email 2014.01.26

Dear Home,

What a crazy week. So, it's not really p-day today. This week is 설날, or New Years, which is a pretty big thing here. Mostly for families, so usually missionaries aren't involved much, but for the three days around the holiday itself, most of Korea shuts down, including the places we shop or email. So, we're taking care of that now, but the rest waits until Friday this week. Lot's of meetings this week.

It's been a good week here. Not a lot of news, but things are going well. I've been in this area for a while now (Over six months), so I'm starting to run out of creative ideas to try. Been digging up some old ideas though. Started using fliers for English class again. Lot's of results there, but mostly women for some reason. Referrals for the sister missionaries. ^^ Also started looking for a lot more less actives this week. Met a couple really nice people and got to talk for a bit. The main thing is that everyone is simply so busy, it's hard to meet them at a good time. It's the people we meet on the street while traveling that I like the most. I love how many people the Lord is preparing to receive this message.

This Sunday we had an awesome meeting Sunday with our Stake President. (He has a meeting with all the missionary leaders in the stake once a transfer) Had a great talk with him, as well as an area Seventy member that was visiting as well. Lots of new ideas came up, and we've been asked to discuss it more in upcoming district/zone meetings. I absolutely love this Stake. I've never met such an involved Stake President. He meets with everyone, knows the conditions of pretty much every ward in the stake, from missionary work on our end, on the ward's end, as well as every other auxiliary from the sound of it. He's poured his whole soul into this work, and it really shows. I've never seen so much fire about this work before. There's always change, always one more method we can try. One more step. At first it was just overwhelming, but now it's incredible.

Not much time today. Gotta run so we can get back to work, but I love you guys. Take care, have a great new years, and I'll talk to you again soon!

~Elder Robarts

2014.01.19 email

Dear home,

Another whirlwind goes into the books. This was a good week. The sisters had a Baptism, so I got to meet with their investigator for the Baptismal interview. She is about 12 in American age, but she's so mature. When she prayed, it was one of the most sincere prayers I've heard. Simple, but strong. Definitely well prepared for Baptism. She got baptised this Sunday, and the service was really spiritual.
Outside of that too, it was great, Lot's of cool miracles, a couple new faces, and little surprises that keep life interesting.

So, this week was transfer week, and Elder Keyser and I get to serve together another transfer. Only one missionary transfered in my district, and he was a missionary I've served together with over half of my mission. Awesome guy, and a fireball of a missionary. The new Zone Leader that came in is awesome too. He seems really receptive to the spirit, and a fun personality. Looking forward to working with him, as well Elder Keyser again.

After that, we had a really good testimony meeting for the end of the BoM reading activity. Our District did one together, then we had a conference call testimony meeting with the rest of the zone. It was a really fast transfer it felt like, but we all learned a lot.

Had a mini Christmas this week too. A while back, I ordered a copy of PMG in Kor/Eng (side by side), and it came this week after MLC. As I've been reading it, it's been really useful for studying, and a couple other thoughts have been coming to mind as I've been using it, one of which is using it when meeting or teaching lessons with members. In the past, my Korean one has been to big and bulky so we couldn't do it, but I think it'll be a really good help. So much we
can get out of it, I want to be able to share that with members more.

 Met an awesome family last week. Found them tracting, and I love them a lot. I think I mentioned them last time. No religion, but open minded. And really nice. This past time we talked about how the Gospel blesses our families, and how knowing about God will help them. Shared about prayer, and they seemed to accept it really well. Kind of funny news though. The Mom is leaving to go to Hawaii for a month to train horses. ...Kind of took us by surprise. Jealous? In another world, I might be, but to be honest, I'm just sad I won't be able to meet them very much. Still have another chance to meet them though. We're hoping
to leave them with something so they can keep searching while they're away.

I love you all. You're the best. I miss you a lot, but I'm glad I can still hear from you and write to you. The wonders of modern technology are a beautiful thing.

Gotta run, but Elder Keyser and I went hiking up in a mountain this morning, so I'll try to send pictures. Love you! Have a good week!

