Excerpts from Mike's Letter Home:

05/12/2003

Dear Family,

Hopefully you are all doing well since I talked with you. I greatly enjoyed the time speaking with you. It was wonderful to hear all of your voices again. Also, thank you for your efforts with recording it, etc.

Reflecting on our conversation, I failed to mention one of the larger stories of the week. One of the families in the branch has legal custody of their grandchildren. There was a problem that had occurred that upset the kids. The grandparents requested that we come by that night to help restore the atmosphere in their home. Hopefully, we helped on that one.

The problems they had made me greatly appreciate the loving parents I have. It also is wonderful that grandparents will step in for what parents miss. I have a deep respect for this family.

We were letting the children know that Mother's Day would be a great day to remember and honor their grandmother. I shared my experience of kind of being raised by my grandma and also mailing her a card for Mother's Day. One of them said, "You're too old to have a grandma." The grandfather shared that your grandparents would always be your grandparents, no matter how old you get. Sometimes children's thoughts are interesting to hear. I just wanted to let you know that your son is "too old" already. Perhaps you should ship me out some of the coral calcium (joke).

Mom asked about my preference of small town versus big city assignments. You are right, I like serving in small places. I don't want to serve in Tulsa. However, serving in a ward would be nice. Something like Mountain Home seems ideal. But, Salem is pretty nice.

Congratulations on the successful installation of the garage springs and the lions! Hopefully, dad has some fun with his new organ recording toy.

I don't know if I said it, but I hope that mom and grandma had a super Mother's Day! I greatly miss you all. Take care and enjoy the weather.

Love,
Elder Mike Robinson