Letter 6/27/11

Dear family well this has been great so far.  Well lets start off with last Saturday we were getting ready to leave and head over to Keyandra's house.  We were on our bikes and we finally got there.  We were just chillin and we started the Testament movie.  Half way through the movie the power shut off.  We looked out the window and the trees were swish swashing back and forth like rubber bands.  I went outside and then I said we probably should see if we can get into your neighbors house just in case of a tornado.  We were sitting out watching this when a tree behind her apartment broke and hit her roof then flew over our heads.  We started to get a little more serious.  We then went inside and said a prayer, well a couple minutes later the wind slowed down.  We were going to try to get home but it was raining pretty bad so we waited it out.  It finally slowed down enough to leave so we left.  By Keyandra's house the road has a pretty good pitch slope to it so you don't have to peddle so Elder Henriquez was going pretty fast and tried to turn well his bike came out from under him and he went sliding for like 10 feet on his butt.  I pulled up just laughing at him because he never thought he would of wrecked because he never does up him helmet.  He was fine other than across the street was a family sitting on their porch looking at him so he was embarrassed.  The next day all the trees from the night before were just trashed.  All the cars and houses were smashed so after church we went over to Sister Colman's moms house to help get a tree off her truck.  After that she invited us in for ribs, fish, beans, 2 different kinds of potatoes and a whole bunch of southern food.  This lady was the biggest red neck I have ever met.  She had some chew in but she was way nice.  The stories she told were just hilarious.  The next day was P-day well nothing too exciting we just played ball with the brothers.  I rolled my ankle the first game so that day was pretty lame.  The next day was the best ever it was Tuesday.  We had a great day.  We had a couple lessons with some members then we went and prepared the font for Keyandra.  Yep Keyandra was baptized.  She was so happy and still is.  She just looks like a new woman.  She came up after and told me thanks for everything.  It was one of the best baptisms yet.  We were pretty excited.  This was a great week.  Well it sounds pretty busy back at home.  Spuds should be all in and the cabin should be about done so you guys are probably enjoying that.  Well send some pics of wake boarding, cabin and all sorts of stuff.  Well have a good week.  Elder Robison

From Alli's letter

Well this week is what I needed this whole time. We had a great time at Keyandras baptism. Keyandra is a very spiritual girl so it was a very spiritual baptism. Well her mom came and she is just a big sized keyandra. So we talked with her for awhile. So we might start teaching her now. It would be so great because that is basically Keyandras whole family because she is the only child and her dad is in jail so if her mom was baptized her whole family would be members. So our plan is to teach her when we teach Keyandra so hopefully everything works out. But it makes me feel so good to see Keyandra shine she just is always smiling so it makes me feel great. That is what the mission is all about. She will be receiving the holy ghost on Sunday. It feels so good to get another baptism and to know that I helped someone who needed it. But at the same time I did not do anything because the holy ghost was there helping us and her to understand it was there the first time we met. She told us that she normally tells people like us to move on to the next house. She said there was something inside her that was telling her to let us in. So it was meant to be from the beginning. I just had the opportunity to be apart of it. So our next baptism is going to be Charline and Don Charline is sick and she was suppose to be dead 2 months ago. So then she calls us and ask if we will bring over a Bible and Book of Mormon. So she is looking for a church. She is also very sick so we might just barely have time to teach her. But I can't get a hold of her because her phone is dead and she had surgery 2 days ago So I'm kinda worried about her because she is a great lady.

