December 23, 2014 ~ С Рождеством!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!  This week was pretty good.  We met with tons of less actives (this branch is really struggling - the attendance goes down almost everyweek and has been for a while actually) who were great!  They are all so cool, I just am not really sure why they don't come to church. However, we do have a less active who we are meeting with and she is totally on fire!!  She's coming to church and wants to go to the temple and she's volunteering to do things in the branch to help out and she is trying to get like all of her friends to meet with us and the best part is that her husband is an investigator and doing really well!  We do service with him sometimes.  Awesome family!  They are going to be the strength of the branch!  It's really interesting, I haven't noticed this problem in other branches, but most of the members are actually married to members, but only one of them comes to church every week.  None of them come as couples.  Either the husband is active and the wife is not, or the wife is active and the husband is not.

Oh!  Another miracle!!  We finally met with a less active this week (the less active husband of an active wife) and it was awesome!! He's been less active for 13 years and my companion said that he tried for 5 transfers to meet with him last time he was here and never was able to, but this week we did!  And  it was awesome!!  he was asking questions and actually saying things that were kind of in testimony form and totally wanted us to come back!!  Such a miracle!  Also he agreed that he would read the BOM everyday with his wife!  BTW that is something that my companion challenges every couple to do and I really like it.  Therefore, I challenge you all to read the BoM every single day with your families!  I won't really have an effective way to check up and make sure it is happening, but I just assume that you all will be doing it.  That is another thing that I really have learned from this companion, is checking up with investigators AND members, active and less active about the assignments we give them.  He even asks them over the phone when he calls, but it's never in a naggy way, always in kind of a "hey this is only going to benefit you" way.  It's great!  Then he always reminds them do it.  It's a really great example. 

Yesterday was wonderful!!  We FINALLY got the conference liahonas!!!!!!  I've been waiting so long for them and they finally came!!  I've already reread most of the morning session on saturday and they are just as good as I remember them!!!  Read them!! Don't just read them though, apply them!!  Make the decision before you read them to change whatever you need to in your lives to exactly follow the counsel if the General Authorities.  Don't wait until after you read them to decide if that is a gospel principle you should put forth the effort to apply in your lives.  I promise you are only denying yourselves blessings if you do that.  In addition to reading the BoM as a family everyday, doing the things our leaders ask us to do, they only ask us to do because it will benefit us. 

On a funny note for the week I guess, I'm not sure what it is, but this is the slipperiest city ever.  I've started a little count in my planner because I have slipped about every other day since the beginning of the transfer, sometimes twice a day.  And my companion hasn't fallen once.  I was actually due to fall yesterday, but didn't so well see what today does to me haha. 

Merry Christmas everyone!!!  Everyone go and watch Elder nelson's talk from the Christmas devotional this year.  We watched it in church yesterday and I LOVED it!!!  It was so good!!  How grateful I am for our Savior Jesus Christ!  I am so grateful that he gives us the opportunity to change and become happier people.   Our branch President said something yesterday that I really liked.  He said a sacrifice is a gift to the one we love.  When we live the Gospel and keep ALL of the commandments, sometimes it ends up being a sacrifice, but that sacrifice is really just our gift to the One who gave us an even greater gift. 

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Elder Robison

December 16, 2014 ~ Crazy Week

This week was so crazy, but awesome!!!  On Tuesday, my last night in Petergof, we ended up having 4 lessons!!!  That was super awesome!! Then we had transfers on wednesday and I got a nice bob-cart for my suitcase cause one of the wheels isn't very cooperative.  Then we had to stay in the city until night to wait for our train, which is the next awesome thing!!  I rode on a night train!!  Like Harry Potter style where you have your own cabin and stuff.  It was pretty cool, I slept really well haha.  And we pulled into Petro (Petrozavodsk) about 6:40 am.  Then from there the craziness started.  One of our investigators picked us up in his sketchy mercedes van from the 60's and we helped him move some rusty pipes out from the basement of the branch building.  Then we had to go to the dentist for some reason then I forgot what we did that night, but I'm sure it was cool.  This area btw is super pretty!!  I love it here!  Saturday we went with a member and met with a few investigators.  We've also met with a few really cool less actives (not sure why they are less active).  Also my companion is great!  Speaks English pretty well and always helps me with Russian.  Its been cool.  And this is his 7th transfer here I think so he nows everything super well and is really good friends with all the members.  He's a pro at setting up meetings and stuff.  He's been really great!  I've already learned a lot from him (not just language) and I'm sure I'm going to learn a lot more.  I'm really excited! 

 

Also we have a senior couple!!!  I love it, they are so hilarious!!!  We have dinner at their appartment on sundays and yesterday I was in the bathroom there and I heard them talking and I think I heard them say that their names are Bob and Sue...  I didn't ask, but I thought that was funny.  Also a sign that another Bob and Sue that I know and love should think about getting their papers put in...:)  Seriously.  Senior couples are the BEST!

 

I think that's all for this week.  Its really all been a blur we've just been running from appointment to appointment with all sorts of people.  I've been really enjoying it.  This transfer is going to be awesome!!!

 

Have a great week!!

Elder Robison

December 9, 2013 ~ Mixed Feelings.

