I must become more computer smart........

     So this week besides finishing up my Mom's pictures, I have been getting help putting music in our system. However you want to call it, I don't know what I'm doing. I think it's kind of funny they call it rip and burn though. Sounds painful haha!! If I didn't have my tech support of James and Chet I don't know where I would be. Just over the last year I learned how to copy-paste. Now I'm learning how to rip and burn (kind of). I find it kind of funny that I was called to be the secretary of Young Women's. I haven't changed the layout of my blog since I got it because I don't even know how to do that. Yes, I think I need to become more computer smart.......sigh........    :]


Dear Family,


Holy cow so much happening at home! I don't even know what to respond
back to! Ha ha. That's all so great. Way to go Sinaih!!! I'm so
excited for her. Gosh i love that family. When is girls camp? It was
last week for this ward. It was pretty cool seeing all the YW get up
and bare some great testimonies and experiences.

Yep. That's right. I'm in Batesville Indiana! Man. It is awesome here.
But it is almost opposite of my other areas ha ha. The ward members
here LOVE to do missionary work. They invite everyone to something
church related. It is so cool. I challenged a family yesterday to give
away some Books of Mormon and they cleared us out of the ones we had
and are giving them away this week. It's funny because i gave them 2
weeks to do it but they said they could give them away this week. I
love it! It works out though because we can't really tract here. See
how it's opposite now? Hah. 2-3 years ago all the churches in the area
got together and bashed on our church and now like everyone hates us.
And we lost quite a bit of members. It's insane. The Library people
are nice though. The ward is pretty small, there's about 100-115
people that make it out to church. Much smaller than both my last
wards. And the area is huge. We cover 3 counties! We covered just 1 in
Xenia. My companion is elder Laird. He's a great missionary! He's been
out 3 months and acts like he's been out 6. I'm stoked to be here with
him! This is 1 of the 2 areas in the mission that is in Indiana. Oh
and when I go on exchanges I'll be going into parts of Kentucky!

Tonight we have a lesson with a new investigator at a member's house.
The story was pretty funny I thought. Sister Ally has a friend that
kept trying to sell her knives and such that she doesn't want to buy,
so to give him a chance she told him, "Look. I'll let you give me your
knife presentation if you listen to the missionaries of my church. 1
hour for knives, and 1 hour for the missionaries." He said "Deal!" Ha
ha how awesome is that? That's just one of the many ways that members
are helping us out. All of these people are amazing and love the
missionaries and love to help us out.

Oh and the bishop has a drum set! A REALLY nice drum set. Ha ha. You
better believe I played it when we went over for dinner.

Well, that's about it for this week. It was SO hard leaving Xenia.
That place was home for me. I love those people. But i am so happy to
be here in Indiana! Isn't it like Jon McLaughlin's home state or
somethin? ;) I look forward to the great work to be done here! I love
being a missionary and sharing the restored gospel and my testimony
with so many people. I love Jesus Christ. The priesthood is real. This
week is going to be awesome! Things are looking up!

I love you all! The love and support you give me means so much to me.
Thank you all so much. Have a fantastic week! Share the gospel!

-Elder Robinson

Remembering things I love............

     This week I have been scanning pictures for my Mom and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary coming up in a few weeks. I am remembering how much I love photo's of my family!! They have grown so much over the years. To see them when they were little and to see my Grandkids with the same faces makes me smile!! I still have a few boxes to go so I will be smiling for a little while on this one! I also told Chet I needed sidewalk chalk. I think we all do at some point in our lives. We had the 5 cute kids upstairs help us decorate the sidewalks with color! Sometimes you just need to stop and add the color! So this week I hope you find things that you love and remember them. It's always a great thing!!


Dear Family,


Way to finish the Book of Mormon family! That rocks! And now on to D&C! I just love the scriptures. They bring so much into life. Did you say...Trevor is graduated?! When did that happen?? Wow the time flies by so fast. That's awesome though. Zion's camp. Oh Zion's camp. I have some great experiences from that place. I'm glad James had a great time! I also love the "when the spirit speaks, the debate it over." Oh man. So true. That is a short and powerful statement. Thank you for that!

