Fast Week

Holy crap this was the fastest week on my mission by far. I honestly don't remember that happened this week but I will try my best.

SUNDAY:

Well after ward council on Sunday we got quite the surprise when President and Sister Pickett walked through the doors of our church building. We had totally forgotten that they were going to do a youth Fireside at our Bishop’s House after church. But it was really cool to be able to kind of hang out with them for a little while. Afterwards we went to Bishop’s House, and I got assigned to grill up some hot dogs for everyone, haha. But we had a big lunch and then a super spiritual Fireside led by President and Sister Pickett. It was a super cool experience.

REST OF WEEK:

Well I feel pretty bad but the rest of the week was just a lot of finding. We have been able to find some pretty good new people and hopefully we will be able to get them progressing. It feels good to be able to go out and put your boots to the pavement every day. I guess on another note, it is freaking hot and humid.  It's weird that you walk for like half a mile and you are already dripping sweat, haha. I guess it's good for ya.

Also this Saturday coming up is transfer calls already, which is nuts. This transfer has flown by! But we will see what happens.

Elder Roden

Power Ups

POWER UPs:
So the Zone leaders came up for Pday because we were going to go on power ups (exchanges with both sets in the same area) with them from Monday night till Tuesday evening.  This time I was able to go with Elder Molloy, and we are pretty good friends so I was excited.  He is from Ladera Ranch, California, which is pretty cool because that is right around where I have some family and have spent a lot of time down there.  But we had a good time working together for the day. 

"Big Chefs":
Not my proudest moment, I’ll be honest.  But that night, Molloy and I were going to this pizza place called Big Chefs for dinner. When we got there we learned of a challenge of eating a big 28 inch pizza, and if you did it with two people in under an hour, it was free and you got $100.  Our minds were bigger than our stomachs.  All we kept saying all leading up to it was "Easy dude we got this", "15 minutes and we will be halfway done", "That’s an easy 50 bucks each", and at one point Molloy even told the gal working there that "You guys need to make it harder!".  Then we paid for the pizza, planning to earn it right back.  Soon thereafter we discovered that since 1991 when the place opened, not a single person has completed the challenge. Not a soul.  We gave it a good run, but we could only eat about 1/2 of it. I went immediately to the restroom and yakked.  I’m not sure when the next time I go to Big Chefs will be. 

STEVE:
Dang this was pretty sweet.  We were just walking up this road in the 95 degrees and humid weather and this guy was just sitting in his truck and he called out to us and he asked "hey are y’all from a church?" We responded then he said "Well I’m not sure how to say this, but I just am really trying to change my ways and turn my life around.  And something just told me to ask you guys for help."  Such a solid, humble guy.   We talked with him for about an hour and he wants to get baptized, so we set a date for July 7th for him and we are pretty excited. 

FATHERS DAY:
Sunday was also a pretty fun day, we got to speak in sacrament meeting which was interesting because the microphones or speakers weren’t working so we kinda had to yell, haha, but it went well I think.  Then me and the sisters sang Secret Prayer at Shades of Grace.
Other than that it’s been another normal missionary week.  Our district as a whole is kind of leading the zone right now which and it’s fun to be a part of so many hard workers.
Hope y’all have a good week!
Love, Elder Roden

Zone Conference

ZONE CONFERENCE:
   Tuesday was a really awesome day.  We had Zone conference down in Asheville, North Carolina.  It was the Kingsport and Asheville zones together and we had a super solid meeting and I learned a lot of cool things.  Plus it’s always fun to see some missionaries you haven’t seen in a while.   The Asheville area is absolutely beautiful so we took the scenic route home and it was amazing! Blue Ridge Mountains everywhere. 

 On the way back we also got to visit a family in Elder Donahoo’s first area, Ma and Pa. We just dropped in and they are so cool! Pa looks exactly like Kid Rock and is so funny.  When we got there they immediately started cooking steak and crab claws for us!  They are super cool and if you have ever seen the movie, The Water Boy, their house is exactly like the Boucher’s.  

