Letter 12/24/11

Dear friends & family, Well I have received all of your letters and the first thing I would like to say is thank you for everything.  Those letters have such a great spirit to them, also such great memories with each one of you.  it has been a true blessing to have all of y'all a part of my life.  Well it is now midnight and after I have read those letters the spirit is to strong to sleep it off.  I feel the love of Christ letting me know that we will truly be together forever and eternity.  I know this because of the gospel we have.  It is a true blessing.  It's hard to explain with words the only word that can explain this wonderful gospel is that it is true.  I know this because of the spirit that testifies so strong.  This mission has been such a great honor for me.  I have learned a lot.  I have met such wonderful people.  People that have changed my life but not only mine but generations to come.  Thank you so, so much.  I love each and everyone of you. 

Well the mission is going great.  It seems the work has been going smooth.  The smoothest it's ever been.  We have 4 with a date.  We have been keeping daily contact with each of them.  They seem to be doing great.  We are excited to see some growth in this area.  It has been progressing quick.  We were looking at the books for our ward and branch and there has not been a single baptism in 9 months.  It shows that fasting and prayer truly work and makes miracles.  The mission as well has jumped up in numbers by 4 times the amount that it usually has.  President Irion has been a great blessing.  He has a lot of faith and knowledge in knowing that this mission is going to grow faster and faster.  I'm grateful to be apart of it.  Thank you once again for all you do.  You all have a Merry Christmas and I love each one of y'all.  Elder Robison

Letter 12/19/11

Family, Well a lot has gone on this last couple of weeks.  The work is still going forward.  It seems the whole mission is tearing it up.  We had 10 baptisms last week and everyone keeps committing.  This is cool to be a part of.  Well for Harwood & I we are doing great.  We have Jeff for the 5th of January.  He still seems to be struggling with the Word of Wisdom.   Her is slowing down though and we gave him a blessing.  He said during the blessing his chest felt heavy and full.  We are praying everything will work out and he will make it for his date.  We also found a new lady.  Her name is ivan.  She is a black lady and she is really nice and enjoys our message.  We have taught her about 4 times now and I committed her for baptism.  Her date is for Friday the 13th of January.  I don't think she has too many concerns.  Ivan would be a great one for the church.  She has a family of 5 kids and I think 2 of them are over the age of eight.  We are going to go back and focus on her kids.  It would be awesome if we could baptise a whole family.  So pray for them because they are going to need comfort.  They will be one of a very few black people to go to church.  We are also still working with Gloria.  She had a date for the 21st of this month but we had to cancel because she did not come to church.  We are waiting to set a date for her until after Christmas.  She seems to be very busy right now.  She knows it's true.  She tells us every time we go over there.  Everything is going well here and time is flying so I guess I will talk to y'all in a couple of weeks so have your questions ready.  Have a good week Love Elder Robison

Letter 12/10/11

Dear fam, well great week.  Vivian was baptized December 3, 2011 at 4:30.  What a great day.  It feels good to feel success.  She is a great lady and will be a strong member for these latter day's.  Well I had the pleasure to do the ordinance for Vivian.  She asked me to do it.  A lot of people came and the other missionaries had helped us out.  This ward is awesome they are great fellow-shippers especially to those that are not in the church.  Bishop Rose is a stud.  He is all about missionary work.  He was a great missionary.  He set records or he claims haha j/k.  He has a very good personality that makes people laugh.  My companion and I have asked for a blessing from the Bishop so we can serve him the best way possible.  The work is really going down here.(I think down means good) We have 2 more investigators with a date.  They are legit bur have a couple minor problems with some things. We are taking care of it though.  It is so weird because the time has really picked up down here.  I feel like all I do is go to bed because the days go by so quick.  We sometimes don't get all the stuff done for the day that we planned but that is a good thing.  These past 2 weeks we have received so many referrals from members, other missionaries, and the MTC.  We found a couple legit people that have great interest.  We are really being blessed it seems like someone always has his hand in the work.  Well some fun things this week.  We actually went over to Inez's house and had some good mexican food.  Inez has a friend that is a great cook.  I made the good old salsa thanks to Kendall.  They wrote down the recipe.  We had a great time.  Jim went with us.  He is a character.  We were late going to the broadcast fireside.  We were going 95 in a 40 to get to it.  I really enjoyed it.  I felt like I was with Doug Holm for a bit.  haha.  Well I love this new area and time has flown so fast.  I'm excited to talk to y'all next week.  I might only get 30 minutes to talk but we'll see.  So enjoy the holiday's and don't forget Elder Robison!


part of Alli's letter
this has been an awesome time here in Knoxville. We have been doing more stuff as a district. It's awesome because everyone helps each other and our baptism rate has went up double. We have been tearing it up. We finally had a baptism Vivian Strouk. She was so excited to get baptized. It took alot of work but definitely worth it. She asked me to baptize her and to tell you the truth it made my day because she told me I was a big part in it. I tried not to tear up but the mission makes you soft. But I think I was a little softy before the mission anyway. We have been working hard to get 2 baptisms every month so we have 2 more dates with Gloria and Jeff. Gloria she knows its true but just is kind of busy especially with her little great grandson he is autistic.

Well this is a funny story. We were on an exchange last week and I was with Elder Galaway. We went over to Glorias and the autistic kid looked at galaway and went over and touched his face and called him an ugly alien. I could not stop laughing. Galaway's face went bright Red. Galaway is a pretty tight kid though. We've had some fun. He wants to come and work for my dad while he goes to school out there. But we will see.

