It was AMAZING!

Georgia, Atlant Temple 

This week was so crazy!! I know I say that every week but I seriously think back to this week and there was just so much we had to do that it was ridiculous. In the middle of the week we got dumped on with snow! Ha Ha! Of course the entire city was shut down. It was tons of fun though! We walked around and visited all of our investigators because we knew they would be home.

Fabiola and Elder Roderick 

Friday was one of the most spiritual days of my mission because we got to go do baptisms in the temple with some of our recent converts who were attending for their first time and it was seriously amazing. Each of them took some family names with them. Hugues and Fabiola, who are brother and sister and recent converts in the ward from Haiti, have been on quite the adventure to get to the temple. All of their ancestors were totally into voodoo and black magic and all that crazy stuff, so at first, they were totally against being baptized for them. They didn't even want to talk about it. But we've worked with them for the last couple of months and Fabiola went to the temple with us on Friday and Hugues is going this coming Saturday! Fabiola loved it so much that she is going again with her brother! When we walked out of the temple she couldn't stop talking about how amazing it was and she said, "I don't know why I didn't want to do that! I want to live in there for the rest of my life!" The spirit in the temple was amazing. I wish I could live there too!

The next day was the day of Nina and Jania's baptisms and our huge Haitian feast! We spent the entire day running around trying to get as many Haitians as we could to attend and we literally invited any of them that we saw on the street! First, however, I have to tell you about the baptism.

Oh! My! Gosh! It was awesome! Tons of people from the ward showed up, which was wonderful for the family to feel so much support. Cleevens got to baptize Jania because he received the priesthood last week. I wish you could have heard him say the baptism prayer. He said it with such power and authority that it was incredible. The first time he went to put her in the water Jania kind of freaked out and kicked her legs up, so she had to do it again. So, Cleevens said the prayer again and put her under. And, AGAIN she kicked her feet out of the water. This time instead of bringing her up, Cleevens just let go of her, put one hand on her chest and one hand on her knees and literally pushed her all the way under the water. Ha Ha! It took everything in my power to not bust out laughing. It was definitely something I'll never forget! Their mom came to the baptism too, which was AMAZING. I never thought that day would come! When we first started meeting with her family, she was really stand-offish with us, but now she loves us and everything that the church is doing for her kids. I wish I could put into words how much they have all progressed but I can't. It's just been AMAZING to watch them grow!

So, after the baptism was the dinner and it was SO much fun! We had one Haitian family go shopping with a member in our ward who donated money to buy a ton of Haitian food! Another member also catered BBQ, then I used some of the money Aunt Christie sent me to buy some food for some other Haitian members who don't have much at all and they made the best chicken and rice I've ever tasted in my entire life! Maybe it was because we were too busy to eat lunch that day but still it was AMAZING. I think I'm going to use the rest of my allotted money for this month on food for the Haitians to cook for me. Ha Ha! But anyway, the dinner was tons of fun and I'm still stunned that we were even able to pull it off. A lady in our stake from Haiti, who works at the temple, came and gave a spiritual thought beforehand and it was so cool to see our investigators just zero in on her and feel the spirit! 

So, as you can see my week was awesome!! Elder Gosar and I are just trying to keep the ball rolling. We have a lot of recent converts who we need to pay close attention to so they can continue to progress. At the same time, we need to focus on our other investigators who haven't gotten as much attention from us as they probably should have. Please keep us in your prayers and know that I pray for each of you every day! Love you guys so much!

Elder Roddy