Bittersweet........

     So I find that Christmas is bittersweet. We got to hear our Grand kids excitement over the phone and  hear everything that they got. It is really nice to hear their voices, but hard not seeing them. Then we got to talk to Chrys. It was good to hear his laugh and his stories. Then when you say goodbye, you realize you won't talk to him till May. That is a hard goodbye. So now we are back to emails. There just isn't enough time for all your family sometimes. I always wish there is more!! It's hard going from a house full of kids to having just one opening up presents. I seriously don't feel that old!! I really did have a great Christmas it was just different in some ways. Kids stop growing up so fast!!    :]


FAMILY!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(yesterday) I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh man was it good to hear all your voices! It was a fun phone call. I'm so glad it was great Christmas for all of you! It really is such a great time of year. I do know an Elder Martin!! He was in my first zone and i just saw him at the Christmas Devotional! Ha ha that is awesome. He is a great elder!!


So this week was great! It was pretty busy. With Christmas and everything we were running around everywhere. On sunday we started out at church, then to the Hess' for lunch, then to the Bains to call, then to a white elephant gift party at the Benson's, then to the Weavers, then to the Ridge's, THEN to Carson Loder's. Ha ha. It was great. Oh, Speaking of Carson, this is for her:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Ha.

Anyway, it was an AWESOME Christmas!

As i told you all on the phone, i did do some caroling as tracting. We went to a dinner appointment and they weren't home, we knew we were there for a reason and needed to do something. SO we went tracting with our ukulele! We knocked on doors and if they didn't answer we started singing with our just excellent angel-like voices. It didn't work haa but it was a lot of fun. We did find 4 people to come back and teach though! One of which is that Windy lady i told you all about. I love how the Lord but us in the right places at the right time. He does His work His way, we just have to listen to the promptings so we can accomplish the things He asks.

Last week i messed up my right shoulder and it was hurting so bad i couldn't use my arm! Which made a lot of things pretty difficult to do. I was pretty worried i would have to go see someone about it, but on Sunday during sacrament i prayed that it would heal so i could actually do things and serve. By the end of the meeting i had full use of my arm! I love when things like that happen.

This week is going to be so great. We have a lot going on in preparing for the upcoming year! We as a zone are doing a "standard week" next week. We are all going to put in the extra effort to hit the standard of excellence, meaning 20+ lessons, 100% morning schedule, and 3+ new investigators. We are PUMPED! I know we can do it. I will let you all know how it goes!

Well, i best be off. Sorry it's a short letter, i don't know what else to say really since i just talked to you all on Sunday ha ha. But that's alright. I love you all so much! Thank you everyone for the love and support you give me! You are all such great blessings in my life. Thank you for everything!!! Have a great week!! Talk to you in 2012!!!!!!!!!

-Elder Robinson

Christmas time is magical......

     So I sit here on this beautiful December 24th and think what a wonderful Christmas season this has been. It has gone by too fast. I always need an extra week. I am so sorry to the people on my Christmas card list because my cards are still on my counter. They will be late this year. But that just means the spirit will keep going. I love to visit the Temple, but to go at Christmas time is magical. It's so cold, but so beautiful. I am grateful my birthday falls at this time of year. I wouldn't have it any other way. I wish for you all a very wonderful and loving Merry Christmas......Here is our family Christmas letter for you all....robinsonsfabulousyear.blogspot.com


Dear Family,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love you both!!!!!!!!

I'm sorry it's taken this long to email!! It's been a busy few days. Sounds like a great week for all of you though! Dane is engaged?? Whah? Ha ha that's crazy talk. That is so cool about your friend though!! You should have her give you the names of those in the area. If any of them are members then i'll bet i know them!

This past week was a good hard week. We as a zone do this thing where when we get a new investigator or some kind of miracle we call it in as a miracle. We send the zone leaders either a text or a voicemail and then they send it to the rest of the zone. This past weekend we had a ton of members wanting us to do service which is ok when it doesn't effect the work, but they were all "ox in the mire" things and pretty much were voluntold that we had to do them. I love doing service! But all we wanted to do was go FIND! Ha ha. Every hour in the day we were getting a ton on texts and voice mails and such about all the new investigators everyone was getting and all it made us want to do is go find someone to baptize! It was rough! It was inspiring though! It made me realize how much i really do love missionary work. And how bad i really do want to bring this gospel to others! So this week we committed to find 6 new people. We are so going to do it too. It's a lot! But i know they are out there.

