Robinsons Having Fun: October 2015

31 October 2015

Halloween

Hello everyone!

Happy Halloween! It seems so crazy that it's already Halloween. But the good news is that it means that we are almost in the month of Thanksgiving! Oh ya! And we'll be going trick-or-treating tonight. I'm thinking about dressing up as a missionary again, I know it's the same as last year, but everyone seemed to think it was really scary last time, so I think I'll try it again. :) haha. This week was really awesome. Plus it was my companion's birthday, so we had some sick parties!!!

But first of all, we've had some good success this week. We found Mikaele who is 18-years-old, and her Tia (aunt) and her little sister and cousin. But we hope that Mikaela will be receptive. She seems really good, and her little sister and cousin wanted to come to church with us, so a member went with us to go to church so we all went together! :) Haha. It was kind of hilarious. They sure did love Primary, though!

We also found Nestor! He's an Ecuadorian and he was really receptive, he had really good answers and understood the lesson well. The only challenge with him is that he just got baptized less than a year ago into a different Christian church, which is awesome, and we tried to really congratulate him about that, but the next time we visit with him we'll get to teach him about the priesthood authority that God bestows upon man to act in His name.

Also, a member stopped by the office to bring my companion pizza and Coca-Cola for his birthday, so that was pretty sweet. And then later, the Silva Morales family threw him a surprise birthday party, and it was way fun. Not to mention that the President invited us to have a birthday lunch with him and the rest of the office staff, and then here at the office, they also had some more cake that a missionary couple here made for us. Haha. It was a day full of parties.

This week Elder Jaen (who lives in the house with us and goes home in December) gave us some really good advice, and it comes from Doctrine and Covenants 9:8-9 which says, "But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right. But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong; therefore, you cannot write that which is sacred save it be given you from me." And so we have started applying that to our daily and weekly planning. It's been working out really well so far, we tried it and it worked just like it said. We had some adjustments to make, we made them, and we felt good about it. I invite you guys all to apply it to your lives as well. I hope and plan to apply it to my life forever. In verse 7 it says, "Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me." Sounds like it's a no-brainer to me! :)

I love you guys a ton, and I hope you have a fantastic Halloween and Fast Sunday!

Con mucho amor y cariño,

Elder Robinson

P.S. Here's a picture of us after my companion's birthday lunch with President Arrington and his wife.

October 31

Hi All, Happy Halloween.
Halloween here is not really much. The stores have some decorations and stuff but they don't go trick or treating. Sunday is All Saints Day, which is kind of like our Memorial Day where people buy flowers to put on the graves.
We went to a funeral today, for a boat captain who died in a boating accident in the typhoon a couple of weeks ago. We traveled to a neighboring island on the same kind of boat he was driving. We mostly knew his wife and daughters because we have met them and worked with them in our Self Reliance assignment. It was sad for his wife and his six daughters (the youngest one is 7 years old). His wife and one of his daughters spoke at the funeral and they sang a song as a family. There was a lot of people there and a lot of non-members from his work. The father had been less active for some years but had come back into activity and was serving as a counselor to the Branch President for the past two months.
The gospel of Jesus Christ brings a lot of hope and faith into people's life. I think that outside of the Church, we would not see the kind of faith and hope as we were able to see from this family, at such a difficult time.
I am thankful for the Church and for the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is wonderful to know where we came from, why we are here and what becomes of us when we depart this earth life. It is a blessing to know in whom we have trusted and to have a reason for that hope that is in Jesus Christ.
I love you all,
Dad

