Email letter dated November 7, 2012 "A package and an election"

 November 7, 2012

Dear Family,

I got a package on monday!!!!!!!! and what a silly package it was. As you can see from the pictures elder escobar and I had a good time with the clown costumes. 

So obama won huh? that is unfortunate. I didn´t really follow politics before the mission and certainly haven´t followed them since but from what I have heard people say he has not done a lot of good while he´s been in office. And from Mom´s email it sounds like what I´ve heard is right. It´s unfortunate. I really had high hopes for our friend Mit. I learned that Obama won from a Ruta driver this morning on the way to the grocery store....

On the up side things are going well here. We are contacting more than I have ever contacted in my life. And we have found some people that give us high hopes. We had a baptism as you can see from the pics. A priest from the ward, Esaul, baptized Chana (her real name is rosangela). He had to dunk her like 5 times because she would try to dunk herself before he was ready to dunk her soshe would kinda flop like a fish. haha. But all in alll it went well and all is well. She is going to the temple this Friday with all the young men and young women from the ward. 

thanks for all the candy and for the shirt I love it. In fact I wore it for a little while today. It sounds like the cruise was amazing! I want to go on a cruise and ride a zipline and eat lots of food and see live music and whales and museums....someday I think I´ll go on a cruise.

for Christmas I want a yo-yo. A nice one with a brain that will sleep for a long time. A couple extra yo-yo strings would be nice too. 

Did we draw names for Christmas? who did I get?

well I´ve run out of things to say.....

Elder Robinson

P.S. 3 new star wars movies????!!!!! caution is correct. they could potentially ruin a good thing.

Email letter dated October 31, 2012 "Working Hard"

 October 31, 2012

Dear Family,

This week we have contacted more and have had several good productive and successful lessons. As a mission we are working harder to have all of the lessons that we teach be productive and focusing less on the number of lessons and more on the efficiency of those lessons. So we are working to have ´appropriate members´ in every lesson we teach which means if we teach a family we take a memeber that is married and has a family and not one of the young men because they can´t relate as well and are only there because the missionaries brought them but with an appropriate member they will become friends and help them and continue to help and be friends and visit them after baptism. So that´s where we are. 

Elder Escobar is a good companion and a good missionary. We get along better than elder Yépez and I did which is good becuase that was a tense transfer....He is fromthe capital of Honduras. He is 19. He has the same amount of time as I do in the mission in fact we´ll be leaving the mission together in 2014. He helps me with my spanish and I am helping him to learn English which is proving to be difficult because he doesn´t know any English. But with a little patience and a lot of repetition and practice he is gonna learn some English!

I don´t think they really celebrate Halloween here.....there doen´t appear to be much halloween stuff in stores, mostly just Christmas stuff. We shall see as the day progresses and hallows eve falls to see if anything happens.

I got a hair cut today. It needed to happen, it was too long. I´m back to military style at least until it grows out a little more....

I need to work on budgeting a little better. I´ve been basically living off of crackers and oatmeal for the past little while because I spent too much money when we went to the city for P-day Santiago.....I budgteted so well the last money period and followed it up by not budgeting at all......gotta work on that. I know I have my personal account if I need it but I also know that that account is not bottomless and represents a lot of hard work and saving I did before the mission and besides budgeting is a skill that I need to learn now not just to live comfortably in the mission but to manage my money in my life afterwards as well. 

I saw the pictures of the Robinson Halloween gang and you all look great! Taft just can´t seem to let that pumpkin grow. He cried as a baby when mom put it on him and now he wears it proudly. Noah is a classic ninja. That was a good year when Taft and I were ninjas. And Claire wins the costume contest with what´s-her-bucket from snow white! how did you do the thing on your forehead? is that marker or that cool indian temporary tattoo henna stuff?

We are teaching this woman named Dolores who is really good friends with one of the members here and the day we contacted her was kinda cool: all our appointments failed so we were walking around scouting out a house or two we hadn´t contacted yet and Elder Escobar asked me ¨have you ever contacted those apartments?¨ I told him know so we went. We contacted one of the apartments and had a brief lesson and as we were leaving out walked this member from one of the other apartments and upon seeing us motioned for us to come. So we went and she introduced us to her friend Dolores who apparently just before we showed up was telling Ramona (the member) how much she needed to find a church where she felt comfortable and felt it was right. And there we were right on time. On the Lord´s time. We talked to her a little and have had several lessons since and she is progressing. She came to church on Sunday and the lesson was on the Word of Wisdom which can be a touchy subject for brand new investigators but it went really well and she loved it! In the lesson we had yesterday with her she was telling how much she loves the Word of Wisdom and Doctrine and Covenants and that she hadn´t drank her coffee for 2 days. I think Dolores has been prepared over a period of time for the Gospel and I´m excited to see her progress and possibly see her accept it fully and be baptized.

