Monday, December 23, 2013

Cupcakes

Alright so this week was pretty cool. There was a lot of snow on the ground and we looked like Snowmen a couple of times but it was great!

So earlier this week i was on exchanges with Sister Walton and we went to Sprague and we saw miracles! So i guess i should preface this story a little. Last week Sister Dantas and I were visiting a 15 year old Less Active named Matt. His non-member step-mom and Dad were home but they didn't want to hear a message so we went in another room and we taught Matt. Well as we were leaving he asked us what we were doing next Thursday (this past Thursday) at 4. My companion and I looked at each other and then responded that we had nothing planned and he invited us back to meet with him and his wife. We were a little nervous to find out what the meeting was about but we were hoping it was a really good thing. Well back to Sister Walton and I. We were in Sprague on the Wednesday before we were scheduled to meet and we saw Sister Vercoe (the step-mom) outside carrying boxes in so we asked if we could help but she said she had it all under control. So we then said if she needed anything then we would love to help her out and she went inside. We walked back to the car and before we got in she ran back out her house and called after us. She said that she was making cupcakes for the football team and she could do with some help, so... we scheduled a time to come back and make cupcakes.

So we were about to leave and go to another appointment before we came back to help her make the cupcakes and we felt that we should ask her what the meeting was about the following day so we asked her what she was expecting from our meeting and she said... She wanted to find out about the church and look into joining! Yeah we were pretty excited. Then she said you can even start teaching me when you come to make cupcakes! So that is exactly what we did! We taught the restoration to her that day and the Spirit was so strong. We invited her to be baptized in January and she said Yes! So we are super super excited.

So this week we had a sacrament meeting in Sprague for Christmas and it was so great. There were 72 people there! Including Sister Vercoe! It was amazing. A lot of LA came out and 9 non members were there and there was an amazing spirit there too. I even sang, "it came upon a midnight clear". Yeah i worked up the courage to sing a solo and it wasn't half bad if you can believe that. It was such a great day. They had a little munch and mingle afterwards and everyone did such a great job of fellowshiping. It was amazing. Best Christmas gift ever!

So yeah it has been a really great week for us. Beverly another one of our investigators also came to church yesterday so that was super exciting too! Honestly it was just great. We went caroling with all the missionaries in our district yesterday and that was really great too!    So much fun. Probably too much fun but we are working hard so it gets to be this fun!

If i have learned one thing lately it is that if we work are very hardest even though we are not perfect and we can't do everything the Lord will make up the rest! We try our best and then in his strength we will succeed! In the Strength of the Lord you can do all things!

Ok an done last thought!

To catch the real meaning of the spirit of Christmas, individuals need only drop the last syllable of the word, and it becomes the Spirit of Christ.
   
“May we give as the Savior gave…To give of oneself is a holy gift. We give as a remembrance of all the Savior has given. May we also give gifts that have eternal value, along with our gifts that eventually break or are forgotten. How much better the world would be if we all gave gifts of understanding and compassion, of service and friendship, of kindness and gentleness.” (President Monson)

Christmas is such a special time and when we remember Christ we can feel three real meaning of Christmas. I love you all

Sister Robinson.

Monday, December 16, 2013

12 days of Christmas

Alright So this week has been a pretty great week. Full of lots of appointments and fun. So my new comanion is Sister Dantas and she is from Brazil. We have a lot of cultural conversations. And she loves talking about different languages. I am learning some Portugues but hvae decided that French seems easier to me!

Well this week a few funny things happened. We stopped by one ladies house and we were visting with her when she started playing the harmonica. As soon as she started her dogs started howling. Personally i think they were howling becasue it hurt their ears but she turned to us and started telling us how much they loved to sing... Then she procedded to gather her dogs and told us that they would sing Jingle Bells. So off she goes singing jingle bells and her dogs start howling. It was hilarious, bless her soul! She was so into it.

Another thing that happend this week is that is snowed! It was funny becasue Sister Dantas hasn't experinced much snow before so she had fun kicking it around! Later that day we were walking across town and she started laughing. She said that it was going to be funny when she writes home and tells her parents that it finally got warm enough to snow! Warm enough! I was laughing pretty hard too. It is pretty funny when you pray that it will get warm enough to snow.

Oh quick side note, Sister Dantas dislikes other people's dogs more than i do! It is pretty funny to see her reaction to big dogs. She acts as if every big dog is on the verge of biting her. Best facial expressions ever!

Sister Dantas and I also had the privilage of attending the High Preist Group Christmas Dinner. We had amazing food. One of the Men in the ward cooked really good pulled pork and put this amazing vingery sauce on it. It was divine! There was also a white Elephant at the party and Sister Dantas hadn't done one before. Sister Tulett, One of our amazing members, had brought an extra gift so that we could take part! We sat there anticipating our turn because there was this really cute WHITE ELEPHANT and box of chocolates. Well of course i wanted the White Elephant.. How cool is that to say oh yeah i got this white elephant at the Cheney 2nd ward White Elephant party on my mission. Well as you could probably guess from my excitment we got the White Elephant. We both got to play and so we also were able to get a puzzle that we could do on P-Day! Something SIster Dantas has really wanted. So we both came away really happy!

So in Sprague we eat at this little dinner type place called the Viking. It is the only place to eat in a 25 mile radius so we go there once a week when we are in Sprague. It is the local burger place and the food isn't bad at all. We always find out really interesting things there though. Like this week we found out that Jinny is the Bus Driver and owns a farm and that Malissa used to work there. We found this all out because Malissa's father and jinny were there and they were talking really loud! It is almost like they want us to know everything about everyone in Sprague. I love it, such a cute small town.

So that was pretty much the interesting things from this week. We have also been teaching a lot of lessons this week and they have been going well! In Tommy's lesson his non memeber step sister was there and we taught the Plan of Salvation. They had a lot of questions about all the things that would be in Heaven. Like their pets or their favorite blankets. Tara had the most questions os about the 10th time she put up her hand i asked, "do you really like whatever the thing is that you are about to ask about?" And she said yes. I then informed her then it will proabably be in Heaven. Haha They are such cute kids but sometimes it is like 101 questions.

Well I hope you have a great week adn keep up all the great work that is happening! Don't forgret to send out your Christmas cards!



Love Sister Robinson

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Sister Robinson School of Confidence

So yesterday obviously was not P-Day so we went out and worked a lot. We had a pretty great day though. One of my companions was having a pretty rough time so we met the Elders and she received a blessing, it was SO COOL because it led to us sitting down with her and finding ways that we could help her out. It was a lot of fun. We had the Sister Robinson school of confidence, Ellie knows all about that school haha. It consisted of me making Sister Gren Strut around a table telling us all the things she loved about herself. It was so great. Obviously i demonstrated for her. Then later that night we had a companionship inventory, which is pretty much us just sitting down and bring up any concerns or anything that is bugging you. So Sister Kunkel and I are just giving some ideas on what we can do differently and Sister Gren was being way too quiet, so we turned around and asked her to come up with a suggestion. Well Sister Gren sits there and sits there and sits there and is saying nothing so we just start asking questions like: what is something that Sister Robinson says that annoys you? or what is something that sister Kunkel does that irritates you? And she suddenly says, i got one! So we brace ourselves for what it is and she says, "I am always the last one out of the car!" Sister Kunkel and I just turned to each other and started laughing it was SO funny! I just said, "em sister Gren that sounds like a personal issue i am not sure what you want me to do about that one." By that time Sister Gren was laughing to. It was pretty great.

We then went out to work and did all that we could to find more people to teach. We had a great day of talking to EVERYBODY that we saw and asking everyone for referrals. It was a lot of fun. We talked to one lady who turned out to be the manager of the trailer park that we were in and we asked if there was anyone that she could think of that we could go serve. She told us to try trailer 29, so we did. It was so great. It was a Mother and her daughter who lived there and we got to talking to them. They let us in and we got to know them a little better. They just started going to a new church but the daughter said she doesn't feel comfortable there. She mainly said what she is looking for is great friends, so we invited her to the Super Saturday enrichment day, which is making Christmas Crafts. She LOVES making crafts. So we are hoping that we can introduce her to the beautiful, wonderful ladies of the Cheney 1st ward and see where it goes from there. She also said we could come back and do service so we are looking forward to helping her out with that!

