Monday, May 2, 2016

Oh Poop!

Hey everyone! How is it going? Great I hope.
I hope you all enjoyed fast sunday. Its always great to have a chance to testify of our Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ. As a missionary, all we do is testify of our Savior Jesus Christ, His life and His gift for all humanity. Lemme tell yah, there is nothing I would rather be doing, that is for sure!

So this week was quite an adventure week. We did a little bit of everything, but the best was we got 100 conversations this week! CRAZY!

Monday we got to do some REAL porting haha. I say real because we got to port houses! I just kinda found this place on a map and said that it might be fun to try contacting there and when we got there we were surprised that they were all houses! Its been a blast. We get a LOT of rejections, but no one has slammed the door in our faces yet, so there is something good (:

Tuesday we went to Saint Croix and visited a member. When we got there guess what happened?? IT WAS SNOWING! I was not very excited but Sœur Andersen was haha. We had a good visit with the member. The family is a convert family of like 5 years. They are amazing.The wife gave me her conversion story and sometime I will translate and send it so you can read it. It`s amazaing!
We also got to teach Concetta!! It was my last lesson with her because I will be heading to France (my 89 days in suisse are up on 9 May 😢) and she cant meet with us until may 10th! But I have lots of hope that she will accept the gospel. We taught her the first part of the plan of salvation and ended with the atonement and she was very touched by that. Especially the Atonement (which is my FAVORITE gospel subject 😊)  

Wednesday we got to see Sœur Frene and guess what.. SHE READ SOME OF THE BOOK OF MORMON ON HER OWN! She is progressing! I Love it. I really hope she comes back. The Church needs her.
then we continued porting where we did on monday and got a couple RDVs fixed for the coming week.

Thursday we got to meet with a cute lady named Vivian. She owns a Jamacian shop in Yverdon and invited us over to teach her a little bit. After that we were able to read the book of mormon with her and we fixed a RDV with her for this Thursday.
After that we went to a Relief Society activity and guess who came? Sœur Frene! She is making such good progress.

Friday was a fun day.. We started off at the farm where we got to clean MORE poop haha. They had the teenage cows break something and we had to clean the pen so that they could get in and fix it. Needless to say, we smelled awful. The funniest part of that though was that on the bus ride home, all the teenagers going home for lunch thought it might be fun to sit next to the pretty girls at the back of the bus but boy were they wrong!! It was so funny. When we ran past them all to get off at our stop they all made groaning noises from how bad we smelled hahaha
We then went home and had our appartement inspected and we pasted! That was exciting (:
We also got to pass by some less actives and amis.

Saturday was not really eventful until the evening haha. Saturday we saw Sœur Frene again and she of course was still doing haha. Then we ported. We came home exhausted to find the moving elders at our house ready to help us clear unwanted things out and we had them help us rearrange our appartement... I mean, what else are they there for haha just kidding. They did and our appartement looks AMAZING!! And dont worry, we provided them with PB&J sandwiches and all the other necessities that Young elders might need the night before Fast Sunday.

Sunday was interesting and exciting. We went to Church and like I said before, loved the testimony meeting. After Church we went to the Pires family home for lunch. Sœur Pires is AMAZING and a really good cook.. haha she made us really good rice and black beans with chicken and it is legit my favorite thing and something I will miss from Suisse so much. We also got to teach her less active daughter! It was cool to teach with her. She knows the Church is true, I dont know what is keeping her from coming. I hope that Sœur Andersen and whoever comes in to replace me can help figure that out!
After that we came home and had just enough time to do personal study and let the food digest a little before the bishop and his family came and picked us up for a soirée familial (FHE) chez eux (At their house). We had the soirée familial with an ami named Olivier who doesnt want to meet with us. It was on the importance of tithing and finances. After that we were all talking and Olivier just blirts out <<So I have a question, what do I have to do to be baptized?>> WHAT? We were so excited. We went through everything and the importance of meeting with missionaries. We found out that the thing holding him back from meeting with us is that his family is against the Church and he loves his family. We told him that he always had the ward as his family, but I cant imagine my family hating a big life decision I was making. He told us that he would think about it and let us know if he would like to meet with us or not. We are praying so hard that everything will go well and that we can teach him! He is solid and has been coming to Church for over 4 months. He is ready. We told him to pray about the Book of Mormon and that if he did that he would get an answer but that when he did get an answer he has to act on it. Hopefully everything works out for the best! He would be a great member.

