05-08-2012

Hi familia! Today is p-day! Usually we have our p-days on Mondays, but because it's a new transfer and the new missionaries aren't coming in till today, it was changed. I should have let you know last week in my e-mail, but I completely forgot! Sorry about that. Here I am now! Anyway, transfers are always crazy because you never know what is going to happen. You never know where the Lord wants you to be. I have only been here in Napa for one transfer and so I was almost positive I would be staying, but Hermana Ordonez has been here in Napa for three transfers and so we had no idea if she would stay or leave. She had a really good chance to leave. I am so thankful to be companions with her, we get along so well and we work so well together. Come Friday night when we find out about what happens for transfers (who will stay or who will go) we were nervous and jittery. We received the voicemail from the zone leaders and we were freaking out! They start listing off the missionaries in our zone and who will be going where and they get to Napa North Spanish (which is us) and let us know that we were both going to be staying!! YAY! We were jumping up and down, hugging, and yelling. Haha, we were sooo excited! I felt so happy that she was staying. It's a beginning of a new transfer and we will be together another 6 weeks. I was so grateful! This past week has been a good week! We've been meeting a lot of new people everyday, we have been teaching a lot, and we have been trying our best! Everyday I am on the mission, I love it more and more. I feel like I'm in heaven. Napa is beautiful, seriously! (search online for pictures and you will understand!) The branch and members are amazing, I love our investigators so much, and I love my companion. What more could I ask for?! I am soo blessed. On top of that, I have a family that is so supportive and so loving. Thank you for everything that you do! I had an interesting experience this past week during personal study. I have come to cherish my personal study time on the mission. It is a time between 8 and 9 in the morning where we study the scriptures, preach my gospel, books in the mission library, or the Ensign. I have learned so much as I have been guided by the spirit in the things that I need to study to help me know how to better help God's children here. I can't remember exactly what I was studying, but I was thinking of our investigators. A lot of our investigators & members have struggles and difficulties like we all do: they are lonely, they have addictions, they feel like they can't change, they are lost and confused, they aren't progressing, etc, etc. As I was thinking about all of this, it made me sad. It made me so sad because I just want people to be happy. I know that the gospel will make us truly happy. Of course, we will still struggle. Of course, we will still have difficulties-that's a part of life, but I know that through the Gospel we can be healed. Yes, I felt sad, but then I realized how God must feel at times. We are ALL His children and we all have so many struggles. It's almost overwhelming to think about right?! Then, I thought about the perfect plan He's provided for each and every one of us and that through this perfect plan, we can all have true happiness. We can all have hope. That is what the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is--HOPE! There is a scripture in Psalms 147:3 "He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds." There is another scripture in the Book of Mormon in Ether 12:4 "Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God." What does the Gospel of Jesus Christ offer? HOPE. What are most people longing for in this world that we live in? Hope. As we meet new people each and everyday, as we talk to our members in the branch, as we teach our investiagators we hear of all the different struggles and difficulties that people face. As different as they are, there is one solution to all of them: The Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that it's true. I know that Jesus Christ can heal us. It's only through him, that we can be whole and happy. I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is led by Jesus Christ. He is at the head of the church. We are so blessed to be members of his church. I love you so much! I will hear your voices on Sunday. LOVE YOU! Con mucho amor, Hermana Robinson I will call you on Sunday at 5 your time. Thank you, thank you! LOVE YOU! CANT WAIT!

04-30-2012

Hello family! It sounds like changes are happening there in the family. By the time I get home, I don't know if anyone will even be there. Haha. No, I know that at least a few of you will be there. ;] Life goes by so fast, and change is so constant. At times I feel that we blink and when we open our eyes everything is different. That is how I felt when I began this journey as a missionary and I know it is certainly how I will feel when I come home. Despite the fact that change is constant, there are other things that can also be constant in our lives. God is constant, Jesus Christ is constant. The gospel is constant in our lives, but in order to feel of the blessings we must live it. Family is constant! The connections we have as a family can last for time and all eternity, forever. If that isn't constant, I don't know what is. :] I know that it is true that we can be families forever! I also know that as we make the Gospel a constant in our lives, the peace, the strength, and happiness of that will also be lasting or constant. "Let us relish life as we live it, find joy in the journey, and share our love with friends and family. One day each of us will run out of tomorrows." -President Thomas S. Monson I am so thankful for the Gospel. I know I say that all of the time, I probably sound like a broken record, but I say it because it's true. Jesus Christ is our Savior. He lives and he loves each and every one of us. I hope you don't all think that everyday on the mission is perfect, no it's hard, it's REALLY hard. Haha, but because I know that I have the Lord on my side, I know that I can do what I need to do. I have more peace and more strength in all of the things that we do each day. We are working with quite a few investigators right now and at times I feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders, we are working here with God's children and I can't help but feel so overwhelmed. I know, though, that when we are doing all that we can that the Lord is happy with us. There are people that we teach that live of the world. One investigator, in particular, that continually tells us that we can't change. He is too much a part of the world. We testify over and over again that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can change, we can become better, we can become the people that God wants us to be. I love sharing the message of hope with others. I love seeing their eyes light up when they hear that they can change, they have hope. Change isn't a bad thing. If we are changing for the good and using the Atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives daily. We can ALL change for the better, and we can start that change at any moment. I love seeing the changes in people's lives that come from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There really is nothing like it! I am so thankful that I can become better. We are here in this life to better ourselves, we are here to progress. If we are progressing, we know we are doing well. :] I love you all so much! Thank you for all that you do for me. Thank you for your examples. Keep going strong. Remember that you are so important and so special to me and, most importantly, to the Lord. Read these talks they are amazing! Read them together! :] http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2008/10/finding-joy-in-the-journey?lang=eng&query=change+constant http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/04/the-race-of-life?lang=eng&query=change I love you all! Thanks for the Easter package. You are SO sweet. Con mucho amor, Hermana Robinson

