Ch-ch-ch-changes!

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April 5, 2016
Hello all of you beautiful people who I love with all of my heart!

Well this week I learned (once again) a little bit about how to adjust to change!

Everything about this week has included change!
1. I got kicked out of the boonies and am now in the city surrounded by other missionaries all day every day!
2. I am serving in a huuuuuge ward, which makes it super hard to get to know the members
3. I have a new companion who is wayyy different than my last companions. She's awesome, and I love her tons! She's just way more relaxed and laid back, and it's taking some getting used to. 
4. Sister Angilau is also going home at the end of this transfer, which means I have to figure out the whole area in only 6 weeks (Ahhhh no pressure!!!)
5. I am a sister training leader, and I am going on my first exchange tonight!

{Adventures in Lakewood with Sister Angilau (pronounced un-gee-lou(d)}



I could go on, but I feel like I should channel the teachings of President Monson, when he said, "Those who live only for themselves eventually shrivel up and … lose their lives, while those who lose themselves in service to others grow and flourish--and in effect save their lives." I am going to do my best to lose myself in the service of those around me.

So last week before I left the blessed land of Drayton Valley, we had an amaaaaazing lesson with Tyson! He is so set for baptism. We talked to him about prophets, and he basically bore his testimony to us of the truthfulness of the gospel. His main concern was that he wouldn't be able to stay strong in his crazy work environment, but I just received word from the sisters serving there that he is rock solid! He hasn't even taken a sip of coffee for a whole week! Woot woot!



My favourite part of this week was Conference. Rebekah Newman said that General Conference is like Disney land for missionaries, and she could not have been more accurate! It was so nice to just sit and relax and listen to the counsel of the prophet and his apostles. I love this church!! It's so true. ❤️❤️❤️

Thank you for all of your love and support. I miss you all!

Xoxoxoxo.

Sister Robinson


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April 12, 2016
My dear favourite Americans and Canadians,
{This is Adolf. I love this man. We call him Grandpa. There was an old lady who has dementia and kept saying, "Ice cream! Ice cream! We all scream for ice cream!" :') S'cute.}

Hello again! So first off, I would like to say GOD IS GOOOOOOD! This week has been nuts! But holy miracles. Miracles left and right. :) it is awesome.

So for some reason, we almost had a lot of crazy bible-bashing sessions this week! Heavenly Father is testing my faith hardcore. say almost, because they weren't quite bible bashing. Borderline. Haha. So for those of you who don't know, a bible-bash is when people of other faiths just want to argue about religion. They often use verses of scripture from the bible and twist the meaning of what it's actually saying, and then they'll take a verse from the Book of Mormon and say they contradict each other.

That's just one example of how it's done. But last week, we were visiting with a super solid investigator of ours named Esther, and her cousin, Felix walked into her house. He was super nice at first, but when we introduced ourselves as sisters, he turned to Esther and said "MORMONS?! I thought you were going to the Anglican Church!" She responded by saying, "well I have changed what I believe in now. I believe the Mormon church is true!" It was super awesome, because no matter what he said, she stood her ground. I was so proud. He brought up a ton of silly nonsense about Joseph Smith and how he thinks we worship him and what not, but we were able to clarify what we really do believe, and at the end of it, we bore our testimonies. I was on the verge of tears when Sister Angilau was bearing her testimony to him of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and latter-day prophets. It was really awesome, and despite the contention we felt at the beginning, the spirit was really strong when we left. He told us Jesus loves us, and that he hopes we bring a lot of people to Jesus while we are on our mission. I love Jesus! He brings people together. After we left, we put a copy of the Book of Mormon on the hood of his car, because he wouldn't take one when we offered it to him. Hehe. :)wonder what happened...

{This is us leaving a Book of Mormon on the hood of Felix's car}

Also! This week was the first (but definitely not last) time that I got to use my Mandarin Chinese skills! So we were trying to find people to teach at the bus station with a bunch of other sisters in our zone, and this huge group of Chinese people came off of a bus! We said, "knee how!" (Hello) and their faces lit up! These two Chinese men came to talk to sister Angilau and I, and in their broken English we had a little chat. I told them I know a little Mandarin Chinese! I said, "Whoa sure ch+juan gee+ow sure" (we are missionaries) and they were like "Ooooh! You are priests?" Hahaha. It was awesome though. We got their information, and they were very excited to learn more. One of them said to me, "Jesus loves you!" And I said "thank you! He loves you too!" And then he turned to the three of us and said, "Heavenly Father loves all of us!" It was the coolest experience. :) I love people who love Jesus.

