to other missionaries and teachers and others, but every week we have TRC (teaching resource center) where we have actor investigators and we work all week to teach them. So we gave this guy a lesson in Portuguese and it went pretty well. I said some things that I hadn't ever said before and the investigator understood me so that was pretty awesome. The Lord really will help ya out if you work hard, ask for His help, and have faith.
There are supposed to be 70 missionaries going to Brazil that come to this MTC next Wednesday. I can't figure out the Visa system they have goin'. I don't think there is a system at all and it is completely random. I am just counting on being re-assigned to somewhere state side for a while which would be fine with me. Maybe they would send me to Philly or something. A lot of Mexico missionaries just got reassigned to the Pocatello mission. Mexico is having a really hard time with VISA's. There is a kid from the Sage Lakes ward named Jaxon O'dell that was reassigned to the Pocy mission for a little while haha. I guess they found out that is where he is from and so the changed him to Denver. That would have been pretty funny if he went back there though.
hm... Well I am alive and happy. I am getting sick of the song Called to Serve. I never really liked it before so its not good that we sing it all the time. Thats about all I have to complain about. 4 more weeks in an MTC I think. That is a little crazy to think about. I still feel like I have so much to learn and not enough time to do it. I am way excited to get out of here though.
Well, I love you all very much. I'm glad all is going well at home. Keep praying and keep being happy.
Love,
Elder Robertson
Friday, August 6, 2010
One Month
Hey everyone!
There isn't any big news this week, but a couple things happened.... I was made district leader on Sunday. That will be interesting. I don't know what I am doing, so hopefully some training will come soon. My district has lost half of the people which is pretty sad so see them all go. We started with 13 and now we are done to 6. I guess that makes my job easier though.. haha.
So right after I clicked send to you last week, 3 visa's came through. (maybe mine will come when I send this email... haha) And one of those was for the previous district leader, so I replaced him. Both of my roommates got theirs so now it is just Elder Plewe and me in that room. It is way quiet now.. without Elder Brower and Elder Harris. They were fun kids to live with.
Whenever my visa comes I will be able to call home for about 5 minutes to tell you the news. So.. expect a phone call between now and the next 2 years.. When it comes I will try the house first then just go through all the cell phones.. hopefully someone will answer a phone.
Anyway... Thank you Dad, Mom, Abby, and Paige for the letters. I love hearing from all of you. I think about everyone often and I miss you all. I got a tiny bit homesick one night in the last week... but I am good now. I was just missing everyone but it is ok now.
ABBY!!! Congrats on hiking TABLE ROCK!!!! WOO!!! I never have done that but aparently you are tough if you hike it. That is way cool. It sounds like girls camp was fun for all. I never understood why girls camp is so much fun, but I'm glad you all enjoyed it.
Also, I didn't have to buy any books or scriptures. They gave all the language books and Portuguese scriptures to me right when I got here a month ago.
Holy cow, I can't believe it has been a month already! It has felt like a week. The days sometimes take forever to end, but the weeks just fly by. I am just about half way done at the MTC... WOW! I hope it is going fast for you all back at home too.
Portugeuse is starting to really pick up. I know the sentence structure pretty well and all the grammar, I just need to learn more verbs and nouns to start speaking what I want to. But I can speak like a pretty educated cave man right now. haha.. Tonight in class we are starting to speak 100% portuguese for the rest of the time here. If we speak English in class we have to go to the corner and do a wall sit while wearing a Dunce cap. It is going to be sweet. (our district made those rules by the way)
I'm glad Bailey and Chad made it to Philly alright. What are they going to do while they wait for school? Just tour? I would love to hear from them sometime to tell me how it is. So write me Clarks!
The temple was extra awesome today. I don't know why it was any more awesome than normal, but I just felt way good when I was in there.
Mom, I don't know if I need a care package.. I guess I could use some more casual socks for gym. and hangers. I can buy hangers but you could send them if you wanted. Redvines are always appreciated. They are great to snack on while I right in my journal and things. Just anything you want to send would be great...ties would be good too, but I don't need them. Just whatever you think...
Well... I'm running out of time. I love you all so much and I am very greatful that I have you as a family. For anyone that reads that blog or whatev I love you too. I miss you all and I am doing great. I love it here and am very excited to get to Brazil. It will be so sweet!
Eu te amo!
Love, Elder Robertson.
There isn't any big news this week, but a couple things happened.... I was made district leader on Sunday. That will be interesting. I don't know what I am doing, so hopefully some training will come soon. My district has lost half of the people which is pretty sad so see them all go. We started with 13 and now we are done to 6. I guess that makes my job easier though.. haha.
So right after I clicked send to you last week, 3 visa's came through. (maybe mine will come when I send this email... haha) And one of those was for the previous district leader, so I replaced him. Both of my roommates got theirs so now it is just Elder Plewe and me in that room. It is way quiet now.. without Elder Brower and Elder Harris. They were fun kids to live with.
Whenever my visa comes I will be able to call home for about 5 minutes to tell you the news. So.. expect a phone call between now and the next 2 years.. When it comes I will try the house first then just go through all the cell phones.. hopefully someone will answer a phone.
Anyway... Thank you Dad, Mom, Abby, and Paige for the letters. I love hearing from all of you. I think about everyone often and I miss you all. I got a tiny bit homesick one night in the last week... but I am good now. I was just missing everyone but it is ok now.
ABBY!!! Congrats on hiking TABLE ROCK!!!! WOO!!! I never have done that but aparently you are tough if you hike it. That is way cool. It sounds like girls camp was fun for all. I never understood why girls camp is so much fun, but I'm glad you all enjoyed it.
Also, I didn't have to buy any books or scriptures. They gave all the language books and Portuguese scriptures to me right when I got here a month ago.
Holy cow, I can't believe it has been a month already! It has felt like a week. The days sometimes take forever to end, but the weeks just fly by. I am just about half way done at the MTC... WOW! I hope it is going fast for you all back at home too.
Portugeuse is starting to really pick up. I know the sentence structure pretty well and all the grammar, I just need to learn more verbs and nouns to start speaking what I want to. But I can speak like a pretty educated cave man right now. haha.. Tonight in class we are starting to speak 100% portuguese for the rest of the time here. If we speak English in class we have to go to the corner and do a wall sit while wearing a Dunce cap. It is going to be sweet. (our district made those rules by the way)
I'm glad Bailey and Chad made it to Philly alright. What are they going to do while they wait for school? Just tour? I would love to hear from them sometime to tell me how it is. So write me Clarks!
The temple was extra awesome today. I don't know why it was any more awesome than normal, but I just felt way good when I was in there.
Mom, I don't know if I need a care package.. I guess I could use some more casual socks for gym. and hangers. I can buy hangers but you could send them if you wanted. Redvines are always appreciated. They are great to snack on while I right in my journal and things. Just anything you want to send would be great...ties would be good too, but I don't need them. Just whatever you think...
Well... I'm running out of time. I love you all so much and I am very greatful that I have you as a family. For anyone that reads that blog or whatev I love you too. I miss you all and I am doing great. I love it here and am very excited to get to Brazil. It will be so sweet!
Eu te amo!
Love, Elder Robertson.
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