The hurricane had no real affect on us, at least where I am. We got a break from the heat and the sun and hada lot of rain and wind but that´s all. Nikelle´s roommate´s missionary is serving in New Jersey and they are worried for him.... I heard all subway lines are shut down because of the floods and a crane in the docking yards in New York was blown over by the wind. Craziness.

Beef jerky, chocolate orange, flavored and chocolate tootsie rolls, lots and lots and lots of pretzel m and m´s. those are the things I want for Christmas. Also maybe a couple memory cards for my camera.....If I think of anything other than snacks and junk that I want or need I will let you know.

Workin hard and Havin fun

Elder Robinson

Email Letter dated October 24, 2012 "Halloween"

October 24, 2012

Dear Family,
I know it is after 6 but we were assigned to do this survey online and Elder Escobar is still doing it so I have a couple more minutes. This has been a good week with a lot of walking and knocking doors. We have found a lot of catholics and evengelicals and a few jehovahs witnesses and a seventh day adventist that really wanted to teach us a thing or two about the gospel and few people that want to listen to us.....

We have very few investigators right now and even fewer progressing. really just one- Chana and she is a shining star that is definitely getting baptized next month.

It seems that it is a world wide standard that Christmas stuff hits the shelves in stores at the beginning of October and the Christmas lights go up before halloween. I´m not complaining because I love it and hope that every house in the DR has Christmas lights and a Christmas tree. I haven´t heard any Christmas songs yet but I´m sure they are on their way. you are probably saying ´well missionaries don´t listen to the radio so of course he hasn´t heard Christmas music.´ But the people here find it necessary to listen to their music and the radio loud enough for the whole city to hear so we hear a lot of music all the time. 

They do appear to celebrate halloween here in what way I don´t know but they recognize the holiday and the day. I highly doubt little kiddies dress up and go house to house asking for candy seeing as how there are constantly people telling us how dangerous it is in the street, especially at night. don´t worry at no point in my mission have I felt in danger and the Dominicans are a generally paranoid and superstitious people. I assume they use Halloween as an excuse not to go to work and throw parties and like every where else in the world drink.....We shall see what halloween looks like in the DR in a week.

I hope everyone is okay and staying afloat with work and school. It sounds like everyone is extremely busy and working hard. hey Dad it´s exciting that you´ll be in Florida soon. you´ll be a lot closer to me! :)     hopefully the trade show goes well and you are still enjoying your new job and you are settling in. 

Taft, I´m super excited for you and all the things you are doing and will be doing in your life in the coming months. The mission is a big deal and i don´t think anyone is really truly ready but you can do a lot to prepare. Like you said, read the scriptures and study them with the mission in mind. you have a great advantage having grown up with the church as a integral part of your life and i am thankful for that every day as I teach and testify. Preach my gospel is the manual of the missionaries and being familiar with it will benefit you greatly. Keep up the hard work and know that I am praying for you and the rest of the family.

I´m still waiting for an explanation of what exactly dad´s new job is and what he is doing in the water park company....

Life is good and spanish is coming everyday.

Elder Robinson

Email letter dated October 17, 2012 "Contacting"

 October 17, 2012

Dear Family,

This last week has been full of contacting. We´ve had a couple days when all we´ve done is contact and it´s been good. We have met several people we are really hoping will read, pray and progress. I feel I have become more confident in contacting and in speaking the language. as far as the language is concerned, it really helps to look back to where I´ve been and see how much progress I have made in just 8 months. I still don´t understand a lot but I feel I can basically say what I need to say and understand nearly everything with a little help. 

I´ve done so well budgetting lately that I treated myself to chinese food today at lunch. kinda expensive but it was sooooo good. sesame chicken yum.

hey is the blog still going? I know everyone is crazy busy and there may or may not be time to keep it updated.....

so exciting about Devin and Andrew! can´t wait to see pictures.

We have one progressing investigator right now and she is 12. her sister is a recent convert of about 5 months. She always reads always prays nearly always comes to church, and has a testimony that is slowly growing. She has a baptismal date for the 10 of november! Her name is Chana, well I think that is a nickname, I´m not sure what her real name is......I think I´ve only heard it once....

