Week 45 - A Language of Faith, and The Christmas Season is Upon Us!

                                                                                                                                  December 14, 2015

147 Richard Street Apt #4

Bracebridge Ontario

P1L 1J3 

Hello hello hello :) I love you! 

I hope you have had a good week! This week felt and seemed pretty uneventful. Still trying to get to know the area. Still trying to get to know the ward. But, it has been great! Sister Meleisea count ourselves very blessed! Still no snow for us! Everyone here is shocked, and are all afraid it is going to come all at once! We like to joke that Sister Meleisea and I brought all the warm weather with us :) 

A major highlight of the week was the day we spent in Brampton!Wednesday night we made the 2 hour and 15 min drive down to Brampton, spent the night with other Sisters there, and had our Christmas Zone Conference the next morning! It was a wonderful meeting filled with the spirit! One of my favorite instructions given was on a language of faith. That is one of the things Elder Perkins felt strongly that our mission could use and improve on. Coming to this new area, with a new companion, I have been able to see just how influential and important a language of faith can be! Sister Meleisea is such a happy person! It is hard to not be laughing while with her! This plays over into our contacts. When we talk to people, we are happy! We are smiling, and enjoying ourselves. I believe that as we are this way, others are able to actually see the light within us. They are more easily able to feel the spirit, and this will lead to them desiring what we have! One Brother made the remark in our Ward Council meeting yesterday that we have in our lives the Fullness of the Everlasting Gospel! What more could be better! And yet, when we come to church, and go about our lives, we often don't show it. But, as we have a language of faith, as we show our light, as we look for the good, other are going to see that. They are going to desire that! Helping others come unto Christ is going to be simple and easy! I am excited to continue to implement having a language of faith into my work! I know that we will see blessings come from that! 

It was a great Zone Conference. We sang many Christmas Carols, and enjoyed time with other missionaries and President and Sister Clayton. I got to hear Sister Maas' dying testimony- sad, but it was wonderful! She gets home on January 13th! 

The best part about it all is that our entire zone got to go to the temple after the Conference! Warmed my heart. It was a great Christmas gift! The Sudbury zone never goes to the temple because we all live so far away, so it was a major blessing!!! I loved it. We made it to the 5:15 session which meant we got out closer to 7:30/8 ish. Just in time to grab dinner, and head back to where we stayed the previous night! It was a great time. We were both exhausted the next day, but wouldn't trade it for anything! 

In comparison, the rest of the week was not too exciting. Just normal missionary stuff. We were able to do some service in a small town called Baysville. They had a Christmas Community dinner that a couple of our members were heavily involved. It was a great way to get into the community and show them we are here to serve! We also helped put out our Ward Christmas Party! Dad, you would be so proud of me! We were in charge of setting up the Projector and A Savior is Born Video, and since my companion is unfamiliar with a lot of the equipment, it was left to me. I am glad to say I did it successfully! It was a nice touch to the end of the program. 

We spent most of the day yesterday inside. Sister Meleisea had a major migraine. We were able to make it through Ward Council, Sacrament Meeting, and Sunday School before coming home so she could rest. It gave me a nice Sunday to read my scriptures, study conference talks, and get caught up on some other things around the apartment! Althouhg, by the end of it, I was practically just wandering around the apartment looking for other things to do to keep me busy and productive...She is feeling a little better today, and we are hoping that she will continue to feel better and better so that we can go out and work tonight! 

Well, I love you all! Hope you are staying warm! The Christmas Season is just around the corner! I would invite you all to check out the website if you haven't already, and share it with your friends! :) 

https://www.mormon.org/christmas/purpose-of-a-savior 

Love you! Merry Christmas!

Sister Robison 

PONDERIZE: Alma 7:10

Week 44 - Moose Meat, Bikes, and Mustaches!

                                                                                                                                December 7, 2015

Good Morning! I hope this letter is finding you all well! :) 

This has been a great week! We have worked hard and have had lots of fun while doing it! Bracebridge is a beautiful area! It kinda reminds me of a cross between Idaho- Island Park area, and Midway! Strange, but that is what comes to mind! It is a rather large area with even smaller towns. Welland had approximately 53,000 Bracebridge has 16,000. Finding new investigators is going to be fun since my companion has only been here for 6 weeks and it already sounds like she has worked over the entire town and the other small towns as well. But, I am excited. The Lord always seems to put prepared people in our path! 

This week, I had a lot of firsts! To name a few, I ate moose meat, I rode a bike in a skirt, my companion and I wore mustaches for our district meeting, we skyped in for district meeting, I am doing language study, and the list goes on! :) 

People up here eat moose. It's a regular occurrence... It tasted pretty similar to beef, but a little different.. haha! A Returning member apparently hunted the moose and then gave a ton of the meat to the missionaries! Once we get our oven fixed we are going to try and cook a Moose Roast! :D 

Our area is pretty big. I believe it would take at least an hour to get from one side to the other. Our Ward Mission Leader lives about 50 kilometers away. So, with that being said, on those days we stay in Bracebridge, we walk or ride bikes as much as we can. Save the K's! 

Sister Meleisea and I are the only sisters in our Zone. So, when we skyped in for district meeting, we couldn't help but wear some mustaches so we could fit in! :D They all got a good laugh out of it :) (We skype because for all of us to get together, many of us would be traveling for hours... So, mom and dad, there is a good chance I will be skyping at Christmas!)

Sister Meleisea is such a goof! She is from originally from Samoa. At age 17, she was adopted by a family in California who are members, and that is how she came to join the church! Her English is really good! She didn't learn much in California because her mom and some of her family there spoke Samoan. But, we have fun! She is always singing, doing something silly, or telling me funny stories. I love her! This will be her 4th transfer in the field. She has such a powerful testimony, and is a hard working missionary. I am really excited about this transfer. Our two companion ship goals are to work hard and have fun! So far, so good! 

