My Week in Pictures

Baptism of: (from left back) Nombuso, Elder Bloom, Sarah, Babalwa, Zola, me,
(Front): Johanna and her brother Paul


A typical day in Tsakane (my planner):


Then a long day ended with some cokes. Elders: Gideme, Burnett, me, Hawker, Pugsley

The weather is getting pretty hot. Rain storms are very frequent.

So yesterday we had two more baptisms. Dallis and Gladys. A husband and wife who will be a huge addition to our branch. I can't wait to see them progress. I performed the baptism for Gladys. It was way cool. I'm getting kinda lazy with pictures, I know. But I'm gonna make a picture CD soon and send a bunch home. One of my flatmates, Elder Hawker has lost a bunch of pictures from his memory cards getting corrupted. So I don't want that to happen to me. There are a lot of virus' in this country everywhere you go. It's crazy.

Well that's all for this week. Thanks for the love and support.

Love, elder robinson

Normal Week

Our mission is having a Christmas party next Tuesday. Then transfers are the next day. I should be in Tsakane for another 6 weeks, but you never know. I see my mission president every 6 weeks at zone conference where we have interviews. My district leader is my companion and he's awesome. Then my zone leaders, Elder Pugsley and Gideme are also awesome. Pugsley especially just knows how to be a good leader. He's an awesome missionary and knows how to lead without managing.

This coming Sunday we are suppose to have a husband and wife baptized. They will be interviewed this week so we'll see. The holidays have made missionary work frustrating. I mean we are extremely busy and teach a lot... but hardly anyone will come to church. The frustrating part is that you think you've had a successfull week and then noone shows up to church- and really that's what shows how interested they are. So besides that we've had a rather normal week. We got a replacement car on Thursday which was sweet. We're able to get around better. Much better. We still only have the car every other day but at least on the off days we can have the bikes now. That's awesome.

Well I guess that's all for this week. I'm safe and healthy! I love you all

Love, elder robinson

Holidays on the Mission

Thanksgiving was our flat-mate's birthday so we went to Ocean Basket and had some seafood. It was good, but not thanksgiving. I'm just excited for Christmas! I can't wait to call home so I can tell you all how it really is here. Also, can we set something up with Camilla so I can talk to her? Are they coming this Christmas? If not maybe I can talk to her over the webcam or something.

Yes, we're still walking around. It's not fun. Believe me. Phil (Hall) is going home on December 17th. I'll be there at the transfer meeting to see his family. That will be cool.

You know, here in South Africa there are a lot of poor people but not neccesarily poverty. What I mean is that like up in Zim, Sudan and central Africa it's much much worse. That being said, Americans would still be very surprised at the conditions that people live in here. It's pretty sad sometimes. I do serve in a little branch called the Tsakane branch. We have a few active priesthood holders... like three reliable ones. It's very frustrating. In fact on Sunday I led the music, passed the sacrament with Morris(a recent convert) while Wandile(a recent convert) blessed along with Rosewell (the branch clerk/everything else that people won't do). Our branch President is ok...he couldn't come to church yesterday because of work though(he's a teacher and was grading tests). So on top of all this on Sunday I also was chosen to confirm two of the 5 that were baptized last week. The fun part was that only 2 of the 5 showed up before sacrament. I was pretty mad. Luckily we were able to do it at the end of the meeting because one of them was leaving this week for a month or so...and so we had to get her confirmed. It was a stressful sacrament meeting. Besides that, our branch is pretty lame. We have a few strong awesome members, but besides that the rest are pretty lame. I mean last Sunday we had 92 at
church. This Sunday we had less than 50. Most of which didn't even show up till after the Sacrament. It gets pretty frustrating and it will only get worse around the holidays. The schools here are kind of like the year round schools back home. Except the end of the school year is now and it starts again in January. This world is messed up. People even see the light and gain a testimony here but they let it die so easy. You know how people were reading the BOM and coming to church in Africa before the church was even here? Well that takes on a new meaning for me now. I suspect that they really didn't know what was going on. Here church is just church. It doesn't mean anything more. No one is concerned with doctrine...even members of the church. I mean I can't say everyone. Once in a while you come across people who are concerned with important things...there is simply an overwhelming culture of
church in this country...it's a business.