30 October 2015

October 23-October 30

Friday we returned to the apartment, ate, went to the center. We looked up holiday games, watched Krueger's Christmas. Home and cooked and prepared our lunch for Sunday as we will be on a road trip.
Saturday we left at 7:00 am taking the coastal route to Dao for our first apartment check at 8:00😟whoops we didn't arrive until 9:00. The drive was longer than we thought. We finished the apartment checks--the missionaries loved the donuts we brought. All had "celestial" apartments. We really appreciate their efforts. The apartments improve every time. It makes our job more fun when we don't need to make huge corrections. We went to Gaisanos, a grocery mall and purchased buko shakes and Greenwich pizza. We checked in at the Pinnacle Hotel, 1900P with cash discount, then went back to Hamtic to do the last apartment check. How much better we do in cleanliness when we consider the desire to have the Lord's Spirit dwell there. We returned to the hotel to relax until Villaverts, Grace and Mother, came to show us how to get to their house. We had dinner with them and visited. The father is District President; the son, BJ leaves on his mission December 4. He'll be a great missionary. Only daughter, Grace, 30 years old, served her mission in Los Angeles, California. She is very Americanized. She has returned to the US at least twice and was the one who recently flew to LA only to have her visa rejected and she was sent back to the Philippines. When Filipinos come to the US, they have to have a round trip ticket. I guess that is why, so they can send them back. We returned to the hotel at 8:45 and went to bed. Yesterday I had a new shingle show up on the left side this time😁. I hope that will be all.
Sunday breakfast at the hotel. Internet is really poor but we did get some wonderful Jerome news from Sarah. I was Maxine Bell's visiting teaching when we lived in her Ward. Her husband is getting baptized today after all these years. She is such a great woman, having been involved in politics, doing all the good she could for the country. I understand that she fell and broke her leg and her husband knew how much it meant to her to go to church so he started taking her and in the course of staying there for her, he was converted. We drove an hour to church to the Bugasong branch today. Ray, I and Elder Wardle spoke (he is a missionary from Boise). After the block of meetings, the members share their lunch with us--rice, pork adobo, and pork fat with tamarind and vegetables...kangkong and green beans. Then they had the 5th lesson in SGMB. First they had us lead the Foundations lesson - Work: Taking Responsibility and then three left and went to the Education for Better Work class and there were 15 left in the business class. They led and we watched until Ray felt moved to explain about keeping records and separating personal from business. They hadn't caught onto that yet and lights in their heads went on as he showed and explained on the board. They were so excited and filled with hope. They thanked us and thanked us. How amazing that the Lord blessed us to be a part of this growth step. We feel so full and so greatly blessed. We want to continue having these feelings of an "enlarged heart". On the way home, we saw Brother Johnny (Miag-ago group leader), the missionaries, and some members. We were able to give them a ride to the next town square--it gave us just enough energy boost to get home. Arrived home around 6:30, cleaned up, ate popcorn and went to bed. Yea! Traveling is a little tiring.
Monday I have four new shingles on my left side now😓. I was able to do most of my exercises, still having some asthmatic affects from whatever bacteria or virus is roaming around my system. Have a load of wash to do today and he got out to dry. We will go to do English testing at Arevalo this morning for the outgoing missionaries. The missionaries had fun doing the test. At 10:30 they finished and we went to the bamboo shop to take Cushings to clear up some business with them. Then we went to eat at the Promenade and visit. After we took Cushings to the wharf, we went to Jalandoni and watched some of the piano guys face2face on lds.org. It was inspiring. 5:00 we left and went and walked the Esplanade a little fast and all the way--no breathing trouble. Yea! I am getting more shingles on my left side now😖. Hopefully it will be less than the right. So fun today we heard from April and Mike; Sandy and Sarah Perry, Rachael and Andrew's mission president, President Arrington. Andrew will train a new historidor and he will be supply manager. And we heard from Angela last Saturday! Thanks for the mail! Just four and a half more months, keep it up! 😃
Tuesday did a load of wash and hung it to dry before leaving at 7:50 for district meeting with all the missionaries inside and outside the truck. Wonderful email from Charity! Elder Robertson gave a great lesson about how to teach the first lesson. He used Ammon as an example. Service and Love. He went through the story and pointed out what he did. I remember a little quote from primary trainings, "They don't care how much you K n o w. Until they know how much you C a r e." It was excellent to dissect this scripture story and apply it to today's missionary work. Went to Jalandoni, back to apartment for lunch, returned to Jalandoni and we were able to help with a resume and some assistance with interviewing. 6:00 meeting with Brother Boiser and the self-reliance volunteer group. Meeting was just talk. 8:00 took Boiser to his hotel and Butch to his neighborhood. Ray's not feeling well but a little ginger ale helped. Sister Streng fell when a chair she was sitting on broke. She went to the hospital but they can't help. She is on pain meds and she can't sit or stand for long. Oh, we are so sad for them. They are serving in Kalibo and Roxas and have helped us in the "My Path."
Wednesday we were to meet at Jalandoni at 9:00 with Boiser but at 10:00, he is not there yet. 10:30 Boiser came and we discussed ideas for the last four months. Ray will begin making some business presentations of Lessons 4 & 5 from SGMB to those facilitators or participants who haven't quite understood. We had lunch buffet at the Promenade with Boiser hosting and Butch and Michele attended, along with Darlene Cases and husband, Sister Cagape, and Brother and Sister Cadiz and us. Boiser isn't feeling well. He thinks he got sick from brushing his teeth and gargling with the hotel water. It smelled like sewer.
We returned to Jalandoni --Ray is working on his presentation. Home 6:00. I gave Ray a hair cut.
Thursday before we left for apartment checks the water in the apartment wouldn't get warm so I was taking a cold shower😓 then it turned into a drizzle--no water. Ray checked all the power sources, then climbed up on the two story roof, the floater in the water tank was stuck and so it didn't give the message for water to come into the tank. Tomorrow I will get a warm shower. There is renewed hope. South Zone apartment checks. We visited the Oton sisters first then picked up the zone leaders. Stopped for the zone leaders to purchase an iron for some missionaries at Gaisanos then went back to the Arevalo office to pick up boxes of Books of Mormon and pamphlets to take to the missionaries. Tigbuaun-Guimbal-Miag-so-Tiolas; we will do checks for the office elders tomorrow with Central Zone. Finished at 3:15 and picked up two more boxes of candy bars for the missionaries tomorrow. Returned to the apartment at 4:00. At 5:00 we were requested to pick up 3-8gb USB drive (computer language for a stick that goes into the side of a computer) and arrived at Jalandoni to meet with the stake president and the stake self reliance committee with Brother Boiser. We got "punted". At 5:55 President Insigne texted Boiser that he was in Jaro, maybe we could do it tomorrow morning.😓. I guess Boiser will move forward with North Stake. Home 8:20. Bed. I took a theophylline for the first time in 15 years probably, so I could breathe. Just too much of a struggle. But I will get well soon.

