Wow, what a week! We had Zone Conference with the Area President on Wednesday and St Petersburg very first Stake Conference yesterday!! It was so awesome! This email will probably be more about the things that I learned at Zone Conference than anything else, just so you're prepared. The best talk by far, was actually from the Area President's wife, Sister Lawrence. She talked all about the House of Israel in connection with our purpose as missionaries. So awesome! This may be not new information to any of you but it was to me so I'm going to share it anyways!
So after the death of King Soloman and his son came into power, 3 of the really 13 tribes of Israel stayed in the kingdom and became known as the Southern kindgdom or the Kingdom of Judah (being made up of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi). The other 10 created the kingdom in the north (Kingdom or Ephraim). The in 721 B.C. the assyrians came in and the northern 10 tribes were scattered - now comonly known as the 10 lost tribes. Well, I have some good news for you. They're not really lost, they're in Russia and Ukraine and other countries in this part of the world! I'll show you how we know this. President McConkie told us where they are even. "They are scattered in all the nations of the earth, primarily the nations north of the lands of their inheritance (Israel)." Anyone good at geography and want to tell me what is above Israel. Moscow happens to be directly above Israel. Interesting huh? But maybe I haven't convinced you yet. We know from the early days of the saints from Scadinavian countries and England emmigrating to the U.S. that that is where a large part of the tribe of Ephraim is found. Side note - this kinda made me laugh when I thought about Ephraim, UT and their Scandinavian days festival. Then we also know that South America and the Pacific Islands are largely made up of people from Manasseh. This leaves the other "lost" tribes that rarely pop up anywhere. But in 2004, 2 patriarchs went on assignment and went throughout Ukraine and Russia and each gave 100 patriarchal blessings. They came back and reported to Elder Packer I think it was and do you know what they found? In those 200 blessings, they had found people in these countries from all 10 of the tribes!! We found them!! How awesome! There were 2 days of zone conference so when we got to this part, Sister Lawrence had all of the Russian and Ukrainian native missionaries stand up and say what tribe they are from and just from those missionaries in our mission, 7 of the 10 tribes were represented. How awesome is that?! Now, we all know that God is a fan of groups of 3 right? Now lets look at 2 Nephi 29:13. Words of the Jews logically would be the bible, Nehpites would be the Book of Mormon and what about this mysterious word of the 10 lost tribes. I don't know about you, during zone conference we came to the logical conclusion that sometime - no one knows when - there will probably be another book of scripture that pops up somewhere in the side of the world that testifies of Christ and talks about when he visited more of his "Other sheep". This 3rd book would complete the 3rd witness of Jesus Christ. I can't wait for this. There are a good number of people here now who are joining the Church (proof: yesterday was the first stake conference of the St Petes stake!), but imagine what will happen to this part of the world when this record is found. It will be so amazing!! Can't wait for that!
Anyways, enough about that. Now onto other things that happened this week. We have a leek in our kitchen sink which got under the laminate flooring so we had to lift that up a little and have been drying that out, hoping it won't ruin the wood. That would be a nightmare to deal with. Then at zone conference, my zone met with the Center zone (center of the city) which is where Elders Holman and Woodhead are serving, so I got to see them!! First time I'd seen anyone from my MTC group so that was awesome!! Got and announcement from the Area presidnecy this week and they have changed the email rule so we can now email friends as well as family!! That's exciting! Also, as a result of Sister Lawrences talk, I was inspired to want to learn more about everything, so I started reading "Jesus the Christ" and taking diligent notes while reading. I'm learning TONS! And I love it! Then like I've already mentioned a few times, stake conference yesterday!! The best part - besides the talks that were really good, was I got to see Elder Noorda again! Super cool! He's serving in Vyborg which is right up by Finland. Their whole ward came down on a bus together. The Bishop of that ward happens to be one of the very first converts in Russia, also the translator for President Monson when he comes, one of the official translators for General Conference (coming up soon and I can't wait!) and one of the main people to do the new translation of the Russian Book of Mormon AND just finished working on the official translation of "Jesus the Christ" into Russian which I'm pretty sure hasn't been published yet. Super cool to get to see him! President Clark spoke at Stake Conference as well as the temple president of the Helsinki Finland temple (both talks given in English), and the Vyborg Bishop translated for them. SO awesome to see!
In terms of finding and teaching this week was not so good. Just a lot of people who schedule appointments with us and instead of being a normal person and saying they aren't interested, they just decide to not answer their phone and not show up to meet with us. So annoying, but I told President Lawrence about this in my personal interview with him and he just said that we have to get through a certain number of those people before we get to the people who really want to know. I guess he's right so we'll just have to keep looking! P.S. This wednesday would normally be transfers, but this is an 8 week transfer instead, because of the MTC only keeping the missionaries a max of 9 weeks now, so this week we are getting 1 new elder and in 2 weeks on transfers we will be getting 8 sisters! Crazy. I know them all, they were my children and granchildren in the MTC. The group of 8 sisters came in the wednesday before I left. 2 of them were actually put right into the advanced district so I had class with them for about 4 days (one of them being a friend of Heather's for all of you who know her - Marie's roommate at BYU-I). So in 2 weeks we will have transfers. Most likely I will not be going anywhere, but who knows. Holman and Woodhead are getting all switched around. They know this already cause Holman's trainer is being taken to train the guy coming in Wednesday, then Woodhead's trainer is being taken for something else. I'll probably stay here in Gatchina though, who knows yet.
