August 26, 2013 ~ Not really sure what the title of this one should be...

So this week was interesting.  The first couple days was kinda still not ideal.  Recovery from last week, trying to get  some more new potentials.  Luckily, we've gotten some!  yay!  So this week should be a little busier!  Among those, we've redeemed an in investigator from the formers list and hopefully will be progressing again!  And we met with our 1 progressing one this week and she's doing pretty good.  She's a babyshka and she is hilarious.  I think she's in love with King Solomon.  She always talks about him and also about the 5 books of Moses.  Yesterday in church she asked me if we follow everything that is written in them... also she told us that we should call the Quorum of the 12 and request that our pday be changed to Saturday so that we don't have to do anything on the "Sabbath".  She's a wonderful woman, she is always making us laugh.  And she has mastered the English phrases "Very good" and "Thank you very much".  She says that too us all the time.  It's just too funny sometimes.

This week in the Hermitage it was so awesome!  There was a group of Italian women standing outside the entrance where we stand (they were waiting for something) and they didn't speak anything but Italian.  I went over to them and asked where they were from (already knowing where, but still just to be polite) and tried talking to them in the couple words I could remember and filling in the rest with Spanish haha.  They were so into it, it was hilarious.  It made me laugh.  Then I took a German woman to go find a map of the museum in German (I could have just pointed to where they are, but I walked her to them so I could talk to her haha).  That was great.  She's from Munich.  I sure miss David and the rest of our awesome German family!!

We met with some super cool less actives this week.  I really have no idea why some people are less active.  They love the missionaries and still know and believe everything, they are just too lazy to make the effort to come to church it seems like.  Don't do that!  The loss of blessings is NOT worth it!!

Thats really all that happened this week.  The one thing that I have been thinking about a lot lately is unity, in any group of people, but especially in a missionary companionship.  That's hard enough with just 2, but try adding a 3rd.  Holy cow.  That's something I think we've been struggling with, but I've learned a lot and I have seen how being one can really make awesome things happen and then how disunity can really ruin things quickly.  It's been a struggle thus far, but I've learned how important that is this week.

Love you all, have a great week!

Elder Robison

August 19, 2013 ~ Rolling with the punches...

First of all, here is a  little announcement from our office secratary:

Dear Elders and Sisters,

I need your help with a problem. I emailed your parents the following and need you to tell your people too not to send packages to the Mission Office. I have been serving here almost a year and we have never had this many misaddressed packages so I am calling in the troops (asking for your help too). Packages sent to the Mission Office address almost never make it to the missionary! They must be mailed to the address below. We love you and want you to get your packages!!!

Italicized is what I sent to your parents and the correct mailing address for packages:

Dear Parents,

Two days ago two of our elders went to pick up something from the post office. The employee recognized them by their name tags, and gave them quite a lecture about all the packages for our “sect” that were sitting in the back. She said she had gotten sick of looking at some of them and returned some. We were able to salvage 5. Everyone of these were addressed to the wrong address, the Mission Office. I hate it when missionaries don’t get their packages. The wasted money for the people who sent them and the disappointment for the missionaries who wait and wait. I am sure it’s really disappointing for you too. I do not know whose are being returned. If you used the address below you will be fine. Lately those sending it to the wrong address have mostly been either extended family or online orders.

PLEASE, tell your family, friends, the person over the ward bulletin, the online place you place an order with to ONLY use the address below and substitute your missionary’s name on the bottom line where it currently says “Christianne Jacobsen” (do not use Elder or Sister):Russia St. Petersburg 190000

a/Я 122

CRO The Church of Jesus Christ of LDS
Christianne Jacobsen (your missionary’s name here)

Ok now to my actual part of the email...  As you may have noticed, this week was rough!  Lots of disappointments this week.  At the beginning of the week we had 7 lessons set up with investigators  or potentials this week.  I know all of you may be thinking that we are just sitting on or hands all day and not doing anything, but that is actually a really good number for us!  I think I only had one week that had more than that and that was when we met with our investigator every single day for a week.  Usually its a little lower than that.  So anyways, as you can imagine my companions and I are just off the wall so excited we have the best week ever planned and we are going to baptize the entire area this week, and then we hit a little bump Monday night (the first day of the week).  The guy we were supposed to meet with didn't show up.  We called and he said he was still at work... the hung up.  Then anyways long story short we only had 1 of our appointments not fall through.  And it wasn't even a very good lesson.  We couldn't find a member to come with us and yeah, it just wasn't good.  But he was super nice.  Just not really excited to meet again.  Even all our meetings with the progressing investigators in the area fell through.  None of them could come to church   yesterday.  It was just rough.  But this is the real kicker.  Our new investigator from last week.  The coolest kid ever who seemed to have SO MUCH potential, didn't come to his meeting and his phone has been "unavailable" every single day.  We have called him so much and nothing all week.  The one time that it wasn't unavailable and it actually started ringing, he didn't answer.  So frustrating!  We spent a lot of time going through the area books and calling people this week to try and make up for our fallen through appointments, but nothing!  Satan controls the Russian phone companies I'm pretty sure.  But he's not going to win!!  We are just going to have to out work him this week!  It'll be a fun challenge.  But really, it was one of the most discouraging weeks ever.  Plus working in a 3 some is not quite as easy as it was in the MTC.  Way harder to keep 3 people united and perfectly obedient.  Another challenge, but its sill fun, cause now we can go visit all the babushki.  That's nice.  They are so sweet and every single one of them LOVES the missionaries. 

Hmmm this was a funny story this week... oh wait let me back up a little bit.  Try to contain yourselves, but you will never guess what I had to eat this week... a хот дог.  and for those of you who don't read Cyrillic, I ate a hot dog.... yeah.   We were in the middle of the city and we were starving and we were about to go to the hermitage and stand for 2 hours so we decided we'd better get something to eat quickly since we hadn't had lunch yet, but we didn't have a lot of time so the only thing that the little street vendors were selling were hot dogs.  Some of you will appreciate that story and others won't but that was a real struggle for me this week.

Anways back to the real story.  We had to take our nametags off to go to the hermitage and so we did and were walking and I see this guy with a salt like city shirt on so I was like "hey, have you been to salt lake??" and he doesn't speak Russian very well and tried to say something to me in german for whatever reason and turns out he speaks that just as bad.  Anyways finally it ended up in English and he was like "I'm a Mormon" just straight up and I was like "whoa, cool!" and I like feel for my tag starting to be like "no way I'm a Mormon missionary here!" but I couldn't find it cause I had already taken it off (so I'm sure it looked like I was just awkwardly feeling my chest) and was like "hey.. yeah, me too!"  Turns out he's from the philippenes and is like working there or something.  I don't know he spoke bad Russian, german and English so we  just kinda ended it and it was awkward, but still, funny story. 

Cool thing at church yesterday!  We passed around a paper in Elders Quorom and asked everyone to write down when they were availiable this week to help us and almost everyone had some time that they could help us this week! Huge miracle!  Ususally it's like pulling teeth to try and find a member to come so that's awesome! 

Anyways, maybe you all remember when I talked about Elder Busche's talk but one of the things he said was that whenever we feel like we lose something or God has taken something away from us, it's because he has something better in mind that he is preparing us to receive.  So, this week was hard, but amazing things will be coming!!

Love you all!  until next week!

Elder Robison

August 12, 2013 ~ Week of choodas!!

This week has been so awesome!! I LOVE being in the city!  Our 3rd companion is really awesome!  The ward is fanastic!  We got a new investigator (maybe 2)!  I'm loving everything!!  The only thing that I'm not loving is contacting in a 3-some... that's awkward and that I am the one wo does basically all the talking.. both my companions are pretty new and neither one of them can really say or understand anything.  It's really frustrating to me, but they study and work at it really hard, so I'm sure they'll get there eventually!!  In the meantime, it's giving me a lot of practice haha.  But as expected, I love being with 2 companions!  It is so much fun and we can go visit old less active babushki.  It's basically a win win situation. 

