6/25/2013

Another transfer has eclipsed; Elder Spencer headed off to Hazelwood, and Elder Jensen has come in and joined me here in Tuscola. He came from East St Louis, which is a rough, rough area, to here in the country...about as far away from city life as you can be. He is awesome. He had just finished serving with Elder Elkington, who went back home to New Zealand on Thursday(I'm gonna miss him...he's moving to Utah though, so we'll be hanging out, I'm sure).

 

Elder Jensen is from West Jordan, and actually not far from my house...We both came out together, so we actually have a lot of things in common, as far as the mission goes. He's super goofy, so we've had fun this week so far.

 

Since he's been here, we have been working with Laci a lot. We met with her and a member that we have been working on getting fully active again, Jamie, about the Book of Mormon. We had an awesome lesson with them. As we talked with them, we felt we should write a letter to Laci's parents to get the ball rolling so that she can start taking the lessons with us. She has opened up a lot with us and I think she is ready to understand Christ and how He applies to her. There is a talk I have that says nobody seeks Christ, until they know why they need Christ. What a true statement that is...my life has changed once the need for Christ became apparent in my life, and I've only touched the tip of the iceberg. I think the same will happen for Laci.

 

So really the big news of this week was the broadcast that happened yesterday, from the MTC. The Lord is Hastening his work, and broadcast was a big training for all the world, at the mission, stake and ward levels, of how we can be most effective as missionaries and how members of the church can be more productive with sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with those who surround them. It was really really good, and there are some new things that are happening in all the missions around the world that will cause this work to progress. They talked a little bit about technology and moving the missionary work from door to door tracting, to doing work on the internet and using IPad's and other technologies...The work is going to move forward! The spoke of using Facebook, and connecting the ward and it's missionary work, with missionaries and their missionary work using technology(probably area book and calandars that is synced between the missionaries, WML's, and the bishops). We are to be actively engadged in a good cause, to flood the earth with the Lord's love and goodness, and uniting each other in love. It's a marvelous work, and the wonders are just beginning...I know this work is true, and I've seen it more and more as I've spent, my time and talents in blessing the lives of those around me. These new changes are going to be great and the Lord is going to do miracles in our lives.

 

We are having a great time here. The work has been hard, because most of the members are out of town this week, but we are doing what we can to keep working hard and staying productive. I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

 

Elder Tyler Robinson

Our district on P-Day last week, before transfers.

 

L-R: Elder Spencer, Elder Smithston, Elder Merryl, Elder Foster, Elder England, Sister Zundel, Sister Rudd, Elder Gaiegoes, Elder Hubbard. Names may not be spelled right haha.

 

 

6/17/2013

So the results are in...I'm staying here in good ol' Tuscola. I'm getting a new companion, Elder Jenson, which I think may be the Elder Jenson that came out with me(If it is...he just recently got mugged while in East St Louis :S). Nonetheless, this is an 8 week transfer, so we will be together here for 8 weeks. 

This week has been very interesting. I was on exchanges again in Urbana. Elder England and I had a lot of fun, and ended our day throwing boomerangs with a guy who had like a billion of them! It was fun, and boomerangs are pretty cool! :) We talked about Navouoo with him, and it turned out his family has some history with Navouoo. It was fun. While I was gone, Elder Foster and Elder Spencer taught a great lesson with a young man here in Tuscola. We are seeing him tomorrow, but he is very interested and I look forward to meeting him. 

On Wednesday, we helped Georgia by pulling her weeds...We came back Friday and cleaned her Gutters. She has a lot of health problems and is very interested in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She has experienced some very scary and difficult things, and so tonight we are going to teach her about the Atonement of Jesus Christ...help her see that this world has a lot of things that are not fair, and will not be made fair in anyway, till after this life. Or as President Packer puts it, there is no Happily Ever After in Act 2...That doesn't come till Act 3. 

