Pushing Forward

Being a trainer isn't too bad. Elder Halterman knows what's going on. I've been here in Mamelodi for a while now though and it's starting to get to me. I love Mamelodi but, man it is tiring, working so hard and having SO much disappointment...

But let's try to focus on the bright side. Lebo was baptized yesterday. His mom came and we had a very spiritual baptism with a lot of support from the branch. It was sweet. Ursula is supposed to be baptized next Sunday, but we'll see...she didn't come to church on Sunday.

I'm not sure when I'll be able to call home. We're still working out the details. I'll let you know when and everything next week. Just count on it being Christmas morning like last year because of the time difference.

Everything is going good with me. Just trying to keep pushing forward, trying to follow what's right.

much love,
elder robinson

On a Mountaintop

As for this week I don't even know where to begin. It has just been busy, busy. We now have 20 people on baptismal date. I think one of the sweetest things that happened this week was putting Ursula back on baptismal date. Do you remember the girl that was supposed to be baptized back in October...then she got pregnant. Well, we've been working with her and on Thursday we went to see her. I talked with her about preparing for baptism. Then I asked her if she had been keeping the law of chastity...she said "yes i have!" with so much confidence. She was proud to be able to say that. It was so much different than she had been over a month ago. We then talked about a baptismal date and all of us were just so happy. She kept laughing and I couldn't stop smiling. I was so happy. She will be baptized on the 20th of December.

Another interesting thing that happened this week: So we went up to Stoffel Park on Saturday morning to have Lebo Seketa interviewed for baptism. Lebo is about 16 and lives next to a return missionary and his sweet member family. Stoffel Park is basically a village on the side of a mountain. So when we came up on Saturday morning Lebo's mom told us that Lebo had taken off into the mountain because he didn't want to help his family (they were putting cement in the house which we ended up helping them do later). So we decided to go look for him with Lebo's dad and brother. After about 40 minutes running through the mountains Lebo's brother caught him. We caught up to him and had the baptismal inteview right there in the bush. It was kinda scary because I just saw in my mind another baptism falling through...but he passed the interview and he's ready for Sunday next week.

I wish I could send you some pictures of our little escapade. I'm not sure when I'll be able to send pictures again. I'll try and see.

Hope all is well.

Love, elder robinson

Greeny Time!

First of all we finally had another baptismal interview. Mmaptiso has passed and is going to be baptized next week for sure. Then there was supposed to be a family interviewed the next day but they had a funeral and weren't able to come to church. So they will be interviewed this week and baptized either this week or the next.
Then we got transfer news. Elder Bakker is leaving me and going to Botswana to open a brand new area. I'm very jealous of him. But it's what he wanted...so I'm glad he's happy. What I'm really jealous of is that Francistown is getting opened and I'm not the one to open it! Nnstead a guy I was with in the mtc is going there! I've been wanting to go there since the beginning of my mission! Francistown is in the northernmost part of Botswana and is the furtherest area from the office. But I guess it's the Lord's will.

As for me...yep, I'm getting a new missionary. A greeny. I'm not sure where he's from yet...we don't find out until transfers on Wednesday. So that should be interesting to train a new guy. Hopefully I can do a good job.

On Sunday Isaac Sereo came to church, but none of his family did(not even the young kids that come every week,they were gone). He loved it again. He said this was the first time he'd partaken of the sacrament and he felt something pulling him. He still wants to get baptized and follow the truth. He just needs to make the time and the effort...which he's trying to do. Please keep praying for him.


Well I'm sick of this keyboard now. Thanks for your love and prayers :)

elder robinson

Working, Working, Working

ZCC stands for Zion Christian Church. The best part is that there are two separate ZCC church's by the same name. ONW has the symbol of the Dove and the other a star (which they are supposed to wear on their shirts everywhere). They were originally one church that split when the father died (who is their supposed prophet). It's pretty ridiculous.

We haven't been able to see Isaac this whole week because of a funeral he had to go to. His date might get pushed back, but keep praying for him.


