Week 70 - The Break

 

Hey everyone!

Well, I'm home! I'm sure most of you already knew that, and if not, surprise! The tragedy occurred Saturday. We had gone out to the square that morning to contact, and we found someone who wanted to come to our basketball activity later in the afternoon! We had a big group of members and non-members there, it was loads of fun. I played hard! Well, too hard it turns out. I went up for a layup, made the shot (important detail), took some contact on the way down, landed on a bad angle, and CRACK! There goes my leg! The rehab time is 6-8 weeks, so they sent me home to heal. This will be my last update for a while.

Aside from that, we had a super successful week. We gave more church tours this week alone than the entire last transfer. We found a new investigator named Brian, he's already read through mid-Alma in the Book of Mormon! That's what I call solid!

I bid you all farewell for a time. I promise I will be back here in Seattle soon to finish my mission, there's no place I'd rather be. Thank you everyone for your support and prayers for my leg, it's been a pretty smooth process with no issues. All is well, all is well!

Week 69

Hello!

I'm sticking around for another transfer! My companion's getting the boot, so I'll get my new companion tomorrow. I already have a pretty good idea who it's going to be!

This week was pretty good. I went on an exchange with my district leader, Elder Barrick. We were in the same room at the MTC long ago! We played some basketball with people, gave a few church tours, and talked to everyone we saw about the gospel. It was fun!

Nothing really out of the box happened this week, so I'll just share with you some of my insights from my studies... Actually that's not true, we stopped a mugging on Saturday! But that's a story for another day :)

You know, a lot of the time I've thought of the redeeming power of the Atonement and the enabling power as two separate ideas. But really, they are complementary. Through redemption, our sins are washed away, but that's not enough. Through the enabling power, we are able to accomplish good works that we otherwise wouldn't be able to accomplish on our own. Elder Bednar gave a really good talk about this. Here's a quote from it:

"As you and I come to understand and employ the enabling power of the Atonement in our personal lives, we will pray and seek for strength to change our circumstances, rather than praying for our circumstances to be changed. We will become agents who 'act' rather than objects that are 'acted upon'."

Love you all!
Elder Robb

 The District

 The Fountain

 Red Square

Husky Statue

Week 68

Helloooo Everyone!!

What a great week! Let me start with the less important, but still noteworthy events...

We got pizza THREE nights this week! This ward knows how to make me happy! We truly did fit the stereotype of missionaries having bottomless stomachs, the members were impressed! Ward trust: earned.

This week our district leader asked each companionship to focus on a certain topic from a list of four that Elder Echo Hawk emphasized in his mission tour. The list included faith, unity, obedience, and expecting miracles. My companion and I were given the latter. As we were expecting miracles, the heavens were opened (literally, we got SOAKED!!) but the real miracle was later Saturday night, when out of the blue, an old investigator called us and told us that he and his girlfriend want to start meeting with us! Woohoo!

This week I read a great scripture from Mosiah chapter 1: "our brethren, the Lamanites, know nothing concerning these things, or even do not believe them when they are taught them, because of the traditions of their fathers, which are not correct." From this verse, I came to the conclusion that parents are important! That's doctrine!! I'm so glad I had great parents who raised me the right way. I wasn't the perfect kid, but my parents were patient with me and helped me to become a better person. They raised me to have faith in God, and that has made all the difference in my life.

Love!
Elder Robb

Week 67

Heyo! 

This week was a lot of fun! Man, UW football is killing it right now! I think it's because of the spirit that we bring to the campus, they owe us big time. 

We're making progress here, even though it's a little slower than we'd like. We met with a less-active member who we are going to try to help come back to church. Right now she just wants to come to all the fun activities, she said church is "boring". On the plus side, she did ask us to re-teach her all the lessons. After we teach her, she'll be begging to come back to church! 

We've established a good relationship with this ward! Even though we don't have a ton of people that they can help us teach, some have asked to come out to Red Square and go finding with us, pretty neat! We're also getting the ward really involved with helping us teach the new member lessons to "A", fun stuff!

Washington Seattle Mission with Elder Hawk

This week we had a zone conference, Elder Echo Hawk of the Seventy came and visited our mission. He said that we are the greatest and most organized mission he's ever been to, and he's visited many! 

The late and great prophet Joseph Smith once said: "happiness is the object and design of our existence." This is true! I feel happiness all the time, even when I don't see success every day, and that's because true happiness is not based on our circumstances, but on our focus in life. 

Love you all! 

Elder Robb

Here's some picture's from Pike's Place last P-day!

This is the gum wall that they recently pressure washed to clean.  

Week 66

Hey everyone!

It was a great week! Boy, I loved watching General Conference this weekend. It's my favorite weekend of the year. It's essentially superbowl weekend for us Mormons! That's what I call it at least.

