2/27/2012

I've really messed up my week count, for the last 2 weeks and I'm sorry. In my planner, today is the first day of week 8, so I keep thinking that it is week 8, but really I'm reporting on week 7 so yeah haha, my bad!

Anyway, this week has been a fun week. We took an entire day to go to visit some former investigators and some potential investigators in Murpheysboro, which we had about 35 names and addresses to visit. This consisted of about 7 hours of walking, 50% of the names found/moved, and 6 future appointments, which was an extremely successful outcome! We cut our Former investigators from Murpheysboro in half, which is fantastic! One thing I noticed about Murphey is that for the most part, it is the ONLY city in Southern Illinois that has any logic as to how it's streets are layed out. It's not like Utah, where the house numbers make sense based on the block distance and the grid system, but because their main North and South streets are called 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc, you can tell which block numbers are where going East and West, and if you count the cross streets leading North and South, you can figure out approximately where the house numbers are North and South. Carbondale, and pretty much every other city here has just street names, and you never know where each block number starts. It's extremely confusing, but I've pretty much become a master navigator, and could pretty much get you anywhere in any of these towns, without a GPS I might add ;)

Anyway, we currently are teaching a member who was a Less-Active member for an extremely long time till just recently. He has asked for us to teach him the missionary lessons again, because he knows God has been reaching out to him, especially lately. He told us about a recent miracle that happened to him, that has really made him understand why he needs the Gospel and why it is so important to do the things we are commanded. He has had a house up on the market for about 8 years, and has really struggled to sell it, that entire time. This has been a huge stress to him, and has left him feeling like he has no option as far as what he is going to do about the house. For the first time in a very long time, just in the last couple weeks, he payed his tithing. At the end of that week, he received a bid for his house and is currently in the process of finalizing the sell now. Call it coincidence if you want, but I know that this was his miracle to understand how important God's commandments are, and that it is a privilege to do the things we are asked by our Father in Heaven, and he will bless us for it. Anyway, I thought it was cool. The lesson we taught was amazing, and we committed him to read and pray every day to receive that reconfirmation of how true this Gospel is.

We also taught Shenika this week. One of the things that Elder Bassett and I feel needed to happen with Shenika, is that someone her age, who she can relate to, needs to join us in teaching. The Torgesson family was perfect!!! Both Brother and Sister Torgesson are return Missionaries. Brother Torgesson went to Italy(actually there are three or four people in the ward who served in Italy), and Sister Torgesson served in Argentina, and since they are both young, starting a new family, with their cute 1 year old daughter, we felt they were the perfect family to join us. We taught Shenika the Gospel, which we originally planned to teach the first 3 principles in the lesson as we normally would, and the rest out of 2 Nephi 31. As we got into the lesson, the spirit prompted several instances of commitments for Shenika, which lead down a different path in the lesson. One of the commitments we gave was praying twice every day, personally, and once with her daughter Jayda, using the pattern that is in the pamphlets we gave her; And in each one of these prayers, we invited her to always ask at least one question about the truthfulness of what she is learning, of what she is reading, or whatever else she wants to know, because this is the only path that can be taken to really find the real truth and to know what path God has prepared for us. She accepted, as well as accepting a baptism date for next month! After, she said the closing prayer, where she did ask that she know if the things we taught are true. It was great! The spirit was extremely strong and powerful, and Brother and Sister Torgesson were absolutely amazing! Like, I have never had members teach principles as well as they had...it was amazing!

Anyway, that was our week in a nutshell! I love all of you! :) I hope you are all doing well! Keep writing me, because I love hearing from all of you who read this! I really do!

Anyway, until next week :)
Elder Tyler Robinson

 

The booth we set up last Thursday. I really like the Book of Mormon display that we were able to do, and honestly, I think it looks pretty good :) Reminds me of the Visitor Center at the Salt Lake City Temple, where they have their Book of Mormon displays, with all the different languages that it has been translated in.

