Happy Thanksgiving! (and only 50 days left!)

Here i sit, in beehive book in downtown bakersfield, once again writing the weekly email! It has gone by somewhat fast this past week. We were blessed to be able to get our 20 lessons again! It was almost gonna not happen because we had 3 lessons we had set up fall through, all with 4 hours of the designated time, but luckily we were able to stop by one of the less-active members and teach them a little about gratitude, so that was at like 7:30 p.m. but we got it. We had exchanges with one of the district leaders this past friday and that went pretty well. we were able to teach about 5 lessons and he was a spanish elder so he talked to a few of the spanish folk, so all went well. Saturday was a first for me, it was my first baptismal interview. the same elder who i exchanged with friday and me went up to delano to do like 5ish interviews. I only had two but they spoke english but the rest the other elder did because they were spanish. It was a little nerve racking though, just the thought that i had to interview someone. Usually the district leader interviews and/or the junior zone leader but i went to do it and so, again, i was pretty nervous. the funny thing is that i'm sure i was more nervous than the two people i interviewed. hahaha and what's even better about this is that they were both around 11 years old!! They did so awesome! I could have done the interview in like 4 mintues they were that prepared and good but i just made it a good length but that was a great experience! it helped me to reflect on my own beliefs. Do i believe god loves us? that Pres. monson is the prophet today? that joseph smith is a prophet of god and that he translated the book of mormon. I do know all those things and i am so grateful for that knowledge which keeps me happy and on the straight and narrow. The gospel is truly amazing! i am thankful, especially in this holiday season, for the church! it helps bad men become good and good men to become better.
The weather has been awesome! it is cold! not utah cold but once you've been in california long enough you become somewhat of a wimp...i think that 60 degrees is cold now...but hey, it's not 100!!! BOOYA!! I hope that you all have such a great thanksgiving day! i will miss playing in the turkey bowl but hey, there's always next year, right? : ) All is well in this part of the vineyard, so no worries!
before i forget, transfers are this week...sort of...we get our transfer call in one week exactly so i'll know then if i stay or go. I think i will stay but elder miller will go Assistant to the PResident. i do wish i could spend my last transfer in camarillo but ill do whatever heavenly father wants me to do!
I love you all so much! i am so grateful for this experience that i've had. it's helped me to shape, mold, and form my life into what heavenly father wants me to be! Have a wonderful week!

love,
elder robison

A Busy Week...

So this week was pretty packed! I can't believe it! Starting off on monday we went to work at 1 (normally we go to work at 6 but since we were going to the temple we were told to go to work at 1) but we were able to teach a lesson then, so we started off the week pretty good! We then traveled that night up to Delano, like 40+ minutes north of bakersfield, because we were blitzing the area (blitz is where we go and double work their area and so like no one is in our area) but it was so much fun! I got to go with the spanish elders who are elder minnick and his trainee elder sessions. It was fun doing a little spanish work! That city is such a unique place! it is nick-named "crow-town" due to the excessive amount of crows! i literally saw thousands!!! haha the side walks are painted "white" from the crows and their waste...ha they all sit on the wires and just hang out! After our day up there we went back to bakersfield and taught 3 lessons! Wednesday we had our district meeting and we had a normal day that day but thursday we had the assistants come to our zone and one of the AP's and me went to Oildale to work with one of the problematic companionships and then elder miller and the other AP stayed in our area. It got pretty chilly!! i loved it!! it also rained a little too! the next day though was the best!! WE got to go to the Los Angeles Temple! BOOYA!!!
I loved it there! i've heard a lot about it but until you actually experience it you just can't completely understand it and realize how awesome it is!! It's pretty big! I took a ton of pics, and a lot of the angel moroni! one cool thing about the angel is that he is holding some plates and then the horn with only one hand...i heard most of the statues are holding the horn with both hands...so just a fun little fact. It was such a fun session! i haven't been in almost 2 years! i never went since i've been out till friday! I love the atmosphere there! it really is a sanctuary! it was way cool too because it's in the middle of LA but once you get on the temple grounds it literally quiets down. you can't hear the sounds of LA at all! Truly amazing! After our session we were walking around, towards the cafeteria, and we had a worker stop us and talk to us. He asked where i'm from "orem", he responded" i've heard of there, what part?" i said the north east corner and he asked "do you know the westovers?" haha His name is Fred Horton and i guess he was your bishop? grandma and grandpa? he knew like so much about our family! he knew about travis, about how our yard's don't have a fence seperating our backyards, etc... so that was such a cool experience meeting someone there that somehow knew me! i've heard of stories like that but i never thought it would happen to me!
So elder minnick, winspear, england and many others will be flying home in like 17 days i believe! that's so crazy!! But i've still got to focus and i will! anywhos...after the trip to the temple (we left at 5) and we got home around 2ish..but we went on yet again another exchange, so now i've only got one more exchange and i'll be done for this transfer. The transfer ends on sunday the 29th. to finish it all off, we had stake conference and it was great! pres. murri spoke and he read this poem that was a dad and son at a camp fire and he pulled out a coal and watched it being red to it dying...and then he scooted it back into the fire and it became red and hot again and pres. related that to those who have fallen away, even though they may not be burning as bright, they can always get back to their original hot spot! i sorta explained that bad but oh well, hopefully you get the picture!! WEll, that's about it for this week! i hope you enjoyed the email! I love youall so much! keep reading the scriptures, praying often, choosing the right, and focusing on our heavenly father and his son jesus christ.

