Letter Aug 4-10, 2013

Family, hey how are things at home. Hopefully good. Hope you all enjoying harvest time. Can't believe it is here. Ha while you guys are all wishing it was over I just wish I could do that kind of work for a while. Ha give it a little change from the work we do. No but things are good here all that stuff will be there when I get back. Only get to do this stuff once. Well we have just been trying to stay busy here. It's been really hot. I might escape my first rainy season with very little rain and no real floods. I do kinda want to experience it at least once. Everyone says is sucks but I wouldn't know yet. This week has been alright a few downers in it but its all good. I'll just start with Monday. It was p-day. Just normal day but my old companion from the MTC found out that his mom passed away from a heart attack. He was having a really hard time with it. We are in the same zone so they came and hung around with us. Then Tuesday, we met a less active member Indiana. he is white and only speaks English. He cam here and married a young filippino so he is what they call a dirty Joe. He is a nice guy. Mark Ingram is his name. Ha I was the only one to really talk my comp went real shy. Ha it was alright though Brother Ingram really likes to talk. I think he gets bored doing nothing all day with no friends to talk to so kinda hard to get out of there. After that just a regular day but we are gonna try and get the white guy back to church. Wednesday not much happened. Thursday Brother bong told us he just doesn't think he can do it and he is so ready so it stinks. We will keep teaching hoping that he will come around. Then Friday first we woke up and went to do a service project for a member. They are building a new house. some rich guy came and said that he is building condo's where there little shack was so they have to move. So we went and helped them lay the cement in and run some wires. Ha things are done a little different here. Ha no matter what they wear flip flops to work in. I think they are all crazy. Ha I wore shoes and they told me I should start to wear flip flops. I have to tell you this part. Before they lay the cement they take a chicken and slit it's throat and spread the blood all over the floor in the house. Then lay the cement on it. The weirdest thing I have probably seen. They claim it is lucky or something. After that they cooked the chicken up and were going to eat it for lunch. We left before they ate. We had stuff to do. Just a normal day but we had a ward party later and they had a ping pong table so it was fun. The Bishop later came up to me and said he wants my comp to transfer. He doesn't like him but he wants me to stay. He said that he can tell that he is lazy. It's kinda true but a little harsh. So then on Saturday just a regular day we taught Brother Bong. He acted a little different after the lesson not sure why but maybe something is changing. Ha later the Natividad family had us over for FHE. They were all singing videoke. Ha Brother Natividad is actually really good at singing. He he will sing even if he is alone just for fun. he is a crazy dude. So that was my week. It had a few ups and downs. That helps you realize that your Father in Heaven will listen if you just ask him. He is always willing to help. well thanks for everything. It means a lot I love you all have a good week. Love Elder Robison.

Letter & pictures August 5, 2013

Family, Hey how is everyone doing?  I hope everything is good.  It's now August so thats crazy.  Harvest time is here again.  Everything will be getting busy back home.  Ha you will all be sitting in combines for the next few weeks.  Hopefully I will get some pictures of it all.  The people here will be amazed at it.  They have never seen anything like that.  The summer kinda flew by.  it seems like everyone will be starting school and football and stuff.  Well why things get busy there they slow down here.  It's the rainiest months so that means that everyone just sleeps.  Whenever it's rainy they just sleep.  I don't know why but thats what they do no matter what.  So trying to teach people doesn't work out so good.  So we teach about half as many lessons and walk a lot.  I'll tell you a little bit about what I have been doing.  On Monday it was p-day.  I just emailed you all.  I am thankful for Jodee so that she can tell you guys that I am on so we can email back and forth. Ha.  Rachels finger was nasty.  After that we went grocery shopping.  Later that night we had a FHE and they fed us goat.  I don't really like it.  There are tons of bones in it.  Tuesday was a rainy day so it was slow.  Only 2 lessons and Diane the one that accepted a baptismal date told us that her dad told her that she can't be baptized.  We will keep teaching until he will soften his heart and allow it to happen.  We will just have to see what Heavenly Father can do.  Wednesday another rainy day so slow but we ordered pizza that night so it helped make it better.  Thursday was a better day for teaching.  We can't seem to get Bong to accept a baptismal date.  He won't decide between being a Catholic or a Mormon so we don't know what to do with him.  Later that night the little girls father agreed to give the prayer at her baptism.  Thats a big step for him because he is really less active.  He will barely pray in our lessons.  He did pray at our last lesson and we could tell that the spirit touched him.  His voice got really shaky and soft.  It's crazy how strong prayer can affect someone.  That is why we should always pray.  Friday was just a normal day.  That night Brother Natividad cooked us dinner.  He does that once or twice a week.  After that we found out that the other Elders baptism won't be happening on Saturday.  They found out that her family are muslim and they called our Bishop and said don't let her be baptized or married or she will be taken and killed.  So they can't do that.  She still wants to go through with it but they can't let her.  It's sad though because she is so ready.  She actually said well I have to die sometime so lets just do it but for now it will have to wait.  President has the final say in that one.  So on Saturday we had our baptism.  Three little girls.  They all chose me to do it so it was good.  Neither of their dads came so kinda sad.  Then we only had 2 pairs of baptismal clothes at the church that would fit so they had to share.  It was good.  They were all excited.  After that we had dinner at our 1st councilors house.  Brother & sister Budua. They are a little richer than normal.  They were having a party so there was a ton of food there.  Then they gave us ice cream and just lots of stuff.  So that has been my week.  A few things have happened so it helps speed up the time.  Well I love you all.  Thanks for everything you all do.  Have a good week at home.  Send pictures of farming and a family picture.  People always ask to see my family and I don't have a picture.  Thanks.  Love Elder Robison

