Week 9

 こんにちは　みなさん！　あした　わたし　は　Gilbert　に　いきます！　わたし　の　Online-MTC　の　けいけん　は　すばらしかった　です！　

I never felt this day would come, but it has. I've been in the MTC for 2 months now and I have loved every single moment of it, the good and bad. It was all there for me, to experience, to test me, and to have fun. To build my testimony, to gain friends, and to serve others. I can't explain how much I have loved those Zoom classes. I have come to love my District even though I have never met any of them in person. 

Tomorrow in about 9 hours, I head out to Gilbert Arizona. I'm nervous, but excited! This past week has been truly amazing and really solidified me. I'm still far from perfect, but I have learned to put my trust in Christ. Don't worry about what you can't control, God has it covered, completely. And a great point my MTC teachers, Sister Carver and Draper and Brother Dillon made was that, don't be stressed out. Don't get so caught up in trying to be a perfect missionary that isn't attainable. Do the right thing, teach and help people Come unto Christ, it's that simple. Do your part, and God and Christ will help you in every way. I have found that life is much simpler and less stressful when I focus on Christ in my daily actions and thoughts. I've had some pretty cool experiences on this topic. 

When I played my song for my ward, I focused my thoughts on Christ and I played the song for Christ and for everyone there listening. For the first time playing publicly, I didn't do it for myself, but for Christ and others, and it went really well! Today I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting, my farewell talk.  Let's just say that when it was my turn, I still had half the meeting of Sacrament left! I was a bit shocked, but again, beforehand, instead of worrying about others' thoughts, or my own mistakes, I went up to share my thoughts on my personal spiritual journey and I directed my thoughts towards Christ. And I spoke for 25 min. I usually have really bad shaking hands, and my voice shakes, but after I got up there for 2 minutes, I calmed down, and actually for the first time in my life, enjoyed giving a talk in Sacrament Meeting. I felt like I was in a conversation with the Holy Ghost and myself and the ward could hear both sides of it. 

And it was amazing that I took up the rest of the meeting. My Bishop was glad for that :). But it was a great and amazing experience. I know that the Holy Ghost guided my words and let me be an inspiration for others. The Holy Ghost is the teacher, we are the speakers. I'm onto a new part of life, I'm scared, I've only been away from home for 1 week at a time for Scout and YM camps. I definitely don't have bad homesickness, but I'm sure I"ll still feel it. But I have courage that if I love the people and focus on them and my new companion/trainer, I can forget myself and go to work. My last day here has been awesome. So many people came to my talk and said hi. Many people afterwards came to our house and said hi and goodbyes. I've loved living in Virginia for the past 10 years and I'm excited to go out into the mission field! Thanks to my friends that came in-person and through Zoom! Love you guys! Not sure how I'm going to do the emails as my new P-day is either tomorrow or Tuesday, but I make it work. Stay safe and healthy! Love you all!

Last class of MTC all done!

Last game with family!

Hiking the Massanutten Ridge Trail

Week 8

One week left! One week and I am flying out of Virginia and to Gilbert, Arizona! I have to say that I'm definitely nervous in more ways than one, but my biggest emotion is excitement! I've never really had a problem with home-sicknesses, but I've been at my house still for MTC. At least during the in-person MTC you're away from your parents and you get used to it. 

In my case however, I go straight to the field from my house. So hopefully it'll be a somewhat smooth transition. I know how to cook a good number of things, take care of myself, and generally be most self-supported, but I need to learn how to sew :). My Mom and I did it a couple times last year, but I really need to go over it again to get it down. 

Today I've been doing stuff around the house, laundry, went on a short bike ride with my Dad, went on a walk with the siblings, and wrote some lyrics for a Japanese testimony! 

Our district is sharing their testimonies in Japanese on Facebook and now it's my turn. Today though I felt inspired to write some lyrics, they're not really creative or anything, but the testimony is there and the music makes it nice too :). Hopefully it will be done in the next couple of days. Now I'm at the tailend of the MTC, I got to start packing up and getting ready to fly out West. It'll be awesome because my cousin Katie is already out West in Las Vegas and my cousin Anthon will be going to California (Fresno I'm pretty sure) in December! So yeah it's an exciting time for my Bartholomew side of the family for sure :). 

But yeah this week has been awesome. Applying how Christ would respond or act has helped me a lot of the past week. And it'll work for anyone! Anyway, I got more things to do as always. Thank you all so much for your support and the kind words! Love you all!

ロバートソン長老

Week 7

 こんにちは　みなさん！　どうやっては先週でしたか？ (Not sure if that last one is right ). 

This week has been another great week at Online MTC! I only have two weeks left in the MTC, so I'll have to be officially packing soon to ship out of here. I also need to do some more document stuff for the Gilbert Mission. 

