October 22,2018

MON:
Last Pday was pretty fun, the whole district met up at some pickle ball courts and got to play that for a while. We also had some Spike ball going on too, so it was pretty fun. Then we went back to the church and played basketball and stuff for the rest of the day.

TUES:
Tuesday was a pretty fun day. It started with a good district meeting which I didn’t have to run or do really anything, so it was a nice breather haha.  When the district got the 3 other elders a couple weeks ago, one of them was the district leader where they came from, so he offered to take over for this meeting.  After the meeting we all went to grab lunch, then went back to the church for interviews with President Pickett, which are always good. I really enjoyed this one in particular because he gave me some very specific counsel not only for my mission but for the future with marriage and kids and that stuff, it was really cool.
After interviews we went on Exchanges with the Zone leaders.  I was able to go with Elder Urry and we get along very well. We were in the same district up in Kingsport as well.  Since we have a monster district, interviews took forever so we only had time to tract a trailer park in the rain for an hour then go to dinner.  Then we headed up to the ZLs apartment to stay the night there.
WED, THURS, FRI:
Tracting a bunch.
SAT:
Saturday we went on exchanges with the other Brainerd Elders. I took Elder Woll down to Ringgold for the day.  We had an unexpected day of service so it was fun.  We first went to give a lady a blessing. She was very nice but it was officially the nastiest house I’ve ever been in, haha. Woll is fresh out of the MTC and is from California and, needless to say, his eyes were widened, haha. Just a lot of clutter, roaches, termites, cats, cat pee, trash, and so on.  Then we went and did some yard work for a member, then another inactive member needed some furniture moved so we went ahead and did that as well.
SUN:
Nothing beats getting asked to give a 15 minute talk 5 minutes before church starts, haha.  So that was a fun way to start off the day, I think it went well.  Also I found out that while the 2nd counselor in the bishopric was serving as a Branch president in some small part of Alabama, my cousin Emma was serving a mission and served in the same branch.  He was pretty excited about it so it was cool!  Me and Jeppesen also got to sit in with a class during sharing time and that was super fun. I hadn’t been in primary since I left it when I was 12, so it was really fun.
Not much else going on other than the weather and season changing. It has been absolutely perfect weather here and it makes it so nice to be outside! It has been 50's and 60's with no wind or humidity all week. Hopefully that keeps up.
Have a good week! 

Slow week

Hey y'all it was another good week here in Georgia. 

Elder Roden sporting his Ghana gear from Elder White

Unfortunately there's not a whole lot to report on this week other than we did just a ton of tracting and finding with a little success. We are just hoping to get this area up and going again, nothing had been getting done the last few months, so we are working on fixing that. Other than that i honestly have no clue what to say, sorry it wasnt a very exciting week other than tracting and finding. 

Elder Roden 

 

 

General Conference

THE COMP/AREA:
Another week has come and gone and now I’m starting to get settled in down here in Georgia.  Me and Elder Jeppesen are getting along great and we really enjoy being around each other.  We have very similar senses of humor so it makes things nice. 
This area is really nice to be in, a loooot of houses and neighborhoods! That’s something I haven’t had in a while.  So we have been hitting the pavement pretty hard and doing a lot of tracting, which is not the funnest thing in the world, but it is rewarding to be able to work hard with and for the Lord.  Unfortunately, Elder Jeppesen’s first trainer was very very trunky since it was his last transfer and they didn’t get a lot of stuff done, work or training wise, haha. So we are working hard to build up the area because it has been pretty slow for a while.  We are having a fun time doing it, though!  We are just outside of Chattanooga so there are a lot of things to do and a lot of stores and stuff, which I again am not used to, haha. We even have the only Costco in the mission! Jepp bought a membership so I got to hop on his for free! haha.
THE DISTRICT:
Our district is super fun, 6 elders and 2 sisters, and a senior couple.  At first I thought 6 elders would be a little too crazy but,luckily, 2 of them are Zone leaders, so we can keep pretty reverent, and the seniors help with that as well, haha.  I also got a call that there was a situation that happened up in Cleveland TN, and, long story short, we will be getting another trio of Elders joining the district for the remainder of the transfer. So we are officially the Mega-district, consisting of 13 missionaries. Should be fun! 

The four Brainerd Ward elders

CONFERENCE:
General conference is like a Holiday weekend on the mission. I have never been so excited to sit in a chapel for 8 hours in my life, haha.  And it was an incredible conference.  I felt the spirit strongly reassure me that we truly are led by a Prophet of God,  and as we heed his counsel we WILL be blessed, we WILL be happy, we WILL have understanding, and we WILL come closer to God and Jesus Christ. That is a promise!
Other than that, there’s not too much else to report on. I’m getting a free haircut from a sister in the district today so pray for that to go well, haha. Have a good week!
Elder Roden 

Georgia

Hey y'all, it's been a good first week here in the new area. I'm living in Ringgold, Georgia right now, so it's pretty cool I guess. The new companion is Elder Jepsen who is a Farm Boy from Idaho (100k acres), haha. We got along really great right away so it’s nice.

 

Former Sevierville missionaries at transfers

The rest of the district is really cool, and we all share the stake center for our church meetings, so it’s fun to see them on Sundays and stuff. Also, serving in the same ward as Elder Haynes is a huge blessing.

 

Checking out a sword collection at a dinner appointment. Jepsen is the one behind Elder Roden

Other than that, not a whole lot of exciting stuff happened. I’m just still getting settled into the area. Hope you all have a good week.