Alright, so to start off..yes i did eat monkey meat. It was actually pretty good. We did some service after a district meeting for a lady named Sister Couch, and afterwards she fed us lunch. She brought out this big plate full of meat and monkey meat was in the mix. It was a very bright red color and tasted fairly sweet. I could have done with out the monkey HAIR on it though...

And the giant basket was just in some one's front yard in Xenia. It was so random ha ha. We stopped to look at the GPS and i turned my head and was like, "B-BASKET!" You never know what you'll find in Xenia.



So the update on last week is this: Elder Lamm got food poisoning and lost 11 lbs in 24 hours. And that's pretty much it. Ha ha. It was a rather exciting time. He got it while on exchanges. We think he got it from a Chinese buffet he ate at. On Friday night he looked dead. Poor guy.. 

Ok ok there's more. About a week ago we had a great lesson with Ethan and crissy, i'm not sure if i told you all about it. But he read from 1 Nephi to Mosiah in a week and a half. He knows the Book of Mormon is true. Said he knows he will get baptized into this church. But instead he joined the catholic church. Ha ha. It was a pretty different lesson. This last week he was charged and sentenced to 30 days house arrest and a year of probation. So we're not sure what to do at this point. We're hoping to visit him this week and get a lesson in. He needs it now more than ever.

We had a great meeting with out new ward mission leader brother Casbeer (pronounced Case-beer. Awesome right?) this past week and he is super excited to get the work moving again. It's been bumpy here lately. But things are definitely looking up. We're focusing right now on finding through the members, and we've got a lot of things to implement into the work right now that i am super excited for! The members here are so great. It's crazy how much this place feels like home now. These people are my family! It'll be weird to leave Xenia. 8 months in one area! Sheesh!

No district meetings this week! Or last week! That's a load off of me! Ha ha. President feels like we have too many meetings, which i agree with, so instead he's giving us some awesome studies. I love it!

2 weeks ago we had the seminary sunday for all the seminary graduates, it was so great. They had all of the seminare grads go up to the stand and sing a bunch of songs and such and they gave great talks and the spirit was just so strong. It made me realize just how blessed i am to have such great parents who allowed me to grow up in the gospel, and encouraged me to take seminary. It kept me in line! Even though at the time i didn't want to be. The gospel is so amazing and seminary set such a good foundation for my testimony in some of the most crucial years! Thank you mom and dad!

Well, sorry it was such a short and kind of scattered email. But i gotta go now. I love you all though! Ohio is amazing! I wouldn't rather be anywhere else!! The gospel is true! I know that our Heavenly Father is in this work and that he loves every single one of us. For true!

Have a great week!

-Elder Robinson

Being Around Great People Makes Me Happy.......

     So yesterday I had the great fun of going to lunch with a few friends from my school days. I love how they make me laugh and smile! We can say anything to each other and it doesn't shock us we just laugh! I want to do this more often!! I want to see more of my friends!! Then we went to a reception and it was so good to see our ward family there! More people that make me laugh and smile!! The Bride and Groom were so loved. The feeling was so sweet in that room you didn't want to leave. We were there for over an hour without realizing it. What a great day to be around GREAT PEOPLE!! I am so grateful for all the family and friends in my life who put up with me! Thanks for making me laugh and smile!! But most of all thanks for making me feel loved!!


Dear Family,



I don't have too much time today, so i guess i'll get to what happened last week.

Tuesday Elder Lamm and i cleaned our car. We had a member offer to pay to have our car all cleaned and vacuumed out but we didn't want to make her pay so we were going to clean it ourselves. We went to the Arneson's. I'm pretty sure i've told you about them. The older couple that served a mission in Norway together? Anyway, I turned on their hose in the front of their house and when i stood up....i hit my head on part of the roof that was hanging down and gave myself a good cut on my forehead. Oh man did it bleed. I also don't remember much from the next 15 seconds. Ha ha. I've got pictures :) This didn't bother me too much just because i do this stuff all the time, but this time i was going to meet a member of the 70 the next day! Ha ha. So yes, i met Elder and Sister Zwick with a big ugly cut on my forehead. But i made sure to wear a very nice tie so they would be distracted. I know they saw it, but they only complimented me on the tie. Heh!

