August 30, 2010

Dear Home,

 

It's not opposite day. On Tuesday, Elder Sheffield and I were NOT invited to a members' home for dinner, and their daughter did NOT tell us 'It's not opposite day.' Because of that, everything made perfect sense to everyone, and we were all bored out of our minds. Nobody laughed all evening. It was probably the most miserable night of my entire mission. Even the girl's parents hated it.

 

I hope all of you had trouble understanding that. Hopefully, nobody understands it, so no one will be able to explain it to you. =P

 

I'll go back to speaking normally now. Which means I won't. Which means I will. I'm gonna stop right now before I confuse myself. Elder Sheffield really got into it and started making my head hurt. But it's all good. ^^

 

Other than that, there are only two interesting things that I can tell you about, and they both happened on the same Saturday. First, just after dinner, Elder Sheffield and I had just left the church when we realised that I didn't have my keys. Since Elder Sheffield and I each carry keys, I'll explain which keys I'm responsible for. I hold the key that allows us to get back into our apartment every night. I also (with the keys) hold the remote that deactivates the alarm on our truck after it broke off of the keychain with the key that lets us start our truck, which Elder Sheffield holds. I also hold the key that lets us get into the church building so we can eat our meals there, and retrieve anything that we may have accidentally left in there after our meals. Basically, our church keys were locked inside the church, and without our church keys, we couldn't go in and get them. Luckily, we still had our truck-starting key, so we were able to drive to a member's house and borrow their keys. I was almost surprised they trusted me with their keys.

 

I'm out of time (already), but really quick; just after we got our keys back and returned the members's keys to them, we ran over a screw which puntured our front right tire. Luckily, it's stuck in there fast and it's not letting any air out, but eventually, it's going to become a problem, which will make this situation even more funny. But until then, we just have to keep an eye on it.

 

Love, your frequently over-time missionary, Elder Andrew Robarts

 

PS, What should we nickname our little screw friend?

August 23, 2010

Dear Home,

 

It's great to hear that you're all doing well. =) Elder Sheffield and I have been doing alright, too. Of course, we haven't been doing anything as fun as soccer matches or surprise parties, but we've been having some fun talking about the fun things we would do at home. Elder Sheffield is a really good strategist when it comes to playing games. I probably wouldn't do well in a game of monopoly against him. Then again, he's a very nice, polite, good and kind person, so he probably wouldn't defeat me too ruthlessly. But he'd still play to win. After all, it's only a game.

 

With the missionary transfers coming and going, we now have a new District Leader, Elder Lovelace (I hope that's how his name is spelled). I've never met him, but I've talked with him a few times on the phone already, and it sounds like he's a very fun-loving, diligent missionary with a positive attitude. I can't wait to meet him face to face, but I'll probably have to wait a few weeks before that happens.

 

A strange change in the way we do things out here in the mission field: We now only have Zone Conferences every /other/ transfer, so we won't have the next Zone Conference until almost two months from now. What does that mean for us? Well, it might mean another delay before Elder Sheffield and I get whatever mail has been sent to the mission office for us, but another change is that now we're having some big meeting for all the leaders, which meeting will take place in Winnipeg, so the leaders plan on bringing mail with them when they come back. Not long after that (or so I'm told), Elder Sheffield and I will be heading down to Prince Albert to share a District Meeting with them in person. In all likelihood, we'll get our mail then. At maximum, that'll be three or four weeks from now, rather than next week, which would've been the case if we were still having Zone Conferences every transfer.

 

I hope that wasn't too confusing for all of you. The main point is that I'll probably meet Elder Lovelace face to face in a few weeks. =) I'm looking forward to that. It'll be nice to be able to put a face to the name and voice.

 

Running low on things to talk about and having not taken very good notes on what I've been up to this past week, I'll just ramble on about how my studies have gone the past few mornings. I've decided a short time ago that I'd like a stronger conviction that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet. So, following the scriptural advice that 'Ye shall know them by their fruits', I decided to read a few of the words of our modern prophet, and test that against the already proven word of God. I read out of the May 2009 Ensign, which listed the talks we heard in the last General Conference I attended before leaving on my Mission. President Monson (during the Priesthood Session) spoke about Being Your Best Self, and he offered three suggestions: Study Diligently, Pray Fervently, and Live Righteously. I took notes.

 

One thing a prophet does is make prophecies, which are promises or warnings concerning that which is going to happen. Thomas S. Monson promised that as we study the scriptures diligently, our ability to recieve the guidance of the Holy Ghost in all that we do will increase. (I'm paraphrasing. I don't have my notes with me. For more information, I recommend that you study this talk for yourself. It starts on page 67 of the May 2009 Ensign. I think most of what I'm talking about comes from page 68.) I believe that. And I believed it even more when I started taking notes.

