2014.05.11 Mother's Day Letter

Surprise!

I wasn't sure if we'd be emailing on Mother's day, but I've got a little time.^^

I love you all so much. I don't even know where to begin. I'll start with mom. Here in Korea, it's not as big. May has lots of holidays, including one for parents day. But Mothers day isn't celebrated. I sure am glad for my mother though. She's a saint,she almost single handed raised 8 children, and I don't think I have ever heard her say a negative thing about the matter. Maybe that it is sometimes tiring or that she wishes she was better than she already is, but never did I hear her say that it wasn't worth it. I never heard her complain of the sacrifices she made. But I can see what she has given for us, and I am so grateful for it. I remember as a toddler asking her to read to me and having her share with me Jesus the Christ. Those who know the story know how special it is to me. It was the start of our reading club, but more than that, it became a firm anchor in my own testimony. Young as I was, I didn't understand what was being read, but even now I remember the feeling I had as I listened. As I grew older, that feeling helped me recognize the spirit more. I don't know if she fully knows what she has done for me, but I hope one day she can feel a piece of it.

That was only one of many memories of my mother. Others include a quiet morning where we go on a bike ride with just the two of us. I still don't remember the reason or purpose of the ride, but as the last of eight children, that quiet time with just the two of us felt very special to me. There were a lot of those. I also recall nights of reading club, days spent baking together and learning the joys of cooking. I remember days being taught with my mom as my teacher, learning anything from math to art. Never criticizing, always supporting. I felt like I could ask her anything. Often, she would tell me where to find the answers, other times she would teach me herself. She taught me love, as well as faith. She shared with me the joy of learning. I remember her often saying, "look in the dictionary," or "if you can read, you can cook." Those practices helped me more than I would ever know. They taught me curiosity and gave me a thirst for knowledge.

But the thing I am the most grateful for is the home she provided for us. A sanctuary for the spirit. Family prayer and scripture reading has always been natural because from the time I was young, she protected those habits. I don't remember many days where we did not pray together or read together from the scriptures. I remember monday nights of family home evenings. We may have missed sometimes, and I may not remember what we talked about or learned, but I remember what I felt. And that too has become an anchor for my testimony. 

Looking back, it would have been easy to lose those blessings. Easy not to pray. Easy not to get up for seminary. But I had a mother that fought for them. Protected them. Even when it was hard. I didn't realize what difference that makes in a family. But I do now. I can say with confidence that I know Christ is my Savior. And I, like the Sons of Helaman, attribute that to my mother.

My mom is awesome. She's artistic, a great cook, powerful reader, and wise friend. She's a shoulder I could always lean on, arms ready to embrace, and has ears that would always listen. In times of trial, I would always find her in prayer. And then, with a heart of faith, she would give the Lord her all. I've never seen her decline a calling, despite demands on her time, I never heard her speak against poorly of those the Lord has chosen, even when her thoughts disagreed. She showed me what loyalty to the Lord meant. She showed me trust in something more.

I love her more than words can express, and I am proud to be her son.

So don't all be jealous, I'm sure your mothers are great too, but I'm inclined to say mine is the best.

~Elder Robarts

2014.05.06 email received

Dear Home,

I like the idea of having notes prepped ahead of time, but it's weird trying to manage the flow of the letter when there's a big block thrown in that I wrote days ago. 

This week has been pretty fun. In Korea, there are a lot of holidays in may, so we have been doing a lot of proselyting activities to find people to teach. On Monday it was Childrens Day here, so our mission decided to move Pday to Wednesday in order to take advantage of all the families going out. A lot of people were there, so it was pretty successful. Hopefully we will be able to meet a lot of them later. But yeah, that was why I wasn't able to email Monday.

I've gotta say, having four Elders in the house again is nice. You can do a lot more when you have more people around. I love how efficient two man houses can be, but I like the perks of four man too.You get to share stories a lot more. Usually serving in a two man and being together twenty-four seven, you have already shared all the stories you can think of.

This month has a lot of excitement going on.Coming up, there are tons of holidays in Korea, then there is a ward fellowshipping activity we are working in to help prepare everyone for the visiting apostle, then Elder Christofferson comes, first to Daejeon to meet the missionaries, then down to Gwangju,so we will get to see him twice! It'll be awesome.

