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02/09/2004
Dear Family,
Hopefully all is still well on the home front. We had another great and busy week. It has been quite interesting.
Wednesday morning around 8 a.m. we received a phone call from President Nielsen wishing to speak with Elder Green. "Elder Green the Lord and I have decided to leave you in Bartlesville for another transfer." To which, Elder Green responded very good.
Later that day, our District Leader (Elder Slatter) called with transfer information. "Elder Green is staying and is the new District Leader." That came as a surprise, but it should be good. Though we don't have much of a teaching pool right now (because we baptized them all) we have a few good prospects.
Wednesday we went to the church at around 11 a.m. We filled the baptismal font and turned on the heater, once again hoping to warm up the water to room temperature. We left the church.
As we were about to return to the church, we received a phone call from our Ward Mission Leader. He informed us that the Young Women's President had called him and canceled activities that night due to the snow. So, he was informing us the baptism was canceled. A little later we received quite a few phone calls asking about the baptism. This prevented us from going and draining the font as we had planned.
We then left for our dinner appointment. They were running a little behind schedule which was fine since the baptism was canceled. After dinner we talked with them a little bit and were about to leave to go drain the font when the phone rang. It was for us. Apparently, the baptism was going on. So, it had been scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and was then 7:00 p.m. Needless to say, I was afraid that we had missed it.
We drove quickly to the church and found Tyler duct taping two trash bags together over his full leg cast. He was thrilled to see us since we had a giant clear plastic sack and waterproof cloth tape. Which was a lot less painful to remove.
The baptism was even colder than Saturday's, since we had not returned to push the heater button every three hours. Though, it was still done. Other than that there were no complications. It was a nice service. This was just another example of a time when missionaries really could use a cell phone. They were going to go on without us.
When we arrived home we had 8 new messages (in the two hours we were gone). We even had a message from the Bishop saying it was off and another saying it was on. Though a lot of people said they were praying that we would make it and so we did.
This time we even had a member look at the water heater. There was something wrong with the transformer in the 26 - 27 year old water heater (original to the church building). We would have done something about it, except for the fact that the parts had already been ordered from Tulsa.
We had also called the Seminary teacher on Wednesday to see if Seminary had been canceled for Thursday (when we were teaching). She told us, "We don't cancel Seminary for just a little snow." About 10 minutes later she called back to inform us that it was canceled. We were re-scheduled to teach on Monday.
Sunday we went to church. We went to Sacrament and then left for the Community of Christ Church (formerly RLDS). We had been invited by one of their members who saw us in Wal-Mart. We had a nice time and everyone was friendly. The congregation was just under 20 people, most of which were older people. It was Youth Ministries Day. So, the youth were mainly running the meeting (all 4 of them). There was plate passing, mellow Christian rock music (which was interesting with old people there), hymn singing, and of course a little preaching. The pastor gave a nice little sermon on reading and learning more for ourselves, especially in our youth.
It was very interesting to be in another church and hear things from The Book of Mormon and The Doctrine and Covenants. It was particularly strange since I had heard that the Community of Christ Church had pretty much denounced The Book of Mormon. They also mentioned Joseph Smith's vision as happening when he was 15 and as I understand it, being in your 15th year means you are 14. Though, I really did like when the pianist would play a refrain from the last hymn played following a prayer. That was a nice difference.
We woke up early on Monday and got ready to go teach Seminary. Our ride was supposed to come and get us 5:50 a.m. However, we waited until 6:15 a.m. and then received a phone call. The people we thought were supposed to come to get us were not. Apparently someone else came by and drove around our apartment complex for 10 minutes without coming to our door. We started teaching 20 minutes late and had 25 total minutes to teach 1 Kings 18 & 19. It went well, though we were definitely pressed for time.
Mom asked if I regret not having learned more organ. I do, but not as much as I regret not practicing the piano. It is amazing what one can accomplish with one year of practicing. Though, I do hope dad will help me some more musically before the return to BYU.
I am thrilled to hear that my Hof's Hut birthday meal didn't go to waste. Next year I will be sure to use mine and dad's (just kidding). Hopefully, dad enjoyed my usual meal but I must say that the carrot cake would not have been my first choice for dessert.
Additionally, I want to mention receiving a Valentine's Day card from Mom & Dad as well as one from Grandma. Thank You!
I need to inform you that Zone Conference will be February 16th, so once again P-day will be moved to Tuesday the 17th. So, expect a later letter next week.
Thank you for all of your support and help with things! I hope all continues to go well and wish you the best. I miss you all so much. Happy Valentine's Day!
Love, Elder Mike Robinson
