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!

The Lord will Provide a Way

Hey! Fam and Friends, 

Well, obviously this week was great because every week in Georgia is amazing! It was only 95 degrees with 90% humidity yesterday and I was wearing a suit all day long! YAY! It's okay I'm used to it now, which is kind of weird. Anyway, this week was extra busy. I went on two exchanges.  One was with the YSA Elders and the other was with one of our Assistants, Elder Coleman. Both of the experiences were great! I went to the YSA area and got to spend the afternoon talking to kids my age and knocking doors in apartment complexes! I just pray that I won't be put in a YSA area because I would have WAY too much fun. When I'm with kids my own age, or a little older, I completely go back to my old self and just joke around and laugh the whole time. So that's what I did. If you're not having fun you're doing it wrong, in my opinion! On top of the fun, we had a really cool miracle happen to us, and it wasn't even spiritual. Our dinner appointment for that night was cancelled so we decided to go to a pizza place. Funny enough, none of the other Elders had more than $2 on their pre-paid cards so they weren't going to eat. But, I told them, "Don't worry guys the Apostles got by without anything so we will too!!" (I was really just going to pay for everyone with the money I had on my card, but whatevs.) So, we sat down and ordered and ate and I kept telling them, "Don't worry guys The Lord will provide a way!" So, when the waitress came to give us our check I was planning on just paying without them noticing but then she walked up and said, "Hey, Boys. Good news! That sweet old lady that walked out a few minutes ago paid for your meal! Have a great night!" Ha! I couldn't believe it! It was so sweet! S/O to that old lady. Hopefully I see her again so I can give her a big hug! The Lord will always provide a way, even if it just involves pizza!

The next day while I was on exchange with Elder Coleman, Elder Flake was in Lilburn with the other Assistant. While they were knocking doors, they met this young guy who answered the door but when he saw who they were, he didn't give them the time of day. Elder Flake said they walked away from the house just really frustrated because of the way he acted toward them. This is where it gets interesting.  Yesterday we didn't have a dinner appointment so we decided to take our dinner hour and go to the Bronkema’s church because they kept inviting us but we could never go. They went to the morning service and we couldn’t go with them but we still wanted to attend, so we went to the evening one. We went and it was pretty good. The band was awesome (LOL!) and the preacher gave a decent sermon about not judging people. When it was over, we were on our way out and the preacher approached us to introduce himself because he recognized us as Mormon Missionaries and he wanted to talk to us. He was a really cool guy named John. Well it turns out, this preacher was the guy that Elder Flake met in Lilburn, and here he was preaching about not judging anyone! So, he proceeded to apologize to us and say how sorry he was for his previous actions. It was actually really cool and I have a lot of respect for him! I thought the whole coincidence was hilarious.

Kamari was confirmed yesterday! It was amazing but it was also the scariest thing of my life because they were late and literally walked into the chapel right as it was announced, "Now we will have the confirmation of Kamari Underwood." Elder Flake and I were worried that they weren't going to make it. Elder Flake provided an amazing blessing and God used him to say some pretty incredible things! In the blessing Elder Flake told Kamari that he was going to be an example in the gospel for his family for the rest of his life.  Elder Flake also told Kamari how he needed to continue to develop spiritual strength so he could lead and guide them. It was amazing!

Aaysia is right on track to be baptized this weekend too. During the week, while we were teaching them, we talked to Emoy about the growth of the Church and the resources it has. (By the way, she is progressing with her testimony too. They should be moving out by September, if not October, into another apartment so she can get baptized. Yayyyy!) So, while we were talking I realized how much the Lord has played His hand in our relationship with Emoy and her children. For example, the way we met them through Brandon (her old boyfriend) and how Emoy broke up with him on the day after Kamari committed to baptism all worked out so perfectly. I also found out this week that Kamari and Aaysia usually go out of town every summer to their Grandma's house and stay there ALL summer long, but since Aaysia made a competitive gymnastics team they had to stay in Loganville, which meant we were able to continue to teach them. Little happenings like these are just so cool to me! Emoy even told us that when they go to the Virgin Islands or Maryland to visit her family she knows which church they are going to attend. Yah, Baby! She also told us that when she was growing up in Jamaica she used to ride her bike by the LDS church every morning on her way to school. Those aren't coincidences, PEEPS!!!