But yeah, we had tons of great lessons with our teachers, Brother Dillon and Sister Carver. My favorite parts are SYL activities (Speak your Language), Book of Mormon shares, and testimony meetings. We also had the cool opportunity to have Elder Sikahema from the Seventy and Sister Sikahema visit our MTC District. He spoke in this last October 2021 General Conference, so that was awesome! We talked about how Online MTC is progressing, challenges associated with it, thoughts about General Conference, and where we are going to our Japan mission and our reassigned mission. 

Again our Helping Hands went really well this week and Elder Rahm and I had a cool Gift of Tongues moment. So near the end he shared an experience about how he gained a testimony by slowly reading the Book of Mormon. He also talked about how before that, he didn't really know if it was true or not. Even though I didn't understand what he said, right afterwards I shared a simple testimony about how even though I never saw Moroni, or even Joseph Smith, that I knew that the Book of Mormon was true. Anyway that was a cool experience because they worked together and built off each other. 

We also had a great conversion with our teacher about not worrying about "not being good enough". Don't set an invisible bar that if you don't reach, you're a bad missionary. As long as you're trying, you're doing what's best. And sometimes your "trying" isn't all that great and not your best. But through consistent trying, Christ can help your "best" be reality. It's kind of paradoxical, but listen to Brad Wilcox's talk, "His Grace is Sufficient", different subject, but same concept of how Christ is always with us. 

I also had the awesome opportunity to play Redeemer by Paul Cardall in Sacrament meeting! It really is honestly not a problem, but I have this thing where my hands just tremble all the time (I think it's called essential tremor, I could be very wrong about it though). Anyway, the shaking gets amplified ten fold while playing publicly. My goal is just to play in more public settings so I wouldn't be nervous, but for now I have to deal with it. But basically, it's hard when your hand literally is shaking out of the way of the note you want to play. But for the first time I remember, instead of focusing on how well I played, I just instead focused on the people listening and Christ. For me (and many, many others), music is like prayer. And I played it basically perfectly! Even though I shook, Christ made the song beautiful. I was still able to express my love for Him and my Ward through the song. 

Many people commented on the Spirit they felt and it was as if it was more than me just playing. And it was! I cannot express how grateful I am for pray and Christ. Even for things like piano, Heavenly Father and Christ want you to succeed! Instead of focusing on me and the mistakes I might make, or my hands shaking while performing, I just said to myself, I'm doing this for Him, not for me. Apply that to life and your set! Have an amazing week! Sorry for the grammatical errors!)

まてねみなさん！

ロバートソン長老

Our ward service project cleaning up garbage along the Black's Run river in Harrisonburg

I got permission from President Papin to hold my cute nephew Jack!  He was visiting with my mom's sister (and all of her sisters and two sister-in-laws and grandparents were there that weekend too.)

Week 6

Wow! I feel like I start every email with that word now :). But seriously, what a week! I can't believe that I have only 3 weeks left of training. This week has been pretty good! I think the biggest challenge is staying focused. I've come to realize that the biggest challenge of online MTC isn't Zoom, being home, or evening learning Japanese (don't take this that it isn't, because Japanese is a tough language). The biggest challenge is staying focused. I guess this challenge does tie into being home, but yeah it's staying focused. Yeah you've packed your stuff away, but sometimes other things can detract us. 

I've been thinking, how dedicated to this am I? Am I leaving/sacrificing all that I've been asked to do? Yes, don't forsake everything, but there's always improvement. So yes, obviously I'm dedicated to this Mission/calling. I love the Gospel, Jesus Christ and His Atonement, and Heavenly Father. I want to teach the Gospel. But I've realized that I could focus a bit more. Yes in the MTC, you can still choose not to focus. But in Online-MTC, once class is over, you're by yourself. You have your family, but sometimes they are gone. In those moments, your desires really play out. And I choose to do my missionary purposes, but sometimes I waste time and it's frustrating. It's easy to think, "If only I was at the MTC". But I really think this is a time to improve my self-control and to choose no, say no to myself and stay focused. This is why I think I was called to Japan and do Online-MTC, to accept that we make mistakes (language learning), and to learn self-control. 

Something that has been a challenge has been slowly turning into a strength. And that has been a theme at General Conference (and it probably is every year), to change and to have that desire to change. When we desire change, Christ can help us and through Him, he can change us and turn weaknesses into strengths. Japanese study has been going well and our Helping Hands with Haato-san went well! We visited a bit long, but we definitely felt the Spirit at the end. Sorry for the short email, but hope everyone has a great General Conference weekend! My last getaway with my family was in Davis, West Virginia where we watched conference, enjoyed the Blackwater Falls overlook and hiking the Balanced Rock Trail with the Hartmans.

P.S.- After reading my experience it's a bit disjointed, so hopefully it makes sense! (Email me any questions)

ロバートソン長老