Wow! The Lord is hastening the work!

I took a tuna salad to Arevalo business class to give some ideas about adding offerings to the fish business to get more sales and cut waste.  Anyway, they were having a little celebration because they are halfway through the 12 week business course.  The pig farmer is considering a loan and Ray showed him an amortization schedule so he could see the cost.  We had lunch and shopped for eight items, could only find four; no black pepper, very seldom can find sour cream.  Came home and it is fast Sunday noon to noon.  Ray is typing his conversion story.  I am reading from Jesus the Christ. Amy, Elle, and Ava are in for the scripture challenge, along with Susan, Raymond, Tia, Darrin, Tim, Sarah, Talmage, Lillie, Dallin, April, Mike, Emma, Jane, Rachael, Dave, Dietrich!  What great supporters!  Thanks, Dave for your calendar, I already found a mistake in my counting.  I skipped a day on paper so this Sunday, January 11 we are on page 77 O.T.
Sunday, January 4 Analisa, (my lost opportunity found), texted that she was coming to church with her three children and they came, the children enjoyed it and I got to send them on their way with a picnic lunch for the hour and a half ride home.  There were also two investigators at church.  After Mandurriao church and getting Analisa and her family off, we went to Molo 2nd where there is a new bishop, explained the initiative and told him where his ward had left off.  Then we attended San Miguel Group and they had two investigators.  Next was My Path at Mandurriao ward, with 23 attending.  Sister Janice, the ward specialist did a great job.  She is also an ob/gyn with a darling baby boy of her own so she just takes on a few patients now.  She and her husband, a fairly new convert went to the temple and were sealed with baby Thio in November.  Her father is President Garcia, past stake president.  He is a lawyer by profession and really knows the gospel. We were beat at the end of the day.
Monday we are being invaded by ants...bathroom, bedroom, closet...aah!  We went to Arevalo for internet service and discovered I typed last weeks' letter twice.  Thanks Rachael for editing.  There has been no internet at the Center for a month.  Ray found our water bill at the landlords so we went and paid that plus the phone bill.  In the afternoon we went to the wharf to pick up more books.  That takes about an hour and a half.
Tuesday we had zone meeting until noon and then the missionaries helped Ray unload eight boxes of books from the truck to the Center.  They are very heavy.  We unpacked the books.  The PFM is working on the internet to have two going in case one quits.  They will be moving back into our building in the room right next to us so the service should get better.  We had our self reliance committee meeting at 6pm.  It was decided to just keep focused on My Path.  We also made arrangements for our neighbors' son, who is 37 years old to come to our bungalow tomorrow to meet with the elders.  He has approached us several times but we don't understand the language, even in English well enough to really communicate.  I wrote about him before.  His father died and was just buried Dec 27.  He was given a Book of Mormon in Ilongo last year.
Wednesday I made lunch for the missionaries and Alvin came over.  They talked and I bore my testimony and I think he felt the Spirit.  The missionaries extended him a baptismal date of February 7.  His name is Alvin, pray for him.  He so needs the gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  After we went to the Center and began preparing talks for Sunday.
Thursday we were at the Ford dealership having the truck serviced.  It cost almost $200.  We can't figure out why this one thing is higher than in the states and everything else is much less expensive than the states.  Our appointment was at 8:30 and we were able to drive away at 11:00.  We did some wash, ironing and made and ate fettuccine .  We went to the Center and Ray printed off an ecclesiastical endorsement for PEF for a young student.  We returned to bungalow at 7:30.
Friday we are told that we will not be able to drive to the Center because of a festival celebration, so we went to Arevalo and did some things like turning in reports...  Later we were interviewed by Hazel Garcia.  She has a soft ice cream business.  Then we picked up the elders and went to Cecelio Mamgamgos funeral which was held outside the house.  The road to the house is narrow and not a road just a path. When we left, the elder had to lift up electrical wires for us to get out.  Anyway the 49 year-old deceased was a convert since 2006 but his wife and children have been members.  A tradition here is for relatives to play cards and gamble to help pay for the funeral expenses.  That was very interesting.  He left a wife and three daughters, 16, 13, 10.  They had not been to the temple yet so it will be an opportunity for the family to be sealed together after a year.  They also serve food when you come for the "wake" as it is called.  We got home around 9:30.
Saturday we were doing facilitator training at the Center and a fellow came in.  He remembered a missionary from his high school days and he is looking for some service and he came to the church.  It is a really sad story.  He is a medical technician and his wife was also, but he was working in Cebu when typhoon Yolanda hit last year and his whole family drowned, wife and two little girls 4 & 6.  He will come to church there tomorrow and meet with the sister missionaries.  His name is Junjie.  Pray for him.  He is so lost.  I cannot imagine the trauma.  He left, Ray finished the training, and we drove to Tiolas  to do My Path there.  There were 23 present.  We returned to the Center to take care of books for Tiolas , Jaro, Mandurriao , and LaPuz for Sunday.  Arrived at bungalow at 7pm worn out.  I sent some texts to bishops and branch presidents and now to bed.  What a week!

