Faith, Desire & Action!

So i apologize first off for not getting the emails to everyone. SOmetimes i just forget to send it to all my contacts...
I'm pretty excited about general conference! i love listening to the general authorities and seeing first hand how modern revelation works and blesses us! I will probably be just viewing it at the stake center so itll be exciting! I love the fact that we have the knowledge of a prophet on the earth! how truly blessed are we for this restored gospel! i have been able to learn so much since i've been out here and i'm grateful for all the experiences i've gone through. I look forward to hear the talks from conference and i know there will of course be a missionary talk and everything else they will talk about will be so amazing! it's crazy to think that a year ago i was with elder bobo and we were watching conference in teh east bakes stake center. i remember walking out and there were SO MANY BIG WHITE CLOUDS!! i was just so used to seeing haze and not brilliant white clouds! i took a few pictures of them. It made me feel a little closer to heaven. I love our earth. how beautiful it is, even in bakersfield! i am hoping that it will be cooling down this week but i dont have the slightest clue. I usually ask most people i see and i've gotten so many different answers! I've heard this week it's supposed to get down to the 80's...i've heard it's spiking back up to 100+...i dunno...so now i just ask, not to get the weather forcast because they don't know it anyway, but i just ask to see how many different answers i can get! it's sorta funny...
The month of september has slowly dwindled down and now on thursday it will be octocber! i'm so happy! i love halloween!! like it's top 2 favorite holidays! Unfortunately i can't go to any haunted houses while i'm on my mission but i do get to be a missionary and preach the gospel and that's better!!
This week we were able to finally get 20 lessons! we tried so hard to get it and now all of our work, faith, and desire paid off so we'll see how this week goes! I was thinking about how powerful faith, desire, and action are. If you combine those three then there will be no stopping you! But we need to have all three! We can't just have 2 of the 3! they all are crucial! We need to desire (us for example) to teach 20 lessons, we need to have faith that we can get 20, and then we need to work our tails off to achieve that and this past week is evidence of those three being put into action.
Our recent convert Andres Herrera is the man! he's gone through a rough past week or so but we went over and talked with him and he's living testimony that if you live the gospel it doesn't matter what happens to you, you can have happiness! We saw a little movie about zions camp and i almost teared up! just like they did, we too go through hard times and we can come out of it having proved ourselves! They went through so much and had many hard trials but it's neat to see that AFTER the events of zions camp then the quorum of the twelve was called and presidencies of the 70 were established and 9 of the 12 were in zions camp. We each go through our own zions camp but we need to endure! we dont always know the reasons why God puts us through different things but the end result always is helpful to us!! I love this gospel so much! i have gained so much and developed my testimony hard core!! The church is true, we do have a modern prophet that speaks for God!! i Love you all so much. thanks so much for your prayers and love!!

Love,
elder robison

Zone Conference tomorrow!!

Hey everyone! i mush give you the update. I am getting along with elder miller really well. I do like him a lot now! we've gotten a good relationship now and we do laugh a lot! we have been working really hard to get new investigators and so we have been busy! we've seen a little success but we're still always working hard and using every oppurtunity to talk to people. We almost got 20 lessons this weeek but our investigators cancelled on sunday so we were pretty bummed about that. I do love the mission and i have learned so much. i have gotten a better perspective on life and i am so grateful for everything that has bappened so far. I'm grateful for all the bad things that have happened and also for the awesome things that have happened! I feel that i have grown in so many ways and this opportunity has given me so much life experience! I am loving the ward/branch that we cover and we have made many friends that are gung-ho for missionary work.
We get to have zone conference tomorrow and i'm so stoked! that's when we get our missionary batteries recharged up so we're going to rock the socks off our mission! It's always exciting to hear what president murri has to say because it has come directly from our heavenly father. I know he's an inspired man and i support him in all his decisions!
I heard it's supposed to be like 108 this wednesday so im not looking forward to that but hopefully soon enough it'll cool down but who knows when that'll be...maybe never...haha The church is true and i love it! i love our heavenly father and his gospel and plan for all of us.
i also want you to know that i've been getting along really well with the elders in our apartment. we've been able to develop a strong relationship. so it's all good here on the home front. I cant' really think of anything else to say, sorry that this was a boring email. I am feeling better though. I've been sick all this past week. i had a cold and my sinus' weren't feeling too well but i'm good now! i love youall so much and will contine to pray for you all!!

love, the hot and sweaty,
elder robison

A Quick Note from Tracy...

On Saturday, I had some surprise visitors... Bro. and Sister Reyes from the Panama Ward in Bakersfield! They have been great to Ty and the other missionaries and Ty has really loved having them as "family" there in Bakersfield! They told me that Ty and a previous companion, Elder Winspear, were the missionaries that helped turn things around in their ward recently! Previously, the missionaries didn't work very hard and hadn't left a very favorable impression. But Ty and Elder Winspear worked hard to make a difference and from what the Reyes' said, the ward is now bigger and stronger, much in part because of the efforts of these two great missionaries! I am so grateful to families like the Reyes' that look out for missionaries like Ty and help them to feel welcome in their homes and in their ward! I also really appreciated them stopping by and visiting with me and sharing some great experiences with Ty! It was so fun to hear their perspective of the work Tyler is doing!

