October 13, 2013

Family, hey whats up what have you all been up to? Your all done with the harvest and getting ready for the winter. ha it's crazy to think that its that time again. Ha people having Christmas decorations our here and yet its still like 80 degrees. Ha its just weird to me. It should be cold and snowy but man we have been busy this week with splits, conference and just stuff like that. I was so glad to be able to finally watch conference. it was great to have a little change to our week and not have to worry about nothing just go and listen. i really liked Elder Bednars Talk on living within our means and instead of waiting for a raise or something. That we can change our status on our own by just buying what you need. Then I really liked Pres. Uchtdorfs talk about the no perfect people but that God leads this church and God is perfect. it's true because a lot of people have got offended by Bishops or leaders and then they go less active. They don't realize that the Bishop is just a person and isn't perfect. One thing I noticed a lot of talks hit on the women and marriage again. I heard some ladies were trying to get into the priesthood session and were all mad because they said it was for men only. I thought that was kind of dumb but sounds about like what people would try these days. Well so I'll tell you about the rest of my week. Sorry if this letter is short I am short on time so just writing really quick. So Monday P-day, Tuesday, was a good day with lots of teaching and some really good lessons. Our investigators are really good. I have good hope that they will get baptized. Wednesday crappy day really rainy and was going to be a big storm so people were trying to get ready for the storm so it was a bad day for working. Thursday we went on splits. I was with Elder Whatts from Utah. Ha I really like him. He is a really funny kid. I felt bad though because he is pretty new still. He is a lot like I was not knowing Tagalog. So when we were teaching it was all on me but it was okay the spirit helped out with it. I would look at him and he looked so lost. It made me remember how hard that time was so I felt bad for him but one day it will come around for him. That day Diane said she really wants to be baptized before she moves and is very serious about it now. Ever since she finally prayed about the church she has changed completely and really wants to be baptized so on the 26th we will baptize her so are excited about that. She is kinda nervous that she has to have an interview. Friday went and taught the people we could get to. Bong is doing okay. He always reads but never will come to church don't know why so not sure what will happen with him. As like any other Friday slow and not a lot of teaching to do so Saturday we went to the Stake Center and watched Conference then later we watched Priesthood. We had to leave early because we had an appointment we had to go to. This young couple had us over for dinner. We really like them they are really funny and have the cutest little kid but she don't like us at all. She is really shy. Sunday back to the Stake Center and watched both sessions again. It really was so good to go and listen to Conference. I really enjoyed it. Another good thing from Conference I heard was someone said we can't just listen to conference and strengthen our testimony. We need to always be studying and praying. He compared ti to basketball and preparing yourself. I forgot who said it. So yeah that was my week. Kinda busy but it was good. Well I hope everything is going good for you all there. Have a great week thanks for the support love you all. Love Elder Robison

