BINGO! (no, not the game!)

Well, i will start off with teh most exciting news thus far in my stay in panama: WE SET LIZBETH ATONDO WITH A BAPTISMAL DATE FOR THE 13TH OF JUNE!!!! WWAAAHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I'm so very excited for her!! We set her with the date while we taught the Plan of salvation and it went really well! SHe got SO much out of the lesson! i was super impressed! That day too iwas on exchanges too with none other than the infamous Elder Rogers, who was in the MTC with me!! he's our zone leader and we had a great time together! We even bought an ice cream from the guys that drive around tiny little ice cream cars and i got a picture with him!! it's a pretty funny picture!! You'll see it when i send home my memory card! SO ya, it's great! This week has flown by! i cannot believe that it's almost june! Man, its insane how fast it's been going by! I am loving my mission right now! elder romeril is a stud, elder minnick (who we live with) is so much fun to be with! i just love it! of course i still have the occasional rough day but it's all good! The bad times far out-number the good times but the good times far out weigh the bad times! that's truth! So we had an awesome zone meeting too this past week! elder eaton, our senior zone leader, gave such a great talk on patience and talked about the example of joseph smith! How he literally went through hell but didn't fight back, he didn't get upset but remembered the example of our savior Jesus Christ! Today we have an appt. with another investigator that we got a week of so ago and his name is Alan. He's had a rough life and been to jail but while in jail he learned about joseph smith (he learned A LOT!!!) and he accepted the invitation to be baptized as well! we are seeing him at 2 today and will set him with a date for teh 27th, if all goes well! So ya, things are going great! Despite the heat, i love it. I either did somehting wrong or right to be able to be in bakersfield for the summer and i think it's something i did right!! haha : ) Oh, just to update you all, the hole i put in our wall is completely patched up and painted!! hooray, no more guilt but now i can just laugh at it! hahaha i hope all is going well on the home front! TRoy, i love you buddy! Congrats on your accomplishments and i'm so proud of you! you have truly changed into what Heavenly Father wants you to be! Keep up the pace! You're just beginning to help others out and you will be doing many great and important things for the rest of your life. I love you!! Keep on keepin on lil' bro!!! Bye "stinky-pete" ha! Paul, go forth and boldly testify of the divinity of Jesus Christ and invite all to hear of the message of the restored gospel! Heavenly Father will bless you as you teach by the spirit and from the heart! Good luck and i'll see you in a couple years! ; ) Family, friends, i love you all so much! YOu all mean so much to me! i hope and pray that you will continue to read the scriptures, go to church, and learn to recognize the Holy Ghost! The church is true and the book is blue!! I testify to that!!
peace!
elder Robison

Way Too Hot for Ty!

WEll, yesterday i'm pretty sure i lost a ton of weight? How? well my friends, let me clue you in on how i did so. First thought may come up as well, it's bakersfield and so it's really hot so he just sweated it out but then again it is only may. Maybe you think that i have a new exercise program and am eating really healthy. Or maybe i just have a really bad bug in me that is eating me alive. All possible answers but the first is the right answer!! yesterday, sunday, was 108!!! OH MY GOSH!!!! it was so hot! do this for me: get a blow dryer and put it on the most powerful setting and make sure it's really hot and then times that by like 10 and you got bakersfield on a bike! haha ya, so that sorta sucked but oh well...We got 19 lessons this week so that was great! we picked up three new investigators and two of them will probably be given to the YSA elders but it was fun teaching them! We taught both them off of a street contact! Our zone conference went well! i saw elder Platt (my good friend from high school) and lots of others and it's always a good reunion at zone conferences! so the week went by pretty fast! i had a bad day wednesday where i just wasn't a happy camper for some reason but i ended up getting over it and so i was better. We finally got an investigator out to church! it's been quite some time but we got one of our newer investigators to come! her name is Lizbeth Atondo and she's a super nice, always smiling hispanic lady!! i love her! she's so awesome!! at church she was answering all these questions and we had a lesson with her about the atonement and she rocked the house!! she is so intelligent and golden! She commited to baptism when she knows it's true and so prob. by next week we'll have her with a baptismal date! so exciting things are happening here in pamama! Our ward is getting nicer as the days go along so it's been good. They are feeding us to fairly regularly too. We have dinner at the EQ pres. house tonight so it'll be great! I think that's about it! i'm doing very good! today will be full of many things to do and of course as always we don't have enough time! All is well!! I love you so much! much love from the oven called bakersfield!!
love,elder robison

Mother's Day Phone Call 2009!

Happy Mother's Day!