As soon as we go here the 2 counselor in the bishopric called us and we had a missionary meeting with him!  (Yes!! Finally a ward who wants to take initiative and do something!)  We do have a ward mission leader, but he has disappeared in moscow and no one knows where he is exactly or when he's coming back... awkward. 

Our new investigator is so cool!!  He just moved here from Siberia and is one of the coolest guys ever!  Also, he thought I was 25... probably cause I'm balding like crazy! :(  We are meeting with him again tomorrow night! 

Also yesterday we had another miracle!   After church ended, some guy walked in and said sorry he was late. I guess while the sisters were leaving the building saturday night after a lesson, this guy came and tried to get in the building. They told him to come tomorrow to church and he did, but late, so I got his number and we are meeting with him tonight! Such a miracle!

So fun, I went to the Hermitage this week!! Acutally I work there now hahah!  All the city missionaries "work" at the Hermitage (for all who don't know shame on you, its only one of the worlds biggest art museums!  Apparently it would take a visitor 11 years to see all the exhibits- yeah it's big.  It is inside the winter palace in St. Petes) for our service.  We bascially stand there at the entrance ad tell people that they aren't allowed to bring in backpacks or drinks.  Its kinda funny case some people get really angry, and throw a fit and we just kinda stand there like "uhhh well too bad, that's the rule".  I love it.  We got there early for our shift this week and so we just went in and walked around for about 45 min.  Most of you know i'm not really a museum type person, but it was fun.  Really pretty rooms. 

Bsically this week was awesome and I am so excited for the rest of the transfer!!  In the city, which means more people which means more work!  I love it! 

Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Robison

August 5, 2013 Я переежаю в Питер!!!

Well can you believe it?  We got transfer calls again (already been 6 weeks!) and I am moving to St. Petersburg!!! I am very excited!  I will actually be staying with Elder Wilkins, we are both moving and are still going to be companions and we are getting a 3rd companion! (Tripanionships are rare for Elders).  Our 3rd companion will be Elder Wilkins MTC companion actually hahah.  Apparently they did not get along.  Should be interesting, but I am so excited!  Also I will be the oldest in my district.  It will be me and 2 Elders and 2 Sisters, all who are pretty new still haha.  Exciting.  And we will be in a normal sized ward now which I am thrilled about!!  It's just going to be awesome!!  Also, it will be the first transfer that this area gets sisters!

This week we were on splits with our zone leaders (Elder Brooks and Elder Eady (my trainer!)) and that was a lot of fun.  I think Elder Eady is actually going to be the new assistant because they said they weren't allowed to tell where he is being transfered.  We'll see.

Also we got to do service for a babyshka this week.  We got to mow the lawn... with scissors! hahah So basically we were pulling weeds, but using scissors.  So hilarious.  Also, she fed us a whole chicken.  Yeah.  I had to eat off the bone.  Without silverware.  And she yelled at me when I tried to pull the meat off with my hands.  She said I had to use me teeth.  After that and eating caviar, liver and tongue, I really think I can do anything.  And when I say a whole chicken, I mean like a rotisserie chicken where all the bones were still in place and it was still in the shape of a chicken.  We litterally had to do everything except take it out of the oven.  And that had been done a few days earlier and she doesn't have a microwave so we ate it cold.  I love Russia.  Actually I love this babyshka, she is so funny!  And the chicken was pretty good.

We had a huge miracle yesterday!  On friday, this guy stopped us and was asking about the Book of mormon.  He wanted a copy and I asked for his information and said we would drop one by to him, but he said he was afraid to give us his information.  So I told him to come to church on Sunday and we would have one for him.  He didn't come for sacrament unfortunately, but he did come right after it!  So awesome!  I was so excited!  And he was able to meet some of the members and it was just really good.  And at the same time my phone rang and I gave it to Elder Wilkins and it was a woman that he had met a few weeks ago and she called and wanted to meet!!  Love it!  Such a huge miracle/blessing!  Especially since the investigator that we have right now, is being really kinda stubborn.  I love him, but we haven't figured out exactly what is keeping him from progressing as much as he should.  But he will get there!!

Also, had the best zone training on friday!  I feel like I say that about them all, but I really love them.  We learned about how to teach more effectively using the pamphlets and it was incredible.  The spirit was SO strong.  I loved it!  I LOVE being a missionary!!  The best thing ever!! 

Sorry it's shorter this week, a lot of mail to respond to (which I love).  I'm sure I'll have some more interesting things to share next week!

Love, Elder Robison

July 29, 2013 Week of surprises!

Well this week so pretty unexpected things happened as you my have guessed from the title.  Probably the most exciting thing was that this Elder can now check of Estonia as one of his places to visit!  I had a surprise visa trip this week!  Well not really surprise, I just had forgotten about it.  But that means that I have been in Russia now for already 6 months!  Crazy.  It was kinda fun, Everyone from my MTC group went (Except for the 1 elder in Kaliningrad) and also my first trainer Elder Eady and the sister from Australia!  It was fun we all got in this big van and drove about 3(ish) hours to the boarder, got out and checked outselves out of Russia, crossed a bridge and checked into Estonia then turned right back around, stamped out of Estonia, back accross the bridge and stamped back into Russia.  So I was in Estonia for about 30 min haha. We were supposed to be back to the mission office by around lunch time (we left early in the morning), but as the mission driver in the big van was pulling out of the parking lot, he didn't turn wide enough and ended up hitting the car parked next to us...  It was funny cause Ivan, the mission visa guy (who returned from his mission in St. Pete's then moved back about less than a year ish ago I think) asked Elder Noorda what time his train left that night (to go back to petrozavodsk - 8 hr train ride) and he said 10pm.  Ivan was like "crap, I don't think we're going to make it".  Keep in mind it was like around 11am when this happened.  Apparently thats how slow the Russian police are.  So we all got out of the car and sat and waited for the owner of the other car to come back.  He finally did after a few hours and we had to wait even longer for the police to come.  We all wandered over into town and ate at a cafe there.  Then came back to the car and still stood there and waited.  Finally, the police hadn't come yet and our driver and their driver just took pictures of everything and just went to the police themselves haha  So we went and sat in the parking lot at the police station for a bit.  By the time everything was all figured out and we could leave, it was like 5.30.  We got back to the mission office about 8.30 which means that we had to stay another night at the assistants (which I was not prepared for).  Then the next day was at the office for literally ever waiting for one of the guys there to come and give me my new registration for living here.  Needless to say, it was a super fun(ny) adventure that took way more time than I was expecting.  Craziness.

No one got hurt or threated this week (not too bad at least).  Just a couple of guys who told us that we are enemy and that They really want to beat us up, but won't because thats "not good".  Also, normally I have nothing against this other religious group here (who also have missionaries - they are just usually old ladies) except for now they are getting on my nerves.  First of all, Sestroretsk isn't that big of a city and everyone already thinks that we are from this other religious group, so you can imagine my annoyance when I met 2 of their "missionaries", this time young people dressed just like us!  And carrying a bible.  The only thing they didn't have were nametags (although I  heard that missionaries in other areas have seen the same thing, but WITH nametags).  SO annoying.  I love that the other organization is doing missionary work, great.  Just not in the same town as us when everyone here already thinks that we are them and therefore won't even stop to talk to us!  AHHH.  BUT.  Something cool is gonna happen here soon, I'm sure.

Then yesterday in Church another surprise.  We had some senior couple serving in Finland visit our branch yesterday and guess who had to translate for them.  Me.  Let me tell you how hard that is.  I understood everything (except when one of the speakers started telling a story about when he was in the army cause I don't know any of those words), but its a whole lot harder to understand and then immediately rapid-fire it back into english... that was so stressful. But a fun experience.

Well that was my week.  I can't really think of anything else that happened this week.  But transfer calls will be this saturday already!! Crazy!

