Happy Birthday!

Yesterday was Rob's birthday, and we missed having Rob here, but love hearing about what he is up to in St. Lucia. We appreciate so much the branch members who made his day special even though he is far from home. Here are notes from his emails today: "Hello! Ya, a birthday in the mission is to be as expected. Johnathen hooked me up with three really cool lookin' ties for my b-day though, which was really nice of him! Ya it was weird being away from home for the first time on my b-day. lol Kinda strange but I tried to make the best of it :P Christina fed me REALLY well along with the rest of the district. lol It was super fun. And then Sancha (her daughter) finally set a baptismal date for the 27th which was really cool! I'm stoked for her. She wants me to baptize her so that should be fun! Christina is this really nice lady who has been meeting with the elders for awhile and finally decided to make the plunge. She's always reply nice to us and her home is like a home away from home to us cuz she always feeds us and makes sure we are comfortable, then she usually beats me for playing with the kids too much. She always says, 'Elder Platt, you see you? He be playing too much!' haha. Then we all laugh. It's a good time. Elder Renlund's talk sounds really powerful. He's so right too, without a belief that Joseph Smith was a prophet we can't really do anything else, which is why the Book of Mormon is so centered on everything that we do! Thanks for the package, and sorry about the camera! Totally broke it while traversing that cliff :P But ya, love is so essential when it comes to EVERYTHING, like when Jesus tell us the most important commandments of all. That always rings out strong to me. I'm just hoping things will speed up in the next year. Like I'm still gonna work my tail off but I'm just over teaching the same lessons every time. With so many similar outcomes and questions and doubts that people have, it's annoying. lol I don't think I've ever had to do anything as challenging as this right here. Just is a rough road, but I see blessings every day, and I'm hoping they are coming your way as well. But I know my work is not done and I need to keep pressing forward. Think I just need to switch it up, just know I love you guys and think about ya all the time and can't wait to catch up and hang out with everyone again. Love you guys!"