Loving My New Area

     

     Well family, where do I begin? This week has been really different. Sister Dimond got sick half way through the week, so we had to stay in the flat quite a bit. But we were able to still get a lot done. The work here is amazing. I love Taunton and may be the happiest I have ever been since I came on my mission. We have a baptism this weekend for one of our investigators. We are really excited for that, he is awesome. And we have 3 more in 2 weeks. Sister Dimond is seriously such a good missionary and she always works so hard, I have learned so much from her.

         I had to speak in sacrament meeting yesterday about the first lesson. So I spoke about prophets, the savior’s earthly ministry and the apostasy. Something I have come to learn and understand so much on my mission is the importance of prophets and the priesthood. I didn't understand the priesthood at all before my mission, and I didn't understand the apostasy at all. Well really, I didn't understand anything. The priesthood is key to everything, if we didn't have the

priesthood we wouldn't have the gospel. So boys try to do everything you can to recognize the power and authority that you have, it's something not many people will ever have or experience the power of in their life. I have also come to understand how important revelation is. Revelation is how the church is run, through revelation from God. We can all have revelation as well, God loves us so he will communicate with us, but we have to be willing to act on what we receive.

         Last night we had an investigator call us and tell us he can't believe the Book of Mormon is true, that it is a good spiritual guidance, but he can't accept it as fact. He also went off about the book of Abraham (something I have been faced with on my mission already, maybe I told you about that experience). As I have pondered all of this and how everyone wants visible proof, I have come to understand more what faith is. It doesn't matter where the book of Abraham came from, it doesn't matter if it doesn't match up with historical evidence, but what matters is that I know Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and restored the gospel of Jesus Christ to this earth. Once someone has a testimony of that they won't worry about historical facts.

         Other things from this week: everything bad is still seeming to happen to us, but we are still counting our blessings...things could be

worse. We have become a lot less stressed, we have a game plan for how we are going to tackle everything we have to do.

         Yesterday we went to bishops for a bbq with the ward. The ward here is great, they make it feel like family. I was seriously laughing so hard the whole afternoon. We get to go to the temple Thursday with some recent converts and investigators, that will be fun.

         Ha sorry my mind can't seem to remember anything that happened this week. Sister Dimond and I  are sitting here trying to remember what we even did, but we can't remember...

         I love you all so much and am so grateful for everything you do for me. I am glad you are all safe after your tire blew...that is really

scary. Have a fun last week of school! I can't believe the school year

is already over...where is time going?

I love you all!!!!!

Love,

Your favorite Sister Robison

On the Train

When Miracles happen, Opposition Increases

     This week was really interesting.  I still love Sister Dimond so much.  We get along so well and she is really teaching me how to work hard.  I thought I worked hard, but I have come to realize that I really didn't.  We are teaching at least 20 lessons a week, which is low for her, I had been teaching 12 lessons a week on average in Brighton.  And we have to walk everywhere....so I am literally so exhausted every single day.  But I haven't died yet....We asked president if we could have bikes this morning...but he said no to that.  He said he wishes he could give us a car, but there just isn't enough in the mission.  It is hard, but we will get through.  

         As you know, this week we got the ipads, and wow they are such a good tool!  We have seen so many miracles from them and I have really learned how to use them to study.  The Gospel Library app is amazing, if you don't know how to use it, start using it now cause it is the best.  We have downloaded almost all the mormon messages, I have all the general conferences (from like the 1970's even) and just a whole bunch of stuff.  We have used the mormon messages a lot in our teaches and they help the spirit to be there so much.  

         We are teaching a young man, who I may have told you about last week.  He is in his 20's and is getting baptized in June.  He is so cool and is one of our best friends now.  The day we got our ipads we showed him the video “The Hope of Gods Light”, and he loved it.  He has downloaded the gospel library app and has watched that video a few times by himself at home

         We have 3 baptismal dates right now, all for this transfer, which is so exciting.  I really have such high faith that they will all be baptized as well.  One of them has been investigating for like 6 months now but never got an answer that he was supposed to be baptized.  So being the sneaky sisters we are, we had a teach with him this week where we told him we just wanted to ask him some questions, the baptismal interview questions, but he didn't know that that is what they were.  We asked him all of them and he basically said he believes everything and has a testimony of everything, he just didn't realize it.  So we told him that was the baptismal interview questions and he committed to being baptized on May 31^st  which is so exciting!  We are taking a whole bunch of investigators/recent converts/less actives up to the temple next week, so that will be really good for him. 