Well enough about that. Even still I love missionary work and time is just flying by too fast. It's gonna be gone before I know it. I can't believe December is here already. We've been increasing our teaching pool and gaining smarter more competent interested people than before. So I'm excited. We'll see what happens.

I hope everything is going well back home!! I love you all.

Love, elder robinson

Really Felt Like a Rebirth

We have been without a car this whole week. On foot. The Zone Leaders who work in Springs give all 4 of us a ride to the area and then we have to walk while the other elders at least have the bikes to get around. It a lot of fun.. not. The mission president was just happy we were safe. He really didnt say much about it.

I'm pretty sure they celebrate Christmas the same way we do. That's the next holiday coming up. Next Monday we are getting together with a bunch of missionaries next Monday and having a big Thanksgiving feast. We will be able to call home for Christmas. I'm excited for that. I am not sure how its going to work but I'll let you know as soon as we get the details figured out.

I have been in Tsakane a while. In fact today is my 4 month in Africa. Then December 14th will be my 4 month in Tsakane. Time is just flying by. Usually they keep you in your greeny area about 6 months. If not it will be 4.5 months. Then after that it really depends on a lot of things but an average time in an area is about 4.5 months if not 3 months. I love this are though. It's true that my companion is pretty quiet but he's way cool and a great teacher. I got really lucky to get him as my follow-up trainer. Really lucky actually....because there are a lot of stuck up missionaries. More than you know.

So this week was pretty frustrating but ended good. As you know our car got wrecked. So the bikes we normally share with the other elders had no way of being transported out of their area that day. Basically that has put Elder Burnett and I on foot for the past week. Not fun. I know that plenty of elders have to walk around the world so I really have no right to complain. It's just hard to plan especially when you don't know how long it takes to walk here or there. Plus when we want to check on someone we have to make sure they are close to us or our next appointment. It makes it pretty frustrating. We had zone conference this week in which we learned to use more effective ways of finding people. We're trying this walk-about thing which you take a member around their neighborhood and ask about the different neighbors they know. Then you try to make a plan and get them to do the missionary work. The missionaries then come in at the end to teach the doctrine. So we'll see how that goes. It was perfect because on Sunday we watched a conference talk on DVD in the combined lesson. The talk was the one by Elder Bednar where he says "missionaries are full time teachers while members are full time finders". That was perfect. Plus on Sunday we had a baptism which always spurs missionary work.

So the baptism went great. We ended up having 5 ladies baptized on Sunday. I got to baptize for the first time and I baptized 3 of the 5. It was way sweet. It was a little unnerving especially since the 3 were fairly big girls. But all went well and it all worked out. It was again very stressfull but it all went ok. The testimony of one in particular, Zola, really struck me. We've taught her a lot (ever since I've been here) and she's really come to feel something strong... she just doesn't say it. But on Sunday she bore it out where she said that the baptism really felt like a rebirth. Yes.... yes. I was so happy. Then we ended the day with some sweet lessons. The week really ended well.

I'm doing well. Healthy and safe! Thanks for your support and prayers! I love
you!

Love, your elder robinson

Boom!

So something crazy happened this week. First of all, know that I am safe and no one got hurt.

We were having two baptismal interviews this Saturday, one at 11am and one at 12pm. I was also planning on making navajo tacos at a member's house on sunday. Since we have the car on Saturday but not Sunday, I was going to drop the food off at a little tuck shop that is owned by another member, then take the food to the member's house where we were going to cook later. Anyways, so as we drove into our area (the zone leader and I) I began to slow down. Now remember that we drive on the left side of the road here, and the tuck shop was on the right side. so i went to cross the road (there is no intersection here by the way). As I looked at the man standing in front of the tuck shop I looked for maybe a hello or something. Instead I got a horrible look and then BOOM!! A car hit me from the right side (my side) knocking me back to the left side. The car that hit me then bounced off to the right. His left tire hit a rock launching the car into the air. The car landed going back to the left just as he tried correcting to the right, he hit a speed bump(a big one) and finally stopped about 100ft down the road from me. I stepped out of the car in fear of the air bags exploding on me. I walked over to the tuck shop dazed, not sure what just happened. Sister Johanna (the one working at the tuck shop) came running out screaming "are you ok?!!" I looked around to see people coming out of their houses and kids coming to see what happened from the park. I began to realize that I was the only white person here and got very scared. Whatever happens, in a township it is always the white man's fault. As we began to sort things out another member sent her husband to go get the police (they don't come if you call). They came and told us we'd need to file a report at the police station. Our car was messed up. Basically it was only drivable for short distances. The driver door doesn't close and the right front tire is scraping something. Anyways to make a longer story short, the kid driving didn't have a license and it was his dad's car not to mention he was speeding (which was ridiculous in itself since there was that speed bump right in front of us and he lived just around the corner). So the father was on our side and so was the police. We filed the report and gave the car to the mission to take care of. I think they will be able to take care of all the legal stuff with the other party.

