Saturday, April 7, 2018

May 9, 2016 ~ Week 34

Hello all of family and friends! We are coming off the most difficult/rewarding week of my life! During a recent Zone Training my eyes were opened to what our potential here is. We learned of two sisters in our Zone who succeeded in placing over 100 Books of Mormon in a week. Up until this point I thought that that was impossible considering that my companion and I had averaged 20-30 a week. We realized that we could do something different in order to raise our view of our potential. So we set our goals high, of placing 100 Books of Mormon this week. We realized that we would need to spend a lot more time on the street than normal as tracking just was not fast enough. So we spent 8 hours a day on the street talking to people. This increased amount of people being talked to really increased the number of answers we received, most resulting in no's. The first few days it wasn't bad, but by the third and fourth day it was wearing on us. We persevered with prayers in our hearts the entire week, and accomplished our goal of placing 102 books this week. But I learned a very lesson, I really, truly learned, in the smallest degree possible, what it was like for the Savior. Although he didn't just spend 1 week or 2 years being rejected and despised of men, he spent his entire life. I learned on a personal level what it was like to bare his cross. It shocked me the rejection that we received, but even more the ones he received. Even after giving powerful sermons to people, they still prayed that he would leave from them (Mark 5:17). Although we endure no physical abuse (just that of walking for hours and hours), we endured a lot of scrutiny, laughing, mocking, pointing fingers and so on. I feel it was only through this way that Heavenly Father could open my eyes for a brief moment to see and experience what it was like for Jesus Christ.
Looking back I don't think Ive changed a whole lot since coming on my mission, but I don't have a closer, deeper connection with my Savior Jesus Christ because of this goal that we set and worked to achieve. I feel that later don the road, this renewed connection with Him, will change me in some way.
Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of the world. It is not possible to be saved without him, but he is there waiting to apply the atonement into our lives in a physical and spiritual aspect. He loves perfectly, because he knows us perfectly. This is his church on the earth today, the only true and living church.

Love,

Vanhin Robison

Handed out the 100th Book of Mormon


May 3, 2016 ~ Week 33

April 26, 2016 ~ Week 32

April 19, 2016 ~ Week 31

Hello everybody! This week was a great week just ending splits this morning and now ready to face another week! The weather is very nice here, tempting me to go outside without a jacket on now, that's monumental. Ive worn a jacket over my suit every single day of my mission in the field here, so when my outer jacket is removed, it will be a big day! But anyways we have some awesome experiences this week! 
 
One thing that is unique is that one day everyone in Finland will say yes to the missionaries and the next day its like they all form a pact and shut every missionary down. Its a weird trend that seems to happen. People yesterday were unusually busy but that's alright. This up coming week we have Stake Conference in Tampere and then back to Tampere for Zone Training! 

We have been doing a lot of work in the area book here recently! Yesterday we completed our goal of following up with verysile person in the area book! From that we have seen a lot of investigators come about and a lot of cool places I didn't know existed here in Lahti, as we are now spreading our feelers in our area! We have also meet some really cool people this week from Vietnam, Russia, Ukraine and Africa! Although the lady form Ukraine wasn't to nice to me yesterday. We were on the bus and to start a conversation I will ask a word question because its less awkward, anyways I asked her some word and she was like hey now I don't speak Finnish, which was weird because she looked Finnish, but looks can be deceiving. She told us she was from Ukraine in her very little Finnish. Then the conversation dies because we couldn't really communicate due to he language barrier. But then her phone rings, and low and behold she answers it and speaks perfect Finnish. It was very awkward and unfortunately my witty brain couldn't come up with a comment to say, so I held my peace and tried to avoid laughing. Its amazing the extent people go to, to avoid talking to us. I don't think she is really form Ukraine now... That story took place with Elder Reeder, my MTC companion. He and I have been together now for almost 9 months now haha. He is still in my district haha! 

Our investigator form Iran fed us this week a traditional meal, the only weird part is they eat on the ground. It was a cool experience though, although nobody there spoke English and very broken Finnish. It was a quite dinner conversation on our end of the deal haha. But they were all chatting in their mother tongue of Kurdish.
That was my week! I love you all!
Love,
Vanhin Robison

Elder Robison and his DL on splits

April 12, 2016 ~ week 30

Hello Family and Friends! I hope this week was great for you all! It was a great for me! I figured that id give you a little update on our investigators here in Finland!

So for this week the highlight is definitely our investigator who had a baptismal date and then dropped us weeks before her baptism has agreed to let us begin teaching her again. We found a concern that I was not aware of before that we were able to get through by testimony baring and sharing personal experiences. She has agreed to read 5 minutes everyday in the Book of Mormon and come to church this Sunday! A few months ago I thought that she would never want to have anything to do with us again, but now she has agreed to meet with us. That truly is a miracle!
Another thing we experienced which is always difficult is one of our investigators told us he found his answer about the Book of Mormon. He said one night he had prayed to know if it was true, then that night in his dream he said he felt a dark presence, and took that as his answer that the Book of Mormon is not true. This is hard because he had done what we asked, read it and prayed about it, and sadly he believes that this is his answer about its truthfulness. Its difficult because we cannot accuse him or not asking in faith or his intent wasnt real, or things like that. But we again bore testimony to him of its truthfulness and how we know it to be true, something he cant deny. 