My bedside...I don't think that it would surprise anyone :)

Picture of our area...It's hard to get one that really demonstrates how big it is, but the biggest town(Carbondale) is that condensed piece in the center right of the map. All the yellow is what we cover in our area.

Anyway, sorry that there is nothing exciting. As I keep saying, Carbondale does not have anything real exciting within it's city bounds, and going outside the city is harder to do on P-Days, because we are trying to get everything prepared for the week(cleaning, shopping, laundry, etc), plus taking the time to write home, which I have really held up as something very important to do every week, leaves not much time to do anything else. We are going to go take some pictures today, and we also discussed with President Bartholomew(Ward mission leader) about going hiking somewhere next week. Anyway, more pictures to come :)

2/21/2012

Picture of our District.
L to R: Elder Bassett, Elder Stewart, Elder Melton, Elder Rudd, Elder Me(Robinson), Elder Valois(Val-wah).
Elder Stewart is being transferred tomorrow to Champagne to be the DL in one of the districts up there, so we made sure we got pictures with everyone :)

Our extremely small stove, with our extremely large frying pan... Yep, this is what I cook my pancakes and eggs on :)

Kevin on his Baptism Day!! That grin of his lasted that entire weekend. You should have seen how big it was doing the ceremony!!! :D

Kevin & Laura, his girlfriend from Washington. She has been helping him as we've taught him the Gospel this last month. She flew out to see his baptism, which is way awesome!!

Alright, so today is February 21st which means I'm officially just as green as I was yesterday(but at the same time, only 22 months to turn brown and moldy hehe). Anyway, a lot of amazing things happened this week!

First and foremost, I drove for the first time in 2 months!!! :) Feels weird being behind a car wheel again, especially when it clearly isn't my car and I had to go through that awkward phase of figuring out how touchy all the pedals are and so forth. But it I drove for an entire day, while Elder Bassett was on exchanges in Cape(like I was 2 weeks ago).

Anyway, that's actually not the great news...I just wanted to brag real quick(so much for being humble :S hehe). Actually, the greatest thing that happened this week was on Saturday, when Kevin Michael Klien entered the waters of baptism, took Christ's name upon him, and promised to keep His commandments as He has given them. Through that sanctifying experience, he now is worthy and clean enough to receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday that will continue to be able to sanctify and guide him for the entirety of his life. I have not seen Kevin smile as big as he did this day. He was glowing!!!

Looking back on the entire timeline of Kevin's conversion, it does not surprise me that he would be smiling as big as his was. What a miracle that has taken place in his life! He's quit smoking, a habit he created long, long ago. He reads and truly studies the scriptures, something he has never in his life had the desire to do before this...And when he can't read, he turns the scriptures on, on his headphones, and listens to them! He prays beautiful, and very sincere prayers; something he scoffed at, throughout his entire life. He has changed so much, in just one month, that I can truly say that he is a new person! Helping Kevin has been absolutely amazing, and I am honored to have been the servant of God, that had the opportunity to be just a piece of that miraculous change!

One last amazing thing that has happened(before I run out of time...trust me, I can go on forever about this week...I'ts been remarkable). Doug Phillips, a Less-Active that the missionaries have been working with for a couple years now, has officially been reactivated. Tuesday(The day I was driving), I received a call from him asking to receive a blessing. We met at the church, and he told me a little bit of his situation that he was going through, which has been completely overwhelming him lately. I then bestowed the blessing upon him, and knelt down with him and just told him how proud I was of his willingness to start coming to church again, and his willingness to meet with us again. He then told me, with tears in his eyes how much he wants the church back in his life, and how he wants to feel the spirit again, as strongly as he remembers. After we opened up a little bit about his current situation and his desires to get back to church, I extended a commitment that surprised me. I committed him to get his Temple Recommend. Do everything in his power to get that recommend. If he does this, Elder Bassett and I will go with him to the temple with him. He agreed, but after we parted ways, he surprised me on how fast and how willing he is to follow through with this commitment. He asked President Bartholowmew if he can be enrolled in the Temple Prep class, and he has a meeting with the bishop to find out what he needs to do to get that temple recommend. He is so amazing!! Plus he always calls us saying "Hey Jesus people" and it makes me laugh :)