The Damage:


The "good side" of the car with the tuck shop in the background.

Now it was sad that we missed our appointment's that day but I know that we were and are blessed to be safe. If I would have been through the turn just a little bit more I would have been creamed. Instead we just bounced off him. So we were lucky in that. Plus we were able to walk around that same day and we finished one of the baptismal interviews. The other one we had to postpone. So it was quite an experience. I'm glad I am safe and I know it's because of the prayers of my friends and family. So thanks!!

Here are some other recent pictures...

Preparation-Day activity:


Saying goodbye to my first companion, Elder Brown:


The best missionaries in South Africa:

Well besides that we have to figure out all our transporting problems this week. We might get a replacement car but we're not sure. So I guess we'll just see. This is gonna make our baptisms next week very hard. Hopefully we'll get a car soon.

Love, elder robinson

Keeping Busy

By the way... that little girl was not on a bike. She literally just ran into my car with her own two feet. And believe me, I wasn't going fast. You can't in townships, there are speed bumps every 100 yards.

My new companion's name is Elder Burnett from Yackama, Washington. He's a quiet guy but is way cool and we get along great. I'm very glad that I like him because I was already afraid of taking over my area. I mean we have 14 people on baptismal date, 13of which we are trying to get them on for November 23- in two weeks! On top of that we have to keep up on less-active and recent convert work all while trying to expand our teaching pool mostly by tracting. So needless to say, I'm keeping busy. This next week we'll start interviewing some so we'll be able to put some people on the 23rd for sure.

The work is going great. Lots to do and lots of investigators basically asking to be taught. It's amazing. I mean look at the plan of salvation. What is it that gets us to prepare to meet God? Covenants. As we make and keep covenants we become more like God. So if you can get people to start that process by asking them to read the Book of Mormon, to come to church, but most importantly to pray and ask God about these things then they will begin to feel that power that brings conversion... the spirit. Just remember that a committment extended without a follow-up on how it went is empty and worthless.

Thanks for all the encouragement and support. I'm lucky to have such awesome parents and family. Well I'm healthy and safe and I miss and love you guys.

Love, your elder robinson

Going Strong

My companion who is leaving to Betheleham this Wednesday. He is standing in front of the school we meet in for church. Real classy!

Hey!
As far as the elections go, everyone keeps asking about it. Asking who we want to win and stuff. EVERYONE here is in love with Obama... it's ridiculous. When it comes to logistics, like politics and how they do things, i can't stand these people. But luckily we don't have to deal with that kinda stuff too much as missionaries. We are just able to make friendships based on the gospel. It's sweet.

So this week is going to be transfers. I'm losing my trainer and I'm going to have to take over my area. We'll see how that goes. I'm a little nervous about that but I think I'll do fine. My area is growing. They are looking to build a chapel in my area. Well, they are just trying to get the area office to come and look for a site. So it will be a long time till we get one. Probably next year. We'll see. As I told you, we meet in a dumpy school. It's a big hassel to get things set up and its very dirty. Not nice to get investigators to come too.

I am getting enough food and sleep. We are fed very well by the members. I think I told you but we're fed Sunday lunch and then dinner Monday thru Friday. It's very nice.

Alex Leng is doing great on his mission. He just keeps gaining speed and is having a blast. I'm so glad he made it where he is. The mission is changing him incredibly for the good.

There hasn't been much new this week. Except... something kinda crazy happened. So I was driving into my area when I heard something hit the back of the car. You have to remember that in townships you are in more danger of a pedestrian running into you than you running into them. They don't look where they're going. So i looked in my rear-view mirror and saw a little girl laying in the road. I started freaking out and turned around. She got up and ran to the side. When we got there she seemed fine but there was a huge group around who seemed determined to blame something on these Americans. They were making all these claims like the mirror hit her when clearly there was nothing wrong with the mirror. Anyways, we gave them our number and left. It was kind of scary but nothing came of it.....the little girl was fine.

