Making Lemonade out of Lemons...

     So I went with Chet this week to drop something off to his client. It was one of the owners of Doug Smith Auto in American Fork. I turned the car off and waited. A few minutes later Chet sent me a text saying he was coming out. So I see him and start the car. He gets in and the car starts smoking. I turn it off and pop the hood for him. The radiator hose cracked and we lost a lot of fluid. We sat in the car and said a prayer. My car was still not working from being frozen and was also in Lindon. When we were done I looked at Chet and said "Aren't we sitting in front of a car dealership? Don't they have parts?" Nathan worked for a few years as a service writer here so Chet went and ordered the part. Fast forward 10 minutes later with a borrowed screwdriver we pulled into a back stall and he changed it out. We also laughed when he found the gallon of anti freeze behind my seat in the car. So it took us a total of 20 minutes to get the part, change it and get on the road again. The blessings were huge that day!! So yes we took our lemons and made lemonade!! What did you do with your lemons?

Dear family,


It's great to hear from you all! And to hear that everything is going good! Thank you for all the packages! Everything is so great!! The pants and everything are so nice, thank you so much!


Well i don't have much time today. We have a member waiting for us to take us shopping. But this past week was great, we got a lot of things done and a lot of things movin! Pharrin and Megan are now on date for baptism! February 23rd! We had a lesson on Monday with them and the stake president here, and boy it was so awesome. Pharrin is incredibly solid, it's so fun teaching her! She is reading her Book of Mormon all the time and she recently downloaded the Mormon Channel app and is watching all sorts of great videos and reading her scriptures along with the Book of Mormon videos. She even has recognized the adversary fighting against her decision to be baptized, and that has effected her greatly. But in the positive. She reads and prays a lot more because of it. Man she is awesome! She is a great influence on her whole family and Megan too. Megan is doing pretty good. She has a hard time understanding a lot of things because she hasn't been a part of any sort of religion since she was 6, but all in all she is doing good. The ward is taking them in so well and loving them in to the gospel. What a blessing it is to be able to teach such great people.

So, our area is also covered by the Spanish Elders which is super confusing at times. Last month we received a referral for a french speaking couple from Congo and Elder Watkins was sick so they sent the Spanish Elders (who are also English Elders) to contact them. Since then they have been teaching them and it has been great but hard because they have been going to our ward and not the Spanish branch, so the bishop made the call to transition them to the English Elders-us! We had our first lesson with them on Saturday. Wow they are amazing. They hardly speak english, so we have a translator from the ward with us. It is so cool. Just in one lesson i learned so much about teaching from the heart. Testifying from the heart. Letting the spirit guide the things we teach. It was amazing. We finished the Plan of Salvation and the spirit was so strong. We finished with talking about how families can be together forever, and as the brother was translating i felt prompted to show a pass along card with the picture of the Salt Lake Temple. The spirit was amazing and reconfirmed to my heart what i already knew and confirmed our words to their hearts. In french she said, "Just as we were talking about the temple, i feel a strong desire to go there. I want to go there." And we told them that that was the spirit and that they needed to get there. They are now on date for baptism on February 16th and are doing so good! I am so grateful and i feel so blessed to teach such prepared people. Gosh i love being a missionary, there is nothing better in the world to be.

Well my family, i am out of time. Thank you so much for all that you do for me. I love being out here, and i don't want this time to end. It is a blessing to have this gospel, but i feel it is a greater blessing to be able to share it and see others embrace it. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I know that because of Jesus Christ that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father and be with our families forever. I love him so much. I feel so blessed to know these things.

I love you all! have a great week!!! Share the gospel!

-Elder Robinson

It must be January Blah......

     So I sat here all week thinking about what I should write. Should I write about how cold it is? Should I write that Chet and James shared their love with me and I just loved how my stomach felt this last week. I sometimes feel that even though January is a new start to a new year it is also a blah month. It's cold, everyone gets sick, there's not a fun holiday like Christmas, it's January Blah. I guess I will let the Elder talk about his adventures in a new area.............
 
Dear family,


What's up with all the sickness over there? Well i guess it's over here too, but man! I hope you all get feeling better! I'm glad to hear all the reading that's going on! 2 Nephi is great! I just finished Alma!

I don't have much time today so this will probably be short.