Ma and Pa

Steak and crab claws

But honestly, other than that, we had another really eventful, uneventful week. We’re keeping really busy but just not a ton to report on.  Hope y’all have a good one!

Malakai!

Busy busy busy week this past week, but it was awesome
MALAKAI:
   Wednesday night was Malakai's baptism!  We are super happy for him.  We had a great service with good attendance.  It was also really cool because one of the young men was able to baptize Malakai, which went really well. The young men’s president approached us about getting the young men more involved, so we decided that would be an awesome thing to have happen.  Then on Sunday, after we locked our car keys and apartment keys in our apartment and had to call to get a last minute ride from a member, I was able to do the confirmation during sacrament meeting. 
   And now after Malakai's baptism, it has sparked interest in some of his family, so we will be keeping in touch there. 

Malakai with the elders

TRACTING:
Elder Donahoo and I have been pounding the streets really hard trying to build up our teaching pool.  We have been tracting a lot lately and it is always interesting, haha. We were at this one apartment complex that was pretty run down and we knocked on this door a couple times and nobody answered.  And right next to the door were some steps going down to some abandoned room and the steps were covered in moss (I’ll include a picture). For whatever reason we decided it would be a cool picture, so I walked down to pose. But as soon as Donahoo took the picture, the guy whose door we had just knocked opened up and started talking to him, haha. So while he’s by himself talking to this guy, I start awkwardly walking up the stairs to join in.  Right when I got to the top step, the guy walks out of his doorway right into me, and I didn’t really know what to say except, "hey".  Haha, he was so confused.  But anyways, he went on to tell us how he was atheist and was not interested and what not. But as we were leaving he was like, "have a good day y’all", and we responded with "God Bless!" Missionaries have a lot of awkward experiences, a lot of "hey" moments and a lot of “God Bless”'s to atheists. 

The Atheist stairs

   We were also in this neighborhood knocking doors on Saturday evening, and it was pretty cloudy but we felt fine about it.  But as we were standing on this one porch, it literally started raining harder than I have ever seen in my life, and our car was like 200 yards away.  So we just started bookin’. We probably looked so dumb. But when we got to the car literally every square inch of our clothes were soaked to the bone. 

Drowned rats...

   Also one really cool thing happened, we were knocking an apartment complex and we met this lady and she said she was busy but to come back tomorrow.  So we came back and we taught her and her 2 daughters the restoration and it went really well!  They accepted a baptismal date for the 23rd of this month.  There are people being prepared! 

Their area includes a small section of Virginia

MOVE:
   We got a call one day saying that there was a ward family trying to move out and nobody to help them and they wanted some help moving "couches". So we showed up and they had a U-haul there that was empty. And they said "alright we'll bring some stuff out for y’all".  So in the humid 90 degree weather, with literally everything in the house soaked in cat pee and cat hair, Elder Donahoo and I packed that thing to the brim. It was so hot and the only people there were the mom and her kids, and another lady from the ward.  Yikes.  But after a while we finally got it done.
SHADES OF GRACE:
   Well I got roped into singing at Shades of Grace during their service.  Haha, I was just playing around one day and Pastor Will heard a song and said I was playing it.  So I, with Sister Dutson on the piano, played it during service.  And the microphone I was using just kept getting lower, and lower, and lower throughout the song, haha. But it worked out okay.  If you look up, Shades of Grace: A United Methodist Congregation on Facebook, they live stream their service every week and we were at about minute 38 (June 3^rd) Haha!

Singing at the Methodist's service

POISON IVY:
   So we were doing some service for Matt a couple weeks ago, and I got into some poison ivy up my arms and legs.  It sucks I wouldn’t recommend it.  But I’ve got some lotion stuff a member gave me so hopefully that works. 

P Day hike to Bays Mountain

The top of the tower had a great view

Have a great week!

Elder Roden