January 27, 2014 ~ Another week in Petro

This week has been pretty good.  We had a super good meeting at church yesterday. President was there again as well as the guy who is in charge of all the church buildings in finances and stuff in eastern Europe and a member of the 70 from moscow... so we had some pretty cool guests.  They came up to inspect our building and to make plans for remont cause its bad.  The first time I saw it, I was a little scared.  I would not want to bring investigators there.  But they signed some big contracts on Saturday and the building should be a whole lot better by like june ish... maybe I'll still be here, maybe not, but I kinda hope so. 

I liked one of the things that the 70 said.  He said that a person in defined by what he does and thinks about in his spare time.  Interesting thought that I really liked. 

Also I had to do the gospel prinicples lesson by myself as my companion was in a different class being a translator.  But it was super good surprisingly.  The mission driver (also te bishop of one of the petersburg wards) who drove up president and the other guests was there and he is one of my favorite people ever.  When he talks I feel like I am listening to an apostle.  Anyways he was in my class and made some cool comments.  That wasn't really related to anything, it was just cool.

We were able to meet with our main investigator a few times again this week but wait I totally forgot to tell you!!! She's been wanting to become a member, but the problem is that she was living with her "husband" with whom she has a child.  The husband is a member and also one of my favorite people here (had a rough past 12 years of his life).  Anyways obviously she needed to move out or the needed to get married, but getting married here takes a really long time with all the legal stuff so it was looking more like she needed to move out.  But God loves his children and always blesses them when they are trying to do what's right so she called last week the marriage registration place and they told her to come in on tuesday and they could marry them right away cause they have a kid!  So my companion and I met them and the branch president early that morning before she had to go to work and went with them to the government place and they got married!!!!!!!!!!!  It was so awesome!!!!  We watched them sign the papers and everything and get the application to change the name on her passport so everything is all official!  And then president interviewed her on saturday when he was here and said she is all ready!!  Its so exciting!  I have met some of the most amazing prepared people here and seen some of the most amazing miracles!  Things are happening in petro. When I got here, it seemed like things were on their way out and the branch was on it's death bed, but the past few weeks the number of people at church has been going up and there is a new spirit in the branch and things are changing here, I think every one can feel it, especially yesterday.  Things are looking really really good here and I'm really excited about it.  And you know where we are finding all there miracles?  Through members.  I know you've all heard it, but it's no secret.  The people that we are working with that are really progressing, we did not meet on our own.  They are all people that the members (1 in particular) have worked with us with and we are seeing more miracles than I've seen probably my whole mission!  I love it!!  So if you want to change the spirit in your ward, work with the missionaries and help them meet the people that you know!  And if you don't feel like you can trust the missionaries in your area, tell them that and tell them to get on track cause you have people that you want them to work with!  You'll see miracles!! Probably not as cool as ours, but you'll see them!!

Have a great week!

Elder Robison

January 20, 2014 ~ What would be an appropriate title for this week?

I really don't know the answer to that question, but this week was so awesome!!!  Like really awesome if you know what I mean.  First of all we have had some great lessons with the most wonderful people in the world.  Seriously these people are so incredible and they have so much faith.  Even as a missionary sometimes I am just blown away by the stories that people tell relating to prayer and answers to prayer.  The people in this city have some of the most faith of anyone I've ever met.  And one of them is not even a member yet!  The other recently became one... :)  Anyways I just love these people!!  And I am excited cause President called this week and gave us transfer calls.  My current companion is going home on thursday, back to Moscow.  He's been so awesome!! I'm going to miss serving with him.  I seriously have never met another missionary or anyone really who loves and thinks about and cares more about the people here than him.  I found out last week that he even asked President if he could be extended another transfer cause he really doesn't want to go home, but unfortuntately, the area 70 said no:/  So my new companion and I will be coming back up here after transfers on thursday morning. He is also Russian!  Should be fun.  I've been super blessed.  To have 3 native companions is not a super common thing, but I love it!  Should be a good transfer.

So this week I went to Estonia again.  That means another 6 months has already passed... not sure how that happened, but I only have 1 more visa trip left...:0  It was fun. 

Hmm what else to write about this week.  It was pretty much a great awesome super spiritual and also stressful week.  But worth it. Everything turned out well in the end.  

The Church is true and God answers prayers!!  I really wish I could say more about this week cause it was so wonderful, I saw so many incredible miracles!!!  The Lord really really loves Russians!!  And he loves this area!  For a while it looked like things were really slowing down and nothing good was happening, this week, in many different ways, the lord proved how much he loves the members and people (and missionaries) here in Petro!  There are signs of serious potential growth!  It's an exciting time!

Have a great week!

