A ti te digo...

Family and Friends,

 

Shout Out: Ann (Robinson) Maas! Ann, my beloved sister, is having a BABY!!! BOY!!! YEAH!!! This now makes 2 little ones that I will miss while I am on my mission. No fears. I will be home soon enough. I just have to baptise a few more people... and... I... will... ... be... home! Anyway, this brings my sobrino count to: 7. If Christy and Amy both have another child while I am gone... I will have 9. That's right folks! Elder Robinson can still do math. Though he is not to excited to take CAL 113 at BYU next year. Chuso!

 

My Week: Every time that we have to work towards baptisms... our numbers slow down. Every time that missionaries call me to do interviews... my numbers slow down. Every time that we have to DEEP CLEAN our house... our numbers drop off the deep end. But when all is said and done: the Lord is happy.

 

We had 2 baptisms this week. We have been working for months now to baptise Familia Jaramillo, needless to say only the daughter was baptised but once the parents work out some of their problems they to will be counted among the Saints. Simonne Gomez (the daughter) is 9 and very mature. She has a ton of support from the Primary President and if her parents continue progressing then everything will turn out perfectly.

 

Genesis Cruz was also baptised this week. She was a reference from a member who wanted to reactivate her grandma so that her grandma can enter the Temple for her first time this year (but first you have to be active). Hna. Ofelia gave us the reference, we went to the house, taught lesson one, and invited Genesis to be baptised. Now, 4 weeks later, Genesis is the newest member of the ward and will be one of the strongest. Studying with the Jehova's Whitnesses for 1 year helped her learn the Bible really well, and living with her inactive grandma helped her accept our message with ease. Now her grandma is active, she is a member, and Hna. Ofelia is working on getting the Grandma (Hna. Gertrudis) to the Temple in a few months. Absolutely amazing (amassing: love you lots Elder Robinson II, not that I can spell worth beans anymore either).

 

Saturday we went to the Church in the morning to clean and fill the baptismal font. We started the filling and quickly worked on the cleaning. After we had cleaned for 30 minutes... we noticed that the font was not filling up anymore. CHUSO! um... we checked the tap, the font, the pipes... and we found that half the the chapel was WITHOUT water. My companion suggested that we could fill up the font using water from the Men's Room- but we could not use a trashcan. We would prefer that our converts did not get Hepatitis C during their baptisms. I decided that we would have to find the source of the problem instead. As we were looking a thought came to my mind: Check the Circuit Breakers. Yep! That was it! A circuit had flipped. I turned them all off and started them all up again. It was just like Jurrasic Park... watching the entire chapel come back to life... one switch at a time! When I hit the second to last switch we heard water again! ABOVE US!!! We listened and listened... Why are there water pipes above us? So we climbed on a table and looked into the attic. In the chapel, between el techo and the roof there are TWO HUGE water barrels... and I brought one of them back to life! We then went back to cleaning... thinking that everything was going to be OK. WRONG! After another half hour of cleaning we noticed that the font was still not filling up. 1. To have a baptism you need water. 2. We don't have all day. 3. Apparently we didn't really find the problem. We were out of ideas. What could we do? PRAY! We did. We got down next to the font and my companion and I both said our own prayers. I spoke with the Lord, let him know what our problem was, told him that these baptisms were important and that we were utterly out of ideas. I asked him to lend us some help... knowing that he is SUPER merciful. We got up... and the font was filling.

 

Moral of story: Maybe it was just ''coincidence'' that we prayed and then when we stood up the font was filling... OR... maybe the Lord was waiting for us to realize that we ALWAYS need his help. With every baptism I have had there has always been some sort of problem. I personally think this is when the Lord steps in to teach Elder Robinson (I) that he ALWAYS has to ask. And then the Lord always pulls through. DONT EVER FORGET THE LORD IN ANYTHING! And always give thanks afterwards. This was a cool learning experience for my companion and I.

 

This week I also had to do a few interviews over in the Island. To clarify: I am the District Leader of 1 of 2 islands in the mission: La Isla Trinitaria. Sorry folks, it isn't Galapagos.  I interviewed 2 young men and they passed with flying colors and were baptised Saturday. Their mom was interviewed by one of President John's councilors and was also baptised Saturday. The Island then called me back to do an interview Sunday. I interviewed a young man that has had the HARDEST of lives. He was into some pretty hard core stuff and his life was an absolute mess... until someone at school talked to him about the church. He accepted and has spent the last several months putting everything in order. He has a long way to go yet but he has changed sufficiently to be baptised and confirmed a member of the Church. This interview was eye opening for me to see how much someone can change in their lives and how powerful the atonement really is. Restatement: How ALL POWERFUL the Atonement is.

 

We deep cleaned our house this week. Everything that could not be put into a suitcase... was thrown into OUTER DARKNESS... or the street. Whichever one was closest. We were pleased when the house was cleaned and then Hna. Johns showed up to check. She gave us a 10+ and some muffins. That will probably be the last time that I will see her here in the mission. Goodbye President and Sister Johns!

 

I really wish I had more to say... but everything was just normal. We are planning a baptism for next week and we just found a kid that told us he wants to be baptised. I was confused... I thought he was baptised: he goes to church every week. Now we just need to get permission from his parents and fill up the font, two things that I do not believe will be a problem.

 

Ana Bermeo: She is a Gothic girl that lives behind some members in our ward. She is super interested in the church and will be baptised this week. She takes everything super seriously and always has some really deep questions about what she has read in the Book of Mormon. The lessons have been going great for her and I left for an interchange this week and told my companion to teach her: CHASTITY. Needless to say everything went great. I was back in my sector the next day and we were walking down the street when we saw her. We stopped to talk to her... and she had taken out her lip rings. Trying to contain my excitement we finished the conversation. My companion and I made our way around the corner and then had a party in the street! She has been doing EVERYTHING we have asked her to do! I am super proud of her and I am super blessed to teach amazing people like her that will do whatever it takes to attain Eternal Life.

 

Stay strong till the end folks!

 

Chao Chao,

 

Love,

--
Elder Robinson (I)

Pictures to come!

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