August 28, 2013 "Transfers..."

August 28, 2013

Dear Family,

First off, sorry for not writing last week. We had a special meeting with President Anderson (caribbean area president) and his wife on Wednesday so we have to use a different day as p day. The meeting with President Anderson was amazing and we were able to be there with 3 zones here in Santiago and we learned a lot.

He shared a story of when he was a mission president in Mexico. at taht time he and his wife still had 3 little kids and they hired a mexican lady to come to the house and teach their kids spanish. sister Anderson, being a sneaky mission president´s wife and a good missionary, asked Irma to use the book of mormon to teach her children spanish. she started using the book of mormon and as the kids learned and read ans asked questions she began to have questions of her own. one day she went to sis Anderson and asked her ¨what is this book?¨ sis anderson explained a little about the book of mormon and told her there were a few young elders that could help her learn more. She loved talking with the missionaries and began attending church and loved everything about the gospel. it came to the time when the missionaries felt she was ready to be baptized and they invited her to be baptized several times and she kept saying she wasn´t ready and then one day she asked the missionaries not to come back.....Irma was still teaching the kids spanish and had regular contact with Pres. Anderson and the elders asked him to talk to her to try and find out what happened. she said that she felt pressured by the missionaries and didn´t want to be pressured. Pres. Anderson told her. ¨the missionaries aren´t tryhing to pressure you. they are just inviting you to do what God has commanded and expects of us. Now, if the missionaries invite you to do something you can say no. In fact you can even say no to me if I invite you to do something, but if God invites you to do something you cannot and you should not say no.¨ these words really hit home and she was baptized shortly after.

This story really helped me remember that I am a representative of Jesus Christ and I need to work hard to help investigators and members to know and feel that it is really Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ that are inviting them to study the book of mormon, pray, attend church, have family home evening, family prayer, magnify callings.....it was very powerful for me.

today is transfers and I am with yet another companion...I really wanted to stay with Elder Alvarado one more transfer but it looks like the Lord has other plans for me. My new comp is Elder Garcia from Honduras. He was in my district about 5 months ago when I was in La Vega. first impresssion is good and I think we´ll be just fine. I´m now district leader. I´ve always kind of dreaded the thought of having a leadership position in the mission because there are so many things that we have to do just as regular missionaries and when you stack responsibility for other missionaries and their areas on top of that it seems stressful but I feel good and I feel up to the challenge and I know that God will qualify me for this calling.

Life goes on. I love the mission and it freaks me out that I´m in the last quarter. I have become so used to being a missionary and this lifestyle that it scares me to think about going back home and haveing such an abrupt change. I love you all but it is a weird feeling.

Elder Hunter Allen Robinson