Cool story since Brenan doesn't write to us anymore

This letter was written from Abby Polatis to her family.  Abby is in the MTC preparing to go to Romania:

. So i was running on the track and I had this feeling to go talk to this girl on the eliptical... it was wierd.. so I did it and found out she was from georgia. I told her I was from Idaho and she was like "That sweet the missionary that converted me was from Roberts Idaho!" I was freaking out... I was like who... She said.. "Elder Robison... Brenan Robison.. He is my Elder! I love the Robison Family" I started crying as I was on the eliptical next to her! Missionary work is real. She said "Brennan never gave up on me!" It hit me so hard! She is 29 and her name is kiandra Broome now going to serve a mission in the Iowa mission. Amazing .

President's letter

To catch you up with where we are at right now! For our top investigators we still have been teaching Steven and Kathryn. Well they have been doing ok. Steven more than Kathryn um Steven seems to be caught up with everything every commitment we give he follows and does great. He has been going down to the Calhoon ward for 2months and has truly been changed in the gospel. My question is that Katheryn is having a more difficult time giving up the coffee and smokes but I want to know if we should go ahead and baptize him first and then let her get baptized later or just keep them at the same time? I have complete faith she will be baptized she is also very excited in the gospel and loves it and knows she needs to be baptized. We are very excited to have this opportunity to teach them and help them make that covenant with there Heavenly Father!
For our district well a majority of them are sick including myself so we have been giving blessings like candy down here but it seems like everyone is doing better. For the district and the work it seems to be going but were hoping to speed it up this next week.  There are some great potentials that are close and a lot of member referrals that are of young age and will have a better opportunity to accept the gospel! Thanks for you support and guidance Love you much and have a good week! Elder Robison

Letter 11/17/12

Dear family well it sounds like y'all got the harvest all in and everyone has left town.  Well to get you caught up for the past 6 months haha j/k.  Well let me get ya caught up on who we are teaching.  Well our number one investigators are the Townsens.  A family of 7.  It's a weird situation with the family.  The fathers name is Cole he is about 55 years old and Wight his wife is philipino and so are all of the kids.  Well Cole is taking it seriously and is learning very fast and gets the concept of the rstoration.  This week will be their first Sunday coming to church so we're excited for them.  Two of their kids are above 8 years old so hopefully we'll get them to the water pretty soon.  Next we have the 2 old ladies Hadi Ray & Joan.  Well Joan is doing well.  She gets the concept of the resotration as well but is looking for an answer.  Hadi she is a ??  She is looking for a little extra money so I'm going to have her alter and fix my pants to help her out.  She is a hoot.  Nancy Keetes was doing so well but she kind of fell off the earth.  She has gotten so busy it is hard to get a hold of her.  Hopefully we can get in with her soon.  Brother Cox just took us out on our team up.  We went to a return appointment to Adalia & Jimmy's.  man they can talk it up.  It's way hard to teach them but we finaly did it.  Brother Cox just wanted to talk about farming the whole night.  He loves it and wants to come to the farm so bad.  Hopefully in a couple of years we can see him come out.  He is a good guy.  I really appreciate him.  Elder Dreesen and I are pretty good friends.  He is a good kid.  This week is our bike week so we better lose as much weight as we can to try to get ahead of the members feeding us so much.  Well some crazy news for this up coming transfer is the 2 other Elders are coming to live wiht us so we will have 4 elders total in our aparmtnet.  So this last transfer will be fun.  I'm going to send this off and get you a good one sent that is not so spaced out love ya.  Elder Robison

This must have been his other one because they both came in the same envelope

Dear family well I'm glad that mom and dad got home safely.  It sounds like y'all had fun.  Well let me get y'all caught up on where I'm at.  To start off with our district.  There are 3 sets of missionaries, 1 set of sisters and 2 sets of elders.  Well the District is struggling right now but after next Wednesday (transfer) we should have a new ballgame.  We have one set of sisters and one sister is going home this transfer so they are not doing to much work so it really hurts the district.  The other set of elders are doing alright it seems like the work is slow right now.  Next transfer we will be getting rid of the sisters and have 2 new sets of missionaries coming in so 4 sets of elders in Dalton.  I'm excited to see the work start to role.  We are getting 2 new sets because of the age change so we will be getting 14 new for the mission.  Well for our area we have some great potentials.  Our number 1 right now is the Townsen family.  They really like the discussions and agree with everything.  The only problem we have with them is their work schedule.  Brother Townsen works on Sunday so it's hard to get him to church but I think his wife and kids are coming this week so we're excited to see whats going to happen.  We also have a lady named Adali who will be coming as well.  The area here is beautiful.  The trees are falling and the mornings are cold and the weather is perfect.  Well it kind of stinks that Obama won.  A lot of people here are pretty torked about it so I can only imagine how ticked off they are in Idaho.  For my birthday this year don't send me anything but just buy me some ammo if there is anything left.  People here are really worried about what is going to happen but in reality it all works out in the end so the end is near but that just means we live in an exciting time.  We need to enjoy what we have while we have it.  So the morning of the day Obama won I was reading in Jacob Chapter 7 so check it out and tell me what you think, kind of ironic eh.  Just the first 6 or 7 verses but thats about it.  Hope to write soon.  Elder Robison

Email 11/12/12

Well that is pretty cool that you are on the other side of the world.  I can definitely understand why you are home sick! the Asian culture is pretty crazy. I bet you are eating weird things and I bet you have no clue what they are saying. Well let me start you off with this week. We have had some pretty good lesson with our investigators. The people that we have been teaching are kinda stagnant the reason being they are busy with work. But the good news is we have been tracting and we have met alot of good people that are pretty open.  One that sticks out is a guy named Billy he is probably around 25 years old or so. He opened the door and as soon as we started to talk about the church he was all ears.  He wanted some things to study and he told us that he and his wife have been thinking about church alot lately because they have kids. He is excited to learn more and we have a return appointment with him tonight at 6. The same very day we found some Mexican people that were cooking some carnitas which is basically a pig cooked in lard and it is the whole pig from the eyes and the snout and everything my comp is not used to that and his eyes were wide open.  I asked him if he wanted any of it and he had no reply. We set up a return appointment with them  for the next day but when we came back they were still drunk from the nigh before and still drinking so we left and will probably go back when it is not a weekend. the Townsend family is doing great they have 4 kids and are really taking the lessons seriously so we are excited to teach and they should be at church this Sunday so were stoked!