Well despite the fact that this was probably one of the best weeks of my entire mission, I do have some mixed feelings about this next one.  We got transfer calls on Saturday and I am being moved to

Petrozavodsk...  and I will get another native companion!  He's from Moscow and actually its funny cause I was on a split with him my first transfer and it was so fun!  He's hilarious and I'm really excited that I get to serve with him (this is his last transfer).  Also since we are really far away from the city (9 hour train ride north ish) there is a senior couple there too and I am so excited!!! I've never been in an area with a senior couple, but everyone says its the best so I'm really looking forward to it!  So those are the good things about this next transfer.  However I know that I've only been here 1 transfer, but I am absolutely heartbroken to be leaving this branch.  I love them so much!!  I can't even express it enough.  I think that was probably one of the hardest things I've done on my mission so far was saying good bye too all those amazing members.  But President and Sister Clark were there and President asked me over the pulpit while he was speaking if I wanted to come back.  Of course I said yes and he said he would try to get me back here.  So It's not the end, but still not fun.

Anyways, we had the most ridiculous night of miracles ever on friday.  We had a lesson set up with an investigator and a member was there to help us then right after that lesson another lesson with another investigator set up.  The first investigator couldn't make it, he was going to be really late so we had about 45 min with our member before the next lesson.  So we decide to go contacting with him!  That was interesting haha, he is so passionate and agressive about it.  We saw this lady carrying some heavy bags and we asked if we could help and miracle # 1 she said yes! (that never happens even if she's like the frailest babyshka ever and she's carrying a ton of bricks - they like to do it themselves).  Anyways we talk to her all the way back to her appartment (how convenient that she lives right behind the branch) and ended up giving her a BOM and then she wanted to come see the branch that night.  So as we walk in with her, our other investigator shows up (our miracle guy from the thanksgiving party last week). We give them both a tour then drop off the lady we contacted in the relief society room with the RS president who happened to be there and went to another room and had a lesson with this other guy (I know it sounds like we ditched that woman which we kinda did, but I promise it didn't offend her nor was it weird cause its Russia and nothing here is normal).  Then our member and guy investigator leave to catch the train back to their city (they live in the same city and thus rode the train together (perfect!) and then the other lady promised to come to church on Sunday.  Fast forward 2 days and we are siiting in church and none of our investigators came and President and his wife are there (awkward) and then as president is making his little closing testimony we hear the door open so we run back there and its this woman!!  However she came because she felt bad that she promised to come and then didn't and also to return the BOM claiming that she was going to stay orthodox.  Boo.  But she came in and sang the closing hymn with us and stuff the the sisters pounced on her right after the close (we told them about her and to be ready) and she said she'd stay for the 2nd 2 hours cause she was already there.  So long story short apparently she really enjoyed it cause the sisters have a meeting set up with her Thursday and she took back the BOM she tried returning to me!!  This is such a miracle area!!

Another huge miracle!  We met with one of our investigators this week who was found right at the end of last transfer, but has not really been progressing.  She brought her own BOM to the lesson and had finally started reading AND underlined some of the parts she really liked!  One of the verses she underlined was 1 Nephi 3:7 for all you scripture mastery people out there.  I was so happy and what was even better was that you could see the change and growing testimony that was starting to take place with her.  The spirit was so strong.  Petergof is full of miracles waiting to happen.  Something huge is going to happen here soon, I know it.  And hopefully I'll be back for it!!!

So funny story.  We were trying to take a district picture with a self timer and stuff so I started it and ran to try

Oops...

and get in the picture and slipped and slid all the way across the room and smashed into the wall which put a huge hole in the drywall of the branch... awkward.  one of the sisters cameras caught it so perfectly it is an amazing picture, but yeah.  I put a hole in the wall of the church...  I called the branch president that night and told him and told him that I'd pay for it and everything and he was like "eh whatever we'll get it fixed" and I show up to church yesterday and there were tables and chairs moved in front of it.  Still totally visible, but I guess its not that important haha.

Also last thing.  This morning we had some time before the library opened so we stopped into a pravoslavny temple cause I've always wanted to see what it's like and they were doing a service some sort of something.  They were all holding candles while the priest was jingling bells and some smoke or something was coming out of it while he was chanting.  It was really interesting, actually just like in the movies or like I pictured it.  The only thing is that it was just so dark in there.  They had like no lights on, only candles burning. As we were walking I was thinking about that in comparison to our temples where everything is bright and white and there is so much  light all around. Really interesting experience.  I am so grateful for the gospel in my life and all the light that it brings.  Not physical light of course, but light and happiness!  Such a blessing!  I love it!  

Have a great week!

Elder Robison

December 2, 2013 ~ День Благодарения - праздник чудес!

Well this week was thanksgiving apparently (for some reason I thought it was last week).  But for thanksgiving dinner my companion and I made щи (Russian cabbage soup) which we learned how to make at a members house last p-day and it was delicious!  So that was fun, then on Saturday there was a branch activity for thanksgiving even though it is not a russian holiday, the members here just love any reason to get together and they love the missionaries so they wanted to do thanksgiving for us.  It was so awesome!!  We had basically everything there to eat that we do at home with a Russian twist.  I loved it!  And it was such a miracle cause as it was starting there wasn't really anyone there which was disappointing, but people all trickled in and turned out to be 33 people there!!! Huge miracle!  I know you all are probably thinking that it must have been the lamest activity ever with so few people, but lets keep in mind that in this little miracle branch, there are 7 active members.  And we felt pretty good about ourselves cause we had 5 investigators there between the sisters and us and 3 less actives!! One of the investigators was a huge miracle that I'll try and not forget to tell you about.  Funny though, because we (the elders) made jello cause what is Thanksgiving/ a mormon party without jello and apparently Russians have absolutely no concept of what it is.  They were all putting it on top of their pie as some sort of a topping.  We had a good laugh about that.  Afterwards when we finished cleaning up, the branch president (have I mentioned before that he is from Cuba?) told us that that was the best Thanksgiving activity they've ever had (they do this every year)!  We were pretty happy.