So that's all that's new. Next week I'll tell you how everything with my new companion is going.

Love, elder robinson

Best Days of My Life

To answer some questions: We are on bikes or in a car. My first 6 weeks we were on bikes everyday except Thursdays and Saturdays. Now we've got it Tuesdays as well. We share the car with the other elders in our flat. They work at Kwa-thema.. the neighboring township.

I will see Phil again. I should see him at these transfers on November 5th, that's when I lose my trainer too. I'm going to get a new companion in about a week. I am a
little nervous. Elder Brown and I get along very well and we are doing so much good work. With 11 people on baptismal date and a few more possibly on the way, I'm not sure I am up to taking over my area. I just hope I get a sweet new companion. Also, everyone in my branch loves Elder Brown. I have a big name to live up too. He was like the spark that got this place going and now I'm gonna have to keep it going. I guess we'll see what happens.

So there's not too much new this week. This Sunday I confirmed Wandile, it went well. We had an investigator show up to church that we've been teaching since I got here. She hasn't been able to come to church because she works everyday and when she hasn't been working she is too poor. She started crying on Saturday night when we taught her because i gave her 50 rand to get to church (thru taxis). She has wanted to come to church so bad. Then she made it and started crying when she had to leave after gospel principles. It was such a good day. This week has just been fun. My companion has started to open up more and we joke a lot more. We still are working hard but having so much fun at the same time. Man this place is just hoppin. I can't wait until next month comes and we can try to get all of these people baptized who
say they want to. It will be a challenge.

Thanks for the love and support. I'm having the best days of my life and they are going too fast. I love you all!

Love, elder robinson

Bittersweet

The Johannesberg Temple

Well we were supposed to have three people baptized on Sunday, but then something happened. One of our investigators tried to kill herself. She tried to OD on some medicine that was for her dad. She didn't even get close to succeeding but she still went to the hospital. So the day that we were supposed to interview her we went to her house. She had left a note on why she wanted to kill herself and she said it was her family. When we went to the interview she was at her Aunt's house. So instead we just had a talk with her family. Now you have to know that by family I mean that she lives with her Uncle because her father died and her mother can't support her. She also has a brother from another father(same mother) that lives in this house. Then there are two daughters of the uncle who live there. The oldest daughter was baptized about 3 months ago and has an illegitimate baby, the younger sister and the brother were baptized last month. So you'd think that some Christ-like love would be over-taking the atmosphere of the home. This is what was so frustrating. The younger sister who lives in the home has something against her cousin, Johanna, our baptismal candidate. Anyways, we tried breaking down some of these barriers but all this little sister could do was laugh. Her cousin (who she calls her sister) just tried to kill herself. We asked her how she would have felt if she had succeeded. She just said "awe she would been buried, it would have been fine"... this made me very angry. All I could think was to pull out the pride card and shambock her with some scriptures. It didn't seem to have any effect on her. I'm not sure what to do. So that was very frustrating, but the week ended happy.

We baptized two future priesthood holders.
(L-R) My companion, Elder Brown, Wandile, Ernest and Me

They are both very smart, one of them even used to be a Jehovah's Witness(who know their scriptures very well). They both had a lot of issues with the gospel at first. It even took a while but eventually they came through. One of them was taught by the older couple missionaries that work with us. So we owe that one to them. The other, Ernest, was originally taught by my companion and his previous companion. I simply got to reap the reward of all their hard work. But still it was an amazing baptism. Their testimonies are so strong and they are going to be huge additions to this ward. We have 10 people on date for next month. It's going to take a lot of work to get them all to go through. We'll see how that works out.

Here are a few other pictures:
The township we are working in.


Another picture of our flat!