We met quite a few other people that night, and I was very proud of how bold we all were as we testified to random strangers at a bus station about Jesus Christ. :) we found a lot of new people to teach! It was AMAZING. God is so good.

Anyway, I hope you all have a fantastical week! I love and miss you all!

Xoxoxoxo, peace and blessings. :))

Sister Robinson

{This is what I look like when I'm emailing all of ya'll :) }

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An Easter #Hallelujah

10:06 PM Unknown 1 Comments

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: Sorry readers! I wish I had a better excuse for not posting Sister Robinson's emails and letters more consistently, but I have just been extremely busy! Hopefully you don't mind this big catch up post, but trust me, it's full of some of Abbie's incredible experiences she has been having, and you'll want to read the entire thing. So grab some popcorn and settle in, because you'll be here for a while! I'll try to update her blog more frequently for you guys in the future. Thanks for being patient with me in the mean time. Samantha

Freaking Satan!

Hello hello to my favourite people in the whole wide world!

Sooo wow. This week was insane. I don't even know where to begin. I don't think I have ever felt this much heartache in the past 9 months, except for maybe Christmas day after skyping my family. I am going to disclose why being a missionary is THE HARDEST CALLING EVER in the following paragraphs. I don't mean for this to be depressing, but this is real life. It's full of ups and downs, in case you didn't know!

{The Sisters}
Okay so let's start off with Tyson. Those of you who have been following my emails and blog know that Tyson is absolutely golden. He's amazing. Like more than amazing. All missionaries dream about having an investigator like him, right? Well that's what I thought. However, this week it was like someone flipped a switch. Someone flipped a switch that is not supposed to be flipped!! So for work, Tyson has 7 days off and then 7 days on. That means we are able to see him for 7 days straight when he has work off, and then we are literally fighting against Satan for 7 days straight when he goes back to work! It is so hard and discouraging ugh. So we had amazing lessons with him last week, and he told us that he is no longer tempted to do anything contrary to the church's teaching. It was a miracle and a half! 

...And then he was thrown back into Babylon, and we didn't hear from him much... When we finally got ahold of him, he basically said this: "I don't know if I can do this anymore. I'm backing out of the baptism. I know I need the church, but whenever I go to work I just fall back into my old habits again. I feel like I am slapping Jesus in the face and dirtying the church with my sins. I don't want to waste your time. I'm sorry." My heart felt like it was ripped out of my chest!! I was so heart broken by this. However, I fasted for him on Sunday, and I still have hope that he will come back. We are trying to set up an appointment to see him tomorrow, so stay tuned to hear how that goes!

{The cutest Filipino family in the whole wide world!}
Something interesting was what happened right after we first heard that Tyson was falling away. We went to visit a returning less active member in the branch, and when her daughter, Amelia, opened the door, one of the first things she said to me was, "My teacher died." It took me a second to process it, but once I realized what she said, I had to do my best to forget about my own worries and turn around and comfort this young girl who's faith has been shaken, because a dear friend of hers lost her life. I have never lost someone close to me, and I am very blessed because of that, so it was hard for me to put myself in her shoes. However, while we were talking with her and her mom, I prayed for help so that they would feel comfort from the words we said. We talked to them about the plan of salvation, and how sometimes God's purposes are greater than ours. 

As a result, my love for the Saviour grew immensely. He is the ultimate example of someone who is always turning outward in the service of those around Him. Despite all of the challenges and heartache that He must have felt throughout his life, he pressed forward day by day with unshaken faith in God's purposes for His children. I hope to one day obtain a greater understanding, but for now, I will stick to what I know. I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father, and I know that he has a plan for all of us. Although I do not know what His specific plan is for me and for those that I teach, I do know that if I strive to rely on Him through it all, everything will happen how it is supposed to happen.

{This is Teresa! She's the lady we met and rescued in the rollover accident! :) }

Okay that's enough of the sad stuff. If I put all of that aside, I can see clearly the Lord's hand in my life this past week! We saw so many miracles! We met a lot of people who have truly been prepared to accept the restored gospel. Satan is working really hard on them though, because we have not been able to meet with any of them yet. Appointments have been falling through left and right, and it has been really hard, but there are brighter days ahead! I know there are. Stay tuned for next week. We have at least 7 amaaaaazing potential investigators and each one of them has a story. I'll give a brief overview of some of them:

Dale: I was filling up our car at the gas station, when I noticed a man watching me. (Not in a creepy way, I promise) So I started talking to him. Mostly small talk, and then went inside to pay and on our way out, I noticed him kinda looking at us still. He asked us, "What are you guys all about?" Long story short, we pulled into another parking lot, and talked to him briefly about the restoration of the gospel, gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon, and set up an appointment with him. The appointment fell through due to a family emergency (freaking Satan!!), but it was still an amazing experience! It's crazy how the Lord will ensure that His missionaries are in the right place at the right time. We rescheduled and will be seeing him next Monday.