Sister Zwick told a story that really touched my heart. So she and Elder Zwick served a mission in Brazil a number of years ago and she started out like this. "the first day in the mission i received a phone call from a missionary in a phone booth, He said, Sister Zwick, I'm standing in a phone booth with nothing on but an over-coat. We were teaching a lesson at the church when 7 terrorist came in and held us at machine-gun point and forced me to take off all my clothes in front of the seminary students and pored floor wax on my clothes then lit them on fire and now the church building is burning to the ground. What would you like me to do?" She said how at that moment the only thing she wanted to do was take the next plane home. She was pacing through the kitchen saying"I can't do this. I can't do this. I want to go home." when her little 9 yr old son came in and said, "Don't worry mom. Heavenly Father will help you do it." After that it all changed for her. When she told this story I'm pretty sure everyone in the room was crying. There was a lot of sniffling going on. The point she came to was so incredibly true. Heavenly Father love us. We are his children. And he will help us. I know that is true. We just lose sight of that sometimes. We have an all powerful, all knowing and loving God that watches over us every day. There are so many evidences of that fact. Just look around!

JOHN GOT THE PRIESTHOOD SUNDAY!! What an awesome day!!! Woo! I was giddy the whole day!

I forgot to tell you! I went on exchanges 2 weeks ago and when we were exchanging back we went and picked up some other elders from an investigators house and i just happened to bring my Ukulele and they all made me sing songs for them. I made sure to play songs that everyone knew though so i wasn't the only one singin. It was so fun. I love that thing.

I don't know how to spell this. And neither does Elder Birch. But i had es-car-go yesterday. Don't make fun of me for my spelling. Ha ha. But yes, i ate snails yesterday. Yum! It goes well with the monkey meat i had a few months back :)


Alright well I'm out of time! I love you all! Thank you for everything you do for me!Have a great week! The gospel is TRUE!

-Elder Chrys Robinson

Because James loves me so much........

    Because James loves me so much he gave me his wonderful cold. He even smiled and said your welcome. The only thing is it went to my sinuses and is causing me grief. Thank you James for your love......cough, cough........I love you so much too! I just love picking up tissue around the house.....not! I guess he didn't love Chet enough to pass it along to him though. So I am the lucky one this week. The loved one by James........cough.......     :]

Dear family,



Woa both released?? That's cool! What's dad going to do now? Ha ha i can't remember the last time he was able to go to Elders Quorum. I suppose he's just about old enough to make it into High Priest ;) Yay Ian is home! Way to be! Now go get married! Heh! smiley face.


Well this past week was pretty great. We've been doing SO much service. I'm getting tan! Not really i don't get very tan. But i have color! On Tuesday during exchanges we planned on doing service in the morning and planned on dropping by a few families. Well we ended up dropping by all the families we had planned for and no one was home! So i looked on the GPS and i saw a family i didn't know so we dropped by there to do some service. She opened the door and we said put us to work! And boy did she! We ended up tearing out her whole garden and cutting down a few small trees! Woo! Made me feel like a man! But anyway..Before she had us do that she was like, "Wait! I know one of my neighbors that needs help. Let's go and I'll introduce you." ha ha not going to say no to that! So we went and he didn't need any help at the moment but she set up a time to come and teach him and his family instead. Ha ha! It was awesome. We're going over to their house this Wednesday to have a cookout and teach them. We love members!

Oh and last night we got a call from the Weaver's daughter who is visiting from Utah, and she set up a time for us to teach her friend! That appointment is tonight! I love it here. Members just rule.

