Week 33 - Ravenna Park

Hey fam!

We had a solid week!  I got transferred to Ravenna Park in the Seattle North Zone!  It's a cool area, our ward is mostly young married grad students at UW, so it's a lot of fun!  My new companion is Elder Cole, he was actually my district leader for a few weeks after I got ET'd to West Seattle.  He's a good missionary, he's from Boise Idaho!  We don't have a car in this area, but it's small enough that we just walk and bike.

This area hasn't baptized in about a year and a half so we will have to change that!  We're working with a couple people.  One of them is "N", I love him already because he bought me E.J. Burger's on the Ave. :)  We also street contacted into another investigator earlier this week who is pretty cool, her name is "G".  She's never lived in a place longer than a year!  She's a senior in  high school and we taught her a couple times.  We're hoping she gets an answer to her prayers!

Other than that, there's not much to report.  I'm pretty short on time today just because of the holiday and so we gotta get heading out.  Here's my favorite scripture from the week though! Mosiah chapter 4!

6 I say unto you, if ye have come to a knowledge of the goodness of God, and his matchless power, and his wisdom, and his patience, and his long-suffering towards the children of men; and also, the atonement which has been prepared from the foundation of the world, that thereby salvation might come to him that should put his trust in the Lord, and should be diligent in keeping his commandments, and continue in the faith even unto the end of his life, I mean the life of the mortal body -

7 I say that this is the man who receiveth salvation, through the atonement which was prepared from the foundation of the world for all mankind, which ever were since the fall of Adam, or who are, or who ever shall be, even unto the end of the world.

Love you all!

Elder Robb

Week 32

Helloooo friends and fam!

Not anything out of the ordinary to report this week.  We had a lot of solid commitments for people to come to church but then only "A" showed up.  It was a bummer because we were really happy that we found so many new people to teach this week and they were all planning on church!

We spent a lot of time in the junction talking to people, especially with the super bowl going on this Sunday.  We were not trying to knock doors through that.  Most of the people out on the streets were those who got too drunk and got kicked out of the bars.  Some funny drunk people, some super mean!!

Well, I'm getting transferred out of West Seattle.  It's been a good 5 months with lots of ups and downs.  I'm excited to get a fresh start somewhere.  I'll let you all know where I am next week!

Something that really motivated me this week was when our District Leader came over to help us with some struggles.  We all had a good talk, then we read out of Mosiah chapter 24.  Verse 14 really stood out to me.  "And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their affliction."

The classic verse about the Lord helping us through our trials.  It's comforting to know that He is there for us, when we are doing well, and when we are struggling.

Hope you all have a good week!

Elder Robb

Week 31

Hey everyone!

Elder Woolf was pretty ill this week so we didn't go out too much, we basically only went to set lessons.  I was lucky though and went on a couple exchanges so I didn't have to stay in the apartment all week!

The first exchange I went on was to the Seahurst Spanish Branch with my district leader.  It was cool!  I learned more Spanish and had a huge nacho dinner with some members there, I didn't get to talk much because most the people they teach don't know English!  The very next day I went on another exchange with the zone leaders, I went to Myers Way Tonga with my dad Elder Follett.  It was fun!  They feed us LOTS of food!  We did some service for a YSA member, we chopped wood for two straight hours, I'm a lumberjack at this point.

 

The zone leaders cover our mission and Federal Way just so they can teach all the Tongans in the area, so there was a lot of drive time in between lessons, we had so much time that we listened to an entire talk by Jeffrey Holland called, "The Inconvenient Messiah."  It's way good.

We've been trying out some new places to eat in the area lately, especially since it's probably my last couple of weeks in West Seattle.  This week we went to Talarico's, which is supposed to be a super good pizza place  It was a cool atmosphere and the slices were huge but the pizza was sub-par!  After we left, a guy at the bus stop called us over to talk.  He spent a lot of time in Utah some years ago. 

Well "B" had us over and dropped us and told us to delete her number.  It's all good though.  Afterwards we went over to "R's" house, she's the Ethiopian lady I told you about, and she cooked us a super good meal . . . as we watched her daughter's wedding video.  She told us, "When you get off your mission, you come to me and I give you BEAUTIFUL women like that!" 