         It seems that we are working so hard and seeing so many miracles, so of course the adversary is working extra hard to get us down.  We have had so many problems this week it isn't even funny.  To start with, our washer is broken, so we have had to hand wash our clothes.  This may be TMI, but one night we forgot to wash for the next day, so we woke up and had to wash them in the morning and wear wet clothes all day...and it was Zone Conference that day....so we were miserably cold all day...that was great.  We are having someone come fix it today though, so hopefully we will be able to start washing our clothes again.  

         Then yesterday we had both showered and were getting ready to dry our hair, and none of our outlets would work and we could not find a breaker box...so we had to go to stake conference with our hair wet, and you know what my hair looks like wet...terrible.  So we got home last night, and I went to the fridge to get food, to realize that none of the outlets were working, so the fridge and freezer had been off all day, so we have like no food.  And one of our super solid investigators who is basically a member, just has to be baptized, dropped us yesterday cause she is doubting everything.  So we are going by tonight to "un-drop" us as Sister Dimond would say haha. 

         And the cherry on top, get ready cause this is a crazy story.  Yesterday was Stake Conference so we were up in Bristol for church.  The Elders in our district have a car so they drove us up, so we got back to the chapel and ate lunch and stuff then had a teach at 3:30.  We were supposed to teach someone else at 5, so we would have had to leave the chapel at 4:30 to make it there, but we got distracted and got doing other things and didn't leave the chapel till 5, so we were going to be late.  But as we were walking we passed a lady and she asked if we were church people.  We said yes and got talking to her and she told us that she was going to commit suicide and that the police were looking for her.  We didn't feel like we could leave, so we sat down and started teaching her and talking to her.  We showed her The Hope of Gods Light mormon message (hallelujah for Ipads) and talked about God with her.  Next thing we know she got a phone call and it was the police asking her where she was, but she wasn't going to tell them cause she didn't want them to find her, and they asked to speak to us.  So Sister Dimond was on the phone with them and we had no clue what to do.  We didn't want to be liable if she left and killed herself, but we didn't want to make her mad by telling them where she was, so I called the Elders while she was talking to them and asked them what we needed to do...they said to try and help to her realize why the police wanted to find her, so they could help her, and to try to sneakily tell the police where she was.  This lady said she was going to leave, so we asked her what she was going to do and if she felt like she was going to hurt herself, and she said yes....so I quickly pulled out the phone and had to text the Elders to call the police and tell them where we were....it was so intense.  So they did that and we just had to sit and stall, we were literally teaching every point of doctrine we could think of.  We ended up thinking that we should show another mormon message to her, so we showed her the one on Suicide Prevention.  Now this is a miracle that I had that one downloaded, cause the other day while I was downloading all of them I looked at that one and thought I didn't need to download it, that I would never use it in a lesson, but for some reason I downloaded it.  The Lord works in mysterious ways.  We end up watching it with her and talking about how much we love her and care about her, but then she sees a police car pull up and rides off on her bike.  We don't know if the police ended up finding her or not, but we keep praying for her that she is okay.  As we were sitting there talking to her I just kept feeling Gods love for her so strongly, I am a Child of God kept on playing through my head.  God truly does love all of us, and that should give us so much hope in this life.  Everything about that situation was a miracle.  Heavenly Father puts us in people’s paths for so many reasons.  We talked to president about this situation this morning, cause he needed to know that we called the police, and he said something about how we can't save everyone, but we can help everyone.  I would have felt so bad if we would have just kept walking thinking that we needed to go to our appointment...imagine having to face that at Judgement day, I would feel terrible.  It was a very shaking experience, but I learned so much from it. Everyone’s lives are so precious, and I hope one day she will realize why we did what we did.  

