All Good Fun

August 27, 2018

Here’s another one of me just because I think it’s funny. And forgot to answer one of your questions. Ethan is living here now but he is from Taiwan. They have people who they find come in and be taught by missionaries here so we get practice and they get lessons knowing that we might not do so well haha. 

Just gonna run you through my day too because it’s fun. 

So I woke up at 6:30. Got ready and went to breakfast. Had some oatmeal. 
Then went to the temple and did a session. I love it there! It was about ten and we got out. 
We then went and did laundry. 
After laundry had to run to my haircut. 
After haircut we got lunch. 
It was me, my companion, Elder Card, Elder Ginn ,Elder Ballard and Elder Windgrove. We are pretty much always together. 
After lunch me and my companion had to go change because of a musical number we did for incoming couple missionaries. 
After that we met up with everyone and did emails. 
Then we went to the field and played spike ball. 
Then back to our place to change and get clean. 
Now we’re back at laundry because some of the elders need to do more stuff. 
Then we will go to dinner. Monday nights they bring in some fast food. Hoping it’s Chick Fil a! 
We have class in about an hour from now and that will go until 9:15. 
Then we will go back to our place. Have zone qidao or prayer, and share experiences. Basically laugh a lot. And say goodbyes tonight. Which is sad. 
Then be in our rooms by about 9:45 where I do my personal study and write in my journal. 
Then I will say prayers and go to sleep.
 It’s all good fun!

Four year old soccer

August 27, 2018

Ok so just going to start off by saying sorry because this email is going to be a train wreck. I have kind of been all over the place today and really this whole week. I'll start by answering a few questions. So my companion Elder Chen is going to Scotland and Ireland with me! One of our roommates Elder Ginn is also coming so that’s cool. We are the only ones this year so far who have this mission call. Also pretty cool. From what we know in Scotland and Ireland they only have about 20 Elders that speak Chinese so we'll be a close group. 

My district has 8 Elders and 3 sisters and we are together in all of our classes. The rest of them are going to Taiwan, Cali, England, Australia, and Hawaii. So we are really covering a good amount of space. Our zone has Mandarin and Cantonese speaking missionaries. The Chinese missionaries come in every three weeks. 

This week most of our zone leaves and I'm very sad about it. I’m going to miss them soo much! Its weird because they seem older even though most of them are the same age or younger. We will get a new district this week on Wednesday so now I guess my district has to step up and be the "old" people.

 It's really interesting because at this point we pretty much have everything down. All the tricks and tips to this place. It's nice but also hard because you see people who get here after you and still leave to their areas before you. Although I feel like I could be here learning forever and still not know enough. You really can learn so much here its great! It is really hard work but it is so worth it! 

Ok so trying to think back to the big things that happened this week. On Tuesday we had the opportunity in our nighttime devotional to hear from Elder Christofferson! It was soooo cool! The second he walked in the room you could just feel the spirit. The apostles truly are called of God and set apart to do what they do. He said to pay close attention to General Conference coming up. I am so excited! We got a little sneak peak, which was nice. They seem to like to tell us missionaries’ lots of things that go on in the church. So quick invite, watch General Conference!!  

Another story. So we played zone soccer this week because a lot of the Elders are leaving and we wanted to do more things together. Haha. Even though we are with each other all the time. Anyway we played our zone against the only other Chinese zone. It was so much fun. It reminded me a bit of a movie. Our zone is smaller and just looked like we were going to get destroyed to say the least. However we definitely have the heart! So to try and picture this just think of like a four year olds soccer game. Everyone just crowds the ball and most people have no idea what they are doing. It made it very funny. I scored our first and only goal, which was nice, but sadly the other zone scored right before time was up. It was a great experience outside of just learning. 

This week like the past few has been alright with the Chinese. It is hard but I’m doing my best and know that He will be able to help me when I fall short. I memorized the First Vision this week. Let me just say without the Lords help I would not have been able to. When you translate English to Chinese it makes no sense. I think that’s why it’s so hard to learn, haha.  I have a greater understanding of why people who learn English talk the way they do. It's really funny too because my English is already terrible. So really sorry if this makes no sense. My brain tends to think of things in Chinese and I struggle to talk in English even more now. It's a constant thought to use Chinese and is very demanding on the brain. Yet all at the same time I catch myself doing it without thinking. It's weird and hard to describe. Feel like I know nothing still which is hard but makes me grateful I still have lots of time here. 