Well, that is all that has happened! I am really looking forward to Skype on sunday!! Cant wait to see my family for the first time in like 5 months!
I love you all and cant wait to tell you where the Lord will take me next (:

Good luck and be good (:
Sister Robb

Weekly Scripture:
Mark 5:25-34
In this scripture a woman has a blood issue that has caused her a lot of grief but she has the faith that if she can touch the hem of Christ`s clothes she will be healed. And she was! Isn`t that amazing? I just wanted to share a quick quote that I loved as I was studying this story this week. It is from a talk in the March 2008 Engisn titled <<One Among the Crowd>> by Elder Dennis B. Neuenschwander. He said:
<<All of us are among the crowds of this world. Almost all of us are like the woman who, despite the crowd, comes to the Savior. We all have faith that just a touch will bring Healing to our aching souls and relief to our innermost needs. In all of life`s circumstances let us quietly and resolutely press forward to the Savior, having faith that He cares about us and has the power to heal and save us.>>
Because of the Atonement, we all can be healed of whatever is ailing us. That is true always, even when we dont feel like were worthy of that gift.

Hello From the Other Side

Hey all! Hope you`re doing well! Life is beautiful here in Suisse (:

This week was definitely one of the funnest weeks of my mission. Being a missionary is just the best thing in the world!

To start the week off on the right foot, I had an exchange Monday-Tuesday with one of my favorite people in the world, Sœur Wadsworth! We contacted in the rain Monday and did some potential calls haha, okay, one potential call because we ran out of time for anything else haha. And we had a blast! She is awesome. The next day we did all of our studies and went out and got crêpes for lunch from a crêpe stand! And then the Zone Leaders (Elder Humphrey and Elder McKee) came over to fix their shower head and bring me stuff they got at Ikea for our appartment in Yverdon. Oh they`re hilarious. There is nothing but laughs and good times when we`re with the Zone Leaders. After they left, we went and contacted and then headed to see a less active. She is DARLING! Her name is Sœur Gonzales and she is from Equador. She is sick or she would come to Church and she lives so far away that they dont take her the sacrament.. Okay.. Here I dont even know if they have a shut-ins sacrament program because the most YM in one ward is 3 and no one here can drive because its too expensive.. So who knows! But she is wonderful and LOVES when the misisonaries visit. She says that we are the light when she is down. It definately makes being a missionary even more Worth it!

Wednesday we went to the farm and it was by far the hardest time I`ve been at the farm! We cleaned the cow pens! They hadn`t been cleaned for 12 weeks!! Needless to say, no one sat by us on the way home from the farm and I dont blame them! We smelled like cow poop and even had it all over our clothes... It was awful but still fun haha. I love the farm. It defintely teaches us how to work hard. When we got home we cleaned up and then set out for a day of contacting for 6 hours. We had 25 really good conversations so it was fun but my feet hurt so bad! Mais C`est la vie pour les missionnaires!

Thursday was our zone finding day! It was super cool! We found so many people and got lots of numbers for the different sectors. We even got a new ami for Yverdon! His name is Félicien. He is SO COOL! Golden. He contacted us en fait. He said he was really interested in meeting with us. He had been contacted by the missionaries before and said that he knew there was no coincidence that we had been in the same place as him and that it was a sign from God. SO COOL! We got to meet with him on Saturday which I`ll tell more about when I get there (;

Friday was Zone Conference in Lyon. It was nothing short of spectacular. We focused on teaching repentance and baptizing converts. President walked in and said to us <<Elders and Sisters, there is a spirit of baptism in this room right now. Can you feel it?>> It was so cool! He has so much faith in us that we can achieve our goal of 91 convert baptisms and I believe it with all my heart! I don`t know who the baptism in Yverdon will be, but as of right now we have a baptism on the calendar and we are planning one for the 8th of May. I am really looking forward to my first baptism of the mission! And if for some reason, we dont get the baptism here, its okay! Because this is a mission goal, so we will, as a mission, accomplish it!!

