Hendersonville, North Carolina

What a week!

   Monday and most of Tuesday were pretty slow, then after our dinner on Tuesday we called it a night so I could get packed and ready to go.  I was sad to leave Elder Vinyard, his been one of my favorite companions by far.

Elder Roden saying goodbye to another elder from his district

   Wednesday was transfers and it was really fun, as always, then my new companion and I hopped on in the van with 6 other missionaries and took the 3 hour drive out to NC.  Once we got there, we then had to take the downtown Asheville Elders their bikes, since we drive a 2018 Toyota Tacoma (yes, really).  They live in a house that could house 10+ missionaries easily, its huge.   After that we headed back down to Hendersonville and did some tracting.  Then the activity day girls in 2 of the wards made dinner for us and 4 other sisters, so that was really fun.

Transfers

   Thursday we had our first district meeting, which was good.  Since we are the only Elders in our district, we get to be Zone leaders and Co District leaders, haha.  We just switch off running the meetings each week.  Then we headed down to this super cool hidden town called Saluda. And we worked there for most of the day.

   Friday we started off teaching a guy named Brandon at the stake president's house at 9.  He is a really cool guy and he collects guitars, so hopefully we can get a good relationship going. The stake president is Pres. Van and he is such a cool dude.  Then we went to the church to study and weekly plan, as well as make a Zone goal for the transfer.  Then at about 3, the Elders from the Marion ward were in the area, and were going to a baptism at our building at 6, so we went out and did a little exchange with them. 

Not really sure...

   Saturday was one of the craziest days of my mission so far.  It started out by tracting for 7 hours straight, which usually isn’t super fun.  But we found the hood and felt like we needed to pound it out. And even though we were the only white boys within 3 miles any direction, we were able to teach 13 people and all of them took a Book of Mormon and scheduled a return appointment.  One in particular was named Christopher, and he had a cool experience while we showed him a video on the first vision.  We asked him how he felt after watching it and he said he was trembling and stuttering because of how he felt, and he was on the verge of tears, pretty cool.  There were a bunch of older guys outside in a yard and we walked up and met one of them named Efantan, from Jamaica.  He is the craziest dude of all time, haha.  We kept seeing him and his friend, Terry, who is in a wheelchair, all around the neighborhood, so it was funny. "Fast cars, fancy ladies, get paid, and I’m gone". He kept saying that over and over.  He is the Jamaican equivalent to Lavar Ball, if any y’all know who that is.  Then we went and visited a lady named Jean, and she is getting baptized on the 7th of next month, so we are excited about that.

  Sunday we had our ward conference, which was really good. Then we went out with Bishop Poole, who was just called last week.  After that we just tracted a little and did a bunch of administrative type stuff all night.

Elder Roden and Elder Ostler

   My new companion, Elder Ostler, is from Highland, Utah and played LB at Lone Peak high school.  He’s got a couple of offers to walk on to play college ball when he gets home.  But we have been getting along really well so far, and Hendersonville is already one of my favorite places.

Hope y’all have a good week

Elder Roden