Elder Steven McRoberts Mission: 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!!!!!!!