Hoping for a more successful week of finding this week!  Love you all!

Elder Robison

July 22, 2013 Июль, и уже наступает осень в Питре..

Hello all!  This week has actually been super cold!  And rainy.  Like I'm pretty sure everyday its been overcast and cold, but I guess that's the price to pay for living in one of the most beautiful places in the world with some of the most amazing people in the world.  I love it.  It sure beats sweating all the time. 

Unfortunately, I forgot my notes and can't really remember too much of what happened this week...  But it was a good week!  Things really just keep getting better!  Remember that guy we had a lesson with on the bench last week?  Well we met with him this week and he is so cool!  He loves us and is really open to everything.  He is out of town for a bot 2 1/2 weeks (bummer), but he still wants to meet when he comes back!  We met some cool people this week and have got a few potentials that we have been playing phone tag with for a few days, but we're gonna get them!

This we did something that President Clark has really been suggesting and we had language study with a member!  It was so cool!  This is the awesome member that came to help us a few weeks ago when our investigator didn't show up.  He is one of my favorite people ever.  It was so awesome!  We loved it and so did he.  At the end of it, he was already trying to think of when he'd be free to help us again without us even asking.  President has actually really been pushing learning Russian.  He always stresses how important it is and I can't help but agree (of course).  Some advice that we've been given is to "love Russia, love Russian, and love Russians!"  And let me tell you,  I DO!!!  I love all 3 of those things so much!  I would extend that same advice to everyone no matter where you serve.  After you learn to love Russia(n(s)), you can go ahead and start loving the country, language, and people of your mission ;) hahah  Sorry, I couldn't not..

This week something exciting happened... my companion almost died.  I stopped this older man who was wearing a U.S. army jacket and was talking to him, then this drunk guy walked up and wasn't happy with us and called us fascists asked why were even here, and then grabbed Elder Wilkins throat and tried to strangle him!  The I was a little in shock, but the guy we were talking with threw his arm off and told the drunk guy to get away.  That was scary and it was literally right outside our appartment.  Then the next day we were talking to some one else and I see this guy across the lawn stop and stare at us very angrily and then he started walking towards us. I asked the woman we were talking with to turn around and tell us if she knew the guy.  She didn't and he kept coming and boy was he furious.  And way past drunk.  And he was huge.  I told him to calm down and that we were leaving and then he started trying to chase us.  He didn't get close enough to do anything and I'm pretty sure if we would have started to chase us, if we walking not in a straight line he probably would have fallen over, that's how wasted he was.  Still scary.  I just remember when I saw him stop and look at us from across the lawn I got the nastiest darkest feeling and knew that this wasn't going to be good.  We both survived both those incidences and just keep preaching away though, so no worries!

President Clark was at district meeting with us this week.. Man I love that man.  He is so close to the spirit.  I learned so much and felt the spirit so strong and learned from that some ways that I can improve.  While he was there he told us of this guy who walked into the mission office last week, just to ask more about the church and then he was taken on a tour of the stake center (in the same building) and introduced to the assistants.  He came back to have a lesson with them and President Clark 2 days later and they noticed that he had a huge bruise on his arm.  Afterwards President was walking him out and ended up asking him about it.  After he had left the mission office and stuff a few days earlier he was just walking and some guys were having trouble with their car.  He helped them and then afterwards they asked him "were you just at the Mormon Church?"  He said yes and then they beat him up.  President Clark asked him why he came back after that and I don't remember his answer, but I just remember feeling the spirit so strongly during that.  The church has to be true!  Why else would Satan be working so hard to get people against it?  It really just strengthed my testimony though, that there are so many people out here who are so ready.  In fact, in that ward on sunday, where I think there are either 6 or 8 missionaries serving, they had more investigators that missionaries there.  For those serving in other parts of the world, that may seem really lame or unimpressive, but that has not happened here for a really long time.  The Lord is truly blessing our mission.  We are having so many miracles around the whole mission, it is absolutely amazing.  We all, as a mission, are so united to be exaclty obedient and work as hard as we can and the Lord is being SO generous and kind to us.  I know its true!  And I'm so grateful to be a part of it!!

I love you all, have a great week!

Elder Robison

July 15, 2013 Crazy week!

This week was really good I'd say.  We had a couple weird experiences, but overall I think it was great!  We met with 2 less actives this week and they're really pretty awesome.  Just need to help them remember how important it is to come to church.

     We had a lesson on the street too!  We were contacting by some doms, on the way to stop by and see if a less active was home and there was a guy sitting on a bench so I asked him how he was doing as we walked by and he was super cool.  He started talking to us and eventually offered to us to sit down next to him.  We did and talked for a while.  Talked about his past and about his religious beliefs.  He accepted the Book of Mormon and said he'd read it.  It was really awesome - he was so cool.  The best part is I don't think that we would have run into him at all except for we went a totally different direction that night when we left the appartment to drop by the less active's house.  Such a blessing.

      The rest of the night was kinda weird though.  As we were teaching this guy, so other guys came out of the dom and harrassed us for a minute then left.  After we finished with the lesson we kept heading down to the appartment we wanted and this really old babyshka was carrying some trash so I asked if she needed help.  She said no, but then started telling us all these stories and was so nice.  I'm pretty sure she was speaking Ukrainian because I only understood about every 7th word.  A different group 20-30yr old guys came us and started yelling at us to get away from the babyshka and telling her that we were going to steal her appartment and everything.  They were really angry with us. We told them we were leaving and they walked a fer metres away then some other guy came out and basically told us the same thing, asking what we wanted with his neighbor (the babyshka) and told us to get away, but that he was in a hurry and left.  Then some other guy came up behind us and said the exact same things as these other guys.  The poor babyshka was so confused.  I was really nervous.  They all came one right after another from different directions before we could even leave.  Then the first group of guys came back, this time really angry and bascially chased us away.  We started walking away and one of them followed us and kept telling us to leave, I told him we were leaving, but he was following us.  Then he said if he ever saw us over there again he would smash the bottle he was holding over my head.  Needless to say, we got far away from that area.  Other really weird things happened that night too.  Probably the weirdest night of my mission so far.  I was really nervous about still talking to people after that, cause we get all sorts of rude comments and stuff all the time even when we just say hi sometimes.  Even last night again I was still a little hesitant, but I know that the Lord was watching us because I'm not kidding (I've been paying really close attention for the past few months) everytime someone says something or does something to us to get us down, we always right after that meet someone that is so nice and just loves the missionaries.  In this case after that instance, it was this guy named Igor who is a knife/cage fighter, but absolutely loved the missionaries.  He saw us as he was getting into his car, but then came over to talk to us.  I saw that again a few times that night.  I am so grateful for that and those kinds of experiences because they really strengthen my testimony more than anything. I can't even tell you how many times I've felt that.  Really so amazing.  And these past 3 weeks in Sestroretsk we've gotten more harassment or threats or rude comments than I did the whole time in Gatchina.  Kinda reminds me of this kid I talked to when I was still there who told us that we should probably by a knife or something if we were going to walk around in white shirts and ties in case we get attacked.  When saw him the next time he asked if I had bought one yet, but I told him I was moving to Sestroretsk and then his response was "oh, better buy a machine gun then" hahha.  That was comforting.

      Also, really hilarious story from this week.  Some kid was walking down this path and I caught up to him and asked if he spoke English, then asked if he wanted to cause we have a free English group.  He was kinda only half interested, but then went on to ask what we were doing and why we were wearing white shirts and ties.  He said we had better wear something else because there are a couple of "sektantee"(I don't actually know what that translates to in English- can't think of the word- but it basically means people that belong to a sekt) that walk around in white shirts and ties and carry books and we need to stay really far away from them.  He told us that people probably won't treat us very well if we keep wearing this cause they'll think that we're the sektantee trying to talk to him.  I was trying so hard not to laugh because lets be real for a second, we are totally the people he was referring to even though we are NOT a sekt.  I don't understand why people can't get that.  But I assured this guy that we were totally not the sektantee and that we were here as volunteers of our CHURCH and all we wanted was to invite him to our english group (where he will then hopefully want to learn about the Gospel).  Haha that made laugh so hard.