Well after that we had a great lesson with Sister Nicks who is being baptized on November 30th!!! Super excited. Her non member mother is moving in with her and she also stayed for the lesson so we are going to see if Sister Nicks will invite her to the baptism. She is getting really excited for it now!

THEN THE BIG NEWS CAME... We got out of that lesson and we had a missed call from President Mullen! We all know what my experience has been with missed calls from President. Well this time was just like any other time, pure craziness. Sister Kunkel got emergency transferred to North Spokane! Say what? Oh yeah that is right another one of my companions gets transferred midway through a transfer. Sister Kunkel was the one who knew the area the best as she had been here for 3 months, almost 4 months. Sister Gren and I have only been here for about three weeks so it is almost like sweep training, but you know what i think that it is going to be great. Every time my mission gets hard i get to see miraculous miracles. Yeah that is more than your average everyday miracle! So i am excited to see what the Lord has in store for Sister Gren and I! We are sad to see Sister Kunkel leave but we will keep in touch with her for sure!

So that was pretty much my week! Moral of the stories... Make sure Sister Gren is not the last one out of the car, Sister Robinson's school of confidence works, talking to everyone brings miracles, Sister Nicks is boss!, and never answer the phone when President Mullen calls... haha jk answer it but know that your mission is about to get even crazier!

I love you all lots. Have a great week and write me a letter pretty please!

Sister Robinson

Monday, November 4, 2013

Food Poisoning

So i have had a cold since i arrived in Cheney and i was just getting over a cold when on Thursday both of my companions and i got food poisoning. I have never had food poisoning before but it is safe to say that i could have lived a lifetime without experiencing it. So we had a few sick days this week. Not fun. Other than that it was a pretty good week. We met with our investigators that are on date. I know that i have told you all about Tommy but i ma not sure if i was able to tell you about Sister Nicks. She is one of the most wonderful women i have ever met in my life. Her husband is a less active member that is starting to come back to church and that is how the sisters before i came into the ward found her. They put her on date the lesson before i came into the ward but i have been able to teach her about three of the lessons now. She is just so great. She always asks the best questions and she is so sincere. She is going to be baptized on November 30th. I am super excited for her. She has a 11 year old son that is not a member wither but as of right now he is not interested but i think once he sees his mother baptized that his interest will heighten too. I will send you pictures of those baptisms. 

I have been studying a lot about Kindness and how it is the application of Charity. It all starts with the thoughts we have. As we think positively of others and the things around us we are happier. We are able to see the good in the world and in the people around us. As i have applied this in my life i have been able to have love for people that i barely know. just seeing them as children of God makes it easier to share the gospel with them and also leaves me with an urgency to share the gospel as well. I want them to have the gospel because i am able to see Christ in them. I am not sure of what i wrote just made sense but it has helped me out of lot just studying about kindness and how it all starts with positive thinking!

Anyway i hope you have a wonderful week. Stay safe and warm! 

Love Sister Robinson 

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Weird Week

This week was weird we didn't get to teach too much as we had a lot of meetings including General Conference, which was great may i add. I just loved it SO much. One of my favorite quotes was from President ! He said, "Doubt your doubt before you doubt your faith!" It can be so hard when you are trying to do everything that the Lord wants you to do and you feel like you are not getting the results that you want. For example, the right time with dating. I know that is super hard and you have so much faith relying on the Lord for his will! I know that there are probably some times when you do start to doubt but always remember to doubt your doubt before doubting your faith. AND YES SMILE BECAUSE JESUS AND I BOTH LOVE YOU! One thing that i have come to know on my mission is that our Heavenly Fathers love is the most important thing ever. It is the central doctrine to everything in the gospel. We have commandments because he loves us! We receive blessings because he loves us! We are on this earth because he loves us! We have a Savior who has overcome all the negative affects of this mortal life because He loves us! We truly are loved. I also loved Elder Ballard's talk on mission work and working with the members. I know that as we all work together we are going to see miracles!

Well i have already run out of time but i will write to you more next week. Love ya

Sister Robinson

Monday, September 23, 2013

CPR of missionary life

The things that keep us missionaries alive! Chocolate (any kind, preferably brooksides but if we get desperate we will eat Hershey's), P-Day (the most used word in a missionaries vocabulary) and REALLY great letters!!! Three things that every missionary really really needs including this one!

So this week was pretty interesting! On Friday we had interviews with President and that was eventful only because he was a little late but what can you say he is a busy man and has a lot of missionaries to interview but that made or day all weird but it was still really great!

Saturday was a unique day as well. We got to spend time with the Activity day girls. They had a conference day and it was centered around the talk by President Uctdorf, "Once Upon a Time." Sister Brown and I were in charge of teaching a building testimonies class and it was so great! There were all these girls who are 8-11 years old that were coming up and bearing their testimonies and it was so great! It was so impressive and the spirit was so strong. We then got to see them do a talent show and it was super cute!

So i have run out of time but next week i am going to tell you all about Sister Parson's haha you will love it! She is so great!

Well have a great week and write me!

Love Sister Robinson

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Ashley's Baptism

It is so fun seeing all the incoming missionaries! There are so many of them. I am considered in the older part of the mission as 60% of the mission is at least 6 months or younger. It is crazy. Sister Brown and I got invited to go to MLC (Mission Leadership Council) yesterday to give a training on teaching the Atonement in every lesson. We made a jeopardy game that we used in our District meeting, it just so happened that President Mullen turned up at our District meeting and he really liked what we did so he invited us to MLC, which is the meeting for Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders. SO now everyone in the mission is going to be trained with that game, so that is pretty dang cool!

Sister Brown and I are working as hard as we can trying to find some new investigators! Ashley Moody was baptized this week and it was such a wonderful experience. We had the privilege of being able to teach the restoration during the intermission and it was so powerful in that room. The spirit was so present. Ashley invited her whole family of non members and they came! And she invited her co workers to come too so there were a lot of non members in the room. I know they all felt something too so we are hoping to follow up with them and see if we can start teaching them more about the church! I am so grateful that Ashley is such a wonderful example and that i had the opportunity to teach her. She is so humble and all she wants to do is learn more and more about the church. She has such a passion about the gospel! I LOVE IT! She is going to be such a great example to her friends as well and to the rest of the ward as she continues to help others come unto Christ!

We just got a new ward mission leader as our last ward mission leader is getting married in two weeks so he will no longer be in this ward. He has been amazing! We are also really excited to start working with Cory our new ward mission leader. He just got back from his mission is Brazil and so he is still in mission mode and so we are really excited for that! We are searching for those who are prepared and we know that as we work hard that we will be able to find them! I know that this is Heavenly Father's work and as we pray for opportunities to share the gospel and seek them out then he will provide us with those opportunities. So Pray for them and help the missionaries in your area!

Love you lots
Sister Robinson


Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Whitney's Baptism


This week was pretty great for Sister Brown and me. Whitney was baptized! It was so great. Her baptism was very her. She wanted a closed baptism so there were a few key people there. Like the Stake President and his wife, the bishops wife, the Ward mission leader, and then her close friends. She was super nervous but it was such a wonderful expereince. Sister Brown gave a wonderful talk on baptism so that was wonderful. It was sister Browns' first baptism and so i was really glad that she got have a part in the baptism. I lead the music and said the opening prayer. It was wonderful.

This weekend is Ashley's Baptism, which we are also very excited for. Ashley is also inviting everybody that she knows so that is super exciting. She is such a darling girl and we are very happy for her. Ashley's mother wasn't too open to the idea of being baptized but yesterday she went and talked with her mother again and now her mother is coming to the baptism to support her so we are so excited about that and overjoyed for Ashley. We are hoping to make her baptism just as great as Whitney's was!