 

See, I started writing down my favorite quotes from that talk, particularly the quotes that included If/Then statements. When I write or speak a quote, I try to get the quote absolutely perfect, right down to the spelling, so I found myself frequently looking back and forth from the Ensign magazine to the paper I was writing on, trying to make sure my notes were all correct. As I came to a word whose spelling I had not yet memorized at that time, I felt the impression that it was spelt a certain way. I paused and checked the Ensign to confirm my feelings, and found that they were correct; 'I' does come before 'E', even in a word like Priesthood. But I learned a lot more from that experience than just how to spell a word. I also received evidence that President Monson is a prophet of God, or at least that he knows what he's talking about when it comes to studying God's word and receiving His spirit. As I read the words of the prophet and took notes, I found that I was 'Studying Diligently' and then, as I was in the act of doing so, I found that something, perhaps the Holy Spirit, was giving me promptings to help me along the way. Because I studied the scriptures diligently, I found that my ability to receive guidance from the Holy Ghost was increasing, thus fulfilling President Monson's prophecy.

 

Of course, that one experience isn't enough to prove that President Monson is a prophet, but it helped to increase my faith a little. So I'll keep studying, and as God's words, given through His servant, the prophet, continue to ring true, I will continue to receive further evidence that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet, until I know for myself, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the counsel we receive from President Monson

 

May we all gain this conviction, so that when General Conference comes again this October, the words we hear will have special meaning to us as then we will know that we are hearing a prophet of God.

 

I love you all and I look forward to meeting you again when my time in Canada is over.

 

Love, your diligently studying missionary, Elder Andrew Robarts

August 16, 2010 Rubics Cube and missionary service

Dear Home,

 

Last week, I forgot to tell you that transfers were coming up. Elder Sheffield and I got our Transfer call last night. No, not last night. The night before. It came early this time. Anyway, we can all breathe easy because we're staying here another month and a half, making this my second (and certainly my favorite) 6 Month area. Where will I go for the last 6 Months of my mission? God only knows, but one thing is almost certain: I won't stay in Flin Flon much longer. 6 months is about the longest time a missionary stays in one area, unless something unusual happens, so assuming we don't run into any problems, I should be here until about the end of September, by which time I expect I'll be moving on. =S

 

In the meantime, the weather has been stunningly beautiful up here. =D The light showers that we had been receiving has broken up into the most gorgeous clouds yo've ever seen. Beautifully colorful yesterday, now a remarkably pure shade of fluffy white. ^^ Lots of sunshine, too. I'm really loving it. =) ((Note to Mom: And don't worry, I put suncreen on arms, neck and face every morning before we head out. 0=) ))

 

The weather has also been contributing to the growth of the local berries, which has been both good news and bad news for us. Good news because one of the members has a raspberry patch. She recently gave us a large ziplock bag full of raspberries, and they tasted delicious! Especially in ice cream. ^^

 

The berries are also bad news because one of our investigators has been spending all her free time picking wild blueberries, leaving little time to read her scriptures, let alone visit with us. =S But that's not a huge problem. This investigator's daughter is an active member, and the investigator has been meeting with the missionaries for a long time. The summer may have slowed down her progress a little, but she's still receiving the gospel, and as the autumn breezes blow in, berry season is drawing to a close, and I'll soon has very different problems than the risk of getting a sunburn. xD But hey, that's Canada for you! xD

 

Something interesting that happened recently: We used Rubic's Cubes to teach a lesson at the end of a dinner appointment with a member family. We taught about the creation, how it wasn't the fruits of some random accident, but rather that it was formed and organised by inteligent design. To demonstrate this, my companion challenged me to 'organise' the Rubic's Cube in front of the whole family... in less than two minutes.

 

Now, just to lay some background information, Elder Sheffield is amazingly good at solving Rubic's Cubes and he has been teaching me some new tricks and manuevers that helped me to solve a Rubic's Cube faster, and (on P-Days) I've been practicing and timing myself, so Elder Sheffield knew that unless I got a very unlucky cube shuffle, I could easily solve the cube in less than two minutes.

 

I solved the cube in a minute and fifteen seconds, my fastest time ever. It was even faster than Elder Sheffield's best recorded time for solving a fully shuffled cube. We were both excited. But unfortunately, I haven't been able to solve a Rubic's Cube in less than two minutes since then. At least, not that I recall.

 

And thus we see that when we are actively engaging in the service of the Lord, whatever we may be doing, ALL our attributes, skills and talents may be increased far beyond our natural abilities. That's very comforting, especially when one is required of the Lord to do something that we think we can't do. Think of Nephi. There was probably a point in time when he was tempted to think 'What am I doing? There's no way I can get the brass plates from Laban all by myself.' By the funny thing is, he wasn't 'all by himself', and neither are we.

 

Love, your miraculously quick-fingered missionary, Elder Andrew Robarts

 

PS, I bet my Words Per Minute have improved a lot since I've been on my mission, too. =) Just wanted to point that out. ^^ God is good. =)

August 9. 2010

Dear Home,

 

I'm not sure how much time I have left. Probably about 45 minutes. I spent some time arguing with the printer before I figured out that it was short on paper.

 

My week has been good. ^^ We spent the first part of the week having P-Day with the missionaries in Prince Albert, as you all know. That went pretty well except that most everything was closed. Some stores were open, so we were able to do a lot of our shopping, but other than that, not very many P-Day things got done. For example, the libraries were closed, so we couldn't Email then (That's a problem we never have to face in Flin Flon because we Email at the church). And the banks were closed, so we couldn't get the coins we needed to operate the coin-operated laundry machines (another problem we never have to face in Flin Flon because we do our laundry at a members' house).