Holiday's are over... me da lo mismo

:) haha. Hey guys!

This week was really slow. Well actually just last Monday and Tuesday morning was. Because I got to move houses and I got to stay with the zone leaders until I found my new companion Tuesday morning. So that made it a really long day. I'm still in the same sector of Chillancito, we just switched houses because... well it's a long really unimportant story. But let's just say that's how it is. Also my new companion is from Argentina! But he speaks a little bit of English. But we just speak Spanish all the time because it's a lot easier for both of us. It's a little hard to understand his English sometimes because if his accent. haha. Everyone gives him a hard time because of his Argentinean accent. Also... he's 23! and he already has a marriage date! Crazy, huh! But he's a good guy and he's the district leader. He's super chill and relaxed. Which surprised everyone because the stereotype for Argentineans is that they are super over bearing. But he's just the opposite. In fact, if anything, he's too chill and too patient. But it is actually exactly what our investigators and ward members needed. He works hard and we've had a really good week. Plus, he plays guitar, too! So we've been enjoying singing to a lot of people, too, this week! Oh, and here's a picture of him! down below. Sorry... he's not very good at smiling. :)

Um... So we haven't had any baptisms yet but Andres and Marcela are praying about a marriage date and they've decided that it has to be before May. Because they don't want to wait! And I was there for the proposal! So that was just too weird and awkward. :) haha. And it was fun and special and that sort of ooey gooey stuff. And the 15 year-old son, Manuel, told us he's already a member... but he's not registered if he is, but he might just think he is and hasn't actually been baptized. But we'll see. And they also have a little 2 year-old that reminds me a lot of Rock. (my super tough nephew). His name is Francisco. He likes us a lot. Too much. :) haha. But it is really fun. And Rayen and Dubal have a new baptismal date but we're still waiting for them to pray about it. So they need all the help they can get. 

Also do you remember the Gonzalez family? The inactive family that we helped reactivate? Well their missionary daughter got home, and she was pleased with what we had done and thanked us, so that made it totally worth it. And this week we helped them pick a date to go and be sealed in the temple as a family. They have to save up a lot of money to do it and the dad has some word of wisdom problems, so it's not gonna happen while I'm here. But the date they picked was november 7th! So hurray! haha. And we made a little thing for them to put up on the wall that has the picture of the temple that's gonna be built here in Concecpciòn and it says that the Gonzales family is eternal, since the 7th of November until the eternities. It turned out really nice and pretty. And they were really appreciative. 

Also, a couple weeks ago someone asked me about faith. Why is it so important? Why is it any different than hope? and other questions like that. At first I thought it was kind of a silly question. Like trying to hard to be deep. But then I realized that I couldn't answer it. So that was humbling. And I searched the scriptures a lot, and read some of True to the Faith, but I only have it in Spanish so I only understood about 80 percent. But I didn't really find the answer until a less active lady asked me the same question. Why is faith so important? And then a ton of words just fell out of my mouth and I discovered the answer while I was saying it. But I'm not gonna tell you! haha. Because what I discovered is that Faith is individual. And that Faith is so important because of that. But faith includes action. If you have faith that you can move a pebble and you sit there looking at it, or maybe even thinking deeply about the pebble and all it's details and meaning that's really good. But it doesn't move the rock. But that doesn't mean you didn't have enough faith. It just means that you don't know how to use and apply that faith. There's just to use your hand and move the pebble. 

