Dear Everyone,
It feels so good to be home, literally; about two Saturdays ago I started having sharp back pain. I took ibuprofen and that did not really help, so I just decided to bear it for awhile. I got worse on Sunday and then was pretty fine throughout the week. It flared up the following Saturday and I ended up seeing a doctor from one of the other wards. He told me to take ibuprofen and call him the next day. No change. So, I ended up getting checked again and calling another doctor over the phone. I was told to get an x-ray, so I went to the hospital and ended up waiting six hours there and ended up leaving and coming back home so I could see my usual doctor. Within 30 minutes I had a diagnosis without an x-ray and medicine to make it go away. As of today I feel no pain in my back :D. Though, I am still a bit stuffy. To pass the time these past few recovering days I listened to many talks by Elder Jeffrey R Holland and attended the Temple and a Family History Conference. All were edifying and I began to feel a lot better emotionally too. Just coming home felt like giant weights were being lifted off my shoulders.
Missionary work is not easy, it never has been and never will be, but it is worth every effort, pain and failure just to have one success, one heart turned toward God and everlasting salvation. Our mission president put it really well with the phrase "If they are not baptized, they are damned." I think more than a few of the missionaries were struck by that, even if we don't envisioned damned as being stuck in fire and brimstone, we know that they cannot enter into a fullness of joy if they deny the saving ordinances in this life when they had the chance. That's why we are here, that's why we keep knocking, keep pestering members for referrals, busting our butts on bikes and wear out coats and shoes. We are here to give them that chance to accept an invitation to drink from living waters and partake of the bread of life. We are here "to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." This is my purpose as a missionary, service or otherwise, to bring others unto Christ. For He is the Way, the Truth and the Light of this world. For there is no other name given under heaven whereby men can be saved. No other way.
I know that Jesus is the literal Son of God. I know that He lives. I know that God is our Literal Father in Heaven and that He loves us with perfect parental love. I know that they appeared to a young boy, Joseph Smith, in the year 1820 and that through him the church was restored in 1830. I know the Book of Mormon to be the word of God and a companion to the Bible to testify of the divinity of Christ. I know that this Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the only true and living church on the Earth today. I know that Thomas S. Monson is God's Prophet and that the twelve apostles and first presidency are the foundation spoken of in Ephesians 2: 19-20 with Jesus Christ as the unbreakable chief cornerstone. These things I know. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
With Love,
Elder Roberts
It feels so good to be home, literally; about two Saturdays ago I started having sharp back pain. I took ibuprofen and that did not really help, so I just decided to bear it for awhile. I got worse on Sunday and then was pretty fine throughout the week. It flared up the following Saturday and I ended up seeing a doctor from one of the other wards. He told me to take ibuprofen and call him the next day. No change. So, I ended up getting checked again and calling another doctor over the phone. I was told to get an x-ray, so I went to the hospital and ended up waiting six hours there and ended up leaving and coming back home so I could see my usual doctor. Within 30 minutes I had a diagnosis without an x-ray and medicine to make it go away. As of today I feel no pain in my back :D. Though, I am still a bit stuffy. To pass the time these past few recovering days I listened to many talks by Elder Jeffrey R Holland and attended the Temple and a Family History Conference. All were edifying and I began to feel a lot better emotionally too. Just coming home felt like giant weights were being lifted off my shoulders.
Missionary work is not easy, it never has been and never will be, but it is worth every effort, pain and failure just to have one success, one heart turned toward God and everlasting salvation. Our mission president put it really well with the phrase "If they are not baptized, they are damned." I think more than a few of the missionaries were struck by that, even if we don't envisioned damned as being stuck in fire and brimstone, we know that they cannot enter into a fullness of joy if they deny the saving ordinances in this life when they had the chance. That's why we are here, that's why we keep knocking, keep pestering members for referrals, busting our butts on bikes and wear out coats and shoes. We are here to give them that chance to accept an invitation to drink from living waters and partake of the bread of life. We are here "to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." This is my purpose as a missionary, service or otherwise, to bring others unto Christ. For He is the Way, the Truth and the Light of this world. For there is no other name given under heaven whereby men can be saved. No other way.
I know that Jesus is the literal Son of God. I know that He lives. I know that God is our Literal Father in Heaven and that He loves us with perfect parental love. I know that they appeared to a young boy, Joseph Smith, in the year 1820 and that through him the church was restored in 1830. I know the Book of Mormon to be the word of God and a companion to the Bible to testify of the divinity of Christ. I know that this Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the only true and living church on the Earth today. I know that Thomas S. Monson is God's Prophet and that the twelve apostles and first presidency are the foundation spoken of in Ephesians 2: 19-20 with Jesus Christ as the unbreakable chief cornerstone. These things I know. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
With Love,
Elder Roberts
