April 30, 2018 - Crazy Cinnamon Roll Lady!

This past week it doesn't seem like a ton happened. The first part of the week was absolutely beautiful but then Friday hit and it was just cold and rainy. Here in Tillamook when it rains almost nobody is out so it makes it super hard to proselyte out on the streets. So my companion and I are trying to get creative with finding.  A few funny things have happened but I think the funniest one was a cop started dancing by this dance studio with a bunch of the kids that were there. Then later that day this car floored it by us trying to scare us and there was a cop right there... Yeah he got pulled over haha! Another day we were walking and this lady came running out of her home and it kind of startled us because she was coming straight for us yelling but she asked us if we wanted cinnamon rolls. They were super good! Apparently she makes them every day and gives them to homeless people. She was super nice!

We have an investigator named Richard who we are getting really excited about! He has been in our area book for a long time but really hasn't met with missionaries since just before I got here. He is loving everything he has learned so far and came to church this past Sunday without us asking him. It was his second time. He went on a trip to Utah and went to the St. George temple and absolutely loved it! He said that he hopes to make it into the temple next and so we have high hopes for him! We've been dropping a lot of people recently also that we just haven't been able to get in contact with. We are trying to make more time for finding. Not a lot of people here want to learn so that is sad. We have our hopes up though!

Even though it's hard and rainy at times, I'm still loving it out here! You absolutely cannot beat the scenery of this coast. The mission is great and I'm learning a ton! Love you all!

Here's a goofy picture from Fred Myers today because I didn't take any pictures this week.

April 23, 2018 - New Companion!!

So long Elder Rogers!

Welcome Elder McElmurry!

This past Tuesday I dropped off Elder Rogers and picked up Elder McElmurry! It's so crazy that another transfer has already gone by and that I'm coming up on 6 months soon! It doesn't feel like that much time has gone by but I have loved almost every moment of it that I can remember haha. 

Elder McElmurry is a ton of fun so we have a good time. We have both been trying to learn to juggle and hopefully by the end of this transfer we will be able to do 2 person juggling. Talk about companion unity!

This past week has been so beautiful here. The weather has been super nice and lots of people have been out which is great for the work! We have been able to find a few new potential investigators and some of the conversations we have had with people have been pretty hilarious. As crazy as a mission is, it is still one of the best things ever!

I have been studying a lot about diligence and one of my favorite scriptures I have found about it is Moroni 9:6. I absolutely love it! The scriptures are what has really been helping me get through my mission because without them it's hard to teach people but the stress is crazy so the scriptures have really helped me with that. 

We had an investigator come to church on Sunday! Her name is Carly and she is one of the coolest lady’s I've met since being out on my mission! She has recently been looking for answers to a lot of questions she has and she has expressed to us that what we have been showing her has been helping! She absolutely loved church and the people that are there. The spirit is always so strong in church and so it's amazing to me that other people can have that same opportunity to feel it also! Carly calls us her boys and whenever we come up to her home and her friends see us, they yell out your boys are here! It's pretty funny.

I'm doing really good right now and am really starting to enjoy Tillamook even though it smells like cow crap everywhere you go. I've heard it only gets worse as the summer goes on... On Tuesday we went down south and Elder McElmurry had never seen the ocean coast so we went to Haystack Rock real quick and tried to talk to a few people there with no luck... that’s okay though, it was still a beautiful view. Please excuse my horrible facial expressions haha

April 16, 2018 - 20 Minutes!! (& 5 MONTHS!!!)

Well this past week has been pretty uneventful it seems like but as I type more will come I hope. Elder Rogers is being transferred to the Lebanon zone. My new companion will be Elder McElmurry. It's weird to think that I will have 4 companions in 4 transfers. I must really need to learn some things and quick too. The coolest thing that happened this past week was yesterday (Sunday). We have an investigator named Rob who really has struggled with getting out of the house to come to church. He messaged us asking us a question and we reminded him that church starts in 20 minutes! He said I can make that - I will be there! And he was. That was his first Sunday at church and he absolutely loved it. He had such a great time and had such a spiritual experience. So hopefully he will keep coming! Its been raining almost nonstop this week, so I am excited for the sun to start coming out so that I can dry out. haha

I have started to read the New Testament in the mornings and it has been such a blessing to see how the Savior would act in different situations. He truly is the perfect example for each one of us. The stories in just the first few books where I have got to have been so powerful and it radiates with the spirit. I love learning about the Atonement of Jesus Christ but even more, I love learning about the impact that it has had on other people. I want to hear some of the impacts that it has had on your guys lives so share them with me!

Today we took some of our p-day to help somebody move! It was so worth it though because of how much I always learn from that man! He has so many cool movie props and swords and all sorts of cool stuff. I can't think of much else though so I think that's about it!

