Investigator update

President Clark is nearing the end of his term of service as the President of the Washington-Spokane Mission. He goes home at the end of June. He recently had a meeting with Elder L. Tom Perry, a member of the quorum of the Twelve Apostles, about the progress of the mission. The mission has had a goal of 90 baptisms in one month for some time now. It was met in March, just in time for Elder Perry's visit. Elder Perry now has issued the challenge of 100 baptisms in one month. Elder Robertson was excited about trying to meet this new goal. He has spoken of some new investigators, Chris and his wife Chrystal. He says that the two of them enjoy the lessons and compete with each other on who gets to read the scriptures aloud during the lesson. This brought out a laugh for Elder Robertson. He also spoke of Robert, a gentleman who recently moved to the area from Sudan, who seemed very receptive after his first lesson on the restoration of the gospel. They also have met another woman who has been a member of the church for most of her life, but for the past 30 years has been inactive. She was married to a man who held ill feelings toward the church and didn't allow her to attend. Now that she is separated from him, she has sought out the church again, and has been attending. Her daughter who isn't a member is also interested in the church and is now taking the lessons. Another man, named Paul, also heard the lesson on the restoration and was very excited about what he learned. Elder Robertson and his companion left him with the assignment to read all of chapter 10 of the book of Moroni and most specifically Moroni's promise issued in verse 4 of the same chapter . Paul completed this and then later in the week phoned them, and asked for more reading assignments. They directed him to read about the plan of salvation. Paul also attended church this week. So, in all, Elder Robertson believed the week to be "a pretty good week". It is great for all of us to know that the difficult times don't stay long, and with continued hard work, the gospel does move forward. He ended his weekly report with, "I love being a missionary and being in the Lord's work!"

The bike comes out....

The guideline for bike riding in the Washington-Spokane mission is to park it when there is snow or rain on the ground. Needless to say, the bike was just recently busted from its box and Elder Robertson has put on his helmet. The missionary experience isn't complete until you get on the bike. When he was younger I tried and tried to get him to wear a helmet. Now look at him. The only thing that comes to mind is....LOL!


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Boy....Missionary....Man

This photo was taken on the way home from the last BYU home football game of the '08 season, just a few weeks before Joshua left. As we were driving home, I noticed that it was rather quiet in the back seat so I turned to see why. This is what I saw, my three boys fast asleep after a long hard day of watching football. As you can see, the two younger ones are both leaning on Josh. Over their lives they will always look to Josh, and lean on him for help to know the way. I am so grateful that Josh has been a good example to his brothers by serving a mission. They will learn how to be obedient, courageous, humble, generous, and kind by following in his footsteps. Josh, Elder Robertson, has been gone just a little more than 4 months now. He has had some really tough times, but I am seeing him turn into man as he puts one foot in front of the other and he learns to lean on his older brother, the Savior. He has had to dig deep and find courage to press forward, and I have had to learn to step back and allow him to do it. We have all learned a lot from his missionary service. Not long after Elder Robertson first left and I was still feeling the sting of having my oldest child leave home, I jokingly said to Robert, "What if mom just doesn't let you go on a mission?" He looked at me with determination and said, "Well, I will be an adult and there will be nothing you can do to stop me." Thomas added in with a, "YEAH!" I would never really want to keep them from serving a mission, but it did bring a smile to my face that even at ages 7 and 9, Elder Robertson's brothers knew just what they would be doing at age 19, serving the Lord as a missionary. Thanks Josh, for being a great example, and someone to lean on.