So now about this miracle investigator.  Friday night we decided to stop by this family's appartment who have been meeting with the missionaries on and off for about 10 years, and we just wanted to get to know them and introduce ourselves.  They are super nice, but then as we started their son (who honestly I thought was like 14 but I get he's older) just starts blasting us with all sorts of anti information and questions and just keeps going on and on and doesn't give us a chance to say anything.  Anyway, we told them that we had to go and catch our bus to go back home (cause we did, it was getting late) and this other guy that was there too (but never said anything the whole time) left at the same time as us.  So we told the family we'd call and come and see them again cause aside from all that they are super nice and love the missionaries, and we leave.  And so does this other guy and when we got outside and he looked like he was waiting for something so we say goodbye and start walking away.  Then we notice that he is awkwardly following us and so he catches up and I start talking to him and turns out he is the friend of this family's son so we invite him to the thanksgiving party (the next day) and we also invited this family earlier (but ended up praying for them to not come, which they didn't - God answers prayers both ways!!).  Anyways this guy came!!  And enjoyed it and we got his number and agreed to meet with us!  Huge miracle that came out of a disaster lesson! 

And kind of along the same lines (the disaster part) I have to tell you this hilarious story that happened in church yesterday.  So this guy comes into sacrament meeting towards the end and he's been there before, but totally not interested in the church (branch president told me that he thinks that he alone in the world is fighting against evil) but he every once in a while shows up at church to ask for money to help him start some eco project (not really sure).  Anyways We start singing the closing hymn and I hand him a hymn book and he asks me for a Book Of Mormon that he can take.  So I was all excited (after being bummed that none of our investigators came to church) thinking that was finally wanting to start investigating (he was also at the thanksgiving thing).  So of course I gave him one then after sacrament meeting he goes up and asks the branch president if he can make an announcenment (so of course I'm thinking great!  He's going to announce that he's going to get baptized!).  Lets just say that's not what he wanted to say.  He gets up there at the podium and starts talking about how God's greatest creation is the earth and how we need to love our neighbor cause that is a commandment of God and then holds up the Book Of Mormon and says that it breaks God's commandments because there are wars in it and we as a church are breaking commandments because we don't love our neighbors cause we won't give him money for his own church and projects and stuff and says some other weird stuff that I don't remember and them branch president gets up and stops him and they kinda start arguing a little bit and our branch president was like "umm have you ever read the old testament, there are tons of wars in it, and besides that, the Book of Mormon...." I can't remember what he said and then is like "This is Christ's church and we preach His gospel, not the Gospel of man, but if you want to go and start your own church and preach what you want to people, go ahead, but not here".  Of course I was concerned about how all of our members were reacting cause all of them in this branch (active at least) besides the branch president, have been members for less than 3 years (although they are some of the strongest and most dedicated I have ever seen in my entire life).  I look around at them and I have to say that Russians really show no emotion and keep really straight faces in public even when funny things happen, but I looked around and they were all kinda just smirking a little bit and rolling their eyes cause they know this guy is crazy. I was relieved and also relieved that none of our investigators were there to see that. 

This area is so funny.  There really are the weirdest people here and I love it!  

Our biggest problem with people is getting them to read and to come to church and as I've been reading more my testimony has grown so much and I know that book is true!  I love it!  I was watching a talk by President Hinckley yesterday and he said, talking about the Book Of Mormon, something to the effect of "I cannot understand why the whole Christain world does not readily accept this book, which testifys as a second witness of Jesus Christ."  It was way better than that, but something like that, I can't remember exactly, but I 100% agree with him!  It's such a gift!  Read it!  It's true!  have a great week!

November 25, 2013 ~ Blessings come to those who wait

This week was awesome!!!  So great!  I love this area/branch so much!!  They are absolutely the best, I really don't want to leave here!  I think I'll be here for a while:) 

We had lots of meetings this week which is a little out of the ordinary, but so good!  We had a really good zone conference this week too.  Those are always nice to get you reenergized and going again. 

We met with some guy from pakistan in a cafe this week, that was interesting... especially when 50 cent started playing really loud. 

Oh, also our english group started here and we had this super awesome family come!! so cool! 

Thats all for this week - it's taken me almost all my time to figure out how to finally send a stupid picture - not an easy task here.

Till next week!
Elder Robison

Russian "Smile"

Austin's Smile

Palace in Russia

Austin and his companion lived in a building behind the Orange building.

November 18, 2013 ~ Adventures on the Electric Train

Well all, I don't really have a whole lot to say this week, except for how much I love this branch so much!!!  The like 10 active members here are absolutely 10 of my favorite people in the entire world I love them so much!!  