We get the unique opportunity to go to a ward activity on Saturday up at a place called Priset River. It is going to be a lot of fun and we are hoping that a lot of the members will invite a non member to the activity. We are trying our best to motivate the ward to invite their friends and although it is picking up it is not quite all that we had hoped for. Hopefully there baptisms will get the ward so excited and help them to invite their friends. We know that some of Ashley's friends have to be prepared too so we are going to teach the restoration at her baptism and we are going to take everyone on a church tour afterwards! We are pretty excited for it!

My testimony of the Atonement has grown so much recently. As a mission we have been studying about the Atonement and relating everything that we teach back to the Atonement. I know that the Atonement is the Gospel!Everything is made possible through the Atonement and it is the most important knowledge that we can gain. It is only through our savior that we can be saved and return to live with our Heavenly Father. I am so thankful for all that my savior has done for me and i want to strive to show him each and everyday what His gift means to me as i serve the Lord with all my heart, might, mind and strength! I am so glad to be a missionary so that i have this time to teach me how to be a true disciple so that i can be a true disciple my whole life.

Anyway I hope you all have a great week!

Ok enjoy!
Sister Robinson

Monday, August 12, 2013

Whatcha gonna do

Well we had a miraculous week again! This area is exploding right now with missionary work. We had another girl come up to us at church and ask us to teach her so that was super exciting! It has been a really good week for us and the Ward. A lot of the members have been having great experinces with missionary work too and been stepping up their game with inviting friends to church and to activities!

Sister Brown is amazing. I love her so much. We get a long so well and we teach together even better. We have a great time and we both love working hard. It is so great to have a companion who just wants to do all the work that we can! Some of our favorite past times are people watching at the Library on P-days (it is like the missionary version of watching television). We also feel like we become Doctor Phil sometimes when we enter certain areas. People will randomly come up to us and start telilng us all there problems... it is similar to Jerry Springer if you can imagine. The things i hear on my mission that i never thought i wouuld hear!

So as i said we had a mini missionary last week and that was quite interesting. She was a 16 year old girl from the Marshallese Branch. So i did learn how to say hi in Marshallese which is Iakwe or Yokwe. Yeah have fun pronouncing that from just reading it. We would have learned more but she spent a lot of time laughing at us. Maybe i should stick to French... My French is actually getting a lot better as i have been using it a lot more. Suprising i know! Who knew that there would be French speakers in Spokane. Not me that is for sure. I was emailing Tess Russell a bit in French so that was fun!

Well my testimony of personal revelation has been grwoing rapidly recently. It is one of the biggest things i am learning on my mission. Perosnal revelation to me means that Heavenly Father loves us and he wants to communicate with us and lead us back home.

“When you feel pure intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas, so that by noticing it, you may find it fulfilled the same day or soon; (i.e.) those things that were presented unto your minds by the Spirit of God, will come to pass; and thus by learning the Spirit of God and understanding it, you may grow into the principle of revelation, until you become perfect in Christ Jesus.”
( Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], 151.)

I know that is how i recieve revelation! I know that it comes piece by piece. Then when you look back at all the knowledge you have gained you can realize what the Spirit was trying to tell you. I know that we need a time of piece and quiet in our lives so that we can hear the whisperings of the spirit. Our Heavenly Father loves us and he is the same yesterday, today and forever. He speaks today to a prophet and to us individually through the Holy Ghost!

I love you all and hope you are doing well. Don't be afraid to write me! I love hearing from all of you :)
Love Sister Robinson

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

New Companion - Again!

Ok so my new companions name is Sister Brown and she is the best! We get along really well and we have been tearing it up in the North Spokane area. It was such an amazing week and we saw so many miracles. 
This week we had a girl named Whitney turn up to church and said that she had taken all the discussions before and she now thinks she is ready to be baptized and this was the ward that she would be baptized in so now we have a couple of weeks to put together a baptism and go over the lessons again with her and get her ready to make that commitment so that was a pretty cool miracle that happened this week! More on that later! We meet with her on Wednesday. We also had another investigator turn up to our church today and said that he wanted us to teach him! Pretty cool! 

We had a lot of people give us referrals this week and testimony meeting at church yesterday was full of missionary experiences and plugs for more missionary work! I was super excited about that. We had a great time yesterday and some how managed to squeeze in 4 lessons in one Sunday, which never happens here! It has been SO great. 

But again you know how my mission is not normal? Haha Yeah so Sister Brown and i are hosting a mini missionary this week. Not sure why but i am sure that it will be great! We are getting the mini missionary thing down. It is us and the ZL that are getting mini missionaries so it is quite the opportunity that they are giving us to help these youth decide to go on a mission or to give them the experience of a mission that they might not be able to serve otherwise. I am sure i will have more to say about that next week! 

Love

Sis Robinson

Monday, July 29, 2013

A 'Real Companion'

We got transfer calls yesterday and i found out that i am going to be staying in the YSA ward for another transfer and i am going to be training! So that should be fun. It is going to be nice to have a full time companion again and i have been promised that she won't be a visa waiter so that is very nice :) Working with all the mini missionaries was a lot of fun but was terrible stressful. They were great and i was glad that they were able to have those experiences but it was hard not having a companion and having to remember everything on my own. I was trying my best to remember everyone that we have seen this past weeks but we met so many new people i can't even keep them all straight in my head! I really learned how to rely on the spirit though and teach by that power instead of relying on my own strength. It was a great learning experience but i wouldn't mind having a companion for the rest of my mission!

Sister Robinson.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Expect Miracles



Alright Folks this week was pretty dang good! So i since i last wrote home i have had two other companions, maybe three not sure actually but last week i was with Sister Gren, from Spokane Valley. She is the most sweet person i have ever met in my life. She had such a great attitude and i loved being around her. She is hopefully going on a mission soon so i am super excited for her! This week, well until Wednesday, my companion is Sister Coffey. She is from the Greenbluff ward in the Stake that i am serving in! I am really excited to be with her too! She just graduated High School and is trying to decide if she wants to serve a mission or not. Hopefully, a couple days on a mini mission will convince her that a mission is the BEST! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! It is so great.

We had a really great lesson with a boy names Blake yesterday. He is 20 and stopped going to church a couple of months ago because he was having internal battles. We started talking with him and we just asked some simple, inspired questions and he opened right up to us. We were able to teach, by the spirit, simple doctrine and he came to his own conclusion that he should go to church again. He said he would come this week! He is such a cool kid. He turned out to be one of the councilors in the stake presidency son. That morning he had picked up the Book of Mormon for the first time in six months and he said it made him feel better when he read. He was SO prepared for us to see him that day.

Having mini missionaries has been so great but so hard. It is different when you are with another missionary as a companion. Right now i am the missionary and so i have a lot of responsibility on my plate. However, I know that i am not alone! This is the Lord's work not mine and He knows how He wants it to be done. I am just the tool by which it gets done. He will mold me into what he wants me to be if i let him. So i am letting him and as i have done that this week we have seen miracles! I think the secret is expecting miracles. I know that i am not strong enough to do this work on my own but as i hand myself over to the Lord he allows me the privilage of seeing miracles. He doesn't need me, he could do this work some other way but he is allowing me to be part of this great and marvelous work! I am so privileged to be a missionary and the best thing is that you can be a missionary too, all you have to do is open your mouth and he will fill it (D&C 33:8-10)!

8 aOpen your mouths and they shall be filled, and you shall become even as bNephi of old, who journeyed from Jerusalem in the wilderness.