It feels like there is a lot of news, but I'm always at a loss of what to share first. After finding out the notes capability of a translator I use here, I've been finding all sorts of useful things with it. I put PMG on there, I'm working on typing up lesson plans on it, and it is a good place for just simple references. Pretty similar to what I'd been doing with the phone, but with better connections. In a hurry, I also can copy emails onto it and read them later, rather than my method of taking a picture of it like I used to.

Little tricks to make life easier. Of course, these are extremely simple tasks for others with modern technology. As missionaries, we run a little more simple, but I love it. We've also started using little outlines when we make our lesson plans. Found out that helps us a lot. Plus, it makes it easier to record impressions we get for lessons during the week.^^

Yep, Buddha's Birthday, Children's day, things are pretty exciting here. Children's day was the best.

Another fun story: I ran into an old investigator I met a year ago. I met him in Daejeon, and missionaries there found him again. Turns out Mokpo is his hometown and he's started coming down for the weekends to look after his mom. IT was pretty cool to talk with him again. He loves history and says he wants to read the Book of Mormon. He loves the idea of church, but he felt like a lot of them were more monetary than they should be. Loves what he's seen of ours though. He's always been a super nice guy. I hope we get to see him a lot more.^^

~Elder Robarts

2014.04.27

Dear home,

 

First, here's something cool. I got a Korean name a while back, and I found the chinese characters for it.

吴保太 오보태

오 중국에 있는 옛날 나라

보 보호

태 큰

The family name is the Stake President's here. It comes from the name of a country in China.

Then my given name translates to "great protector"

I really like how it came out. The English Pronunciation would be something like "Oh Boh Tae"

 

Lots of interesting things happening! General Relief Society President came, Elder Christofferson is coming, I hear the Pope is coming in august, even Obama from what I hear. Is there something happening I haven't heard about? No idea. Should be an interesting couple months though.

목포 is a really beautiful place. I love just seeing the people here. Lots of families, lots of outgoing people, and there's a family like feeling here with a lot of people you meet. 

Not all news is cheery though. There was a ship that capsized about two weeks ago with 476 people on board.170 saved,150 or so confirmed dead,150 still missing. It has been a tragedy here. It is all that has been on the news since it happened. The saddest part is that most of the passengers were just students, Middle school or high school.They are guessing that it was due to unsafe loading of cargo, three times the legal weight limit, and not enough balancing fluid(not sure what that is).A lot of people are really upset about it. For me,I just find myself so thankful for the plan of salvation.

 

That's it for now. Other news, switched phones again. I've had three different phones here and I've been in this area for 2 months. Copying address info, while becoming faster, is not much fun. The perks of this new phone: a great dictionary that can link to words found in definitions (doublecheck accuracy), thread style text messaging so you can see what the replies are from, and a decent menu system that makes it easy to organize. Yay.

Also, two wards were merged, so one companionship got moved down here. I was expecting that, but I wasn't sure when it would happen. So, our ward will be six-man again starting this week. Looking forward to it.

Life is good, but I am almost out of time. Lot's of logistics today...

I love you all! I'll try to find time to write more. I think of you a lot more than you know, I promise!

 

2014.04.22 snail mail - Thankful Chain

Every November we begin writing things we are thankful for on strips of red, green, and white paper to make our Thankful Chain.  We like to see how much of the house we can decorate.  The chain usually starts to fall down some time after New Year's.

Elder Robarts' Thankful Chain:

* Living Prophet Thomas S. Monson * Quentin L Cook * D Todd Christofferson * Neil L Anderson *Russell M Nelson * Dallin H Oaks * M Russell Ballard * Richard G Scott * Robert D Hales * Henry B Eyring * Dieter F Uchtdorf * Boyd K Packer * David A Bednar * Jeffrey R Holland * L Tom Perry * Peace * Scripture Study * Love of God * Keys of the Priesthood * Candy Corn * Revelation * First Vision ! * The Book of Mormon * Lehi, The Great Pioneer * Elder 카이저 ! * Temple * THE GOSPEL * FAMILY ! * Witness of the Holy Ghost * Sacrifice * Testimony * Communication * Trust * Week at a Glance * Gloves *  Hand Warmers * Gift of Tongues * Highlighers * Prayer Rolls * Study Notes * Little Commitments * Sticky Notes * Tabs * Music ! * Prophecy * Priesthood Blessings * Sleep * Pictures of Savior * Temple Pamphlets * Gospel Library *  김  밥 * Understanding of the Atonement * The Examples of Righteous Saints * Little Smiles * Object Lessons * Happiness * Holidays * Miracles * Chances to Share Gospel * Example of Christ * Tradition ! * History * Records * Journals * Stories * Memories * Little Tips from God * Old Friends * Everyday Miracles * Notes / Letters * Origami * People Who Care * Opportunities to Share Gospel * Mission Leaders * Cell Phones * Super Cool Pens! * White Handbook * Book of Mormon Reading * Nativities * Chances to Serve *  가 족 Mom Sariah Ryan Cadi Rori David Teresa Miriam Ruth Tom Esther Jared Naomi Debi Joe Andrew * Beautiful Seasons * Paper & Computers *

2014.04.20

Dear home,

I love missionary work, it teaches you so much, and allows your spirit to be so much more enlarged for the welfare of others.

Probably the hardest thing about being a missionary is that you are always thinking about so many different things. And the hard part is, often you cannot say that one is more important than another. At the moment, that is what I am focusing on. When you are led by the spirit you never have to worry, but so often you are following promptings and thinking about one thing and another will come up. You really have to stay in tune not to miss something. But the great thing is the promise that if we do our all, the Lord will support us and not let us fail.

(Explanation needed: I found out that I can type on my translator, which means I can draft letters before I come to the computer.)

One problem with this is that its a little broken up, and the punctuation is hard to access. Korean doesn't really use punctuation much.  (For example, while typing, I can't put in apostrophes, commas, or periods. Try counting how many were in that last sentence. :D Two ways to get around. Leave them out and put in later [Not a good idea] or think about what punctuation you need before writing the sentence, put those in, and then type into the appropriate spots. That is what I'm trying now. Haha, just wanted you to be aware of the sacrifice.)

Back to the spiritual note:

This last week I have been thinking a lot about testimony. Thinking about missionary work, I remember a quote that said that home teaching and missionary work is the same, one for members, one for non members. It is a pretty cool work really. All we do is help people build their testimonies. Because of that, I have been thinking about how we build our testimonies. One talk from GC mentioned how we can come to know about something through Study, experimenting for yourself, and praying for revelation from God. I loved that. To me, a couple other thoughts about conversion come to mind. What do we need in order to receive conversion? To me,the answer came to Desire, Willingness, and Trust. Throughout my mission, I've focused on helping others build these three things. All of us are lacking in one or the other. But we can always grow.

What I've learned also is that missionary work isn't reliant on who you are teaching. It can be a member, non member, less active, or other missionaries. We all need the healing power of the Atonement. I guess our own personal progression is sharing the gospel in a sorts. We share with ourself.

I know that God lives. I know that he is aware of us. I know that as we do our best, we are led. These days, I have a lot on my mind. There seem to be many that require the Gospel, as well as a friend. As an interesting coincidence (tell me if you believe in those, I've come to think they don't exist) our mission has begun a 40 day fast again. Purification and preparing for Elder Christofferson who comes next month to our mission. I've realized over the past week some other things I need to be doing. I've decided to change my studies for a while, as well as to fast once a week to help recognize and follow the spirit. As well as for others that need extra prayers.

The simple truths of the Gospel are the most strong to me these days. God is our father. I gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting this week. (I've gotten a lot of those here. Love this ward.^^) The topic was God's love. The thought came that if you feel God's love, you will feel happy. No matter what, you will be okay. A lot of people in the world struggle with that. They need the news this Gospel brings, and the very first principle we teach is that God is our Father, and that he loves us. Everything else is supportive of that fact.

I love you all. I think of you often and pray for you daily. Have a good week, and I'll have more next time. ^^

~Elder Robarts

2014.04.13

Dear home!