This week we had a new record at church, 23 investigators. It was sweet. Two families that we have on baptism date all came to church. That was 6 people just right there. This week we're supposed to be interviewing the Toka's. They should be baptized on the 22nd of November. Please pray for Joshua Toka... he's got to be done smoking this week so he can be baptized. We are suppose to baptize the whole family (except for the oldest son), but I think its going to happen.


Something not so nice happened on Friday. We were preparing the Hamane family for their baptismal interview the next day and we ended up finding out that the mom who wants to be baptized is not married to the step-father that lives in the home...so were gonna have to keep working with them and get them married.

It's kind of hard...we're working and working and still our investigators just can't make it to baptism. But I know if we can just do missionary work right...something is going to click. I know the Toka's will make it to baptism. On their same date is a girl named Mmapitso. We're also teaching her family and we hope that they will come along as well.

I need your prayers.
thanks for your continued support.

love, elder robinson

ps yes mom i've been healthy. im still loving mission even though at times it gets frustrating. elder Bakker and i still get along but he's most likely going to be leaving me in a week! we'll find out by saturday whats up.

The Sereo's and Other Happenings

Myself, Elder Bakker, Elder Boreham (from South Africa) and Elder Barnhurst (from Philmore, Ut) they work the west side of Mamelodi.

This week was pretty sweet. We put 3 fathers on baptism date. One of which basically said that he's going to do whatever it takes to be baptized and find the truth. Two of them we actually had our first appointment with this week! On the second appointment we put them on date! It was sweet.

We had zone conference this week. I learned a lot about the spirit that I thought I knew...but I really didn't. Our mission president is very smart. We went into some deep doctrine that has changed my whole perspective of missionary work.

The best thing this week had to do with Isaac's family, the Sereo's. We had planned to cook for them on Thursday and bring it to them in the evening. So we got everything ready and then headed over there at about 7pm. They hadn't arrived yet so we waited. In a few minutes Isaac and his wife, Asnath, drove up with all their grandkids in the car. I guess they had just decided to take the day off and spend the day with the family at the park (it was a public holiday anyways). That family works so hard. It was nice to be able to see them taking time off to spend as a family. Isaac and Asnath have had some serious problems in the past and she even told us that she had been asking God if she should get a divorce but she kept getting an answer to stay even though she was miserable. Since we've been working on teaching them about the gospel and how to strengthen their family they have had so much more happiness in the home. So now the next step has been to bring them the gospel and have them be baptized. We've been trying very, very hard. So on Thursday we only had a few minutes to share a short "our purpose" lesson. Then Asnath asked, "If I was baptized in my church do I still need to be baptized in yours if I come to it?". That was such a break-through question. Elder Bakker explained again about the Restoration and Priesthood Authority. She said that we'd be surprised one day...she'll be coming to church every Sunday. She just needs to get some things in order. So pretty soon we're going to try and get them on baptism date. We'll see how it goes! If you could pray for the Sereo's (ser-ay-oh). My whole heart is into that family.

So yeah, that's my week. Next Saturday is transfer news. We'll see if my companion is leaving. I'm really not sure what's going to happen. Whatever the Lord wants.

Oh and next week is General Conference!!!! Sweet. Don't forget to watch the World Report and look for the Pretoria Helping Hands segment! I was there...see if you can see me. I'd be wearing a yellow hat and my orange shirt that has the panda on it (See pictures of the day below). Check and see!

love, elder robinson

Some more pictures of life on the mission:

You know I keep talking about Isaac and his wife Asnath, this is Asnath. We were helping her peel potatoes. I love that family...it's The Sereo family. They are my main focus out of all the families we are teaching. Isaac will definitely be a bishop someday.


Some pictures from the Helping Hands Day we did a few weeks ago. We had the largest helping hands activity in Africa...right here in Pretoria. The World Report was there so look for us in between general conference sessions in a few weeks.




