Stories from Ruth #14

This week we had an opportunity to visit the temple as a Christmas present! Since the temple is in the London South mission we don't get to go until the end of our missions. Wednesday we woke up early to catch the train. We even arrived at the station early, but the train was delayed. We panicked, but then discovered that the next train we had to catch was also delayed. However, when we were about ten minutes away from our station, our train stopped in the middle of the tracks for a few minutes, so we missed out second train. We got to the station and waited for the next train to another station which would take us to Lingfield. Well at this other station a sign told us that this was a train to Lingfield, so we got on. As soon as we got on the doors closed and we discovered that the sign Lord and that this train did not stop at Lingfield. We checked the route and decided to get off at the next stop which was South Croydon. Every train had to pass through the station, so we figured there should be one going to Lingfield. Every train did pass through the South Croydon station, however, none of them stopped there. Then we had to wait for another delayed train to East Croydon which had a train to Lingfield. Both the train to East Croydon and the train to Lingfield were delayed. The only train that wasn't delayed was the wrong train. We arrived at the London temple an hour late, but we made it in time for the session! Haha! South London is gorgeous! It is greener than North London and everything is lovely! I feel so very blessed that I had this opportunity to go while on my mission! 

This week has been crazy! We had to get everything set up for Michael's baptismal interview and we had to run all over Watford! Saturday we visited this lovely less active named Collette. She was very kind and receptive and was so very grateful we had come to visit her it made me feel happy. And last night we visited another less active family who's seven year old boy wants to be baptized. They were very kind and gave us lots of treats. The two younger boys are teaching me Portuguese. Sometimes I am good at words and other times I am much too tired. To prove how tired I am let me tell you two stories fro  last Tuesday. While we were at a resturaunt the waiter told me to enjoy my food and in a very cheery voice I responded "you too," before realizing what I was saying. The second conversation went like this:

Me: "Hello! This is the Sister Missionaries! How are you doing?

Other Person: "Good...(mumble mumble)... How are you?

Me: "Good. How are you?

OP: "You just said that"

Me: "I know. I am really tired."

This work is not easy. It is very hard. However, it is worth it. I am grateful that the Lord called me to come and do his work here in England. Any call to the work is a blessing of God. He is our loving Heavenly Father and wishes us to return unto him and receive salvation. Although to do so we must be purified. We must know and recognize our faults and our sins, those things which keep us from perfection and overcome them.

Christmas Card 2017

This Week at Our House # 50

1. It was a much quieter week. John spent some time looking for part time work locally. He may be able to pick up some classes at the local community college, but that won't be until fall. He also shaved his beard today. I think I am sad. I had gotten used to it, and I think I like him better bearded.
2. I spent a lot of time outdoors this week. On Tuesday, I took the kids on a little picnic to a local park. They played on the playground and we walked a trail through the woods. Thursday through Saturday I spent several hours pulling up turf and weeds and increasing my garden plot for spring planting. I am doing it all by hand. I have a large pitch fork and a couple of buckets. I fork up an area and then pull it by hand. I need to start watching videos and reading more about how to successfully grow things organically. I have been eating too much candy recently and decided that I better weigh myself to see the damage done. To my surprise, I was actually down another 8 pounds. I think it must be all the yard work. Surely, that alone will keep me going on the garden. 
3. Ruth loves her new companion and is learning some Portuguese. She is happy to be in a walking area and enjoying all the food. I am glad to know that she is getting enough exercise and plenty of delicious meals. I can't wait to speak to her on Christmas day. 
4. I made Kate spend some time outside with me. She read scriptures to me. Kate is reading and reading a lot to educate herself for her mission. She is on book 2 of the History of the Church by Joseph Smith. She plans to have all 7 read before her mission. She has also spent time reading in the Journal of Discourses. She is always sharing what she reads with the family and we have some great discussions. After Christmas, Kate will be talking with her Bishop about taking out her endowments.
5. Johnny has been bringing cookies to the neighbors with Books of Mormons and New Testaments. We are the first Mormons to live in this little town in recent history and the area is a good 40 miles from the bulk of our ward, so it is untouched by missionaries. Most people are accepting the books. 
6. Adam  got his glasses in the mail on Thursday and was very excited to be able to see again. Adam has taken up a serious passion for classical music. He plays it loud and as much as he is allowed to, which is frequent. He even looks up the scores online and follows along with the music. He has played the Messiah so much that several of the kids are starting to memorize Bible verses about the Savior. "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows" (Isaiah 53:4) is a verse I hear even Arwen singing.
7. Rachel has been enjoying the Christmas carols. She has gotten Anya to sit with her and our Christmas carol books to learn the songs. 
8. Anya is very happy that in our new ward, she gets to be in the same primary class as Joseph. She told me that they like to joke around.
9. I make Joseph work in the yard with me more than any other of the kids because he tends to spend the least amount of time hanging out with me in the house. He doesn't like to pull up the sod, but he does like to transplant trees, dig up the giant weeds, and he is good about carrying my bucket of weeds and grass to my mulch pile to dump it out.
10. Joshua has been building bionicles for all of his siblings for Christmas presents. I need to help him wrap them. He has done a really job. They are interesting and have all matching pieces. Which reminds me. Josh really likes wearing pajama bottoms (which is fine for homeschool kids). But he does not have matching tops because they are all hand me downs. One day he was digging through his clothes pile and found a shirt that matches his favorite pajama bottoms and excitedly showed me that he had found a match. I asked him if he liked his clothes to match and he said, "Yes, it makes sense." 
11. Arwen has been asking about what is real and what is pretend. She has asked about pigs, dinosaurs, unicorns, dragons, bears, and more. I think she needs a trip to the zoo.
12. When Susan was asked what she wanted for Christmas, she said, "Christmas! I want Christmas!"
13. Sam is just so cuddly. He is on top of me snuggling most of the time. 

Pictures

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.****