Out with the old and in with the new!

Hello everyone!

I'm glad to announce that I thought of another good subject line! :) haha. But seriously, today I said my last goodbye to Elder Smoot, tomorrow morning he will take the flight to Santiago, and from there visit the temple and take a flight to the states in the evening. It was a good week, he said goodbye to everyone, and we had some really good lunches since they were his last ones. It was pretty great. Yesterday he had his last interview with President Arrington, it's also the last interviews that President Arrington will have. This transfer, he will leave and President Catala (from Argentina) will arrive. At the very end of June he and his wife will arrive with their 15-year-old son. So that's pretty exciting! But we're working on something cool to do for President and Sister Arrington before they leave, but it's a surprise! So don't tell! :D

Tomorrow, I'll get to meet up with my new companion, Elder Vargas! He is from Argentina! I already know him a little bit, and he's a really great guy, I'm honestly really excited to work with him. I'm excited to be with a latino companion again as well. It's been almost a year since I was with my last latino companion. Wow. Long time. haha.

Anyway... This last week honestly FLEW by. I can't even remember what we did! haha. Just the lunches. :) HA! Just kidding. Everyone was just sad because Elder Smoot was leaving. They had a little farewell party for him in the chapel, so that was pretty fun. He plays baseball, and one of the converts made him a baseball cake. It was really cute, and totally delicious. 

There's not too much time today because of transfers, but I love you all and I hope you have a fantastic week! You know I will! :) I should have more time next week to tell you all about Elder Vargas and the people we're working with. We have the goal as a mission to take 2 people to church this sunday in each area. So that's what we're going for. It's actually a challenge the area presidency gave us. So that's what we're looking at for this week! Pray for us!

Com muito amor,

Elder Robinson

P.S. We have a lot of Brasileiros in our zone, so that was portuguese. Para que no se confunden! and here are some pictures from an exchange I had with Elder Oliveira (a brasileiro) and it's like 3 hours away from my area. haha. It's way out in the booneys! They say there are more cows than people there. I think it's true.

 

And here's a really big spider we found in the air on the way down from Cerro Navidad.

Woops... I ran out of good subject lines

Hello everybody!

This week was pretty cool! It was my companion's birthday on Saturday, which was way fun! haha. He didn't want anyone to know, but some sisters in our ward planned him a little surprise birthday party for him, and they gave us some delicious cake. :) We actually got three pieces of cake that day! But only one of them was for his birthday. One slice we got was from a less active brother named Augusto's birthday, and the other one... I don't really know why they gave it to us, but I just figured it was just a delicious tender mercy. :)

We were able to see a miracle as well this weekend. We went to visit a less active sister whose name is Monica, and there was another lady there, but she looked busy so we just shared with Monica, but apparently the other lady was listening and she really liked what she heard so she told Monica she wanted to know more and she brought her to church yesterday! So that was really cool. The lady's name is Irina, and we have an appointment set up to teach her this week, she seems really receptive, so we have high hopes for her.

We also had a lot of less actives committed to church on Sunday, and almost all of them went! It was really good to see them all there, it had been quite a long time for some of them, and it was a really powerful sacrament meeting.

I want to share with you something I wrote to my mission President near the beginning of my mission. I wouldn't have expected to learn something from what I said, but I think it's really true, and I'm grateful for this time to serve.

"Yesterday we were talking with our Bishop and he reminded us that this is the only time in our lives when we'll be able to focus so completely on doing the work of the Lord. I've been told that so many times but for some reason this time I really finally understood it. Better late than never. It's such a gift we as missionaries have to just forget everything else and give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord. At home it's a whole different life. It's all about balancing church and family and education/carreer. But here and now, it's really just us and the Lord and the people. Which, still, is a task. But it's easy because we're doing it with the Lord, or really He's doing it through us. And we just have to keep ourselves pure and malleable for Him to work with."

It's a concept to apply for all times of life, we need to humble ourselves and maintain ourselves in a state where the Lord can work with us, and hopefully, deepen that humility and allow ourselves to be filled with His everlasting love and light. 

I love you guys and I hope you all have an amazing week! Thanks for everything you do to be disciples of Christ and teach and help those around you to do the same. It's our little teaspoon, but for the Lord, every single one is important.