This past week was pretty good, our investigators are great! Our most solid ones are Pharrin and Megan. They are sweet! Pharrin was found a few months ago by some other elders and just loves the church, and the ward has really taken her in! The only thing that has kept her from getting baptized is that she lives with her boyfriend. But that is all changing!! We dropped by on night and she answered the door and she was like, "Hey sorry guys i've got company over and we're all planning a wedding. We're planning on getting married on Valentines Day!" We were pretty shocked at that ha ha but we are so excited! So the ward now is taking over and planning everything with her. Megan is a friend that is staying with them for the time being and we just started teaching her last week. She hasn't been very religious in her life but is super open to it! And has so many questions! We dropped by last night to set up a time to meet and she handed us a paper with all her life's questions on it. We will be having a lesson tonight and we will be focusing a lot on answering those and helping them commit to baptism. It's going to be a great night.

This ward is awesome, it's been a great experience serving here already. We got a call Saturday night by the ward clerk asking us to speak on Sunday, so both of us were able to speak. That went great! I don't remember telling you, but i also got to speak 2 weeks ago in Batesville. I was informed that i was to be the last speaker right before the second to last speaker was announced in sacrament meeting. So that was fun! ha ha. So this time was nice to have more than 10 minutes to prepare. This ward is so good at giving us things to do and names to visit, i love it! They are pretty missionary minded and very proactive. It's just great to be surrounded by people who are so willing to serve and help one another, what a blessing.

Well i need to be headed off now, i am out of time. This gospel is so true! I love being a part of this great and wonderful church. I love the Book of Mormon and the guidance of modern prophets. Jesus Christ does live and love us and His Atonement is real! The Gospel is how we access it and it is how we can be changed. I love this work and i love being a missionary.

I love you all! Thank you for everything you do for me! and for keeping me warm! :) Have a great week!!!! Share the gospel!

-Elder Chrys Robinson

Oh and we feed squirrels outside our apartment. It is AWESOME. I will get pictures.

Getting Organized sort of..........

     So when Chet and I really looked at the calendar and realized we would be putting 2 people in James' room we kind of went GAH!! It's not bad, it's just reorganizing it for more room. We gave away some levi's that didn't fit James or Chrys. That helped the closet out! We need to make sure under the bed so it can fit his luggage or maybe the closet. We have shelves set up for them to share. We need to decide what to get out of storage of his. I'm not sure if his drums will fit here, but I really want to get them. My mind is just on overload on fitting everything here. We don't have a lot here, but it's just being creative. Then there's the figuring out the little snacks to feed everyone when the homecoming happens. The plans, the plans........did I mention the flu came to visit and kind of messed up the organizing?? Yeah, there's that too.........


Dear Family,


HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHELSIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you!

Sounds like everything has been good! Thank you for the notes on the talks our neighbor gave. Pretty sweet! And tell TJ hi for me!! Poor Dad and James getting sick! That stinks! I hope they are all better!


Yes it is true. I am back in the Ohio. It's weird actually to be back where a lot of people live ha ha. I guess i got more used to Batesville than i thought. It's great here though. I'm not too far from Pickerington! Actually i get to go tomorrow for a training at the old Reynoldsburg building! So that will be fun! It's been a long time since I've been anywhere near it. Elder Watkins is great. This ward is pretty great. We're in a district with a Spanish companionship and some sisters. Pretty sweet! I've never been in a district with either. They're great missionaries too. So this may be news or not, if not then i wish it was, I'm in a bike area again. Ha ha. IT'S SO COLD. But so fun. I was met by lots of snow and ice which made me cry, then the tears froze on my face which made me cry more. But it's all good. ha ha. It's a learning opportunity, and i am grateful i get to serve here.

The ride to transfers was awfully fun. We left at about 7:45 to get there on time -2 and a half hours away- and by 8:45 we were stuck in traffic. We were stuck in it for about an hour, so there was already no way were going to make it on time anyway. But then we started to hear squeaking coming from our car in the middle of traffic, and Bishop Phaneuf was noticing that when he let off the gas that the car would stop by it's self. So needless to say after being stuck in traffic for an hour, were stuck in a shop getting our breaks fixed for an hour. They completely locked up and the mechanic could barely get the truck into the garage. But after that the next hour was smooth sailing. So we completely missed the meeting by like 45 minutes ha ha it was pretty funny. We had our own little transfer meeting in the parking lot.

I don't have too much to update you all on because that is pretty much all that happened. I gotta say, i miss Batesville. I love those people. But i am glad to be here and to have the opportunity to serve others. This next transfer i feel is going to be so great! We're going to work our guts out! or our soles off. Either way, we're going to do some WORK! I love this gospel and the power of the Atonement. I love the knowledge that the scriptures give and the questions that it answers. I love the spirit that testifies of truth and leads us along the way. I know the Book of Mormon is true, there is no doubt in my mind of that. I know that Jesus Christ lives, and i know he loves us.

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

-Elder Chrys Robinson