I love you all, Plus I wrote everyone back that has written me!!! Like 16 pages of letters yesterday :)
Anyway, till next week,Elder Robinson

second email 2/13/2012

So, I have to start off apologizing. I did not take any pictures from Zone P-Day, because it wasn't anything like I expected. Honestly we weren't even in a situation where we could have, nor would have wanted to, take pictures. Anyway, more on that in the actual letter.

Instead, we took pictures of this Japanese Garden at the library.

You are probably wondering where the garden actually is in these pictures, huh? Yeah, we are too! Literally these stone pieces(in which there are only 2) represent what the library calls a Japanese Garden. This was honestly the most exciting thing we could find to take pictures of before we emailed haha. I will try to do better at taking pictures, because I realize it is important to everyone at home to actually see how we are doing, and I've really been bad at it, but it is only because we are fully focused on the work.

Anyway, there will be exciting pictures next week :D so look forward to that!!

Elder Tyler Robinson at the Japanese Garden

Elder Bassett

Elder Robinson & Elder Bassett

Elder Robinson

2/13/2012

Alright, rounding up the last bit of the transfer(Oh my goodness, I can't believe I've already almost finished with a whole transfer!).

 

It's been an amazing week, and I have a ton I want to share with all the world!! :)

 

The first thing I want to say is that I am getting letters!! A lot of them!! :) And I'm so happy and I love you all so much for being so willing to write me! On that note, I do only have one day to write back, and I'm lucky if it is any longer then an hour usually, so I am trying to write everyone, and I just want you all to know that I'm not ignoring you if you don't hear from me right away...I'm trying my best to make sure everyone does get a letter back...because you are all so very important to me; But I can only do that one letter at a time. Plus, because of Zone P-Day last week, I did not get to send any letters, so I have a huge back log to catch up on. Keep writing me; Just don't worry too much if it is taking some time to write back...because I will write you back!

 

Anyway, I guess the news you all are patiently waiting to hear is about Kevin, right? :) He is sooooo amazing!! He's reached a week and almost a half without smoking!! And he's said, "It's so weird...It's like super easy this time. It's never been this easy before!" His baptism is this Saturday, at 11, which is almost exactly 2 weeks from his last cigerette. He has agreed and has been living ALL the commandments since we have taught them to him. He's been reading the scriptures, coming to church, getting more involved and excited about our lessons...He is a rock star! His faith is just growing rapidly, and it really has been an amazing thing to watch him grow and progress!! I'm so excited for him, and I'm very excited that he is excited for himself, and is doing something that is truely so hard to do, to show the Lord how much he is willing to change and follow the Gospel. It's so cool!

 

Zone P-Day was pretty fun...We went to Cape and played football for like 4 hours...It was nuts but I loved it! I've suffered the pains of playing so long through out the entire week(I've felt like a cripple every morning since), but it really was a lot of fun and I got a chance to meet everyone in the zone, which is way cool.

 

I don't know what happened, but I'm really really short on time, so I appologize. I wanted to share much more. I just wanted to say really quick, I have learned something amazing about being called to teach over a stewardship. As I've worked with specific investigators, I've prayed for guidence on what they need, and what me and Elder Bassett can do to help them fufill their needs. This idea of having a stewardship, is very similar to a Father having stewardship for his wife and children, as a patriarch of his home. He can pray to his Father in Heaven for guidence on things he can do to help his children in very specific problems, and he can receive revalation for them, where these problems can be resolved. This is also something that we have the ability and opportunity to do for all the people who live in Carbondale, in a very individual way. I have never had the opportunity experience revalation for anyone but myself, but I have received God's direction and understanding for very specific people in my stewardship that need His help. I can't explain how amazing this is, or how real this is, but I can tell you...This is God's work, and I am only an instrument. It is more and more of a miracle as I engrain myself in the work, more and more. I am blessed to be here. I am blessed to be able to tell everyone at home of the miracles that are happening here. I know this church is absolutely true, and it is for everyone and can help everyone. It is something I see everyday...it's real and I'm honored to have this opportunity.

