May 24, 2010

Dear Home,

 

Where on Earth does all my time go?? Maybe I spent too much time writing to individuals, but those that I wrote to were VERY important individuals to me. I tried to be breif, but at the same time, I had to write SOMETHING. Do you know what I mean? Anyway, long story short, I have 20 minutes left. -sigh- I hate Mondays.

 

So, a lot of you know that I recently celebrated my 21st birthday, and many of you wished me to have a happy one. Thanks to the many kind and wonderful members in the area, I did. ^^

 

Sister Cooper, who has us over for dinner occasionally, found out that her son and I share a birthdate (we turned the same age on the same day), so she invited us over for dinner again a few days before my birthday and gave me a birthday present which I wasn't going to open until my birthday, but Sister Cooper (being a super nice and generous woman) also gave Elder Jons the same thing, and he was excited, so we opened our gifts that night. There was lots of candy, gum, and mints to enjoy, also Subway Gift cards (I had sandwiches for lunch on my B-Day. ^^), nice dress socks, and lots of expensive-looking shaving supplies. Unfortunately, I don't use a straight-edge razor (for fear of slicing all my acne off and scarring up my face), so I gave all the shaving stuff I got to Elder Jons. Now He's set for the rest of his Mission!

 

On my actual birthday, the Angells invited us over to dinner. We had hamburgers and baked potatoes (( Side note: For my 22nd birthday dinner, I want hamburgers. ^^ )), and after dinner, we had cake and ice cream and green jello. Jello is and Angells family tradition. Another sidenote, they accidentally put 22 candles on the cake, unsure of how old I was turning (I actually like it better that way.). I blew them all out with one breath. ^^ Yay for having strong breath! xD And the Angells gave my a birthday present, too, which also included more shaving cream for Elder Jons. Lol.

 

My time is up. =( I love you! I'll write ya'll again next week!

 

Love, your happy, 21 year old missionary, Elder Andrew Robarts

 

PS, If Elder Bryson is still in the Area, tell him I said 'Hi' ^^

 

 

-sneaks back on really quick-

Dear Home,

I /did/ tell you that I'm staying in Flin Flon for another six weeks,
right??? It would be /very/ foolish of me to have forgotten that!! But
anyway, I'm staying, which is great news for me because I love it here
(and I know that a few packages of mine are already on their way
here). Elder Jons is staying here too, which I'm very happy about. All
is well. =)

Love, Elder Robarts

May 24, 2010 email exchange

I don't know if  this is all we are getting this week or not.  : ]

Dear Mom,

I'm going to try doing what Elder Jons said he does, adding comments to the Email you sent me as my reply. It'll be about the same content as usual, but hopefully It'll be easier for you to follow.

On Mon, May 24, 2010 at 12:27 AM, Barbara <motherof8robarts@gmail.com> wrote:

Bits May 17-23
Monday - we ate some peas we grew from seed - straight from the pod - sweet and tasty!

 (( Yummy peas! =D I'm so glad they turned out well for you! =D ))

Thursday  was the last day to apply for the Fort Bragg. I didn't.

(( Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I know you like the people that you're working with, but also that your job is sometimes very stressful. I also know that you love the children and grandchildren that live in and near Sacramento, but that you also have beloved relatives in (or near?) Fort Bragg. Maybe this staying-the-same-ness is bittersweet for you. It certainly has both pros and cons. I'm not sure what I would've done if I was in your shoes (besides pray) =S ))

Saturday -   I hope your birthday is (was) happy. I suppose for a missionary that would mean either a baptism, a good contact, or a well recieved lesson. Or an awesome wildlife sighting would be good, too.

(( I did have a happy birthday. Thank you so much for wishing it on me! ^^ We, in fact, DID have a good contact/well recieved lesson. Her name is -thinks- would Barbara be an okay name for her? Or maybe Ruth. Anyway, she was really interested in how our church was founded and organized. She wants to check out the General Conference website and learn more about our church from us. She became a new investigator (which is really exciting these days, as new investigators don't happen as often as they used to, for some reason). I'm really excited for teaching her again this Sunday. ^^ ))

We - 8*3*5 &; I - are going to Yosemite for a week spring 2011!!!
 (Happy Homecoming & Happy Birthday 2011!)
 Make sure you start exercising every day if you want to climb Half Dome!