Love, elder robinson

My First Confirmation

It is getting very warm now and there are very few a\c units in all of Africa. So, our flat has no a\c or heat. They say up in Botswana and where it gets really hot it's easy to get up on time because you can't sleep once the sun comes up! We'll see when it gets hotter. We don't tract into white people at all. In fact the only time I've taught a white person was on exchanges when I taught in town. Only black and colored people live in townships. It is very segregated still. Even though there are a lot of blacks in the government, it's just that many years of aparteid takes a long time to change. There are a lot of problems in this country. The funny thing is that South Africa is the "most stable country" in Africa, yet they just illegally impeached their president a few weeks ago- with only 6 months left in office. So there is a lot of turmoil. But hey, life goes on. It could be worse. It could be war. Let's just cross our fingers against that one.

So this week:
Well not too much happened this week. We put a few more people on date and now we have 13 on date for baptisms. Our neighboring township (Kwa Thema) has 20 people on date! But they have a chapel. If we had a chapel we'd be exploding too. Even still the work is going forward fast. We have tons of investigators, almost too many to keep up with. This sunday we had the confirmations of those that were baptized two weeks ago. One of them, the young man Paul, asked me to confirm him. My first one. Man I was nervous. But ya know what, I prayed in the morning and I really felt led by the spirit as I gave him his blessing. It was awesome.


Love, elder robinson

Summer is Coming

My first baptism last week. We had three in one day!

Hello!

It is too cold to be summer. The weather is pretty crazy right now. It finally rained though. It was perfect too. We went in for a lesson, it rained the whole lesson, and then it stopped by the time we were done. Also, our bikes were not even wet.

I'm going to try to make the pap and meat that they eat here. I can't wait to make some of this stuff for you guys when I get home. I'm gonnna try and make my own kotas for you. It's great. We do have a microwave though and a stove. We do run into people that don't speak English and normally we just keep going on. Most people know English and unless they are really interested we just use our time on people that will be able to understand. In fact this week we started tracting in Gelukstal (thats pronounced Hall-uk-Stall with a gurgle on the H... its Afrikans). It's an area in Tsakane that has nicer houses and is almost completely colored (that means black/white mix). Anyways, it's sad but true that the whiter they get the higher economically they get. It's a sad reality and a product of my ancestor... DF Malan. I haven't really read Preach My Gospel from cover to cover. But that is not how you are suppose to read it anyways. More like I study the parts that are revelent to me
at the time. I should be studying out of it more though. I'm trying to do that. I am better with my scriptures but no where near a scriptorian haha. It's really hard for me to remember where certain scriptures are. I'll get better at that though. I'll try to write Sister Walker. She's awesome.

Elder Phil Hall and I met up at transfers.


A peek at our flat:


Well this week was not too exciting. Monday we just played basketball in the township. Then this weeek there weren't too many interesting stories. I guess the most excitement was General Conference. Man, I love General Conferece now. We watched the Saturday morning session live on Saturday at 6-8pm then a rebroadcast of the priesthood and Saturday afternoon sessions at 11am and 2pm on Sunday. Then we watched a live session of Sunday morning at 6pm on Sunday. So we only missed the last session. Did Elder Holland talk in the last session? If he didn't that would be disappointing. At least I can read it when the Ensign comes in a month. My companion and I kind of got annoyed by how lightly the Africans take conference. At almost every session the chapels we went to would have been empty if it wasn't for the missionaries, besides a few members. But yeah, I love hearing from the Apostles and Prophets. It's sweet. I hope you guys enjoyed conference as much as I did.

Well that's all for this week. I'm going to cook the navajoes this week so we'll see how that goes. Thanks so much for the support. I do realize how lucky I am to have such a strong family in the gospel. I am blessed for it and others will be blessed for it as I am an instrument in the Lord's hands. Thanks again for everything. I love you all.

love, elder robinson

ps. It's not really that cold. It's actually started to finally warm up. We had a hot, hot day just this week. Summer is coming!

Sweet Week

This week was sweet. First of all, Wednesday, was transfers and I got to see Phil Hall. Transfers was sweet. My first transfer not being a greeny! ha, but anyways, that night we went to Sister Johanna's place for dinner. This week she was trying to make lasagna for the first time after my companion taught her last week. Man, it was some of the best lasagna I've had! Her oven is one of the tiny microwave size ovens. It was awesome. But the real highlight of the week was Sunday. Sunday was baptisms! No, I didn't get to baptize anyone but it was an experience.....