I am happy although the work is slow gonig right now due to the fact that we have a lot of new people we just contacted and several people who have stopped progressing for various reasons....trying to figure out the best way to get people animated about coming to church and acting in general. 

I think this Christmas is going to be difficult, I have felt a little homesick as I´ve seen decorations and christmas stuff appearing in stores. This is my first one away from home, away from family, and away from snow......The best remedy for homesickness is work so I´m gong to work hard.

I read the miracle of forgiveness a little while ago and everyone in the world needs to read that book! I want to read Jesus the Christ too the only trouble is finding the time to squeeze that in with everything else I´m doing and studying.

My old companion Elder Jensen did indeed finish the mission and he lives in Rexburg and I gave him a package to deliver to Nikelle which has a memory card with nearly all the pictures from my mission on it so she will be making a trip to Utah to deliver that soon after the package is delivered by jeremy (elder Jensen it´s weird to refer to him by his first name).

The work goes forth like a stone cut out of a hill and will continue to do so until the coming of Christ.

Elder Robinson

cool stats- there are approximately 7,000,000,000 people in the world 55,000 of which are missionaries. thats 0.0000079% of the worlds population. we are very few in number and the opportunity to be a missionary is incredible and something that many people do not have the opportunity to do. Also in the history of the world there have been 1,400,000 missionaries in the history of the world. Cool stats.

Email letter dated October 10, 2012 "New Transfer"

October 10, 2012

Dear Family,

sorry I didnt write last week I really did try. the churches email site crashed and I tried for 45 minutes trying to make it work changing computers, using every web browser known to man, and ultimately waiting watching the spinning ball of death that bore no fruit....

But I am still alive and am doing well. The transfer has ended and tomorrow Elder Yepez, Jensen, Sweeney, kimball, Burr, and a hand full of others are going home as they have finished the work the Lord called them to do. My new companion is Elder Escobar, he is from Honduras and is actually Elder Yepez's kid (elder Yepez trained him). Im not sure what the deal is with these father son combos Im getting as companions- I had elder Ferreras then his dad Elder Jensen, I had Elder Yepez and now I have his kid as my comp Elder Escobar. Elder Escobar has the exact same amount of time in the mission as I do. he has one more transfer in the field because he was only in the mtc for 3 weeks and I was in the mtc for 9.

Conference was good. We had the opportunity to watch it all in english which I was very thankful for. I think I would have been able to understand it in spanish but its just not as easy to concentrate and definitely not as easy to take notes. So many good things this conference! Elder Holland was so powerful. I also loved the Elder from the 70 that talked about the plan of salvation and related his feelings about his little son who passed away due to an accident with a piece of chalk becoming lodged in his throat. He was very passionate and it was a very strong talk. We are so blessed to see and here the messages of the prophets of God.

the picture is of Me Elder Yepez and Dionis whom Elder Yepez baptized on September 29.

I have learned a lot from this last transfer and I hope I am able to improve everything I do as a missionary. I have learned the importance of winning the confidence and trust of investigators and members and it is something that I really need to work on. I dont think I am really a people person......

Its exciting to hear about all the good things you are all doing. So glad Nikelle could be there for conference. I figure if I cant be with  her the next best thing is her hanging out with my family.

Noah keep it up bud. So glad you found something you love.

Dad I am glad your trip went well and that you are having success at your new job.

Love to hear about the garden.

Claire and taft great job at Shakespeare! 

Mom thank you for everything.

We are going to continue working her in Las Antillas and build the kingdom of God on earth.

Elder Robinson

Email letter dated September 28, 2012 "Rody"

 September 26, 2012

Dear Family,

On Thursday i fasted to know if we should baptize Rody. i was very specific: I want to baptize him and he has the desire to be baptized but i will accept thy will for Him and for Me. These are our desires, please help me to know if they are correct.

After prayer and fasting I feel that it is not Rody´s time to be baptized as everything currently stands. President Douglas is really stressing Building the kingdom in the mission and I don´t feel that baptizing him at this time would be contributing to that cause. There are too many factors and too high a risk that he´ll just be another inactive member of the church. He has the great desire to be baptized and he can technically pass the baptismal interview but I cannot deny what I feel and it is that this is not the right thing to do right now. So for now he will not be baptized. i think we will try talking to his mom and see if we can´t help bring the spirit to soften her heart, if she were to be baptized with him and show real conviction and strength then I would feel a lot better. But as it stands now, it is not happening.

