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 

"We Love the Elders"

Hello there everyone!                                                                     

This week was great! It went by so fast, maybe because it's only been 6 days instead of 7 since we communicated,  but we have been running around like crazy and that always makes the week go by faster. 

IT SNOWED THIS WEEK!!! Ha Ha! It was nothing like last year, but it finally came! The snow only fell in little flakes at a time, over a couple of days and the Georgians were a little more prepared this time around so nothing dramatic happened! But, we were with Hugues the first time it started snowing (he's a recent convert from the Bahamas) and it was the first time he’d ever seen snow, so he started running around and screaming at the top of his lungs. It was so much fun to watch him! 

The Elders found this message in Cleeven's home. 

This coming weekend we'll be having a baptism for Cleevens's little sisters, Nina (12) and Jania (8)! They were originally supposed to get baptized this past weekend, but Nina still wasn't sure if she wanted to do it because she hadn't received an answer that what we've been teaching her is true. But, on Tuesday night she came to the Young Womens activity and following it she told us that she realized that whenever she was in the church or meeting with us, she felt different. Then, the feeling would leave as soon as she wasn't in that situation anymore. She described it as loving and peaceful, and it was something she had never felt before. We explained to her that what she was feeling was the Holy Ghost. That night she committed solidly to baptism. So, for the past week we've been preparing the girls for baptism and everything is looking good! The best part of their baptism is that Cleevens is going to baptize Jania!! He received the priesthood on Sunday so he's authorized to perform the ordinance. Woooohooo! I'm so stoked for him. That family has been on a roller coaster ride but they've progressed so much and we've seen such a change in everyone, including their mom who has opened up to us a ton. If you ever think being a missionary is easy then…. try teaching the Law of Chastity to a very mature 12 year old girl. $&%*$#

This week is going to be AMAZZINGGGG!! We have the baptisms on Saturday and on the day before, we're gathering a lot of the recent converts in the ward and taking them to the temple for the first time to do baptisms for the dead! And…. we get to go with them! It's been awesome to work with the recent converts because some of them have Haitian ancestors who were really involved with Voodoo and scary stuff like that, so they literally refused to even talk about their deceased family members, let alone be baptized for them. But, as we've worked with them and watched as they’ve exercised faith, their hearts have been softened. Each of them have received personal answers to their prayers and they’ve learned that eternal families are real and they can play a role in ensuring that their family members become members of the church. It's crazy how the Lord works! Then on Saturday night after the baptism, we've planned a huge dinner where we're going

to join as many Haitians as we can with all the ward members who usually fellowship them. It'll be crazy and very   stressful! But that's my life and I love it! 

Have a great week! I love you guys so much! 

A Valentine Baptism

What's Up?                                                                         

I wish you guys could see me and the rest of the Elders in my area right now.  We've been at the church since 6:30 this morning working on our studies together, making pancakes and bacon and playing indoor soccer and basketball. So, we're dead tired and as we sit down to write our families we literally can't remember anything that happened throughout the week! Ha ha! It's so frustrating! We want to tell you about every little detail and all the miracles we've seen but it all just blends into one long memory! So, I'm sorry if my emails always seem too short and lack details but I'm doing my best to not make it 20349523408957 pages long!

Where do I start? Where do I start? On Wednesday we had a zone conference and it was AWESOME. It was just our zone with the Assistants and President Bennion and Sister Bennion. So I got to see my cowboy, Elder Flake, again! And, we're going on exchange tonight together! I can't wait! For the conference Elder Gosar and I had to train for an hour.  We had to train the Elders on the information that the leaders from the Church Missionary Department taught us about, and it went super well. I used my skydiving experience as a metaphor of guiding our investigators and helping them take a leap of faith and I'm not sure if anyone got anything out of it or not because they were all laughing so hard.  But, hey! Whatever makes them happy and interested!

So much is happening with the #Haitiannation LoL. Every morning I wake up feeling like I got hit by a train because we're always so busying running around and it takes everything out of me. Our investigators are doing pretty well though! Obviously Cleevens was the highlight of the week with his baptism!! There is no better way I would have liked to spend my Valentines Day! He is such a humble kid and it has been so amazing to work with him. On Friday night, Elder Gosar and another Elder in our zone (we were on exchange) took him with them to teach the Pierre family, another Haitian family we're teaching. They said that at the end of the lesson, Cleevens took the opportunity to bare his testimony to them and he started crying! He is so converted it's amazing! He has gotten a lot of harassment from his friends but every time he just bares testimony to them and stands up for the church! We made a total breakthrough with his mom this week too. We were able to read the Book of Mormon with her yesterday and her heart is completely softened to the church.

Elder Roderick, Cleevens and Elder Gosar

On Sunday after his confirmation we took Cleevens with us to dinner at the Young Men's President's house, and he ended up telling us a lot about his life that we didn't know about. Do you remember the huge earthquake in Haiti 4 years ago? Cleevens was there! He said that every day, he would go home and play video games in an upstairs room in his house EXCEPT on Tuesdays. On Tuesdays he would go to a tutor for school. Well the earthquake happened on a Tuesday, and the entire top floor of his house got wiped out but the bottom floor was fine, which is where is family was. It's insane. After that his family came here and the rest is history! It really was just incredible to hear more of his story and how Heavenly Father truly does prepare his children to hear and accept the gospel.