So we started off going to church. It was a cold day but we still had 11 investigators and a good amount of members show up. When Africa gets cold, Africa stops. Anyways, our branch is growing. Then after sacrament meeting my companion and I went to bake some breadstick things for the baptism. Once we got over to the Kwa-Thema Chapel (the neighboring township, where the elders we live with work), I thought the branch president would actually take care of something. Nope. My companion was getting ready to baptize and so I had to make sure everything was going right. Man it was stressful. I pulled out my camera and ten black hands reached for it trying to grab it saying, "borrow me borrow me". It was frustraing just to take pictures! Then when the service started we still couldn't relax. I had to lead the music and my companion had to play the keyboard. Oh and something funny... after pictures we walked into the room to find everyone sitting there with our elder's quorum president siting up by the keyboard playing the preset tunes on the keyboard "When The Saint Come Marching In" with the horns and everything...I was just thinking how spiritual this is going... haha. But anyways it ended up all working out and they made it through. Finally we were able to relax. When we were eating the refreshments one of our investigators came up to my companion. So this investigator used to have the missionaries teach him but he was just a Jehovah's Witness who wanted to bible bash. He was dropped by the missionaries and stopped coming to church. But then a few weeks ago he came to church and became interested again. We taught him for the first time in a while just last week. Then he came to the baptism and afterwards asked my companion if he could be baptized. It was awesome. That makes 6 people we've made baptismal dates for this week. All together that's 9 people we have on date for Oct/Nov baptisms with like 3 more on the way to be on date. The work is going great. We are blessed so much and it only motivates us to work harder.

I hope everything continues to go great for you back home. Sounds like you are doing well. We're trying so hard to get the members involved with our teaching. Since they don't give us referrals we'll just take them along with us. Hopefully with all the baptism zeal they'll get into it.
Love you, hope your doing fine!

Love, elder robinson

Say Something

The backyard where we stay. The flat we stay in is above the garage of the house you see on the right.

I am going to see Phil Hall at transfers this week. He's leaving Sandton and my companion has never missed a transfer meeting and doesn't want to break the tradition... haha. I'm going to buy a camera no matter what today because we have baptisms this Sunday. Three actually. The weather is really weird right now. The rains were supposed to come like a month ago but haven't and its supposed to be getting hot. Instead it just gets really cold and on Sundays no one will come to church. Yesterday it was freezing in fact. When Africa gets cold, Africa shuts down.

So for this week... First of all last Monday we went to a tri-zone p-day where we played rugby. That is a fun sport. Then we went to a buffet where i had tongue(I think cow) for the first time along with crocodile. That was not that good, in fact the whole buffet was Africa at its best. Not that great. Then on Wednesday we went to this former investigator's house who just started coming back to church. We were going to give her a baptism date. Then she told us she had gotten pregnant recently and wants to have an abortion. She was crying. I had no idea how to handle the situation. My companion was the same and tried to say something that didn't really answer the problem much. Then I felt as though I should say something. As soon as I started talking it was like I was overcome and just kept talking. I didn't know what to say but the Spirit did. I even went to a scripture, Alma 39, thinking this isn't a good scripture- all it does is condemn. But when I got to it there was a great scripture in there of hope and relief. I think I helped her to see what the right choice would be... Well, the Lord helped her see. Man, it was a sweet experience.

Right after we went to our dinner appointment at Sister Johanna's house. This is where my companion cooked lasagna. It was so fun. Before my companion and I Sister Johanna and her family didn't really like missionaries. The two daughters who live there don't even eat with us usually. But this day they did. I think we've opened them up to missionaries. This week one of the daughters, Larotto, is coming to an appointment with us. Missionary work is fun.

On Sunday something awesome happened, or really someone. Mom you know that article you sent me in my package about Elder Watson just being called to be a Seventy in Africa? Well I read it and thought it was cool. Then I get to church and guess who walks in the door...Elder Watson. It was so cool to see him there. He took a few minutes at the end of the meeting to speak and I love how General Authorities are so good at taking simple doctrines and making them profound. It was sweet. I talked to him and he told me that he'd take my greetings to President Monson when he went back for General Conference. Yep, Elder Robinson is going places... hahah. Everyone keeps saying that I'll be AP which i hate. I don't want to be stuck in an office all day. But our (me and my companion's) prophesy is that I will open Francistown up in Botwana. We'll see if that happens.

Here I am with a local.


