January 7, 2013

Dearest family,

welp, Elder Crosby called it. I am serving in East Kilbride which is south of Glasgow just a wee bit. and my trainer is sister Hopkin from Lindon, Utah. She is a little shy (which I am not use to but it is good for me) but she is amazing and such a great trainer! I already know I am going to miss her so much when I leave! I guess every sister that serves in East Kilbride has stayed here for a long time, like six to ten months! so there is a good chance i will be here for a while.

this weekend has been the longest of my life and i am so happy i get to email you guys today! no one has known where i am since thursday which is weird. I got to meet Elder Crosby my first day here when we hiked up Pratts Hill. He is cool and he is serving in my district. i have some really great pictures at the top of pratts hill but for some reason i can only upload a few at a time on this computer so i might just print them and mail them home or i will have to buy a memory stick to put them all on, idk yet.

if you want to send a package with real peanut butter (Jiff) and reeses then that would be awesome! the peanut butter here is literally just crushed peanuts...nasty! the accent here is so hard to understand but i am slowly starting to get it, they just talk so fast! so the ward is really great and the bishop is amazing! most of the ward is old people but they love the sisters so much! a majority of the ward is less active so most of the week we teach lessons to less actives, it is a little frustrating.

Scottish people love to talk, especially about their problems! i just smile and nod my head, not that i know what they are saying anyway. we have only one investigator and we chap doors a lot. after praying and fasting this weekend we found a potential family that we will teach tomorrow! we found them chapping doors and we are really excited! The Lord answers prayers!!

I am not really homesick at all, I think I am more MTC sick. we decided before we left that on April 20th, 2015 we are all going to meet at Temple Square at 7pm right by the reflection pond. President and Sister Walker plan on being there too so I am way excited! We have tea with a few of the same families every week and lunch with the same ppl every week. (tea=dinner). We have tea with the McNallys every friday and they are probably the most normal family in the ward. the dad is a butcher so we have really good food. This week we had lasagna with mash on top (mash=mashed potatos), and it was the best lasagna i have ever had!!!!

 i want to send a package home soon but i will let you know when i get things together for it. And i will stay at home after my mission for a little bit but I definitely want to come and live in England after my mission! I love this place and the people so much and I look forward to building up the kingdom of God in East Kilbride!

I love you all!,

Sister Robertson

January 1, 2013

Ok so today is supposed to be our pday but since we leave tomorrow morning we have meetings all day today so I only have this time to write. This week has gone by so quickly and I hate it! I love these missionaries so much and I am going to miss them all so much! I cried a lot yesterday and I know I will cry a lot today and tomorrow too. last night we stayed up till midnight but we had to be in our halls upstairs and my companions went to bed on time so I yelled happy new years at midnight, woke them up and then went to bed (: they love me. tell Dallin that he wouldn’t have staph infection on his face if he would stop making out with his teammates...duh).

Last night we spent it in the presidents apartment baring testimony and drinking bubbly. president walker stood up at the end and told us that he felt strongly impressed that we had all known each other in the pre mortal life and we were all great friends there and we were all so excited to come down here and go on our missions so that we could see each other again. it was so powerful and I know it is true because I have felt the same way since I have been here. I have to get up at five tomorrow morning and since the most packing I have done is...oh wait none! So I am pretty sure I won’t sleep tonight and I will just be packing all night.

Since there are ten of us going to the Scotland/Ireland mission they rented a coach bus that will drive us there tomorrow which means I get to lay out and sleep all three and a half hours of the ride! And it will be just me and the guys which I am looking forward to. when we get to the mission home we put all our luggage down then drive an hour or so to Glasgow where we will hike Pratt’s Hill and then at the top we will individually dedicate our missions to the Lord. It is a tradition that all the missionaries do there because it is what the Pratt guy did when he came here and he promised the lord that if he worked his hardest then he wanted 200 baptisms and by the end of that time he had gotten exactly 200 baptisms.