This week a really cool experience that I had was on exchange with the District Leader.  We were pretty short on time before we had to head to a member dinner so we made our focus talking to everyone that we saw.  The first few people talked to us but were just not that interested and it was kind of awkward.  But we kept going.  The next person we talked to was from South America and spoke Spanish, so I didn't talk at all but it was still cool to watch Elder Blanchard teach the whole restoration, we ended up finding 2 solid people for him to teach in just that short span of time.  There are plenty of days that we don't find a single person so it was way cool to see that happen so quickly.  The Lord blesses us for our efforts!!

I love you all,

Elder Robb

Week 30

Hey fam and friends!

Kind of a rough week!  It's hard work finding people who are prepared, and it's discouraging when the people you feel are ready stop progressing.  We met with "B" and showed her the restoration movie about Joseph Smith, she really liked it, but she didn't come to church.  We were sad, "A" surprised us though when he showed up to church, he even combed his hair for the occasion, what a good guy!

We did a lot of street contacting this week, at the Junction and on Alki Beach.  Good conversations, you meet some fun people on the streets! It pretty much rained the whole week here.  Shocker!

This week was legendary as far as meals go, we had a dinner appointment Sunday-Wednesday.  Members cooked for us on Thursday and Saturday, and we went out to eat at Spud on Alki Beach on Friday!  We eat GOOD in the Seattle mission!

We had a worldwide satellite broadcast training for missionaries this past week; it was really good!  Bednar talked about the importance of the spirit in conversion.

We met with "C" again this week, we gave her a Chinese Book of Mormon and she was super excited.  She still won't come to church, even though the Seahawks lost.  She's waiting 'til after the playoffs.  She said in China all they have is badminton and ping pong  and she gets way pumped when she comes to America and sees how big a deal everyone makes football.

This week, a verse that really stood out to me was Ezekial 36:26 "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh."  One of my zone leaders always talk about how much he hates the phrase "That's just the way I am."  It denies the Atonement and the Gospel.  What a blessing that we can have a new heart and that we can change ourselves with the help of our Heavenly Father.

Love you all!!!

Elder Robb

Week 29

HELLO FRIENDS AND FAM!!!!

Another good week in the promised land of West Seattle.  Well, this week we actually dropped a lot of our investigators.  They're all cool and like having us over but a lot of them were just not progressing for one reason or another.  The real let down was the fact that we had to let "A" go; we referred him to the Spanish elders.  We kind of felt it would help him the most, with fellowship and with understanding better.  We know he and his family will be baptized.  Now we just have to find some more!

On Saturday we had a lesson with "B", and we were really firm about getting her to come to church.  She understands why it is important, she just never comes.  We asked her for the last time and she gave us a firm NO.  So we left.  We weren't planning on coming back just because the only way she can progress at this point is by coming to church.  Of course, she came yesterday!  We were so happy, I didn't even see her when I was at the pulpit giving my talk, she came up to us afterwards and we were baffled.  She only stayed for sacrament but it was way cool.  (THIS is what he used for his talk.  He doesn't have any written notes, he relied on the Spirit to prompt him with what he should share.)

We had zone interviews with President this week.  One of the trainings that we received was how to street contact.  Lots of role play, not my favorite.  One of the counselors to the President says that we should each have a testimony of role play.  I'm not quite there yet.  We actually learned some really good stuff.  Street contacting is kind of scary but West Seattle is a great place to be for it.  We tried it out at Lincoln Park the other day.  Not much success at first but finally we ran into a really cool girl from China.  She visits her friends at the college here often.  She speaks English pretty well.  We talked for half an hour about the Book of Mormon.  When she was looking through the pictures at the front, she described, in broken English, the warm feeling she was getting in her heart.  We then explained the Holy Ghost to her.  What a cool moment.

Last night was another member-missionary fireside.  My 7th since coming out!  Always good.  This one was extra special though because Stephanie (a girl whom Elder Follett and I had taught back in North Creek) was baptized recently and spoke!  So glad that she was baptized.  She bore a sweet testimony about how she felt during her baptism.  Always good to see old friends and people we used to teach.

This week at interviews, President shared this one scripture before we all went back to our areas:

Helaman 3:27-30

"27 Thus we may see that the Lord is merciful unto all who will, in the sincerity of their hearts, call upon his holy name.

28 Yea, thus we see that the gate of heaven is open unto all, even to those who will believe on the name of Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God.

29 Yea, we see that whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and powerful, which shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course across that everlasting gulf of misery which is prepared to engulf the wicked-

30 And land their souls, yea, their immortal souls, at the right hand of God in the kingdom of heaven, to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out."

