Carmichael

Well, I've been in Carmichael about...five days now.  It's a pretty good place!  I finally feel like I'm in California.  There is traffic and palm trees which is about what I expect haha.  It's quite the adjustment because this zone is where the mission office is so that is where we play zone sports and email and everything.  It's also super leadership dense.  Our zone is: the AP's, zone leaders, district leader, office elders, sister training leaders, and then about three companionship's of just plain missionaries.  Also we have ASL sisters in our zone, one of which is actually deaf and she is SO sweet.  The ASL sisters actually share our ward with us because about a third of our ward is deaf.  It makes for an interesting dynamic.  There is always an interpreter up front and yesterday when deaf people wanted to bear their testimony one of the ASL sisters would say the words they were signing.  We also share a lot of dinner appointments with the ASL sisters so that is kind of fun.  It appears that I have been transferred to yet another slow area but I feel a lot of potential.  We added an investigator since I've been here and I think she is really promising.  Her name is Anne and she grew up Lutheran but she wants to learn about our church and says that if she were to ever switch it would be to Mormonism.  Weird thing to say kind of but anyway she has had good experiences with the LDS people she knows and so she wants to check it out.  I am hoping we can go watch a session of conference with her.  We have an appointment with her on Wednesday.  We've talked to several other people that seem like they could really go somewhere so I am excited to see what happens in the next while.

We bike in this area, but we have a car that we can use, just very few miles.  That is probably going to change because I can now definitely tell that biking makes my headaches way worse.  That makes me sad because I REALLY prefer biking.  It makes it easier to contact people and it makes me feel healthier and more productive.  I really hope this headache thing gets worked out soon.  Been saying that for a while but...it's going to happen!

My companion is Sister Josie Naylor, and she just finished training so I have only been out one transfer longer than her.  She's a pro at street contacting so that's a bonus for me!  Because it still terrifies me to approach people but she has no problem with it at all so it works out nicely.  She is from Florida but has lived in Utah as well.

On Saturday there were about 3 zones of missionaries (probably close to 60) that did service at the California Expo.  It was this big thing where a bunch of dentists and hygienists volunteer to do dental work for people that can't afford it.  We were there emptying trash and being escorts for patients to take them from the waiting place to the chair and from the chair to the exit interview.  It was pretty cool.  I got to talk religion a little bit with some of the other non-missionary volunteers and it was just cool to see people noticing the missionaries and asking questions.  At these just serve things we can't proselyte so we can only really talk about the church if they ask questions or it comes up naturally, which happens pretty often when you wear a name tag and dress clothes. :)

So that's what's new with me.  Love you guys!  Have a great week!

Sister Robinson

Fwd:

Service we did last weekend I think.  It was a women's run and we helped people register.  These are my El Dorado sisters!  Love them.  Sister Sahm, Sister Darling, and Sister Tu'atonga.

It was honestly a huge rock.

It's finally conference this weekend!!! So that's basically the best news ever! Plus it's Easter. It's called Pascua here. And every religion is celebrating! haha. Here everyone does the whole holy week thing as well, so the festivities and songs and dances start on Thursday and don't end til Monday. So things will be interesting here then.

There was some cool stuff this week. Like there were some guys that were really drugged that picked up a huge rock and said they were gonna hit me in the head with it. It was really weird, because I heard it, but it didn't really register, and then I saw the rock... ... I should start at the beginning.

