5/29/2012

Thanks to Mike and the Chicken Pot Pie filling he sent me, I made this wonderful pie! It was awesome!

Me, Jaida, and Elder Elkington. Jaida is the one who posed us :)

Jaida posing :)

Jaida and Shenika

Another week, another challenge!! :) Just kidding. It was actually an amazing week! 

Of course, Memorial Day is the reason we are emailing today, instead of Monday like normal. Since everything public was closed, we have to revise our schedule to make room to email later in the week.

I guess I will start off with the big news first. We have 3 more baptismal dates!!! The Tomas family has agreed to work towards knowing that the teachings we have shared with them, are true, by the end of June. We have their date set for the 30th of June. We had a really good lesson on Thursday with them, where we brought Sister Herrera, who translated very well(like as we were talking). They understood very well and said if we find it to be true, why wouldn't we get baptized...if it's God's church, that's where we want to be. It was very cool!!

We also met with Emily on Friday. We moved her Baptism date to June 16th, because Bryan, the one who referred her, won't be in town on the 9th. She is totally ready for it though. She is on vacation this week, and we've been texting her scriptures, and she absolutely loves it. She writes back with a summary of her take on the scripture, and it's really cool to see her pick up on the understanding of each one. While we were in the lesson, we asked "Why do you think Baptism requires the proper authority?" in which she responded, "Because this is a restored Church, which means God brought this Church back. Things are supposed to be done God's way, and that means that you must be baptized the right way, which is by someone he has said is allowed to baptize." She is amazing! She just understands everything so well, and you can tell that she is changing, according to the things she learns. It's really cool.

Another awesome experience we had was during, what we call "Spirit Tracting," where you basically let God direct you where to go. Elder Elkington and I were walking down Wall St. headed north, when he randomly said "Lets go down this street." 

We just walked down it, where we came by a bridge. He said "What's past this bridge?"

I said that I've never been on it, so I don't know, so we walked across it, where we came up to a street. Elder Elkington said, "Let's tract this one"

The fourth house we knocked on, a young lady with a 3 year old answered the door. She immediately said, "I'm sorry, I don't speak English"

It turned out that I had packed some Spanish "Gospel of Jesus Christ" pamphlets earlier that day, and so I pulled it out and handed it to her. Her eyes lit up like fireworks, and she got extremely excited and let us in. She began to explain her life story, how she was born right in the middle of the Drug Wars in Mexico(Her whole family was dealers and users), and that she spent her early teenage life trying to escape the situation, which at age 12 she fled to Tijuana, Mexico and looked for someone who would take her to the United States. She did some very bad things to basically get her way, out of Mexico, but she finally came into America, where she went from Arizona, to Tennessee, to Kentucky. By this time she was homeless in America, and felt like all her efforts had failed her. She was in the park, crying because she knew she had no resources to live in America anymore, when two Missionaries(one English, and one Spanish), sat by her and asked her if they can help her. She was reluctant, but eventually eased up and bore out her situation to them. They immediately called a member and got her a place to stay, and started helping her get back on her feet. She began to take the lessons and going to church, and for the first time had friends and a real family to trust with her ward and the missionaries. Her whole life, she struggled to find God, and she asked for help from Him many times, but she felt He wasn't answering. These missionaries changed her entire life! She now has a wonderful husband, a beautiful young boy with Autism, and a house to live in...free of the evils that she was raised in. She told us that Missionaries were her angels and that she loved them. We are going to see her again on Wednesday, but it is amazing to see that God knew her, and knew that she needed us, which is why we were guided to her house. If I didn't have the pamphlet, she may not have even talked to us, so preparing early definitely put us in a position where we could deliver God's help to her. She is amazing and we look forward to teaching her.

Shenika leaves this week :( it makes me sad, but I know that she will do well in Chicago. We had dinner with her yesterday(thanks to Mike for sending me the Chicken Pot Pie filling...it was awesome). We had a lot of fun with them(see the pictures)

Also, we had a Memorial Day Picnic yesterday. The food was awesome and while we were there, we played Softball and my team lost :( It was really fun though!!! It's nice to see the members relax and just have fun with each other...it's definitely a different group of people when their time together isn't work and reverence. It was fun to be able to let the kids play with us in softball, and they really enjoyed it! It was way fun!

I realized last week that I forgot to tell you about a funny little event from 2 weeks ago. During District Meeting, up in Steeleville, Elder Elkington decided to do a Habenero challenge, but wasn't going to tell the missionaries that it was a habenero. All 6 of us put it in our mouth and started chewing, and it was so funny to just watch everyone's face change. I chewed mine up and swallowed, like any real man would(Just kidding). Everyone else hung over the porch and spat on the ground and drooled for like 10 minutes till their mouths cooled down. I just laughed at them because it was sooooo funny!!! If anybody around looked at that porch, you would think that some just tried to poison them all or something, the way they were spitting and everything. Don't get me wrong. It was hot, and my eyes drained for like 2 minutes, but I just ate some chocolate and stuff, and it didn't bother me too long. Everyone else though...they are wusses! Haha! Just kidding. It was funny though.

