September 27, 2010

Dear Home,

This week has been a... not-wonderful week for me and my companion. We knew for sure that our transfer calls were coming pretty soon, and we had a strong suspicion that they were closing down the area, but we didn't know for sure. So we spent almost the whole week trying to get a hold of people (most of whom are surprisingly hard to contact) and saying just-in-case goodbyes. Luckily, someone from the Mission Office let the cat out of the bag before it was time. On Tuesday, someone from the office and asked us to make sure we did something before we left the area. (I can't tell you who said to do what because that'll give you hints. As if it really matters anyway, but whatever.) Funny thin is, we got that call almost a week ago, and we still haven't done that thing. =S I'll make a note to do it tonight or tomorrow morning.

So, with that little 'hint' fresh in our minds, we worked our hardest to prepare Flin Flon for not having missionaries anymore. We did the best we could, but really, people have to make their own decisions and work for what they want. We do all we can for our investigators, but there are some things that they have to do themselves. And now they'll have to do just about everything themselves, since we are, indeed getting pulled out.

Friday afternoon, we get a call from the Office. We answer. President Paulson (the man who tells us whether we're staying or wither we're going) asks us how we're doing. He asks us how the area is. Are you ready to get transferred out?

I love Flin Flon. It's a beautiful place. I love the people here. I've made lots of friends in this area. But I'll go where God wants me to go.

I'm headed back to Saskatoon. Prendygrass Area, to be exact. This'll be my third time serving in Saskatoon, and it occurs to me that all of the odd-numbered areas of my mission have been places in Saskatoon. I started in the Prince Charles area of Saskatoon, then moved to Prince Albert, my third area was Oakwood Saskatoon (the downtown region), fourth, Flin Flon, and now Pendygrass (wherever in Saskatoon that is).

My new companion will be Elder Hall. I believe I've met him before, but I've never served close enough to him to get to know him. I look forward to meeting him. As for Elder Sheffield, he's getting transfered to Pendygrass Saskatoon. His new companion will be Elder Hall. His old, and still current companion is and will be Elder Robarts.

Bad news, Elder Sheffield and I are being taken out of Flin Flon; Good news, we're still serving together, and we'll be meeting up with one more. We're both really happy that we're still serving together. Elder Sheffield is now officially my longest companion. The next month and a half will bring us to 4 1/2 months of serving together while all of my other companionships had been for 3 months or less. If Elder Sheffield and I stay together for another transfer after this one, we'll have been together for half a year. O_O That's one quarter of my mission. THAT would be something!

But anyhow, that's all the news I have for this week, and I'm about out of time. Enjoy General Conference! =D ((The Ice Cream tradition still lives. Though, I don't know how big it'll be this time since we won't have enough time to organize things like we did this past April. I'll talk to my new District Leader about it as soon as I can. It'll probably be only a few missionaries big this time, but that's how it was in Prince Albert, and that was still WAY good. ^^))

Much love, your Sask-Traveling missionary, Elder Andrew Robarts.

PS. I've never left the Saksatoon Zone my entire mission, and probably never will. =P

September 20, 2010 - email exchange

Mom:
I keep meaning to ask you if Elder S is getting his daily cookies.  I am pretty sure he is.

Elder Robarts
(( Yes, he is. =) Actually, we changed the rules a little bit, so now if one of us is too lazy to exercise, neither of us gets cookies. That way there's still the team effort, but it's not so one-sided if one of us keeps to the schedule and the other one doesn't.))

Mom:
We have moved most of the stuff back into the kitchen. Still things scattered about the house - mostly the family room and the patio. There is less and different storage space now and of course we are trying to have it look a little less cluttered and messy.  A bit of a challenge.

Elder Robarts:
(( Challenge, that's the kind of obstacle that Ben responds well to. Then again, he may be pretty busy and perhaps a bit stressed by his Eagle Scout Project. He's an amazingly diligent worker, but one brain in one body can only do so much in one day. I'm sure he'll surprise us with how much he's able to accomplish, even if it's not all done overnight. ))

Mom:
We decided not to do the dining room and the front room separately,but to paint them both at the same time.  So now we are trying to stash everything from both rooms.  Not much from the dining room as it was already out, but OH the front room!   Hours and hours boxing books.  Interrupted by the discovery of the Family Ties(family newsletters from years ago) binders and some happy reading - especially out loud to Teresa things about or by David.

Elder Robarts
((Wow! Straight from one project to another! I wasn't really expecting that. I wish I was there to help, but

I've got people to help over here. Too bad I can't be in two places at once. =/ And all of those books! I'm not surprised that it's taking hours to organize and box those books. We must have hundreds of books in  there. Not to mention the couches, tables, TV and DVDs, etc. You all must really have you hands full! =S ))

Mom:
I know transfers are coming soon.  It will be a bit sad to leave Flin Flon and Elder S, I know.  But I also know that you will trust the Lord and find good where ever you are called.  And that Elder S can be a forever friend.  You guys will love Facebook when you go home!