 9 Yea, open your mouths and spare not, and you shall be laden with asheaves upon your backs, for lo, I am with you.

 10 Yea, open your mouths and they shall be filled, saying:aRepent, repent, and prepare ye the way of the Lord, and make his paths straight; for the bkingdom of heaven is at hand;

All you have to do is open your mouth and it will be filled and you will become as Nephi of old! How cool is that? Like Nephi! One of the coolest missionaries of all time! I love that so much. I know Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us! He has a plan and that plan is perfect and He will lead us to where we need to be if we allow Him too. I know that this gospel i true and that Joseph Smith was a Prophet and because of his humble prayer, the father and His son Jesus Christ appeared to him and called him to be a prophet. The Priesthood, the power and permission of God, was restored on this earth and Christ's church is here on the earth once more, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. If you don't know that this is true i would encourage you to read the Book of Mormon and to pray and ask God with a sincere heart, wanting to know the truth and He will tell you the truth of these things through the power of the Holy Ghost, those feelings of peace and comfort and warmth that come to your heart and mind!

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

C'est la vie! 


Hey Folks!

  So you know how my mission has been super crazy? Well it just got a little crazier!!! My new companion just got her visa to go to Brazil! So i am companion less for the next five weeks!!! So the stake has arranged for me to have a new companion every week from the young women in the stake. So for the rest of the transfer i will be conducting mini missions with sisters in the stake and teaching them how to be a missionary, while trying to do the work in my rather large ward! Haha so i would say i am a little stressed but at least i can say that my mission is not boring! I am really learning to rely on my Heavenly Father and the spirit and i am sure i will keep learning about that in the coming weeks as my companions are not set apart/ trained missionaries but it should be a learning and growing experience :) So that it is pretty much what is going on here. I know these next couple weeks will be a little different and i think i will probably be a little stressed but i know that it will be great and that we will see miracles!

My testimony of being self reliant really grew this week. When Elder Pieper Of the Seventy came to visit and taught us pretty much how to answer our own questions, i feel like my eyes were really opened and i know that i can answer my own questions. I have already found some great answers to my questions. I had a bunch of really great spiritual experiences with prayer recently and really feeling the presence of our Heavenly Father around me! I know that he loves me and is aware of me and this is His work and he will help us do His work!

I hope you were all able to see the broadcast on missionary work yesterday! It was so amazing if you didn't get to see it go on to LDS.org and watch it. It was super inspiring and i want all of you to watch it. I love being a missionary so much! I know that it is a privilege to be out on a mission and that this truly is His work that i am doing. I know that if we rely on Him, He will guide us to where we need to be and He will teach us what we need to learn. I love you all so much and i LOVE getting your letters! They honestly mean the world to me :)

I hope you are all doing well. Keep the Faith and remember that, "your future is as only as bright as your Faith!"- President Thomas S. Monson

Love you lots
Sister Robinson

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Transfer 4 here we come!


 Holy Moly all can you believe that it has been another six weeks already? I honestly can not! Transfer calls have come and... I am staying in the Shawnee YSA ward!!! I am super excited about that! Alas, my dear companion is being transfered :( But she is still in the mission until she gets her visa! I know that she is going to do so many great things, she is such an amazing missionary and i learned so much from her. My new companion is named Sister Jones. I know nothing about her yet at all... so more next week. So ther is a video that i will send home soon and it will pretty much sum up Sister Jensen and I's companion. It is quite great and involves Sister Jensen and Cats. More later.

So i know i am terrible at sending the funny things home to you all, there are just so many funny things that happen and i don't have time to write them all and i am also not sure if they will be funny over email but a little summery of the fun things that happen here...

Sister Jensen Meows at every cat we see. Funny thing is she doesn't even like Cats. Yesterday while she was Meowing at a cat it started to follow us and climbed in our car. It was trying to curl up on our seat and come home with us. We had a difficult time trying to get it our, clearly Sister Jensen doesn't speak Cat as fluently as she thinks she does.

Sister Jensen and I also now speak OP. If you don't know what that is you might be able to google it! We are pretty good and it comes in handy when we get in tough situations, just start speaking Op and we can get right out of there. No just kidding we only speak Op in the car, we don't need people thinking that Mormons have a secret language!

Another fun thing Sister Jensen and I like doing is looking for opportunities to back the car in public. Most missionaries look for those pull through spots so that no one has to back the car out of the spot (a mission rule because some missionaries just can not drive) but we look for those opportunities to back the car in public. We just love watching people's faces as they try to figure out what we are doing!

Anyway that is just the weirdness of Sister Jensen and I. We have a good time what can i say! In other news Sister Jensen is so great and i am so excited that she gets to go serve in a family ward. I am sad that we won't be companions anymore but i know that she is going to go and do such great things and she is a wonderful missionary who will bless the lives of so many! I am excited to get to know my new companion Sister Jones as well. I am sure she is great :)

My testimony of the choices i make and faith has really grown this week. I know that Faith is a action word and that it is always forward moving. Faith will propel us to do what we need to. As we are exactly obedient and believe in the work that we are doing we will be able to do the work of the Lord. We will be allowed to witness miracles! I love being a missionary so much and am so glad that i am able to serve here and at this time. I know that Heavenly Father has a plan and as we have faith and follow that plan then we will be able to be tools in his hand to bring to pass great and marvelous things!

This weekend we were having a pretty rough day when the Shadle Park Elders (some Elders in our zone, or the town over from us) called us and asked if we could attend their baptism and teach the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and then invite everyone on a church tour. We said yes of course and we went!  As we were there we testified of the restoration and then afterwards we were talking to the converts friends that came to her baptism. We invited them on a church tour. The wonferful girl being baptized was named Gina and she was 18. Most of her freinds that were there were teenage girls and so it was so cool that we were there to connect with them and take them on a church tour. We were able to relate to them in a way that the Elders wouldn't have been able to. We invited them all to be baptized and they said they would. So now they are being taught by the Elders. We were so excitied that we were able to be there and meet this wonderful young women!

I know that this church is true and that Heavenly Father cares about your missionary efforts. This is His work and he will help you as you share the gospel with those around you.

I love you all and hope you have a great week

Love Sister Robinson

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Are you Australian? 


HEY!!!

So we had an amazing week this week!!!! We have been working with a lot of Less Actives and we have been seeing MIRACLES!!! It is so great :) We had 7 less actives in church this week and it was crazy amazing. We were so excited to see them there.  It was so cool becasue all the members went and found people that they didn't know or who were sitting alone and they went and sat with them and talked with them. There was a warm spirit at church and you could tell that everybody was a lot happier. We can tell that the ward's bond is growing deeper and it is amazing to see them all a little happier!!!

So have i mentioned that Sister Jensen is the BOMB! I love her so Flippin' much! We just work so well together and we are so passionate. She really is such an amazing missionary. Personally i think we should just keep her for the whole 18 months but it is the Lord's will so i will take another transfer if that is what he will allow! But honestly we just have so much fun and we love all of the members and the investigators that we are working with. We are seeing miracles and we can't wait to see the ward keep changing and drawing closer and closer together as we teach them all the gospel of Christ! You should all check out her blog: sisterhayleyjensen.blogspot.com.

Well my testimony of the Lord's work just keeps growing and this week was no acception! There were so many times this week that we were just led by the spirit and were in the right place at the right time! It was so amazing to see the Lord's hand so clearly in His work. We know that it is a privilage to be on a mission and that we are just tools, just vessels in the Lord's hand. If we can make ourselves the most effective tools then he will use us more and more and we will be privaleged to see more and more miracles! I am So grateful to be a missionary and i am so grateful to serve in this area, in this mission. I think by the end of my mission i am going to give Elder Holland a run for his money and say that no other missionary has loved their mission as much as i am loving mine! I am pushed and tried everyday but because of it i come out better and better! I love being a missionary!

So i know many of you yearn to do missionary work but you get scared, so i wanted to share with you some words from Elder Anderson that have greatly helped me:

"I promise you, as you pray to know with whom to speak, names and faces will come into your mind. Words to speak will be given in the very moment you need them.22 Opportunities will open to you. Faith will overcome doubt, and the Lord will bless you with your very own miracles."

