076

7 January 2013

Dear Homefront,

 

Well, at least we're not the only ones on the 9 o'clock block for church.  The only problem I have with it is that we have a 30 minute drive to the chapel!  When you add on any meetings we go to (which happen before church) we're basically waking up, shaving (having showered the night before), throwing on our suits, and tying our ties on the way to the car.  Makes for a very fun Sunday morning, eh?  Oh well, I suppose somebody needs to take the early schedule.

 

This week, we did a lot of work, preparing for a Zone Blitz that we're going to be having out here in Goochland this Saturday, which means that we're hoping to have the entire zone out to help us find new investigators by sending them to former and potential investigators, as well as other finding methods such as tracting and "by the way"-ing.  We're really hopeful that this will yield some results because there is just too much ground for us to cover alone.

 

We also recently started back up a program that some other missionaries were doing before, which is a scripture study class which we hold every other week in the multi-purpose room at the library.  Unfortunately, only Brother Malsonado showed up for the first one, but we hope to have more start coming.  We've started printing out some flyers that we can hand out as we go around to see people, which should help.

 

Well, it would also seem that Dad isn't the only one with a habit of smashing appendages.  We were doing some more service for the Pinkstons, helping them some more with the house.  I was hanging some corner bead which is hung up with drywall nails and I managed to catch both my thumb and index finger on my left hand with the hammer.  Thankfully both were glancing blows because I wasn't hitting the nails too hard for fear of damaging the drywall but it still hurt quite a bit.

 

Well, I think that's really all the exciting parts of this week.  We have a zone preparation day planned for a little later today and we're going to get together and explore some of the sights in Downtown Richmond so hopefully that'll be fun.  I hope everyone's doing well and staying safe.

 

I love you all.

 

-Elder John Y. Roberts

075

31 December 2012

Dear Homefront,

Not a whole lot happened this week.  Christmas Eve and Day were both non-proselyting days, so we didn't really go anywhere.  The Loveland family invited us over for Christmas Dinner and that's where we spent most of the day, including getting special permission to join them for watching The Muppet's Christmas Carol which was way fun.  They are a great family, and we are so very grateful for them.

Other than that, most of the people we went to see either weren't home or were busy, so it was pretty slow.  Honestly, Christmas was really the only thing that happened worth talking about.

I'm doing alright, I'm still waking up tired but I'm trying to keep doing what I'm supposed to and be effective.

Unfortunately, I can't really think of anything else to write so I think I'll sign off now.  I'm sorry that this was such a short letter.  Hopefully it will pick up more here soon.

I love you all.

With love,

-Elder John Y. Roberts

074

17 December 2012

Dear Homefront,

 

Well, it looks like I'm hanging around for a third round in the Gooch.  Elder Andersen is staying as well.  As far as I know, I only have one person changing in my District.  Innsbrook is losing Elder Mabry and Elder Kim is coming in to replace him.

 

This week has been pretty slow.  We finally have our new map of the area put together and we plan on starting up a grid-by-grid overhaul of the area and the area book; trying to jumpstart the area.

 

One of the best parts of this week was our Christmas Mission Conference.  On Tuesday, all the missionaries on the Richmond side of the mission (Tidewater side had theirs on Thursday) - namely the missionaries in the Richmond, Midlothian, Chesterfield, and Wayneborough areas - got together for an amazing devotional full of music and the spoken word.  Some of the missionaries who were soon to return home bore their testimonies, and many missionaries performed musical numbers.  President Perry trained on unity, expertly using the scripture in 1st Corinthians where it speaks about the body of Christ, and President Ramsey (one of President Perry's counselors in the Mission Presidency) spoke about the Spirit of the Season and about the role of the Prophet Joseph Smith (as his birthday is on the 23rd).  The Assistants also had prepared a very special Christmas gift for President and Sister Perry as this is their last Christmas in the mission-field.  They had every missionary in the mission send in their testimony and had them bound into a book which they presented to the Perry's on behalf of the mission.

 

They also showed an amazing video which was recently produced by the Church of the musical group "The Piano Guys" performing the beloved carol "Oh Come, oh Come, Emmanuel" and set to scenes from the Church's recent Bible Videos.  I've included a link to the video which can be found on the Mormon Channel.