Message I received from Luisa

Hope you are doing great! I also hope your missionary is doing great to!!! Its pretty cool to see an old member come back to church who was inactive because he was in the world, but when I asked him what made him decide to come back and have that desire to make things right with the Lord and serve his mission he said Elder Robison gave me a blessing. Your son has been doing great work! He started coming back I think right before your son left...I believe...he has been making those steps to be able to go on his mission. he is very excited but i was really curious on what made him come back so I asked him and that is when he told me Elder Robison had given him a blessing

Letter 12/1/11

Dear family, this week has been great.  Well to start everything off we had a bi-zone conference.  Where 2 of our zones got together and an area seventy came.  His name was Elder Haleck.  He was a very good speaker and gave everyone that boost of energy everyone needed.  It was a great day.  Well our companionship is on fire right now.  We have been reaching our goals and stretching out and getting baptism dates.  Jeff is still on for his date he is doing solid.  He just needs to quit smoking.  We have also been teaching this older lady, Gloria, she is a sweet heart.  Well when we go over there her friend Vivian is there.  She is a nice lady as well.  Gloria cancelled on us one day for good reasons so we decided to call up Vivian.  She told us to come on over.  We went over there with a member.  Elder Harwood went on a split with another member so it was Guest and I.  We taught her the Plan of Salvation.  She loved it.  Well she asked some questions about the priesthood.  She asked if other churches had the priesthood.  Well the member told her boldly that the other churches did not have the Priesthood.  He also told her they were false.  Well her face looked shocked so I explained it to her nicely then committed her for December 10th.  She accepted and was so excited.  She has told everyone and she can't wait for church.  We are excited for her.  We had lunch with her today.  We are going over to Sister Brown's to have lunch and a lesson.  Well everything is going great over here and the work pressing forward.  Everyone keep praying for Vivian.  She will get baptized.  We found out today that Elder Guest is leaving this Wednesday.  He is a great Elder.  I'm going to miss him not being around.  Well tonight was interesting we went over too a less active house to teach them a short lesson.  They offered us a drink.  This drink was made out of pineapple skin.  Well we drank it and after we all left we felt a little funny.  We think there was a little alcohol in it.  It must have fermented or something.

This has been a great time up here in Pleasant Ridge the people are great and willing to work.  The people we live with are great help as well.  The Nichol's took us out to dinner tonight.  We had a great time.  We went to a Chinese buffet.  They are close friends with the owners there.  Sister Nichol's is so sweet.  She knows a whole bunch of languages.  Her first language is Chinese.  She spoke it quite a bit tonight.  She also is helping us with our diet's she uses a lot of nut's, herbs, and a whole bunch of Chinese food.  I'm excited to try this out.  She also makes a lot of tea.  She showed us the stuff that is good for you.

Well I just looked in this tablet and found this letter I forgot to send so I figured I will keep writing.  Some more events that have went on this past week.  Well we moved Vivian's date up to November 30th.  She is excited and ready.  She went with us to a baptism tonight.  She really enjoyed it and felt the spirit.  The spirit was strong and great.  We have also been working with Vivian's friend Gloria.  She is the old 75 year old lady who is a sweet heart but really busy with her autistic grandson so I understand.  She will be getting prepared for baptism soon.  The field is white and ready to harvest so the work is still moving along.  We'll y'all take it easy and love y'all.  Elder Robison

PS I forgot to tell you about Thanksgiving.  It was great we went over to Jim Reynolds ex wife house.  She is a great cook.  It was the best food I've ever had for Thanksgiving.  I was so full leaving there and then 2 hours later we had another appointment with the Richmans.  It was a great day.

Alli's letter
Well this week has been so awesome!!:)  I will first start off with all the good churchy stuff.  Well we had a great Turkey day.  We had an all day Pday which was sweet because we woke up and went and played in the turkey bowl.  There was about 60-80 people there so we had 7 on 7 per team.  Well my team kicked trash.  I had 10 touchdowns.  We ended up losing our last game because the other team recruited people off another team.  So we lost by 2 touch downs.  Than for the rest of that day we went to a members house which she was an excellent cook.  I over ate.  Then after that whole night we went over the the other elders apartment and played cards there was 4 sets of Elders and 1 set of sisters.  We had a lot of fun. 

Letter 11/17/11

Dear family, well everything is going great here in Pleasant Ridge.  We committed one more for baptism.  His name is Jeff he is pretty legit.  Our other baptism dates we either had to cancel or change their date.  A lot of them are on probation or have problems but we'll get a couple in the water here shortly.  I like the new area.  It is nice and the people are easier to talk to they seem to be nicer.  Everyone here smokes it is nut's I'm going to say 80% of them do.  We ended up going out with Jim Reynolds again last night to go teach his employee.  Her name is Inez.  She is from Costa Rica.  She is great.  She is about 30 year's old and not married.  I don't know why she is not married because she is a great cook and a great girl.  Well we taught about temples and why they're so important.  Jim was a great help.  Oh I wish y'all could meet Jim.  We went with Jim at 5 o'clock to go to the mall.  He took us there to go help a member close her shop.  The members shop was full of Thailand stuff because that is were she is from.  Well Jim just wanted to make her feel good and help her out so he bought some pillow elephants that were $40 a piece.  He bought 2 of them for his house.  He also bought some hair things so we could give them to our mothers.  He spent $120 in 2 seconds then on the way out he saw some See's Chocolates.  He bought a huge box for Inez.  This guy is great.  Well I have seen more crazy things in this last 2 weeks than I think in my whole mission.  We go over to Elvis Presley's house and he will sing for us.  I requested In The Ghetto and Daddy Don't Cry.  he is a great singer.  We even got him in his Elvis suit.  We had the music going and he came down stairs and started to sing for us.  He is a character.  I will try to send you a video.  Well this has been a great time and opportunity to serve with both Guest & Harwood.  They are both pretty cool guys.  Well sorry it's short but it's sweet.  Love Elder Robison  PS the planes and choppers looked great I think I'm still planning on getting my license when I get home.