This is going to be one crazy transfer. I've got a small district for now, but lots of interesting things are going to happen in it. First off, we're host to our mission's traveling AP. A new position made to help train missionaries. Since our house has too much room, he's using it as a homebase, so we'll spend about a fifth of his time here, and most of it in other areas. Also, we've got a greeny in our district and two missionaries returning home. Impressive eh?

As for emails, I've got some bad news and great news. First, my new companion is fast at emailing. Only takes about half an hour so I feel bad going longer. Great news, I found an awesome trick. I can type up letters on my translator. I originally wanted to use it for President's letters because it takes so long to type Korean, but I might start using it for family letters too. Write little notes during the week. Could be good.^^ I'm also using it for lesson plans. Seems to work well. A lot easier than constantly rewriting and throwing away old papers.

I've had a lot of my mind this transfer. There's a missionary in our district that is having a really hard time. I think that's been the hardest thing. They're having an extremely hard time finding joy, and there's stress from a hundred odd sources on their mind. It's been where my thoughts has been the whole week. Even general conference was different than usual. But I have it on my mp3 player, and I plan on relistening to it over time. The important thing is that I got from it the inspiration I need for the moment. I'll worry about the rest later.

I'm so thankful for a testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ. That truly is the greatest strength in the world. To know that we are never alone. To know that no effort is wasted. To know that we are led and loved by an all knowing being. That is the blessing of being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Sadly, this knowledge is often doubted, and almost daily rejected by those who do not understand it. My testimony is small in comparison with those we've heard this weekend (for you guys, last weekend), but I want to add mine to theirs as a humble witness that Jesus is the Christ. That God lives, and has called a Prophet to lead us. More than that, we have the opportunity to speak to our Heavenly Father through prayer, to take our deepest concerns to him. And find answers.

I know this Church is true. Over the next couple weeks, I want to share more of the things I liked from Conference. For now, I wanted to share a Talk from Priesthood session. Elder Hallstrom. We can change.

Times up for now, but I love you all. Have a good week, and I'll be back with more later.

~Elder Robarts

2014.04.06 email

That was a big shock.

Transfer calls was a wall for me today. First off, my companion Elder Williams is getting transferred. That alone was a hard one to take. I love that guy. Second, I'm becoming DL again, but our district is being split. It's going from 12 to 4. It's now going to be just our ward, and our ward lost a set of elders, so it's just us and the sisters. Almost all of our mission leaders will be going home soon, so President Shin mentioned today in the conference call that he's trying to train new leaders. I'm guessing that's why a bunch of new districts opened up. It's a shame though, the bigger districts are always nice. Plus, we might be getting more elders in our ward next transfer, we're not sure. Funny thing, I'm serving with Elder Esplin again. I served with him exactly a year ago, and we're companions again. We'll see the April General Conference together, just like before. He's an awesome guy, and I love how honest and pure hearted he is. One funny thing is our house will seem huge with just the two of us. We might get moved.

Either way, it's a lot of change. And I'm bad at change. Still, I'm excited. I love this ward. I'm convinced I'm here until I go home, and I wouldn't have it any other way. The leaders are incredible, the city is beautiful, and I've learned a lot here.

Everything I had thought about writing just left me. (Tends to happen during transfer week.)

We went to a beach last P-Day, made a little message card for the members of our ward with ideas for how they can share the gospel, met a lot of cool people. But it's been hard meeting investigators recently. That's been a test of faith, but I'm looking up. I want to make a difference here. I want to help others come unto Christ. I know He's guiding this work, and I know that it will continue on in His time.

I'll sure miss Elder Williams though. He's powerhouse. At first, I'd expected that he'd be transferring. He's been here for a while, but the more we served, the more hopeful we became that we'd have one more.

Who knows what'll happen next transfer. I love you guys! You're the best in the world.

I'm having trouble thinking today to be honest. So many thoughts going through. I can't say there's ever been a relaxing transfer day. It's gotten to the point where I don't think ahead of it much, but it's always a surprise when it comes. This transfer felt SO FAST...

I love you guys, I miss you a lot, but I'm excited to be where I am. I hope conference was good, I'm looking forward to hearing it this week. Until next time!