We taught our first real person this week!!! Before this week we were teaching our teachers and they would just pretend to know nothing. But now it’s the real deal. My companion and I taught a man named Ethan who is from Taiwan. He was awesome!!! Such a great example to me. My companion is very good with the language so he helps when I don’t understand. We just taught a simple lesson of how to pray. At the end we invited him to pray. To my surprise he said he would try!!! He was really shy at first until we got to talking about him. 

I’ve learned that it's far more important to show people that you really care about them over trying to just share what you think. People are way more willing to work with you when you can show them that you want to be a good part of their life. Anyway back to the prayer. He prayed for me and my companion, that we would do well on our trip and that our families would be blessed. This was the perfect example to me this week of getting outside of myself. This guy we had barely met had instantly turned outward and wanted things for us and not himself. I am so thankful for Ethan!  

Lastly I want to share something that was shared in church yesterday by an Elder who is leaving. He said, " 'I Am' are the two most important words in any language." I loved this!! It was a great reminder to me to look at things on the bright side. Don’t think "I’m not" or "I wont" or "I cant" but rather change those statements to "I am", "I will", and "I can"!! 

One more invitation. Remember that you are good enough and let others know that they are good enough too! I’m so thankful for this opportunity, I’m so thankful for all of you, I’m so thankful for my Heavenly Father and his plan for me, and I’m so thankful for my savior Jesus Christ and the chance I have to become who He needs me to be. Have a great week:)  I LOVE you all so much!!!!!!! 

This is another one of my awesome district!

These are some of the elders that  leave. It’s sad. They will be missed greatly

This is my class and my desk that I’m at at least 6 hours a day. Good fun. 

This is me right now. Just got my first haircut. It’s not like home haha

Here is the whole zone! We’re branch #1 so obviously the best 

Definitely NOT Starving

August 20, 2018

Ni Hao!!! Ok so week two down which is pretty crazy to say. It was a really good week, again a lot of ups and downs but it is so worth it! I am so blessed. I got to go to the temple this morning and that was great! I love it there. Can always find answers and peace, which are both definitely needed. Its weird walking there because it’s the only time that we are out of the MTC. It's nice.

The days here are long. We wake up and have to race for the shower because it gets crowded fast, so my room started to wake up a little early. The rest of our morning consists of studying and eating food. I’m definitely not starving. One day this week for breakfast I had eggs, ham, hash browns, a bowl of fruit, a bowl of cereal, some yogurt and oatmeal. I know most of you wont believe that but its true! My companion can confirm it. Haha it’s so bad we eat so much at every meal. For some reason I’m still not gaining weight. We do work out but not enough. It’s safe to say that Elder Chen and I are the champs at spike ball. We do that a lot for part of our exercise time everyday.

Getting to study so much is really nice! I have seen myself change already so much. I’ve been trying to focus a lot on Charity. It’s going to be a life long journey to be where I want to be. I love love love my district and my zone! I really can’t say it enough. Its weird too, I have tons of famous people who I’m with for like 8 hours everyday. One of my roommates Elder Card is related to the Prophet. Elder Card is like the Canadian version of me! Or at least I like to think so. I love him! He saves me everyday, we think the same and get along very well. In my district I also have Elder Ballard who is Elder Ballard's grandson and Sister Holland who is Elder Holland’s granddaughter. I’m surrounded by all of these giants! It’s pretty weird. They are all very good people. My companion is also great! He is very patient and helpful. We definitely lucked out as a companionship!

The rest of my zone has been here 8 weeks now so they all leave soon. It makes me sad. They are all so funny and seem way older even though they aren't. Makes me wonder how we will be in a few weeks.

The Chinese is interesting to say the least. I have already learned way more than I learned in all of school and yet I still feel like I know nothing. It’s kind of hard. Luckily I have great teachers. They balance each other out very well. My first one is more chill and my night teacher is a little bit more strict I guess you could say. They both are really good at inviting the spirit still, which I’m extremely thankful for. I’m working on memorizing the first vision in Chinese. Its fun because in English when you translate it, it makes no sense. That’s how most of Chinese is. The grammar is way different. On our tags we have SYL stickers now which means that we get to speak our mission language all the time! It's great;) On a real note as hard as it is I am actually grateful for it. It is making me very very humble.

This week I have realized how much having faith and being obedient to the Lord is key. When you truly give your all to the Lord he will bless you more than you know. I’m so blessed.