04-23-2012

Hola, hola! How are you all doing?! I hope you're doing bery, bery good! (Hermana Ordonez always says "very, very good" but in her cute spanish accent!) She's rubbing off on me. This past week has been very good for us! I first want to tell you about Saul. Remember Saul?! Hermana Skroski and I tracted into him in Novato and he was amazing and got baptized shortly after we both left the area. He received the priesthood! The hermanas that are serving there now keep me updated on him and I am so happy to hear of his progress. He is doing soo good! I have made so many good friends here in Napa all ready. I love the branch! We cover a large area here. We cover the North part of Napa and then a couple cute towns- St. Helena and Calistoga. Calistoga is about 20 minutes away, and we have a few investigators that live there. This past week we were able to take one of our members, Nivia, with us to go to our appointments. She's 20 years old and is SO cute. She is here living with her aunt and cousin. She just recently started coming to church again. We call her "futura misionera" because she will be a missionary! We have been talking to her a lot about a mission, though. We invited her to think about it and pray about it. She would be such a good missionary. It was so fun to have her with us and to be able to talk to her about a mission and answer her questions. Here in the spanish branch, we meet in the Relief Society room because our branch isn't too big yet. Yesterday, though, the room was completely full. I know that soon we will move into the chapel and that will be awesome! The branch is growing and I am so excited and happy with it's progress. We had two investigators at church yesterday! We have an investigator named Jose, who has a baptismal date, that was there and also an investigator Juan who came to church. It's the most exciting thing to have people come to church! Being a missionary has increased my testimony of the importance of going to church and partaking of the sacrament. It's a special opportunity that we have that I think a lot of us take for granted. I hope that you are all trying your hardest to go to church on Sunday because it is there where we are able to remember Jesus Christ and especially renew our baptismal covenants that we made when we were baptized. I love these people so much! There are times when I just cry because I want SO bad for them to experience the blessings that come from living the gospel. I love them and want them to be happy. I love all of you SO much. There are times when I just cry because I am thinking about all of you and I want all of you to experience the blessings that come from living the gospel because there are so many blessings that Heavenly Father wants to give us, but we have to live the Gospel. I want you to be happy! I know that we can only have true happiness when we live the gospel! I LOVE YOU!!!!! Gracias por todo que hacen para mi. :] Con mucho amor, Hermana Robinson

04-16-2012

Hello family, How are you doing today?! I hope you are having a wonderful day& week. This past week has been great! I feel like we've done so much. The branch here in Napa is pretty new and so most of the members are recent converts or less active members coming back again. I love being able to see it grow, and to see the members strengthen their testimonies. It's awesome! We do a thing thats called exchanges every once in a while which allows us to go to a different area, be with a new companion, and meet new people for a day. This past week I was able to go to Novato with Hermana Osorio. It was so awesome to see the people that I had been working with before. I was able to see two less active members in particular that I grew really close to and it was such an amazing feeling to see them again. It was like a dream, haha. I still feel just as much love for them as I did then. One of them is Andres and another is Denny. When we went to see Denny, she had no idea that we were coming and so when she opened the door she was so surprised and ran out and gave me the biggest hug! I love her so much! It was fun to be back and another thing that was so comforting is just to see that even though we come and go, the work still moves forward. There are now other Hermanas there taking care of the area, loving the people, working hard just as I did when I was there. It's a comforting feeling to know that those people won't be forgotten or lost. It reminds me that we will never be forgotten or lost. The parable of the sheep in the new testament that says something like: how many of us would leave the 99 to go searching for the one?! I know that Jesus Christ is our shepherd and that we are NEVER, EVER forgotten. On Saturday we were also able to go to the temple and it was beautiful! I love the Oakland temple, I just love the temple. Afterward, I told Hermana Ordonez that I never want to leave there. There is something about the peace inside the temple that gives me a whole new outlook on life. I am so thankful for the temple! It will soon be a year that I went to the temple for the first time. The temple is beautiful! It's even more beautiful when we have family and friends that can be there with us. I hope that you all have that vision and that goal to enter the temple. There is nothing like it and I know that as you do all that you can to prepare yourself, you will feel the help of the Lord because there is nothing more that our Heavenly Father wants for us than to go to the temple and feel of the love and spirit there. I am so thankful for your love and support. I know that the Lord is taking care of you, I know it! And I hope that you know how much He loves you. I hope you know how much that I love you! Thank you, thank you for everything! Watch the video clip about families and temples! :] http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng#eternal-truth I LOVE YOU! Con mucho amor, Hermana Robinson