Out of the frying pan and into the FIRE

Hey guys!

Man, today's been good. :) IN case you wondered, I'm doing really well. I'm healthy, happy, and I literally ate so much food yesterday I can't even tell you. But actually I'm going to! So at lunch (right after church) we had our big meal. Chicken with a huge potato salad (but it's incredible, but still not as good as mom's) and then after a half of a melon (honeydew I think or whichever one is orange) that had been carved empty and filled with strawberries, blueberries, honeydew, peaches, and tons of other fruit, with ice cream on top! Oh my goodness, it was incredible! And then right after weekly planning a less active invited us over to have coffee and bread. So obviously we went! haha. Also, all the members drink coffee here. All of them. But for some reason it's not against the word of wisdom. I think it must not be from the coffee bean or something like that. It's kind of like postum. You might have been born before the 21st century if you know what that is. :) And then a part-member family invited us over and we had completos! Like hot dogs but different. Stuffed with guacamole and tomatoes and topped with mayo and mustard. That's a fat Chilean fave for you all. And it's a requirement basically to eat three. Not to mention the dessert afterward, a cake topped with cherries and pineapple. Oh man. That was good stuff. I don't know why that family loves us so much. But the mom is always offering her daughters to me for marriage. She's pretty convincing, too. But her daughters aren't members yet, so we'll just have to wait and see. :) haha. Our first visit to them, she offered her daughters up to us for two easy baptisms, and for me for a wife. hahaha She's hilarious. Plus her daughters were right there. But I'm not sure if they thought it was that funny. One of the daughters is going to Santiago in a couple of weeks. They gave me their address for their house in Santiago and told me to write them when I'm there for the day at the end of it all in 2 billion years. Or at the end of the mish. So there's one more thing I can forget to do! But anyway. Fun paragraph about food for mumsy. :)

Also, there wasn't a baptism again this week. But this time was a lot worse. Because what happened is we had the interview again and obvi, he passed. And the non-member dad signed the paper saying he would support him and stuff (the mom's already a member) and they even invited their cousins to come down from Santiago for the baptism! (all non-members) so that was awesome! And then Friday morning we called them to see how they were doing and everything. And Dubal told us that his mom was with his grandpa in the hospital. His grandpa had a heart attack and was in urgent care. His mom asked us to postpone the baptism so she could be there. We said no. :) haha. Just kidding, obviously we said yes. He and his sister still came to church on Sunday, so that was impressive. They almost didn't but then they told us that they couldn't stay away, that they needed it. So that was an awesome thing to learn. But now the grandpa's still in the hospital, and we're visiting them to help them and the parents feel the spirit and be comforted, and we offered to make some ramen noodles, but they didn't know what it was. haha. So it was a pretty rough weekend. Because we had to tell everyone the bad news about the grandpa so they didn't show up for the baptism. But the good is that the ward is really rallying around them and helping them. And I was just thinking that if we hadn't started to teach them three months ago, they wouldn't have started coming to church and no one in the ward would have even known. What a blessing it is for us to always have our ward close in our times of need. Hopefully we are there for others when they are in need. I saw yesterday from a sister how painful it can be if you're passing needs and people in your ward know and they don't do anything. Whether they're active or not. If they're not active, all the more reason. It could be an opportunity to help them become reactivated. So anyway, please pray for them. They really need it now. 

Also, if anyone has anything they want me and my companion to pray for them for, please just tell me. I literally spend probably three hours during the day praying on my knees. So I think I have time to pray specifically for any of you. I don't know how it is there. But here the members are fully convinced that missionary prayers have special powers. Haha I don't know if it's true. But I know that prayers do have special powers. And even though I'm a little far to do anything physically for you guys, I would love to have specific things to pray for. Your kids, your job, your spouse, your health, anything. Just tell me. Plus specific prayers work better.

Basically, it was a really good week of listening and pondering. It was fun, too. I feel like I learned a lot more. That's all for this week. But just so you know, Andres came to church this Sunday with his wife, Marcela and their little kid Francisco. And it was awesome. It was his 6th week coming. And even though they have to get married before they can get baptized, I feel like they're secure. They will be really good strong converts, too. He shared his testimony with everyone in Elders Quorum. He's been prepared. And his desires to follow the gospel of Christ have brought his wife to church, and he says he knows it will bring his 15 year-old son Manuel to church, too. And they're all three gonna get baptized together and a year later be sealed in the temple for time and all eternity. That's what he said. Crazy, right? It's basically sure that I won't be here for the wedding. But it was an honor to have been there when we found him and to have been there for all the process. haha. When we contacted him we almost didn't go to visit him. Because he asked us what was Jesus' first miracle. Which was.. water into wine. Or that's what everyone says. And usually when people say that they just want to fight. But we went and he had a ton of questions of the soul. And now look where they're at. Haha Oh, man. God can do incredible things if we just get out of our own way. He is the grand creator, He is our Heavenly Father. and what's crazy is He likes the title of Father more than any other. That sure tells us something of how cool it is to be a parent. haha. My parents are so lucky. ;) 

Jesus is the Christ. He did come to redeem his people. And He will come again. And that means that there's light in our souls, light in the darkness that we often focus on in the world. Let your eyes adjust before He comes to the light by focusing on Him.

Also... Pray for the USA soccer team! They're playing against Chile this week and I really want us to win. That'll be so much fun to walk around afterward. It's on Wednesday! Watch it, live it, love it. 

Have a good week!

Love you all!

Elder Robinson