Texas: See last email... We haven't been able to meet with him, because of all the crazy shenanigans Satan is pulling, but he is still genuinely interested, and we are going to be seeing him soon!

Kennan: On Sunday, a man walked into the chapel who I had never seen before! He looked a little rough- not the typical Mormon look. So we approached him after sacrament meeting, and he told us we was "led" to the church building. (WHAAAAAAT?!) Yeah, so we talked to him briefly, and then Kelvin (amazing member missionary Kelvin) worked his magic and Kennan stayed for all three hours of church! And now we are going to be teaching him with Kelvin tonight, and it is going to be the BOMB.COM! 

Rick: We were going through our former investigators in our area book, and we came across one named Amanda. She seemed promising, so we went and knocked on her door. A round and shirtless man ("With a Santa Claus belly" -Sister Neal) named Rick answered the door, and told us that Amanda was in jail for fraud.... #COOL. But! We asked him if he was interested in learning about the gospel, and he told us that his brother in law is a member, and that he wants to be baptized. As you can imagine, we are absolutely thrilled to begin teaching him.

{At the branch tobogganing party! This is an old picture but I love it!}
Overall, there were so many ups and downs this week. It was so draining. Going from happy to sad to ecstatic to depressed is EXHAUSTING. However, we made it! It is a brand new week, and all is well. All is well. :) We are still alive, and miracles are still happening! 

I know that Heavenly Father is watching over us, and I am learning to be grateful for these trials, because they really do make me stronger. I have been reciting Ether 12:27 nonstop in my head this week... It is a very true verse! Thank you for all of your love and support! I know that I wouldn't be able to do any of this without you.

27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

Xoxoxo

Sista Robinson

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Good evening everyone!!

First things first, Sister Keith had a dream that I gave Katy Perry a Book of Mormon this week... So that was pretty cool! 

Things really turned around this week!! If you couldn't tell... Last week was.. rough. BUT! (if you buy 2 completos, it is only 2 dollars ;)) This week we saw an unbelievable number of miracles!! I owe it all to the Lord! He's got our backs for sure.

{Group comp study turned into group cuddle sesh... Don't ask. It's normal. ;) }
So we had exchanges this week, and Sister McKeon joined Sister Keith and I in Drayton Valley! We had an awesome day. Sister McKeon is so bold! She has absolutely no fear! We talked to so many people, and gave out a lot of Book of Mormons. She made it all look so easy! I am definitely going to try to be better at talking to everyone... I chicken out way too easily. But when you really think about it, all of these people are sons and daughters of Heavenly Father, and they NEED the gospel!! Everyone needs it!! 

The next day, at the gas station (so many miracles happen at the gas station- I love it), Sister Keith approached this man and basically said "HI! How are you? We're missionaries, and we want to give you this book-" Before she could continue, he was like "Oh! I already have a Book of Mormon, and I am trying to get through it right now... I don't know a whole lot about it though. I would love to meet with you girls sometime to learn more." We stood there dumbfounded!! Uhhh... Is this always what happens when you approach random strangers at the gas station and tell them about the Book of Mormon?! It was AWESOME.

Oh and a quick update on Tyson!! All is well!! He scared us there for a little while, but i think everything is going to be just fine. He expressed to us that he was kind of testing his limits this last week to see what would happen if he didn't continuously read his scriptures and what not. Guys...please don't do this. A lot of bad things happened to him in 1 short week. We shared Alma 7:11-13 with him and talked about how we have to continually use Christ and His Atonement to find strength. 


11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.
 12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

 13 Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me.
This week was awesome!! As Sister Neal would say, "Freaking Satan is going dowwwwwn. To the ground."

Hahaha. I love this gospel!! It is so true!! Miracles DO happen!! Pray for them :) Prayer works. Who knew, right? 

Ahhhh I love it. Well I hope you all have a great week!! 


