What a week!

This last Sunday we were blessed to have the quorum of the 12 here! Quentin L. Cook spoke to us about the 4 most important relationships for us as missionaries. 

1. Love your companion - it is important for us to love our companions, even the things that are different about them. I have learned in the last few weeks to love Elder Sharp, even though we sometimes have different thoughts. we are always able to meet in the middle and work well together when we listen to the other person.

2. Love the people - Obviously I haven't met "my people" yet, but something he did say that I know is true, is that the love you feel for them stays with you forever. I know this is true because of the love that my family has for the Japanese culture since mom and dad both served there! 

3. Love your Mission president and his wife - an interesting point he made about this was that sometimes we aren't necessarily assign to a mission, but to our mission president. so we can help them or they can bless us

4. Love Jesus Christ - This is obviously the most important love to have. If we love Jesus Christ, we are able to love his children the way he loves them too. we need to see the Saviors atonement at work in their lives. 

every sunday and tuesday we have choir practice. I'm not much of a singer, but the choir director is so funny and so smart. as we sing the songs, he tells us the real story about how and when the song was written or what its about. It is so cool to learn about the music! for anyone getting ready to come to the MTC, definitely don't miss choir practice! 

(sorry mom) more hospital fun! so on Tuesday I went back into the doctor here at the MTC for my knee, and he decided to have me go to a sports medicine doctor or something like that. my knee seems to have good days and bad days. he thinks its something called PFS or something. (apparently I dont get a PhD when I get to the MTC) so on thursday, Elder Sharp and I got in a shuttle and drove down the street to the hospital where the doctor looked at it. he said that everything on my knee seems fine aside from one spot which is where my miniscus (spelling?) is at. so if things go well, the pain goes away and I'm all good. but if things go bad/as they currently are, I might end up getting on MRI on my good old knee. I am going to go check up with the doctor here at the mtc on July 9th! 

One of the best parts of my week was when we were sitting in the hospital waiting room. Some people came and spoke to us about our missions which was really cool. One lady who was in a wheelchair came over to us and asked if we spoke spanish, and we replied with "Si! un poco!" and she then bore her testimony to us about missionary work and how grateful she was for our sacrifice, all in spanish! it was so so cool! 

also I got a haircut.

Love,

Elder Roberts 

Late addition!

This here is Elder G (he has a weird last name and I dont know how to spell it) last night we found some left over crutches in our residence hall and he was playing around with them for a little bit, it was real fun! he had a great idea to try doing the good old wheelbarrow thing where someone picks up your legs and you run on your hands, but instead of using his hands he would use the crutches! so I ran over, grabbed his feet and he instantly fell hurt his wrist a little bit. well. this morning I saw this cute little brace on his arm and he said "Yeah! so I tried going to bed last night but it kept on swelling and hurting worse and worse, so I called the front desk, and went to the MTC clinic where they gave me this brace!" he says nothing is broken, Just a sprain of some sort. its a good thing we are really good buddies! he just keeps shrugging it off like its nothing!

TRC Lessons and Squats No More

Hello family and friends!

It has been a busy week! I think I blinked and the whole week had gone by, I feel like yesterday I was here typing last weeks email. 

This week, Elder Sharp and I started doing our TRC lessons, which is teaching an investigator who is a native Spanish speaker the gospel. It is hard but it is also super helpful for us. We don't know if she is actually an investigator or not, but we are expected to treat her as such. We have already learned a lot about not over planning lessons, because we think the lesson will go one way, and it ends up going the complete opposite, and in a different language its really difficult, but it is also a really interesting and fun challenge! In our lesson on thursday, we had a member, a return missionary who served in mexico with us. she definitely saved us. We were teaching about the plan of salvation and we thought we were doing alright at explaining it. the investigator, Andrea, asked us a question that we thought translated to, "adam and eve sinned, but something good came out of it?" and we quickly answered with "si! perfecto!" but, in reality, she asked "so adam and eve sinned and something good happened, so if I sin, does something good happen to me?" and luckily the member was there to correct us! 

another really fun part of my week (sorry mom) was going to the medical clinic to get my knee checked on. out of nowhere, my right knee started bugging me and after a few days of it getting worse, I decided to go get it checked. the doctor looked at it and had me go get x-rays done of it and we are going to look at them on tuesday this week. but the worst part of it all, is he told me that I have to stop doing squats! noooooooo! but I am being obedient and my knee feels a lot better now. still sad about the squats.

on wednesday, we got to host the new missionaries coming in! it was so fun! It feels like forever ago that I was climbing out of the car myself but it was only two weeks ago! I could definitely tell that some of them were really excited and others were really nervous. I think I did a good job at welcoming them and getting them excited to be here! I have seen a couple of them around campus and talked to them for a little bit and they seem to be having fun! 