I thought I wasn’t completely prepared to go out into the field but we watched a devotional by elder Bednar on Sunday that was so powerful. He basically said that we know enough and that we can do this! I hope my trainer will learn to love me...and I her. So I love England...like a lot. Like I am planning on moving here after my mission. This is definitely where I want to be. so much church history is here and it is so old school everyone and beautiful and it rains all the time.

We taught our last investigator yesterday and he gave the prayer at the end but he prayed as our teacher and not the investigator and he talked about each of us sisters in the prayer and it was so spiritual and powerful and I was bawling! I can’t believe I really start tomorrow....this is the real deal....I CANT WAIT! I know I was foreordained for this mission and to be here with these missionaries and I know that there are people in Scotland and Ireland that have been prepared for me to teach them the gospel. My purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ through the restored gospel and I can’t wait to share this joy and love with everyone I see.

I didn’t get to Skype with Brax and Britta and all of them for very long but it was good. Brax showed me his gun and I got a dance from Eldon and a fist bump from Adalee so all is good! You guys will have to tell me when you find out what Tiffany is having.

I never want to go home. This feeling I have all the time and the love I have for random people is amazing! I feel the spirit all the time and so strongly that it is actually exhausting!! I have never been so tired or happy in my life before. These next 18 months will shape the rest of my life and I am so happy that Heavenly Father was patient with me and answered my prayers so strongly that I knew I needed to serve.

When I get to the mission home I get to email you guys again so I will email you tomorrow and let you know where I am assigned and what my new address is.

I love you all so much!

Sister Robertson

December 18, 2012

Family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So this was the best choice I have ever made! The food is brilliant and the chefs are so awesome! Today we got to go into town and we went to this market place and we talked to a few people about the gospel and I gave away pass along cards and we are going to see them again in a week! It is so much different talking to real people instead of the role plays we do here in the MTC. I am so glad I practiced going to bed early and getting up early because it makes it so much easier.

Sorry this letter jumps everywhere because I don’t have a lot of time and I am just writing things as they come up. I have never felt the spirit so strongly and it is so great to be in this building surrounded by people who all have the same purpose! We went to the temple today, the Preston temple is so pretty. I am honestly not homesick at all....sorry. My zone (which consists of everyone in the MTC-18 people) are doing great! We have people from Albania, England, America, Denmark, Germany, and South Africa. My companions are sister Vosloo from South Africa and sister Golemi from Albania. Sister Golemi doesn’t speak English very well so it is a struggle to communicate but she is learning quickly. My district consists of six elders and us three sisters. Almost all of my district has the same personality and humor so it is a lot of fun! My companions don’t really like to do anything during physical activity so I force them to go play football or basketball or volleyball with the elders because there is no way I’m not doing physical activity with the food I’m eating and it is so nice to play with guys (you know what I mean).

I have learned so much in just the past five days, it is hard to believe that there is three weeks more of information we need to know. Sharing the gospel with others was quite easy in the marketplace and really exciting. So my debit card doesn’t have this chip thing in it so it can’t be used in stores so I have to go to ATMs and take out money then exchange the money....kinda annoying but oh well.

I’m loving England and I know I definitely will come back here some day! The missionaries here are going to different places. All of the Americans and the one Denmark guy are all going to the Scotland/Ireland mission. The rest are either going to Leeds England mission, Manchester mission, and the one German guy is going to a mission in Germany. The MTC president is President Walker and his wife is Sister Kathleen Walker....who is the daughter of President Gordon B. Hinckley!!!! Yeah it is kinda a big deal! She looks so much like him and I get to hug her all the time so I have basically hugged a prophet, no biggie. On Christmas we get to open presents in the MTC president’s apartment in at the MTC and then later that evening we get to go to members’ homes for dinner in companionships.

I love it here so much! These guys are becoming some of my best friends! I miss Rudy too. The guy that is related to the Wolfleys is elder Andrews from Wyoming. Well........I have one minute left so I have to be going. This gospel is true, God lives, and I am doing His work! I love you guys!

Sister Robertson