Now, that is not what I told her. Because that doesn't answer the question of what is faith. But you can't know what it is until you decide to act. And then you know what faith is, and what it does. And David A. Bednar tells us that the faith to act brings power. And Faith in Jesus Christ brings hope. It's a huge building and faith in Jesus Christ is the foundation. 

Another thing that helped me understand it is to look at life without faith in Christ. No life before, no life after, no purpose for our life here. No reason for families because it was just random cells put together. Kind of dark thoughts, right? I certainly think so. And then we could get into obedience being a reflection of our faith and we have to receive a trial of our faith before the blessings come and the windows of heaven being opened up to pour out the blessings that are WAITING for us. But it would take at least 5 books of scriptures to explain and all of the writings and teachings of the prophets. But the basic idea is... Have faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, let this motivate your actions and be obedient, see the hope and blessings that will come through your trials and endure it well. Simple, basic, but opens up infinite possibilities. 

I'm sure that seemed scattered but that was the point. The only thing to do is to search it out and find your own testimony of it. Your own conclusions. And that what lets us see the beauty and wonder in the world, in our families, and within ourselves. I hope everyone has a good week! Also, everyone should re-read the talk by President Monson from conference. I think in English it's called Meditating the Way of Your Feet or something similar to that. I'm not that good at translating so it sounds good yet. But hopefully that's good enough so that you recognize the talk. It's really good.

Have an amazing week! Start the new year off right, with daily personal and family scripture study! :) Love you all!

Elder Robinson

Week 9

Well I am already to the point where I never know what to write haha.  Tons of stuff happens every day but it's hard to know what will be interesting.  I think I talked a little about Larry and LaDonna last time.  They are doing pretty well and came to church on Sunday!  We were really excited they made it.  Larry especially seemed to enjoy it.  I hold my breath whenever investigators come to church because sometimes people say ridiculous things, and Larry had asked us if we talked about Christ in church because he says he's been to church and people don't even mention Christ the whole time.  In my mind I am thinking, "well...we're supposed to talk about Christ.  That is the point...but I really can't guarantee that people will focus!" haha. Especially with it being Fast and Testimony meeting I was nervous, but it was actually perfect!  Because everyone bore their testimonies on Christ, the Atonement, eternal families, and prophets.  Which is everything that we have talked to them about.  So I repented and remembered that Heavenly Father knows His children, and I don't need to worry about what people say at church.  He is not going to lose Larry and LaDonna. 

Earlier in the week when Sister Barfuss and I were preparing for our lesson we had scheduled with them we planned the night before to teach them the Plan of Salvation.  In the morning when I started studying I remembered that we had told them we would bring them the Family Proclamation, and then I got thinking about how they would recognize that document as truth and as coming from Heavenly Father through His prophet.  I ended up studying about how to recognize truth, and came up with a lot of scriptures that teach along the lines of Moroni 7:13, "But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God."  I really wanted to teach this concept to Larry and LaDonna to help them know how to recognize truth and receive an answer that these things are true.  As I ended my studies I was praying that Sister Barfuss would feel the same way and that we could be unified in teaching them about prophets instead of the Plan of Salvation.  As we started companionship study and I explained what I had been studying Sister Barfuss got the silliest smile on her face and started laughing.  Guess what she had been studying?  The Family Proclamation, and prophets!  And she had been on her side of the room praying that I would be on board with changing lesson plans so that we could be unified. :)  It was awesome!  It was super cool to have the experience and to know that we were going to teach what they needed.  When we got there almost immediately LaDonna started talking about prophets so we were really glad we were prepared with the lesson we had planned.  That study session also taught me so much about how to recognize the spirit.  If we are being enlightened, and it entices us to good, it comes from God.  I love that simple truth.