 

 Alright ready for the bad news well this next transfer is this Wednesday and we are going to be replacing the sisters and getting a new set of elders that are going to be living with us so that part is awesome but the bad news is that we will be taken out of the English ward and strictly Spanish.  So all of our investigators will be given to them 90% of our investigators are  in the English ward so all that work is going to the other elders. But there is a reason and we just have not seen it yet so no worries it is all good.

 

 Thank you so much for the birthday money it means alot to me and i hope you have an awesome trip!

Brenan's emails

Here are the last 3 weeks emails from Brenan.

October 22, 2012
Well It has been a great week in Dalton it fells like home and that's for real. Well since I've been in Dalton I have not missed a night with out being fed it is crazy the members here are so great! The week has been great it seemed to have flown by.  We were on bikes but I don't mind it because it is not to hot anymore so i like it.  Right now is the best weather to visit Georgia and Tennessee.  Well for our teaching pool it has been really dry we really only have one potential investigator and she is extremely busy so it is hard to see her as much as we would like. The great news is is that we tracted a lot this week and found 8 new investigators with a couple of families having great potential! We were able to teach our first spanish lesson together and elder  Dreesen did great he is a good missionary well at first this family did not have to much interest but at the end they were asking all sorts of good questions. They even wanted to feed us tamales  and we just verily ate before we went in so we were already stuffed. Well after that we started to walk up this huge hill.  On our way this car stopped and asked us if we wanted a ride so i looked at them and they were an older couple that you could tell they had a light to them. We hopped in well it turned out that it was elder Nelson from the 12 it was so cool.  We went and grabbed ice cream and talked about the work haha jk but the guy was a former mission president in the chile santiago mission so he was a good guy.  It was fun and we had a great night tracting. Well everything is going well here um just something to think about well my license will expire on nov17th so i need more info on that when you get back! have a great trip Elder Robison

Presidents Letter
Well things are starting to role here in our area we finally are building our teaching pool! It feels good to see that.  Well let me tell you a little about our success that we had this week with our tracting.  Well it turns out we had an exchange with the zone leaders and elder Patison came down with me. We were able to get 2 new investigators and it seems like they have great potential to become progressing investigators and better yet progressing members. Elder Dreesen and I went to the return appointment that elder Patison and I found and it turns out they did not seem to be to interested at first but at the end of the restoration they had great questions and wanted to know what time our church started.  We gave them the invites and info! During the lesson elder Dressen did great for his first real investigator lesson in spanish he is almost there to where he will feel comfortable to speak in spanish.  My plan is to get a lot more hispanics homes and to get more intercontact with the hispanic people. Well for Nancy K. she is still doing great. She had some great questions about the Word of Wisdom and she did not like the idea of quitting coffee but she said she would do it if God wanted her to. So that is awesome because her mind is on joining the church.  Our next invitation is to get her baptized. I'm excited to be here and I'm really hoping to reach the Mission and Zone vision! It is possible and I want elder Dreesen to know it is before I leave so that is my new vision for our companionship.
President thanks for all you do and you and sister Irion have a great week! Love Elder Robison

October 29, 2012
Presidents Letter
 Well that is some shocking news to hear. Let me know if you will be back before I leave and any specific assignments with the new elders that will be coming down to Dalton besides baptisms of course. President I know there is a reason for everything that happens in this life so  whatever reason this may be I encourage you to find it and magnify it ike you have done with your calling this far. Thank you for all that you have done for this mission and this work because like you said this work is for the lord and he is proud of that success you have made in the Tennessee Knoxville Mission. So suck it up and hurry and get back here haha jk. Pres you will be in my prayers! Well a little bit about the area. We had great success with finding with the spirit this week.  We found some people with great interest and are excited to have us back.  It has given me a hope and a stronger desire to baptize more so i have made a goal before it comes to the end. I want to have 10 baptism before I leave.  I know i can do it and it is going to take all we have but I have the right companion for the job so I'm excited! President you have a good and safe trip home and we'll see you here soon! love Elder Robison
(their mission President had to have his knees redone)

 Well that was some shocking news to hear I guess president has to go get his knees redone so we will have a different president for a little while.  He will be back in probably  a month  or so I would think.  Well it sounds like Germany would be a fun place to go visit and that is shocking that dad is liking it. Well everything is the same here and thank you for the package.  It was great I'm going to give some of the potatoes to the members here so they actually know what an Idaho spud is. Right now I'm on a diet. This past 30 days has killed me.  We have been fed every day strait for 23 days and some times 3 times a day so I'm getting huge.  The biggest I've ever been and it is the worst time to gain weight so I'm basically going to eat fruits and vegetables for the next 3 to 4 weeks and see if I can get it off. Well what is some news about Kaden is he ready to go? Tell him to get that turbo on for me before he leaves i don't know why he wanst to get one of those before he leaves and ask him how much he wants for his wheels?  That is about it here.  Time is going by pretty fast! have a safe trip love elder robison

November 5, 2012
Presidents letter
 Well for this week we definitely had a great and wonderful upliftment at stake conference this week.  I am truly thankful for this wonderful work. Well for this week we definitely had a good opportunity to catch up with those we lost contact with for a week or so but we were able to teach and set up some return appointments so I'm thankful. Well there is this family that are progressing at a wonderful rate they seem to enjoy our message and are grasping it very well. They do have concerns with the Word of Wisdom and changing there work schedule to be able to come to church.  I think it is going to take the spirit to get them there so that will happen.  We are planning on having them there this week so I'm excited to see what they think! Also we ran into another family the Polters its a small family of 2 kids.  Only the parents will be able to be baptized but they have a great spirit and seem to like us  Our next appointment will be this Wednesday we have high hopes with them so they are in our prayers day and night! For this next week we are expecting to have high numbers.  This next week we will have the car and our investigators are ready for the big invitation so we are pumped for this week! Well president let us know if there is anything that needs to be done and we'll hopefully see you soon! Have a great week! Elder Robison