It's been a real fun week. Right now, we are with the Cape Elders, who are going to be here all day today and staying the night; Tomorrow it will just be me and Elder Gomez till Thursday night after leadership. It should be pretty fun though. We have some good lessons prepared for that time. At least I don't have to leave Carbondale :) 

On Saturday, I got the awesome opportunity to call my Grandparents for a little bit(due to some late approval from Mothers day). I talked to both my Grandpa and Grandma, as well as my Great Grandpa, and it was great! 

Anyway, I hope everyone's Memorial Day was fun! Ours definitely was! We had an amazing week and had some awesome lessons! We have been very blessed in this area, and we continue to work hard so that God can bless his Children here, according to our Stewardship. I love the Gospel, I love the work. The Lord blesses his Missionaries, all around the world...for their faithfulness and sacrifice. No good thing in this world can come without sacrifice. God sacrificed his Son. His Son sacrificed his life, willingly, for us. Sacrifice is an important piece of the Gospel, and we must be willing and we will be blessed for our willingness to offer what we hold dear. Missionary work is hard work...it is a sacrifice. It is putting away who we are, for the welfare and future of others. God will bless those faithful in this calling; He will bless their families, their future, and their present. I am doing the Will of the Lord. I offer myself willingly, as the Son offered his life, for the benefit and welfare of others in whom I come in contact with. It is the greatest calling in the world, and I would not trade this opportunity for anything. 

I love you all. Keep working hard and continue to bear life's trials. Blessings are definitely in store! 

Until next week,

Elder Tyler Robinson

5/21/2012

This is the little stream that comes out of the University Hall dorm...It's gross lol

Second picture is one that I wanted Damon to see, but is cool in general. It's a picture of one of the Civil War casualties. The Cemetery near our apartment has many graves from the war, but this one was one of the few that is still legible.

the Historical marker in that cemetery. Talks about some of the important events that took place for the starting of Carbondale and how it relates to the Civil War.

These are just pictures of my planner. I'm terrible at laying the tape down, but I love the pictures I picked :D BTW the rocks represent balance...I thought it would make a good reminder to keep everything organized :)

We had an incredibly busy week this week!!! Holy Cow!!! I was so worn out yesterday, that I'm glad that we are back to P-Day, where we can relax and rest up for the week to come.

We had a total of 14 lessons with Less-Active, Recent Converts and investigators, and that's not including the lessons we had with members, for dinner which adds another 3 or 4. On top of that, we have a baptismal date set with Emily Cisco, who was a referral from a priest in the ward. She is set to be baptized June 9th. We meet with her again this week!!! We are sooooo excited for her. She reminds me of Kevin, where she just completely understands and agrees with the Doctrine. She is only 17, so she does have to talk with her parents still, but we are planning to make sure that happens early, in case they have any concerns. It's really great!!

I want to start off real quick, with a nice little tidbit fact I found out this week. Carbondale is actually the birth place of Memorial Day!! The little cemetery I took a picture at was where the first service initially took place, being led to a nearby Baptist Church. Attending the service was the great General, John A. Logan, who is actually a local from Murphysboro. He enjoyed the service so much, he decided to write a decree to see it turned into a holiday, which it started out in a general form within many of the states, but then became a national holiday. I find it awesome that I get to celebrate Memorial Day, in it's birthplace :) The entirety of that story is found on the picture of the Historical marker that was in the cemetery. If Damon is looking for a Civil War hero to do a report on, may I recommend John A. Logan? :)

Ok, so the work is amazing!!! Except for when it was bike day...we didn't get nearly as much done on Bike day haha(Neither of us have a bike, so we walked a lot). On Monday, we taught Shenika another lesson, which was great...I miss working with her as much as we did when we were teaching her the lessons, because she is super funny! She leaves for Chicago pretty soon, so we only have a couple weeks left to work with her. We got her started on FamilySearch.org and got here interviewed for a Temple Recommend. She is progressing very well still, and I hope that continues in her new ventures up north :)

