November 26, 2018 - The Greenie

Elder Cathemer

These past two weeks have been absolutely crazy. Sorry I didn't send out an email last week. Our p-day was changed to Thursday and I ran out of time to write one.  First things first, the greenie. I was in a trio with the zone leaders (Elder Rasmussen and Elder Johnson) as I was waiting to pick up my new companion. I learned so much during those few days and also got some more sweet music. (almost 5000 songs haha) my new companion is Elder Cathemer. He's fresh from the MTC but doesn't really need much training. He's from Ogden Utah and he likes to go rock crawling like me! We have a lot more in common but I will spare all of that for later. He is a little bit older so he is much more prepared than I was expecting and ready to get to work. On Thanksgiving, we had 2 dinners and they were both great. At one of them, all of the people were like half my size not joking and so I felt really out of place there but the food was good.

We had a lot of amazing lessons, We have started teaching the Bates family. They are super cool and the dad has been a member for a long time but knows very little about the gospel. They all seem to be really into the lessons but we have to teach very basic principles so we don't give them too much information and overwhelm them. We have taught them about the restoration and they loved it. They have been reading from the Book of Mormon and love it as well.

Brandon still has not been baptized but he plans on it happening soon! We are teaching him a lot but for him it's mostly just a review, he already knows everything.

It has been a long two weeks but we are seeing a lot of success as we do our best to be diligent and follow every prompting from the spirit that comes our way. We have found quite a few people through knocking on random doors. Knocking on doors has been one of the scariest things for me to do on my mission. When you are walking up to someone on the street, you can see them and assess what they have in their hands or if they’re drunk. But with doors, you're standing two feet away from something and you have no idea what they may do. But it turns out most people are really nice and if they don't want to talk then they will just close the door after seeing us.

One of my favorite scriptures from this past week is found in Helaman 10:4-5. It talks about how if we work with unwearyingness that the lord will bless us forever. He will make us mighty in word and deed, in faith and in works. I loved this as soon as I read it and took it as a promise to myself. When I look back on the person that I was before my mission and who I am now, the change is amazing. As I have worked diligently and sought the Lord’s council in all that I do, he has definitely strengthened me a lot in every aspect of the work.

I love this gospel and how much it truly blesses each and every person. Many people do not know that they are looking for the gospel but once they have it, they can't go back without wanting more. 

Sorry this email is kind of a mess. I'm tired from playing basketball with all of the other elders.

-Elder Robbins

Elders Robbins, Tuttle, Cathemer