Stories From Ruth #13

It snowed! Sunday morning we woke up to a member asking us if we had church. We said we thought so and then he told us to look outside. Everything was white. Long story short, church got cancelled because it was going to snow all day and British people do not know how to cope with it. My companion immediately dragged us outside to find and make snowballs. Her reasoning was that the elders were going to do something. Sure enough we heard snowballs hitting a door. Our door. So we got them good!

 

Everyone here speaks Portuguese and my companion and I help each other out! I can say the Book of Mormon is true in Portuguese! Haha! We moved to an area with the zoneleaders and they are pretty funny. There is Elder Barfus from canada, and Elder Williams from Australia. Sunday after the snowball fight we built the tallest snowman I have ever made in my life. While lifting up the body of the snowman Elder Williams crouched down. A ripping sound occurred and then my companion who was right behind him making the head looked away and bust out laughing. There was apparently like a five in gash in his trousers. It was pretty funny. We couldn't stop laughing. Elder Williams just tied his scarf around his waist like a skirt.

Well as you all know, last Tuesdays was transfers and I have a new companion: Sister Nunes from Portugal! Yes my mission President loves to move people around a lot in this mission. And now I am in a walking area. Yeah! I am just glad it is not a busing area. There are no more car areas for the sisters since a British sister crashed the only car. So we have an option of busing, biking, or walking.

I love the ward from what I have met of it so far out here! They are huge into missionary work and

are really good at sharing the gospel! We are teaching a few people and they are great! I love them! 

Lots of crazy things have happened so far. On my first real day out here we were talking to a woman and in the middle of her sentence she just said rat. Sister Nunes and I were quite confused until we were directed to turn around. To our horror there was a rat stealing some trash. It then scrambled away under a car. Also I feel as if I have been placed in a Portuguese immersion program! I am also eating a lot of foreign food which I love! Two nights in a row I have heard things like "look out for bones" and "be careful of the spines!" It is so good though! One meal was from a woman from Africa and it was some rice with lamb and lots of spices! The first night we had dinner with this less active portuguese family and she made us this traditional Cod and potato meal! Oh it was so good! I love it out here! I think I am going to move to Portugal solely to eat. My only thought was that I am not in Cambridge anymore. Haha. Scary. 

The scripture for this week is Matthew 5:48 "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." This is a commandment. The commandment is not to be your best. It is to be perfect. The only way to be perfect though is through repentance, making covenants with God and keeping them, and the atonement of Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ did not atone for us, we could not repent. If we could not repent our change would be pointless, but because of these things we are commanded to repent and to change. Why? Because it is possible. God gives not commandment that even the least of saints cannot do. Even the word of wisdom. Joseph Smith said that daily repentance and daily transgression is not pleasing in the eyes of God. We all need to battle daily that we overcome th natural man and sin no more. We can all get to a point where we do not sin everyday. Yes everyone does need to repent, but that does not mean we do not change and repent and commit that sin no more. When we have truly repented of a sin we surrender ourselves fully and desire the sin no more. If we desire it no more, we will do it no more. If we truly understand the doctrine and have truly repented we will be like the sons of Mosiah who in Mosiah 28:3 could not bear that any human soul should perish. Therefore they went and they taught their brothers and sisters because they could not stand that any man should sin, especially I am sure, the same sins they committed. If we have truly repented and felt the atonement in our lives and that joy we will wish others to have it as well. We will develop Faith enough to cast off fear and help us to teach our brothers and sisters the gift of repentance. Eventually we must become like God if we are to live with him again. We cannot become perfect commit the same sin again and be cast out of heaven. We must repent and be changed. Never committing that sin again and this is how we can become perfect. As D&C 93 says, growing from grace to grace until we have overcome all things.

Kate's Poem for Our Kittens

Cotton the kitten was out in the rain

passing bravely down the lane

there was a dog standing at the door

cotton the kitten is no more

Ella was sent out for a brake

with no thought of fear for her sake

Ella was sweet but not very strong

Then came her hunter and now she is gone 

Some Christmastime Musings

Christmas 2013

We have cut back on so much since we left Utah because that is what John wants for our family. He wants most of life to be just us together at home. But this year will be the single most isolated Christmas of my life.