Friday started at 7:30 am with Central Zone sisters apartment check, then zone leaders, apartment above us, then to the office elders to finish up South Zone, (they couldn't be checked yesterday). Then to the office to pick up books and supplies to take to Central Zone missionaries. One set of missionaries "punted us"😟. That was a surprise. They left their apartment early but we just moved on. We finished around 12:30. I was starving. We took our zone leaders to McDonald's for a Big and Tasty Meal and apple pie. They were happy. We took them home, I drank a bunch of water and we laid down for a bit, stopped at SM to get some fruit to take to Sorilla's tonight for their farewell party and Kyles birthday. He turns 21 today. He will be taking care of business while his parents serve in Manila as executive secretary to the area presidency and his mom serves as a nurse. We then came to Jalandoni to work. Met with Sister Eulene Sotero, who I had thought about yesterday and had written her a note with a scripture that reminded me of her and left it with Nina, the Institute secretary to give to her. Well, as the Lord would have it, she got the note today as she came in having a bad day--the school would not accept the church's PEF payment for her schooling because they had changed their school name and the check had the old name on it. She was in tears, so the note really warmed her and took care of her. I am so grateful for the times that I respond, unknowingly, to a prompting and it blesses someones life as Jesus means it to. Anyway, she was leaving just as we came in the parking lot, so I was able to give her a hug and hear her story. Hopefully, it will get fixed quickly because school starts November 9. We will leave soon to prepare the fruit and go to Sorilla's party at 6:30. We will miss them. They feed all of us missionaries about twice a month and we always have such a nice visit. Love, Mom, Grandma, Teresa

26 October 2015

The highlight of my week

Hello my favorite people!

This week was pretty good! It felt weird kind of because usually the first week of the transfer is kind of crazy but since nothing changed for us it just feels like a continuation of the past two. It surprises me that it's only been a week of the transfer but at the same time I'm shocked there's only five weeks left! It's going to be a busy one, we have interviews and a mission tour where Elder Hamula is coming to our
Zone Conferences. It's going to be great! Plus Halloween and Thanksgiving. So this transfer will fly by. For some reason I just wanted to give details on how I feel like I'm in a time warp. haha anyway...

Lately I have just had this really strong desire to help specifically two families, and I just don't know what to do for them. They just need to live the gospel! But they won't. They're just not ready yet but I want to help them so badly. One of them I mentioned from my first week here. The mom and dad are foster parents to 3 (now 4) boys. The mom and dad got baptized several years ago and now the dad
is completely inactive. Talking to him you can tell he didn't really get it to begin with. He just doesn't understand what the gospel is all about or how it applies to him. The mom is active and the two older sons were baptized when they were kids because their grandparents are members (though completely inactive also). They don't even have the slightest clue what it means that they've been baptized. The 3rd son is a recent convert and he is 12. We've been teaching him the new member lessons. He's a good kid, but he's been struggling lately because his abusive mom is trying to get her act together so she's been seeing him a lot, but she's still abusive it seems like. They recently took in a little eight year old. He's cute, we're hoping to teach him. He came to church on Sunday with the mom. Anyway, they're really cool people. I just love them and I know their home would be so much better if they truly understood and lived the gospel. I just don't know how to help them understand! But I have absolutely no power to convert anyway, Heavenly Father leads them along and when they're ready the spirit helps them understand. I just have to be in tune to know my part. I just know how much more joyful their lives would be! According to the mom though, our visits make a difference. Apparently the dad goes and brushes his teeth when we come over so we can't smell the smoke haha. He doesn't try to hide the fact he's smoking, but he does try to clean up I guess. Cracks me up. So I guess if nothing else we make him think a little about what he does.

The other family it's really mainly the dad. Russell Trau is his name, pray for him. He is not a member but he has a lot of faith and really relies on Heavenly Father. He is such an awesome person, and he and his member wife divorced about 2 years ago. He is clearly still in a lot of pain from it. It's been really hard for him, and he felt like all his member friends turned on him through the divorce. He's going to need a lot of outreach from the ward to feel comfortable regularly attending church. Again I just want so badly for him to have the fulness of the gospel! I hope I can be inspired to know how to help him along. We talked to him this week and committed him to watch a mormon message. He isn't interested in meeting with us, he says he's not ready. But he'll talk whenever we go over and he doesn't mind talking spiritual, so baby steps for him.

Dominik was at church yesterday. He came a little late so there was no way for us to sit by him. He sat in the row right ahead of us though. No one came to sit by him. It made me sad. People were pretty preoccupied though, we got a new bishopric yesterday. Anyway he looked exhausted. He had bags under his eyes. I asked if he was tired and he said, "Oh, I didn't sleep very much last night. Church is the highlight of my week. I was so excited I couldn't sleep!" My goodness. He is just so cute, I love teaching him! I need to love church that much.

In ward council yesterday the young women's president shared something her 19 year old daughter said, "Families are eternal. They aren't designed to be apart. For our growth, we have to be apart for a time. Then we come back together and we share what we've learned and how we've grown, and we are together in our eternal family." That's actually not an exact quote, but that was the idea. Anyway I just loved it. That's why I miss you all so much! We aren't made to be away from each other. Families are eternal and separation feels wrong! But for a mission it's worth it, because the rest of our eternal family is out here. We are all separated from Heavenly Father for a time so that we can grow, but we grow a lot more when we learn from Him. I'm grateful to help people make that connection to their Father. Love you all so much!

Sister Robinson

The highlight of my week

24 October 2015

Traslado 10

My friends and family!

