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