11/25/206

Hey world!

Another week has gone by and of course that meant for us, a lot of traveling and preparing and planning and going to meetings, etc and so forth :)

We spent part of the week replacing phones. We were in O'Fallon, Illinois and Decatur, Illinois through the week. It was fun. Let me just say, I will never go with Sprint...They make things sooooo difficult, it's remarkable how hard it is to do something simple like replacing the phone. Anyway, we got to participate in these zone conferences, which was fun. We inspected cars on Tuesday...that was  new experience. We had a guy from Salt Lake, training Elder Batchelor so we took his job for the day :)

On Wednesday, we went to Fitz's with Evan Crowder, which was a ton of fun. I don't know if I've talked much about Fitz's but it is really good. I got this burger with bacon and a cooked egg on top. We also got bottomless root-beers with frost mugs :) Sooo good!

This week we are going to this really famous place called Pappy's here in St Louis. It's going to be awesome! I'm super excited.

We helped the new mission nurse move in this week. She lives right above us and is really awesome! We are really excited to work with her! Her husband passed away this year, but she doesn't let it bring her down. She is ready and excited to work! What an amazing trooper!

Anyway, I love you all! We are looking forward to having an amazing week! :) I hope you do too! ;)

Elder Tyler Robinson

11/19/2013

Sorry for missing last week! I'm not sure what happened...I wrote a ton of personal letters and managed to forget to send a letter home :S

I'll catch you up and then I'll tell you about my week. We had transfers; It went really smoothly. It was the first time we switched from Thursday departure to Tuesday departure. Elder Cooper stayed an extra 2 days, so we brought him around with us and the work that we had. He enjoyed that a lot. His family picked him up and they were off. Other then that, we made a  9 hour deliver drive, and 6 hour delivery drive/move for that weekend...Busy, busy, busy!

Anyway, let me tell you about this week, because this is the good part! First off, we had a mission trainer come into our mission from Salt Lake. He came in on Tuesday, went on exchanges with the AP's and then with President Morgan, and then gave an 8 hour training to 60 missionaries in the mission. It was awesome! We learned a ton of, not really new things, just refined things. Things that some of the missionaries had been doing, but maybe not to the fullest potential and for some missionaries it was a completely new way to look at things. It was awesome! We left feeling pretty pumped and ready to work hard!

On Friday, Niki Anconetoni went through the Temple. If you remember, I was the one who performed the baptism on November 10th, 2012. November 14th was almost as soon as it was possible! She is just doing absolutely amazing! She still has trials and storms still hit, but she glows, and she was definitely glowing after her session! Her story is still an amazing one to me! I love sharing it and I love the fact that I had an opportunity to watch it happen. It was just another real evidence to me of the truthfulness of the Gospel, and especially in the Restoration of the Gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Nothing else could have made such a difference and could have changed her life as much as it has, both personally and as a family. It was amazing to see her go through on Friday!

On Saturday, Sylvia Taylor(used to be Phelps when I taught her), and Letecia Bracewell went through the temple to get their endowments taken out! I taught them both in my first area, Carbondale. The Bartholomew's brought them up. We went through and in just was amazing! They are both absolutely amazing! Time has taught them both a lot of things, and all the challenges that were presented to them while I was in the area were lifted over time. Sylvia, when I met her was homeless with her 2 kids...she was living with her sister in a doll house outside of the actual house. She had no job and was going through just the worse struggles because of her husbands choices. Now she has a house, a job, her kids are all with her living in the home, she is a huge strength in the ward and is extremely happy! I was so impressed with how happy she was! Letecia was glowing the entire time. Her husband still attends with her, but he is not all that interested still. She on the other hand has just grown in her knowledge and desire to do the things Christ asks her to do! It was amazing!!!

Sunday, we had Bring a Friend to Church Day. I gave a 10 minute talk, and was able to share these stories and my testimony! It was really good! We then had a Linger Longer after church and we got the opportunity to meet a handful of the friends that were invited and they are all really awesome and just all had a great time! 

Anyway, I'm still in awe from this weekend! I love this work so much! I love the Savior and I love the power of the Atonement! It is real, and it is amazing what it does to the hearts of men! I'm grateful for my time here and those millions of experiences where I got to watch it happen to others, just like it happened to me! 

I love you all! Have an amazing week!

Elder Tyler Robinson

 

 

The other picture was from when we picked up the new missionaries. I didn't have a picture with the Morgans, so we took one :)

I forgot to mention on Friday, we helped set up an activity at the branch. We set up an inflatable obstacle course and a mechanical bull! I was at the temple during the activity but it was pretty cool to set up! I got to run the obstacle course once :)

 

11/4/2013

Well, for the first time since the beginning of my mission, I'll be in an area longer then 12 weeks :) I'll be finishing my time here in the office.

Today is the beginning of Transfers. We get all the departing missionaries today and are having a little party at the mission home. That will be fun :) We get the new missionaries tomorrow and transfers is on Wednesday.

This week has been pretty cool. The Cardinals lost the World Series, and it's been raining ever since pretty much lol. It was awesome they made it to the world series, but it sounded like we totally blew it :( The Red Socks were definitely the better team this year.

Anyway, we've been moving apartments all week. That's just the life of the office elder...moving apartments :) It's a lot of fun but it's pretty tough when you have deadlines on things. We will have 6 missionaries without apartments this week...they'll have to stay in other missionaries places for now. 

We have had dinner at the Presidents home twice this last week, and we will have it twice this week too :D Halloween was very interesting...we ate at the Morgan's and they had some weird colored potatoes and black rice. It was really good, but Sister Morgan was trying to make it look weird haha. We handed out candy and then planned for transfers. We are probably the only missionaries in the mission that ended up doing a meeting for Halloween rather then taking the night off haha.

Just an update on how everything is going with preparing for school; I have finished my financial aide and next week I'll be able to register for classes. My counselor recommended me the classes I need, and I only have 7 classes to graduate. So things are moving a long well.

Well, we have a ton to get done today, so I will talk to you all next week!

Have an awesome week,

Elder Tyler Robinson

Pictures from trip to Hillsboro