Letter and pictures 2/6/12

Dear family, well it seems I fell behind on the letter writing again.  I'm hoping to pick that back up so I can make mom happy again.  Well I need to catch you up on what has been going on especially this last week.  A lot has changed.  Well first off I've got a new comp his name is Elder Brennan Mills so he has the same first name as me.  This past week we have had two people ask us our first names because they were confused on our tag's.  We told them our first name's and I think they thought we were mocking them in a way.  That was funny to see.  A little bit about Elder Mills.  He is from California the San Francisco area.  He has 2 sisters one older and the other younger.  His dad is a manager at a computer software company.  His dad is also a bishop.  He comes from a great family.  Well with the work this week we have so many people we are working with.  A group of investigators I will list them from most potential to least potential Jeff Inchen, Terry Green, Gloria, Jeff Gann and family, Casey & Bethany, Inez Mena and Thomas Cook.  That is just the potentials we have more that are just there for the moment.  Jeff Inchen has finally stopped smoking and has really committed himself to stop for good.  We are trying to help find him a place so he can move out of the people house that don't treat him well.  We have also been working with Bethany and KC.  They are a pretty nice family.  We taught them the Restoration.  The spirit was strong but I'm not for sure if they felt it but they will eventually find it.  We are waiting for them to read the Book of Mormon and see how they feel.  They are busy for 2 weeks so we will see them next week.  Thomas Cook well we found him after a long search of 1 month.  We're excited to start working with him again.  We are hoping to set a date back up with him so we will see.  Last night we had a very spiritual experience with Gloria.  We have been pullen her leg trying to get her to church.  I'm hoping the deal was sealed.  We had Brother Reynolds with us.  Jim Reynolds.  He taught her the Restoration very well in a different way then I have ever seen before.  Gloria followed every word the spirit was so strong and on top of that Gloria was melting all over Jim. Hopefully we get them dating and Gloria to church.  I think she is coming this week.  So we've had such a blessed week and hope to keep pressing forward with these great people.  You all have a great week take care and Love Elder Robison

Robert (tiny)

Temple I made

Sterling Howard he leave to Brazil in 4 weeks

The Cumberland zone

The Eddy's

I finally got Elder Harwood

Our District

Our District and part of our zone

Alli's letter

Well alot has changed since the last time I wrote you. Well let me tell you the big changes. I'm still in Pleasant Ridge but with a new comp. His name is Elder Mills. Something that is way cool is when we were walking in the meeting to go meet all the greenies, I knew from the beginning who my comp was even before President called him up so my revelation has been on fire and the kid that sat by me Elder T Smith I called his companion for him too. He was impressed. Well a little about Elder Mills he is from a family of 5 with his parents. He has 2 sisters he is in the middle. His dad is a manager at this huge computer company. This kid is a stud he is way chill and can teach so well for how young he is. He is teaching at a level where a normal missionary is teaching in a year and a half on their mission. It is a great blessing to be able to train him. Well just to get you caught up on this past week. My last few days with Harwood were awesome. We went and visited a couple members he wanted to go see. We also went bowling for our last P-day. We had everyone there. There were 16 of us and we bowled for 5 hours non stop. We bought unlimited passes for everyone so we were getting pretty good. My highest score was a 179. I was on fire it was really fun there should be pictures coming soon!

Well now let me fill you in on the work. Currently right now Jeff is on for Feb 9th and Gloria is for April 12th so 2 committed we had a very spiritual lesson with Gloria yesterday and we found some concerns she had. We should be having a great Sunday this week because she is coming. Well we are on our bikes all week and we definitely have been using them. We rode for 7 miles in the rain yesterday and it was so cold. But for some reason it was so fun because Elder Mills is not used to biking yet so he is a little slow. But he will get better. Well we decided to knock some doors where we knew a couple of hispanics would be. We knocked about 8 of them we got into a guys house named Francisco. It was the first Spanish lesson I've taught in 8 weeks. It was great. It was directed by the Spirit because I have not practiced Spanish in awhile. I know the Lord wanted me to be able to speak with boldness and power because my comp needed to see that I could speak so he will have confidence in me. It was such a great understanding and experience for me to speak with the gift of tongues. 