This week was crazy busy at the campus. School started on Wednesday, so there were so many more people there. There was the "Dawg Daze" event on Red Square from Wednesday-Friday. All the clubs from the school set up booths and the square was a super popular place! We got so many phone numbers and people to follow-up with! On Friday was the UW/Stanford game, ESPN was here, the students were all hyped, oh man, it was nuts.

On Saturday after the Priesthood session was A's baptism! So many people showed up to support her and it was just a sweet experience. She was so happy that she cried! :)

Now we just have a big focus on finding people! The struggle is that the 2nd ward gets all the Chinese investigators! So this week we found a handful of solid people to teach, but we had to give them all away because they are Chinese! It's okay though, I promise you all that we will find some new people to teach this week... hold me to it!

God be with you til' we E-mail again,
Elder Robb

 We are tourists!  We found the troll bridge!!

 Red Square with the red sun beatin' on it.

Red Square at sunset.

Week 65

Hey everyone!

I'm tired and sick but I feel so good! This week we worked our butts off! Serving on the campus gives you such a great sense of accomplishment. We talk to everyone and it's just been really fun. The students are really cool, a couple of them even let us ride their longboards around Red Square for a bit!

Everything's going super well with "A" too! We finished teaching her, got her interviewed and all ready to go for her baptism this Saturday! Woohoo!

 Green Lake and Mission 5K

Today we had a mission 5k at Green Lake! With J-dawgs cooked by Pres! It was sweet! We sat down by the lake and talked about the nature of God and how significant that is. I remember last winter when Elder Johnson of the 70 came and talked about that. He challenged us all to pray to have confirmed (or re-confirmed I suppose) the different things we talked about. I remember the next morning praying about it, and then feeling like I should go back and read some of my notes from earlier in my mission. (Probably because E. Johnson had told us not to take notes in that meeting, because "you never go back and read them anyways", so that was already on my mind.) The very first thing I read was "God loves you more than you can imagine." That was such a quick answer for me. I know that that's true.

I love you all! Here's some pictures of my new area!

Elder Robb

Week 64

HELLOOOO EVERYONE!!

Well, thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday this past week! The big 2-0... Two decades down, eight more to go (at least). Anyways, this week was pretty good! I got transferred to SYSA 3rd!

Saturday we loaded 900 packages to send over to refugees in Greece, that was an awesome service project! I'll try to get the group pic to send to you all!

We're teaching one super awesome girl named "A". A member introduced her to us and we've had a good number of lessons with her this week. She's going to be baptized on October 1st after Priesthood Session, and she's so stoked! She says that everything that we've been teaching her just makes so much sense, it's all clicking. It's been a lot of fun!

Well, since I’m one year older (and wiser too), let me impart some of my wisdom to you all. Just to preface what I'm about to say, I know that life's not always easy, BUT sometimes I think we make it harder than it needs to be. I recently read 2 Nephi 4, where Nephi gets all bummed out because he's not perfect. I love when he gives himself a little wake-up call in verse 26: "I have seen the condescension of the Lord unto the children of men [he has] visited men in so much mercy, why should my heart weep?" Good question! Christ came to atone for our sins! Yeah, feel Godly sorrow and remorse for your sins, but don't linger in sorrow. REPENT and move forward!

Love you all!
Elder Robb

Week 63

Hey everyone!

Well, transfer calls came last night and I'm already gettin' the boot! It was fun while it lasted. Next transfer I'll be in Seattle North Zone, aka downtown. I'm excited because I like change, but I'm sad because up there you have to pay for laundry! It's the worst!

So a couple of weeks ago we were walking down 1st Ave and a guy got off the bus and called us over to him! He told us he was an inactive member and that we should look up his records and give him a visit sometime! Well his records weren't in our ward list, so that was kind of weird at first. Luckily he gave us his address. Anyways I went over this week with a member on splits and we had a solid lesson! We found out he's not even a member, he just thinks he is because he came to church a lot as a young kid, but he was never baptized. He's at a point in life where he feels ready to make changes, but he told us he'll be happy if he can even get into "level 1 heaven" (his words) after all he's done in his life. That's when we threw DOWN about the atonement!! Yeah, God's seen what we've all done, but he also sees what we can become!

Other than that, just normal missionary activities. I went to roundtable (pizza buffet) and had 24.5 slices! Another day of the week we went and did service at the food bank. They gave us some old sandwiches to take home. I ate one and felt pretty rotten afterwards!

Also worth noting is that the M's came to church this week! Their re-activation has been this transfer's miracle. It was just so cool how we bumped into them and how eager they were to come back. We gave them a picture of the Seattle Temple to hang up in their room, because they are now working towards being sealed in the temple.

