Letter 5/24/11

Dear family, well a lot of things are different now and different for the better.  Well lets start on our last P-day with our last District.  First we had a crack in our windshield so we had a guy come fill it in.  That took most of our morning, after that we went to the library and then to Walmart.  We are in the check out line and Elder Johnson started panicking because he couldn't find the keys.  We go outside to the car and our car was running and the keys were locked in the car.  We called Brother Rodriguez because he works at a dealership so he had a kit to get in the car.  He showed up 2 hours later so we went to eat and then played tennis for 1/2 hour.  We then got ready for our appointments.  We had an appointment with Melissa Bonds.  She made us ribs and potato salad and all sorts of soul food.  It was great.  We then went to another appointment but no one was there so we went back so Elder Johnson could start packing.  The next day every body wanted to feed us it seems.  We went over to Crystals and we made carne asada y pollo.  I cooked the meat it was a really good meal.  I ate way to much.  We then were going over to say goodbye to Victor and Brenda before Johnson left.  We weren't planning on eating there too but they bought pizza.  I had a little bit.  After that we went to the The Colemans they are a family in the ward, they fed us chicken and potatoes.  Three meals in five hours, I was a little sick.  The next day was transfers.  I had to be early for training meetings.  I met my new companion.  He is from Mesa Arizona his name is Elder Henrique.  His parents are from El Salvador.  He is way cool.  We are pretty tight.  He likes to wake board and stuff like that.  We got home and started planning for the rest of the week.  We had a dinner appointment with the Ortiz family.  We then had an appointment with Rosario but she wasn't there at 7 we had to go teach an English class but no one showed up.  After that we let the new missionaries get stuff they needed then we went to the Aquila family and had a pretty good lesson with them.  We then hit the sack.  The next day we had training, language, personal, and comp study, then weekly planning.  We had a lesson at 3 with Margie.  We were teaching the Restoration outside of her trailer and out of the middle of no where this guy comes up with his Bible and asks us what Bible we use.  We told him, he started trashing on us saying we don't believe in what the Bible says.  I told him we did and we practice everything in it.  He then started just talking about stories in the Bible and he asked if we knew it.  I had a big smile on my face and asked him if he practices everything.  He said yep.  I told him to read Acts 3:7 and then asked him If God is the same yesterday, today and forever.  He said yes.  I then asked him so do you think it is important to have a prophet today.  He never answered and then started another story in the bible.  By the way I was being really patient and nice so Margie saw that we were on the good side.  This guy started pointing his finger in our faces and he was not proving us wrong on anything.  He just was raising his voice to make it sound like he was.  I told him we agree with that story and scripture then he started another one and started moving towards us with his pointer finger.  I stood up and I was about 6 inches taller and out weighed this guy by 30 pounds.  I then gave my testimony to him even though he wasn't listening and kept rambling on. I paid no attention to him and started talking to Margie.  I apologized that we were not able to finish the lesson.  She said it was OK but she told us to come back as soon as possible.  We set an appointment for Saturday at 2.  I think she saw the good side of us and saw we were keeping our patients so it could of been good for Margie.  When we were walking away I asked my new companion how his first lesson of his mission went.  He started laughing.  My new comp is way cool.  He is just like me likes the same stuff.  After all that we went tracting and then to a dinner appointment at the Lunts.  My companion ate a lot and then we went and taught Maria Silva.  My spanish worked.  I understood most and I gave most of the lesson.  Well you know how Maria is she had made us dinner so we had 2 full meals last night.  My companion was pretty sick and this morning was still pretty sick.  His stomach was making some pretty loud sounds.  It is great to be able to take charge of lessons.  I get a lot more practice in with my spanish.  My comp is fluent and is really good at speaking and teaching.  We set our goals high for baptism at 5 baptisms this transfer.  That is awesome because faith will bring us there so pray for our number.  We should be able to do it.  I love my comp he is positive and ready to work so I'm excited.  I love you all at home and you guys are great.  Be safe and take care Love Elder Robison