What's Up?!

What is up my familia? SO this week has gone by pretty slow but the month of september has gone by super fast!! It's pretty much already half over!! So i got to go down to beautiful Ventura on Thrusday night and stay there till about 3-4ish friday and i loved it! it was like 70 degrees and windy and it looked like it was supposed to rain but i never found out if if did because i had to travel back to bakes but it's all good. Today it's actually nice! its over cast and sorta breezy so i love it! Toobad its on the day I"M NOT OUTSIDE! haha but esta bien! I got to see Elder England though on friday and that was fun! we really had a great transfer together! I miss him like crazy! i am really enjoying my time as zone leader, it's been a great leadership experience thing for me, i know how to help others be better so ya, that's pretty good. I know this email is short but today is a rushed day and i ya, i am doing good though. i am getting along ok with elder miller fyi. I love you all so much and truly love missionary work, even though it's hard! the church is true!!

love from bakes

elder robison

Change is in the Air...

Change has certainly come and plopped itself on my doorstep! I have some very sad news: i am no longer with elder england!! : ( : ( : ( I am really bummed about that! We became BEST FRIENDS!!!! We worked hard, laughed harder, and developed a strong friendship! We got our monday morning transfer call from President Murri and he said that Elder England was being transferred to santa barbara to keep being a senior zone leader for a younger missionary who is a zone leader as well but is really young. So i'm super bummed to see him go but i know it's what god wanted. I trust him and president Murri and i know that they control and bless this mission. my new comp. is a short (i mean really short) curly, red-headed guy from idaho falls, ID. he is elder Miller and he's not too bad. We haven't hit it off like elder england and i did or even Winspear but you can't win them all, right? he's a hard worker and he is really young. He's only been out like 10 months and now he's a zone leader, so that's good on his part. But, despite my sadness for my boy E. england leaving, i have been bumped up to Senior zone leader so like all the responsibility is in my hands. It will be a little more stress but it will give me a lot of experience with leadership and how to deal with people. We got half of our district moved out and so 4 new elders came in, one is a greenie from Alpine, UT and knows you grandpa Robison!! he is elder barrus!! i guess he's in your ward and of all places he came not only into my zone but also my district!! hahah cool, huh? Also, real quick, i met Jene beal from Manti and so he said he knows you Mark and Mary!! ahaha even smaller of a world! he said he knows you too kris! he married a member up here (debbie) and we stopped by and met them (i hadn't met them before and decided to stop by just to see if they were active or not etc...) so that's pretty cool and teh coolest part is that Sis. Russell from College heights in East bakes was a key role in the conversion of debbie so that was cool!!!
i also remembered another sad thing: elder winspear and minnick got released as zone leaders... so now i won't see them when we have a big meeting with all the zone leaders. Elder winspear will be white-wash training in morro bay and elder minnick will be white-wash training in delano.....BUT delano is in our zone!!! BOOYA!!! so i get to talk to him each night because he's the district leader up there so he reports to me each night to tell me that everyone is in safe etc...So that's pretty sweet! Winspear and minnick and england only have 12 weeks left! i will be so sad when they all go home but winspear and minnick will be living together in provo so that's sweet! and england will probably be going to U of U so not too far away!
We are still trying to find more people to teach because all of our investigators we baptized so we're on the hunt.
I get to go down to ventura tomorrow night for a sleep over in the mission home so we can be there in the morning for ZLC (zone leader council) so i'm pumped for that because we're car pooling with elder rogers (from camarillo) and elder wood (who came out with me) so that'll be a party!
I am constantly learning a lot and appreciate the time i have to serve in this mission. It has been so hard, it's ridicilous sometimes, but i know that God supports us in all that we do. he sent his son Jesus christ to be OUR savior, to be MY savior! i am humbled by that and am so grateful for teh atonement of Christ. I only have 18 weeks left (who's counting though, right? ha : ) )to fulfil my purpose so i have to really get moving! I know i was sent to cali for a reason, i believe that some of my comps. are that reason, even teh bad ones (not naming any names ha ) but i feel like this was the best choice i've ever made. i know this church is true and i love it! i love reading teh scriptures! i feel so much peace when i read because the pages are jam-packed with power!!! I feel i have developed a stronger love for people, regardless of who they are and i know and recognize taht i still have a long way to be perfect but i'll work on it.
i appreciate all of you who have made my mission come to pass. i am deeply grateful for all the prayers that have been shot up my way, they have comforted me when i go through rough times. YOu all are the best, i love you all so much and hope that your week goes well! I wish you all well, till next week.
Much love from the beautiful city of bakersfield!!!

love
elder robison

ps: i think it is beginning to cool down. the hottest yesterday ( i think) was 93-ish so we'll see. maybe in a month or two we'll see if bakersfield actually cools down. hopefully it will happen sooner than later!! but it's all good. and to finish off here's a funny thing president murri said " Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting a tomato in a fruit salad" haha Love you all lots!!