Week 62

Interviews, Takoyaki, Christ's love 

This past week was hard in some ways, and rewarding in others. 

We had a great DC council. I asked three people to give spiritual thoughts and usually that isn't normal. So the time came and they all shared about being Christ's Representatives. It was so cool to see how they all individually studied and then they all tied it together. Then the Joyo Sisters (below our area) gave a great training on Christ and improving our relationship with Him. Even the opening song tied in with it all, "Abide in Me". I know that when we seek for God's will and not our own, not to glorify ourselves, but to only glorify God, you will see miracles! It was a very powerful DC and we all received ideas from the Holy Ghost. 

We had a great Eikaiwa and talked about temples and Family history work which was fun :).

Thursday we had another lesson with Kataoka San. He is still struggling with a number of things, but he has many great desires. If you can pray for him, that would be very appreciated. I felt God's love for him in that lesson. God is still firm with His commandments, but He loves all of us. In fact He loves us too much to let us fail.

We had another lesson with Hiroki Kun. We are trying to help them out and get them reading and praying everyday. But in the end, that'll be their choice. Pray for them that they will have the love and faith in Christ to start those daily habits!

We had a great miracle on Saturday. One of our friends hasn't been responding, but was responding to the Shimogamo Elders, they referred him a little time ago. But we met up in Shimogamo and had another great conversation and sent some church talks and an inspirational video!

We had a great Sabbath as always. Had a class with a YSA and a youth. And we talked about missions and what a blessing they are and how we can not only help ourselves but more importantly, help others. It was a cool and unexpected miracle for sure. Had a takoyaki party with our ward later that night, super fun and shared a quick message about prayer. Elder Bettinson did great!

Then today on Pday we actually got a tour by a Brother in our ward named Doke. He took us to the Kyoto Station and we had lunch and then toured Nijo Castle, a World Heritage Site, super cool! We then met Elder Walker and Holland at Kiyomizu-dera and then went home! We are going to go shopping after this email haha. 

Remember that Heavenly Father does want to answer your prayers. But it will be in His time, according to His will and pleasure. And His will is perfect. So trust in Him enough that you will not fear what you might receive, trust in His promise that you are loved!

Love you guys! Have a great week and always turn outwards :)!

Week 61

Member Work and Reactivity!

Jacob 7:26

And it came to pass that I, Jacob, began to be old; and the record of this people being kept on the other plates of Nephi, wherefore, I conclude this record, declaring that I have written according to the best of my knowledge, by saying that the time passed away with us, and also our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream, we being a lonesome and a solemn people, wanderers, cast out from Jerusalem, born in tribulation, in a wilderness, and hated of our brethren, which caused wars and contentions; wherefore, we did mourn out our days.

Honestly I am so grateful for the many missionaries that set good examples for me to enjoy my mission everyday and not to take it for granted or to wish it went by faster. As I have done this, I have found fulfillment and joy in this Work. To see God's Hand in others lives and to appreciate the everydays. To focus on Christ everyday and to do it for the rest of my life! 

And yet, for those who appreciate their missions and those who don't, they both end their missions, they both end. To those people that focus on Christ in their lives and those who don't, they both die. So regarding that scripture, I think everyone experiences that idea that time is slipping away. But if you have focused on Christ, you know you've spent it well. It still is gone, but you did well. 

Christ's life was short, even for His time. But He spent everyday focused on others and doing the Father's will. He spent His life well and commands us to do the same. 

So we had a great experience this past week and have been helping the Ozawa family come back to church and teach their nine year old kid, Hiroki. We had a great lesson on Sunday and invited the mom to teach Hiroki how to pray. 

We gave some fruit to this family we have been trying to work with and they loved it! We waited at their house for an hour (we did contacting work while we waited) and then we dropped it off and the mom texted us the next day and they appreciated it! 

This Sunday was a bit crazy, but the members gave us some purple sweet potato thing, Elder Bettinson really likes it haha. I had half of one and he ate the other half and then a whole other one :). 

We also had Udon with Kataoka San and Kinoshita Bishoppu. Please pray for Kataoka San! 

Today we are going to Kyoto Tower with our ZL's, that should be interesting. 

Anyways, I love you all, thanks for reading and all your prayers!

And for those interested in cars, the movie will either make you laugh or cringe :)

 Some gummies my mom sent me through Amazon in Japan. 

Week 60

Members and Miracles!

Today I wanted to start with a spiritual thought that I had this past week. 

I was thinking a lot about charity and Christ and how He has perfect confidence in each of us. I was pondering about how Christ never focused on Himself and yet accomplished the greatest victory, over physical and spiritual death, which is sin. He never took any of the victory upon Himself and was like, "I'm the best!", "I did this for you all, look at me!". But He was joyful, not that He accomplished the greatest victory, but rather that because of what He did, WE could all be victorious. We could now all change, turn outwards, love others, because of the Atonement and the great victory Christ accomplished. He had joy in our victory. We have joy in His. He didn't have joy in the Atonement because He was able to do it, but because WE can now do it, through Him. He was so happy because all of God's children now had a chance to come back to Him and the Father.

Remember that Christ has confidence in you. He has joy in the victory that we can all have, because of Him.

So we started applying a lot of what we learned from this past Zone Conference and have seen a lot of blessings! 

We've been starting every daily planning with the people and our goals first and then we plan our day. We've been trying to do our full meal times and not contact after 9pm. We've been trying to follow the standards, not more or less. 