love,
elder robison

Another Week Come and Gone!

So this week has been an interesting one...We were able to pick up two new investigators this week! we tracted into one and she is nice and we're going to be going back this week. We also picked up this guy named Chris!! Last week we were walking late at night and saw two guys so we went up to them and began to talk to them. They said we could stop by (they lived in our stake but not in our ward so we got their info. so we can send the other elders to them) but we asked if they knew anyone in the area that we could go talk to and they said their friend Chris. So we knocked on their door and he said to come back this week so we did and he's a cool guy! he hasn't been baptized yet and his mom in non-practicing catholic and his dad is non-practicing jewish but he's going to be married in march. We were able to give him a copy of the book of mormon and that was great!! he said he was honestly interested in learning more so i'm pretty excited about that!! It all happened because we decided to stay in that area and work it, so many blessings are happening here. I have been pretty exhausted the past few days! i'm not trunky but it's been so hard to go out but oh well, you have to keep on enduring! that's one of the principles of the gospel: endure to the end! We get to have stake conference this week so that's exciting! we were also able to attend a performance of "savior of the world" that our stake put on and that was really fun! we do have a very talented stake! So we were able to get some non-members to the play and so hopefully we'll see some miracles happen because of them! I do love being a missionary and i will continue to work hard and waste and wear out my life to bring forth the gospel to the people of California! i love you all so much! Pray always, have faith, and be happy! Love you all!!

love
elder robison

Hey! Hey! Hey!

SO our halloween wasn't too bad! we were able to decorate our apartment with the 'cobweb' stuff and despite my fear, we did put up fake spiders. We had to go in early for halloween, at 7:30, but we were supposed to have a devotional on the spirit (which we did) and then we went to bed! i got like 9 hours of sleep!! i felt like a champ!! i have been enjoying our morning runs too! and in my past i've HATED running but i've grown to like it...for the most part! i think it's just really fun to run in like 40-50ish degree weather! haha i love the cold! it's staying around 70 here so i don't sweat too much anymore. i am still getting along pretty well with my companion so that's great! it is week 3 of our transfer and even though we didn't quite get our 20 lessons we still are working really hard. our investigator pool is a little low but we're working to improve it! we had our zone conference this past week and it was good! i am a little sad though because our zone conference was split up so i was not able to see elder minnick give his farewell testimony but oh well. everything happens for a reason. i have truly loved being able to get to know all of the different missionaries. i am truly grateful for the blessings that our loving heavenly father gives us! It is aweesome to be able to preach the gospel! i have run out of time but i want you all to know that i love you so much!! sorry this is so short! At least im busy right? ahah love ya!

love
elder robison