We were able to start teaching this week. That was a great experience! It was only to our teachers but in Chinese so still a bit of pressure. When you testify of the truthfulness of this gospel the spirit can always be felt! That is another important lesson that I learned this week.

I would like to extend another invitation to all of you, find a way to make other people smile:)!! Smiling makes everything better. Even when things get rough all you have to do is decided to look at the situation in another way. And smile! I’m so thankful for all of you! Keep you in my prayers daily! This is the Lords work! And I’m so thankful to have the opportunity to come and try to contribute to it! I love you all:) have a great week!

Elder McRoberts

A Grind

August 13, 2018

Hello everyone, 

Ok so my first week as a missionary. It was pretty crazy. I have learned a ton in such a short amount of time and yet still have so much more to do. I am always busy here at the MTC, which I guess is nice. Keeps me focused and makes the time kind of blend together. So it's been a blur but I will do my best to get out as much as I can from the week. 

Wednesday was when I arrived. I walked up from the parking garage and pretty much walked through every building picking things up. My tag and my MTC card are the most useful things that I picked up. My card lets me buy things and get into places. So after walking around a lot I dropped off my stuff in my residence hall. It is right in the middle so that is really nice. We are on the top floor, four stories up so that’s good fun too. 

I met my companion after I dropped off my stuff. His name is Elder Chen. He is awesome! He is way smarter than me and pretty much better at everything. It makes me work hard which is nice. He is super patient and helpful with everything. 

The rest of the first day was just lots of introduction meetings that let you know that you will be taken care of here at the MTC. We had dinner a bit late. It’s always all you can eat. Which is really really good and bad all at the same time. My companion and I seem to always eat too much at every single meal haha. The first night was good. We went back to our residence hall at around 9:30 and met the rest of our roommates and zone. The other roommates are elder Ginn and Elder Card. They are also awesome! Everyone here is awesome. My companion is from Utah, elder Ginn is from Texas and elder Card is from Canada. We have had a good time! Every night we say a zone qi dao or prayer. Can’t do tons on this thing. Anyway it is amazing. The first night was a shock because all of these elders in my zone speak Chinese! They have only been here a few weeks so that gives me comfort. They are all very funny and uplifting, which is nice. 

Thursday, Friday and Saturday all seemed to blend together for me. It is the same schedule most days of the week. Sunday and Mondays are the different days.  We wake up at 6:30 and have an hour of workout time. The gym here is super nice. I am very blessed. Then we go get ready. All the elders on our floor share a bathroom so that is super fun as you can imagine. After were done getting ready we go to breakfast. Then we are allowed to go anywhere to study. The MTC is super nice. Tons of things to look at and it is always peaceful. We have an hour of personal study and then another hour of companion study. After that we have an hour of language study outside of the class. Then we go to lunch. The food here is always different and you can always find something you like. Which is nice. After lunch we go to class for a good 6 hours. It is a grind.

 I have four teachers and they are all amazing! We focus a lot on our purpose as missionaries. They can bring the spirit into any lesson so quickly. It’s very helpful. We do a lot of language in class as you can imagine. The Chinese is hard but I have been reassured that it will come. 

This week has been a great lesson of obedience for me. Exact obedience brings blessings. I know that that is true. I know that the Saviors atonement is real and can help us through any situation. His grace is sufficient. After class we do dinner and then have some time in the evenings either to teach people or do more studying. Might seem like we have lots of free time but as a missionary we always seem to find a way to be doing something. 

Sundays are the different days. We have church as a zone, which is really cool. We are the Chinese zone. Think we have around 30 elders and sisters total. Church is the best part of the week. Even though I didn't understand all of what was said because it was in Chinese, I could feel the spirit. I have tried to focus less on specific things and more on the feelings that I receive in the moment. The spirit really is the best teacher. Sunday after our meetings we have a devotional. My zone sets up chairs for it as our service. We got the best service because we are here the longest. Nine weeks!!! It’s a blast. They show a "movie" on Sunday nights. They are just talks or church videos but it’s the closest thing we get so that is pretty fun. The one we watched last night is called the Character of Christ, I would like to invite you all to watch it. Changed my perspective of a lot of things.

 Anyway sorry for the rambling and for not being very organized. Still getting the hang of all this stuff. This Church is true and we are all sons and daughters of a loving Heavenly Father. Jesus Christ is our savior and the way we can fulfill our purpose is through following his perfect example. 

I LOVE YOU ALL, have a fantastic week.

Elder McRoberts