This week we met with a few people - all really interesting people.  Also hahah while I'm thinking about it, we got this really weird txt from a potential from like a transfer or 2 ago and we looked up who he was on the potential list and there was quite a lengthy description.  The other Elders met with him once or twice before they found out that 1 (this is my own assumption that this man is crazy) 2) well, for the sake of some readers, he turns out to not be the safest of people to be hanging around.  So, we ignored his txt.  Then throughout the next few hours he sent us 2 more and wasn't happy that we didn't respond, claiming that is txts were a lost souls cry for help and we denied it.  So we decided to text him back and ask if he wanted to meet.  Then he said to call him in a few days.  We will be calling tonight.  I'm pretty sure this guy is legitimately crazy.  But a meeting with him could make for an interesting story, however we aren't stupid and will only be meeting with him during the day, in public somewhere. 

Anyways yeah, met with a few interesting people - none of them are super progressing, but they have potential!  Just have to help them find the desire.. that is really one thing that seems to be lacking here is the desire to know truth and then act upon it.  We really have been blessed though.  This is the smallest area I've been so far I'm pretty sure and we've had more meetings than I have any transfer before.

Also funny story.  So we usually get back and forth to Peter on the electric train and on one end of the line is St. Petersburg and on the other end of the line is Kaliche.  We get off about in the middle of it.  So this week we decided to go all the way to the end and see what was there (since it's in our area still).  We get there and people seem to be super confused as to who we are (also lets keep in mind that this city is probably bigger than other 4 "cities" (all 4 right in a row and we are there all the time cause they are so tiny) in our area combined  so of course we are just so excited cause there is comparatively so much here.  And then I remembered how when I was in Sestroretsk (on the other side of the finnish gulf - we can see it from our area) and the big Island was in our area, we went there to go check it out and then found out later than that city is not open for preseliting yet (but don't worry, I got right on that and asked president to do whatever he needed to to get it open - and it did open right after I was transfered out...) so the same thought flashed across my mind in this city.  So to be safe, we called the office Elders and asked them and they said they'd call us back if there were any problems.  Then a little while later we get a txt saying that that city is not technically part of St. Petes and we are not legally allowed to be there (my question then - why is it shown on the map as in our area?...).  I think Russia has some weird laws about going to other cities.  You have to be registered to be there.  Not just us, but all citizens, its weird.  Anyways, Our fun was cut short and we came back.  But found a potential when we came back so that was good.

Also this week I have really been noticing how the spirit really does talk through missionaries and put words into your mouth.  I had that happen to me a few times this week where I was thinking to myself as I was talking "what am I saying right now? Where did that come from?"  It is such a wonderful experience to be a missionary and to have the chance to be so close to the spirit all the time.  I really am grateful for that.  And I feel like I am learning so much all the time.  Like Sister Lawrence said as missionaries we really are living a higher law and because of that, we have the ability to gain more light and knowledge faster than most other people because of the standard of life we are living.  It's a huge blessing!  I love it!

Have a great week!

Elder Robison

November 11, 2013~ St. Petersburgs 2nd stake conference!!

We had stake conference this week and it was so awesome!!  I loved it!  We also had a broadcasted conference for the eastern Europe area - St. Petersburg is one of the only 4 stakes in our area so I felt pretty proud!  We seriously have absolutely the best members here ever!  I love them so much!! It was so fun to see all the members from my other areas that I had been in!

So yes, we did have the broadcast, but they somehow messed it up and only had the recording of it in English hahaha.  It started playing and everyone was like uhh... hahha so we had some surprise speakers while they were getting the Russian version.  Our stake president gave a powerful testimony about the future of the church here, specifically in our stake!  Right now its kinda tough, but there is such a bright future.  Then they finally got the recording and we watched it  so our stake conference was about 4 hours long, but so good.  There was an incredible spirit the whole time!  I loved it so much!  Also fun fact, everyone know Bruce Porter of the 70?  Well he gave his talk in Russian.  The whole thing, with no translator.  I was way impressed and quite shocked.  He was one of the last people I was expecting to be able to do that hahha.  Pretty interesting and it was an amazing talk! 

Hmmm what else.. we are going to hopefully start working with this less active kid and his mom soon.  Son is a  member, but the mom is not.  We got him to go with us to stake conference on Saturday and found out that his dad died about 2 weeks ago and his mom is having a really hard time.  We talked with the branch president and we are going to try and work with them if we can.  Hope that works out.

Last night was so awesome.  This cute little family here that just about every missionary that has ever served here is in love with, couldn't come to conference yesterday cause they have no money.  My first branch donated them tons of clothes and stuff for winter and we took them to them last night and had a little lesson and talked about what they talked about at conference.  It was so awesome.  I love this family so much!  They have the cutest little kids that were just running around the whole time and trying to get us to play with them.  We had an awesome spiritual little lesson then at the end we all sang some primary songs "я хочу быть звёздочкой" (Jesus wants me for a sunbeam) and "Следуй пророку" (Follow the prophet - all 9 verses!).  It was so much fun, the spirit was so strong, I never wanted to leave!  I just love the people here so much!  It's kinda funny cause I had been on a split here in like march I think and I did not really like the area - I didn't want to serve here.  Then I was a little bit relieved (sad to say) when this area was closed over the summer due to violence towards towards the missionaries, but then it opened again and 2 transfers later I was sent here.  I have to admit that I was not super thrilled, but this area and more specifically this branch just has this magic about it and you can't help but fall in love with this place. So bascially I'm glad that I've been able to change my opinion about this area haha.

