Dear Home,
I just spent most of my Email time writing an Email to Mom. I don't know if she plans on posting it here, but just in case, I figured I'd better write you something. By the way, it's not her fault that I took up so much time writing to her. I got lost on a philosophical tangent and lost track of time while I was writing. I plan on doing better next time.
NEWS: I am not leaving Flin Flon yet, but my companion, Elder Jons is. He's going to Winnipeg, and Elder Sheffield is going to be replacing him up here. All I know about him (from a breif conversation I had with him about a month ago) is his name, he wears glasses, and he used to follow an anime called Full Metal Alchemist.
Other News: On Monday (last week), Elder Jons and I walked on Flinty's Board Walk again, and this time, I had my pedometer with me. The Board walk trail itself is about 4000 steps long, but it takes another 1730 steps to get back where you started from there. All told, the circle is about 2.71 miles long, with a total of 5730 steps. I usually walk almost twice that many steps in a day, and we have a truck! In a bussing/walking area, I'd probably be taking tens of thousands of steps a day. Hmm... that'd be good exercise in preparation for Half Dome... Maybe I should mention that to the Mission President. Nah, I doubt it'd make any difference. Often, we as humans ask for the things we want, but God gives us what's truely best for us anyway. That's just the way life is. =P
I'm running low on time, but just an update about what Elder Jons and I have been doing up here, there's a lady up here who has been doing some serious renovations to both her front and back yards, with lot's of help from her family and some help from us. It feels good to be useful and to contribute to something good, like a beautiful new yard. There's still some work to be done in the backyard, so I'm gratefully not out of a job yet, but the progress that's been made so far is incredible, and very encouraging. I wonder if this is a little taste of what God and his angels feel when they're able to help someone come closer to Christ. That has got to be some very difficult, spiritually and emotionally taxing work, but I imagine the benefits are unbelievable. I'm glad that God let me volunteer to pitch in a little. Hopefully, I'm doing some good around here. I feel like I am. =)
Much love from your Happy and Helpful Missionary, Elder Andrew Robarts
from the email exchange to which Elder Robarts referrred:
Dear Mom,
I'm going to try the slipping-my-paragraph-replies-
It's hard waiting for transfer news and not being able to mail. It must be harder for you guys not knowing where or with whom you will be next. Hopefully you are too busy to think about it much. But I guess you need to prepare your investigators so they are not too shocked. Especially in case of a white out.
Mom:
Andrew:
(( Unfortunately, we're never too busy to worry about Transfers, though they're usually relatively predictable. This time, Elder Jons had been in the area for 6 months, a normal length of time that a missionary can expect to spend in one area (in this mission anyway), whereas I had only been here 3 months. President Paulson doesn't like moving two missionaries out of an area at once because there's a lot of knowledge that comes from serving in an area for a while that you can't exactly write down in an Area Book, so when it's time for one missionary to move on, his companion usually stays behind. So it's not too much of a surprise that Elder Jons is getting transferred to Winnipeg (his first time serving in a major city for a full transfer), and I'm staying here. My new companion will be Elder Sheffield. I've met him once, but only once, so I don't know a lot about him, at least, not that I remember. I'll tell you more about him when he gets here. ))
Mom:
Andrew:
Andrew, you know that YOU did EARN your Eagle. I hope I helped you, but you earned it through the years. And YOU pulled off the project. I was so impressed that you found a way to get all those books to the Philippines. You truly are an Eagle worthy of the name.
Andrew:
(( It's true that I did a lot of the actual project work (organizing the scouts, making sure everything was running smoothly, etc.), and I did put forth what little effort it took to Email the ambassador for the Philippines and have him tell me about Books for the Barrios, but making the flyers and putting the Project Book together was mostly you. ....Maybe we should just say 'we did it together', or that 'we helped each other do it', or maybe even 'I did it, but you helped A LOT.' Would that be fair to say?
Maybe it's comparable to how the Atonement saves us from sin. We couldn't be saved without the Atonement, and Christ's mercy does most of the work, but it still takes some effort on our part. Just like that, I couldn't have completed the project without you, and even though you did a lot (probably most) of the work and provided most, if not all, of the motivation we had to finish the project, it still took some effort on my part.
Either way, we succeeded, and neither of us could've done it on our own.))
Mom:
This week I started taking the Family History class taught by Charlene Hisamoto. She showed us a clip which included this quote (or something rather close to it): "In your reunion you will see in their eyes either deep gratitude or intense disappointment."
Then I thought about our reunion with our Savior when in our reunion we will see in His eyes great love and either glad warm approval or sorrowful disappointment.
Andrew:
(( Wow, that just gets you right in the heart, doesn't it? =/ It reminds me of when Alma and Amulek were preaching to (the Zoramites?), teaching about how, if we don't repent, we'll be brought to a perfect knowledge of our guilt, we'll dare not to look upon the face of our God, and we'll wish we could command the mountains to come and bury us, to hide us from our Eternal Judge. It makes me shudder to think that this life is a test and, before too long, we'll be held accountable for everything we've done (or should've done), and we may not pass the test.
On the other hand, I think that many of us, at least you and I, are doing a lot better than we imagine ourselves to be doing. Too often, we see our many flaws and ignore our many qualities. We see the mistakes we've made, while failing to see the progress we've made. I think that God is probably happier with us than we are with ourselves. Of course, that just may be one of the 'pleasing doctrines' that the churches taught during the Great Apostasy. I think in Nephi or Second Nephi it talks about doctrines like that: 'If it so be that we are guilty, God shall beat us with a few stripes, but then we shall be saved'. Then again, Hope (specifically, Hope of receiving Eternal Life) is one of the Christlike Attributes that we, as missionaries, are meant to study and obtain. I'm supposed to Hope for salvation, and so are you. Maybe we just need to remember that God is the ultimate judge of our characters, not ourselves.
Note to Self: Stop going on philosophical tangents when you're supposed to be writing Emails home. I'm bad at going off on tangents like that. =/))
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