Hey Peeps!
How are my
favorite people?? I miss you guys so much but, as usual, my week in ATL was
amazing! The weather finally cooled down a bit and it actually rained a lot,
which I love!
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| Grayson Zone Atlanta North Mission |
I am having
so much fun right now. On Tuesday, we started off the week with our Zone
Training Meeting. This is my third training meeting, all of which I’ve
conducted with Elder Flake. I'll never forget the first one we were in charge
of when we had NO idea about what was going on or how to train. However, by the
time this week’s training rolled around we were both so excited for it and I
really have learned to love training in front of everyone. The meeting was
great. I love our zone so much! We told each of the missionaries to bring a
pair of cheap imitation Ray Ban glasses and afterwards we took a picture of the
entire zone posing in them. I think mine are the best because they aren't just
glasses. Can you find me?
The next day I went on exchange with Elder
Schaertl (pronounced like turtle...which is what I call him). We had so much
fun together! Before dinner we were knocking on doors and we ended up standing
on a guy’s porch, having a productive conversation about prophets and why we
need one today. Well naturally, I was really getting into it and when I get
lost in my discussions I tend to forget about my companion. Oops. So, during the conversation it started to
rain REALLLYY hard, and then, right in the middle of the conversation I
remembered Elder Schaertl. I turned around
and found him standing behind me, drenched in rain, because there wasn't enough
room for both of us on this guy’s porch. After we left I said, “Dude. Why
didn't you say anything!? His brief
reply was, "It's okay Elder Roderick I'll take the sacrifice. "What a
good kid!
So, I'm horrible at updating you on
all of our investigators and I'M SORRY I just get caught up in sharing the
funny things we do throughout the week. Anyway, for the past couple months
we've been teaching a boy in our ward's girlfriend, Kaitlyn. We meet with
Kaitlyn and her boyfriend’s entire member family (the Angells) once a week and
lately we've started teaching her with them twice a week. At first we were
hesitant to teach her because we didn't want it to be one of those situations
where the investigator gets baptized just for her boyfriend. But, with Kaitlyn,
our teaching and her acceptance have gone much better than we expected! She is
really interested in all the lessons and asks the best questions. I think she's
come to church every week for the past eight weeks. Last night she commented on
how much she loves learning with the Angell family and us because it makes her
feel so good and that she knows everything we teach her is true. She always
says things such as, "When I'm Mormon…" and "Once I'm baptized…"
The problem is she probably can't get baptized until she's eighteen. Her
parents are fine with her meeting with us, but they won't let her get baptized
until she is an adult. It'll happen eventually though!
This week we finally taught Emoy,
Kamari and Aaysia the Law of Chasity, which is the lesson we were dreading
because Emoy lives with her boyfriend, Brandon. We taught some of it on
Thursday, and then Elder Flake and a greenie taught her the rest of it on
Saturday. They said she took it really well and they also used it as an
opportunity to teach Kamari and Aaysia about an important principle of the
gospel. Even so, the whole situation is rough because I think she was about
to make the decision to be baptized, but now that she knows she can't do it
until she makes a change in her lifestyle, it'll obviously hold things up.
We're just hoping that the kids can still progress and make the decision to be
baptized very soon!
On another afternoon this week, the
funniest thing happened while we were on a split with a member of our ward, Brother
Grimsley. It was one of those things where you had to be there to experience
it, but hopefully I can help you capture the humor. We were going around
visiting some members whose records we have, but that we’ve never met or who
don’t go to church. Since we were trying
to contact people in the middle of the afternoon, of course no one was home. At
the last house, we were standing on the porch and Brother Grimsley kept
debating with himself about whether he thought someone lived there or not. You
probably should know that Brother Grimsley is a high school teacher and talks
more than anyone I've ever met. He is completely bald and grows a nice brown
beard. So anyway, we were on the porch and Brother Grimsley has his ear to the
door and is listening to hear if anyone inside, all while talking to himself
about their "lack of yard management." Then all the sudden HE STARTS
BANGING HIS HEAD ON THE DOOR and yelling, "IS ANYONE HOMEEE?" Literally, I was DYING. I don't know if it's
the heat or something in the Georgia water but every – single - day I'm amazed
at the originality of these people!
I’ll share one more cool experience
then I have to sign off. On Saturday we were tracting, and the street we were
knocking on was pretty empty and no one seemed to be there. There were several
times where Elder Flake and I talked about going somewhere else, but the Spirit
kept telling us that despite the fact we hadn't talked to many people, we
needed to stay on this street. At one of
the last houses on the street, a Jamaican guy named Levi Brown opened the door
with two of his children. We introduced ourselves and we felt prompted to leave
a harvest blessing on his home. He immediately let us in and we were able to
leave the blessing with them and get a return appointment with their family for
tomorrow. They said we came at a perfect time because each of them were
struggling and needed something good to happen. It was really cool to see the
way the Spirit led us to them and how they had been prepared for us to come
that day! They mentioned they had had Elders in their home before.
This upcoming week we are taking in
another Elder because his companion got his Visa and is headed to Brazil. So,
that means we will be covering two areas and going to both churches and
everything. It should be crazy, but fun. I'm lovin’ it in ATL! Thank you guys
for everything! I love you so much! Have a great week!
Elder Roddy
P.S. Happy Birthday
Day to me.
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