"A Person to be Loved"

Hey guys!                                                                                             

WOW! It was sooooooo good to Skype with you on Thursday! I still can't believe it happened. It was so great to see your faces and be able to talk to y'all for a while! Jayne walking in the front door was such a nice surprise! To be honest, this Christmas was kind of like last year, where I wish I could've Skyped all over again because there was sooo much I wanted to tell you guys but, of course, my mind totally went blank as soon as I saw you. It's all good, though. I just loved being able to talk with you. Thank you for making my Christmas so memorable!

Elder Roderick & Elder Johnson win the "Ugly Sweater Contest"

It's been super warm in Cornelia, 55 degrees everyday. We've been walking around in short sleeve shirts! But, it sounds like everyone else is experiencing warm weather too on your luxurious vacations. So, I guess I have nothing to brag about. Ha Ha. The ward absolutely spoiled us this Christmas. The great thing about this ward is everyone is so humble and it's taught me so much. There are so many people that do sooo much for the missionaries and for the ward and we’ve learned that they actually have nothing themselves. My favorite part of Christmas this year was spoiling other people! I told you guys a little bit about it over Skype but we basically took a little from all of the packages we received and made little gifts for people.  We also put some cash together acted as a Secret Santa for them. It was the best! I'll never forget running away from their houses and catching myself with the biggest smile on my face!

Elder Roderick's humble Christmas tree and bounty of packages.

Well, after talking with you, the rest of the week went really well. I don't even know what else to tell, since we just spoke, but we did have some really cool experiences at the end of the week that I'll tell you about. We have a lot of people to teach right now.  Most of them are part-member families, which is always the best way to go. First off, Robin is doing so well. I love her so much!! She is so solid and has such a strong desire to come back to the church. From her referrals and contacts alone we've starting teaching 6 other people. It's awesome! And, we’ll probably start teaching a 7th this week too. And, guess what!? She’s getting married! Robin has been dating Jeff for 4 years and they're finally getting married. So, now we're teaching him too! A huge part of why they decided to get married is because there is a sister in the ward who was going to lose her house, and Robin just flat out gave the sister her trailer to live in. After giving away her home, Robin didn't have anywhere to live, so she moved in with her boyfriend. She told us, "Well boys I can't live in sin so we need to get married!!" We are so happy for her! Last night we had a super spiritual lesson with Robin and Jeff and as we were teaching them, I was able to tell them about how our family reads scriptures as a family and how we say family prayers together. Those times have had a great impact on me. So, I told them about how we do that and Robin said, "Ahhh I love that!" Then we committed them to pray as a couple every night and they immediately said they would. So thank you guys for doing that as a family so I can help others do it too! Jeff is a great candidate for the gospel but he works 7 days a week so we'll have to work on helping him work only 6 days a week.

I had very special spiritual experience last night too. A sister in the ward who is probably about 60 years old called me at 9:15 p.m. and requested that I come give her a blessing (she said no one else would do) because her mother was on her death bed and was about to pass at any hour. We have to be home at 9:30 so I wasn't sure what to do.  As I thought about my predicament President Monson's words came into my head, "Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved." So, we decided that even though we’d be out past 9:30 we should go provide her with a blessing. When we got there, she was sitting by her mom, whom you could tell was going to pass at any minute. It reminded me a lot of visiting Grandma June when we saw her right before she went to the other side. Anyway, she asked me to give her a blessing in that room because she wanted to stay by her mom, so we did. It was a really cool experience because I've never given someone a blessing when their own family member was about to pass away. The Spirit was so strong and I don't even remember what I said. I just remember that the words that came out of my mouth weren't mine. I am really grateful for the opportunity I had to use my priesthood authority and I love being on a mission because experiences like that are unforgettable!

Well, I love you guys and I thank you for everything! Sorry to everyone I didn't email back today but we're super short on time. I'll email you next week!

Love y'all so much! Have a great week!

Roddy