BaSeBaLl!!!!

Well yesterday we had the first baseball game of the season. Brenan plays on varsity and Kaden on JV so I have to split my time. They played Madison today. Brenan's team won 4-1 and Kaden's lost in extra innings. The weather was absolutely beautiful. You couldn't have asked for a nicer day. I am sure that we were just being teased because baseball weather is never good. We will probably freeze to death the rest of the season. I am praying that yesterday is just a taste of more great days to come.

Back from vacation

Well our vacation this year was Vegas. We were supposed to go to Mexico but with all the trouble they are having one of the ladies wouldn't go so we ended up in Vegas. I can't believe it but I never took one picture the whole time. Oh well. We had a good time. We laughed, ate, laughed and ate. One of the friends we were with knows a guy down there who is high up in a limo business. We had a limo and a driver the whole time we were there. We felt pretty important. I thought it was quite funny to have our limo drop us off at the outlet malls. People are probably thinking these guys have a limo and can't afford to shop at a regular store. It was pretty good. I do have much greater respect for all those celebrities that get out of those things gracefully. That is not easy to do. We went to two shows, Danny Gans, which was excellent. He is an impressionist and it was very good. I would recommend it to everyone. We went to a cirque de sol show called Mystere. It was good although after seeing it everyone we talked to said we should have went to the Love one which is a Beatles rendition. We enjoyed both the shows though. We golfed, sat by the pool and just basically relaxed which is what a vacation is supposed to be. Rachel and Kendall took care of the boys so I didn't have to worry about them. Everything was great and the snow has really started to melt which is great. Now I just have to sit and look at my ruined lawn by all those little varmints that keep eating it.

Matt's letter and pictures

3/5/09
Hey mom I got the sleddin pictures and the letter today. Thank you for sending a letter every week. You probably think that I just throw them aside and look at them once in awhile but they are something I look forward to. They are one of the few things I can count on each week so thank you. Thanks to everyone that sends letters. It is always great to see mail waiting for me. Thank you all!! Mom in your letter you asked when I knew the church was true for sure. I think it was a slow process. I have always believed the church was true even though my life didn't reflect that message. I just didn't see the need when I was younger, but I have always known. About a year before I left was the first time I ever thought about going on a mission. Everything then started falling into place and I started reading and praying. From there my testimony grew. I left and then the real turning point was in the MTC. I love that place. We watched the new Joseph Smith movie and that was a big turning point, so that is the story. My past few days have been really crazy. Elder Jennings and I returned to Rapid a week ago. We spent that week doing office work and transfers. This last Monday was time to start moving missionaries. For this part you are going to need a map of the US. I left Rapid Monday morning at 5:00 a.m. and went to Gillette, then to Casper, then Buffalo, then Gillette and back to Rapid. I slept there for the night and then went to Sioux Falls SD, then Brookings SD, then Fargo ND, then Bismarck and spent the night in Bismarck. I left early Wednesday morning and headed back to Rapid. I got to Rapid around 1:: then headed back to Wyoming. We went to Sheridan, Casper, Gillette, Spearfish and then got back in Rapid City around 11:30 that night. It was a little over 2000 miles. It was kind of crazy for a few days you might say. We use a 12 passenger van with a cargo trailer for the luggage. It is a stressful time because in each of those towns you have to unload the trailer to find luggage then reload more stuff. It's not the best of times but I love this mission. I am so glad I was called here. I love the missionaries I serve with. I have lots of great friends. Well for me that is what I have been up to. Tomorrow Elder Jennings and I leave to travel the mission together. It is going to be a lot of fun. We start in Gillette. We will be in that zone for a few days then will move on from there. Thank you all for everything you do I love all of you. Love Elder Robison

pushups team style


We didn't plan this but it turned out this way Jennings and me


My favorite guys, Jennings, Harrison, Worthen and me (sorry I scanned it upside down)

Brother Liesy from Williston

Hambone in Williston

Elders Jennings, Clark and me at an oilfield in Williston

me and Jennings

Has has me in Georgia colors

looks cold (me and Jennings)

suntanning Dakota style (inside)

Finished transfers

The transfer van early in the morning

Leaving Fargo in the transfer van

Matt's letter

Dear family and friends,
Everything has been going great here in the mission. This past week I left the east side of the mission and headed to Rapid City. When we left Bismarck at 12:00 p.m. it was -10 with wind chill, which is plenty cold. We pulled into Rapid City it was 50 degrees and sunny, a little different you could say. It was nice it felt like 80 degrees so that was weird for the body to take I think. I am in Rapid for transfers. We send out calls this Saturday the 28th so it is about to become a busy week. Doing transfers with President Cannon is an awesome experience. You can really see the Lord work through him. He stares at the board then brings changes that you never saw coming. He is really good at what he does. I think a lot of mission Presidents would start to give up when they come close to the end of their time, but President Cannon has become more focused and has a greater urgency to everything that he does. I got my new companion on Sunday. It is Elder Jennings he was called early so that he could help me with transfers. We have been best friends since the MTC. We were roommates there. We got it approved so that we will be traveling together this transfer so I won't be alone. We will cover the whole mission together so I am looking forward to that. Other than that about everything is the same. Time is flying by so quickly its a little scary at times but it is going well. I hope to hear from all of you soon. Thank you for everything. Love Elder Robison