Oh my goodness!! Mothers day was awesome! I absolutely loved talking to you all and it completely made my day!! Unlike my first time last year, i haven't really gotten trunky from the call but just really enjoyed the time i had to talk! i never have really been much of a talker in my life but i've certainly changed! I can't wait to talk all night and all day! I have quite a few stories that are so funny, sad, exciting, scary...etc...lets just hope that i don't suck at telling them!This past week wasn't the best numbers wise. we weren't able to meet our goals of 20 lessons. in fact, we got a little more than half that but so it goes to show that you can't always have amazing weeks. the scriptures promise that there will always be opposition in all things so that's proof of that in our week. We still had a great time though. Elder minnink (who lives in Draper, UT) is the other trainer elder in the apartment and we've really developed a great relationship! It's been really fun getting to know him more and more and of course my companion also has been so fun to be with! We had a few interesting encounters this week. One lady told us that their church believes that christ will resurrect everyone but our church believes that the husbands will only be resurrected and if they want to they can resurrect their wives but they don't have to. She also said that with baptisms for the dead we pray to dead people and they appear to us and then we can talk to them bu tthey can't talk to us....WHAT THE....??!!....and to cap it all off the subject of us being missionaries came up and she said, "if there were true christians out there then they would be trying to convert you." HAHAHAHA I busted up laughing inside and would have said, "well, where are they at?" or something like that haha but luckily romeril said something but she was just so oblivious it was funny!! I really have developed a strong testimony of the church, it's teachings, the book of mormon, and also (and surprisingly for those of you who know me well) of the power of church hymns. I don't know if i already tried this but our mission president, President Murri, encouraged us to sing hymns to investigators and members and everyone and i hate singing (and church hymns haven't never been something i like to sing) but i've completely changed! i love the hymns!! They're full of so much power!!!! i get goosebumps a lot when i sing some of those fabulous songs! Anywhos....zone conference is coming up and im pretty excited. it's always good to be able to see old friends and get pics with them and catch up a bit. So that's about it...i can't really think of anything else taht happened taht i should/could tell about....ha sorry...WEll i know th echurch is true! there is power in the hymns and i can promis ethat you can feel the spirit and feel peace and confidence, and build your testimony if you more often sing hymns. I love you all so much! paul, Good luck with your mission!!! i hope and pray for your health, safety, and success in bringing people to our savior Jesus Christ! Troy, Don't forget what you've learned thoughout your career in school and through your life, never stop working and don't ever lose sight of your dreams or do things that will prevent you from achieving them! Do you best and let heavenly father help you along your way! Read the scriptures always and pray morning and night! i lov eyou all so much!!
love,elder robison

Elder Robison with new zone leader,

Elder Rogers! They became friends in the MTC - We are expecting great things from these elders!

Week One of New Transfer...

So this morning is the infamous morning of when the President calls to tell you you're getting transferred or the Assistants call if you're staying the same and....drumroll.........!!!!!!!!!!!!!.............We didn't get a call!!! HOw crazy is that! haha but the other elders got a call from the assistants and they relayed the news that Romeril and i are staying together for another 6 weeks. (PS: elder ROmeril is spelled R-O-M-E-R-I-L) so i'm pretty excited about that! THis week has gone by fairly fast though! It's been week 6 and we (like last week) had a goal to teach 20 lessons and we made it! We ended up teaching 21 lessons! so we were pretty happy!!! We have another goal to teach 20 lessons this week so we'll see! Also! Also, we, finally picked up some new investigators! we actually got three this week! it was amazing!! WE are beginning to reap the rewards of our hard work! so our apt. is staying the same but our zone leaders are having a little change. Elder bobo is going home this wednesday : ( but his new replacement zone leader is....dun dun dun dunnnnn....Elder rogers!! the same i came out with!!! crazy huh? i'm pretty excited so he's actually my new zone leader! so this transfer will be rockin. Our investigators are ok right now, dennis is still doing pretty good and so we're going to try and set him with a baptismal date so he can become a member in god's kingdom on earth! I love this whole mission thing! I will admit that sometimes it down-right sucks....pardon my french...but it's just got some days where it's not as joyous but i know it's how we can learn and grow! there are miracles today and i'm so happy to be apart of it! Oh, i forgot to mention one assistant is going home (elder hansen who was my District leader in newbury park) and so elder frank is the new AP. E. frank lived with us for a few weeks in East bakes. So ya, that's life so far...i'm not sure what is happening with batemon, winspear, ika, and a few others but i'm finding out later today..I love you all so much! enjoy the wonderful weather you are having wherever you are because pretty soon i won't be enjoying my weather hahaha all is well though! Hakuna Matata!! Much love from the dusty, dirty, polluted, miracle-filled city of bakersfield!!
love,elder robison