10-25-10

Hey everybody,

I had some computor problems and so now I don´t have much time to write back.

Answers to Mom´s questions... transfers are every 6 weeks. They are comin up in about 2 weeks I think. I am not losing any weight yet. I make up for the walking and sweating by eating a lot of cookies. Cookies are the only thing I can by that I don´t have to cook. I have an oven to cook on if I want, but I don´t use it. We also have a washing machine. It takes a long time, but it gets the job done. The showers are cold which is good. Even if we had hot water I would never take a hot shower here. On p-day we go and play frisbee or something for a little then go to the cyber cafe to email home. There is a little place down the street that is only a buck to use so we go there to use the internet. Then we usually go get some lunch and go walk around center and look at stuff. WE also clean our house. The weather is hot and dry for right now. In december/january is when the rain starts. We did get a little rain the other day. It rained for about 10 minutes. It has been cloudy here the last couple of days and that makes it pretty humid. I like it better than the intense sun though. I hope to send some pictures home with Elder Harris. He lives with me and he is going home on Nov. 9 so I will send some with him and he will send them to the house from the states. It will be cheaper that way and faster.

I am doing good down here. We baptized Cassio last night. It was really good. His family came and it was a good experience for them. We are teaching a guy named Fernando and he is awesome. His wife was baptized 6 years ago and he is interested. He asks the perfect questions to us to explain something. Last time we taught him the restoration and at the end he asked ´what happens to the people that die and don´t ever hear this message?´ We had already been there for a long time and so we told him we will explain the plan of salvation next time. He just seems more prepared than others to hear this message. He has the goal of getting baptized on nov. 20.

Sorry I don´t have much time. Miranda, I will write you back next week to answer your questions and things.

Dad, your birthday is this week! Happy Birthday!!!! Will you be 50? I love you so much and I just want to say thank you for helping me be on a mission. I want you to know you arent wasting your money. I am working hard and being obedient. Thank you for being such a good example to your children and everyone around you. I love yo so much and I hope you have a wonderful birthday.

I love you all and I hope you have a great week!!!

Love, Isaac

Mission Field News 10-18-10

Hey family,Thank you Mom and Dad for your emails. I love hearing from you both.Thank you for the spiritual thoughts that you include in you emails,Mom. I love hearing those kinds of stories of how you strengthenedyour testimony. Thanks Dad for your testimony. It is always good tohear it. Your testimony strengthens mine.Things in Brasil are good. I had my first official baptism onsaturday. I am going to count 2 from OR because I taught both girlsfrom the beginning and gave them both the baptismal commitment. But,Satuday was the first baptismal service I went to on the mission. Itwas really good. HIs name is Nedo and he is 21. His little brothershad been baptized 3 months ago and I guess that made him interested.He is a really good kid and definately met the qualifications to bebaptized.His family is way cool as well. His little brother, Bruno, is 14 andhe is helping me learn Portuguese. I teach him a little english, andhe teaches me portuguese so it is a good trade.I hope the MM thing isn´t too annoying with all the emails. I knowthat Elder Blackhams mom is the queen of that site. I guess its apretty crazy bunch of women that get involved in that haha.How did Mindy do in XC this year? I have been thinking about her andher season a lot for some reason. I hope it was enjoyable. HeyMiranda, how about you write me an email and tell me what is goin onwitchu. I wanna know how the senior life for you is goin.Did Abby take her driving test yet? if so, how did it go? how was theparking? She should be pro pretty soon. Abby, you can write me anemail too. I want to hear how you like high school and the things youhave been doing lately..Well, I did buy a hammock last week and it is awesome. You guys canprobably have my bed because I think I might sleep in a rede from nowon. They are pretty comfortable. I also bought some soccer jerseys. Ihad to pick a team to like so I can have something to talk about withthe people, so I went and looked to see who had the coolest jerseysand made my choice that way. I think I picked a good one. Grêmio istheir name. The language is comin right along. I can understand mostpeople, now the trick is being able to just not think about what Iwant to say and just say it. instead of translating and then sayingit. I also need to learn more words. It will come with time though. Ican teach ok though.You asked if I need anything, and if you send me a package, just sendme some american candy or something. They don´t have any candy here.Actually, anything from America would be awesome. Any american thinghere is way expensive.I hope your week is good and I can~t wait to hear from you again nextweek. Thank you for your prayers and thoughts. You are all amazing andI love you so much.Love, Elder Robertson