Elder Robison

January 13, 2014 ~ С старым новым годом!

Happy new years again!!!  Today is old new years, and yes there are apparently some people who do celebrate it.  Anyways I have no time to waste on nonsense, this week was incredible!!! SO much happeneing!!!  First with the bad news, the super cool guy who we were helping to quit smoking asked us for money this week to pay off his debts and got super unhappy when we wouldn't give him any.  Too bad cause he was super cool.  He told us to not ever call him again...:/  but to make up for that, the lord double blessed us this week!

 

Our investigators are doing amazing!  One of them is finally able to live the word of wisdom, and he's doing it all on his own.  He's taken a long time cause he's wanted to kinda ween himself off of alcohol.  He's not a drunk usually just like a can of beer a day or something, but we did find out this week that every single day for 7 years he has had some sort of alcoholic drink.  So this has been a really huge accomplishment for him this week. And he is so cool!!  He loves to have gospel discussions and he really is so converted and he's not even a member!!  He's awesome!

 

Also 2 of my favorite people in all of Russia we have met with almost every single day this week.  I talked about them last week, the woman who came to church for the first time last week and her almost husband who was a super less active member.  Anyways they are incredible and 2 of the most humble poeple I have ever met in my entire life.  I have never met anyone more ready that this woman - she has so much faith its incredible. They are both progressing along really well.  I will remember them forever and their examples of humility.  Really incredible.

 

I really liked a story that my companion shared in his talk in sacrament meeting yesterday.  When he was seving in the city they were walking down the street and the side walk was all torn up and it was just like a giant pit and the only thing guarding it was like a little caution tape.  They looked a little past the pit and saw a girl walking towards them and heading right into it.  Then they realized she was walking with a white stick and she was blind.  They ran to try and stop her, but not in time and she fell into the pit and got pretty hurt.  He jumped down and tried to pull her out and the whole time she was asking "what's happening?".  He related that to missionary work and what we do here.  That there are people all around us who are spiritually blind and fall into spiritual pits and get seriously hurt.  But since they are blind, they don't know what is happening, all they know is that they are hurt.  And that's why we are here.  To help these people go around these pits and keep them from getting hurt or pull them out and help them know how they can get be healed from their spiritual injuries.  Obviously healing only comes from the atonement.  Also I really love what he tells our investigators and members.

 

When we are hurt and we go to the doctor, we all sit there on the edge of our seats and are willing to do anything that he tells us to do in order for the pain to go away or fix whatever is wrong.  So why do we not do that with the commandments.  The commandments are the "great physician'" perscriptions for what we need to do to stay healthy.  Why then do we not follow the commantments with as much dilligance as we follow doctors perscriptions?  I'm just learning so much, I love it!!!

Have a great week!!

Elder Robison

January 6, 2014 ~ С рождеством (again)

Merry Christmas everyone!! No this isn't a mistake or just a copy and paste of 2 weeks ago email.  Tommorrow (Jan 7th) is Christmas in Russia!!  However no one really celebrates it at all, it is recognized as a national holiday tomorrow, so I thought I'd wish it again.

This week has been so awesome!!! One of the best!!  First one of the members has a friend who wanted help with english cause she has a huge test coming up, so we met with her and helped for a little bit monday night.  We didn't unfortunately have time to do a spiritual thought cause we were late for another appointment, but as we were walking with her to the bus stop we basically gave her a run down of what we do and just asked if she would be interested in hearing the lessons.  She agreed.  Then invited us over again on wednesday night to help with English again, and this time we did have time for a spiritual thought and her husband was there (who is not really religious - does not like the orthodox church at all) but the spiritual thought turned into a full blown first lesson.  It was great!!  Then Friday night we met with just her again at the senior couples place to help with English for the last time (her huge test was either saturady or Sunday) and we did a little thought on prayer (since she claims she literally has no time for anything until after the 23rd) and challeneged her to pray every day.  Yesterday we called to find out how the test went (she passed) and also she said that she has been praying every morning and night and even she and her husband pray together now everyday!! So awesome!! We can't even get some of the members to do that!! There is real power in family prayer.

Then Friday we met with this other kind of investigator at the senior couples appartment and started a program with him on how to quit smoking!  It's a super cool program that one of the missionaries did with one of the members in Sestroretsk (I was there and this member is the bomb!) and it worked!  And this guy who we're working with is super cool and he's been a non smoker already for 3 days!!  This program is meant to make someone a non smoker in 7 days.  So far so good!! He's not particularly believing, but one of the steps in the program is to pray every morning and night, so we are hoping he will be able to quit and will realize how god really was helping him and it will spark a little more desire.  Pray for him!!! There is real power in prayer!!

