What Day is it? It’s HUMP DAAAAY!

WASSSSUPP GUYS!                                                                               

Following tradition, Elder Roderick burns a shirt on his HUMP DAY!

As usual, this week was amazing! We had zone conference with two zones in the mission so I got to see a ton of friends and mingle with everyone. President Bennion was awesome too! He and Sister Bennion each gave amazing trainings and they really inspired everyone. Since they arrived in Georgia, they have already changed so much. I remember when they first arrived and we had a huge conference to meet them, and all of the zone leaders met with them before the conference to talk about what would happen. Ha Ha! President couldn't stop shaking because he was so nervous. Now he just walks around like a real OG and kills it! It's amazing what the Lord does to His chosen servants!

Gotta have some fun, right?

During the week we provided a lot of service for members. Since there are four of us, and I've learned to "be patient" and always wait to be the LAST person to get an assignment because the final assignment is usually the easiest. LoL. So, on Thursday I was in charge of painting and, you know me...it eventually got out of hand. We ended up putting our hands in the paint and putting huge handprints on our faces and having a paint fight. Ha Ha! Crap! Gotta have some fun, right?

We also had some promising lessons with the few investigators that we do happen to have. The first lesson, on Saturday, was with a Laotian girl named Emile. She's 19 and considers herself Buddhist but she believes in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ because she's felt their influence in her life. She's a really smart girl and wants to find the truth. Prior to meeting with us she did a ton of research on her own and she created two full pages of questions for us. So, when we taught her we were able to answer some of them and the Spirit was super strong. She should be coming to church next week.

Who's counting? 19 months... 1 year... 1 month

Yesterday we also had a great lesson with a girl named Cassandra. She is living in Cornelia with her sister until she moves back to New York next Monday. She was really interested in learning more so we taught her and it was the best lesson we've taught in this area so far. By the end of the lesson she begged me for a Book of Mormon and I couldn’t help but think, "Calm down lady. You can have it. It's free." Ha Ha! Then she basically committed herself to be baptized. After we left she texted us and asked when our next appointment was so she could write it down, and she told us she wants to know as much as she can before she leaves. If only she were staying here! Some lucky Elders in New York will be receiving a nice phone call!

Thursday was my big YEAR MARK!  Elder Larsen and I had dinner with a really nice couple in the ward and they fed us amazing food! I waited until Saturday to burn a shirt because Saturday was Elder Larsen's 1-month mark (how cute) and Elder Anderson's 19-month mark (even cuter!).  So, we all burned things together. It was great! We just sat back and reminisced on the memories of the mission.                                                                                                                                                                                   

Elder Scissor Hands returns to the scene of the crime.

The most....eventful(?)...thing happened on Tuesday though. So, in the morning we were doing our companion study, and for whatever reason Elder Larsen felt it was necessary to shave at that moment and he just had to do it NOW. So he started shaving and I was just sitting there in the bathroom doorway thinking, "Goodness child! How am I raising you?" Well, my patience (of which I have very little) ran out completely and I got bored watching him, so I grabbed my NEW electric raiser and started using the trimmer to cut my sideburns or whatever. When I started shaving I seriously heard a voice say, "Get your butt back in there, Elder Roderick." But, I ignored it and I kept shaving. Then, all of the sudden the razor slipped out of my hands and I tried to catch it against my face and I heard "ZZZZZZZ"......................I was like OH HALE NAW. I looked in the mirror and I accidentally shaved part of my eyebrow off! Haaaaaa! It happened right before zone conference too! GOSH DANG IT! I SHOULD'VE LISTENED TO THE SPIRIT WHEN IT SPOKE TO ME. At first I thought, "Well I can just tell everyone I'm trying to match Elder Larsen because he has a scar in his eyebrow." But, that would just be stupid. So, I decided that whenever I am in the ghetto area I will walk around like I have steps in my eyebrow and I’ll fit right in! Then, whenever I am with the country folk I will cover it with a Sharpie marker, and I’ll still fit right in! Luckily you can't really see the loss of eyebrow hair anymore. But, I definitely learned my lesson. When God speaks to you èfollow Him! Or else He might cut off some of your eyebrow.

Elder Scissor Hands strikes again! (circa October 2013)

Have a great week y'all!! I love you so much!!

Roddy

The #Mission-Life

HEY Y'ALL!!!                                                                                               

The steps to one of the Tallulah Gorge Falls 

It's been a great week in Cornelia. Thank you for your emails and letters.  I look forward to hearing from you each week.