This week I started over reading the Book of Mormon again, and this time around I'm marking every time there's really straight-forward doctrine. Here's a great doctrine in 1 Nephi 17: "And he loveth those who will have him to be their God." I might not know a lot of things, but I do know that God loves us. That is doctrine, it tastes sweet!

I love you all!!!!
Elder Robb

Week 62

Hey everyone!

Happy Labor Day! AKA the commencement of football season! Not that I am worrying about that... Anyways, since it's a holiday I'm pretty limited on time, but just know that I am alive and well and happy!

This week was pretty awesome! I went on another exchange to West Seattle, I got to visit with the bishop there for a little, and it was fun to catch up!

This week I finished the Book of Mormon! Boy, what a good read! It's insane to think how far my testimony has come since I began my mission, and I still have lots of time to go! This book has changed me. It's changed my life.

Ever since I hit my year mark, I like to look back in my journal and see what I was doing a year ago. To be honest, I had a pretty hard time! It seems like I was just grinding things out and trying to force myself into a mold that I didn't fit, and I thought that's how it was supposed to be! True, we can learn a lot from the tough times in our life, but now i realize how God's plan for us is to find joy in our circumstances. Joy in this life and in the life hereafter! That's his purpose! I've found joy in this, more pure joy than anywhere else I’ve looked.

I love you all!
Elder Robb

Week 61

Hey all!

This week was pretty sweet! We worked hard! It feels good!

After district meeting on Tuesday, Elder Thompson locked the keys in the trunk of the car! It was this day that I learned that God can work through anything. We walked over to DQ to get some ice cream while we waited for our spare key to arrive. As we were talking to the cashier, she said "oh so you guys are from the church? I always wanted to learn about the Mormon faith..." Score! We got her contact info and now the YSA sisters are teaching her!

Thursday night we went on splits with the high priests, I went over to visit a less-active family who hasn't been to church in 10+ years. They were so awesome! They really hit it off with the member I brought and they accepted his offer to give them a ride to church!

We had another blitz in our area! We made up a list of people the ward doesn't know and tried to contact as many as we could. It was sweet! Next week we'll have blitz's in Burien and then West Seattle. This zone likes to do these it seems.

Yesterday we went over to teach one of our investigators, J, and she was like "hey do you know this couple who lives below me? They say they are Mormon!" So we all 3 went down and met them, turns out they're semi recent-converts and just moved in from Burien! It's been a while since they came to church but they're going to come back! What's really funny is that our investigator is the one who's going to give them a ride! Ha!

Love you all! Hope you have a good week!
Elder Robb

Week 60

Hey Everyone!

It was a pretty good week! We had a lot of service lined up, a stake carnival (this is the best stake to be in for parties because the Tongan, Samoan, and Spanish wards make so much food!), and we had a zone conference too. We were busy!

This transfer the mission made a real big push to have every area in the mission have a baptism. A lot of good things are happening! Historically Seattle zone doesn't struggle so much, but it's been a different story the past 6 months or so. So this past week, to try and get something going, we had a blitz in Normandy Park! All the missionaries here showed up and we spent two hours out looking for people to teach. It was pretty sweet and pretty unifying for us as a zone.

We had an awesome zone conference! President gave a training about the importance of the little things in life. He said "If you can't do the little things in life right, how will you ever get the big things right?!" Then he talked about making our beds. He's a funny guy! "If you want to change the world, start by making your bed!"

This week I was reading in Alma 17, where the King's flocks get scattered and all of his servants start crying like babies! Then Ammon comes in and fixes everything, he gets all the flocks back together and everything's good again. It made me think: "what kind of servant am I? What do I do when my flocks get scattered?" It seems like when something in our lives gets tripped up, we naturally start saying "Why me?", when we really should be asking "what" questions. That's what Ammon did! He looked at the situation and said "alright, what can I do?" Ammon was proactive! That was a big life lesson for me, straight from the good ol' Book of Mormon!

Love!
Elder Robb

Week 59

Hey all!

 This week was sweet, I figured out my motto for this transfer! It's "The Lord Will Provide!" Let me explain... My companion thought I was silly on P-day to spend my money on things other than food, because there was no members signed up for dinner, for the whole month! And I ran out of money! But hey, God takes care of me out here! Elder Thompson was surprised when we got calls from members offering to drop off food from Monday-Wednesday, a less-active to feed us Thursday, and an investigator to take us out lunch on Friday after we stain his deck! It was sweet!

Alright let me update you on the things that made me happy. I got a text from President on Thursday telling me that P wanted me to come up to Mercer Island on Saturday and speak at his baptism! It was a really sweet experience, I love that kid to death!