This morning for a zone activity we played baseball. Alright it was softball but still. And I gotta admit. I was so dang proud of myself! I didn´t strike out, not even once, I got on base almost every time I was up to bat, I played second base and didn´t totally womp! I haven´t played baseball since I was like 10 and turns out its kinda like riding a bike. you don´t forget. Man I was so stoked. I also got very sunburned. I thought about putting on sunscreen before leaving the house but decided not to. A decision i regret.....I wore my tilley hat but we played early in the morning so the sun was level with my face and my arms, calves, face and neck are very red....It was tons of fun but wearing tall socks and black slacks is just not quite as much fun when your calves are burned......

Conference is coming!!!!!!!

We are really trying hard to find new people to teach because a lot of the people we´ve been teaching are just not progressing, lost interest or have straight up told us not to come back....I have been praying and studying how to motivate these people and to reawaken them to the spirit they had when they first started sharing with the missionaries and started gaining testimonies.

i´m so glad everyone is getting my letters! i love mail it is so fun to receive mail. 

Brigham City temple done! How many temples is that in utah now? 12? 13? I kinda feel like a jerk when I say I´m from Utah and that the temple is within walking distance and that there are tons of temples there and I´ve visited like 6 of them....I am so blessed to come from such a place as that. i miss the temple. I went twice a week after I was endowed until I left for the mission. It´s been about 5 months since I´ve been to the temple and it´s likely I won´t see the Santo Domingo temple again until the return trips I make later in life....

Well we have an activity with Elder Cornish here in a little while and we gotta go do some other things. I love you all and am excited every Wednesday to hear from you. God is good and will provide for our needs. he does work miracles in our lives. He inspires us to know what to do and what to say. All we need to do is ask.

Elder Robinson

Email letter dated September 19, 2012 "Another Week"

September 19, 2012
 

Dear Family,

Elder Yépez and I are working hard. We have 2 baptisms scheduled for the 29 so that is really good. We have several investigators that are falling a little bit: not coming to church, not reading......It´s difficult to see this happen. It´s also hard to have investigators that all they need to do is get married and then they can get baptized. It´s quite frustrating.

I read the miracle of forgiveness. It truly is a miracle.

We had stake conference on Saturday and Sunday and it was good. I didn´t understand much of what was said but I feel it was good. The days go by quickly when you teach a lot. 

Recently it has been unbearably hot in the mornings and then has dumped rain in the afternoons. I am so thankful for the rain.

I don´t have a lot to say today..........

I would send a picture but for whatever reason this computer doesn´t like me.

I´m glad to hear everyone is doing well and that little savanna is healthy happy and growing. I´m so stinking happy Dad´s job is something he enjoys. FINALLY! 

Noah way to go on the bike ride and the lacrosse game. Have your lacrosse skills improved? are you practicing? how´s junior high?

On Monday I got a letter from Claire, Katie, Bishop Berry, and 2 from Nikelle. I feel so loved and cared for by my family.

One of the baptisms we have scheduled is Rody, he is 12 and can´t really read and kinda thinks and acts like he´s 8. I feel unsure if we should baptize him mostly because he has very little support on the homefront. His mom hasn´t shown much interest in the church at all and the guy that lives in his house (I don´t think it´s his dad or step dad) is some leader of a church I´ve never even heard of. He has a testimony and he has the desire to be baptized but if we baptize him are we setting him up to fail and sentencing ourselves and him to condemnation? I found myself asking the question Do I see him on a mission in 7 years? and I honestly don´t know how to answer the question....I have prayed and I need to pray a lot more to know what to do. I will probably fast as well. I need help on this one.

The work goes on and so does the heat.

Elder Robinson

Email letter dated Sept. 12, 2012 "Sorry it's a short one"

  Dear Family,

This week has been good. Today is P-day santiago so time is even shorter than usual p-days. So much to do! We went to the monument in Santiago and to Price Smart (the mecca of all missionaries when they get the chance to go to Santiago, I think it is owned by wal mart and it{s basically a costco). We went to the new mission office which is awesome we hung around the office for a little while because they have air conditioning and the office elders are cool.

We have a lot of investigators that have investigated the church for a long time and it is coming to the point where they either need to act and do all that is necessary to join with Gods church or we will have to stop going by to teach them. Leaving investigators is always a painful process because I want them to accept the gospel so bad and not jsut be hearers of the word but doers. There are way too many people in the world that like to just sit and listen to the word of God but when it comes to acting it seems impossible for them. Praying hard to know what to do.