Some pretty exciting events that happened this week we were sitting in this apartment lobby waiting to be rang up. Well this lady was too, but she had no one to let her in. So she snuck in because her grandma did not answer. Well pretty soon after that the ambulance pulled in I told Elder Mills that I bet her grandma died. But I was kind of joking... well it turns out she did die. So we waited to talk to her. We asked her if she needed any help "crazy eh"

Letter 1/27/12

Jan 17
Well family I might be turning over a new leaf.  I need to write y'all more so I'm going to write daily so it's more descriptive and maybe a little bit longer.  Well we had a great day today.  We started off with the car today which is nice because we have not had the car for a week.  We went over to Jim's Cancer Fund of America to do some service.  After that we had Jeff cancel on us then Angela so it was starting off not so great.  Well after that we went over to this girls house named Bethany.  We knocked into her while tracting.  When we were tracting we had another new missionary with  us and it was his door.  Well when she opened the door I felt like I knew her so I took over that door.  She told us to come back anytime.  So when we went back she was not there so her husband invited us in.  I also felt like I knew him from somewhere so we had some small talk and he reminds me of some friends back at home.  His name is Casey he is going to vet school and they bought a house in Tennessee to go to school.  They both are normal clean people who have great standards for not having too much gospel standards in their lives.  They are both young maybe 24's and have one little girl that is maybe 1 or so and Bethany has another one on the way.  This family are dry Mormons that just need the gospel.  I  really have a strong feeling about this family.
Jan18
Well today we had a pretty filled in day.  We started off by going over to Jeff Inchen's to reset a date with him.  He wants to be ready by February 9th.  I don't know.  He always has excuses that he can't quit.  He says he needs to wean off of them.  After Jeff's I called Keith to see if we could come over.  His wife was sleeping because she just had her back worked on.  He wants us to go over and give her a blessing when she gets up in a couple of days.  He said if the blessing works he said we have a convert on our hands.  Then later that night we had an appointment with Jeff Gann.  He has changed so much since when I first met him.  His whole attitude is a lot better.  He is an alcoholic but these last 2 days he has not drank.  He is a good guy.
Jan 19
Well today was a slow but good day.  We had our District meeting which turned out really well.  After that we went to Oasis with the Nicho family (Brenan lives in their basement apartment).  They invited us because the night before I put up their hanging cable thing.  They don't know too much about construction so I screwed 3 post into their 2X4 and it turned out really well and looks great.  They were so excited that is why they wanted to take us out.  Every time we go out sister Nicho likes to talk about business.  She was giving us some pointers for after our missions.  She buys houses and property then rents them out.  She encouraged us to do the same.  She said there is a skill to it but she will teach us.  Everything she said sounded like it would work.  They have 86 homes that they rent out.  She said you need to have goals clear out in the future and close too.  She is a smart lady.  Their family is awesome.  Well the rest of our day we had some appointments with our investigators.  Angela was our first one.  She was really sick so we just talked to Butch her boyfriend.  After that we went to Gloria's and she looked a whole lot better.  We have been trying to get her to church for a long time now.  We went back to the basics of religion and talked about faith.  Then we turned to Alma 32 and how it explains faith as a seed.  We asked her to plant her seed this week by praying, going to church and reading.  She said she would.  When we taught this lesson the spirit had such a strong presence it turned out great. 
Jan 20
Well our day was not to bad.  We had a couple of appointments and we went out tracting.  Tracting was not very good.  We went out for 1 1/2 hours and no one wanted to listen to us.  My companion Elder Harwood wants to get better at doors so I was quiet and let him talk at every door.  He still gets a little nervous so we're trying to get it out of him.  After that we went over to Ronnie's house and talked to him.  He is our old investigator who is addicted to pills.  He has went 2 weeks without anything so he is doing great.  He goes to rehab on Monday.  Later that night we went to Jeff Gann's house.  He is a changed man.  He is now 3 day's without a drink.  He loves Joseph Smith.  I wanted so bad to commit him but he is on parole so we will have to wait a couple of years.  I'm planning on committing his wife tomorrow.  So we we'll see where she is at.

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