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video?v=2008190983001

 

It was also really good to see a few of my old friends there.  Elder Carlson and Elder Huntzinger were both in attendance as well as many others who I've met and have made friends with over the course of my mission.

 

Other than that, not a whole lot has happened this week.  I safely received the package from the Ward as well as one from the Frasers.  I had sent two boxes home, both are just stuff to be put away with my other stuff (just things I've collected and didn't think I'd have room for if I were to get transferred but didn't want to leave behind).

 

I love you all, and wish you all a very Merry Christmas.  I may not be able to email next week because the libraries might be closed down for the holidays.  We've been invited to an early Christmas dinner with a family around 2 so we may try and call shortly after then, perhaps around 3 or so.  We're allowed 40 minutes for the call, that's the standard set by the First Presidency in the missionary handbook.

 

With much love,

-Elder John Y. Roberts

073

10 December 2012

Dear Homefront,

 

Another week gone and sadly not much has changed here in Goochland County, Virginia.  The main highlights of this week mostly happened during the week-end but there's been some good throughout the week.

 

Last Monday, we had a Zone preparation day where we went downtown to the Virginia Museum of Fine Art.  There was a wonderful exhibit of the work of Dale Chihuly who is an artist who works with blown glass.  The rest of the museum was filled with art from around the world and extending from ancient to works made within the last decade.  I rather enjoyed the section they had on the oriental and asian arts as well as some work from the Victorian Era.

 

Friday was Zone meeting which was attended by a guest trainer, Brother Anderson who is the Richmond Stake High Councilman over missionary work.  The meeting was really good with trainings from Brother Anderson and our two Zone Leaders.  Following the meeting, we helped to blitz the Downtown Elders' area and were able to meet a couple cool guys that were open to learning more so we passed their contact information to the Downtown Elders.  That evening was the Gayton Ward Christmas party which was very nice.  We had a couple less active members that came out for that.  It was a very good mix of fun and spiritual entertainment with a program which involved all of the primary age children leading a Christmas sing-along with our very enthusiastic organist, Brother Cheshire, on the piano, followed by a live nativity set to music.

 

Saturday was a long day for us.  The Stake was putting on a nativity exhibit which included a guided walk-through of a multi-room live nativity with the shepherds, wise men, king Herod, and the manger scene all being in separate rooms that guides would take groups through providing the story as is found in the Bible as well as some minor historical aspects surrounding the nativity.  The exhibit culminated in a concert of Christmas hymns.  Brother Maldonado was asked to bring down some of his animals to create a sort of "petting zoo"/shepherd's exhibit which could entertain the children.  Of course, we got enlisted into helping him do this so that morning we reported to his home where we cut wood and carted it down to the church along with hay and straw to make a small enclosure.  Then we had to go round-up the animals.  We started with the easiest of them, his two kid-goats.  We simply threw some food into a dog kennel and they walked right in peacefully.  Then we caught two of his geese, somehow managing to avoid their sharp pinches and loaded them into another dog kennel.  The harder part came in chasing down and roping his ram and one of his she-goats.  His ram can jump at least five feet in the air so it was very challenging trying to corner him.  But we got them and loaded them all up in the truck.  The children thoroughly enjoyed it at least.  Then that evening we were enlisted in helping to dismantle the exhibits and to help cart them down to storage.  It was a good long day of hard work.

 

I hope everyone is doing well as we prepare for the Christmas holiday and the celebrations of our Lord's birth which it entails.

 

I love you all, and wish for you the best.

 

With love,

-Elder John Y. Roberts

072

3 December 2012

Dear Homefront,

 

So, Leadership Conference was absolutely amazing.  I was privileged to spend four days receiving training directly from President and Sister Perry, the Assistants, and two or three Zone Leaders from around the mission (side note: Elder Andreason was one of the above mentioned Zone Leaders).  They trained on the Eight Fundamentals of Preach My Gospel which include things such as the roles of the Holy Ghost or Book of Mormon in conversion or on Revelation through Church Attendance or about Teaching People not Lessons to name a few.  The entire conference is focused on helping us become better missionaries and by extension better leaders.  There were about sixty missionaries from all over the mission and from all links of the authoritative chain.