Last week after emailing, we decided to go to Tallulah Gorge State Park and hike around the gorge and the waterfalls. It was so much fun! One blessing about being tucked away in the mountains of Cornelia is the beauty that's all around. 

Elder Roderick & Elder Larsen at Tallulah Gorge 

Well, Elder Larsen and I had a great week working together. In our efforts to find as many people as possible to teach, we tracted our butts off! And, we are finding a lot of potential investigators. I really like working in this area because people are humble and willing to talk with us for a long time. We are trying to work with the current members, but first we have to teach the ward missionaries how to actually do missionary 

                                                                           work. So, getting the ward involved will be a process but we'll figure it out.

On Thursday we did some service work for our ward mission leader, and he asked us to do a million odd jobs all over the place; everything from cleaning his hot tub to cutting down corn stalks (Yaa!). We were about an hour into our work when all the sudden we heard his wife, who was back at the house, scream bloody murder. So, we ran back there to find her pointing at something in the driveway. We ran next to her and saw that she was pointing at a hugeeee black snake. It was completely harmless but she did NOT want to find it again. She yelled, "Kill it Elders! Kill it now!" We thought, “Wowwww.  She’s serious.”  I literally had to take a flat head shovel and whack the poor little guy! (Well it wasn't exactly little and it took forever. It was a tough bugger.) That was an experience! We also had the pleasure of lighting a huge bon fire and one of the Elders singed his eyebrows! Suckkaaaa!

I received some great news from Grayson this week too. Kamari passed the sacrament on Sunday. Yeaaa, Buddy! I'm proud of that stud.

Well, this Thursday, August 21^st, I'll be hitting my year mark. It's so crazy how fast time as gone by. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was being dropped off at the MTC and now I've already been in Georgia for a year. I can't even begin to list all the miracles and amazing experiences I've had, so I won't for now, but I see God's hand in my life every day and it's incredible. There is nowhere I would rather be than serving the Lord in Georgia. I’ve been told that the second year always goes by ten-times faster than the first, so I'm going to make sure I take advantage of every day. I can't wait to see what great things God has in store for me. I love being a representative of Jesus Christ! And, I love you and appreciate your support!

To those who wrote me emails today, we literally have NO time to email today so if I can't email you back today, I will email you next week! I'm sorry but it's the #mission-life.

I love you! 1 down 1 to go!

BYE Y'ALL

Welcome to the Back Hills and a Revival at Sacred Grove Baptist Church

Hello Loved Ones, 

Elder Roderick's final zone meeting in Grayson. 

It's been a very interesting week! On Wednesday I said goodbye to Grayson Ward and the city of Loganville. Oh man, it was hard! There are seriously so many families I love in that area and I'm going to miss them all so much! I'll be back in no time to visit though! I'm so grateful for the six months I was able to serve there and for the people I was able to meet!

Truckin' on up to the back hills of Cornelia, Georgia. 

On Wednesday I met my new companion, Elder Larsen. He's from Spanish Fork and he's a great kid! I'm really excited to train him and to serve in Cornelia together! I picked him up at the mission home and told him where we were going, then we drove...and drove....and drove until we finally arrived in Cornelia, Georgia! Oh man! It's another world up here! It's completely the opposite from Grayson. Seriously, it's the straight-up boonies! I'm living with the mountain men and hood rats and everything around us is old and sooo country! Our area is huge. In fact, it covers four counties. The ward is great and everyone is super old and loving. I feel like I'm just chillin’ with a bunch of grandmas every Sunday (probably because I am). Elder Larsen and I have been trying to adjust and figure out how we're going to make everything work. It's going to be a great learning opportunity because the ward is really inexperienced with member missionary work and the ward mission leader is basically asking me and another missionary, Elder Anderson (he’s been out 19 months), how to do everything. We tell him what works and he say, "Alright we'll do it!" So, it'll be fun to see the way everything comes together and we're really looking forward to helping the church expand in Cornelia.  

In the far north hills of Georgia, you'll find Cornelia.
Population 4,100 people.

The best experience of the week, by far, came on Thursday night. We drove into the woods of Cornelia and found this little old church named, Sacred Grove Baptist Church.  A crowd of people was walking into a service and they encouraged, "Come on boys. It's the final night of Revival! Y'all gotta come!" So…. we joined them! Try to picture a classic, Southern Baptist church where the black people are singing, waving their arms and yelling "Amen!" That is exactly what Sacred Grove Baptist Church was like! The preacher went on some crazy rants and the congregation chimed in, "Yup! C'mon! Amen!" Every three seconds they shouted approvals and then out of nowhere a lady hopped on the piano and the preacher started singing and before I knew it, the entire congregation was breaking out into song together! I couldn't stop laughing! It was truly so classic!

