Truth Has But One Author

Howdy Y'all!

Ya know I've tried adopting a few different accents throughout my
mission, and it has just been an epic failure. I should just focus on
speaking proper English. Yikes. My academia is going to be a mess for
a while haha. No me speak good English no more. But crikey, what a
wonderful week we had!

I just loved reading Dallin's email. Kind of a similar perspective I
had in the MTC. A firehose to the face. Honestly Dal, that's not
really going to stop once you get into the field. Ha but you'll learn
that soon enough. And ok yeah, it will slow down a bit. But I wouldn't
trade this experience for anything. I am so grateful to be in a
mission that has been authorized to use Facebook for quite some time.
This past week I had a cool miracle with an investigator who I have
been teaching over Facebook for quite some time now. Her name is
Pendore Louzolo and she lives in Congo Africa. She's in her teens and
has family members who have been baptized, but for various reasons she
chose not to be baptized at the same time. So I have been working with
her on and off. We hadn't talked for several months and one night
Elder Eldredge and I were at the church and we pulled up our Facebook
app. All of a sudden she messaged me out of the blue, and she asked me
why hard things happen in life or why do bad things happen to
good people? She told me that she recently lost her father, and that
she and her mom were taking it especially hard. I sent my condolences and
then using Google translate from French to English and back again, I
shared scriptures from Alma and a simple testimony. It was a powerful
experience to just be typing my testimony and being able to feel the
spirit. She was uplifted and very grateful for my simple words and I
was grateful that I was ready to respond. What a miracle it is modern
technology allows us to talk with our brothers and sisters halfway
across the world. The Lord truly is hastening his work.

Went on exchanges with Elder Child who serves in Broomall and we
discussed what it takes to have a fulfilling mission experience. And
really what it comes down to is whether or not you put your heart into
it. I've been trying to work on that a lot lately. We had a wonderful
lesson with our investigator Vicky and she loved the plan of salvation
and loves what she read in the Book of Mormon. Our investigator
Anastasia also made a very important decision to get baptized this
weekend. Her family and friends came all the way from New York, about a 4 hour drive. They all seemed to really enjoy the baptismal service
and Anastasia was in tears afterwards. I was filled with the spirit as
I realized that I have been commissioned by Jesus Christ to bring my
brothers and sisters home. Most of the people I work with, I would
never have guessed  would play such an integral part in my life. But I
feel changed and blessed because of their influence and because of the
opportunities to work with them.

Oh hey! Guess what! The whole Yi family came to church yesterday! We
were busy filling the font and running around like 5 year olds with
lollipops from the bishop's office, so we weren't really looking for
anyone. But we had invited them a night or two before. And so i looked
down the hallway and see not just Shiela, but all four of the younger
kids too! She just about didn't come because the 12 year old Kyle was
fussing. But she got em all in the car and they made it. Oh we were
just so excited. We set the oldest daughter Kiwi with a baptismal date
for the middle of March. And then they came back several hours after
church to Anastasia's baptism and Kyle told us he wanted to get
baptized too! A family. We were just in shock. Still kind of are. Now
surely the hurdles and obstacles will come, but they were looking for
the gospel when the Spirit prompted us to stop by two less active
young men in the ward. So Shiela and the four kids are all nonmembers,
but she has two older sons who are less active. She was active for
four years but didn't get baptized. Oh it's all falling into place,
just in the Lords timing.

We also met a kid named Nick who is Alli's age. Good heavens, he must
be Einstien's great grandson. The kid's a wizard of knowledge.
Definitely put the two of us to shame just in our doorstep
conversation. His mom was nice but as  of now doesn't want us in the
home teaching, the dad lives elsewhere and is less active and wants
nothing to do with the church. He wasn't as nice on  the phone as the
lady we called a few weeks ago who knew nothing about the referral we
had gotten. I swear, I have no clue how the church gets all this info
with the individuals knowing nothing about it. They hire CIA
investigators then call the missionaries to be professional stalkers.
And if we can't get you at your door, we'll FACEBOOK stalk you! Ha too
real. But we do get some not so fun experiences, as well as some good,
like those with Nick, from referrals or visiting members that we
haven't yet met.

On Saturday Varsha came with us to the Fulop's house for a cheesecake
dessert. Can't go wrong with Cheesecake Factory. The Fulop's both have
incredibly moving conversion stories. One coming from Christian
scientists and the other from a rock bottom plummet into worldliness
and sin. The Spirit was strong and after talking about the Joseph
Smith story, we talked about truth and how man can't just make up
truth. There is no such thing as moral relativism. Truth has but one
author. And whether or not man believes in that author or the truth He
reveals, the truth and its accompanying laws and principles remain. I
love that. I love that we have absolute truth in this church. And how
do we know, the Holy Ghost. "And by the power of the Holy Ghost, ye
may know the truth of ALL things." Not just some. "Believe in God;
believe that He is and that he created all things." Mosiah 4:9
believe, ask, and you can know. How true that is. Varsha walked away
feeling strengthened in her resolve to find and act upon truth.

Love you all, make someone smile every day!



Elder Jake Robins