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Excerpts from Mike's Letter Home:

08/04/2003

Dear Family,

Once again, I hope that all is treating you well. We had a pretty good week this week. We had 65 proselyting hours. So, we've been pretty busy.

We met again this week with the man we met while tracting last week. He is doing really well and told us some more things. We had given him a blessing the last time we met with him and now he is doing great. He said he could feel the healing in his neck while we were giving the blessing. Though, the interesting thing is that he told us that he had been praying that some of his church brethren would come out and give him a blessing. However, we showed up and offered him one.

Not only that, but he knows the scriptures really well and has a lot of the truth. He prays for the spirit before reading and has sought out the truth in a lot of churches. We pretty much sit back and smile in our discussion. Since he knows quite a bit, we got into some of the fourth discussion on our second visit. He said that he felt confirmation that our explanation of the missionary work in the spirit world was true. He did not believe we would just back under palm trees.

We also talked to another guy we tracted into for a really long time. He is an interesting guy, enjoys talking with us, and he is a trucker. So, we won't be able to talk to him for three weeks. I have taught truckers before, and it is hard since they leave on you. Hopefully, we at least planted a seed or two before he left. He did say that he would read and pray about the Book of Mormon, and we taught him a non-smoking workshop.

This week we had some service hours. We got to roll-out some sod for the landscaping on a new house that our Ward Mission Leader was frantically building. He closed on two unfinished houses in one week. Though, after about 70 hours of work this week, he finished them mostly (enough for people to move in.) We got to lay the sod, a new experience for me. Though, I don't think that I will be changing my major when I get back. Then, we got to help one of our members move. When we showed up to help move, it was just us and the Bishop. That was pretty funny, but within a minute quite a few people showed up. To answer mom's question, we have no set service, we just do what people need, which is the best way to do it. However, not all areas produce enough service for that.

We had interviews with the President on Saturday. We had a nice little conversation, but it was interesting since he told us some of his problems. Stating we had a ton of missionaries coming in, and he doesn't know where to put them all. Sure, he could open up new areas, but they would probably not need them when a lot of missionaries go home and not as many coming out in the winter. Tuesday night this week, we are having dinner with President Petersen. He is the Stake President of the Springfield South Stake (lives in our Ward). There was a lot of confusion in the past, before the change of mission presidents, as you can imagine.

The Branch had a chili cook-off. Since we did not have a dinner appointment that night, I talked Elder Slatter into letting us go. However, since no one was ready to leave when we were (and since we needed a ride), we had to pass some time with the activities. Elder Slatter played some horseshoes. I played tug of war, the team I was on winning 4 out of 5 rounds.

Also interesting was Elder Slatter (who is big into biking) was going to call Wasatch bicycle for Elder Cowley (Springfield 4th). He called the mission office to get the phone number for them. The mission office informed us that they must have gone out of business since they have been trying their phone numbers since last June. So, it may have been a good thing that I have a Liahona... since that means I still have a warranty.

To answer another one of mom's questions, Elder Slatter is an Eagle Scout. He built a large locked toy chest for the nursery, since other Wards were taking each others toys. He says it was a costly project.

Another pair of slacks would be nice, if you want to send them out. I am not in desperate of them, but they would be nice if you already have them. Thanks for the Camelback things, it is nice to have that working again. It broke while I was out on exchanges ("splits") and at an investigator's door. I emptied the Camelback into their plants since I didn't want it to leak all over the member's car. However, the member commented "I sure hope no one is looking at this from behind."

I am sorry to hear about the Audi. That is most unfortunate. I love my little Camry, I really miss it. Though, who knows some day I may want to get a nice used car at a place like Cove Motoring (not a Ford Focus though.) Right now, I am mostly focused on bicycles and I am seriously thinking about getting a new road bike for myself when I get home (along with a car rack.)

Thank you for all of your support once again. I couldn't do this without you. Take care and good luck in all that you do. I greatly miss you all!

Love,
Elder Mike Robinson