Week 15

I just can’t say enough how grateful I am for technology and talking to this handsome guy. He said when they went to go buy internet the person there asked “so what are you guys here for, is it school?” So they explained and the guy totally took a pamphlet. Who knows if anything will come of it but I just think that’s awesome. 

A lot of times the call will get super choppy and we will lose connection but he always calls back if he can, sometimes it takes many, many tries. I just am going to say again and again how grateful I am for those times when we can see him clearly and talk to him it means the world to me!❤️

The struggles of getting along with a companion are real. 

This is Caleb snapping a picture of his companion sitting down taking a nap and Caleb frustrated. 

Cool river. 

The Abidjan temple was announced it will be dedicated May 25, 2025! A day before Caleb’s birthday 🎉 ! 

Caleb saw this, this will be the temple president. 

He said the moon sits more like a smile where he is. So cool I never thought of that. 

This is Joel and Marlene brother and sister. Joel is Caleb’s age and was baptized recently. He will go on a mission in a year. He goes with them to teach as part of his preparation.

I forgot to ask what they were doing here. 

Caleb fancying up the picture. 

Cake! It was someone’s birthday. He said the cake was good but not as sugary as he is use to! 

He had two baptisms Sunday. 

His companion was in Senegal for a while so he hasn’t baptized anyone in a while so he did the baptizing this time. Caleb looks like a giant! 

His email this week:

Salut!

Like usual this week went pretty well. Today for P-Day we have a Zone Conference for all of Cote d’Ivoire. Because of that everyone's p-day got changed, except for ours. Because we are in a village, not close to Abidjan, we are going to watch it on zoom and our p-day stays the same day. 

On Tuesday we had our District Council. We went to Tiassele for it. We got there early, but the Elders from N’Zianuoun couldn’t get a bus to come to Tiassele, so they had to find a car or something. Anyways they were late but our district meeting still went well. After we went to the Tiassele Elder’s apartment and hung out. My favorite part was being able to hang out with the goat Elder Christensen, and Elder Reed as well.

On Wednesday we decided to go contacting. It was my second time just trying to find people. We have been busy teaching people, but we also need to keep finding people to teach. The people here are nice and like to talk with us, which meant we were able to exchange numbers with every one we contacted. I don’t know how many we’ll be able to teach from those we contacted, but it was cool. 

That day we also found a Nigerian woman who doesn’t speak much French. We taught her a little in English, which was so weird for me to do. My companion speaks English decently well which was good for him to practice. She also came to church yesterday, but next time I'm going to attempt to translate for her, so we’ll see how that goes.

This week our power has been a bit weird. It usually works all the time, which I am grateful for, but this week it would just go in and out randomly. Two nights it rained so hard that we woke up from the rain, and from our AC and fan going in and out for ten minutes straight, and then all of our power went out for the rest of the day. But it’s not that bad, just a little hot sometimes. 

One of the best parts of this week was Sunday. We were able to baptize two more people. One was a young man, and the other was a single lady. We went to Tiassele with some of the members for the baptism. My companion baptized them because he hasn’t baptized someone in a while. He spent 4 transfers in Senegal, and it’s much harder to baptize people there. It was a great service. After the service we got chastised a bit from the Branch President and his counselors because some of the missionaries didn’t give them enough of a heads up. It was funny. 

Other than that this week was pretty good. We continue to teach a lot, and this week we focused on having members go with us. It is fun hanging out with them, although they don’t have bikes which means we spend a lot on taxis or spend a lot of time walking. French is still coming slowly. The people in the village have a hard time understanding you if you don’t speak like them. So even though I’ll say things right they won’t understand because I don’t have their accent. I definitely feel the gift of tongues working, but I still have a long way to go. 

Spiritual Thought:

This week we shared 2 Nephi 31 a couples times because it talks a lot about baptism. I like the way the chapter finishes with verse 20:

Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.

I like this scripture because after we are baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, we are not finished. We need to continue to press forward, keep all of the commandments, continue going to church, and make additional covenants in the temple. If we continue to endure to the end, then we will be exalted. 

Thanks for all your prayers, and I hope you have a good week!

Elder Robinson