We have 2 more on date! They're 11 and 12. They are hilarious. And SO spiritual. Their mom was baptized about 2-3 years ago in another area and comes to church when she can. We went over and taught the 3rd lesson and focused a lot on baptism which went so well. We invited them to be baptized and they said they really wanted to! The mom really wants it for them as well. Our timing on it all was pretty awesome though, they are like always all over the place and never have a set schedule so it's hard to catch them, but at like 8 at night we found ourselves wondering what to do, then they came to mind! So we decided to go see if we could get in, and sure enough they were there! So great. Man am i grateful to not be alone in this work. I love the Lord!

Elder Riggs and i had a chocolate fight while making BuckEyes. It was a very delicious battle. But we both lost ha ha. Those poor white shirts.......yay Oxi Clean!

Transfers were last week. Ha ha i forgot to tell you guys. The First Presidency is changing up transfers and now missionaries will be in areas for up to a year instead of 4 and a half months. So i'll be here in Xenia for a while ha ha. Of course depending on what the Lord wants. But Elder Riggs and i are here until at least February!

Ok.......I am pretty darn excited for sunday. Ha ha. I get to call! Woo! No skyping here in this mission. But we should be calling anytime around 2:30-3:30 our time. Hopefully you won't be at church or anything. If you don't answer then i'll have a chance to call later that night at another house. It's not a for sure because we don't know exactly where we'll be but it should be around there. Be ready for that Ohio number to pop up on someones phone!!! :)

Oh and full SD cards are on the way :)

Thank you everyone for the letters and packages!!! They brighten my day. I have a big letter from my ward hanging on my wall right now :) I love it!!

I've gotta say, i love life. I love being a missionary. I love sharing happiness. I LOVE the Book of Mormon. It is so powerful and is such a huge blessing!! I love the words of a living prophet. I love knowing that if i rely on him my life can and will be blessed. I love knowing that families are FOREVER. I am so grateful for the spirit and how it testifies to me that all of what my parents taught me is true. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for what he has done for me, for my family, for the people i love and teach, for all of mankind. What a blessed life i have. Oh and i also love counting my blessings. If you can't tell. :)

I love love love every one of you! You are all a part of the many things i am grateful for! Thank you for all of your love and support.

Merry Christmas!

-Elder Chrys Adam Robinson

No......I'm not ready......but that's ok.......

So I'm not ready for everything Christmas brings. But that's ok. I will be by the time it comes somehow. I have faith in me. I'm not too stressed yet. I might be next week, but that's next week. I like how Chrys says he lives everyday like it's Christmas. That would be an awesome thing to do. It would make for a happier world I think. But for me, I would just like to have Christ in my life every day. That's what makes me happy. So here is one of my Christmas wishes for all of you, that you may have Christ's love in your lives everyday. It's a great time of year so lets keep it going!!   


Dear Family,



Glad to hear it was another great week! I love the stake choir stuff. I loved going to that every year. I'm glad everyone enjoyed it. Christmas ROCKS!


This past week was awesome. It was really inspiring! We had a zone meeting last week where President decided to visit all 9 zones in the mission and lay down the law basically. President is probably the most inspirational man i know. Seriously. He is so much like Elder Holland. I love it. Ha ha. I really enjoy all the chastising he does in the mission ha ha he makes you feel so pumped when he does!! There was a big "grey area" list in the mission where missionaries, even the zone leaders, weren't sure what the rules were regarding them. So he went around and destroyed it! Ha ha. So During weekly planning the next day we tore apart our apartment and rid it of all the things we are no longer allowed. And that same day we found our 4th investigator for the week and the rest of the zone found another 8! Ha ha. It was AWESOME! Last week was one of the best weeks I've had. I love the power that comes from obedience, and the vision and the fire for the work you receive from it as well.


