Another week down in TN

   This week we were able to go back to the local food ministry to do service for a while and I love it there.  It is kind of funny because we are the only volunteers under 60 years old, but it is still super fun.  There is one lady named Kathy who we work very closely with and she is a born and raised Alabama farm girl and it still shows.  Seeing her genuine love and service for others is so amazing to me.  Every week before the people come in and get their food, she leads everyone off with a prayer over the intercom, and she is always, ALWAYS thanking the lord for EVERYTHING.  At first I was kind of like, "ok, we understand", but the more I am around that influence, what a testimony builder it is! No matter what denomination, there are always wonderful people that we can learn from, we just need to open our minds a little bit.  She is also a diehard Bama fan and is convinced she will get me to be one too... I'll have to think on that one.

     As for an update on investigators, which I realized I have not done a lot of, we have a pretty decent teaching pool now.  When I first got here there were 0 investigators, and 0 lessons planned, period.  So we are definitely improving the area.  The most exciting investigators right now are a married couple named Curt and Abi. We have started to meet with them about every Wednesday.  They are in their early 20's and have a 2 year old son named Ash.  They are just really cool people.  They were born and raised Baptist, which is a pretty common theme down here, but have some things that they don't really agree with that Baptists teach, so they really like what we have to say.  We 'softly' committed them to baptism, meaning they agree with everything and like it, but they just need some more time to read and pray about everything.  But besides them we have a pretty decent teaching pool right now which is good. We just need to keep growing it like we have been doing. 

     We are starting to see the members start to open up to us as well.  We are able to meet with them more often and help them with their needs as well as help them understand what they can do to help the work in this area.  So the member trust is going up which, in turn, is bringing in more opportunities to get referrals and teaching appointments with members, and us getting fed more often, which is always good.
    It's been another pretty normal week out here though, chuggin’ along here in TN!  A lot of interesting, but good people down here in the buckle of the Bible belt!
    Y'all have a blessed week! (They say blessed in place of 'good' a lot down here, it’s cool with me, though)

Elder Roden 

Fun facts of the week: Dollywood is only about a 10-15 minute drive from me, although I haven't seen it yet because it's back behind some hills. If you ever want to go mini golfing or Go-Kart racing, this is the place. There are so many places to do both of those. Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg are huge tourist areas so there are a lot of cool things down in that area. 

It's still cold...

 This week we started out with another fun P Day in Farragut. Then that night, a less active member had already invited us to dinner. He is a chef at a nice restaurant in the really nice hotel so he just said "whatever you guys want, it's on us".  So that was really awesome of him to do. We were also able to discuss why he hadn't been coming to church for a bit, and now he should be there this Sunday. He's a really good guy, so I hope to get to know him better, not just because he is a chef. 

     On Tuesday we watched the announcement of the new First Presidency of the church. What a beautiful thing to see such an easy transition- no voting, no campaigning, no arguing- just the Lord running his church. The passing of President Monson was a very sad thing, but his mortal ministry was completed and he is where he needs to be. It’s the same with President Russell M. Nelson; he is where he needs to be. I fully sustain him and pray for his success. 

     Wednesday was so cold! Haha. It snowed all night and that day it was like 15 degrees. But we were working. We had an interesting experience with a guy that cussed us out for a few minutes and then called us "(blank) wizards". He didn't speak super clear English so I was not really sure what to think, but it was kind of funny. 

     Thursday was district meeting and we also did exchanges since it was a new transfer. So after district meeting in Maryville, Elder Heninger and I drove back to Sevierville to work. I was so happy. I haven't driven in so long! But we had 3 appointments that night and they all went very well. We are also really good friends now so it's always fun to work with him.
   

Elders Roden and Heninger and their awful green jackets

  On Tuesday we also were able to go teach an inactive family who is struggling with a lot right now. We took Bradley Minton, who is 18 and planning to serve a mission soon. It felt kind of weird for me to be answering some of his questions and giving him tips and advice because it still feels like I don't know what I'm doing half of the time. It still is a daily struggle and adjustment for me to be a full time missionary. But I see the Lord's hand in my life daily, and I would not be here without the companionship of the Holy Ghost and the support of my family. Right now I am just doing my best to make the mold, and hopefully I will be able to fit into it one day. 

     I'm not sure why I have been sent to the "buckle of the bible belt" as they call it. I'm not sure why I am serving in the Sevierville area.  I’m not sure why I get called a "wizard" in some way just about every day. I'm not sure why the Lord has someone like me, who has had many personal struggles, to represent Him and His church. But I do know that I am an essential piece to this eternal puzzle, as we all are. I truly have been born of goodly parents. I hope I can honor them. I truly have been blessed with amazing family, friends, and acquaintances. I now hope that I can learn from those examples and be able to help others, because that is why I was sent here.

Thank you all,
Elder Derek Kenneth Roden 

January 15

   This week started with a really good P day. We hung out with the Maryville elders all day so that was nice. We went to Smoky Mountain knife works, which I think is the biggest knife store in the world or something.  Elder Heninger and I both got sweet knives and we got one for Elder Haynes, who was one of our good friends in the MTC. He is actually down in Georgia right now so we will have to wait until zone conference to give it to him, but that's ok. 

