Ahhhhh.........December is here.......tomorrow!!!

     I am loving that Christmas season is here. My lights are up, my tree is fluffed and I am happy I have a few presents. We have to get the Elders box out before his Christmas devotional! Last week I was feeling a little overwhelmed. This week things are still a little crazy, but I am still breathing. I went to Relief Society for an activity. What a great way to start the season. Getting closer to Christ. That's what this season and everyday is really all about! Lets all put the Christ in CHRISTmas!

Dear family,

Glad to hear thanksgiving went well! I love the pictures! It scares me how grown up Harris and Liv are! Yikes! They've grown like a foot! My mind is blown that Elder Rickers is finishing his mission up already. Wow. That went so fast. But i am happy for the Rickers! I'll bet they are all so excited. And Caleb is leaving already?! He always kind of seemed a little older to me so i feel like he should have left forever ago. Ha ha. That is awesome though.

Well now that i am coming out of my turkey coma, let's talk about the week shall we? This past week was amazing. Especially yesterday. It was probably one of the happiest days I've had. April and Ashish made it to church, and had a wonderful experience. Saturday night we went by and had a lesson on the 10 Commandments, Follow the Prophet and Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. They enjoyed all of them and we left with them an assignment to watch President Monson's talk in this last conference, but before we left the lesson turned to eternal marriage, temples and baptism. The spirit was for sure there and it was such a great conversation. Since Last week at church was all centered on Eternal Families, April soaked it all up and wanted us to share it with Ashish because he wasn't able to make it that week. April seems to really want it. At church yesterday, the speakers were so great and I definitely felt the spirit and wondered if April and Ashish were too, so i was praying a lot through that meeting that they would. In gospel principles Elder Johnson was teaching and felt like we needed to talk about eternal marriage more with the other members that were there to help. It went so well! They were asking all sorts of questions and as we were talking about it i could see April looking over at Ashish with this certain smile that I'm sure he knew what meant. Ha ha. After that we went to Elders Quorum with Ashish and had a great lesson. At the end of it Ashish said,"what a great day. It was very enlightening and i felt the spirit." I said,"Really?!" Ha ha i was surprised! But he said he felt it big time during sacrament meeting during the talks. Prayers are answered! At that moment i was so happy. We love that family so much. It's funny how just by teaching someone the gospel you can grow such a love for them and desire for them to come to Christ. I love it. So this next week we are going to help them set a date to be baptized. We're trying to stay at a slower pace just because Ashish really doesn't know much about Christianity, but he's come a far way since we first met him. He's even saying prayers now! So we'll see what happens this next week :)

Matt is doing so good. We're meeting with him 3 days or so a week and he's making a lot of improvements. He brought his Nephew Tyler with him to one of the lessons and now we're teaching him too. They both came to a baptism that was held in Lawrenceburg on Saturday that was so amazing. The lady that was baptized is a TOUGH little lady! I was able to interview her for her baptism and she shared this story with me, she said," No one loved smoking more than i did. I smoked all the time. But 14 years ago i was driving home from work listening to a talk show with a doctor that was giving advice on how to quit smoking, and she said that the addiction itself lasts a week, after that it's all habit. The doctor had all these people calling in saying 'oh i tried it for 3 days and i just couldn't do it!' and i said to myself, i wonder if I'm that weak. I wonder if i could do it. I'm going to try it. So i put the cigarette that was in my hand in the box and threw it in my console and it stayed in there for 2 years. I have never picked up a cigarette since and now no one can accuse me of being weak. I will never pick one up again. I will not be weak." How awesome is that?! She is a great lady. It was such a spiritual baptism. Matt and Tyler really enjoyed it, and Matt is really looking forward to his own. For right now he's set on Dec. 29th but we will probably have to push it back a little bit. But we'll see. We are so blessed though, we are teaching amazing people.

Well i have run out of time, so i must go. I love being a missionary though and teaching the gospel. I love seeing the change it makes in others. Heavenly Father loves his children so much and has given this to us so we can each change and be happy. The gospel is all about change, and i am grateful that i have been changed by it and that i get to continue to change. I love love love my Heavenly Father.

Thank you for everything you all do for me, it means so much. I gotta say, i have the best family ever. Have a great week and be safe! Share the gospel! Go fight win!

-Elder Chrys Robinson

I'm Busy.........

     So this week has been a little crazy. Our Oldest Son came into town with his family. Cooking for a dinner that didn't happen because my Dad got sick. James' back is hurting and not letting any of us sleep. Thanksgiving and joyous fun! Big pieces of metal in my car tire. Getting a call and we are going to talk in church on Sunday. I felt a panic attack creeping up on me yesterday. I kept breathing and ate some chocolate. Had dinner with extended family again. I was all good and ready for bed. I'm still busy and need to make some more brownies for tonight. What a crazy weird week!!!!! Then there's the tree that needs to be "fluffed"......sigh........     :]

Dear Family!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

I don't have much time today, we have a bunch to do! So sorry if this email is a little short.

