Dear Family and friends,
Well a few months ago I had the subject line of welcome to the Himalayas. Good heavens, that back then was like a day at the beach compared to this past week. No we barely got more than two inches of snow, but boy it's been cold. Turn into a popsicle after about 37 seconds. Geeze Louise. That's okay. We have a car and coats. 40-50 mph winds yesterday that brought the temps well below 0. Poor sister Byrd would have been swept away like a cat in a tornado. So attendance was a little lower yesterday. I was supposed to accompany for a musical number in Sacrament Meeting yesterday, but we found out mid Saturday that we had Stake Coordination the next morning at 8. ..so that was a no go. But it was a good meeting and we're in a great stake.
Speaking of, I saw Sister Coe in the hallway at church and she was like "Elder Robins, I've been told by my sister Kortney Myers, to keep an eye out for you. Nice to finally meet you." We got talking for a bit and now I can see a little resemblance. She gave a great talk in the 2nd Ward sacrament meeting. She talked about Love and how miracles always come when love is part of the equation of our lives of discipleship. And I can attest to that. It is so easy to go through the motions as a missionary and just do things because you know you have to. And sure you get things done, but there's no real progress made. I learned this week especially that when I stopped thinking at a million mph as I tend to do and really just focused and listened to the people I was working with, it all just kind of fell into place and felt GOOD!
Rob Howell is a recent convert of about a year. Such a good man with a sincere heart and has all the intentions of doing and being good. He is trying each day to live the gospel. And I'm pretty sure he found the church through a bbq that the missionaries were at. He struggles with smoking, but we bought him a huge bag of dum dum lollipops because the stick of the lollipop is a perfect gimmick for his mind to mistake it for a cigarette. He had a nasty fall two weeks ago, which I think I already mentioned, but with that fall he broke his upper lip bone thingy and had a concussion...and he's been feelin the symptoms of the concussion. Headaches, stuttering and slurred speech, he wants to sleep a lot etc. And I had offered him a blessing before, but he politely declined. This time I did so with a little more encouragement and with promised blessings. Well he accepted, and since people are now calling us "Batman and Robin" (BERGman and robins just in case Ya didn't catch that), he asked for Robin to do the blessing part. This experience took me back to AC when we had that crazy experience giving Mike Martinez a blessing and he stood up and walked. Rob looked up afterwards and asked if I had felt "that" and I said "feel what?" "Did you feel that going into your hands? I actually felt my headache leaving the top of my head and going into your hands or somewhere." I didn't really feel anything. But in that moment and in that blessing I felt a love for Rob that I hadn't felt before. I felt the Savior's love for him, and I think that love has the power to carry our love, however mortal and limited it may be, to a much deeper and more profound level. It was a powerful moment. The pain in his jaw subsided and he was at church the next day. Stuttering gone and everything. Nothing short of a miracle.
The Lord never ceases to teach us powerful lessons that change and refine us, IF we let them. Last night we went to the Yi's and it was Sheila's birthday so there were over 20 people there. It was a fiesta! Food, mormon friendly drinks and everything! It was fun and in the midst of it all, we were able to teach a few lessons. It was actually kind of fun to teach them all and they are just soaking it up, especially Kiwi and Kyle, 16 and 12 respectively. Kyle said to us yesterday "It's kind of weird, I understand all of this stuff better than what I'm learning at school."
"You know why that is?" I inquired. "When the Holy Ghost teaches us, we remember and understand a lot better and often faster. So the Holy Ghost is helping you get ready for baptism." It's been so much fun teaching this family. I've never taught a family quite like this, and I love it. There's nothing like bringing a family into the fold. She said yesterday that she just felt so loved and welcome and like this is where they need to be.
We taught a zone training on being smart and the STL's trained on gaining the trust of the members. So much of missionary work can be dull and boring if we get caught up in the thick of it. So working smarter will help us be more efficient and bring more of His children home. And if we have "a portion of his spirit to go with" us we will be able to do that. ️Alma 17:9
Love you all,
Elder Jake Robins
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