May 26, 2014 ~ Transfers!

This week was pretty good.  The best part was definitely a super awesome priesthood conference that we watched on saturday.  It was held in moscow, but it was kinda almost like skype so it felt like we were there.  They even had it set up to where we could txt in questions to the speakers and stuff.  It was a conference with Elder Bednar and 7 members of the 70 (including Elder Rasband) and Bishop Causse (from the Presiding Bishopric).  Basically it was the coolest thing ever!!  It was so good!!  The whole thing was not planned at all, but it was amazing.  Basically Elder Bednar just asked if there were any questions about priesthood service "that keep you up at night" and just spent the next 3.5 hours answering them.  IT WAS SO GOOD!!!  The spirit was so strong and he taught so many great principles and it was just really awesome!  I don't really know what else to say about it except that it was the best priesthood meeting I've ever been to.  And on thursday Bishop Causse (who I really want to be the other counselor to president Monson with Elder Uchtdorf) is coming and going to do a devotional with our mission!  So cool!

Also, we had an interesting ward council yesterday.  Apparently President and the stake president are a little concerned about the way things are going here (the whole political thing) so they have asked (or this is the way that the representative from our ward understood it) that there be a member of the church with the missionaries every evening, even if we are just out on the street.  The whole time basically was talking about that and trying to figure out how to make that happen, but when it does, if it does, it is going to be so cool!!!  We really have awesome members here so that would be super cool to just be with a member ever night!  Talk about members and missionaries working together!:)

Also, as by the title you probably noticed that this week will be transfers.  I am staying in kolpino (which I specifically requested a few weeks ago) and will be getting a companion who just got finished being trained.  President says he is a 100% missionary and is really going to work hard, so I'm excited!  The only problem is that he has a weird thing with his visa/passport and on thursday has to leave the country and live in Latvia for 2 weeks then he can come back.  So while he is gone I will be in a 3 some with the pushkin Elders.  Should be pretty interesting, but its going to be a really great transfer I'm sure.

That's about all, except for we finally got the conference liahonas this week (faster than usual) and I just have been remembering how good conference was and how blessed we all are to have living prophets on the earth today!  I hope to reread it all this week!

Elder Robison

May 19, 2014 ~ Awesome Week!

So this week was mostly really great!  The best part was when I went on a split with the brand new russian elder in our district!  It was awesome!!  We had so much fun, I haven't talked to so many people for a long time!  My last few companions have not been really huge fans of contacting, but this new elder and I got out there and it was the best!!  We met some super cool people and had some really cool contacts!  Both of  us kinda didn't even want to come in for lunch or dinner!  He just kept going and going and it was so awesome.  It was really pretty refreshing to work with someone who was actually excited to get out there and get going and doing things and just talking to EVERYONE!!!  Basically that's all I have to say cause that was the best part of my week.  And what made it better was that we were in pushkin (I'm convinced the prettiest area in our mission).  

And we went back to Pushkin again today to make borsch with the other elders and then we went walking in the Katherine's palace park.   Also, I forgot to mention, on our split, we happened to walk by the palace and guess who was there... Medvedev - the former president of Russia and I think the current prime minister or something.  Anyways, I was pretty close to him (relatively hhaha)  It was cool.  

Also this week we met this cool guy on the street who is studying to be an orthodox priest.  We talked for a little bit on he street then he invited us over for tea so  we went and it was really good tea.  We hope to meet with him again this week.

Also I think I may have forgot to mention this woman we've been working with for about a month, we'll call her Jana.  She's started progressing a lot faster since she's started to read the BOM consistantly.  Another testimony to the power that that book has.  And the members are so great and welcoming to her!  She's pretty cool, and is moving right along to the end goal.

Also, just fun story, last night we got chased.  I was talking to some guy by the side of a buiding and some other guy (middle aged) got out of his car and came over and told us that he'd give us 3 seconds to get away.  So we calmly started walking away and he started following us, telling us to run.  Then he started running after us and said if he ever see's us again he'd kill us...  fortunately I'm pretty confident he was a little drunk cause he was running really weird and not very fast.  And we got away haha.  It made for an exciting beginning of the night.   