Well, I think that's about all for this week. It was good week, hope you all had a good week as well!
Love,
Elder Robison
So after the death of King Soloman and his son came into power, 3 of the really 13 tribes of Israel stayed in the kingdom and became known as the Southern kindgdom or the Kingdom of Judah (being made up of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi). The other 10 created the kingdom in the north (Kingdom or Ephraim). The in 721 B.C. the assyrians came in and the northern 10 tribes were scattered - now comonly known as the 10 lost tribes. Well, I have some good news for you. They're not really lost, they're in Russia and Ukraine and other countries in this part of the world! I'll show you how we know this. President McConkie told us where they are even. "They are scattered in all the nations of the earth, primarily the nations north of the lands of their inheritance (Israel)." Anyone good at geography and want to tell me what is above Israel. Moscow happens to be directly above Israel. Interesting huh? But maybe I haven't convinced you yet. We know from the early days of the saints from Scadinavian countries and England emmigrating to the U.S. that that is where a large part of the tribe of Ephraim is found. Side note - this kinda made me laugh when I thought about Ephraim, UT and their Scandinavian days festival. Then we also know that South America and the Pacific Islands are largely made up of people from Manasseh. This leaves the other "lost" tribes that rarely pop up anywhere. But in 2004, 2 patriarchs went on assignment and went throughout Ukraine and Russia and each gave 100 patriarchal blessings. They came back and reported to Elder Packer I think it was and do you know what they found? In those 200 blessings, they had found people in these countries from all 10 of the tribes!! We found them!! How awesome! There were 2 days of zone conference so when we got to this part, Sister Lawrence had all of the Russian and Ukrainian native missionaries stand up and say what tribe they are from and just from those missionaries in our mission, 7 of the 10 tribes were represented. How awesome is that?! Now, we all know that God is a fan of groups of 3 right? Now lets look at 2 Nephi 29:13. Words of the Jews logically would be the bible, Nehpites would be the Book of Mormon and what about this mysterious word of the 10 lost tribes. I don't know about you, during zone conference we came to the logical conclusion that sometime - no one knows when - there will probably be another book of scripture that pops up somewhere in the side of the world that testifies of Christ and talks about when he visited more of his "Other sheep". This 3rd book would complete the 3rd witness of Jesus Christ. I can't wait for this. There are a good number of people here now who are joining the Church (proof: yesterday was the first stake conference of the St Petes stake!), but imagine what will happen to this part of the world when this record is found. It will be so amazing!! Can't wait for that!
Anyways, enough about that. Now onto other things that happened this week. We have a leek in our kitchen sink which got under the laminate flooring so we had to lift that up a little and have been drying that out, hoping it won't ruin the wood. That would be a nightmare to deal with. Then at zone conference, my zone met with the Center zone (center of the city) which is where Elders Holman and Woodhead are serving, so I got to see them!! First time I'd seen anyone from my MTC group so that was awesome!! Got and announcement from the Area presidnecy this week and they have changed the email rule so we can now email friends as well as family!! That's exciting! Also, as a result of Sister Lawrences talk, I was inspired to want to learn more about everything, so I started reading "Jesus the Christ" and taking diligent notes while reading. I'm learning TONS! And I love it! Then like I've already mentioned a few times, stake conference yesterday!! The best part - besides the talks that were really good, was I got to see Elder Noorda again! Super cool! He's serving in Vyborg which is right up by Finland. Their whole ward came down on a bus together. The Bishop of that ward happens to be one of the very first converts in Russia, also the translator for President Monson when he comes, one of the official translators for General Conference (coming up soon and I can't wait!) and one of the main people to do the new translation of the Russian Book of Mormon AND just finished working on the official translation of "Jesus the Christ" into Russian which I'm pretty sure hasn't been published yet. Super cool to get to see him! President Clark spoke at Stake Conference as well as the temple president of the Helsinki Finland temple (both talks given in English), and the Vyborg Bishop translated for them. SO awesome to see!
In terms of finding and teaching this week was not so good. Just a lot of people who schedule appointments with us and instead of being a normal person and saying they aren't interested, they just decide to not answer their phone and not show up to meet with us. So annoying, but I told President Lawrence about this in my personal interview with him and he just said that we have to get through a certain number of those people before we get to the people who really want to know. I guess he's right so we'll just have to keep looking! P.S. This wednesday would normally be transfers, but this is an 8 week transfer instead, because of the MTC only keeping the missionaries a max of 9 weeks now, so this week we are getting 1 new elder and in 2 weeks on transfers we will be getting 8 sisters! Crazy. I know them all, they were my children and granchildren in the MTC. The group of 8 sisters came in the wednesday before I left. 2 of them were actually put right into the advanced district so I had class with them for about 4 days (one of them being a friend of Heather's for all of you who know her - Marie's roommate at BYU-I). So in 2 weeks we will have transfers. Most likely I will not be going anywhere, but who knows. Holman and Woodhead are getting all switched around. They know this already cause Holman's trainer is being taken to train the guy coming in Wednesday, then Woodhead's trainer is being taken for something else. I'll probably stay here in Gatchina though, who knows yet.
Well, I think that's about all for this week. It was good week, hope you all had a good week as well!
Love,
Elder Robison
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