New Investigators 9/19/16

     So this week was pretty exciting! We saw a house burn down (if you want to look that up btw).
     At the flea market I got a new hat. It reminded me of my Scheels hat and I fell in love with it. 
    Tell April and Grandpa that I say happy birthday and save me some cake, haha.
    We have a couple new investigators so that's pretty exciting. On Wednesday, we were talking to this older lady and I thought she was a member (I still don't understand when natives speak spanish). I asked her if she had a Book of Mormon and she said no so I tried to give her one after what I thought was a pretty good testimony. She got really confused and my companion had to swoop in and teach her the restoration so that was a little awkward but she accepted it!

    We are doing super well here. If you ever feel like sending my work boots and a cook book It wouldn't be inconvenient, but whatever. I love you and miss you all!

Elder Robins​

Teaching the Gospel and Spicy Peppers 9/12/16

     I am so glad to hear everything is going well at home. Haha, and I'm glad Spencer has something to remember me by. (Spencer had to clean out Joseph's car so he could use it, it was a big mess, shocker). When you get this could you please tell Spencer that my companion and a member convinced me that a chile macho was sour. I ate the whole thing. It is in fact very hot and because I am so prideful I told them to watch this as I ate another with a straight face. It wasn't so bad until the next morning in the restroom... Jeremiah 4: 19-21 should explain the rest.

     The mission field is awesome. I am still struggling with understanding spanish but my trainer hinted that I could be a trainer myself at the end of this transfer! I do want to add that my trainer is doing everything in his power to turn me Mexican. I am getting the language down, I love the food (that isn't spicey) and mexicans are super hard workers and some of the most humble people I have ever met.

     I'm in Stockton right now. It is pretty ghetto, there's a ton of homeless people and we've even been mistaken for cops once. We taught the restoration to a family the other day and they got super interested! Also, there's a few families that we are teaching that we want to challenge to get baptized!

     Hope all is well tell dad I said hi and I love him and thanks for the email (we still haven't found the mailbox key yet). 

Love, 

Joseph

Stockton Living and Ghetto Bikes 9/5/16

So this week so much has been happening that I don't know where to begin. 
I arrived in Modesto and was assigned to Stockton. It's not bad and the people here are super nice and the food is pretty good. I love all the Elders here. I still can't eat spicy food. 

My Spanish still needs a lot of work but I can definitely feel the gift of tongues working. It's a little rough because I don't understand much of what is going on around me but I have a head start compared to the other missionaries. My trainer's name is Elder Jones. He grew up in Maine and only has two transfers left. He speaks fluent spanish and most people think that he is Hispanic.

This Sunday was fast Sunday and I bore my testimony. The two things I can do now are pray and bear my testimony. The people here are so humble and most have some sort of relationship with God which really helps out a ton. For whatever reason Hispanic people can't pronounce 'Robins'. I either have to explain like the ice cream or like the sidekick, haha.  Whenever we go to the store people always ask if we work there because of the shirts and ties. I love the bike BTW. I covered it in duct tape. Apparently bike theft is a full time job for a lot of people so I had to ghetto up the bike and buy a U-lock. I really do love it here. It's pretty and this time of year is what dad would call perfect weather (clear skies, 70 degrees outside).

We hand out a lot of pass-along cards. We are actually hoping to follow up with a man named Airo and turn him into an investigator in a couple hours so wish us luck!!

I love and miss you all and I hope things are going well at home.

Ama, 

Your really white soon to be Mexican son Elder Robins

This is our zone