This was such a crazy week. It was awesome, though. I got my new companion, Elder Quinn, and he's sick. He's from Heber City, but he grew up in Georgia, and he went to college at BYU-Idaho. So I've been teaching him everything I know about what we do in the office, and he's doing great. And I've been buying flights and taking care of cell phones for all of the missionaries. It's some good times. And I got to drive a ton this week. Just saying. I'm basically pro at driving manual, now. But anyway…

The first week of transfers is always kind of slow as far as the work goes, but we went to all of the recent converts so that Elder Quinn could meet them, and he already gained their trust pretty well I feel like. We're making some sweet plans for this week to encourage and get the members pumped to join in on the missionary work. We don't have it all planned yet, but it's going to be something about "Catching the wave" of missionary work. I don't know if you remember that talk, but we're gonna do an activity that's based on that because we're in the summer! Woo hoo!

Also, this last week I've felt really strongly the physical and mental strength that God grants to those who are in His service as well, because all of the sudden there was a lot of new responsibilities just dumped on me, and it was pretty stressful, but with God's help and the much needed support of my companion as well, it made it seem, still stressful, but everything ran smoothly.

I can't believe next week is Halloween! That's crazy. I feel like Halloween wasn't too long ago. But, whoops, it's been a year. How exciting! Hopefully you all do trunk or treating! I don't think my ward down here is gonna do it, I tried to explain it to the Bishop but he didn't get it much. The scripture that's been rolling around my mind a lot this week is one that is found in Doctrine and Covenants. It says, "Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work," which means that all that is required to be part of the work of salvation is that we have desires. That really impressed me that He is not only looking for scholars or wise men to do the work, but anyone that has the desires to do it. Do you have desires? Then… you're called. (Don't you wish all job applications were that easy?)

:) I love you guys! I hope you have a fantastic week! And here are some more pictures of the groundbreaking! And a picture of me and my companion as well. Have a Happy Halloween!

Con mucho cariño,

Elder Robinson

Us 4 last week!!!!


And Elder Quinn!!!

23 October 2015

October 17-October23

Saturday, made a buko shake at home last night: 2 c coconut water, 1/3 c coconut cream, 1/4 c coconut meat, 2 c ice, 2 T honey...yum!
9:30 Jalandoni after sending lots of messages for next week. BYU 38-Cincinnati 24 on KSL! Returned to the apartment for fajitas and start our fast. We took a little rest. Heard from Sister Jan Jones-- she and Sister Diana Chatterton are at the Holiday Inn for four days before they get into their apartment. We walked the Esplanade, 1 1/2 miles briskly then 1 mile cool down and back to the apartment at 4:00-- great wind today and overcast--wonderful! In the evening, we worked on making an inn door for the place where Mary and Joseph were turned away.
Sunday, Fasting is first, third and fifth Sundays here in the mission. Ward conference was held in Mandurriao. We sang in the Ward choir. I mostly mouthed it, as I am having some asthma. The chapel was full--all the San Miguel group was there (Geraldine, one year convert; Rudy, one arm, recent convert man...seven out of eight. Also Queenie and Brakie and both boys. Only sacrament meeting was held because of a typhoon threatening. We came home and broke our fast with fish and chips and onion rings, sauce and vinegar. Took a rest, visited Ray's drawers😉--meaning we talked, relistened to conference. I'm still breaking out with shingles.
Monday 8:30 we went to the center but no Internet. We did get news that a brother who was recently sustained as a counselor in the Jordan branch presidency on Guimaras drowned when his boat capsized. Six others also didn't make it but 26 survived. The wharf had been closed all morning but reopened at noon, so people thought it was safe but the wind from the typhoon just blows them over. Once when we were in Guimaras for meetings, his wife, Lala had bought our tickets for the boat ride back. She is the specialist in the branch. They have six girls. We are so sad. She is a great lady. At 10:00 we gave up on the Internet and went to Arevalo. Got on the Internet there; at 1:00 we went to the apartment by way of McDonald's; ate and took a rest. Stayed at the apartment the rest of the day. I'm not feeling well. A little asthmatic response to this infection that keeps spinning through my head. Read. Ray called the mission Dr. in Manila--09178694391, Thueson. He sent pictures of my spots, reported my sore throat/ear ache/sinus--mild, oil slick on urine 3 months now, frequent night time urination.
Tuesday district meeting, went to SM for some stuff for missionary Christmas conference, ate lunch, took a rest, went to the center, worked on Christmas conference. 6:00 we are waiting for Butch, Darlene, and Sister Cagape to have a self reliance meeting. Home 8:00 snack, bed.
Wednesday Fourth Nephi--at 10 years old Mormon was given instructions to observe (President Bednar gave a great talk some time back on "observe"). Mormon was a sober child, not light-minded. Oh, be sober, my grandchildren--learn in thy youth to keep the commandments of God. I liked what was said of Elder Hales as he was questioned by Elder Bednar something to the effect: what he could accomplish, and his answer was so wise: "I only do that which matters most." Learn to do that "which matters most" first--everything else will fall into place. 1-Read and "ponderize" scriptures daily 2-Pray morning and evening and in your heart all day long 3-treat your family members with charity, putting their wants first 4-Really focus on making Sunday a "delight". That means preparation on Saturday. Be so creative, bless those around you. Oh, how I love my children and grandchildren. We must not dwindle in unbelief! Hang on and stay in the "Old Ship Zion". The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord's only church on the earth that has the authority to seal upon you all the ordinances and to bless you to receive all the covenants the Lord has for those who will choose Him as their God. As you do these 4 things, you will immediately experience more happy, joyful days. 9:16 left for the center. While I was standing by the truck to get in, the wind blew a dead, brown leaf out from underneath the truck--I JUMPED, my heart skipped, but I didn't scream. I should be use to the lizards and rats now. No one else even notices or turns their heads as the rats boldly walk across the road or as the lizards crawl all over the walls. We stayed at the center until 12:30, ate lunch, then went to Arevalo to visit with Sister Aquino about my health issues and then President Aquino about career workshop. Then we walked the Esplanade, but not briskly. Returned to the center until 5:30. Ray took us to Mang Inasal for dinner. It is my favorite. I just eat the chicken with vinegar, oil, and calamansi. I saved my rice. I always find someone hungry to give it to. I gave it away to 2 little children on a tricycle with their father. They acted like I was "Santa Claus"--they waved and waved as we drove away. We came home and Jan called from Manila. It was so fun! They started working at PEF on Monday. Jan is very excited about her work as a missionary.
Thursday 6:00 am we went to Medicus for testing: blood test for UA and LIPID, and a urine test. We can pick up results at 11:30. The area mission doctor recommended the tests. We came home and exercised, showered, read scriptures. It's a very sad time, Book of Mormon page 476. It has been less than 200 years since God, the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ showed themselves to Joseph Smith. Where are we? Like Elder Ballard said, "Stay in the boat and hang on. We can't get anywhere by jumping ship and trying to swim by ourselves." No new shingles for two nights now--healing only now! Tests came back fine. So just feel better☺️. We stopped at Arevalo to speak with Sister Aquino. 1:30 came home to eat. 3:25 we returned to Arevalo and went over the Christmas conference, December 9 and 10...3 zones one day, the other 4 zones the next day. I thought of some games. 5:00 we tried to walk the Esplanade but I'm having some trouble breathing--another day, came home. Interesting, Ray noticed that I cough more in air conditioning.
Friday struggling with breathing but managed to do many of my exercises--not the cardiovascular ones--stepped instead of jumped😉. Shingles are healing. Health is on the upswing. Nice clean rain this morning. Mormon 7:9. "If they believe the Bible, they will believe the Book of Mormon. " 8:39. "Why do ye adorn yourselves with that which hath no life, and yet suffer the hungry, and the needy, and the naked, and the sick and the afflicted to pass by you, and notice them not? " The mouse has been found after 3 days "no show"! We noticed a bad smell in the closet room. The mouse was under Ray's bottom closet drawer. He had to pull the drawer all the way out. There it was; plus he found a small live lizard inside his drawer--dead now. Ray is cleaning with bleach. He found a dead cockroach behind the stove while he was cleaning.
We shouldn't get any more large animals; Ray put a large weather strip on the inside of the bottom of the door. It's very tight. I'm sorry to say: I'm done with critters--now I'm ready for cold weather but none comes. It rained the first two morning hours but now the sun is shining. At 9:30 we left for SM to get pesos and the machine was working--the last three trips, it has been under maintenance. We shopped after we got pesos. There was a children's theme of some kind in the mall and It's a Small World was playing and these darling little children were dressed up in different countries costumes, waving different flags...yes, there was Uncle Sam with the U.S. flag. We are fixing lunch now and then we will go to the center and send this off. Sister Teresa Robinson