Elder Robarts
((Yes, transfer calls are next Sunday, so if you could spread the news about that, that would be great. In the meantime, there have been rumors that they might take missionaries out of Flin Flon completely, meaning that the members would have to do their own missionary work. =S It would be nice to be able to stay in Flin Flon, but since they're downsizing the mission, the chances of that aren't good. I wonder what'll happen to the people we're teaching. I hope God knows another way to give them what they need than by sending missionsaries. =/ Oh well. He's got it all figured out. All we have to do is trust Him and do our best to do what He asks of us. ))

(( You know, I think that once we've had a testimony of the gospel, it never completely leaves us. Some people may have decided that it was just too hard to repent of something-or-other, so they just stopped trying, and perhaps a few of those people have tried to block out the painful pleas of a loving Heavenly Father by pretending that such a being doesn't exist. But that still doesn't change the truth, and the Spirit of Truth won't let people forget the truth that God loves them.  I am convinced that not heights nor depths, nor angels nor demons, nor oceans or mountains or anything else, for that matter, can separate us from the love of God. ))

Your-slightly-improved-since-the-last-time-you-saw-me missionary, Elder Andrew Robarts ))




            

September 13, 2010 from Far Flung Flin Flon

Dear Home,

 

I am in Prince Albert at the moment. It seems like it's been a while since my last visit to the city, but it's probably going to be my last day-trip to PA from Flin Flon. By the end of this transfer, I'll have been here for 6 months. I wonder where I'm going next...

 

In other news, we've had a bit of missionary-ish success lately. ^^ The first story is about a man that we've been able to help with a big project around his house. While we were tracting one day, we asked a lady if she knew anyone in the area who could use a hand with anything, and she informed us that her neighbor accross the street was re-doing his foundation. We dropped by at his house and at first it seemed like he was going to give us a response that we get quite often, 'Yeah, that's really nice of you, and I could use the help, but I'll be alright. You don't have to bother yourself on my account.' But before it got to that point, we showed him that we were serious- that we really wanted to help- by asking him not if we could but when would be the best time for us to come back and lend a hand.

 

Now, normally, I'm not that pushy. I like to be respectful and polite, but lately I've been more honest than I would like to be. Occassionally Elder Sheffield will ask me if such-and-such a thing annoys me, and my old such would answer 'not really. maybe a little', except now I've been answering 'yes' without giving it much thought. That bothers me because it makes me sound like a jerk, but Elder Sheffield says that he doesn't mind my honesty.

 

Of course, a random stranger on the street might not see such honesty in quite such a forgiving light. They might think we're being pushy, that we're trying to force purselves on other people. 'Oh, you don't want our help? Well, too bad! We're coming to help you anyway.'

 

Fortunately, our friend didn't see it that way. He let us lend a hand, knowing full well that we weren't expecting anything in return. He even showed us how a tiny jack can hold up a massive house while you're preparing a more permanent support. We got a good workout and a good feeling inside, followed by a good meal. The man was super nice to us and asked us to stay a little longer and join his family for dinner. We had a great time talking with him and his family. (The conversation didn't go to the gospel. That may come up later, though.) We look forward to helping him again soon. It felt good to be useful. If I can't help my family work on the kitchen, I can at least help a good man strengthen his foundation.

 

 

The second story of missionary success is more related to conventional missionary work. Several weeks ago, we got a call from the mission office. They had a Headquarters Referal for us. Appearantly, a man from near our area visited Salt Lake City (Mostly to see the Choir), and loved it, especially the Temple. He talked to the missionaries there and they gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon, which he was excited to read and learn about. That's where we came in. He told the missionaries in Salt Lake that he wanted the missionaries in Flin Flon to come and talk with him more about this church, so they told the referals people his information, and they told us. From then on, we had been trying to get a hold of this man. We tried calling him in the mornings, afternoons, and evenings. No answer. We couldn't stop by him because he lived so far out of town, we couldn't justify traveling that far without a set appointment. Still, we had to contact this man, so we kept trying.

 

Eventually, we got a hold of him and set up a time that we could visit him. He had a lot of questions about the people in the Book of Mormon. "Who is Mosiah? What did he teach? Who is Alma? Who is Helaman?" Elder Sheffield did an amazing job at teaching from the scriptures and following the spirit. I was really impressed. It was a great lesson. That man is definitely ready to hear more about the gospel. =)

 

So that's our newest investigator. We won't be able to meet with him as often as we would like, but we can still call and talk to him, answer his questions, and all that. I'm really looking forward to teaching him again this Wednesday. He's a great man. ^^

 

 

The one thing I can think of that didn't go quite as well as it could have this week was Stake Conference. Because Flin Flon is so far removed and not all of the members have the time or the money to drive to the Stake Center in Saskatoon, we have to recieve group meetings like these ones via Satelite or the internet or whatever other way they can think of.

