Week 58 - I "mustache" you a question!

                                                                                                                                        March 14, 2016

To the soon to be Elder Robison in the CTM! Welcome welcome! You are going to love it here! I am so excited for you!!! President and Sister Clayton are wonderful! You are going to love them!  The CTM is headed in a wonderful direction under their guidance and direction. Get pumped for the best 2 years of your life! :) 

In other news, things are going really well here in Napanee! We've been working hard, and it is showing. This past week we were able to fill up the entire progress record! It was sweet! That basically means that we were able to see and teach a lot of people and had a lot of things to report on! First time in a while if not ever it's been that full. Miracles are taking place! This whole transfer, Sister Thomas and I have been making sure we are prayerfully setting goals and THEN making plans. We are starting to see miracles as we do this! This past week we came super close to hitting if not achieving most of our goals! I love it. I feel that we are more in tune with the spirit, more driven to work harder, and there is more of a purpose to the things that we are doing. It is neat to see the difference that setting goals and then making plans can have in the work! We had 21 lessons this past week and almost achieved all of the other standards of excellence! Those are as follows: 

Investigators- finding 2 new investigators and 2 investigators at church

New Converts- contacting all of the NC in your area, having at least 50% of your new converts at church

Returning Members- having at least one Rm at church. 

BTW, I don't know if I have mentioned this before but we now keep track of numbers for all of these categories. It's been a little crazy, but it is awesome and helpful. We have a way to track all of our progress with those we are working with. 

But, the one we fell short of was 2 investigators at church. Mike and Tiffany, our awesome investigator family, forgot to change their clocks.. Silly!  

Speaking of Mike and Tiffany, they are doing awesome! One of the nights this week, we were randomly invited over for dinner- yuumm! After, we did Family History with them! Tiffany loved it! She was so funny and so anxious to get all the information in! It was fun! ... While she was doing that, Mike pulled down this 3D pen they had. Needless to say, before we left that night, Tiffany had started her family history, and we each had a wonderful fake plastic mustache. :{D 
 We also had a good FHE with Mike and Tiffany, their LA neighbor friend that they rounded up, and some active members! We left after 20 minutes and when we followed up with the members, they remarked that they spent the next hour there just talking to and visiting with them. They talked to the Mike and Tiffany about all of their concerns and they were able to ask them questions and just bond. It was wonderful! We are excited for the progress they are making. Mike and Tiffany told our members that they know everything we've been teaching them is true. They just need sometime to overcome some Word of Wisdom concerns. We are SO excited for them! :) They'll definitely get baptized some day! All in their own time and own way. :) 

ALSO! Another miracle! We've been working with a couple- Steve and Terrilynn. Terrilynn is a member. She has been starting to come back to church! Steve is not a member but comes with Terrilynn to church every week! Terrilynn was previously married, thought she got a divore, and then got married to Steve! But, turns out their divorce didn't go through and all of this other stuff... Long story short, they can't progress in the gospel because the aren't actually married... But, this is where the miracle comes in! The ward council members were able to sit down with Terrilynn yesterday and go through different things with her and they are going to help her and Steve get everything sorted out! Yay!!! They are hoping to have it all straightened out within the next 3 months! We are so excited. We have started to reteach them both everything to help them strenghten and solidify their testimonies in preparation for the things to follow! :) 

Anyways, this week has been wonderful. We've been amazed at the different times we've been led by the spirit to those who are prepared, seeking, or even led to know what to teach those that we are working with. It's been a hard week- don't get me wrong. There was a night where we were both crying on the floor... that's another story in and of itself. But, it's been a good week! We are learning and growing and loving it! :) 

The gospel is true and its amazing! I know that Christ loves and knows each of us! He lived, died, and lives again! Because of Him, we too can live again, and even better, we can live with the ones we love for time and all eternity! :) 

I love you! Have a great week! 

Sister Robison 

Me at an LDS Memorial Plack in Bath- another small town/village in our area! 

Inspiration seeking before hitting the pavement (tracting/oyming/doorknocking and so forth) in the area! :)

 Mike and Tiffany and their 3D pen mustaches! 

Sister Thomas and her Poutine! From a place called the Spud Box! We stopped there with our members after doing a Sacrament meeting service at an old folks home about a hour north of Napanee! 

-We made Jello. We were very excited :) 

-A gift we put together for Mike and Tiffany! They gave us some antique tea cups and saucers and a german beer stein with a music box in the bottom. They are random and wonderful! :) anyways, we thought we would give something back! A picture of Jesus, the Provo city center and Las Vegas temples and us with their gifts, then as well a family a proclamation to the world! Tee hee :) 

Week 57 - Mind your own biscuits and life will be Gravy!

                                                                                                                                                           March 7, 2016


Well this week has been crazy! I can't believe I've only been in Napanee for two weeks! It feels like so much longer! -which is a good thing! It's been up and down and basically all over this week! 

