“There was YOU, with a beautiful smile at your face.”

HOLLLLLLAAAAAA!                                                                   

What's up? I have a ton to tell you guys about this week so I'm just going to get started. So, sorry if this is super long!

Elder Roderick, Brother Jenny and Elder Gosar

On Tuesday Elder Gosar and I had a once-in-a-mission experience! This week our mission had some “Preach My Gospel” officials from the headquarters in SLC come and train us, and they arrived on Tuesday. President Bennion was planning to teach with Elder Gosar and me that night, then at about 2 o’clock in the afternoon he called us and said, "Change of plans, Elders! Brother Jenny will be taking you out to dinner and joining you for the night!" We were so nervous! In order to understand why we were so nervous you need to know that Brother Jenny is the head of the missionary department and meets with Elder Nelson and Elder Bednar once a week to discuss missionary work around the world. Feel me now? Ha Ha! Spending the night with him was amazing though. He took us to dinner and he was seriously the nicest guy in the world! After dinner he taught three lessons with us and then he came back to our apartment to plan with us (good thing we cleaned the day before). He literally just sat in the background and typed away on his computer as he observed us. At first, it was kind of intimidating but the lessons went super well! Brother Jenny gave us an amazing training in MLC on Thursday then afterward he told us that he would tell Elder Nelson “Hello” for us! Ha ha! Ya, buddy!!

Our investigators are doing so well right now. I seriously love the people we're teaching so much! They are so humble and seeking for truth. We've been teaching Alice, a woman from Cameroon, and we had an amazing experience with her on Sunday. She goes to our French Sunday School class and when she was introducing herself to everyone in the class, she stood up and said, "Hi, my name is Alice. I'm from Cameroon and I've been in America for one year. I want to be a member of this church, and I know the Book of Mormon is true." The guy who teaches the class and translates for us turned to us and said, "Hey Elders, Alice wants to be baptized." Ha ha! You can imagine the look on our faces! So Alice be getting baptized in a few weeks.

Elder Gosar & Elder Roderick with John & LuAnne King

We are also teaching Cleevens, an 18 year-old boy from Haiti. He's actually Alice's son's friend and we met him through Alice. On Saturday night The Kings and Dustins took us out to dinner and then, the Kings went with us to teach Cleevens and his family. It was great! THEN, Cleevens and his two little sisters came to church yesterday! We had such a sweet experience with them. (Sorry, this is long but KEEP READING. It'll be worth it. I promise!) So, during the lesson on Saturday we asked Cleevens why he decided to start coming to church with us, and he didn't really say much. He got kind of quiet. But, then on Sunday he came up to Elder Gosar and me and handed us a letter. I'm going to type it out (It's in his broken English so hang with me).

"Dear Gosar and Roderick,

This is Cleevens and I will answer your question from today, with a full explanations. Why did I choose to come to your church?

I was a very lonely boy. I never feel like I did fit into this world. Outside this earth is very meanful. I always trying to find true happiness but I never find it. Not that I never went to church with my mom, is that I didn't find the true happiness I was looking for.

I always try to have fun but no, it was impossible. I always used to be angry at myself; why did I even exist? Never could sleep at night well, always had bad emotion in my head. Until one day I decide to ask God 'please forgive me and made I find the happiness I'm looking for' and there was you, with a beautiful smile at your face, like you imagine the world different and let everything go, no worries, just happiness, and that make me happy. As well as my mom to see me happy, and my sisters.

That day I told myself I wanna be just like you two, to follow the love of Jesus Christ.

So that's why I choose to come to your church. So I could forget all about outside the earth!"

Is that not the sweetest thing in the world? Getting things like this note from Cleevens reaffirms why I love being a missionary so much! Cleevens will be baptized in a few weeks and I can't wait for it!!

If you're still reading this, S/O to you. Sorry it's so long! But, I love each of you! Thank you so much for all you do for me! LOVE YOU!

Elder Roddy

Sak Pase?

Hey Y'all!                                                                                               

The caption “Sak pase?” means "What's up?" in Creole.  I thought it would be an appropriate way to address you because a lot of people in Alpharetta speak Creole or French. It's been one of the craziest weeks of my mission and like always, we don't have much time on the computer so I'm going to try and tell you as much as I can about my new area.

Elder Roderick and Elder Gosar tour Alpharetta in a Ferrari.

I already love this place so much! It's such a crazy transition coming from Cornelia to here! Alpharetta is one of the richest places in the mission so we drive by Ferrari and Lambo dealerships all the time. I drove in a Tesla on Saturday, if anyone cares. Ha Ha.

Elder Gosar is such a stud! We're having so much fun together and he's such a great teacher! I'm learning so much from him, which is good because we're teaching so much right now! As part of this transfer our zone was combined with another one so we have approximately forty missionaries in the zone. It's nuts! I think it’s crazy that Elder Gosar is in the Jex's ward. They emailed him this week and told him to make sure I don't brainwash him into being a U fan or something like that. It made us laugh because I've already done that! What can I say?