22 October 2015

While I wait to have our container filled with water 10/22/2015

20 October 2015

Transfers

When we are waiting for rides to lessons we sit in our trunk sometimes...haha.

We found this cute pumpkin truck! Just randomly parked on the side of the road with no signs.

Well this week was pretty eventful! Monday evening we got a text from our bishop telling us to go visit this woman who is not a member, but works with members. We were really excited for this referral, so we knocked on her door and she actually answered! She was like, "oh, did my friend from work send you?" So we were pretty excited. Then she said, "so how do we get started?"...I was confused, so I said, "We don't really know what you were told to expect, but as missionaries we
share a message about Jesus Christ..." etc. etc. To which she replied that her friend knew she was struggling financially...so then we had to explain that we aren't involved in welfare at all haha. Awkward! So we offered service or anything else and tried to teach her still but she actually just wanted welfare. So that was exciting!

On Tuesday and Wednesday we were on exchanges so I was with Sister Diamond. She is pretty much the real life Giselle (like on Enchanted). In the morning when we went out to exercise she left the keys in our room, so when we came back we were locked out of the house! We didn't even have our phone with us to call anyone for help, so we didn't know what to do. It was so funny! But also kind of
stressful haha. So we said a prayer, and then we went around to the gate. She stood on my back to unlatch the gate from the other side. Our bedroom window was open so we popped out the screen and then she climbed in the window. Oh man it was so funny! So...if the missionaries can break into your house you know the security is terrible haha. One of the pictures is me with the screen popped out.

One evening this week we were given an outrageous amount of food. Our dinner appointment had a sick family member so they dropped off food for us at our house, then another member invited us over spontaneously because they had non member family over. So we ate dinner there and saved the drop off dinner for later. Then we were knocking on doors of potential investigators and one answered and immediately before we could even talk to her insisted on making us food! She had us wait outside while she made us quesadillas. I was just thinking, "use the time you are taking to make that and let us talk to you instead!" She isn't interested and wouldn't let us talk to her but she still wanted to feed us. We did get to say a prayer with her and leave her with a Plan of Salvation pamphlet. After that we went to a members house to use the bathroom and they kept offering us cake. We got out of that one though, but they did send us with a bag of apples from their tree. If all the food that went to missionaries went to homeless people instead I bet they'd all be well fed.