Con cariños y amor,

Elder Robinson

This is my comp's bday party. haha. he has his tie off because here they make you bite the cake (tradition) and then they smash your face in it. It's really nice. ;)

And a pic from our zone activity today!

Saying goodbye!!!

Gonna miss this beautiful young lady.

Three down, one to stay - more pics

This is Agustina, she's one of our chilean moms in this ward. She has elephants EVERYWHERE in her house.

And a #sunsetselfie

Three down, one to stay

Hello everyone!

To explain the subject, when I started my mission, I was shortly joined in the field my my parents (who served in the Philippines) and then a couple months later I was also joined by my sister (who finished her mission this week in California) so it's kind of a landmark to be the only one in my family on a mission! haha. But I hope that my sister is well received and that she gets terribly spoiled and loved and gets to hold the new nieces and nephews that have been born while we've been gone. I know that she has missed it!

This week was pretty great, and yesterday was the cherry on top!  Recent convert in our ward was assigned to talk about the day of rest, and the sacrament. He's really new, and it was an amazing talk. He received the priesthood last week and is the 2nd counselor in the Young Men's. He's honestly on fire. His name is Diego. He's studying in the university right now, and he's really smart. He talked about why we wear white shirts to symbolize and remember that white clothing we wear when we are baptized and the clothing we wear to enter the temple as well to make other covenants and to do ordinances for the dead. It was honestly an inspiring talk, and it was a blessing to see how much his testimony grew by researching for and delivering the talk, he also blessed the sacrament for the first time on Sunday.

We visited a lot of people this week to invite them all to go to church and commit them to baptism to see who really had desires to follow Christ, and it was successful, but most of them really didn't, so this week we're really excited to dedicate a lot of time to finding people to teach and contacting some more member referrals that we have received. 

We also had a ward missionary activity this week and invited everyone to have a family night in the chapel with us! It was really fun, and we had a lot of support, we made sopapillas (those are like scones) and the sisters gave an AMAZING message, and I think everyone really enjoyed it, so hopefully they'll tell everyone about it so even more people come next time.

I hope you all have a wonderful week and are reading your scriptures and saying your prayers every day. I was studying the plan of salvation a lot this week about the fall and the atonement. "An act of supreme love for God and His children." He obeyed because He loved His father and because He loved us. That's the difference between obeying because we should and obeying because we want to. A sincere desire to obey Him because we love Him will perfect us.

Love,

Elder Robinson

P.S. Here's some pictures from this last week!

Last (gasp) Week follow-up

I just realized my email sounds kind of dramatic haha. This week was just fine and not bad in any way, I just wanted to focus more on my testimony than the things that happened. Here's some pictures from this week!

Sister Kirby had a birthday!

I really wanted the picture to look cool so I ran really hard. The momentum was a little more than I could land so...

This is me right before I fell really hard. Awkward. But I rolled really good and tried to play it off like I was trying to be a ninja so I didn't look so dumb haha.

We did service at another run, it was fun!

And our awesome member made her a lava chocolate cake. :)

Sister Robinson

Last (gasp) Week

This is going to be a really long one.  You have been warned.  I don't really want to talk about the week that much, I just want to share my testimony and the things I have learned on my mission.

I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live.  They love me and know me personally.  They have lovingly directed me throughout my life.  By the Lord's hand I was prepared for my mission through many spiritual experiences and also through challenges.  Every experience in my life prepared me to serve, and serving has prepared me to continue to improve, grow and serve throughout my life.

I have learned that there is no faith without action.  We show our faith by keeping the commandments, and acting on spiritual promptings we receive.  I showed faith by choosing to serve a mission, and that decision of faith has brought many miracles into my life.  The greatest miracle is the change that has come to me through accepting and accessing the atonement to improve and become more Christlike each day.

 I have learned that Heavenly Father ALWAYS has a plan, and that it will always succeed.  Missionary work is my opportunity.  He can do it, he has done it, and he will do it, but He has invited me to be part of it.  He wants me to experience the joy that comes through serving and through teaching the gospel.