So one day last week it was SUPER windy.  The hermanas were leaving soon after us to head to their appointment and Sister Barfuss and I started biking to our area.  We were biking ridiculously slowly.  Seriously it was crazy.  My legs were burning and I felt like I was biking really hard and moving at a snails' pace.  Sister Barfuss and I were just laughing super hard because we were barely moving at all haha.  The hermanas caught up with us about a block away from our house...we got that far in about 10 minutes.  Ahh...it was funny.  Then they gave us a ride. :)

I think I have talked about Donovan before.  He is giving me some serious mission cred.  He's a pretty recently recovered drug addict and a Native American.  He is VERY entrenched in his culture/religion.  It's making things a little difficult because he keeps trying to fit everything we teach him into what he knows.  The other day we were talking about prayer and we asked him how his prayers were going.  He started telling us how he prays every day to the morning and evening star.  It's part of his duties as pipe carrier.  Ya...we have our work cut out for us haha.  We are really struggling to know how to help him.

Last night at our dinner appointment we bottle fed some little baby goats.  They were so cute!  I am not an animal person, but when they are little baby animals they just can't help but be adorable!  And turns out baby goat hair is really soft.  So that was my adventure for the week.

Last story, we did some service on Saturday at the horsemanship farm place again.  This time we took some elders with us because we were actually scheduled to do a different service and then it canceled last minute.  We have been there a couple of times before and have cleaned water troughs and scooped...well, there's not a delicate way to put this so I'm just gonna say it.  Scooped poop.  Anyway, so the elders ended up mucking a stall and they were SO WHINY.  Hahaha we made fun of them a bunch because we have done that a few times and none of us sisters complained one bit.  These elders need to man up!

Anyway one thing that has been standing out to me a lot as a missionary is this scripture.  We share it a lot with people because it just applies to everyone.  It's 2 Nephi 2:2, "thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain."  Everyone has struggles in their life, and the gospel can help with every single one of them.  Little or great, if we turn to Him, He will strengthen us through our trials and help us meet the demands of life.  And better still, He will consecrate our afflictions to be for our gain.

Sister Robinson

just a cute picture of me that sister barfuss took

horse service...I mucked stalls :)

another of horse service

My conversion

This story was requested by Sister Charity Robinson, and is shared here with the permission of Elder Ray Robinson (Grandpa).

 

My conversion:

I have never really thought of myself as a convert to the Church, however I was not a “child of record” and I was not baptized until I was ten years old, so by definition, I was a convert baptism.

My earliest memories of the Church started when I was about four or five years old. My father was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day- Saints but he was ”less active”. My mother was not a member of The Church. We lived near my dad’s brother and his family in Los Angeles, California. My uncle, Jack Robinson and Aunt Ellen were active in the church and had about six children all of whom were older than my sister Sheila and myself. Aunt Ellen invited us to go to Primary with her. Primary was held during the week and I think that we went several times. We attended Sunday School too on occasion. All of the meetings were held separately and so I am not sure if we ever attended Sacrament Meeting. I remember the bishop’s name was Bishop Astel of the Manchester Ward.

My family moved to Covina California when I had just turned seven years old. We had a neighbor family, the Miners, who were members of the church. Brother Miner was a member of the Bishopric and the family had several children. Ronald was close to my age and Ruth was close to my sister Sheila’s age. We became good friends with both of them. The Miners invited us to go to Primary with them during the week. They may have invited us to go to Sunday meetings also, but I can’t really remember. I do remember that my father took us to Sunday School quite often and dropped us off at the church. I did not know that there was a later Sacrament meeting until two or three years after that.

My sister Sheila and I really liked going to Primary and Sunday School. We made many friends at the church. I enjoyed the boys primary program of “Blazers, then Trekkers, then Trail Builders".

My sister and I were soon old enough to be baptized and we were taught in primary and Sunday School about Baptism. We wanted to be baptized but my mother thought that we should be older before we could make such a decision. I do remember attending a Sunday School and having the teacher talk about baptism and then asking how many in the class had been baptized. Everyone was able to raise his or her hand except for me.

We must have asked our mother several times if we could be baptized, and when I was ten years old and my sister was twelve my mother consented. We had a few missionary lessons and then on November 29, 1958 my sister and I were baptized. We asked our Uncle Jack to baptize us and for our Uncle Boyd to confirm us. We were baptized in the Pasadena, California Stake Center because our Covina Stake Center was in the process of being built.