Saturday evening we got the phone call about transfers. Sister Miller and I are both staying together and staying here. Sister Miller is "dying" (going home from) here. So odds are I'll stay at least one
more transfer after this one. But you never know! I'm happy to be staying here, I wanted to be here for Dominik. Bonus, two of my favorite people got transferred here! Sister Naylor, my old companion is now in our zone and so is Hermana Fly (she lived with me in Galt). So I am super happy to have more friends here! We are getting our car taken away, so we will have to get rides to church every Sunday and every meeting from now on. Hopefully that will help us become closer
with the ward! And hopefully I have time to dry out between rain falls. Ha, just kidding, we're still in a drought so not that much rain probably.

There have been some struggles this week with Dominik. He is still doing great but we're getting some resistance from his foster dad. He keeps coming up with excuses why he is in trouble and therefore can't meet with us. We've had two canceled appointments and he wasn't able to come to church on Sunday. We were able to have a good conversation with his foster dad yesterday and establish some expectations with him, so that was really good and went well (totally an answer to our prayers!). Please pray for Dominik to have the strength to meet the opposition he is facing, and for David, his foster dad, that his heart will be softened. Dominik needs to be supported to remain active after he is baptized. His whole home situation just breaks my heart, and he needs the peace and comfort of the gospel. Last night at our lesson when he said the closing prayer he prayed that we could all see Him and live with Him again. What a great prayer! I'm so grateful to be teaching him and have the opportunity to see his faith. Love you all so much!

My scripture(s) for the week: "He that speaketh, whose spirit is contrite, whose language is meek and edifieth, the same is of God if he obey mine ordinances."
"Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers."

Have a great week!

Sister Robinson

Transfers

When we are waiting for rides to lessons we sit in our trunk sometimes...haha.

17 October 2015

La Palada Inicial

Friends and Family!

I love you guys! :) Just in case you didn’t know. This week was good. And it was the last week of transfers again, so on Monday my companion, Elder Anderson, will go and I’ll get a new companion here in the office and University ward! And I’ll be Comisario and teaching the new Elder his duties. My new duties will be ordering the mission materials and buying the flights for the missionaries that are headed home. How fun! :)

And guess what!!! The groundbreaking ceremony of the Concepcion Temple is today!!! Woo hoo!!! I wasn’t invited, but I might still be in the video… because they recorded me and my companion doing a missionary contact. Nothing to amazing, but hey, maybe we’ll be in the video. I’ll let you know, though. But we still got to watch it in the stake center, so we’re basically part of history. And we actually went afterwards and we got to shovel with the golden shovel, too! It was so cool! And I saw the Bishop and his wife from my first area, Chillancito, and it was such a joyful reunion! It was so fun to see them again! And we got a picture with Elder Gonzalez who’s the Area President. It was pretty much THE BEST! So I have officially participated in a groundbreaking ceremony.

On Sunday we found a new investigator that wanted a blessing, that’s how we met him. He was pretty cool, but he’s old and didn’t really understand too much, but we’ll just go little by little. :) And then on Monday we were asked to go to the hospital to give a blessing to this baby girl, she was in the surgery room, so only one person was able to enter at a time, so I got to go in and bless her. It was such a tender experience. When she saw me through the window she started waving at me and pointing at me. It was adorable. She was 1 and a half years old, and was born with a lung problem and they haven’t been able to pinpoint exactly what it is. Her name is Emilia, so if you think to prayer for her, her family would appreciate it. :)

We are in the war chapters of Alma right now, which has got to be one of the coolest parts, :) and reading about Captain Moroni and Lehi and how they found peace in knowing and trusting the other and loved each other and it says that they were greatly loved among all the people of Nephi. I just felt like I really want to be like Lehi. It says that when the Lamanites saw that he was leading the army, they were afraid and didn’t want to fight. And as members of the church we all want and need to become those people, so when those “Lamanites and Nephite dissenters” that attacks us today, see how fierce we are for standing and fighting like lions for truth and righteousness. I really see no other way to raise a family in righteousness other than that.

I love you guys a ton! And I hope you all have a good week and that when the temptations of today come at us with their unjust causes, they too will turn away in fear because of our steadfastness and bravery.

Love,

Elder Robinson

P.S. Here's a picture of us with President Gonzalez and his wife, and this random girl... maybe his daughter. Next week I'll have pictures of me with the shovel!!! Or maybe in a couple of minutes... but probably next week. and our new car. haha. I wish!

