10/21/2013

Well another week has flew past us. We've ha a lot of emergencies this last couple of weeks. Nonetheless we've had some really great things happen as well. We are in some final stages of getting the big project for the key indicators for the mission finished. That's taken a lot of our time this week. It is super easy now. You just run a report and it runs through all 113 areas and creates a nice summary report that will make everyone's life super easy. There are some things to work out still but for the most part it looks good :-)
One awesome thing that happened this week... Evan Crowder took us to lunch... it was really awesome to be able to talk to him about what he saw as a missionary,  while he taught me the discussions. It's pretty interesting to hear what happened with their companionship, their area, and just the situation in general. I'm super blessed to have such a connection here on my mission. :-D

On Sunday we had a really awesome church experience. First, we had a full house. There was a ton of people there which is great for a small young single adult branch in the middle of St Louis. one of the members brought a friend, and she agreed to learn more :-D. We will be following up this week. We also had a linger longer iron chef after.  My mom sent me pie filling so I made a pie and it was fantastic! I won a prize for it, but I made sure I had the biggest piece out of the pie because I knew it would be good!

Well we Are going to go play softball today. It should be fun. We haven't had much of a pday in a while, so it'll be nice to go have fun with some missionaries
Love you all,
Elder Tyler Robinson

10/7/2013

Hey everyone!

We had an awesome week this week! General Conference was great, and definitely was a highlight of the week! There was some amazing talks given and a lot of great instruction for us to be better missionaries as members of the Church. 

I'm not sure I've talked about the big shift in our mission yet; For 3 zones in the mission, we've moved away from going door to door, and talking to people in a place where they feel least comfortable, and have moved to strengthening wards and branches in doing their missionary work, and then working together with those wards, bringing Zion to their friends and family. It's been an interesting move, and missionaries have found some very good success in doing this method. It is challenging to find new investigators though; It is one of those, pay it forward, and receive abundantly later methods, so it requires a lot of patience and love for those members we work with. We've been working with the members of our branch and have seen a lot of excitement with missionary work flow through the branch. We haven't seen the results of that work yet, but I'm sure it will come over time. We are just laying foundations for future missionaries.

We started the week off with FHE with YSA. It was fun...we had a competition for cake design...we lost. The cakes were really good though, so totally worth it :D The rest of the week, I worked on a new program that we will hopefully will be able to get finished this week. It will basically make life a million times easier. I love it when that happens :D Of course we also moved in 2 apartments, handled 2 emergency transfers, and a bunch of other emergency tasks through out the week. That's the life of an office elder :)

Anyway, I love you all! I hope you have a wonderful week!

Elder Tyler Robinson

09/30/2013

What a week!!!! It was awesome and busy and hard and crazy, all in one week!!! :D

So of course, I told you we went to a cardnials game...That was really fun! We actually went to two cardinals games, and if you know anything about the cardinals right now, they are doing awesome! We won all week against the Washington Nationals. Our first game was on Monday and wasn't a surprise, but we surprised the departing missionaries with a game before they left. It was the last game before playoffs. 

Anyway, I'm pretty sure I've gotten an average of 4 hours of sleep this week a day, because of our crazy schedule. We picked up the new missionaries tuesday, which was a whole lot of fun. Elder Wunderli is the new AP, so we had 5 of us to pick these new missionaries up :) We treated them...they were exhasted because their flight left early and they were woken up extremely early, but we made it through the whole process and decided on their trainers. That was a very interesting process, and I think we successfully line them up with great trainers. Needless to say, we didn't get home till 1. 

Wednesday we woke up early, picked up all the new missionaries, had transfer meeting, and then took the departing missionaries to the ball game. Had a fun time and brought them to the mission home for dinner. Of course they didn't sleep at all, so we were up all night(although I was able to get about an hour of sleep). We then ran them to the airport and got them on their flight. We were supposed to have a meeting at 2, so we went to the office, prepared for MLC(the big meeting at the end of the month...it took the entire day to prepare). We didn't get home till after 11,  but we got everything ready for the next day. 