Back in Utah we had several family get togethers and parties, we had school programs, music programs, a visit to Temple square with donuts with or without other families. We went to the mall to see the decorations and sometimes we would visit Santa Claus. We had wards parties, obligations toward the families we home visit taught, relief society parties, young men and young women parties. Then of course we had the usual Christmas baking and shopping and sending cookies to neighbors.

Christmas while fun, could be overwhelming and stressful. I am not one to stress, but I did try and make the season magical by doing a lot.

This year, we will have one family get together with my family. It's a 4.5 hour drive and we will go there and come back in one day. So most of that time will be spent driving. We homeschool and do it alone so there is no school anything. We do not have a ward right now because of weird boundaries, so we will have no ward party or relief society party or anything with the young men. All music lessons are done by me, so there are no concerts or recitals. We don't have Temple square lights to go and look at anymore, so there is no Temple square with donuts. We are poor, so we will skip all trips to the mall and Santa visits. Everything, except the one day trip to my parent's will be us at home and it is not at all stressful. We don't even have gifts to give to families in the church because we are not home and visiting teachers.

I did enjoy all the Robertson family parties and music concerts of days past. But not really all the church parties and obligations. I could not say which way I like better. Complete isolation or something to do 4 nights a week everyday from Dec 1st until the New Year.

I used to muse over the isolation of the Little House on the Prairie family. I think we have achieved close to that. If we had no electricity, internet or tv, I think we would be there and it is peaceful and not at all stressful just  like I imagined.

Stories From Ruth #12

We got transfer calls last night and guess what? I'm moving to Watford. I am literally the only one in my district being transferred out. Which is really odd. This week has been hectic. I have literally no idea what to say about this week. It is literally all just a blur.

Well this week I read a discourse by Joh Taylor where he said: "But if we could all the time see, and realize, and understand our true position before God, our minds would be continually on the stretch after the things of God, and we should be seeking to know all the day long what we could do to promote the happiness and salvation of the world; what we could do to honor our calling—to honor the Priesthood of the Son of God, and what to do to honor our God, and to improve the remaining time we have upon the earth, and the energies of our bodies, for the accomplishment of His purposes, for the rolling forth of His kingdom, for the advancement of His designs, that when we stand before Him He may say to us—“Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord; thou has been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things.”
Ponder on that!

Sister Robertson

**** I sent Ruth that talk from John Taylor. Glad to know she reads what I send to her. You can read it here.****

This Week at Our House #49: A Very Sad Week

This is from the fateful walk that brought the evil dog to our doorstep

A dog followed us home from our walk and wouldn't leave. We let it stay while we tried to contact the owner. Over night it killed one of our kittens. John kicked it off our property. When it got dark, we heard a bark and ran outside and the dog was back. We looked for our other little kitten and she was bitten and dying on our doorstep. That dog waited until dark and came back to kill our other kitten. The kids were devastated and all crying. It was so sad. We are still sad and I think we will be for some time. But this is life. Animals kill each other. The dog has not come back and the owner never returned our texts or phone calls. We have one cat left. It is an orange kitten that we got  before we moved. He is bigger and faster and seems to have survived the dog. We have kept him mostly inside since the kittens were killed. With the rain, he does not mind, but I think once the sun comes back out, he will want to be outside hunting and enjoying the outdoors.

