When We Work as His Instruments, Amazing Things Happen

WHAT'SSSSS UPPPPPP MY FAVORITE PEOPLE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD,

HOW ARE Y'ALL?  I'm sorry it took me forever to get on today! The library computers were down so we couldn't get on until now.... and I only have 30 more minutes. So, I'm just writing this email. Sorry to those I can't reply to today. I'll get you next week!

Before I get any further, I saw President Bennion this weekend and he told me he still checks out the blog every once in awhile. Ha Ha. So, if you're reading this, HELLO PRESIDENT! You're a stud. All right that's it.

I'm glad you guys liked the "Elder Roddy" tag! To answer your question about how I got it…I'm really close with all the senior couples in the office from when I was a ZL in Lilburn because we were in and out of the office all the time. So, I got one of them to order some for me! Pretty sweet, huh? 

Cornelia Elders panning for GOLD on P-Day. 

This week was amazing! We saw some great miracles and I'm loving it so much! Transfers are this week and we're losing Elder Hawkins (he's the tall blonde one in the pictures). The rest of us are staying up here though! Dad asked me to give some more details about the area so I'll do the best I can with the time that I have! So this area is hugeeee! It's one of the biggest in the mission. We cover 4 counties and live in the middle county, Habersham. We have a car share with the other Elders, which means we get to drive every other day. So, three times a week, at least, I'm biking around this county doing work here. Then, when we have the car we usually take that opportunity to go visit people in the places that are 30-45 minutes away. The Cornelia ward has over 400 members on the roster but we only average about 160 at church every week.  This means there is a ton of “less active” work to do. Most of the people who are considered “less active” have legitimate testimonies but it's such a far drive for them that they choose not to come. This is a bummer, but hopefully there will be some branches in various places soon. Cornelia is like the South on steroids. Every stereotype about the South rings true here. The food, the accents, the language, the Bible Belt, everything! I've never met so many Southern Baptists and I’ve never been unable to understand so many people who speak the same language as I do!

Our week was so great! For the lack of time I'm going to tell you about a few of the cool experiences we had.  We have been teaching a less active member named Brother Alexander. He's about eight years old and has bad health problems so he can't come to church but, he's really pumped on the gospel and is finding allll these people for us to teach. On Tuesday he took us to find one of his friends who he wants us to teach. After searching for a while, we finally found Robin's house at about 8 o'clock, and as we got to know her, we found out she had gone to church in Utah until she was in 3rd grade and she has also been several times here in Georgia with some Mormon friends. While we talked to her she told us that she had visited other churches but didn't like them, so she had been praying for an opportunity to go back to a church she would enjoy. Two days later, we showed up! We are planning on teaching her this week. It was amazing to see the way member-finding is so much more effective than just knocking on doors, because members are inspired and they know who has been prepared to receive the gospel.

Cornelia Elders at stake conference with President Bennion.

President Bennion is making a big push on teaching members so we've been teaching a ton lately. We have been teaching a man named Brother Taylor. He is considered active, but the ward executive secretary took us to visit him because he felt inspired that he needed some guidance from the missionaries. So we've started teaching him every Thursday. This last Thursday Brother Taylor fed us lunch then we sat down and taught him the plan of salvation. After the lesson, while the Spirit was strong, he told us something that he said was kind of personal to him but he felt like he could trust us. He said that his entire life he had known that this church was Christ's church on the earth, but he didn't exactly have a firm testimony of it. In fact, he said he never feels the Spirit at church and feel's God's presence more at a Baptist church! He really knows this is the true church because the evidence is undeniable, and he is just longing for a burning testimony. He told us that he had been praying for an opportunity to find it for himself. Apparently that week is when we knocked on his door to visit him with Brother Shaver (the member). Our meetings with Brother Taylor began as “practice sessions” for Elder Larsen, but now the lessons we’re having with him are becoming more and more important each week because we are doing our best to convert this brother to the gospel. I love how much the Lord just guides us to the people who need us most. It's nothing we do or say. Rather, when we work as His instruments amazing things happen!

Cornelia Elders visiting the UGA campus.

On Sunday we had stake conference and I can't remember if we told you or not but all of the Cornelia Elders have ties with little fish on them. When President Bennion saw them, he LOVED them and asked us to buy one for him. Ha Ha. So we did and we all wore our fish ties to stake conference yesterday! Our swag with P-Beezy was on point!

Today we went panning for gold. Ya, that's a real thing. You basically pay for a huge bucket of rocks and sift through them for little gems or something. Discovery Channel did a feature on it so everyone thinks it's the best thing ever, next to their preacher, of course. I would've rather have gone bowling but, it was still pretty fun. Welcome to Cornelia baby!

Oh, and we got to visit the UGA campus on Saturday!! IT WAS SO SWEET.

Well the library is closing in 5 minutes so I gotta’ go! I love each and every one of you so much! Thank you for everything! 

Elder Roddy