The Roswell ward is amazing. Like I said, it’s a super wealthy area and ward, but it's really close to Atlanta so there is TONS of diversity which doesn't make our work too difficult. Hey, Dad, there is a hugeee Haitian community here so French is the second most popular language. You’ll need to teach me some! We even have Sunday school classes in French. We had eight investigators at church on Sunday and six of them speak French.  And, the other two are from the Bahamas and Nigeria. It's so much fun to interact with people from different countries and learn about their culture.

Elder Gosar and his former companion had five baptisms right before I came, and there is still so much work to do. We should have some baptisms coming up so I'm really excited! I'm glad you received the picture from Sister Laughlin! I’ll tell you something really cool about Brother Laughlin. He has been home teaching a less-active family named the Miskills for eight years and they've never had any interest in coming back to church or being involved in anything. Every month he has visited them with hopes to reactive them but he hasn't had any luck. Well recently, Brother Miskill decided he was finished drinking (he drank a bottle of wine a day) and because of his home teacher and the spirit of the missionaries he finally decided he was ready come back to church. On Sunday the Miskill family came for the first time in eight years and their 17-year old daughter, Katie, is going to be baptized in a few weeks. It just goes to show the power of the gospel and how no effort is ever wasted!

We're working with some great people right now so next week I'll make sure to update you on all of the experiences we have with them! I think my favorite part about the people we're teaching is that only two of them are Caucasian and from America. That's what's so great about the gospel - it brings everyone together and helps them feel of God's love. I love you guys so much and I'm grateful for everything you do for me! Have a great week!!

Elder Roddy 

Movin' On

What's up y'all!                                                                               

            I hope you guys had a great week! It sounds like everything is going well in the 801.  I love hearing from you guys and feeling of your support. It means the world! 
           Well, tomorrow morning I'll be transferred to the Roswell Ward where I'll be a Zone Leader. It's an amazing ward and I'm super excited!! My new companion is Elder Gosar and he's an awesome kid. Like me, he was trained in Hickory Flat so he has to be good. Ha Ha. I'm really looking forward to serving in Roswell!

My last week in Cornelia was great! Man! I hate to leave though. I mean I won't miss the smell of chickens poop but I've seriously learned to love the area and I'm going to miss the ward so much. It's definitely bitter sweet! I have seen a huge progression in the ward and I am so sad to leave some of the people whom I've come to love. I told them, “I'll be back with y'all!”

Goodbye to Grandma Sowell in Cornelia.

 The week went out with a bang! Jeff committed to baptism! It was an amazing experience. His baptism will be at the beginning of March because he and Robin have been trying to make arrangements for their marriage and March is the soonest they can get it done. I wish you could have experienced the lesson with me because it was something I’ll never forget! He told us that in between each of our lessons he had been praying to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and one day he was driving to work and he got a "powerful confirmation that Joseph Smith was a prophet." He said, "I can't describe what it felt like. It was a weird feeling, but a good weird feeling. It was like an energizing comfort. I think it was heaven's answer to me!" Those were his exact words! It was one of those moments where I was so grateful to be a missionary and to have the opportunity to see someone get a confirmation that the gospel is true! So, when we asked him if he would be baptized he said, "Well, Ya, Of course! When should we do it? I'll let my boss know I need work off." It was awesome! I'm so happy for Robin and how everything in her life is coming together for her in a positive way. Last night when I said goodbye to her she promised me that she would make it to the temple in 2015! I can't wait to come back and go with her! I gave Robin and Jeff copies of the Book of Mormon that y'all and the Parkins gave me with your testimonies inside and it meant the world to them. So, thank you!

Goodbye to the Diopulos Family.

Next week I'll let you know what Roswell is like. Thanks for everything! Love you guys!!

Elder Roddy

P.S.
The Mission Office doesn't forward mail. So, if you want to send me a letter (and I know you do) my new address is:

13085 Morris Rd.
Unit 9307
Alpharetta, GA 30004

Miracle Updates

Hey y'all!                                                                                             

How's it goin'? It was a great week! I was freezing my little tail off though! Ha Ha! I hate the cold here! But it's all good! So, I realized that every week I share some cool miracles about people that we met or that we're teaching and then I hardly ever tell you what happens to them next! You're probably always wondering what happens to them! So, I thought I would just fill you in on some of the people I've told you about in the past month or so.

Do you remember the lady that we tried to carol to and it was superrr awkward? Well, it turned out being a great experience! Her name is Bunny and she's awesome! She is an awesome cook and always sends us away with food so ya, she's my favorite. She's reading the Book of Mormon and is really invested in it because she said her Mormon friends mean a lot to her and she wants to take this seriously. So she's doing really well!

Maricruz moved last week and we lost contact with her because her phone disconnected, but the Elders down in the ward below us are hopefully going to start teaching her. I miss her!