Dear family, well a lot has happened since the last letter if you could imagine.  Well I'm in a new area.  I'm in Pleasant Ridge North, basically Knoxville TN.  It is beautiful here.  The trees are all sorts of colors.  It reminds me of a movie.  Well I'm up here in a tri comp.  I'm training one fresh out of the MTC, Elder Guest.  he is from Oregon.  He is a cool kid the other Elder is tight too.  His name is Elder Harwood he is also pretty new he has been out for 3 months.  Well the work here is going like crazy.  When I got here the past Elders had 2 investigators with a date now we have 5 so we will definitely get some baptisms coming up.  The new Elder has already had some journal filling opportunities.  We ran into an old man that dresses like Elvis Presley and sang just like him.  He has black hair and big old chops.  The people are different here then in Dalton.  This area is a whole new mission for me.  It's huge and more like a city.  We definitely have been lost quite a bit.  It was pretty hard to leave Dalton.  My last day there we had 7 dinner appointments with the Griggs, Charley, Finily's, Keyaundra, Degollado's, Delacruz's and the Cox.  Well we cancelled 4 of them and kept 3.  We went out with Keyaundra then over to Delecruz.  Sister Delacruz is such a sweet lady.  She bought me a really nice hat and told me she loved me.  She told us that she has been trying to go to the temple for years.  Well she went 3 weeks ago.  She said we helped her out more than ever.  I kind of teared up.  She is a great lady.  After that I went and packed then that night we went to the Degollado's.  They fed us, their new rule is all the missionaries that leave have to be tazed.  So I was tazed but I got to taze all of them too.  Well when I left there Victor got me a shirt then we left.  These people turned in to pretty good friends all the people from Dalton.  So everything is going well.  The time is flying and the works good.  Sorry I have not got a letter out quicker.  We live in the basement of a members house.  It is pretty cool.  Well I will write y'all in a couple days so no worries.  So be safe have fun Love Elder Robison


ANOTHER LETTER that Alli received this week
This was a first for Elder Guest to go tracting he did great.  It's kind of weird because I'm the only one that speaks Spanish and when we knock into hispanics I'm the only one who speaks.  My spanish has definitely got a boost of help from up above.  I really like the guys I'm serving with.  We knocked into a girl today that was all tatted up and pierced up.  She said she was Satanist.  Elder Guest did not know what to say so I took over and was like really well that's cool and then she was really nice to us and invited us back.  Well my second night here and something interesting happened.  Well I was sleeping on an air mattress because there is 3 of us.  Well to make the story short Harwood had a box of candy by my head.  Well this past month I wake up at 5:30 every morning for some unknown reason.  Well I was sitting there listening to everything and I heard something in the box of candy and it was chewing on something.  Well I knew it was a rat so I was going to get up fast and turn the lights on to get it.  Well I jump up and the air mattress threw me off balance and I fell and then I got the light on.  The new missionary his eyes where so huge and he looked at me like he had no clue what was going on at 6 in the morning.  Well I go over there and the rat was gone so it was a pretty interesting morning but really funny. 

Brenan's email questions

Tell me about your companion what he is like, do you like, him where is he from, how long he has been out everything you can think of?
well actually i have 2 comps they are way tight i like them alot. elder Guest is from Oregon and elder Harwood is from Arizona elder Guest is a new elder he has 4 days in the field and the other has about 3 months
Tell me about the town you are in, big, small, spanish, do you like it?
well it is definitely bigger than Dalton but not huge. um not much spanish here but we are hoping to change that. we have a branch and only a family shows up every Sunday and it is about to close down so we are here to save it.
Tell me about your apartment do you live with members if so do you like them? 
ya we live with members in their basement but we never see them yesterday i helped him mow his lawn.
Tell me about the ward I think someone told me it is called Pleasant Ridge?  Are you just over one ward?
um the ward i have not met yet because the branch starts at the same time. so we went to the branch
Is it a poor area or a rich area?
it is richer than Dalton by far but there are still some low areas and some projects
Are there lots of members?
um there is like 3 wards in our building but in our ward im not for sure
How big is the area that is your area?
not very big but we have two areas a spanish and a english
What restaurants are in your area?
um everything
What zone are you in?
um we have 12 members in our zone and I'm back with Kryling and sister Maynes they were in my old zone
Who is your district leaders and your zone leaders?um cant think of his name right now he is pretty tight guy i like him
How many missionaries are in your zone?
12
Do you still teach spanish people?
um we are trying too so i might loose some spanish here but I'm studying more
Do you have lots of investigators?
um ya but they fill like all duds
Do you have any potential investigators?
um ya we have a couple with a dates but they are all duds i committed 3 of them and they accepted but they have alot of problems we have to work out
Are you going to like your area?
ya i love it but my comp does not know this area very well after 3  months here so it gets frustrating
Do you still ride bikes or do you have a car?
um ya we have a car right now but the mission is loosing cars so we will be in a car share in a couple of weeks
Tell me your address for sure?
5306 Ballard Dr Knoxville, TN 37918
Has it been a successful missionary area?
um I'm not for sure i know the missionaries in the other areas have not
Does the ward like and help its missionaries?
um we have had some meal appointments and the people are different here even just the distance fm here to Dalton

Letter 11/3/11

Dear family well this week we have been waiting to see who is leaving.  I'm finally leaving and everyone else is staying the same.  I will be training again so we'll see who I get this Wednesday.  Well this week our District had the opportunity to see the power of fasting.  We fasted as a zone and it is truly a miracle how strong it was.  We fasted for baptisms.  The mission has been struggling for baptisms.  Last month our mission had 6 total and only one in our zone.  Well after our fast the other Elders in our District committed 2 unsuspected investigators for baptism.  The next day the sisters committed 2 as well.  Our district is doing great.  For Elder Crofts and I we are planning on committing Henry for baptism so this fast has helped us out a lot.  Well this past week has been very spiritual for me.  We had some great lessons with some investigators.  One great experience we had was when Sister Black had called and asked us to come over to give her son a blessing.  His name Christ.  He reminds me of Casey Lance.  We talked to him for awhile and I talked to him about hunting.  He is 24 and is deciding to go on a mission but is having a hard time because he does not want to leave his mom because I guess her relationship with her husband is rocky right now.  We got to share our testimonies and had a very good night.  He asked me to give him a blessing so I did and he gave me a hug which was weird because I don't know him to well but he was crying and the spirit was strong.  Well at church it was a little hard to say good bye.  It felt like I was leaving home again.  The members here are great.  I will miss them all and would like to come back one day.  Right now I am about to go pack and it's going to be weird because I've been in this apartment for 9 months.  I have stuff everywhere.  This is going to be different training this time because we will be white washing an area which means we won't know anyone including the members.  I'm excited though to see who I get and where I go.  I love y'all and will write you more later but I will have a new address soon.  Love Elder Robison

PS... I think Brenan ended up being in Fountain City which is in Northern Knoxville.  I think his companion is an Elder Harwood and they also have a visa waiter who is going to Brazil.  I got this info from my friends in Dalton so I guess we'll know more on Monday when he emails.