Oct. 11, 2010

Oi! Bom dia família!It sounds like you have all been busy with life lately. That is great. That is sweet that you got pears and apples. I thought those trees would take a lot longer to get enough fruit to can. Sorry the garden didn´t work out very well this year. Did we still have a lot of salsa from years past that will last for another year? I miss our salsa. I don´t even know if they have salsa down here. That would be awesome if Mindy did that marathon. That is something that I probably would never do. When I was little I always wanted to, but I am just not a big enough stud to do it. Good luck Miranda! you can do it!!!That is scary that Abby is getting her license. I remember one time we were driving and we were in the middle of the intersection barely rolling and she couldn´t find the gas pedal haha. I am glad she has improved so much. I will probably forget how to drive by the time I get home. Watching the people drive here is fun and riding in taxis are always an adrenaline rush. It is pretty fun stuff. I hope Abby drives better than they do here. Well, this week was good till the end. We had this girl, Vanessa, marked for baptism and we were talkin to her every day and gettin her ready for the baptism on saturday, and she was excited and ready. She got interviewed by the district leader on Friday, and everything was good and she passed. So Saturday night comes and the baptism was supposed to be at 7 and 7 comes along and she isn´t there and Elder Blackham and I are just sittin outside waiting. Then 730 comes and we call a girl that is friends with her and she goes to her house to see what is up. A little bit later we get a phone call back that Vanessa´s dad had got way drunk and was blacking out and just going crazy. So we hear this and we take off and book it across town to talk to her. The chuch and her house are on opposite sides of the city so it was a long walk. So we walked way fast and I was just soaked from walking so fast and it was still hot, but her family was outside because the dad locked them out and left for the night and there mom was way upset, and Vanessa was sad and felt bad. Apperently the dad doesn´t want her to get baptized. He had been fine with us teaching and everything and never said anything, but that night he got drunk and stuff so she would´t be able to get baptized. She said she doesn´t know if she should get baptized now because she is afraid her dad will do something if she does. It is all messed up. So now we have to wait a little for everything to calm down and we will go talk to her dad about stuff. I hope he will let her.Anyway that was our week pretty much...I have heard that there is some controversy over Pres. Packers conference talk? what is goin´´ on? I loved that talk and I knew a lot of people wouldn´t like it... That was my favorite talk because it was so bold and true. Elder Blackhams mom wanted your email so I gave it to him. I hope that is ok. She will probably email you. I don´t know why exactly she wanted it, but I think she could answer some questions if you have any.The address to the mission office is:Elder Isaac RobertsonMissao Brazil TeresinaR. Tersandro Paz #2129 B. Piçarra Teresina, PI, 64015-015BrasilI don´t know if that is the same address you have, but that is where you should send things to me.. I sleep on a bed for right now, but I am going to by a hammock today I think. They are awesome. Everyone in this area sleeps in a hammock. It is pretty cool so I will give it a shot. Plus, beds are a lot hotter than a hammock. I love you all so much and I am so thankful for your support and the sacrifrices you are making to have me on a mission. Good luck with everything this next week in school, work, XC, driving... etc.. Eu amo vocês! TchauLove elder Robertson

Pictures from Portland

Isaac's companion sent us some pictures from his short time in Portland.

