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JULY 20, 2008 ... Today was Robert's address in Sacrament Meeting. Since it is the Sunday before Pioneer Day, he was asked to talk about "Heritage". He told stories from our national, religious, and family heritage - and the tremendous acts of faith contained in each. He asked the question: How can we honor the heritage left to us? He said that those who created the world we inherit built it in faith that we would carry on what they began; we honor our heritage and our ancestors by carrying on with the dreams and hopes and trials our ancestors set out to fulfill; by remaining faithful to the faith they showed in turning this heritage over to us to continue on. What are my thoughts as my son gets ready to leave? This song pretty well expresses them:
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JULY 22, 2008 ... Robert was set apart by a member of the stake presidency who was at one time our bishop and is a wonderfully kind man. He mentioned in the setting apart that we was dong so under the direction of President Thomas S. Monson, who is the president and prophet of our church, bringing home to me that even though he doesn't travel the world, individually setting apart each missionary, it is all still done under his direction.
Our beloved bishop cut his family vacation short to attend Robert's setting apart - he left Palmyra, New York on Sunday afternoon and arrived in Utah Tuesday afternoon, in time for this event. I may need to lecture him on speeding, but I'll save that for another day. |
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JULY 23, 2008 ... It is a rite of passage for a young man to finally enter the Missionary Training Center (MTC), and it is something of a rite of passage for the parents as well - they realize they've done something right in raising the boy that he is worthy and able and willing to serve the LORD as a missionary. Robert is older than the standard LDS missionary; he's entering the MTC at the ripe old age of 21, which hopefully means he is a few more years mature than the other boys.
Remember Whose Name Comes First
I often wonder who's showing more Faith at the doors of the MTC - the boy, who's got the faith to go and serve the LORD; the parents, who know him so very well and are letting him go anyway, or the LORD, who really knows the boy ... I think the LORD is the only one who really knows the boy's heart and desires - and potential! His wisdom is so much more than I will ever attain in this life. I am not allowing this to be a head trip for me; this is about him. He has kept himself worthy to serve the Lord, has had the desire to do so, and did something about it. I am more proud of him than he knows. |
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| JULY 26, 2008 ... We've received our first letter from Robert. He's been in lots of meetings and isn't sure how he'll remember where they are all held, he and his companion have a room built for four all to themselves (he says it's quieter at night), and No, he is not flirting with the Sister Missionaries. | ||
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AUGUST 4, 2008 ... Just as you're wondering if your son is truly catching the spirit of missionary work, you receive a poem or two from him:
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| AUGUST 9, 2008 ... "I am learning a lot... more than I thought possible" ... truly this is music to a father's ears! And if it's music to my years, that it has to be a whole symphony to Heavenly Father's ears. And speaking of music, Robert writes that he and his companion even willingly sang in a choir - Robert, who hates to sing, sang in a choir of about 200 people... "not that we could individually be heard, though." My reply was how Heavenly Father can hear us individually and is more interested in what our hearts are saying than in the quality of our voice. | ||
| AUGUST 28, 2008 ... We received our first letter for Robert since he flew to Michigan on the 13th. He and his companion are getting along good, they have two families they are teaching that he says are "golden", and they found a bat living in their apartment building, caught it, and released it in the woods. | ||
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SEPTEMBER 5, 2008 ...
