Week 38

Exchanges and Prep for Japan

Haha, so for some reason I had named this last week in Gilbert, but I'm writing about this past week. I still have one more week in Gilbert thankfully! 

First, exchanges! This past Saturday I went with Elder Boyack and let's just say it was nuts! 

We had McDaily Planning, so we had a lesson at 7:30AM and they canceled so we went over to McDonald's and had daily planning there and a guy paid for our food for us! We then went out and had a super productive morning! We knocked on tons of doors and met lots of new awesome people! We handed 2 copies of The Book of Mormon out and then we had lunch. Our afternoon we handed out 2 more and did more inspired knocking. We met some more people and there was less success in the afternoon, but we worked super hard. We biked farther up and took a water break at the church and sent some texts out. We then planned out our lesson at 4 and then headed out! 

As we were heading down though, there was this huge nieghborhood party for Morrison Ranch. Around May 12th-14th is the "first" day of summer for Arizona and throughout the week, we saw so many people with their boats and going to the lake. Anyways, there was this huge party for the neighborhood and we knocked on the door for our lesson and they didn't answer... Rough. So we met a member family nearby and we felt inspired to go down south, so we hit a couple more doors and OYMed more people (open your mouth). Again, it was very busy that night, bunch of people were at a house and we tried to knock, but they were having a graduation party. So we then left for dinner and had it at Panda Express which was good. 

We then went to a wedding... I know, who just joins a wedding? Let alone as a missionary and on exchanges! So Elder Boyack and his normal companion, Elder Jenkins, helped out this lady the day before and she is getting remarried because her previous husband died, same for the guy she is marrying--his wife had died. They helped them move, and then invited the to the wedding. So we went ;). It was short and sweet and we talked for a bit and then left! In total it was about 20 minutes. We then took some amazing pictures by the pond in Morrision Ranch with the Superstitions in the background. 

We then prayed and felt inspired to reknock some doors and we got no answers, but we followed those promptings! We then reknocked on the person who we had the lesson with at 4. We waited for a bit and then a teenage girl only in a towel opened the door, barked at us, and then shut it... what. It was pretty funny honestly and we just laughed once we were away--it was bizarre to say the least. 

We also were able to help this member family out with shoveling dirt! The wife thanked us for the blessing and to keep them in our prayers! It was cool to see that even though we thought we weren't really doing anything big, it was a big blessing to that family! We went around a bit longer and then we headed to the church building and did language study and D&C Daily. It's where Elder Boyack records himself and his companion and they explain and bear testimony of the Doctrine and Covenants. Super cool!

So since I leave for Japan this next Tuesday, I've been preparing! I've gotten a dental visit set up haha, I have some things to ship home, wrote bunch of letters, and much more! It's been crazy, but I'll talk more about the transtion in next week's email. It'll only get crazier :). It's also been heartwarming and awesome over this past week as many missionaries have called and said their goodbye's to me. Thank you! 

Also I recommend President Nelson's devotional with the young adult's. He talked about labels and how we choose what labels are most important to us. Our 3 most important labels should be...

First- A Child of God

Second- Child of the Covenant

Third- A Disciple of Jesus Christ

Give it a listen. It was super insightful and applies very well to our age and time.

Thank you all so much! I have loved typing and sending these emails to you all! And yes, if you try to send me a letter in the next couple of weeks, remember I will have a new address! I will send it next week!

Love you all!

ロバートソン長老