I have learned that repentance is change, and that every time we make a choice to follow the Savior more closely, we are repenting.  Through repentance we become closer to our Heavenly Father, and we experience joy.  I have experienced joy through repenting. I have learned the important role agency has in our lives.  I was created with the ability to act and not be acted upon.  I always have the ability to choose.  As I choose righteously and wisely become a co-creator with Heavenly Father.  We create my life, and no matter what others may do or what other influences may touch my life, He is in charge, and I can choose to follow.

I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer
I know that it is through Him that I can become clean, and someday return to live with him, my family, and Heavenly Father again
I know that the church and gospel of Jesus Christ have been restored through the prophet Joseph Smith
I know that the Book of Mormon is a true book, ordained of God and translated by His power
I know that Christ is at the head of this church
I know that our current prophet and apostles are called of God
I know that the commandments will bring me great peace and happiness as I obey them.

Heavenly Father loves you.  If you've forgotten, ask.  He will help you remember how much He loves you.  It will all work out.  

I love you all and can't wait to see you!

 With love,
Almost home Sister Robinson

Happy Mother's Day! (follow-up)

This is our lunch every day! Look how healthy! :)

We packed a healthy lunch with us between churches. So we took a picture of how cute we are with our little milk bottles haha.

Dunno if this video will work, but it is right after we taught this kid our names at dinner. He was really proud of it and kept saying,"Wason, Kirby" (Robinson is hard, closest it gets haha)

Sister Robinson

Happy Mother's Day!

To all you wonderful mothers, mother's to be, and just wonderful women!  Love you all!  It's going to be a little bit of a short one this week because I have a lot to do, but I'll share some highlights.

Monday we went to one of our members houses and did some watercolor painting with her.  She helped us out a lot, and it was really fun.  Pictures attached!  I made one to give to one of our investigators, so that will be fun to give her before I go.

Tuesday we stole a chair from the church for the elders.  It was the funniest random text we got.  They asked us if our church building had the big tan primary chairs.  We said yes, they asked if we could bring them one for studies.  I guess one of them has back problems and the chairs the mission gives us are painful for him, so it was suggested he use one of those for the back support. Funny.

A cute little boy at dinner left in the middle of dinner.  Everyone was wondering where he went.  Then he came back with a little red water balloon each for Sister Kirby and me.  Haha it was so cute!

Went on exchanges with Sister Limb.  There were definitely some miracles so that was pretty cool.  We contacted a Hindi family from Nepal.  The mother and two daughters names were Pramila, Prabina, and Prasanna.  The fact I remember those names is a miracle all by itself.  We also contacted a guy that said he didn't speak English very well, so she and I cobbled together our few Spanish words to ask if the Spanish missionaries could come.  I contributed half of the name of the church in Spanish.  Couldn't remember the first half because I always try to say it in German (church of Jesus Christ...hard, right? But I always make it kirche and can't remember the Spanish word for church).  I've got de los Santos de las Ultimas Dias down though.  So we sent that referral.

This week I also had my departing interview with President Jardine.  I only cried a little bit, he was impressed.  He was also impressed that I have had four phone calls home on my mission.  Usually doesn't happen for sisters, I timed it just right.  It was really a great interview though, he shared lots of helpful wisdom and I took notes.  I also had my departing testimony at Zone Training on Friday.  I cried a little more for that one.  But mostly tears of gratitude for the experience and growth I have had. 

Saturday morning bright and early we had service helping with a "Love My Mother" 5k.  It was cool, we got to talk to a lot of the vendors and get to know them as we helped them set up their booths.  Then Sister Kirby and I were at the finish line handing out water and medals.  There is another run we are helping with next weekend.

Sunday I ended the week in the best way by skyping my family!  Sister Kirby was impressed that even though I couldn't see their faces, I knew when Susan, Raymond and Julie entered.  I recognized Susan's giggle, and Raymond and Julie's voices.  Family's are forever!  I'm so glad.  Love you all!

The day AFTER Mother's day

Hey everyone!

Guess what?! I'm actually in Chillán right now writing, because my companion got permission to come here to buy souvenirs before he goes home on the 31st, so we decided to come here today. It's fun to be here again and see some familiar sights. 