Letter from Jerry and Jamie Scriver

My husband and I moved to Georgia in 2006. I had been a member of the Church for about 2 years but was not active (my husband would not have anything to do with the church and was not a member) I would try and have the Sister Missionaries come over while he was at work but when he found out he said he did not want them in our home. He would not tell me why at that time. Fast forward to 2011... One of my best friends from high school who lives in Oregon became very ill. We knew a specialist who could help her so I invited her to come and stay with us so she could get the medical treatment she needed. What I didn't know was that she was LDS. When I found out, I told my husband. I knew how he felt about the church but she needed to go while she was here and it was our responsibility to make sure she got there no matter how he felt. He went to the church with us for the first time that Sunday. It happened to be a fast and testimony meeting. I was so excited and just kept praying. He met Elder Crofts, Elder Robison, Elder Taggart, Elder Howell, and the sisters too. Immediately he felt a bond to them and he has been attending ever since. He was baptized on October 13, 2011. Elder Crofts and him bonded over football. Elder Robison and him bonded over hunting. Each one of the missionaries and him have found some kind of connection. We now think of them all as our adopted kids while they are away from home. We try to have them over to the house for dinner at least once a week. We try and sign up for them on Mondays so we can have Family Home Evening with them because they are so much fun. We learn daily from them. I learned tonight that Elder Crofts loves dogs. Our American Bulldog LOVES him and she normally does not take to men because she was abused by her previous owners. I am so thankful that y'all have allowed your sons to come on a mission and be such a blessing and example to my family. My husband and I will be going to the temple to do baptisms next month for the first time together. We are planning on being sealed in the temple on our anniversary next year in December 2012. Your sons are such blessings to us. There are no words to adequately express the love we feel for them. They helped to make being an eternal family a possibility for my family.

facebook message I received from Luisa

Hello Angie Today I was able to see your son bare his testimony in english and in spanish....I was super proud of him!!! You must be proud of such a wonderful missionary son!!! I hate to see him leave but he will do great things for the Lord in this lifetime. knocking on Keyandra's door has changed her life so much and i am proud of her for continuing the Lord's path. So delighted to have spent so much time getting to know Elder Robison . Charley almost made me cry today when he bore his testimony and said that he looked at Elder Robison like a little brother. Your son has been a great blessing to the Dalton Ward !!! We all are truly blessed to have met your son
I thought you would have appreciated knowing your son has definitly transformed into a wonderful young man. The Lord knew what he was doing when he sent him here to Dalton...He is preparing him for something Greater in the future. I am super blessed to have met him and you . You Idaho people are super super nice Charley is for sure funny he would crack me up when he would bring them over to my house. And I am so glad I was able to help you with much great news about your son. His spanish is only a little shaky when he gets nervous...just like me...I do the same. Other then that his spanish is fine But he did super good helping those that needed that help or encouragement here in Dalton . He truly is unique.

A facebook message I received

If this is Elder Robison's mom I just want to thank you and your family for supporting him while he is on his mission. I actually live in Oregon but had to come out here to Georgia for medical treatment. When I looked online to find out where I would be attending church while I was here, the phone number on the Ward website ended up being Elder Robison's cell number. When I called it he was so super nice and reassuring that the members here are nice and would help make sure I would get to church. Then when I got here, my friend Jamie's husband who was so opposed to the church before decided that he wanted to check it out and was baptized on the 13th. Elder Robison wasn't the one to teach Jerry, yet he did touch Jerry's heart. Elder Robison is awesome! So thanks to you and your family for supporting him while he is out here touching families like Jamie and Jerry.

Your New Friend,
Kryssi Heitman

Letter 10/21/11

Dear family well everything is going so so.  We are doing good but we are off to find more elect.  We had some potentials drop us and it really bummed us out but we are excited to find new investigators.  Well this past week has flew.  We have been praying for some service opportunities well guess what we might have prayed a little to hard because we had 4 service projects we got to do.  I really missed doing service we helped the B family move to our side it didn't take to much time.  Later that day we went to an investigators and less active house and put sheet rock up.  I really enjoyed that because it's actually something that I'm good at so it's good I took 3 years of building because no one really knew how to do it so I had to teach them and we got quite a bit done.  We did not finish because it is a full house but our goal is to get the ceiling done so he can quit renting the lift.  We have 2 rooms done and 2 more to go.  The next day we moved V D into some apartments so the power of prayer is great.  We are going to take that power into baptisms.  So everything is going well.  K is still strong as ever so that is great but I'm a little worried about her after I leave so hopefully she stays strong.  The best part of the week is we had a baptism.  J S they are great he helps us so much and feeds us usually every Monday.  They are a great family.  Well we had some visitors last night.  We went out with the Taylors, Devin, Carly, Tammy and Alan.  It was great.  They took us to Outback.  We really enjoyed being with the 2nd family.  When we left they spoiled us with a whole bunch of fruit and nuts and a whole bunch of food so we really appreciated their company.  Well I might be out of here on the 2nd of November and might go somewhere new but not 100% for sure yet.  Well it sounds like everything is going well back at home so keep up the good work and Love y'all  Elder Robison

PS  How are the potatoes looking this year and how is the market looking this year?

Letter 10/15/11

Dear family well this week has been totally different from last week.  On Monday we went and played basketball at the rec center.  There were a whole bunch of brothers, if you know what I mean.  We played pretty well against them.  We went tracting the next day and had some great success.  We started off by running into a guy named R B.  He is a nice guy.  He goes to the Pentacostal church so we taught him the Plan of Salvation.  It just so happens that's where the conversation went so he found some new things he liked and invited us back next week at the same time so off to a great start and we actually found another girl to teach.  Her name is B.  She was really nice and wants us to come back as well.  Well later on that night we went to a subdivision that was straight hispanics.  We ended up getting 3 lessons and 7 return appointments.  It was a great night to get some more new investigators.  It was great.  Well the next day completely turned around.  It could have been the longest day of my mission.  Well we still pressed forward with tracting and it turns out we run into a guy that gave us his own theory about life because he does not believe in religion.  He went on about his beliefs for an hour and we couldn't get out of there.  After that we had had it and went and had dinner.  Well this week Brother and Sister Cox dad died so we helped them as much as possible.  Well Sunday rolled around and I had to interview J S he is getting baptized this Thursday.  When I usually interview I take 15 minutes but this one lasted for 30 minutes because he is very spiritual and we just shared some experiences about life and I really enjoyed it.  He has been ready for a long time.  Well y'all be safe and take it easy thanks for the package.  Elder Robison
Pday we went to JS, he is the one preparing for baptism.  He fed us and we roasted marshmallows.  It was way fun.  He is a good guy.