         Those are just a few of the things that have happened this week...seriously Satan is trying as hard as he can to get us down, but it isn’t gonna work.  When we feel like the adversary is trying so hard and we want to get down on ourselves is when we go out and forget about us and serve the Lord.  When you forget yourself everything seems to fall into place.

         Well family, I love you all so much.  Taunton is great, I love it here and I love being a missionary.  Yesterday as we were at stake conference we were singing the Spirit of God and I was thinking of the Kirtland temple dedication...who would have known when Joseph Smith prayed in the grove of trees that there would be so many people affected by it.  I have been so overwhelmed with Gods love lately, it is amazing.  

I love Christ, I love his Gospel, and I love being his missionary :)

Sister Robison xxx   

I'm Alive...But I'm Dead!!!

     I survived this week...it's a miracle!  I am really happy in my new area though.  I will tell you more about it in a minute.  But first let me tell you about leaving Brighton...it was the hardest thing I have ever had to do.  Saying goodbye to everyone Monday and Tuesday was so hard and I cried a lot.  I had my last teach with T, which I was crying for an hour leading up to it just cause I didn't know what to say...but I just bore my testimony to him and told him to bear his testimony.  I really hope he will continue to learn and progress in the gospel.  It is so hard leaving these people behind who I have invested so much time and energy into.  But I know he is in good hands.  Saying goodbye to T was so hard as well.  He didn't come to our study class Tuesday night to say goodbye, so I had to do it over the phone.  I was crying so hard, he just kept saying don't cry, but that didn't help at all.  Man I miss all of them, I love Brighton so much and I still pray for success in missionary work there. 

Saying Goodbye to Sister G

My new companion Sister D

         That being said, it is weird cause I have kind of forgotten I was even in Brighton a week ago.  It is weird how quickly I have adjusted to my new area and focused on the work here.  Wednesday was transfer day which was the longest day of my life.  We went up to transfer meeting at 9 AM, drove for 1.5 hours, stayed there for like 5 hours cause we had to wait for new missionaries, then had a 4 hour drive to Taunton.  I am way out in the middle of nowhere.  But it is great here.  The flat is nice and big and the ward is so great.  Sister Dimond is the best.  We are best friends already...it is going to be such a good transfer.  I don't think I have walked as much as I have this week in my whole life.  There were originally 2 areas in my ward, the Taunton area (which is where I am) and Bridgwater.  But they just closed down Bridgwater so we have to take it over.  All together, our area is half of the stake boundaries.  It is crazy.  We keep praying we can get a car, but I don't think that will happen.  And there aren't really buses here so we walk everywhere!  It is so tiring, but I am losing all of the weight I gained in Brighton so I guess that is a plus.  Sister Dimond is a super hard worker, I don't think I have ever worked this hard in my whole life.  We are always running somewhere or talking to someone.  I would say she is one of the hardest workers in the whole mission.  I am loving it.  I am so exhausted, but she is teaching me a lot.  I really hope we can be companions for more than just one transfer....

         So Taunton is great.  Lots of work going on here and lots of potentials to teach.  There are families here too which is so nice!  We spent the day yesterday at the Bishops house, and he is awesome.  The difference here from Brighton is amazing.  I love Brighton, but I have a feeling I will love it just as much here.  Sister Dimond served in Brighton too, so we talk about the people there all the time haha, but she liked Taunton better than Brighton.  

         The first teach we had together we were meeting someone for the first time, and he is solid.  He was a referral from some other Sisters and we taught him the restoration.  We extended a Baptismal Date and he accepted it!  We are seriously seeing so many miracles here, it is amazing!  Sister D is really good at following the promptings of the spirit as well which is really good for me to learn from. 

     All in all I am doing really good.  I am tired and still adjusting to Taunton.  

         Well, sorry I don't really know what to say....we are seeing lots of miracles here and have so many hilarious stories already.  

We went to see a potential investigator the other day but we didn't have anyone else with us so we couldn't go in his home.  This man was from Italy and couldn't really understand our english...we tried explaining to him we had to sit outside, but he just didn't understand.  He kept saying 'I no Gansta' it was hilarious, we were dying.  Then he kept asking us if we had boyfriends and asked sister D to go run away with him hahaha it was hilarious.  Man I love life right now. 