Saturday was the day! We were doing weekly planning and received a phone call and turns out if was Félicien! he said that he was at our Church to find out more but it was locked... So we explained that we only have a meeting on Sunday that is open to everyone but that we could be there in a couple of hours! He agreed and we set a RDV. We found a member (bastian and Judith bonny) to teach with us and headed over to the Church. We gave him a Church tour and did the basic lesson 0 (get to know them and talk about our expectations and finish with a gospel though) but he wanted more! So we taught the whole restoration with him. And........................He loved it! He said that everything we taught him made sense. And his favorite part was the first vision. He said that it was genious and that if God wanted to restore his gospel on the earth it would be a lot easier for him to appear and say it like that haha. He felt like everything we said was true and loved that we had the book of mormon because there had to be other stories if God really did love all his children. He is legit golden! We are working on getting him baptized on May 8th..... So if you all woudln`t mind, through out the week would you keep Félicien in your prayers? Just that he will progress well and know that this is the true Church. THANKS (:

Sunday was just a nice relaxing day. I loved Church. The talks were on prayer and it was just beautiful.

Well folks, thats about it for this week! To finish I just want to invite you to look up a song on YouTube. It`s Hello by Adele but a missionary version. If you`re wondering what a mission is like, Watch the video and you will know! Its hilarious and so accurate haha.

Here is the link to the video she talks about 
     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckLqfX62u_I



Keep up the good work (: LOVE YOU!

Sœur Robb

Weekly Scripture:
Matthew 26:69-75
This set of verses talk about when Peter denies the Savior. As I was studying the atonement this week I came across a quote from President Hinckley that touched me.
<<My heart goes out to Peter. So many of us are so much like him. We pledge our loyalty; we affirm our determination to be of good courage; we declare, sometimes even publicly, that come what may we will do the right thing, that we will stand for the right cause, that we will be true to ourselves and to others. Then the pressures begin to build. Sometimes these are social pressures. Sometimes they are personal appetites. Sometimes they are false ambitions. There is a weakening of the will. There is a softening of discipline. There is capitulation. And then there is remorse, followed by self-accusation and bitter tears of regret. Now, if there be those throughout the Church who by word or act have denied the faith, I pray that you may draw comfort and resolution from the example of Peter, who, though he had walked daily with Jesus, in an hour of extremity momentarily denied the Lord and also the testimony which he carried in his own heart. But he rose above this and became a mighty defender and a powerful advocate. So, too, there is a way for any person to turn about and add his or her strength and faith to the strength and faith of others in building the kingdom of God.>>
I love this quote because we are all Peters at one point in our life. We may not deny christ, but we will all sin, which is turning our hearts from Heavenly Father. But how cool is the Atonement?! We have the chance to repent(Change) and come back and like Peter be one of the biggest supports for the Church and I love that. Repentance isn`t just for the sinners, because everyone of us are sinners who keep trying (:

-- 
Soeur Keagan RobbFro

Working In a War Zone

Lausanne District

Hey hey hey!
Let's just say that this week was pretty good! Not much teaching, but
I grew so much, so it all works out :)

Teaching wise, this week was kinda tough! We only taught 4 lessons but
had planned 16. The other 12 just fell through. It's so sad when that
happens. But, we did get some good contacting in, and had the best
work with members that we've had in a long time!

Monday we went to Lausanne and ate at this places called Holy Cow.
They make HUGE burgers! So good :) then we went home and had a FHE
with some members and their non-member friend :) she's not interested
in meeting with us, but she's coming to church. Hopefully soon she'll
meet with us!

Tuesday we got to meet with the new DMP (ward mission leader). He's so
cool and incredibly supportive of the work! He's been a convert for
about 7 years. He's super cool. He is working with is in so many
different ways to grow our teaching pool and get that baptism. He said
that he's already arranging plans for us to have a baptism on May 7th!
Haha he's wonderful :) we also had ward counsel where everyone was
giving us ideas on who could be the one baptism for us! It's so nice
to have supportive members working with you.

Wednesday we went to the farm and cleaned up cow poop and took care of
the baby cows! They're DARLING! It also POORED rain, so that was fun
(pics to come). We then made our final attempt to see Concetta. And
when we got there, she wasn't there but her sons were! They told us
where she was and walked with us there and she wasn't there... So we
went back to their apartment to get her number and guess what! She was
there! We have a RDV with her tomorrow :) it will be so fun!

After cleaning up the Poop at the farm, stinky and smelly.
The life of a missionary!!
Soeur Anderson and Soeur Robb


Thursday I got to go on exchange with cute Sister Allen! She's a new
blue from England. She's DARLING and had the same teachers as me in
the MTC! We had a lot of fun. We taught Krisztina together. I just
love Krisztina. She always asks amazing questions. When we were
teaching her Thursday she asked a lot of questions about the spirit
prison and spirit paradise and eternal marriage. She also said she
knows the church is true! Which is HUGE! We just gotta wait for her to
get married. She's amazing.