letter 5/16/11

Hey family, well a lot of news this week and a lot of great things have happened.  First off I would like to say it was nice being able to talk to all of y'all last week.  It sounds like everything is going well especially from the last letter.  All the grain in and I'm assuming all the spuds are in now.  Well they better be, I don't want to have to head home to come show y'all how to do it.  haha J/k.  This week has been really awesome especially with our investigators.  First I want to start out with Melissa Bonds.  We have visited her twice and every time the spirit has been strong.  She loves the Book of Mormon and she always thinks of her self as a latter day saint.  She always tells us we need to get out and spread the word.  She is great and this next Tuesday she is making us ribs just how her mama used to make them.  Next would have to be Terry Hotaling.  She is still on the right track for being baptized but she still has money problems. and can't move out yet.  That is where we have one of the best fellow shippers, Brother Lunt.  He gave her $60 to be able to buy supplies so she can make yarn stockings and baby outfits.  Brother Lunt has been one of the biggest helps.  He feeds us every Thursday and then after goes on team-ups with us and is just really a great man.  Next on the list would be Rosario Hernandez, well she really is not progressing and we erased her date because she is not ready yet.  Before we can baptize her we need to convince her that she is going to die someday.  We tried to explain for 5 minutes that she will die someday.  I finally gave up and shook her hand and told her she is the first person I have ever met that is not going to die.  It's kind of a bummer that she is not ready but man I could not stop laughing about that.  Our last but one of the most successful investigator is Keyandra Broom.  She is amazing.  Every time we go to her house the spirit is so strong.  She tells us that she does not know why she feels this way about us.  She said normally she would of kicked us off her doorstep but she said that something was telling her to invite us back so she did.  Our first and second lessons went really well.  The spirit was strong and she noticed it.  She said she likes us but she will never be baptized again in another church so we were kind of bummed out.  We taught her today about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We started talking on how important baptism is by someone holding the Priesthood.  At first she kind of got offended when we told her her baptism was not valid.  I just started telling her that Gods plan is merciful and that everyone has a chance and the spirit hit her so strong.  She told us her heart is telling her yes but her mind is telling her no and the only reason it's telling her no is because of her family and friends.  We told her to take that leap of faith so she committed for baptism on June 4th.  We are so excited.  This week has been great.  Now I received my answer to my prayers.  I just found out from President Griffen that instead of getting a trainer breaker I will be training a new missionary so I am really nervous especially to take the reins in Spanish.  Finally President told me he is a native speaker from either Peru or El Salvador.  I can't remember where he told me he is from.  I know that this is one of the answers to my prayers especially for my spanish so that was big news.  As of right now I will be in Dalton for 2 more transfers so that is really good for my spanish.  This week was one of the better ones so hopefully everything works out especially for Keyandra.  I'm doing great I've been speaking a little more spanish ever day.  It helps a lot when we go to members houses and just talk.  We went to our normal Dela Cruz appointment.  I was talking the whole time in spanish so it was great. The bad part was I got soup all over my shirt and tie so that is my first shirt down but you all have a great week and be safe.  Love Elder Robison