I Am Still Here

Well after searching blogs today and seeing everyone's cute spring backgrounds I decided I had better get to work. I haven't posted because seriously my life has been BORING. Still nothing exciting to post but I figured I had better let you know I was still alive. I also need to keep Melanee off my back. She gets on us if we aren't posting enough. So a little update. Brenan is back to normal. the doctor said he can do whatever. Things sure are different than when I had my appendics out. Of course that was like a hundred years ago. Kaden my speedy driver (they all seem to be speedy) got a ticket while he only has his permit to drive with an adult. He was with Rachel and he was going 68 in a 50, yes that was expensive for the little turd. Who knows what will happen with him. We are just waiting to see if they just let it go or if they take his license away. We've got him a little nervous thinking he could lose it until he's 18. That is the excitement that we have been having.

Matt's letter

Sent: Fri, 13 Feb 2009 11:40 am
Hey mom I chose to send this letter via Email because I never get them written. Life has been good these past few weeks there has been a lot of traveling and meetings we had our Zone Conference tour this past week, not the one we are in, the one before that. The conferences were good they were two day conferences so that the missionaries could have a little fun. I think it worked for everybody but me, my comp and the Cannons. The two days were a little more stressful and long. Instead of 3or4 days it took a whole week to get through them. It all worked out though so that is good. The weather here has been a little crazy. This week Elder Jennings and I got stuck in Dickinson for two nights and had nothing to do so we laid around alot and ate alot of food. Its going to take alot of readjusting to get back in the groove. I learned real fast why they don't give missionaries the day off because we get lazy and eat too much. It was alot of fun and I think it was good for me to sleep on a good bed and get a little extra sleep. Other than that everything is going the same. My Companion Elder Johanson is flying home as I speak. He is from Florida so now I have no companion. President Cannon said that we will have to do transfers alone this go around. That sounds like its going to be rough. Transfers are the busiest time for the assistants with all the moving around and that stuff. I don't know who my new companion will be. I kinda hope that we can do this whole thing a little different next transfer where I will be with my companion for the transfer and be able to travel with that same person all the time. The switching around and that stuff gets a little old after a while but I haven't thrown that out as an idea yet but I plan too. We are almost into week 5 starting on Monday the transfers are on the 28th I think. So I should be going back to Rapid then unless I get called back there earlier. President Cannon is there all alone Sister Cannons parents both have bad health problems and she is back in Utah with them so he is a little overloaded but I don't know what's going to happen. Mom did Sister Cannon send you a Book of Mormon stories from the mission? But as for now that's all there is going on I know its short but its alot of the same stuff in a different day. Thank you all for everything you do!
Love Elder Robison

ArE wE hAvInG fUn YeT!!

Well Monday was a regular day. The boys came home from school and Brenan said his stomach was really hurting. I said well go clean your room and then I had him take his Eagle Scout pack to be signed by a guy in the ward. He got back home and said maybe you had better take me to the doctor. I said are you sure. He said it really hurts. We headed to Community Care while Dave and Kaden headed to Hamer for singles Family Home Evening. We got into Community Care around 6:45. The doctor said that Brenan didn't have the usual symptoms of appendicitis. He had the pain but he wasn't sick to his stomach or nauseous so he said he would take his blood but he really didn't think he had it. They took his blood and the doctor came back and said you had better head to the hospital. We headed over. The surgeon met with us and said they would have to come out. He went into surgery at 10:30 p.m.

This is Brenan on pain medication waiting to be taken back for surgery.
The doctor came out at 11:30 and told us everything went well. The appendics was bad and it was good that they got them out. Rachel, Kendall and Kaden headed home as soon as the doctor gave us the news. We then had to wait for him to recover and get taken to his room. When he was leaving the ER to go up to surgery we ran into Jerome Sutton, my cousin, he is a nurse down there. We got him to his room around 12:30. Jerome came up to check on him when his shift was over which I thought was so nice of him to do. I asked Brenan if he wanted my to stay with him. He said no he was fine. He was way groggy and couldn't stay awake. We stayed until he was all settled and the nurse had got all her questions answered. We got home at around 1:45. Funny how a normal Monday can turn into such a day.


Here is Brenan on Tuesday. He was in pain and not feeling to great. He slept for most of the day and we ended up getting to come home at 8:30 p.m. We finally got him home and settled by 9:30 that night. He said he didn't think the doctor would have had him come home if he had known we had to go over the Rocky Mountains to get home. He kept complaining at how bumpy the road was. He said can't you miss the bumps? He must figure I am a miracle worker. He was sore. You always worry when your kids end up in the hospital. It is so good to have him home and OK.