I always valued my activity and my membership in the church. I felt like the church was my friend and the gospel made me feel good. I had many wonderful friends in the church. I received the Priesthood when I was twelve years old and advanced in the Priesthood as the years progressed. We did soon discover that Sacrament Meeting was held in the evening. In Sunday School opening exercises we did have the Sacrament administered each week.

My mother was taught missionary lessons and baptized when I was about fourteen years old. My mother was only part-way active for some time even after she was baptized, but then became very active later.

One story about activity in the church:

Right after I graduated from high school our family moved to Malibu California. My sister Sheila had moved away from home and I was the only one at home who was interested in going to church right away. I reasoned to myself that if I did not go to church right away that I might become inactive. I told my father that I wanted to go to church. I was a little too shy to just call someone. My father looked up the phone number for the nearest ward and found that it was twenty miles away in Pacific Palisades. My father called the phone number and found that the Pacific Palisades Ward met in the Woman’s Club building there. We got the address and I drove myself to the Woman’s Club building and was welcomed to the Ward like I was something special. I was the only active Priest in the ward. It was a great ward and we soon had other Priests who moved in, got baptized, or became activated. I was later called to serve a mission from that ward. During that year I attended Santa Monica College and also attended the Institute there.

There is more to this story because everything good in my life I attribute to my membership in the church and my testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel.

Love, Dad

It feels like I already wrote about the past week

Saturday, December 27 we went to Arevalo for a business class and while we were there we got and sent emails so this may be a repeat.  I can't find it in my sent mail so...  We attended the class, Ray taught them about amortization and loans, it was helpful.   We always think we have nothing to teach but with an emerging country, it is all new to this people, even keeping records of cost, income...About two we were pretty hungry and went to McDonald's for a big and tasty, picked up some pesos at BDO and purchased some plumbing materials because we have a leak.  Then we visited Sister Timbas, 90 year old, went home at 5pm to fix leak, ate and relaxed.
Sunday we attended Mandurriao ward at 8:30, at 10:30 we visited Jaro 1st ward and delivered some My Path books to them, then spoke at LaPaz sacrament meeting, attended their Sunday School, went to Molo 1st Ward My Path 4-7 then home for dinner and bed.
Monday I prepared the calendar for New Years scripture reading. We drove to Passi to deliver 44 workbooks for their ward and drove back.  We heard from Elder Mariano, he has gone home, he was our district leader and is now at BYU!.  We ate, played one time of Word for Word so we would know how on New Year's Eve.
Tuesday everything was cancelled, district meeting, self reliance meeting because of Seniang typhoon, but really it was a lot of rain and wind but no reason to cancel anything.  We went to the Center to pack up materials for more classes, took inventory so we could order more books.  We are out of books.  We picked up 9 items at the store, had lunch at home and played Farkle, UNO, and Word for Word.  Read more of Jesus the Christ, watched some leadership videos from President Aquino that our zone leaders gave us.
Wednesday:  the usual...prayer, exercise, read scriptures...wash, made cornflake with coconut treats covered with chocolate, cut up pineapple and papaya, made crackers and cheese dip, gathered our games and headed for INJAP Hotel where we are spending New Years Eve with two other families from the Institute, Harnaez family, and Insigne family.  That takes us up sixteen floors and out of the noise and smoke. We took the truck to Jalandoni behind locked doors for the night and took a taxi to the hotel.  Ray went swimming and I taught the Insigne females how to swim on their back.  Insignes brought pizza and we set all the food on our bed and then played games.  At ten everyone went to their own rooms and we watched fireworks until after 1 am!  It was like our Fourth of July in the park only x100 in every place in the sky.  We have never seen anything like it, not even Stadium of Fire!
Thursday--Happy New Year!  We exercised and I had my first warm water shower in four months.  It felt great!  Now it is cooler, our own water tank is quite cold and it is hard to take a shower without the water touching you:)  Oh, we went to breakfast..  How can you ruin a scrambled egg?  It was still wet, slimey.:( Then chicken sausage like  a chicken hot dog, two baguette size toasts.  We are grateful to cook for ourselves.  We returned to our bungalow at ten, dried laundry, picked up big and tasty and fries at McDonald's, brought it home to eat with homemade fry sauce:), and had sparkling cider to celebrate, played Farkle and watched more leadership videos.  Finally to bed after icing my mosquito bites, I had seven on one arm.  Ray gets none.  I think I've developed an allergy to them, they swell to the size of a silver dollar and get all puffy.
Friday we went to Tiolas  to President Sudanos pig farm...way up in the mountains.  He has someone climb a coconut tree to bring us down three.  Then we went to another house there to see another business; he sells fish to feed his family of seven children and is trying to grow a furniture business.  Both these men are in the Starting and Growing My Business class and are on number six out of twelve.  They are learning a lot.  We left Iloilo at 8am and returned at 4pm.  We are very impressed that these men come every Saturday to this class from an hour and a half away one way.  Great commitment.  We went to the Atrium to eat.  Ray thought they would have a buffet but they didn't but we had fish and chips and cooked vegetables.  It was very good.  And then we picked up a few groceries to make a salad for Julie's business class on Saturday.  They wanted to have a little party for halfway.
Another week.  I feel like Charity, it is nice to get the holidays over so we can get back to work.  It is not work that is hard, but the lack of work that is challenging.  Love, Sister Robinson, Mother T