I was able to talk to my mission president briefly at transfers. We were able to talk about my companion. She is now in a Tri in a very busy area where the work is going really well. I am sure that is going to help her a ton! We talked about my last area a little and he reassured me that next transfer, if not the one after that, missionaries would be heading back to it. And until then, some neighboring missionaries would be continuing on the work there. Then we talked about my sickness, and he gave me a blessing. He rebuked the illness and commanded my systems to all work together for my good. He blessed me with added strength to go out and do the Lord's work. It was a really special experience. I don't think I have ever had so many priesthood blessings in my life... I think I had 4 in 1 transfer... 2 from my mission president, and 2 from my zone leaders! But, after the blessing, pain and sick feeling from my stomach subsided and went away. I checked my throat the next day, and the white dots were gone! I was still experiencing some pain in my throat throughout the week though. However, this morning, I woke up and it was gone. I know that is because of the prayers and fasts that were said for me. Thank you so much. I am so grateful for this gospel. It is true. The Priesthood is real. Fasting is real. God loves all of us! He loves me, and he loves you! :) The last thing President Clayton said to me before I headed out the door to find my new companion was hat what I did this past transfer was hard, but now he just wants me to work hard and have fun! That is exactly what we are doing, and what I plan on doing for the rest of my time on the mission! Time is going to just fly by! That is a scary thought... but good at the same time! 

Know that I am really happy! I love my area. I love my companion. I love feeling better and being able to do the work! I have not heard from Dr. Opper yet and don't really know if I will. But, things are going well! The ward is very loving! They have tons of activities throughout the month so I will be able to get to know them well! It is great! The amount of people might be somewhat small, but their hearts are big! Get this, our bishop is only 30 years old! So young! Its great though! 

Thank you for everything! I hope you all have a good week! Have fun, read your scriptures, and laugh lots! :) Love you! 

Uso Ropeni

(Sister Robison in Samoan! :D) 

PONDERIZE 3 Nephi 18:24

Week 43 - Be Careful What You Pray For.......The Frozen Chosen!

                                                                                                                   November 30. 2015
So, this week was good and weird and fun and strange and so on... :) 

A note to the family! I love you! I am so glad you had the missionaries over for Thanksgiving dinner! It is so nice when we get to join a nice family for their family holidays! Makes it actually feel a little like a holiday! To be honest, even with all the festivities, I don't feel like I am that Homesick at all. There is too much for me to do and think about here to be worried about or thinking about being home and doing all that great stuff! It is a good thing! :) 

So, Transfer News! I will be moving to what I believe is the Northernmost zone in the mission! Sudbury Zone! BRRRRR!  I will be in Bracebridge with Sister Meleisea! I believe she if from Tonga or Samoa! I am super excited! It sounds like it is going to be fun! The Welland Bishop laughed at the idea of a Las Vegas girl way up North. :) (We have had really good weather here in Welland lately! It has only dropped below 0 cel a handful of times!) Sister Edwards, my companion right now, will be going to Cambridge in the Kingston Zone in a trio with 2 other wonderful Sisters! We are excited. The hardest part was finding out that our area will be closed for a while due to lack of missionaries to fill areas... It broke our hearts a little... It's sad, but I know that God has a plan, and this is probably just what the Welland ward needs right now! The members here are absolutely wonderful! I have grown to love so many of them over the past 5 months, and it is going to be hard to leave! I just hope that I have done what I needed to to help them all learn, grow, and come closer to the Savior! 

Last Sunday, we participated in a car fast! This meant we were on foot or getting rides everywhere! With that being said, we decided to walk to church and be obedient and do our best! The idea behind it was that we would talk to people we saw along the way. We walked for an hour and half, and talked to 5 people... :) But, the neat thing was that the next day, 2 new investigators literally fell into our lap! We loved it! J and G. J has been meeting with missionaries for about a year! At one point, she was actually baptized, but never confirmed.... Anyways, she came to visit her boy friend for a few days and ended up getting kicked out of her place, loosing all her stuff, and long story short, they are now living together and engaged! G is super sweet. He wants to join the US Marines! He claims he doesn't believe in God. We think it's more that he doesn't want to admit there is a God for various reasons. None the less, they are awesome! We were able to have a few visits with them throughout the week, then Friday, they came to the Ward Christmas Party, and stayed to the end! They also came to all 3 hours of church on Sunday, and G even borrowed his brother's suit! And then to top it all off, That evening they came to a Why I Believe Fireside! This has been awesome! This has also given the ward a great opportunity to get to know them, and love them, and now take care of them! 

As for my illness... Well, this week we drove out to Brantford to be seen by a Dr.Opper! He is a member, and while he is not working and doing what he does, he sees sick missionaries! I got some blood work done this morning, and we are waiting to hear back from that to know what the next step is. If it is Mono, like he think it might be, then I will just work through it as best I can! (If I go home now, I will never get back out!) If it is not, then I will most likely go to an ENT and see what else can be done. ... Regardless, I am learning how to go about using the atonement in a very different way! I have to rely on My Savior for help and energy to get through parts of the day and still function. It is a little frustrating feeling like I am not able to give the work my all, but I have come to realize I still am, my all right now just isn't exactly where it was a couple months ago. Hey, God answers prayers! I prayed to be humbled. I just didn't think it would come like this! :D 

Anyways, I love you all! Thank you for all that you have done and continue to do for me! I hope you have a good week! Here I go, off to be one of the truly frozen chosen! :) 

Much love! Sister Robison