I promise to you that Faith WILL ALWAYS overcome doubt! Every time! I know that it is true because i practice it each and everyday. There are times when i am super scared to talk to people but then i exercise a little faith and do it anyway and it always turns out well. I love you all and i know that the Lord's hand is in this work. This is his work and as we exercise faith he will allow us to see miracles.

Have a great week and don't forget to write me!
Sister Robinson

P.S. I should proably explain the title... So for some strange reason everyone i talk to always asks if i am Australian!!!! Always, so i guess Australians must sound like they are english and have lived in America for too long. I might start rocking it though if someone can give a good, convincing back story of how i am Australian...

Monday, June 3, 2013

TGIPD (Thank Goodness It's P-Day

Hey Friends and Family!

I hope you are all doing well! Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes i had such a great birthday! My companions are flippin' amazing!!! Sister Jensen decorated our kitchen with balloons and streamers! She is honestly too cute. She also bought me Michigan socks... yeah she is a funny one haha It was honestly such a great day though.

So my area is doing well. So this week Sister Jensen and I have decided that we want to work on strengthening the members. We know how important the members are to the work. With out members we can not be successful, us missionaries can not so it alone!  So we have started doing a lot of member visits where we are teaching the restoration, or the plan of salvation, or the gospel of Christ! Yesterday we had a lesson with a recently returned missionary. He has been back for four months. While we were teaching him the spirit was really strong. We asked him how we had felt while we were teaching and he said, "better than i have felt in a long time." That to us was confirmation that building the members is really what we need to do. The members need to feel the spirit just as much as our investigators do!. In a YSA ward everyone is still trying to figure out who they are and what they are supposed to be doing. It is when they are standing on their own testimonies for the first time. We love our members and we are excited to work with them more and help there friends come to the knowledge of the gospel too!

Yesterday at church we had no investigators turn up at all but it was the best day i have had at church in a long time because five of our less actives including one who hadn't been to church in 15 years turned up to church. It was a miracle! We were so grateful that Heavenly Father had allowed us to witness that and that we were able to be a part of that experince. We are hoping next week that we can get even more LA there!

Ok so Sister Jensen is amazing as usual. We really love being together and we love teaching together. I learn so much from her everyday! She is such a fire cracker and keeps our energy running high. We love working in this ward and although this has been the hardest area for me so far it has also been so rewarding. I have learned so much in only four weeks and i know that i still have SO much to learn. I! Sister Jensen is so focused on the work and our investigators and it is so fantastic! She is such a great missionary i am secretly hoping he visa doesn't come for a whole nother transfer!! Oh but i do have a pretty funny story about her. So a couple of weeks ago Sister Jensen was woken up by some loud noises upstairs. Her first thought when she woke up was that it must be a burgler, so apparently she started calling my name but i was sleeping like a rock so i couldn't hear her! So she gets out of bed and quietly walks over to my bed so the buguler couldn't hear her and shakes me awake. Just as i am waking up it crosses her mind that it might just be the members getting home (Which of course it was). So she tells me that she thought there was a burgular and then that she had realized that it was proably just the mebers. I confrimed that one for her. We then both laid awake for an hour as the members proceeded to unpack there thingts at 12am. It was pretty funny the next day when we woke up. We know have an inside joke though that she will wake me up in the middle of the night when she gets scared. Bless her little cotton socks haha.
.
So this week I studied a lot about the nature of God and it was so amazing. I love my Heavenly Father so much and i know i can not comprehend how much he loves me and each child around me. But i do know that he loves us and wants us to return to him, and he is dying to bless us. I know that he tries to give us every opportunity he can to grow and learn. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who knows what i can handle and helps me carry by burdens and helps me through my trials! I love the scripture in John 14 that says:

27 aPeace I leave with you, my bpeace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be ctroubled, neither let it be afraid.

And then i love the scripture in John 16 that says:

 33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have apeace. In the bworld ye shall have ctribulation: but be of good dcheer; I have eovercome the world.

There is so much hope and peace that comes from Faith in Christ! I know that Christ's gospel has been restored on the earth again through Priesthood power. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who has given us a Prophet to lead us in this day. I know that Thomas S. Monson is that Prophet and that through him Christ leads the church today.

I hope you have a great week and remeber to talk with your Heavenly Father! He loves you and wants to hear from you!

Love you all
Sister Robinson

Monday, May 20, 2013

I LOVE Shawnee YSA

Hey Family and Friends!

So this week was a really good week in the Shawnee ward! We saw miracles. One of our investigators Audrey was coming to meet us for a church tour when her member friend called and said he couldn't come. She came anyway though all on her own. We gave her the church tour and invited her to be baptized and she said yes. We also set a date and so we are super excited for that. She was so well prepared to recieve the gospel in her life! It is amazing how the Lord works.

We also ran into a family whos kids were anti mormon but we went and shared a message with them and they invited us back. We aslo then went to a referral that a member gave us. The referral was from a mother of a less active and it was the less actives girlfriend. We went there and were talking with her and she said that she wanted to join the church she just didn't know how, so we are now meetinf with her! So crazy right!

Well Sister Jensen and I have been having a lot of fun. We have established open communication and it has been working really well for us. I think we have been having a little too much fun. We are always laughing about something. It has been good for us and keeps our spirits high. We also now have a quote, it mainly just contains things we have said in moments of insanity. We are both blonde so that might have something to do with it also haha.

My testimony of the truthfullness of the gospel grows everyweek. I have really come to see the power that is in the Book of Mormon. It has the power to work miracles in our lives. As we have had our investigators read passages in the Book of Mormon they have found answers to their questions and they have drawn closer to Christ. We have seen wounds healed! It is such an amazing thing to witness and i am so grateful for the opportunity i have to be a missionary! It honestly is the best calling on the earth. I would encourage all of you to read the Book of Mormon and ponder the messafge and then pray about it. Ask God if it is true. I promise you that as you do this the Holy Ghost will tell you of its truth and you will find peace and joy in your life as you live by its precepts.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Love Sister Robinson

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Olympic Missionary

Hey all!

I hope you are all doing well and had an amazing Mother's day! I was able to talk to the family yesterday and so that was really nice! It was great to learn that everyone is doing well! Although i forgot to ask if anyone in the ward got their mission calls, so if anyone has that information i would love to have that sent to me!

Well we had a great week this week! We swept into the area and my new companion is amazing. Her name is Sister Jensen (yes that is the same name as my last companion, but different missionary i promise). She is a visa waiter, who will be going to Brazil eventually. So i have her for at least a transfer! We are starting to get to know the area and it is a little crazy! We are the only YSA ward in the whole Stake so we have a huge area! There are also like 5 streets with the same name and so we don't always know which one we are supposed to be going to, but it makes for a really fun time! We are lucky enough to have a car and let me tell you i am counting myb blessings for the car, If we were on bikes i am not sure how productive we would be!

We met some great people this week. There was Isaiah, who is an investigator who just turned 18 and he wants to be baptized, he just feels like he is fighting an ongoing spiritual battle. He is so great though and is going to come to church this week and pray to know when to be baptized. Then we also met Audrey, who is a friend of a young man in our ward who is going on a mission this week. Audrey has been through a lot in her life and we are excited to teach her about the Atonement, because we know how much it will really help her in her life! We are excited to be able to teach her again. We invited her to be baptized as well and she said yes! There is also another investigator named Hamad, he is from Sudi Arabia! He is so great but doesn't understand English too well! The Elders were meeting with him and they decided to hand him over to the YSA ward because he could do with the fellowship! I can't wait to teach him i think that is going to be so much fun!

Our week has been really hectic and so has this P-Day but i will try to write a little more next week and keep you informed on our investigators and all the great stuff that we are learning! I will try and include a new challenge soon too! v

I love you all and hope you have the most amazing week!
Love Sister Robinson

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Spokane Here I Come

Hey everyone

So transfer calls where last night and i found out that i am going to be sweep training! For those of you who don't know what that means, it means that i am going to an area that i have never been to before and I am going to be training a new missionary. So it is pretty crazy. The new are that i am going to is called Shawnee, WA and it is a YSA (Young Single Adult) ward so i am pretty excited about that. It will be people my age that i will be working with so that will be a fun, new experience for me. I am sad to leave the beautiful area of Colville and Ione but I am also excited for the new adventure in Spokane.

