Conferences and Such

Family, Friends, y Padowans

Shout Out: Conferences! You have absolutely got to love these. They are just so much fun to attend. I am not lying to you, I think I have reached the "nerd" stage of Missionary Work: I love reading El Libro de Mormón, going to meetings, wearing a shirt and tie, and listening to conferences. We will talk about the conferences at a later portion of this letter.

My week: Conferences! Whoo... I don´t want to leave anyone hanging so I thought I would talk about these now. Some of my more diligent subcribers (my mom) will have realized that I did not write on Monday. Está bien. I was in Machala for Zone Conference. My P-day is today. The conference was AMAZING. It is our oportunity to meet with the Mission President and recieve feedback on our past 6 weeks of work. He spoke on so many different subjects with so much power and authority that I was surprised that I was absorbing it all. THEN I realized, after an hour or so, that it was all in spanish and that I understood ALL (well, if you call 97.937% "all") of what he was saying! Whoo! Spanish!

This conference was especially cool because I have had TONS of questions on my mind for the past few weeks and I prayed the other day to find answers to these questions. Cool Experience: all of my questions had an answer in the conference from the mouth of the Mission President, and it was not like I had to stretch what he said to apply to me it was like the following:

E. Robinson: "Dear Lord, I think that when we visit this person we are spending a little to much time, do you have an answer for this? Because my trainer and I disagree..."

President Johns: "Today I would like to talk about how long we are spending at the houses of Investigators and members, I am wondering if some companionships are struggling with deciding how much time should be spent at each place..."

Wow, talk about a direct answer. And that was a lame example. Litterally the first words out of the President´s mouth were an answer to another question I had. Basically it was really, really, really cool. I don´t think I have ever had answers come flowing to me so rapidly as they did yesterday.

Then, I had an interview with the President. These are fun. Now in a laughing way, but it is fun to have a one-on-one interview where you can discuss whatever. Well, I won´t go into details but President Johns asked me to say the prayer... and I forgot how to pray in English. Oops. I could not remember the words, "Dear Heavenly Father" so after 20 seconds of awkwardness I decided to pray in Spanish: "Nuestro Padre Celestial."

That was one conference, Zone Conference, the other conference was on Sunday in Santa Rosa. This was for all of the Branches in the area (Piñas, Arillas, Pasaje, y Santa Rosa). It was really cool, a 40 minute bus ride, but it was cool. We had 7 investigators go to the meeting. WOW, really really cool.

Note: the ride should be 45 minutes, but we were running late so our bus driver drove really fast and did it in 30. I don´t think even roller coasters can give me the same thrill as riding in a bus at 80kph, through banana plantations, in the wrong lane, dodging busses, people, cars, and narrowly missing accidents.

Family Segarra is back together. They should be baptised this week. Jenny actually does not have a job and will be baptised in 3 weeks. Family Chichande is amazing and Ruth Chichande will be baptised next week, her nieces and nephews and uncle will probably be baptised in 3 weeks. Sebastian... well we don´t know about him. He could be baptized today but I think that his Tutor (guardian) hates us and will no longer consent to the baptism. We shall see. All and all I hope to finish off this change with 8 or so baptisms, but only time will tell.

Now for things of UPMOST IMPORTANCE:

Mi Direccíon:

Elder Jeremiah Robinson
Mission Ecuador Guayaquil Sur
Casilla 09-06-286
Guayaquil, Guayas, Ecuador

You are supposed to use the "green" tag when you send things.

Thoughs:
1. Family Segarra is MARRIED!!! and I was a testigo!
2. I think rainy season has started... or it just likes to sprinkle for 4 days straight, I can´t decide.
3. I don´t miss my family anymore (sorry about that, I just noticed it the other day) (And this does NOT mean that you can stop missing me, I am just to busy to think about you all the time.)

Elder Robinson

Mom and Dad: I took some money out from the Credit Card. This was for emergency purposes and such. Thanks, I hope this does not cause a problem.

--
"Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one."
-- Malcolm S. Forbes