Then I literally had probably one of the best birthdays ever!  It was so great!! 

Celebrating the 20 birthday!

We talked with the coolest people that day, people were so nice!  And we met with a super awesome less active.  He's 15 and his mom was excommunicated (not sure why) but he is still totally believing and stuff.  Really nice kid.  He is one of the best boxers in the St. Petersburg region and he bought us ice cream.  So awesome.  Then our sisters made me brownies and at about 9:45 that night I got a call from President and Sister Clark and they sang me happy birthday (in russian) and I talked with them from a few minutes.  Oh I was basically the best day ever.  I loved it.  Mission birthdays are the best ever!

So many miracles this week.  Oh! and I met my first Russian Jew!  He talked to us forever telling us so many stories from his family and history of St. Petersburg.  There are so many good people here!  So many wonderful members of the church who just don't even know it yet!!  I love being a missionary!  You never know what to expect.  I have learned to much and I love love love this gospel so much!!  It is the most amazing thing and no matter how happy you think you already are, you have no idea how much more the gospel can bring!  I love it!  I love you all!!

Have a great week!

Старейшина Робисон

July 8, 2013 Interesting week

Hello all!  First of all, I just have to say happy 4th of july and also how crazy it is to think about that just exactly 1 year ago today, we were driving back to Grantsville with David's family... crazy.  It's been so fast!

So this week lots of interesting/awesome things happened!  First of all, I had gone through a few of our potentials lists just in the back of our area book and wrote down some addresses to go stop by that night and see if anyone was there.  So we went to the one dom (appartment building) and some guy rode up on his bike and went on the entrance we needed so we let him do his thing then went to put in the number of the appartment that we needed in the domaphone and this guy (with the bike) pokes his head out the door and was super angry at us and told us to leave.  I explained that we were just trying to visit an acquaintance (or soon to be hahah) and then he freaked out a little asking why we came here trying to take everyone from the pravoslavnyi church and so on.  We just tried talking to him and explained a little more about ourselves and what not and then it was miracle time.  I don't know when it happened, but I sure  know how.  The spirit totally took control of him and all of the sudden he was laughing and making jokes with us.  He even held the door open and was like "well do you want to come in or what?" so we went in and then he was like "have fun and do whatever you're gonna do, just don't ring appartment 41 cause I live in that one".  He went from being really angry and hostile with us to being totally cool and making jokes in like 3 minutes.  Totally would not have happened without the spirit there.

This week we also went over to a little island in our area - Kronstadt (which we later found out is not actually open for missionary work yet... oops haha) but it was beautiful!!  I loved it and the people were so nice.  We talked to some pretty cool people there, but the most exciting thing was what happened after we got off the bus back in Sistroretsk.  I see this kid just standing by the bus stop so I go up and start talking to him and all of the sudden I hear this yelling like right in my ear it scared me so bad I jumped.  I turn around and there is this crazy old lady litterally yelling at us.  Yelling something about the judgment day and needing to repent and whatnot.  I turn around and the kids friend had come over and he said bye and left so it was just Elder Wilkins and I listening to this crazy woman yell about God to us.  Then she quieted down a little and was like "now that's how you preach.. you have yell and scream and argue and fight" and I was like "uhhh no."  Then she kept going on about how she got kicked out of her church cause they thought she was crazy and she was sent to a psychojail for giving some woman a bible.  She pulled out this binder and was showing us all these old newspaper articles and stuff about her and then some letters and court documents that some guy wrote to get her out trying to prove that she wasn't insane (which she totally was).  Finally I think Elder Wilkins had had enough and was like "I'm sorry, but he have to go" and do you know what her response was?... "why are running of to the cemetary so fast, there's no need.  I am the resurrected Christ!"  I didn't even know what to say I was in such shock.  She is officially the craziest person I've ever met.  I met a false Christ this week.  Wow.

Then a few days later we were walking by this little area of benches and I suggested we go talk to this guy who was just sitting there and so we did and asked him how he was doing and he said awful.  I could barely hear him and it was hard to get him to say anything, but finally got out of him that his wife had just died 13 days ago.  I was immediately so grateful for the plan of salvation and my knowledge of it.  We sat down next to him and all I could think of to say was that I knew that he would see her again and that God knows him and his pains and how much he loves him and wants him to be happy.  Right as I was saying that I felt the spirit confirming to me what I was saying and I felt such an overwhelming love for this man and such a desperate desire to help him.  I almost started to cry with him actually.  That experience was definitely one of the times that I've felt the spirit the most strong in my life probably and one of the many times that I have felt since being here, the spirit 100% backing up my words.  Such a wonderful and very humbling experience.  We gave him our info, but he said his phone is broken and wouldn't give us his address, but he seemed really grateful.  We've been back to that area everyday to try and find him, but haven't yet.

Also had a super awesome experience with a member this week!  Don't have time to explain it, but it was awesome!

Friday we had a zone training all about family history!  One guy who works for the church came and gave a presentation on it and it was so awesome!  They really want us to emphasize family history work in finding.  It made me want to do family history work so bad!  I am so excited to do that when I am home again.   We also learned something interesting.  Family history is NOT a church program, but it IS a gospel principle.  Remember that.  Its not just something that the church promotes from people who have free time, but rather it is a principle of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Also I finally got to see the Work of Salvation broadcast and I loved it so much!!!  Oh it was so amazing!  If everyone could really understand and then act on that understanding (that's he key) how important members really are in every single aspect of missionary work, there would be no telling what miracles would happen.  I am telling you, as a missionary - members make or break it.  End of story.  So, my challenge to you all is to find the missionaries in your area and be their best friend!!  I remember the month before I went to byu-i and I went out with the university ward elders like every day.  I'm so grateful I did that now because 1) it helped me prepare 2) I got to hang out with the missionaries and 3) I got to be a part of the member missionary work.  I didn't realize it then, but now being in their position, I would go to great lengths to have a member come with us a quarter as often as I got to go with them.  So, go be a missionary!

I am so grateful for my knowledge of this gospel and the eternal joy and peace it can bring to ANYONE who is willing to make it a part of their lives!  I love you all!!

Старейшина Робисон

July 1, 2013 Сестрорецк!!!

Well today I am writing from my new area Sistroretsk!!  It is so beautiful here, I love it!!  My companion is Elder Wilkins and he is so awesome!!  Such a cool, really hard working Elder.  It's awesome!  I'm super excited about this transfer!  This city is right on the coast above St. Petersburg.  SO pretty.

Ok this week so many things happened!  I went to a really awesome trainer's training meeting on tuesday which was really cool.  Learned tons of awesome stuff.  Then spend my last night in Gatchina with my favorites - Оля и Юлия.  I love them so much!!  We were able to have a really good lesson with them on prayer after they stuffed us full of food - the main course being liver... that was exciting haha.  I'm going to miss them tons!  I already do.  Also I had to say good bye to some of the other really cool people that I made friends with in Gatchina.  There are some really cool people there.  I love them all!

Transfer meeting was awesome!  I think there were 9 missionaries that went home - 7 Elders and 2 sisters.  We only had 1 new missionary - a sister.  I think the official count in our mission now is like 28 Elders and 27 Sisters or something really close to that. After the meeting the mission paid for a taxi to take us all back to our area!  Huge blessing cause I didn't really want to haul all of my luggage on the metro twice in the same incredibly hot day. Here in my area, this transfer is the first transfer to have sisters in this city and holy cow- they are killing it!  They are having so much success already!  I am the district leader as well and since we are all new to the area we have had to work relatively closely this week with them to get things all sorted out and holy smokes.  The power of sister missionaries is just amazing.  They are so awesome.

