Hey everyone!
So my days here in Ravenna Park are over. Tomorrow I'll head to my new area (TBA), and get to work there. It's been a short stay here but I learned a lot, I feel like the two-year mission experience is like 10 years of life experience. Anyways, it was a great last week! Here's some of the highlights:
So we got a new move-in/less-active list from the ward a few weeks ago and we pretty much went through it in a week. There was one family that we had tried a couple of times and with no answer we were probably just going to stop going, but we were in the area and figured we might as well try one more time. When we knocked on the door, we could see him look through the peep hole and from behind the door we heard him say "No way?!" Then he flung open the door and said, "How did you guys find us??" He was was a super cool guy, he's actually a national champion ski jumper! Anyways, he told us his conversion story and how he baptized his wife into the church about 10 years ago. He said it was really funny that we knocked on his door that night because he was just thinking he should be reading hte Book of Mormon, and apparently he had just taught his 4 year old daughter about Jesus for the first time. So we had an awesome impromptu lesson with him, his wife, and his daughter. They committed to come to church for Easter and they did!
On Saturday we contacted a referral named J, we had a member with and we taught him the restoration lesson. The spirit was really strong. He's a really open guy who'd trying to get through a kind of weird time in his life. He has an 8 year old son, too. He told us that he'll get baptized when he comes to know the truth of it all. We invited him to play basketball at the institute with us and some other missionaries and their investigators later that day and he came with his son. Then he came to church on Easter and stayed the whole 3 hours! Pretty awesome!
When we were in Gospel Principles, we randomly got a text from S, a girl we had talked to a few weeks ago and invited to church. She texted us out of the blue and asked, "hey, is it too late for me to come the church?" She actually lives in another area so it was perfect. We sent her the address to that building and she ended up going and bringing her friends with her! Then moments later we got a text from a recent convert who moved from Tennessee who we met on the street last week asking if he could have the address of the YSA building so he could go to church. Everyone just wanted to go to LDS church this week! Then Bishop approached us with pictures of a baptism for B and her family. We taught her a couple of times at the beginning of the transfer until she moved to Iowa. Really cool to see that they all got baptized yesterday too. Just a good sequence of events at church.
One of my favorite verses I read this week comes from the Book of Mormon. I've just been thinking about how important it is to be grateful for blessings that the Lord gives to us. I think a lot of my life I saw the blessings but didn't recognize them as "tender mercies." In high school seminary, every Friday the floor would be open for students to talk about a tender mercy they witnessed that week. A lot of the time it would be small things and I would think, "that's just a coincidence, God had nothing to do with that." Now I realize there's nothing too small for God to care about. 1 Nephi 1:20 reads "behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance."
I love you all!
Elder Robb
Monday, March 28, 2016
Monday, March 21, 2016
Week 38
Hey everyone!
It's been a pretty good week! It started off really well on Monday with the ward Pi day activity. We've been working with the members here on inviting their friends to this activity and we had a pretty good turnout! We had a brief spiritual thought in the middle where we showed the new Easter video!
We got a ton of opportunities to do service this week too. We met a woman on the street walking her dog who needed a bunch of yard work done, so we spent a tone of time Wednesday doing service, between working at the food bank and fixing up her yard. She sent us home with some super good cookies too, perks of the mission!
Yesterday we missed the member missionary fireside in Bothell, so that we pretty sad, but we ended up meeting a decent amount of people instead, so it was worth it! We got 3 follow-up appointments for this next week just from last night.
Love you all!
Elder Robb
It's been a pretty good week! It started off really well on Monday with the ward Pi day activity. We've been working with the members here on inviting their friends to this activity and we had a pretty good turnout! We had a brief spiritual thought in the middle where we showed the new Easter video!
We got a ton of opportunities to do service this week too. We met a woman on the street walking her dog who needed a bunch of yard work done, so we spent a tone of time Wednesday doing service, between working at the food bank and fixing up her yard. She sent us home with some super good cookies too, perks of the mission!
Yesterday we missed the member missionary fireside in Bothell, so that we pretty sad, but we ended up meeting a decent amount of people instead, so it was worth it! We got 3 follow-up appointments for this next week just from last night.
Love you all!
Elder Robb
Monday, March 14, 2016
Week 37
Hey everyone,
Not a lot of time today unfortunately. It's okay because to be honest, it wasn't the greatest of weeks. Not every week will be the best though!
We did get to do some service on Wednesday at the UDYC. We cooked a meal for homeless teenagers while they watched Adventure Time in another room! It was fun; my brownies were a real hit, one of my zone leaders ate six of them! We got to do some service for a less active member of the church later in the week as well. I may have mentioned him already, but we met him at the bus stop stop a few weeks ago. He needed help taking down a bunch of trees in his yard because he's moving soon. Glad we ran into him because it made him want to come back to church at least for a week so can see all the people he used to know!
We've really just hit the pavement and tried to find people to tach. We run into lots of cool people, and lots of funny people, but not too many interested people. Such as life in Seattle. We did get to play basketball with some guys at the park in our white shirts and ties on Friday! Always fun to do stuff out of the ordinary.
This week I've been studying the book of John, I think one of my favorite chapters in all of the scriptures is Chapter 14, I love his promise that he will send us His spirit while we are here on the earth. It truly is a comforter, and it's something worth striving to be worthy for every day.
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
18 I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you.
I love you all!
Elder Robb
Not a lot of time today unfortunately. It's okay because to be honest, it wasn't the greatest of weeks. Not every week will be the best though!