The actual baptism for Cleevens was such a sweet experience; one I'll never forget! I wish I could tell you about something that Elder Gosar and I did to make it happen but we literally did nothing. We just taught, left commitments, and watched as the Holy Ghost taught the truth directly to him! The entire process with Cleevens has been an experience I'll never forget!

Our other investigators are doing great as well! We've started teaching, Tyrone, the son of a recent convert, Sandra Williams. We haven't been able to have a real solid lesson with him so this week when we have a chance to really teach heim, we'll be inviting him to be baptized. Keep him in your prayers! There is also another recent convert in the ward named Hugues that has been coming out with us to teach literally every day. He's 24 and from the Bahamas and I LOVE him. (He's the kid in the hat in the baptism picture.) He blessed the sacrament on Sunday and he and 4 of our other recent converts are going to the temple to do baptisms with us at the end of the month!

I'll end off with a funny and embarrassing moment I had this week. I went on exchange with a greenie in the YSA Ward. The YSA Elders cover the entire stake so they have a car, but of course the ONE day I'm there the car breaks down and we have to ride bikes. The road they live off of is hugeeee and it has a ton of hills. Yay! So in the afternoon, we were supposed to go to an apartment complex near their home to follow up with some people. I obviously had no idea where I was going so I was just following him. We started riding along this road, and we just kept going, and going, and going, and goinggggg. I would stop and ask him if he thought we were close and he'd say, "Nope. None of this looks familiar so let's keep going,” and I'm thinking to myself "K. There is NO way we're supposed to going this far."....Well sure enough, we ended up biking 8 MILES FARTHER THAN WE WERE SUPPOSED TO. We ended up right by the temple and 5 miles outside of the mission!! Hahaha Oh man!  When I found out how far we’d gone all I could really do was laugh. The life of a missionary! It's great. I love it! I wouldn't rather be anywhere else.

Have a great week! Love you guys!!

Elder Roderick

A Modern Day War in Heaven

What's up guys?                                                                                 

This week was a roller coaster, up and down..up and down...ALL THE TIME. It never gets old. I’ve come to understand that if something good happens, I know Satan will try to combat it somehow. But when something good comes around, it just makes the joy of missionary work that much sweeter. Elder Gosar and I have been so busy that it's ridiculous. We've been doing exchanges all week and planning a zone conference and in the meantime we’re trying to handle a group of Haitians, which is no small task. I'll give you a little insight to my life:

So, like I told you last week, all we teach are Haitians because there are a ton here in Roswell. There is a little Haitian church here in the city that HATES us (and by "us" I mean the Mormon missionaries) because there are a lot of Haitians who attend our church and we're constantly teaching people that go to theirs. I feel like I'm living in a modern day War in Heaven. There have been so many people that meet with us, feel the Spirit, tell us they know it's true, then still decide to go to the Haitian church because they have a better band (seriously) and they get inundated with anti material. Ughhhhh.

Lately there have been tons of Haitians getting baptized into our church so Satan has been making it really hard on those who are investigating. Alice, our sweet investigator got fed a ton of “anti” this week and consequently, she told us she doesn't want to come to church anymore. The worst part is that we couldn't do anything about it because we didn't meet with her once this week due to her work schedule. So sad! KEEP READING THOUGH LOL. For every bad thing there is a good one!

CLEEVENS is doing so amazing!! This week we felt prompted to move his date up to the 14^th. So, we talked to him about it and he was all game! He'll be getting baptized this Saturday! We're going to meet with him every day, warn him of opposition and try to help him remain strong. Please pray for Cleevens to have the strength to withstand it! The best part, however, is that he already has. He is best friends with Alice's son Steven (all the Haitians know each other) and on Saturday night while he was at Alice’ house she tried to argue with him and tell him not to come to church, but instead of arguing he bore his testimony to her.  He told her that he knew the church was true.  Yah, baby!  Then, he came to church yesterday AND brought a friend with him! He's helping us teach his little sisters too!

HERE'S THE BEST PART THOUGH: Last night he told us that when he and his friend (Marvin) were on their way home from church and they arrived at his apartment complex they decided to KNOCK ON A RANDOM DOOR AND SHARE THE GOSPEL WITH SOMEONE! They literally knocked on a door, gave some guy a Restoration pamphlet, and said, "This church has brought us a lot of happiness. It will bring your family closer together. We love it. Please join us next Sunday." LIKE WHAT!? I wish you could've seen Elder Gosar and me! We were stunned! You never hear about investigators doing that! It was unreal! I love that kid so much!

There were so many other experiences that happened but I'd have to write a book so I'll cut it short. We're teaching some other great people (Haitians of course...and 1 white girl. Boo ya!). We’re teaching Jacque and Nella Pierre, a couple from Haiti. They didn't come to church on Sunday because Nella has a commitment at her current church every 2nd Sunday of the month. But, she told a member of our ward that she has that conflict "until she comes to the Mormon church permanently." So we're praying for that to come true!!

In other news, I rode in a Tesla this week (if anyone cares). I didn't even know what a Tesla was until I got to Roswell. But now I want one. Dad??? :)

Love you guys!! Thank you for everything! You're in my prayers! LOVEUBYE

Elder Roddy

P.S. The picture is of an 89 year old guy in our ward. He only speaks Creole so we took him with us this week to speak to some of the Haitians.