Emily, Robin's granddaughter is doing really well too! This week we taught her about the Apostasy and the Restoration by using Jenga blocks to provide an object lesson. It was so cute because after we left Robin said she kept building the tower and was convinced that the it literally couldn't stand unless Jesus was on the bottom. So, it looks like we got our message across! Jeff (Robin’s fiance) is doing well too and they're planning to get a marriage certificate this week from a judge. Jeff asked us for our number so that he could text us questions and Robin said he literally told her five times last week that he had our number and he was going to contact us. I’m glad someone likes us! 

On Saturday we had the baptism for Barry. It was awesome! The ward has really taken him in and done an amazing job of supporting him. He doesn't have a car so we've really needed their help and they've been great. The baptism was super spiritual and the lessons at church yesterday were perfect for him. We were able to perform his confirmation and then we had ward conference. In each lesson, it felt like the Stake Presidency was directly teaching to him. It was so cool and he felt the love!

Great things are happening! Everyone we're teaching right now is a member referral and it makes things sooo much easier. That's what President Bennion wanted me to do here in Cornelia – increase member missionary work. So, I'm glad its going well. If what he told me stands, this will be my last week in the area! 

Man, I'm going to miss this place, and all the chicken poop that comes with it! I love you guys! Thank you for everything! You're the best!

Elder Roddy

Everything to be GRATEFUL for

HAPPY 2015!                                                                            

On the 2015 menu: SQUIRREL

Jeez, 2015! That's so crazy! I can't believe I'm heading into the last year of my mission. It's definitely bittersweet and I'm going to make it count! Well, this week was great, as usual. I started the New Year in the best way by eating squirrel. Yup! Our Elder's Quorum President fed it to us and it was actually pretty good! I was joking around with him at church and said, "Hey, Are you going to feed us squirrel, or what? I'll shoot one if you cook it.”  Then, when we went to his house for dinner it was sitting there on the table! So, I can cross that one off the list. Tastes like chicken! 

 I had an interview with President Bennion on Friday and he told me I'm going to be transferred on the 21^st. I was very surprised because transfers aren't for a couple of weeks and I was expecting to finish training Elder Johnson. But, President said he always intended to transfer me this transfer because he's "got a new assignment for me." So, we'll see what happens.

Well, we had a tender mercy from the Lord this week. We're having a baptism on Saturday! It's for an investigator, Barry Odis, who moved into our ward from another area. He already had the date for baptism so we're just going to prepare him a little bit and provide the baptismal interview. It should be good! I guess after having so many people get so close to baptism in Cornelia this is our tender mercy from the Lord! So we're excited! This week we were also able to teach Emily, Robin's 8 year old granddaughter, and she told us that she wants to be baptized too! Ha. Ha! She's such a cute little girl. (Probably the second cutest Emily I know.) So, she'll be getting baptized at the end of the month! I won't be here to experience it but, that's okay!

Speaking of Robin, she is doing so well! Guess what? She bore her testimony in sacrament meeting yesterday. It was crazy!! She talked about how she found her way back to the church and how she literally didn't remember any doctrine other than that Latter Day Saints have temples.  Then, she said that as we've been re-teaching her about all the doctrine and since she's been praying about it, she KNOWS that the church is true. It's been really cool to teach her because it's been just like teaching an investigator because she didn't remember anything. I've literally watched the Holy Ghost bring everything back to her remembrance and tell her that it's true. Her fiancé Jeff also came to church yesterday! It was actually pretty cool because he works every single day and last week he was supposed to come to church because it was his only Sunday off in the year. However, Robin got sick and he wasn't able to come, and we were all really bummed about it. So, yesterday he was on his way to work, and when he got there it was raining so hard that they told him to turn around and go home. So, he got to come this week instead. It was crazy!

I think the best part of my week was a little experience we had on Thursday night. We were knocking doors before dinner and we’d been at it for about an hour when we decided to knock on one last door. (Of course, this is the house that lets us inside. God seems to do that a lot. ) Anyway, the man who let us in (he was probably in his 60s) appeared like he couldn't move the left side of his body very well. We found out that he had had five strokes throughout his lifetime and it had messed him up pretty bad. We ended up reading some scriptures with him about the resurrection and the Atonement and tried to help him find some hope through Christ. What amazed me most about this man is that despite his physical limitations, he was one of the most positive people I've ever met! Instead of complaining to the Lord about his strokes, he told us over and over again how blessed he was just to be alive and to have his wife to take care of him. His words really spoke to me and helped me realize that we never really have much to complain about, but we ALWAYS have everything to be GRATEFUL for. I love the South because every single day I have the privilege of meeting people like this man who have faith in Jesus Christ and show it better than I ever hope to. Experiences like this makes being a missionary easy and provide me with something to look forward to every day!

Well, I love you guys and I'm thankful for everything you do for me! Have a great week!   Talk to you soon!

Elder Roddy