 

I think the training I enjoyed the most was President Perry's training on the Doctrine of Christ, which comprises the whole basis for the missionary purpose of helping others come unto Christ by faith, repentance, baptism, recieving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.  I filled a good number of pages in my journal with insight and revelation that I received about the Gospel.  It was such an amazing experience.

 

Unfortunately, due to both myself and Elder Andersen being at leadership, no proselyting happened in Goochland which didn't help the situation there.  Oh well, that just means we get to work even harder.  Although it did turn out to be a bit of a blessing because we were very tight on miles so it saved us from going over because we didn't use our car for a week.

 

This Sunday we had Stake Conference.  There seemed to be an emphasis on missionary work with one of the speakers being a recently returned sister missionary who'd served in Mesa, Arizona.  President and Sister Perry were also invited by President Mullens (our Stake President) to speak.  President Perry spoke about the Priesthood which was given for two primary reasons.  First, it was given so that we could preach the gospel and second so that we could bless the families of the Earth.  The way we bless the family is by fulfilling the Abrahamic covenant by providing the duly sanctioned ordinances which are required for the salvation of mankind.  How great of a blessing and a responsibility is the Priesthood?

 

So, as a refresher (or an FYI) there will be a transfer on the 20th of December and I won't know what's happening with that transfer until the Sunday before.  So if anyone wants to mail something out for Christmas, it'll need to be before then, or wait until I know my new address (if I get transferred).

 

I love you all and I'm running out of time so I'll sign off now.

 

With love,

Elder John. Y. Roberts

 

PS:  The doctors couldn't tell anything from the CT scan so they've ruled out the scary stuff.  So now it's just the waiting game until it either goes away or they send me to a gastro-intestinal specialist.

071

26 November 2012

Dear Homefront,

 

This week was very slow, not very much got done, but it was still a good week.

 

Thanksgiving was a non-proselyting day for us so we had some fun.  We spent the night at the Innsbrook apartment again (because we'd had a district meeting Wednesday morning, and to save on miles) and then in the morning we went to two different Turkey Bowls.  The Gayton Ward had theirs in a park near the church building so we started off there and played for a couple hours.  It was fun and a great opportunity to build fellowship with the Ward.  After that, though, there was a Tri-Zone Turkey Bowl going on for all the missionaries in the Richmond, Midlothian, and Chesterfield Zones so we went down there and played for a little longer.

 

After we were worn out on football, we went back up to Goochland and were invited over to join a family for their Thanksgiving meal.  It was a very nice, traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings.  After dinner, worn out and stuffed (many members won't let you refuse seconds (or thirds, or fourths, etc)), we stumbled back to our apartment and enjoyed a nice evening of relaxation.  My companion promptly fell asleep and I read.

 

That I would say was the true highlight of this week though, and it was a fun day of Thanksgiving.  Church was also very nice this week, with talks on Prayer, Scriptures, and the Holy Ghost that brought the Spirit greatly.

 

This upcoming week, Elder Andersen and I have actually been invited to attend Leadership Training Conference which President Perry and the Assistants put on.  Four days of sitting in a pew ... Thankfully the Spirit will be strong.  I actually am excited to go.  I've been once before (back when I was in VA Beach) and I'm sure I'll enjoy it this time as well.

 

I love you all.  Stay safe and keep hope burning bright.

 

With love,

-Elder John Y. Roberts

 

PS: you asked about Christmas; and to be honest I don't know.  Cash is always nice, it's small and useful and easy to carry around.  Other than that maybe music or more books (I don't really have any particular titles to look for).  Maybe a couple more shirts, a couple of my collars are starting to show signs of wear.

070

19 November 2012

Dear Homefront,

 

NO MORE MARRIAGES UNTIL I'M HOME!!!  Seriously ... isn't missing four already enough?

 

On another note, transfers are now said and done here in the VRM.  My new companion out in the Land of the Gooches is Elder Andersen from Boise, ID.  He's been on his mission for a whopping twelve weeks so far, I'm his second companion and he was actually trained out in Burkeville where I was nearly a year ago.  The work in Goochland is going pretty slow, and I suspect that this week will be even slower with Thanksgiving, but there is the Turkey Bowl to look forward to (potentially two, one with the ward and one that's a tri-zone activity, just need to figure out scheduling).

 

Other than that, Thanksgiving is a non-proselyting day and we've been invited over by a couple members to join them for Thanksgiving dinner.