The Christmas Devotional was so good!! President is really good friends with Sean Bradley, the NBA player. He had him come speak to us. He is 7'6" !!!!!! Ha ha he was SO huge! He is LDS! He and his wife served a mission and everything. He was also in Space Jam ha ha he's the tall white guy that gets his ability taken away from him. I actually wanted to rub this in Elder Johnson's face ha ha be like BAM! Maybe in my next letter to him ha ha. It was so amazing though. It was really inspiring. The spirit in that building was so strong! President got up a couple of times and bore his testimony on the Savior. I hope some day you be able to hear President bare his testimony. Oh my gosh. What an amazing man. And yeah i'm not afraid to admit i cried! Ha ha because when President cries you cry! Man. I love being on a mission. Something one of the assistants said was, " I was planning on having Christmas being a huge "pump up" type of thing. To feel real good right before the turning of a new year. Now that is is here, i feel just the same. I thought about it and i realized, people usually focus on Christ only during this time of year, like i used to, but now that i'm a missionary i'm focusing on him all the time, so i am always feeling his spirit with me! I am always feeling the spirit of (Christ)mas. SO it's not just a once a year thing, it's all the year!" Yeah, that's what being a missionary is like, it's Christmas every day! And that's how it should be for every one of us.

Ok well, sorry for the short letter, but it's been crazy busy lately. Didn't even get a p-day! But it is aallllll worth it. With sacrifices comes blessing from heaven!

I love you all! Thank you for all your love and support!!

Merry Christmas! .....i love saying that ha ha.

-Elder Robinson

It's All About Light.............

      Have I told anyone lately that I love Christmas lights? Well just drive by my house and you will see that I do. The older I get the more I seem to add. For my birthday I gift myself a trip to Temple Square, the most beautiful place at Christmas time. I just love to see them everywhere. In Chrys' letter he talks about how Sis. Bells baptism was like a light being turned on inside. It's all about the light.........   :]

Dear Family,


Yay (Christ)mas!! Ha ha. I love the house when it's all Christmas'd up. I'm so glad to hear James is growing up! Ha ha that's awesome that he wants to play the violin now. And what a goal to have! To be first chair! Do it James! Ahhh kneaderrssss i miss it. I knew there was something missing this Christmas ha ha. Then again we do have Graeters. Yummmmm. And Panera bread. Oh man soooo good. Wow that was a quick package! Ha ha! Awesome! Excited to get it! I don't know why they wanted it so early. But oh well. I don't mind. Heh.

Hello mark Spongberg!


We had a BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha ha Linda Bell was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday! It was so cool! I loved it. It's so cool to be a part of others conversions. To see the light turn on inside. To see their faith grow! There's just nothing else like it. It was a very spiritual service! We wanted the ward members and her fellow shippers to do the actual baptism and confirming, so we were able to just witness it. It was awesome! What a difference it has made in her already! The only thing i can really use to describe it is Joseph Smith's baptism experience. In Joseph Smith History 1:73-74 it talks about after they were baptized and had received the Holy Ghost, their minds were " now enlightened, we began to have the scriptures laid open to our understandings, and the true meaning and intention of the more mysterious passages revealed unto us in a manner which we never could attain to previously." That is exactly the experience of Linda! We taught her The Gospel of Jesus Christ as a new member lesson and she was saying things we had never taught! Ha ha it was awesome!! I am so grateful for the Holy Ghost. Man, what a gift!!

We pulled many pranks on the Beavercreek elders this past week. Ha ha ha. So funny.

On saturday night we went over to the Weavers with a ton of post-it notes with a plan to write "Go to church! Love the missionaries" on them. We ended up putting almost 200 all over Aaron Weavers room and car ha ha ha. That was too awesome. ........but they didn't come to church. Ha ha. Dang it. We'll get them this week.

Well, that's about it. Ohio is flooded. Ha ha. It's been raining forever. I will talk to you all next week! I love CHRISTMAS!! "to catch the real meaning of the spirit of Christmas, we need only drop the last syllable and it becomes the spirit of Christ." - Thomas S. Monson. Woo! So true! Focus on Christ and i promise it will be the best Christmas ever!!

I love you all!!

-Elder Robinson