Elder Johnson and I are staying in Batesville!!! We got the news this morning. We're both happy! I love it here and i am so excited for these next 6 weeks. A lot is going to happen! Things are moving a long and looking up!

This past week we found 4 new people! It was the Watkin's neighbors! It went so well!! So, we went over on Wednesday night not sure what to expect, and we had a nice dinner full of questions about the church. One things i gotta say i am thankful for is the spirit. I don't know what i would do with out it! It was so fun, they were asking all sorts of questions. We had a great conversation about all sorts and we taught briefly on the Plan of Salvation. It was funny though, the friends they had invited were actually good friends with the member family that we were eating with the Sunday that we got the call from them! Ha ha! And they actually were going to invite them to listen to the missionaries anyway, so i guess it all worked out! So this Wednesday we are planning on having a lesson at the Watkins at 6 and we are planning on finishing the Plan of Salvation. That Wednesday actually we have 4 investigator appointments!! Pretty sweet! This week is going to rock.

Brother Boyd, Matt, and April all came to church on Sunday! It was great! They all really enjoyed it. We had breakfast before with April and Ashish..french toast yumm. Gosh i love that family. They are doing real well! And Matt is on date for December 22nd! He's feeling pretty ready and really wants it so we're letting him have it! ha ha. We are so blessed to be teaching so many great people, i've never taught this many people before on my mission! We are teaching 5 families and a couple other people. Holy cow! Never has that happened. And this Wednesday we have appointments with a part member family and another family that we met out on the sidewalk. So we will be adding to that. WE ARE SO BLESSED. I love it here.

We encountered a bed bug in our apartment the other day...uh oh. Hopefully it's the only one.

Welllllll i have to get going. Sorry it's such a short letter this week. P-days seem to get shorter and shorter. Oh wait they are! They end at 4:45 now instead of 6. Ha ha. But i am thankful for being on a mission. I have learned so much out here and have made so many friends, my life has been so blessed by them. I am thankful for having a family that loves each other and has the gospel. I love this church and i love the gospel so much. I pray i can continue to find families to bring this gospel to, so they can be blessed just as i have. Jesus Christ lives! The Book of Mormon is TRUE!

I love you all so much! Thank you for everything you do for me, you all mean so much to me. Share the gospel! Spread the Happiness! Spread the Blessings!

-Elder Chrys Robinson

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

     I did it again. I forgot to blog. It has been a weird week. Nothing out of the ordinary, just weird. I thought I would have at least one more week till all the happy eating started. Now it's just getting all the family schedules put together. I even forgot to eat breakfast this morning. So I am typing this with one hand while I eat a tuna sandwich with the other. I feel a little off haha. I hope that your Thanksgiving plans all go well and you eat with happy hearts. I know that I am looking forward to my daughter in laws mashed potatoes!! Celebrate the season of giving! Have a great week everyone!!


Dear family,

I laughed so hard at the thing about Lucky in the snow ha ha she is so cute! That's a lot of snow! It snowed a little here. Nothing stuck though, but it was nice. It was pretty much straight slush though. Man that's crazy about Elder J, hopefully he is doing ok. You guys are great in helping those missionaries though! Every missionary would love to have a family like you guys :)

Well this past week was pretty great. Besides Elder Johnson breaking our couch, it was good. It was a hard week to get things done, we didn't have very many lessons, but the ones we did have were great. It was kind of a week to set up everything for the next week. It was weird. This week we have a ton of stuff going on! But last week we were able to meet with April and Ashish a few times and teach them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's so fun teaching them, they are so amazing. If we don't talk to them for a few days then she will call just to check up on us and see how we are doing. And we do the same. Ha ha. I love this family! And the ward is taking them in really well! Everyone is asking about them and wanting to meet them. They have a member family moving in a couple doors down from them that they are always asking about, and that will be this weekend so we will be able to introduce them. Excited to see them continue to progress! I love them!

Annett and Robert are doing well, Robert was going to be baptized this weekend but we felt better about moving it back a little bit, which he agreed with. We had a solid lesson with him yesterday about the Holy Ghost and other things, and he really wants to get his life in order and be baptized. It's pretty awesome. And we actually got to talk for second with his daughter Rosie and we invited her to come to church, and she accepted! I'm excited to see that family turn things around. it's great being a missionary teaching so many great people. :)

Sunday morning we got a call from Emily asking where we were at, which we were at the church, and she was like oh come out back! So we were like ok, then it turns out that she brought her brother to church! Matt! In the 2nd hour we all sat down and had a great lesson all about Heavenly Father and how we can communicate with Him and who He is and just everything! The spirit was strong and it was really good even for me. He's pretty prepared it seemed and he's very willing to learn. He says he wants to change his life around. So later this week we will be teaching him along with Emily and CV! Pretty stoked. They are awesome.

