February 11, 2019 - God Cares

I am so glad to be back here on the coast and I love it here in Lincoln City already! We have a ton of awesome people we are working with here and we're able to put a few of them on date for baptism as well! One of my favorite people we are working with right now is named Mary. She is a super cool lady and has been meeting with missionaries for about 9 months now. She has been kind of on and off with progressing and not progressing. This past week we had two lessons with her and they were both super powerful. The first one she had read the Book of Enos and got stuck on one verse (15 if you're wondering). That verse spoke to her soul and had so much power. We were able to testify of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and the spirit was very strong.

The second lesson was very powerful as well, we talked all about the sacrament and she had some great questions and insights. She almost committed to be baptized but couldn't quite yet. She committed to come to church as well but sadly didn't make it.

On Sunday we did our studies in the afternoon because we were busy in the morning, well I fell asleep and when Elder Nelson woke me up I though we were going to drive somewhere for some reason but turns out we were walking. I didn't bring my beanie and my coat didn't have a hood so the wind blew right through me and the rain was soooo cold. That was probably the coldest I have been on my mission so far. We got to walk by the ocean though and the Oregon coast is beautiful, I love it.... Sometimes.

Today for p-day we went on a hike with a member named Brother Stump. It's called Drift Creek Falls. It was a beautiful hike - only problem is it was snowy and raining and it was cold because we were all soaked lol. It was still a ton of fun.

Brother Stump

One question I ask myself a lot is what makes you happy? Well my thoughts are almost always brought back to what is happiness and what is joy. I've come to the conclusion that happiness is temporary and that it can be overridden with doubt, fear or any other emotion. But joy is something that is eternal, we can still feel joy through all of the sorrow, grief or pains because joy comes in and through Christ. Joy comes when we acknowledge the small blessings that God has given to us. King Benjamin in the Book of Mosiah teaches us that the Lord lends us every breath and that he can take us from this earth at any moment.  What a blessing to be alive today and to be able to glorify God for all things. Look around a little bit in what God has given us, its beautiful how abundantly he has blessed us. One thing I think drags many people down is comparison, when we compare there is no joy. We either compare and think we are better which leads to pride. Or we compare and wish we were to be better off or had more of this or more of that. But God doesn't want us to do that, he has pre-designed for us to be here at this time and for us to feel joy in this life.

For many of you who know me, know me to be a more quiet person. There are many reasons for this but one of the biggest reasons is I didn't know where I belonged in this life and many times didn't feel like I belonged anywhere. Many of you probably feel like this and feel like God may have abandoned you. Well my word of advice to overcome this is don't you stop - keep on pushing forward. Keep stretching farther and becoming stronger but be grateful for what God has already given you. You'll realize later on that God has been right by you all along and that you do have purpose in this life. That people do care about you. Even more importantly, that God cares about you and knows you individually. He has placed us each right where we need to be whether to lift others up or to be lifted up. God cares, so we should care. We each have purpose in this life and can make an impact. Know that I care. I love you all!

-Elder Robbins