Friday, we had MLC with all the zone leaders and Sister training leaders. I was wasted by this point haha, but it was a great meeting(I didn't fall asleep, but I was tempted :D). We kept going till bed time, and man I was out, and I still was way tired the next day! We moved in a apartment in Mt. Zion Illinois which is about 3 hours away. It's the area Elder Jensen is serving in. They were living with Elder Hoffman, and his compainions, so we took them all out to lunch! It was awesome! I love both those missionaries a lot! :)

Sunday of course was church, but we got to sit in on a meeting that our branch was having. They are working on preparing goals and a vision and a direction for next year. It was very cool to watch the leadership teach these young men and women about goals and about setting good goals that will provide amazing results! I honestly think that this branch is going to explode with activity very very soon, and we are the lucky missionaries who get to help them make it happen! How awesome is that? I'm super stoked!

Today, we went golfing, which is why this email is late. We did 9 holes with President Morgan. It was a lot of fun....I'm terrible. I hit some awesome drives, but you learn pretty quick that the real secret to the game is your short game, not your long game :)

Anyway, I love you all! I hope you have an awesome week!

Elder Tyler Robinson

9/23/2013

So, I don't know exactly what to say...This week has been extremely busy! It is transfer week this week and we spent the entire week preparing for it. We opened 5 new apartments, moved one set of missionaries out of their top floor apartment, and carried as piano upstairs at the mission home. Talk about heavy lifting. I think by the end of my mission I could be considered a fully trained professional mover :) It's been tough but we lived through it :D

This week we have also planned transfers, so we sat in with President Morgan, and the AP's and through the inspiration of the Spirit, decided the destiny of all the missionaries in the mission for the next 6 weeks. What an amazing experience! There were a lot of remarkable things that happened and this transfer will be absolutely amazing! Elder Facer, one of the AP's, is going home, and the process of picking the next assistant was absolutely awesome! It was just very cool to experience :)

This week, we have 30 new missionaries coming into the mission and 12 going home, and so we will be directly involved in making sure they have a good experience, both coming and going home, but as you would guess, it's going to be busy! :) It'll be fun :D

Anyway, I got to go...We are really crunching for time today. I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Tyler Robinson

PS We are going to two Cardinals games this week :D

9/9/2013

Well the train keeps moving forward! We are still working hard and super busy.

This last week, we had 3 zone conferences...St Louis, Springfield, and Columbia...the went pretty well. We drove Sister Morgan, coming home from both Springfield and Columbia and all I can say is that it is just the greatest blessing to have the opportunity to work with them so closely and to get to know them so personally.  

It wasn't all business though, on Monday we did get the chance to go to the city museum and we went on the roof this time. I will send pictures when I get on a computer(I'll explain in the minute). After, we went to a YSA activity. It was awesome! The YSA branch is so fun! We actually did some work for YSA this week, which meant we got to teach lessons :D Our BML is great! He set up our appointments and our fellowshipper for each lesson. We also got a couple referrals and got invited to a dinner in parkway2 ward. It's been great, but yes we are crazy busy.

So right now, I am emailing you with an ipad mini. On Friday we discussed with President Morgan about his tablets he has...the church gave him a Galaxy Tab2 to use for his work but he already had an IPad and preferred it over the Tab so he asked us to take it and use it as our means of staying productive with office work even when we are away. Well, later that day, he received in the mail an IPad Mini, so now we have a Galaxy Tab and an iPad mini to share between us and the AP's lol. For all of you who thought i wouldn't touch real tech till I got home, I'm getting a 3 month early preview :)

Anyway, we have mission conference and an ET to do today, which includes all the prep for that today. We have a second mission conference tomorrow, so it will be busy, but we'll be working hands on with Elder Godoy from the 70 :) 

Lastly, I got some awesome news about Emily Cisco last week! If you remember she was the third baptism I had in Carbondale. She is in Provo right now, going to BYU! Isn't that awesome! She rocks! :)

Anyway, I love ya'll! I hope you had a wonderful week!

Elder Tyler Robinson

9/2/2013

Another busy week.

We had 2 zone conferences and Mission Leadership Council this week and we have 3 zone conferences next week, and 2 Mission conferences the week after, which we are bringing in a 70 to our mission. So yeah, we are busy!!!

Lets see, what can I tell ya. Monday, we were busy taking missionaries to airplanes and other related emergencies lol. 

