Sunday, March 16, 2014

January 15, 2014 'Zone Leader Madness'

January 15, 2014

Dear Family,

Since it has been so long since I've written a legitimate email I figure I own one to you all. It has been crazy the last month with baseball games, christmas, new year's, transfers, new area, new comp, new responsibilities and generally a crazy life.
Being Zone leader is not easy. not only do you have to worry about your own area, investigators, and members; you have to worry about 8 other missionaries and their respective areas, investigators, members, challenges and needs. It has been pretty exciting. On Monday we went to Dajabon to participate in their district meeting but their district leader didn't get to the chapel until noon because he was trying to put a mormon.org video on a dvd to use it in the meeting...his companion has kleptomania which means that he cannot resist the urge to steal things and he doesn't even care if someone sees him. it's a sad condition. due to this he has had difficulties with companions, members, investigators, and others. He has stolen many things including a camera from a camera store...he recently stole something from a member and the member called Pres. Douglas so they had to take him out of the area. they took him out on monday and the district leader stayed with a member as a mini missionary. Yesterday the assistants came to dajabon and gave him his new companion-elder arias. this morning the district leader called the other elders that are in dajabon and asked them to go to his house. when they arrived they saw that he had all his suitcases packed and he claimed to have talked with Pres. Douglas to go home. while they were there he passed out and they took him to the hospital. the first diagnosis was that he had taken some pills to try and kill himself. this diagnosis has since been rejected. He is just really sick. the last thing we heard was that he is unconscious and they were trying to stabilize him. Pres. Douglas is currenlty in Dajabon and we hope to get more information soon. things are crazy!!! I hope he gets better and we are able to figure all this out.

I thought that it would be really hard to be in a new area with a new comp for my last transfer and in some ways it has been but it is all getting way better. I love my new comp and we have some golden investigators: Crisleidy and Camilla's uncle and aunt are members and we started teaching them last week. we introduced the restoration and gave them a pamphlet to read and when we came back for the follow up appointment they had both bought notebooks to wrtie notes in as they read, studied, and learned. they wrote questions and basically taught us the whole lesson on the restoration. All we did was back up what they said with scriptures and testimony. it has been so long since I've had an investigator that actually learns for themself. It was a breath of fresh air and we are so pumped to teach them. they came to church on sunday and when we went back to talk to them on monday they had basically memorized the introduction to the book of mormon. Camilla prayed about it and was able to receive an answer through "profound silence and peace." crisleidy forgot to pray but committed to. we invited them to be baptized and camilla said yes and Crisleidy said she would have to think about it. We invited them to continue to pray and as they do so they will have the desire to be baptized. man it is so cool to teach people like that. they are young teenagers but i know that they will be baptized.

We are also teaching Gladys and Jenifer. Jenifer almost always comes to church and last sunday she told us that she wanted us to visit her and her mom. her mom has come to church before and has talked with missionaries as well. We invited them to come to church and they came! there were 130 people in church on sunday!!!

my testimony has grown so much as I have been a missionary and have worked hard to do what i know the Lord expects of me. I have gained a strong testimony of tithing which is a little strange seeing as how I don't pay tithing as a missionary, but I've seen many great examples and have had incredible experiences with the dominican people. I have always paid fast offerings and I know that if he pay fast offereings, and a generous one at that, and tithing we will always have enough for ourselves and our families.

I know that My redeemer lives and that he loves me. I have had profound and powerful experiences everyday of my mission. sometimes it just takes time to step back and ponder to recognize the Lord's hand in our lives.

I'm curious, how has my missionary service blessed each of you, other than being a good example. be specific.

count your many blessings

Elder Hunter A. Robinson

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