Email letter dated Dec 5, 2012 "It's the Most Wonderful time of the Year!"

 December 5, 2012

Dear Family,

ho ho ho

It´s officially December and we´ve been graced with a lot of rain here in Cotui but we´ve yet to be graced by the sound of the Cotui birds. I actually saw one this week but I think he was scared because he didn´t say anything....

The ¨patronales¨ are in town. it´s a big carnival with a ferris wheel and lots of other little rides including the swings. We are not allowed to participate in such rides but there are tons of vendors selling super cool stuff that are here and they are from all over latin america. On saturday we walked through to buy a few things on the way home and the party was in full swing with everyone drinking and dancing to the music that the whole world can hear because it´s so loud and as we were taking the most out of the way route to get out of the crowd an go home this random woman leaned out and tried to kiss me. I was walking fast and by the time I realized what happened i had already passed her. But Elder Chalas was walking behind me and from what he said she was very close to kissing me that if I had turned my head she would have kissed my cheek.....So we have visited and bought a few cool things which you will be able to see in the package that I sent home. It has not left the D.R. yet but will be sent on Friday I think. I really doubt it´ll be in time for Christmas but you know how it is. 

So Dominican culture for men and women alike is to shave nearly all body hair: legs, armpits, chest... so I decided ¨when in the D.R., do as the Dominicans. I went ahead and shaved my legs up to mid thigh, my chest and my armpits. Hey, don´t judge me. I had to at least see what it´s all about okay. shaved legs is actually kinda nice. I don´t have the time or patience to maintain it though. I respect women who do maintain silky smooth legs, it takes time and work! I won´t continue to do it but I certainly appreciate that you will.

We have contacted a few of our references and they have definitely given fruit. we contacted Eliosel yesterday and he is 19 and talked about serving a mission! I have really high hopes for him. Also Samuel and Magalis and their kids (2 boys) show a lot of potential, they have always read and always have really good questions. Rafi and Rocío also show a lot of promise. Rocío is the heavy hitter. She is very faithful and believes in the Bible and that she needs to receive her confirmation of the truth directly from heavenly Father. She has questions but works for social security in the U.S. so she travels a lot. It makes me crazy when really good investigators can´t progress because of their job...we will see what happens.

I received Nikelle´s Christmas package on Monday and I have not opened it yet because it´s not Christmas yet.

We ran to the local dam this morning and it took a little longer than I thought it would. I quickly found my pace and ran strong. Unfortunately Elder Chalas and the member we were with didn´t want to run more....We walked a lot of the way. It reminded me of when I first started caught the bug to run when I was in Arizona, it felt good to run and to feel my muscles work and my lungs burn. I love to Run. I´ve decided that I want to run a marathon before my 22 birthday. which gives me 4 months to train after I get home. We took pictures and seeing all the water made me want to jump in or go wakeboarding.

Happy Birthday Mom!!!!!!!!!!! i love you!

Elder Robinson

Email letter dated Nov 28, 2012 "First week in Cotui"

Dear Family,

I´ve not yet heard the Cotui birds and honestly may never get the chance because they are so rare nowadays.....I still have hope that I will have the chance to hear them but it looks like I´ll need to go out more into the country to find me one.

The work is a little slower here in this little branch that we have. It really has potential to become a ward but there aren´t sufficient priesthood holders that pay a full tithe. There are sufficeint men that hold the Priesthood but not enough that pay tithing...

Elder Chalas and I get along great! perhaps better than the rest of my companions thus far. We have tons of fun while we work hard. He knows a lot of English and just needs to practice speaking it to really be an English wizard. We have a lot in common and we talk a lot and joke around and teach well together. He is definitely a blessing in my life. A good friend.

We had an open house in the chapel on Saturday and it went well. We received nearly 30 references from all the people that came and the members. At the beginning there weren´t that many people there so Elder Chalas hit the street talking and inviting everyone we saw to the activity and our efforts bore fruit. there were several people that we talked to that came! The purpose of the activity was for members to invite their neighbors and friends to the open house so that they could learn, feel the spirit, and we could obtain that reference but we kinda undermined the activity with all the people we invited because a lot of the references say that they are references from the missionaries.....the important things is that the people came, learned, and hopefully felt the spirit. We have a lot of work contacting all these references in the weeks to come and we are excited.

On sunday we had the opportunity to participate in the sacrament. It was the first tme in nearly 9 months that I´ve been able to pass the sacrament and it was such a good experience. I definitely took such a special opportunity for granted before. It is the most important thing we do during the week!

Unfortunately there isn´t anyone that plays the piano in the branch but if I can get my hands on a piano to practice a little I think I could change that. It won´t be great and it´ll probably be just the top hand but it would be music nonetheless.

Life is good here in Cotui and Christmas is coming fast. I love Christmas. They have a tradition here they call king´s day. which is the 6 of January and on this day everyone gives toys to the little kids as a similitude of the 3 kings that gave presents to baby Jesus. A fun tradition. I´m still a little kid at heart but I don´t think I´ll be receiving any toys. But I´ll be giving many to the little kids with all my ducks and the little toys Nikelle sent me to give to the kids. It´s more fun to give than receive. I love to their little eyes brighten as they see their little prize.

Go serve someone

Elder Robinson

P.S, I´m going to try and send a package for Christmas, unfortunately it will probably be late.....

Email dated Nov 21, 2012 "Thanksgiving"

November 21, 2012

Dear Family,

Well it is Thanksgiving tomorrow and as I recall last year we I wasn´t ¨home¨ for Thanksgiving that year either. We were in California on our trip to Disneyland and we had sub-par pizza for Thanksgiving. I love our family trips and that is the second thanksgiving we have done in California with pumpkin pie and pizza. Although pizza is very common here I would pay just about anyone 100 dollars to find me a pumpkin pie. haha.

