Friday, January 29, 2016

Kamisugi Transfer 8 Week 3


Hey! 

Time's flying by, January is almost over! 信じられない!

Elder Huston and I attended the mission wide trainers and trainees meeting on Thursday! Although it was my second time to that same meeting with the same trainings, I took a lot away from it. The thing Smith kaichou stressed on in both meetings was the relationship triangle between us, our companions and God and how the best way to strengthen the relationship between us and our companions is to become closer to God and Christ and as we do that, the area of the equilateral triangle will decrease and we will all be so much closer. The cool and very true thing that I learned is that this experience of serving a mission is the absolute best preparation for marriage this world has to offer. We are assigned to 10-16 companions on a mission with random guys that we have to learn to get along with, adjust to, work together with and resolve issues with. What better preparation for marriage than that? So he said really, this mission is preparing us for our marriages with our wives and how to more easily overcome small challenges, disagreements and whatnot. Good stuff! 

Splits
Third time going on a split with my man Elder Larsen! It was a day after a bunch of snow so we couldn't ride our bikes and both appointments we had fell through which left us with a full day to go out and work. So, we walked about 5 miles in our big snow boots and visited some members down south. It was lots of good talking with him, he's a good guy and fun to be around. 

Missionary Worldwide Broadcast 
Yes! The church put together a worldwide web broadcast for missionaries- a 2 hour program- that was simply amazing. We have a zone conference coming up this week and we'll be talking a lot about it and what we learned. The main thing I learned- the Spirit really counts and members make for the most effective and lasting missionary work. 

Fireside
Last night, Smith kaichou held a fireside called "Why I Believe", a gathering to share testimony and have fun, here at the Kamisugi building. Great turn out with lots of investigators from missionaries neighboring the Kamisugi area. Felt a great spirit as we had the opportunity to hear testimony from recent converts and sing a bunch together. The missionaries got up and sang a special musical number- the EFY medley. Great meeting!

Seza Kyoudai's wedding
On Saturday afternoon we got to go to the wedding reception of our old Ward mission leader- Seza Kyoudai, who is now serving as a counselor for President Smith. Anyways, it was a blast! And our 86 year old investigator randomly showed up to the church wedding reception with $150 worth of cigarettes! It was great! Haha. At the party, the elders quorum and the missionaries did the haka! Or, at least attempted..  A bunch of different shapes and sized Americans and Japanese having fun doing the haka. We started it off with this music all the old people do here in parks for stretching and waking up and then all of a sudden Elder Larsen with his big and powerful voice stops doing and starts yelling all of these chants while the other 4 guys are still doing the stretch music routine. Then he said a key word, the music cuts and the 4 get into haka position and do a routine. Then about 10 more guys come out onto the stage in squat position hopping and do two routines of the haka. Anyway, elder Larsen, the one in front of everyone and the leader for the routine, ripped his suit pants WAY bad in the butt area right when he began the routine. He was freezing up way bad, forgetting almost everything but still pulled it off and people didn't notice what had happened until someone from the group told them. Way funny but props to him for still pulling it out. 

District goal
This week and next, we set a district goal to teach 120 total lessons. 20 lessons a week for each companionship. Should be great practice and should help build the work with member dendou, strengthen the relationship between missionaries and members, and refine our teaching skills. 

Have a great week!

Elder Dallin Robins
Robinzu Chōrō
ロビンズ長老

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Kamisugi Transfer 8 Week 2

Hey Yall!

Had Elder Yamashita of the 70 come and do a meeting with the mission on Thursday. Learned so so much- about the importance of believing in yourself, opening your mouth at every opportunity and making eternal friendships. Truly, a passionate and inspired servant of the Lord. Always cool to get direct counsel form power houses like him and his wife. Plus he was pretty much fluent in english, (see General Conference October 2011).

We had snow today and a lot of other good cultural events this week, so Ill send some pics!

Byebye,

Elder Robins

at the top of the stores is this massive bonfire where thousands and thousands throw a bag of trash in and make it symbolic of the new year.

the all night event of the donton festival- special to Sendai. This is a long stairway up to a shrine

Mochi Festival for New Years- me putting the hammer down on some rice!

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Kamisugi Transfer 8 Week 1

こんにちは皆さま!

今日私は日本語で書きます。今週はあまり新しいことがないので短いのメッセジを分かち合います。

This week at ZTM I learned about the sacred nature of prayer. Prayer is a 2 way conversation with God. God is a magnificent being. All knowing. All powerful. And loves each of us immensely. With that being said, a conversation with such a being should be a sacred, cherished and holy experience, every time. We ought to use respectful and honorific wording that show our reverence and saying prayers on our knees, showing respect, is always a good idea! But, the balance to it is, it still has to be 100% sincere, from the heart, in order for it to mean anything. Rote prayers and memorization are just a waste of time but if what you're praying is what you're feeling in your heart, that's when God will listen most and you'll feel that peace, comfort, divine guidance and strength to accomplish what you gotta do each and every day.

Not a whole lot to report this week but know I love you all tons! My year mark is this coming Thursday, it's cliche but I can't believe it.. Time's flying by and it's only going to get faster. If you're still reading my emails at this point, you know you truly are a fan of elder robins. I commend you for that:)  I appreciate and love all of you and what you do for me and my family. 

Pray to God from your heart to ask what lack I yet, ponder for a few minutes and act on the answer you get to get closer to Christ. 

Love always, 

Elder Dallin Robins
Robinzu Chōrō
ロビンズ長老

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Kamisugi Transfer 7 Week 6

Greetings 2016 年始
 
Too much food this week. Also including a cultural Japanese New Years meal- kuitsumi. Pictures attached.

Lots of unique and fun things we did this week. New Year's Eve was another unhealthy day where we stayed in the apartment and did a deep clean for 9 hours. For new year morning, went to one of the top 3 rated most beautiful places in all of Japan for the sunrise- it was cold and everything, then as the sun began to peek out a huge cloud covered the scene and it started pouring snow... We thought the sunrise was ruined so we started walking else where. Luckily I forgot my bag back at the place we originally were waiting and by that time, 20 minutes later, the sun snow cloud was gone and the sunrise was in full bloom- most beautiful scene ever. Ate and ate some more for the rest of the week. Visited and participated in some Japanese Shinto culture. See pictures below.

Transfers: my whole district is staying the exact same! Very surprising and very rare and not that exciting honestly.. but such a great opportunity to get some good work done! It's a way fun district so it should be a good nother 6 weeks here in the city! 

Dendou highlight of the week- did some follow up housing on this apartment that received a Book of Mormon back in November. We knocked and waited quite a bit, starting to doubt that they were home but then they opened the door, saw our face and had the biggest smile! They had tried reading the Book of Mormon and thought it was pretty tough to understand. His wife came to the door and asked for her own copy of the Book of Mormon then asked if we could get lunch together with them sometime and then asked if it's okay if she brings her friend who has interest as well!!.. It was an amazing shock! Learned again that God likes to surprise us. When we pray and fast and work earnestly for something we need and want, it most often comes in small, unexpected and spontaneous ways. I'm still trying to adjust to that type of system but I know as we really, truly from the heart trust in God and His will for us, we will see and get the result God knows we need. 


Crazy week full of wild events but here's some pics to sum stuff up.
Have a killer week and make sure to add a reminder on your phone to periodically remind you of your New Years resolutions/goals! Love you!
Elder Dallin Robins
Robinzu Chōrō
ロビンズ長老

Matsushima- New Years Day Sunrise/Snowfest

Traditional but fancy new years meal

District Pday Bowling Alley (complete with fuzzy duds)