June 28, 2010

 

Dear Home,

 

There's been a lot a confusion on the topic of writing letters, but one thing's for certain: We're getting our Transfer Calls on Sunday (or sooner), so if you send a letter to the appartment where I'm staying within this week, I might be gone by the time it gets here. That's not very 'certain' though, is it? =S

 

The mission has been making a focus on our purpose lately. Our purpose is not just to teach people or to baptise people, but to invite them to come unto Christ by helping them recieve the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His attonement, repentance, baptism, recieving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. For this past year, I've been feeling the gospel more in my life. I've been feeling the Spirit more. And for the next year (well, slightly less than a year), I now have the privilege and the obligation to share the Gospel with others. Learning more about God's plan for my happiness has made me what to teach others. I wonder how many people still don't know what faith means, or how they can repent. I wonder how many people still need to be baptised, and how many people don't know what the pressence of the Holy Ghost feels like. I wonder how many people need more help from others to have the strength to endure to the end. Hopefully, there will be fewer of those people by the time my mission is over.

 

Before my mission, I didn't know what faith meant. I'm still not sure I fully understand. As for repentance... I'm still working on that. I probably will be for the rest of my life. I surely was baptised before I left on my mission, but I had no idea at all how to recognise the Holy Ghost. The only part of the Gospel that I can confidently say that I understand is enduring to the end, consistantly living the gospel throughout your life. But living the gospel throughout one's life is much easier said than done, and we could all stand to learn more. That's why I'm in Canada. It's why I'm on a mission. I still have a lot to learn and to teach. The Gospel truly has helped me to live a better life. Maybe now I'll be able to help someone else.

 

At the start of my mission, I knew that I was going because I wanted to help people, and I felt that I could help people by sharing the gospel with them. Now I know what the gospel is, and I know that all people are best helped as they accept and live it. I pray that I'll be able to live the gospel and help other people to accept and live it also.

 

Love, your God-fearing missionary, Elder Andrew Robarts.

June 20, 2010

Dear Home,

 

It feels like this has been a long week, but I don't have too much to say about it, unfortunately.

 

On tuesday, we had a spirit-filled lesson with one of our newer investigators. Basically, we read a short talk, pausing frequently to teach principles and bear testimony. Note to everyone: Bearing your testimony is a wonderful way to invite the spirit.

 

On Friday, we met a man who had talked to missionaries before and received a Book of Mormon, and had recently been thinking about whether or not he should read it- then we came by. We taught him about the Restoration, and invited him to read and pray about the Book or Mormon. He'll be going into working as a truck driver soon, so we recommended that he look into getting a Book of Mormon on CD so he can listen while driving, and he's seriously thinking about it. He's a very solid, soul-searching, spirit-seeking man. I'm excited to meet with him again.

 

We had another really good lesson on Saturday. We were teaching a long-time investigator who didn't seem to have much motivation, until recently. She now is starting to understand that she needs to be baptised and that there are a few things that need to change in her life before she can be baptised. We taught her about baptism: What it is, why it's important, how we can make it happen. She wants to be baptised, but she's not sure if she can make the changes that need to be made. On the flip-side, though, I KNOW she was feeling the spirit in that lesson. She will be baptised someday, and by that time, her life will have been dramatically changed for the better.

 

I think I've been on for more than an hour by now. =( By the way, I'm in Prince Albert right now (Just for a visit). I'll be back in Flin Flon by Wednesday. But in the meantime, I'm going to have fun getting to be around other missionaries for a few days. =)

 

Love, your teaching and testifying missionary, Elder Andrew Robarts

Andrew on the mail/email discussion

Dear Mom,

 

I'm just adding to the discussion here. My real Email will come in a little bit.

 

Like you (Mom) said, Emailing is free for me, and I can print all the pages I want at no cost to me (for now). But I have no idea when I'll be transfered, where I'll go after this, or what type of printing possibilities I'll have there, so we can't count on that being an option. Then again, after a bit of quick math in my head, I realized that if the letter (or Email) being sent to me is three pages or shorter, it would be better to just have them Emailled to me so I can print them. They'd get to me faster and cost the same or less.

 

Miriam suggested the use of a word processor to shrink a longer letter into a more printably economical size. I'm not sure if I'm smart even to figure out if I can do that. I suppose I could just ask a librarian if I could put the Email through a word prossessor before printing. That would be worth looking into when I get transfered. While I'm in Flin Flon, though, you can all just Email me whatever you want and I'll resist the urge to read it on the spot rather than printing it then, reading it later, and hopefully finding time to reply to it some time down the road.

 

Man, this is a complicated issue and a far more troublesome one than I thought it would be. =/ So, for now, just keep doing whatever you're doing, and if I find out (after moving into a new area) that it doesn't make sense to keep printing your Emails, we'll work something else out later.

 

PLAN B. This is a note to anyone who might invest their postage money in a regular correspondance with me while I'm on my mission. Even though I don't have any of my own money right now (all the money I have access to belongs either to the church or to my family), I don't plan on being penniless forever. After returning home, I plan on getting a job and earning money that I can use to pay back anyone who continued to communicate with me weekly, even when I insisted that Emailing is no longer an option.