The next this was that President and Sister Clark and the assistants came up to petro for the weekend and we went out and visited a lot of people and saw tons of miracles!!  Including a doubled sacrament meeting attendance yesterday. 

But the main miracle came from this same member (mentioned faguely above).  She and her brother and mom are all members but have been less active for forever.  The daughter has started being super active in the past year or 2 (in waves) (and we are currently (successfully) working with her non member husband).  Anyways, her brother (who is kind of a hooligan only because he is a slave to alcohol, but when sober is one of the nicest and kindest and most thoughtful people I have ever met) has a "wife" kind of - they;re not actually married- who have been on and off together for a long time, but really do love eachother and want to get married.  Anyways, her mom kicked her out of her house and so now is living with them and is having a really hard time.  Long story short (this is probably really confusing) she became a new investigator too!!  She met the missionaries for the first time Saturday night and came to church for the first time yesterday then we met with her again yesterday evening and she said she loved church.  We are meeting with her tonight again and she is awesome!  So humble.  It's a miracle.  All these miracles and people we are working with that are progressing are all because of this one member.  And that is all because the member is actually trying to live the gospel now and her friends are recognizing it and seeing changes in her.  So many miracles!!  This week has actually been a week of learning for me.  I've learned so much!!  I love it!! When you do what the lord wants to you, things just work out.  I promise!!

Have a great week!

Elder Robison

December 30, 2013 ~ С новым годом!!

Happy new year everyone!! And happy birthday to Dad today!!! 

Well this week was just amazing!!  On Monday we took the long train ride down to St. Pete's for our Christmas devotional.  It was great!!  Sister Clark made burritos for us (cafe rio style) and it was so good!! So much better than cafe rio.  It was awesome!!  We all sat around in the mission home living room and ate burritos and then afterwards all sang Christmas hymns.  I loved it!!  I would sent pictures, but there are other people in the pictures so I guess you will have to wait until next year (gotta love these area restrictions haha).  Then we had an actual devotional thing which was also nice.  Watched the first presidency devotional (I saw it in English this time haha and funny story, President forgot to record it in Russian for the Russian missionaries so my companion ended up translating the entire devotional for this one ukrainian sister who doesn't speak english.  What a champ.) 

THEN we went down to Gatchina!!!  Which just to remind you was my first area!  We got to suprize some of my favorite investigators there and meet with them which was so awesome I loved it!  But then we had to hurry back to Pete and catch our train back to petro.  (This was all Christmas eve - the train came in at 7am and left to go back at 10pm.) 

Then Christmas day was even better!  Our train came in at 640 am and right after that my companion and I made banana bread to take to less actives and then we met at the branch with a few members to decorate for the ward Christmas/new years party and then went to the senior couples apartment to make boxes and wrap the presents for the branch Christmas thing.  It was so fun!  Our senior couple is awesome and we just have the best district ever!  Then we ran by some less actives and other members and investigators and dropped off the banana bread we made (P.S. you may be wondering why members were willing to meet and stuff to help us on "Christmas" - well its because Christmas doesn't exist in Russia on the 25th of december.  I know, its a weird concept to grasp, but it's true.  And the weirder part is coming).  Anyways, came back to the senior couple's a little later and had Christmas dinner!!!  So great!!  And then I got to skype of course which was wonderful!!  I loved it!  it was weird I felt like nothing had changed and that I was just sitting in the family room at home.  So nice.  And the best part.  I assume most of you (I don't actually know who reads my emails) know that Logan is also serving a mission and apparently he has some sort of rockstar mission president cause guess what!  Or don't guess if you already know, but WE WERE SKYPING AT THE SAME TIME AND I GOT TO TALK TO HIM!!!  Miracle!!  So awesome!  And of course I loved seeing the rest (well a lot of) my family as well!  Really though, I loved seeing you all! Oh American Christmas day was so perfect this year!   

Also I forgot that that morning I also opened my Christmas package from home and I guess at the family reunion this year they did some projects for logan and I and I got them and I loved them so much!  I felt like the most blessed missionary on the planet, so thank you all so much!!

Anyways, the rest of the week.  We I still love Petro and my companion is super great!  We met with a couple people and helped a less active with a remont in his new appartment.  And then we had a Branch Christmas/New years party which was fun.  And basically this was one of the best weeks ever.  I loved it.

Also Happy new years to everyone!  FYI New years is actually the biggest holiday in Russia.  I kid not, they do essentially everything we do for Christmas, for new years.  Decorations and food and presents and their version of Santa Clause and everything.  Even the members here.  It's pretty unique hahah, but I like it.  So family,  Starting next year, santa clause can come on Christmas eve and Дед Мороз can come on new years eve:)  Anyways, have a great week!!

Love

Elder Robison