 

As a missionary, holidays  seem to take on a whole new meaning, especially for a history/mythology lover like me who tries to think about the orgin of the holidays.  With Thanksgiving approaching, my thoughts have been turned to the account given in the book of Luke, when the Savior heals the Ten Lepers.  Ten leprous men approached the Lord, expressing faith and desiring to be healed of their plague.  The Lord tenderly grants their request with the instruction that they go and show themselves unto the priest (which was the Mosaic law pertaining to the situation).  When they had commenced in their journey they witnessed that they were healed and they rejoiced, yet only one turned back and fell down before Jesus Christ and began to glorify God.  The Lord's solemn reproach that followed was one against the ingratitude shown by the nine.  "Were there not ten that were healed?  Where then are the nine?"  How often are we counted among the nine, who have had the grace of God shed upon us abundantly yet forget to give thanks where thanks is due?  That we might all take time on this wonderful holiday to give solemn and reverent thanks to our Lord and God, without whom there would be no reason to celebrate at all, is my humble prayer.

 

I am grateful for this opportunity which I have to serve the God who gave me life, and for the family which has helped me in many ways, the least of all is in the financial preparation for my mission.  I am grateful for friends and family; for good health and life; for love; and most especially for the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, which grants hope and salvation to all men who are willing to abide by it.

 

I love you all and pray for your safety.  Keep hope alive.

 

With love,

Elder John Y. Roberts

069

12 November 2012

 

Dear Homefront,

 

This week was really slow out here in Goochland.  I mean really slow.  We're back in the process of finding (the grunt work of missionary work) which has been kinda difficult with it cooling off so there's not too many people out and about.  But we're trying to keep up our hopes.  We helped the Pinkstons some more with their house.  Almost all of the sheet-rock is up so now they're working on mudding the walls and waiting for the plumbing inspections so that they can finish hanging the walls that have pipes in them.  We also helped the Maldonado's some more with the animals.

 

Transfer calls came in yesterday.  I'm staying here in Goochland but I'm getting a new companion, an Elder Anderson.  I don't think I've met him yet, and from what the Assistants said, he's a fairly new missionary.  Look's like President is putting a lot of trust in me.  I hope I can live up to it.

 

I also finished Jesus the Christ this week.  That book is a beast to read but at the same time it's such a spiritual feast.  By the end, I almost couldn't put it down.  Elder Talmage's discourses are just so amazing and detailed.  I can't imagine ever knowing the scriptures the way he did.

 

I also ran into a couple mishaps this week, but don't worry, I'm fine now.  Just some bad luck.  When we were doing service at the Maldonado's I was breaking up some bad boards to put in their burn barrel (they burn their trash).  Well, one of the boards didn't seem to appreciate the fact very much and decided to perform a counter-offensive by having part of itself fly up and hit me on the side of my head.  It gave me a fair size lump and a pretty bad headache but not much past that.  The lump disappeared by the next morning and the headache lingered a little but it's mostly gone now.  The worst part wasn't getting hit, it was in Brother Maldonado's (good-natured) teasing that it looked like one of his chickens had laid an egg on my temple.  The other mishap happened at dinner last night.  We had a delicious rice dish which I ate too fast (just like my father) and caught the hiccups.  Brother Emanuele offered me some peanut butter and honey, a sure-fire cure to the hiccups.  The problem occured when I tried to swallow.  The peanut butter tried to go down and a hiccup tried to come up ... unfortunately the hiccup won the battle, which caused me to splutter and cough (peanut butter up the nose is not a pleasant sensation).  Thankfully, it did the job and the hiccups lost the war, just not quite in the way intended.

 

Other than that, I'm fine and dandy.  I hope all is well out there.

 

I love you all.

-Elder John Y. Roberts

 

PS:  I was wrong, Bro Bushman probably wouldn't know the Maldonados.  When they lived in Utah they had a home teacher by the name of Brent Bushman, not Brett Bushman.

 

PPS:  The purchase at RadioShack was rechargable batteries.  My batteries seemed to be dying so quickly (I honestly don't know why) so I thought that in the long run rechargable ones would cut my cost ... unfortunately, half the purchase became obsolete when the one flashlight I had that ran on AAA's fell out of my backpack one night and broke when it hit the driveway.  I try to keep track of money ... It just gets away from me sometimes ... I'm sorry.  Guess I'll just have to get a wife that manages finances like you mom.