 

Some good things happened while we were in Prince Albert, though. For example, I saw a few things that I thought I'd never see. Namely, a SUPER dark chocolate bar that was 86% cocao! Of course, I had to try it, so I bought it. (I don't recommend it to others, though. It was VERY bitter!) But if my jaw dropped when I saw the 86% bar, it fell off completely when I saw a 99% cocao dark chocolate bar. Luckily, I had learned my lesson by then, so I didn't buy it. Maybe I should've bought it. Then I could've taken a picture of it... Oh, well. I got a picture of the 86% cocao bar, so that's something.

 

When our two-day, two-night stay in Prince Albert was over, we topped off our gas tank, grabbed a quick bite to eat, then headed back to Flin Flon. Unfortunately, we forgot to grab something on our way out and ended up leaving it in Prince Albert. What did we forget? Elder Sheffield's laundry bag, containing most of Elder Sheffield's white shirts and undergarments. He did not have a good week. =/ But luckily, the other missionaries thought of a plan. They ended up paying a Greyhound bus to take a box containing the laundry and laundry bag up to Flin Flon, so none of us would have to waste the K's making an extra trip. That's a good thing, too, because it's a 4 hour drive from Prince Albert to Flin Flon. Plus there's a time change involved, too. The bus with the laundry left Prince Albert at 4:30 pm. 4:30 plus 4 hour drive, plus one hour time change equals...  The bus arrived in our neck of the woods at 10:45 pm. At least the bus was driving the speed limit.

 

There were a few things that were funny about this whole event. One of those things is that while we were waiting for the bus, there was a group of people playing baseball in the field beside us, so we got to watch them play. They were terrible! But it passed the time. Another funny thing, and I think this is the funniest thing, at the end of the day, Elder Sheffield received a box full of dirty underwear, and he was very grateful.

 

In other news, the missionary work in this area has been going pretty well. I've been finding a lot of ways to improve the way I do missionary work, and I'm excited to see some improvement over the next week. =) More bearing testimony. More feeling the spirit. It's going to be great! ^^

 

Um, so, I'm pretty sure that my time isn't all the way up yet, but I don't have much more to say and we'll have to go change our laundry pretty soon, so maybe I'll just log off now, and log back on for a few minutes a couple of hours from now.

 

Thanks so much for reading this! Sorry it's not as insightful as my blog posts usually are. I'll hopefully have something better for you next week. Talk to you then!

 

Love, your fun-having, hard-working missionary, Elder Andrew Robarts

 

PS A word to the wise: Don't let your paperwork stack up! We haven't updated our tracting records for almost two weeks and now we're swamped! =S Oh, well. We'll get it all sorted out. ^^ Bye!

August 3, 2010

Dear Home,

 

Probably one of the hardest things about being amissionary is that you're so out of the loop with the rest of the world. Of course, I'm lucky that I have a loving family that keeps in touch with me, but still, comunication isn't always easy. Case in point, I'm visiting Prince Albert right now, and since it was Saskatchewan Day yesterday, we weren't able to Email then. Sorry for the delay. =/

 

Things have been going fairly well here. I believe I already told you about the truck driver (who may or may not still be planning on driving trucks. I think he's doing something else for work right now). He is VERY ready to recieve the gospel, and he wants his family to recieve it, too. ^^ He is what some missionaries would call a 'golden' investigator. I agree with the 'some missionaries'. I really look forward to teaching him more about the church. He sincerely wants to learn, and I know that God is blessing him for that. =)

 

One person that I haven't told you much about yet, though I really should have, is Elder Sheffield. Elder Sheffield is a lot like my younger brother and I are (which is probably why Elder Sheffield and I get along so well). He described me to his family as a red-headed him from California, so I suppose it'd be fair to say that he's a blonde me from Utah. We laugh at each others' jokes (most of the time), and we always love sharing ideas and insights with each other. We think a lot alike. I think serving with him has been helping me overcome a few personal weaknesses that I've been struggling with. One strength that he has that I wish I could gain is that he is amazingly good at giving compliments and being supportive. He is an astoundingly humble missionary, and very charitable. Plus, though this isn't really missionary-related, we share a lot of the same interests. We plan on exchanging Email addresses and continuing to be friends long after our missions. Plus, he (with a little help from one of his John Bytheway talks) has been encouraging me to do something that I've always wanted to do, but doubted if I had enough talent for it: writing a book. It would probably have to be a fiction book. One involving fantasy magic. You know, elves and wizards and the like. That would be so much fun. I'll have to make time for it somewhere later in my life. But in the meantime, I am a servant of God, and that calling requires as much time and attention as I can devote to it. Later, I will be a diligent scholar and employee, then, eventually, a husband. I expect that I'll only get busier as time goes by, assuming I use my time wisely.

 

But in the meantime, my time is up.

 

Love, your day-late, day-dreaming missionary, Elder Andrew Robarts