Putting Things in Perspective

Rob seems to be doing lots better this week. Thanks to all who wrote him and/or remembered him in your prayers. His notes continue to amaze us. Here are his email messages from this morning: "Hey! Things are going well! Still struggling with a few things but I'm working on focusing on the things that are uplifting and making me happy. We have an investigator that has come to church for the past four Sundays, and she said that she is going to just keep coming. Only problem is she lives with her boyfriend, so she cannot progress any further until she either marries him or moves out. No further information about transfers so far, although EVERYONE in the zone is saying "If you don't get transferred I'm gonna be very surprised." Haha. Everyone thinks I'm going to be leaving, which is probably accurate considering I've been here longer than anyone in the mission. I'll let you know what happens with transfers next week. Wish me luck! The Christmas traditions here are way similar to back home. You should see Bridgetown at night! It is the coolest thing! So amazing-looking with all the lights up. I keep forgetting to take a picture when I'm down there at night. Next time I will though. Everyone's house is lit up and getting ready for the Christmas season. We didn't get to see the Christmas devotional just because it started at 9pm here, so the district is going to watch it this upcoming weekend. Sounds like it was a good one, though. haha. Ya, it's funny because Elder Sandbakken is always like, "It's so weird to think it's December right now!" [Elder S. is from Utah.] I'm like, "Nah man, this is normal for me." Lol. The weather is a bit more humid but I'm starting to get used to it and it feels just like home now. I'm probably going to shrivel up when I get home, from the dryness. Thank you for the fast. Much needed. I continue to pray for you guys every night as well. The mission really puts a lot of things in perspective, ya know? Like how important family is and how more than ever we need to stick together in one purpose. I don't know where it comes from. lol. Probably learning every day about eternal families finally hit home for me. But I'm grateful to be part of this one and to be uplifted by so much positivity by you guys. It honestly gets me through each and every day. Thanks for never giving up on me, when you easily could have. Thanks for everything. I really mean it. I hope being on a mission can bring blessing back to you so that I can at least repay you in some way for all the things you did/do/will do for me. That letter you sent me was spectacular, by the way! The one that talked about God clothing us in our times of need with the Spirit. Really uplifting. Thank you for that. It is so true, too. It ties back into what you were saying about Elder Bednar's talk. Like it seems so simple, but the more you think about it the more it gives you reason to keep pushing and striving to pay back the ultimate favor that He did for all of us - the Atonement. I don't think anyone will ever get to comprehend all that the Savior did for us that day, but gosh darnit, I've come a lot closer to getting it here than I ever had. It's so gnarly to think of that kind of sacrifice and how God's perfect plan was in effect and the mercy and grace we receive through all of that. Pretty awesome stuff. Hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season! Miss you guys and can't wait to come back home and share all these crazy experiences with you. O, Barbados! Anyways, merry Christmas."

Rob and his companion, with investigator.

Delivering Christmas gifts at the children's Cancer Society "ting."

Hangin' Tough

Rob had another tough week, but is committed to moving forward. He answered a couple of questions about what he might need for Christmas, and vented a little, but also sent this fun picture to his sister:

Must be hard finding your name on a Coke bottle in Barbados if you are not from around there. Here are a few of Rob's notes from today: "This week has been pretty rough. Sorry for another "Debbie Downer" letter, just know that your son is out here standing up for what he believes is the right thing. I've already decided that nothing will keep me from trying, and progressing the work. As long as I am praying and receive an answer that what I'm doing is good, I'm going to keep at it. I just saw one of the videos from Christmas.mormon.org. REALLY good. It is nice to have those because we get little cards with that site on it letting us more effectively share the message in a somewhat new approach. Thanks for the support. I miss you guys a lot and I hope you guys are enjoying the Christmas festivities over there! Keep fighting the good fight :) One love. Haha!"