Letter 10/17/12

Dear family well I figure I will have a little bit of time to write because at General Conference there are a couple of talks by women so I figure I can write y'all real quick haha (that's for you mom).  I'm a slacker and have not wrote in like a month so I'm going to catch you up where I'm at today.  Well for my last little while I was in South Knox.  I was able to see most of the members to say goodbye especially the YSA.  I made quite a few friends in the YSA and in fact Cody Moon is coming to BYUI.  We are going to room together.  He is from Montana so not to far away.  Well that is shocking news that Kaden can go on a mission any minute now so that will be good.  That is crazy they switched that.  Well let me tell y'all a little bit about my new life.  I'm training a new missionary named Elder Kevin Dreesen from San Diego California.  He is an awesome kid from the 9 that came into the mission.  President & Sister Irion said he is the best one.  He is well prepared and humble to learn.  His spanish is good too except when he is under pressure on the door step then his eyes get a little bigger and he looks at me so I can step in.  I'm excited for the next few transfers back in Dalton.  I feel like I'm back at home.  There is no doubt that Dalton is the best ward in the mission.  My first day back in Dalton was Wednesday.  Well on our way back from transfers we got a flat on the trailer.  Well one of the Brothers from the Spanish Ward saw we needed help.  He loaded up all our stuff and took us home.  While we were with him he bought us all lunch.  Later on that night we went over to the church and introduced Elder Dreesen to some members.  Well it was awesome because I have not seen anyone in a year so 10 members wanted to know what we had planned for this week so they can feed us.  From Thursday until all the way to next Friday we have dinner appointments so we are being well taken care of.  Some of the success that we have had so far.  Well we found 5 new investigators in a half a week.  Two ladies that have great potential.  Then a couple other people close to the church.  We have been tracting close to the church because we live within walking distance of the church also because Elder Dreesen popped his tire on his bike on his first full day.  It blew up like a firecracker so everything is going well.  We have a pretty nice apartment so I'm excited about that it is a lot nicer than South Knox.  Well I'm doing good so no worries.  Sorry for not writing in a month!!  Have a safe week.  Love Elder Robison

A facebook message I received from a family in Dalton

It has been a super crazy busy day. But I am so blessed. I am humbled by the love and kindness of friends and am so thankful for my church family including the amazing missionaries. One of my favorite missionaries said something to me that touched my heart and brought tears to my eyes. I was thanking them for all of their help and hard work today and apologizing to the for them missing part of conference when I was humbled beyond belief, he told me he would rather be in the service of My Heavenly Father doing service for others instead of hearing someone talk about it" meaning he wanted to put those words into action. I cried. Thank you Garline Coleman and Kevin, Thank you Morgan Clark and Krista Clark, and thank you Angie Sutton Robison for raising an amazing son with a heart for our Heavenly Father who only wants to serve. I am truly humbled and blessed by all of you and thankful for the love you have shown my family. #Blessed

10/2/12 Email

Well sounds like everything is going well there back at home and everyone is doing good! well I will catch you up on everything but you are going to have to give me a couple days on a letter. the reason I know were I'm going is because I will be training one last time so that means I will be white washing an area so pres is sending me to a spanish area again so it is exciting to go and see all the people down in Dalton and to work with them once again. Training will give me an opportunity to sit back and be exact and to finish hard and mayby a little spanish will come back along the way so really I was shocked but pres said he wants another one like me out hear so I need to train him to be like me! haha jk but I'm excited hopefully I get a comp that just really needs help I love to help the under dog so I want to do my best!!

 

Hi Presidents letter

 

 

 Dear president

I enjoyed meeting with you as well this week. You wanted  me to talk about my mission vision! Well I have been pondering it quite a bit lately and have come up with some ideas on how to accomplish it. I just wan to to thank you for this opportunity to train again I think there is nothing better to finish out as a trainer / district leader. I know this is a great opportunity to start on my vision because it dose not only reflect me but my new comp. From the extra study in the morning and to being exact that is what will make my light shine and to reflect upon others to make them better disciples of Christ. That is how I'm going to reach my mission vision!
Well for our area in South Knox we had a great week this week. We were able to get with the Delgado family and to help them out this week. They were in need of a bed so we had a service project to help this member move in with her new husband and it turned out that only one member showed up so we had a lot of work to do. We noticed that they had this older bed in the garage so we asked them what they were going to do with it. They said they were going to throw it away. Well the Delgados needed a bed very badly in fact Jimmy Delgado was sleeping on the floor so it was a huge tender mercy from the Lord and I love to see the Lords hand in all things! Later that day we commited the whole Delgado family for the 28th of Oct so we have been blessed so much this week. We need to get them to church and then the dates will count!
Also the dates we have with Shelly and Dusty they are doing great we had a very spiritual lesson with them this week. Dusty opened up and we can totally feel the trust with them they truly love us coming over so everything is going well in South Knox and if our faith is right and we do everything we can we are projected to have 8 baptisms this month. It will be spectacular. well President thanks for everything and you and sister Irion have a great week! Love Elder Robison

