A letter finally 4/30/12

Dear Family, well as ya'll know I am in a different area.  I am in South Knoxville.  It is very close to downtown Knoxville right by UT campus.  Well just some info on what this place is like.  We live on the trashy side of town in some old apartments that smell like cigarette smoke.  Our area covers all of the city and out in the country.  There is a big old river that separates us from downtown.  There is a family we really like to visit there names are the Skinners, Tammy and Dan.  They live in a very nice complex that has private docs on the river.  It is pretty sweet.  We had taco's over there the other night.  I made my salsa and everything turned out well.  Dan had invited us to go running with him the next morning.  He was running 6 miles.  So we only went about 2 in total and let him run the rest.  We could have went more but we are going to gradually get up to where we can run a half marathon.  We wake up at 5:00 every other morning to run.  I need to get back in shape.  O ya I forgot to tell you well my shoulder has been giving me trouble lately.,  Well it just so happens that Stoker goes up to see a chiropractor in one of his old wards to go get his knee worked on.  He has bad knees well I asked him about my shoulder and he found the problem.  The tendon is in the wrong place.  He put it back.  he said that no cat scan can find it.  I'm hopeful it is all fixed up.  It is still sore but I think getting better.  Well last Sunday was great.  We had 2 members bring some friends.  One of them already wants to be baptized so we are excited.  I like the new area it's pretty cool.  Hoping to have 5 new baptisms in the next month.  Well I'm so sorry this has not been sent yet.  I left on exchange and just verily got back so that is why this letter is late so I'm sorry.  Well why I have space and time I will tell you how my exchange went.  We had a leadership training and after we went on the exchange.  The exchange was great I went with Elder Ogden he is from Washington.  He taught me how to make bread.  My loaf turned out great.  We also went and worked out with Brother Howard.  he is a great guy he took a pic of me and put it in his album.  We worked out over there in the morning.  He love to work out.  We also taught a guy in spanish it was been a long time but it went well.  We then met back to exchange back at their district meeting.  Elder Stoker and I trained on diligence.  it went well.  Sorry the letter is not very good but better next time eh.  I love y'all keep safe and love Elder Robison

Brenan's new address

Brenan was transferred last Wednesday and was made a zone leader.  His new address is:
Elder Brenan Robison
319 Hialeah Dr.
Knoxville, TN  37920

Letter 4/12/12

Dear family, hey how is everything going back in good old Idaho.  Thanks so much for the package and tie.  I received a lot of compliments at church so I gave all the credit to my mom.  From the pics it looks like everything is going well.  The baby is getting super chunky so I'm guessing that means her mom takes good care of her, also the pictures of the planes in formation.  That was great but you could definitely tell dad is kind of a chicken when he is in back of formation 100 yards behind every one else.  He'll learn no problem especially when I get back to teach him how to do it.  Well everything is going well.  This Thursday Jeremy is getting baptized.  He is the guy who came up to me in Walmart.  The sisters have been teaching him because he lives in their area.  That is great because he has truly found his answers.  Well a lot has also been happening in our area.  This last Sunday Marcos Rivas came with us to church.  He is a very cool guy especially because he is from Cuba.  His accent is so strong and almost impossible to understand so hopefully I'll get better at understanding him.  Well Gloria bailed on us again.  It feels impossible to get her to church but one day she will get there.  This past week I was able to go on exchange with Elder Neubert my MTC companion.  Wow he has grown up a lot.  He is a great missionary.  We had some fun experiences with this guy named Chris.  He is a guy they met on the street.  He wrote 2 books about the Book of Mormon and just Mormons in general.  He was a little crazy.  We also went over to a members house to do some service, The Buresses.  Brother Burress looked at me then my badge then at me again.  He then asked if I was from Idaho.  I told him yes.  He asked me if I knew a Ricky Robison.  I told him yes.  He went inside real quick and grabbed his mission album and showed me a picture of Uncle Rick.  They were companions in the Las Vegas mission.  They served 4 months together.  He said I looked a lot like him but from the pictures I saw of Rick Brother Burres gave Rick way to much credit.  Small world eh.  Well our week was great so enjoy yours and I'll send you another letter next week.  Love Elder Robison.

Finally a letter 4/6/12

Dear family, Well fam it has been along time since I've written.  I'm sorry but I'm trying to do better.  There has been a lot going on lately.  Normally I'm not this busy but the District seems to be doing great.  I've been going and giving interviews and then attending the baptisms as well.  The sisters had 2 baptisms in the last week so they are on fire.  Then this past week I went down to Oak Ridge on an exchange with our Zone Leaders.  I went with Elder Bottom.  He is a way cool kid.  We've gotten to know each other pretty well and became pretty good friends.  Well on our exchange we had a very cool spiritual experience.  It just so happens that we ran into a spanish family.  It's a little ironic because it's not a spanish area and we can't find spanish people in our area.  His name was Jose.  We got to talking and he broke into conversation about his wife.  She has had 3 strokes ad her whole right side does not work.  She is maybe about 30 to 35 years old.  Well I offered her a blessing and she wanted one.  She can not speak or do much but she can read so after I gave her a blessing I felt the urge to give her a promise about the Book of Mormon and told her if she read with real intent she would be able to speak again.  The spirit was so strong it was great.  My spanish had no flaws because the spirit was directing the whole time.  The best part about the whole thing was Elder Bottom does not speak spanish but he understood everything.  I'm grateful for the tender mercies that happen so often.  We are hoping to check on her in a couple of weeks.  Well yesterday was P-day and we had a blast.  Well we woke up at 6:00 and went and worked out over at the Zone Leaders.  Bolt and I jumped rope for 45 minutes.  It was a good workout.  Well for the rest of the day we went to the rec center and played ultimate frisby.  I threw my arm out of socket again and right now it hurts bad.  I had a hard time sleeping because I would roll on it and it would wake me up.  Well thanks for all you do.  I love y'all so much so stay safe and take care.  Love Elder Robison