(( It took me a moment to realize what you were saying here. At first I thought 'What?? You're going to Yosemite?? Lucky!!! Send me pictures!' Then I realized that you're leaving after I get back- and I'm coming with you. We're so lucky!!! We have to take pictures!! =D Thank you some much for arranging this! =D I can't wait to get back to the apartment so I can put this on my calendar! Oh.. Wait, this is NEXT year. Nevermind about that calendar thing. But I'm still WAY excited! I'm looking forward to this! =DD ))

Love you! Mom
(( I love you, too!

Love, your Happy Missionary, Elder Andrew Robarts ))

May 17, 2010

Dear Home,

 

Due to the rapid progression of time and the weight of all that has been done and has to be done, my head has begun to spin. Or overheat.

 

What I did earlier in the week doesnt seem nearly as important as what's happening now, but I'll tell you about it anyway.

 

On Tuesday, we left the apartment early in the morning to travel to Prince Albert (a Four Hour Drive) so we could attend District Meeting in person and go on an exchange with the District Leader and his companion. It was a nice (long) drive, and we were very excited when we saw a moose along the way. I took a good picture, which I'll have to try to Email you next week.

 

On Wednesday, we traveled back to Flin Flon. That took up most of our day, but we also got to take our truck in for an oil change and have a Teaching Evaluation with our District Leader before we left. Not very exciting, eh?

 

On Thursday, something exciting did happen. I saw something that I thought I would never see anywhere except within the walls of my own home: Plastic Kool-Aid Cups. The Davises had us over for dinner, and the kids were drinking out of fun, plastic cups, while we adults got the plain, glass ones. Life is so unfair. =P (They even had a plastic Kool-Aid pitcher to match!)

 

On Friday, we saw another fox. This one was sitting on the side of the road and crossed the street after we passed. No picture (Sorry!). I also ate a piece of Cookies and Cream hard candy and thought of my Mom. ^^ I love my Mom. =)

 

That's about all that has happened lately, but what's coming up is going to blow my head apart, and it'll probably give my family yet another good reason to be mad at me. Transfer calls are a week from yesterday, and since the mail usually takes a while to get this far north, the birthday presents that you've been sending me (Thank you so much, by the way. I really don't deserve it. It's actually a little embarassing, the amount of mail I get. I'm so richly blessed, but that's a litle beside the point right now.) Those packages might not get to me until after we get the news and make the change, and I have a reason to believe that I might be changing my address in a week. =/

 

See, even though I LOVE this area and my companion, and even though my companion has been here for three months longer than I have and is soon due for a change of scenery, President Paulson (the man who tells us where we go and how long we stay) realized a few weeks ago that he made a mistake when he sent me to Flin Flon. It's a four hour drive to get from here to Prince Albert, and, for safety reasons, President Paulson would like us to switch drivers every hour or two, just so the driver doesn't get drowsy from the monotony of the terrain. The only problem with that idea is that I can't drive. I don't have a driver's licence. President Paulson made a comment that he forgot that about me when he assigned me to serve in Flin Flon. So the question becomes: Will President Paulson correct his mistake as soon as possible (next week), or will he let me stay here a little longer because things are going so well for us right now? I'm worried. And if I'm called to another part of the mission, I'm worried that anything you have sent to me over the passed week might take a while to follow me back down to Saskatoon, or Regina, or Winnipeg, or wherever I end up.

 

Cheery thoughts, eh? =S But on a brighter note, I'm celebrating my 21st birthday next Saturday! -tries to sound excited- Yaaaay! And I'm going to drink a lot a Root Beer! Yaaaaaaay! With maybe some ice cream in it! We'll see.

 

We will see... -gets worried again-

 

Talk to you next week.

 

Love, your worried missionary, Elder Andrew Robarts

May 10, 2010

Dear Home,

Today, Elder Jons and I moved ALL of our stuff from the apartment where we used to live to the apartment we'll be living in from now on (while we're still serving in Flin Flon). But to those whom it may concern, my mailing address hasn't changed.


The bad news is that moving to the new apartment and cleaning up the old one took up a LOT of our P-Day time, and after having sent a return Email to the only person who emailed me this week, I now have very little time left. =/

On Tuesday, we helped Brother Angell, the man who owns the motel we live in, chop some wood up into burnable pieces. On Wednesday, we were sore, and we saw a fox running along the side of the road. I got a blurry picture, but I forgot the wires I need, so I can't Email you the picture now. I don't have time anyway.