Tuesday, was a sad day, and a great day. We said goodbye to most of the district, as they were transferring out, as well as goodbye to the Steeleville area in general, because they are closing it to missionaries. We inherited a bunch of great resources from Steeleville, and have put them to great use this week. It's actually been very helpful to understand the books in the Old Testament. Understanding the Old Testament is so important, because we can see a perfect level of parallels between how God ran His Church during the time before Jesus Christ and His Church that He restored to the Apostles in Jesus Christ's time, as well as that same restoration for the very last time, in this dispensation. Proof that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever...a fulfillment of prophecy. One thing I've noticed is that the Gathering of Israel is an extremely important event in God's eyes. He has revealed this principle to his prophets many, many times, both in the Bible and the Book of Mormon, and it is a fulfillment to the blessing bestowed on Ephraim, that it will be that tribe who first receives the restoration of the Gospel, and he will be the one to gather Israel by sharing that Gospel in its fullness, to the entire world. Missionary Work has always been part of God's plan. So many scriptures testify of it in the Old Testament; Dueteromony 33, a lot of Isaiah especially Isaiah 49, Isaiah 54, Jeremiah 16(Where the Gathering of Israel will be a greater event then the Exodus of Israel out of Egypt), Ezekiel 34, Ezekiel 37, Daniel 2, and many, many others. God always keeps his promises, and these are all Covenants unto the children of Israel, that he will gather them again...And I play a part in the fulfillment of these prophesies, and that Covenant among men. No other church, on the face of the earth, has the authority from God to bring his children back into the fold. It is a call given to those in the lineage of Joseph, and is in accordance to the priesthood, which was the same priesthood held by Jesus Christ; There were needs for a restoration, and the fulfillment of this need came to a man, Joseph Smith, who was a choice seer, raised up from the fruit of the loins of Joseph, who was sold by his brothers in Egypt, in which the his blessings and birthrights were given unto his son Ephraim, of which was Joseph Smith's lineage, as well as mine. I fulfill my purpose and call from God, even unto the fulfillment of prophesies that have been since the beginning. 

The rest of Tuesday was full of work. We taught Louis, a member referral, who is from Thailand. He has found out that Christianity is the right path to God, but wants to find the true church of Jesus Christ. We taught him the first part of the Restoration and will hopefully teach him the second half this week. 

We also taught the Tomas family, which was an amazing lesson. We taught the Plan of Salvation which went really well. They are currently Catholic, as many Latino families are, and they see parallels between our beliefs and the beliefs that they know of in their church. We are helping them understand that truth will be presented to them, directly from God, and that knowing Joseph Smith was a prophet is a key starting point to knowing the truthfulness of what we teach. Francisco understands this very well, and to be honest, I believe he already has a testimony of what we believe. I think it has helped to make him a teacher, by letting him translate what we teach to his parents. We will be inviting them to baptism during our next visit, which will be amazing! We are aiming for a month of preparation time to help them receive that personal witness of the truth, from God Himself.

We also taught Chad Wyatt this week, without his wife, who was still at work. The lesson went very well. He pointed out that he has seen a show on the History channel that discussed how many artifacts have been found in the North and South American Contents that contain Ancient Hebrew, and he was able to see how that really helps demonstrate evidence of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. We discussed that even though it is great to see evidence of the things we believe, because there is a lot of substantial evidence for the things that are in the Book of Mormon, that an even better convincing evidence is an answer from God. We discussed about answers he has received in his past, and how that relates to an answer that he can receive about truth. He really liked this, and I really hope it helps motivate him to keep up with commitments. He struggles with procrastination a lot! Lol

Of course, we had our lesson with Emily as well. We taught the Plan of Calvation, which is a version of icons that demonstrates the Plan of Salvation using Calvin and Hobbs. It's pretty cool. She understood the concepts really well. She is a very smart young lady. As I said before, I'm really excited for where she is headed. She read the scripture we gave her twice since we last saw her just so that she had the full understanding...She is on fire! :) 

Hmmm...I realize that I haven't shared to many crazy stories, so I want to share one and hopefully I can try to share a crazy or funny story once a week. This one is from my first transfer.

Elder Bassett and I were walking down Walnut street (which is a one-way street headed east, with 3 lanes. It is the main drag heading east), when someone behind us honked. We turned around to see a women in her car at the corner, waving us over. We walked up and she said, "I never get to feed you guys so here's some money for dinner", which she proceeded to hand us some money. She had a long line of cars waiting behind her, so we quickly said thanks and let her get on her way(we still don't know who it actually was), and I put the money in my pocket without counting it. We continued back on our path, when immediately across the street, a guy started shouting at us; "Hey, Hey!!! Wait! Stop right there!" He immediately bolted out into the street, which was rush hour (nothing like Utah rush hour, but still quite a bit of cars). He nearly got hit by 3 different cars, running into the street in a drunken stupor. He came up to us and asked, "Are you men of God?!?", which we responded yes to. He then said, pointing to the street, "Did you see that? I am a man of God!". Oh boy, he then started saying "I need help, I need help." His friend then grabbed him and said "We need to go...calm down." It was crazy! I thought he was going to try to get the money we just got or something, which I would have been willing to hand over of course, but it was totally weird. It was funny for him to claim that his walk across the busy street was his act of miracles :) We haven't seen him since, unfortunately.

Anyway, I guess I will close my Epistle home! I hope you are all doing well! I look forward to hearing from you all! I love you, and bid you safe passage until next week!

Elder Diz(Elder Tyler Robinson)