Pictures

Zone activity

The Pasig and Taguig zones

The Monday

Holding and feeding the monkey a banana

October 6, 2013

Family, hey how are you all doing? Well spud harvest should be over. Ha thats crazy it all flew by. Ha at least for me it seems that way. I get one letter that says you just started and by the time I get the next one you say your all finished up. I am sure it doesn't seem that fast for all of you that are in the trucks everyday. One more month and you will be putting everything away for the year and getting ready for Christmas
. Here its already the Christmas season. They start playing Christmas music in September to December so its a little different. I think its a little early but that just me. One of these days it is supposed to cool off but not sure when that will be either. We finished the first week of the new transfer. It flew by it seems like.So it was just an average week. Some good things happened. On Monday that was p-day, just regular nothing crazy just a lot of hanging around washing clothes and stuff. We then had FHE at the Elison family. They bought a fruit called Durian or something not very good. People here love it. To me it tasted like onions and lettuce mixed together and it smelled horrible. Y'all will have to try it when you come back. Tuesday was a regular day. We went and taught Diane and Sister Leni is all that we got to teach. No one else was home. Later it was one of the Natividads birthdays so they fed us dinner and then they were all singing videoke. They love that stuff here even if they cant sing it don't matter they do it loud. Wednesday ha what a day we went on splits that day. I had to go with Atwood the Canadian kid. We went to a hard half of our area where we have a hard time getting appointments so we walk a lot. We only taught one or two lessons ha we talked to a few people out on the streets. It was a long day. I was glad to have it over. Thursday we had a great day. We taught Diane again she finally prayed and said she wanted to be baptized. We gave her a date. It turns out she is moving back to her province that week so we have to refer her to the Elders there so all the work we put into it and we won't even get to see the reward. That was kind of a let down. We then went to Sister Leni and taught her. It was a good lesson one of them that you can feel the spirit strongly. We then asked her if she would be baptized if she got the answer that this church is true and she said yes so we are shooting for November 2nd for her. Hopefully all goes well. We then taught Nini and Tata. They wouldn't accept a date because they said they still want to learn more but they will come around in just a little bit I know it. The Natividads fed us dinner again so thats always good it helps us save money. Friday we went back to the hard side of our area and we taught Bong and some less actives. We met this less active family awhile back. All of them are members but a 14 year old girl. We tried to teach her and she just flat out said she doesn't want to be baptized. We don't know what was up with her or why she said that but she really don't want to. Saturday ha well we ended up buying a couch for our apartment. We have a nice house something was just missing so we were visiting our less active white guy and they are moving and selling a lot of stuff so I asked about their couch and he said yeah and we got it for P1500 about $30 ha its so nice having somewhere to sit now. Our house got even better. Sunday well first thing we went out early to teach Brother Mark and bring them to church with us. We got there and they were just leaving to the market. They said they would meet us at the church. They didn't show up so not sure what happened. We had 5 others show up but Sister Leni didn't come so that was no good. After church we went to Sister Joy and they fed us dinner. Since church is so late that was that for Sunday. That was my week its been good I've got good hopes for our investigators. Well thanks for everything. Tell people he for me. Thanks again have a good week. Love elder Robison.

Pictures

Elder Atwood

Elder Latu

Tight fit on the jeepnee

chillin on our new couch

Add caption

Badua FHE

Badua family

Letter 9/29/13

Family, hey how is everything going back home. From moms email you all sound like your going to be busy for the next little while. It's that time of year again. Hopefully spud harvest is going good and that everyone will get them in before it starts to freeze and dad has a heart attack. From the sounds of it Rigby is doing really good this year so that is awesome. Hopefully that continues so maybe they can get a state title. Your all so lucky to live in Idaho right now and enjoy this time of year. Here it just rains every other day and floods peoples houses all the time so your all lucky to live where you live and not have to worry about all of this . Luckily we were able to get a new house that doesn't flood when it rains. Its been so nice to come home and have a dry clean house. Its been kind of a busy week with transfer day and Elder Medalle going home and just stuff like that. We only got to work 3 days this week because of it all. Monday was not my p-day so it was a work day. We tried to find more less actives in our area. Slow day but that is okay because we got 2 dinner appointments in one night. I was stuffed. It was national family week so the church wanted everyone to have FHE so we went to the Season family in the other ward. They invited us all. The food was really good. I thought that was it so I ate a lot. Then we were invited to the Elisan family and they had a ton of food so we had to eat again. I ate way to much until I felt sick. Tuesday Elder Medalle was picked up by the AP's early in the morning. After that it was finally p-day. Just normal nothing to crazy. Emailed and ate some food. Transfer p-day normally suck because people know they are transferring so they just want to go get ready so that was p-day. Wednesday was transfer day. My comp and I are both staying so its good.  Thursday we finally got a good day of work in with a lot of appointments. We tried to give Diane a new baptismal daye3 but her dad is still against it. She says she wants to so we asked her to pray and find out what she should do. I think her family would come around if she just did it. Her dad just is one of those lifelong catholic people that are hard headed. We then taught Sister Leni and her daughter. I think they would get baptized but they just need to realize the importance of our message. If they would do that they would make the time to do what it takes. I was hoping to be able to teach Nini and Tata but they were already asleep when we got there so next week. I guess. The Natividads fed us dinner again. They really are way nice to us. Friday I don't know what it is but Fridays here suck all the time. They are so slow. We did teach Sis Legaspi. She is a less active that has a daughter that really wants to be baptized. The problem is she can't until her mom comes to church and is active again. I feel bad for the little girl but her mom promised she would be at church so we will see. We later went to try some other people like the Romano family. Their house was flooded so we went to the church but everyone was busy with activities so we didn't end up getting to teach. Saturday was kind of a wasted day we were asked to come do this family thing at the City Hall. Our whole zone and another zone. We basically just sat there all day. ^ Elders could of done it just fine so it wasn't the best day. Kind of boring. Sunday we had a great day at church, 5 investigators showed up and 10 less actives. Sis Leni the one I said needs to make time she came for the first time. That is a huge step for her. I hope that it all continues to go good and she will want to be baptized. She was really good she participated in class and just was really good. The other investigators were young girls that came with friends. Later that night we had dinner with Sis Joy in our ward so that was my Sunday. It turned out to be pretty good. Well we have had a busy week and we are just starting a new transfer so hopefully we can harvest in our area and help people come unto Christ. We have a lot of hope for them so we will see. Thanks for everything you do and the support. Let me know how harvest goes. I expect lots of pictures. Thanks again. Have a good week. Love you all. Love Elder Robison

