Week 26 & 6 month mark!🎉

He got a magnetic missionary tag! I love that he is wearing the Côte d’Ivoire 🇨🇮 soccer jersey he got from our sweet friends! Thanks Tara and Ble! 

It’s been 6 months since he left July 30th. We sure miss him but we are so so proud of all that he is doing❤️!

These are pagne material special to Africa. The missionaries buy the material then give it to this guy to make ties from. The guy lives in Caleb’s sector so he is doing it while he is here. 

Caleb is flying through Duolingo! 

Elder Christofferson is going to come in February! 

They are silly! Notice Elder Mayele’s bead tie, so cool! 

Donuts! 

Ice cream! He says as he is walking and eating his ice cream all the kids are begging him for it. He says he stands out like a sore thumb, a le blanc, in a white shirt and tie, with his shoulder bag, eating ice cream. 

He got the ties! There was 12! It was cheaper than the four ties I sent him with! Very cool! 

They announced his new mission presidents officially on church news. 

Funny Duolingo! It says: before people didn't have cell phones, that's sad they couldn't have Duolingo! 

The ocean. 

Caleb is wearing one of his new ties! 

They passed by and they were watching the Man city and Arsenal game! 

Here is his email:

Bonsoir à tous ! 

Yes that means good evening even though it's probably morning time for you guys, and yes my companion says that even though it'll be 9am. Anyways this week has been a chill week.

My favorite part this week has been the Pagne ties. Pagne (pronounced pine) is a cool fabric here, and a lot of missionaries will buy some and turn them into ties. Almost all of the missionaries give it to one guy, Frere Koko. He is the guy who takes the fabric and makes it into ties. He also happens to be in my sector. So Monday me and my companion went looking. I got some pagne, and then gave it to him Tuesday while we were out in sector. Well Friday they were finished so while we were walking around sector I was able to pick them up. I have a picture of them below. This week I'm going to try to find more and take advantage of him.

Wednesday was an interesting day. All of the people we visited were really difficult to deal with. Like we visited 2 inactive families that both refuse to come back to the church until the bishop is released. They are nice, just not easy to deal with. We also had an appointment where the guy was asking questions like “if your church is the church Jesus Christ restored, why isn't it in Israel and do the people there accept the gospel? if not it can't be the true church.” But he believes his Yopougon church is the true church for the whole world. We also had another guy we contacted who started pounding us with difficult questions, but when we responded he was like “well if you guys want to talk so much you might as well sit down.” We were just like “no we'll talk next time, we were just answering your questions, can we give you a brochure?” He then went off on how he has a Bible and needs nothing more than a Bible… I so wanted to whip out 2 Nephi 29:3-10…

Thursday was a good day. We ran into the 4 Grand Lahou Elders in our sector because they were giving pagne to Frere Koko. It was funny. Friday we met with the guy that said he only needs his Bible. Well of course he knows the Bible well and believes in the trinity which can only mean one thing. A Bible bash… It was rough especially when you could see how he was bending the doctrine, and how he would answer our questions without answering them at all. Like at the baptism of Jesus who said this is my beloved Son? himself?? Yeah I don't think so. It's just funny listening to people sometimes.

The rest of the week was pretty chill. We didn't have many appointments which gave me and my companion time to talk while we did circles in the sector because it's pretty small. Sunday was awesome because one of the young men we are teaching came to church. Sunday night we also had a Book of Mormon miracle call as our zone where we shared miracles we've had while using the Book of Mormon.

Monday we went and played some soccer. We also found out that Feb 22 Elder Christofferson will come talk to the missionaries in Côte d'Ivoire which will be sweet. Also this week I hit six months on my mission which has flown by.

Spiritual Thought:

This week I had some fun studying the Guide to the Scriptures, and came across the section “Church, Signs of the True” It then gives 10 signs that the true church needs to have. They are: Correct understanding of the Godhead, First principles and ordinances, Revelation, Prophets, Authority, Additional scriptures to come forth, Church organization, Missionary work, Spiritual gifts, and Temples.

I just want to remind all of us how lucky we are to have the true church on this earth. We know who God and Jesus are, we have prophets, we have the priesthood, we have temples and covenants we can make with God, we have the Book of Mormon, and so much more. I am grateful for the Church of Jesus Christ and I hope we can 

Thanks for your prayers and I hope you guys have a great week!

Elder Robinson