Email letter dated july 25, 2012 "Las Antillas"

July 25, 2012

Dear Family,

No mom the address for letters and packages does not change. The mail goes to the mission office and they send it to us from there.

This week has been interesting: Here in the Dominican Republic it is common and customary to kiss each other on the cheek in greeting (men don´t usually do it to other men) Well we taught this 15 year old girl on like thursday last week and the lesson strange, she told us that she hated her family and just wanted a baby and a baby is the only thing that will make her happy, but she doesn´t want a husband, Just a baby. So the red flags were flying everywhere......Well the lesson wasn´t very productive but I think the spirit may have been there towards the end. Well a couple days later we were walking down the street at night in the dark on our way to another appointment. Well she was walking toward us and I didn´t recognize it was her until she had grabbed my arms and went in for a kiss. i jumped back very quickly and was very shocked. It was a close call, she was a little confused because it´s normal here but Elder Ferreras explained and we hurried on our way. And mom my Companion´s name is Ferreras and the area I´m in is Las Antillas. 

Another new experience was on sunday Elder Ferreras passed me his agenda with a note from some girl in the ward and it said,  ¨Your new companion is whiter than a samandra (i think it´s a fish), he´s kinda cute but so white!¨ So I have had some good frightening experiences here with women and I´ve been here for one week and 6 hours.......

I am really hoping that Elder Ferreras doesn´t leave or at least he is here for a little longer because I am freaking out about not knowing the area and not knowing the members or the investigators and not knowing spanish........Very stressful. 

The members here seem very supportive. they have a teacher for the gospel principles class that is catered to investigators so the missionaries don´t have to teach it. They have a pretty big church ball tournament going on right now and I think the relief society is trying to put together an activity about the talk by Pres. Benson about filling the earth with the book of mormon. Apparently it´ll be a big activity. They are planning on inviting President and Sister Douglas. They are also having what they are calling ¨mormon idol¨ which will essentially be american idol within the ward. Auditions are Friday. I don´t think we can or should participate but maybe we can watch. i think it´s going to be a little scary though.......Most Dominicans don´t have a talent for singing.........

We went tot the mission home today so the mission doctor could look at Elder Ferreras´ knee. I don´t think he could descern anything. We are going to a different doctor on Monday to probably get some x rays done. He doesn´t limp as badly and claims that it doesn´t hurt as badly either so that is good.

I am doing well, I have started using the missionary work out program book that Nikelle gave me and there are some pretty good work outs. It has a work out for every day of my mission. I´m 5 months behind.......but I´m starting now! 

The language barrier thing isn´t a lot of fun right now. Before with Elder Johnson I could ask what happened during a lesson after ward and he could tell me so I´d be able to understand. Well now I can´t really do that. I could and sometimes do but I spend 15 minutes with Elder Ferreras trying to describe it to me so that I can understand and I eventually give up because I stop caring and get frustrated. My spanish womps!

I love you all and am glad you are all well. The eagle project sounds good and so does the trek and family reunion. Thank you Dad, Mom, Nikelle and all others that have emailed me or written to me.

A slightly frustrated and scared green elder..........

Elder Robinson

Email letter dated July 18, 2012 "New Area"

July 18, 2012

Dear Family,

I recorded this song the other night. I´m pretty sure I sing way out of tune. hope you enjoy it. I also just figured out the words to the song my listening to it and they don´t sing some of the words very clearly so I just made up or said words that sounded similar. haha

To is transfer day and now I am in North Santiago in the area las antillas with my new comp Elder Ferreras. he is Dominican and has a torn miniscus  and our area is pretty big so we shall see how this transfer goes I think he said (still not sure my spanish is still shaky) that if he is not all recuperated and better in 2-3 weeks he will be sent home so I hope I can help him not push it too hard. he is hard working and wants to work but I don´t want him to get sent home.

