Sinners in Sunday School

Hey y'all!                                                                                 

Another week down in Cornelia and a lot of things happened! So, I guess I'll just start from the beginning. On Tuesday night we had a ward council meeting and the bishop asked the missionaries to attend.  So, we did and basically we sat on the back row with Brother Dustin the whole time because none of it involved us. At one point in the meeting they started talking about the young men and young women and before they moved on to the next topic, a counselor in the bishopric brought it to everyone's attention that "Some of the young men and young women are starting to be more interested in each other than normal. In fact, one young man even put his arm around a young woman in Sunday school!" OH NO!!!!!!!! Well, you can only imagine the conversations that were started after that! Questions started being asked such as, "Well, are they holding hands too? That would be concerning." and "Oh my! Are they 16 yet?"Of course I'm just sitting in the back trying not to laugh and all I can think is "I must really be in the hills of Georgia right now! If this is bad, I wonder what they would think of us sinners in Salt Lake!!" Ha Ha! Good times, good times.

Trick or Treat?  Who's the trick and who's the missionary? 

On Wednesday night we attended the Trunk or Treat at the ward! And no, I didn't dress up this year because we weren't allowed to. But, it was still a lot of fun! Many less active families and investigators attended.  In fact, some who hadn't been to the church building in about eight years came! However, the part of the night was that our friend Will dressed up like a Mormon missionary. You've probably seen Will in some of our pictures; he's the blonde guy who hangs out with us every P-Day. He's a non-member and the cousin of a family in our ward. His costume was pretty classic!

Elder Anderson, our 24-year old friend, left us on Wednesday to complete his mission in another city. The new Elder to join us in Cornelia is Elder Harward. Coincidentally, he served in Hickory Flat so he and I have some great things to talk about. He said Stanley, my first baptism, hasn't missed a single Sunday! So sweet!

 On another bright note, our investigator, Chantz (11), wants to be baptized right away! He said he went home and prayed about whether Joseph Smith was a prophet or not, and as soon as he did he got chills up and down his whole body. We told him he would never forget that feeling! His mom said it was fine for him to get baptized and we're hoping to start teaching her soon as well. Chantz will probably be baptized either the week before or the week after Thanksgiving.

In addition to Elder Harward, a new sister joined us in Cornelia as well.  She served with me in Grayson for 3 months so I’ve been able to talk with her about how my friends in that ward are doing, and I got some GREAT news from her! She said that Emoy is still taking the missionary discussions and that Kamari and Aaysia are going to church regularly. The best news though, was about a less active member that Elder Flake and I taught, Nicole Campbell. I can't remember if I told you about her or not, but we actually found her when we were knocking doors, and at first she didn't want us to teach her anything because she’d had some bad experiences in the past. She did, however, let us provide service for her. So basically for 3 months every Wednesday we went to her house and served her. During most of the time we worked for her we built a little house behind her garage. As a result, she began to trust us and slowly we started to teach her. Well guess what? Now she has started going to church and she brings her kids with her! And, that little house we built? SHE is moving into it and on the next transfer date, the sister missionaries in the area are going to move into her original house! It was so satisfying to hear this news! In a million years I wouldn't have guessed that would happen.

Well that's about all I have to report for this week! Great things are happening and I'm excited for my work to continue! Thank you for your support and love! I love being a missionary and seeing miracles every day.

Love y'all! Have a great week!

Roddy