On Sunday we had a mission wide fast to reach our goal of 500 baptisms for the year, which we only need 94 more. But at soon as we broke our fast at a members house we got a call from Sister Watkins about her neighbors. We had done some service for them by raking their leaves a few weeks back and the other night we made some of our famous cookies and brought them over to them and they loved them! She after her husband brought them in to her came running out saying, "Boys you can cook at my house anytime!!" ha ha it was funny. On Sunday they called Sister Watkins because they wanted us over for dinner on Wednesday! How sweet is that! Oh but it gets sweeter! She told Sister Watkins, "I invited another couple to come that night because they wanted to learn about the church too, do you think the boys would be upset about that?" Ha ha woo! Oh man WE ARE BLESSED. Definitely excited for tomorrow!

Well i need to get going. This week is going to be great! I know I say this a lot but I love being a missionary. It is seriously so amazing. I'm just a little weak human being, but man Heavenly Father helps me so much. Especially when I'm thrown into situations when I don't know what to say or teach ha ha. That's a big one. I am so grateful for Him giving me strength to carry on. Elder Long goes home next week, and basically I'm freaked out a little (a lot). It's crazy how fast everything goes. You feel like it is forever, but once you get there or get close you feel like, wait that's it? That's all? There's not more? I am so grateful to be out here having the experience of being a missionary. It is unlike anything in the world. And I would never trade it away for anything. Jesus Christ lives, and Heavenly Father is our loving Father in heaven. I know this gospel is true and is THE ONLY way to happiness. Satan tries to make that seem otherwise. The Book of Mormon is the word of God, and it really does guide us safely through this crazy world.

Have a great week! I love you all so much! Transfers are next Tuesday :/ we'll see what happens! SHARE THE GOSPEL!

-Elder Robinson

The Big Snow Came.....

     It had to happen sometime. It was sunny and 70 on Thursday then on Friday it started. When we got up Saturday we had 8" of beautiful very wet snow. I learned to balance an umbrella while shoveling. I have to say it was out of laziness of not wanting to put a coat on. I'm glad I did it because then I didn't have to do it on Saturday! Poor Lucky needed some grass shoveled. When it's past your belly it makes it a little hard to do your duty! But her favorite thing to do is eat snow. She comes in with a white mustache. I'm very grateful that the Elder was in Indiana when hurricane Sandy hit. He had a lot of rain and was cold, but nothing that he couldn't handle. The weather is acting up right now. Makes you wonder what this winter is going to be like.....


Dear Family!

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA NUNLEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

Second, yeah. James better write me back! ha ha. I haven't heard from him in tooooo long. Third, i miss the deer!  We see them every once in a while here, mostly because there are no mountains for them to hide in, so they are just kind of all around. I saw a lot more last year than this year. But that sweet that they are coming out again over there!

Well it was a pretty great week here in Batesville! We had some great things happen yesterday. A new family to church! The Dammal family. They are younger, and so awesome! I think i told you about them, the husband is Hindu, and the wife knows a lot about the church from a friend she knew a while back. We found them tracting a few weeks ago. It was so good to see them all there, the ward members loved them too. Everyone came to talk with them!! It was great! We're looking forward to having some good lessons with them this week. They are so awesome, we love them.

We received some referrals from a family here for some people in Lake Santee that we went to contact yesterday, and ended up at the Boyd's house. It was just a drop in visit, and we thought it would be a good thing since we haven't seen her for a while. She's been sick but we came in and answered quite a bit of her concerns which was so good. She's been worrying about so many other things that she has heard, and hasn't done enough reading and praying. So we just testified and pointed her in the right direction to get her answers for the Book of Mormon and things. It went so well!! We've been wanting to meet with her for a long time to help her, but haven't been able to. So it was just an answer to all our prayers. Especially Brother Boyd's, being that he is so ready to be baptized. Then after that she asked for a blessing. The first I've given to a non-member I think! Man the spirit was strong. By the end of the blessing brother Boyd was all tearing up and it made me a little choked up. It was such a great experience, and she said she will be at church on Sunday! He's been coming to church, but she hasn't been yet, so this will be good! Plus they are both having dinner with the bishop here and 2 other members, who are all converts to the church. And we are having dinner with them tomorrow. Man, I love being a missionary. It's just the best of times for sure.

Speaking of blessing, it was funny, just a few weeks ago Elder Johnson and I were talking and we both decided that it had been too long since we had given a blessing to someone. We missed giving them! And then in this past week we've given 3. ha ha. I love it. Tender Mercy!