Yesterday was a sad day as we went and said good bye to all the people I have met and worked with. I cried as we prayed with and said goodbye to Miguel, Clara, and Isaac I will miss them a lot and the luna family. And I was so stoked to stay and baptize oscar. I just hope he stays trong and attends church on sunday and is ready for his baptism next saturday. I think Elder Ferreras said we (mostly him) will be having 5 baptisms on that day as well so that is exciting. I was so sure that I was staying and Elder Johnson was leaving because usually thats how it works: after you get trained your dad leaves and you stay but last night elder Johnson got a call to be district leader in San Francisco and that I would be leaving. I was comfrotably writing in my journal sure that I had no reason to worry about leaving when he told me and I jumped into action and started packing. Elder Johnson was already halfway packed in anticipation of leaving. hahahahaha. There were many somber moments as I packed my things and I said goodbye to Elder Johnson, my daddy in the mission and now one of my best friends. I will truly miss the people of San Francisco and I will definitely be visiting them when I come back here, whenever that may be.

I am here in Santiago and happy and ready to work! this is the first time I´ve left an area and my first comp that doesn´t speak english (he actually knows a lot). The  mission is great I am happy and ready to meet some new people and bring them to our Savior Jesus Christ.

I sent Nikelle´s package today FINALLY! but also learned in an email 10 minutes ago she is leaving rexburg to work in southern utah for the 7 week break and I sent it to her rexburg address so hopefully she gets it someday...........

I love you all and am excited for everyone in all they are doing. The kid camp sounds fun and I´m so happy to hear that Nathan is coming down and the family will be getting together. We need to interact with them more. Ant katie coming WOW!!! this next month before school starts again is going to be crazy!!!!!

Dad did you and parker already go to the casting call for biggest loser? when is it? have faith and hope that you´ll make it! you need to show them that you really want this change in your life and not just for yourself but for everyone in your life. I love you dad I know your job isn´t the funnest but I heard some great advice from one of my friends in San Francisco it is more poetic in spanish:

Robinson la vida no depende de lo que el hombre posea sino un corazón dispuesto en Jesús. Los problemas van a llegar pero recuerda que la noche is más oscura cuando amanacer recuerda esta familia quien te admira y te amo mi esperanza era sola una palabra, una canción, hasta que llega Jesús.

I will now attempt to translate it for you:

Robinson the life does not depend on what a man possesses rather a willing heart in Christ. problems will come but remember that the night is darkest just before the dawn. remember this family who admires you and loves you. my hope es only one word, one song, until Jesus comes. 

This he wrote in my agenda. this comes from a man who can barely afford to feed his family and his work is so crappy and pays so little that he started selling fruit in the street which turned out to be great because he was making more than he was at his other job until he was in a bicycle accident which resulted in him going to the emergency room and getting stitches. And he heard yesterday that he will probably lose his other job soon. Every time we ask him if there is something we can do for him he always says a prayer. His faith is so strong and real. His name is Miguel and I admire him as a friend a father a man and a saint.

I am learning so much from the people here and I know I will learn much more. 

Love

Elder Robinson

Email letter dated July 11, 2012 "A Baptism and a Birthday"

July 11, 2012

Dear Family,

This week has been good the most notable events were mine and Nikelles birthdays, meeting President and sis Douglas on Saturday and the baptism of Enmanuel.

We also had an exchange on friday so that Elder Barton, our district leader could interview Enmanuel for his baptism and he passed the interview with flying colors of course. It was an interesting transfer with Elder Escobar from Honduras. We doesnt know english so it was a day of nothing but spanish which was good but difficult at times when i didnt understand what was going on.

We met President and Sis Douglas on Saturday and they are awesome. we had interviews with each of them and it was amazing to get to know them. He served a mission in Ecuador and she served a mission in virginia i think. they were married sixteen days after he got back. fast! they have 10 kids 3 of which they adopted and 8 of them have served missions. they are from new york and are so happy animated and excited to be here. Pres. Douglas is a convert and was baptized when he was 20 or 21 and went on his mission to Ecuador one year later. they are very strong and im excited to get to know them better.

We had Enmanuels baptism on saturday (my birthday) and before the baptism we went to visit Oscar and we told him about the baptism and he asked us if he could be baptized too! we had to tell him know because he hasnt come to church and we havent taught him enough but he has a baptismal date for the 28 and he came to church on sunday. so hes right on track. during the baptismal interview the person usually chooses who will baptize them but Enmanuel just said ¨whoever wants to do it¨ so I got to baptize him! My first baptism that I performed on my first birthday in the mission!!!!!!! man the way you feel when you bring someone to the waters of baptism is incredible and its even more incredible to be the one that performs the ordinance. It was so cool! that is what the mission is all about!

