March 18, 2019 - Temple trip with Reed!

This past Tuesday flew by. We left around 2:30pm to go with Reed, who is a recent convert, to the temple! We were able to go through the Visitor Center beforehand and had a wonderful experience there. Reed commented on the spirit there and how strong it was for him and we weren't even in the temple yet! He was able to perform sacred ordinances for many of his family members which was such a special experience. We also had exchanges. I was with Elder Mathew's, he replaced me in Tillamook so he had a lot to fill me in on. We ended up sleeping over at the other elder’s apartment for the night because one of them was heading home early the next morning. So then we were in a trio for about 2 hours until we exchanged back. It's always nice to come back home even if it isn't home and be with familiar people. Lincoln City has had some super nice weather and it has been absolutely beautiful. We have dropped a few people who weren't willing to progress or change their life around which is always sad but there are always new people who are ready!

We have a lady we are teaching who freaked out on us and was telling us that she's done because she's been called names and all of this other stuff, well later in that phone call we found out it was her family and not even anybody from the church so we were able to calm her down and we are still going to be teaching her. Pretty crazy because it all happened so fast and we had no idea what to do haha.

We got transfer calls late Saturday night and Elder Nelson will be leaving to Bend! He will be with one of my trainer’s Elder Ward! Super excited for him to go there because I've heard it is amazing. My new companion will be Elder Fish. He just barely got done being trained and I have no information on him other than that!

The Lord definitely knows who we are, each of us personally by name. We are each his children and he cares about us more than we will ever understand. Don't ever forget it!

 -Elder Robbins

Exchanges with Elder Mathews

Elder Nelson

So long Elder DeHart!

Elders Nelson, Robbins, Mathews, Eldridge, Dehart

March 11, 2019 - Sister Tateoka called us bread

Elders Robbins & Nelson

Right now I'm sitting in the prettiest place writing this email. See pics at the end. This past week was pretty wild, but we saw soooo many small and large miracles happen here in the Lincoln city ward. I have to start with how beautiful the coast is at sunset though. This is something I didn't get to experience much in Tillamook. During the summer, we were in by the time the sun actually went down. It is nice being right on the coast, for the views especially. The weather here has been amazingly beautiful. On Sunday it was almost 60 degrees and felt so nice. I'm loving it here right now but if it were in the middle of winter I would probably be saying otherwise haha. This past Monday we had a lesson with a lady named Kelley. She has been meeting with missionaries for a few months but it just never seemed to click for her. Well this lesson seemed to enlighten her understanding of the gospel as we studied from the Book of Mormon and were able to bring many simple truths to the surface of her understanding. It is so fun to be a missionary when you see people light up as she did. I don't know how to describe it I just know it's amazing.

The church came out with some new safety videos called "the safety zone". Well let me tell you, I'm getting really tired of the intro because in every single video it plays what seems to be 10 times. The material in the videos is pretty good though. There are 3 main hosts and 2 are guys and they just bicker back and forth all throughout the videos. It’s pretty funny for us elders because that is what we do with our companions all day long haha. It's always in the nicest and loving way possible though. 

We had a lesson with Mary and she made us some sandwiches. I'm still not sure how much I trust that sandwich I ate needless to say I trusted the lord wouldn't let me die if she put something in it and I am still here so I think I'm safe. She also has a cat, it's real name is Cinnamon but Elder Nelson named it squeaky cat because when it tries to meow it more of squeak it's pretty hilarious. It destroyed Elder Nelson's hand the other day.

We had zone conference on Friday. The funniest thing that happened is Sister Tateoka comes out and says you're all whole wheat bread. This threw us all off and we're just like um what. And then she proceeded to tell us that we're all whole wheat bread because we have character and substance instead of wonder bread which is just white fluff as she described it. It was pretty hilarious. A pretty common theme that I saw at this Zone Conference was that we all need to have more gratitude in our prayers. This is something that has helped me out a ton as I have been learning more about Jesus Christ and what he went through to perform the Atonement. I have been able to be much more appreciative of what he actually did for each of us.

There is a recent convert here named Reed. He's a surfer dude and super funny. Well this upcoming Tuesday we will be going to the temple with him to do baptisms for the dead! He is so excited and just gets more and more excited every day as we teach him more about the temple.