This past week I had the great opportunity to go on an exchange to my old stomping ground: West Seattle! It was so fun, I visited some people I used to teach, and some of the members too! But here's the highlight: my district leader really felt like we should try to find this mother and daughter that he had met a few weeks ago, but didn't get their contact information. So we went to the general area and started picking a few doors to knock. We talked to some cool people but not who we were looking for! Then we said a prayer and asked to be guided to them. We felt like we should go back to where we began looking. As we were walking back, we saw a mother and her daughter walking towards us. Sure enough, it was them! We had an awesome conversation and they came to church on Sunday. So sweet!

I love you all!
Elder Robb

Week 58 - Normandy Park

Hey all!

Well it was one sad week! It was hard to leave Mercer Island! I don't think anywhere will ever live up to my time in that ward. I got sent back to Seattle zone! I'm in Normandy Park. They just combined this ward with Seatac and Des Moines so it's a huge ward. We actually live in Des Moines and it seems we spend a lot of our time there. We have 3 sets of missionaries in this ward! Des Moines is a lot different from Mercer, to say the least!

Here's a gem I found in the Book of Mormon this week: "27 And they were among the people of Nephi, and also numbered among the people who were of the church of God. And they were also distinguished for their zeal towards God, and also towards men; for they were perfectly honest and upright in all things; and they were firm in the faith of Christ, even unto the end."

There's a lot of definitions of what a successful missionary is, but in my book, it's one who gives it their all. And everybody's "all" is going to be different! Check this out; Usain Bolt will run the 100m WAY faster than me! But as long as I am giving everything I have, I get just as good of a workout. God doesn't ask for a definite price, he just asks us to do our best.

Love you all!
Elder Robb

Week 57

 Hola Amigos!

It was a solid week! But, and that's a big but... I've got some sad news. At long last, Elder Anderson and I have been voted off the Island. They're replacing us with sister missionaries. The zone leaders gave us a call Saturday night to let us know, so we'd be able to tell the ward at church. This ward really embraced us, we felt the love yesterday. It was such a warm send-off. One member even got up and dedicated his musical number in sacrament meeting to us! It was a song he wrote and it was sick!!

Mercer Island has been the place where I've grown the most, I'll miss this place. Okay, enough of that sappy talk. Here's some notable events from the week:

You know that Pokemon Go app that everyone's playing? One of our members took us to the church (which is a pokestop, whatever that means), and we dropped a lure so tons of pokemon would show up and lure people to us! President tells us to be creative in our finding, and I think we succeeded that day!

P's mom showed up from Peru on Wednesday and surprised P for his birthday! He's now set to get baptized on August 13th. Better yet, we have started teaching his mom and she'll probably be baptized soon after! P helped us with the translation in our lesson with her. He's a good missionary already!

We helped out with two moves this weekend, one of them was at 9AM on Saturday in the south end. Well, we left our bikes at the Bishops house the night before and so we decided to just run down there, it was good weather after all. We accidentally ran way past their house and had to backtrack a mile! It was a 5-6 mile run! My legs are still wicked sore today!

This scripture I read this week reminded me to stay humble; 2 Corinthians 3:5-6: "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God." Like Ammon in the Book of Mormon, I will boast in my God!! He's the one who enables me to do all things.

Life is good! I love you all!
Elder Robb

Week 56

Hey everyone!

It's summer, people are busy, especially on the island. People go on vacation and missionary work becomes more sparse than usual. But we press on! We didn't get to meet with many of our investigators this week but the future looks bright.

Last week we had a great idea on P-day! We thought it would be sweet if we went and bought some Costco pizza and then surprised president with lunch on his doorstep! Well, we went and he wasn't home, so we drove over to the mission office. He's gotta love us now!

We had our ward party on Friday. We played ultimate Frisbee and didn't hold back for anything! Our white shirts were mud-stained after that game. That's how you gain the trust of a ward, be good at sports!

"39 We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion."

I bear my witness that this verse speaks the truth!!!

I love you all so much, keep bein’ awesome!
Elder Robb

Week 55

Heyo!

This week we had a sweet district meeting, what made it sweeter was that President made a surprise appearance! The topic was unity, and we decided to help build district unity we should have a lunch! We cooked burgers and hot dogs and had lots of snacks, President said it was very creative!

We had a couple exchanges this week with Cougar Mountain. They needed some help covering appointments Saturday so we bailed them out. We also got to play soccer on the dirt fields over there with a ton of investigators and members!

Saturday we bought a group of kids at McDonald's ice cream cones. Now they love Mormons!

Yesterday was the fireside in our stake center. It was super sweet because M got up and bore her testimony! She was super funny, she seemed like a veteran Mormon up there!

About a year ago I got off the plane in Seattle not really knowing what I had gotten myself into. Over this past year I've learned a ton. I know God loves me and is mindful of me. My mission has given me a real sense of who I am and where I'm going. I love you all for everything you do!