So... This day a member was accompanying us to do our lessons, right? and we had to cross the train tracks to be able to leave him at home in safety. So we went and there's a teeny little entrance in the fence to cross the tracks so we went through and then we saw these two guys like yelling and a single woman with her baby looking bothered, but she just walked past. I thought they were just drunk and saying stupid stuff, as drunk people always do. So I kept walking and then one of them picked up this huge rock and said to me that he was gonna hit me in the head with this rock, but you know that sometimes you hear things and it just doesn't register? Ya, that's what happened. So I just kept walking towards them to be able to go through the exit on the other side of the tracks, my companion and the member started walking down the tracks to avoid the first guy, so I was left alone with the other guy. I looked in his eyes and could tell that he was drugged, and he wouldn't let me pass, so then he started asking me where I was from... I lied. I told him I was from Arica, which is a place in Chile where there are a lot of gringos, but that were born in Chile. I didn't know why I lied, but then he told me, "No, but you're from the united states, right?" I maintained that I was from Arica. And he said, "Do you have any money, what do you have to give me?" And at this point my comp and the member had joined us with guy number 1 with the rock. And they wouldn't let us pass. At this point there was about 20 people watching because they were all getting out of their church, all of them Evangelicals (I'm pretty sure in English they're called protestants and it's one of the biggest churches outside of Catholicism in Chile) and they were calling the cops. And then a young woman from our ward started explaining to them from outside of the fence that we don't have anything, not a penny, not even a cell phone and to let us go, and just like that they were like confused or something and we left. Later the cops came and picked them up and all the people that were watching wanted to let us know that it was taken care of. It was pretty cool of them to be like that, trying to help us. So anyway, that's the story this week. :) I'm only telling some of the cool stories so I can save them in two years when everyone is gonna ask me for cool stories. :) haha. 

It's really interesting what happens here. My companion is convinced that it's me, because every day something weird happens, and he said it didn't happen before. I'm pretty sure it's just Chile and being a missionary. But anyway....

Are you all so turnt for conference!!! I sure am. It's the best weekend in the mission! Our mission president invited us all to prepare questions and prepare ourselves for conference, like I said last week! Wow. I'm so smart. But really, the church has a web page to help us prepare ourselves for conference. Just go to lds.org and it's there. It's honestly amazing. And for Easter! If you haven't seen the video that the church has done called Thanks to Him, you should watch it. It's so good. 

Also, I had a really important realization this week, that I had always known but I didn't realize what it meant. I realized this week that, well.. the iron rod is the word of God, right? And so that means that if we aren't studying the scriptures, we aren't holding on to the iron rod, obviously. But that means also, that we can't be sure if we are following in the straight and narrow path. Maybe close, but not for long if we don't return to the scriptures. Even if we're doing all the rest of the things, church, prayer, callings, visiting and home teaching, etc. If we're not reading the scriptures and constantly treasuring them up in our hearts, we can't be sure that we're on the path. So read them scrips! haha. I taught that phrase in English to a family this week. And they yell it to me all the time, now. :)

I love you a freaking ton! Have a good week!

