Tuesday 22 April 2014

Because of Him


Did you get a chance to check out the video the church had posted on mormon.org concerning Easter? I thought that it was a good one and we shared it a couple of times as a spiritual thought and then everyone saw it at church. I would recommend checking it out for family home evening if you haven't yet.




We had used it for Family Home Evening already.  Watch it, it is full of love and hope! 


Having to rely on the lovely Wes for photos!!
Elder Martin, Elder Robertson & Wes

This week I still haven't any photos from Elder Robertson, but his friend's parents live in the area so whilst visiting, he took this.  They'd been playing football with a couple of youth in the area.


Everything is going great here in Basel. The focus of missionary work seems to be very member orientated in this neck of the woods, so we are getting a good number of eating appointments. I did gain a couple of kilos these last few weeks but the waist bands are holding out fortunately. Clothing is all still holding out and I'm good for shoes, though I can see me throwing one of the pairs away after summer as I don't expect them to last that long, I have been wearing them more and so they appear a little more tattered than the others. 

(ME:I'm thinking don't throw them, I want to bronze them!!   ) 



Yeah, we had a few potentials at the football activity, we met them last week, they turned up and asked me if they could play and so we invited them to and told them that they could come back evey week if they wanted to, so they came back again this week. Hopefully we'll be able to get to teach them soon. The football activity is quite an old thing, we did it whilst I was in Reinach and normally its not too successful as we can't get many of the youth or YSAs out to it, partly because there's not too many of them, but it has its uses obviously.

Easter package ... ready to hand over to Stephan in Basel


Easter was great. I did get the cards thanks for them!! The members were thin on the ground on Sunday though. We got a lot of chocolate so we're all up to our necks in it and sweets, which isn't too good for some of us. Elder Pugh is now back in Reinach. His companion returned on Friday. So with everything that been going on this week its been a bit crazy. We all took turns with Elder Pugh in Reinach fulfilling our exchanges to help the work go along and then organising the switches in between appointments.

Heber is being a good missionary!

Monday 14 April 2014

Hump Day

This week will mark the year mark of Elder Robertson's missionary service.  Generally the males serve for a total of 2 years whilst the females serve for a period of 18 months.  It is known as 'Hump Day'.  I was wanting to do something to mark the day so I enlisted the help of some friends and family and asked them to take a photo of themselves holding a particular letter, eventually spelling 'HAPPY HUMP DAY ELDER ROBERTSON'  I was so grateful to those that joined in and really put a lot of thought into what they were doing.

Our immediate family spelled out the 'HAPPY' part.  We tried to do our letters that showed our own interests.

Heber 'H' with his guitars
Dad with 'a' shaped cookie, he loves cooking/baking and cookies!
Me the mama with 'P' made out of lights
Thomas also with a 'P' and jumping as he never sits still
Matty with a 'Y' out of lego ... he and Elder Robertson have a joint love the lego!

But on it's own it would not have been as effective as the whole thing, so thank you to everyone who took the time in their busy schedules to add to the 'Happy Hump Day' banner.  Here's the finished thing ....

Happy Hump Day Elder Robertson

This week it seems like Elder Robertson has been looked after well in Basel and has had a dinner appointment every day.  I am so thankful for the members there for taking care of him and Elder Martin.  He's happy he's putting on a bit of weight! =)

My first week in Basel has been a good one, we've been busy though not much has happened. All of our "investigators" disappeared just before I arrived so we have to formulate a plan to find some more. We're working with some cool people, mostly members, and hoping to receive more referrals from them. As a missionary that's one of our biggest goals; to get referrals from members and work with them to bring their friends to the truth. Me and Elder Martin get along very well. Elder Pugh is now working temporarily with the other companionship in Basel, so there's five of us in the apartment. It's quite a laugh in the apartment.

After a trip to Switzerland last weekend, we had some Swiss Francs left over and so I sent them onto Elder Robertson, he was very grateful ... Switzerland is very expensive!! 

Origami Shirt made out of Swiss Francs (CHF)
Overall he's had a great week, enjoying the new ward and area, his new companion and the other missionaries in the apartment.

'C' was confirmed on Sunday and so we are extremely happy for him to have had these experiences and of those experiences yet to come.  

Thursday 10 April 2014

'C' is baptized

Elder Robertson in Luzern


This week has seen Elder Robertson transfer from Luzern to Basel.  I know he has loved Luzern as he has served and loved the people there.  This ends his time with Elder Meyer (who he trained and loved) and sees him starting his time in Basel serving with Elder Martin.

He was able to travel back to Luzern on Sunday to see a 'C' be baptised.  They have become really good friends as they have shared many spiritual experiences together in the last 7 months.  I am reminded of one of my all time favourite scriptures "Wherefore, he that preacheth and he that receiveth, understand one another, and both are edified and rejoice together." D&C 50:22  It is such a joy to see the people we love enter the waters of baptism.

We were able to drop some packages for him with a friend he made last year whilst serving in a neighbouring area.


Us with Stephan

It was really good of him to help us with getting packages to Elder Robertson.  He understood that weren't to see each other and made sure we were able to keep the rules.  After a short chat and lots of thank you's, he told us we had to leave because Elder Robertson was meeting him at the train station to collect them within minutes.  So we left, me with tears in my eyes at the realisation of just how close he was and we continued on our way to Bern.

Elder Robertson said in his email how he was weird to think we had just been there ...

It was nice to look at the things he would be looking at for the upcoming weeks/months.

He had received the conference ties I'd sent to him and Elder Martin to his apartment ...

Conference Ties


'It was funny to turn up to Basel with all of my stuff and then find the ties there. They were great. Both Elder Martin and I are grateful for those.'