This week though...

This week was so crazy! And I don't even know what was crazy about it! It just flew right on by. Last p-day we spent the whole day trapped at a bowling alley. We got special permission to leave our zone to go bowling. A member took all the sisters piled in her giant van (that's the picture at the bottom).  What we didn't know is that we had to play three games because that's what the members had signed us up for. With as many people as we had three games takes longer than any of us wanted to be there. We were hungry! Once we found out we had three games to play we started bowling as fast as we could so we could go home and eat haha. Well after we rushed through we found out that we still couldn't leave because the member that brought us wasn't done yet. Always have your own  transportation! Not possible for us without a car. Anyway we ended up waiting around for her for two
hours. Then we wished we would've taken our time bowling so we had something to do haha. We had fun, though. It was so nice of them to take us!

This is a picture of our third Thanksgiving dinner so far this month. We had one the very first day of the month with our Bishop's wife. They had a foreign guest and wanted to give him the holiday experience. This week we had Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday and Thursday. We don't know why everyone is having thanksgiving early. It's pretty funny though. This family is all going to different wards. Ours, the YSA, and the Fijian group. Since the dad goes to the Fijian group he signed up to feed those elders. They accidentally signed up for the same night, and we aren't allowed to have elders and sisters at the same dinner appointment, so the elders had to take theirs to go. It was pretty funny when they showed up because the looks of panic on their faces were priceless. I'm sure mine was funny too, I froze with food halfway to my mouth.

We were biking to some people's houses and we passed the Spanish sisters car on the way. We took a second to put their windshield wipers up and leave them a note. :)

Friday we had Zone Conference and Elder Hamula and his wife came! I learned SO much. The best part about it was that in most conferences I learn a lot and I feel inspired to be better, but I never quite know how so it ends up not really changing that much. He told us EXACTLY how to change and what to do better. It was so great. There's been a lot of pressure in the mission lately and it has been kind of discouraging. This conference was exactly what I needed. Motivating and inspiring, and didn't make me feel like a failure. Just gave me encouragement on how to improve. Some thoughts to share:

We learned about four things that determine the culture of the mission and contribute to our success: Attitude, Obedience, Knowledge, Work Ethic. If we have a positive attitude (faith), are obedient to the commandments and mission rules, strive to increase our spiritual knowledge, and work hard (diligently) we will have the spirit with us to guide us. President Jardine shared that obedience comes from the heart, attitude is our might, knowledge is the mind, and work ethic requires strength. So if we do those things we are serving with our heart, might, mind, and strength. Elder Hamula taught three things that we can do to acquire Christ-like attributes that we don't now have. These three things help us change for the better:
1. Accept that you are free. You have agency and you are free to choose. No excuses, you choose to change and believe that you can.
2. Act outwardly the way you want to be inwardly. If you don't feel like doing something, do it anyway. "If any man will do His will, he will know the doctrine." You receive the witness after the trial of your faith. Act first, the desire will come.
3. If it was possible for you to change on your own, you wouldn't need a Savior. Rely on Him and His grace to help you change your heart. Pray for His help.

Of course none of that is new doctrine or anything, he just stated it so clearly and simply that I know how to apply it to myself, and how to recognize when I am not taking advantage of the gift of agency to act, regardless of outside circumstances that can tempt me to make excuses for not doing things. Anyway I hope something of that was interesting and helpful. It helped me! But maybe you had to be there.

This picture is evidence that I have been a missionary for a year. All my socks look like this. I thought it was funny so had to share.

It was Hermana McClouds birthday so we met the hermanas for lunch at "Las Palmas," they have pupusas, so I've tried those now. Their member also came. This was supposed to be a funny face picture but I was laughing too hard at everyone else to make a funny face.

In other news, we had two bike crashes this week. One of them I accidentally ran into Sister Miller from behind. She slowed down unexpectedly in the dark so I couldn't tell she was slowing down and ran into her. I called our Bishop's wife asap to get a ride home. She and Bishop Shaffer were so nice, and picked us up some hot chocolate on the way home. Turned out that hot chocolate was actually coffee. So I tasted coffee for the first time with my Bishop's wife. It isn't yummy. She reversed and had them get us actual hot chocolate. Much better! The second crash I fell all on my own. I was trying to get onto the sidewalk and slipped on the curb. I was wearing three layers and still managed to scrape up my elbow. Lucky I was wearing those layers! So that about covers it! Love you all!

Sister Robinson