Elder Robinson

Saturday, March 21-Friday, March 27, 2015

Saturday a.m. we took Elder and Sister Streng with us (we are showing them what we do, so they have more to do😀).  Roxas is a four hour drive from Iloilo, so it will be helpful as they want more to do.  We handed out bank loan PIN numbers to those who finished their schooling under the PEF/ER initiative.  These brothers and sisters will buy tool kits so they can start businesses, tool kits like a baking oven, for those who took baking; a sewing machine for those who took dress-making, etc.  It went from 9:00-3:30 in Kalibo.  We left Strengs about 11:00 to finish and we drove two hours to Roxas to do the same thing there.  We finished in Roxas about 5:00 p.m. And started our drive back to Iloilo. 15 minutes into our drive, I realized I was missing our calendar which has everything in it, our scheduling.  When we went back, it was gone, but we did leave the missionary Mail with the Bishop and headed home again.  As we were driving, I tracked down the calendar and after we drove into Jalandoni on Monday, President Ortega knew Jojo who would be coming from Roxas to Iloilo on Tuesday, so he made arrangements for our calendar to be returned Tuesday night.  Whew!  We picked up two Apple pies from McDonald's at 8:30 when we drove into Iloilo; we got home, ate our pies and went to bed.  We have been gone two full days.  We were blessed not to need to pay for a hotel by the goodly care of the Strengs.
Sunday, we picked up, Darlene at 7:40 at the Phoenix gas station on the way to Pototan Branch.  As everyone here, they greet us as general authorities; they are grateful to have us come and speak and visit their unit.  Never have I been treated so well.  Two young women, twelve and thirteen, sat by me during the devotional and gave me a hug.  So we spoke in sacrament meeting and conducted "My Path" devotional.  We returned with five adults in the back seat to Jalandoni Institute graduation.  Then there was choir practice for stake conference to be held the week after general conference.  We got home at 8:00, hungry and tired and hot.
Monday we went grocery shopping and I had a fish foot spa.  I put my feet in a tank with small fish, then with medium fish, then with bigger fish.  It was such an interesting sensation.  The big ones kept tugging and pulling at the mole on the inside of my left foot.  It kind of tore after a while so I turned my foot with the inside out of the water so they couldn't reach the mole.  We came back home and had a salsa flavored fish, potatoes and squash.  I felt my feet and they are very soft and smooth now except the mole😝.  I will do that again, maybe in six months.  Then we went to the Center to send our emails.  The Internet is not good today but it did send.  Tonight at 6:00 we purchased hot fudge sundaes at McDonald's, put almonds and salt on top and watched number 2 in the Foundations and Principals and Habits from the self-reliance initiative.  We heard from Raymond that Amy is in the hospital with a blood clot.  We tried to call but to no avail.  We are praying like crazy, begging Heavenly Father to take care of her and the baby.  Then we found masses of teeny ants in our bedroom.  Ray is doing what he can to get rid of them.
Tuesday...I cried all night.  We could not live without Amy.  When we went to district meeting, no one had a key to the church so we took all the missionaries and went to our bungalow for district meeting.  We dropped the missionaries off at various locations and went to the mission office for information.  We stopped by the weavers place and picked up the table runner we ordered.  Then we met the zone of missionaries at an all-you-can-eat place for pasta and pizza.  Those missionaries can really stash that food away.  I ordered a lettuce salad.  It was great with a vinaigrette dressing.  I prepared food for our trip to Antique tomorrow.  We have PEF/ER work there tomorrow and then apartment checks the next day.  We went to Jalandoni for the self-reliance meeting, much was accomplished.  Home at 8:30.
Wednesday we left at 7:00 am to go to a facilitator/specialist Antique district training meeting at 9:00 a.m.  It was an amazing meeting--well organized and well executed.  President Amar showed videos and after each one, he would ask what they got from the video.  They served us lunch, it was a heart shaped rice ball, vegetables, and a slice of chicken cor don bleu.  After lunch people came for distribution of PIN numbers like in Kalibo and Roxas.  We finished around 4:00 p.m.  President Amar helped us find the couples' house who went home early.  It is such a spacious house, about 3xs the size of our bungalow and the chair and couch covers are yellow with gold and blue...so happy and clean and fun!
Thursday I slept from 6:30 p.m. Until the next a.m. at 5:30.  I was so tired.  We had muffins I made and brought and cut up mangoes that I prepared so we didn't need to make a mess in the house.  I guess it's an mmm...day.  We met the zone leaders at Guisanos(grocery store/mall) at 8:00 for apartment checks.  We went south to Hamtic after we checked the four sisters and the zone leaders in San Jose, then to Dao, turned north back through San Jose and stopped at the Cafe the elders recommended and bought our lunch and theirs, an everything hamburger and a shake.  Of course I had mango, they had strawberry banana, then to Sibalom, to Bugasong, to Tibao, and two apartments in Culosi--it took all day.  We returned to San Jose and dropped off the elders and they went to work.  We walked around the mall and store, purchased a few snacks, met a couple of members and had a Greenwich pizza.
Friday, oh I will back up...there is a leak where the water comes into the house and it has a fast leak under the sink and overflowed onto the kitchen floor.  We did what we could and turned off the water until we returned from apartment checks.  We turned it on to use the c.r. and wash our hands, then turned it back off.  This a.m. we turned the water on so we could shower and wash our clothes.  We only brought one extra pair of clothes.  We didn't know we would be staying until Saturday night.  About 9:15 the owner came and it turned out, it only needed to be screwed tighter.  Whew!  We took the zls stuff to their apartment and then we went for a ride, looking for a place to walk on the beach.  We finally found a place.  The water was very warm, like bath water at home.  We took a picture of someone's rich house.  Unusual for this island.  We came back to the house and watched some Old Testament missionary movies.  Boiser will be here tonight.  I'll use his hotel and code to send my email.  Halong,  Sister Robinson III