Letter 9/22/12

Dear family well I have a lot to write about so I hope to not bore y'all with this one.  I figured I'd better start off with Elder Foster.  He did an amazing job.  Our whole zone was really inspired and felt confident when they left.  It was by far the best conference yet.  Everyone thinks that Elder Foster and I are pretty tight or something.  Elder Foster made it sound like we were good friends.  He talked about the farm and told everyone if they have ever eaten an Idaho potato that it probably came from our farm.  He let everyone know that I have the nicest sister and she cleans his teeth so everyone got the vibe that we were family friends.  With his training he did a wonderful job.  Our investigators in our area the Delgado family a hispanic family of 6 they are struggling with money right now they are scraping all they can to make the light bill so our bishop came with us and helped us out.  He gave them some money out of his own pocket so hopefully we can get them rolling.  We are also teaching Shelly & Dusty.  Shelly is getting close to baptism.  She is a nice lady.  She was referred to us by Gloria one of my old converts so that is way cool.  Well a little bit about our area during football season.  Well with the Vols they had a game against the Florida Gators last Saturday.  At 5:30 in the morning the streets were full with people in orange.  It was nuts.  The YSA had a tailgate party at the institute.  it was pretty fun.  I think next week we might see if we can get permission to go to the game but I doubt it.  Well not much more to say but I love y'all and have a good week.  Elder Robison

Letter 9/10/12

Dear family, sorry I've not been able to write too much these past couple of weeks.  Well to catch you all up where I'm at as of right now with our investigators we have seen some serious miracles.  Our ward is doing a 40 day fast!! Elder Shoemaker and I have taken advantage of it and have found some really awesome people.  We found the Delgado family.  They are hispanic but don't speak spanish.  They are in true need of help.  They don't have money and have to take care of 4 kids.  The oldest being 11 and the youngest being 3.  Three of the kids will be able to be baptized as soon as we prepare them.  We also were referred to a lady named Shelly.  She has a date for the 21st  so we need to get her ready.  I think her son will be baptized with her as well!  We went to a return appointment yesterday.  It is an old couples house.  Their names are Tom & Ella.  They are a good family.  When we set this return appointment we thought they didn't have much interest but they let us in to share a message.  She read a little bit in the Book of Mormon!!  They are super good people and I'm excited to see where they head to.  Last Tuesday we had our Council with the Zone Leaders.  4 1/2 months ago I was the youngest one in the council but now I'm the oldest.  Just in that short time a lot of things have changed.  For the 12th of this month Elder Foster(Brad Foster) is coming from the 70 to the mission.    We were asked to give a 15 minute training on Gospel blessing families so it will be a couple of sentences to expound upon.  Well I heard the bad news about Keely.  It is still hard to take in.  It's kind of hard to believe.  I hope the family will be able to endure it well because I know how much Kristy loved Keely so it will be hard.  I hope the other girls are OK.  Well that is just a little bit of where I'm at so y'all have a good week and be safe.  Elder Robison

Letter 9/2/12

Dear family well a lot has changed since last time I wrote.  I will try to start where I left off.  Well Elder Craw went to West Hills all last week to go get trained to be an assistant so I have been with the Farragut Elders off and on.  It's been fun they have an awesome ward mission leader Brother Ray.  He is a ears, nose and throat specialist so he took us out for dinner at some nice restaurant.  Farragut is a very wealthy area so all doctors, lawyers and business men live there.  We knocked on the VP of Mastercraft.  His home was huge.  Well I have my new comp now.  His name is Elder Doug Shoemaker from Mesa Arizona.  He is a cool kid.  So far this week we have had so much success.  The most success since I have been in Pleasant Ridge.  Last week we found 11 new solid investigators!!  and we committed 3 investigators for baptism.  The first one is Nate Thompson.  He is a members friend and is a black guy.  His date is for the 28 of September.  Next we set a date for Eryn.  January 20th.  I think they want me to come back out for their wedding and baptism!  We finally set a date with Lauren for September 15.  We are going to keep them in our prayers and we should have 2 more this week:).  I'm enjoying the work everything is going really well for P-day I might go play some ball so y'all have a good week.  Love Elder Robison

Letter 8/17/12

Well to start off by giving y'all some info on this past week.  It has been busy with all the meeting stuff.  We had zone council which was Tuesday all day.  Friday we had our zone conference which went super good the spirit was strong and the reason being is it was on a very good subject The Book of Mormon so everyone had another spiritual witness that it is true so it was pretty cool.  Sister Irion's daughter just got back from her mission and she gave a training at the conference as well.  She had some cool experiences on her mission.  My training was on gaining confidence in the Book of Mormon.  It seems we offer it to so many people and it is the number 1 turned down message.  I gave advice on how to gain peace, confidence and strength.  It went well.  Well for some teaching experiences this week we went to this guy's house named Chris.  He is Pentecostal so he gets excited when he feels the spirit so he kind of scared the crap out of us.  We taught him with boldness and just laid the law.  We also had a good Sunday this week.  We had a member from the YSA bring 2 of his friends and we taught them after church.  One of them was really smart and had some deep questions.  We answered them well and confounded all doctrine to his needs.  We left him with a Book of Mormon promise.  Another Chinese guy is now coming to church.  There are now 2 Chinese investigators and they don't even know each other both are in the sisters area so bummed about that.  But to make up for it a couple of different members referred their friends to us and 1 might be promising.  She has 3 kids but all are under the age of accountability.  The Rivera's a spanish family invited us over for dinner tonight and to talk to their neighbors.  Well the neighbors did not show but hopefully we'll get a hold of them.  It has been forever since I spoke in spanish so I'm pretty rusty I imagine.  Well this is my life at the moment.  I might be out of here in 10 day's but who knows so here is the short weekly letter.  Have a great week.  Love Elder Robison

