A Southern 4th of July

Hello Fam and Friends,                                                                                                           

Elder Roderick with Greg & Angie Dustin
on the 4th of July 

I hope you guys are doing well and that you had a great 4th of July weekend! I was treated well, as always! On Saturday night, the Kings invited us to join them and a bunch of families from the Hickory Flat Ward for dinner. Then, after dinner, we watched the fireworks that were right by our house! During dinner Sister King said to me, "I'm glad you guys could come. I know it's not home, but it's still fun for you guys to be here!" and I responded, "But I feel just as much at home here as I do anywhere else!" These wonderful people have made me feel so at home. That's why I love it here. They deliver Southern Hospitality at its finest!

Well, it was a great week for the work! Elder Detmer and I are staying busy! I'm really grateful to be his companion because he's pushing me until the end! He's inviting everyone we teach to be baptized, and so far they are all accepting! Most of them just need to get further confirmation to their prayers. The Mays family is doing super well. It's so much fun and so rewarding to work with them. They're just the best people. I love them so much! Julius is doing so awesome and ever since his    baptism and confirmation and he's helping us work with Joyce and encouraging her to progress. Their situation is actually quite ironic because at first, she was the one who was asking us to help him, and now that he has changed so much and is doing so well, the tables have turned! So, they're all just helping each other. We moved Joyce's baptism date to July 25^th to give her more time. We've made a plan to help her live the word of wisdom. This week we also started teaching their daughter, Angel, and now she has also accepted to be baptized with her mom on the same day. It's amazing for me to see how much information she remembers our lessons.  It’s also so cool to see how willing little children, like Angel, are to follow Jesus Christ!

Elder Roderick & Elder Higginbotham

We're teaching some other great people too! We've been working with Todd, a guy we street contacted during my first week in Canton. He came to church on Sunday and has come a long way. He just has a million-and-one questions that he wants answers to, some that I don't think anyone but the Man Upstairs has answers for. Ha! Ha! At first, Todd was really nervous and stand-offish about the church, but the Spirit has worked in him and his doubts and concerns have started to be cleared, one at a time. We're also teaching several married couples and we're just trying to help them progress as much as we can!

Transfers are this week and tons of my mission friends are going home! Man! It's so crazy! I can't believe I'm starting the final transfer of my mission! I'm going to miss some of those Elders so much but, I know we'll be friends for life!

By far, the highlight of my week came on Saturday night. After watching the fireworks, we were driving home in the pouring rain and we saw a guy walking down the side of the street.  He was carrying a Confederate flag and yelling, "GOD BLESS 'MURICA!!" I thought to myself, "Well that's Georgia for ya’!" So, we pulled up to him and rolled down the car window to take a picture when I realized he was a recent convert in our ward! Like, we teach that guy! Weekly! I was laughing SO hard. You gotta’ love Georgia! It takes all kinds to build the Kingdom!

Have a great week y'all! Love you!

Elder Roderick