Letter 3/20/12

Family, well a lot has happened since the last time I wrote.  A lot of good.  Well to explain why I have not written it is because Brother Nicho keeps grabbing the mail and forgets that he has it so I just thought y'all forgot about me.  So here we are I will try to get you caught back up.  Well to start off with our District they are still staying strong, in fact our numbers went up again as of right now we have 19 committed with a date for baptism and 13 came to church.  Those are really high numbers for the mission so we are definitely being blessed as a District.  For our whole Zone which is 3 areas in total we have 20  committed and we have 18 of them.  Life is good.  Well to catch y'all back up with our progressing investigators.  Casey and Bethany have been real busy so we have not been able to see them as often.  Well we have a new investigator named Marcos Ribas.  He is from Cuba.  We tried to commit him for baptism but he said he needs to read a little more.  I give him 1 week to have a date.  He is a very nice guy and it feels good to speak Spanish again.  We also have still been teaching Eric.  He is not progressing as fast as we would like him to but he has still got potential for a soon date.  Well we also were referred to a guy who is a very good guy.  His name is Mike.  He had 3 kids and a wife but they all died.  Not for sure how.  We have taught a lot toward family.  The next lesson will be The Plan of Salvation.  He has a great understanding of the gospel already and priesthood authority.  Gloria is still Gloria it is hard to have faith when you have been rejected so many times.  Well the other day I received a call from an old investigator who I used to teach.  Well it turns out he wants to be taught again.  So we met with him yesterday and WOW what a crazy cool story.  He told us that when he stopped meeting with us that he was just going to be done.  Well he said something kept telling him to call and call. He lost our number but found a card we had given him.  He said even when he had this card that it would always show up.  He was talking to his wife about us again.  He was asking her if he should contact us well in the middle of the conversation at Chick-Fil-A three missionaries sat right next to them.  He took it as a sign.  Well he said that night him and his wife were looking through their DVD collection and chose a movie, a movie that they did not even know they had.  The Other Side of Heaven.  He told us that they never even knew that movie even existed.  The next day he called us and 2 days later he has a date for the5th of April.  He knew it is true and so excited to be baptized.  Well we found out he does not live in our area so we gave him to the sisters but what a blessing.  Thanks you so much for the package it is great.  Well everything is going well here so take care.  Love Elder Robison

Letter 3/10/12

Dear family, Well I figure I better get an early start this week on the letter.  Well we have a lot of new news.  We have been teaching Brooklyn, one of the members girlfriend.  Well they broke up so basically that means we broke up as well.  That is a bummer because she was doing so well.  She had read 1Nephi and understood the first 3 lessons very well.  We were just waiting on her to find her answer.  I'm hoping everything works out with her.  Terry Green he is doing good.  He is reading on his own free time without us even asking.  We only come across his drinking problem.  I think it would kill him if he gave it up cold turkey so we are trying to help him wean off so maybe we can boost up his date.  We are looking for a baptism in March.  We were planning on Eric but he is very hard to keep in contact with.  We're still trying to get with him.  He is a taxi driver so his schedule is all messed up.  Two of my most favorite investigators right now are Casey & Bethany.  They have really warmed up to us.  We went over there this past week to reschedule.  They are a great family.  They are going to grow a garden so I told them I could help them with that and also one of their shed's needs rebuilt so we are going to see if we could help them with that also.  They invited us to go bowling with them the next time their friends and them go out.  I'm way stoked for that and also when they have people over for campfires.  So we are excited to see them progress.  Pray that they will find their answers in March so they will be ready for this month.  Well I received some news Thursday.  I found out I'm going to be the District Leader for our District.  Right now our District is the best in the mission.  We are doubled in our numbers and everything is going very well.  I'm excited and a little nervous but I'm hoping to help them get our numbers higher and to see even more success.  Well I'm staying with Elder Mills and I'm excited with that as well.  I love y'all and you all be safe.  Love Elder Robison
PS  Survived the tornado's, just missed us by 3 miles so everything is all good. 

Letter 3/1/12

Feb 16, Today started out great.  We studied and prepared for our investigators.  We came up with some pretty good ideas when we teach KC & Bethany.  We are going to show them some modern day revelation by teaching the Word of Wisdom and putting The Family Proclamation into it.  I've never really taught it like that before.  We'll see how it goes.  For lunch today we ate at Oasis with The Nicho's.  It was great and I ate way too much.  We visited with them for awhile about her house ideas and getting into real estate.  It really interests me.  The rest of the day went alright we had 4 other lessons and also taught Vivian.  She is doing great and we committed her to bring her son with her to church this week.  Feb 20, Well great day.  Today was P-day we actually went to the Smokey Mountains with our whole district.  The Assistants came with us and we had a lots of fun.  Our goal was to make it to the waterfalls but we read the map wrong.  We thought it said 5.2 miles round round trip but it was one way so we did not make it to the Falls due to time.  Well to finish off our day we had dinner with Bishop and his counselors.  They made 30 pounds of wings and 3 different types.  It was really fun.  There was a kid there that used to live in the ward.  His name was Derick Hinkley.  He is in a band with his brothers and they are really good.  You need to check them out.  The Hinkley Brothers.  He gave us some CD's.  Well its been a great week and y'all have a good week.  Elder Robison

Brenan and Jeff

Elder Mills, Jeff and Brenan

Brennan & Brenan they look all bad boy:)