Well that is my week. I'm going to get a camera today whether my Pakistani friend, Solomon, has one for me or not. I hope everything is going well in stockton and it's great to hear from you with the update! Oh and keep sending me pictures. Especially older pictures from family renions, pole vaulting, hikes. Time to go now. Tsakane sends its love!

love, elder robinson

ps. i have been leading the music in church for the past while and my comp plays the piano. thanks mom :)

Missionary Days

So for my typical day. Well, we get up at 6:30am and shower/eat/get ready. Then we study until about 10:00am, then we usually head to our area. Then we usually have appointment's all day that mostly fall through so we'll go check on people or just tract. Then we are fed dinner Monday through Thursday at 7pm. Then we head back to the flat after. It's a pretty full day usually. When we're in the area we work hard trying our best to find people and teach. It really isn't that hard. I mean this place is just ready to explode. I mean we are always teaching, the hard part is finding people that are actually interested or getting them to be committed. That is hard.

This week we taught 27 lessons. That's a little above normal. But it is usually around there. Once we get a chapel though, man, we are going to have 20 investigators at church every Sunday. This week we had nine. That's still pretty good. I mean the members were even saying how we are working hard. They notice. That means the previous missionaries were lazy. We've heard how they used to go to a member's house and watch movies. Lazy! But we're working hard. Pretty soon we'll be out of the school into like a portable chapel, and then some missionaries will eventually get to see them move into a chapel. I think it will be a stake center. We'll see though.

Nothing too exciting happended this week. Today we're having a tri-zone p-day. We are playing football and then going to a buffet. It should be fun. I miss you all and I love you.

love, elder robinson

Spring Week

Quite a bit happened this week. Well, really this weekend. So this past week is called Spring Week with Spring Day on Saturday. It's some stupid excuse for everyone to waste money and get drunk. In some townships they throw water on everyone. Luckily not ours.

Anyways, on Saturday we drove up to this street to check on some people. We saw this guy being chased and having things thrown at him. Not a rare occurence in the township. So we went and taught our lesson. When we came out we looked across the street. Now everyone has a fence or wall around their yard so we couldn't see what was on the ground but we saw these guys kicking something and smashing something with crates. As we walked up, a guy was sitting on the ground taking all this abuse. My companion decided we were going to help him and I knew it was the right thing to do, so I followed. As we came closer one guy picked up a brick and rushed at the guy but someone else stopped him. The mob stopped when they saw unfundizi's (that's us) coming up, but this guy was already badly hurt. My companion took out his first aid kit and bandaged him up. All while they were still yelling at each other to the point where the father of the house came out with a machette. That's when things got intense. Now anyone reading this do not fear for my life. You see, Africans respect pastors and stuff so our white shirts and ties protected us. Plus when we walked up these guys who were beating him were really nice and just wanted us to help get him away. That was the whole problem. You see this guy owed the old man of the house some money. Instead of paying he always wants to come and fight the old man. This time some younger guys from next door came to help the old man. The one who got beat up would just not give up and their anger got away from them. Anyways, so the bobba is sitting there with his machette threating this guy's life, swearing and whatnot. It took too long to get this guy off the property and we finally got him back to where he stays. But it wasn't over. We assumed where he stays would be like his family or something. We walk in with him and everyone is sitting around the kitchen table. They just stare. we ask if the guy lives there. The Grandma starts yelling in zulu, so we back out. A man follows us and starts yelling at this guy in zulu. He tells us he'll take it from here..... whew. Later we hear more yelling. We go back to this house where we took him and everyone is just yelling at him. Finally after some yelling and some slapping of belts he goes out and sits on the curb. A guy from the house comes out with a huge bucket of water and dumps it on the hurt guy. Supposedly that is a symbol of rejection. We end up finding out that this guy is from Mozembique and has no family in Tsakane. He's also been doing some drugs which made things worse. Oh and to top it all off we called the police at the beginning of all this. They are worthless. Man, it was a crazy experience. But that man would have surely died if we didnt help him.

Just another disclaimer: Mom, never were we in any danger. In fact our being there is what kept more fighting and stuff from happening. So we were paying attention to what was going on... don't worry. But yeah, that's my crazy story for the week. Hope you enjoyed.

love, elder robinson

p.s. This week I found out that Tsakane and the greater area of Tsakane has somewhere around 2.5 million people. Who'da thunk?