The very first night I was there, this woman called us and was interested in doing english.  She said that the missionaries contacted her 2 months ago and so I told her when it was but she couldn't come at that time so we set up a different appointment to meet with her.  Then the next day at English, she came!  Just showed up.  So she was able to meet the sisters and they have been meeting with her.  She is so cool!  Huge miracle just from the very first night we got there.

A couple interesting things have happened to my companion and I in the past few days.  Saturday night we were contacting and we had just finished talking to this guy just sitting on a bench thing and we were walking away and we turn around and some other angry Russian man come agressively walking towards us with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and he's yelling at us then he pushed us pretty hard and I smashed heads with Elder Wilkins.  Pretty awesome!  The first time I've been almost attacted that agressively since being here.  My MTC companion got a gun pulled on him his first transfer, Elder Woodhead got punched.  President made the Elders in Petergof do an emergency evacuation last transfer as they had had multiple guns pulled on them, got kicked in the face and people found out where they lived and were throwing things at their windows.  Then the sisters in that area are still there cause they live in a different part of the area, but aren't allowed to wear their nametags or carry book of Mormons.  Pretty crazy stuff.

Then last night here, it was raining and we were walking down the sidewalk and some guy crosses the street from the other side to come and ask us for a cigarette.  Of course I told him we don't smoke and tried to engage him in a conversation.  Then the police pull up to us and get out of the car and get mad at the guy talking to us cause he was drunk.  Then they asked me if he was bothering us and I just told them he wanted a cigarette.  Anyways they took him away in the police car (I think they've had problems with this guy before because people walking around intoxicated in public is definitely not a strange thing here) and we scurried off so as to not have to talk to the police again.  Also the first time I've been talked to by a police officer here.  Pretty exciting stuff!

Anyways, I'm super excited to be in the new area!  It's going to be awesome!  Love you all, have a great week!

Elder Robison

June 24, 2013 Change is in the air

Hello everyone!!  Honestly this week has been so strange, but ended well!  First and foremost, as I alluded to last week, I am officially being transfered!  I'll be going to Sestoretsk which is about some unknown be me amount of time north of St. Petersburg.  It apparently is on the coast and was, before the revolution, Finnish land.  Should be interesting.  My new companion is already there, but here's the catch... this will be his second transfer.  The new missionary training program is 12 weeks long which equals 2 transfers.  This means I am going to be finishing training him... Im just a little stressed out about it.  Luckily, it's the second half so he's basically already trained haha.  Anyways, I'll be moving up there Wednesday.  I actually found out that i would be getting transfered earlier in the week when I had an interview with President Clark.  I'm being transfered because of our investigator.  Apparently last week when the Clarks were at church with us she told sister Clark that she had a "crush" on me.  Kinda explains some of the weird things she did this week.  Anyways - point of the story is that I'm being transfered.  And I'm excited about it.  Should be awesome.

So... hmm what else happened this week.  We had a really awesome zone training on Tuesday!  We basically just reviewed what we talked about when the Lawrences were here.  Really awesome.  Super strong spirit there.

We were contacted by 2 Jehova's witnesses (old бабушки) and they invited us to their "General Conference" if you will.  haha.  That was funny.

Then just after that some drunk guy came up and told us he was Jesus... then decided that no, he isn't but that he had been enlightened by the holy spirit.  Also wanted to know when we got to be Elders and he's not even though we were clearly younger than him and obviously not as intelligent...  Then he told our investigator sitting with us that we are only here to get people to send their money to Salt Lake.  Finally I got so angry so I stood up and told him to leave.  He did finally, reluctantly, but it probably didn't help that our investigator is seriously so nice that she wanted him to explain this reasoning and opinions behind everything that he said.  She was most interested in his claim that he was enlightened.  I don't really know what he meant by that, but it was weird.  Not a new thing for this part of the field, but still.  And it put a really weird mood and the rest of our meeting with her was just strange.

Despite all this, we continue to see little miracles everyday that remind us that God really is watching over us.  It's always so amazing to me - I think literally every time we've had a not so pleasant interaction on the street and it kinda gets us down, just after then some one will come up and talk to us and we'll have a really good conversation or something and I just feel automatically better.  There's one situation that I remember really well.  We said hi to the guy as he walked by and he swore at us a few times in English, but just kept walking.  Thatwasn't so much discouraging as it was annoying and I could feel the spirit just leaving and then I think literally after about 30 more steps some guy stopped us and told us that he always loves seeing the missionaries on the street.  He didn't want to meet with us or anything, but just said how it always makes him happy to see the missionaries out.  Just small little things like that that I know weren't coincidences, but it was God placing that man in our path to lift us back up.  I'll never forget that experience.

I think that's probably all for this week.  A good one overall, just really strange haha.

Love you all!

Til'next week!

Старейшина Робисон

June, 17, 2013 Another week gone by

Holy cow its already email day again!  This week went by so fast!  Probably the fastest week yet, but probably only because there was one less day in between p-days and we went to the city every day except for yesterday...  crazy stuff.  Elder Abbott had a visa trip Wednesday so I was there in the city on a split for a little bit then we had a split with the zone leaders on Thursday and ended Friday.  Then Saturday we went up again to see another baptism!! We took our investigator Margarita with us as well!  That was pretty cool.

Yesterday President and Sister Clark came down to Gatchina to visit the branch there.  That was pretty awesome!  They helped Elder Abbott and I teach the Gospel Principles class.  Kinda entertaining.  Actually it couldn't have been weirder.  It was me and my companion with President and Sister Clark.  Our investigator.  A member who is pretty much apostosizing (spelling?) and a member who has some severe mental/psychological disabilities.  For example, during the lesson he totally seriously asked "who is Heavenly Father?" and then said he didn't know that we existed as spirits... this poor guy doesn't understand or remember anything... at all.  So that was litterally the most hilarious and stressful class I have ever attended.  Trying to make sure our crazy members weren't corrupting and spreading false doctrine to our investigator (honestly a tad bit crazy herself - but in a good way.  She's awesome.) on top of having to translate most of it for Sister Clark and then translate her answers to questions and input for our wonderful Russians.  That was insane, but so fun at the same time.  We met with Margarita again last night (per her request) and there doesn't seem to have been much damage done.  Phew.  President even called us while they were driving back to wherever they were going next to talk to us about what had happened and what we could do to fix it, I suppose, for lack of a better word. 

During the course of that phone conversation with him (I'm the one who talked to him the whole time), he hinted twice at the fact that I may be transferred sooner than later.  First of all by asking how I thought the branch would function if there were no Elders but only sisters.  This was after being nagged for a few minutes by one of the members wanting to know when we would be getting sisters in Gatchina.  He doesn't like the fact that the missionaries basically run the branch (especially since it's part of the stake).  We do everything for the sacrament every week and we also are the ones who count and put tithing and fast offerings into the computer and then take all the money to the post office and have it sent to Moscow every week.  He wasn't happy about that at all.  I think the branch would die (or at least have to shape up and start doing things right) without Elders to do everything for them.  President agrees which is why he seemed to express to me that he is toying with the idea of taking Elders out and putting only sisters in.  Probably not this transfer, but maybe sometime in the relatively near future (especially since our mission is going to be short on Elders for a transfer I think).

The other thing he said to me was that he thinks our investigator is a little too fond of me and he thinks he'll have to get me out of that.  I don't think it's me necessarily, but missionaries in general.  She calls us all the time and texts us and whatnot.  This morning she texted us just to wish all of god's blessings upon us today and forever... hmm.  I guess we'll find out what happens to me.  Transfer calls are on Saturday.  I actually really love Gatchina now.  I didn't always, but its really grown on me.

