04-02-12

Buenos Dias!

My first week here in Napa and it feels like I've been here for a lot longer than a week. Haha, missionary time is crazy. I love Napa! I feel so blessed to be serving here and I LOVE Hermana Ordonez. She has been our for 5 months and I am learning so much from her. She is an AMAZING missionary & is a good spanish teacher (she is from Ecuador). Haha. She teaches and helps me with my spanish and I teach and help her with her english, and so it's perfect!

We are teaching a lot of lessons and I am meeting a lot of wonderful people! It never ceases to amaze me that within a few minutes or even seconds you can feel the love of God for that person. Missionary work is a beautiful experience and I am so thankful that I have this wonderful opportunity. I am so thankful for your support and your love for me! I will never, ever be able to express my gratitude enough. There is this cute little family that we are teaching: Rubi, Nayn, and the little girl Jessie. Nayn is a member and Rubi is not. They are not yet married, but they now have their marriage license and so we hope it will be soon. Rubi wants to be a member of the church and as soon as they are married, she will be able to be baptized. On Saturday night, we were able to teach them about the temple. I felt the spirit so strong and we taught them about the sealing ordinances and that in the temple we can be sealed for time and for all eternity as a family. I look at that beautiful family and it makes me so happy that I get to witness their journey of becoming an eternal family. I am so thankful that we have the knowledge that we can be together with our families FOREVER!

Saturday night we came home and our power was out. We were like ahhhh, what do we do?! Haha, I don't know where my flashlight went and so Hermana Ordonez was the only one with a flashlight and then I was using the light of the cellphone which wasn't too convenient. We were trying to plan for Sunday with the little light we had and it wasn't working out too well. We were comparing it to the parable of the ten virgins and that 5 of them were prepared and had oil in their lamp, but the other 5 weren't so prepared. Of course, I was the unprepared one, haha. It goes too show, though, how important it is to be prepared. I have been thinking about that a lot and after watching General Conference this past weekend and feeling the spirit so strong, I realized that one of the things we must do to be prepared is listen to the words of the Prophet, or really, the words of God. http://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2012/04?lang=eng (watch it!!) The Lord gives us so many resources so that we can be prepared when Jesus Christ comes again. He has given us a living day Prophet! We are so blessed to be able to hear from President Monson and I hope that we all listen to the counsel that he has given us as well as all of the other wonderful leaders of the church. He has given us scriptures to read and study, so that we can be strengthened spiritually to face the challenges of life each day. We are able to pray, to talk to our Heavenly Father at ANY time and ANY place. He has given us the church, so that we can take of the sacrament and be cleansed of our sins and renew our covenants. We have been given so many ways so that we can be PREPARED. I love this Gospel! I am young, I don't know a lot of things, but I know with all of my heart that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us. We have a Savior, Jesus Christ, and He lives! Joseph Smith restored the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we have a living prophet today, Thomas S. Monson. I know that families can be together forever through the ordinances of the temple. I know that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ and we can feel of the love of God more when we read it everyday! We can learn ways to overcome our challenges, find comfort and peace, and we can come closer to God through reading it daily.

I am so thankful for all of you. I love you so much!

Have a wonderful week! & watch general conference!! :]



Con mucho amor,

Hermana Robinson