August is about done

Well we had another normal week here in Rogersville: Tracting, finding, and such.  

We did get in contact with a guy named Brad, whose dad was baptized recently in the Washington Vancouver mission. He wanted us to get in contact with his son that lives here.  We talked with him for a while on Saturday night and he basically told us his whole life story, and he has had a rough one. He’s been through drugs, gangs, and all that comes with that.  He said when we called him the first time a couple weeks ago, he was thinking about committing suicide that very night.  But he pointed out to us that he thought he felt the spirit telling him to listen to what we had to say first.  So we had a good chat with him. 

After he was done telling us everything, he was so grateful and said he felt so good with us.  Then we just wanted to be straight up with him so I asked, "Brad, we know how you can turn your life around and be happier, but it's gonna take some work. So do you want to change?" And he said, "If you guys care enough to put this much effort into me then I'll give my full effort back, yes." 

It was a really cool experience, we are going to go out to eat with him this upcoming week and teach him. 

Ahh, the South....

Other than that, same old same old here. Have a good week.

Elder Roden

Short Report

Well it was another great week here in Rogersville, Tennessee.

Unfortunately there's not a whole lot to report on this week but all is well here, same old, same old!  We weren't able to meet with any of our promising people this week, so another week of a lot of finding and tracting. I also got a part of a lemon thrown at me while we were walking, haha.

Hope y'all have a good week,

Elder Roden

Obedience

The theme of this week:

Mathew 5:10 "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

I had been thinking a lot for the last couple of weeks about the "persecution" we get sometimes as missionaries.  Mostly because it was a weird week and it happened a lot more than usual, haha. 

We were taking a day where we just walked everywhere, and it seemed like all day long cars were honking at us and having a competition to see whose middle finger was the longest, and seeing how loud their voices were, and using vibrant language so we could tell they wanted us to hear their golden pipes. This continued through the week, wherever we went. All week long, working all day long, we didn't have a lick of luck. 

We also got caught in a couple massive rainstorms, one while we were a few miles away from out car. Soaked to the bone! 

Then on Saturday we had used up a lot of miles, so we had to leave the car parked at the apartment for the day. That morning while we were planning, we were getting really frustrated and we weren't sure what we should be doing, nothing felt right. Then I just had one name pop into my head, Tyler Rowe. He is an inactive member that we had tried to see before, but we didn't think it would be a good use of time because he lived about eight miles away, and it was super hot and sunny, and there were not a lot of houses or people around him that we could see or try to find people, and missionaries hadn't seen him in over 2 years.  But we decided to just go for it. After a couple hours of walking across town and up a canyon, we finally got to his house and were greeted very warmly and had an awesome talk with him for a while. He mentioned he is wanting to come back to church, and now he might be able to if he gets a job he is interviewing for on Tuesday. By the time we were done, and by the time we had gotten back to town and eaten dinner it was already time to return to the apartment. So the whole walk back, I was just thinking, we did see him which was great, but that seems like a long day to just talk to one individual. I wasn't exactly sure we had used our time wisely. But along the way multiple people stopped to give us water, and multiple people stopped to offer us rides, even if we couldn't accept them. Tyler even drove by us and offered to give us a ride, and without even thinking I said no thanks. Right after that I was wondering what the heck I was doing. But something just told me "you are supposed to be walking today."

After we got back into town we stopped at a Burger King about a mile from our apartment and ate. We then started to walk home. We were about 300 yards from our apartment walking in front of a tiny little gas station, when some bright headlights shine directly at us and here comes a big red pickup truck pulling us over to talk to us. At first we thought, oh boy here we go. But then we came to know two individuals named Keith and Shannon. They told us that they had seen us walking on an over pass above the highway earlier that day, and they wished they could have stopped and talked to us, but they were too busy. We wouldn’t have been there had we not listened to the spirit, to see Tyler. We immediately got into a gospel discussion about us as missionaries, Church organization, and other things. The questions he was asking brought up each and every point of the message of the restoration. They both agreed wholeheartedly and absolutely loved the idea of the Book of Mormon. That was the absolute best lesson I have ever taught as a missionary, because of the spirit.  We were also texting Shannon yesterday, and she went home and told her friends in her apartment building all about it, and she’s bringing one on Wednesday when we meet with them again. 

We needed to walk 17 miles in the sun that day, just so we could enjoy that last 300 yards.  We needed to turn down air conditioned car rides with sweat dripping off our chins, just for that moment. There is literal power in obedience. 

Sometimes I don't like to be here, but I love it always. I have been blessed to be "persecuted for righteous sake." Cussed out, flipped off, spat at, whatever it is.  Elder Bluth, one of the AP's said something at Zone Conference on Thursday. "When you wake up at 6:30 every morning, that's starting off with a big right hook to Satan's mouth." That is 100% true! 

I'm grateful to be serving a mission, it's been a year since I opened up that call letter, the best news I've ever gotten.  I have learned something very precious to me out here, and it's simple: the Gospel simply works.  It doesn't fail, if you try. 

God bless,

Elder Roden 

 

Zone Conference

Pretty sure the sign is not about Elder Roden and his friends, but...

P Day hiking

Beautiful Tennessee

Back down to two

Well we had another good week here in Rogersville, Tennessee!

The Trio

ELDER MARTIN:

Wednesday was the day we had to go and drop off Elder Martin at the mission office. It was pretty sad but it was good. We dropped him off and just talked with the people in the office for a little bit then headed back. So it is now officially just me and Elder Farley.

 

The Elders with Sister Judy Wampler, who fed them Sunday dinner

 

BONNIE: 

So a couple weeks ago we were out tracting and we knocked into a lady named Bonnie. She was totally not interested and really just wanted us to leave, until we offered our services of any type. We went back a couple days ago and with just hatchets took down a few trees, they were fairly small but still trees. We also helped her clear out some bushes and some other things. We were there for a couple hours and she was so grateful. It just goes to show that when you show christ-like love for all people they can soften hearts.

 

Well besides that there honestly hasn't been too much to report on. Just a lot and a lot of tracting and finding. So I hope y'all have a good week!

Elder Roden