Funny thing happened this week.  Since we had been travelling so much this week and had been at meetings with people more often than normal this week, we haven't really had time to like actually go out contacting.  We got a chance to actually do that on Saturday night and I found that I actually kinda missed doing that.  It was pretty fun.  I never thought I'd miss contacting, but apparently I did a little bit.  In that, I learned a lesson.  I just love how God is always so wanting to bless us if we'll just do what he wants us to.  I had been contacting really poorly all week, just always being on the run to appointments and stuff (a first for us here in Gatchina) and I had been feeling bad about it.  So  I decided when we had this hour and a half left on Saturday night, that I was going to try and do the best I could to talk to everyone.  The first 2 people I tried to hold a conversation with, I was actually pretty successful.  It not as easy as you would think, but I know that the Lord saw that I was really trying to talk to people and the next 3 people I talked to were all people that stopped me (a very rare thing here).  I felt so blessed.  After talking with themI thought about it and realized that The Lord had seen me trying my best to stop and talk with people and was willing to help me out by having people stop me.  A really cool thing that just kinda hit me this week.  Another awesome thing like that happened yesterday, but I don't have time to write about it right now so find me in about 2 years when I'm home if you really want to hear about it haha.

Well, it was a pretty awesome week for me!  Hope you all had one too!!

я вас всех люблю!

Старейшина Робисон

June 10, 2013 Yes yes yes!

Ahhhh family!!! There is NOTHING better than being a missionary!!!!  Gosh I just love it so much!!  This week was absolutely fantastic!!!!!!  We were able to meet with our investigator every single day this week.  That was awesome.  She really is progressing a lot.  She's been so prepared it's wonderful. 

This week we got to go on a split with 2 of the most experienced missionaries in the mission.  It was so awesome!  President gave them a special assigment (this is both of their last transfers) to travel the entire mission and go on a split with every companionship of Elders.  I loved it so much!  I learned tons!  Elder Rasmussen was with me and he met with me and our investigator.  He is such an incredible teacher.  I think I learned more than our investigator listen to him teach.  Pretty much the whole lesson I just sat there in awe listening and watching.  I want to be like that some day.  He is also a master at contacting.  It was so fun to go with him.. He could get anyone to stop and talk to him.  The key:  he was talking WITH people and not TO people.  He started by just asking them random questions waiting for what he calls the "green light" where he could take the opportunity to testify of a principle relating to what they were saying.  Its like what Elder Holland says in PMG that when we actually listen to what they are saying, we will always be able to find a priciple of the restored gospel about which we can bear testimony.  Elder Rasmussen is amazing at it.  I LOVED working with him.

Funny story as a result of his contacting skills.  There was the guy sitting off the side of the road on some bench thing and Elder Rasmussen called to him from the street then we started walking up to him which turned out to be a her.  She was waiting for someone to come pick her up and take her to the hospital because she was going to be having a baby that day!  In just a few hours she would be a new mom.  Elder Rasmussen of course, knowing that he wouldn't be there, told her that we would come by the hosptial tonight and bring her flowers (totally a Russian thing to do. They LOVE giving flowers - there's a flowershop or 2 on every corner) and congratulate her.  Since Elder Rasmussen left after dinner, that responsibility fell on me..  great.  But we did it cause she said in kinda a challenging tone that she's be waiting for us so of course, I couldn't not go.  That night I went to the flower shop and bought some flowers and went to the hospital and called her only to find out she wasn't there cause the hospital wouldn't take her.  She hadn't bought the stuff she needed (required by the hospital) yet in order to have the baby.  But I told her I still wanted to give her the flowers, so we met her at a store kinda nearby and gave her the flowers and a Proclamation to the family thing and told her to call and let us know how everything goes.  She called the next day and wanted us to by the stuff that she stil needed for her, but when I told her that we couldn't she became angry and hung up on us... sour ending to what could have been really awesome, but in the end, at least she got the flowers!  Hopefully she'll call us sometime in the future and want to meet, not just try and get money from us.  Interesting experience though.

Then yesterday was mission conference!  It was supposed to be with Elder Ballard, but at the very last minute his plane landed in London instead of St. Pete's cause someone in the Russian visa office in San Fran messed up and stamped the wrong date on his visa and they wouldn't let him into the country.  They tried to do everything they could to negotiate  (his visa was approved for the 13th or something instead of the 10th, but they wouldn't let him in.  But back up plan was our area president and his wife who I LOVE.  She is the one who did the whole House of Israel thing back in March, so we got to listen to her speak again.  This time she spoke about the Devil.  Holy cow it was so awesome!  Just a few things she said that I loved.

Satan tries to destroy us in 4 different ways

1. With direct tempation using our appetites and passions, pride and vanity, and power and riches. (See Matt chpt 3)

2. Deception.  He counterfeits every part of God's plan.  Keep in mind a counterfeit is not the opposite.  For example, the opposite of white is black, but a conterfeit of white is like cream, or off-white.  Some parts of God's plan that satan tries to counterfeit are :

God's plan - Satan's counterfeit

faith  - superstition

love - lust

priesthood - priestcraft

patriarchs - psychics

Sacred covenants - secret combinations

chastity - celibacy

law of consecration - socialism/communism

marriage - cohabitation

eternal progression - reincarnation

get the idea?.. the interesting thing is that there is one part of God's plan that Satan cannot find and counterfeit for and that is peace.  There is no counterfeit for peace.  Hence the scripture "there is no peace for the wicked"

3. Contention.  He is a master at this, especially sibling contention (he has lots of personal experience in that category).   I love the quote from Joseph Smith "The devil flatters us when we are feeding on the faults of others" 

He also provides contention with jealousy and spreads contention in the church (his number 1 target P.S. is the house of Israel) by very effectively revealing to us the shortcomings in our leaders... Beware of this one!

4.  The last way he tries to destroy us if we don't fall for any of this is by using discouragement. 

So interesting.  I LOVED the meeting yesterday even though Elder Ballard couldn't make it.  SO awesome!  Satan is crafty, but just remember "Satan trembles when he sees, the weakest saint upon his knees"

I hope you guys have a great week - I love you all!

Elder Robison

PS sorry it was a novel this week

June 3, 2013 Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles!

Such a stinking awesome week!!  I LOVE it so much!  First of att, we had the first district meeting with our new district this week and one of the girls is from Australia so that's super cool.  There are actually more sisters than Elders in my district and I don't think mine is the only district like that...  Since we had district meeting this week, we had to go to the city which I love in the first place, but now that it's summer, holy smokes.  I CANNOT get over how beautiful St. Petersburg is.  It's so green and all the buildings are so cool.  Walking down the street is like walking through a museum.  I'm in love with it.  So pretty.

This week we were able to finally meet with a less active who we have failed to meet with ever since I got to Russia.  He's turning 14 next week and he's pretty cool.  Apparently he and his mom were a little offended by the missionaries who baptized them 3 years ago cause they became like really good friends, but then when they left the area, didn't really say goodbye to them and hasn't contacted them since he's been home.  It's sad, but that kinda ruined them in a way.  We got to meet him this week and just introduce ourselves.  We also set up an appointment with him to come back this week and talk more.  We didn't stay long this week since he wasn't thrilled about us coming over in the first place, but I think he's ok with is now.  We need to get him active!  He will be, I'm sure.

Then on the way home from his house, some girl stopped us and asked if we were Mormons and we said yes.  She wanted to meet with us so we set up an appointment for the next day and had an ok lesson.  It was just weird, but still good.  She came to church with us yesterday!  We've had a problem with the memebers not fellowshipping at all in the past so we were really worried about that, but it turned out pretty well.  It was fast and testimony meeting and she turned to me and asked if she could go up, and I was like "why not" so she did.  She was actually the second person to go up hahah.  It was a good experience overall.  She called us last night and said she really enjoyed church and we are meeting again with her tonight!  This looks really promising!!

Then, if you all remeber Оля и Юлия, we finally got to do a lesson with them!  We did the plan of happiness and it went really well over all.  The spirit was really strong and I could tell that they really wanted it to be true.  They agreed to let us come over again and do more lessons!  Keep in mind that this is the same girl who told us a month and a half ago that she only wanted us to help with English and she was orthodox and going to stay that way.  Such a huge miracle.  She actually looked like she was going to start crying during the lesson.  We had made some banana bread and took it to them when we went to our lesson and she called me the next day just to tell us how much she loved it and say that they were excited for us to come over again!  The Lord works in mysterious ways, but I'm so grateful he does!  We've been praying for these 2 since we met them in March and I know that our prayers are being answered!