We had a really fun video call yesterday, got to talk to Mom and Dad and Charity and I also got to see Raymond and Julie for a little second and Susan and Tia! And I got to hear Sammy as well, but mom and dad's video had cut out. haha. That's all right though. It was really nice to see them and talk to them all again. Feeling really blessed to have such an amazing family. Sure do love those guys.

I have some sad news, too... We went to visit Carlos Nicolas to schedule the baptismal interview for this Wednesday, well we were doing divisions actually with a young man and our ward mission leader, so my companion went with our ward mission leader, and apparently it didn't go very well. He doesn't really have desires to follow Jesus Christ, he just wanted financial help from us and from the church. I guess I could have seen that one coming from what I had heard from his former experiences with the members of the church (always giving him things to help him out) but hopefully he continues and can get out of his depression.

I'm doing really well, it's getting pretty cold here now, but it hasn't rained very much. The members in Tomé totally spoil us. haha. But luckily there are a LOT of really steep hills so I can eat a lot and not get fat. haha. There's a member that brings us a package every Sunday with TONS of chocolate and bread for us to eat. It's hilarious. And I got to play the piano in Sacrament meeting yesterday, and accompany a special Relief Society choir. A song called Mi Bondad no se apartatá de Ti. Some of you have probably heard it in English. But I don't know what it's called in English. It went really well, considering we only practiced this week, and it was a beautiful sacrament meeting focused on the relief society and women in general, but especially for mother's day and the anniversary of the relief society. So that was pretty great.

We have several people we're working with and so this week we're going to focus on them and see which ones are ready to progress, or maybe all of them will be! :) I sure do love all of you guys and I hope you have a wonderful week and I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's day yesterday!

Cariños,

Elder Robinson

En Abril, Aguas Mil (viene Mayo, solo quiero hablar con mi familia :)

That's the Chilean version of April showers bring May flowers, but it turned out that it's not really true any more. It didn't hardly even rain in April! Except for that little rainstorm that flooded most the houses that weren't on the hills. But other than that, a reasonably dry month of April. And it's still pretty sunny out!

But anyway, I hope you all had an incredible last week of April! It was pretty great for us! The members gave us a TON of referrals, so that was a miracle by itself. I just felt so grateful for their help. It's honestly so much better with member referrals. So we hope to have a fun time contacting more of them this week and hopefully finding a lot of new people to teach!

Good news! Our investigator, Carlos Nicolas Sanchez Navarro, went to church yesterday! But it was a TASK to get him there. His depression makes it really hard to muster up the desires to leave his house. It's pretty difficult for him. But he did get there, and he really enjoyed it. He's been in and out of investigating the church for 10 years! We found that out this last week, but it seems like it's time. But please pray for him that he will continue progressing and be able to conquer his depression through his obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Also, please pray for the Valencia family. They are a family that got flooded in the rainstorm, and the stake president and some other members showed up to help them make some preparations and clean up. We have an appointment with them today. 

Testimony meeting yesterday was a healing experience. A young man got home from his mission in Guatemala last week and so his whole family bore his testimony, along with him. It was beautiful, and then the rest of the ward just followed suit. There was not a moment wasted and many were able to share their testimonies. It was a really special experience. You could see everyone's testimony grow and be strengthened by sharing it. I hope all of you share your testimonies with others frequently, and don't let more than a couple testimony meetings go by without sharing yours. You never know who might need to be nourished by your testimony.

I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week and a Happy Mother's day!!! I'm so excited to see Mom and Dad and Charity on Sunday! WHOO HOOOO!!!!

Love,

Elder Robinson

Shoulder to Shoulder

Perks of having a cosmetologist as a companion. She made my hair pretty.

Well this week there are probably plenty of things for me to write about but really only one that I want to write about haha. I'm a little preoccupied with one event from the week but I will try to find
other things to share as well.

Monday we played sand volleyball as a zone. That meant that I watched and took pictures for most of the time, but towards the end some people left so they made me play. I told them that means the rules
are no one can yell at Sister Robinson when she is bad at it. That stipulation resulted in me receiving some coaching before we started that was actually reasonably helpful. I still have really slow reflexes and I'm not aggressive so unless the ball comes straight to me I don't do much haha. Anyway that was pretty fun.