(for those of you who were worried by this (mom) I really see not potential threat in this at all so no need to worry:))

Have a great week!
Elder Robison

Elder Austin Robison at the Park.

Elder Austin Robison at the Palace.

May 12, 2014 ~ Super Short letter this week!

Well I don't really have anything else to say after last night. We got to meet with a few less actives this week who are pretty cool.  Also we met with A and taught him about the house of israel as he is preaparing to recieve his Patriarchal blessing soon.  Also we have this other woman that we have been working with and she seems to be preogressing really well.  The members have done a really good job fellowshipping her and it's super awesome.  

Victory day was cool, way better than last year.  The whole city was decorated and they had this cool carnival thing in one of the parks. There was a camel and a llama.  People were so nice all day and really everything was just great!  I talked to this one guy for a really long time.  He wasn't interested, but he was willing to listen.  Also met a cool guy from Bulgaria this week whose grandkids live in Petrozavodsk!  That was cool.  He also wasn't very interested haha, but he was super cool.  

That's about all.

Have a great week!

Elder Robison

May 5, 2014 ~ С днем победы!!

Well this week is victory day!!  It's weird now that I'm here for all of these holidays for the second time hahah, but this should be an interesting week.  Our main task will be to avoid the drunks with anti american feelings... hahahah this should be interesting.  

Really all I want to talk about this week is just how much I love this ward so much!!  These people are just the best ever.  Especially A.  Our meeting last monday night didn't work out, but A was there anyways, he was going to help out.  So instead of just sending him home we went out contacting with him.  Until the middle of this week I was in a 3 some (not sure if I ever mentioned that) so we split off and I went with A.  It was the best ever!!  He is a rock star missionary!  As we were walking he was stopping people and the whole time was asking me for advice on like what kinds of questions he should ask people.  At one point we walk passed a bus stop over to the cross walk, and as we were waiting for the light to turn green he was like, there was a guy standing over there by the garbage can, let's go talk to him!  So we went back, he walked right up to him and started talking to him!  I was in shock a little bit.  Actually I'm always just stunned everytime he says anything.  Sometimes it seems like he's been a member for like 20 years, but no actually, today is his 1 month anniversary of membership.  The guy wasn't interested, but he didn't quit after that.  Later we got attacked by a group of like 8 25-30yr old guys.  They were being pretty rude and just making fun of us and stuff, which I am really used to and have gotten good at ignoring, but I was really nervous how A was going to react to it, but he handled it like a champ!  He is just the best!

Then he helped us with language study on thursday morning and he told us that he wanted to get his patriarchal blessing (he got interviewed for it (and passed) yesterday!).  Then I asked him if he had a PMG and he said no, but he wanted to ask for one cause he wants to start teaching his parents on Monday nights..... I was a little lost for words.  Also yesterday he blessed the sacrament for the first time and did it perfectly and then got up and bore his testimony at fast and testimony meeting. 

On Saturday he and another member helped us on a lesson with one of our investigators and it wa the best lesson I have evr had with a member present.  He and the sister we had just were rock stars.  During the course of the lesson I found out that he studies the scriptures with his parents... ?!  I was reading Enos this week and I think it's verse 9 when after he recieves his forgiveness he ys that his desire to share the gospel grew a ton (or something like that) and I immediately thought of A and how he is a perfect example of that.  After being baptized he is learning and growing at a super fast rate and I can see how he just has such a huge desire to share it with everyone.  A great example for me.