Anyways, long story short, we went from 0 to 3 new investigators this week.  Dennis didn't  come to english this week, but we are still going to be trying to get him to that point as well!  Life is more than just good around here.  I'm loving it!

P.S.  You may not get an email from me next Monday - P-day might be changed next week because on Monday we will all be in St. Petersburg for a special missionary meeting with ELDER BALLARD!  This is the same day that he will be doing as special "family night" thing with the St. Petersburg Stake (which Margarita - the girl at church yesterday - really wants to go to!)  It's going to be so amazing.  So, don't all have a heart attack if I don't email on Monday, I will most likely at some point during the week.

Elder Robison

May 27, 2013 С днем рождения Санкт-Петербург!

Well as you all might have been able to guess from the title, today is St. Petersburg's 310th birthday!!  So all wish St.Pete's a happy b-day please...:)

Besides that, this week was so amazing!!!  So many cool/funny things happened!  I am torn between my 2 favorite events of the week though, I can't decide if it was the fantastic meeting with our almost investigator from English, or if it was the incredible Zone Conference that we had this week.  Both defintely the highlights of the week.

I will start with zone conference because that happened first.  It was 6 hours long, but so worth it!  I wish we had them more frequently because the spirit is always so strong there and I always learn so much!  We started by watching a clip from youtube (hadn't seen that in a while haha) that someone made from a talk that Elder Busche gave a long time ago.  I can't remember what it was called, but I think if you go to youtube and look up "advice from elder busche" it should come up.  The one that we watched had the words going on top of pictures as he was speaking and then some nice music in the background as well.  It should start with something like "Embrace this day, no matter how it looks" (although this is the end of his talk so if you look up the whole talk which was a BYU address given in the 90's it won't start with that).  Anyways, it was so amazing and I LOVED it! 

Then we watched a part of President Eyrings talk at the BYU women's conference given in the past few weeks (which I would suggest all of you watch) (BYU-TV website you should be able to get there - that's how we watched it).  In it (I think about half way through) he talks about missionaries a little bit, one in particular.  Sister Eyring - his granddaughter - who happened to be in the zone conference with me.  The grandaughter that he is referring to the whole time is the one in my mission!! She came in one transfer after me.  So the Mission, Mission President and everything that he refers to in his talk is MY mission and MY mission president too!!! How cool.  It was a little strange to watch it with her in the room since it was all about her, but so cool at the same time.  You should all watch it just to see that part.  Just think of it - here is a general authorities talk that you can all personally relate to since you all know me and I was sitting in the room with/ know the missionary he was talking about!  Sorry, I've gone on wayy too long about that, I just thought it was cool.  The rest of the conference was awesome as well.  We mostly talked about talking with people instead of too them.  I just loved it so much, even the practices I liked, which I normally don't.  So good.

Now to Dennis - our wonderful friend at English!  Gosh I love him so much!!  He is so cool!  After the thing was over, he stayed and talked with me again (Elder Abbott was talking with our friend who always takes us out to lunch).  He asked me all about families and what we teach about families and everything related to that.  He asked me about how my parents raised me  - luckily, like Nephi I could proudly (but not in a prideful way) say that I was also born of goodly parents and then he asked for specific examples of lessons that I had been taught by them (thankfully I have a myriad of them to tell) as a result of being raised the way that I was as a member of the Церковь Иисуса Христа Святых Последных Дней.  He loved it.  I was also able to tie all that in with some other priciples like the need for prophets and commandments and scriptures.  We we read the Proclamation to the Family and he really liked that.  It was just so awesome, he had so many questions and the spirit was so strong as I was able to share and testify of the truth to him.  Finally I asked him if we could meet with him sometime during the week to talk more but he said he is really busy, but he'll call if he has time.  I didn't invite him to church yet cause we need to work with the members more on fellowshipping.  They've offended the last couple people we brought to activities by being terrible fellowshippers!!  So frustrating.  I don't want that to happen with this guy, so I think we are going to do a couple practices with them..  hopefully.  We'll see.

Anyways, that was the 2 most amazing things that happened this week.  Some other amusing things/funny stories.  I was walking through the part this week and we passed a group of people and I just happened to look at one of the guy's shirts and you'll never guess what it was.  He was wearing a U of M basketball shirt!!!  I was so shocked I didn't even know what to do.  I just stared at it as they walked by..  I wanted to talk to him, but by the time I thought about it, I would have been chasing after them which would have been strange.

Then we were contacting on Thursday and I said hi to this lady as she walked past and she turned around and got so mad at us, telling us that we were baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church and wanting to know why we left and joined a sekt.  Well there were two problems with her false claims.  I tried telling her, first of all that I was never baptized into the orthodox church and she kept insisting that I was saying she was sure of it.  I finally was like "look lady, I'm american!  I wasn't baptized into the orthodox church!"  (nicer than that of course) and that kinda shut her up.  Then he turned and walked away and I followed her and asked why she thought we were a sect.  She said that the "just knew" and I told her that we weren't and asked if she had read the BOM.  She didn't respond, so I just wished her well and let her keep walking.  Lets keep in mind that this woman was about 50-60 yrs old and had bright pink hair...  (not a rare thing here actually).

I think thats about it this week.  It was so good!!!  Hope you all had a great week too!

Elder Robison

May 20, 2013 ~ Неделя чудес!!

Absolutely wonderful week this week!  One of the best!!  First of all it was transfer week and so we got to go to the transfer meeting (I'm still in Gatchina btw), but my companion was going home (is now home and no longer a missionary-weird thought).  I absolutely LOVED LOVED LOVED this transfer meeting!!  The most incredible spirit was there and I could not get enough!! Every missionary in our mission was there except for 2, which, as I mentioned before was Elder Noorda and Eady - the only conpanionship not affected by this transfer.  I was just in heaven there.  It was so good to be around so many missionaries again!  It was basically a mission meeting.  There were 14 missionaries that came in and 13 that went home.  All the ones who went home had to bear their testimonies of course.  4 of them were sisters (3 natives) and I was just so impressed by them.  The Elder's were all really good too, but there is just something about sister missionaries that is so incredible.  These 4 sisters that went home just gave the most powerful, spirit filled testimonies I have ever heard.  Sisters are amazing.  Any girl thinking about going on a mission, do it.  They need you.  Any perspective Elders, you are needed just as much.

I got to see Elder Gatrell again this transfer meeting (he is in Kaliningrad) and talk to him for a while.  After talking with him, I am so grateful to know that God know's us each perfectly and will put people in our paths that will change our lives forever.  He told me that he had been working with this one contact - turned - investigator since one of his very first weeks here.  Is named Alexandr (like half of Russia) and he was a Jehova's witness (any one who has been a missionary before knows how impressive this is haha) and he is 27.  Ever since they met him back inFebruary, they have seen and been working with him every day.  He was just baptized on the saturday before the transfer meeting and confirmed and recieved the Holy Ghost and Aaronic Priesthood the next day (on Sunday).  3 days later, a few hours before transfer meeting began, they (elder Gatrell and companion) recieved a call and were informed that Alexandr had died that morning.  It just goes to show I suppose, that the Lord's timing is perfect.  It also is a wonderful/terrible example of why we, as missionaries (and members) need to have that sense of urgency.  Maybe things would have been the same and he still would have been baptized when he was, but I really think that if Elder Gatrell and his companion had not had a sense of urgency and worked as hard as they did to help Alexandr - things may not have ended up in quite the same situation.

