Twilight Zone

Haha I just realized how different my life is now.  It honestly feels like I've been dropped into a Twilight zone episode here is a few stories to illustrate this.

Cookie rage: Cookie monster looses it!

Construction: One of the service projects I did this week

Bukol (Coconut): The classic story of mans fight for survival

Repentance: If you don't have time, this is the only spiritual thing in the email.

Cookie rage

Let me start this story off by thanking my fam for the package they sent me! Everything in it made my life like 5 times better and I don't know if you guys knew this but I really love the soft chips ahoy so getting those made me like cry for joy. 

So yeah I finished the entire box in one day because I don't really get things like that anymore. So I'm just chowin down like goin full cookie monster on those bad boys and I'm at my last cookie and as I'm putting it into the gaping black hole called my mouth some how i missed my mouth and the cookie falls on the ground. 

There is this moment where I pick it up and I'm debating whether or not it is worth risking getting some nasty Filipino parasites in me for the cookie (don't worry mom I didn't eat it) but I was so mad at myself for dropping it that I just pop up out of my chair and straight up sprint out of the house and just huck that cookie like into orbit and just yell frrrreeeeeaaakkk.

I come calmly back in and see my comps face and realized he just saw me sitting and literally just inhaling these cookies and with every cookie I'm just like "Mmmm ohh soo good!!" like the fat american I am and then all of a sudden i drop a cookie and im holding it like staring at it intently like hmm.... no.. but.. no.. no.. and then all of a sudden book it out of the house and just chuck that cookie. Yeah he has got to be the person who has the lowest opinion of me by far. Also just imagining past me seeing the current me flip out that much about a cookie it would have completely blown my mind it really is like a twilight zone epidsode here.

Construction

So right now were helping this lady rebuild her house which was fun! And know what all you lds ladies are thinking "Hmmm hes gonna come back an rm that also knows how to build a house!" Well before you all start calling dibs just remember that I learned how to build a house in the Philippines which means it would have passed about -10% of the building regulations there in the states so I'm still not exactly a catch.  But anyways in the middle of the construction were taking a break and the lady we are building the house for comes out and brings us crackers and Tang and so I'm just chillin with a bunch of Filipino youth just eating crackers joking around with them in Tagalog and just like the idea of past me seeing that just exploded my mind its so crazy!

Bukol (Coconut)

So last p-day me and my comp are just chilling and then he's like yeah I want some bukol (coconut) and since we have a coconut tree in out backyard he tries to climb it he can't really do it so he ask me to try so yeah... mom i didn't you can stop reading this portion of the email now. 

So I totally tried but here's the thing this bad boy is like 30 feet high so I could climb it pretty decently but I'd always get like 50-60% of the way up the tree and then realize I have no idea how to get back down and also once I get up there how the freak am I supposed to hold onto the tree and pull one of these bad boys off of the tree? 

So I'd usually get like 15 to 20 feet up and be like "Ahhh heck no" and then do this weird painful scoot and then jump down. I did that like 5 times before my comp found this super long piece of bamboo so we like start trying to use that to knock them down it takes like 50 tries until we decide to get this really big bamboo stalk that was like another 5 feet longer and way thicker and then we kinda did like a battering ram motion towards the fruit anyways yeah we both got our own fresh coconut and freak don't let my dads nasty coconut water fool you. Coconut milk is actually super good! But yeah the image of me like striving to get me some bukol just is so mind boggling especially because how chill and normal it was to me.

Repentance 

OK so the other day we went caroling with the youth to our RC's, LA's and investigators. I wasn't a huge fan of it because it felt like kinda a waste of time but since we had worked like all that morning on building the house i was way tired so I just didn't really fight it. 

Anyways as we are walking I'm talking with one of the guys in our ward and were just chatting I was pumped to see him because he used to work with us a ton. But lately kinda stopped and didn't go to church last week so I was chatting with him and just kinda asked him if he was going to go on a mission. He said no and I was pretty surprised because before my comp had said he really wanted to. So I asked him why not and his answer was "I have a lot of sin." and then he said like "I've broken my life." 

I just talk to this kid about repentance and how everyone has made mistakes and that we can change our lives thanks to Christ and that his life is never too broken for Christ. 

I just wanted to share with you guys how true that is. I know that we can all change and become clean and whole because of the atonement of our brother Jesus Christ who won't chastise but will always welcome us with open arms. Remember that the true reason Christmas is so great isn't free stuff or being able to see your missionaries or for you missionaries in this email being able to see your families. The real reason is celebrating the fact that because of the sacrifice of our brother we don't have to dwell in darkness and guilt. I love you all so much!

love,

Elder Roberts

PS. The Filipinos really like the pictures of my friends and fam from America so if you could send me some pictures of us together so I can print them that would be awesome! Considering 60%  of this email list is girls from Utah about 59% of you should be "photographers" so I'm expecting a lot of pictures.