This week has been a little crazy for Sister Jensen and I. So we had transfers on our mind for a big part of the week. We both didn't want to leave Colville because we love the people here so much. Then Sister Jensen got the stomach flu and so we couldn't leave the apartment for two days so that was fun. On the bright i got a lot of studying done i manged the read the whole second half of the Book of Mormon in an evening. So that was nice! Also on the bright side, the weather was so nice! The sun was shining everyday this week and it was in the 70s for most of the week and in the 80s for the rest of it. All in all, it was a crazy, hectic but nice week!

I hope you are all doing well I don't have to much to say this week due to transfers but i am sure next week i will have a lot to say! Have a great week all and keep me and my new companion in your prayers! Trust me we need them haha

I love you all
Sister Robinson

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Only in Colville 


Hey y'all!
I hope everyone is doing well. I would first love to thank the wonderful Powell Laurals for the beautiful package that they sent me! It honestly made my day :)

So i was able to go to the temple today in Spokane, which was amazing. We went as a zone and it was so much fun. We live about two hours away from Spokane so it was quite the day trip, but we were all able to travel together and then a wonderful lady from a ward down in Hayden Lake, ID saw us and offered to take all 12 missionaries to Five Guys for lunch. That is one women who is going to be truly blessed it was so nice of her!

So transfers are coming up this weekend so i will find out my fate for the next six weeks again this Sunday and i will let you all know on Monday what happens. (I say that but last time i was emergency transfered so i guess i can't say that it is a difinite fate). Sister Jensen and I have been having a blast being back together since the MTC. Missionary work is hard but it so much easier when you have a companion that makes you laugh and that is definitly Sister Jensen, she is AMAZING!!!

What else can i tell you? Well i guess i can tell you the meaning of the title of this blog post... So Colville is a small town, a lovley town, but a small one. The people are great but there are some character's  around that really make me laugh! There was one man walkinig down the street with elmo pajama pants on with Jean cutt offs over top... yeah only in Colville. Also only in Colville will you drive past a wheat field and here country music blasting from a tractor. It is a great town with endless entertainment for a city girl like myself. I love how confused they get about my accent too, i love telling people I am from Ohio and seeing them get really confused, they didn't realize that we talked so funny in the Midwest haha

Well just a reminder that Mothers day is coming up. I am counting down the days to that one when i get to Skype my family, but i thought i would give you all a reminder too so that you can go out and get your mothers all gifts!

Have a great week all and i will talk to you soon! I will post some pics next week too!
Love
Sister Robinson

Monday, April 22, 2013

Welcome to Colville: City of Churches

Hey Everyone!

I hope you are all doing well :) So i am still in good ole Colville, which is northwest Washington up by the border of Canada. It is very beautiful but very much the boonies. We have a pick up truck and we need it haha we are always going down long dirt roads to get to member houses, but i have to say that it is a lot of fun. It is a small town so a lot pf people know each other or know of each other and everyone is very nice to us.

So Sister Jensen and I had a meeting in Spokane this week, which was great! We learned so much about working with the members and how important they are to the missionary work! It was also an exciting week because Brandy got baptized!!! She was also confirmed a member of the church on Sunday :) It was such an exciting time for her and we are so happy for her. She is on fire and just loves coming to church! It is so great to see how the gospel of Jesus Christ has really helped her in her life!

Well i will hopefully be able to send you more pictures of Colville soon but for now i got to get back to work!
 I love you all
Sister Robinson

Monday, April 15, 2013

Hi Everyone

Well i am writing to you from good ole Colville, Washington. For those of you who don't know where that is and are too lazy to Google it, i am up by the the Canadian border in western Washington. It is a beautiful area and we go up to a town named Ione and Metaline Falls. It is beyond gorgeous up there!

Well i have some exciting news one of our investigators, Brandy is getting baptized this Friday. We had asked her to pray about a date and then when we came back a couple days later she asked if she could be baptized the next weekend and this was on Friday! So we have been running around crazy trying to make this the most wonderful experience of her life!  Baptism is just so great and she is so excited. We have been taking the Divis Family with us to the lessons and they have become very close and so Brother Divis is going to baptize Brandy! It is just so wonderful!

Well i don't have much time to write today because we are crazy busy but i wanted to share a thought from conference with you. One of my favourite talks was by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. It was an amazing talk that you should all follow the link to and watch! But one of my favourite quotes was,  "Brothers and sisters, this is a divine work in process, with the manifestations and blessings of it abounding in every direction, so please don’t hyperventilate if from time to time issues arise that need to be examined, understood, and resolved. They do and they will. In this Church, what we know will always trump what we do not know. And remember, in this world, everyone is to walk by faith."

I know that this life is hard and that it is easy to get caught up in the things that you don't know, but i would encourage you to do as Elder Holland suggests and walk by faith and know that the knowledge of the gospel of Christ will always trump what you do not know. Pray to Heavenly Father and ask if the Book of Mormon is not true! I know that he will answer you and you will know that the Book of Mormon is true and is the word of God and together with the bible, they contain the fullness of Christ's gospel!

I love you all and hope that you are doing well! Heavenly Father loves you and wants to help you! Turn to him and he will help you.

Love Sister Robinson

P.S. I would love some mail from all of you beautiful people :)

Monday, April 8, 2013

Bloom where you are planted!!!

Hey everyone!!!

So this week was a little crazy as i just got news of a sudden transfer. So do you remember my MTC companion Siter Jensen? Well her companion is a Nauvoo Vistor Center missionary and she goes back to Nauvoo this week, which is in the middle of our transfer, so we have to do an emergency transfer. So i am being transfered to Coleville, Washington. We are both are still in training but as they don't have anyone to train us, Sister Jensen and i are going to train each other for the rest of the transfer. So yeah that is the first  time that missionaries have ever had to train each other in this mission. We will also be the first companionship of sister missionaries that are both 19! So a lot of firsts for us! It is going to be crazy and intresting. We are going to have to rely  on the Lord a lot! But i know that God will be with us and he will help us overcome our trials.

I am a little sad that i will be leaving the CDA zone. I love this area so much and love our investigators. It is hard because i didn't have any notice that this was going to happen. We had no clues at all that this would happen so i am in shock a little!

So Siter Whitney is just the best. I am so privilaged to have had her as my trainer. She really has taught me so much and i am glad that we have become such great friends this past couple weeks. It was a great way to end our companionship together! She really is amazing and i hope one day we will both be able to see each other again!

My testimony has just bloomed this week. I didn't think that i could know this church was any more true than i did but i know even more that this church is the true church of Christ. Christ restored this church on the earth and everything about it just rings so true. Conference was amazing and i sat their just thinking that everything that was being said came from God and it was all just exactly perfect and pure. I love it. I truely know without a doubt that this church is true!

Yesterday while tracting we met a guy named Cory. As soon as i started talking to him i knew i had to talk about the preisthood and the restoration of the church. I testified that the church was back on the earth and then he said that he wanted to learn more. We swaped numbers and we are going to take him on a church tour this week. It was just so cool. He locked eyes with me as i was testifying and i could see his spiritual hunger as i spoke to him. He had been prepared for what i was telling him. He was the last door in that whole apartment that we tracted and i can't wait until Sister Whitney gets to take him on that church tour! It was the coolest exsperience the first time that anything like that has ever happened to me!!!

THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!! Heavenly Father loves all of us! If you haven't had a chance to watch General Conference go to lds.org and watch it! It was amzing there was so much good stuff. I can't remeber right now who said it, as i don't have my notes with me right now, but it was said, "bloom where you are planted!" I secon that. You are all amazing and God knows that. Bloom where you are planted. It doesn't matter what your situation, your age or education, you can bloom if you lean on the Lord. He will help you and bless you!