You know you're in the boonies when you're walking down the street with your greenie and the poor kid asks, "Wait! Elder, is that a dog or a goat in the backyard?" Oh my!

The mission office can't forward mail anymore, so mail has to be sent straight to my apartment. Here's the address:

102 Georgetown Ct.

Cornelia, GA 30531

I love you all! Thank you for everything. Have a great week.

Signing off from the back hills,

Elder Roddy

Off to the HILLS

Hey Y'all!                                                                                                       

So, I've heard from President Bennion, multiple times this week, as well as the Assistants, and it turns out I'm being transferred! I am no longer a zone leader and instead I'll be training again and opening up an apartment where some senior missionaries used to live. So, that means we're “white washing”! The best part of the move is that WE ARE IN THE BOONIES BABY. We're going to the Cornelia Ward, which is wayyyy up in the northeast in the mountains. I am so excited! I've heard great things about the ward and the area. The bishop is really focused on missionary worked so he's called approximately fifteen ward missionaries and I'm going to be doing a lot of member missionary work. Now, do you want to hear something crazy? In Hickory Flat I became friends with the Ashment family and they are really, really cool. Well, it turns out that Sister Ashment is the daughter of the Mills, a hilarious older couple in the Grayson ward, and the Ashments recently moved in with them. So, I've been able to hang out with them again! But that's not the good part. It turns out that the Mill's OTHER family members are in the Cornelia Ward! So, in ALL three of the areas in which I’ve served, I've had contact with a member of their family! Crazy huh? 

Thanksgiving PIE FIGHT with Josh Dustin. 

And, guess who else is in the Cornelia ward? Greg Dustin's brother, Josh! THE DUDE I DID THE PIE IN THE FACE THING WITH AT THANKSGIVING! YES! It's going to be great! I can't wait to eat squirrel and possum and all that good, juicy stuff they eat in the hills. Mmmmmmm.

Speaking of food, you’ll never guess what I had for lunch on Saturday - ALLIGATOR. Yes sir! Some people we were teaching served it to us and it was - interesting! I actually thought it was pretty good but I wouldn't go out of my way to eat it again or anything crazy like that. But, now I can say I have eaten some ‘gator!

We had some great miracles this week! On Tuesday during our personal study time coincidently Elder Flake and both studied about Ammon teaching King Lamoni. So, we shared some solid companion study time about how to approach non-Christians (even though it's super rare to find them in Georgia). I remember thinking to myself, "Well, I hope this comes in handy at least once on my mission." It turns out that on that very afternoon we were knocking doors and met a guy named Chong Chard, who was raised Buddhist. We started talking to him and asking questions similar to those that Ammon and King Lamoni discusssed. Eventually, Chong invited us into his home. We taught him and his son about the Plan of Salvation from the Book of Mormon and by the end of the lesson he loved what we had to say and asked us to come back and read with the rest of his family. It was really cool to see the way our studies directly effected our teaching that day and how it paid off! 

On Thursday I also had an awesome experience while I was on an exchange with Elder Price. We had an appointment with one of our investigators, Stanley, who was supposed to be praying for his baptismal date. We took a member with us, but Stanley wasn't home. So, we visited some other families then, the member dropped us off. We had about an hour before dinner and for some reason I had the strongest impression to go back to Stanley's house, even though we were just there less than an hour ago. So we went back, and sure enough Stanley had just woken up from a nap and he let us in. He had prayed about his baptism date and decided that September 6th was the date for him! He came to church yesterday and is doing great! It was a really neat to see what happens when you follow the Spirit, no matter how crazy it seems! I'm excited to hear about the results of Stanley’s plan to be baptized!

Elder Flake, Aaysia and Elder Roderick

The highlight of the week was Aaysia's baptism on Saturday. Oh my! That precious little girl was so ready to be baptized! It was just incredible! Seriously, she is the smartest ten year-old I've ever met. She just eats up everything we teach her and then she turns around and teaches it perfectly to her mom. Her baptism took place with two other eight year-olds. So, the entire program was focused on the kids and it was beautiful! It was the perfect way to end my time in Grayson!

I'm really going to miss Loganville and the members of the Grayson ward. I had to say “Goodbye” to a ton of families yesterday, and man, it was hard! But, I'm super grateful for the opportunity I’ve had to serve in the area and I will definitely come back to visit all of the people I’ve grown to love in Grayson!

This is my new address:

102 Georgetown Court

Cornelia, GA 30531

I love you guys! Have a great week!