On Saturday, we taught this awesome lady who we tracted into. We taught the Restoration, and was weighing out kind of what she might understand. She loved it! We didn't finish the full lesson but she expressed how she was feeling things that she has never felt in her life, but that she knew it was from God. Sooo cool. I love it, when we try and describe the feelings of the Spirit, because although it is presonalized for us, such as one my feel the burning in the bosom more prominently, or maybe have a better reaction to the truth mentally, but their is a consistency with everyone, and to hear that someone else feels the very same things you feel in response to truth, at the very same time you feel it, it just adds to the marvelous miracle of this great work, and the Spirit :) 

Anyway, I forgot to say, Elder Spencer is going to Hazelwood. He's going to love it :) I love North Zone haha. Actually, my zone leader is going to Waterloo, Elder Foster is going to Crystal City, and a sister in our district is going to Weldon Spring! I have a lot of names to share with them :)

Anyway, have a wonderful week! I love you all! Keep up the hard work! :D

Elder Tyler Robinson

Pictures with the Bryant family and Laci(Laci is the blonde that doesn't look related...it's cause she's not :) )

6/10/2013

1-4: Pictures with the Bryant boys

5-6: Elder Spencer and I on a Tandem bike

7: Elder Spencer on another of Bro Brown's bikes

Another week, come and gone :)

This week I spent half the week in Urbana Illinois. And yes, for the first time in my mission I rode bicycles to get around to places. I never thought it would happen but the pain in my leg muscles are testimony that we definitely did do that! :) 

There is not a ton to report. It's amazing when you can do like 40 hours of tracting and not really have many stories to share, but it's just one of those weeks. We did have an interesting experience in Hammond, Illinois. We met a guy who had just gotten out of top security prison. He threatened Elder Spencer with some not so nice words, and then told us he would love to have us back and that we helped ease the pain for the day...Not sure if we will :S We also met his neighbor which she felt we had been an answer to her prayer, showing up right when she felt she needed God. That is pretty exciting! 

We went to the Temple again on Friday. Another 6 hour drive but at least it payed off :) we went to the Temple and had a wonderful experience, then Elder Spencer met with President Clark. It's been about 6 months since I've been to the temple...It is definitely a wonderful thing, and it bothers me that it is so hard to get members out here to go...the only ones who do go are temple workers and that doesn't work for us to join them obviously. There is kind of a problem with complacency in the midwest...it is part of their culture but it can be so aggravating because it stands as a road block in progress. Oh well, we got to go, and we drove ourselves so that is good :)

Not much else going on...It keeps raining. A lot. I've said this before, but my body is having a very hard time keeping up with the fluxes in the weather. Last night, the humidity in our apartment made it extremely difficult to breath, I had to sit out by the A/C for about an hour before I felt like I could breath right again...It's like breathing over a boiling pot of water all night...not fun. 

Oh I forgot, we played a huge game of laser tag at the church building on Monday with the zone! It was so fun, but several of us almost got killed by a goose who was laying an egg by one of the doors...The have a very scary hiss, when they are not happy...Just so you know. It was way fun! It was a member's system, which seemed like a very expensive system, but we just had a blast!

Anyway, I'm going to Urbana again today, and will be there till Wednesday. We then go back on Friday to do a Mini-MTC thing. So our week will be out of the area again for the most part. Next week is transfers, so I'll let you know what is happening on Monday!

I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Tyler Robinson

6/3/2013

pics from Busch Stadium

Hello world!     What can I say about this week? We hit the pavement! We've been working super hard, and although there were some highlights, we saw more struggle and difficulty with all that hit us.  It's raining a ton out here....The farmers are running huge risk of loosing their fields. Also, as you may know already, tornadoes have been touching down a lot recently. Nothing close by where I am at the moment, but it did hit in some of the areas I've served in(Weldon Spring being one of them). It's just another year of wacky weather, that is for sure.     On Wednesday, we had an interesting experience. We were going to walk around the town block, to just talk to everyone we see, and we came across two guys who were finishing their day working for DirectTV doing exactly what we were doing. We stopped them and started to talk to them, and had just an intense, awesome lesson with them. They said they were catholic and had questions for us. They asked a ton of really good questions, we had a ton of really good answers(Always good to have when good questions are asked :D) and we bore solid testimony of the Book of Mormon, and on the corner of the street, talked to them for over an hour. When they finally said, we need to get going, we offered them a Book of Mormon, and they said, quote "Oh we already have one. We are both members." They had us soooo fooled!! They were really good...They are RM's from Idaho, and they just ran us up the ringer. Ughhh!! It was awesome though, and it changed our day. This week has been rough on my companion, and he needed something to buoy him up and that played part.  By the way, I officially know it is a 3 hour drive to Saint Louis...I made that drive on Saturday. It is also officially known that the temple sessions end at 1, so if we leave at 11, we won't make it to the temple in time. A hard lesson with a 6 hour driving punishment lol.      Anyway, I love you all! Have a wonderful week!  Elder Tyler Robinson