I am now in a city called Cotui. Yes I was transfered today. Elder Escobar received a call from President Douglas on Friday and he asked him to be a trainer for a new missionary. I´ll be honest and say when I saw that it was President Douglas calling and I answered I was a little scared he was going to ask me to train but the first words he said were ¨buenas noches, Elder Escobar?¨ I said nope, give me a second and handed the phone to my comp. We both new why President was calling and Elder Escobar was very surprised. he did not expect or really even want to train 9 months into the mission but he accepted the calling with courage and confidence. But the sad part is that his companion didn´t even come today because there were problems with his visa. He is from Peru. apparently he is going to come next week but until he comes Elder Escobar is in a trio with the zone leaders...sad...So I am now in Cotui which is really far away from the city and is out in the country to the south east of Santiago. I like the city but I feel good to be out here in the country with a smaller area, less noise, less people, and it just smells like the country. I khave a great companion. His name is Elder Chalas, he is Dominican and he has about 9 months left in the mission. He is super friendly, likes to laugh and joke around and from what I can tell a good missionary. he even knows some english.

But back in Las Antillas one of everyone´s worst nightmares came true: on the same street where the missionaries live there are a lot of houses right on the bank of a really nasty river that runs close by. Well early yesterday morning 6 or 7 houses fell a good 6 feet toward the river. The pvc pipes that are supposed to carry the water from the houses to the river that are under the houses broke and the water from the pipes was filtering throught the earth underneath the houses and it got so bad that a bunch of the earth sluffed of the hill and the houses are part of the road dropped several feet. All the roofs or the affected houses fell off and many houses are now uninhabitable. Everyone was hurriedly grabbing all their stuff and putting it in the street. We went by to see if there was anything we could do to help and they told us that they were going to sleep right there in the street and that they need blankets and pillows and other essential things. I started making phone calls trying to see if the ward could do anything because it started to rain and all of thier stuff was getting soaked. Not having anything else to do Elder Escobar and I went home and gathered what things we had to spare to give to these distressed families. I was able to give 3 blankets, a pillow, 2 pillowcases, a couple shirts, 2 towels and Elder Escobar donated a few shirts, a blanket, a pillowcase, and several other clothing items to the cause.

As you can see from the pictures it is pretty bad. I´m not sure what the people who lost their homes are gonna do...

On Tuesday I found myself a few coconuts and decided I wanted to cut them open and drink the coconut milk and eat fresh off the tree coconut. TO get the coconuts I had to climba  wall and stand on top of it that was close to the tree and use a rake to knock the cocnuts from the tree. Coconuts are really hard to knock out of the tree with a rake.....Afterward we took them to a members house and I borrowed a machete and told him I didn´t want him to show me how to do it but that i wanted to learn to do it by myself. I figured i watched 3 or 4 seasons of ¨survivor¨ and had seen many contestants on that show go to town on cocunuts with a machete so I thought ¨heck, how hard can it be?¨ well I eventually did get one cut open and was able to drink the milk and it tasted pretty good. It was a lot of fun. As you can see from the pictures.

Well I hope you all have a happy thanksgiving and as you are all together eating turkey and pie. Eat a piece of pie for me and think of the little gringo on an island in the sea.

Elder Robinson

Email Letter dated Nov 14, 2012 "BBQ"

 
November 14, 2012

Dear Family,
While you´re getting dumped on by snow we had a BBQ as a zone activity today. hahaha. It was a little crazy because the zone leaders designated our chapel to be the place to do it and asked us to basically coordinate everything: the grill, volleyball net, gas, basketball...... Fortunately the members in our word are very nice and helped us. We found a grill and another guy from the ward helped us bring it to the chapel in his truck. It was a good activity. Afterwards we had to clean up and deliver the grill. The grill was still dirty because we didn´t have anything to clean it at the chapel. So we told the member we would come back in about an hour after cleaning up at the chapel to clean it for her. In traditional Dominican style she said ¨no don´t worry about it I´ll clean it¨ I told her no ad that we would come clean it at her house. It may be dominican culture to clean the dirtied grill borrowed by the missionaries but that is not how I was raised and that is not my culture. If you are nice enough to let me borrow something I will return it in the same condition in which it was originally borrowed, if not, in better condition. Walking back from her house it rained a ton and we got wet. I was wearing my new red alaska shirt (thanks mom). and because it got so wet and I have yet to wash the shirt it turned my garment pink.....

We´ve been working more with members. President Hinckley once said that missionary work to most people means tratcting and handing out pamphlets but those who are familiar with the work know there is a better way: work with the members. For the last little while I´ve felt that we have just been tracting and handing out pamphlets and Pres. Hinckley is right it is not a very effective way to work or at least not nearly as effective as working with the members. So we are trying to be better at that and are visiting members and looking for opportunities to serve. AS we contact we say: we´re missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints and we are passing by this area looking for opportunities to serve. Do you have anyway we can serve you? sweep? wash dishes? clean the car? mop?.......very few actually take us up on the offer but we are trying new methods of doing everything.

Chana and the rest of the young men and young women from the ward went to the temple last weekend and it was an amazing experience on all accounts. What a special experience so soon after being baptized. Dionis also went for the first time and he is blessing the sacrament on Sundays.

We honestly don´t have many investigators and we have even fewer progressing i.e. 0. and for that reason we are trying to change the way we do things.

Elder Robinson