New cycle and new motivation

Dear beautiful family of mine,

Can you believe that I have been gone for 2 months now? And I am no longer a greenie on a mission! It is exciting stuff!!! There has been so many incredible miracles going on in the Middletown Area. Also in the New York North Mission! To start off our President has told us that we now have a mission goal to baptize 30 in 3 consecutive months! So in 3 months have a total of 30 people make that Important covenant with our Father in Heaven! We are so excited!

Second transfers have come. I love transfers! It is so exciting. Last cycle ( a cycle is the 6 weeks in a transfer) We had 4 Elders. 2 Spanish and 2 English. Well we now only have 2 Elders. 1 Spanish and 1 English! And we also got a new bishop in the ward!!!! It is so incredible for this area! We have a new motivation and new eyes to see the work and how to better it! We are sooooooooo excited. We also were way pumped for these Elders because they are white washing the area and decided to give them a nice welcoming. ( white washing is putting brand new Elders in an area who have never been here before). The funniest thing happened last night. We met them while we were syncing our area book at the church. They had a lot of questions because they have both been out only 6 months and spent all that time in Harlem. So it is a brand new world up here. Also they asked us is another area was apart of our district and we said it was only us 4. They turned to each other and said " who is our district leaders!?!?" Hahah oh my goodness! Usually when you get a call that you will be transfered you get notified if you will be a leader or not. And no one told these Elders! They just got handed the car keys and were off! Oh man. It is awesome. They will do great. For me and Sister Zelaya we obviously are staying in Middletown. Because I am not done with my 12 week training. It is all wonderful news because we have sooooo much we still want to do and we also have some new motivation and goals we want to implement! We have been doing so many changes on how we can become better more obeident and efficient missionaries. We have definantly seen the fruits of our labor this past week. We have 2 baptismal dates set and we have been teaching about 20 lessons a week! We have had people Ttend Sacrament meeting and we have now 4 progressing investigators! This is all incredible news and makes life so wonderful. Don't get me wrong there are those hard times where people still don't answer the phone or as you start walking over to them they start to run or hurry inside and lock the door.... but it is incredible because my job isn't to convert them but be a "sounding cry unto the nation." The people we have been working with are all incredible. There is one lady who's name is Alethia and she is elect. We had to push her a little for us to meet with her but once we finally met with her she accepted the whole Restoration. She said it all made sense and could be true. We invited her to be baptized and she said she would once she knew that it was true for herself. She is the most coolest ever! When we were talking about apostasy she stops us and said " this is me right now right?!" She understood that she had distanced herself from God and that it wasn't good! How many people recognize that? Very few!!! Even if don't recognize when I am slipping into a state of apostasy! She is way cool. She said she needs time before she comes to church because it is a little scary and she doesn't have any one to go with. So we are giving her a church tour this Thursday and are so pumped! She does have Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity problems. But we know that she can ,are the changes and that she is so ready for this gospel! The 2 baptismal dates we have set are for Christina and Denisha. Christina is the one who previously had a baptism date for June but wasn't able to because she hadn't married her "husband" yet. They have 3 kids and have lived together for 16 years... haha but she is so ready! We made plans and goals as to what she needs to get done before her date which is August 28th! It is exciting! When we set it she said "Yeah. It feels right. I am going to even put it on the calender." And then at church the next day she was telling people!!! I love those who chose to become baptised so much. The other is Denisha. Denisha has a lot of things going on. But she has been dreaming of being baptised for months now. She has a lot of decisions she needs to make before she does get baptized. And pretty big ones but she has enough Faith that it will all work out and she can finally be all in this wonderful gospel. She is an incredible young mother of 1 and 1 on the way. I love her! Her date is for August 21. Please pray for these beautiful women. They desire this so much and are such incredible people. Missionary work is amazing. Every time I think about what I am doing I get chills. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I am finally on a mission. I am finally a missionary! I look back on all the work I have done and all the preparation I did for this time. It was not wasted and I am so grateful I am definitely this decision. I love my job! Also I have been reading in the Book of Exodus in the bible. I LOVE MOSES! we are going to help a recent convert teach Relief Society this week and it is about the Passover and Sacrament. Oh my goodness. Please I challenge you all to read Exodus 12. It is so incredible and such an important part of history and I love it. I think another reason why I love Moses so much is because I used to watch 'Prince of Egypt' with lishy so much. I do love Moses because he was so courageous and obedient to the Lord. He tried and tried every thing the LORD Tolstoy him to do so he could save his people from bandage. He didn't give up and eventually they were all free. I have also been reading in 2 Nephi of the book of mormon and I have been reading the parts where Nephi the prophet is reading the words of Isaiah the prophet. I have come to love those chapters! I have been using the Study Guide so I can better understand what Is going on. This time around reading the Book of Mormon has been more of a history lesson. And I love it! In 2 Nephi 19 it talks about the prophecy of the Messiah. And in the beginning it talks about 2 nations that make up what is called Holy Land. These nations have been under so much war and contention because people want to rule and control is so badly. It is also called the land of the shadow of death. Well the nation's are now what is called Galilee. Which is incredible because that is where Jesus spent most of his life at! And in 2 Nephi 19:2 it says "2 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined." How incredible!!!!! Jesus is going to come and bring light to the darkness!

I testify that is so true. Even in our darkest moments and trials there is light. Christ is there and willing and ready to help us though every thing that seems to difficult for us to handle. I have really come to love my savior. He is my brother and I am extremely grateful for all he has done for me. I have felt him so much in my life. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that it has been restored from the time he established it. It is in the Church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints. I love our father in heaven. I am grateful for the plan of salvation and that we can all be together for eternity. I love you all so much! Keep smiling and rely on Christ our SAVIOR. ♡ Sister Robison