I Love you all

Sister Robbinson

Bloom where you are planted!!!

Hey everyone!!!

So this week was a little crazy as i just got news of a sudden transfer. So do you remember my MTC companion Siter Jensen? Well her companion is a Nauvoo Vistor Center missionary and she goes back to Nauvoo this week, which is in the middle of our transfer, so we have to do an emergency transfer. So i am being transfered to Coleville, Washington. We are both are still in training but as they don't have anyone to train us, Sister Jensen and i are going to train each other for the rest of the transfer. S yeah that is the frist time that missionaries have ever had to train each other in this mission. We will also be the frist companionship of sister missionaries that are both 19! So a lot of firsts for us! It is going to be crazy and intresting. We are going to have to rely on the Lord a lot! But i know that God will be with us and he will help us overcome our trials.

I am a little sad that i will be leaving the CDA zone. I love this area so much and love our investigators. It is hard because i didn't have any notice that this was going to happen. We had no clues at all that this would happen so i am in shock a little!

So Siter Whitney is just the best. I am so privilaged to have had her as my trainer. She really has taught me so much and i am glad that we have become such great friends this past couple weeks. It was a great way to end our companionship together! She really is amazing and i hope one day we will both be able to see eachother again!

My testimony has just bloomed this week. I didn't think that i could know this church was any more true than i did but i know even more tha this church is the true church of Christ. Christ trestored this church on the earth and everything about it just rings so true. Conference was amazing and i sat their just thinking that everything that was being said came from God and it was all just exactly perfect and pure. I love it. I truely know with out a doubt that this church is true!

Yesterday while tracting we met a guy named Cory. As soon as i started talking to him i knew i had to talk about the preisthood and the restoration of the church. I testified that the church was back on the earth and then he said that he wanted to learn more. We swaped numbers and we are going to take him on a church tour this week. It was just so cool. He locked eyes with me as i was testifying and i could see his spiritual hunger as i spoke to him. He had been prepared for what i was telling him. He was the last door in that whole apartment that we tracted and i can't wait until Sister Whitney gets to take him on that church tour! It was the coolest exsperience the first time that anything like that has ever happened to me!!!

THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!! Heavenly Father loves all of us! If you haven't had a chance to watch General Conference go to lds.org and watch it! It was amzing there was so much good stuff. I can't remeber right now who said it, as i don't have my notes with me right now, but it was said, "bloom where you are planted!" I secon that. You are all amazing and God knows that. Bloom where you are planted. It doesn't matter what your situation, your age or education, you can bloom if you lean on the Lord. He will help you and bless you!

I Love you all

Sister Robbinson

Monday, April 1, 2013

Spring is in bloom... at least for the next 5 minutes!!! 

Hey everyone! Happy late Easter!

I hope you all had a wonderful Sabbath! I know mine was amazing. Sister Whitney and i made 7 dozen cookies and took them to all our investigators and less-actives. It was really fun to be able to share a Easter message with so many people :) It is amazing how much our Savior truly loved us SO much that he was willing to die for us. He has suffered absolutly everything for us! In Alma 7:11-13 says,

 " And he shall go forth, suffering pains and aafflictions andbtemptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will ctake upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him adeath, that he may bloose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to csuccorhis people according to their infirmities.Now the Spirit aknoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the bflesh that he might ctake upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me."

That is the testimony that is in me too! I know that Christ suffered for us, every bad and hurtful thing we have ever been through he has gone through too! We are never alone, their is always someone that understands! Christ is always there and he will never leave us. I am so grateful for the knowledge that i have and i hope you all know that these things are true as well and if you don't i encourage you to pray about them! I know that God will answer your prayers!

We had a pretty good week, Spring is sort of here. Most days it is nice and warm and sunny and other times it is a little gloomy, but it is a nice change from snow :) Everyone here in Northern Idaho likes to complain about the weather and they all say that if you don't like the weather then wait five minutes and it will change. In my experience this is not just an Idaho thing but happens in quite a few places including Ohio and London haha.

Well i hope you are all doing well. I am loving the emails and letters that i have received. I love hearing about your lives especially funny stories :) Keep me in the loop please!

Have a fantastic week

Sister Robinson

P.S. Auntie Helen if you read these at all thank you for the letters! I don't have your address and so i haven't been able to respond but i am loving your letters and Abraham's letters too!

Monday, March 25, 2013

Transfer Craziness

Well again i do not have much time to write because we have been so busy! We had 38 new missionaries come in today and 21 of those were Sisters!!! Isn't that crazy? But it is all very exciting. Sister Whitney and i are both staying in the Hayden 4th ward and Lakeland 1st ward for at least another transfer, so that is very exciting. Our zone just got split though so i am no longer in the CDA zone but i am in the Hayden Lake Zone! We have our own zone. It just shows how much the work is progressing and how the lord is really hastening the work! I am so excited to be a part of it!

So today is P-Day but i had the marvelous opportunity to go Fear Busting with the new missionaries. It was so much fun. It was weird because i have only been in the field for five weeks but i was expected to help a new missionary find their way around! Surprisingly it went very well and we ended up giving two Book of Mormons out and getting a return visit with one lady name Loraine! She was such a sweet heart and the new Sister i was with was amazing! She is going to be such a great missionary :)

Ok well i have to go but i hope everyone is doing well! Feel free to send me an email i would love to hear from you: isabelle.robinson@myldsmail.com! Or feel free to write me a hand written letter i love those too :) I am replying to all those who wrote me last week later tonight. With all the transfer news and news of the Zone splitting it got a little crazy but don't worry your letter is coming!

Love you all lots
Sister Robinson

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Weekly Email

Hey all! 
How is everybody this week? I have had a great week! I gave a talk in both of my wards during sacrament meeting yesterday. They were on two different subjects so unfortunately i couldn't use the same talk but it worked out well and after the meetings my companion and I received some referrals so that was nice!  

So guess what! There was a rule change this week in my mission and now instead of only being able to email family i can email friends as well. Isn't that exciting? I thought so! If you would like to email me my email is: isabelle.robinson@myldsmail.com

So some cool things happened this week! I went on exchanges for the first time (Which just means that i went to a different area for 24hrs with a different companion) It was really fun. I was in the Post Falls area and it is so pretty there! I met some amazing families and we took a man named Mike on a church tour and he was super interested! Also we had one of our investigators commit to being baptized! So that was really cool as well. 

Today Sister Whitney and i found a CD that had some inspirational music on that wasn't MoTab and had a more pop beat to it. We have dubbed it our P-Day CD. It was fun, we danced around the Kitchen to it. This is approved only on P-Day the rest of the week we do not have time to dance around our kitchen and mainly just listen to MoTab although we have recently discovered that we love Alex Boye! (So if anyone has any Alex Boye music they would love to send us we would not object... actually any music along those lines is much appreciated...). 

I had one little surprise this week. I went to cook a meal and i discovered that nearly all the recipes that i used to use i got from the internet... it was a problem. So if anyone would like to send me some recipes that i could use that would be great! This is something that i should have done before i left but didn't think about it. Mum if you could ask the relief Society for help in this mini project that would be great and then i could cook us some good food and deserts! 

Ok I have a challenge for you all! It is a Book of Mormon Quest! So the point of the quest to show how much the Book of Mormon testifies of Christ and to help us strengthen our testimonies! 
The goal is to go through a clean paperback copy of the Book of Mormon with the quest in mind of marking:
·       Each reference to Jesus Christ (any of His names of pronouns referring to Him)
·       Words of Christ (Spoken by Him or by prophets when the say, “Thus saith the Lord”
·       Doctrine of Christ (Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, Enduring to the End)
Optional for those who are really excited, or who may have already done the first three
·       Attributes of Christ
·       Promised Blessings
Begin this Quest today!  Our goal is to finish by Mother’s Day!
I know as you do this quest that your testimonies will be strengthend. I have been doing it for two days and already I have learned SO much! It is amazing. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and this church is SO true. 