On saturday morning for my birthday Elder Johnson and Elder Barton made me a cake! it is delicious (i am still eating it......) and all the missionaries in the zone sang to me when we got to the chapel for interviews with Pres. Douglas. And that night Sis Douglas called me and wished me a happy birthday. it was a great birthday.

 

Love, 

Elder Robinson

Email letter dated July 4, 2012 "Letters, a package and a Baptism"

July 4, 2012

Dear Family,

As you can see by the pictures I did receive your package and I did open it early, sorry......I wanted to take pictures and be able to write about it today. I have not yet eaten any of the treats, I will save them for the big day. I got the package along with 2 letters from Nikelle on Saturday and another 2 letters on monday: one from mom and one from katie and there was another one from mom in the package so I have been very spoiled with mail this week and Im pretty sure everyone in my zone hates my guts......
Thank you for all the treats in the package and the shirt, Im acquiring quite the collection of super hero type shirts in the mission. Elder Johnson likes his Jolley Ranchers and we will enjoy all the good treats. Thanks for the funny photo booth pictures, I love playing with that thing!
We have a baptism this saturday, my birthday! and it is Enmanuel Luna (we found out on Monday that his name is actually Enmanuel not Manuel) I am so excited. There is no better present than that. We also get to meet President Douglas on Saturday and have interviews with him. So that will be interesting and cool, from what we hear from other missionaries that hav already met him he is a really good cool guy.
The other people we had with baptismal dates for this saturday failed to meet that goal: they didnt come to church or we were undable to teach them sufficiently to prepare them because they werent home and we had failed citas or they dont read and do their part to prepare. Kinda frustrating but we are not giving up on them.
Last night we were teaching Franklin (I dont know if I have ever written home about him), he has problems with alcohol and chewing tobacco and he has goals to be married and to buy a house before he gets baptised and these goals although good should not prevent him from being baptized. We have talked to him a lot about this and it is difficult for us to understand and we have challenged him to pray to see if he should wait to be baptized or not. He still has his goals and is sticking to them. Last week we put a goal with him to be alcohol and tobacco free for 2 full days and as we set the goal I asked him if he had any tobacco with him (he has bigger troubles with tobacco than alcohol right now) and if he would give it to me. And he said yes he had some but he wasnt going to give it to me because he was going to chew some tonight and then start his 2 days the next day. Well we taught him last night and we just talked about where he was reading in the book of mormon and about how we can help him. I asked him again if he had tobacco and if he would give it to me and he did! He gave it to me and said he wants to stop 100%. I talked for a minute about how the act of him giving me the tobacco is in similitude of him giving his will to god. I felt really good about it. I also gave him a letter that I spent some time writing for him with scriptures and my thoughts about where he is right now. I hope it helps him. I felt like I should write it and I felt good about giving it to him.

You may or may not remember Oscar, I think I wrote about him before, He has had it rough the last month or so: About a month ago his uncle passed away and we have continued to teach and help him any way we can and this last week we were talking with him and we shared mosiah 18:7-10 which talks about having all these desires involved in the baptismal convenant and in verse ten is says something like if you have these desires what is stopping you from being baptized. We asked him this same question and he said nothing, when can I get baptized. He had previously told us that he thought it would be too hard to study medicine and then be a doctor and a member of the church because he was unsure that he would be able to keep his baptismal covenant. But now his view changed! I was sooooooo Stoked! It was a big win for me! We set a baptismal date for july 21 and on Saturday I called him to make sure that he was coming to church and he told me that his Dad just passed away and he was on his way to Santiago........I cant even imagine that happening, now we are not really sure how to help him. Ive never been in that situation and hope not to be for a very long time. I have been praying a lot for him and to know how to help him and what he needs and what to do.
We talked with Elsa last week and we asked her to tell us the way he and gabriel met and how it all began and it was great to hear their story, the key for them I think is helping them remember and realize what they have together. It was great.
On Sunday Elder Johnson helped bless the sacrament and I directed the music in sacrament meeting. The first hymn was high on the mountain top and I was feeling so confident about my knowledge of the hymns that I stood up and started singing loudly and confidently the words of high on the mountain top to the tune of the spirit of god..........