Every second Sunday we are asked to come to Ward Council. Usually there is a spiritual thought so the guy who was in charge was having a hard time speaking so it looks at me and goes Elder Robbins do you have a scripture to share? I said sure even though I didn't then Alma 37:37 came into my mind and how we need to rely on God in all that we do morning and night because he lends us breath every single day as stated in the Book of Mosiah. It really turned into gratitude spiritual thought talking about how blessed we are to be alive for another day and to be able to live, and to live in this free land and do as we please. How blessed are we to have the gospel of Jesus Christ and to know that he is our Savior and Redeemer. We have so many blessings all around we just need to seek them out of God's hands and thank him for all we do have already.

 -Elder Robbins

The Knoll

Sean

March 4, 2019 - Why are you wearing that?

Sorry this may be a shorter one but this was a pretty wild past week. First off, for the title I saw a wild oregonian this past week, not something I want to see again. Basically this guy was wearing a black skirt with a pink shirt that hung way too low, he had on cowboy boots and lipstick with a gnarly beard. It was not the prettiest of sights. We also met a witch that day. We tried to talk to this one guy and all he says is you don’t want to talk to me, I’m a witch lol. He had on pants that were waaaaay too tight. Needless to say, it was a good but very interesting week. We also had exchanges, I was with Elder Schults who killed off one of my previous companions Elder Mcelmurry So that was fun to hear how he was doing near the end of his mission.

Elders Robbins, Schults, King, Nelson

On that exchange, we were able to teach a few lessons. One of the people we are teaching almost dropped us but we saved it barely. We also found another guy who was interested but then within the next couple days told us we had the wrong phone number. That’s fine though.

We had a great lesson with a lady we are teaching named Raquel. I’m not sure if I‘ve mentioned her to you all yet or not but she is awesome. She has been showing forth so much faith and is so willing to turn her life around to be walking upright with God. It’s an inspiration to me that through Christ we can do hard things during this life.

The weather here has been super nice but I found out that during the summer it really doesn’t get over 70 degrees because of the ocean breeze. It will be nice to be on the coast for 2 summers in a row but I know it will be brutal coming back to Utah once summer hits lol. This past Saturday I finally got a taste of the touristy part of Lincoln City. There were people all over and it was so warm outside. It was nice.

Next to the movie theatre here in town there is a sword shop. All of the elders came down for p-day and wanted to go and check it out so we did! They had a bunch of super cool replicas of video game swords and different swords used throughout history. Don’t worry mom, I didn’t buy a sword or knife haha.

One cool thing that I learned this past week is that the Atonement has a physical symbol and this is it. All throughout the scriptures there are scriptures that say something along the lines "yet his arms are stretched out still". The Lords arms are always stretched out to us and it is something if we are looking in the right direction. When a parent comes home and sees his kid what do they do?? They put their arms out for a big hug. I believe this is how it will be once we see God again. We will be so excited and run to each other in a big hug. What a glorious hug that will be. And then he will say welcome home and we will be in Paradise living with God again. We will become one with God. That is a purpose of the atonement, after all it’s right in the name: at-one-ment. At one coming together. Our savior Jesus Christ has made this possible.

 -Elder Robbins

February 25, 2019 - Two many exchanges

Hello everybody. This past week we had 2 exchanges. I was in Dallas Oregon for both of them. The first elder I was with was Elder Turner. He is of the rare alien race of Oklahoma and not a utard as many here in Oregon say. I like the great walled city of Salt Lake better though haha. Elder Turner and I had a ton of fun together and got to teach a ton of super awkward lessons. My second exchange I was with Elder Harkey who is getting ready to go home at the end of this transfer. We too had a ton of fun and did not teach any awkward lessons but the one lesson we did teach the family had a kid they called Bubba. He was climbing all over the place and screaming as he ran back and forth. He even almost put their cat in the toilet. It was pretty hilarious.

On Saturday evening we had dinner with some less active members of the ward. Well they are both super hilarious and they were just bickering back and forth in the kitchen and Elder Nelson and I are cracking up because it was so funny. Then Shane the dad pokes his head around the corner all excited and said "guys I got the eagle brownies but only double chocolate". He calls ghiridelli brownies eagle brownies because he can't remember what they are actually called just like I can't spell it. We didn't end up getting eagle brownies that night but we will tonight!

This past Sunday we had 3 people at church and they all loved it. Which is funny because I had a really hard time paying attention haha. Raquel is one of the lady's we have been working with since I got here. She has been progressing incredibly fast and has such great faith. Just a few more things to teach her about and then she will be ready to enter the waters of baptism. Sorry I don't have too much else to tell you about or pictures haha. 

-Elder Robbins