11/26/2012

Hey everyone! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!! I personally wrote out a bunch of things I'm Thankful for, many of them being some of you reading this now! I love you and thank you so much for your love for me and the great support you offer!

I personally had a great holiday. Even though it was a day off of proselyting, our day was full, top to bottom! We kicked the day off with the Turkey Bowl Football, which was a lot of fun...even though we lost by 63 points :) We visited the Hunter's, the Mckinnis' and Finnegan's, before dinner. We then started the dinner rush with the Alcala family, then the Wilkerson family, then the Wheeler family, and ended it with the Rimington family. We had 4 dinners! Haha It was interesting and not as bad as it sounds, but I can officially say that I had 7 different pieces of pie! It was great, and we also played our first card game on the mission. It was called Bang! which was a lot of fun! I won :) 

We also had exchanges this week. I once again played the part of a Spanish missionary for 2 days. With Elder Olson, it pretty much was all Spanish! With Elder Eells there were some people who spoke English that we taught. Nonetheless it was different and a lot of fun!  

While I was gone, E. Hoffman set 2 baptismal dates with Adrian and Andrew Barron, which is fantastic. Our district now has 5 baptismal dates for December, which are all very solid. We are very excited! 

This week is going to be a fantastic week! It is so wonderful to be able to recognize the grateful spirit that comes during Thanksgiving time. We are very excited to see the Christmas spirit come in and take over this next month! It is definitely a most wonderful time of the year!

I love you all so very much! Have a wonderful week this week! Remember the Lord in all things! 

Elder Tyler Robinson

11/19/2012

The first 3 pictures are pictures of E. Hoffman's camera, which zooms into the face when it captures it...It looks funny so we took pictures :)

 The next 3 are of the beautiful Subaru Legacy that we are driving! It's awesome!

It's been a rough week this week! Well actually, that's not a good way to describe it. It's been a great week, with some bumps in the road! 

I guess the biggest bump was that we both got sick on Friday. I'm still not sure what we had, but it definitely hit us, Elder Hoffman more then I, enough to keep us in for a day :( On top of that, Saturday, Elder Luke got sick, and Elder Hoffman, who still felt sick, decided he would stay with Elder Luke, and I went with Elder Payne to work in St Peters. In a normal week, this would have only been a small hinderence, but this week we had Mission Conference that took our whole day on Tuesday, and Stake Conference that took part of our day Sunday. None the less, we championed over it all and turned some pretty good success this week. 

Our biggest excitement is our lesson we had with Adrian and Andrew. They are 11 years old and have gone through all the lessons before and had a baptismal date with their mom, but their mom decided last minute, that she did not want to be baptized and kept them from being baptized as well. She has officially given us permission to teach them again, and they are awesome! Holy cow! Super smart kids, and know the purpose of the Gospel. We have another lesson on Tuesday, and we are thinking seriously to set a date with them. They came to stake conference and enjoyed it, although it was probably a little long for them to sit in the situation they were in...nonetheless they want to keep coming :) It's so great!! :D

Niki is of course, doing great! We taught a lesson, and her husband listened in. It was good for him and I know that he is becoming more and more prepared to hear it for himself. We are trying to find a better way to teach the New Member lessons that would be geared for someone who is listening in, not a member, and for someone who is a member and is learning more. It's a hard balance, but we'll find it :)

Lastly, the Leapley's are doing great! We taught a great lesson on Wednesday! Nick is asking good questions and is connecting a lot of good principles, but it is very slow. We did come up with a plan, and he is involved in what his progress will be, which I assume is a good first step...Better then us telling him how to progress. He'll get there :)

Mission Conference and Stake Conference were both awesome! Elder Choi was amazing and we had a great time with him! We also had a great experience in a New Member session of stake conference. All the people who were baptized this year were pulled into a room with everyone who is planning on becoming a new member, and we discussed that commitment of being baptized. It was really great!

Anyway...We are looking forward to a wonderful week, and I hope everyone else is too! I love you all! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I am so thankful for all of you who are willing to read about what I'm doing and especially to those who are writing me! I pray for you all and I sure do love you! Have a great week!

Elder Tyler Robinson

11/5/2012

Here's a whole bunch of pictures from Niki's baptism!! It was so cool!

Well...It's official! This weekend was the very pinnacle of my mission thus far! As I think about the experience, I'm struggling to really put it in an expressible form.

I guess to start off, Niki was baptized, and I was the one who was privileged to administer the ordinance. I do not think that there is anything better, in this life, then such an experience. Women get the wonderful opportunity to give birth the physical body of children. Men get the equally important and just as powerful experience(with a lot less pain of course) to give birth to a life of Christ to all those who are willing to accept the responsibility of living in Christ. 

It's been a weird week, in my mind. I've been replaying my own baptism over and over again, and as I stepped into the water, I could almost feel the exact feelings and thoughts, as if I were reliving the experience. It truly is a blessing of wonderful joy to come into the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, to follow the path in which he has paved; It is equally a great blessing to lead His children to that very same path. My heart is full, to overflowing for my experience here. All the pain, frustration and trials do not add up to the tears of joy, great peace of the marvelous experience and the eternal memories of success. This is remarkable experience that I would never trade. Niki is such a wonderful person who needed the Gospel, and still needs it! She has unlocked a great door into her life and her family and will experience happiness that is incomprehensible...I know that, because I've seen it in my life! 