This is a picture Jana sent to Rob. It requires an explanation. Every year, one of Rob's favorite holiday traditions is hiding a piece of candy inside this moon box ornament. The idea is that when he opens it the next year, he wants to see how gross it has become. So of course, we opened it for him and wanted to send him our grossed-out response. Jana chronicled the event. When he received the photo, Rob was delighted to see the tradition continue and said the picture made his day. It must be pretty bad there, if a crusty, moldy piece of candy and two disgusted parents can make his day. The question now is: shall we leave the candy in there another two years? Ugh!

One Love Jah Bless, Mon

With Thanksgiving this week, we are especially grateful for Rob, the work he is doing, and the fact that he seems to be faring better. Great emails from him today, with some fun updates and stories. Here are his notes: "Man oh man, Barbados is HOT. haha No surprise there, though. haha Things are ok. We had 4 people come to church on Sunday, which is the most I've ever gotten to go, which was really cool. 3 of them were a family (the mom and her 2 kids). Her husband couldn't make it, but he had a drinking problem that he's still kind of going through and has been raised Hindu. She said if we can get him on board and help change his life that she'll get the whole family baptized, so we're working on that. We try to get him involved in the lessons but he normally just sits there, and when we ask him questions he just responds "I'm a good listener." haha It's ok though, because we can get him to laugh and have a good time. Even if he isn't learning anything or accepting anything he's still having a good time. I'm trying to figure out a way to help him. Also, Tonya came to church again. She's really cool and REALLY smart which is refreshing out here. lol Sounds bad, but people here are very uneducated. But her main concern is the same as Angela's (the mom with kids,) that is, that she wants her boyfriend to be a part of it and she wants to start obeying the law of chastity with him, so were getting him involved. He actually read 7 chapters in 1 Nephi and explained them all and stuff. I had to take a step back and be like uhhhhh where do we go from here? haha (Doesnt happen EVER.) He's very smart and sarcastic so we get along ok, but I don't exactly know how to be like... "Hey, you 2 need to just get married." lol But we'll figure it out. Anyway, that's been my week. Thought I'd fill you in on what's going on over here as far as my work goes. Transfers are going to be in about 3 weeks or so. Still no word on where I'm going but we'll see. lol ummmm Thanksgiving I'm pretty sure isn't going to be anything special for us, unfortunately. Jillean said she was gonna make us dinner but we haven't heard from her in awhile. Last time I talked to her she told me the reason she backed out of the baptism was because of all the rules that she had to hop though in order to get baptized (beach, people, etc.). So that was a little disappointing. I know she'll one day get baptized, just probably not while I'm here. :P But right now is Barbado's 49th anniversary of independence, which is pretty cool! Lots of Bajan flags hanging all over the place and Bridgetown is lit up in all blue and gold. It's really beautiful! haha Super funny though, they are already celebrating the 50th year. Like, they have a bunch of pins and flyers and stuff for the 50th year, so I asked someone once, I was like, "Isn't it the 49th year? You guys just couldn't wait or what?" haha And basically that was the answer. lol They said, "Well, it's so you'll have 'em for next year!" lol -__- Bajans. Man, I'll tell ya, crazy people, gotta love 'em. Food here is good. We live right next to this place called Skymall. It's like the nicest mall in the whole island, so I can't complain. lol Ya, Ziggy is super rad! [Ziggy sometimes posts pictures on the mission Facebook page. I told Rob to thank him for the photos. Credit to Ziggy for the pictures below - which may actually feature Ziggy between Rob and his companion.] We found out he lives near us so we get to teach lessons with him. It's nice to have an old Black Rock friend to lime with here and again. lol. Had to break up a fight between missionaries in my district earlier, so that was fun haha. Basically, one of the missionaries has had a problem with fighting for his whole mission, and so I sat them both aside and talked with them, then talked to them together, and was just like, "Ok, I want you to focus on three things: 1. missionary work 2. respect one another as adults and 3. communication." Since then they've been all right, so I felt pretty good about that. The mission pres. was going to have to handle the situation but apparently he called them and they were like, we're good now, Elder Platt solved the problem. [In response to my email about Paul from our Sunday School lesson, Rob wrote:] But ya, if I could be like Paul just in a small sense I'd be pretty stoked on that. He was a brilliant man. Ya, thanking God is for sure a very key step in this process. Something cool we talked about on Sunday was our talents and the parable of the talents. The way I look at it is God GIVES you those talents so when you hide them it's like receiving a Christmas gift and then throwing it away. The person who gave you that gift is going to be hurt because it was thought out and something that you really wanted them to take advantage of and enjoy. I think it's the same for God. He gives us all agency so he can't MAKE us use our gifts, but when we choose to hide them (throw them away) it upsets him because he wants you to enjoy it. Anyway, I'm doing well. Things are ok and looking up... for now >.> never know what the Lord has in store for you next, so I'm just gonna ride out the wave while it's still good. lol. I appreciate the good thoughts and prayers coming my way they really do make a difference. Anwyays love you guys and can't wait to be back and tell you all the crazy stories of things that happen out here. haha. It just gets more wild as the time goes by. One love jah bless mon! O ya, haha, this REALLY ghetto area we go to this guy who we stopped teaching cuz we found out he has murdered a few people pulled me aside the other day and was like "MORMONS! Hey, you let me know if anyone gives you any trouble out here. I got your back." bahaha I was like alright, dude. You're the man! So funny! Anyway, that's my funny story for the week. 'Stay classy, San Diego.'" -(Anchorman, Ron Burgundy)

