Letter 1/20/12

Dear family, well this week has definitely had it's ups and downs.  Lets start off with the bad then get to the good.  Well Jeff was planned for the 15th, well the night before he calls and cancels because he started to smoke again.  Well we had already had the whole program ready and everyone was ready to come so we were calling everyone to let them know it was cancelled.  That was really frustrating.  I guess his grandpa died though so he was way stressed and he was pretty down the next day.  We will get him ready.  Well now lets get to the good news for this week.  Well we have been teaching a lady named Angela.  She is 55 and has a good understanding of the gospel.  We committed her for the 28th of this month.  She has a couple concerns such as smoking, cocaine and lives with her boyfriend. She can do it though.  She came to church today and really enjoyed it.  She is a sweetheart.  We also taught Gloria this week.  She has been kind of slowing down.  She has not been keeping commitments.  We keep trying to get her to church but she keeps saying she will try.  She also is having a hard time praying before we leave.  She always says next time so I asked her what she wants us to say in the prayer and if she needs help with anything.  She told us she would like us to pray for a whole bunch of things.  I then asked her what she is thankful for.  She said a list of things then I asked her why she has these things and she said because in the name of Jesus then when she said that I said amen.  I told her she needs to close her eyes next time she prays.  She just laughed and said I tricked her into that one.  She is a great lady who just needs a little push to get on the straight and narrow path, which she is soon to enter through that gate.  Well this was a great week. so y'all take it easy and have a safe week.  Love Elder Robison


Alli's letter
Well it snowed just a skiff here the other day.  It is cold though the humidity goes right through your coat.  My companion is from Arizona.  He is not used to being cold but he doesn't complain too bad. haha  Well actually last Wednesday we went out on our bikes because we are in a car share now so we have to bike 3 to 4 miles just to get to our area.  Well we were coming down Broadway which is the busiest street around.  It just had rained very hard so the ground was a little wet.  Well my comp has not rode a bike much on his mission so while we were going down Broadway his front tire catches an edge and he goes over his handle bars right in front of everyone.  I was laughing so hard.  That was probably the best thing this week.  haha j/k  Well we had more success with the work down here but it seems like everytime we get closer to a baptism something always happens.  The positive side of this week is we have had some great success with knocking doors.  We were clear out in the middle of nowhere and knocking doors and this huge thunder storm hits.  When it hit us we were under this lady's porch and she told us we could wait it out so we sat and talked to her for a half an hour.  We managed to slip in the first vision.  She was nice but not too interested.  Well we had an appointment at 3 so we had to head off in the rain.  We got soaked.  It kind of felt good after awhile so it was a little bit fun.  Well I'm hoping this letter is better then the ones in the past but I found a solution to my short letters.  You just need to read them slower. haha j/k

Email from Brenan this week----I told him to tell me something funny and spiritual from his week

well something funny is we had to ride bikes this week and Elder Harwood
has not rode much and he wrecked his bike in front of everyone at an
intersection in town it was great.  The spiritual side of this week is
this guy called and left us a message on our phone and said this is life
or death. Well we go over to his house and he said that the Book of
Mormon answered his question. He told us his life sucks and he feels so
bad for all the bad things he has done. he said one night he just
opened the book and just started to read well it turns out he read
Alma 36 and when he read it to us he started to cry and it really
meant a lot to him  the spirit was really strong.

Email from Brenan last week

Well things are going great and there are of a lot of exciting things going on. I forgot to tell you that I saw a guy pull a gun on someone yesterday. We were talking to DJ one of our old investigators in the ghetto part of town and we started to hear some cussing and then I see a guy go after another guy with a metal chair but the guy that was about to get attacked pulled a gun and was telling him to take his last breath. It was all over drugs and there is so many down here I guess Knoxville is in the top ten for the worst drugs and addicts. So that was pretty exciting.  We were about 25 feet away. We had just knocked those doors a month ago and I knew the guy that pulled the gun and he knew we saw him so it makes me wounder if he is out to get us next hahaha thats a joke but it definitely made my day I've never seen something like that before.

Pictures

Brenan finally sent more pictures but most of them are from Dalton so they were a while ago

The front yard of our Pleasant Ridge home in Tennessee

Pleasant Ridge house

Pleasant Ridge

Pleasant Ridge yard

Our District and zone leaders in Dalton Georgia

Crofts, we love our mexican bakery

Brother Valdez and his daughter Anna

Jerry Scriver

Our district

helping a member put up sheetrock

Waking Crofts up

Brother Mathews at the Halloween trunk or treat

Dalton Georgia trunk or treat

walking to a dinner appointment

One of my favorite families The Rodriguez family (Luisa's brother)

Halloween my district

 The Joseph Standing memorial is in Dalton Georgia.  Joseph Standing was a mormon missionary who was killed in the 1800's.  A mob stopped him and his companion and then shot Joseph in the head. 

Joseph Standing memorial

Joseph Standing memorial park

Our District and zone leaders at the Joseph Standing memorial

Letter 1/6/12

Dear family well a lot of things have went on since I've last talked too y'all.  Well we are now trying to figure all of our baptisms out.  I will tell you the changes in the program here.  Our next baptism is going to be Jeff.  He stopped smoking but 3 days later started up again so we cancelled his date for the 5th and moved it to the 14th.  He is having a hard time quitting.  Thomas he was supposed to be baptized on the 30th of December but he went to the hospital the night before so we are changing his date but have not been able to see him.  Hopefully today.  Yvonne she is starting to get cold feet so we have slowed it down with her.  She did not come to church last week so we cancelled her date.   So a lot has happened this week.  We are trying to bring it together with all of them.  I wish we could focus on 1 but we have to focus on all 4 of them so it gets frustrating sometimes.  For this next month I would at least like to see 3 of them in the water.  Gloria would love to but it's hard to get her to church.  We are also going to see her today.  She is a sweet lady and I would do anything to help her get in the right steps for baptism.  Well this is pretty much our stressful week but the table is about to turn hopefully.  I will keep you in touch on everyone to see where they are at next week.  You all have a good safe week.  Love Elder Robison

Letter 12/24/11

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

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

Letter 12/19/11

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

Letter 12/10/11

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


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

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