picture of car damage

The Lord works in mysterious ways

Hi family!  This week was a little crazy.  Sorry I forgot to warn about the late email this week, I always forget that transfers will postpone my email.  What mainly happened this week is that I damaged our car twice.  So...my driving privileges have been revoked.  In short, the first time I broke the right rear view mirror.  The roads are narrow and windy and when people put out their big trash cans they are on the edge of the road.  So I hit the garbage can with the mirror and it popped out and shattered.  A couple of days later we had district meeting and I was parked at an angle and didn't turn tight enough to miss the brick planter box.  It was kind of crazy because both accidents were so weird.  Like you just wonder how you possibly did it.  And no one was hurt, no other cars involved, both situations that I have avoided repeatedly over the past five weeks.  But when you damage the car twice you can't drive anymore, and since my companion doesn't have a license, those accidents ensured that I would get a different companion with transfers.  Thus, the Lord works in mysterious ways.  Call me crazy, but I really kind of think it was an answer to prayers.  Being transferred is still hard though.  I'm going to Carmichael!  Del Campo ward.  And that's all I know so far because I haven't been able to get in touch with my new companion yet.  From what I hear though I'll probably be back on bike.  And I am senior companion.  Not that it really makes a difference because companions should always be equals!  That's why it's called companion.  Anyway I will miss the zone here, it's been fun.  But most of my favorites are leaving anyway so it works out.

I wanted to share something cool I studied this week.  I read in the Ensign something by Elder Craig C. Christensen called, "Becoming the Children of Light."  He talks about the doctrine of light and that light comes from Christ.  He uses some scriptures that demonstrate that and then says that the words, "spirit, glory, intelligence, and truth" can be interchangeable in the scriptures.  Since I've been reading and noticing those words and swapping them out with each other it has been really enlightening.  Everything good comes from Christ, and is light, intelligence, glory, and truth.  Reading that article made me think of D&C 50:24.  I love that scripture.  And I love the light that comes into my life through scripture study and prayer.  Love you all!  Have a good week!

Sister Robinson.

The Lord works in mysterious ways

Hi family!  This week was a little crazy.  Sorry I forgot to warn about the late email this week, I always forget that transfers will postpone my email.  What mainly happened this week is that I damaged our car twice.  So...my driving privileges have been revoked.  In short, the first time I broke the right rear view mirror.  The roads are narrow and windy and when people put out their big trash cans they are on the edge of the road.  So I hit the garbage can with the mirror and it popped out and shattered.  A couple of days later we had district meeting and I was parked at an angle and didn't turn tight enough to miss the brick planter box.  It was kind of crazy because both accidents were so weird.  Like you just wonder how you possibly did it.  And no one was hurt, no other cars involved, both situations that I have avoided repeatedly over the past five weeks.  But when you damage the car twice you can't drive anymore, and since my companion doesn't have a license, those accidents ensured that I would get a different companion with transfers.  Thus, the Lord works in mysterious ways.  Call me crazy, but I really kind of think it was an answer to prayers.  Being transferred is still hard though.  I'm going to Carmichael!  Del Campo ward.  And that's all I know so far because I haven't been able to get in touch with my new companion yet.  From what I hear though I'll probably be back on bike.  And I am senior companion.  Not that it really makes a difference because companions should always be equals!  That's why it's called companion.  Anyway I will miss the zone here, it's been fun.  But most of my favorites are leaving anyway so it works out.

I wanted to share something cool I studied this week.  I read in the Ensign something by Elder Craig C. Christensen called, "Becoming the Children of Light."  He talks about the doctrine of light and that light comes from Christ.  He uses some scriptures that demonstrate that and then says that the words, "spirit, glory, intelligence, and truth" can be interchangeable in the scriptures.  Since I've been reading and noticing those words and swapping them out with each other it has been really enlightening.  Everything good comes from Christ, and is light, intelligence, glory, and truth.  Reading that article made me think of D&C 50:24.  I love that scripture.  And I love the light that comes into my life through scripture study and prayer.  Love you all!  Have a good week!

Sister Robinson.