Also this other member that was on our lesson (RS president) is a rock star on my eyes cause not only was she super great on our lesson, but yesterday as we were walking into church, there were these 4 drunk people waiting for us (like almost every week).  It might help to explain that this area has the highest number of drunk people than all of my previous areas, and our branch is in this sketchy building, the second floor, the first floor is a sketchly alcohol store, so there are drunk people hanging out infront of our door all day every day basically.  So we just walk by them and they call so us and walk up to us and ask whose messengers we are, the devil's or God's.  Answer is obvious.  Of course they are all a little drunk so they all want to talk at the same time, so this one guy like pulls me over to the side and starts talking.  He was normal and not super drunk and seemed to be pretty sincere in his questions, and this most obnoxious woman I have ever met, like the leader of their little group just is going on and on about random things and like saying stupid things to the members as they walk in.  But the relief society president comes up and starts talking to this woman and just totally puts her in her place (of course tactfully).  Finally we somehow got away, but for real it's getting a little bit old.  Almost everyweek, the members see us talking with these drunk people who just wait for us to come and the members get a little harassed in the process of going into church.  But then sitting in sacrament meeting yesterday and looking at all the members I just was like, these people are my heros!  I love them all so much!!  The area is hard, we get lots of crap all the time, but the members here are just the best in the world, which makes everything so worth it!  

Anyways, it was a good week.

Elder Robison

April 28, 2014 ~ This week!

There were a few cool things that happened this week.  We had a good zone training on friday which I enjoyed.  We reviewed the conference talk about Joseph Smith and the restoration which was really good.  Also A.  is the coolest convert ever!  Our ward mission leader invited him to come into our missionary meeting with him yesterday and it was really cool as he talked about some of the things that helped him come to baptism.  Also he wants to go out and contact with us.  He was asking all sorts of questions that were all really good questions that obviously he's been thinking about for a little bit about how to do missionary work and how can he do missionary work even though he isn't a missionary.  Also it's really funny cause he dresses just like us now.  Whenever we meet with him he's in a shirt and tie, even when he comes to help us with russian when we do language study with him on thursdays and when he comes to the english group.  And you can see that he really has a huge desire to share the gospel and it is so cool to see!  he's awesome!  And yesterday he was assigned home teachers and was giving people that he needs to home teach!  The ward is super welcoming and friendly to him.

Also one of our investigators (kinda formerish) called this morning and wants to meet tonight and another investigator we got to meet with on wednesday and she came to church yesterday and the members were all really welcoming and friendly to her.  So there were some pretty cool things this week too, which I am happy about.

This week we are getting a new Russian missionary in our district!  He is flying in from the MTC tomorrow morning so that's pretty exciting.

I've been really loving personal study recently, as I've been running into random bumps the past few weeks, I've really enjoyed personal study as like my time to just relax and get reenergized.  It's awesome!  Daily study of the scriptures really brings more light into your life so I encourage everyone to do it!!

Have a great week!

Elder Robison

April 21, 2014 ~ Христос Воскрес!!

Happy Easter yesterday!  Yesterday church was super awesome!  There were really great talks and an interesting sunday school lesson and a good lesson on priesthood quorum.  I really enjoyed it all!

Then they had an easter lunch after the meeting which was also pretty awesome!

This week with A. we met with the family history coordinator in the branch and had a super cool lesson about that!  She showed him all sorts of cool things that he can do and all about family history and indexing and it was super awesome I was so jealous - it just made me want to do family history even more!  It's so important and even just looking at some of the stuff that she was showing us, and we indexed a few names together there is such a strong spirit that is there, like nothing else it is so cool!!  Family history is the best! 

But more importantly, yesterday A. recieved the priesthood!!  He is so cool!  He wanted a lesson on the aaronic priesthood before yesterday cause he wanted to make sure that he understood everything and was ready (which he was), but it's so cool cause he takes it all so seriously and really understands how important it all is.  My dream is for all investigators and members to be like him.  He's so awesome.  And our meeting with him was on thursday about family history and when we saw him on saturday, he had already started collecting information (which BTW is super super hard to do - all of you in america doing family history, you have no idea how blessed you are.  Finding information here is really difficult).  He met with his grandma and was asking her about stuff and she remembered her grandma's name and info and stuff. Super cool for him!  Also, when we had our meeting about the priesthood, he asked what happens for people who are physically unable to get baptized, whether because of restricted movement or something and I asked him if he was like just being hypothetical or he was actually thinking of a person and he was thinking about his grandma and how she would be able to be baptized!  It made me really happy to hear that and just see how his life has been blessed because of the gospel and see his desire to share it with his family.  Great example.

