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Excerpts from Mike's Letter Home:

11/17/2003

Dear Family,

Anyways it has been quite the adventurous week. On Wednesday morning I received a call from President Neilsen with my transfer information. He asked me if I was up to the challenge, and I responded in the affirmative. I am now in Miami. The people of Springfield 5th seemed sorry to see me go, and I will greatly miss them. All in all, I really loved that place (as I have most of the places I have been).

We have a Ford Taurus here in Miami for our use. We drove it on the transfer loop from Mt. Vernon, MO. The AP (Elder Siegel) told us that a bicycle flew from the back of our bike rack earlier that morning while driving 60 MPH. So, he checked our bike rack before leaving. Even though, the bike in the morning flew off in the ditch and didn't really harm anything. Though, Elder Koontz and I had just gotten up to 60 MPH when we noticed that my bicycle was falling off. So, we pulled over and my back tire was already dragging on the ground, though the front end was still attached. I tried some different more creative way to tie up the bike and that seemed to work. As of right now, there is no noticeable damage to my bike, but I haven't ridden it and probably won't for a little while. Though, I suspect it is fine.

We are currently living with our ward mission leader & his family. President's words of advice for me "Remember you are a missionary." They are a really nice family, but it is very difficult to get missionary work done. We can't call a ton of people since we are on their phone. Plus, most of our area is long distance and we just received approval to go out and buy a phone card. Plus, we don't have a phone number for investigators to call us back at. Though, most annoying is that we are living out of our suit cases. Mine is jam packed, so it is not a fun task and I don't want to pull out more than I have to since we are moving tonight.

Eventually, probably around Thanksgiving, we will be moving into a small house. It is really nice, the owner is completely remodeling it. We are waiting for a new toilet & sink to be installed before we move in, which are of course the bare minimums. Though, we won't be there for awhile. It is a really nice place, but of course when we move in there may not be carpeting, tiling, etc. I am excited to move in and we are authorized to spend up to two hours per day helping fix up the house, which will of course make us more effective missionaries. Sadly, the owner just went in the hospital because his appendix burst and he got gangrene. So, we are helping his wife & son finish the place up. Hopefully I learn some about remodeling!

Elder & Sister Obert from the mission office came up to give us some details about the situation on Saturday. They also brought Marjorie's weekly letter with them. So, I received hand delivered mail this time! It was quite amusing. The mission office address will continue to work if need be.

We have a Walmart Supercenter here, so we should be set. But, since we are living with members, we don't know exactly what we need to buy. Hopefully we do all right. This whole thing is a bit of a hassle, but I guess it is a good experience and at least we have a car for the Winter! It is weird because we have quite a few larger cities away from Miami in our area, so there is quite a bit of work to be done here, making it easy to run over miles. We will probably have to really budget. In Commerce, OK we saw Mickey Mantle's Childhood home, so there are some sights here.

We went to church on Sunday, and we have a pretty nice building. Though we are a ward attendance seems to be more like a branch. It will take quite a little while to get to know everyone, but so far so good. There seems to be some good support here, but not that many dinner appointments yet, but that is understandable they didn't know we were going to be at church.

Elder Koontz is from Chino, CA and has not attended any college yet. He did earn his Eagle Scout. So far, we seem to be getting along pretty well. He has been out six weeks longer than me. When President called him to tell him about transfers he said, "I've got a project for you Elder Koontz. Your companion will be Elder Robinson. (Pause) You will be opening Miami, you won't have an apartment, etc." So for a second or two, he assumed I was the major project. Kind of interesting.

I think that is about it for now, so I wish you all the best and thanks for all that you do. Hopefully, Mom & Grandma returned safely! Take care and enjoy your week, and remember your son who is living out of suit cases full of 2 years worth of stuff.  Miss you.

Love,
Elder Mike Robinson

P.S. I wish you the best again. Happy Thanksgiving