Also, sorry that a lot of this has been so vague... apparently they are really restricting what we can say in letters home as a result of I'm not really sure what - probably cause there is still lots of hostility towards the church - no specifics at all basically... so my letters will be vague, but when I get home my stories will have a lot more specifics haha.

Have a great week!

Love
Elder Robison

November 5, 2015 ~ "Красота всегда вокруг" в России!

This week has been great!!  I love my new area and I'm not really sure why.  It's tiny and I way prefer serving in the city, but I just love Peterhof!  So beautiful and I'm not going to lie, definitely my favorite branch so far.  All the members are amazing!  The majority of the branch is not actually Russian hahha.  The branch president is from Cuba, there is the cutest family ever who are from Uzbekistan and one woman from Estonia and then 4 americans (the missionaries).  That is literally more than half the branch haha (active at least) but I love them all so much!

 

The Elders that left, left us a wonderful surprise... the most perfect investigator ever!  She is so prepared!  We met with her last week and are going to again tomorrow and she came to church 2 weeks in a row and is already acting like a member basically.  The members have done a wonderful job fellowshipping her.  Really, this past week, this new transfer has just been amazing!  I love it so much!!  Which is funny cause I wasn't super excited about it, but just shows how the Lord definitely knows best!  So grateful for that!  (oh PS now that I've remembered to tell you, yesterday was some sort of holiday so the libraries were closed - at least the ones that don't have our websites blocked - so thats why we are emailing today).

 

Yesterday we went to the huge Peterhof palace and walked around the grounds.  It is unbelieveable!!!  So pretty!! Unfortunately the water was off so the fountains weren't going, but the were so nice without water.  SO pretty.  There are also like 4 or 5 other big palaces in our area... not exactly sure why, but apparently all the past tsars  and kings and stuff of Russia all thought that our area was the most ideal area for their homes.  I'm not opposed really. 

 

This transfer my companion and I decided to go all Russian all the time!  It really helped last transfer not being able to speak English with my native companion so, we are doing it this transfer too and its not going to bad... we'll see if we can make it 5 more weeks hahah.  Last transfer there were also 2 americans in the appartment with whom I spoke english so there was a little bit of a break, but this transfer there's no break.  But it helps! 

 

Well, I am super looking forward to another amazing week in Peterhof!! I just love it!  Hope you all have a great week as well!

 

Elder Robison

October 28, 2013 ~ Transfer Calls!

Well all it's transfer time again and guess what?... I'm going to Peterhof (look it up on google images - I think it's only like the biggest tourist attraction in Russia)!!!!!!  I've heard such good things about it there (and I was there on a split once my first transfer).  Appartently the branch is absolutely tiny but one of the strongest cause the members there are so amazing.  I'm so excited to meet them all.

 

This week we had a fun little activity at the branch put on by the young adults of the branch and they day before I called this guy who was a former investigator but just kinda disappeared, and invited him and he came!!!  And he loved it!  It was so cool and so much fun!!  Then in church yesterday they made me speak cause I am leaving and lots of people came up and told me how they were sad that I'm leaving which was really nice, but I was a little surprised cause I LOVE the members in this ward, but never really had super strong relationships with anyone in this ward yet.  Anyways, it was nice.  I was actually really surprised to be leaving Nevsky.  I love this area and hope I can come back here again.    President likes to do a lot of interesting things with the transfer board.  This transfer there are a lot of people going to areas that they've already served in and lots of people who are being paired as companions for a second time hahha.  It really is a huge surprise transfer call.  Keeps things interesting.

 

Last night we went and stopped by this member who has just recently gone less active (like my first sunday in this area he was crying as he bore his testimony about the temple), but he got a new job and got super stressed and started smoking again and drinking.  He is never home, always working.  This is the 3rd time we've ever been able to catch him.  But when we got there he was like "guys now's not a good time" and I'm pretty sure he said he was drinking (but he wasn't drunk).  Anyways, my companion really has a way with people and we just stood in the doorway and talked to him for like half an hour.  My heart was just breaking for this guy.  He has a relatively young family (2 daughters at home) and work hs gone bad (they've stopped paying him) and he just bought this new car that he now has to make payments on and he is still smoking and drinking and it's just so sad.  He started crying as he was talking to us and he said that he has just messed up his whole life and he knows it and he knows there is only one thing that will help him.  He said he is planning on coming to church next week and gave us an actual time that we can come back and meet with him and his family.  It was just so sad.  But, there are a couple of lessons that I learned from this:

 

1st:  Satan knows how to tempt us and pull us away from church (in this case it was a new job that paid really well but required him to work on Sundays)

2nd: like I read somewhere for personal study the other day (somewhere in Alma I think) Satan does not support those who follow him.  This man was just kinda pulled away and then had the rug pulled out from underneath him and is just kinda left with a huge mess.

3rd:  There is only 1 way out and we must be humble enough to accept it and do what we know we have to.

4th:  No one is immune to this.  This man as the Elders quorum president and one who helped the missionaries all the time on lessons and seemed to be the strongest member of the ward.