Letter 10/5/11

Dear family this week has been great as well as slow it seems.  Well this week we have had a lot of meetings and they were wonderful to be at.  The big meeting this week was in Knoxville.  We had to drive up to Athens TN and slept over at the elders apartment.  It was fun to go meet new elders.  This meeting was for missionaries with leadership positions so all trainers, District Leaders, zone and Assistants so Crofts went with one of the Elders in Athens and stayed there and did work with them.  Elder Wixom and I went up to Knoxville.  Wixom is from Pocatello and he knows Jeff Driscoll.  We were on that subject because he loves airplanes.  We talked about the P-51 he told me he knew a guy with one.  It turned out to be Jeff.  He is a pretty cool kid.  Well we had a pretty good training with President.  He trained on Doctrine of Christ in 2 Nephi he took an hour and a half and gave great points of view and reasons then Sister Irion gave light on love through scriptures.  they both did great then 2 guys from the MTC came and taught us how we should be studying in companionship study.  They did a great job and taught us how to gain that much more success with our investigators.  In their training they had us plan a lesson plan for an investigator that they played on the projector.  Out of all the people I was put with Sister Maynes as my comp.  She was the sister that was in my district for 6 months.  We ended up making a lesson plan and it went well.  She is a great missionary.  Her brother was in Matt's mission.  The next thing we did was finished off by our new assistants little training and then we ate pizza and went home.  The ride home was long.  We went with a member from Athens and it was crammed and stunk.  Then we hit bad traffic, then to top that all off we ran out of gas so we called Crofts and Thompson to bring gas and pick us up.  Then from Athens we had Charley pick us up we ended up getting home at 7:30 so our day was gone.  On our way home the sisters called and they set a date with Tim.  They have been working with Tim for 7 months so I took them out for shakes.  I'm trying to be the cool supportive District Leader.  The sisters are working hard, its great to see. The next day was Friday and we had District meetings and it turned out great.  I followed President Irions exercise in 2 Nephi.  Everyone participated and got a lot of insight out of it.  I also extended a little exercise we had the day before.  After district meeting we practiced some Hymns because they want to do a musical number for church.  I'm not to sure about that.  I think I'm a better listener.  Earlier this week we had a lesson with this new lady named Dedra Simpson.  She is great.  We asked her to read the Book of Mormon and get on Mormon.org.  She did and took great notes.  We had a great lesson with her.  We taught her the plan of salvation.   It is my favorite lesson to teach.  It went well so this week has been great and I'm hoping for some dates with some of our investigators at the end of this week so hopefully we can get some.  Y'all have a good week and enjoy conference.  Elder Robison

Letter 10/3/11

Dear family well this week has went by great.  We had our highest numbers yet and we are planning for them to keep getting higher.  Well Saturday I found out that I'm staying in Dalton for another 6 weeks( not sure if this is old news or not) so at the end of this next transfer I will have been here for 9 months which is almost half of my mission.  I'm really enjoying everything out here.  It seems time is flying by.  Well there has definitely been ups and downs this week.Lets start with the bad then go into the good.  Well Keyaundras aunt Sherry she loved our last lesson but she told Keyaundra that she does not want to learn anymore.  We have got to find out what is her problem.  Last Saturday we had a spanish activity with the ward.  There was a whole bunch of food it was great.  Well today is Thursday and we are waiting for Charlie to pick us up to go to a district leader meeting.  He is late and I'm not for sure if he is coming but we'll see.  Our plans for today are we are going on an exchange and Elder Sexton is coming here and I'll stay here then we have a lesson with Jesse Johnson it went well.  He has a couple of concerns so we are helping him through the Book of Mormon.  Everything seems good out here sono worries and y'all be safe love ya Elder Robison

Letter 9/19/11 and pictures

Dear family this has been a great experience and probably the best decision I ever made.  No the best decision I have made.  I love it more and more.  When I look back to see where I started all the way back from when I was a boy when I first made that decision to go on a mission.  I'm thankful for all of you that helped me set and make goals to be able to be where I'm at today.  This week has been great.  I think there is a good chance I'm leaving but nor for sure yet so Crofts and I are enjoying the last 7 days with each other.  He is definitely my favorite companion.  We are chill.  Well he and I are off to a great start this week.  We have put quite a few hours of tracting and had great success.  We have 5 return appointments and have already taught 2 of them so it's been great.  We have also started teaching V D's brother C.  We have been making pretty good friends with him.  He is hard to teach so we are working with him slowly.  We also have been focusing on K's aunt, S W.  She was slowly falling away because we have not been able to see her as much as we would like.  Well we taught her the Plan of Salvation and her eyes lit up.  She was impressed to see that in her own Bible then to top it all off we showed her why the Book of Mormon is so important by using Alma chapter 40:11-14.  Showing her the state of rest in the spirit world.  We had a great lesson with her.  She loved it.  We are hoping to reset a date with her for September 29th.  She will be ready.  Well today is Thursday and we have weekly planning but before that we had interviews with President Irion and Sister Irion. They are great and still have that excitement.  Well 4 of us were interviewed at the church and they all went well.  While we were waiting we had the chance to visit with Sister Irion.  She is pretty chill to talk to.  We talked about her daughter in Russia.  She has been serving for 8 months.  I asked her what it is like to have an apostle for a dad.  She said it was pretty neat but you just never get to see them that often.  She told us of some stories of when he was a heart surgeon and some childhood memories.  Pretty interesting.  Well after that we went back home and weekly planned and set some goals as a companionship on top of what we already have.  We set a work out plan so we can stay in shape and lose weight because as of right now I'm 95% Idahoan and 5% Georgian.  Well sounds like potatoes are about ready to start and the grain is put in for the year.  Keep up the good work love Elder Robison

Llamas at Shinoocks

Door to our apartment

Outside our apartment

Charly

Crofts

good old Charly

Louisa and Angie

Crofts cooking

my pond

dinner appointment at DelaCruz

District and I doing reports

Sister Laulea & Sister Christiansen

Elder Sowards, me, E, Crofts & Sexton

I'm crouching because E doesn't like being short

E & me

  I found out today that he gets to stay in Dalton for another 6 weeks with Elder Crofts.  He was pretty excited.