 

At first, I think they were planning on transmiting the conference by satelite, but that plan changed quickly. Towards the beginning of the week, they (and I have absolutely no idea who "they" are) told us that the conference would be held over the internet, so they gave us the website to go to, Brother Davis showed us how to set it up, and Elder Sheffield and I spent a good 30 minutes figuring out how to get the website to work. By Saturday evening, we had everything all figured out.

 

Then, Saturday night, our Branch President got an Email saying that Saskatoon had some kind of computer glich on their side and that transmitting the conference by internet wouldn't be an option. Instead, they told him how to access the conference call that they were going to set up, and he relayed the info to us.

 

Sunday morning, we called the number that the Branch President gave us. We got into a Conference Call "Room", but the moderator (Saskatoon) never showed up. We just sat there, listening to the On Hold classical music (which was pleasant), while we waited for Saskatoon to tell us what was going on with Stake Conference.

 

As it turned out, someone in Saskatoon got their information mixed up. The conference was still to be held over the internet (maybe the glich got fixed?). Eventually, we got the computer started up, logged on to the website, and finally got a live video feed of Stake Conference.

 

Then we got to set up the audio equipment. Murphey's Law.

 

But other than that, all is well. We're doing lots of good missionary work, and we're feeling the spirit. Life is good. God is good. We're enjoying life in His service.

 

Thank you for your prayers and letters. I greatly appreciate both. ^^

 

Love, your traveling missionary, Elder Andrew Robarts

September 6, 2010 Cookie Exercise

Dear Home,

I have less than an hour to Email today, but that's probably going to work out not-so-badly for me because I don't have that much to write about.

Lately (and by 'lately' I mean 'for the past two months'), Elder Sheffield and I have been having a hard time getting up to exercise in the morning. Despite knowing that it's a mission rule and that it has great benefits for us physically and spiritually, we have, for the most part, lacked the motivation to get out of bed on time and actually STAY out of bed for the rest of the morning.  Even the upcoming trip to Yosemite and the (reportedly) horrifically challenging climb up Half-Dome, and Elder Sheffield's sister (who recently came home from a mission in Poland) advising him to exercise with her personal testimony that it'll work miracles for his mission, have been barely any help in giving us the motivation that we need. But luckily, we have recently come up with a devious plan to get us active in the mornings.

You probably remember that I fell in love with the mini chocolate chip cookies that you can buy in the bulk section of the Superstore in Prince Albert. Well, we don't have a Superstore in Flin Flon, so I've been exploring other options. By the way, don't buy No Name brand Chocolatey Chip Cookies. It was a bad investment on my part. No Name Sandwich Cookies are good, though. =) Long story short, Elder Sheffield and I have cookies, which we enjoy. ^^ To help motivate us to follow the missionary morning schedule,  we have initiated the Cookie Deprivation Program. You probably have a guess about what that means: If one of us doesn't exercise, they don't get cookies.  Good guess, but that's not quite how our system works. According to our system, if I'm too lazy to exercise in the morning, Elder Sheffield doesn't get cookies that day.

Right now you're thinking "But that's not fair! We believe that man [should] be punished for their own [laziness] and not for [their companion's laziness]." And you're right. A completely just and fair rule would be that if one of us do something wrong, they should receive the punishment and not their friend, but that's where the effectiveness comes in. Elder Sheffield and I are friends. I don't want Elder Sheffield to lose his cookie privileges just because I felt like sleeping in. That's not fair to him. So what am I going to do? What can I do? Couldn't we change the rule? No, Elder Sheffield and I are committed to this program. So if I want Elder Sheffield to be able to eat cookies, I have to force myself to exercise. That's how the system works, and so far, it's been going pretty well.

There's something else I could tell you, on a completely different subject, but there's not that much to tell. Our District Leader just got back from some special leadership training where he learned all about this new system for missionary work. It's supposed to be like Preach My Gospel, but more basic (if I understand the concept correctly). Unfortunately, I don't know it well enough to explain it. In fact, I barely know that it exists. Elder Sheffield and I have been majorly out-of-the-loop about this whole thing, and that has been a challenging trial for Elder Sheffield. I mostly just figured that I'll learn what the new system is all about soon enough, and in the meantime, God wants me to serve these people as best as I can with the amount of knowledge and skill and training that I currently have (and can develop myself without hearing much about the new system). I'm just going to do the best with what I've been given, and If God has more in store for me later that'll help me to do even better, I'll receive it with open arms when God sees fit to give it to me. In the meantime, it's business as usual for the Far-Flung Flin Flon missionaries.

And now my time is up.

Love, your comfortably content, regularly exercising missionary, Elder Andrew Robarts