Letter 8/10/12

Dear family, well I received your package.  It was great.  It made my day.  The pictures are great now I can see so much change back at home.  Renlee can stand.  I think her chubbiness holds her up.  It looks like y'all are having a blast.  Don't tell Byron Wood but he is completely gray.  The Bishopric is starting to look like the first Presidency haha j/k.  The picture of all the younger cousins.  They have all changed as well so they are growing fast.  Don't let me forget to compliment on the tanning mom keep it up give those legs some sun. haha j/k  Well it seems y'all are doing great so keep it up!! Well grain Harvest is about to start so my question is are the John Deere deal on the combines too?  Well the work is starting to pick up our teaching pool is different people but I believe they are chosen to be ready at this time .  cool experience happened this week.  Well we will start with Chris #1 we taught him about 3 months ago but just one visit.  Well we were helping down at the food pantry and Chris came up to us and told us that he needs help spiritually so we set up an appointment with him.  I know he will be open and accept it.  Chris #2 well we had another referral from the pantry.  We were on our way to go see him and we passed Sims road and in my mind I remembered a date back at the apartment that had an address with Sims Road so I turned around to go get it.  We couldn't find it so we went back to the referral and he was not there but his neighbor was outside.  We started talking to him and he wants us to come back well it was perfect timing because he just walked out as soon as we pulled in so that was cool!  Also today I had a thought go through my head that was one of our old investigators.  The thought was just to stop by.  It was a strong thought because she lives 7 miles out of town so we stopped by and she was home.  She was excited to see us because she felt hopeless.  She had just been laid off from her job.  She had had her job for 11 years so she was upset.  She said something cool!  She told us we always come at the right time.  It made me feel great.  Last district meeting we went out to eat with the Marysville district.  We went to Hot Red which is a burger joint.  Well they are famous for the 30 oz burger and a pound of fry's and you have to eat it in 30 minutes.  The district challenged me to do it.  I finished in 29 minutes 46 seconds so verily.  I won a t shirt and a picture on the wall.  I was sick for most of the day but it was worth it.  We have zone conference in a couple of day's so I am speaking on what to prepare and how to present it.  Elder Brad Foster will be our visitor in September so that will be neat.  he will probably come for our zone council as well.  That's all the exciting news thanks so much for the package it means everything!  Love Elder Robison
Sunday
Well I figured I would write a little more before I put it all in an envelope well this was a great day at church for the Knoxville mission.  We had a normal sacrament in Knox 1st and for the YSA we had Elder Himas from the 70 come and speak.  It was great.  I was able to talk to him for quite awhile before the meeting started.  I forgot to tell you that before YSA a chinese guy came in and asked how he could be part of the church.  When I heard this I was overcome by the spirit of gratitude and thanks.  My prayers have been answered!  Well we teach him and he does not know much about religion or much so we taught very simply and basic.  We set a date of baptism for him this month.  After the lesson we take him out to the foyer to go visit with the members.  Well they were asking where he lives and it turns out he is in the sisters area so I was taken back a little but the sisters are good teachers.  It will be good.  Well in the YSA a member brought 2 friends with her so we went and introduced ourselves and after we talked to the member and she wants us to teach her.  Well there again we found out she lives in the sisters area so hopefully we will get a break around here.  It's all good.  Erym came to church she is doing great:)  but still has to wait for January so we'll wait.  Just thought I would give you the update for Sunday.  Elder Robison

Brenan's email

Well just a second ago Sister Irion came in with her daughter that has been in Russia on her mission. She has been home for about 2 weeks so she is touring the Knoxville mission with pres and sister Irion so that is pretty cool to finally see president get to relax and just take it easy with his daughter. He seems to be really happy so that is cool.
Presidents letter
Well this week was great we have been able to visit a couple of our districts meetings and they seem to be doing great! Marysville had a great meeting and I think the companionship's there are working very well together. They seem to be having some success. For Farrguts district they are also doing well! This week was a very good week for the zone we had a lot of new commitments for baptism and everyone seems to be excited.  I think this is a great opportunity to keep them moving and motivated with zone conference.
              Well with our area everything seems to be going well. We had some cool experiences with following the spirit and seeing people put into our path. We went to the food pantry and we were helping pass out food and one of our old investigators came up and said hi. He asked us to come over he needs spiritual help he says so we were excited to see him come up and ask us to come over.  I have a feeling that he can be ready for this month. He wants to learn and will listen to what we have to say. His name is Chris so we are in hopes to get him to church this week with a date. At church this week we found a new guy who wants to join his name is Jarad.  He is from China. he has not much knowledge of the basics of Jesus Christ but he wants to learn and loves what our doctrine is. We set a date for him to be ready by the 18th of this month. We are going to let the sisters teach him and have some members in the Westhills ward help him and fellowship him. We are excited to see the work press forward so we are excited to see yall at zone councel. So have a good week
Elder Robison

Email 7/31/12

Wow that is so cool about Abby, that will be an awesome mission I know a couple of people who have served there and they loved it. Well with the insanity we got permission with President and all he said is that he wants to see our result pictures haha so we work out when we can some times it is not possible to do so when we have appointments in the morning or meetings but usually we hit at least about 4 days out of the 6 per week! I am not losing weight but I'm tightning up and losing fat so that is all I want. Everything has been going well with our little program we made. It has been helping some of the missionaries that take it serious so that it is pretty cool. I'm trying to figure out what I said in my last letter that I sent . I will send you Presidents report so you can get an idea were all of our investigators are at. Well I will tell you what we did for Pday yesterday it was pretty fun. Our district went to some caves and we got so dirty we were covered in mud and hopefully i will get you out some pics it was pretty cool it was nice to go do something that I would do back at home. Well these caves are right next to this golf course and why were sitting out side of the caves I went and in just in 5 min I found 50 new golf balls so I think next week we might go back and go gather all the balls and send them home or just sell them out here to the golf courses. It was pretty fun. For  the work in this area we need to do something different we have  been trying to work with the members and we are not doing so good with baptisms. It is hard to get people baptized in this area it has been over a year since there last baptism so we're in hopes we can change that. I think the hold up to this area is that the church is 30 min away and it is hard to do church tours and stuff like that but we are going to bite down and get it done.
Presidents letter
Well we have seen a lot of cool progress this week with our zone and with our area! We were able to present the program to Pigeon Forge district and as well as the Marysville district. It went really good with both it took a little while for them to grasp it so we need to make steps on the side so they know exactly what the purpose is of this paper.  We might even need to add a little more to it but overall when they figured it out some of the areas were really excited to know that they are part of a pilot program. The ones who have taken it serious have already seen results. In Bays Mountain they were able to go in with their commitments in mind and to invite her to do more. Well she accepted and they set a date with her. It was cool to hear! I think this paper has all to do with if the set of missionariess take it seriously so we might need to stress the importance of it and the success of it to some areas. SO FAR SO GOOD

