Twists and Turns

Family and Friends,

My Week:

This last week was an absolute blast! I had three interchanges (Elder Pavon, Elder Castro and Elder Mejia) and a ton of fun working in my sector. I am of the opinion that if someone is not enjoying their time as a missionary... they are dfinitely wasting their time. The mission is "chucky jam full" of great experiences and excitement. How can one not love the mission and its "twists and turns?"

Twists and Turns for this week:

This week starts the "Specialized Training" that we have to undergo every 3 months... or 2 months... quizas cada mes.... yo no sé! The Twist: Elder Cruz ( mi hijo) has been sent to live in Naranjito for the next 4 days. I am now companions with Elder Rivero from Bolivia (Santa Cruz). He is a great missoinary and I am looking forward to working with him over the next few days. Every morning this wekkk we will be leaving our apartment at 6? AM so that we can arrive in Guayaquil (that lovely l city) at 8 to be ontime to take a bus/taxi for the conference at 9. We will then return home every night at 6ish and work with whatever time we have in KM 26. I doubt we will have any working time this week. You got to love the twists. All Jr. Comps have to stay in their sectors. I guess they don´t need training.

Elder Lema from Otavalo left to go live in La Troncal and Elder Castro is now with Elder Catamayo from Peru. Our house now consits of 1 American! 1 Columbian! 1 Bolivian! and 1 Peruvian! I think they are some of the 4 best missionaries in all of Milagro/Truinfo. It will be a blast to live with them for the next week.

Other twists that should be covered:

My entire mission (even before my mission) I always heard stories of people that had dreams of the missionaries.... and then the next day the missionaries arrived. Or people that recognized the faces of the Missionaries even though they did not konw them before. Well... here is my story that I have to tell you:

We found Maria Chavez while I was on an interchange with Elder Mejia. She lives just short of the 24 (KM 26 is SOUTH of Milagro, you will NEVER find it on a map). We always walk past her house while we are on our way to visit Familia Vargas. I have always felt... "hmm... that is a pretty trail, maybe we should to there..." but I never ever took the trail... until the interchange. We had some extra time on our hands, so on our way back from Familia Vargas we entered a trail that lead back into the brush and some houses. The first house we stopped at we asked them if we could share a message. We did. We met Maria Chavez and she accepted our message. I didn´t really think much of the lesson. We gave out a Book of Mormon.... and left.

The day after we stopped by again and retaught lesson 1 to her sister. Maria showed up at the end of the lesson and we reminded her that she had to ask the Lord if she wanted to know if these things were true.

Finally Friday we stopped by again and she invited us back to her house (some 4 houses behind the first house we found her in, 1 room separated by sheets, house of sugar cane) and she started to talk to us about her work in the Banana Fields. She lightly touched on the fact that she fogot how to pray... and felt bad because she wanted to pray while she was aty work so that the Lord could help her have more strength. She talked about how she works with som other woman and how they usually talk about their days and families. She then mentioned the following, "I ahd a dream. Are you here to change my family?"

Me: Yeah. We help families change for the better.

Maria Chavez: I thought so. I had a dream that 2 boys came to my home to teach me and my family things that would make us happy.l I dreamed that everyone in my family accepted the message (except for my husband) and that with time my husband came to realize that we were happier than he was and he accepted what the 2 boys had to say. Are you the two boys?

Me: Stunned

Elder Cruz: Yeah!

Maria Chavez: It was a really beautiful dream. It made me feel really good to have it. And then a few days later... you showed up at my house.

Needless to say we have now taught a fraction of her family (10 people of 30ish) and all of them were uper interested in the BOok of Mormon. Sunday Maria Chavez came to church with us and absolutely LOVED the experience. She told us that next week her entire family would be present so that they could be as happy as she was during the meetings. We are on our way now to go teach her. We have a lesson at 6 with her and the Ward Missionaries.

The Lord is preparing peoplall over the world to hear the message of the Restauration. Sometimes we just have to take the "pretty trails" to find these amazing people... and if we do... when we come to the end of our journey we will find the people that the Lord has put in our way that desparately need the message. How grateful I am to be a missionary! And to think that I only have... algunos meses mas!

Family and Friends: I love you all so much. I don´t miss you. I will see you again. But until then...

That is all,

Love,

--
Elder Robinson

Mom- Did ou send out the pictures that I sent you last week? Or did you never receive them? Shucks... why do you have to be in Yellowstone!?!

Sorry. This is the 2nd time I have written this letter... Internet failed in the last place... and I don´t have time to fix all the errors that are in this letter.

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