Christmas Miracles

Hello Family and Friends,

"I literally want you to follow me."

          MERRRRYYY CHRISTMAS!! The Christmas Season is well under way here in the boonies of Georgia! Everyone is really nice around this time of year, which makes our job a ton easier! We saw so many miracles this week! It's been really good for Elder Johnson to experience some of these miracles because now he wants them every day and it's helping us work hard. I was telling him this week that I need his greenie fire because he's keeping me on my toes, that's for sure!

          There's a huge flu epidemic going around Atlanta and everyone is getting sick so knowing Georgians, the grocery stores will be empty by tomorrow and the Mormons will conquer because they have food storage. Yay! I've been kind of sick the last couple days myself. So hopefully, I'm better by Christmas Day!

December 18, 2014 Georgia Atlanta North Missionaries
gather at the Atlanta Temple

          TONS happened this week! To start off the week, we had a zone training and the zone leaders asked me to provide a training…24 hours before it started. Ha. Ha. But, it was all good and I think it went well. On Thursday e also had our Christmas party with the entire mission. We had the opportunity to go to the Atlanta temple in the morning and do an endowment session. It was amazing! I hadn't done a session since last November because, as you remember, the last time I went in August our unfortunate driver got in a car accident on the way to Atlanta. The Spirit in the temple was so strong and it was so much fun to see all of my mission friends! There were also some people from the Grayson Ward at the Fireside that night and I loved seeing them again. I sang it the choir that performed at the fireside and Sister Bennion made me a bass, because you know I have THE lowest voice ever. And, she put me on the very back row with all the Elders who are above 6'4". What the heckkk maaaan? So, I just grabbed a chair and stood on it the whole time. Ha. Ha! It was quite a site!

          I'll tell you about a couple miracles we had this week. A few weeks ago I told you about the less active member, Maricruz, who we met at Cracker Barrel. She wasn't on our roles, but she is now. We had a lesson with her on Friday, and for the past couple of weeks we've been praying that she would find another job that wouldn't require her to work on the weekends. Well, she got one! She had been trying for a really long time and as soon as we all started praying together for it she found a new job! The only problem is that the job is in the county below us, which isn't in our ward boundaries and she is probably going to move down there so she can be closer to her job. For a brief second I was sort of bummed because I want to keep working with her and her non-member daughters, but then I realized something really cool! Maricruz is Hispanic and the language barrier has been tough, and this last week during transfers President Bennion felt inspired to put a missionary who has been serving Spanish for the last 8 months in that ward as an English speaking missionary. An assignment like that never happens! But, now he is in the ward where Maricruz will attend church and he'll be able to help her with any language barriers that she has! I just thought that was really cool. At the beginning of my mission I would've been really bummed not to keep working with her, but now I realize that it doesn't matter who plants the seed and who sees the harvest, all that matters is the work gets done and it's humbling to be a part of the whole experience. When we met with Maricruz on Friday she also shared with us some more crazy things that were going on in her life on the day we met her at the restaurant.  We all feel like when we met her we were inspired to find her THAT day instead of any other. Pretty cool stuff!

A P-Day hike on the EDGE...

          On Saturday morning Elder Johnson and I were going to help the Elders Quorum move someone, and we had about 30 minutes until we had to meet them. So, we planned to tract around the spot where we were meeting. When we got to the area, we realized it was pretty much all dirt roads and there were NO houses around, so I was frustrated. Then the Elder in charge called us and told us everyone was about 30 minutes behind schedule, so that gave us a little extra time to do some work. So, Elder Johnson and I said a prayer. We looked on the GPS and found a little circle about 2 miles away that looked like it would have some houses. Then we drove there and, sure enough, it was a perfect neighborhood with lots of people home. I drove about halfway down the street until I found a good place to park, and at the VERY first door we met a man named Scooter who let us in to his home. We went on to teach him and his family for 20 minutes about the Book of Mormon and showed them the “He Is The Gift” video. They told us we could come back next weekend--4 new investigators! It was crazy! Later that night, we knocked the rest of that street  and literally, no one else was interested. It was so cool to see how the Lord led us right where we needed to be-literally the exact door- when we had just a little bit of extra time to spare. Our meeting with Scooter and his family was NOT a coincidence!

          I love being a missionary and having these experiences every week! There are many that happen every day and it's so much fun. It makes me grateful to be here in Georgia at this time of my life! Although it's hard to get Georgians to commit, it's amazing to spread the gospel and watch it change people for the better.    

          I can't wait to talk to you guys on Christmas Day! Thank you for everything! Love you!!

Elder Roderick