Hello everyone
It was a good first full week here in the Kingsport area. It is a really cool area and the ward has been very impressive thus far so I am really excited.
So I thought I’d give you a little background on the boundaries that I serve in and around. It is known as the Tri-Cities area (Johnson City, Bristol, Kingsport). Davy Crockett is from the Kingsport area, and the big rival high schools are Davy Crockett High and Daniel Boone High, which is kinda cool. A good majority of our area is in Virginia, and most of our Virginia work is in Gate City. There are a lot of cool historical things to see, and Kingsport itself is a cool city.
This week has mostly just been a lot of organizing our area book and ward rosters, and getting me introduced to a bunch of people, but there were a few cool things that happened.
SHADES OF GRACE:
So shades of grace(shades) is a United Methodist congregation in downtown Kingsport that is also open 7 days a week serving food to the homeless. We usually go there on Wednesday and Friday to help them clean. They are so loving and they tell me to play the guitar every time I’m over there so that’s really fun.
It was a good first full week here in the Kingsport area. It is a really cool area and the ward has been very impressive thus far so I am really excited.
So I thought I’d give you a little background on the boundaries that I serve in and around. It is known as the Tri-Cities area (Johnson City, Bristol, Kingsport). Davy Crockett is from the Kingsport area, and the big rival high schools are Davy Crockett High and Daniel Boone High, which is kinda cool. A good majority of our area is in Virginia, and most of our Virginia work is in Gate City. There are a lot of cool historical things to see, and Kingsport itself is a cool city.
This week has mostly just been a lot of organizing our area book and ward rosters, and getting me introduced to a bunch of people, but there were a few cool things that happened.
SHADES OF GRACE:
So shades of grace(shades) is a United Methodist congregation in downtown Kingsport that is also open 7 days a week serving food to the homeless. We usually go there on Wednesday and Friday to help them clean. They are so loving and they tell me to play the guitar every time I’m over there so that’s really fun.
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| Elder Nixon and Elder Roden, sent to me by a kind member who fed them(I think Sister Courtney) |
DAY OF SERVICE(LITERALLY):
Friday was a pretty tiring day, but it was good. We started out by going to the Kitchen of Hope, a food ministry, at 8am to do spring cleaning and, boy, did it need it. Then at 10am we went from there to a lady's house to help move a bunch of heavy furniture down from their 2nd story apartment onto a trailer. That lasted about an hour. Then from there we went back to the Kitchen of Hope and were there till about 1:30, then from there we went to Shades. We were there moving a bunch of stuff around until about 4:30, including this giant filing cabinet, taller than me, up a staircase, and a giant 8 food tall cross, and other interesting stuff, haha.
FUNERAL:
On Saturday, Shades of Grace was having a procession and funeral for about 9 cremains of unclaimed homeless people that had passed away, and they asked us and the sisters to join. So we met at shades and joined the line of cars all the way to a cemetery which was next to the oldest congregation in the state of Tennessee, a beautiful Lutheran building. But we had a great service atop the hill.
COURTNEY'S:
We had a super fun meal and lesson with the Courtney family. They are super cool. Matt is the head of the household and he is a nonmember and he is awesome. He is so ready to be baptized it’s not even funny. It’ll just be on his time. We made burgers, and I introduced them to fry sauce, and they really loved I,t haha. Then Elder Nixon had to join a conference call with the mission leadership for training, so I just played cards with them for a while. Sister Courtney is an awesome lady and an awesome member and she is super awesome to just talk to because she is basically like a mom to all the missionaries.
BAUGHANS:
The Baughans are such an awesome couple. We went to their beautiful home and ate with them. They are super competitive and love talking trash. So we took that to the ping pong table. Haha! We all had a ton of fun playing for a little while. They are pretty good but I feel like I held my own, a total of 4-1 in the games I played, haha.
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| I think this picture came from the Baughans |
MALACHI:
Malachi is an investigator who is 13 years old and he is such a sharp kid. We taught him the plan of salvation and asked if he wanted to be baptized and he said he really wanted to. The only thing we are unsure of is if his mom will let him. His grandmother is a member and is always a part of the lessons, and we are just working to open her daughter’s (Malachi's mom) heart a little bit.
PRAISE JESUS:
Holy cow, Sunday was so fun. After church we went to the Kitchen of Hope again because they invited us and the sisters over for cake and ice cream at their little social. The serving area and kitchen is in the basement of their church, so afterwards we went up just to look around. Next thing you know we were the only white people in the building, singing and dancing and playing the tambourine up on the stage with the "band", which consisted of LaTisha, BiBi, and Mel. They are sisters. They were a little surprised when I busted out some slick moves, I went for it man. Haha, but it was so much fun.
That’s about it for this week.
Elder Roden
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