Elder Robb

Week 54

Hey fam!

I don't have a ton of time today! This week was sweet! There was an all-comers track meet over at the high school so we threw on our P-day clothes and went over and ran the sprints!  We met a ton of cool college runners, they beat us but we didn't look too foolish out there! I'm sure I could have won if someone just dangled a Big Mac on a stick in front of me!

This past weekend was the greatly anticipated summer celebration! It's been the talk of the ward mission since I got here and it was a big success. We had two booths, one to promote Just Serve, and one to promote family history. I think family history generated more interest but both were really good. The ward super supportive with running the booths and we met a ton of people. It's good me and Elder Anderson stayed again for this transfer because people recognize our faces since we've been here so long!

Want to get pumped about missionary work? Read this scripture from Helaman!!: "Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments." I've thought a lot about what it takes to align your will with God's, and a lot of the time i think it's been explained to me that I just need to have faith. Well i think it takes a lot more than that, you really can't force yourself to have faith. That's just a "grind it out" attitude and that's no fun. Why would God want us to just grind out the days of our life. To align your will, you have to pray to have that change of heart, so that you can invest in actually wanting to change.

Well, I love you all! Sorry I forgot my camera!

Elder Robb

Week 53

Guess who's been out for a year?! It's me! Now I can start counting down instead of counting up! Haha Just kidding, what a great year. This mission has been the biggest blessing. I've changed so much, in good ways though! I promise I won't be a weird RM. :)

This past week was great! We had an exchange, I stayed on Mercer Island with Elder Mortensen. This is actually our second time going together, the first was way back in the Seattle Zone last winter. We had a grand ol' time! Lots of people approached us to talk! He was called Spanish speaking so the English class went a lot better with him there. We are handing it over to him permanently.

We mooched a free lunch off President! He asked us to reserve the Mercer Island building for the new missionary training. We said he could have it if he let us crash the meeting at lunch time. He agreed :)

We had a super solid lesson with C! He's a super cool dude. We're going to go take one of his crossfit classes and get jacked!

Hope you all had a great 4th of July!! We watched fireworks from our bedroom window, they don't let us missionaries go out and party, we bought an American flag though and hung it up! USA! USA! USA!

Here's a patriotic scripture! Ether 2:12 "Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been manifested by the things which we have written."

Elder Robb

Week 52

heyoooo fam and friends,

Sorry if I start out every email saying "it was a great week", but it was a great week! We're in a pretty good rhythm of meeting consistently with all of our investigators and so they're moving forward, some faster than others but that's ok! We brought a ward missionary with us to teach G and E. This member has helped us out a ton with his Chinese speaking. It's a lot easier for G to explain himself in Chinese. We read Ether 12 with him, that's a pretty popular chapter but verse 12 stuck out to me this time; "For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them". Crazy right? It's all about the faith. Be like the '04 Red Sox! Keep the faith!!

Gordon B. Hinckley says the most ineffective way to do missionary work is tracting. The best way is when someone brings their friend to church! Guess what happened yesterday!! One of our members brought a friend to church. He's been taught so much by his friends and we're going to meet with him later this week. Good stuff.

I think I talk about food too much when I write home, I could make a big list of all the food members dropped off/brought to church for us yesterday but just know I’m taken care of :) A whole year without mom's cooking and they've kept me alive! Yesterday I felt like Jeremiah in chapter 4:19-21! (Jeremiah's tummy ache)

Peace, love, and temple marriage! Adios!
Elder Robb

Week 51

Hey everyone!

Transfer calls have come and gone, and I'm staying on the Island! And so is my comp! It's round 3 baby!! We were so pumped when we found out we were staying.

So I think I mentioned a while back that the ward wanted us to start an English class, and that never really took off. But this past Tuesday we had some members come and bring two of their friends! Actually, the members just dropped their friends off, and they didn't speak a lick of English so we struggled to be honest. But we broke out our ol' high school level Spanish and taught them some stuff! We talked to some of the Spanish members and got some ESL class materials we could use for them, we were prepared for more conversational level, but now we're prepared for the basics.

We had a great lesson with V. M sat in on it with us and was just super bold! We got to the root of her concern, now we can really start making some headway.

I've been thinking a lot about God's love for us. It's so impossible to describe so I won't bother right now, but I've been feeling it a lot. Well actually, I think the best way to describe it is like this, (for me): I'm stepping up to the plate at Fenway Park, and waaaay out in right field, even past Ted Williams' seat, is Heavenly Father. He's wearing my jersey, he's got on his ball glove and he's going crazy! He's cheering my name and hoping that I'll hit that ball right to him and break Ted's record! That's how God feels about all of us, he's wearing our jersey!