         Well I love you all so much!  I hope you have a fantastic time in Norway mom and Dad.  I am really jealous, but not really cause I love my life out here.  Oh and we get our ipads tuesday.  Which is scary but exciting! 

Love you!

Sister Robison xxx 

My First Transfer!!

     Well hello again family, it seems like I just talked to you...oh wait I did!  It was great to see you yesterday, a bit weird for me because I realized how much I have changed and grown out here.  All my past companions said how much they hated skyping because their family hadn't changed but they had, and I never understood it because last time I skyped I hadn't changed too much, but this time I realized I have.  Sorry if I was really preachy, but I felt like I needed to share with you guys what I have learned out here.  As you can tell, I have learned a lot and grown a lot.  I am so happy with the person I am becoming and all the love Heavenly Father shows me everyday. 

         So we got back to our flat last night and started packing during our dinner time, I am never going to fit BTW.  But we were daily planning and saw we had a missed call from the English Elders and they left a voicemail saying "Moves Call".  So we quickly finished planning and called them.  Elder Green answered and the first thing he said is there have been rumors flying...I immediately knew that I wasn't going to Bath.  Something about me going there didn't feel right.  I would love to serve there, but it just didn't feel right.  Turns out I am going to Taunton, which is in the Bristol Zone still, just south of Bath.  My companion is going to be Sister Dimond, who got trained in Brighton right before me.  I am so excited.   It will be so fun to have someone to talk about Brighton with, Taunton is only her second area, so she will be able to help me get over my homesickness for Brighton.  She has been out a little longer than a year, and is from Minnesota.  I am really excited.    

         As you know, yesterday was the hardest day of my life I think.  I bawled all through Sacrament meeting, and multiple ward members were crying as well, 3 missionaries are leaving the ward this week, so it is hard on them.   Elder Williams (who has been here 9 months), and Elder Green and I.  So all the missionaries the ward members really know are leaving, it will be a big change for the ward, but the missionaries left here are fantastic and I know they are in good hands.  

         After Relief Society, a recent convert, who is only 2 days younger than me and my BFF, came and sat by me and just cried.  It was so sad.  She kept saying how she wants me to teach her and doesn’t want me to leave.  We just sat and cried for the longest time, she is one of the hardest goodbyes.

         This week was good, but really hard.  I am so grateful for all the experiences I have had in Brighton.  I have no doubt I will be back sometime soon.  I am actually hoping I can see them all this transfer.  A recent convert I may have told you about, is actually Sister Dimonds convert and he is going through the temple soon and she has permission to go, so if it is this transfer I will be able to go with her and see everyone from Brighton.  That will be so fun and I am really hoping it all works out. 

         I am scared to move, I have heard Taunton is a lot different than Brighton.  Elder Green was trained there so he has been telling me about it all morning (we are at the Deans having breakfast and having a goodbye party).  He said they walk a lot there, which means all my Brighton weight will be lost!  Woohoo! haha

         Thank you for all your prayers, I definitely need them.  As you could tell yesterday, missions are the best.  They are hard and I have been stretched and pulled a lot, but they are so fun.  I am really looking forward to what the next 6 weeks have in store...that’s if I can fit all my stuff in my suitcase  I think I am leaving one of my coats here, my black pea coat....sadly.  

         I love you all!  It was great to talk to you yesterday.  Glad you had a good Sunday and Jack had a good birthday.  Have fun in Norway mom and dad, be sure to send me pictures, I love pictures!  Tell everyone coming home this week I say hi!  If you see Nate tell him hi for me!

Love you, 

Sister Robison xxx 

The Pavillion

One of the recent converts who I love!!

The Kruger Family...aka my family out here.  I Love Them!

Sister Schmidt, Sister O'Grady and I.  We all came to England at the same time!  This was at our Ipad training last week.

At the Temple with Michael (standing next to me).  He is an amazing man who we met on the street.  He was a member but inactive.  Now he is the most active member of the ward. 

Missionaries with Patty a member of our Ward