I’ve gotta go now but everything else is great! I'm going to go play basketball with a recent convert who played college ball at Florida! Thank you so much for all of your love and support! I love you guys! Have a great week!

Elder Roddy

NOW, FOR THE MOMENT YOU’VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR…

HELLO FRIENDS and FAMILY!                                                                                             

            Hopefully, you have a year or two to read my letter because it's LONG. My week was amazing, as always, and I don't have much time today so I'm just going to cut right to it! We've been playing soccer and rugby all morning. So, we're all sweaty and tired and ready to pass out. Ha. Ha. So, where do I even begin? Let's seeeee. THIS IS GONNA BE LONG SO BUCKLE UP, KIDS! 

My fabulous week began on Monday when we had dinner at the Bronkema's home.  Elder Flake and I actually got to sit down and have a solid lesson with them! They made us an amazing dinner, as always, and we laughed and talked for a while then we had our lesson. After about fifteen minutes of gospel talk Vanessa asked, "So, what do you guys have that you feel like we're missing?" Of course, there are a lot of things we could've talked about, but the most important thing is the Priesthood. So, we taught them about it. It was an effective lesson and we should be going back there this weekend. I love them so much! It's nice to finally be able to teach them again and share our testimonies.

Elder Roderick and Thomas Hostettler at the top of Stone Mtn.

This morning Elder Flake and I had a very interesting experience. It began prior in the week when we received a letter in the mail addressed to “the local pastor of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints." The author of the letter is a man named Thomas Hostettler and he wrote to us about how America is going down the drain and all of us "pastors" need to unite and have a prayer for the nation. So, we called him and said, "Ya. We'd love to get together!" We thought it might be a good missionary opportunity, obviously. It turns out that poor Tommy hadn't received one single phone call back, except from us. Nonetheless, we thought, “Hey. Let's still meet with him to pray.” So, this morning at seven o’clock the three of us hiked to the top of Stone Mountain and when we reached the peak, we prayed together for our country for twenty minutes. Ha! Ha! It was so sick! Unfortunately, the fog was really thick and we literally couldn't see anything below us, but it actually made it… more dramatic. As odd as it sounds, it really was an awesome experience. It’s experiences like this that make me love the South. Random Joes, such as Thomas Hostettler, just want to get together and pray for America. You’ve gotta love it, Baby!

On Tuesday I was on exchange in our area with a Spanish Elder, Elder Lamb, and we stopped by to teach one of our investigators, Stanley. Stanley is twenty-five years old but we are teaching him instead of the YSA missionaries because he lives about five minutes away from our church and he can’t meet with the YSA branch because he works during their meeting time. He came to church last week but didn't come yesterday. (Sad face emoticon here.) Anyway, our lesson with him was hilarious. We taught him about the Restoration, and at the end we asked him to be baptized. I'll never forget what happened next. He literally sat there for THREE MINUTES, just staring into nowhere and thinking about it. I was praying that no one would say anything because silence is ALWAYS good during teaching and the Spirit was really strong. Finally he looked at us and said, "Ya. I'll be baptized. But how do I know who holds the authority? And how do you know it is true?" I was just thinking, "DANG! This is goooood!" So, we taught him more about the Priesthood and shared our testimonies. On Thursday we went back and taught him again and he had some more questions with long, awkward pauses, but we were able to commit him to being baptized on August 16^th. He was pretty excited about it but, like I said, he didn't come to church yesterday so we'll see what happens. I can't wait to see what interesting experiences come from teaching Stanley.

On Wednesday morning Elder Flake and I had our first interviews with President and Sister Bennion! I LOVE THEM! Sister Bennion and I just talked about the Parley's Stake for about fifteen minutes.  We talked about how spoiled we all are in Salt Lake to have the gospel so available to us. The whole time I was talking to her I was thinking, “Trust me, NOW I KNOW.” Then, she instantly became my favorite lady ever because she gave me handfuls of peach Hi Chews, my favorites! Yea, Buddy! My interview with President was SO SICK. We literally just talked back and forth for twenty minutes and he taught me so much that it's just ridiculous. I can't even put into words what I learned from him in that short time. I can't wait to work with him even more!

