Birthday week!

 This week was a pretty good week for us here in Sevier County, even though we ran out of our monthly allotted miles for our car and we have been walking everywhere! Haha. But it was a good week nonetheless.

Just walking...

   Just a little investigator update, Kurtis and Abigail, who I mentioned last week, have been making pretty good progress.  Last week we invited Kurtis to read Alma 32 and he did, and he said it was all new to him but it felt super familiar.  He now knows for himself that the Book of Mormon is true, which is huge.  I was also talking to him about prophets and I said, "One question we get a lot is 'how can you believe there is actually a prophet and apostles?" and Kurtis literally cut me off and said, "well how can you not?! It makes so much more sense!". So we are really excited about his progress.  Abigail is a little more reserved and I can tell she has some concerns she isn’t sharing with us, but hopefully Kurtis will be able to help with that because he is ready to hit the water- he just doesn’t know it yet.

The Smoky Mountains

   So a couple weeks ago the ward High Priest group leader just brought his neighbors to church.  So they have been coming to church the last few weeks and we have been talking to them a lot.  Last Sunday they invited us to their house to teach them and they even fed us, so that was really nice.  Jeremy, the dad, is a nonmember and Amy, the mom, grew up in the church but left for a while and just barely started coming back.  They also have two young kids.  So we went over and taught the restoration and he committed to being baptized if he found the Book of Mormon was true.  He really likes the church and everything he has learned so far so we are really excited about him, too.

Still walking...

   On Thursday we had our zone conference in Ootlewah, which is down by Chattanooga.  We left our apartment at 5:30 to pick up some biking elders that live in Knox, then headed to the Ootlewah building and got there right around 9, when ZC started.  We had a super solid day of training.  It is always good when you leave amped up and ready to go.  We also found out that all instruments must be sent home.  Honestly, when I first heard it I was really bummed out about it.  But I know there is a reason for it so I will trust President Pickett. I know it is inspired.  

Elder Roden's nickname has always been Buddy, so he had to eat here.

   Friday was  super awesome mostly because of all the messages and emails I got regarding my birthday.  So THANK YOU everyone, it was so awesome.  That night at about 6:30, we were driving away from a member’s house where we had been helping them move, and a guy named Brother Minton (who was a companion of my dad’s on their mission in LA) calls us and invites us to a Birthday dinner at a Hibachi grill.  They even gave me a couple ties and they were texting my family while we were at dinner and then I got to see a short awkward video of my family so that was cool. haha.  They told the restaurant it was my birthday, which my family knows I hate.  So we were eating then, all of a sudden, all the lights in the restaurant shut off and the cooks stop and turn around and I went "oh boy" in my mind.  But it was good. ALSO shout out to Grandma and Grandpa Treseder for sending Texas Roadhouse gift cards, we went on Saturday night! haha. We ate like kings this weekend! 

 

Birthday dinner with the Mintons...they take such good care of these elders

  I would also like to take a minute to send my heart out to the Frischknecht family.  I was one of the many who were fortunate enough to know Mac.  He was my Home Teacher, School Teacher, Bishop, and good friend.  He always knew how to make everyone around him smile, it was a gift.  The last few years I had truly felt like he was a good friend of mine, and we had been able to bond because of his kindness.  He had that effect on everybody, and his smile was, in a literal sense, contagious.  I absolutely love that man, a man of God.  When I heard of his condition I was shocked, and then when I heard of his passing I was heartbroken.  But, I know he is on the other side.  He is now working for the Lord, "flashing radicals" and living true to his blood type, B Positive.

Flashing radicals for Bishop Frischknecht 💗

   I love this gospel, it is so real.  If you reach out to the Savior, in all portions of your life, he will reach back.
Elder Roden