On Thursday, we went out to eat with the AP's for Elder Facer and Sister Minnard. It's a world famous resteraunt in Fairview Heights called Latawata Creek. It was soooo good. They are famous for their giant portions, and the quality. I got a huge pile of ribs and they were really good. I took pictures of other peoples meals too because they were huge too :)

On Saturday, I got some work done with the Indicators and I think I've come up with some great ideas to move the office forward in effeciency and in helping all the units as they try to increase their missionary work. It's still in process, and hopefully I'll have time to sit down this week, but it's going to be crazy for sure :)

On Sunday, we went back to the YSA branch and Evan Crowder was there :D It was awesome to see him again! We taught Sunday School, and he was just saying that it was totally surreal to be taught by one of his old investigators. Hopefully we'll be able to go out sometime here in the future :D We talked with the Branch Mission Leader about our situation and how we want to help, but also our concern that we don't want to go above what we are capable of, and he is totally down. We decided we'll plan to block off some time and then leave it to him to fill our time with appointments. This should help get some things done in the branch and get things moving. Our goal is to be traded out by full time missionaries.

Last thing before I have to go, with the mission conference we are going to have personal interviews (office Elders and AP's)...That's awesome!!! We may even end up driving him to the conferences...isn't that crazy!!! It's way cool to be in the office. We get a lot of rare experiences and opportunities for sure!

Anyway, I got to get going! Next week we won't be in a rush so I'll be able to talk a little more about the week.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Tyler Robinson

Eating at this awesome place in Fairview Heights called Latawata.  The servings are HUGE!!!

Eating at this awesome place in Fairview Heights called Latawata.  The servings are HUGE!!!

Eating at this awesome place in Fairview Heights called Latawata.  The servings are HUGE!!!

I got a giant plate of ribs as you can see :)

Eating at this awesome place in Fairview Heights called Latawata.  The servings are HUGE!!!

Eating at this awesome place in Fairview Heights called Latawata.  The servings are HUGE!!!

Eating at this awesome place in Fairview Heights called Latawata.  The servings are HUGE!!!

Elder Norton with one of the guys he taught after he went through the temple.

Elder Norton with one of the guys he taught after he went through the temple.

Elder Norton

 

8/25/2013

WHAT A WEEK!!! lol Man, it has been a crazy week!!! 

Lets see, I guess I'll start with Monday. We went golfing in the Waterloo area for P-Day. It's 5 dollars for as many balls that you can hit on the driving range and mini golf course. It was fun. I can't believe I never went when I served in Waterloo haha.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we ran Zone conferences in O'Fallon, North, and Champaign. It was rough. A lot of driving! It was nice to hear about what's happening in my old areas though. Tuscola, Weldon Spring, and Waterloo are all doing pretty well :) Waterloo is doing great actually from what I heard. It's always nice to hear good news about people you have taught.

On Friday we went to see the Cardinals play the Braves!!! :) So before you start thinkin I'm slacking off, it was actually a command from President. He asked us to take Sister Wayment(who is an office sister) because she was super bummed that she would miss it cause no one could go with her. She was soooo happy! She was smiling all day long :) She loves baseball. Her son played for the Atlanta Athletics. The Cardinals won, but it was a great game, and we kept her safe :P

Saturday, we did service with the Zone Leaders and then helped with a missionary who had a big accident this week. He stayed with us as we ran errands with us and did office work.

Sunday we went to the YSA branch. We have some news with that...We are officially the missionaries in YSA Branch. We are halving it with the Zone leaders. In that branch, Elder Crowder(Evan Crowder now...he was the missionary who taught me) is the branch assistant clerk, and the Elders Quorum President is Peter Southerland from the YSA ward I was baptized in and also the ward I left from. It was way cool. Evan wasn't there but Peter was. I talked with him a bit and we discussed the possibility of us also working in the branch. It's gonna keep us busy, that's for sure :)

Anyway, today is going to be full of meeting prep, taking missionaries to the airport, and more meeting prep, so there won't be time for any fun :( lol jk work is fun, but it is busy today! We are having an awesome time here though! I love you all! Keep your heads high and smile :D

Elder Tyler Robinson

pictures from Cardinals game

pictures from Cardinals game

pictures from Cardinals game

at the Theater(We were running an errand...we did not see any movies)

Peter Southerland from the ward I was baptized in...he's elders quorum of the YSA branch that we are taking up officially :)