Later in the afternoon we met with Kamari and Aaysia to preview the baptism program for Kamari and inform him about the details of the event. Before we started I asked Aaysia if she had anything she wanted to talk to us about and she said, "Ummm… Ya. There is one thing. So, I've been thinking a lot about it…aaaand...I'm ready to be baptized. I want to do it before school starts." YEEEEEEE. I was smiling so big! So, we set a date for her to be baptized on August 2nd. She's going to be baptized with the Kearney's eight year-old son. Oh, and Brother Kearney asked Elder Flake and me to be in the circle this weekend when he receives the Melchezidek Priesthood! That will be sweet! We are so excited for the Kearneys and Aaysia!

STILL AWAKE? Okay. Good! On Thursday I had a really cool experience with a less active member, Tim Luzier. We visited him because the ward wants to know if he will take the missionary lessons. So, we asked him if he would be willing to listen to the lessons and he said, "Naaa. I think I'm good Guys." So we continued to talk to him about the lessons and the conversation turned to the Atonement and we commenced to have a LONG conversation about all that Christ went through. When we were done, he sat there for a second. Then he said, "You know what guys? I changed my mind. Want to come in?" We were thinking, “WHAAAT?” We couldn't go in to teach him right then because we were out of time. But, we're going back tonight! It was crazy to see how the Spirit influenced him and softened his heart and how he came to realize again the way that the Atonement could impact his life. The Church is trueeee y'all.

This weekend I also had some very meaningful conversations with a couple of the mothers in our ward. One was during a dinner appointment with Sister Angell. We've been teaching the Angell family and their high school son's girlfriend, Kaitlyn. I've told y'all about them. Anyway, when we teach the Angells we make sure that we focus on Kaitlyn but we always leave commitments with the entire family to pray for truth. So, the Angell's daughter, Marissa, who is fifteen years old, went to girls camp last week. Sister Angell told us that at the end of camp Marissa bore her testimony to all of the girls and told them how the Elders had been teaching her family, and she decided to act on her commitment to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if the Church was true. She went on to tell them about how she had received an answer to her prayers and now she knew for herself that the Church was true. While recounting Marissa’s experience, Sister Angell was just bawling and she said, "Elders I know you focus on teaching investigators, but you never know who you are actually touching and the impact it has on them." Pretty cool huh? Then on Sunday another mom came up to us and starting thanking us for taking her son, who is also fifteen years old, with us in the afternoons to teach Kamari. Apparently, he loves the experience and it's making him want to serve a mission himself! She couldn't stop thanking us! It was really so cool to hear these stories and know that in one-way or another we are having a positive impact on the ward!

THE MAIN EVENT: Kamari dressed in white after his baptism!

NOWWWW…FOR THE MOMENT YOU'VE ALLLL BEEN WAITING FORRR…(Hopefully, you read that in an announcer's voice because that's how I intended it to sound). KAMARI'S BAPTISM WAS ON SUNDAY. Holy Moses, Peeps. It was so sick! So, we held the baptism on Sunday because the Young Men were going on a campout from Friday to Saturday and Kamari was planning to attend. Unfortunately, the campout got cancelled. But, his baptism had been announced in church the week before and everyone in the ward loves Kamari and his entire family so EVERYONE wanted to attend the service. And, since the baptism was immediately after church it was convenient for everyone to stay for it. We started the baptism service in the Relief Society room, but we had to move it to the gym because there were too many people to fit in the Relief Society room. We even had to open all the overflow doors because people poured in. There were literally over a hundred people there! The Stake President said he had never seen so many people at one baptism. Ya, Baby! Since we had to open all the overflow doors in the gym, the other ward had to wait for us to finish before they could start their sacrament meeting. Ooops! That's how many people were there! Anyway, the program was great and I had the opportunity to baptize Kamari! 

THE STAR OF THE SHOW with his family.
Kamari (left), Emoy (right) and Aaysia (center) 

After the baptism, he and I just sat in the bathroom and hugged and laughed because we were both SO! HAPPY! When we finally got back into the gym, Emoy (his mom) bore her testimony, which was such a surprise because she isn't even a member! The Spirit and love in the room was incredible. I've never felt anything like it. Then, Kamari stood up and bore his testimony.  As usual, his words came right from his heart. He explained that ever since Easter Eve he has been meeting with us, and how frustrated he felt sometimes because he prayed over and over and over again about the truth of the Church but he didn’t get an answer. Then, one night he finally felt the Holy Ghost surround him, and he knew the Church was true. It was literally jaw dropping to hear it! I don't think I've ever been happier in my entire life. I can't wait to watch his family continue to progress together!