~Elder Robarts

Check that. This computer has a wall between me and the USP port. It wins this round... Pictures next time. ^^

2014.01.12 email

Dear Home,

I love you guys so much. This week has been a crazy one. We've recently seen a wave where all of the investigators we've been meeting suddenly got busy or stopped receiving calls. Keeping them in our prayers. Lately though, we've had a lot of time for finding, and we've seen some cool miracles. Met an awesome atheist family yesterday that welcomed us in and asked us to come back later. The mom used to live by the church and learned english with missionaries when she was younger. Super nice family. Also met a college student who said that he's tried going to church a couple times and thinks that there's a god, but not sure who he is. Said he was interested in learning more. Also, we had a former investigator who got super busy so he couldn't meet. Kept in touch, but his number changed randomly so we lost him. Then one day we decide to call again, and it forwards us to a new number. He told us he misses meeting and want to talk with us a little longer this week. So we're hoping we can meet again soon.

The members are incredible, my companion is incredible, and we're going strong. Transfer calls came this week, but with little changes. One of the Zone Leaders is transfering and we're getting a new one, but outside of that we're still the same. Looking to be an awesome transfer though. We've been meeting a lot of people who have been saying they want to meet at the end of the month. (Beginning and End of the year is a pretty busy time here.)

I love this work. It's a whirlwind and an adventure. Sometimes, you just have to take things one day at a time and accept that the Lord has his hand on the wheel. Miracles come when you trust that. I know that's true.

I'm working on the package for home. There's kind of a lot of people to look for stuff for. It's nothing exciting, but it's coming along slowly. I think valentine's day.  Outside of that, I'll mostly just try pictures today. Love you guys! Have a good week!

Elder Robarts

2014.01.05 email

Hey, all!

I love this mission. You forgot how tired you are sometimes. But this week was good. We've been trying a lot of new tricks lately, and seeing some miracles. First off, we recently got a flip chart from the mission to use in lessons. Although, to be honest, we've found a better use for it. We use it every comp study. We pick a single principle for the other to teach. Then afterward we teach a full lesson using it to help us tag team. In Korea, the hardest part of teaching is probably teaching in unity. It's hard to teach in unity when your companion doesn't always know what is going on. I noticed that in training, but it's true all the time. With a foreign language like Korean, it's hard to follow perfectly. But through something as simple as teaching principles individually, it's been so much easier to transition. That's another thing. Every companion you have will usually have a slightly different companionship study style. When you find what clicks, things are awesome. For me and Elder Keyser, it's Roleplay. That's how we communicate our investigators needs.

Been trying to be more creative lately. Flip charts, cups, utilizing gospel videos more. So many things at our disposal, it's been cool to see a change in our investigators as we adapt our teaching style more.

This transfer is almost over. I can't believe it. I've been here for a while, and so has Elder Keyser. We have no idea what's happening, but I think Elder Keyser is at least going senior next transfer. He's more than ready. Not sure where the cards will fall, but I love it here. Members are just plain awesome. This week, one of them volunteered to coordinate member lessons for us. He got up in third hour and explained what he was doing, then went up to each person individually and asked them when they are available. Then he met with us. Checked all of our current appointments, found people, and he said he'd call each of them that night. Awesome guy.

At the moment, we're in the process of restarting our investigator pool. A lot of them have slowed down or dropped, and we're looking for some fresh souls. (I hope that doesn't sound bad.) Whenever there's a drought of new people, even if you /have/ a large number of investigators already, you hit this slump where not many new ideas come. You need things moving. Finding, dropping, using things learned with one investigator to help another. If they don't move, it gets stuck. We're pushing for that now. We've got a couple awesome people, but we want to be at our best to help them.

As it is, I'm realizing how short a time I have left. I need to make the most of every second. Loving it though. Learning a lot, and I'm excited to see how these lessons apply to life back home. There's a lot of that. Keep praying for my investigators, You're always in my prayers. I love you, and hope you have a good week!

Oh yeah, we had a good new years. Really funny because all of our investigators are a different age now. I'm 23 by the way. Korea count makes me feel old.

~Elder Robarts