We did get to do some service on Wednesday at the UDYC. We cooked a meal for homeless teenagers while they watched Adventure Time in another room! It was fun; my brownies were a real hit, one of my zone leaders ate six of them! We got to do some service for a less active member of the church later in the week as well. I may have mentioned him already, but we met him at the bus stop stop a few weeks ago. He needed help taking down a bunch of trees in his yard because he's moving soon. Glad we ran into him because it made him want to come back to church at least for a week so can see all the people he used to know!
We've really just hit the pavement and tried to find people to tach. We run into lots of cool people, and lots of funny people, but not too many interested people. Such as life in Seattle. We did get to play basketball with some guys at the park in our white shirts and ties on Friday! Always fun to do stuff out of the ordinary.
This week I've been studying the book of John, I think one of my favorite chapters in all of the scriptures is Chapter 14, I love his promise that he will send us His spirit while we are here on the earth. It truly is a comforter, and it's something worth striving to be worthy for every day.
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
18 I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you.
I love you all!
Elder Robb
Monday, March 7, 2016
Week 36
Hey fam and friends!
This was a busy week! Lots of rain and lots of walking. We finally met a referral we got from church headquarters. She said she met with the missionaries about 5 years ago and really wanted to get baptized but had to work on a lot of different setbacks. Well, she referred herself and all she has to do to get baptized is quit smoking! She's made lots of progress from what it sounds like. We're going to teach her the lessons again. She's super cool, and even told us she wants to get baptized but wants to wait until her birthday when she will turn 33 . . . . because that's the age Jesus was when he died and she thinks that would be pretty sweet.
We also had a really good zone training. They had us all meet together to watch the new Easter video the church came out with and we went over our Easter initiative. You all can't watch it until next week but we got to see it early. :) It was pretty cool. They revamped the mission presidency, so the counselor's and their wives bore their parting testimonies. Then we all met in individual zones for some training. It seems like the mission is discouraged to say the least. I'm on the west side, which is generally more successful than the east. They've been focusing a lot on increasing our faith and our expectations. Our zone leaders had us all write out our discouraging thoughts on a piece of paper and then we had a "baptism of fire" where we burned all of them outside the stake center.
Later that day, we were walking to where we had planned to tract when we street contacted an older guy, "C". We had a really good conversation and we were close enough to the church that we ended up offering him a church tour and he accepted! Bishop lives right across the street, so we got him to come with us as well. The spirit was really strong when we were in the sacrament room discussig the atonement. He had lots of questions, it was really coo. He said he won't be coming to our ward because of some health issues, he can't make it until the 1pm session, but it's all good!
Saturday was another really awesome day this week. We were walking home to our apartment for lunch when the mom of some girl scouts yelled at us across the street "free cookies for the Mormons!" I was so pumped. A free box of Tagalongs. What a miracle. Later in the day we were walking through Cowen Park when we sat down to a guy on a bench and ended up talking to him for a couple of hours. We set up a church tour with him for this Tuesday. he was a super cool guy. It's always fun to meet nice people like that.
One of my favorite verses that I came across this week is in 1 Nephi 5:9, "And it came to pass that they did rejoice exceedingly, and did offer sacrifice and burnt offerings unto the Lord; and they gave thanks unto the God of Israel." They gave thanks to God not only in their voices (vs. 8) but in sacrifice as well. It reminds me of what Kevin Garnett used to say, "actions speak louder than words!"
This was a busy week! Lots of rain and lots of walking. We finally met a referral we got from church headquarters. She said she met with the missionaries about 5 years ago and really wanted to get baptized but had to work on a lot of different setbacks. Well, she referred herself and all she has to do to get baptized is quit smoking! She's made lots of progress from what it sounds like. We're going to teach her the lessons again. She's super cool, and even told us she wants to get baptized but wants to wait until her birthday when she will turn 33 . . . . because that's the age Jesus was when he died and she thinks that would be pretty sweet.
We also had a really good zone training. They had us all meet together to watch the new Easter video the church came out with and we went over our Easter initiative. You all can't watch it until next week but we got to see it early. :) It was pretty cool. They revamped the mission presidency, so the counselor's and their wives bore their parting testimonies. Then we all met in individual zones for some training. It seems like the mission is discouraged to say the least. I'm on the west side, which is generally more successful than the east. They've been focusing a lot on increasing our faith and our expectations. Our zone leaders had us all write out our discouraging thoughts on a piece of paper and then we had a "baptism of fire" where we burned all of them outside the stake center.
Later that day, we were walking to where we had planned to tract when we street contacted an older guy, "C". We had a really good conversation and we were close enough to the church that we ended up offering him a church tour and he accepted! Bishop lives right across the street, so we got him to come with us as well. The spirit was really strong when we were in the sacrament room discussig the atonement. He had lots of questions, it was really coo. He said he won't be coming to our ward because of some health issues, he can't make it until the 1pm session, but it's all good!
Saturday was another really awesome day this week. We were walking home to our apartment for lunch when the mom of some girl scouts yelled at us across the street "free cookies for the Mormons!" I was so pumped. A free box of Tagalongs. What a miracle. Later in the day we were walking through Cowen Park when we sat down to a guy on a bench and ended up talking to him for a couple of hours. We set up a church tour with him for this Tuesday. he was a super cool guy. It's always fun to meet nice people like that.
One of my favorite verses that I came across this week is in 1 Nephi 5:9, "And it came to pass that they did rejoice exceedingly, and did offer sacrifice and burnt offerings unto the Lord; and they gave thanks unto the God of Israel." They gave thanks to God not only in their voices (vs. 8) but in sacrifice as well. It reminds me of what Kevin Garnett used to say, "actions speak louder than words!"
Love you all!!
Elder Robb
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