Um ya... TRUCKS!!!!

• Tomorrow we are heading into salem to drop off elder rogers and pick up the new companion. the new companions name is elder McElmurry i believe is how you spell it. i have heard of him before but dont know much about him. I've heard he's a great guy! He is coming from Lebanon Ysa. He will be the senior companion and the new district leader. Elder Rogers is going to 3lakes down in Lebanon it's south of Stayton. I don't know how many new missionaries are coming in if any are. 
• its unusual to have 4 companions in 4 transfers let alone my first 4 transfers. 
• Because of some experiences I've had, I know this is where I'm supposed to be!
• We see the mission president 2 times a transfer. We have zone conference once every transfer.

April 10, 2018 - Temple trip!

Hey everybody! Sorry I have like no time today! This past week was great though and we were able to find quite a few new people to teach and had some really good lessons. On Saturday, it was basically a downpour all day long and it was horrible but we survived! On Sunday, we taught our gospel principles class on the atonement. We used some of Elder Lynn G. Robbins talk from General Conference on repentance. What the Savior did for us is absolutely amazing. The talk is pretty good too go look it up! Thanks for all of the love and support! Here's two pictures from the temple today! Love yall! -Elder Robbins

Other info:) 

• The Portland Temple is beautiful and inside of it there is a little garden!!! Our ward mission leader and his wife drove us. Its about 1.5 hours away. It's so pretty and the celestial room was gorgeous. It was good to go through the temple again. I love going to the temple... I should have taken better advantage of it before my mission... 
• Yesterday was so beautiful but Saturday it was just a downpour here! On Sunday we taught the gospel principles class, it's amazing what the spirit can do and teach when you just get out of the way lol.
• Re: my hair! It went well I guess it doesn't look horrible lol. It's just short for my liking. I tried with the scissors at first but that didn't work well so i just used the longest clipper I had haha.

April 2, 2018 - General Conference

This past week has been great and I have learned so much. We are able to do service twice this past week and one of them was working on a car! It was so fun and we have been able to find lots of new people. The best part of this past week was General Conference. I absolutely loved it even if I did fall asleep for a little while. Whoops. I must have been tired. haha. I have gone back through and listened to them though. They have the audio of each of the talks up on lds.org already. I learned so much about myself and how I can better help the people here in Tillamook. My favorite talk was in the Saturday afternoon session - the one that Elder Bednar gave about Christ and his attribute of meekness. Often this attribute is meant to replace for weakness but I don't see it as that at all, it is a great strength.

These past couple of days I have been reading in the New Testament all about the Savior's ministry. All throughout it he was very patient towards the people and served them to the best of his ability. He realized what his purpose was, what he had to do to fulfill that purpose, and he came here to the earth. He was a man like no other. He did things no other man can do for us so that we can live for all eternity and with God again.

In the MTC, Elder Bednar gave a talk and in it he talked about Christ and man. In situations, man tends to turn inward and wants to please himself. In those same situations, Christ would have turned outward and even though he is going through a hard time himself he would serve others. Christ was perfect like no other man was. He loves us like no other person can and he would do anything to serve us. After this General Conference, I realized how selfish I really am and how much better I can be to help other’s reach their fullest potential. Meekness will be a key part in this because I will have to be humble and patient which is hard for most people but through Christ anything is possible.

-Elder Robbins

Service on the rat rod!

Service - adding cinderblocks to moble home foundation

Searching for Big Foot! haha

Other thoughts: 
Conference was different. I think it's because its a new era for the church. I believe that with all of the new conflicts going on in the world, a new prophet who has been prepared to take on those conflicts. Each of our prophets and apostles are old and have had different walks of life so they can teach different principles better than others. President Nelson has been prepared for this for a long long time. 

Family scripture study idea: One thing that a member family does here is they call it popcorn reading. Everybody reads but you don't go verse to verse you read until you're done and then you call out someones name and then they have to start up pretty much immediately or they would laugh at them. You could call out their name at any time even in the middle of the verse and they would have to pick up where you left off. Just an idea to get everybody involved. 

In the mornings we usually have quite a bit of time to just kind of hang out and take a break. During this time I have started reading the New Testament. I am absolutely loving it. It's cool to see how Christ taught and what he did from people who were actually with him. I started about 4 days ago and I've made it to Mark yesterday. So much to learn from it. I wasn't ready to take on the Old Testament yet haha.

Zone conference is tomorrow in Forest Grove, which is like an hour away. Then we are doing exchanges right afterwards. I will be in Tillamook for the exchanges and then the zone leader, his name is Elder Semedeni will come here.  He served in Stayton before I did. He found Skip and Jina.

Love you!