A Copperhead Snake, a Rottweiler & a Little Ninja Dude

HEY Y'ALL!                                                                                                

Another week has gone by in the lovely valley of the Rednecks. Thank you so much for your emails this week. They always give me a boost of confidence and help confirm that I am where I'm supposed to be!

This week was amazing, as always! Ha Ha.  Our week started last Monday when we had dinner with the Dustins. They feed us every Monday night. Brother Dustin was driving us to his house when all of the sudden he slammed on the car breaks and reversed because there was a snake in the road (they're everywhere here)! We got out of the car and found out it was a Copperhead, which are really poisonous. So, Brother Dustin caught it and killed it and then, guess what we did? We took it back to their house and ate it. Ha Ha! It was so awesome! We soaked it in BBQ sauce so it didn't taste too bad. 

On Tuesday morning I woke up sick (probably from the snake) so that was no fun. I was okay on Tuesday but was feeling pretty crappy on Wednesday. I told myself I wasn't going to stop working though.  So I just prayed for a little help from God Almighty and sure enough I was able to keep going! It's amazing sometimes how my body just keeps going on very little energy. On Wednesday we actually had to bike from Clarkesville, which is about 13 miles away, all the way home at 8:30 at night. I literally have no idea how I was able to do that while I was sick but I just kept telling myself we would be blessed for doing it! On the way home, we were biking by the freeway and out of nowhere this HUGE Rottweiler came running out of the bushes barking SO loud. It was honestly one of the scariest moments of my life! Ha Ha! I started biking so fast and all I heard was Elder Larsen behind me yelling, "WAITTTTT FOR MEEEE!!!!" Oh, man! I can only imagine what that scene looked like! The best part though was that when we got home, not even before we sat down to plan for the next day, we got a text from one of our new investigators, Alex, asking US if we could meet with him at the church on Friday. We were thinking, “Uhhh YA! OF COURSE!”  So we met with him and had a great lesson! It was so cool to see how we actually were blessed for biking all that way home that night!

Elder Larsen is doing great. It has been so cool to watch him make progress and become an effective teacher. He is really learning a ton and so am I! Currently, we are teaching a lot of members and some less-active members too so, we're staying busy. I'm loving it! 

To cap off the week, the other Elders got locked out of their apartment last night so they had to sleep over at our place. Oh, man! It was a party. So, this morning we had to ask a kid from our ward to get out of seminary early and come pick the lock for us because he's this little ninja dude and knows how to do that kind of stuff. I'm not sure if we'll be cursed or not for making him leave seminary early but, I guess we'll find out!

I love y'all so much and I'm grateful for everything you do for me. I couldn't ask for a better support system! Let me know if there is anything I can do for you.

Elder Roddy 

When We Work as His Instruments, Amazing Things Happen

WHAT'SSSSS UPPPPPP MY FAVORITE PEOPLE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD,

HOW ARE Y'ALL?  I'm sorry it took me forever to get on today! The library computers were down so we couldn't get on until now.... and I only have 30 more minutes. So, I'm just writing this email. Sorry to those I can't reply to today. I'll get you next week!

Before I get any further, I saw President Bennion this weekend and he told me he still checks out the blog every once in awhile. Ha Ha. So, if you're reading this, HELLO PRESIDENT! You're a stud. All right that's it.

I'm glad you guys liked the "Elder Roddy" tag! To answer your question about how I got it…I'm really close with all the senior couples in the office from when I was a ZL in Lilburn because we were in and out of the office all the time. So, I got one of them to order some for me! Pretty sweet, huh? 

Cornelia Elders panning for GOLD on P-Day. 

This week was amazing! We saw some great miracles and I'm loving it so much! Transfers are this week and we're losing Elder Hawkins (he's the tall blonde one in the pictures). The rest of us are staying up here though! Dad asked me to give some more details about the area so I'll do the best I can with the time that I have! So this area is hugeeee! It's one of the biggest in the mission. We cover 4 counties and live in the middle county, Habersham. We have a car share with the other Elders, which means we get to drive every other day. So, three times a week, at least, I'm biking around this county doing work here. Then, when we have the car we usually take that opportunity to go visit people in the places that are 30-45 minutes away. The Cornelia ward has over 400 members on the roster but we only average about 160 at church every week.  This means there is a ton of “less active” work to do. Most of the people who are considered “less active” have legitimate testimonies but it's such a far drive for them that they choose not to come. This is a bummer, but hopefully there will be some branches in various places soon. Cornelia is like the South on steroids. Every stereotype about the South rings true here. The food, the accents, the language, the Bible Belt, everything! I've never met so many Southern Baptists and I’ve never been unable to understand so many people who speak the same language as I do!