She pretty much decided her whole program. We helped a little bit, she put a lot of thought and work into the program. Dr. Olson was the first speaker...he's been a big key into her search. He shared some great insights for her and her future which were very powerful. We then did the baptism, which went without a hitch. It was a great first experience for me, and her and we shared in it together. We then watched some Mormon Messages until we got finished dressing. 

After this, we heard from Tammy Samuels, who was the baptism we attended a month ago, and it was just a magnificant talk!! You would have never guessed that this young lady had just barely started her journey in the Gospel! It really was just absolutely amazing and heartfelt! I was so truly impressed! The spirit was remarkably strong! Definitely the best Baptism I have been to!

It was just a wonderful day! :) 

We are also working with a new family. We are helping them get out of a nasty situation, but we have started teaching them, and it has provided them so much light! We are excited about where that might go!

I love this Gospel! There is nothing in this world I love more, then God and His remarkable power He has, and it's effects on our lives! It truly is the difference between happiness and misery! I love it!

Have a wonderful week everyone!

I'm on cloud 9, so I think I'll be alright this week :)

Love you all,

Elder Tyler Robinson

11/5/2012

So...I didn't take pictures this week. My camera is not working well at all and it was a pain to get everyone together to take pictures(the district, and when we were wearing our costumes), so I'm sorry that there aren't any pictures this week. I want to take pictures of our costume still, but we'll see if that happens.

Anyway, what a week. First off, so you know what our costume was this halloween. We were the Men In Black :) We bought some sunglasses and wore our suits, and even got a toy neutralizer and some MIB guns. They were on clearance at Toys R Us, so we really couldn't turn it down :) Halloween was fun though. We ate with the Remington's and E. Hoffman had Pork Steaks for the first time on his mission. It was a lot of fun!

This was a great week, but I only have time to share a small amount of what happened. First and Foremost, Niki is DEFINITELY getting baptized 11/10/12. She had a remarkable experience, and she now knows, without any doubt in her heart, that the Book of Mormon is true! Not only that, but she shared it with the entire ward during Fast and Testimony meeting!!! Oh my goodness, I am just blown away with my opportunity to be here at this time. She has asked me to baptize her! I'm so excited about it! What an honor!! I'm just amazed! I could talk about this seriously all day, but there are other things to share.

We met a former named Don on Friday. We helped him pack some things away out of his house, and he is going to introduce us to his children, and has asked us to begin teaching them! We are excited about that! He makes arrowheads, and he's promised to make me one probably on Wednesday! We watched him do one on Friday, and it was way cool! He is a great guy and has been investigating the church for a really long time...hopefully something changes for him soon. He is in the Hazelwood area, so we won't be teaching him, but we will teach his children :)

Lastly, we ate with Adreanna on Friday, where we talked with her and her daughter about some concerns they had when they were really investigating. She has also decided she wants her children to take the lessons again and to possibly join the church if that's what they decide! We teach them on Tuesday!

A lot of remarkable changes here! We had 4 new investigators this week! What a difference! We are so excited to see what happens this week. I have leadership training tomorrow, and we are getting a new car!!(To replace the Hail stricken car we have now :) )

Anyway, I got to go!! I love you all! Have a wonderful week this week! 

Elder Tyler Robinson

10/29/2012

This week has been really awesome!

Niki is still solid, and on track! We are meeting her tonight with her family, and also tomorrow! :D She met with the Bishop Tuesday, with her husband, and they came out of it just glowing! It seemed like a lot of stress they had going in, was quickly relieved through their visit with him. I hope that that helps her husband with a desire to find out more! We'll see tonight if that has changed at all. She is still coming to church and loving it, and we are giving her a scripture everyday to help her with her reading. So far so good :)

We also taught Nick. I've been passing more and more leading responsibility to Elder Hoffman, so he lead the lesson, and it went pretty well. He didn't come to church, which was a bummer, but slow and steady wins the race. He'll come when he's ready. We are going to watch the movie, "The Mediator" with him. We are working on his testimony of Jesus Christ, and  understanding the divinity of Him.

We also tracted into a nice Catholic this week, that we are meeting again on Thursday. We talked a lot of the Catholic church. He calls himself a questioning Catholic, because he likes to test the truth of the things he believes, but so far has strong confidence in what he believes. We had a good conversation, and we hope to be able to search deeper into each others beliefs. I learned a lot from him, actually.

Friday, the ward had a festival that we went to...it was a lot of fun! We played with the kids and enjoyed some great time with the members. On Saturday, we helped cleaned up Spencer Creek! That was way fun! I slipped in the creek a couple times, but don't worry...I was careful and only got my shoes wet lol. It was fun! The weekend was actually just great...just a lot of service and fun. 

This week will be interesting! We have our Halloween costume...I'll take pictures and send them next week!

I love you all! I hope you all have a wonderful week! :)

Elder Tyler Robinson

Elder Hoffman and I Preached...

with Will Smith

During an action sequence with Will Smith

while being held up

and called our robber to repentance

On a cliffhanger

with Will Smith on our Shoulders

to a finger puppet
Hopefully you've enjoyed the Elder Hoffman and I series :)

Anyway, this picture is Elder Payne and Elder Luke. They are goofballs, but this is one of their new finding ideas. We'll see how it works :)