Elder Heninger and Elder Roden and the "sweet knife"

     Then the work started.  We had a really busy week which was super nice. It's nice to see some of our labors from the last month or so paying off. We are really working on strengthening the ward members. There are over 500 members in the ward boundaries, and we have about 110 consistently active. I would say there's some room for improvement. So we have been meeting with as many members as possible each week to help them understand the need for them to be doing their own missionary work. We have gotten a good response so far, so we will continue to do that. We also have some solid investigators we are working with right now... and some not so solid. But, nonetheless, we are working our tail ends off to help these people out.
     We also were able to do service at a food bank here in Sevierville. I wasn't expecting to get much out of it. All the volunteers there were elderly Baptist folks. They can be tough sometimes, but wow, what a testimony builder for me. We would pack bags of groceries for these families who had next to nothing. And seeing these volunteers’ faces light up as the "regulars" would come through was amazing. We worked closely with a 60-70 years young woman named Kathy, from Alabama. She has the wit and spirit of an 8 year old farm girl, because that's what she is at heart. I watched as she would go out and pray with and shed tears with those who came in. After we told her about our missions and us leaving our families and everything she immediately said, "tell your Mom I LOVE her".  So mom, Kathy loves you. We aren't supposed to hug women while we are out here, but ask me if I cared about that rule when she had to leave! We will definitely be back to help them out in the future. 

Martin and Roden at church

     We have been able to teach a lot more this week than we have in the past, which is good. Martin and I have narrowed down how we teach best with each other and it’s really fun to see it working for the people we teach. I call him a "doctrinal encyclopedia" and he calls me a "testifying powerhouse”.  I'm not so sure about that, but we definitely have a pretty good system.
     One odd thing about Tennessee is the obsession they have with Dolly Parton. I swear her name is on everything down here. They have TN license plates with her face on them. Haha. I guess she really doesn't like the church from what I've heard. I would love to sit down and share our message with her one day. Also, the weather is odd. It was really nice earlier in the week and then it just got down to 20 degrees and freezing rain again in one day.
     And shout out to LeAnn and the Riser family for the Baskin Robbins gift card hookup! This might be one of the only areas that have one. That’s mostly because Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg are high tourist areas. But thanks again and they definitely be will put to good use!

Elder Roden

 

It's cold in Tennessee!

Mon: Today we did another zone Pday. So we headed up to Maryville and Maryville took us up to Farragut.  We had breakfast with about 20 other missionaries in the zone leaders’ apartment, so that was cool. Then we went to the Stake center and played basketball and volleyball and guitar.  I really like the zone P days because there's a few other guys that are pretty good at the guitar so we like to play with each other. So it was a solid day. We were in charge of bringing eggs to the breakfast, so I bought the bulk pack with 60 in there so we could take the rest home. But I forgot them so that kinda blew.

Not sure...

Tue: Today was so cold. It got down to 5 degrees at like noon and plus the humidity was super bad. But the work presses on. We were able to set up a few appointments with potential investigators so that was a success.

Wed: Wednesday was district meeting then we did exchanges with Maryville again. This time I was with Elder Heninger, my good buddy from the MTC, working Maryville, while our comps went up to Sevierville. It was so awesome. We got to work together all day then we ordered a pizza and hung out together the rest of the night. We are really good buddies so it was nice to go and work with him.

Elders Heninger and Roden on P day

Thu/Fri: The cold weather continues. Tracting is not super fun in the cold humidity, but it needs to be done. That's what we did mostly for these couple days, that and we were visiting members about the ward mission plan and helping them out with missionary work in their homes.

Sat: Today started out weird. We had done our daily planning and stuff after our morning routine, and were about to leave, when I just felt like we shouldn't leave, like the place we were going wasn't right. So we re-planned, and the same thing happened. This happened 3-4 times. We must have been daily planning for almost 2 hours, but we just couldn't bring ourselves to leave the apartment. Then we got a call from a ward member, a single woman that raises her daughter and her two grandsons whose mom lost custody of them. Turns out she had been in and out of the hospital with an injured back, and her daughter was very sick and they needed help. They were supposed to go pick up a big dresser to put in their trailer but couldn't, as well as their pipes had frozen so they had no water. So we loaded up all the jugs and bottles we could with water, went and helped get the dresser, and dropped it all off at their humble home. Then we gave the mom and daughter blessings as well. The spirit knows far better than we do what needs to be done!

Sun: Pretty normal Sunday. Had a good fast and testimony meeting then contacted some less actives.

Another week down. Everything is going really good down here. Cold, but good. We have started to get more investigators, which is great, and also more referrals, which is greater! Being able to teach and talk with people is so great because that's one of the things I feel I am fairly strong at doing, so things are going very well. We are also going to get our bikes down here so we can start having some biking days, which I'm excited for, just maybe when it warms up a little bit.