We received a letter Robert wrote on August 31st. He thanked me for the
inspiration of sending him 2 Nephi 31:16, 20 to read; he said it "came in
useful." This is high praise from him. He says they have some
investigators who are "awesome" and will be baptized but probably after
transfers. He told me that, just as I had done in the first of my mission,
he is falling in love with the scriptures. He says that his mission
president's rule about missionaries and music is to stick with music that
doesn't drive away the Spirit, and then he asked me to send a CD of Saints
Unified Voices (known
to Robert as "Gladys Knight's Choir") So, yeah, he's gong to get a copy,
right along with Sister Knight's "Mercy's Arms" album. Yeah; I can do
that. Robert is one of those boys who can't talk without a liberal amount of "um", "ah", "like", and "you know" sprinkled throughout each sentence, so we got a kick out of the fact that he could admit to it by sending us Isaiah 28:11 and saying it was about him: "For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people." |
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SEPTEMBER
20, 2008 ... Robert wrote, telling me thank you for being such
a good Gospel teacher - "even when I looked bored," he said. That's the
way to a father's heart! They are teaching a woman who has realized she
can better her life and gave up tobacco and coffee even before being
taught the Word of Wisdom. They are teaching a single-mother family that
the mother had been a church member in her youth who now wants to return
and bring her children into the church. And, they are teaching a family
that has all the appearance of readying themselves for baptism. He sent a SHORT STORY WELL WORTH READING and the following poem and gave me permission to post both of them here:
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| OCTOBER 6, 2008 ... Received an email from Robert, expressing the thought that for the first time in his life he wished General Conference was longer. I think he's finally discovered the spirit of the meeting. | ||
| NOVEMBER 22, 2008 ... received a letter dated Nov. 16th, which included this statement: “Things are going as good as they can. I'm not really having much success at the moment in teaching or finding people to teach, but we are working on it. We just got two possibly three or four more people to teach and probably even baptize in the next few months.” I promise will be writing him and explaining the contradiction in this letter – to me having three or four people to teach and baptize (sounds like it is a likely thing) sounds more like success than not. Knowing how many people a missionary teaches just to find the few that commit themselves to the Lord through baptism, I will also be sending words of encouragement in regards to the teaching and testifying. | ||
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Christmas 2008 ...
Missionaries are allowed to call their family on Christmas, so we were
eager for his call. He sounded happy and (gasp!) mature. He sounded like
he knew he was about his father's business. He and his companion had been
invited to someone's house for Christmas morning, and this kind family has
presents and even stockings waiting for them. He and his companion had a baptism the week before - a single mother who had grown up in the church but had wandered away and was trying to find her way back. Robert takes no credit for this event as he transferred in and was only there to teach one lesson. (This father advised him that we shouldn't take credit anyway as it is the Holy Spirit who does all the converting.) A 'returned missionary' who had completed his missionary time flew in from California to perform the ordinance. |
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JANUARY 19, 2009 ... I
received the following from Robert: "my mission is almost a quarter of the
way done, and I am noticing that it's not much time... I'm running out of
it.... I couldn't come home even if I wanted to..." Notice he didn't say
he "wouldn't" come home; he said he "couldn't". It is exciting to know
that he has received such a vision of missionary work. He also said they have an investigator who has set a baptismal date, and says that's all the good news he has for me this week. that's acceptable! |
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FEBRUARY 2009 ...
Robert has a new companion who is "awesome," likes to cook, and more
importantly cooks well. He and his companion had to drop some investigators recently. "I am sure you can remember how not-happy that is like," Robert wrote, "especially when they seemed to be extremely promising." I replied:
He and his companion are teaching a woman who is very excited about the Gospel and about being baptized; "even more excited that we," he writes. |
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MARCH 2009 - Robert has
been the third person in a threesome. he was told by the mission president
that it was because the other two were not getting along; sort of the
peacekeeper/shepherd role. It is a momentous moment in a father's life
when one of their boys; so recently a teenager, is made a
peacekeeper/shepherd. Robert, however is not completely thrilled with the
role. A week after this news he writes and tells us that there's no
peacekeeping needed; everyone seems to be getting along. Perhaps just have
a third body there was the peace that was needed? Also, he was able to return to his former place to baptize a woman who has struggled with the Word of Wisdom and finally reached the point that she could be baptized. His official statement on how happy he was over this was: "Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy". |
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| APRIL 2009 - Robert is in an area where he and his companion are covering three branches (smaller congregations). Besides the teaching they do while proselyting, he is also teaching Sunday School classes. "I enjoy teaching in church," says the boy who never carried his scriptures to class himself... | ||
| MAY-JUNE 2009 - Robert is in a town that is a lakeside resort on one of the great lakes. The work is slow and they hate tracking (who doesn't?), so they are doing a lot of contacting less-active members and fellowshipping them. | ||
| JULY 2009 - after having great success in the town mentioned last month, where the real job was restoring the members' faith in missionaries, he was transferred to another place just as he was feeling the fruits of his labor there. This did not thrill him in the least and he had some pretty strong feelings. I wrote and told him to go ahead and be angry, throw your fit, express yourself, and then kneel and tell the Lord that he's thankful to serve Him and that he is still willing to follow Him. He pretty well did this before getting my advise, which made me feel good. |