With our area we are going to apply the teach in faith as soon as possible we tried to do so but our appointment canceled. we will report on the success in the next letter. Well we had some cool experiences with doing a service project this week. There is a food pantry that we go help pass out food well some of the people can not carry the food all at once so we help carry it out for them and on our way to the car we are able to share a message with them and they are more receptive to our message because we are serving them at the moment so they give full attention to us and we are able to set a return appointment with them.  We were able to get 6 new investigators for it so now our next step is to follow up with them.  Its a great finding tool that needs to be used every where if possible.

Eryn Sanders is doing great spiritually she has such a great testimony with whatever we teach. Whatever we say she listens and believes so we love to teach her.  Our next lesson with her is to teach her the word of wisdom and get her to live it and then talk about obeying the commandment and to do whatever it takes to do.  We are hoping that she will make her date. It is going to take a big act of faith on hers and our part so we are excited to do so. Well im excited for zone councel to hear and present our training so we will see you this week Love Elder Robison

Letter July 27, 2012

Dear family, well it seems like it has been a while since I've wrote y'all so here is my monthly letter haha take a couple of deep breaths mom I was just joking (I don't think he is joking) Well this area has been pretty busy.  We had transfers this week.  I think it was for the better.  We have a lot better missionaries in the zone so we are really going to stretch and stress the mission vision because we have the missionaries to do it now.  Well we had some pretty fun events going on in the mission that I thought our mission president would have never let us go and do.  All the surrounding areas in the mission just mainly Knoxville zone.  We were able to go to the Smokey's game.  I'm not for sure what division of baseball they are in but there fastest pitcher threw 85 so not to impressed but it was a good game over all.  We actually found 1 new investigator there which was awesome.  Also there was a group that sang there named Jericho Road so the church bought a whole section of seats because if was LDS night at the Smokey's.  Well good news is we finally got another date with Eryn she is doing very well.  She is just waiting on paper work so they can get married.  We fasted and prayed so that it will happen for both of them.  She is super ready.  Well time seems to be moving along and it seems like I write about the same things every week but something new that Elder Craw and I have started is insanity.  It has been killer but I'm used to it now.  We took some before and after shots and our day 15 you can tell for the both of us so we are excited for our diet to go along with it.  It is basically just tuna right out of the can and Franks Red Hot Sauce so hopefully it pays off.  Sorry this letter is late, unorganized and sloppy.  I will get better.  Elder Robison

Letter 7/12/12

Dear family, this week has been so crazy busy.  Well let me start off from the beginning of this week.  Well Monday we had our zone activity.  It turned out well.  The next day we were busy preparing training for our zones and for my spanish training.  We also went out tracting.  Wednesday at 8:30 that morning President and Sister Irion picked us up and we went to Marysville District.  While President was interviewing we gave finding trainings and challenges.  Next up we went to Pigeon Forge.  After that District Meeting president had me drive us home so I drove the speed limit all the way home so it took us a long time to get home.  Some very good news for this week it is awesome.  We received a referral from another area.  Well we went to go visit this kid.  His name is Tyler Harman he is 20 years old.  We were getting to know him a little better and he was asking us about church and our missions.  He really wants to serve a mission so we gave him a baptismal date for July 18th.  That is Presidents birthday.  He seems really excited.  I am really stoked, I've been praying for a baptism for a very long time.  He is doing great.  Well we had a very spiritual experience.  Our bishop gave us an assignment to go visit this lady named Vicky.  She is not a member.  Well all we had for directions was a street name.  We went anyways.  We drove the road and then we drove it again and something told me a specific house.  We went and talked to this lady outside of the house.  Well it turns out she was Vicky.  Out of the hundreds of houses.  Same day we had a very spiritual experience again.  We decided to go tracting.  Well it was 105 degrees and we had knocked 35 or so houses and not one person opened up to talk to us.  We were both looking at each other thinking we should give up but something told me to just keep going.  That same feeling like when we found Keyaundra.  We did and this one young lady opened up.  She was very churchy.  We set a return appointment.  After that something told me to keep going so we did and the very last house a lady opened up and was kind of rude at first and wanted to know what we wanted.  Then she asked us questions for about 30 minutes and we shared the Restoration with her. She gave us water and wanted us to come back and wants to go to church.  She told us that it was funny we stopped by because she has been having a very hard time at work.  She started to cry and it was a very tender mercy to me.  I love the feeling when you are being directed by the spirit and you obey that still small voice.  Well I hope I didn't bore you with the letter.  Have a great week.  Elder Robison

Letter 6/23/12

Dear family well this week is going to be busy.  For our plans this week we had put on a zone activity right in downtown Knox.  It was super hot so we got permission to run through the fountains.  It was awesome.  Well for the rest of the week we have interviews with our zone.  We will be going around with President on Wednesday from 8:30 in the morning till 4:30 p.m. so our week will put us behind.  On Thursday same thing 8:30 to 4:30 and Friday we have to be in Farragut at 1:30 to 5:00 because Elder Gibbins from the 70 is coming.  So our Friday is gone then on Saturday I will be down in Dalton for a spanish conference from 9 to 7 so Saturday is gone.  We have to get a good jump on this week.  Well a little about last week.  One of our downers is that Erin won't be able to get married yet so we have to hold back her date but everything else is going great.  Our zone is finding new people so that is great.  We have been challenging them and having competitions with them.  It seems to be working.  Last night I woke up to gun shots by our front door then we hear our door get blown down and this black guy came running in and ran straight to our bathroom.  He was bleeding everywhere so we called 911 and he had been shot 3 times.  Ya know what is funny is that I made that up all except the gun shots were true so I thought I would give you a little worry so this is my letter this week sorry it is short and boring.  Elder Robison