We had Stake Conference yesterday and President and Sister Nilsen spoke. Man they tore it up! They spoke on Speaking with others about the gospel. If you know President Nilsen, he is a very "GET IT DONE" type of guy. And he can inspire and pump up anybody! So his talk he just told it how it was, and the members really took it in! We dropped by a few members yesterday and they all had kneeling prayers with us before we left and sent us out to their neighbors. It wasn't the speakers in conference that really made it happen though, it was definitely the spirit. The thing the spirit told me is this is the time. This is it! We are living in the last days. Our church is so well known right now and we are everywhere! There is no better time to share the gospel than NOW! It is each of our responsibilities to share it anyway. So why not now! The Lord had it all set up for us. We just have to open our mouths and speak miracles! I love this gospel so much. It is so wonderful to share something i love with some one else and to see them love it just as much as i do. And the joy of sharing the gospel is unlike anything else! President really focused a lot on that. Here he is, a man who has done literally anything you can think of, and he says "this is the most joy i have ever felt from doing something." It is so true. I can say out of experience that it does bring so much joy. I love it!

Also afterwards our ride took us to an Indian Mound in Enon, Ohio. I have been there before and i don't remember if i mentioned it :/ so I'll mention it again i guess. Zion's camp came through Dayton and it was a mound that Joseph Smith stopped at and camped around for a while. It was pretty cool! I couldn't get any good pictures because it was dark. But there was definitely a different feeling there!

Elder Zwick of the 70 will be here on Wednesday to meet the mission! Woo! We're all pretty stoked. He's doing random apartment checks so lets just say our apartment is pretty clean right now ha ha.

Well it's time to go now. Man, i just love being out here so much. Ohio is amazing. I love these people! Sharing the Gospel is something i love to do and i will always do it! This work is so true. I have no doubt. I love my Savior and i know he lives. I know the Book of Mormon is true. It is so powerful and nothing will stop it from rolling forth across the world.

I love you all! Thank you for your love and support! Have a great week!

-Elder Robinson

Oops........I did it again.......

      Oops.......I got lost in my week and forgot to blog. Now it is so late and I am sitting here thinking ugh! So I am going to bed and letting the Elder do the talking.......    :]


Dear Family,


I LOVE hearing about all the mission calls going out!! It's so cool. The world needs them.



Well, being that i just talked to you all yesterday and told you everything already...i can still give an update for everyone else. So here goes!

We've been doing A LOT of service lately. Mornings aren't super productive so lately we've been just dropping by unexpectedly on members. Which i love because it's funny to see their faces when they open the door."Missionaries? What are you doing here in normal clothes!" we say," We're here to work! Give us something to do!" Ha ha. It's awesome. Last week while on exchanges with Fairborn we served the Stevens family. Elder Birch and I ended up digging a 5 ft deep trench and digging up some tree roots almost as big as the actual tree that was cut down. Whoowee! It was awesome. We're really trying to focus the work with the members. We did a survey a few weeks back on things like "Where do you feel the most success comes from?" and "What do you spend the majority of the time doing?" and at specialized training 2 weeks back Sister Nilsen brought in the results and told us what they were. Those two questions were the ones she went over most. The answer for the first was member work. And the answer for the second was tracting, or knocking on doors. She pointed out how even though we believe that the most success comes through members, we still spend time tracting. Why do it! Work through the members! Of course tract if you have to, but do the things that bring the most success. So needless to say, we've been doing a lot of member work. Which is rockin!

On Wednesday we had a great chapel tour and lesson with Donna, and afterward while we were about to leave, the bishop came up and said that he needed someone to talk on Sunday and if i would be able to, of course i said yes. It was actually a perfect opportunity because we had a less-active member bringing his girlfriend and friend to church that day. It went really well! It was actually the first talk I've given that I've been ok with ha ha. But anyway, after sacrament the member with his girlfriend and friend came up and told us they wanted to have us teach the first lesson! So we found a small room that got smaller as more members of the family came to sit in the lesson too ha ha. The lesson went so smoothly! Ethan and Krissy are awesome. In the lesson, we had one of the members read the first vision, and after we asked what they thought of it all and Ethan said that it answered his question that he's had since he was 8 years old of "why would God not speak today?"And how everything we have taught filled in the gaps! We didn't even really teach him doctrine yet ha ha! It was awesome. The spirit was strong. We invited them to be baptized and they both accepted. Ethan especially. We're excited to continue teaching them!! What a blessing it is to be here. I am so happy.