Letter 6/20/11

Dear family, well today is my 6 month mark and we started off really well.  We first started out by getting ready and about ready to study then I just remembered that it was the 15th so I went and got my lighter, grabbed some flammable water resistant and grabbed the tie that I got from someone here.  It was really lame so I went to the back porch and started torching it.  It was tight but after I did that I had a huge headache because of the fumes.  I went back to studying and in the middle of our study I had this idea to call Charlene and Don.  We set up an appointment and 20 minutes later we were at their house.  We taught them the Restoration then for my 6 month mark I committed them for the 1st of July.  They accepted so now we have 3 with a date if we count Keyandra.  Well Charlene and Don have some problems fist one is they are not married so we have to take care of that.  The next problem is Charlene is sick and she was supposed to die 2 months ago so maybe she is supposed to hear the gospel first.  We are hoping to see them be ready.  Our next contestant is Keyandra Broom.  She keeps freaking out about the dates she sets so she has cancelled from the 11th, 18th and now to the 21st.  Hopefully she can make it.  She is ready but just a little nervous.  We asked her to pray which date she should go with so she decided on the 21st of June.  She is going through with it this time so if you guys would like to come it starts at 6:00 for about a half hour.  Just kidding.  Well we received another referral from the MTC.  We went on a split last night and I and Brother Finley went to go see her.  Her name is Leslie Levett and her boyfriend.  I can't remember his name.  Well she invites us in and as soon as we walk in there was some inappropriate things on the television going on.  I looked at Brother Finley, his eyes popped out of his head so I started laughing.  We started to teach them and everything was going well.  Her boyfriend is a hunter and he thinks just like I do.  We were done with the first lesson and then Brother Finley went off about our whole church.  He taught them everything about it from temples to Priesthood keys so he really has got their head spinning.  They seemed really interested and hopefully they keep up their commitments.  We just found out that they are in Dalton West area so I won't be able to teach them so its a bummer but good at the same time.  We are hoping to get at least one baptism this transfer and 2 or 3 next transfer so the work is picking up here in Dalton.  We are getting more excited.  Well I myself am doing great.  My spanish still has it's days but hopefully it will get a little better.  It is mostly my comprehension and a little when I speak.  I do direct translation to much.  My prayers keep me keeping up.  Without it I wouldn't be where I am at.  The mission is great it gets better and better and faster and faster.  Well lately we have had a lot of team ups and it has helped a lot especially to get people to church.  Hopefully we can keep them coming.  So life is good over in Georgia so no worries.  The only thing I think I need right now is maybe some church talks in spanish.  I could maybe understand a little better.  I hope y'all are doing great over in Idaho.  I hope the farm in Ashton will start to work out a little better so keep up the hard work back at home  Elder Robison

Letter 6/7/11

Dear family it has been a great while since I've wrote you a legit letter.  Sorry but it is just that we have been pretty busy and really tired especially since we have bikes this week.  Biking is not bad it is just that literally it is just so dang hot.  This is the hottest weather I have ever been in.  When you are on your bikes going up hill in 96 degrees with 100 % humidity it gets you pretty tired.  It is not to bad I guess it just stinks because you leave the apartment and you have your brand new clean shirt and it is already wet and stinks because you automatically sweat when you are outside.  The positive side is that we just got a brand new Carolla with 0 miles on it straight out of the dealer.  We are pretty stoked about that.  We have 2 new progressing investigators their names are Steven and Turner.  Steven is a 40 year old black man who is a little bit slow.  He is willing to learn.  We have taught him the Restoration and the introduction to the Book of Mormon.  We want to get his mom involved.  We talked to her a little bit but she seems pretty set in her Baptist church.  We want her to be there when we show the Plan of Salvation.  I want her to see the 3 heavens part in 2 Cor.  It is pretty funny to watch peoples faces when they see that.  So we are waiting for the right time.  Turner is a 17 year old kid who is a pretty cool kid we have him a pamphlet of the restoration.  We finally were able to ask him about it.  He told us he has read it twice so he loves to read.  We are going to give him a Book of Mormon and I bet you he will read it as soon as possible.  The reason we did not get him one right then is because we gave 3 out right before we talked to him so we didn't have any left.  The only thing that scares us is that his parents might not let us teach or baptize him.  Hopefully they are chill.  We are also still teaching Arracelly Hernandez.  She has finally lightened up to us and kind of told us some stories in her past and she started bawling.  She trusts us now and loves our lessons.  One more problem to the list is she is not married so we have to take care of that before we can set a date so it is always something I swear.  Hopefully we can make it work but everything is going great down here in Dalton besides the heat.  The spanish ward has fed us so much it is crazy.  The last letter describes one of the dinner appointments with the hair in my taco.  That was way gross.  (Brenan sent us a short letter in spanish that said he had much hair in his taco.  I thought google translate was translating wrong but he evidently did have hair in his taco)  Her hair tasted really good, ha ha JK.  Well my comp thought it was pretty funny as well.  He was laughing because it was in my taco.  A few day's later we were over at the Ortiz house for dinner and they mad us shakes and my comp had a huge old long hair in his shake.  I saw him pull it out of his mouth.  I could not help but laugh my head off and everyone was asking why I was laughing and I told them a story about one of our investigators to cover up for why I was really laughing.  He received some major karma so he deserved it.  This last P-day we decided to play some B-ball with our district.  We went to the rec but it was closed because it was Memorial Day.  We played outside and the rec is the most ghetto part of town so there were a whole bunch of gangsters and cholos hanging around.  It was so hot we only played to 11 and we won.  We decided to go play at the church.  We played East against West and we won so they bought us shakes.  It was a pretty good day other than I bit my tongue so hard playing ball that it still hurts 3 days after.  It is really hard for me to speak spanish now because I sound like a retard trying to speak spanish.  Well that is about all for this week.  I received your package.  I don't think it is going to help my diet but the pics were great and it looks like the cabin is pretty chill.  It still looks like it could use some work.  I'm not sure I like the loft it looks a little out of place.  It sounds like the farming is still a little rough on the new farm but one day y'all will figure it out.  Well hope everything is going good out there so that is good.  Keep safe, have a good couple of weeks till the next time I will be able to write you haha j/k.  I'm going to try to write more when we get some off time I guess.  Peace be still.  Elder Robison