Letter 6/18/12

Dear family well we are having a great turn around in this area.  It has been awhile since it has baptized.  We have been teaching Erin.  She is a 19 year old girl who is living with her boyfriend.  He is a less active in the YSA.  Well she has been to church 5 times so we decided to give her a date for the 30th.  She accepted and it's going to be her birthday.  They have to get married before so they are shooting for the 19th of this month.  They wanted us to marry them but President shut us down.  We have still been working with Nelson and family.  They have been coming to church so I teach the Gospel Principles class in spanish for them which is great because it helps me out tremendously.  I have to do a training in spanish on the 23rd.  Elder Pattison & Roggaman and I have to run it and get everything ready.  For Sunday we had a dinner appointment and I made my salsa and they loved it so in return we received 6 referrels so the McKeller family are way legit.  For P-day we played basketball and I was struggling but it was just an off day.Well the next day we went out tracting and were very successful.  We took Sterling McKeller with us and we had 7 member presents in 3 hours.  He took us over to his friends who lived in this huge mansion house.  His friends family were very nice they took the invite to read the Book of Mormon.  It has been a great week so far so you all have a great week as well.

Email to President and letter 6/11/12

 

Dear President

                Well we had a very good week especially with some of our progressing investigators. Erin now has a date! She is supper excited to get baptized and has a great support system. They went and talked to president Isom about getting married so they can get baptized. The date we are shooting for is the 30^th of this month. We have to teach most the lessons before then but a great opportunity to build that strong foundation.

                Nelson and his family were at church. They seemed to enjoy themselves. The ward  came out and fellowshipped great. The ward really enjoys Nelson and his family. We are still trying to get them married before we set a hard date. We know they are not legal and I'm not for sure how that works if they are able to or not. Bro Mckeller and bro Danalls have been talking to see what they can do. Bro Mckeller  that is what he does and he seem excited to help him out. We have been really impressed with the Mckeller family they referred 6 families to us just yesterday. They truly are a great missionary family!

Well  we are in hope to get these districts excited about finding and it seemed that our numbers have tripled  since so.  This week was great  so you and sister Iron have a great week.   Elder Robison

Letter-Sunday well after church we went to the McKeller's and had dinner.  We ate in a really etiquette way.  We used gold forks!  Monday, we had a really slow day.  Not much to do and mile limitation but we still managed to go to Nama (?).  We went with time from the YSA.  Wednesday was transfers well I already knew who I was getting.  I had heard he was going to be strict and does not talk or smile.  While at transfers I was sitting in the foyer.  I looked outside and saw a man who looked familiar.  Well it turns out it was Jake Lufkin from back home.  I went and talked to him for awhile.  it was pretty crazy that he was clear out east.   He said he was doing some nursing program at a school in TN.  Well we had transfers and I'm with Elder Craw he is from Driggs Idaho.  he is an awesome kid.  I've gotten along really well with him in fact he has potential of being my best companion.  We have been tracting and teaching.  We have been making ideas for the zone.  I'm really excited.  We had a District Leader training on Thursday and our training went an hour long and it seemed to go well.  We taught Nelson and his family.  It was such an amazing experience.  We watched the Restoration video.  Etium he is 10 years old and after the video I asked how he felt.  He smiled and said he felt good and pointed to his chest and said he felt it here.  He said that he needs to pray and ask God too.  We committed them but they still don't feel ready so we explained we will prepare them and we talked about getting them married.  I hope they feel ready by next visit.  We just had our zone council with all the leaders.  We trained on the "Ask in Faith" program.  It went well.  We have a lot of do in our zone right now it seems like our zone is not taking key indicators very seriously so we need to get them more in shape.  We challenged a District his week on finding new investigators so we have to find at least 10 new investigators.  It is 3 vs 1 so we have horrible odds but we can do it.  Great week so take care and Love Elder Robison

email 6/4/12

 this is my weekly letter to pres so i thought you might enjoy it don't have much time today but hopefully tomorrow i will be able to email. love you

Dear President

                Well this was an awesome week. We have had a lot of success. This is a great opportunity to be able to serve with Elder Craw. He is a very good missionary. We have been setting goals and really trying to achieve them. Just little simple goals that have made us more effective. We have already seen some results from just OYMing. We have been giving trainings on finding. It seems like our zone is struggling with new investigators. We are going to challenge each district in a little competition on new investigators. We are trying to pick it up and I think they just need  to make it fun because the work should be fun. We want to bring the excitement just like when they first arrived in the field.  So we will see on the results this coming week.

                 Well a little bit on our area we were able to visit with Nelson and his family. We watched the restoration DVD and it was such and amazing experience. It first started off rough because their little 3 year old was crying the whole time but a couple of minutes before the first vision the kid fell a sleep the spirit moved in  and  after the movie we sat there for 2 min and my first question was to Etium he is their 9 year old boy and I asked him how he felt and he pointed to his chest and said he feels something in here then he said it gives him the desire to ask god for him self. It was awesome! Everyone felt the spirit very strong. They fell like god needs to give more direction for there baptism. We talked about what they needed to do so it did not seem like it is a huge thing to prepare for because they are so ready. I'm praying with the next visit we will have a set date.