16 October 2015

Friday, October 9-Friday, October 16

Worked on an on-line meeting acceptance with Chad Furness, worked on social security papers again, watched some conference, went to eat at Promenade and did small grocery shopping, checked on money place, got the car washed, purchased some different rat poison, went to Arevalo to return a bowl to Sister Aquino and the Assistants to the President saw us and ran over to our vehicle. They said they were just praying for some help and we showed up. We took two elders and two sisters to the Molo bus terminal; returned and took two elders going to Parola wharf going to Guimaras. It's 4:20 so we are headed home. I prayed this morning that we would find service today. Thanks Heavenly Father!
Saturday 7:45 sitting behind the priesthood within sight and hearing (if he yelled) of my companion😄. Conference in the Philippines😓. It actually makes me homesick. Helaman 10:4,5..." For thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will". How great would it be to be like Nephi and the Lord could trust me to do and say only His will. Oh, I'm loving conference! Conference buoyed me up. Priesthood session was at 8:00 then Saturday morning session was 10:00-12:00. Then a lunch break. We had an errand and we ate at Mang Inasal--chicken with calamansi, vinegar, oil--yummy. It hit the spot. 2:00-4:00 was the afternoon session. After we gave 8 missionaries rides--2 sisters came home to the apartment for sea salt water and essential oils. Sister Miggin is having some foot problems, caused from plastic shoes in humid weather--the feet never dry out. After I took care of Sister Miggin, they left and we ate, drew pictures, and read scriptures. Goodnight. More glorious conference tomorrow!
Sunday left at 7:30 for Arevalo, General Conference broadcast 8-10, then10-12. We gave 11 people rides home, 4 sisters, plus Sister Insigne and two daughters in back seat on laps and 4 elders in the truck bed. It was announced that President and Sister Sorilla, who are our landlords and he is a counselor in the mission presidency, they will report to Manilla November 6. He will be the executive secretary to the Area Presidency. That is their mission call! They are a great couple. We will miss them. We went and visited Mel and Erl Cozzens. Came home and read.
Monday washed, cleaned some, and met Cozzens at McDonalds at 9:00. We took Mel home and we three went shopping for material that is sparkly for the couples dinner/dance in November. Erl showed us the Tatay textile store. We picked out material and then Ray took Erl home and we went home and ate, checked on our wash and brought out of it inside. Ray took me back to Erls house and he went and picked up President Insigne and a cabinet to take back to Jalandoni. A lady came to measure me for my sparkly outfit and I drew a picture of how I wanted it to look. She is a seamstress. About 3:40 Ray returned to pick me up and we returned to the apartment.it is really wearing to drive here. It is a constant battle--no one stays in their lanes. They turn from any lane left or right. You never know what they are going to do. I'm making a five layer dip to take to Sorilla's for fhe tonight at 6:00. This will probably be the last with them. We taught them all conference pictionary. They really got into it.
Tuesday zone meeting--4 sisters in the back seat, 4 elders in the open cab. We now have 24 missionaries in our zone. Most stayed after for more meetings so we just took two sisters home by way of McDonalds as per request to celebrate one of the sisters in the apartments birthday, Sister Samorin. However she is sick so we are picking up some ginger and cutting some lemon grass to steep for her. After we dropped off the sisters, we went to Jalandoni. 5:00 we stopped at McDonalds for a Big and Tasty meal, we share now. I eat 1/4 and six fries and Ray takes care of the rest. However, we also got apples pies and we eat our own😐. It's fruit so it's not fattening😋. While we were at Jalandoni, it poured rain and a lot of pumping out of water was going on as we drove home. I did steep the ginger and lemon grass and we took it to Sister Samorin. She had slept most of the day. We prepared the clothes for washing tomorrow
Wednesday washed our whites and hung them out to dry. Every day is a happy day in the Philippines with Ray; the sun is shining, roosters crowing, warm or hot weather with or without a storm (it always seems like an oxymoron when it storms because it is never cold), often a nice, gentle breeze, and my favorite person who knows me best and still loves me is next to me. How blessed I am. We cut my hair this morning. It got unbearable. We are still entertaining a rat for all the traps we have laid and all the poison we have set around. But he keeps "surprising" us with quick appearance/disappearance acts. We bought a jug of water on our way to Jalandoni, P15, approximately 2 gallons. We wash the dishes with it and our hands and cook with it. 9:15 we are at Jalandoni--it is a brown out, no power except for the centers generator. 12:30 back to the apartment to bring in the dry laundry, eat lunch, take a rest, (I hate that phrase; it sounds like we are old😖), and returned to Jalandoni. On the way, Ray stopped and purchased 2 green coconuts@30P each. 5:30 we went to the Esplanade for a brisk mile and a half walk. Then home for 6 Tostitos with cheese sauce, mashed avocado with lemon, and sour cream. Satisfying.
Thursday 3 Nephi 9:14 "yea, verily I say unto you, if ye will come unto me ye shall have eternal life. Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me." This scripture is so hopeful. After all the wickedness of the Nephites and Lamanites, there is hope for me, a sinner; change, give my whole heart, might, mind, and strength--a broken heart and a contrite spirit. We are feeding the rat peanut butter mixed with poison granules on a plastic spoon behind the refrigerator. Last night and this morning we can see the handle moving while he licks off the peanut butter and leaves the granules. This is a smart rat. Ray is ironing his white shirts. He used his new hatchet and chopped off the bottom of one of our coconuts so it would sit flat and then chopped off the top so we could get the coconut water out; then chopped it in half to scrape out the soft coconut meat. It's all in the refrigerator now. He had such a great time with his new hatchet. We went to Jalandoni and tried to see about my SS and Medicare. Ray called Medicare but they said to call somewhere else. It poured rain. Picture will come. The streets are full. We stopped at SM and paid the phone bill and picked up a few groceries while we were there. Went home and washed eggs before I put them in the refrigerator. Then cooked our dunch (dinner at lunchtime). Fish, onions, red peppers, cabbage with lemon rind. Laid down then returned to the center. At 5:00 we will walk the Esplanade...come off ten pounds😫6:00 home, snack, read, bed☺️
Friday washed socks, made wheat tortillas (6, as I roll them out with a drinking glass). We had pancakes and a pomelo for breakfast. It has very thick skin, the sections are bigger than grapefruit, not as sour or as juicy as grapefruit. It started sprinkling rain, lighter, then heavier, then lighter etc. ( brought the wash in under cover)8:45 we left for Jalandoni, worked some there until 11:30 and went to Arevalo to check on transfer times, as we heard they had changed, also checked on Christmas conference--nothing set yet, picked up apartment check papers, and reviewed with the AP the locations and received current phone numbers for contacting. Elder Craythorne is so helpful. Picked up some bananas and half a kilo of lanzones at a stand on the road in San Miguel. 1:00 back to the apartment--ate and rested. 2:30 went to the Esplanade for our walk early; it looks like rain later. Spent some time looking up Elder Rasband's wife's family tree. She is a Twitchell so I knew we were related. Her name is Melanie Twitchell and we connect at my ggg-grandfather, Ephraim Twitchell 1803-1872 so our gg grandfathers were brothers and her g-grandfather and my g-grandmother were first cousins. Great grandma Twitchell married Hutchings and was Grandma Becksteads mother/father (Hutchings). So fun to follow a hunch but if their name is Twitchell, we are related--that's what my mother said😆