Letter 9/15/11

Dear family well great week to start it all off we had a baptism on Sunday morning @ 8:00.  I can't remember if I told you about E..L..  He was one of our invstigators that we would teach and then let the sisters fellowship him because they live not to far from him.  It worked out great.  I had the opportunity to baptize him.  He was really excited and it meant the world to him.  I asked after how he felt and he said neuvo y limpio so that was great.  Well the reason y'all probably havent heard me talk about him is because we verily started to teach im 3 weeks ago and I did not think he would get baptized so fast.  He is leaving to Florida so that is why he wanted to be baptized so fast.  Well the next day was P-day and we had a zone activity.  We all got together and played ball.  It was good fun, Pratt and Sexton were there so we challenged them for a quick game of ball.  This week we got the car back from the other missionaries.  It was a good week to have the car because it rained for 3 days straight.  it flooded a lot of roads and some were closed down so I enjoyed the car.  Well we are commiting K.... aunt for baptism tonight so hopefully we will have another ready in 2 weeks so pray for her.  Well we commited her and she accepted but the date we gave her will not work.  She is going to tell us this Sunday when she can so I'm happy she is doing good.  Well I just got the letter of the week and it sounds like harvest is getting done.  Well Matt tell him he needs to suck it up and get back to work haha j/k.  Well you all sound great so keep it up and hope y'all are doing good so keep up the good work and be safe.  It sounds like dad is going to have to get training wheels for the 4 wheelers.  Have a good week.  Elder Robison

Letter 9/6/11

Hey family well this week has been great.  We have had many opportunities to get into peoples houses this week.  some of them we have some return appointments.  One guy who sticks out to me is this guy who we were talking to.  He told us that we had stopped by this morning.  We looked at him a little funny.  He told us that they were J Dubs (Jehovas Witness I assume)  He kind of did not care about our message until we brought up unpaid ministry.  As soon as he heard that he asked us if we wanted to come in for a soda.  From there on he was glued to our message.  We are going to teach him this next Sunday.  Hope the best for this guy.  We also talked to an old lady who listened to our message but didn't want us to come back but told us she was going to read it.  Well the reason I tell you about his is because I have a good feeling about her.  Well Keyaundra is doing great, in fact she is doing missionary work as we speak.  She has asked 3 people to take the discussions.  Her aunt Sherri Hawkins.  Her friend Sean and another friend that I have not met yet.  She has been a big part of our success.  We are grateful to have her around.  The 2 out of the 3 we taught they seem to have interest especially Sherri.  She is looking forward for church next Sunday.  She accepted a soft commitment as well.  She is doing great.  She does have word of wisdom problems so pray for her.  Well we also had a great opportunity to teach Keith Johnson.  He read the Book of Mormon so we went on ahead and taught him the Plan of Salvation.  He understood it clearly but did not believe it even when we taught straight scripture out of the Bible and Book of Mormon.  He used to be a J-Dub so it is a little more difficult but I like it because we actually get to teach so I like it.  He still has interest in us so we are just waiting for his answer in the B of M.  It's going to come sooner than later.  It always seems like I'm never satisfied for some reason.  If I feel like I need to work on Spanish then the next week I feel like I don't know my scriptures like I should so I just want to have it all well I notice things come with time I guess you could say.  Well funny story of the week, I ate it on my bike and jacked up my pants.  Well let me tell you how and why it happened.  Well we just got done eating at De La Cruz house and I ate too much as usual so we took of and I peddled up behind Crofts and grabbed his back pack and he was peddling us up the hill.  Well it came to the point we had to get off the curb and get on the street well Crofts swerved hard in front of me and my front tire hit his frame and turned my forks a 90 degree angle so I kind of went over the bars.  Well I was not on the ground for to long because the ice cream man saw the whole thing so I got back on and hurried away.  So it was pretty funny.,  Well it was a good week and thank y'all for your letter have a good week and love y'all.  Elder Robison

Letter 8/26/11

Dear family well I just received the package.  First thing I wanted to say is thank yo.  Thanks for the love and support you give.  The pictures are great and y'all look like you are having a blast up in the cabin.  It makes me realize how many blessing we have because our family is so united and so happy.  I'm so thankful to have y'all apart of my life.  Y'all don't change.  Well thank you for this wonderful package.  There was a lot of work that went into it thanks for everything.  Just a little more news the baptism is cancelled.  He told us that he feels like he is just doing it to make everyone happy.  We asked him if he wanted it and he said no so we are out to find the elect.  Well today after church the Elders Quorum was in charge of the linger longer so all the men brought soup and salad.  We served the whole ward.  Brother Lunts son is visiting from Utah.  He is pretty tight.  He reminds me of Mac back at home.  We are pretty tight.  This week is going to be great for one we have the car this week and for two we have a lesson with Keith Johnson.  I'm hoping and praying that he will understand and have the chance to feel the spirit.  It is a great opportunity for a family to have more blessings which is so great because family is key to being happy in the gospel.  Well I'll have to let y'all know how that goes.  I'm trying to start a new leaf and write more.  It has been hard because I usually write at night but since I've been district leader I'm taking reports so I don't have too much time so sorry.  I'll get better.  Well take care of my cabin that looks like a blast especially with boating and karaoking.  Keep safe remember your blessings Love Elder Robison