Our week was so great! For the lack of time I'm going to tell you about a few of the cool experiences we had.  We have been teaching a less active member named Brother Alexander. He's about eight years old and has bad health problems so he can't come to church but, he's really pumped on the gospel and is finding allll these people for us to teach. On Tuesday he took us to find one of his friends who he wants us to teach. After searching for a while, we finally found Robin's house at about 8 o'clock, and as we got to know her, we found out she had gone to church in Utah until she was in 3rd grade and she has also been several times here in Georgia with some Mormon friends. While we talked to her she told us that she had visited other churches but didn't like them, so she had been praying for an opportunity to go back to a church she would enjoy. Two days later, we showed up! We are planning on teaching her this week. It was amazing to see the way member-finding is so much more effective than just knocking on doors, because members are inspired and they know who has been prepared to receive the gospel.

Cornelia Elders at stake conference with President Bennion.

President Bennion is making a big push on teaching members so we've been teaching a ton lately. We have been teaching a man named Brother Taylor. He is considered active, but the ward executive secretary took us to visit him because he felt inspired that he needed some guidance from the missionaries. So we've started teaching him every Thursday. This last Thursday Brother Taylor fed us lunch then we sat down and taught him the plan of salvation. After the lesson, while the Spirit was strong, he told us something that he said was kind of personal to him but he felt like he could trust us. He said that his entire life he had known that this church was Christ's church on the earth, but he didn't exactly have a firm testimony of it. In fact, he said he never feels the Spirit at church and feel's God's presence more at a Baptist church! He really knows this is the true church because the evidence is undeniable, and he is just longing for a burning testimony. He told us that he had been praying for an opportunity to find it for himself. Apparently that week is when we knocked on his door to visit him with Brother Shaver (the member). Our meetings with Brother Taylor began as “practice sessions” for Elder Larsen, but now the lessons we’re having with him are becoming more and more important each week because we are doing our best to convert this brother to the gospel. I love how much the Lord just guides us to the people who need us most. It's nothing we do or say. Rather, when we work as His instruments amazing things happen!

Cornelia Elders visiting the UGA campus.

On Sunday we had stake conference and I can't remember if we told you or not but all of the Cornelia Elders have ties with little fish on them. When President Bennion saw them, he LOVED them and asked us to buy one for him. Ha Ha. So we did and we all wore our fish ties to stake conference yesterday! Our swag with P-Beezy was on point!

Today we went panning for gold. Ya, that's a real thing. You basically pay for a huge bucket of rocks and sift through them for little gems or something. Discovery Channel did a feature on it so everyone thinks it's the best thing ever, next to their preacher, of course. I would've rather have gone bowling but, it was still pretty fun. Welcome to Cornelia baby!

Oh, and we got to visit the UGA campus on Saturday!! IT WAS SO SWEET.

Well the library is closing in 5 minutes so I gotta’ go! I love each and every one of you so much! Thank you for everything! 

Elder Roddy 

Cornelia, Georgia: 1/2 Mile and an HOUR Away

Hello Y'All, 

This week was insane! It went by super fast. On Wednesday Elder Larsen and I drove down to the mission office for a trainer follow-up meeting where we were basically involved in some training meetings and had the opportunity talk about how things are going. Everything with training is going super well! I love Elder Larsen. Ha Ha. He's such a goof ball and I know he was supposed to be my companion because he's the only Elder who can handle my million-miles-an-hour personality.

Atlanta, Georgia Temple

On Thursday I got to go down to the temple! I was SO excited because I haven't been there since November, but then OF COURSE on the way down there, everything that could've gone wrong, actually went wrong! The Elder who was driving us ended up rear-ending another car and this took 30 minutes to figure out. So, that made us arrive in Atlanta just in time for the morning traffic. Uggg!  I woke up at 4:45 (am!) to leave by 5:15 and by the time we got to the temple it was 9:15.  The session started at 9:00.  So, we just barely missed it! At first I was really mad, but instead of doing a session we got to do some sealings. It was my first time ever doing sealings and it was actually really cool! While we were there, I also got to see a ton of my mission friends so it was awesome. Hopefully I can go back soon!

Elder Roderick with Elder "Croft" at the Atlanta Temple

Oh, man! The work this week was crazy. Ha ha! We've been working with Cassandra, who I’ve told you about for the past few weeks. Her situation is nuts. So, she has been living in Cornelia with her sisters and she's eating up the gospel. She knows it's true and wants to be baptized so badly. The entire time we’ve been teaching Cassandra her plan has been to move to North Carolina this week. So, we've basically been preparing her for other missionaries. But, as her time to leave arrived, she decided that she’d rather stay in Cornelia and start a life here because she has a lot more opportunities here than in North Carolina. On Friday we went with an older member couple, the Rylees, to meet with her and make a game plan of how she could stay here in Georgia. Amazingly, without us even asking, the Rylees volunteered to let Cassandra stay in their home. But, the only problem is it would have to be AFTER baptism because I guess that's what the Church prefers. So, all Cassandra has to do is stay in her sister's house for a couple more weeks until her baptism. But, for a number of reasons, this isn't an option. 