Well I've got to go. I love you all though! Thank you for all of the love and support you give me! I pray for each of you every day. Being out here is the best. I love Ohio. I love these people and i am so grateful that Heavenly Father has trusted me to teach his children. The Book of Mormon is true!! I know Jesus Christ lives and is the head of this church. I love being a missionary for him!

Have a great week!

-Elder Robinson

And I send brownies..........

     So in a letter to Chet the Elder tells him he is grateful for the gym in their building. He loves the members and how they feed them, but he gets dessert after every meal and they send it home with them. They ask them if they need anything and he says maybe something healthy to eat haha. He says the one thing about coming home he won't have to eat yummy treats after every meal. So his friend Carson went home for a few days and what do I do?? I send him brownies..............     :]


Dear Family,

It was a pretty great week! It was a long one. We didn't have a whole lot of teaching done. But they work goes upward from here. John is doing well! We were planning on handing him to the ward and seeing what would happen but we got a call Monday and he wasn't doing so well.. So we met with him every day last week. It was mostly just because his separation with his wife, and because he had a stroke a year and a half ago he can't do much. Every time we met we would bring new things with us and new ways for him to occupy his time. By the end of the week he had a huge stack of Ensigns, a bunch of talks on his computer, various reading assignments, ect. We made sure that he always had something to do. What a change we saw in him! He's doing great. His favorite speaker is Elder Holland ha ha. Oh yeah! He loves listening to him. And actually we haven't met with him since friday. So yeah he's doing great.

Elder Lamm broke our ceiling light fixture. Glass. Everywhere.

On Wednesday we had i guess you could call it a "surprised" specialized training by president. It rocked! The 2 head guys over the missionary department of the church came tuesday and did training with him so he decided to share it with the rest of the mission. Monthly there are changes made to how we do the work, i love it. This time we focused a lot on new approaches in finding and such. The approach we are applying is this, instead of saying,"We're missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints..." We say, "We are representatives of Jesus Christ, will you allow us to come in and place a blessing upon your home and family?" I mean, that's what we are anyway right? We're not missionaries of a church, we're missionaries of the Lord. By saying missionaries for the church and ect, one of the reactions to that is "how fast can i shut this door" Ha ha. But saying we are representatives of Jesus Christ, and we're here to bless your home, that opens many more doors. I guess it's not really a "new" approach. But it is one set up by the Lord. D&C 75:18-19. Many awesome experiences are already happening in the mission with this, it's so exciting to be a part of it.

I recently remembered how good fruit leathers are. A member bought us a monstrous box of them from the Costco in Cincinnati. Yummmm.

Well, as usually what happens in an area when they have a baptism, they basically have to start over. So right now we're focusing on finding new people. All the people we have right now aren't really doing anything. Time to move on! President and the assistants sent out a voice mail this morning with a challenge in it. He challenged every companionship to find someone to bring to the waters of baptism in the months of May and June. What a challenge! It's going to be a very faith-filled month for the mission. I am excited though! Oh! And he's given a challenge to finish the Book of Mormon before the 23rd of this month. He sent that like a month ago but i fell behind. In the past week i've read i think close to 100 pages. Ha ha. It's awesome seeing the whole picture as you just read straight through it though. I'm just finishing up Mosiah right now! Woo!

Yes! Mothers day! I'm not sure what time we will be calling on Sunday..we don't even know where we will be calling from ha ha. We will figure it out soon. We think it'll be around 7 or 8 Ohio time. so 5 or 6 your time. :)

Well, i am looking forward to a great week! I love being out here. It's just so fun. I love seeing what hard work can do. I love the scriptures. I love Jesus Christ and his example in everything he did. I am grateful for his Sacrifice. I am grateful for His gospel, and this chance i have to bring it to others. It is truly amazing! This truly is a marvelous work and a wonder.

I love you my family! You are all so wonderful! Have a great week! Talk to ya sunday!!