 

It was so interesting talking with him he talked about all these spiritual experiences that he had had in the past and all the times he had felt the spirit so strong and almost felt like he was walking with God.  He said then you get to this point where everything seems ruined and you remember those feelings and experiences and realize that they are very real feelings and very real connections with God that you had because sometimes you might not recognize it when everything is good, but when everything seems lost, you feel that lack and realize how real those feelings were.   LIstening to him, I could feel so much how much god loves him and is waiting for him to come back and is absolutely there 100% of the way to help us make the journey completely.  I love this man so much and I'm just sad that I am leaving in 2 days and won't be here to see him progress again..

 

Sorry that was really long but I have to tell you this really hilarious thing that happened this week too.  My companion and I went to visit this less active who likes to teach us and help us with our Russian.  Obvously my companion doesn't really need any help, but we just went anyways and he talked with this guy about how to learn English (my companion just cannot get English and this less active knows English really well)  so long story short, this guy told my comp. that if after living with americans for a year and he still can't speak English, he just will never learn and might as well not try.  He suggested he might be able to a different one.  So My companion has been on a search to find "his language" and needless to say I have taken it upon myself to teach him German the past few days:)  and he is just loving it haha oh I'm so happy:) 

 

Anyways, have a great week!

 

Elder Robison

October 21, 2013 ~ Short letter

Well nothing really interesting has happened in the last 3 days except that yesterday they called 3 new ward missionaries which I am totally excited about!! So this'll be kinda short, but I just want to share something interesting - a cool little thought or little revelationish thing that I had yesterday. 

 

Yesterday in church as Sister showed up to our branch.  She is a return missionary from Moscow who served in my mission.  She went home a little bit after I got here and has already been home for 6 months (thats a scary thought).  But it was so cool to see her yesterday and she was talking to my companion and me and just was saying basically how sad she is to not be a missionary still.  She said you can never turn back the time and come back to this.  You can serve people still and meet with the missionaries all you want, but it will never be the same.  She said that God just fills you with so much light and love for these people that you never get at any other time in your life.  These are all things that I had heard before, but it was different this time.  The spirit really told me how important this time is and how important it is to use it correctly and wisely and to always remember your purpose as a missionary.  I think the reason that it touched me more this time than any other time was because this was a sister that I knew when she was still a missionary and was now talking to as a returned missionary.  I remember her final testimony at the transfer meeting.  It was so powerful, you could just tell that there was nothing that she loved more than her mission.  Just to hear that from someone that I had seen in action as a missionary and then seeing them afterwards really impressed me and really made me think about my mission and where I want to take it for the next year.  A really powerful experience for me. 

 

Hope you all had a great weekend too and have a great week this week!

 

Elder Robison

October 17, 2013 ~ Keeping us Guessing!

Hello all, I think I'll just email a different day every week to keep you guessing haha.  This week (and last week) has been crazy!  But awesome!!

First of all, we got a new investigator!!!  He is so cool!! He's 20 yrs old and is studying here and is so awesome!  He's met with the missionaries a lot before so we were able to just get right down to it.  It was a great lesson (by the end it was hahha, the middle was rough) and we should be meeting again on monday (he's super busy with work trying to earn enough money to pay for this semester of school so can't meet super often until Nov).  I'm really excited about that!

Also this week on monday I sent my companion off to Ukraine.  One of the Elder's here (from Ukraine) had a visa trip so my companion went to go be his companion.  So I got to work with his companion who he is still training and he is so cool!  He is another veteran of Brother Kylikovskyi's class at the MTC!  It was so much fun!  We talked to some really awesome people who hopefully might be interested.  So needless to say, weren't able to  make it to internet monday.  Then tuesday we had to go to the Hermitage which was fun cause 2 new girls from BELGIUM started working there with us.  It's always fun when there are more volunteers there than just us - usually they are, but all go in the afternoon and we have a morning shift so never see any of them.  THen we had to go to district meeting and right after that we went to the metro and met with the zone leaders and I went back up to sestroretsk to go on a split with them.  That was fun!  I love going on exchanges, they always shake things up a little bit and make things more interesting.  So today was the first chance that we had to get to email. 

AND we got to watch conference!!!  I loved it so much!!  Even all the random 70's talks I got something out of.  Actually Elder Dube was one of my favorite talks.  I loved the story that he told at the beginning about his mother.  Great talk!  And I loved Elder Oaks and Elder Cook (usually I'm not such a huge fan of his).  Such awesome talks!!  Also P. Uchtdorf in the Priesthood session and P. Monson's.  Acutally I think if I were to keep going any further I would end up mentioning every single talk... WAIT I can't believe I almost forgot about Elder Bednar!!!  He is a rock star, I loved it!!!  Actually in all honesty I did get more out of his talk that most others (which is funny cause I have nothing to pay tithing on right now haha (at least that I know of).  I just really loved the idea of small and seeming insignificant and unexpected blessings.  I have never seen that more than I have here.  It really is so true.

I thought it was interesting how many speakers talked about a few very common topics: the role of women (and men), covenants (I loved that sister's talk about the endowment), abortion, priesthood, and enduring to the end - basically the importance and structure of the family!  I loved that I felt like all the speakers were very bold in their statements (something that we are encouraged to do a lot as missionaries) and just really defined right and wrong very clearly.  I loved it.  Everything.  Unfortunately I don't have my notebook with me or I could keep going on forever haha.  I cannot wait to get the liahonas and re-read them all!!  And you should all do the same thing... I promise you'll learn something new!