Our investigator whose baptismal date was for the 16th of this month is progressing very well, although he is just not ready to be baptized. We are still working on the very basic doctrines and getting him a firm testimony in it. He has gladly accepted every commitment we have given him and comes to church every week, taking notes and feeling the peace that comes with that. We have no worries with him and him being baptized, its just a matter of time. 

Our other investigator who has been investigating for a year now is doing fine, but we have hit a road block. She knows its all true, Joseph Smith the Book of Mormon, everything, but is being held back form baptism because of fear. This past week we pushed a little hard for her to be baptized and yet she said not yet. I believe it will take some kind of experience in her life and some powerful prompting from the spirit to get her to go to to baptism. But she will one day be baptized and receive the restored gospel in its fullness!

So yeah that's what its looking like for me here, we have others but these are just the main ones that we are working with and the notable experiences of the week! I haven't had many cool sotires like contacting on frozen lakes because not many are frozen thick anymore, spring has come and its beautiful! 

I hope this week has been great for you all and this next week will be better than the last! The gospel is restored, keep the faith!
Love,
Vanhin Robison
Last Run on the Ski Slope

April 4, 2016 ~ Week 29

Hello beloved family and friends! Spring has sprung in Finland, the land of the not so forzen, frozen north! It is truly a beautiful time of year and a beautiful place to be! They ahve begun to clean off the streets from all the rocks they out down for the winter and its become quite dusty due to that haha. This week we were priviledeged to to be spiritually fed by our living day prophets adn apostales of the Lord! They turly were inspired by what they had to say! 

Thsi week I was overwhelmed by the Love that God ahs for his children and how mindful he is over them, no matter the race they are or where they live. We had the opportunity of helping   out two refugees here from Iraq find a hotel, which was a struggle because niether spoke Finnish or English, so we had to communicate over phone with their friend who translated for us into English. it was a very humbling time and helped me to not think about myself as much. 

I love my mission, everyday I able to work and become better than I was yesterday! The gospel is restored and families can be together forever! Sorry I am out of time, but know I love you all!

Vanhin Robison

March 29, 2016 ~ Week 28

Man, Im not sure how much longer I can keep doing this week count thing, I think Im already off haha. But I have no cool catch phrases to use for my subject titles, I guess I could use a cool Finnish phrase for one every week! This week is, instead of saying it fits like a glove, they say it fits like a fist to the eye. Pretty interesting haha!
But anyways this week was Easter as i hope you all noticed, and that menat no tracting on Friday, Sunday and Monday because they are hollidays, so we had to resort to street contacting, and let me just say, this town is empty! Usually when the sun is out and shinning like it was this past week, the streets are fairly busy, but not this week! These Finns and their Holidays, they sure do like them! But one cool thing is that we had our day light savings out here which means we lost an hour of sleep, and boy oh boy I sure felt that one in Sunday morning when I woke up! But thats alright it will wear off evetually! But with that the days are much longer! the sun now rises at 7:30 is and set at about 8is in the evening! That really throws me off, because by the time 8  hits it is usually pitch black, but now its kind of tripy and still bright! I wonder what it will like to go to bed and wake up with the sun still shinning!
For cools news this week, I dont reall have any, we taught a whole bunch of lessons and made a whole bunch of phone calls! The main problem here is that people dont see that there is only one right church, thy think that if it teaches about Jesus Christ and points to him then it is a church come from God. There is some truth in that I suppose, but they are just missing that Christ established one church on the earth when he was here, and that one church has been restored, not reformed.
Anyways things really are going very well, as we are meeting with our investigators often and finding new people to teach everyday. The only problem is every day just kind of blurs together because we do basically the same things everyday and the days are just flying by!
Although our teaching poolis pretty cool, we teach many Finns, a Chinese girl, a few Vietnamese kids, a few Africans, a Lithuanian and a lady from France! With all that being sadi we have a very diverese level of intellegence and knowledge, ranging from intense deep dicussions about the Bible and the Book of Mormon and finding reference to back us up, to teaching about who Jesus Chrsit is, to someone who has only ever heard his name. That amkes personal study pretty fun as we have a lot of ground to cover adn a lot of different topics haha!
Things are going great here, the days are sunnier and warmer, the people are becoming nicer, but not really and the work of the Lord is moving forward! We are also very blessed to have General Conference this week end as we get to sustain Prophets, Seers and Revelators! Who else gets to do that?! As well as recieve spefic answers to specific question!
Jesus Chrsit lives! Halleluja! He is risen, and his preisthood authority is back on the earth! Have a great week everyone!
Love,
Vanhin Robison