Well I think that's it. I’m sorry if you fell asleep in the middle of my stories, but I just had a lot to share. I love Georgia!  There is no place I would rather be right now.  I love being here even more than being with my family on our annual trip to Colter Bay Village, believe it or not! (Well, at least as long as I'm a missionary). I love you and I'm grateful for everything you do for me! Have a great week. Talk to you soon.

Elder Roddy

P.S. Happy eleven months to me!

DUTY becomes DESIRE

Greetings from ATL!                                                                                      

Elder Flake burns a shirt to celebrate his 1-year mark.

As always, we had an amazing week! On Thursday, Elder Flake hit his year mark so, of course he had to burn a shirt! We went to the bishop's house and made a huge bonfire and he burned an entire outfit. Ha-ha. Before the burning, he gave a speech and said, "One year ago today I left my momma's arms as just a boy. And now, I'm a man! Well, almost a man!" Watching Elder Flake on his year mark made me think about how close I am to hitting my own year mark next month and I spent some time reflecting on the last year of my life. I was able to speak in sacrament meeting on Sunday and I spoke a lot about my experiences because I wanted to help the youth see how fun and worthwhile serving a mission is. My whole talk was on putting your duty before your desire, because that's what Christ did in the Garden of Gethsemane. He showed us the perfect way for everything. I helped them understand that it's normal if their absolute greatest desire isn't to serve a mission because that's part of being a teenager. But, it is our duty to the Lord and eventually when we put Him first, our duty to God will become our greatest desire. I explained that this is what I have experienced!

Elder Flake & Elder Roderick with the Priests from Grayon Ward.

Then on Friday, we celebrated COW appreciation day at Chick-fil-A, which is when they give away free meals to anyone dressed as a cow. Ha-ha! So, for the entire morning Elder Flake and I went with the Priests in our ward dressed as cows and got free food! We looked so dumb. LOL! We just taped spots on our shirts and put ears on our sunglasses. But hey, it was free food and good times with the Priests! We have to get lunch for the next week from somewhere. Right? And, if it's frozen Chick-fil-A then that's fine with me.

Of course we managed to fit in some missionary work too and this week was full of teaching! We taught more LIMPS (lessons to investigators with a member present) than I have ever taught.  I think we taught thirteen lessons and the standard for the mission is four or five. So, it was a solid week! However, we're going to have to go through and clear out some of our teaching pool because some people aren't progressing and working with them is becoming a waste of time. Even so, we are finding some great new people to teach. It's crazy because we only tracted for four hours this entire week and we're supposed to tract for around twelve. We were just too busy teaching. But during the little time we did have to tract we found amazing people! We found one potential investigator named Stanley Jacques. He's twenty-five and he let us in when we knocked on his door. We literally only taught him for ten minutes because we were short on time but then Stanley showed up to church on Sunday. It was so cool! We had six investigators at church on Sunday, which was awesome and I didn't even sucker them into coming by telling them I was speaking. I promisssseee!

Elder Roderick and Elder Flake with "their boy" Kamari.

The best news of the week is that my boy, Kamari, is getting baptized this Sunday. Yayyyerrrr! It was so funny, yesterday at church his baptism was announced over the pulpit but Emoy, Aaysai and Kamari were late so he didn't even hear the announcement. I was sitting on the stand looking for them to come in and time went by and thirty minutes later they still weren't there. They are usually late but not THAT late, so I was hecka’ stressin’. Then, I felt my pocket vibrate and I looked at the phone and it was a text from Emoy and she said, "YOOOO we've been out here since the sacrament and we aren't sure when we're supposed to go in. SO WHEN DO WE COME IN RODERICK!?" Those poor souls! I immediately replied, "NOW! RIGHT NOW!" As a member, I don’t really think about things as simple as entering the chapel at an approved time until someone joining the church experiences it. Anyway, he is SO excited for his baptism. He is going on a campout with the Young Men from Friday to Saturday then the baptism will be on Sunday after church. Everyone at church was so happy it's on Sunday because they can all come. I seriously think the entire ward is going to be there because they all know Kamari and his family and love them so much. Elder Flake and I are also very, very excited! We are going to make sure we keep him as clear from opposition as we can and pray that everything works out. Thank you for keeping him and his entire family in your prayers!

I love you guys so much!! Thank you for your endless support. I couldn't continue without you. Have an amazing week and know that I pray for you every night!

Bye y'alllll

Elder Roddy