Excerpts from Mike's Letter Home:

06/28/2004

Dear Family,

Hopefully all is going well for you. I received your e-mails this past week, so congratulations to mom. I am looking forward to hearing the details, and hope that you are happy. Also thank you for shipping out the brakes. I will be changing them out soon. I really appreciate it. Thank you for forwarding the information about Dan coming home. I wish I could be there, but of course I think that he will understand.

Anyways, it has been a fairly busy week. I received dad's letter that he sent to Bartlesville, but not this weeks. I figure that it will probably arrive today, but it was still nice to get the old mail. The big excitement this week happened at church. We are sitting in Gospel Principles class, when someone knocks on the door and says "We need help," looking at Elder Nelson and I. So, we get up and follow her into the room across the hall. When we get in there we notice it is a medical condition she was talking about. So, they point at us and tell us to go call 911, he's having a heart attack. So, we leave the room bolting for the phone. Someone was already there trying and not getting through. So, Elder Nelson and I both think "Clerk's office is probably using the line or something" and we bolt for there. We go in there and take over the phone and Elder Nelson calls 911. We give them all of the information and 911 hangs up on Elder Nelson. That was strange in any larger community they would ask if they were breathing, etc. so that you might be able to assist them. Well a little bit later, someone is casually strolling down the hall telling people it was a false alarm. Finally we hear and Elder Nelson calls 911 back and cancels the ambulance. Of course, the people on the other end just didn't seem to understand "We need to cancel the heart attack response we just did". Elder Nelson must have said it at least 10 times until they figured it out. No ambulance showed up luckily, but I do feel that 911 in this town could use some improvements.

Everyone around seemed to have felt Elder Nelson and I had over reacted. Though, when someone mentions heart attack & 911, we assume that he has had a few heart attacks before and this is a repeat attack or something. In retrospect of this event, I instantly thought "why did I run down the hall to call 911, though my CPR is expired, I probably am one of the few people who ever was taught." Thinking about it, the only reason I probably left was my companion did. Even in an emergency situation I try to be obedient to that rule. Still, it will be nice to be re-CPR and first aid certified.

The situation turned out all right. I believe it was probably a seizure of some sort. The few seconds I saw him would seem to support that conclusion. I believe that is probably the most popular opinion of what happened. Though, the most interesting thing was to see how people responded in the emergency situation. It was mainly us and another young family doing things. Sadly the emergency happened in Primary, so hopefully all the kids are doing okay.

I also got to play piano in priesthood, Hymn #29. That went over pretty well. I got complimented, one of the brethren said he really enjoyed it. We also blessed the sacrament, so we sat on the stand and the organist and music director heard me sing. The organist was asking me if I would be in the branch choir when it started. I asked when it started, the response August. I had to say "no" to that one. She also asked, "What was it about you and the tabernacle choir?" I replied I didn't know but my dad had played the tabernacle organ.  She said another member had told her. The other member, when I talked with her said I was "Tabernacle Choir quality". So, the rumors are spreading, it's a small branch.

This past week on went on exchanges to Poteau. It was nice to be there and see some familiar people; however some people remember you and some don't. So, it was nice for me to see the familiar faces but the branch has changed since I left. It is interesting to hear who is now active and inactive. Amazingly, some of the people you think would still be there aren't, and some people you would suspect have many years to return are there. The best part of the exchange was of course the Salvation Army. We came back and helped out for two hours. Interestingly enough, just about everyone there remembered me. In fact the head person there commented that I was only the second missionary to return and do more service. The first was an Elder Henderson ages ago. The Salvation Army store in Poteau has been open since July of 1995. I really enjoyed helping out there again. It is pretty much just how I remembered it.

Mom asked about what we do for service here in Mena. Right now we are helping a part member family with their work on a horse ranch. He is doing some things that are above his job duties, like burning a ton of excess wood. And we are helping him with that, since they live on the ranch and they are trying to beautify it a bit. Plus, we want to how him that we enjoy helping him out (which we do). There are not too many things to do for service here, so we take what we can get.

This coming week, we have exchanges with the Zone Leader. I believe he wants to stay in Fort Smith with Elder Nelson. So, I will probably be with his companion running around Mena, though of course it being the last day of the month we won't have too many miles to be running around.

I was pretty interested in mom's last letter. An article about a BYU Ham Radio club. I didn't know about that, it also sounds like something that would be fun to get into. Perhaps even install my "mobile" (home) unit in my car (former Elder John Green could help with that). Anyways, I will have to check into that when I get home. The best part is there is only one physical club meeting a month; imagine the other three meetings are via radio, so you can be anywhere!! Now that sounds like a good club.

Anyways, I do not have too much more to say right now. Things are going well, though some of our investigators are going out of town for the next week or two. Happy 4th of July to you. You will not be receiving an e-mail next week since the library will be closed on Monday. Though, it will be the last holiday before I come home so that is exciting. I heard that my MTC companion went home a transfer early and those in my MTC district who went to the Oregon Eugene mission will be getting home that Thursday before me.

Take care, I love and miss you tons. I hope all is going well for you. Let me know if there is anything else you need to know.

Love,
Elder Mike Robinson