Friday we tried to have RDVs but every one of them fell through. But
not to worry, we made good use of our time and contacted :) I love
contacting!

Saturday there was a relief society activity. It was fun! They talked
about different things like DIY projects, and what colors look good on
you, stuff like that. It was cool cuz we had some Amis there who
seemed to enjoy it :) it was a great opportunity to get the Amis
integrated into the ward.

Sunday was awesome as always. We got to go to a baptism! There was a
baptism in Lausanne. It was BEAUTIFUL! Nothing makes me more happy
than seeing people accept the gospel and use the atonement. All the
hard things we go through during missions are so worth it just for
that one moment.

Well, everyone I love you all! Keep up the good work and remember that
the Lord is always with you!

-sister Robb

Sœur Keagan Robb
La mission Français de Lyon
59 rue de l'Abondance
69003 Lyon France

Weekly Scripture:
Introduction to the Book of Mormon and testimonies of the witnesses.
These simple little passages are incredible! Within them is the
preface for something that blesses so many lives. And my favorite line
from the witnesses is "and we can not deny it" they KNEW it was true.
They KNEW it and they COULD NOT deny it. Let us all strive to be like
those witnesses and testify of the Book of Mormon and its
truthfulness. For it is true and we can not deny it.

Gathering the Hens of Isreal

Hey ya'll! How's it going?? Super good I hope. I hope that we've all
followed the counsel of Elder Holland and not come off the spiritual
high from conference! My challenge to you is to study the talk given
by our dear Prophet, President Monson, and make a list of 3 things we
will do/become from what he said. There is so much we can learn from
our dear prophet and so much we can learn fro,pm those who spoke. They
are truly inspired and I hope that you will treasure their words
always.

So here are this weeks happenings.

Monday was just great haha. We just rode trains to Lyon and then went
shopping a little bit because EVERYTHING is cheaper in France than it
is I'm Switzerland. We also got stranded and the Moving Equipe had to
save us again haha.

On Tuesday, we got to go to Lyon for a leadership conference. It was
so fun. I get to just chill while the Zone Leaders and STLs have the
hard jobs ;) we were issued a challenge though! The mission has
received a challenge to have 91 baptisms by May 8th! Holy cow is all I
can say! That is an impossible goal right? That is right, but only if
you try to do it alone. The beautiful thing about serving a mission is
that you have to serve a mission the Lords way, and if you do that
anything is possible, even 91 baptisms!

Wednesday was a good day. We contacted a lot and then stopped by the
house of an ami and she just talked about her trip to Utah and Vegas
haha. It was fun to get to connect with her! But it was difficult to
try and get a word in.

Thursday we had Zone training and that was a blast as usual. We went
through some rules and that stuff and then discussed the 91 baptisms
challenge. We are pumped here is Swiss and totally ready. We will do
this because we have the Lord on our side. The work may be rough and
Satan will try his hardest to get us to not succeed but despite it
all, we will succeed! I feel like this is what the Lord has been
preparing us for. After the Paris Attacks we had the challenge of
getting 200 non-members at church and we did that. Then in December we
taught lessons with 1000 members. Last transfer we got 223
investigators to commit to baptism and now is the time to finish it,
all in preparation for the dedication of the Paris temple this fall.
We can do it, and we will do it. Because we have the Lord. There is no
doubt in my mind that with the lords help we will succeed.

Friday was fun too. We had a RDV with an ami named Paul. He has had a
rough past and told us about some of the hard things that he's going
through right now. Despite everything he's going through, he said that
he has a desire to get better and to change his life. We testified to
him that it was possible to do so through our savior Jesus Christ. He
was so happy. We gave him a commitment and I really hope he keeps it!
As missionaries, we are here to Invite people to co,e into Christ, and
then to help them do that. It makes me so happy when people say they
want to change but it's just another kind of happiness when they
really do. Prayers for Paul!

Saturday was neat. We were doing our usual power hour and I saw the
cutest couple ever and when I saw them, I had the impression to
contact them. That was probably one of the scariest impressions I've
had in my life! But I did it. With my Americanized French, I contacted
this couple and turns out THEY ARE INTERESTED! We have a RDV set for
this weekend and I'm SO excited :) Friends, ALWAYS follow the
promptings of the Holy Ghost.