                 Everything is going good. So you and sister Irion have a good week.      Elder Robison

Letter 6/2/12

Dear family well great week and a lot of info.  Well to start off with the positive.  Our zone had 2 baptisms and is doing very well for the week.  For our lovely Sunday we went to church at 9 and got out at 5 so usually our Sunday's are full.  After church we went over to the McKeller family which is the best family in the ward.  Brother McKeller is a lawyer and owns his own firm.  He does very well.  It was a great dinner.  Elder Stoker told his story to them and we got another dinner appointment the next day mainly because Elder Stoker is leaving so they want us over again.  Brother McKeller earlier this week took us to sushi and threw down $120  on dinner just for 3 of us so they take care of us because not very many other people do.  I'm thankful for them.  Well some interesting stuff for this week.  We went and talked to a whole bunch of ???? people.  Most of them are gay so we didn't spend to much time there.  One of our new investigators for this week is Erin.  She is pretty cool and doing very well.  She has read 5 chapters and seems to have a great understanding.  We also went to go see Brother Malone.  He smoked a whole bunch of fish that he caught in Alaska.  We ate King salmon but it was white king salmon.  He told us that meat runs from $40 to $50 an ounce which is crazy so I enjoyed it.  Well next transfer I'm getting Elder Craw.  I don't know much about him so it could be interesting.  Well everything is good and well.  Love Elder Robison

Letter 5/28/12

Dear family it was really nice to talk to you last Sunday.  It seems like I just talked to y'all not to long ago so time is flying fast.  Well I hope the wind is going to start to slow down for you out on the farm so you can keep some moisture.  Well everything is going well in South Knox we have been working with another church helping them pass out food to the poor.  It is a great service and helps put the churches name out there and we see a lot of people that we run into every day.  Chance is still reading and doing well.  He will be on the road because he has a game some states over.  Kevin is also getting hard to see because he works most hours of the day.  We are hoping to see him after church and get him going towards baptism.  Well yesterday I was with Elder Crofts.  He is in our zone and he and his companion needed a break so Crofts came up here with me, just like good old times.  Monday we had a zone conference call and discussed needs and concerns.  After we had planned a zone activity.  We played basketball, football and then had a BBQ.  We had burgers and steaks.  My hope is this next transfer we get a new switch around in our zone for more obedient missionaries.  I think there are going to be a lot of changes in our zone which will be good.  Our area needs to start pushing with baptisms more.  I'm surprised this whole transfer has not been like I wanted it to be but we have put some pretty strong goals to get some baptisms soon.  We have the potential investigators to do so so hopefully soon.  Well I will write more often.  Elder Robison

Letter & pictures 5/10/12

Dear family, well it has been a busy week.  I can't remember what I've told you last.  I will catch you up with all our progressing investigators.  We have Kelin, he is 19 years old and is a very understanding kid.  I can see him baptized in no time.  Also a new guy we have been teaching is Chance.  He is a huge black guy who plays for an arena football league down here.  He was referred by a member who also plays football.  The members name is Ryan Hill.  He played QB for ISU in Idaho.  He is from Boise.  When I went over there he looked really familiar to me.  Well 30 minutes into the lesson in the conversation I told him I played for Rigby.  He asked if I knew Casey Faulkner.  I told him very well.  He went and grabbed a Rigby Trojan shirt.  He came and helped us with the camp when I played and that is where I've seen him before.  Small world eh.  Nelson and his family are doing great.  They are praying for a date on when they need to be baptized so we are waiting to see when.  We went to a couple of District meetings this week.  They went great.  The zone is doing well.  We have zone conference on the 10th.  I'm really nervous we have to give an hour and a half training plus get everything arranged for this conference so I wish it was all over.  (He must be really busy because he didn't finish his letter)

Close friend, Dani Eddy

Elder Mills, Jeffrey Inchen, me

Elder Stevenson

Elder Nuebert

Elder Bolten before P-day

sweating like crazy

Elder Harwood throwing his pose

P-day at Nichos

Me getting ready to bowl

good form

cooling the ole hand off

Brother Fillmore, he really is not that crazy e is from Idaho Falls

Sterling & his cousin Lyric

service @ Jim's cancer fun

Inez Mena, Jim's secretary at the cancer fund

Elder Mills

Elder Bolton getting ready to work out

Elder Kenyon getting ready to work out

Mills at 6:30

Elder Mill, Gloria, Gloria's great grandson, Vivian, me

Fillmores, Marc is normally not like that

Fillmore TV problem

Jeremy

Jerry Snowman

Nuebert, Maynes, Martineau

Elder Rogaman from Utah

Last District meeting

Mills & Nuebert

Nuebert, Mills, Stevenson, Bolton

 

Elder Bolton on exchange

Chillhaui Mall

Mills & Bolton shoe shopping

Elder Drysdal

me and Bolt

Letter 5/7/12

Dear family, well let me tell you it has been a very busy week.  We have been teaching a spanish family and hopefully in the near future they will be baptized.  We also have been going over to a member's house.  His name is Andy.  He started a pest control business and it is booming.  He is a great guy.  He referred us to his cousin Kevin.  Kevin is about 19 years old and loves to ride bikes so we have gotten to know him.  We are hoping to see if we can start teaching him.  Last Saturday we had a very tiring day.  We were asked to help move a member in the ward.  Well that morning we decided to go running.  We went 4 miles non stop.  it was a killer then after that we helped move.  Just as soon as we got done moving another member called and asked if we could help their friend move so we said yes.  Well it was Elder Stoker, the member and I who did it all.  She had a whole furnished house with 2 living room sets of couches and a lot of furniture.  We were all day because we couldn't let the member do it all by himself.  We finished at 8 that night.  I was so tired it killed me.  This last week we also had a couple of District meetings to go to and gave some trainings.  We also had a meeting for all leadership in the mission.  It took most of the day then I just verily got back from a meeting at Presidents house.  We had zone council.  It started at 2:30 and ended at 7:30 but we had dinner as well.  It was a busy day.  Oh I almost forgot to tell you about the best part of my day.  Brother Rany he is a member from another ward who really likes us.  He took us out to Brazeiros, The Brazilian steak house.  It was great we ate until I could verily breath.  He is an ear, nose and throat specialist so he is loaded.  He likes us so much he gave us a job to find out where we can get some kobe beef.  He is legit.  So this has been my life for the past little while, busy but I like it.  I hope I caught y'all up on everything.  Have a good week and love Elder Robison
PS. Gloria is still doing great she is getting baptized this Thursday so on the 3rd of this month.

PSS. Hey we are getting a new address so address all mail to the mission office.