The One With the New Companion 4/16/18

Hey everyone! 

So this week has been pretty sweet. I got a new companion, who is pretty awesome. We are working with a member who has been less active to go to the temple and take out his endowments. He has been less active for a while and all of the sudden wants to go take his endowments. We are working with him and his wife, who is not a member. 

Lodi is pretty awesome! Sorry this is such a short email!! Love you all!

Here is a message I (Joseph's mom) received from the mother of Joseph's companion, Elder Clement from Dallas: My son gave a glowing report about Elder Robins today in his email! He loves working with him and shared a sweet story about your son sharing the most tender sweetest testimony with a small group of gangsters that were trying to mock them. He said their faces changed in seconds and they left the conversation after the gangsters offered them protection against anyone that “messed with them”. It really impressed my dear elder.

Elder Robins and Elder Clement

Lodi missionaries at the Love Lodi Service Event

The One in Lodi 4/9/18

Hey everyone!!

This week was pretty cool. We ate dinner with a family where the wife is from Peru (not to pick favorites but peruvian is probably my favorite kind of food), so that was a wonderful tender mercy. We did some tracting, met with less active members, and tried to D&C 4 the heck out of this area.

We went on exchanges with the zone leaders and got to knock on a lot of doors. We were able to teach an awesome lesson to a recent convert named Juan. Haha we actually had dinner with the same family, because the Peruvian sister's parents in law attend the english ward... the pizza we had there was pretty good.

Later in the week we got to attend stake conference, where this one guy who got his mission call to Peru shared an awesome testimony about the prophet Joseph Smith and the restoration.

Last night we got transfer calls and I am going to meet my new companion tomorrow.

Sorry this is a short email, I'll send pictures, love you all!

The One Where We Don't Go To China 4/2/18

Hey everyone!

This week was pretty great, we went to go contact a former investigator on Monday and had a great lesson. We set a return appointment for the following Thursday. When we stopped by, she told us to come by the following hour, and when we came by again, she told us to come back another hour. So when we finally came back the third time, she let us in and we had a lesson with her and her friend. We shared the entire restoration and left them with a baptismal date. They were super cool people and we are excited for them in the future.

Conference was pretty awesome as well. For the big announcement, my companion and I cast lots- he thought they were going to change Sunday worship to every other week and I thought they were going to open China to missionary work... We were both shocked to see that my companion's ridiculous idea was much closer than mine was!

Regardless, we were both very excited for the new changes that they made, and we are looking forward to see what happens next!

Hope everyone had a great Easter, love you all!

The Good, the Bad, and the Hungry 3/26/18

Hey everyone!

So this week we had lots of rain, lots of sunshine, and no in-between. We were walking around Friday morning, knocking on doors, it was nice and sunny, and out of nowhere a giant wave of rain hit us! We just stood there, defenseless, and walked home in the baking sun while we were dripping wet.

We were able to teach a few lessons this week, one to an investigator who we haven't seen in a lot of weeks. The lesson went pretty well and they are going to pray about baptism. They fed us dinner and while we were talking about knitting (a subject I know absolutely nothing about), she offered to make us a scarf! We're pretty excited about that.

So Saturday was pretty sweet, while we were making our way back to the apartment, some random couple picked us up and took us to get pizza, which was pretty cool. And then later that night, one of the missionaries gave us food from a nearby taco place that was almost too much for us to eat.. haha almost.

Anyway, looking forward to general conference, love you all!

The One With the Bathroom 3/19/18

Hey Everyone!

This week we spent a lot of time again updating our area book onto our phone. But we still had a great week. We are officially a facebook mission so for the first time in my life, I am on Facebook.

We had some time to proselyte this week and visited with a member who later asked a favor from us that we were really happy to do for him. We taught a lesson to one of our investigators about forgiveness, which was pretty awesome. They are going to be baptized in September (after being taught for years, the elders before us set the date).

On Tuesday, we went to visit a potential investigator that insists on us setting an appointment, but never answers her phone. So we stopped by her house, and she told us to go away and set an appointment, and as she was closing the door I told her that I had to use the bathroom. So she let us in and we had an awesome chat about how her life has been going. She told us that she and her husband had to get going but we were welcome back anytime.

Not too much else happened this week. Looking forward to when we finish the area book and start putting in some serious hours! Love you all!!

Smart Phone Fun 3/12/18

Hello everyone! This week was alright, we got our smartphones this week. Haha so we get to put all the information from there onto the digital areabook. So that mostly consists of being in our apartment and translating the paper copied to spanish and putting them on our phones. It's breathtaking.