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. I think I did it at the beginning of all three verses too. haha. live and learn.
Nikelles birhtday is in 2 days and I feel bad that I have not sent anything to her. I am putting a small package together for her right now, nothing really special, just a few silly things. I will hopefully send it next week so she will probably get it a month or so after her birthday........
It sounds crazy there with all the fires and camping and fun going on. I loved Bishop Andersons thing about the sun rise, so true. Bummer about the fireworks I hope this email can be a little pick me up for you all.
We bible bashed with a Jehovahs witness last week. I wouldnt recommend it. he was a priest in the church and knew his bible which isnt a bible at all. Its been changed so much and is so wrong its unbelievable. the only thing more unbelievable than their bible is thier interpretation of the scriptures therein.
Alright so there is something packed away in one of my boxes that I wonder if you could send it to me.....I know you have already unpacked and packed and sealed and unsealed my boxes many times and I cant promise this will be the last time but I figure I can ask and if you dont want to you dont have to. but I have my little backpack for my camelpack in one of those boxes. Its just a little backpack that I would love to have because its smaller than the one I have now. I like the one i have now but its just so dang hot and i dont need a backpack that big most of the time. If you dont want to thats fine I can find something cheap here but if its not too much trouble that would be really nice.

Ice age 4?! wow cool I dont think i saw the third one.....there is cereal here advertising the movie and they all have little double sided jigsaw puzzles (rompecabeza in spanish) in them and I feel like a little kid again ripping open the box to find the prize inside. What can I say Im still a little kid on the inside okay.

Thank you for all the letters and love this birthday is going to be great!

Elder Robinson

Email letter dated june 27, 2012 "Good Week"

June 27, 2012

Dear Family,

Its been a good week. I dont have a lot of time because i spent a lot of time sending pictures and the voice recordings. But weve had some good things happen: We both spoke in sacrament meeting on sunday as you can tell from the voice recordings. We found out that Hermano Luna isnt actually excommunicated, he is just disfellowshipped which is a much better situation and if he keeps going the way he is he will be in full fellowship by October!
I saw a commercial (not watching tv just in passing dont worry) for ice age 4! holy buckets thats weird. Its one of the first movies that i have found out about in the mission. that and madagascar 3 are the first two movies i know of that have come out while ive been gone.
Elder Johnson lost his wallet in a ruta last week and we thought it was a gonner for sure but we did some searching and some asking and found out where the rutas stop and went there but it wasnt there. but we left our number and later that day they called us and said they found it and that a ruta driver named Faco (we may or may not have had too much fun saying his name....) had it. So we went back like 3 times and he was never there. finally we met up with him and Elder Johnson got his wallet back! there are honest people everywhere. It helped that there wasnt anything in it: a couple store cards like costco cards and a one dollar bill. and everything was in it.
On thursday the office elders came and checked our house and they told us they would be there at 2 or 2:30. Well they didnt show up until like 7...... we waited in the house all day for them so as far as lessons go it was a pretty slow day. we would have gone out to teach but we called them throughout the afternoon and they kept saying they were coming right now and to wait....We got some good studying in so that is good. but not a great day.
We can also have EFY music and the theme this year is let your light so shine before men or something like that right. that would be cool, dont put together a package just for that but maybe for the next one.....

I forgot to mention last week that I got a letter from Nikelle!

Im so glad to hear the the tree is alive and growing! I was worried about that, it didnt look like it had grown at all when i left. hopefully there will be some nice shade in the front yard when i get back.

the elders quorum derby sounds so fun! I want to do a pine wood derby again. the credit for our cars coming out on top is all dads its good he got to race his racers because he really did do a lot to make us little cubby scouts happy with our cars.

I will definitely send a letter or two to Chance.

Im so glad Justice has gotten my letters and you guys and Nikelle. Im sending one to Grandma Robinson and Bishop Berry this week as well so keep your eyes and ears open.

Just curious, do a lot of people view the blog? is that still going?

Well sorry this one is short but there is still much to do in this little p day of ours.

Just a suggestion: mom if you want me to be able to have the latest update every p day you should email it to me tuesday nights because I didnt get last weeks and I just read it today and I have not received one for this week....Im not complaining and I know you do send me emails every week. the times we are in the internet center are just so inconsistent I cant really tell you a specific time on wednesdays so if you send it tuesday night I will get it for sure. thank you.

I love you all.

Elder Robinson

P.S.  I forgot to mention that President Douglas comes on Friday and President Lee finishes his mission Friday. Crazy!!!! we will see what kinds of changes happen.