8/13/2012

We fought the gaping jaws of hell this week and won!!!!! I have never
seen a single person be stricken with so much opposition that we saw
hit Helen and her husband this week as she prepared for baptism. She
was in tears 4 out of the 5 times we were over at her house, as she
discussed the trials she has been hit with, and yet, strong and firm
in her determination to accept the covenant of baptism and to follow
as her Savior beckons, she was baptized on Saturday, and confirmed on
Sunday. We still have no idea how everything fell into place.
Literally Friday morning, I was not far from tears because I knew that
we had lost control of everything and it just did not seem possible
that the baptism would happen. Oh my goodness...just looking back, I
just really don't know what to say...God can do anything, and he will
if that's his desire; This case, his desire was to see his wonderful
daughter take her first step into eternal life, and it was done. It is
just remarkable that it happened. I'm so grateful to be in a position
where I can see the impossible be trampled over by God's mighty hand.

Anyway, not too much more to report this week. We tracted a lot,
trying to find new investigators and taught only a handful of lessons.
We are planning to really turn it around this week though...Get back
to having lessons nearly every day. It's going to take a lot of really
hard work and focus, but as I've already seen...what God wants, he'll
make happen, and we know that he wants us to produce success here in
Mexico.

Just some prospects; The new district is going to be amazing this
transfer. So far, all the companionships are getting along really well
and are actually excited to go out and work. I look forward to see
what we will be capable of doing. As for the zone, we have already had
5 baptisms this month, with at least 10 more dates for the next couple
weeks. That's amazing!

The Gospel is true! It changes lives everywhere that it's preached!
Whether it is Utah, St. Louis, Peru, France, Japan, India, Italy, etc.
The Gospel is the same and so very true and relevant to every single
person, and the Lord has provided the way that all may learn, know,
and accept his truths, thereby allowing all men everywhere to develop
faith and repent of their sins, accept the baptismal covenant by being
baptized by His Holy Priesthood, and receiving the Holy Ghost that
will lead, guide, testify of truth, comfort, provide special gifts,
warn, protect, and otherwise deliver direct communication from the
Father. It is the responsibility of all of God's children, to try
Him...to really test the basic principle of Ask and Ye Shall Receive,
by asking Him if He is real. Ask Him if He loves you. Ask Him if the
Book of Mormon(a set of ancient scriptures that testify of God, the
Eternal Father, his Son Jesus Christ and the promise and Covenant that
God has made to all those who turn to him and repent) is true. If it
is true, which I testify that it is, you will know the Glory and the
level of Love that God has for you, for it truly teaches of His Love
for you. Try it...Test it out. You can't know until you do!

Anyway, that's enough rant :) I love you all! Have a great week!!
Elder Tyler Robinson

8/6/2012

It's official. I'll be here in Mexico for at least 6 more
weeks(although I believe I will probably be here for at least 12
because Elder Pack is on his 4th transfer here).

I had a very interesting week of being District Leader! I did
Exchanges with all the Elders in Fulton, which meant I was switching
companions for 3 out of the 7 days. It was a lot of fun, but man it
sure can be stressful trying to be a good example, to teach them and
to try and learn something from them. It's like getting a new
companion 3 days in a row, where you just try to figure out where they
are at and how you can help them. I made it through though! We had
some mighty fine missionaries in the district! :)

We also had Zone P-Day which was a ton of fun! The Zone Leaders
planned out a bunch of cool events and we were playing against the
opposite side of the zone. We also had a District Leader Zone Leader
meeting where we talked about the zone a little bit more, and how we
can help. It was pretty cool :)

As for our teaching, Richard and Helen are doing well. Helen is still
getting baptized on Saturday...Keep her in your prayers! Satan has
really trying to pull them down lately, and it would help so much if
there were prayers of others working to help them stay strong with all
the blows they are taking.

We also went to the temple on Friday! It was great! It was Elder
Pack's first time, so I was excited to take him. It was a great
experience, which will probably leave us with a harder time with miles
this month, but it was worth it. Hopefully we will be able to find a
ride up sometime later this month, because it really is a remarkable
place. We taught a lesson with Richard and Helen about the temples,
showing them pictures and they really liked it...In one year, they
will be able to go into The Lord's Holy House. They want to go to Salt
Lake actually for their sealing :) I'll still be on my mission when
they get to go though :(

Anyway, not a ton much happening here. It's Mexico, Biofuel Captial of
Missouri, Saddlehorse captial of the US, and Crossroads of the
Midwest...And there isn't too much going on lol. I did go to
Ozarkland, which is a big souvenir shop...Didn't buy anything but I
was tempted...Everything was super expensive and there wasn't really
anything that stood out that I had to have. Oh well...I'll try
Nastagia-ville next time and see if there is anything there :)

Love you all...I'm super behind at writing everyone back...I'm sorry.
I've struggled to find time where I wasn't absolutely pooped to write.
I will make an effort to write everyone back by the end of this week!