1. John buried the kittens and had us all come out to pray over them. We have had cats die and disappear before, but this time it was more close to home where we knew exactly what killed them. John rented the new Spiderman movie for us last night. We have Vidangel, so we were able to get it edited. We barely watch anything that isn't edited and haven't for years. But it was nice to have something make us laugh.
2. The week has been a blur for me. I ran errands on Monday, and after that the clouds came and it started to rain. It has been dark, and cloudy, and rainy the whole week. It's been so dark that without meaning to, the kids have slept in until 10am many days this week. Tuesday was the only day I could spend in my garden. I am anxious to get more done.
3. Ruth got transferred to Watford, England. She is now inside the big traffic circle in London. I look forward to hearing from her and how her new area is.
4. Kate cried and cried when the second kitten died. She also took care of all the girls who were terrified the night after the second kitten was killed. 
5. Johnny has been taking care and helping out and carefully watching over our last cat.
6. Adam's glasses broke, and then right around the time the second kitten was attacked, Adam lost his lens and has not been able to find it. I ordered a new pair online. It will be a couple of weeks before they get here, so he will be blind for a while. It also means that he cannot do his reading. 
7. Rachel, poor Rachel, could not bare to look at the dead kittens. These kittens were particular friends of the kids too. Unlike most kittens, these ones loved to be held and played with and always wanted attention.
8. Anya was terrified the night after the kittens were killed. She couldn't sleep and was scared to walk anywhere in the house. John read some words of Joseph Smith that said to take it to Jesus. That calmed Anya a lot.
9. Joseph has been very good all week. He has done everything he was told to do with exactness. He is a good boy and more conscientious than I realized. I am having him memorize the scriptures about the first vision. It's hard to memorize, but he is dong very well.
10. Joshua needs to talk about things. He talked and cried and talked and cried and talked some more about the dog and the kittens. I don't think Josh will like dogs ever in his life. It's hard to have your innocent pets killed.
11. Arwen our little dear, was the child who got to name the black and white kitten. She named her Ella and loved her and carried her around everywhere. When we get new kittens, Arwen will get to name one.
12. Before the cats were killed, I wrote down some of the funny things Susan had been saying. Seeing a picture of herself from a year ago she said, "That's my Susan. She's so cute and little!"
    While grocery shopping every time she saw a man Susan pointed to him and said, "That's a bad guy. He is bad. He is scary."
    Susan got out of the car in the parking lot in the dark, grabbed Kate's hand tightly and said, "Hold my hand. It's dangerous. It's scary. It's cars, Kate." Immediately after, she let go and started skipping and counted to 12.
    Running back to the van Susan said, "It's the car. It's the car, Kate," and then started petting it like a cat."
    Susan grabbed the directions from the card game, Rook, sat on John's lap and said, "Look dad, it's scriptures!" Then she pretended to read, "Jesus Christ, Heavenly Father, a duck."
    After the kittens were killed, Suzy talked about bad dogs who hurt. Every now and then, she will say, "Ella is dead. Dogs are bad."
13. Little Sam was untouched by the tragedy of the week. I am glad for his sake. He loves food and everything to do with food. He loves to eat and he loves to play with the dishes and silverware. He is often found with a bowl and spoon pretending to stir and cook.

Pictures

This Week at Our House #48

1. John and I went to the temple on Tuesday. It was really nice to be back there after our move. It's a longer drive now, but will be a much longer drive in January because the Raleigh Temple is closing and we will have to go to South Carolina. We are hoping they will have it set up so a once a month trip can accommodate our whole family.
2. I left the Temple wondering how we were going to pay our bills or do much of anything for Christmas. The next couple of days, family and friends, some anonymous, graciously took care of those worries.
3.  Ruth wrote on Monday. Apparently she has to bike an hour before she gets wifi. She was fed a large and delicious Thanksgiving dinner.
4. All of the kids love to play with Kate. She is a ring leader and a kind and friendly one at that.
5. Johnny spent a lot of time on math and computer programming, even though he is on vacation.
6. Adam asked permission to rake leaves. He spent two days doing so and piling them all up to jump in. 
7. Rachel told me how that now that she understands dates and pays attention to the months and days waiting for Christmas is hard.
8. Anya is very reliable. I can always count on her to take good care of Sam when I am busy or pick things up when there is a big mess. I am a little surprised, because when she was 4, Anya told me that she would never do housework.
9. I had Joseph help me dig in the garden a lot. He doesn't love it, but he does a good job and is fun to be around. He jokes the whole time.
10. We decorated for Christmas on Friday. While I was running between the garage and the house to get some decorations, Josh met me outside and said, "Let's go to Christmastopia! It's in our house." That night I made a quick decision to put one piece of candy in all the stockings each day until Christmas rather than any sort of advent calendar. It took the kids several hours the next day before someone played with the stockings and found that there was a piece of candy in them. At first, they thought it was there from last Christmas, but when it was in every stocking, they knew. But Josh was not around for that. To be sure, that Josh got his candy, I told him to check his stocking. Later, Josh came out to me in my garden plot. I asked him if he got his candy. He said he did. I then asked him who put it there. He paused for a moment and simply said, "That was the worst Christmas!" Joseph and I immediately laughed. Apparently Josh thought decorating was Christmas Eve and that one piece of candy was his Christmas present. 
11. Arwen is beginning to read and doing such a good job. If she doesn't know a word, she just sounds it out and can get it easily from that. I think she likes to read too.
12. Suzy has been cutting her hair. Parts of the top of her head were shorn to the scalp. I probably made a big mistake, but I cut off her adorable long curls to even things out. I am just heart broken. It took her nearly 3 and a half years to have a descent amount of hair and it was so pretty and curly. Now she is back to what she had a 2, only a little thicker. 
13. Sam loves to eat and eat and eat! Spaghetti is his favorite. As soon as he smells the sauce he is just crazy and anxious to eat it.