Minha Familia, 10-4-10

This week has been great. I am going to try to answer your questions as best I can. I don´t know my address here. But just send any packages or letters to the mission home in Teresina. I don´t know if you can find that somewhere or not because I don´t have it with me right now. There are certain things that you cannot send here in packages though. I don´t know what they are but I can ask my companion and tell you next week. Some things that come through have to be taxed and can be up to 300 reis. (240ish american dollers) My comp. is in Teresina today for a meeting so I am on an exchange with a Brasilaro for a couple of days and I don´t understand him very well. I do know that there are ways to get around the system haha. Like putting a picture of Jesus on the outside of the package helps people not question what is inside it I guess. But anyway, I will get you more information soon.
The food here is really good so far. It is the same everyday. Beans and rice as you would expect with a little chicken and noodles as well. I eat that 6 out of 7 days. Then everyonce in a while a member will cook something different. We had a really good lasagna one day and some kind of sausage another day. I really really like the fruit here and the juice they have. It is so good. They make a juice out of the fruit that a cashew grows in and add lemon to it and is is amazing. Also a lot of passion fruit desserts and juices. passion fruit is very good.

I don´t know if I am getting used to the heat yet. I still sweat a lot but I think it is slowing down. Apperantly my body will get used to it and I will not sweat much at all. My companion never sweats it seems like. But I do love the weather here. It is perfect every single day. Was it really 60 degrees in Teresina the other day? are you sure it wasn´t 60 celcius? haha. It is the hottest time of the year here and Teresina is the hottest of all the cities in this mission... was it in the middle of the night that it was 60?

My mission president is awesome. He doesn´t know english very well but I was able to communicate with him well enough through the Portuguese I know and the English he knows. His wife doesn´t know english at all but she is very funny and a very happy lady. Pres. Dias is a tall guy. He is probably 6´5 which is crazy compared to other brazilians. They are mostly short people. He has a pretty big family and a young family. 5 kids I think and the oldest is 15? i think. He is a great man and very helpful and inspirational.

I don´t know much about the people I am teaching because I don´t understand them very well. We are teaching Cassio who hit a few speed bumps but he really wants to be baptized and just needs some time before he can. He is really into it though. We are teaching a 15 year old girl, Vanessa as well. She has a good fellowshipper that introduced her to us and she should be getting baptized on saturday along with a 20 year old guy named Nedo. I don´t really know too much about him... We have other investigators but I am still trying to figure out who is who haha. It is hard because I recognize them, but I can~´t put a name to their face yet.. I am working on it though.

I can understand a lot of what people are saying now. Still no where close to being fluet, but I am getting used to their accents and am able to get the gist of what people are saying. The kids in the ward are very helpful for me and they help me learn better and faster.

I was able to watch conference in English here. The three American missionaries in the area went into the releif society room and hooked up a little TV so we could watch in English. I didn´t get to see the priesthood session because it started at 9pm here so it was too late. I will have to wait for the Liahonna to come out so I can read it. I was thinking about all of you during conference. It wasn´t too long ago but it brought back memories of all the kids curling up with a blanket with a muffin in our hands listening to the prophet as a family. The spirit was always so strong during conference. I missed being with everyone for conference. But, the spirit I felt watching conference was the exact same and it was very comforting to me. Conference was amazing this year. I loved all the talks.

It sounded like Italy was a blast. That would have been so fun. I am jealous. Was the food there amazing? I am glad it was a success even though you had to walk a lot. It sounded way fun. And I was hoping and praying that Dad would have got his goal in the marathon. I really want you to go to Boston because that would just be sweet. Do you think that the injury set you back too far during your training? Next year you will qualify. That is my prediction.

Well, I don´t know what else to say. I will get the address of the mission home to you next week if you don´t find it somewhere. I love you all very very much. I love hearing from you about what is going on. I miss you all, but I am so glad I am here. The church is true and the gospel will help anyone with any problem. I know that because I have seen it in my own life and the lives of others. I would invite you to all share your testimony with someone that seems to be having a hard time. It will bless their lives. I love you!

Love Elder Hoberchson. (that is how most people pronounce my name here haha)