Ok well i hope you are all well! As you can see i am doing well and the sun is shining today so that is a tender mercy of the Lord. Send me a letter or an email when you have time, i would love to hear from you all! 

Remember that you are a child of God and He loves you! 
I love you too! 
Sister Robinson

St Patrick's Day

Hey everyone! Happy late St Patricks Day!

So have i mentioned that one of my Ward Mission Leaders is Scottish? Well he is and so he likes to give me a hard time. He has a thick Scottish accent and he likes to tell people if they don't understand me then he will translate for them... yeah he thinks he is funny. Anyway he is a great man and likes to keep me updated on the Westham score. He will tell me about the game from time to time and if the players were playing well or not. Also when he goes to World Market he will occasionally give me some Cadbury's chocolate so that is very nice! Anyway, Day he told me to tell you Hi, i am not sure why just you but he said hi and to call you a limey... that is him calling you a limey not me of course.

Well i don't have much time this week because we have been realy busy, which of course is a good thing. I only have one more week until i reach the first milestone of my mission: my first transfer window! We will find out next week if Sister Whitney and i will stay in Hayden 4th and Lakeland 1st ward or not. We both have a pretty good feeling that we are both staying here but you never know. There are 28 new missionaries coming into the mission next week. 14 Elders and 14 Sisiters so that is very, very exciting. We only have 30 sister missionaries right now so that is going to be a dramatic increase. I am really excited for all the great missionary work going on, it so amazing how much the work is moving forward!

Well everybody i hope you are doing the Book of Mormon challenge because it is amaziong how much you can learn from it. I am really enjoying it and feel like i am getting a lot out of it :) One thing that really stuck out to me today was the fact that no matter how bad the people were the Lord never turned his back on them. His hand is always there! He is always in the same place and if he seems far away to you that means that you have some work to do. He is always willing to help you but you have to ask for his help. He is knocking at the door, now you just need to open it! I love you all and want you to know that i know this church is true! I know that no matter what you are going through that your savior is there for you. This gospel is for everyone and will improve the qualiity of your life as you live the commandments that the Lord has given us. If we have faith, are willing to repent, are baptized, recieve the girft of the Holy Ghost and Endure to the End keeping all of the commandments that God has given us we can have joy in this life and eternal life in the life to come. I know these things are true with out a doubt and i strongly encourage you to pray about these things if you don't know that they are true.

God is good, the church is true and i love you!
Sister Robinson

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Entertaining Trials


Hey Girls and Gals! How are you all this week? I am doing great here in good ole Northern Idaho. The snow cleared up this week and the sun was shining. Yesterday was quite glorious!
So we have been working really hard lately with our investigators trying to prepare them for baptism. I am not sure if i spoke before about Angela or not but she is hopefully getting baptized next month, we are still trying to set a date with her. But she is amazing! Apparently her brother has been going to the ward down in Coeur d'alene with a friend who is a recent convert. Angela has been talking to her and i think that has been a huge help to her. Also there is Cathy! We invited her to be baptizen on April 16th and she said yes! She came to church this week and ,what is really cool about it, her less active husband also came to church with her! It was really, really exciting! We are meeting with her again tomorrow.

So here is for the Entertaining trials part... So the first one is that my boots may or may not have holes in the bottom and so are no longer waterproof. There had been a lot of snow in Hayden and Lakeland so that was a small issue, so i switched to wearing my Oxford shoes. This was all fine and dandy until we went to go visit one of our less actives who lives on a road as i can only describe as long and tretcherous. It has too many potholes for us to drive the car down so we had to walk down it. That would have been fine if my shoes had any grip on them. Alas they do not so i was slipping and sliding down the road trying to avoid falling in the big puddles of ice water. Here is a picture so you can see the delightful road. My companion and i found it very entertaining. So did the workmen who where near by watching my slip down the road. I kind of looked like a priss, but it was entertaing! haha




The other enteraining trial was an unfortunate event... we accidently locked our self out of the church building and we were the only ones at the building. Not only did we leave the keys inside but we locked our phone inside and my jacket (it was cold). The building is also not in our area so we didn't know where any members lived... you can see our problem. Nonetheless, we got down on our knees and said a prayer and that is when we came up with the idea to go trackting for members. Usually when you tract you are trying to teach the people that live at the house you are knocking on (and they all know that so they like to hide, or come up with excuses not to talk to you) but this time we were just trying to ask if they knew where a member might live. The first lady said yes and then shut the door on us, out of fear that we might baptize her. The second lady answered the door and said sorry but she didn't have time to talk but then we explained that we were just looking for a house where members live. She glady pointed us in the right direction and we were able to find a lovely member who happened to have a key. When then had to tell the Elders, who's are it is, that we had been tracting in their area. They found it pretty amuzing. Luckily so did we.
Anyway that is all the time i have, but i will speak to you next week!
Feel free to send me letters!
Love
Sister Robinson

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Hey Everyone !!!



 So it has been a whole week since i entered the MTC! Which is crazy i have to admit in a sense it feels like i have been here forever and then at the same time it seems crazy to think i have been here for a whole week!!! So what can i tell you that you want to know? Well my companion's name is Sister Jensen and she is from Springville, Utah. She played Lacrosse in High School so that is one thing we have in common. She is pretty laidback but she does work hard which is nice and so we are getting along well! There are 11 missionaries in my district! 4 Sisters and 7 Elders. We all get along very well and have become really close over the past week that we have been here. We have a great assortment of personalities. A majority of us are hardworking but we all like to have a laugh every now and then and i think that is waht gets us through the day. Oh yeah there are two nineteen year old sisters in  my district (my companion and I) and then there is one 18 year old elder so i though that was pretty cool! I just love my district SO much! There are five of us going to the Spokane Washington mission, two going to the Seatle Washington Mission and four going to the Halifax, Canada mission! It is a whole lot of fun.
 
We had the opportunity to go to the Temple today, which was amazing! I really enjoyed that time to first be able to get outside of the MTC walls and second going to the temple is always amazing. It brought a lot of peace and rest into what has been a crazy, hectic past week. I love the MTC! I am learning SO much! It is hard, really hard, sometimes but i know that everything will always be ok and anything i go through will just teach me lessons that i need to learn! I am honestly haveing a good time. I would love to hear from all of you though! Espically my family!!! (Ellie, Jack and Dad). I know i have only been here a week but it has been a very long week and i would love to recieve some letters and maybe a package or two (Mum) full of goodies maybe? Anyway i hope all is well with each of you and i hope to hear from some of you shortly. You can always use Dear Elder! It is free while i am in the MTC, which is until the 18th Febuary roughly!!!
 
Well remember that this church is true and that i love you all and so does your Heavenly Father!
 
Love Sister Robinson

Friday, January 25, 2013

Ants in my Pants

So it is almost time for me to leave on my mission! I only have a few days left and i must say i am getting pretty antsy. It has been about two months since i received my mission call and have those two months flown by or what? I am very excited to start my mission though. It is something that i have looked forward to since i was little and being able to serve at 19 is a dream come true. I am so very grateful for the wonderful opportunity i have to serve and i can not wait to meet the people of Spokane, Washington. I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for me and where life will take me. For anyone who wants to write me my addresses are as follows:  

My address for the frist few weeks: 
Sister Isabelle Jemma Ruth Robinson
MTC Mailbox # 243
WA-SPO 0218
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793


And then my address once i have left the MTC: 
Sister Isabelle Jemma Ruth Robinson 
820 S Pines Road Suite 101
Spokane Valley, Washington 99206
United State


I would love to receive letters and i will try and respond as quickly as possible but i promise i will always respond it might just take me a while... but i will! I am grateful for all the support my family and friends have shown. It honestly means the world to me! 

I love you all! 
(The soon to be) Sister Robinson  

P.S. I thought i would post a few pictures with some of my favorite people as we said goodbye for a year and a half. I am sure this is only the beginning of many pictures to become.