Pictures

There is a large round spot of beautiful soft sand in our back yard where the former owners had an above ground pool. This pile of sand has given my kids hours of entertainment.

We got this giraffe years ago at DI for about a dollar. Sam loves it!!! He is always holding it and snuggling it.

and biting it

Stories From Ruth #11

It gets dark at four in England! When kids get out of school it is dark! No wonder children don't go play outside here. They come out and it's pitch black. 

Well things have been crazy. We have had appointments every day which is great, but it means we've been biking at least an hour every day. I have never been more fit in my life! Well this week has been interesting. We went up to Haverhill and on the way met up with our investigator Jodie! She is super sweet! Her phone had broken so we hadn't had contact with her, but we were able to set up an appointment. Also while we didn't have contact with her, she read and took notes on the chapters we gave her!

In Haverhill we met up with the Johnson and Stokes families! They were amazing! Brother stokes showed us how to get to every less active there! On the way to visiting less active I started talking to a woman who just ended up being one! She had moved and she liked the Church, but her son doesn't, and always tells them that they have the wrong address. It was pretty cool since she is open and the members have been trying to see her for a while. 

Last transfer I met this less active from Portugal with Sister Cook on the street, and I felt like I should ask him if we should meet. He was excited to meet and we set up an appointment for Friday. Friday comes around and we meet up with him. However it wasn't him. Turns out he had given us his friends number and his friend wanted to meet with us and learn about the gospel, so he just went along with it. Haha! I thought it was one of the funniest and weirdest things that has happened on my mission. 

We are teaching a miracle! Sister Murakane went out late at night and kept praying where to go. We both felt like we were going to meet someone, but didn't know who. At one point I felt like we needed to knock on every door of a flat complex. As we entered it we both knew immediately that this was a fourth floor last door thing. After we had knocked on every door and no one was interested we walked out. Sister Murakane had a distinct impression to go left and we did. Immediately there was this guy and we talked to him. He was excited to meet missionaries, but he speaks very little English. It is really hard to teach him, but he is reading a lot of the Book of Mormon! 

This week I have learned a lot about humility and my lack of it. I listened to this talk by President Benson called

"The Great Commandment - Love the Lord." It said that charity is loving God first.  It says:

"The great task of life is to learn the will of the Lord and then do it.

 The great commandment of life is to love the Lord...

It is the pure love of Christ, called charity, that the Book of Mormon testifies is the greatest of all—that never faileth, that endureth forever, that all men should have, and that without which they are nothing (see Moro. 7:44–47; 2 Ne. 26:30)" Also I feel like I should share: 

"3 Nephi 11:3 And it came to pass that while they were thus conversing one with another, they heard a voice as if it came out of heaven; and they cast their eyes round about, for they understood not the voice which they heard; and it was not a harsh voice, neither was it a loud voice; nevertheless, and notwithstanding it being a small voice it did pierce them that did hear to the center, insomuch that there was no part of their frame that it did not cause to quake; yea, it did pierce them to the very soul, and did cause their hearts to burn.

4 And it came to pass that again they heard the voice, and they understood it not.

5 And again the third time they did hear the voice, and did open their ears to hear it; and their eyes were towards the sound thereof; and they did look steadfastly towards heaven, from whence the sound came.

6 And behold, the third time they did understand the voice which they heard; and it said unto them:

7 Behold my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have glorified my name—hear ye him."

We need to be worthy to hear the voice of the Lord, put ourselves in a position to hear it, and then to listen. I love this scripture because they had to have their eye single towards heaven and looking steadfastly. They had to be intently searching and pondering. We have to as well. Whenever we feel the spirit, we cannot be satisfied, but have to diligently strive to understand what God is teaching us.