 

PPPS:  Love you.

068

5 November 2012

Dear Homefront,

 

Well, this week hasn't been the most exciting, but it could've been worse.  The storm didn't cause too much damage so that took our ideas of providing lots of service, but I guess that's a blessing as well because it means that people in this area passed through it fairly unscathed.

 

This week, we had a couple good lessons with some of our investigators, Lee and Joey.  With Lee we were able to talk about the apostasy and the restoration as well as watch some of general conference.  With Joey, we had a great lesson about the plan of salvation.  I absolutly love teaching about the plan of salvation because everytime I do, I'm just blown away with how much love our Heavenly Father has for us in allowing the plan to work and the comfort of knowing that this life isn't just some cosmic accident; life didn't start at birth, nor will it end at death, but everything has a design and it works.

 

This week I led my second ever District Meeting.  It went actually really well.  The Zone Leaders were there (no pressure right?) and Elder Kohler gave a really good training on Finding.  I then trained on Unity.  There are some great scriptures on that topic.  I found them all by using the topical guide which is just an amazing resource.

 

After district meeting, Elder Carlson and I had an exchange with the Zone Leaders.  I went with Elder Kohler and Elder Carlson worked with Elder Case.  Since things are slow up here, we all went out and tracted a couple neighborhoods, so it was more of a blitz than an exchange, but it was good nonetheless.  We didn't see too much success, but we did get a return appointment for Tuesday at one house so we'll see how that goes.

 

Church was really good this week.  Roger, one of the recent converts in the area recieved the Aaronic Priesthood in Elders Quorum and then the lesson was on Home Teaching and Missionary work.  There were also some really great testimonies in Sacrament meeting this week.

 

Other than all of that, not too much has happened.  Thank you for the Halloween care package and the BYU marching band CD, it was nice. I hope all is going well for you and that you are staying safe and well.

 

With love,

-Elder John Y. Roberts

 

PS:  I do/did know Sister Shefcick, she was in my district when I was in Burkeville.  As for Elder Zajac, no, I have not had a chance.  He's serving in Norfolk which is on the far side of the mission from me.

 

PSS:  Absentee ballot arrived and has been submitted.

 

PSSS:  Next time you see him, could you ask Brother Bushman, if he remembers an Antonio (Tony) and Maria Maldonado?

 

PSSSS:  So ... I think I over-drafted my account again, but not by too much.  I had to get some more contacts and some other things for my eye's/health this past week and I didn't know when we'd be down by WalMart again so I took my chances.  It's hard for us to get down to Walmart because it's roughly 20 or so miles away and out of our area.  The only times we're in that area is when we're down at the church.  This shouldn't happen again though.  I've just had some larger purchases this past month so I was cutting close.  Sorry.

067

30 October 2012

Dear Homefront,

 

Well, out of the hurricane, all we got here in Goochland is rain.  No power outages to our knowledge and no real storm damage that we could see.  But we were still required to stay in our apartments all day yesterday which ended up being filled with naps, boredom, writing a couple letters, and a few rounds of RISK.

 

Last Tuesday we had Mission Conference which included all of the zones on the Richmond side of the mission (the Tidewater zones had theirs on Monday) and we had Elder Whiting of the Seventy speak to us about the Doctrine of Christ, which is summed up by the 4th article of faith:  "We believe ... Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost."  We can then add for ourselves the final statement of "Enduring to the End."  Elder Whiting also spoke about how Faith, Unity, Obedience, and Desire work together in not only missionary work, but in all facets of the Gospel.

 

This past Thursday was also our ward's and the Spanish branch's joint Trunk-or-Treat activity.  They also had a chili cook-off and a "pumkin" dessert cook-off.  Some of the dishes were very good and the vast array of costumes were delightful.

 

This Sunday was our Primary program as well.  It went rather well and the spirit was very strong.  It worked out perfectly because the Sisters had an investigator come to church this week and he absolutely loved the program.

 

Other than all that, this week has been pretty slow, and with the rain and the drop in temperature there's been fewer and fewer people out and about.  But we're trying and working hard.

 

Hope all is well with all of you.  Stay safe, and keep hope burning bright.

 

With love,

-Elder John Y. Roberts