 

Basically, if I say 'Don't Email me. Write me normal letters instead.' and you don't like that idea, don't worry about it. I'll pay you back when I get home and get a job.

 

If I've done my numbers right, three people (Mom, Ben, and Sariah) sending me a weekly letter at 75 cents per letter Times 52 weeks Times 1 year equals about $100. I should be able to pay that back.

 

Love, Elder Andrew Robarts

June 14, 2010

Dear Home,

 

  Owing to the VERY SHORT one hour time limit on missionaries for reading and writing Emails, I have begun to consider asking those who would like to send me Emails to send me letters instead. It's more expensive, and it'll take more time to get to me, but I can read a letter anytime- durring mornings, lunches, dinners, evenings- any day of the week, but I can only read Emails durring one hour on one day of the week, and that is also the only time I have for /writing/ Emails, including my weekly blog post, which is always shorter than I want it to be because I never have as much time as I would like.

 

  If we do decide that I should spend all of my Email time writing Emails rather than reading them, I'll still want Mom to Email me each week (Yes, I'm picking favorites. She's my MOM, for crying out loud. She's still allowed to Email me). But anyway, I'd like you all to discuss it amongst yourselves and post comments with your opinions. I'll make my decision next week when I hear what you all have to say about it.

 

  In the meantime, I'll use what time I have left to write about my week.

On Monday, we joined a Branch Service Project of picking up trash along the Perimeter Road of the city. It was lots of fun, especially the part where Elder Jons and I were running beside a pick-up truck, tossing bags of garbage in the back as we went. Running is fun for me. ^^

 

  On tuesday, we spent basically the whole day helping people out. In the morning, we helped Brother Angell with some odd jobs, and then he and his wife fed us some fish. Now, personally, fish isn't my absolute favorite kind of food, but I currently live about a half-block away from a lake, so I'd better get used to it.

 In the afternoon, we were supposed to teach a lady, but she was sick, so we ended up helping her neighbor with some gardening instead. That was fun, too, and she was really impressed with our willingness to help out.

 In the evening, we met up with a man that we had met while tracting. Turns out, missionaries had helped him renovate his house earlier, so he was happy to have us help him plant lots of flowers in his flower pots and beds. I enjoyed that, too. I got dirt under my fingernails, but I was able to make some flowerpots look pretty. When we were done, he gave us money to go to Subway. I didn't order a tunafish sandwich like I usually do. He recommended beef.

 

On Thursday, Elder Jons and I drove down to Saskatoon for Zone Conference, and, as is usual for missionaries going to Zone Conference, the first thing on our minds when we got there was mail.  I, having celebrated my birthday a short time ago, was blessed with two packages, one from my Mom, and one from my sister, Miriam (Sariah's package had arrived at our appartment a week or two earlier). I am so blessed to have so many loving, generous family members! I got four new CDs (EFY: Especially for Missionaries; Jim Brickman: Faith, and Hope; and Rob Costlow's latest CD), LOTS of candy, things to hold sheets on my bed, and lots of wonderful mission-related things. ^^ Thank you all so much!

 

  Over the past few days, a missionary couple from Winnipeg came to visit our part of the mission. As part of their tour, they went to look at the Limestone Crevices, and offered to let us tag along. Of course, we accepted. The crevices are AMAZING!!! Of ALL of the things I've seen on my mission, the one that I most want to bring my family to see are the limestone crevices. If there are pictures that you can look at online, do that, but those won't do them justice by a longshot. You have to come and see them.

 

Ummm... That's about it. I wanted to talk to you all about Unleashing the Dormant Spirit, a 7 page talk from Elder F. Enzio Busche which I HIGHLY recommend reading, but I don't have time.

 

Love, your slightly-more-satisfied missionary, Elder Andrew Robarts

 

PS, Transfer calls are on July 7, for those who wanted to know.

 

PPS, Ryan, I got your letter. What's your address or Email address so I can reply?

June 7, 2010

Dear Home,

 

  Name a red-headed full-time missionary who never has time to write a decent-sized Email home to his family and everyone else he loves. Yeah, that's me. But luckily, this week I seem not to have anything to write about. I just checked my notes from this week, and all I made note of was a dandilion gun.

 

  We were helping an older sister in our branch mow and weed her lawn. I was weeding; Elder Jons was mowing. First, we were using some kind of knife to try and 'cut' the dandilions out of the ground. It wasn't working to well. Then the sister went into the shed and came out with a contraption that you stab straight down onto a dandilion and pull back towards you. As you pull back, a lever that's prying against the ground closes the claw-like knives around the dandilion and gives you the leverage to pull it up out of the ground. It was lots of fun to use. ^^

 

  The only other thing I can think of was spending just about half of Saturday at a cabin. A family in this branch has a cabin that they practically live in durring the summer (and probably just leave alone durring the winter). They treated us to breakfast, let us cut down some weeds for them, and then fed us lunch, too! I'm amazed at how nice the members in this area are. And I'm so grateful to have so many opportunities to serve others. That's probably the biggest blessing that missionaries enjoy, being able to serve others. I just wish I had more time to do it. =/

 

  This is about all the writing I have time for. =( I'll try to to better next week. Thanks for being patient with me!

 

  Love, your called-to-serve missionary, Elder Andrew Robarts