Letter

Hey whats up? How is everything going? I hope all is well for you all. Hopefully harvest is going good and you will all get the crops in for the year. Sounds like the football team is doing good finally haha so it ought to be a fun year to go and watch all the games. it's been years since they or we have had a winning season. Um not sure what else is going on. I am sure it's just another busy fall time even though its busy still a great time. That's way fun to be in spud harvest. The nights are probably getting cold. That's one nice thing about here right now. It's been pretty cool lately. There is a big storm just north of us so it's made it be overcast and cool here. I don't mind it at all. I enjoy to be able to walk and not be covered in sweat. It's rained on and off for a few days. That reminds me we finally moved into our new house. It is so much nicer. It's very clean and stays cool inside. It has air conditioning but we don't use it because it will make us all go broke. The best part is when it rains we stay dry. The water doesn't just run onto the floor. I can actually walk in this house without having to wear chinaylas (flip flops). It's nice it finally fells like a house. So I hope everything is good back home. As for my week just been busy with t hings. Monday it was our p-day. We had to wake up early and go into the office so Scanlan could get finger printed to go home next transfer. I guess some new thing the foreign missionaries have to do so it was an early morning. We did that then went and ate at a nice restaurant, then emailed, then just came home. Tuesday went and worked and taught Diana, Fernando and Nini and Sister Leni. Those guys have been our focus for now. Fernando and Nini I think will get baptized for sure. They are really good. They understand so good. Diana and Leni are busy a lot so not sure what to think. Wednesday we had our mission tour slash mission conference. It was alright. President Arden from our area presidency came. Him and his wife. They spoke and so did President Revillo and Sister. They spoke to us then we ate lunch. We didn't finish until like 4 but it was fun to see half the mission together. Then after that we had the long taxi ride back home so it messed up work for that day. Thursday back to work. Today some ward missionaries worked with us. We taught about 6 lessons so it was good for them to go teach. They are both leaving on missions soon so they wanted to go work. We went and taught Fernando and Nini and met some new less active members. Then the Natividad family fed us again. They really are like our family here. They feed us all the time and are just really good to us. Friday we were working in the half of our area that doesn't have much happening so really slow day. Later that night we had a ward FHE. It was fun, I was in charge of games for the whole thing. It was good. We ate and then headed home. Saturday was move day finally. We moved all that day. The couple missionaries came and helped us. it took most of the day to get us out. We still have to go back and clean up the old house. the new house is great. Tell Melanee that there are no mice in this one. Later that night we went to the Elison family for a farewell party for there two kids that leave soon and Elder Medalle because he goes home next week. They cooked a pig head and had tons of food. It was good. Lots of people came. Sunday our church time got changed to 2 now so we don't get done until late so it messes up a day for work. Our meetings after don't get done until like 6:30. We then go out and work. It rained all day Sunday so a slow day. That is my week. One thing we all need to do is rely on our Heavenly Father. He is always there and knows what we need in our lives and when we need it. Any time we feel the need to pray we should right then say a prayer. It doesn't have to be a loud prayer and can just be to ourselves. I promise it helps every time we pray. So well hopefully everything is good at home. Thanks for everything y'all do. I love you all. Love Elder Robison