I hope all the dad's had a great father’s day. I thank God every day for my Dad and the good example he's been to me. I don't know how my parents did it but the biggest punishment for me wasn't a stern rebuking or a swift kick in the pants, (don't get me wrong, those scared me too!) but it was feeling like I had let them down. My Dad makes me want to be a better person.

I love youuuu all!
Elder Robb

Week 50

Some weeks I have to rack my brain for things to write about, other weeks there's plenty. This week falls under the latter. Here's some of the highlights

We started the week off with an exchange to Issaquah with the zone leaders! Elder Sill treated me to some teriyaki for lunch, now that's a good leader right there! He really knew how to gain my respect.

Remember Annie and Ella? They were the Chinese people who walked into church a couple months back. They've been really busy working on a remodel of a house in New Castle so our contact with them was pretty sparse. A member told us that they had gotten anti'd. We just had a new member move in to the ward who served a mandarin-speaking mission so we had him go over there with us and see what was up, and it turned out really well! They're going to be moving in the next couple months but they'll still be looking into the church. We're actually working on starting a Chinese Branch in the stake that will probably meet here on the Island. Annie told us that she's especially interested in the church for her daughter because we (the missionaries) seem very mature and responsible compared to other people our age. She obviously doesn't know us very well!

Friday we had a lesson with S. She's Jewish but she believes 100% in Jesus Christ. She wants to get baptized but her hold up is that she works for a Hebrew school, and she's won’t be able to work and come to our church.

Saturday we decided to bike the loop around the island and stop at every member on our list. Well, we were in over our heads and had to start being more selective with who to visit, there wasn't enough hours in the day! We were going around inviting everyone to the fireside on Sunday. We actually ran into a less-active member who said he'd come!

Sunday we had a lot of people at church. V's back in town, P is going to come more regularly from here on out, and another guy just walked into church! He was there just for learning purposes, we tried to get a phone number and/or an appointment but he said he'd think about it and contact us. Not super solid but we'll see what happens!

Here's a verse I really liked from
 Mormon chapter 9! "27 O then despise not, and wonder not, but hearken unto the words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things soever ye shall stand in need. Doubt not, but be believing, and begin as in times of old, and come unto the Lord with all your heart, and work out your own salvation with fear and trembling before him."

Love you all!
Elder Robb

Week 49

Hey all!

I'm getting taken care of real well up here! A member pulled over the other day when she saw us walking and took us out to Baskin Robins, then she gave us a $20 gift card for us to use in the not so distant future! Last night we had a steak dinner, and then another member brought us tons of cereal and milk and some other stuff too! The quickest way to a missionary's heart is to have them over for dinner, but the next level of love is making sure we have food for our apartment too. :)

This week we had a lesson with "V" that went really well. It was actually the first time we could talk to her since M's baptism and it sounds like she really enjoyed it. We talked about her main concern with joining the church. Both of her sons are really supportive of whatever she wants to do, but V says that when they ask "why this church?” she can't quite answer that. She said that when she can answer that question for herself then she'll be ready to go. She also really wants to have her sons come up for her baptism and she worries they'll be too busy until next summer, I don't know if they're that busy though!

We had Zone Training on Friday. The topic among the leaders is finding, so that's what we talked about. We've knocked doors like crazy and that's not too productive, so now President wants us doing one finding activity each week. It was a good meeting.

It was stinkin' HOT yesterday!! It hit 100! That was crazy and fast Sunday nearly killed us, we didn't even ride our bikes because we would have killed ourselves. The heat just drains you and everyone in Seattle is too prideful to admit that it gets hot in the summer and buy air conditioners.

Anyway.... I finished Alma this week! From chapter 62:

"49 But notwithstanding their riches, or their strength, or their prosperity, they were not lifted up in the pride of their eyes; neither were they slow to remember the Lord their God; but they did humble themselves exceedingly before him.

 50 Yea, they did remember how great things the Lord had done for them, that he had delivered them from death, and from bonds, and from prisons, and from all manner of afflictions, and he had delivered them out of the hands of their enemies.

 51 And they did pray unto the Lord their God continually, insomuch that the Lord did bless them, according to his word, so that they did wax strong and prosper in the land.

Always pray, and always remember the tender mercies you've seen. Love you all!
Elder Robb


Here is a picture of us with "M".

We had zone sports day today.

Below is a picture of Elder Rosson and me from a couple of pdays ago after having a sword fight at the stake center. hahaha  He was Captain Moroni and I was Amalickiah.  I think he has a video, it’s pretty funny, I’ll have to get that from him sometime.  Elder Rosson is from Albuquerque! We went on exchange Saturday and we had a ton of fun. We biked a lot!

Week 48

Hey!!

