New President

My friends!

Last visit with President and Sister Clements

It was so weird to think that today is President Clements last day. We have a new mission president: President Forbes :)  I have been so excited for the new president to arrive. When we received his picture, I knew I would love him and Sister Forbes immediately :) This week has been wonderful, Sister C. has been really improving. We've talked about how to put more excitement and joy into our teaching and finding. She takes suggestions well. It can be a little discouraging for her at times when people reject us, but we are both working on being more positive despite setbacks.

So we ALMOST had a family come to church! They were on their way and they passed b,y but they got lost. So they turned back. We missed all three of their calls. AAGGH! My testimony has been strengthened about how we need to be more involved in getting people to church, for example, giving them a ride or having them drive us. Please pray for that wonderful family though- they are so golden! B (the mom) G and K.

It's almost the fourth of July! I'm so excited- this is going to be a really busy week!

I've been really studying the example of Christ lately and I feel like I don't have enough time to study! I just can't get enough! I hope everyone takes  advantage of being able to learn about the Savior! He is the best example in the world and when we don't set our standards to others but to Him, then we can make AMAZING things happen!

Beautiful Scenery

Tracting with a Sister from St. Cloud, MN

So I got to work with the Sisters in St Cloud this week! That was SUCH a tender mercy for me. The trainee  there is a lot more open and talkative and it was a blessing to get a quick break and not have to do all the teaching for a little while. Miracles happened! We ended up tracting quite a bit but turns out that's exactly what the Sister needed to get help with. I tell ya, the Lord directs this work in every aspect, especially when it comes to leaders helping those they serve. President has told us, and I think I might have said this, but revelation for other people comes way more quickly than revelation for ourselves. When I was studying for the sisters, scriptures came to my mind and I was able to help them at least a little :D I love being a missionary! 

Sunsets are beautiful here.

A miracle that happened this week is that we suddenly had a progressing investigator. K.P., who we met a few weeks ago, said she would come to church last week but we didn't see her so we thought she wasn't progressing. However, when we met her for our appointment this week she told us she had attended the ward in Pine City with her nephew! She wants to be baptized! YAY! She said she wouldn't be ready to be baptized until next summer, but we'll see what the Lord thinks. I'm so excited to meet the new mission president on Wednesday for new missionary training.

I love sunsets!

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!

Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Roberts

Tender Mercies E'ry Day

Hello Hello!

Oh my goodness. So I won't give you a journal account of my week- But this week has been so rough and yet so awesome! I can't believe how easy it is to forget the Lord's hand in this work. I've been constantly needing to remind myself that I'm not in charge, the Lord is. 

So I'll get out the negative stuff first, even though it's not really negative- it's instructive!

Being a trainer is hard because sometimes it feels like everything is on my shoulders- like on Friday we were out and about and there was NOTHING happening. all our appointments bailed, it was hot and sticky, people were super rude and NO one was listening to us. 

Needless to say, I was not a happy camper- and the worst part was that I kept fighting the feeling that it was all my fault! 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

THAT IS NOT RIGHT!!!

This guy is having a rough day.

SO let's get the good stuff out there. That same day we had dinner with a stellar family who's house was awesome and the food was great and I felt the spirit so strongly.

Yesterday we taught a man who had SO much pain in his life. Despite that pain I could see a change when we promised him the healing and peace that can come from the gospel and the covenant of baptism. After many times of trying to catch him, we finally met with a man who has not come to church in a long time. The Lord softened his heart to us and he's going to let us serve him soon! We were directed to a part-member family who let us in and were EXTREMELY receptive to hearing the message of the restoration. We met a wonderful woman who broke into tears after hearing us give her a simple compliment about her strong faith. At the end of the week, a lot of our numbers were better than I've seen them on my whole mission!

WHAT?!

So lesson learned:. There is a tender mercy in every day. There is a miracle around every corner and all we need to do to see it is to recognize them! Frustrations and concerns and weakness blur our vision and cut us off from God's love- and it feels so gross! 

I've been writing down a tender mercy in my planner every day- even if it's something small like someone giving us cookies or a nice breeze after a hot bike ride. I've also been writing down funny quotes of the day- because every day needs to be full of laughter too :)

I'd invite everybody to hone into those daily tender mercies the Lord gives us- as we do that we can better recognize his hand and feel His love even more frequently in our lives.