Well, sorry for that kinda down section, but not for some miracles (as I'm sure you were all anticipating after reading the title).  This week we had some really awesome contacts.  I have really been trying to do as President has been recently emphasizing and just talk to people normally and not immediately throwing our purpose at them, and it really does get them talking.  Everyday we've had really long/good contacts.  A few of them lasted even more than 20 minutes.  It really does change their whole attitude towards us when we try to take an interest in them first.  One guy in particular was awesome.  He talked to us for a really long time then had to go.  We exchanged numbers and kinda talked about a time that we could set up to come and meet with him.  He left really grateful and really wanting to meet with us.  Then the next day he called us and said that he had gotten sick and couldn't meet when he had originally said he could, but said that he still really wanted to meet.  He seems very sincere so we'll see what happens with him.  We are going to call him in a few days if he doesn't call us first to see how his health is and also when we can meet.

Then at English on Saturday, huge miracle happened!  Dennis, the one guy last week who walked a really long way with us and talked with us, then came to english - he came again this week!  And he was able to stay for the spiritual thought.  The theme this week was how the Gospel blesses families and he loved it.  After the thought, for the 1 on 1 time I asked him what he thought about what we talked about today and he said that he agreed with all of it.  We were also able talk about some other things related to the gospel and restoration as well.   He seems to be really interested and agrees with a lot of the stuff.  He even said that he looked some stuff up on the internet about us after our first contact with him (always scary when people say that) and he still came!  At one point he was even like "maybe Joseph Smith was right".  I almost fell out of my chair hahah.  This guy is so prepared it's ridiculous.  I really home we can help him.  I'm not entirely what to do at this point, but we'll figure it out.

Then at church, probably my favorite miracle of the week happened!  The branch president's wife came up to us after church and asked if it would be ok for them to invite some of their friends over to their house and invite us over too and teach a lesson with them!!  YES!!  So awesome!  I could hardly contain my excitement then.  Hopefully this actually works out.  Apparently this family is kinda interested/has some questions, but won't come to church for whatever reason.  Branch President's wife thought that they might be more willing to come over to their house for a meeting instead.  I really hope this works out!

Then on the way home from church this guy gets up off the bench and walks up to us and tells us that he's been looking for us for a long time.  He asked if we could help him quit drinking (he was drunk this whole time) and we told him we could.  He seemed like he wanted to meet and then asked if he had to be sober when he came to church and stuff.  I told him that would probably be a good idea haha.  He couldn't give us his number for some reason, but he has ours so hopefully he'll call.

We met this other guy in the park on Thursday.  Not terribly interested, but thinks that we are just the coolest people ever.  He loves what we're doing and kept telling us how awesome we were.  He talked to us for like half an hour and asked for our number and gave us his.  As we were talking some people walked by and kinda started laughing and saying stupid things about mormons and he totally defended us.  Then he asked if that happens often and we were like "yeah, but its not really a big deal".  He told us that if anyone ever made fun of us or anything, to call him and he'd come right away.  He's 34 and a normal guy.  Probably from my description you think he's all weird, but he's actually really normal.  Then he called us later that night to find out where we were (and was surprised to find out we were at home at 10.15pm).  Then he called the next day too, just to make sure people were being nice too us haha.  He hasn't called again yet, but who knows, maybe he will.

Lastly, (that's not the last miracle but thats the last that I have time for) maybe you all remember Olya, the girl we were helping with English?  Well she passed her test this week (which she and her mom were terrified for) and it was her birthday on friday.  So in light of all that, they invited us over for some tea (they know what kind we can have) and cake to celebrate.  That's all we were expecting when we went over there, but no,they had prepared more since it was such a big deal for them and they were so grateful for our help.  So I had 2 firsts this week.  First they made me try caviar.  That was interesting.  I didn't like it very much.  Then they fed us язык.  I pretended like I didn't hear what it was that we were trying just so I could stomach it, but, she said it again a second time more pronounced and it was confirmed to me that yes, I was indeed eating tongue.. cow tongue, I think.  It didn't taste bad, but it was cold.  That part I was not really a fan of.  But there you go.  Fun story of the week.  To make up for it, Olya did remind her mom that she had promised to go to church with us after Olya passed her test, so that will be coming up some time too!

Have a great week!

Elder Robison

May 13, 2013

Well this week was a full one!  First and foremost, we bought a new washing machine this week!  Finally after 3/12 weeks can stop washing our clothes in the bathtub.  I don't know what to do with all my free time in the evenings now haha.  Just kidding, there's always something to do.

Last week as we were grocery shopping I past a woman pushing a cart and just happened to glance down at what was in her cart and can you guess what I saw?..  her dog.  At first it didn't really register cause I've just gotten so used to seeing strange things like that happen, but then I realized that is not normal!  Nor is it probably very sanitary.  I love Russia.  Reminds me of when I was in a different store a few weeks ago (grocery store) and I just saw a cat wandering around there.  That was strange cause it wasn't even with an owner or anything.  It was just walking around the store by itself and no one did anything - as if that is just a normal thing to have animals strolling around the grocery store.  So funny.

This week was Russia's second biggest holiday  - День Победы (Victory day).  It is a victory from WWII.  It's kinda a big deal here.  It was kinda fun to be able to see although everyone was so drunk!  Well, not everyone, but the vast majority.  Also, fun fact (or not so fun fact) related to WWII, apparently in Gatchina there was a concentration camp and some testing grounds for new weapons.  Apparently Hitler really liked the big palace and park around it so he told his guys to leave that alone, but basically all of Gatchina was destroyed during WWII.. Interesting.

We had the first official English meeting this week and it was really good!  7 people came (which sounds tiny, but is really good) and they all really enjoyed it.  Unfortunately only 3 of them stayed for the spiritual thought at the end which is the most important part.  Hopefully we can get that changed around.

We visited Оля and her mom again this week and found out a little interesting Russian superstition/tradition.  It had been a thunderstorm earlier that day and we learned that apparently after "3 thunders"  (thunderstorms I think that means) you can go swimming!  Intersting.  This morning we woke up to the 2nd thunder.  1 more and guess who's going swimming!  Юлия (Оля's mom) - not me hahah -that happens to be нельзя for missionaries.

We had some cool contacting miracle this week! One was a guy that I just stopped on our way home.  He talked with us for a while and as we were about to say goodbye and what not, but he asked us where we were going and said he'd walk with us. We basically gave him the entire restoration lesson as we were walking down the street. So awesome, and he seemed to be really engaged in it. He asked if he could borrow the Book of Mormon and of course we gave it to him. We invited him to English as well. He was a reluctant to give us his phone number, afraid we would call all the time even though we said we wouldn't - he said he'd call us. Ususally we know how those kind of conversations end - with them never calling - but he did! And he came to english and really enjoyed!! Huge miracle!  I can see some real good things ahead with this guy!!

Then the other one was a taxi driver that was standing outside his car smoking stopped us and talked to us a little bit and we just told him we are here to help people and then he immediately led us over to one of the other taxi drivers sitting in his car and said "this guy needs help". We talked to him for a long time actually and he was super nice and sincere. We gave him a plan of salvation pamphlet and invited him to church on Sunday. Then I think a day or 2 later we walked by and he was there in his car again so we stood there and talked to him in his car for a long time. He had read the pamphlet and liked it, but had some other questions too. We were able to discuss them with him and after we got back home I was still thinking about some of them and looked some stuff up on them to share with him. Haven't seen him there since then, but hopefully we'll find him again. It was just a really nice thing for me, being able to finally help someone - or at least prepare to. Hopefully we can get somewhere with him! 

So everything else is just ok.  Transfers this week which is always exciting.  Apparently this is going to be a huge transfer meeting.  13 missionaries going home and 14 coming in.  There is only 1 companionship who will not be at the transfer meeting (so basically it's a mission meeting haha) and that one companionship is Elder Eady (my first trainer) and Elder Noorda (my good friend from the MTC).  Should be an exciting week!

Have a great week!

Elder Robison

P.S. С днем матери yesterday to all you mothers!