Tuesday we moved! So now we live in a great big apartment and we love it! Moving was a lot more time-consuming that we thought it was going to be, but some elders moved the heavy stuff and we are all settled and comfortable. We feel really spoiled because we have a kitchen now with a whole fridge and cabinets to put our food in and a kitchen table and dishes and a place for everything to go! It's the best. I love having places to put things away so it isn't all just out. Simple pleasures. We decorated the walls really nice with Ensign pictures haha. #missionarylife

Wednesday we finally got to help tile our members backsplash! It was a little bit harder than we  thought. We thought it was all done after we slapped the tiles on the wall but then they were all sliding down into each other so we had to emergency create spacers using index cards and credit cards. That's what happens when you know nothing about what you're doing besides what your member tells you from having watched a YouTube tutorial. It all turned out alright in the end though! And we felt like superstars for figuring it out.

Here's mostly what I've been focusing on all week. Friday we had a lesson with Madi. We were so  excited all week because we were going to invite her to be baptized and we were just so happy to finally have a lesson with her. We get to the lesson and there are two extra people that we weren't planning on there so that made a little different dynamic than we anticipated. Then people kept  coming in and interrupting the lesson and throwing it off. Our phone rang after reciting the First Vision (it is almost always on silent, this was unusual). In spite of all the craziness it seemed to be going pretty well. Madi really opened up and shared a lot of really genuine thoughts and experiences. She's pretty mature for her age. We invited her to be baptized and she said she would really love to. She has wanted to be a member of the church for a while! Yay! Then we were about to extend a specific baptism date, May 14th, when the doorbell rings. It is her mom at the door to pick her up. Her mom was supposed to come for the lesson but she was sick. As a reminder her mom is a former member so it is sort of a sensitive situation. We wanted permission from her before we invited Madi to be baptized but didn't get a chance. So her mom comes in and we introduce ourselves and catch her up on what we've been talking about and then pick up where we left off. We invite her to prepare to  be baptized on May 14th and she just starts crying. We really didn't know what to do with that so we sort of just watched for a while. Then her mom asked what was going through her head and she said that it just makes her so happy to think it could be so soon. I think we both felt at this point that her mom wouldn't be as happy about it so we said for them to pray about it. Then we said a closing prayer.

We talked to Madi for a few minutes and then her mom came over and started talking with us about her concerns. No surprise there really. She said she felt that was really soon and she wanted to make sure Madi understood what she was doing. She is worried that Madi will have a negative experience like she had and leave the church. Most of her concerns are a reflection of the reasons she has not  come back to church. It is really a tricky situation but she did say that it was going to be Madi's decision and she would support her, but that they needed to talk it over.

We really felt that in spite of all the craziness and chaos things turned out the way they needed to for her Mom to be there at the right time to be able to talk with us openly. Regardless of whether or not
Madi is baptized May 14th, things took several leaps forward because of that lesson and the invitation. Inviting is SO important! Ever since that lesson pretty much every waking thought has been about them and what we can do to help them and strengthen both of them in the gospel. We are praying really hard for them and hope the path for them will be opened up to continue growing and progressing.

We also had stake conference this weekend, and that was really nice. President and Sister Jardine were there, and President turned his time over to one of the Zone Leaders. He shared some thoughts that I really liked and wanted to share. One of which was the scripture on my missionary plaque. D&C 84:88 "And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up." He talked about his experience handing out copies of the Book of Mormon outside of the musical, and how there were many people mocking and degrading everything we believe and do. In spite of that, he felt that the Lord had been before him and had prepared the hearts of many of those people to receive the Book of Mormon. In a rather uncomfortable situation, he  could feel the spirit so strongly, because he was "standing shoulder to shoulder with the greatest life that ever lived."

Our Savior, Jesus Christ, is with us always. He prepares the hearts of those around us to receive the gospel. All He asks of us is that we open our mouths, and invite them to come unto Him. The Stake
President, President Harrison, said, "The Lord knows how to do His work, and I hope I can help from time to time." I love this work. I love the gospel. I love my Savior, and I know that He loves each of
us.

Sister Robinson