Matt's letter 9/22/08

Dear friends and family, you should be close to getting in the fields for harvest. I am glad that next year I will be with you for the harvest season. Life for me had taken a serious turn. I am still in Fargo for another transfer but I lost my man Elder Harrison. Elder Durfee went home because he is all done and Elder Imes got transferred to Jamestown. I lost all of my favorite missionaries in Fargo. I got a new good companion, two of them actually. Elder Foster and I are training Elder Dalton. We have a lot of fun together. Elder Foster is from SLC and Elder Dalton is from Prescott Valley Arizona. He is a really cool kid but he is diabetic and not a very stable one. We have to watch him close but he will be a good missionary. Our area is doing well. We had 5 people at church that are baptismal age and 12 people total. We had two African families come that we tracted into. It was nice to have people there again. Today has been one of those days where you wonder what you're doing. I will tell you a short story. As zone leaders we have a conference every transfer at the mission home. It is an awesome experience. Last night which was Sunday night we left Fargo to go to Bismark, which is on the way to Rapid City. It's about 3 hours from Fargo. We went to Bismark to sleep. We woke up to President Cannon calling us. He said not to leave to Rapid City yet. He said he would call that he had decisions to make. We were a little confused. He called back and said to return to Fargo as quick as possible. He told us to go and find Elder K who serves in one of the areas in Fargo. He said don't call him but drive around and find him. Don't say anything other than you need to call President Cannon and hand him your phone. We drove 3 hours back to Fargo did just as were told and at this time Zone Leader council was cancelled. We sat outside the library while Elder K was on the phone with President Cannon. When he was done he walked over and said I'm going home. I screwed up in my last area and had an investigator that turned into more than that and he went all the way. Somehow President found out. We thought our job was done and we could just have another normal P-day. We went home for about an hour. The phone rang again. It was President he said Elders go get back in your car, go pick up Elder K and put him in your car and come to Rapid City. It was about 2:00 p.m. by now. Rapid City is 9 hours away, he said * hope to see you before 9:30 p.m. We did just that and we picked Elder K up and headed off. It was sad to see him without his tag on. He was in his last transfer and is going home dishonorably. I drove for 8 1/2 hours and we made it to Rapid City at 9:30 with the hour that we gained from the time change. President rescheduled the conference so all the Zone Leaders were there when we got there. We had a good fun night. We started our conference the next morning at 7:30 and had it straight through until 10:00 p.m. We left the next day at 2:00 p.m. to head back to Fargo. It is 9:00 p.m. and I am on the freeway about an hour from home. I am tired and ready to get out of this car. It has been a humbling few days. Anyway I hope harvest starts well and I can't believe it's here already. I hope to hear from you all soon. Love Elder Robison

Brenan's Dance

Well I am late posting this. Last Saturday Brenan had their homecoming dance. They had planned to go 4-wheeling for their day date. Any of you who woke up last Saturday and thought 4-wheeling looked fun has to be of the male species. It was freezing cold, raining, and the wind howling. I told him they probably needed to figure something else out. His friend McKijah was here and they could not seem to make a plan. Rachel and I suggested a scavenger hunt. They finally agreed. Rachel put it all together. They were to take digital cameras and split into two groups. There were 4 couple going. She gave them a list of 30 things they could pick to do. She was giving them a time limit and they were to see how many things they could get done. If any of you know Brenan they didn't exactly follow the rules. They took the lists and kind of did their own thing. They had fun.

One of the things was to help someone in need. This mans tire was wobbling and almost ready to fall off so they flagged him over and helped him fix it.

Oh I forgot to mention that before starting the scavenger hunt they had to go to DI and pick their dates out something to wear. Brenan is in the striped shirt. They had to give a dollar to a homeless person. This man said, "that is a 99 cent hamburger with my name all over it" when they handed him a dollar.

This is Brenan's friend another requirement was to go to a store and dress in full camo.

They had to go and pretend to ride a snow machine. Brenan is right at home here.

Brenan and his date, Reigan Decker. He had to carry her through a store on his back.

They were supposed to buy a fish at the pet store. Cute shirt that Brenan's date picked for him huh!!!

They were supposed to have their picture taken with a puppy. Brenan's date pretty cute.

Then only Brenan could come up with the next idea. This was not on Rachel's list of things to do. Brenan and his friend McKijah (pictured below) who's date bought him a wrestling uniform to wear for the day, decided to buy a tarantula. Meet Sparkz a new addition to our family. And if you know me at all you know I don't like spiders. They take turns having it at their houses. I told Brenan that McKijah could have custody and Brenan just visitation rights. We have had it at our house all week.

Sparkz

Then the best part of the day. About a month ago Brenan asked if we could get a corvette for him to use at the dance. I said I doubted that we could get one. Dave came through for him. He borrowed a 2008 yellow corvette. I told Brenan to remember he had a date. He was so excited about the car I was afraid he would forget all about the date and the dance.

Brenan left his pants at Rachel's so here he is in his shirt and tie and shorts. On his way for the big dance.

They had a lot of fun.

Matt's latest letter and pictures

The Fargo Zone
Elder Stephenson, he serves in Aberdeen SD

Elder Griffey, not my companion

but we lived together

My District on my last tranfer day

Early morning bike ride to the bridge that crosses the freeway


My District

9/7/08

Dear friends and family. How is it going back at home? I would imagine that the potato equipment is coming out. Hard to believe it's that time of year already. My last harvest away. I am having a lot of fun and things are going well. I can't believe how fast time is flying by. Transfers are in two weeks. I hope to stay in Fargo with Elder Harrison for at least one more. I feel that my purpose has not been fulfilled in Fargo yet. Only time will tell. We are teaching some new people. One of them is Domenique. He is an African guy. He is in his early 20's. He is in the hospital right now. He was in a bad car accident. He is a referral from Penina who is also an investigator but is not progressing very well. We teach him in the hospital. I first met him with Elder Lee. He was in intensive care. He couldn't even talk and was totally ripped apart. He is now in the recovery part of the hospital and is doing good. I am excited for General Conference in October. I think there will be a lot of council for us. At times I hear about the country and economy. It makes me wonder what is in the future to come. I hope all goes well with the harvest and everyone is safe. Thank you all for everything you do. I hope to hear from all of you soon. Love Elder Robison

Kaden's leg

Our lives this summer.

Well I decided to give blogging a try. I will catch everyone up on what has been going on recently. Kaden burned his leg at scout camp the end of July. We have been going to Madison Memorial Hospital 2-3 times a week to have it scrubbed and wrapped. Both boys started football. Yes, Kaden still insists on playing. We bought a shin guard to protect it. They both have practice after school and they stay in Rigby at Rachel's quite often. I think she sees them more than we do. Many nights it is Dave and I looking at each other enjoying our alone time again. I am not really enjoying this empty nesting already in my life. Matt has been out on his mission for 15 1/2 months. He really misses the farming. I am not real sure he misses us that much. I told him to enjoy his sabbatical away from farming because he would be back soon enough. We just finished cutting grain and are looking so forward to potato harvest (not).