Talk to you in about 4 days again (maybe) hahah.

Elder Robison

October 7, 2013 ~ Short Email

Holy cow kyle looks so much older and bigger! (Referring to Kyle's homecoming picture with Jasmine Young) What happened to him??
he didn't look like that when I left..  But I'm happy for him.
I remembered about sierra's birthday - also i wrote a letter and sent
it a few weeks ago, did she get that already?

I am so excited about genereal conference this week!  I don't get to
watch it until this weekend, so I hope this week goes by fast.  And
about the group of women... I hope none of them have temple reccomends
anymore.  That is absolutely insane. Clear example of people who do
not really understand what they are learning from the prophets and
apostles (it seems).

So because of some laws or new rules or something we can't send home
anything specific about any person (no names or anything) and we are
not allowed to send home pictures of anyone except for me.  Not even
American companions.  And there can be no other people in the pictures
that I send home (i suppose that means I am limited to send home
pictures of the sky or something haha), I will take pictures, jsut
can't really send them home...  so sorry about that.

Hope you have a great week!  Love you and miss you!
Austin

October 1, 2014 ~ Зима быстро пришла в Санкт-Петербург

We hello all, tricked you hahah.  Probably thought you were going to
get an email yesterday hahah.  We, you were going to but it happened
to be the last day of the month and that is "sanitation day" for the
libraries so they are all closed.  Anyways, it was a pretty fast week
but holy cow it was freezing!  I was in a hat and gloves all week
long.  the majority of the people here had already pulled out their
hard core winter stuff haha.  I gets cold fast here.  And they days
have started getting significantly shorter.  Winter is coming fast!
I'm excited about it!

This week was the 5th sunday in church and we had the most amazing
lesson ever on family history!!  I loved it so much, the spirit was so
strong, it was incredible!  It was so simple and basic but I felt the
spirit stronger than I have any other time talking about family
history (even the missionary meetings that we've had specifically on
that).  It was so good.

Also, our hermitage time switched so now we do it on tuesday mornings
(I jsut barely came from there) and it is so much more fun.  That's
when the majority of the tourists come and its so crazy.  And now that
it's finally winter/fall people have to take off and check their coats
and everything.  Most people do not like that at all.  Last week I had
this girl who was almost crying because I was not letting her into the
museum with her coat on.  I was really embarrassed for her haha.

What else happened this week?  Well not a whole lot.  Spent a lot of
time on the street and nothing super promising yet, but there will be
in the future I'm sure.

Oh yeah, at church on Sunday this random couple just walks in by them
selves and turns out they're from Salt Lake and were on a cruise that
stopped near and they decided to come to church.  They don't speak a
word of Russian, but came to church and stayed for all 3 hours and the
weirdest part.. they didn't want any one to translate for them.  It
was weird, but cool I guess.  Nice couple.

So I know that this week is General Conference and I am so excited!!!!
But don't tell me what happens because I don't get to watch it for
another week...:/  It's about time we had another General Conference
hahah, I've re-read all the talks like 3 or 4 times already haha.  I
can't wait!!  Have a great week!  Love you all!

Elder Robison

September 23, 2014 ~ What a Week!

Well this week we had a really great conference with Elder Evans.  The spirit was super strong!  I loved it. I learned a lot of good things from it.  It was really great!

Also this was my first week with my new companion (who by the way doesn't know any english).  It's been really interesting to say the least.  He's 27 and from siberia.  Now we have to do everything (comp study, planning, and everything else) in Russian.  It kinda gave me a head ache or the first couple days haha but its ok.  It's nice to have someone who can just explain things to me, just a little hard when I can't ask my question in english.  He is a really incredible teacher.  He just has such a way with people, its really impressive.  I think I'll be able to learn a lot more than just Russian from him.

 

The rest of this week nothing really special happened.  We met with a few former investigators this week, but nothing promising came from those meetings.  Oh, yesterday the 2nd counselor in the stake presidency came to our ward and brought a long two american girls with him.  They are the neices of someone here just visiting and the 2nd counselor is a professional tour guide so he had been touring them around for the previous 2 days.  Anyways, I had to translate for them in sacrament meeting.  That's always really stressful, but I survived. 

 

Well I know this letter is pretty short, but I can't think of anything else suepr exciting that happened.  Well, I learned how to make borsch.  I jsut stood right behind my companion the whole time and watched him make it and then wrote down everything he was doing.  Also I took my first trip this week to a russian butcher shop.  I think the 2 most unappealing things that I saw there were cow hearts and pig hearts (yes, they eat those here) and then of course tongue,  I'm glad that I ate it before I knew what it looked like before it is cooked.  It was grey and hairy.  Some things that they eat I don't know that I'll ever be able to understand. 

 

Met with a few former investigators this week, but nothing promising came from them.  Have a few more of those meetings set up for this week too, so we'll see how they go! 

 

Have a great week!

Elder Robison

 

September 16, 2013 ~ Week of Awesomeness!