Pretoria streets and homes:

Baptisms, Hiking and Teaching, A Day's Work

It was an awesome day in church this week. We had 17 investigators at church! That is my new record...previously in Tsakane we had 14! Even Isaac showed up with all his granddaughters.

Here are some pictures of the last month or so:

A picture of Flora's baptism. The little girl in white is a child of record that was being baptized the same day and they just had me baptize her since I was in the water...her father is not so active:

The family with her is her aunt and cousins (her immediate family was not there, unfortunately).

The baptism was awesome and everyone felt the spirit when Flora gave such a powerful testimony. It was awesome.

The child that I'm holding upside down is Siyabonga, and the girl in front is his older sister Thulisile. They are Flora's children and are completey insane.


The painting I bought. It's huge! But it's on canvaas that is easy to roll up. I may send it home...for now it brightens up my study room as you can see.


Elder Robinson and Elder Bakker teaching the Good News!




Elder Bakker studying:




Here are some pictures from the hike we did last Monday at Hartebees Port.






Love, elder robinson

Spring Day!

rah rah rahrahrah rah rah rahrahrah gooooooooooooo COUGARS! haha 1 year and I'll be singing that again! SWEET!

This Summer will be hotter for sure since I'm in Pretoria. My suits are holding up pretty well...except for some buttons. I've only lost one shirt...and thats because I burned it haha. I had gotten a bunch of red paint splattered on it in my first few months in Tsakane. So I burned it when I turned a year.

I do still talk to Alex pretty much every week. It's awesome. He's an awesome missionary, but he never told me he was training! Well, I never told him I was district leader. DL basically just means you do baptismal interviews and take stats and watchover the district (which is 6 guys).

So something cool that happend this week. On Tuesday it was Spring Day (September 1st is the first day of summer). So the township basically becomes one big water fight. Elder Bakker and I were riding down this busy road and weren't thinking too much of the water fights...then we began to get closer to a round-about up ahead. I was in front and began to notice that it was wet. There were people gathered on the side with buckets and they were soaking everyone that came by! That was where we needed to go so I said what the heck, why not. I rode straight through. As soon as I got close I started hearing "makgua! Bicycle!" One guy came running from behind and another from the front...and I got drenched, from head to toe. I rode on through and then looked back to see if my companion was wet. They destoyed him too and actually knocked him off his bike. Instead of heling him they continued to throw the water on. It was hilarious. Then we went to our next appointment drenched. They tried to get us later but we were too quick for them.

But it doesn't end there. The next day we had the car and we wanted revenge. We drove past some other kids who were getting everyone wet and we decided to attack. So we went to a member's house, filled a bucket with water and went in. I was driving so my companion ran out, soaked one guy and then got four buckets in the face. It was awesome. There's nothing like Spring Day in the township.

Anyways, another sweet thing that happened was that Flora passed her interview this week! Sweet! So she'll be baptized on the 20th of September. Also, we had stake conference. It was sweet. But at the general session we had it in a big auditorium and the sound was terrible. hey would try to turn it up and the speakers would just begin to reverberate. So none of our investigators had any idea what was going on. But they still enjoyed the experience. It was a nice day.

Thanks again for the support and love. You're still in my prayers.

Love, elder robinson

DF Malan Street

Man...the cabin. I hope you still have that when I get home. I want to go back there before I start school next fall! Wow next fall...time is flying.

So before I go on I must tell you about Helet. She is the lady that owns the post office we are emailing at right now. This lady is probably one of the kindest ladies I've ever met. She's not a member but she gives us so much. I mean we're emailing for free to begin with. Then she gives us food once in a while and I guess before I got here she gave the missionaries R400 in cash and she wouldnt let them decline! I just watched these three little black children walk in and sing songs for her that they'd been practicing and she gave them sweets. It was cute. So I was able to send you pictures this week because she is so kind to say that if we dont use her internet for free she'd be offended.

so yea got you some pictures finally. first of all there's a picture of our recent baptism of Nkele and Elizabeth. Right now we are teaching the man that's in the picture, Lucas.

