Transfers

Mon: Today Elder Sessions and I just kind of hung out for our last P-day. Nothing too exciting.  That night was my "farewell" dinner with our ward mission leader, Brother Thedy, who is such an awesome guy.
Tue: It was kind of a somber day, haha. There were a lot of goodbyes. But at noon Brother and Sister Carriere invited us to their photography studio and took professional photos of us and gave us pizza as a going away gift I guess. They are a super cool family.  Then at 4:00 we went to say goodbye to Mama Saas who is an awesome woman in the ward. Then after that we went and ate pizza and played Uno with the sister missionaries at the Blalock’s house (the ones that feed us every Wednesday).  Nobody on planet earth loves missionaries more than Sister Blalock.  They are such an amazing family and I love them. They even gave me a UT shirt and hat! After that we headed over to the church to play basketball with the ward one last time and it was super fun.  I came up clutch with back to back to back 3's to end the last game I played in that building. Money. Haha! But this is really such an amazing place that I have grown to love so much. I will definitely make an effort to come back and visit!
Wed: Crazy day! Transfers were fun, and I got to see a lot of friends there. Then I met up with my new companion and headed back to my new area.  It is the Rotherwood ward, but there isn’t really a town or city called that, it’s just the name of the ward.  So we live in Kingsport.  A good amount of our area is also in Virginia. 

The Kingsport District

Thu: Today we did weekly planning and a lot of cleaning. My companion was in a trio before this and I’ll just say it’s not super tidy.
Fri: Today was a cool day; it started out with a good district meeting with the new district. I really like everyone here.  Then we went to Shades of Grace, which is a food ministry run by the United Methodist church, to do service. Then that night we drove to the Powell Valley ward building in Big Stone Gap, VA.  My companion conducted a baptismal interview there because he is the district leader. It was cool to get to know the PV elders while up there.
Sat: Today we got to go eat at the Mears’ home, and then brother Mears offered to drive us up to the PV baptism. We weren’t able to go originally because of the meal appointment, but it was really nice of him to take us. It saved us about 100 miles too!  Brother Charlie Mears is a really awesome guy and we got along really well on the car ride.
Sun:  Crazy day, haha.  Got to attend the Rotherwood ward for the first time and it was great. There are a lot of great members here.  We even got to sit in and help teach the Beehive class.  Then that afternoon we went to Shades of Grace for their church service and it was really cool because I had never been to a Methodist service.  It was a great service and the pastor even mentioned us, in a good way, while speaking about service.  Then from there we went to our dinner appointment with the Jason Mears family (there are 3 Mears families in this ward, all brothers).  That family is super cool. He and his wife served missions. She served in Las Vegas, and he served in the California Anaheim mission. He was also out the same time my dad was serving in LA.  So it was cool to talk about that. 

The "real" Kingsport District

So my companion’s name is Elder Richard Nixon (haha), he came out from San Diego, California. His father is in the military, though, so he has lived lots of places like Virginia, Winnipeg Canada, Japan for 7 years, and a lot of places. But he is the District leader, so that makes me the district monkey, haha. So far I really like him. He is a very hard worker and is a great guy.  This apartment is pretty sweet, but it’s just dirty from the trio, haha. So we will get on that.  But thanks again for all the support and everything!
One thing we have been talking about a lot is how crucial it is for us to read the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon, daily.  We hear it brought up so much it almost seems silly. But there is a reason that it has been talked about so much by the prophets and apostles. It can and will offer us the protection we absolutely need. It is a simple, but important task! 

Love, Elder Roden

Tennessee Knoxville Mission