Anyways, this week has been awesome!  For those of you who are good at keeping track of time, you might have already known, but it's transfer time again!  This transfer has gone by so fast I can't even believe.  Literally I feel like this transfer was like 2 weeks long.  But thats ok, cause you know why?  Because this transfer is going to be the best ever!!  I am staying in Nevsky and so are both of my companions.  The only difference is that there will be a 4th Elder coming into our appartment and I will break off and be his companion.  Are you visualizing this ok?  So my companions right now (who were companions in the MTC and are both pretty new) will stay in the appartment with us and be companions and I will be with the 4th Elder who, are you ready for this?... IS RUSSIAN!!! AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!  I'm so excited I get a native companion!!!!  It's going to be so awesome!  President told me that he really doesn't know very much English at all.  Even better hahaha.  This is going to be great!  I get a native companion and I get to stay in the same area (I love this area) and I get to keep both of my other companions!  So great.  I am super excited, I thought President was never going to put me with a native... I kinda thought he was going to always keep  me with the younger Elders so that I could help them with their language.  Anyways, this is going to be the best transfer ever.  Now we don't really have to worry about not knowing how to say stuff, we can just go right out and teach the whole city!!  Wonderful.

 

Also so awesome this week, I got to go on an exchange with Elder Woodhead (Aunt Becky's bishop's son who was in the MTC with me).  Man, is he an awesome missionary or what!  I learned so much from him.  I totally came back with a rededication to talking to everyone one.  This transfer has been hard, having 2 really new companions who struggle to say anything and can understand  somethings.  Sometimes it was just painfully quiet outside and I was feeling super annoyed like I was the only one who was trying to talk to people, so eventually I slowed down as well... NOT GOOD!!!  But Elder Woodhead totally got me right back on track with more energy than before and the past couple days have been so awesome!!!  I've just been so happy, in the best mood ever and I love it!  Basically what I need to do is figure out how to keep myself at this level and not lose that energy.  I've defintely learned that a companion's energy and mood can influence the other companion for good or bad.  So me and my new companion are just going to go out and get it done!  It's going to be great. 

 

But before that, tomorrow morning we have a special missionary meeting with Elder Evans, who is the Executive Director of the Missionary Department for the entire world.  President Clark is so excited for this and says that this is going to be the best meeting we've ever had!  I am so excited about it!!  Should be amazing!   

 

Trying to think quickly about anything else that happened this week.  We worked with a lot of less actives this week.  They are all so awesome, just so hard to know what they need to start being active again, but I love them all so much and they all absolutely LOVE the missionaries.  It's pretty great.  Being a missionary in Russia is the best!

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Robison 

September 9, 2013 ~Я люблю Россию!!

This week has been pretty awesome!!  Lots of fun things have happened this week.  We had a really great zone training on Saturday.  The spirit was so strong there and it was really just awesome!  We just talked about being happy and how the Atonement relates to missionary work.  I am so grateful to be in exactly this mission!!  It is for real the best mission ever (for me at least - I only add this for my fellow missionaries friends and family members out there so they don't get jealous haha;))  It was kinda funny, we have this new sister from Moscow and she said the closing prayer.  In her prayer she said like "thank you that we are in one of the best missions in the world .  Thank you that we are in the biggest country in the world with some of the best people in the world".  It was awesome!  She was talking earlier in the training (she was only baptized like year and a half ago) about the missionaries in a certain Russian mission which will remain unnamed, but you will know which one if you payed attention to detail, and how they just do all sorts of stuff that probably isn't allowed and the culture in that mission is just so lax, and how grateful she is to be in the St. Petersburg mission where we actually do missionary work.  Where we have some pretty good, strick (but not at the same time) rules.  This was all related to the question that was posed about the feel of the mission.  Our mission is pretty unique I'm assuming in the fact that about over half of our mission is in their 4th transfer or newer.  We have just had so many new missionaries come in recently and it's awesome.  And we are all happy missionaries!!  Basically I'm just going on about this because I am so grateful to be in this mission!! I love it so much!  We really are surrounded by some of the best people ever.  The Russian people are just absolutely so incredible.  I love them so much!

 

This week also a bird pooped on my head.  I know it's random, but hilarious I thought.  Also I had to speak in church yesterday and apparently when I speak I am a lot more longwinded than I thought because the bishop had to give me a 1-minute warning that I needed to end soon.  And the stake president and his first counselor were there.  I could hear them talking about me behind me while I was speaking.  Then the first counselor (an armenian man) got up and told the whole congregation how awkward it was for him to have to speak after a missionary who speaks better than he does and without an accent.  Not true and it was so awkward, I just pretended not to hear it haha.  Although this week I had more people than  normal asking me where I am from.  They almost all thought I was from the Baltic States (where they also speak Russian) and one guy said I sounded like I am from the south of Russia.  I don't know why I'm going on about this, it jsut made me feel good and I'm glad to know that I can now talk to people more without them having to try and figure out what I'm saying.  Glad that I am speaking understadably, because Russian is stinking hard!!  Super hard language infact.  But so worth it to be able to be here with these people.

 

Also this week I gained a testimony more of the importane of service.  We had 4 less actives at church yesterday.  For 2 of them, we were at their house this week helping them.  We carried a couch down 9 flights of stairs them carried another couch and 3 armoirs up 8 flights of stairs.  Talk about a work out haha.  But it was totally worth it cause they came to church!!!  Basically this week was just awesome!!  I am learning so much and get to work with just the most wonderful people.  I love it!

 

Have a great week!

Elder Robison