February 17, 2014 ~ Another Week Down!

In honor of V-day this week we had a branch party kinda thing that was pretty fun.  There were just like little activities for every group of people, including the missionaries.  We had to feed eachother yogurt.  I had to sit behind my companion and blindfolded, spoon feed him yogurt.  We had a race with the sisters and of course totally destroyed them.  It was really hilarious.  And all the other little competition things were fun too. 

Also this week the institute class started!  I am really excited about that.  We are the official translators since the teachers is the senior couple and they don't speak russian.  I am really excited about institute.  It's going to be great.  Also we had a killer english group this week!!  It was so much fun!  We have a super cool english group here.  Really everything here is the best.  There's not really anything in this area that I don't like. 

And last week on pday we went iceskating!!!  President approved it for us and we went with the branch youth.  It was awesome!  It was outside and its actually been pretty warm the past 2 weeks so the ice was not really as smooth or icy as it usually is, but it was still super fun! 

This week we are having zone conference so we are going back down to st petersburg and then right after that going up to vyborg to go on a split with our zone leaders (one of them being one of my favorite past companions) so I'm pretty excited about that.  Also I'm excited to see vyborg, cause it's kinda a big deal in history of the church in Russia.  Apparently its always one of missionary's favorite areas.  I'm excited to see what it will be like.

Also this week we were able to make contact and meet with a recent former investigator who hav\d kinda dissappeared for a while.  And her friend was there.  Hopefully we are able to move forward again with her and or her friend.  We are going back there on friday (that's when we'll be back from peter).  Also a plus, her husband is a member (interesting character) and the down side, their son is a jehovas's witness and she goes there usually too.  That's totally cool and everything, but they usually just give us the most problems and are the most argumentative.  But she's super cool, so we'll see what happens!

Have a great week!

Elder Robison

February 10, 2014 ~Blessings of living the gospel

This week wasn't really super exciting, but we had a few meetings that were great testimony builders.  So we met with our newest new convert on tuesday and she is just the best ever.  I have seriously never ever met someone so prepared in my entire life.  Her husband has been a member (less active) for a long time and while less active (they are both in their late 20's now so he was less active in his teen and early 20's years) he met some not so good friends and got into some bad stuff, but ever since his wife started taking the lessons and stuff has really been trying hard to come back.  We had a meeting on missionary work this week!  These 2 are the best member missionaries ever and they don't even know it!  They were telling stories about things that have happened to them in the past and I was just sitting there thinking the whole time, wow, you are doing great missionary work and you don't even know it!  The spirit was so strong at that meeting, probably me favorite meeting with them ever, I really really didn't want to leave, but we were late for another appointment so we did.  It was awesome.  Then as we were planning for the next day I just was like "really all I want to do is go back and meet with them again"  but companion said that maybe we would wear them out and they would get tired of the missionaries coming, so we didn't go. :( and Thurday night we didn't go.  And I called that night to make an appointment for the next day and she was like we thought you were never going to call or visit ever again!  Keep in mind that we had been meeting every day or every other day for the past month straight.  So a whole 2 day break was a lot hahah. 

 Anyways, right before the meeting she had to call and cancel it cause her husband was in and bad "condition".  we know what that means...   I was heart broken about that.  This guy is one of my favorite people ever and is for me, a huge example of humility.  He has been trying so hard to get rid of his bad habits, he's come to church every week since his wife started investigating, he reads and prays almost every night, and you should have seen him when she got dunked (I know the wording wasn't pretty, but thats what I have to deal with for email) he was just the happiest guy on the planet.  And satan got to him this week.  We went Saturday night and he didn't join us on the lesson, we didn't even see him cause he was laying in the other room "sick".  His wife seemed pretty distraught about it.  But none the less we had a really good meeting with her and the change that I have seen in here in just 1 week is amazing.  She is trying as hard as she can to live the gospel as perfectly as she can and she is being blessed immensly.  SO many miracles have taken place in her life, despite the little setback with her husband.  And then yesterday in church, he was there!!  I was so happy to see him!  He looked really out of it, but what a champ!  He came!  He also has such a strong desire to change his life and do what's right, but unfortunately he has very little will power at the moment.  He's tied pretty tightly.  Gosh I just love that guy!  

Also had another experience that reminded me how quickly testimonies can fade when we don't do what is right.  We met with our 2nd newest new convert and who is just on fire and is soaking everything up, but couldn't make it to church last week and he knew it about 2 weeks in advance, that he wasn't going to make it, so it wasn't a surprise for us.  Anyways we met with them and he told us that he noticed just missing church once, his desire to go lessened a little bit.  He still wants to go and stuff, don't worry about that, just he used to sit around impatiently all week waiting for it to be Sunday, but this week not so much.  A good reminder to everyone really that as soon as we don't do something once, our desire to continue to do that good thing decreases and we can so much more easily justify not doing it in the future next time the trial comes up.  So, don't make the wrong choice the first time and it probably won't get a whole lot harder for you to make the right choice! haha.  But on a good note, he said that when we came, his desire kinda went up again which was good.  And he did come yesterday and passed the sacrament for the first time!!  I was so happy. 

And funny way to end the week.  We went with a less active to go visit one of his non member friends who wanted a Book of Mormon and we had a really weird weird meeting.  So we get on the trolley bus to go home and there's just a handful of people on there, but as soon as we get on one lady just yelled out "it's the mormons!  They gave me one of those books! (I happened to be holding a Book of Mormon) and then she continued "they used to come to my house, why don't you just preach to the whole bus right now"...  Oh how I felt sooooooooo awkward.  Mostly cause I had never experienced anything like that before and I know what is going on in the news here about us and I know that probably the vast majority of the people on that bus, don't really like us.  Oh and then it continued, some guy started asking her questions and she was like "yeah they're all americans and talk with accents" and the guy looked at us and without hesitation my companion points at me and is like "he's American" and yeah.  Then she asked if they had built us a church yet here (she met with the missionaries a long time ago) and so I told her (and the whole bus/ since this all happened so fast and I happened to be the only one still standing) where we meet so hopefully they all come to church on Sunday haha:)  but then I sat next to her and continued to talk a little bit.  It was just a weird night haha.

Anyways, sorry that was long.  

Have a great week!

Elder Robison 

February 3, 2014 ~ The miracles never cease!!

Name of a furniture store

This week was so great!!  Although I can't really remember most of it, it was really great!!  Petro is the best ever!! (excpet I still really miss petergof..)  So many awesome things are happening!  The week started off great when the branch president called us and asked to come to a meeting on tuesday to translate for the senior elder. Do you know what that meeting was??  It was some sort of an elders quorum coordination meeting all about hometeaching!!!! FINALLY!!!!  the rest of the ward is getting it!!  We have been trying to do as much as we can with the senior elder in this area, but he doesn't speak any russian and the people get the missionaries at their homes all the time anyways, so I'm super excited that the elders quorum is starting to join!  it was awesome!  Also last week our new convert (the coolest guy ever!) got the priesthood and got to use it this weekend!!  So awesome!  My goal is to make him the next branch president.  He's awesome.

On Thursday we had a meeting with him and his wife and we were thinking about what we wanted to do for the lesson and we decided on family history and so our whole study time turned into making them a ginormous pedigree chart (we couldn't find any of the little ones that we usually give to people).  We thought it turned out super cool and I hope it inspired them to do their family history!

Anyways, that's probably it for this week, I am going to try and figure out how to send pictures from this computer... but I don't promise anything

Have a great week!
Elder Robison

Frost growing on Austin's coat!  It is so cold!!!