Some notable things:  

Tuesday morning, prior to going out, we had prayed that we would be effective with our time and achieve all of our goals. As we went out, within the first 15 minutes, all of our plans and back up plans for the morning fell through! yikes! We were supposed to have a meeting with a potential, drop by and contact a LA referral, and a few other things. Turns out we couldn't find the potential's address that he gave us and the less active member wasn't home... Sad day! So, we decided to stop by one of our returning members to drop off some family history things. As we were coming out, we got a call from a sweet old lady named Shirley! Missionaries had helped Shirley a little while back when she had her knee replaced! She recently had her other one replaced and was again in need of some more help! We immediately started heading to her house in a neighboring town about 15 minutes away. It just so happens that Shirley lives RIGHT NEXT DOOR to the potential we were looking for! Holy moly! We were stunned. It was neat. He wasn't there after when we went to stop by. She wasn't interested in hearing our message. But, it was another little sign that God is listening to and answers our prayers! :) 

Our investigators Mike and Tiffany are awesome! We are really focusing on building their faith in Christ! We also picked up their friend/roommate Ben! He is super cool and super interested! The other night, we decided to share with them the "Because He Lives" video from 2014. I wish I had a picture of their faces after. It was sweet! Mike and Ben especially loved it! It is so neat to see these three grow in the gospel! They are making leaps and bounds! Each of them come from  a past where Christ was not very prevalent. He wasn't apart of their lives at all. But, now, they are learning about him. They are praying. They are reading their scriptures. They are coming to church! It is so neat to see how the gospel, the true gospel, really changes people and families! I am so grateful to be a missioanry :) Sister Thomas and I are like 99% sure they are going to join the church! We don't know when, but someday, they will! :) 

I might have mentioned this last week, but I am the only piano player in the branch! Woot! It is good fun! The nice thing is that they don't even care if I mess up! They love it more than the tapes they were using! It is fun to help and contribute in that way! And, it always feels good to play and practice the piano hymns! I am grateful for the simplified hymns book! Chords and melody. It's my best friend! This week we will be going up North in our area for a special Sacrament Meeting with people in a retirement home. I will play there- Wednesday. Then, I will play on Friday- district meeting. Then, of course, Sunday! mmmm good times :) 

As a missionary we have secret code words we use to describe how we are doing! Green means wonderful! Yellow is okay. and then it continues down with orange and red. Well, Friday, sister Thomas and I were both definitely Orange... Niether of us are completely sure what spurred it.. It just came. We basically halted our missionary work. We had to sit and talk through the things each of us were feeling (side note: it wasn't a struggle within our companionship. We get along really really well! Sometimes it feels like we are the same person... But, just each had personal struggles... (: ) we took time to individually pray and read some scriptures and other resources we have to pull from as a missionary, and so forth. Ultimately, we both came to the same conclusion. We need Christ! We need to depend on Him more. 

*Warning, I might go a little King Benjamin* But, you see, missionary work is so cool. SO COOL! Why? Because it's not even our work! It's the Lord's! It is so so so easy to get caught up in numbers and "look at everything I did" but in all reality, we as missionaries do next to nothing. I mean, yes, we play an important part, but it is the Lord and the Spirit that guide the work and do all the converting! As a missionary, I am just the mouth piece! It is also cool because the work is so much bigger than just you and I! So much more! Working in the branch is challenging, but also fun. Heavenly Father has such great plans for this area, and it is searching out how to help. What more can we do? What does the branch/  active member/ less active member/ investigator need? and so on. The work is so much larger than me. There is so much more to it. I know that there is a reason I am here serving in this area, serving with my wonderful companion Sister Thomas. I know there are things that we need to do here! And, it might just be laying ground work, and that's okay! As long as we continue to rely on Christ, and strive to do His work and His will, we can take heart knowing that we have been successful as we have been about Our Father's business. I will stop my rambles. But, it was neat. I needed to be reminded of whom I needed to have my faith in. Who I need to turn to when things get rough. Who is really in charge of the work. And, it has helped a lot. Christ is great. I am grateful! 

Recently I was asked what my favorite thing about being a missionary is, and I thought I might share! My favorite thing about being a missionary is listening to and following the promptings of the Spirit to help others. It is the neatest thing. To be able to see and know that in this great work, Heavenly Father finds a way to work through imperfect people to bless the lives of others! I love knowing that I can communicate with Heavenly Father, receive revelation, and then act upon it to help others. That is my favorite thing about being a missionary. :) 

Well, I probably rambled a lot... I don't know if all my thoughts make sense... but, none the less, I hope you enjoy! :) I love you all! I am so grateful for all your love and support! Remember that Christ is there. He reaches our reaching! He loves us. On March 13th, check out the Easter Website for this year! The video is, as usual, awesome and inspiring! :) 

I love being a missionary! It is always up and down and up and down, but it's great. I love doing the Lord's work! God bless! 

Sister Robison