This past week was great! M was baptized! We were worried there wouldn't be a real big turnout with it being a holiday weekend and everything, but the house was packed! She had a lot of family and friends fly in from Utah and California, and a lot of people just from the Seattle area. They all told us that they never expected that she would be baptized. It was pretty sweet.

Other than that it was just the same old stuff, we met a cool former investigator named S. He took us for a joyride in his Subaru STI. We got some good service in at the thrift shop.

I didn't get any pictures from the baptism, we'll have to grab a pic with M one of these days so I can send it home. Life's good, the mission's fun! I love you all!

Elder Robb

Week 47

Heyo!!

Sorry I didn't write yesterday! I'm sure you have all been waiting anxiously for my update :) We had our P-day moved to today because we went to the temple this morning, what an awesome experience! Afterwards we went to Triple-X burger where I ate the biggest burger of my life.

Anyways, serving on Mercer Island brought a great opportunity for us this past Monday, we had FHE at President's house with all of the young couples in the ward! It was pretty awesome, we talked about member-missionary work (surprise) and had a ton of chocolate cake. We'll probably make this a regular thing and do it every transfer.

Elder Anderson got a new calling as a district leader, I can't remember if I mentioned that last week or not. But we went to the mission office Thursday for a district leader conference where we all got trained. It was good, the highlight was all the Costco pizza afterwards! We impressed everyone by eating 8 slices, each! That's unity right there! We are the dream eat team.

M got her baptismal interview this week and we're good to go! Just a couple minor details with the program and such for this Saturday and we'll be set! Her son-in-law is in the mission presidency in California and he's going to do the baptism. She has a friend who's a professional gospel singer whose going to sing for us, and the primary is coming to sing "I am a child of God". It's going to be a sweet program!!

We had a great district meeting yesterday, the topic was "forget yourself and go to work". One of those training's I've had a hundred times and get's pretty repetitive. It's like the feeling i had when i was about to graduate primary and all the lessons were just the same old boring stuff, but Elder Anderson is a really good trainer and this one was actually pretty insightful. He used a scripture in James chapter 1:

"22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

 23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:

 24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was."

You don't look in a mirror and then forget yourself and walk away from all that. That's not at all what God asks any of us to do. He asks us to let him mold who we already are into something even better. God didn't send me to Seattle to lose myself and become a robot, he sent me here to refine me and to use me, the person I already am, to help others. And that's how it is for all of us, God will use us as an instrument in his hands if we just let him. Anyways, I could rant on this forever, but I love you all. Have a good week!

Elder Robb

Week 46

Hey everyone!

This week was pretty great. The highlight was that I got a lacrosse stick from the thrift shop for 77 cents! Lacrosse is huge on the island. Every once in a while we will run to the field for morning workouts and play 1-on-1 lacrosse.

Okay, well the real highlight of the week was some great news we got from P. He told us that his mom is going to come up from Peru in July to visit him, and that she wants to see him get baptized while he's here! It seems like his Grandma has warmed up to it enough, and his mom is pretty interested in the gospel herself. We were so stoked when he told us.

Wednesday night we started the run club! We only had one member show up, but that's OK! You've got to start somewhere! This week we did a better job publicizing it and got more commitments. Knocking doors on the island has been mentally tedious and unfruitful, so this is our bright shining hope for missionary work here. We ended up running about 5 miles total including the run there and back. We invite people of all physical ability to join us though! Get active Mercer Island! Let's go!!

This week I was reading in Alma 41 when I found this gem: "Therefore, my son, see that you are merciful unto your brethren; deal justly, judge righteously, and do good continually; and if ye do all these things then shall ye receive your reward; yea, ye shall have mercy restored unto you again; ye shall have justice restored unto you again; ye shall have a righteous judgment restored unto you again; and ye shall have good rewarded unto you again."

Alma's talking to his son Corianton, who hasn't been the most observant of God's commandments. What really hit me in this verse is that he's not just going to repent and then go back to what he was doing before. He's invited by his dad to repent and change his nature. I've been thinking about overcoming sin and what it takes to do so, and I've found that it's usually not enough to just focus on not sinning, but you have to focus on doing to opposite. Doing good. This morning I read Romans 12:21: "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." You can't just throw up your shield against it, you have to fight it to beat it.

I love you all a ton!
Elder Robb

Week 45

Hey everyone!

This week was pretty good! Nothing out of the ordinary to report. It was great to see the fam (minus Becca) yesterday for a Mother's Day Skype session :)

This week we had a decent amount of meetings. We had a fun last district meeting, we played "hide and teach" at the church building. Finding truly is the hardest part, in missionary work and in this game haha. Later in the afternoon we taught Piero, I don't know if I’ve talked much about our lessons with him much in the past weeks, but they've been going really well. He loves watching Mormon messages with us. (Here’s one we watched this week, from one of my favorite talks!  https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/good-things-to-come-1 )


V's progressing really well, we had a great lesson about baptism and she's going to pray about it. M is pretty much ready for her baptism also, we just finished teaching her the gospel of Christ lesson. She makes some dang good lemonade for us every time we come over!