 

Anyway, I love you all! I hope you are doing well! Keep me up to date with everything(Besides that Whitney Housten died...I've already heard it like 100 times around here :D)

 

Elder Tyler Robinson

 

Alright, I have a ton to tell and little time to tell it, so here we go!

Very, Very first thing is that while we were teaching Kevin, we found out he has a smoking addiction. This is probably the most amazing lesson we have had with Kevin! He expressed that he has never gone without smoking more then 2 days in a row, but he has wanted to quit for a very long time, and really has the desire to stop. We told him about a couple things that we both knew off the top of our heads, as far as getting rid of a difficult addiction, like smoking, and committed him to start what is called the "Stop Smoking Workshop" on Saturday, when we actually had a copy with us that we could help him understand, so that he can start that process. He said that he would love that, and then we said told him that he was to bring all his smoking supplies, all his lighters, cigarettes, and anything else he has that would trigger his addiction. Once again he agreed.

The spirit them prompted me, and I gave an extremely sincere priesthood promise about how this is going to be his miracle. For the rest of his entire life, he will look at this moment of triumph where he faithfully abolished himself of a habit that has locked him down for so long and truelove will be able to witness to the world that the Gospel of Jesus Christ does save lives...It loosens the bonds of all inequity and is made for all men, women, and children so that they can be free at that last day. The only key to unlocking those bonds is having full faith, without doubt, that he can quit smoking in 2 weeks. I promised him that it is possible, and that it will be hard, but if his faith outweighs his desire to smoke, he will be smoke free in 2 weeks, and never again will he look back at the ball and chain that the addiction acted as. After I delivered that promise, he said "I know you're right. I will be able to do it." It's amazing how faithful Kevin is! I know, without an ounce of doubt that he will do this, as long as he continues to show his faith unceasingly! I'm so excited for him.

We did move his date back 1 week. He is now planning to be baptized February 18th, and Laura(his friend who has been helping him) is planning to come down from Washington to be there! We are so excited for him, and he is also very clearly excited.

On Saturday, we had been trying to get a hold of the Stop Smoking Workshop, because for some reason we didn't have any in our apartment. We contacted Cape, and Steelville for help, but after trying to get a hold of it 3 days in a row, we were pretty much out of luck. As far as we were concerned, we were going to have to tell Kevin that we won't be able to start him on the program until probably Tuesday; and we were pretty upset about it too. But only according to God's miracles and grace, we showed up at the church, and the member we invited(a recent RM), had in his hand 2 Stop-Smoking Workshops! Something he said he has never used throughout his entire mission, and he had 2 copies with him just for Kevin! Oh, it is so clear to us, that God wants to help Kevin in every way he can, and it is super clear that this workshop will do just that! We taught him the workshop, which shows how he can help his body override those natural instincts that are created by the nicotine, as well as how to increase his faith in quitting. We then took him outside and had him crush his cigarettes and chuck them and his lighters in the dumpster! All he said was "That's pretty metal!" Haha! He's soo funny! We love teaching him and we are so proud of him.

Sunday, he came to church, so proud that he was smoke free still and not yet really having any bad symptoms. I told him to not let his guard down, but to remember how proud we are of him and that we know he can continue to walk in that path that God would have him walk. He's so prepared to do this, and I am so proud!

Anyway, I'm out of time. I plan on sharing more next week...With more pictures of our Zone P-Day, which we are having today!

Anyway, I love you all! Enjoy the pictures of our tiny apartment :D

Elder Robinson