The members have really begun to trust us and we have been working a lot with them. Lots of member meals and meals with the friends we are teaching! We started working with this family that is pretty interested. We set a returning family's 9 year old kid for a baptism date and we and the ward are helping them return to full activity! Through the Holy Ghost we have been inspired in all aspects of our work in Fushimi. To do God's Work in Japan. Because all of this is His, we are just stewardships trying to fulfill what He has asked of us. 

Our friend Kataoka San needs prayers! If you can pray (which is everyone lol), please take 20 seconds and give him a prayer. Do it with real intent and with intent to remember him next week and every week. 

The kid we put on a baptismal date, his name is Hiroki. And we've been trying to set up lessons with him for 5 months now, literally 5 months and it has happened! Still can't believe I've been here for so long, but I have loved every moment serving in Fushimi. Can't wait for the next couple months!

We need to head out to do our other activities, but I'm so grateful to serve my Savior, Jesus Christ and to do it for the rest of my life! It's not just here or when I'm old. Throughout the rest of my life, I can be a missionary! And so can all of you too! We are taking Elder Bettinson to Kura Sushi (Kaiten Sushi, which is conveyor belt sushi lol) up in Kyoto. Should be fun!

Love you all!

ロバートソン長老

Week 59

Miracles and Reminders 

What 

a 

Week!

We started off the transfer with a great District Council. We had myself, Elder Bettinson, then Elder Walker and Holland, Sisters Rich and Juber, Sisters Nitta and Horie. Such a great district! We had a great district council on our focuses and what those are. We talked about that as we focus on Christ, we might still be making mistakes, but we know where we are aiming and we can have confidence that Christ can magnify our imperfect work and make it wonderful.

We had lots of great member contacts. On Thursday we did 日会話, haha we asked a member if he had any friends that wanted to do Eikaiwa class and he said he wanted to do Jkaiwa like Japanese conversation class. It was pretty funny and then he offered it to us, so we had a language practice with a member! Super great.

We had a great Eikaiwa and people actually stayed for the spiritual message and it just was amazing. We had a great message about General Conference with a member at the church and then met an awesome person named Yu San! He wants to go to BYU and is interested in praying and believing in Christ. So we will start working with him, and he wants to come to Eikaiwa! 

Saturday, we had an amazing Zone Conference at Shimogamo. It was a blast and I learned a lot. Lots of reminders and some humbling experiences. 

Some things I was reminded of was to make goals meaningful. Because making goals isn't striving for goals. Anyway, you can write a goal and say I'll do it, but if your heart isn't in it, it's going to be hard.

Trust in the Lord. Let Him take the reins in all circumstances.

We watched General Conference in Japanese this past Sunday and I won't lie. I fell asleep for 10 minutes at a point, but I still received revelation because I was listening! Such another powerful example that learning isn't much about what is physically being said, but from the teacher following the Spirit and the student (me), listening and striving to understand. I still received a lot of insightful answers! 

A thought that I received. It's not about the mission, but rather what you become for your whole life. It's not about just going to the sacrament and the temple, but what you do outside--when you aren't in those big spiritual moments. Right now, our whole life is an "outside" moment. We are outside Heavenly Father's presence. And it's about what we do when we are not in it. Temples and the covenants we make there are necessary and sacred and are amazing. The sacrament is amazing. Heavenly Father is amazing and our perfect loving Heavenly Father. But it matters too whether we stay true when we aren't in those moments. So let us bring the temple with us into our hearts, into our daily lives. Let us emulate Christ and the Father in our daily lives. Then we will find true peace!

Love you all! Stay safe and healthy. I pray for you all!

Love

Elder Robertson

Week 58

New Transfer, Trainer, and continuing in Fushimi!

This is the start of my fourth transfer in Fushimi! So I'll be here for 6 months by the end of this transfer and as the title says I'm training again!

Elder Jepsen was basically already trained, just an absolutely stellar missionary! But I was his "2nd Half-trainer/Japan Trainer". It was super fun, but he got transferred! I thought he would be staying, but God has some different plans for me! 

Again as the title says, I'm training! I'm training Elder Bettinson and he just got in Japan from the MTC! 

But we had an amazing week last week and just have been working and loving the people. It's crazy how time just flies. Time flies because we are just loving and serving. As you stop focusing on the world and things and start focusing on others, time literally does fly by. For charity endureth forever. When you engage in an activity that endures forever, as in loving others, time slips away. Because in reality we are all eternal children of an Eternal Father. 

Our friends have been well, Kataoka San has realy been progressing with being okay with going to Shimogamo ward and other things. 

And we still haven't watched General Conference! Since we are on Japanese time, it got streamed at 1AM in the morning on our time. So we'll watch it throughout the week! Can't wait to see it!

We have a great week ahead of us and tonight we are going to schedule a lot of new lessons with the members! 

Something I've been thinking a lot is that true joy endureth forever. And it always seems so wrong in this life when good things end. And because we live in this state, this mortal and imperfect state, we experience joy and sadness. And both are necessary to learn to be more like Christ. We are told that good things are good because there are bad things. And yet that is true. True joy in Christ never ends. Eternal families are eternal. So whenever bad things happen, good times end, your "golden" years are over, true joy doesn't end. And that is so mind blowing! That true joy is eternal joy that doesn't end. So whenever a good thing in life ends, remember that the most important things don't end. When we are bound for time and eternity through God's priesthood, His power, things don't end! 

Summer ends, winter starts, friends grow old, family die. Our lives need to be focused on what lasts, which is Christ and His Gospel. Yes we will have joy in this life, but it's still temporary. 

So focus one way on the things that endure. And you can live in a state of joy! We choose if we are happy, not our environment. 

Love you all! Stay safe and rely on Christ's Grace which is sufficient for everyone!