The next day, Saturday, we got a text from her.  She said that she had a bus ticket for North Carolina on Tuesday (tomorrow). Elder Larsen and I were biking that day and we were about 20 minutes away when we got the text so we decided to bike over there and talk to her about it. Well, on the way, my infinite intelligence led me astray and I took a horrible wrong turn. After 30 minutes of biking we ended up in the opposite direction - near the freeway! We tried taking all these side streets and kept ending up back at the freeway. I was so frustrated! At one point, we saw a sign that said, "Cornelia: 1/2 mile." So, I thought, "Forget it! We're going!" So, low and behold, two elders started biking in the 3 foot-tall grass on the side of the freeway for 15 minutes until we finally got off the exit. Ya, guys. I know that's illegal. (I learned this the next day at church when at least 5 members who saw us, had to comment about it.  Thank you very much!. $%&*$(#) Anyway, we finally got to Cassandra's and she told us that she really didn't want to leave. So, yesterday she packed her stuff and went to church with the Rylees and actually stayed the night at their house. Right now they are trying to find a place for her to stay for two weeks until her baptism, which is scheduled for September 20th. I hope I described the whole thing well enough for y'all to understand. It's all just so crazy! I don't even know what's going to happen. Pray for her to be able to find a place to stay and who knows, maybe we'll have a baptism in a couple weeks. She already has a job lined up and she can start school too; it's just the living situation that's holding everything back. Through all of this turmoil, I've gained a huge testimony of the Church. Watching these members work together for ONE individual is truly amazing to see! It’s often said that the gospel is all centered around LOVE and it really is. It's been amazing for me to be a part of Cassandra’s conversion, no matter what happens!

There are a million other things that happened this week, but I think that's good for now. Thank you guys for your endless support I couldn't be here without you! I love y'all so much!!! Talk to you soon!

Elder Roddy

"Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find." John 21:6

Hello family and friends,                                                                                

Cornelia, Georgia offers a warm Southern welcome. 

             

         It was a great week for us! It's hotter than heck down here. Ha Ha. I swear! I feel the humidity from the moment I wake up. You just gotta’ embrace it though.

         Last week for P-Day we visited a little town named Helen and it was so much fun! It's supposed to be a little German town and it's where all the tourists go. We just walked around and had a good time going on some hikes and stuff. 

Elder Larsen & Elder Roderick visit Helen, Georgia. 

Our investigators are doing awesome! Right now we're teaching a girl named Cassandra. We met her while knocking doors and she was super interested in learning about the gospel. So, we started teaching her and soon she became fully invested in learning as much as she can. She's been chatting with people on Mormon.org and she's read a ton of the Book of Mormon. Early in the week we challenged her to pray specifically to know if it was true, and we invited her to focus on Alma 36 because we felt like it related to her. She told us later that she couldn't stop crying as she read it because she felt so connected to Alma and she became totally converted to it. It was amazing! She came to church and really wants to be baptized, but she might be moving to North Carolina. If she stays, we'll help her continue to progress and see what happens.

Emile is doing great too! She’s the girl I told you about last week who asks a million questions. Ha Ha. She's so much fun to teach. She came to church this week too! And, she even brought a friend.  Then, after church she texted us and told us what a "beautiful experience" it was.  She is investigating other religions too. So, we're just trying to help her understand that conversion doesn't come from knowing everything. Rather, it comes through the Spirit. When it’s all said and done, I'm confident she'll realize the truthfulness of the gospel!

Elder Roderick catches a fish with the Dustin children.

On Labor Day, the Dustin family (from Hickory Flat, who I now call the “Hickory Flat Dustins”) came to Cornelia to have dinner with us and their cousins (the “Cornelia Dustins”). AHHHH it was so good to see them! I haven't seen the kids since I left the area and it was so great to be reunited.  We went fishing in the Dustin's backyard and literally, I was the only person to NOT catch a fish. So, finally I threatened, "Alright! Elder Larsen, if I don't catch a fish this time I am honestly pushing you into the lake." Ha Ha. Secretly, I was hoping I wouldn't catch one so I could push him in. THEN, OF COURSE I CAUGHT A FISH! It was pretty sweet. I'm just becoming more Southern by the minute. Oh, and yesterday before dinner with the Dustins we went to the Mall of Georgia and guess who I saw there? EMOY, KAMARI and AAYSIA! I was walking down the halls and all of the sudden I heard, "ELDERRRR RODERICKKKKK!" I look over and it was Emoy and she was jumping up and down. It was so great to see them again because I've missed them so much! They're doing great! Kamari has been passing the sacrament and he has been bringing a friend to church! 

Well, a year ago this week I arrived in Georgia, met Elder 'Auaea and headed off to Hickory Flat! It's crazy how fast time flies! I'm looking forward to what the next year in Georgia has to offer. I love y'all!  Thank you for everything!

Elder Roddy