Hope you all have an AWESOME WEEK!  I love you all.

Elder Robb

Week 28

It was a good week!  Nothing super crazy or exciting, just missionary work.  We met a lot of new people this week, mostly just people who want to talk though.  It's tough, we are looking for the elect.

When we went shopping for groceries at Fred Meyer last week, they had this cool machine by the check-out area that would tell you all this information about your weight, body fat %, blood pressure, etc.  It promptly told me that I am overweight.  Fred Meyer has no chill!!!

This week I went on an exchange with my mission Dad!  He rebuked me for having a disobedient haircut and guilt tripped me into letting him cut it.  Now I look like a dingus.  It's okay though!  He helped me recognize the simple things that are necessary to strengthen my testimony.  1.  You have to have a meaningful sacrament meeting experience.  2.  You have to have sincere prayers.  3.  You have to read every day.  Church, Pray, Read = CPR.

We went and visited "A".  We gave him a Book of Mormon in Spanish and read it with him.  He really likes it, he talks about how he wants to set the example for his kids.  He came to church yesterday!  We were waiting for him in the foyer and he wasn't there in time, so we were kind of bummed out!  Turns out he snuck in and sat in the back.  He ended up sitting with two members who served Spanish speaking missions.  Everything is just working out so well with him.  He told us that we should stop by some afternoon this week so we can teach is whole family!  Miracles in West Seattle!!!

This week we went to 2nd transfer training for Elder Woolf.  It's my 4th time attending this training!  Even though it's relatively the same every time, I always get something good out of it.  This time a quote from President Monson really stuck out to me, he said "Remember that all men have their fears, but those who face their fears with faith have courage as well."  Russell M. Nelson used this quote in a talk a couple of years ago at a general conference where he invites us all to increase our faith, proclaim our faith, and let our faith show!  it's a lifelong process.  I've had such a great opportunity to do this on my mission, and I've grown so much in the process.  I've never felt so blessed and loved by my Heavenly Father and my elder brother, Jesus Christ.

Love you all!

Elder Robb

Week 27

HELLO EVERYBODY!!

Hope you all had a great new years.  I know I did.  We spent it planning. :)  It was a good first week of the new transfer!  My fifth already!  It's crazy to think there's only 17 of these.

So some good news, "B" committed to be baptized!  We had a great lesson with her about having confidence in the Lord, and then she told us of an experience she had wile watching some Mormon messaged on lds.org the previous night.  She told us that she felt like God came back into her life and that she felt His presence for the first time in a while.  We were so happy for her, and she totally recognized this as her answer.  She even ended up picking her own date.  She was planning on coming to church and everything was looking good for her.  Sunday morning she texted us and said she wouldn't be coming to church.  Her parents talked to her about the baptism and everything and felt like she was rushing into it.  It's such a bummer but it is OK.  Everything will work out in God's time.

This week we went on an exchange with our District Leader, he serves in the Seahurst Spanish branch here in Seattle Zone!  He's super cool.  He actually ended up going with Elder Woolf, while I went with his companion to their area.  It was a good time!  They cover the whole zone, some of their investigators speak English so I could teach sometimes.  I learned some Spanish while I was there!  I learned how to bare my testimony, that's all you really need.  Dad would be proud.

Our district's goal this transfer is "furthering our faith to find."  That's something Elder Woolf and I have been working on.  We got to a point where we were just doing the same thing over and over again.  It's like we were just throwing up lobs for people to reject us.  Saturday night we changed our attitudes and had so many good conversations.  We were handing out copies of the Book of Mormon left and right!  Heck, we even passed out a Spanish Book of Mormon!  We found some new people to teach and we were so stoked.

Yesterday after church we went over to "R"'s house.  She's a member who lives in our area but goes to church at the Stake Center.  She LOVES missionaries, so she told the sisters in that ward to give us her info and have us come over.  She's from Ethiopia and she's literally the nicest lady in the world.  We got there and she just gave us so much good chocolate, then she cooked an entire meal for us of salmon and rice and so much more.  Not what we were expecting!

The past couple of weeks I have been studying the first book of Samuel and I found a really great verse that I could probaby call one of my favorites now.  It's good enough that I added it to the whiteboard above my desk.  It's chapter 16, when David is chosen by the Lord as King of Israel.  Pondering this verse helped me love other people more.  It helped me have a better attitude about going out to find.  It helped me try my best to see other people as God sees them.  Verse 7 reads:  "But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."

Elder Robb