He is Elizabeth's husband and their son is a recent convert as well. He wants to be baptized but is having trouble with drinking and really gaining a testimony.

My companion, Elder Bakker and I cleaning out the baptismal font:

The pump is broken so it drains to about a foot of water and then we have to scoop it out with buckets and then mop up the rest. This last weekend the other missionaries had a baptism and we had to clean it again. This time we got smart and used the vacuum. Don't worry it didn't break the vacuum but it went much faster.

The food from a braii (bbq) we had a few weeks ago:


Township pictures:



Then as I told you in my last letter, we went to an elephant sanctuary and played with elephants...yes, the elephant did kiss me. I also kissed him (face first) but my photographer missed the photo op. (i was sad) The place we went was right next to Hartebees Poort Dam where we also checked out the dam.


On the way back guess what I saw...yep, DF Malan street! Little did you know your family name is even in South Africa.


This week has been a little different for missionary work. My companion and I have realized that our branch is having trouble coping with more baptisms. So instead of just baptizing like a lot of missionaries we're trying to direct our efforts toward "tying up loose ends" as we call it. Basically in the branch we have a lot of part member families, part-member less-active families, and altogether less active families. So we're going to members house trying to teach their families and going to find out who is less-active and who we can help. So far it's been slow but we did find a really cool less-active family that has a lot of potential. When we first showed up they weren't too happy to see us. But by the end of our lesson they were inviting us back to see them again. We've had some fun experiences finding some interesting people as well. So over all missionary work is really just making me happy right now.

Thanks for your support and everything. Sorry I've been lax on emails and letters. I think were just working so hard I really don't have enough time. Love you lots though.

Love, your elder robinson

Elephants!

So my South African mom just loves the missionaries. She feeds us all the time and we paint for her and its a win, win relationship haha.

Mamelodi is a branch but it's on the brink of becoming a ward. I haven't had any more baptisms. I may have told about Flora. Sis Esther's daughter, Beauty, referred us to Flora one day (she is Beauty's cousin). When we first taught her she was a little skeptical. But the whole time we just taught her what the spirit led us to teach and it was amazing. She was really touched. Beatuy couldn't believe us. The first Sunday Flora didn't come. Then during the week she called and rescheduled her appointment. Now we were starting to doubt. Then on Thursday we weren't sure if we should ride all the way to see her if she wasn't going to be there... but we said we would anyways...when we showed up she was waiting for us. We taught her the Restoration and put her on baptism date for September 13th. She was so happy and so were we. It really was an amazing expereince. Then on Sunday she showed up to church with 4 children! (not sure how many are hers). She took care of all of them (even her crazy litle boy who was crying to go home the whole time) and she still loved church. It was pretty sweet.

We also had mission tours this week with Elder Bricknell. He gave a great talk that really meant a lot to me. He's not actually in the 70 I found out. But he has been a mission president before in Poccatello, ID. It was sweet.

Today we went to an elephant sanctuary. It was nice. We played with elephants, brushed them, walked with them, and even got kissed by them.










I'm a little late now. Got to go. Thanks for the love and prayers as always.

Love, elder robinson

ps. I became a district leader when I came to Pretoria. I guess I just didn't think it to be a big deal. My companion is not a DL...I'm over my companion, the other two guys in the flat and our zone leaders. So there are 6 of us in the district and 3 areas.

More Teaching

Making the famous Robinson Navajo

So as for Mamelodi (the area I am serving in). I'm pretty sure this area is going to be my favorite area. Sister Esther wanted me to tell you not to worry about me. She's taking care of me...She's my South African mother :) Yesterday in fact we had a lunch after church at someone's house and they stuffed us full. Then we were checking on this kid, Thabong, and they were having a braii (bbq). We didn't want to intrude but they wouldn't let us leave! So they gave us some meat. Then we went to Sister Esther's for dinner and she had a huge meal prepared! It was the best torture I've ever been through! But yeah, they're family are all members now (except for the father) but they definitely need some strengthening....big time. Especially Sister Esther who has been a member less than 3 months.