Also this week, we had McDonald’s for dinner two nights in a row (and not a small serving) and we still weigh the same as we did last week! It's good to be young!

I'm continuing my trek through Alma, there is a ton of doctrine in this book! I think if this was the only book in the Book of Mormon that we had, it would be enough, but anyways... In chapter 37, i love these verses:

"44 For behold, it is as easy to give heed to the word of Christ, which will point to you a straight course to eternal bliss, as it was for our fathers to give heed to this compass, which would point unto them a straight course to the promised land.

 45 And now I say, is there not a type in this thing? For just as surely as this director did bring our fathers, by following its course, to the promised land, shall the words of Christ, if we follow their course, carry us beyond this vale of sorrow into a far better land of promise.

 46 O my son, do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us. The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever."

I've been thinking a lot this transfer about God's commandments and the way that he works, and what his purpose even is. His purpose is to help us progress, and he wants us to be happy as we progress. And he hasn't made it as hard as we sometimes make it out to be. Sometimes, God's way isn't "let's see the hardest way we can do this", it's actually the easy way, and that's why so many people miss the boat. Mosiah 2:41 says that we can have happiness here and now, and then live in never ending happiness after this life! Life is good! Sometimes i realize how good life is and feel bad that i ever complained about anything in my life.

Love you all!
Elder Robb

Week 44

Hey all!

This week started with a flat tire for me.  We took my bike to Dan the bike man, he fixes up bikes for missionaries pretty cheap! (That reminds me, I still have to go back and pay him. . . ) He looked at my bike and said, "If you keep riding this thing, you're going to meet your Mormon God real quick!!"  I guess there was some other stuff wrong with it too.  It rode much easier after he fixed me up.  The very next day, we were right back in his garage fixing a flat for Elder Anderson.  An unlucky week for us!!

Thursday night we had a Jewish Mormon event at our church building called B'nai Shalom.  They did lots of Jewish culture stuff that was pretty neat.  We only stayed for the dinner because we had a lesson to go to.  After our lesson, we went and watched W's baseball game.  He's a 14 year old kid we stop by and see sometimes.  His mom loves us and the church because her other son got baptized a while ago and the church really helped him.  It was fun to watch him play ball, makes me reminisce my little league days!  All the baseball moms were really cool with us, sometimes it's better to get out in the community than it is to pound on doors.

Yesterday Bishop drove us to Emmanuel Episcopal church on the island, where we helped serve food to disabled people here on the island!  It was a lot of fun and they sent us home with a ton of mac and cheese.  Funny how it's just tradition to send loads of food home with us missionaries.  This week we also started preparing for an English second language class that we'll be teaching every Tuesday.  Should be good!

This week I was reading in Alma and I found a couple of verses that talk about joy.
27:18 "Now was not this exceeding joy? Behold, this joy which none receiveth save it be the truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness."
29:10 "And behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy; then do I remember what the Lord has done for me, yea, even that he hat heard my prayer; yea, then do I remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me."

True joy comes to people who feel like they want to improve and change, and then act on that desire.  Verse 10 is used a lot in missionary terms, and it is really cool to see people change and become converted to the gospel "from scratch" so to speak, but I've been thinking about the motivation that I feel every time I go to church and see people who recognize their shortcomings and strive to be better.  That's what this church is here for, it's not for the perfect people, it's to help people become better.  Anyways, that's why I love the church, because it's helped me feel motivation to improve.

Have a good week!
Elder Robb

Week 43

Hey everyone!

This week was pretty great.  I went on an exchange with our district leader, Elder Packer!  We went on an exchange together way back when I was in West Seattle and I was his district leader, so it was a lot of fun!  We always have some really good experiences together, they just need to make us companions so we can have these miracles every day.  We had a really filling dinner with a member and then went to teach Z X and E, and they made us a TON of dumplings.  We had a really good lesson with them about God and His plan for them.  They have no background in any branch of religion so we're just starting from square one with them.

We were biking home and it was 8:45, so we were thinking we might just go in early and plan, but we felt like we should keep going.  So we walked down to visit these members who love us when a lady stopped us and asked if we were the Elders from the church!  Turns out she had just moved in from Mexico and was baptized not too long ago!  None of her kids are members but she wants to bring them to church and get them involved.  So cool, and we were thinking of calling it a night.

I gave a talk yesterday at church on perfecting the saints.  It went pretty well.

Here's some pictures from our hike on P-day!!!

Love you all!!!

Elder Robb