Week 44

 Caleb talked to just Christa for a little bit of our Monday call because her birthday was Wednesday. 

I had to snap a picture of Elder Steven’s sweater he bought from someone there! He is hilarious! 

We talked to Caleb from our hotel in Anaheim. 

He found yummy shakes! 

Random trampoline! 

Ice cream! 

The kids there just love them! 

Playing a game with bottle lids. 

More pagne he found! 

He non stop teaches all day! It is so awesome! 

😂 He let a little girl do his hair! 

Matching ponytails! 

So an elder got chicken pox and so his companion and him had to be quarantined to their apartment so Caleb and his companion did errands for them. They got them food, gas and toilet paper and delivered it to them.  I love that they carried them on their head! The gas can they used a couch cushion to soften the weight of the gas can. 

Okay so this is insane! We got a text message Sunday morning from Elder Steven’s dad he had gotten our phone number from Elder Steven’s. They had a wedding in Cedar hills this weekend but had an aunt that lives here in daybreak that they stayed with and her ward building happens to be our same one. So when they went to church in the morning the dad loves to look at missionary plaques and happen to see Caleb’s and recognize him as their son’s mission companion! So he texted us and his family came over after church and we were able to meet them. They are such a great family and they love their Elder Stevens it was so fun to meet them! Again no coincidences! Of all the church buildings in our valley they happen to go to ours on Sunday?! 

We filmed a video to send to them, we did our morning bevs for them😆! I am sure they got a good laugh out of it! 

His email for this week:

Rain and Chicken Pox Errands

Salut

Last week I thought this week was going to be chill, but it was not chill at all. Last p-day we went and got some pagne simple and got pur money for the two weeks. We went to the stake center and played soccer. It was missionaries vs random Ivorian young men that showed up and walked onto the field. We beat them, which made them upset, so they played a little dirty and loved insulting us. It didn't matter because we still won haha. We went to a bag maker and dropped off some pagne so he could make some bags.

We had family home evening at the bishop's house. As we went to leave it downpoured. Like Noah and the Ark levels of rain. After like 2 minutes all of the roads became rivers. It was late and so me and Elder Stevens just ran through knee high rivers to get home. There was lightning going on over us too. Luckily we got home safely, just a little wet.

Tuesday morning we made breakfast burritos. It actually wasn't that hard to find everything which surprised me. We had district council. We had a lot of fun. We taught Stephan. He is a friend of the church. He has been taught off and on for two years, but has finally accepted to be baptized. But his mom is not okay with it, and there are a bunch of people from his old church that are telling him no, but he still wants to get baptized. It's been cooling seeing his testimony grow even with all of the temptations around him

Wednesday was a good day with two funny stories that happened within five minutes of each other. 

The first one is one of the kids that we were with got Elder Stevens' pants dirty. I looked at him and said “tu l'as salué” (you said hi to him) which wasn't right so I fixed myself and said "tu l'as sali” (you made him dirty) The kid, who was probably 3, was very concerned and looked at me and said “tu ne sais pas parler français?” Bro it hurt.

A few minutes later my mom sent me a photo of Christa because it was her birthday while we were there. We were with some boys around her age, so I showed them her photo. They were so funny. She thought she was the prettiest person ever. They said, “elle est jolie, elle est mignonne, elle est pimante” etc. It was so funny.

Thursday was a chill day until 16h ish when the assistants called us. They ask us to ask every Elder in our zone to see who has had chicken pox. There was one elder that got it in the village, so they moved him and his companion into an apartment that wasn't being used in our zone. About an hour later we get a phone call from the office Elder. He's like because you (Elder Stevens) are the district leader and you guys are the zone leaders, you guys need to go and get gas for those elders.

So we left our sector and called those elders telling them we were coming to get gas. Those elders said that the assistants were going to ask us to buy us food for them, so we started buying food for them. It was a lot of fun walking around and spending a lot of money. Then we started what would be a 4 mile round trip of walking. The first half was with their food to their apartment. The box was heavy so we rotated who had it on top of their head. The second half was with their gas tank which was extremely heavy. It was a fun experience though.

We had weekly planning Friday morning. We had to mark a lot of people as not progressing. It's always unfortunate doing that, but we need to focus on those who are progressing. That night we went over to a restaurant in our sector and got some milkshakes. They were expensive but they were so good.

Saturday we went to the stake center for the baptism of some elders in the zone. We tried to get a friend to come, but he didn't come. There were problems with the second interview not taking place so the baptism didn’t even happen. 

Later, while we were in sector, we got permission to go to the Sister's apartment to give them blessings. Both of them got malaria and had asked us for blessings. One is a francophone and the other is an anglophone. Me and Elder Stevens switched off doing them. It was fun doing them back to back in different languages.

Then we went to help those chicken pox elders. We were in charge of managing who was doing exchanges with them to free his companion, but his companion got chicken pox as well. So they gave us a lot of money and we went and bought a ton of groceries for them. It was so fun, even though we walked so much again. We made sure not to touch anyone, we just set the groceries down and said call us if you need anything.

Sunday was a chill day. Me and my companion gave talks and taught the second hour. Back at home a miracle happened. My companion's family was visiting Utah and “happened” to be at my ward building and see my missionary plaque. They realized it was me and somehow were able to meet up with each other. It was absolutely crazy.

Today we have MLC at the Litchfield's house, and then this week should be a chill week.

Spiritual Thought:

This was a scripture that was shared during district council that I really liked

Helaman 3:35: “Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God.”

During this part of the Book of Mormon it is talking about the pride cycle. At this part, verse 33 says that there was some pride entering into the hearts of those who professed to belong to the Church of God. But I like this verse because the true members of the church continued to do the small and simple things. They prayed and fasted often and continued to work on Christlike characteristics. They were able to resist the temptations because they kept doing the small and simple things. Never forget to do the small and simple things, because the day you do, it becomes harder and harder to resist temptation.

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

Elder Robinson