This week...It was pretty sweet as usual. My companion and I have a lot of ideas for our area and were working hard on putting them into action. My companion came here 6 weeks before me. So we're both pretty new to the area. And I think I know the area better than him now! almost... haha.

On Tuesday we were tracting and we ran into this guy named Joel. He seemed like a good guy and was interested. So we came back on Thursday and shared the Restoration. Then they went back on Saturday (I was on exchanges in Pretoria) and they put them on baptismal date! He showed up to church on Sunday and he's lookin good! So that was sweet.

When I went to Pretoria on Saturday I had my 2nd experience so far tracting in town...which is like the tracting that most missionaries think of..."i have my own church", "don't you have something better to do?", "im not interested"... but then we saw a sign on a house saying that they were selling puppies...So we asked to see the puppies. Then they invited us inside and we were in! We taught the Restoration and they were loving it. Then when we left they said "you guys are clever aren't you"... haha they knew exactly what we were up to. But he told us that he probably wouldn't have let us inside so it was a good thing we looked at the puppies. Who knows, maybe they'll get baptized!

Some bad news...Our chapel got broken into on Friday night. They came in through the back way which is not so secure and they broke into the safe and stole the computer. This is the second time this year. It's ridiculous because we have this huge impenetrable vault door but then all you have to do is go through the roof and over the door into the room! So yeah, that wasn't nice. But at least church went on well and our investigators came to church.

This coming week...tomorrow actually, we'll be having another mission tour. This time it's Elder Bricknell, a member of the Seventy. So we'll see how that goes.

Thanks again for the love and everything you send me. Especailly the prayers. I know that there are many more missionaries who do much greater work than I could ever... but still I am blessed. And I know that it's from your prayers and the good works which you do that I am blessed with so much success. So thank you :)

love,
elder robinson

Full Member Families

I had an idea for Josh's eagle scout project. I'm thinking he could organize and send a bunch of ties and white shirts, maybe even shoes for the church here. That is one thing that the kids in some places are lacking. Also, if they could donate soccer balls, it would be awesome to give some to the branch for activities and also for us to just give out to kids on the streets.

To answer some questions.. No, it's not much warmer here...but it will be. Summer is just around the corner...July is already done! Crazy! My last summer in SA :-/ (for now. Yes, I'm still in a township and no, we don't have a car. Bikes. But we do get to borrow the car twice a week (Wednesday and Saturday). Every township is a little different. Even the Sotho they speak is a little bit different. But they still understand me when I speak what I know. The people are a little more industrious you could say. The houses are just nicer and they seem to be more well off.

Anyways this week was amazing. My companion and I get a long very well and I think he'll help me to be a much better missionary. This weekend was the best. First off on Saturday morning we went with Elizabeth and Lucas to the church and helped them get their papers signed to be legally married. They have been together for a very long time but never legally married. So they were very happy about that and so were we since Elizabeth was getting married on Sunday. Later in the day on Saturday we saw Isaac. He's an awesome father of a family of all girls. He is very smart and interested in the gospel. Last Sunday he came to church and loved it. When we saw him on Saturday he loved the Plan of Salvation and we committed him to be baptized. It was powerful. Then we spent all of Saturday night cleaning the font for the baptism. On Sunday we then spent the last 2hrs of church filling the font. We were trying to boil water to throw in since there isn't much hot water in the geyser. Even still the water was freezing. But they (Elizabeth and Dikeledi) were still baptized and the baptism was powerful.



After the baptism Isaac's granddaughter, who came to church on her own, came to us and asked if she could be baptized on her birthday at the end of August! We're gonna baptize Isaac's whole family hopefully! Then Elizabeth's husband Lucas said that he was going to be baptized soon. So later in the day we went and talked to him and set him on date for September 13. Hopefully that goes through because then their whole house will be members.

I've learned that more important than finding new people is trying to teach and convert part member families to be full member families. That is what will strengthen the church in this area of the world.

Well I think that's all for now.

Much love,
elder robinson