Greenie Fire and Christmas Carols

Hey guys!                                                                                         

It's officially Christmas time here in the boonies of the South, which means there are a lot of Redneck Santas and a lot of Rudolphs being shot for dinner! Ha Ha! Sorry, but it's true! I ate deer three times this week.

Bad Santa Hats & Ugly Ties call for a "Prayer for our Missionaries."

Well, transfers were on Wednesday, which meant I had to drop off one son and pick up another. My new “greenie” companion is Elder Johnson. He's from the same exact high school as Elder Larsen.  What are the odds of that? They even wrestled together. Elder Johnson is great. He's really excited to be here and ready to work. I love “greenies” because they're always so innocent and fired up. We'll be in the car and I'll say something like "Okay, Elder. Now we're going to go here…” Normally, someone would say "Okay, sounds good!" But not Elder Johnson.  He says, "OKAYYYYYY! LET'S DO IT! I CAN'T WAAAAITTTT!" His enthusiasm will be good for me because it'll keep me fired up!

"Good Bye" Elder Covington

A lot of Elders and Sisters that I knew really well, including Elder Convington (one of my companions), went home on Thursday. It's so weird! They were all at 14, 15, 16 months when I got to know them and that seems like yesterday, and now they're home. Time goes by too fast out here!

Our investigators are doing well. We found a lot of good people that we're going to start teaching this week.  So, one funny experience happened on Friday night. We went to visit Bunny (yes, real name), a lady who a member family named the Thompsons told us to go visit. We wanted to sing her some Christmas carols, so our plan was to start singing as soon as she opened the door and try not to scare her away with our voices. (By the way, I'll have you know that Sister Bennion put me in the mission choir and it's really paying off. Ha Ha.) Anyway, we rang the door bell and instead of coming to the door, she yelled from inside, "WHO IS IT!?" I thought to myself, "Crap! Do I just start singing now or what do I say?" So I yelled back, "IT'S US!!!!" Then she opened the blinds, because she was probably wondering who in the heck "US" was, and before we got a chance to start singing she asked, "What do YOU want?" At this point, the caroling idea seemed weird and the situation was super awkward. So I just said, "Well ma'am, to be honest we were just going to sing you a song." Then she responded, "Ugh. Okay. One moment. Let me go PUT SOME CLOTHES ON." (.......) Finally, she came to the door and we sang to her, quite horribly I should add.  Thankfully, our visit turned out “okay” because as soon as we told her the Thompsons sent us, she let us in and we had a great Christmas message with her. During our visit we learned that she has a brain tumor and she was not feeling good that day, and the message really cheered her up and made her feel better. So, it was a good experience. But, you should know that those awkward moments are basically what my life consists of. Ha Ha!

          If you're wondering what else happens in Cornelia, the big news it that there is an old man who comes into the library bathroom every Monday and yells at the top of his lungs while he's sitting in there. Oh joy! I usually cry because I'm laughing so hard.

Have a great week guys! I can't wait to talk to you in 10 days!  Love you so much!!

Roddy