Sunday, January 23, 2011

New Pictures

Just a few new pictures located in the pictures section in the blog. Check them out!!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Dear Mom January 2011

Dear Mom,
I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed my getting pooped on by the bird story. It's definitely an experience I won't soon forget. As a missionary, I'm always looking to the heavens for help and now I have another reason to look skyward! Thanks again for the wonderful Christmas call. Being able to hear my family and everyone's voices was wonderful. Everyone seemed very happy and it sounds like Miles and Matthew are both maturing (increasing in wisdom and stature). Man, I might start doing that unintentionally more often. Elder Hardy was telling me that missionaries often make references to scriptures unintentionally. That was right after he said that the laundry was as white as Angel Moroni! Haha, good times. Anywho, thank you for the phone call and the letters. It's always comforting to know that everyone at home is doing well. I really liked the experience you had of doing that exercise of picturing some place peaceful and envisioning meeting the Savior. I'm going to have to give that a try!
I love you mom. I hope you always know that and know that I'm praying for you.
Love, Robert

Monday, January 10, 2011

January 10, 2011

Dear Mom/Family,

Thank you so much for the wonderful pictures and the email! I died laughing when I saw the first picture of Matthew doing who knows what. Probably blowing out candels but it looked like he was a martian brain sucking alien. A good impression of the guy from Rocketman, if I must say. It was also good to know that Miles uses the black vans (shoes)! I miss those shoes...and Miles too :p

Dad would make a great ward mission leader! Man, That`s awesome that that`s his new calling. Dad, keep up the good work. Otsukaresama! Right now we are actually working in 2 areas because there were more returning missionaries then arriving missionaries last transfer.

Baptism stats. I think in Fukuoka there are 110 missionaries (10 of whom are senior couples who do office work and such) and there were 180 baptisms or so last year. It was up like 30 baptisms from the year before so that was great and we already have a good start on this year. France definitely sounds like a tough place at the moment. I`m sure Parker`s going to help it improve! Speaking of which, if you could email me his mission address, that`d be great!

It`s cool that you are reading the New Testament. I`m going through it everyday as well and I`m really enjoying the parables more than I ever did. Oh and I found an interesting scripture. Ephesians 4:4-6. There is one Spirit, One Lord, and One God. 1+1+1 equals 3! So anyone who says the Godhead is one person should read this scripture. It`s in the Bible. It also says there is one baptism meaning there are a lot of churches that are wrong. Only one can be right, and I bear my testimony to you and to everyone that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the one true Church. It is called after the name of Christ and in His name we exercise His priesthood to do His will. I love you all. Keep praying for me. I pray for all of you everyday.

Love,
Robert

Sunday, January 2, 2011

To Mom

Dear Mom,

I`m glad to hear that Christmas went well. I like what President Laney said about not spending a lot of money for Christmas...I got you all presents that aren`t the most pricey...but they`ll make you laugh and feel loved. It was so good being able to talk to you and everyone as well. I constantly pray for Pepa, that he`ll accept the gospel...in Dad`s email, he said that Pepa was touched so that was so good to hear. I`ll have to write him a letter sometime soon.

Miles is a stud, I think that`s funny that he complimented you and dad on your gospel knowledge. You and dad always have good insights...thank you so much for what you said about faith. I have been recently studying faith. The way we show it is by our actions and I know that as a missionary, that means I have to obey all the rules! Way good.

Sorry this is short, I love you mom. Have a fantastic week!

Robert

To Dad

Dear Dad,

It was such a blessing to be able to talk to you and the family on Christmas. I definitely was uplifted myself and I`m looking forward to future calls. Thank you for what you said about your investigator and how he was baptized later. I know that this boy is going to be baptized. I know that his mom is going to be baptized. It`s going to take some time for the mom to get over her fear of commitment to a religion but I am confident she will. I was bummed because I would to have loved to baptize someone on Christmas but you know, I`ll be just as happy if someone else does it.

That`s good to know that Kyle is doing well. The Utah mission doesn`t seem to appealing at first, but it is wildly successful. A friend of my trainer got back from his mission recently from Provo, Utah...a place where you think everyone would be LDS...and he had 57 baptisms. Not too shabby. Haha, so I`m sure Kyle is going to do great things in Salt Lake City.
Thank you for bearing your witness of the Savior. I know that when I testify to people of Jesus Christ, that I am telling them of their Lord and their way back to heaven. The prepared people will listen. I know they are here. We just need to have enough faith to be led to them.

I hope all is going well at home. I pray for you everyday. I love you dad.

Robert