Letter 8/23/11

Hola familia, well this past week has been great.  it still had its ups and downs but more ups.  It always seems when we have our downs is when we learn how to get back up.  This week has been a great learning experience on learning how to get back up using the tools we have especially as Latter Day Saints.  It was a great learning experience to test out prayer and the Book of Mormon.  I am so grateful to have these tools in my life.  I am also grateful for the people who made it possible for me to have these resources.  Well one of the ways our Heavenly Father shows his love is through small and simple things to let you know you are loved so we have that motivation to keep moving.  One of the motivators was when Keyaundra came up to me after class on Wednesday and gave me this envelope.  She told me thank you.  I felt so much love not just from her but from our Heavenly Father.  In the envelope was her Patriarchal blessing.  I told her that it is really sacred and should only be shared with close friends and family.  She said exactly.  It felt good to know I have helped someone and she returns the favor.  This week has been great we have met with some new people and have a new potential investigator.  His name is Keith Johnson.  He has 5 kids and a wife.  Two of the kids are over 8 years old.  His wife will probably not be too interested.  She has had some bad religious problems in the past.  Her father was shot in the head by her brother because her father was a Baptist preacher.  We're focusing on Keith as of right now.  His step father referred him to us.  Both of his parents are converts for a year now and are really giving good news.  We also have set another date with Nick this next Thursday at 6 if you all want to come you are invited.  This week has been really successful.  We are hoping to get a couple baptisms in this next month so keep them in your prayers.  Thank you for everything I love y'all, be safe.  Bring in the harvest.

Letter 8/19/11

Querido familia, Pues esta semana fue magnifico.  Yo tengo un neuvas companero.  El se ama Elder Crofts.  El es mis amigo.  Elder Henriques se fue en ? oltra lado de Tennessee.  Est atranslado es meyor.  Por que tenemos el mismo problema con espaniol.  Entonus yo tengo mas confedencia en espanil.  Well this week was amazing.  I have a new companion.  It is Elder Crofts (This is his friend from Shelly who was in the MTC with him, they are great friends)  He is a good friend.  Elder Henriques left to another area in Tennessee.  This transfer is better because Elder Crofts and I have the same problem and that is spanish so I have more confidence in my spanish.  Well I have been so busy lately.  I wanted to write more and sooner but we have been really busy with things from appointments to preparing for District Meeting.  We had our District meeting today.  It went great.  Everyone participated.  We have 2 new Missionaries in the District, Elder Crofts and Sister Christiansen.  They are great.  We have the best district in the Knoxville Tennessee mission.  I let them know that.  For this transfer we set a goal for 5 baptisms.  I know we can get it and I promised the District that if we are 100% obedient we will hit those goals.  I'm excited for this transfer.  Elder Crofts and I are planning for 2.  We have Alfredo Hernandez and Nick Martin.  We are hoping for a bonus from tracting.  We have been tracting like crazy.  That seems to be helping our spanish.  Well for teaching we taught Nick Martin this week.  He was supposed to be baptized last Tuesday but we had problems with his birth mom even though she lives in Nebraska.  We are hoping for him in the next couple of weeks.  Today when we were over at his house I felt like we need to get to know him a little better and be more of a friend so we played chess with him and we won.  I don't know how we did.  Well I'm so excited for our District.  I think we are going to be more united.  I'm starting a prayer roll for our district so when I do nightly phone calls they are going to let me know what they need help with whether it is with an appointment or return appointment or just plain tracting.  We are going to pray as a District that way we are a lot stronger.  I'm thinking this will help but I need some help on how to get some of the missionaries more effective in their work or just use their time more wisely.  A set of missionaries do the exact same thing every day so be thinking what we can do for the District to help us with our goals.  Enough about that let me tell you a little bit about this week.  Well Richard we are doing a drop lesson with him this week.  He was not progressing at all.  We went Tracting the other day and had great success.  We had 6 return appointments.  They were all spanish too so it was great.  Well it sounds like y'all are having fun especially at the cabin so send pics of all things at the cabin and of the cabin.  But thanks for writing those big huge letters every week.  I really like that so thank you.  Sorry for not writing much so I'll get better but y'all have a good week and love y'all Elder Robison

Letter 8/8/11

Dear family, well I decided to write a little bit before we head out to Sister Burns again.  She is the lady that fed us some of the best southern food I have ever eaten so I'm excited as of right now.  This past week has been great, I can't remember if I told you but we had 18 people as a district to church.  It has been great to see them there.  Nine of those people were our investigators so we are really happy.  We have had great success with Alfredo.  We are now going to start to teach his wife.  We talked to her after church.  She said she really enjoyed it she also said her daughter is looking for a new church.  We are hoping for a chain reaction with them.  Hopefully we can get them to the font as soon as possible.  They need it.  We also have a new investigator his name is Nick.  He is 17 years old and is a nephew to sister Annette Martin.  She is taking care of him.  I want to see him baptized before I leave or at least I think I'm leaving.  I've been here 6 months so I would think I'm leaving but who knows.  I kind of want to leave to go experience the mission a little bit at the same time I want to stay because I like this area a lot.  I love the people here especially the ward members here so it will be hard to leave.  I have really gotten to know a lot of people.  Well it has been a couple days I forgot to send this letter so I have a little more information.  Lets start off with Nick Martin he is 17 years old.  His grandma is a less active member that we have not visited for awhile so we just stopped to say hi.  We started talking to Nick for a little while.  I asked him if he had ever been baptized before.  He said no so we immediately started teaching him and then this last Sunday he came to church.  We gave him a hard commitment for baptism and he accepted.  August 9th at 6:00 he will be baptized.  We are excited and thankful.  Well it has already been another great start for this week.  We have a date and it seems like everyone wants to feed us because they think one of us is leaving.  There is a good chance it is me.  We have a dinner appointment every night until we are transferred.  Last night we had the Griggs they are a great family.  They have 4 boys and the oldest is 10 years old.  For the spiritual thought we made and played jeopardy.  They liked it and wanted us to come back over this Friday but we have Sister Burns and she is the best cook in the state so we told them we probably couldn't make it.  Since everyone is feeding us I put some pounds on and so has Elder Henriquez so this isn't good but I will just have to start to skip dessert.  C-ya all later you guys have a good week.  Well it is good to hear that I am going to be an uncle (Matt and Kandice)  Congrats on that so you guys better teach it my name at least so it will kind of know me a little bit. 
Love Elder Robison