Another letter this week, it doesn't get any better than this 5/7/11

Dear family, well this week has been pretty down well I shouldn't say that.  Let's say it has it's ups and downs.  Saturday was a great day.  The whole zone went over on the miles in the car so we had to take a car fast.  It worked out because we went down to Chatsworth valley to help clean up some of the mess.  Brother Cox drove so It worked out great.  The people would not let us in to Ringle County because they were still on the search for bodies.  That is why we went to Chat valley.  Most of the damage in Chats was just trees falling into people houses and we saw quite a few houses that 1/2 were gone and some that were all the way destroyed.  We had about 25 people from our Stake show up and we had 5 chain saws.  We asked this old guy if we could help him.  He said sure.  He had 5 trees that were a good 100+ feet long and 3 1/2 to 4 feet thick they were big trees.  One hit the side of his house but not to bad of damage.  One went right through his shed and split it in two.  We cleared all of them in about 4 hours.  It went pretty quick with 25 guys working.  I chatted with the guy that owns the house and he invited me down to his museum he works at.  He said he restores old airplanes.  He told me they just picked one right out of the sea bottom.  I can't remember what he called it but he said it is the only one in the world.  That would be pretty neat.  After the service project we taught Espirita and Rosario then went to the temple dedication broadcast for the children's activity.  There were a lot of our youth that performed.  One of them sat 5 feet from President Monson and then the next day was the dedication.  It was great.  One of the members in our ward was able to go to the temple and she actually met President Monson.  He told her that she had 2 dimples on one side of her cheek.  I wish I could have been there.  After the dedication we taught 3 lessons.  The next day was P-Day we went and grabbed food from this new grocery place called Aldi.  They have low, low prices and it would make a killing in Idaho.  We grabbed food for our little mexican cookout.  Well Johnson cooked the steaks and basically forgot to season them so it was pretty plain.  It was still pretty good.  Then after that we all went on a hike to that same lookout place.  We thought we would be able to see where the tornado hit but it was too smoggy.  After all that we went to the projects and taught Melissa.  She has been busy lately but she is still very strong.  She makes my day every time we teach her.  We then went to our neighbors and we read the Book of Mormon.  She basically said she wants to read the Bible but we solved her doubts about everything she told us using the Bible.  I think we finally set a strong foundation with her.  She is going to start to read the Book of Mormon.  Tuesday we woke up studying and then got a text from Robin Bell.  She had a date for baptism.  She read the Book of Mormon clear up to second Nephi the first night she got it.  She was loving it, well she told us she is going to stick to the Bible.  I just don't get it.  This lady loved the knowledge we gave her and understood it very clearly and now she said she is just going to go with her friend to a Baptist church.  I'm kind of frustrated.  She was doing so great and then I don't know.  She just was antied or something but I'm hoping it will eat on her a little more about our message.  We first started our lessons with Melissa Bond.  We watched the new Restoration video.  Well it was getting hot so she fell asleep so she had seen at least a 1/4 or more of it.  When she woke up she flinched really hard and I started laughing.  She said she was sorry but she wants to finish another time.  After that lesson we went over to Keyandra Brooms and started teaching her.  She told us that she loves it when we come over and still wants us to come over but that she will never change.  We tried solving her problems.  We hope we did and that something will take place and she will be baptized.  She is really a cool girl.  Well it started raining when we were inside teaching so on our way home we were pretty wet.  That is why I love it here is because of the rain.  I am hoping I don't get transferred this next transfer.  I need to practice as much spanish as I can before I leave.  I can kind of speak it but I can't understand very much.  It is because every one we speak to is from a different part of mexico so they don't sound the same.  Elder Hedgecock is leaving in 3 weeks to go home and he still can't understand very well so I am kind of worried.  Other than that I'm doing just great.  I guess my call will probably be there before this letter but oh well.  You all be safe and stay out of trouble.  Love Elder Robison

Brenan's letter to Alli sometimes she gets more info than me

This week has been very interesting. But fun at the same time. This week I was in the middle of history for the most tornadoes in the Knoxville valley and Georgia counties. There were 140+ tornadoes and 240+ deaths the night of the storm. It was so so crazy. So for the whole day on Wednesday everyone was talking about this storm coming in. Um one little boy from the  Delacruz family was sent home early from school because the tornado watch was on. He came home justbawling because he thought he was getting taken away by a tornado. So we calmed him down and made him laugh. We had soup over at the Delacruzes this week. It was very good. Um that night we had one of the most spiritual lessons in a long time. We taught Keyandra Broom she is a black girl that is very spiritual. She just went crazy when she saw in her own bible that there are 3 heavens. We committed her for  a hard commitment for baptism on the 21st of May. She felt the spirit so so strong but she said she has got to do more research because she has always went to this Baptist church and she is going to read more. But she loves us she felt so good in the lesson. She wanted to hug us but we told her we can't because of mission rules. So she understood though. I'm hoping that she finds her answer to know which church is true. Well after that lesson we were suppose to go teach English to some Hispanics at the church but it was cancelled because of the tornado watch. So we received a text from the assistant to go home and stay inside. So we went home and got bunkered in. They told us to listen to 97.7 on the radio. So we went and bought a cheap radio from Walgreens. When we got back our neighbor was leaving and told us she just heard from someone that a Subway, McDonalds, and a hotel were just wiped out in Reingle. Reingle is a town that is boarder to our area. Our neighbor said it is heading this way. So we were getting excited and a little nervous. So Elder Johnson and I sat outside and waited with our cameras. It was lightening so bad and just going crazy. The radio guy kept saying that it is going to hit Chatsworth which is a small town where our sisters live. But they were okay. It did not hit Dalton, but everything was tipped over from the wind. So I went to bed and I was  a sleep for about a half an hour and Elder Johnson wakes me up and said that the radio just said Dalton needs to take cover. So we went down stairs and fell asleep. I really was not nervous at all because I said a prayer and felt 100% fine. So that was very neat. Well the next day we had a couple messages asking if we were okay. Um we had zone conference at 830 and on our way there we passed through some town that was hit by an F4 tornado. It made me sick to my stomach to see how powerful these things are. The houses were destroyed and some ripped off the foundations. We get to the church that we were suppose to go to and it was completely gone. Nothing left. haha jk. The church was there but did not have power. So we went to another one. This week has been crazy but definitely exciting at the same time. Saturday we volunteered to go help the people in the town to clean up the mess. So we met brother Cox and he took us down there. There was a group of us we had about 20 people from our church there to help. Well let me tell you what... I showed them boys how to work. haha jk. We helped this guy we cut 4 of this huge trees and cleaned up the mess. He is lucky because one part of his house was hit by a tree. And these trees were huge. I talked to the guy that owned the house he was a good guy. He wants me to come down to his work because  he restores old air planes that they pull off the bottom of the sea. He is a good guy.