Everyone needs to read the miracle of forgiveness. I am reading it right now and it is an amazing book that helps one self analyze and see the areas they need to change in a very loving comprehensive way. 

Spanish is still hard but I am working on it every day (not like i have much of a choice)

Is everything crazy back home? shool, work, new baby, just back from the cruise......craziness.

Well like i said its a short one and for that i am sorry. I am sending letters I promise!

Elder Robinson

Email letter dated September 5, 2012 "Baby!"

September 5, 2012

holy smokes I´m an uncle. and Katies a mom and Gabes a dad and Mom you and dad Are grandparents!!!!!!!!! holy smokes!!!!!!!!

man do I feel silly now for the letter I sat down and wrote today to Katie. haha I´ll send it anyways. you can read it to savanna. What a great name by the way. Good choice! Wow katie you did it! you now have an angel sent straight from the presence of God the Father in your arms and in your home. how cool is that?! 4 and a half weeks early though. she was ready to get out of there huh? haha. i can´t tell you how happy I am. I look forward to meeting this little person in about a year and a half. Our family is growing. Thanks for the pictures mom Katie and Gabe, you done good. She is beautiful! I love new born babies, so small and cute and gentle. 

here things are rainy. i was unaware a hurricane passed through here. I knew that it is hurricane season right now and that it rained a bunch when it supposedly came through but where i am nothing really happened. 

These last couple months have been nuts: school started, alaskan cruise, new baby, new job! All amazing miracles from our dear Heavenly Father. 

It´s raining pretty hard right now, I have a feeling we´re going to get wet.......

Some things about Las Antillas that I´ve not yet told you: The house we have is really nice and is on the second floor which helps for air circulation and it´s not quite as hot, the house has a more open kitchen than the house in San Francisco which is nice and you sweat quite as much, it has 2 bathrooms which is nice because we each have our own space. The only real problem is that the water pressure stinks so showering out of a bucket has become a daily practice but you have to be sure to fill your bucket up every morning after you shower because if you forget you won´t have any water to shower that night if you want to because we usually don´t have water at night. We almost always have power, occasionally, like today, the power will go out for maybe an hour and then will come back. There have been some real power outages that we´ve needed to have the local power jimmy rigger hook us up with some power for the night because it´s almost impossible to sleep in this country without a fan because it is so dang hot!

Spanish is hard, life is good, the Gospel is true.

Elder Robinson

Email letter dated August 29, 2012 "Transfer 4"

August 29, 2012

Dear Family,

This is my fourth transfer in the mission field and i feel great! Today was transfers and Elder Jensen has returned to puerto plata to finish his mission and my new companion is Elder Yepez who is also finishing his mission this transfer which is crazy to think about that I know people that are finishing the mission and going home. Elder Yepez is Dominican and doesn´t know english. He knows a few words to help me out when I´m really lost but not a lot. So I am counting on learning a lot of spanish this transfer. We´ve only been together for about 7 hours and I think I´ve said the word ¨what¨ about a thousand times. I´m so slow at understanding I almost need everything to be said twice......

Last Saturday Franklin was Baptized in San Francisco, Elder Johnson Baptized him. I´m so happy to hear about all the progress that is continuing to happen there and the people that I taught are getting baptized!!!!! They are having another baptism there this Saturday that is a girl that I started teaching with Elder Johnson. She is the cousin or neice of Sis. Luna (the mom of enmanuel Luna, my first baptism). 

Things are good. 

Because Elder Yepez is finishing here in Las Antillas I will be here for this transfer and at least one more in this area. I am scared of the idea that I might train a new missionary here in about 3 months.......It´s totally possible. Elder Relf, my companion in the mtc here in the D.R. is training right now and we just barely completed 6 months in the mission. I don´t feel like I´m ready to train a new missionary because I still don´t know spanish very well at all and I need to have more experience and knowldege. 

Mom thank you for Justice´s email address I really hope that he emails me back. 

We have several investigators that are progressing and doing well. I feel like this is the area of couples that need to get married civily to get baptized. We have 3 couples that are working on getting married so they can be baptized. We already had one success with Rosa and her husband and now we´re hoping for Cristino and his wife, Jonathan and Yanelkis, and Alexandra and Papito.

That´s the latest update.....I can´t really think of anything else to say......

So I´ll end it like this

I Love You

Elder Robinson