12 October 2015

Hello favorite people!

This week has been so good! Dominick is doing great! He is still reading the Book of Mormon, still praying, and asking awesome questions. He is excited to get baptized and this week we are going to help him make some invitations so he can invite his friends. He came to church yesterday and really enjoyed it. He says great prayers. We're having good success getting members to his lessons and everything is moving along swimmingly! I keep thinking we have to be forgetting something really important because it's all too easy! I guess that's how it is when people are prepared. I know Heavenly Father has prepared him and put him where he needed to be to receive the message of the gospel. The lessons have been going really well and he's very smart. He's learning quickly. He also has some foster brothers that we are hoping we can get interested and teach. It just makes my day to go see him. I'm so excited for him to get baptized. After church we had a lesson with him and he brought up that his Sunday School teacher had encouraged them to do a journal for 21 days. He decided that for his entries he is going to choose a verse each day that he read and write his thoughts on that verse. Isn't he great? It's so fun to teach someone that is progressing.

We also found out this week that there are people in our neighborhood that owned the killer dog in Sandlot. It was their dog and they flew him out for filming and everything. Crazy! He has passed on since, so unfortunately we won't be able to take pictures with him or anything.

Other than that, it's honestly just all been about Dominick. Nothing else this week was particularly noteworthy. My life is going to seem so meaningless after he gets baptized haha. My ponderize scripture for this week is D&C 88:123-124 "See that ye love one another; cease to be covetous; learn to impart one to another as the gospel requires. Cease to be idle; cease to be unclean; cease to find fault one with another; cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated."

It still works in with my humility theme that I've been working on because it includes not being covetous, and not fault-finding. Two things that are sins of pride. I've been learning a lot about that
lately and I'm trying to be more humble, submissive, and teachable. Love you all! Have a great week!

Sister Robinson

10 October 2015

I ate eel

¡Hola mis chaquillos!

Today, the Wynns (a missionary couple) took us to Tumbes, which is basically a little fishing village, to take some pictures, enjoy the ocean and eat eel. :) haha. It was actually pretty good, although it makes your breath smell pretty bad. So check out the pics to see, it wasn honestly beautiful, and you have to know that after the earthquake/tsunami of 2010 this place was completely destroyed. And it's back to beautiful.

¿Cómo les va? I'm doing pretty well. :) We had a sick activity last night, we all watched Meet the Mormons last night and quite a few people went, more than we expected. We don't know if anyone wants to hear more yet, but we have high hopes. People came from all over Concepcion, though, so they might not be in our area, but they can still get baptized! :) We've been trying some new things to find investigators, and we're hoping to start seeing the fruits, although we have already seen some because the members were really happy about the activity from last night, we had a ton of last-minute, unexpected support from them, so that was really awesome.

Wasn't conference amazing? Especially for women, they got some fat shout outs. It was a good weekend to be a girl. There wasn't a single missionary, I don't think, that didn't just want to go give their mom a big hug and tell her thank you. Haha. My mom is definitely one of those mothers that Elder Holland talked about. Even though sometimes I wished she wouldn't bear all my burdens all the time. But at the end of it all it's a good thing she did because who knows where I would be without her and my dad. I have some sweet girls in my life, my mom, my sisters and sisters-in-law and my nieces. And they are all amazing and are, as Elder Hales said " wholesome, attractive, honest, happy, hardworking, spiritual [people]," and I look up to all of them. I hope you'll all help me find a babe so I can have a wife like that, too. ;)

Also, I've been practicing sewing, just so you know, so I can make some of my ties skinny, I found a really old and ugly one to practice on (good thing I did) but I failed miserably, so, if anyone wants to send me instructions on how to make a skinny tie and sew it back up, that would be incredible.

It was so fun to be able to sustain the three new apostles. It was amazing being able to hear their testimonies and already feel that they are special witnesses of our Savior, Jesus Christ. It's not like a worldly job where you have to rise through the ranks before you gain legitimacy, although I'm sure it's an adjustment in lifestyle, but it was so clear that they were called by God and you could really feel the authority and integrity in their testimonies. No pressure. :) And the Primary children's choir was so amazing. My hat goes off to whoever organized and directed that. :)

I hope you all have an amazing weekend and can all leave the house many times to enjoy the beautiful autumn. He did create it for us, after all. And it is beautiful. It's one of the things that remind me most often how much God loves us. And with all due respect, He's the man. We can show Him our gratitude by going out and soaking it all in.

Well, that's all for now. I sure do love you guys a lot! You guys are all "choro" that means like really awesome in Chileno. Have an amazing week!

Love,

Elder Robinson