Letter

Family, hey how are you all doing? I hope everything is going really good for you all. Getting busy with spud harvest I am sure. Ha can't wait to see some pictures of all that. Ha the people here will really be amazed at how it all works. When they ask how we plant and harvest or plow the fields they thing by hand or that we use caribou. They all are amazed when I show them my little toy tractor that I have so it's pretty funny. As for us we have been busy as well. Trying to get some of our investigators to baptism. Most of our investigators are pretty new so it will still be awhile but so far they are doing pretty good. I'll tell you about my week. Monday was not p-day so it was a work day. We went and contacted a referral we received. Her name was Ruby. We had to teach very slow. She didn't understand much. She also had a hard time listening. She isn't a native tagalog speaker so it might be a little difficult to understand. After we went and tried to talk to some less actives that we haven't met yet. Kind of a slow day. Later that day I had a dentist check up. I thought I had a cavity but it was just a spot of something that didn't seal good or something. She said she fixed it but I am not sure. Ha don't tell Rachel that I did that but it only cost $5 so I figured why not. Tuesday that was our p-day. We went to the temple but all the sessions were full so we just did initiatories. So still haven't got to see the new movie so hopefully next time. After I tried to get back to email but everyone had something they needed to do so we didn't get back until way late so I was a little bummed so we only emailed for a short time. Wednesday we went out and tried to talk to the less actives. Not a single one of them let us in. One of them we saw hide from us and her daughter told us she wasn't there. Then later Elder Scanlan had baptismal interviews he needed to do so after that we went and taught the Romero family. They are doing alright. The father is kind of hard headed. He won't give up coffee. That's the one problem that he has. Hopefully they will all come through. Thursday we had a good day lots of appointments We taught Leni. She is interested but really busy with work. She was telling how she missed us because it had been awhile since we had been there so she is doing good. Then we taught Nini Tata. They are doing good as well. Brother really understand things and he is reading the Book of Mormon. They also told us how much happier they have been ever since we have began visiting them. I really hope they continue to want to learn and be baptized. Then we ate dinner with the Natividad family. They are really good to us. Brother don't want his kids to serve missions because he things they won't be taken care of. He said he loves them to much to send them out like that. Then he said do your parents not love you guys or imagine how they feel with you out here alone. We just laughed at him. Friday a good day. We have started to teach this kid Mark. He is special and his parents asked if he can be baptized so we are teaching him and if he understands enough then we will go through with it. He is a funny kid I like him a lot. Later that night we went to the Romero family. Only half would join us not sure why or what was up so we only taught half of them. Hopefully next time they will all join. Not sure what happened but I guess we'll see. Saturday we had priesthood session and the adult meeting for Stake Conference. It was good. Lots of people came and it was really good. That took up most of our day. Sunday we had Stake Conference it was good as well with lots of people showing up. So that was my week. We have been busy. it's been good though. Helps time go by faster. Once thing we need to be thankful for is the atonement. We need to use in in our lives everyday and always try to be better. It was put in place to be used so we need to take that opportunity and realize that forgiveness comes from Jesus Christ and because he loves us. Well have a great week. I love you all. Thanks for everything and all the support. Have a good harvest. Take lots of pictures. Thanks again. Love Elder Robison