Getting IT

The usual has been going on down here this week. Actually it was pretty busy. On Tuesday we had my first zone conference where we got to see all the other missionaries. That was pretty cool. Then we went to Pretoria on Thursday because my companion was asked to teach some of the youth there, the haka. He's Samoan but he's from Salt Lake City, Utah. Anyways so that was cool. Plus we went to the biggest mall in the Southern hemishpere which is in Pretoria. It was pretty cool. To be honest I was a little annoyed that we wasted a day and a half in Pretoria just to teach the haka. The real reason was that my companion was trained in Pretoria and he had area sickness bad. But we still did good work when we were in our area.

On Saturday I had a cool expereince that reminded me why I am on a mission. We have been teaching this lady that lives way away from the church building and hasn't come to sacrament meeting yet. We'd taught the whole first and second lesson and she always gave the typical "yes, yes, yes, i love jesus" response. She just didnt get it. To top it off she always had this friend there who was a sangoma(witch doctor) which was kinda weird. But then on Saturday we went to see her expecting to tell her we'll make another appointment when she comes to church(our way of dropping people). When we walked in she was sitting at the table with her Incwadi kamamoni (Zulu Book of Mormon) open, all marked up and she was smiling. We sat down and asked her how the reading and praying was going. She got so excited and told us that she felt so happy and peacful whenever she prayed to know. She said that she did know that its true. To top it off she said her friend, the sangoma, had felt the same and was excited to talk to us. I felt bad that we had to leave to go to a dinner appointment, but man it felt good to finally see someone get it.

Well that is all from TSAKANE. I hope everything is going well. I love you all and miss you.

love, elder robinson

Tsakane Greetings!

Missionary Training Center (MTC) group


I am out of the MTC and my preparation-day (P-day) is now on Monday. I saw Elder Philip Hall at the transfer meeting and the day before also. It was so awesome to see someone i know here. He's crazy but a really good missionary. He serves in the richest city in the southern hemisphere- Sandton, so you know he's good. He's also the Zone Leader over that area.

Oh and when you do send any packages make sure and write on the package "missionary supplies", put pictures of the temple from church magazines, and dont mark the contents to be over about $30. The pictures and stuff will help to keep people out and if you put a big price tag on it I have to pay a big amount to get it thru customs.

I am assigned to serve in the Tsakane area, right outside of Springs. Tsakane (you dont really say the T) is a dirty little township where people live in conditions you wouldnt believe. Its really amazing how content they are with their cement walls and sometimes aluminum walls. Some of the houses are about as big as our den and so no one uses their front door. We always have to go to the back door. The work is great. We usually tract for about an hour everyday because of cancelled appt's and we'll do about 4 houses teaching about 3 lessons. We have a branch in Tsakane that meets in a little school classroom. On Sunday I saw the meeting for the first time and there were about 37 people there including my self. My trainer, elder brown, said that was a bad day because it was a cold and windy day. Yes, it does get cold here!! Its weird. Actually at night I have to sleep with wool socks and a sweatshirt to stay warm because we don't have heaters and there is no insulation. Its great. Anyways, our goal is to turn this branch into a ward. Right now we have about 50 average attendees and we need 70. But most of all we need worthy priesthood holders. It seems like the women are very accepting but the men are just drunks... well most of them. we have some good prospects on men though. Hopefully we'll be baptizing about 3 or 4 in the next month... hopefully. Something interesting about how they live is that they are so poor yet almost everyone has a cell phone. Most people have t.v.'s and some sort of sound system. Instead of saving up to get out of poverty they just spend it on stuff that will probably get stolen anyways.

Here are some pictures from a game reserve we visited recently:





So yesterday i drove a manual transmission on the left side of the road for the first time. It was weird. I drove Phil's beamer like twice but its definitely harder than it looks (manual trans). I'll get it though.

Much love, I'm doing great, and stay well family. Fill me in on the details and send letters!!

love elder robinson

Farewell Elder!

On Sunday, July 21, 2008 I gave my farewell talk in church. A lot of friends and family came to hear me speak. Afterwards, everybody gathered at the house for food and last minute advice. Here are some pictures.

The extended family


Loving James, not so much Alex


Me, my niece Camilla and my sister Amber


Me, my seminary teacher Sister Walker, Alex


Clara, Jacob, Kelly


The "goodbye" bonfire