Another week, yes, but a new year!

2014 has been great!  I love the Facebook post of Eve Irene.  It is beautiful!
Saturday, December 27, we went to Arevalo where we attended one of the Business classes, then we sent emails and picked up a hamburger at McDonald's, we got $ at  BDO and purchased some plumbing materials because we have a water leak.  We visited Sister Timbas, our 90 year-old friend, went to our bungalow to fix the leak, ate dinner and relaxed.
Sunday we went to Manduriao Ward at 8:30, 10:30 we went to Jaro First Ward to deliver books, attended LaPuz sacrament meeting, and spoke at LaPaz sacrament meeting, attended Sunday school there and went to Jalandoni for Molo 1st Ward My Path from 4-7, dinner at bungalow and bed at 8:30.  Sundays are exhausting but profitable.  We need to have two Sundays a week:). It is not a typing error there are two different wards: LaPuz and LaPaz.
Monday, I prepared our calendar for the new year scripture reading.  I have a head cold but it is mild, not too miserable as they usually are.  We drove to Passi (1 1/2 hour drive one way) to deliver 44 workbooks for their ward.  We drove back to Iloilo, played Word for Word, had prayer and went to bed.  (we heard from Elder Mariano, our district leader before he returned home to Florida, he is now at BYU). Yeah!
Tuesday everything was cancelled--district meeting, self reliance meeting...the streets were empty.  It was a big rain fall and a typhoon, Seniang, was happening.  By 11:00 am the rain quit so we went to the Center, packed up books, took inventory and we are out of materials. We met a family from Bacolod, heard their conversion stories and their marriage and children miracles.  They are stuck here because of the typhoon, nothing (boats) are not running because of the rough waters. We reported to Boiser our inventory and hope he brings us some in two weeks.  We picked up 9 items at the store, had lunch, played Farkle, Uno, Word for Word, read more of Jesus the Christ, and watched some leadership videos from President Aquino from the Church on DVD on the computer.
Wednesday, had prayer, exercised, showered, read scriptures, had breakfast, did wash, made cornflake with toasted coconut bits treats covered on top with chocolate, cut up pineapple and papaya, set up crackers with cheese dip and gathered our games. We went to INJAP Hotel for New Years Eve, away from the smoke and noise.  President Insigne and Brother Hernaez and families both went also.  We took the truck to Jalandoni to be behind church-locked gate and took a taxi to the hotel.  Ray went swimming and I taught the Insigni females how to swim the back stroke from the side of the pool.  President Insigni brought pizza and we used our bed for a table and both families and us ate and played games Uno, Word for Word, and Farkle and watched fireworks from our sixteenth floor room window.  Everyone had fun.  They went to their own rooms around 10:00 and we continued to watch the fireworks.  We have never seen anything like it.  It was like the town's 4th of July going off in every neighborhood all over the city all at once for hours and at midnight it went crazy all night but really nuts for about an hour after midnight like 100x all over not just in one park and they were all huge bursts too.
Thursday Happy New Year!  We took a taxi to get the pickup at the church and returned to our bungalow after our usual routine.  One thing was different-- I had a warm shower for the first time in four months!  It felt so good.  We had breakfast at the hotel.  How can you ruin scrambled eggs?  It was still wet and not cooked:( but we ate and aren't sick yet.  The menu said western sausage...not..it was a chicken hot dog:( oh, well, I cook breakfast tomorrow:). We returned to our bungalow, finished some laundry, reading...   Now I know why missionaries are happy when the holidays are over.  You can't do anything because people are too busy with their own things.  It is good they use the time to be with family.  We will have one again in 14 months.  Now I know what missionaries at home need during the holidays.  So happy to be a missionary and to be growing in understanding and experience.  Of course, it isn't just holidays that shut things down but also typhoons and heavy rains.
Tomorrow we are going to Tiolas to see the branch presidents pig business and see if Ray can give some insight on how to expand and enlarge, one member at a time.  It is about an hour and a half drive one way, so it will take our day.  We are so aware of our dependence on The Lord and direct revelation for us and for each member.
Love, Sister Robinson III