Letter 5/31/11s

Dear family well first thing is sorry that I have not been writing as much.  I have been pretty busy.  We have been working hard.  We get in at 9:30 every night.  That is the latest possible so we use that to our advantage.  We have been tracting a lot and our numbers for lessons are higher than they have been in the past so we are way excited.  We set our goals really high so we are praying for help.  We set them at 5 this transfer so we are working hard.  I let Elder Henriquez choose the goal.  At first he wanted to do 12.  I told him that was a little high but faith will take us there.  We compromised with 5.  That is more than our whole district has done in a transfer but we have to start setting high before we can get anywhere.  The thing that is frustrating is that we have personal study for 1 hour, comp study is 1 hour, language is 1 hour, training is also 1 hour so we have 4 hours of studying so we don't get out of the house till like 12:30 or 1:00 but we can still get our goal.  We are doing great.  I like my new comp, we like the same things so our interest are the same.  On Monday we had p-day.  For p-day we went to a zone activity.  It was tight, we played dodge ball with 2 balls and everyone against everyone.  I like our zone there are a bunch of cool kids.  I have made good friends with Whooten, Sexton, Cooley and Crofts was there so we had a great time.  We had a dinner appointment that night with the Cardinas family.  It was pretty good then we had a couple call backs and went and visited a couple people.  The next day was a great day.  It started out with all of our appointments cancelling so we went tracting.  We found this circle of houses that most of the people wanted to listen and the people that didn't want to were still way nice.  We were pretty happy with that.  We have 7 return appointments and 4 new investigators from those 7.  Seven returns in 5 hours of tracting is unheard of in the south so it was great we know it is from prayer because we have a prayer before we leave to go tracting.  We used to never do that but I see the changes so we are going to keep that up.  The next day well the same thing all our appointment cancelled besides 2.  We ended up teaching 4 lessons and that was about it.  We were invited to a high school thing because a Dalton West investigator invited us.  Well I think that will be the last of that.  All the kids there were like 2 year olds and it was a weird situation so we took off but that investigator is doing really well so that is really good.  Later that night we taught our English class.  We had 3 show up and they are doing better than I am doing on spanish haha just kidding.  It is pretty fun teaching them.  It is funny to listen to them pronounce words.  We enjoy it.  I just had one of the most interesting lessons in my life.  I asked my comp what way we should go when we were tracting and we decided to go left because we both felt left so our first door left invited us in.  It was a guy who was wasted.  We asked him how he was doing.  He said bad.  I asked him why is that and he said he was an alcoholic.  I told him that is why we are here to help him so he said OK.  We asked him how he became an alcoholic and he said it is because he killed 2 men.  It kind of shocked me at first then he started crying and screaming.  He kind of freaked us out.  He then stopped and we started talking again.  Then he told us he tried to kill himself last night.  I told him that would be dumb.  He kept talking about how he could not stop.  I told him that through Christ he can stop.  He went on for about 10 minutes about how Christ has not been there for him.  Then he started saying he was going to kill himself tonight, so I told him to do it.  haha j/k We told him that God would not like that.  He then pulled out his bottle and we said to stop drinking and go throw it away.  He said OK and then told us no because it is his last bottle.  I told him to chug it kind of in a joking manner so he did.  I told him that was his last bottle ever.  His wife came into the room so we started talking.  She said he has been drunk for 7 days and he has been saying some weird things.  Not to worry his wife is a totally normal lady.  We are going back tomorrow.  Sorry my  hand writing is bad but I am tired and don't have much time.  Love you all and have a good week.  Elder Robison

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