Kids playing ball at church

Janna Ignacio

Jem Remerez

Jem & Jea her sister was also baptized

Our 1st councilors house at FHE

Service at its finest

Mixing cement

Laying the floor

Brother Natividad singing away at a church activity

Really nice old dude in our ward

Eating lunch

Elder Medalle finished it all

Salbador family.  They are really nice.  They have no power so we teach by candlelight.  It is cool

Playing games on p-day

Letter

Family, hey everyone how is it all going. I hope things are all good at home. It's getting close to harvest time. That will be fun. I loved grain harvest last year. It's a really nice time of the year things start to cool down a little bit so that's always nice. As for here it should really start raining soon. It hasn't seemed to really rain a whole lot yet. Every once in a while it will rain but only for a few minutes. I kind of like it when it's cloudy here it's the little time you get to not sweat for a bit. So far though things have been alright in the area we have a baptism on August 3 so that will be good. She is 9 years old and we might baptize her 8 year old sister with her. We will see what happens. On Monday it was a boring day. I had to stay home with Elder Medalley cause he was sick and I was the only one who hadn't stayed with him so I had to cause they needed to work in their area and our area is doing fine. Tuesday was p-day. We went to the temple early in the morning. It was nice. I love to go to the temple it's one place that life just slows down and we can get away from everything. In the mission it's the only time you have to get help on anything your struggling with or just anything. I love to go to the temple. So it was good after that we went and emailed. It took forever for anyone to email me back. Then we had a family home evening that night. Wednesday we had a good busy day. We taught a lot of lessons that day. Our investigator Diane accepted a baptismal date on August 24 so that's good. She has quit being so shy so that helps when we teach her. On Thursday was a slower day lot's of appointments fell through but we did teach a little bit not a ton. On Friday we had an early lunch appointment with a less active at 11 so we taught him then came back and did our weekly planning. I was really frustrated with my companion. He didn't really want to do much at all that day. He is kind of lazy so I have to push him to do things. So I got frustrated with him. We ended up having to come back early because he claimed he was sick so Elder Fisher and I went on splits because both our comps didn't feel good. On Saturday it was a busy day so we left early to go teach the people we missed on Friday then we had to review the interview questions with Jem. Her interview was on Saturday too. We did her interview at 4 she passed then at 5 5the other Elders had a baptism so we went to that then there was another baptism at 6 for the other Elder's in our zone. We got out of the church at like 7 then had a dinner appointment. So Sunday I hope everyone will make it to church today so we can get more people ready for baptism. So that has been my week. I was reading in Mosiah this week about Abinadi. I thought it was cool that he only converted one of th people out of the Lamanites. That was Alma. I thought it was cool that that one person then went out and converted hundreds of people and how one person can turn into many. It's a great story. Probably one of my favorites. So this is what I have been doing here in the Philippines. Hope all is well at home. That everyone is doing good. Thanks for all the support and all that you do. Love you all. Love Elder Robison.