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Excerpts from Mike's Letter Home:

01/20/2004

Dear Family,

Hopefully all is still going well for you. I appreciate dad for getting the music of the wedding march out to me. Hopefully that comes in handy. Thanks for being so supportive.

Anyways, last Tuesday we were going to Independence, Kansas for District Meeting. We drove over to the other Elders apartment, and they told us that someone needed to be jump started. We pulled up to the car, and I had a bit of trouble pulling the hood release lever. Eventually, it released though. We jumped the car, and then tried closing our hood. But, it just wouldn't latch. We tried & tried, slamming and doing it softly, and even trying to bend a thing or two with a knife, but to no avail. So, I drove cautiously over to the Chevy dealer. It is kind of scary knowing your hood could pop up, but I didn't expect it to, it was down pretty well. They told us it would be about an hour and half wait. We showed the guy a little of what the problem was, and for the first time ever I saw the guy that checks your car in actually try and help you with the problem. After a little bit of time, we discovered that the grease that helps the levers move had frozen. So, we sprayed a little WD-40 on it and were on our way to district meeting only 30 minutes late.

On Thursday, we were going to take the car in again, because the Check Engine light was going on and off. We called up Elder Scott in the mission office to see if it would be covered by warranty. Elder Scott was rather angry and informed us that he had told 1st ward to take the car in immediately, and not when they had time. They had given us the car, and not passed on the message. The problem had something to do with the fuel injector and they had to get a new one shipped to the dealer. So, we had the car while it was in the shop. The other Elders have the car this week. But luckily, we seem to have the car during the colder weeks. Interestingly enough, I am the designated drive for second ward. Elder Green has an expired license, and he is unable to renew by mail since he has some kind of macular degeneration and has to see an eye doctor each time he renews. So, I get to enjoy driving. But after not having done it a lot regularly, I think my skills are not quite what they used to be. But, I guess that will come back with time.

Elder Green is a great cook too. He makes some great things; it is exciting to have my first companion that knows what he is doing in the kitchen, even though we pretty much have dinner appointments all the time right now. One thing mom might find interesting is that we didn't have a dinner appointment on Friday, so went by Wal-Mart to get some broccoli and peppers for some stir fry. We went through a checkout with a member (of 1st ward, that I knew) cashier, and she commented, "Your mothers should be proud you're out making the mid week broccoli run."

Sunday was pretty interesting since it was ward conference. We had the stake president and a missionary who was just returning home speaking in sacrament meeting. Apparently, this RM didn't really get the memo and took up all but the last five minutes of the meeting. It was a good talk and all, but he should have remembered that is was supposed to be ward conference mainly. Though, we just ran a half hour over time to make up for it. The big surprise of the day was showing up and finding President & Sister Nielsen in the back. For some reason, they just came to our ward. They don't go to all the ward conferences, but they came to ours. It made me a little nervous. Luckily, Bishop and everyone were complimenting us quite a bit while he was around. I sat next to President for all of Priesthood meeting.

We also sang in the choir and that sounded nice. The ward organist was back in town. He is good, but when the director asks for, "a little introduction," it gets pretty blown out of proportion.

Also interesting was Monday, or my birthday. We got a ride down to the Tulsa stake center. The meeting was over a lot of principles of obedience and being equally yoked. Though they were good messages, I think that we are missing something. President keeps reminding us that almost everything goes back to obedience. I think he stops short in that obedience goes back to love. If we work on that, it would be good. Though, President did have one good comment. One of the manners videos stated that if you needed help with mending, care of clothing, etc. contact your mission president. He told us he had no clue about any of that since he never does it. They also reminded us to keep our medical insurance cards with us in the field and not send them home. It is interesting what missionaries do. Elder Green also asked President to let us out early, and he did. We got out 10 minutes early, which I think is the first time on my mission. Also interesting was the fact that I met Elder Tree. He didn't remember my name, but when I came up to him and mentioned him e-mailing my parents he instantly knew it was me with the website, and thanked me for the assistance.

I was sung to by the Zone for my birthday. I went home longing to find a package on the porch to pick me up. However, it seemed like everyone just sent cards (or cash) and promised stuff when I get home. You know, it would just me nice to get a package from someone, even though the things I really want are for me when I return. I think it was just a hard day and I wanted a pick me up. Oh well, I am glad people were thinking of me, and I appreciated the card and money. Our dinner appointment did not know it was my birthday till the end, so they put a candle in some ice cream and took a picture, so you might be having that e-mailed to you.

Something interesting is we have been having some black eye peas, which is supposed to bring good luck for the New Year. Though my thought is of course, didn't grandma say sauerkraut?

One of the members asked for my card, so you might be hearing from them I don't know. It seemed really strange to me, so I don't know what is up with that. Let me know.

Anyways, my time is running short. Things are going great; our investigator family is getting baptized soon hopefully. We also have a 17 year old boy who has a girlfriend and some other friends in the church who will probably be getting baptized pretty soon to. Both are committed for it. So, things are going really well and Elder Green and I are getting along really great.

I miss and love you all so much, and hope you had a good Mike's birthday without me. Happy Birthday to Grandma & Grandpa too. Take care, and best wishes to all of you. Thanks for your ever continuing support.

Love,
Elder Mike Robinson