This week has been good. We've been working hard! We were able to set another investigator with a baptismal date! Woot woot! Our investigator Gord! Gord is awesome! He is the one who has trouble remembering things. When he was pretty young, he was in a bad car accident. He flew out of the front window, and since then struggles to remember. Well, we have been striving to get him more involved with things! He now comes out regularly to the Ward Volleyball Night every Wednesday! And, he comes out to church practically every Sunday! Yay Gord! This past week, we were teaching and talking about repentance with him. Sister Cliften, acting upon promptings of the spirit that we all had but Sister Meleisea and I chose to ignore, invited Gord to be baptized! He has been invtied many times before, and the missionaries have set a few different baptismal dates for him, but this time was different. She extended the invite out of love, and Gord's only response was, "When?" We then all sat there looking at each other- we hadn't even prepared to have a date for him! Finally, to brake the silly silence, I asked, "When would you like to be baptized?" To which he sat back in his chair, smiled, gave some good thought, and replied, "May 1st!" We are happy and excited for him! It's a long ways out, but it is very realistic for him. He has cut down a great deal on his smoking the past few months or so. He's gone from smoking a pack a day to smoking less than half a pack! He knows he needs to stop, and knows that he can do this by May! It's awesome to see how he is progressing! And, how much getting him involved and members involved has helped that!
Miracles are happening every day! Sometimes, they are easy to overlook! This week, we worked hard. We didn't find a "Birthday Family" though :( in fact, we didn't find any new investigators this week. But, that is okay! There are other miracles to draw off of and there are also things to learn from, and improvement that can be made! Lots of learning and growing all the time! :)
This week I was reflecting a lot on goals that I have set. It is easy to grow impatient and loose faith! While studying Faith in PMG under Christ like Attributes, I was reminded that doubt and fear are opposed to faith. I think lately I've fallen into the habit of counting down the time that I have left on the mission, and as I view it, the time that I have left to do full-time missionary work and help others. Doing this has caused doubt and fear to creep in. I am afraid I won't be able to do all the wonderful things that I want to in the time left. I am afraid of the life to come after the mission. I am afraid that I will forget and loose some of the important habits I have formed while being here in the mission. There is a lot to look forward to after the mission, but a lot to be afraid of as well! So, I've made a new goal- stop counting down. I don't need to think about all of that right now! I just need to focus and get to work!
This morning, we got a call from President Clayton. Sister Cliften's grandfather passed away last night. If you could please keep her and her family in your thoughts and prayers that would be much appreciated. Adjusting to missionary life is hard enough as it is, and I can't imagine how hard it would be adding that to the equation. She said he has been sick for a while, and she knew he would pass before she got home, but that still doesn't always make it easy. Sister Cliften is amazing though! She is like a sponge. She is just soaking everything right on up! She is motivated by her fear, and is always excited to get out and go to work! She is a hard worker and is learning quickly. I am excited to see the great things she does and accomplishes on the mission!
Thank you so much for the Birthday package family! I LOVED it! I loved the Beaver Shirt! As well as the Hawaiian Chocolates, and the Yo-yo, and the silly putty, and the rubix cube, and the socks! While going through it, I just got this overwhelming sense that you know me perfectly! It was perfect! :) I had a good day! The members were awesome! We had cake twice that night, and then again the next day. The members took good care of me! I hope you did enjoy those pictures from the Archers! It was fun taking those :)
Well, this week is going to be good. We have two days of exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders which will be fun! And then, on Thursday we will travel up to Sudbury for a Zone meeting and interviews with President and Sister Clayton! I am excited. It is always a great and revelatory experience! The weather is supposed to rise about 0 this week for a little, we will have to pull out our fall coats! Jokes, but that will be nice to have some warmer days! :)
I love you! I know that the Plan of Salvation is true. Through it I know that families can be together forever upon being sealed in the temple through the restored priesthood authority of God. I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. He loves us, and He has a plan for us. Pray to Him, and He will guide and direct you for good. Stay safe, stay warm (or cool mom and dad)!
Sister Robison
PONDERIZE: Alma 26:22
One more thing! I have to tell you about this funny story.
On Wednesday, they had a World-Wide Missionary Broadcast! It started at 10 amin Utah, so 12pm in Ontario! We had been asked to view it from our buildings, and to have it all ready to go, and be in our seats by 11:30 so we could study and feel the spirit. To be safe, we figured we would get to the chapel an hour early to get everything set up. We had talked with a brother from the ward the night before just to go through how to get everything we needed up and running. We get to the chapel, and start trying to set things up, and couldn't get it to work. Of course the brother that we talked to the night before was not answering his phone.. :) So, we tried setting up the broadcast in another room with some other equipment, and no luck. We then tried going to the Family History Center and getting it on the computer, but the password to log into the broadcast was blocked on our screen so we coudln't log into that either. We basically ran around frantically for 50 minutes until the brother we had spoken with the night previous finally gave us a call back. The solution was so simple- clean of the Satellite in the parking lot! So, in the rush that we were, we all grabbed brooms and shovels from the chruch, and charged outside with no coats or gloves to clean off the satellite. After hard scrubbing for 5 minutes we turned around to run back in with only about 3 minutes before the broadcast was supposed to start, only to find out the doors were locked... We had left the keys inside, forgetting that we never unlocked the doors. Luckily I was still talking to the good brother as we were grabbing the shovels and brooms and running out- so I had the phone on me. We called some members who lived pretty close, and they came to our rescue! When we ran into the church, everything was working, and we were able to sit down and watch the rest of the broadcast with no problem- only being 7 minutes late! The broadcast ended up being awesome. In short we learned that we need to Teach Repentance, and Baptize Converts!
It was one of those experiences where you are just sitting there the whole time telling yourself, this is going to make a great story some day! We just had to laugh. Good times, good times. :) LOVE YOU!
