Earth's crammed with heaven

The district and zone this past transfer.

Gorgeous flowers that are on some of the trees here. Yep, we have blessing trees. It's spring here. You know you all want to move here... :)

Well this week was pretty good! Missionary work is just good, that's all there is to it. We had a lesson with Nicole that was a little rocky. She doesn't feel like there is a need to know what is true. It's a concern I don't understand at all. She just kept saying, "Why does it matter who is right? Can't we just try to be good people? Isn't that good enough?" I just don't get it. But I listened and I feel the spirit told me what I needed to say. She said there is no way to know what is true. I asked her if she  believed that God answers prayers. She said she did. I asked if she believed He knew what is true and what is not. She seemed to think that made sense. So we talked about how it is pretty hard to be good and do good in the sight of God if we don't know what He wants, and that we can know those truths by asking in prayer and reading scripture. Hopefully that helped her out some.

We did some weeding service at a members house on Wednesday, that was fun. We got to know her a lot better and they just moved in to their house recently so we got to meet her neighbor, too. One of her neighbors just pulled over to say hi and meet her so we didn't get to talk with her much but at least we met her! We also met some members that have a son in the Logan, Utah mission. Small world.

We did service at the Old folks home again. It was a struggle, no one wanted to play with me! I ended up doing a puzzle all by myself! I did eventually get to meet and talk with a woman named Rita. She is way nice and has lots of faith. Hopefully I will get to talk with her again. We can't really proselyte at service but we gave her our card so she could call us if she needs anything.

We spent most of Friday at a funeral for one of the senior missionaries. He refused to be released from his mission so he was released at his funeral. It was a really nice funeral, he has left quite the legacy. Saturday we had a good lesson with Rex about baptism and how his responsibility now is to partake of the Sacrament worthily. I ended up playing fetch with an ugly bulldog, it had a good personality though. I have kind of turned into a dog person, which is very strange. I mean I don't love all dogs by any means but I like several of them and will pet almost all of them. Missions definitely change people.

We got our transfer calls and both of us are staying again! Transfer three with Sister Erickson, and in Oakridge and Silva Valley wards! We kept asking the zone leaders if there was a catch...like an added
Ward or a third companion or something crazy. It just seemed too simple. But it is true, we are both staying together again! And I am breaking all kinds of records by being the only companion Sister
Erickson has had for more than 2 transfers in the only area she has been in more than three. Maybe I'll break my own record and be here one more transfer after this (6 months). We'll see. I will definitely be here for my birthday though.

Ed canceled his lesson this week, so hopefully he will let us come this week. We have some really good leads with some members that have friends, so hopefully something plays out soon. Sunday they had some of the members tell their children's mission stories for sacrament talks. I'm not sure that was the most appropriate topic to choose but it was pretty entertaining. One guy told how his son was cornered by a member that is a little crazy and asked them to give her a blessing. She took them to a nearby thrift store and started talking to the store guy about the gospel and the Book of Mormon and priesthood and everything. She then asked him if he would come in the bathroom with her and the elders for the blessing since they can't be alone in a room with her without an adult man. The elder said it was the most uncomfortable thing he's ever done haha. Man, the people in this area are just so normal I forget how crazy people can be.

Monday we cleaned the temple again for service. I got to chat a little bit with a man that just got back from serving a mission in London with his wife. I think he said it was the London mission, and I told
him about Nathan and Amy of course. He didn't recognize the name of the place they live so he said they must be in the London South mission. It was cool though. I like cleaning the temple, it is special to care for the Lord's house. After we came out of the temple we had a voicemail from one of our members. He is an older man from Tonga, and told us that we have an appointment on Wednesday at 3:00 with an investigator. It is pretty hard to understand him, especially on the phone so who knows what the situation is but we are excited to find out! Then we had another member call us in the  afternoon wanting us to teach her massage therapist. Awesome! Problem is she does not actually live in our Ward boundaries but the Ward she is in has elders and she does not want elders because she is a single mom with a young daughter and would rather have women in the home. Of course we would
love to teach her but Ward boundaries are important! It can cause some really confusing problems to cross those lines, so we have talked to the zone leaders and we will see what President wants us to do. I wanted to share a poem that the Silva Valley Bishop shared in testimony meeting a few weeks ago. It was really profound to me and made me think.

"Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round and pluck blackberries."

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Look for Heavenly Father in the little things this week. Love you all!

Sister Robinson