Halloween was pretty sweet! We had like 100 miles to use the last day of the month so we did a huge loop in our area looking for people. It was a rather boring day, not a whole lot happened. But it ended well at the Garnish's. We passed out candy with them and talked. It was pretty nice, some one asked if we were dressed up as the scary business men from Adventure Time. No idea who that is. ha ha. But ok! That night we had to be in by 7:30 to have a mission-wide study which was pretty good, we actually came up with a few things that we can do for this are to help people get baptized. And all the things we came up with were the same things the leaders in the ward started doing on their own on Sunday. Can't complain! Things are definitely looking up right now. But then again it always is.

We found a new guy this week! Mark! We're working on teaching his family too. He's the one we talked with that night at the Dahl's. You know, the baby bib picture? ha ha. He is sweet though and might be inviting some friends from his church to come to the next lesson!!

Well I'm out of time. It's such an exciting time to be a missionary, and I'd say it's the best time. So much is happening! The world is changing so much, but this church will always stay the same. It's great to see something that is solid and unchanging in such a wishy-washy world that doesn't commit to anything. I love this church. I love the scriptures and the power that is in them. I love Jesus Christ and I am SO grateful for his sacrifice, that for me who constantly messes up, he is always calling me back. It is the same for everyone, that he did suffer and die for everyone, not just collectively but individually. He loves me, he loves you. What a great thing.

I love you all! You mean so much to me! Have a great and safe week! Share the gospel!!

-Elder Chrys Robinson

p.s. it's COLD.

The Things We Do........

     This is what we do every year to Lucky. She hates this so much!!! We laugh and take our picture. Then we give her a treat and a big hug. What she puts up with out of love. I hope your Halloween activities were fun and exciting. I went to my parents and spent it with them. I just didn't want to be home alone while everyone else was out having fun. Now we are in to the thankful time of year. I am thankful for many things. To many to count. I hope your weekend is great!!!!

Dear family,

What a great email! It sounds like things are looking of for you all. I love to hear all the lessons at church on Jesus. And to hear that James is 2nd counselor!!!! Woo that's awesome!

Well this week was a pretty different one. A good one though! We started out by dropping our car of at the shop for a few days. Which was just oh so fun. Ha ha. It actually wasn't that bad, the weather was SO nice for those couple of days so we didn't mind walking around everywhere. Because the weather was so nice, everybody was outside all the time so we talked to a lot of people and actually found a family (sort of-they're not married YET)! Rex and Eve. They are so sweet. We were walking to Holly's and I heard a "Are you guys from a church?" being yelled from across the street so of course we ran over there and talked with him. He actually was out reading his Bible too! He told us how he's had a rough life and him and his girlfriend were looking for a church to go to. So we invited him and set up a return appointment for Thursday. It went great! He knows the Bible so well! It's funny, we talked about Christ's church and how it was organized and such and how it is the same today. He was like, "Yeah, why not! It's in the Bible!" Ha. We should be going by to teach them the Plan of Salvation soon. I'll let you know how that goes!

On Friday we had our Halloween party! That was pretty fun. Elder Johnson and I struggled to find costumes...we were going to buy mustaches and say that we were "rebellious missionaries" but sadly...we couldn't find any. So, plan B! A pirate hat and Fairy wings! Yep! Elder Johnson was a pirate, and i was the fairy. Emily and her daughters made it there with Kari and they seemed to really enjoy it! It was a Dance and food party. Food as in fattening deserts, Yum. Emily who is about 7 months pregnant i think (BTW she's having her baby on my birthday! Woo!) got out on the dance floor with her kids, oh man that was pretty awesome. It was just a good ol time. I love this ward, the members are so awesome and out investigators rock!

We were planning on having about 7 or 8 people at church this Sunday but only 1 made it. Brother Boyd! Everybody else was sick. Everyone is getting sick right now! It's crazy! And annoying! But that's ok. Brother Boyd loved it though, he is seriously already a member. Looks like one, acts like one, talks like one, everyone else already sees him as one! It's so cool. We had a great lesson with him Tuesday on the Plan of Salvation which went very well. It answered a lot of his questions. Bishop Phaneuf was there and they hit it off right away! Both 66, and both their wives were once Methodist. Bishop Phaneuf has a pretty cool Coversion story too. It was just a great lesson, and he and Sister Boyd are planning on taking us to dinner tomorrow. It will be great!

Anyway i am out of time and need to go. So much to do! This gospel is amazing and i love it so much. It brings so much peace to me. It is so true. And i really want the people here to know this too. It's wonderful seeing the difference the gospel makes in a person's life. The Scriptures are true and they have stories of people who have successfully coped with all the things we face in life. I love that they are written down so we can have a model of what we need to do to face our trials! Heavenly Father loves us all so much, and he wants each of us to be happy, so he sent His Son. Jesus Christ is the way to happiness-the only way to happiness. He lives, and loves us!

Amen!

-Elder Chrys Robinson