Elder Tyler Robinson

7/30/2012

Birthday wishes, I give unto you all! :) Happy birthday to my
wonderful Grandma, to my dear aunt Brenda, my adopted niece Danyielle
;), my awesome Grandpa, my dearly beloved Shauna, me(of course), my
other adopted niece Abby(Sorry I forgot how it's spelled), and any one
else I have forgotten, for there is a great chance that I have
forgotten some with all the millions of birthdays this month :) I hope
all is well and that you will be able have a wonderful birthday, where
ever you are at.

We had a busy week this week. We found 7 new investigators throughout
the week, which is something I've never done before...I don't even
think we tracted more then an hour either...just crazy coincidences
that have allowed us to get some amazing new people who desire to
learn more about the gospel. Not only that but we had 11 lessons,
where 6 had member presents! I don't know how such crazy good success
just comes out of no where, but I guess that's what God means that
"His way is not mans way" :)

The Rosts are doing awesome! They have made some amazing decisions
without us even asking. Yesterday, they invited a friend to hear the
message of the Restoration, which she agreed and now is interested in
coming to church and will be at our next appointment. Also, the Rosts
have given their excess coffee and tea to their friends already(before
we taught the Word of Wisdom) and Richard has agreed to make Tuesday
his last day smoking. Richard prays every lesson now(He gets excited
and volunteers himself). It's just crazy miracle after another with
them. They are just so prepared to make these changes!! I love
it...I'm super excited for them! Keep them in your prayers, because
there is a chance that they will be hit hard this week and next week
as Helen prepare for baptism and Richard prepares for the priesthood.

Also, another amazing thing I found out today was that in Carbondale,
Sylvia has accepted a baptismal date for the 25th!!! That's awesome!
It is absolutely amazing to see someone so prepared, being led right
to the missionaries and how amazing things can come from their time
with them. I'm super excited!

This week is going to be crazy...Today, we are going to Fulton to go
bowling and to have a little birthday party for me(Yes, I planned my
own birthday party and forced my district to go...what of it!! :) )
It'll be fun!
Tomorrow, I will be doing my very first exchange with the newest
member of the District, Elder Payne, which we will be here in Mexico.
On Wednesday, we will all be in Jefferson City, which we will blitz
and I should be doing my first baptismal interview. I will be sure to
take pictures while I'm there :)
We will stay the night and in the morning, travel to Kingdom City,
where we will go as the Calvary(the whole zone), to St. Louis to enjoy
my first Cardinals game, then maybe zoo and definitely Forest Park,
the talent show, and hanging out with my old zone leader in Webster
Groves till the morning, which is when spiritual day will start. It'll
be very interesting and a very fun week!!
Next Monday is Zone P-Day, so we expect to have a lot of fun in
Columbia with their Olympic games they are setting up :)

Needless to say, most likely we will not be teaching very much this
week, but we plan next week will be pretty busy! :) My birthday
happens to be one of the few days that I will work haha! Anyway,
everything is going really well! My new responsibilities has added
some very important stretching that I needed and I know it's going to
help me in the future.

I love you all! I hope all is going amazing at home, and that you all
remember that I love you and that I love hearing from you! You should
all be working hard and striving to find happiness in all
relationships at home...There is no reason for any melting pot
relationships at home while I'm gone...If there is any contention
among you, first off...it's not of God. I've been reading the general
epistles this last week, and one thing that was very clear about the
ancient church is that people really struggled with what they said,
who they said it about, and they struggled really badly with pride and
the green eyed monster. Do away with it and move on. "If a man say, I
love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth not
his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not
seen" - 1 John 4:20.

Anyway, have a great week! Don't have too much fun without me ;)
Elder Tyler Robinson

7/16/2012

It's hot!!!!! It has dried up pretty bad here, and we hear a lot of
complaints about how the corn isn't going to make it, as well as many
other crops for the year. We've also seen entire fields go up in smoke
because of how dry it is(Not as bad as the wild fires in Utah, of
course). The humidity has been lower then normal(higher then Utah
still), and has been over the 3 digit mark for 2 weeks now. It's
crazy.

Anyway, we have been out of town a lot of the week, but I'm beginning
to get my bearings here. I think I have a firm grasp on many of the
ward members and I'm starting to be able to find my way around town.
It's been very interesting building from the ground up again, but we
have had some amazing finding opportunities as we have done that. I
haven't really had any success with the investigators that were here
before, because they are never home or just don't want to meet with us
anymore, but we have 2 solid new investigators that we got during the
week(in the very few times were were in town), and several potential
investigators that seem pretty solid.