Sunday was a good Sunday. We had quite the day. We got set up 4 RDVs
to meet with members and the Stake President invited us over! That was
intimidating. We also had a FHE and I will definitely include some
pictures :)

Oh! Also, explanation of the subject... When we were at church we
found some chickens (yes, chickens at the Church.) and decided that it
might be fun try and "gather" them haha

Well everyone, I love you all. I hope you have a wonderful week.
Thanks for all the emails and the prayers. They mean the world to me
and definitely keep me going when times get tough.

Remember who you are and whose you are :)
Sœur Keagan Robb
La mission Français de Lyon
59 rue de l'Abondance
69003 Lyon France

Weekly Scripture:
Matthew 14:22-33
Keep your eyes focuses on the Savior and all will be okay.

Conference

Hey! How is everyone! Super pumped after general conference? Cuz I
am!! My goodness wasn't that just AMAZING!! I tell yah what, there is
NOTHING better than general conference on the mission. Okay, there are
lots of things that and equally as awesome, but it's way cool. And was
one of the best ways to end this week. One of my favorite quotes was
from elder Mervyn B. Arnold when he said "no matter our age, we are
all called to go to the rescue." That quote really touched my little
missionary heart. We don't have to have a name tag to be a missionary.
We don't have to be 18/19/20/21. We don't even need to grow a foot or
two! We just need to heed the call and rescue. It could be something
as simple as smiling at someone and saying hi, or serving a neighbor
in need. It reminded me of the song "have I done any good in the world
today." This week I challenge you to heed the call of those around us
and rescue those in need.

So this week was definitely an awesome one!
Monday was fun, we got to party it up in Geneva. And that night I
received sister Andersen. She is my new companion and she is from
Denmark! She is basically perfection. I love her and have already
learned so much in 1 short week from her! She pushes me to open my
mouth more and to get uncomfortable. She is an amazing teacher and I
am excited to learn more from her as our transfer goes.

Tuesday we started our day and had all our lessons fall through so it
was just a fine day full of contacting haha. But that was okay because
we got a brand new fridge!! So In our mission we have this awesome
companionship called "the moving elders" and they help all the
missionaries get what they need and they are just wonderful. So they
brought us a new fridge because our old one had a door that would fall
off... But man! I just have a new appreciation for the elders! They
are AMAZING! If sisters ask for anything, they will do it not because
they have to but because they want to. They are so polite and they
honestly have out best interest in mind and take WAY good care of us.
They also take the jobs that I don't want like working in the office
or the moving equipe (companionship). Needless to say, I developed a
greater appreciation for the elders all over the world haha.

Wednesday we had a grand miracle! We have a potential ami that we have
been trying to contact forever and she isn't home. She is so ready for
the gospel and we aren't giving up on her. Well, as we were
contacting-because I couldn't remember where someone we were going to
try to pass lived (Yverdon may be small, but I still sometimes get
lost haha...)- there she came riding by on her bike! She stopped and
talked to us, said she was struggling but knew that we could help her
and wants to meet with us! We are just waiting for her call to fix a
RDV! It was a grand miracle indeed.

Thursday was fun! I got to introduce Soeur Andersen to the farm! She
loved it haha. She grew up on an apple farm and loved it. We also got
a new ami! His name is Bruno. He has had a rough life but as we shared
with him the truth of the gospel we were able to watch his heart
soften and he was very receptive to our message. We will be meeting
with him on Wednesday and I'm really looking forward to that.

Friday was another day just full of contacting but it was still a good
day with lots of miracle stories and bunches of new potentials.

Saturday was the beginning of conference!! It was weird to watch it at
church and so late at night, but it was so fun. Soeur Andersen and I
were the only ones to watch it in English so it was nice to have a
room all to ourselves haha :)

Sunday was a blast! We went to church early in the morning to watch
the women's session and then went to eat at a members home. She fed us
goat and rice. It was SO good! Didn't think I would like goat, but
it's actually really good. After that we got to watch the Saturday
afternoon session and Sunday morning session. We would have finished
conference today but we are on our way to Lyon for an STL/ZL
Leadership Conference! But I am really looking forward to that and to
getting to finish conference. It's always so amazing.

Well. That's about it folks!! Life here in Yverdon is so good and
always getting better. And I give all the credit to my Heavenly Father
and His son Jesus Christ. Every good thing I have In this works I owe
to them!

Know I love you all lots!
Until next week,
Keags