Other than that, the only thing I have to write about is talking to my family yesterday. I owe my whole family a BIG apology, especially to those I didn't get to talk to. I guess I forgot the Mother's Day is still a working day for us missionaries, so we can only spend so much of the Lord's time talking to my family. I will get the chance to talk to you all again, for as long as we want, but right now- these two years- is the only chance I have to teach and testify to the people in Canada as a full-time missionary. I need to use my time more wisely. I regret to say that I wasted far to much time talking about things of very little importance, but hopefully, I will have learned from my mistakes, and I'll be able to pass what I learn onto my brother before he leaves on his mission, so he doesn't have to make the same mistakes as I made. To put what I've learned in a nutshell. On Christmas, missionaries have just about all the time in the world to talk to every member of their family for as long as they want (no matter what the white handbook says), but Mother's Day is a work day, and a special day in honor of MOTHERS! If I had another Mother's Day on my mission, I would limit myself to One Hour on the phone with my family, and I would spend ALL of it, or at LEAST 45 minutes talking with my Mom.


But now I have no time left to write or talk to anyone.


Many regrets,

Your time-denied missionary, Elder Andrew Robarts

May 3, 2010

Dear Home,

 

The biggest thing that happened this week was Zone Conference. On Thursday morning, Elder Jons and I hit the road. We travelled for 4 hours to get to Prince Albert, spending the last leg of that journey pretending we had Southern accents. Somehow, we ended up role-playing a story about a man who inherited lots of exotic animals from a traveling zoo that went out of business, then had a hard time figuring out what to do with all those animals. That's what living in a small town like Flin Flon, then driving over flat terrain for 4 hours does to your mind.

 

Once we arrived in Prince Albert, we visited the missionaries who're serving there. They gave me two packages from home, one of which I was expecting, though it came sooner than I thought. That package was a pair of shoes meant to replace the shoes that I was wearing, which were starting to wear out. The other package was an Easter package, which I didn't know was comming. Both were greatly appreciated, especially the Easter package. There was so much good stuff in there! Chocolate, hot chocolate, instant oatmeal, and one of the CDs that I asked for, The Messiah, preformed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I love The Messiah, but I quickly got the impression that the other missionaries in the car didn't love it as much. I'll listen to it more later. ^^

 

Eventually, we got to Saskatoon, where Zone Confrenece was being held, and I was soon surprised with ANOTHER package! This was a Hump Day package, and it included a pedometer (which I'm currently wearing), a magne-doodle board, many missionary reminders to do fun and/or important things, and lots of candy. ^^ My mom is the best. =D

 

But I'm almost out of time, and I'm just about out of things to write home about, so I think I'll quit while I'm ahead. See you next week! Well, I won't actually SEE you, but you know what I mean. Stop being so technical! =P

 

I love you! -hugs everyone- -hugs Mom again- I'll talk to you next week. ^^ Happy Mother's Day!

 

Love, your far-far-north missionary, Elder Andrew Robarts

April 26, 2010

Dear Home,

 

I am now safely settled into the Flin Flon, Manitoba area of the Canada Winnipeg Mission, but I don't actually live in Flin Flon. I live in Denare Beach, Saskatchewan, where some members own a motel that's right on Amisk Lake. (I had a quick lesson in Cree, the language of the natives here, and Amisk means Beaver, which is Canada's national animal, I think.) It's an incredibly beautiful area. If there wasn't a Don't Go Swimming rule, I'd borrow a boat form someone and check out a few of the hundred or so islands on the lake. If I'm able to raise some money up later on in my life, I'd like to come back for a visit some day. I know I have to visit Saskatoon with my Mom sometime. We've got a lot of bridges to walk across! Perhaps my trip to Flin Flon will include my (future) wife and kids instead.

 

On Wednesday morning, Elder Jons noticed a black animal on the far side of the bay (I thought it was the far side of the lake, but no, this lake is huge. You should try and find a map online, maybe). We thought it could be a bear, so we went out with our cameras and snapped some pictures. I got my camera to zoom in as close as it could, then I zoomed in on the picture as close as possible, and saw that the animal was not a bear. It was a beaver. But still, I got a good picture of it, and I'm very impressed with the zooming abilities of my camera. ^^ A very good buy. Thanks, Mom! ^^

 

Thursday was my year mark, or Hump Day, as most people call it. On that morning, driving from Denare Beach to Flin Flon, we saw a bear. A real black bear. Clearly. It crossed the road right in front of us. Picture, please? No. My camera was in my pocket, and Elder Jons's camera was in the back seat. By the time we were ready to capture the proof our sighting, the bear was in the woods on the other side of the street. I now keep my camera in the glove box, within quick and easy reach.