-Elder Robinson

Taking care of the Lucky.......

     This week I was thinking about how life has changed with Lucky. We had her all checked out and know what to do for her health. She is old, but she still thinks shes a puppy sometimes. She can only see light and dark. She is using her nose a lot more now. I sometimes laugh when we go to the park and she thinks shes lost. She will walk up to a basketball pole thinking it's a person, smell, then walk away when we are standing right by her. I made a video of her and how far she can see. If you get too far away she will slow down, then find you with her tail wagging with happiness! I didn't think I would be taking care of a blind dog. We just moved and are now showing her how to get around the new place. We have to go outside with her every time! She wants to walk off walls and can't see cement stairs or curbs. But she loves to run in the grass, drop, then roll!! She is so happy!! She loves being so close to the mountain and getting to explore. She wanted to go outside the other night. I asked her if she was done, she just laid down on the grass to let me know she didn't want to go in. So I took a minute to sit on the porch swing and enjoy the evening with Chet. Yes, we are Lucky's care givers in many more ways now and I am grateful for this role in my life!! I love my Lucky dog!!!   <3



Dear Family,

I'm Staying in Xenia! I realize that Carson already told you. But that's for everyone else. Ha. Man am i glad to be here. I love This area.


A part of the reason why i am so happy i stayed is because this past week. It was the craziest week of my life! The whole month has been weird, but this just topped it off! Ok, so remember John Patterson from last week? The guy that little Sam McMurray taught about prayer? Well.....HE'S BAPTIZED!!! Yep! From that day on we met with him twice a day and taught him all the lessons in 5 days. He investigated a little over 8 years ago and knows seriously everything. It was more of a review really. His two sons were baptized in 2004 so he had been to church quite a bit with them when he was investigating, so we talked with the bishop and he said it was a go! I didn't think putting a baptism together in a week would be so crazy ha ha. I've never been on the phone so much! But it turned out great. He was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. It was a miracle. And we seriously had nothing to do with it ha ha. He just basically fell into our hands. I am so grateful i was part of the companionship that taught him. What a blessing. Now we are just trying to get him fully into the ward. The whole baptism frenzy last week really got the ward excited. People i haven't met in this giant ward are coming out and giving support! It's great! And now we are going to start a 40 day fast in the ward and finish off with a "Invitation Sunday". It's the same thing we did in Pickerington which started Mary and Margaret Dula's investigating and baptisms into the church. So we're excited!

Well, i really don't have too much to say in this email because...that's basically all we did ha ha. All our time was focused on John. So i guess i can close it up with my testimony. I've been reading a lot of talks and devotionals by various Apostles and Prophets, and i came across "Missionary Work and The Atonement" by Jeffrey R. Holland. Of course, my favorite speaker :) And it changed a lot of how i view things. As missionaries we focus our efforts and teaching on Jesus Christ. But we also put a lot of emphasis on The Book of Mormon. Just because that is mostly what sets us a part from the world. In our teaching, we sometimes forget that our message really is about Jesus Christ, and not so much about the Book of Mormon. We teach the Book of Mormon, but what does the Book of Mormon teach? It teaches about Christ. So in all of this we focus on the investigator on gaining a witness of the Book of Mormon, and in all this forget that it is ALL about Jesus Christ. And the fact that the principles of the Gospel is first Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, second repentance, THEN third baptism. So we should really be focusing on them gaining that faith in Christ first and repenting, THEN gaining that witness of the Book of Mormon being baptized. It's changed things quite a bit. It's changes how i read and study the gospel and that changes the way i teach. It's been so great. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. HE IS THE CHRIST. The only way back to our Heavenly Father. I know that to be true. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I know that this is Christ's church on the earth today. I am so grateful for this gospel. I am so grateful for the peace i have been given in times of need. I am grateful that families are not just in this life, that they can be eternal. I love being a missionary teaching about the restored gospel! It is so wonderful. I wouldn't rather be doing anything else!


I love you my family! Have a great week! Share the gospel with someone this week! It's the best. I promise.


-Elder Robinson