Letter 5/2/11

Hey family this week has been kind of crazy.  I don't know if you have heard about all the crazy tornadoes we have been getting for the Knoxville valley.  They have broken the record for how many they have had.  I'm not for sure how many it has killed but we heard it was like 250+ and lots are missing.  Last night was so crazy.  They whole valley was under warning so we were able to listen to it on the radio so we kind of had an idea where the Big tornadoes were.  They were saying on the radio a McDonalds was just destroyed.  The McDonalds was 15 miles from our house and the tornado was coming our way.  We were getting excited and kind of nervous.  Well it did not end up hitting us so that was a bummer.  Some of the missionaries were hit and hit hard.  The town that was hit next to us the 2 missionaries house was missed by 200 yards.  Some other missionaries spent most of the night in a Walmart in their freezers out back.  Three of the mission cars in our zone were destroyed by hail kind of like the Honda but bigger because it was golf ball size hail and tennis size hail.  Fortunately no missionaries were hurt so that is good.  This Saturday we might be going to the town that was hit to go help with the disaster.  It has been a pretty crazy week.  We have 2 newer investigators that have real good potential.  The first one is Robin Bell she has a family of 2 kids and a boyfriend but soon to be husband because we committed her for the 21st of next month so she is getting ready and she said she is getting married.  We are stoked about that.  The next one is Keyandra Broom.  She is awesome.  She is very in tune with the spirit.  We committed her but she said she still needs more time because she loves her Baptist church she goes to right now.  She told us she has felt the spirit so strong in our lessons so she loves us.  She wanted to give us a hug before we left but we told her we can't.  She understands though.  I think on the 21st we will have some baptisms.  Hurbert is same old same old.  He reads so much out of the Book of Mormon and I even bought him a triple combination to read with the D & C and Pearl of Great Price.  He has read almost all the way through.  He still has a problem with getting to church because of his brother.  I guess time will just have to solve this one.  Maria is going to teach us how to make her Pico Salsa that is so great and spicy.  She is till so, so strong and loves the church.  We have a couple more investigators but they are not moving anywhere it feels like so we still are working with them.  The other missionaries had a baptism this week.  Her name is Haily she came out of the middle of nowhere and she went to the temple dedication in Atlanta and was committed just by going to that.  She is a great girl.  Well that is about all this week I can't really remember anything else.  So have a good week.  Love Elder Robison