{Sister Cressman and her daughter}

XOXOXOXOXO

Sister Robinson


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His Grace is Sufficient

I have so many wonderful things to tell you all about this week! First off, I would like to pour out my utmost thanks to my wonderful, loving family! Thank you for all of the kind words which you said about me in sacrament meeting! You made me sound like a super star... Or a super missionary star! ;) Hahaha... Lame joke, I know. But seriously. Sometimes as a missionary, I get really discouraged, because I feel like there is always something more I could be doing to better put all of my time and efforts into serving the lord. However, you all made me feel really good about the work I am doing. So thank you. :) I love you all.

This week was awesome! Seriously. With Easter approaching, we have been sharing the #hallelujah mormon message with as many people as we can. As a result, I have been getting very excited for Easter, and my
understanding of the atonement has grown immensely. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have as a missionary to share the message of the atonement. It changes lives! It is AWESOME!

We talked to Tyson a lot about the atonement this week, and how he can rely on it in every aspect of His life. I think so often people don't realize that they can rely on Jesus Christ in literally every aspect of their lives. He suffered in the garden of Gethsemane and on the cross so that he could be our comforter, healer, advocate, and friend. In His own words, he said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13) Christ is our exemplar, right? That means He is the ultimate example for each of us. The love that He showed to us by sacrificing His life is incomprehensible and incomparable. And in doing so, he fulfilled the first and second greatest commandments: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." (Matthew 22:37-39) By following the will of His Father, He showed His love for Him and for each of us. The atonement is so amazing, am I right? Okay... That's the end of my scripture study lesson. ;)

{A beautiful day for the temple}
Tonight we had a really interesting lesson with two new investigators of ours named Brett and Ben. They are both very devout Christians, and they tended to pick apart everything we said. It was well... Interesting. It turned into a debate on grace verses works, and man oh man. It was tough to help them understand that grace is not only what saves us, but even more so it is what changes us. I wanted them both to just shut up, sit down, and listen to Brad Wilcox's talk, "His Grace is Sufficient!" (P.S. If any of you have not heard/read this talk, stop what you are doing and look it up! It is the BOM.com) Hahaha, but unfortunately it's not that simple. We did have a really good conversation with them though, and they had a lot of really really great questions. Sometimes however, it is nice to teach someone without a religious background, because they are way more open. Oh well. It was still a nice and happy visit, and they want to meet with us again. So that's good. :)

Overall, this week was fantastic! Heavenly Father has been leading and guiding us to the places that we need to be. The other day, we decided to go to the park to try to find new people to teach, and we met this AMAZING family who was super nice and super open to having us come over to teach them! I am excited to see what happens with them. But that was a huge testimony builder for me that the Lord really does ensure that His missionaries will find those whom He has prepared. He is on our side, no doubt. :)

Well I love you all! Thank you for everything!!! I hope you have a great week, and take time to truly ponder on all that Christ has done for us during this Easter season.

Jesus loves you!! We have this sign in our car that says "Jesus loves you!" and we show it to people while we're driving all the time.

It's cool.

Okay, bye for real. :)))

Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Sista Robinson



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Better Than a #Hallelujah

Hellooooo people of America :)

{Always time for some fun}
Well, the inevitable has happened. Yesterday, we received a dreaded phone call from President Manion. I answered, reluctantly, "Hello, President Manion."

"Hello, Sister Robinson! Will you serve as a Sister Training Leader with Sister Angilau in the Lakewood area?"

My heart sank. :( I don't want to leave Drayton Valley!! I love it here. Isn't it crazy how attached we humans get to each other? Man, I am going to miss the people of Drayton Valley. It's strange to think that just 5 months ago I didn't even know this place existed, and now I never want to leave. 

It'll be good though! I know bright days are ahead. I am also very humbled that the Lord has entrusted me with this calling. Being a Sister Training Leader means I will go on exchanges weekly, lots of meetings, I will train big groups of missionaries often, and I will have to be exactly obedient! I got this!! ...I think ;) I am so excited and nervous and happy and anxious all at once!

On a happier note, Easter and the General Women's Broadcast was this week! What a blessing to have both of those wonderful spiritual days side by side. I really loved that the main theme of the broadcast was love and service. It really hit home. In our world today, we definitely need more people who are willing to show their love to those around them by doing good deeds and acts of kindness.

Inline image 1

I loved sharing the message of the atonement with so many people this time of year. It always invites the spirit and inspires people to change. I love Jesus, and I love all that He has done for us!!

Inline image 2

Have a great week! :)

Sista Robinson

P.S. Watch the #Hallelujah video!! It's so awesome!!

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