Jacob is the most interesting investigator that we have right now. He
took the Book of Mormon last week, and was super excited to read it.
This week we met with him, and he had not only been reading, but he
also started to talk about how certain things in the Book of Mormon
seem to be talking directly to him. We read several scriptures with
him, and he was just amazed at it. We are thinking about inviting him
to be baptized in our next visit, because he definitely seems ready :)

Monday night, we ate over at the Griffin home, and they have the most
hilarious cat. It perches itself up in very awkward places, and
somehow finds itself comfortable enough to begin to fall asleep. As it
drifts off to sleep, it slips out of its weird resting place and falls
to the floor with a nice thump. It then, immediately, returns to its
awkward position to drift off asleep again to take another hard trip
to the floor. It literally fell out of the window 10 times while I was
there, and trust me...it was funny every time! :)

Anyway, there really isn't much more going on right now. We have some
interestingly difficult goals to meet for the month, but right now my
District is on track to meet those goals. It's amazing what miracles
will happen when enough faith and hard work is exerted. We may see a
total of 10 to 12 baptisms come out of this month, which is
amazing...especially since we made a goal of 8, which was already
going to be a challenge to reach. A lot of miracles and blessings to
be seen here doing God's work. I love it!! :)

Anyway, I hope you all continue to keep on keeping on! Have a
wonderful week, and please pray for those who are in Utah, dealing
with wildfires and such. Also pray for rain for the entire country. I
think it all needs it right now. I love you all! Thanks for being so
supportive of me :)



The computers here are not letting me add pictures, so I'm not sure
when I will be able to send pictures home. I will make sure I keep
them safe so that they can be sent later.

Elder Tyler Stephen Robinson

7/2/2012

Holy cow! Transferring to a new area is totally crazy! I feel like I'm on excanges, and have to keep reminding myself that I'm permantly(or so-so permant) here, rather then just visiting.

 

So let me tell you about Mexico! It's small. World famous for Saddle Horses and Firebrick. Neither one of those details is in any least bit of importance, but as far as I can tell, it's really the only claim Mexico is willing to make. The people are way nice, and the members are pretty awesome so far, but there really isn't much out here haha. I find it very interesting that I went from Murphysboro, which is nationwide recognized for it's brick industry, to Mexico which interestingly enough is also known for that very same thing...wierd.

 

Anyway, we have an itsy bitsy house(although bigger then my last apartment) made of card board and masking tape, which I took pictures of, but totally forgot the cord. It has a back yard and a huge storage place, but as far as living space, it is pretty much packed(Not complaining of course, just being dramatic as I explain :D). We have a Ford Malibu, which could turn on a dime, if the dime was the size of a football field...which, of course adds complications when you are driving past everything because you don't have your grips on the area.

 

As I said last week, I'm district leader in the area. My stewardship covers Mexico, Jefferson City, and Fulton, which is actually a total of 7 missionaries(or in other words, a pretty big district). For the most part, they are amazing missionaries, and I am very fortunate! I had my first District Meeting on Thursday, which I didn't know until Wednesday night...Quite interesting. But it went well. We discussed some district Goals to work on, and I hope that it will really help as we move through this transfer.

 

Elder Pack is my companion. He is from Layton, only 3 months out, and is extremely smart. I actually quite enjoy having some higher level conversations with him, but I have to admit, sometimes we both go a little too high level for each other haha. Gospel discussions are quite fun with him. Together, we have constructed some very firm changes to make for this area to really make it a strong place to work in. As I said before, the members are awesome and I'm 100% certain that we could help them help us in the work here. I'm really excited actually, because of how much potential sits, not only here, but in the whole district.

 

Next week, I will bring my backpack in...all my cords are in it at the moment, and I left it in the car(and these computers have a time limit).

 

Anyway, I know everyone would love my new address, so here it is:

 

Elder Robinson

7 Ozark Place

Mexico, MO 65265

 

Currently, I don't have too much more to say about this new area. We have had quite a few great lessons, but nothing incredibly awesome yet(although I know we will get there :D). July 4th will be way awesome. We get the day off, which I think is crazy awesome, and we will take advantage of it, I'm sure. Which, by the way, HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!!! The day that we were granted our freedom and independence, laying all the ground work for the Restoration of God's Church, here on this earth once again. It really is a greater holiday, then what we take it as.

 

Anyway, I love you all!! I hope your summer is going well, and that you are staying out of the heat(I know we aren't, unfortunately). Stay away from them wild fires! Pray for some rain in all those places where they are lacking(Including here). Have a great 4th of July!!

 

Elder Tyler Robinson