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