From February 18:
Hey hope y'all had a good week.

    This week is was really cool to have some general authorities here with us.  We had Elder Stanfill of the Seventy, Elder Vinson of the Presidency of the seventy, and Elder Gong of the quorum of the 12.  
   

On Friday  the whole mission met here in Farragut for a special meeting with all 3 of them and their wives.  Before hand, we got to go through and shake all of their hands and talk breifly with them. It was really really cool to be able to go eye to eye with an apostle of the lord. During the meeting he mentioned how them looking in our eyes, with the help of the holy ghost, was like a personal interview so they could sense how we are doing. Pretty cool.  We were seated on the front row and Elder Gong was walking right in front of us the whole time, it was like sitting court side at an NBA game.  He's a really funny guy and it was cool to be able to see some of his personality, like him dancing with his arms in the air in the chapel, haha. 

    After the meeting we had a pretty cool thing happen. We were tracting a more rural part of our area and we knocked on this trailer where a lady was and she started saying she doesn’t speak English.  Well I haven’t  been around many Hispanics in about a year, but I’m glad I was able to be in Sevierville for that time with 2 Spanish companions. I’m still not sure how, haha, but I told her that we were missionaries and where we were from and a little bit about the Book of Mormon.  We had a little conversation then I asked her about what we had been talking about and in her broken English she said "That I want".  So we are going back with someone who actually speaks Spanish to help us out, haha. But it was definitely  a gift of tongues moment. 

    That same day we also met this guy named Fred who has a ton of really cool cars and these crazy modified vehicles he builds. We talked with him for a while and he has a YouTube channel if you want to check him out haha. I think its called Fred Yuricic. He said it was family friendly haha. 

    On Saturday night we attended another meeting with Elder Gong and Elder Stanfill for recent converts and investigators. It was a really good turn out and a really good meeting.  I also got roped into singing in a double quartet during the meeting and that went well.  We sang the Army of Helaman/As sisters in zion medley, I think that’s what it’s called. 

    Sunday morning we went to a Presbyterian church with a family that had come to our church a few weeks ago. It was a pretty decent service. Then we had Stake conference with Elder Stanfill. Elder Stanfill gave an awesome talk that was highlighted by, "Don’t sweat the little stuff." 

Well that's our week, hope y’all have a good one. 

Elder Roden