I am loving it so much here, I have had some hard days but I know what I am doing and I love this work. I have a great group of elders and hermanas around me and we love learning and helping each other learn!

Elder Roberts

these were the only pictures I got from this week, getting my knee x-ray

BANANAS

Hola and hello!

its officially been a week and a half which is crazy. Days feel like they last forever and I have known my companion and whole district forever, but at the same time it feels like I got dropped off yesterday. The elders that I have in my room are some of the funnest, most spiritual people ever which is awesome. As we are getting ready for bed we will be laughing and telling jokes, then automatically switch to spiritual deep conversations which is so cool. 

The spirit here is incredible. I remember now people telling me that as a missionary you feel the spirit like all the time, and it is so true. it is one of the best feelings in the world. 

The spanish is slowing coming, we have two 3 hour classes a day, one in the morning and one at night. For basically this whole last week our night class teacher, Hermana Cheney, has been having us practice teaching her lessons in spanish that last around 10-15 minutes. Elder sharp and I have managed to stumble our way through the lessons without too many errors which is awesome, but there is definitely a lot of room to grow. The church has provided a lot of great resources and teachers, so if we dont the language, its just because we aren't studying it enough. 

So now about the subject of the email. bananas. They are great. I have a banana with every one of my meals. for some reason, the times that I don't eat a banana, I always struggle with staying awake. but when I do eat one, I have plenty of energy to get through my classes and studies. 

The outside world seems to think that Sunday is a rest day, but here, it definitely isn't. but, that being said, it is one of the coolest days I have had so far. every minute is packed with the regular church meetings, or devotionals, videos, everything. this last week we watch a video from a devotional from Elder Bednar about the character of christ. if you can somehow find it, and a spare hour, it is absolutely incredible. 

We are starting to get settled into the routine here which is awesome, its nice being able to get absolutely lost in the work and the study, I feel like I don't even have time to think about whats happening in the outside world. but it is crazy to look out my classroom window and see the apartment I was living in just two weeks ago! 

Love you all, 

Elder Roberts

Highlight of last sunday? definitely seeing this bad boy in the MTC parking lot

This is my district (left to right: Elder Giles, Elder Redd, me, Elder Sharp, Elder Howe, Elder Andersen, Hermana White, Hermana Clegg, Hermana Egan, Hermana Earnest, and Hermana Hales)

and here we are doing some studying as elders. after this, the 6 of us took turns saying our testimonies in spanish and everyone did very well! 

Welcome to the MTC!

Hello familia! 

first off, the key board i am using really sucks.

here we are! the last few days have been some of the longest, most challenging and fun days of my life, it is seriously amazing just being here! right away, everyone started speaking spanish to us which was crazy. slowly we are all catching onto it. i think for the most part i've gotten the basic greetings and farewells down, and a few other things. 

my companion, Elder Sharp, is from chattanooga, tennesse and he has a lot of energy and is loving the spanish language so far. we have 6 elders in our room, which apparently is a big deal because so many of the elders on our floor come over to the room and say "so this is the 6 elder room! its so packed!" 

the last few days have felt like months, but as I keep hearing, things will start picking up soon. earlier today we did an endowment session at the temple and played soccer with a bunch of elders after that. as I am typing this, we are doing laundry... or i should say, I am teaching these guys how to do laundry! 

Not too much to report on really, just getting into the swing of things right now but like i said, i am having a lot of fun! 

love you all,

Elder Roberts

this is what a 6 elder room kind of looks like. notice my zone leader throwing a fat dab on us in the blue shirt

this is Elder Sharp and I going hard on our study game, learning all of the espanols