New York!!!

Hello beautiful family!!!

Wow do I have a lot to say today! I have only been in New York for a little over 30 hours and so much has happened.

We arrived in White Plains and immediately stepping off the plane I felt the humidity! Felt just like Hawaii. I'm sure you have already checked the mission blog and saw I was the first to meet President and Sister Smith. It is crazy that I finally got to meet them! They are amazing I love them so much. They are hilarious too. It feels so good to be here. Then Sister Smith drove us to Scarsdale about 25 mins away from the airport. So nice!!

Oh my goodness. New York is beautiful. There are trees everywhere. Green galore! The houses are huge and old and everywhere you look something new pops up. I love it! The mission home sits on this hill with a private driveway sharing with one other house. It is encircled with great big Green beautiful luscious trees. Also the church building is right behind it. It is where President Packer used to go to church when he lived here. Everything is so beautiful!!!

We had dinner, testimony meeting and desert. Then we got to go to bed "early"!! I feel asleep at 9:45!!! It felt so amazing! I did wake up at 10:36 and panicked a little. I thought " why did I fall asleep so early? What am I doing? Where am I? Where is everyone?" Took me a few minutes to calm down and fall asleep hahahah. But I had the most amazing night!

The next morning we woke up and headed to the church. We had mini interviews with President and sat for an hour doing personal study. It was wonderful. I have a problem with dozing off in my studies... I so tired! But I pray really hard and I learn a lot. I'll get better.

Then....... we met our trainers! So funny story. Right as we met president at the airport he said he hadn't assigned us to any specific trainer yet. His process is to wait and meet everyone to see what the spirit says. He had picked all the trainers and had the spirit confirm that they were the right ones. He just needed to match us to them. So he said he hasn't assigned them to us until that morning. I know that the spirit directed him, because mine is perfect for me.

Her name is Sister Zelaya. She is amazing. She has been out for 14 months and has been in the city for most of that time. She is tall and beautiful! She also knows Spanish a little bit. Blessing!

Our area is Upstate New York!! An area called Middletown. Our zone is the Newburgh zone. Sister Zelaya and I are the only Sisters in our district. Which I guess is weird but I am excited! We have 2 sets of Elders in our zone.

So after all the meetings we had yesterday we drove up to Middletown which is about 1 hour and a half north of Scarsdale. Oh my goodness. It is beautiful. Heavenly Father knew exactly that this was the place I needed to be to start off. It reminds me so much of Hawaii!!! As we drove we were weaving in and out of trees and rivers and bridges! I didn't take any pictures because I was taking it all in. Next time :)

We visited a less active member first and it was a great way to ease me into missionary work. Then we went to visit another investigator but she wasn't home. We had a little time before our dinner appointment so we decided to knock doors! I said the prayer and asked to be directed by the spirit to those who needed our message. As we walked down the steps of a house I immediately felt promoted to walk right. We knocked on 3 doors and nothing. The next door we knocked and they were a Hispanic family who from the window told us no. As we walked down the steps we ran into Maria. She only spoke Spanish. No English. So with our limited Spanish we talked to her and asked her were she lives. Then another couple came walking up to us. We talked with them and are going to visit them next week! After they left we gave Maria a pass along card and got her address to send to the Spanish Elders. The cool thing was while we were talking to the couple Maria just stayed there. She didn't understand a word we were saying but I know she felt prompted to stay. Or she wanted to. She didn't know who we were or what we were doing. But she waited for us. I know we were mentioned to go right for her.

Then we jumped in our car and headed down the road. As we were driving I saw this man sitting on his porch reading a paper. He stood out to me but I wasn't sure why. I just shook it off. But Sister Zelaya said " I feel we need to talk to that man" immediately the spirit confirmed to me that was right. So we parked and walked up to him. He spoke Spanish too haha. After praying for a Spanish speaking mission I got it! To bad I didn't learn more of it. But it's a plan. However he understood and spoke a little English. We told him who we were and gave him a restoration pamphlet. We taught him how to pray and ask if he would do it. He said he was nervous but would try again next time. We left with a prayer and got his info. As we walked away Sister Zelaya said " he is going to get baptized" a rush of the spirit entered my body and I knew that was true. As we kept talking about it I got goose bumps all over and the spirit kept confirming that was true.

It has been incredible how much of the spirit I have been able to recognize. It is a gift from God. He has blessed us with it. We need to use it.

I was so caught up in that feeling I was crossing the street to our car but Sister Zelaya kept walking straight for a family walking our way. I went over and we started talking to them. A mother and 2 daughters. The mother spoke Spanish! Out of the 4 we ran into 3 of them spoke Spanish! We got their info and they said they had missionaries over a couple times and wanted them back! So we have a lot of referrals for the Spanish Elders :)

Then we really headed to our dinner appointment. We were having dinner at our Bishop’s house. However he is out of town so it was just his family. They are super cool. Spanish speakers ;) they speak English but Spanish when their grandma is down stairs. It is crazy the diversity I have seen already. Barely any white people! Haha but I am going to really try and learn Spanish.

After dinner we practiced the restoration lesson together. Just so we could see how we taught together. It was so powerful. I was so nervous and prayed so hard. The spirit directed me through the lesson. All of it. Seriously the spirit is incredible. Use it in your life and it will bless you!

There is still so much to say. But we are going to go eat lunch right now and do some pday jazz :) I love you all and know that as we read the Book of Mormon and ponder and pray. We will receive an answer and feel of God's love!

I love you all so much!

Sister Robison