 

Mom asked me if I celebrated my Hump Day in any way. ...Yes and no. Elder Jons made pistashio pudding, which is really good! But we didn't do anything else. I was going to burn a tie, but I never got the chance. =/ Maybe later.

 

To set your and Mrs Miles's concerns to rest, we haven't been getting mosquitoes yet. A few popped up, but then some more snow fell and now they're gone again. They'll probably come back when the snow melts, but don't worry, I've already got the spray I plan on using. ^^ I'm safe. =)

 

On Saturday morning, we woke up to find over 6 inches of snow on the roof of the truck, and everywhere else, for that matter. Sadly, after about a week of glorious weather, just as I got used to wearing sunscreen again, it snowed, and it's been cloudy and kinda cold ever since then. Luckily, it's all going to melt away soon, or so I'm told. Appearantly, it's normal to get a freak snowstorm just after the end of winter. The locals almost count on it.

 

But that's about all that I have to report, and I think my time is up anyway, so I'll be logging off now.

 

Thanks for reading, and much thanks for those who write to me. I'll write to ya'll again next week. ^^

 

Much love, your missionary who almost feels like he's camping, Elder Andrew Robarts

April 19, 2010

Dear Home,

 

 I'm SO glad I'm outlying again! Outlying means serving somewhere other than in a big city. Here, the closest city is probably Prince Albert, which only has 4 missionaries, whereas Saskatoon has 18. Prince Albert is considered Outlying.

 

I'm running short on time. I was so excited to be sitting next to a printer that I spent 10-15 minutes trying to get it to work. Mistake made; Lesson learned. (That's my new unofficial motto.)

 

So, now that I'm finally leaving Saskatoon (It's a great town, really, but as a missionary, 6 months is a long time to spend in any one area), I've found that I have WAY too much stuff. Packing it all into two suitcases and a backpack was even more of a nightmare than usual, because we recently celebrated Christmas, like five and a half months ago, so I had more stuff to pack than I had before. I might have to leave some of the stuff that I don't need/never use in this apartment. Appologies to everyone whose gifts I don't have room for. I tried fitting everything in this time, and succeeded, but it just didn't work, for reasons that I'll explain in a minute. I need to lighten the load. =/

 

On the way up to Flin Flon, it was raining and the roads were bad, so we had to spend the night in Prince Albert with Elder Woodward (our District Leader), and Elder Hardison (his companion). It went very well. ^^ I got to see some of the people I had taught while serving here 6 months ago, and in the evening, after doing everything we needed to and getting ready for bed, we spent some of the evening throwing foam balls, including my new basketball, at each other. It's a great way to have fun and build unity. Sort of.

 

On Thursday Morning, we left Prince Albert and finished the trip up to Flin Flon, but just as we were leaving, on of my suitcases' handle ripped, no longer being able to handle the amount of weight it was carrying. Hence, I'm leaving a few things here next time I'm transferred.

 

Flin Flon Manitoba is a beautiful place. It has lakes, and trees, and rocks, and hills, and still a good amount of sky. Breathtaking. And surprising! I was getting used to the flatlands of Saskatchewan, and now I'm living in an untamed, unplowable mountain wilderness. I just love it. =D But what I don't love is not having a Superstore anywhere within a 3 hour driving radius. There are just some things that I like having that I won't be able to get more of until I get back into the city. But I should be driving through the city again next week. Zone Conference is coming up again, which means we'll be facing the long, long drive to Saskatoon and back.

 

On Friday mornings in Flin Flon, we spend some time at a care center, visiting people who are a bit more mature than I'll ever learn to be. This time, we read short stories to them. The lady who tells us what the tennants have planned for the day handed us some stories that she had printed and stapled together, and we spent the first half-hour reading those. I enjoyed it. Some of the stories were funny. But most of the stories were incomplete, which was a bit annoying. Once we were finished with the stories, we went to ask the lady if she had any more for us to read, but we couldn't find her, so we just sat and talked with our new friends about what they liked to do growing up. One of them used to be able to play the guitar and the saxaphone, 'but not at the same time'.

 

Ack! My time is up already! Actually, it should've been 'up' about 20 minutes ago, but I took a break to eat something. Things are MUCH more relaxed and slow-paced here than they are in Saskatoon. That's a change that I think I could get used to. It's calming. But life's not all about being calm. I need to get back to work! I must be diligent and industrious. Anxiously engaged. And I need to take better notes so I have a better idea what to write to you about next time. Until then!

 

This has been your Many-Miles-Away-No-Matter-Where-On-Earth-You-Live Missionary,

Elder Andrew Robarts