Letter 4/24/11

Dear family, Everything seems to be going so fast.  We have been doing great.  We have a couple of new investigators.  The first one is Keyandra Broom.  She is a black girl that is a baptist.  She told us today that she has no clue why she let us in.  She said she normally just tells anyone that is tracting to just leave because she is a baptist.  She said at first all she wanted was to just know what we believe.  Now she is inviting us over and is going to start to read The Book of Mormon.  She said she is just testing it out so we are praying she will get her answer.  The other one is this hispanic lady, Rosario.  She has kids but no husband.  She really thinks the Restoration is beautiful and wanted us to come back.  The funniest part about that lesson is we had Allex Hall.  He is a member that is taking the discussions again.  Well this lady had a huge pitbull that really, really liked Alex and pretty soon this dog was sniffing him aggressively.  I was laughing so hard because Alex started yelling Aguda, aguda which means help.  He was bright read and I could verily breath because I was laughing so hard.  That was probably the most funny experience I've had on the mission.  That night at the church the Spanish ward has missionary night where we help teach the members how to teach.  Afterward we have a huge feast.  Every family brings a little bit of something and that is when the best is there.  We ate and then after that dinner we had another dinner appointment in the English ward with a family.  I was extra full.  The next day was P-day and Elder Johnson and the sisters wanted to go sing Karaoke.  Our whole District went to some inactive ladies house and she had a huge set up of professional Karaoke machines.  At first Johnson and the sisters sang and then they finally talked me into singing and then after I sang "She Thinks my Tractor's sexy by Kenney Chesney I sang a whole bunch after that.  The lady's husband was a huge Johnny Cash fan so I sang Folsom prison and now he calls me Johnny.  We had a lot of fun.  I even got Hedgecock to come sing "party in the USA".  He loved it so that was the first time I will probably do that and the last.  It sounds like everything is stressful back at home.  It is so stressful I had a dream that we were getting ready for potato harvest and everyone was sitting around and I broke a hydraulic hose and dad did his normal freak out so even I can't get away from the farm stress.  It was probably one of the best dreams yet since I've been on my mission.  I am doing great and our investigators are great.  Love Elder Robison

Letter 4/19/11

Wow, well today was P-day and our zone wanted to get together and play ultimate frisbee.  It was fun to go and run in nice weather.  We ended up going to Chattanooga.  It is a huge city and it was really awesome to go play in the park.  It is basically one big huge golf green.  The grass was so nice.  I threw out my shoulder so now my shoulder is so weak but it is getting better so don't worry.  When we were done in the park we went to Chile's for lunch.  I kind of forgot about eating out.  It was nice to be able to eat what I wanted when I wanted it and it was nice to get away from frozen burritos.  We then went home and got ready for our appointments.  We taught Suzzy and her family.  She is so hard to understand but she is like a friend so she makes fun of me trying to talk spanish but she makes fun of my companion and corrects him all the time too.  We were kind of thinking she was in this because she thought we were hot or something because she is always saying mucho guapo which means handsome.  We went over today and she really told us she wants this for her family.  She is really nice and treats us well so we are thankful for teaching her.Let me tell you about the families that feed us weekly.  First we usually go over to Sister DelaCruz.  They are an awesome family they feed us so, so well.  We had carne asada with pineapple.  We helped her by painting her house this week.  I'm not going to lie I'm a pretty good painter but a pretty messy painter.  Our next family is the Lunts.  They also feed us really, really well and they also send us home with a lot of food.  Then there is Victor Degado.  Him and his wife Brenda feed us and then we have a story time really quick about his gang and jail life and how he changed for the better.  He is an awesome guy.  At first I was kind of intimidated by him.  He is tatted from head to toe but we are way chill with him and now he is just a good buddy.  He told us to come over whenever we wanted and to come over for breakfast if we want at any time.  He is a way cool guy.  He was telling us that Ely, the guy we just baptized, told him that he has seen so many blessings since he has been baptized.  He got this huge promotion and is a manager now and is getting paid a lot more.  That made me so, so happy to hear.  Our next door neighbor is also so cool.  She is one of our investigators and loves to talk to us and feed us all the time even though she doesn't have money right now.  We tell her no but she keeps surprising us.  Our plan is to get her a date by the end of this week for baptism.  The only problem is that her whole family is Jehovas Witness so we get a lot of anti from them but she tells us she likes what we have.  Dalton Georgia has really just gotten so, so green since they get like 4 inches of rain every time it rains.  It is awesome when it rains here because it rains so hard.  This week I get to talk this Sunday in church.  Hopefully I do good.  I get to choose my topic so it won't be to hard so I think I'm going to choose faith in Christ or the Atonement since it is Easter time.  It sounds like it is pretty frustrating back at home but believe me it could be way worse.  At least you have what you have.  A lot of people well most of the people live check to check and stamp to stamp so when you feel life is bad just think of the less fortunate and if it gets real bad think of Christ and the suffering he has done for us.  Try not to let most of the hard times be so hard and just have faith and everything will work out.  Just live the gospel standards and everything will work out.  It will turn out like it magically does every year.  Tell dad to just chill and do what he does every year.  Dad, you will figure it out and make it work.  If it was not hard everyone would be doing it.  I love you guys so much and are praying for y'all.  I am doing great and enjoying the work.  You guys all be safe and enjoy life.  Elder Robison