Rob noted this week that he has been in Barbados longer than anyone else in the mission - including the mission president. So he would not be surprised if he is transferred on December 14. If you wish to send him Christmas greetings, cards and letters need to be mailed now to his current address in order to reach him before Christmas. Here are his notes from this week: "Things are going okay. We've been contacting a lot of cool people recently and I'm hoping that they will start to make it out to church one of these Sundays. That's a cool analogy about the kayaking [I sent him my notes on Darren Wilcox's recent sacrament meeting talk, comparing paddling a kayak to keeping the commandments. Thank you, Darren!]. Sometimes you just have to keep pushing forward and doing your best. Satan obviously wants you to give up, but that's when you need to try the most, when you have everything against you. Because you KNOW you're on the road to something successful if Satan is trying to keep you away that badly, right? But we'll see how everything works out. I can only do my best :P Loving the people is the key component of it all. I understand that, and I try, but it can be hard. lol I'll work on it though. :P We've just been trying the best we can to revamp our teaching pool and get some solid people in. We've met a few cool people, so well see what happens. The fact remains however that I will most likely not be here when the transfers come because I've already been here for way too long! haha In fact, I've been here longer than everyone else... including the mission president. lol. So I'm pretty sure my time is up, but we'll see. Anyway, just one day at a time trying my best out here and trying to stay positive :P thanks again! Much love from my end. Thanks for writing me every week. I appreciate it and look forward to it every week. I appreciate it a lot!"

Elders Platt and Kuru.