Letter 7/22/11

Dear family, well another week already.  This one went by fast.  This week has been great, well lets get right in about our investigators.  Richard, we met with him twice this week.  He really remembers everything we teach him.  We read the Book of Mormon to him because he can't read and understand at the same time so we started him in 1 Nephi chapter 4.  We did that to grab his attention.  He liked it, loved the part were Nephi is commanded to cut off Labans head.  He wanted us to stay but we had to leave but before we left we had him pray.  He said he has never prayed before.  We taught him he said after the prayer he has never felt like that before.  That mad us very happy to hear.  We then went to Charline and Don Long.  They were doing horrible.  They lost one of their puppies and a close friend so they were really stressed out about that.  We asked if we could teach them to see if that would make them feel better but they didn't want to because they were sad.  While we were there Don's mom came over and talked to us.  Her husband is a preacher so that don't help any.  On Thursday night the Zone leaders came down and trained me on District meeting stuff. Elder Sexton & Pratt.  They are way cool cats.  We went on an exchange so me and Elder Sexton stayed here and Pratt and Henriquez went to Cleveland Tennessee.  It was great.  I like exchanges they are a really great help to learn how other missionaries do it.  There were a couple things I learned that helped me out a lot.  It has been great.  This P-day we just got back from Chattanooga Park from a zone activity.  We rode with the Zone Leaders down there.  We played frisbee.  Elder Crofts was also down there so we hung out as well.  That was my week it was great.  Well it sounds like y'all are doing great.  Be safe and remember why we are here.  Love Elder Robison

Letter 7/16/11

Dear family, well this week went by fast even though we were on bikes.  We ran into some interesting people on the door this week.  We had done quite a bit of tracting this week.  Well we are still tracting the outside part of town and seem to be doing a lot better because not very many missionaries tract out of town very much.  There are a lot of people that have never talked to us but have seen us on our bikes.  We give them the fill in on what and why what we do.  They seem to be more interested.  The first guy we met thought he knew me and it was funny because I've never seen him before in my life.  I went along with it.  It turns out that he wants us to come back so we are going to teach him as soon as he gets back from his trip.  The next guy is a little crazy.  We started talking to him on his porch.  He was telling us that Satan was buried by his house.  He had a whole bunch of crazy ideas.  We invited him to church he said he was coming.  The next guy we tracted into was Richard.  He is a young guy that just verily was released from jail.  He is covered in tattoos from head to toe.  He was really nice and immediately wanted to learn more.  We taught him.  We are still teaching him so we are hoping to prepare him for baptism some time in the near future.  Well President came over to our apartment at 10:30 Saturday morning so we could meet him and get him caught up on everything.  He is a really good guy.  While Henriquez was being interviewed by President.  I was being interviewed by Sister Irion.  We talked about my family and her family.  We also talked about experiences on my mission so far.  I chose to talk about Maria and Keyaundra.  I was interviewed by President next.  It went really well.  I felt like I was in a doctor office.  He still has doc talk.  He is a really good guy we just talked about the mission and he was committing the whole mission with obedience.  I committed yes.  I'm excited to work with him.  Sunday came around.  We went to church then went to Sister Griggs family.  She has 4 boys and their just little guys so for the lesson I committed them to be missionaries.  I gave them the first restoration pamphlet and told them they need to study it then teach their friends.  They are supposed to report to us next time.  Well the next day is P-day.  We played tennis and basketball and during basketball Dalton West got a call from President Irion.  President told them that Phippen was leaving to Knoxville which is a bummer.  He is going to be a zone leader.  As soon as he was off the phone then ours rang and President told me that I was going to be a District leader.  I will still be staying here so that is good.  That was some pretty shocking news.  I really like Phippen he was probably one of my favorite missionaries so it's a little lame.  So this week has been a little crazy.  Well it sounds like everything is great back at home so that is good.  Keep on doing good and take it easy.  Elder Robison

Letter 7/9/11

Dear family hey y'all at home it sounds like you guy's are doing great and the spuds are all tucked in for the year.  Well I hope the weather out there starts to cooperate.  It sounds like the spuds are going to be small without some heat.  The weather over here has not been to bad it is just too hot outside but good thing we have the car this week with the air conditioning.  We still have to work in the heat though.  We decided this week we were going to go tracting on the outside of town because we figured they have never been knocked before.  Well we asked them if they had ever talked to guys like us before.  Some have but most had not so it was good because we talked to like 3 people that had very much interest.  We taught a lady named Shanon.  She has 7 kids the oldest is 16 so we have a great opportunity to help them and teach them.  We have a return appointment with them.  We also taught a lesson to a guy named Gary.  He is a little rougher.  He had never heard of us beofre so he is interested in us.  This week has been good the only down fall is the 4th and the rec center is closed so we won't be able to play with the brothers so that is a bummer.  Instead of that we are going out to Brother Shinocks to ride llamas.  We are pretty stoked for that.  The Shinocks are great and will be out to BYUI for their sons graduation.  Maybe y'all will have to say hi.  They will be down in December.  Keyaundra is doing great and still progressing.  She is looking forward to getting her patriarchial blessing pretty soon.  Her over all goal is to go to the temple.  She has even hinted on a mission so she is great and living life to the fullest.  Well it has been a great time and time seems to be flying but days can get pretty long.  Well sorry this is short but I want to get some sleep so y'all will have to have a good week and be safe so peace Elder Robison
PS I was wondering when you and dad were going on a mission.  It seems to be asked more frequent lately and Kaden is old enough to take care of himself.  Just wondering?

Pictures but no letter this week

Chad Lewis he played for the Philadelphia Eagles

Our district

Elder Johnson

After the tornado

Wolf spider in the apartment

Keyandra Broom

Gracie

The Degallado family they got my back

Melissa Bonds

my half of the room

My 6 month mark burning my tie

Elder Phippen on exchange

Henriquez flat top.  I told him not to get but he doesn't listen very well.  It lasted about 30 minutes

Temple I made with my sewing kit

 

Keyandra's baptism day

Keyandra and her mom look at Jesus hand in painting

Brother Lunt and Keyandra

The roots of a tree picked up this van