Week 8

So in reality I'm pretty sure this is week 8.  I'm losing track.  But I survived my first transfer!  It's official!  And there are now "younger" missionaries than me.  It's weird having the Zone change up.  I feel like I just got used to everyone and now I have to get used to people all over again!  The hermanas I live with were not transferred so at least everyone I live with is the same.  With the holidays it has been harder to really accomplish much.  People don't want to meet with us because they want to spend time with their families or something. :)  So it has been a little hard because it feels like everyone stopped progressing. And it feels like I stopped progressing with them.  So I'll be glad for the end of holidays for everything to get back to normal.

I think I mentioned the investigator we added because of the Caroling Activity.  We taught her this week and met her husband, Larry.  Larry seems to be really prepared.  He kept his commitment to read the Restoration pamphlet and was prepared to talk about it.  He was interested in learning more about Joseph Smith so we referred him to Joseph Smith-History.  LaDonna on the other hand is going to require some more patience and tender loving care.  She is very attached to the Bible and in spite of our thorough explanations that the Book of Mormon is a companion to the Bible and another testament of Jesus Christ she keeps wanting to cross-reference the two.  She keeps talking about filtering the Book of Mormon through the Bible.  We showed her the scripture in the Bible when Jesus says, "other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring" and then in the Book of Mormon when he tells the people it was them that he had been referring to, and the Jews understood Him not.  She responded that it wasn't concrete evidence, and he still could have been referring to just other people outside of that particular city he was in at the time and whatnot.  We just responded by saying that there won't be any proof, we are providing her with things to consider, and the only way she can know if it's true is if she prays and asks.  She continued to be skeptical, and Larry even jumped in and said that though it wasn't proof, the Bible certainly didn't have any evidence to exclude that possibility.  It was interesting.  But we're glad Larry is on our side. :)  I'm excited to see how they progress.

We have been making some adjustments to the way we plan and it seems to be more effective so that is exciting.  We've also adjusted how we study, so that our studies are more directly focused on our investigators.  And we are trying to get the members more involved, because we are struggling to have members at our lessons and it is so important to have them there!  I'm going to be the best member missionary ever when I get home. :)

This week for service we have done a lot of cleaning of people's houses.  It's honestly terrifying.  These people are hoarders!  The one house we could barely get in the front door.  There was a thick layer of dust on everything and there was just a ton of clutter.  It's making me really motivated to avoid collecting stuff.   It's such a burden in excess!  I was sneezing up a storm.  Eww.  We have probably 16 people there working on it for two hours and we are going back on Saturday because they still need more help.  But the woman that lived there kept saying how it was like angels had come to help her.  So that was fun.  One thing I learned through this is the importance of cleanliness in the home.  It really makes a huge difference in the presence of the spirit.  It's never been that obvious before because I've never lived in that degree of a mess but with that kind of clutter it becomes pretty clear that there is a darkness there.  That night before bed I did some organizing. :)  I will have p-day again on Monday and then things will be back to normal.  Love you all!  Keep writing!

Sister Robinson