Yellow Vests

Rob's zone helped with International Service Day in Bridgetown this week. Looked like a big project! A member posted some pictures from the activity on the mission Facebook page. Nice to see Rob in the yellow Mormon Helping Hands vest, doing some cleanup work. He sounds a little better this week, and had comments about investigators as well as messages to family members. Here is his email from this morning: "Ya, the service project was a LOT of work but I'm all right. A little sore, but all right all in all. haha. This week hasn't been much better, just hope things can move forward from here on out. Finally got in contact with Jillean yesterday and she told me the reason she didn't go through with the baptism was because of all the rule changes at the last minute by President Herrington. But ya, other than that things are ok. We got an investigator to church yesterday. She said she liked it and will be coming back. Her name is Tonya and she seems super solid. Only problem is she lives with her boyfriend, but she already knows she shouldn't be doing that, so hopefully she can sort those things out. ummmmm First time I've ever been cold here was today! haha It's pretty amazing! Super overcast and rainy, which usually doesn't make a difference, but it is indeed colder than usual. I just hope it can stay like this. That's cool that Jana/Shelley and the kids made it over for a little. I know Shelley said she was stressing over the triathlon, so I'm glad she made it out ok. Tell Lyla [Rob's niece, 5, who likes to do Jedi mind control tricks on him] that I hold the Jedi powers now and I will be controlling her mind. lol Speaking of Jedis... -___________- I'm SO bummed I'm gonna miss out on Star Wars! [Mom note: He was mourning the fact that he would miss the Padres' great season this summer before he left. Turns out he missed nothing. Chargers, same deal.] haha O well, little less than a year and a half and I can come home and have a marathon of movies I've missed. lol. O ya, apparently Ziggy [the member who took pictures of the service activity] lives like right next to us and a lot of our investigators, so we are going to try to use him as the third male so we can teach broken single mother homes. And yes, Lyla is correct on the monkey ;)[Lyla votes in favor of Rob bringing a monkey home. Not a surprise.] What elseeeeeeeee uhhhh, just trying the best I can to stay positive. I have 10 elders and some sisters in my district now, meaning I have to make 6 nightly calls, which is kind of a hassle when all I wanna do when I get home is sleep! haha O well, work has to get done! But hey, I miss you guys and hope all is well. Tell Baxter I love him so so so so so so so much! And that I miss him and that he's king of the world and that "he is my little gentleman" (Anchorman) ahaha Ok. Love you guys. Bye!"

International Service Day

Rob's District/Zone

Still Hangin' In There

Rob had a tough week again. I sent him this quote from Adlai Stevenson: "All I say is that nothing is easy, and the best things are the hardest." Not sure that cheered him at all, but he is working hard and trying to be obedient. Here's his latest email: "Our mission president told us yesterday that the change for the mission is that we cannot teach a female alone, even if it is outside, so... there goes our teaching pool. :( Time to start over. Like you said though, the hardest things end up being the best things in life. So I'll just tough it out. I'm just trying to find the light here in Barbados. We'll see how it goes. Any advice? Anything uplifting could be very beneficial right now. Sorry to be such a "Debby Downer." Things will get better. I just have to keep up the work. The weather is the same as always, actually just more rain than normal. >.< Thanks for being there for me and being on my side. I couldn't do it without you guys having my back on this."

Another picture from August. After a little research, we believe the cannon is located at Needham's Point, part of historic Bridgetown. Barbados has the world's rarest collection of 17th century English iron cannon.

Another Rough Week

Elder Platt had another rough week, but he is hopeful things will turn around and grateful for the experience a mission brings. In response to a story Roger sent him about an answer to prayer, Rob wrote: "I love it when that happens, when prayer seems to just work instantly! I can't tell you how many times I've seen it work in my life as well." He also commented on Sister Freyre's recent return from the mission field: "Can't believe Cece is already home. She's way rad! Give her my email sometime." If anyone reading this blog knows Sister Freyre, please pass it along. Here are the rest of Rob's email notes: "Blah. This week has sucked pretty badly. Had eight people who told me they were going to come to church and no one showed up :(. All the new missionaries seem to be having baptisms and I can't even get one :(. Just really annoying. I feel like I'm no good at this :/, but life goes on. I just gotta keep trying my best. The district here is about the same size it was, but they replaced a lot of the sisters with elders. The companionship in Black Rock split up too, so now I'm a district leader over the whole zone? lol. I don't know what the difference is anymore between a district and a zone, but yes, 30 more missionaries are coming in this transfer, so we'll see how that goes. And Jillean - ugh - her back is feeling better but she's just having more complications with the hospital on Jace's medical records, so she's in kinda a rough spot. I don't know exactly how that's gonna go, but I'm hoping she'll be up and running back in the church soon enough. :P We'll see. But for the most part things here seem to be lacking as far as progress goes. Hopefully that'll change soon. Sorry this email isn't all that long, but I'll try to think of more things to add next time. Thanks for the love and support, much needed."

This photo is a couple of months old, taken while Rob was still in Black Rock. No new pictures sent today.