We also got to do some service projects this week.  On Friday we cleaned to branch building with some of the ward members as a ward service project and then on saturday there was the stake service project at the Alexsandra Nevskovo (Лавра Александра Невского if you want to look it up on google images or something - it's a pretty building) cathedral place that we do every spring and fall.  Thats was fun and there were actually a lot of people this time!  I've been the past 3 times now and this time there was the most people that there have ever been!  It was really cool.  Things are changing in this area - in our stake! Things are happening here and it is so cool to be able to see!  There is a huge difference here in this mission and stake from where it was a year ago when I got here!  It's really great!

Also it's been so warm here!!!  Like really warm!  We've gone out in just suitcoats the past few days, and today it's supposed to get up to 16 degrees (C)!!!!  summer is coming!

Have a great week!  

Elder Robison

Austin with the fence he and his companion built! 

April 14, 2014 ~ General Conference

So obviously by the title, you all know that we got to see general conference this weekend!  As always, I really loved it and I had so much I wanted to say about it, but I forgot and left my notes at home so yeah.  But I really loved President Monson's talk about service and loving people!!  I loved it!  Also I think this was the best priesthood session I have ever seen ever!! It was so killer!   I loved every talk.  Especially Elder Hallstrom's talk about the need to change.  That accepting the priesthood and really accepting the gospel in general, we are automatically required to change.  Kind of goes along well with something that someone else said too, (Elder Eyring I think who btw has really climbed the ladder for me and I usually look forward to his talks now) that as soon as we have a fervent enough prayer and recieve confirmation that we are indeed a child of god, we are then expected and required to live by his comandments!  Awesome statement.  Also the part that I really enjoyed about Elder Holland's talk was when he said that some people mistakenly believe that Christlike love means you have like an anything goes attitude and just accept things from people and have to accept their bad behavior, otherwise they claim you don't really love them.  However, as Christ himself said, that he came not to bring peace, but division.  And because he loves everyone with a perfect love, he lovingly requires their obedience to his commandments.  And when they don't he doesn't love them anyless, but also doesn't reward them.  Maybe he didn't actually talk about all that, but that's what I remember.

Anyways, conference was great and I hope you all watch it or at least some of it!

This week we got to do more service!!!  I love it!  A member called us and asked if we could help her non member dad build a fence at their dacha (P.S. a dacha is like a little vacation place for russians and they almost all have one and they are enemy # 1 to all missionaries in Russia).  It was super fun.  The old fence had fallen over and so we basically took it apart and put it back together again in an upright position.  And I took pictures of it to send this week and then I left my camera in the appartment when we came here to the library so sorry about that.

Also funny story, as we were out on saturday night, we passed this same guy and his wife twice and both times we said hi and he just made this most ridiculous face - probably was supposed to be a face of disgust, but it was so overdramatic that it was just hilarious!  Also I've been mistaken for this ukrainian elder that served here a few years ago.  I talked to a guy on the street about 3 days ago and he was convinced I was him. 

Also, remember the mildly crazy guy we met last week who kept me on the phone for forever?  Maybe I forgot to talk about him, I can't remember, but he called us again several times this week and just gets weirder.  he kept my companion on the phone for about and hour and a half on wednesday.  And another half an hour on friday.  But all he wants to do is argue so we decided we wouldn't be answering the phone anymore for him.  He's tried calling several times since then, but we ignore it.  I'm sure it won't be too long until we see him on the street haha.  Serving in small cities is the best!

Last night we stayed overnight after conference at the office elders appartment so that we could spend some time in St. Petes this morning and that was pretty cool.  We went and saw Спас на крови which I think is cathedral of the spilled blood in English.  Anyways its the famous Russian orthodox cathedral (right next to the river) that you see a billion times if you look up st petersburg in google images.  I was actually really pretty impressed with the inside.  They had all these cool icon murals on the walls and was super impression cause they were actually all mosaics.  I was impressed.  I think part of the reason I liked it was because from what I remember, most of the icons were actually of Jesus Christ and not some apostle.  Thats the most important thing - He is the one we worship.  I felt like the theme of this General conference (cause there always seems to be a common theme) was Jesus Christ and his Atonement.  I thought it was great!

Have a great week!
Elder Robison