Aside from all that, we were able to visit a few less active members. That was great, because we got to get out of the house and enjoy more than the walls in our apartment. We got a few referrals but nobody was home so we are going to try them again later this week. We had a meeting in Modesto that was used to set up the phones, which was pretty cool.

So the other day, as we were riding our bikes up to the church, I somehow ran over my own foot and slammed onto my bike, and then tried to stand up, tripped and slammed onto my bike again! That was pretty fun.

And that's about it for this week! Love you all!

The One With the Rain 3/5/18

Hey everyone! So this week we went all the way up to Jackson, which is this tiny little town an hour away from Lodi all the way up in the mountains. The referral we had wasn't home so next week we are for sure going to bring a GPS with us so we don’t get lost the first ten minutes of the trip again.

We went teaching with the counselor to the mission president on Thursday, which was an incredible experience. The potential investigators we tried to visit were all gone, but two of the people that were there invited us in and we shared the message of the Restoration with them.

Not too much is happening up here in Lodi, it's been raining a lot and we have been trying to find like crazy, haha there's another set of Spanish missionaries here so that makes 8 of us.

Have a great week love you all!

Elder Robins Goes to War With Willie Nelson 2/26/18

Hey everyone!

So this week we did a lot of tracting. Not a lot of people answered the door, and most of those that did were not really happy to see us-one guy slightly shoved my companion as he was telling us to go away- but we did see miracles. We set an appointment with a potential investigator two weeks ago that was set for last night. We knocked on the door, and the father answered and told us his son wasn't home. As he was closing the door we asked him if we could share a unique message about Jesus Christ with him. He told us he had five minutes so we went in. As we shared the Restoration with him, he grew more and more interested and had questions for us. We left after forty five minutes with him, promising to attend church and read the Book of Mormon. It was really special because when we first met him two weeks before, he was very cold towards us.

I don't know why, but everywhere we go, people seem to use country music against us. Every few doors we would knock on, people would see us through the window and crank up the country music they were listening to. I was never a huge fan before and my companion and I had to laugh because we were talking about how people use country music as a shield for the gospel as we met a man walking his dog. We asked what his dog's name was and he replied "Willie. Willie Nelson".

Hope everyone has a great week! Love you all!

My Spirit Animal

Our district

The One With the Furniture 2/19/18

Hey everyone!

This week was pretty good, we spent a lot of time tracting and contacting. We were also able to meet with some of our investigators and set appointments for this coming week. While we were walking back to our apartment the other night, this random guy stopped us and asked us if we could help him, he had a broken shoulder that was healing in a sling, and had just opened a haircutting business. We helped him move in some of the furniture that was really heavy and he showed us around the place. It was interesting to see that a lot of the furniture was antique. The guy said a prayer with us and we left.

We had interviews with the mission president the other day. As some of you know, the Modesto mission will be closing and the area will be reabsorbed in the Fresno and Sacramento missions, so our Mission President wanted us to be prepared for that.

Love you all!

My Chuck Norris pose

My 9 year old Investigator gave this to me

Chicharones

The One With the Pancake Eating Contest 2/5/18

Hey everyone!!

This week we went on exchanges with the zone leaders in south Lodi- it was pretty sweet. I went with Elder Smith (one of the mission legends). We went tracting for most the day and almost nobody answered, haha the people that did answer were all very religious.

We did knock on one door and the man was obviously not in a good mood. We started to share our unique message about how Christ's original church was gone but is now here on the Earth. With each word we spoke the man became more and more angry as he started to tap his finger on a silver sign that said "No Sol-" (we couldn't read the rest because his hand was in the way). Elder Smith said "Oh, I'm sorry if we give off the appearance of soliciting, but we are just sharing a message about Jesus Christ," and the man cut him off and shouted and informed us that we were illegally soliciting and that we had to get off his porch that moment. We feel that he may be more ready to receive the gospel in a few weeks. Personally I have always had a hard time reading things on people's porches, and do not technically solicit but that man did not seem happy to see us.

Hope you all have a great week!! Love you all!

The One Where I Shoot Myself In the Eye With Coconut Oil 1/29/18

Hey everyone! So this past Tuesday while I was getting myself ready for the day and cooking breakfast, I tried to spray my frying pan. The can was jammed so I tried to unclog the sprayer and it shot me right in the eye! It didn't feel very good so I have been pretty timid to use the non-stick spray the rest of the week.

We spent a lot of time finding this week and were able to find a former investigator named Elias. He's a pretty cool guy. He pretty much was found by the missionaries about four years ago but they never came back. Since then he has read out of the Book of Mormon and loves it, and said he would come to church with us next week.

Not a whole lot else happened this week, it was super rainy at the beginning of the week and it got super nice the last couple days.

Have a great week! Love you all!