I love you all so much!! 

Hurrah for Israel!

ALSO! keep up the study of preach my gospel! that book is RIGHTEOUS!

Love,

Sister Roberts

I'm a Cambridge Gal!

With my awesome new companion, Sister C.

FAMILIA!

This week has been a little surreal. I love this new area and I love my new companion! She is very sweet but she came here as a pretty shy person. These last few days I've seen her reach out of her shell in ways that even she is surprised at! It has been a strange experience being the senior companion, I'm being stretched in many new ways. But as Sister C. grows it's nice to be able to rely on her- we're both learning to trust and lean on one another. It is so fun!

We are meeting our progressing investigator tonight for our first lesson with her. Her name is M. B. Her brother was recently baptized and is hesitant to receive the priesthood- which we are going to find the reason for tonight. Please pray for this area! We have very few people to see and we are definitely relying on the Lord in this place. The ward is amazing- the bishop has everything very organized. And luckily the elders in the ward used to be over this area, so we have a little help. And with the Lord's help ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE! WHOOT! We'll be just fine. More than that- we'll be seeing crazy miracles!

We have had several miracles this week that have been constantly reminding me that this is the Lord's work. One of my favorite's was on a night when I was getting pretty flustered, not knowing where we should go. We were looking for an address and asking people for directions. There were people on the other side of the street that I was hesitant to talk to, but my inspired companion urged us to go over. The first group of people weren't interested in talking to us, but the second lady ended up talking to us for an hour and committing to come to church! We weren't able to get a hold of her after that night, but it was a real tender mercy. 

Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Roberts

I Love Duluth!

 HOLY CROW!

At the beach on Lake Superior

This has been a shocking week. Monday we went to the beach as a district; it was so fun! We hunted for agates and I even found a few! Tuesday we went to mission leadership conference, it was so nice to see Sister H. there. After MLC, Sister S. and I finally had a heart-to-heart about what was bothering us about the transfer. These last few days have been amazing! I have grown to love Sister S. with all my heart; now I understand the importance of encouragement and love as well as determined obedience and humility. 

After all that great progress, I got a phone call this morning. The mission president is transfering me! I"M GOING TO CAMBRIDGE!!! I"M TRAINING!!!! I"M AN STL!!! I"M STL OVER ANOTHER TRAINEE AND I"M OPENING THE AREA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (yes, I'm screaming because I'm so excited)

Me and the Mission President's Wife

I am gonna die.

I am still so excited! This will be a truly clean slate, even though it might be a challenge. 

This week we've seen amazing miracles because of our increased love for each other and the people around us. (It's so sad that now that we've figured things out, we have to leave each other.) An investigator that we had helped move came to church and he enjoyed it! That was a really great surprise. 

We were driving over the bridge to Lake Superior and just laughing and talking when we both looked out at Lake Superior and we both had this awe moment. It was beautiful! We talked about how crazy our lives were- I never expected to live right next to the LAKE SUPERIOR! I have been so blessed to have stayed here for the month and a half that I have. Sister S. has done more for me and taught me more than I've been able to learn the first 6 months of my mission. This is such a surprise! I was certain

Just doing a little harvesting in the mission field!

I would be staying here but instead I'm packing bags!

I hope you all take the chance to appreciate the beautiful places you are in and to thank our Wonderful Heavenly Father for the people in your life that have changed you :) 

I love you all so much!

Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Roberts

Duluth in it's Spring Glory

Biking in the Rain

I have like zero time today because I need to go to the beach with our missionary district since it's district P-day.  After that we're heading up to MLC!  So sorry!

Riding on my Bike

We've been in a biking area since Wednesday because our car has been in the shop. We have had so much fun and have met so many interesting people. We are now converted to riding around when we're going short distances: there are so many people on the streets that we can't talk to when we're in the car. It has been fun (and exhausting) going up hills and through the rain! Our miracle this week is that we were given so much strength from the Lord and given so much support from the members.

Our most progressing investigator, K., went to church last week. However, in our last meeting, when we boldly gave her a date to be baptized on, she told us she doesn't want to be labeled under a specific church and that all Christians need to unite. We have run into this problem a lot. Many people do not understand that even though other churches contain truths of the gospel, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is Christ's true church which contains the fullness of the God's priesthood.

 

I love you guys so much!!!! Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Roberts