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.

Matt's letter

1/26/09Dear friends and family, it has been a crazy few weeks. I left from Bismarck to go to Rapid City on the 14th of January. In Rapid we got to work a lot with President Cannon doing transfers. It was a lot of work organizing the transfers when you have to get people from Fargo to Casper and Gillette to Bismarck and only have 1 van and a trailer. I can say it was a fun challenge to say the least. While doing all this we had the new missionaries come in. There were 4 Elders and 2 Sisters. We had a great welcoming for them. On Monday I did the Wyoming loop. I left very early in the morning. We went to Gillette then Casper then to Buffalo and back to Rapid. It was about a 12 hour trip. This was the same day that the new missionaries got in. I was not there to see them come off the plane but we were home for dinner and meetings. Tuesday we started very early again. We left Rapid at about 5:30 a.m. President Cannon and I were the drivers of the van. We drove to Sioux Falls which is 6 hours and dropped off missionaries, loaded more up and drove to Fargo. I drove all of the time except for 2 hours in the beginning. After arriving in Fargo and exchanging all the guys I took my car which was sent to drive through Bismarck with other missionaries. I got to Sioux Falls around 11:00 p.m. The next day it was back at it on the road. This transfer I got a car to drive so that I can take one of the zone leaders and travel the zone. They have put three zone leaders together so that one can be with me when I am in the area. It has been a great blessing to us and the areas. We have been to 6 areas already in less than a week. Today I am in Huron and it has been a great stay here. I was able to go to church here and see a lot of old friends. The ward here is great and love to do missionary work. Two of the five people that were baptized here have moved away but Allison Mchugh, Alice Sentell and Danni Willet were all at church. I enjoyed seeing all of these people. It brought back a lot of memories. I am so thankful that I came on a mission and grateful for all the people in the mission field that have taken us in. We have Zone Conference coming up. I am training on the commitment pattern. I will have to train on that in all three zones and on February 2nd we will have Trizone leadership council and I will be training there also. Sorry for the lack of letters but we have been hitting the areas pretty hard lately. I will try harder. Love Elder Robison

25 Years, WOW!!!

Today is Dave and my 25th anniversary. If you remember that day 25 years ago, yes you are old. I can't believe it has been 25 years. I was going to post pictures of our wedding and then a picture of us tonight. Two problems, I cannot find our wedding pictures. The box I thought they were in, they weren't. Second problem. I tried to take a picture of us tonight. Of course there is no one home so I was taking the picture. We got laughing so hard because Dave could not take a good picture. We decided to save you all the pain of having to see what 25 years has done. It was good because we sure had a good laugh. I want to tell you how much I love Dave. He has been a great husband. He rarely gets mad and if he does, he is over it quickly. He is a wonderful man. We have had a great 25 years. Even though we look a lot older and can't take great pictures we definitely have a lot of experience behind us. Honey I just want to wish you a Happy Anniversary. It has been a great ride and although there have been a few bumps along the way I would definitely do it all again. I love ya tons!!!!!!

Root Canal AARRGGH!!!

Yesterday I went in for a root canal. Brenan is the cause for this problem I have been having, about 2 years ago we were goofing around. I snuck up behind Brenan and grabbed him. He swung around in the process elbowed me in the mouth. I bit hard on my teeth. The second one to the back was really hurting. I went to the dentist and it had cracked. They put a temporary crown on to see how it did. Well here we are two years later. It has caused pain the whole time, sometimes worse than others. I haven't chewed on that side for two years. Hot and cold have now started to bother it. I went to Rachel's wonderful dentist in Idaho Falls. He had seen me on a Saturday before we left for Texas. It was really bothering me and we were hoping he could fix it. He said I would probably need a root canal. Here it is in January and I am finally taking the time to do it. He told me he wasn't sure if he would be able to do it. It is in the worst tooth possible for a root canal. He said if he could not find all the roots he would send me to a specialist. I went in yesterday at 10:30. After many shots and a little laughing gas, which I rather enjoyed, he started in. After about 45 minutes he told me he couldn't find them and he was sending me over to a specialist. They could actually see me that day. I went over and had to wait about an hour. Once I was in he was fast. I then headed back to Rachel's dentist, Dr. Zirker, and he put my cap back on. I was in dentist chairs between 10:30 and 2:00. Rachel and I went to lunch after. Yes you can only imagine how I looked. Only half of my face worked. I was numb from my eye down. It is a good thing we hid inside a booth at Sizzler. At 11:00 p.m. I was still a little numb. I now what it probably feels like to be slugged in the mouth. It is not tremendous pain just sore and yes it is a little swollen. I should have got a picture yesterday when I was numb. It was a sight. Drinking out of a straw is hilarious when you can't use your whole mouth. Hopefully it will be all fixed. The dentists were great.

Matt's letter

December 31, 2008
Dear friends and family. Today my binder with all of the letters showed up. I want to thank all of you for the letters and pictures. I am thankful for all of the support that I have from great family and friends. I need to apologize for the lack of info and amount of letters I have sent. I need to do better. My life has been a little hectic but I am enjoying what I do. I love being a missionary. Sometimes I sit back and wonder how I made it here. In the past few weeks there has been a definite transition in my thoughts and feelings. At one time I loved the people we taught and loved to see them progress. I now love my missionary brothers. I love being with all of them and seeing the way we all do things different but still get the same job done. I travel a lot and get to see a lot of different things. We have a lot of fun doing this work and that is important. In the past 3 weeks I have gone from Fargo ND to Rapid City SD to Dickinson ND to Bismark ND then to Minot ND and back to Bismark then got on a bus to Fargo then to Brookings SD and from there to Huron SD for Christmas. From there I went to Sioux Falls SD then back to Fargo and that is where I sit tonight on New Years Eve. In the morning I go to Grand Forks ND until Sunday then I will return to Fargo. From here I will go to Bismark and will be in that zone for 1 week and one of those stops will be Williston ND, my greenie area, after my week there I will head back to Rapid to do transfers and should be there for a week. I will then get to do it all over again for another 6 weeks so that is what is in store for me. Some may ask how you could enjoy this but its not bad. I am getting used to living out of a suit case and different beds and floors but that just comes with time. I love working with President Cannon he is a great man that is inspired. As it gets closer to the end I get a little more nervous each time I think about it but it is coming fast. I'm not real sure I am ready. We will just have to take it head on. Thank you all again for everything. In this letter I thought I would share with you something that has really struck home lately for me. It comes from Moses Chapter 7. This chapter speaks of when Enoch receives a great vision because of his righteousness. From this chapter we learn so much about our Father in Heaven. We see that the creations of the Father cannot be comprehended with our minds when Enoch speaks of the millions of Earths like this one. Yet even a God with all power love and knowledge weeps over his children that choose to hate their own blood (Moses 7:32,33) If we could comprehend this fully it would change us forever. I know there is a knowledge and a love that we do not understand and it has changed me in a lot of ways. We have the opportunity to receive all that the Father hath if we choose to. This chapter is my favorite in the scriptures and we have it only because of the restoration. I have to say that the Conference CD's still take the cake for the best present. I learn something new every time I listen. My favorites are by Jeffrey R. Holland-Angels, D. Todd Christoferson-Come Unto Zion, and Quinten L. Cook-Hope You Know We Had A Hard Time. I love all of you and am thankful for each of you. Love Elder Robison