HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Am I a little late on that one? Yeah? No? Oh well...

So, this week was a big Zone Conference on Wednesday. Everybody from the Southern Zone came to join us for this one, so I got to see Elder Ditty and Elder Harris and all them that I left behind when I came up to Dnepr.

What else happened this week... Thanksgiving was awesome, we had a district dinner. On Friday it snowed a lot! I was so happy, there was snow everywhere! It's all melted now, but while it was falling, I was excited.

I guess that about brings us up to now. Kind of boring I guess. I do have some pictures. I think...

Anyway, peace out!

Elder Robison

The view from our study window 

Our district thanksgiving. I sat at the head of the table, because that's where I ended up.

(From left to right: Elder Fuller, Elder Litchfield, Sister Hendricks, Sister Savran, Elder Jensen, Elder Balyas, and Elder Peterson)

Ignore the ​fact that I look horrible in this picture, it's just a bad angle! Note the guitar in the back corner. My guitar. 

Still got it.

Obtain My Word

So, we got a new name for our program! It's called Obtain My Word, also scriptural based.

"Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my Spirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the convincing of men." - D&C 11:21

Elder Walker made a sick piece of artwork that's now our logo, huge shout out to him for that. 

Right now we're printing out THOUSANDS of sheets of paper that contain the entirety of our program. We're going to distribute it to the whole mission this week. Everything is coming together now. It's pretty crazy.

Other than that, not much happened this week. It's really cold. It snowed earlier this week, enough for there to be snow on the ground. I was so excited. I want more.

So, that's life. Life's so weird.

Peace out!

Elder Robison

Dinner With the APs

I think that we ate at least one meal with the APs almost every day this week. No joke. It's kind of ridiculous how often we eat with them. It's free food though. And it's fun hanging out with the APs. I'm just not used to there being so many missionaries everywhere.

I finally gained weight this week! Like 3 or 4 pounds! It seems like everyone else is trying to lose weight, but I'm in the strange situation of not being able to gain it. It's kind of horrible actually, I'll be totally full and just have to keep eating. Kind of takes the pleasure out of eating when you know you have to eat too much.

We started grading all of the tests this last week. We're really pleased with some of the results, and hugely disappointed with others. I guess this is what it feels like to be a teacher. We have gotten a few good laughs out of some people's comments and answers to questions on the test, so that's been worth it. Also, being able to arrange and view the data from the tests is pretty much the coolest thing ever. It's incredibly nerdy, and incredibly satisfying. We have so much data processing power, it's insane.

Well, I think that about sums up my week. Not that much happened that's very exciting at all. Transfers came, but nobody really got moved anywhere. We're all just sort of here.

Peace out!

Elder Robison

Smite the Rocks

We did it! The language tests are going out to everyone this week. Everyone in the mission is going to hate us for this. The level 4 tests are really hard, but the tests are overall very good. It covers all the information that we could forsee as being needed. I'm sure that we'll have to change them further, but it's a good first version.

I wanted to change the actual title of the program to something awesome, so I found a cool scripture that says: "And they who are in the north countries shall come in remembrance before the Lord; and their prophets shall hear his voice, and shall no longer stay themselves; and they shall smite the rocks, and the ice shall flow down at their presence." (Doctirne and Covenants 133:26)

Unfortunately, President said we couldn't change the name to "Smite the Rocks". Oh well. I'll still refer to the tests as such from now on, because that's a sick name.

It snowed quite a bit this week, but none of it stuck. It was pretty fun one night while we were walking. We were walking directly into the wind, so the snow totally covered us in front. We got home and were totally blanketed. It was awesome, I love snow so much! I got some pictures of us once we had brushed most of it off and got inside. We look pretty awesome, to be totally humble of course.

Still no weight gain, but, eating lots of food. That's good.

I gave a segment about learning the language this week at Zone Training. It was super fun. It's pretty hilarious how many mistakes I make when I speak English now, I just say things the way I would in Russian, so it comes out really funny sometimes. It's even funnier when everyone you're talking to also speaks Russian, bercause they know exactly why you're making those mistakes, and they don't even notice it half of the time because it's now become normal for them.

Well, that's my week pretty much.

Peace out!

Elder Robison

So, This Week Happened

Ok, what happened this week? I don't really remember. I should start bringing my journal so I can actually remember things that happen.

This week was kind of long, we started working in the office to get on those language tests that we have to do. It's nice work, but I don't like the whole office vibe right now, I want to be out doing stuff. At least it's interesting work, I like language stuff. I don't remember how much I told about that last time, but basically it's a set of 12 Russian language benchmarking tests and associated study materials from some mission in Russian. The first thing we did was change the name of the program from the old, boring title that they used to "How Speak Good on Russian Language". We think this is good decision

We ate really good food this week. I still haven't gained any weight, but at least the food is good. We made a whole chicken for Sunday dinner. It was so good. We made bacon-wrapped hamburgers with donuts for buns because there weren't any buns to use on Monday. They were really good. So was the mushroom soup I made. I'm always hungry now, but I'm always eating too, so that works out.

Elder Peterson and I bought fountain pens this week, because that's really classy. Mine's already out of ink though, I wrote a lot with it. It's a good incentive to improve handwriting, we're going to buy some better ones and get back up ink for them.

On Saturday it snowed! We were walking, and then all of the sudden it started snowing. It's still October, and it's already snowed! It snowed this morning too! What is this madness!?

I think that's all. Pretty much my week. Got some cool pics, I'll send those. Actually, the pics are pretty boring.

Peace out!

Elder Robison

 This is my office space

 This is the insane high-tech keyboard that Elder Fuller bought that I use because we share this computer.

 So, this is a story that happened while we played one word story in English. It's fantastic.

My chair betrayed me again yesterday morning, this time breaking entirely. I no longer have a chair to study in at home.