Mailing Address

Elder Derek Roden
Tennessee Knoxville Mission
11320 Station West Drive, Suite 101
Farragut, TN 37934

Monday, May 20, 2019

Crazy Week!


From May 13:
Crazy week!
Mon:
We had a leadership council in Knoxville (3hrs away) so we picked up the sister training leaders and headed up there.  Elder Costa of the seventy was there and he was incredible. After the meeting we loaded up and headed back. Well on the way back mine and Ostlers devices died and we don’t have a GPS. So after we dropped of the sisters at their apartment, we borrowed their GPS to get to the Asheville Elders’ apartment, where we were staying for the night.  We told them the address and they put it in for us and we took off because it was almost 10 at this point.  Well, it wasn’t close to the right address and we drove around lost for a little while. Finally, we stopped at a gas station and got the address to the high school we knew the Asheville elders lived by.  But we were still in missionary mode, so from about 10:45-11:30pm we taught thus guy named Paul at the gas station, haha. Anyways, we finally ended up getting there at about midnight and Elder Spears had made up our beds and gotten everything ready for us. Plus, he was up waiting on us, so that was super cool of him.


Tue:
We took Asheville up to Zone conference in Lakeway (2hrs) which was really good. Elder Costa was there as well. That night we worked their area for a couple hours and then went home.
Wed:
We went up to Marion (1.5hrs) to work with them and I interviewed one of their baptismal dates. We also delivered a door to some sister’s apartment on the way up, haha. Then we came home and had ward correlation.
Thu:
Today was almost a full day in our area.  We went finding all day and had a couple lessons.  Then that night we got to go to dinner with President and Sister Pickett, and the STLs.  After that we had stake correlation with them and the stake president.
Fri:
Friday, we found out that an elder in the zone was going home early on Saturday and we were already going to be with them from that night to Saturday. So, I worked with him for his last night and we had a good time and had some good success. It was an honorable release and he was in a good place.
Sat:
We got up at 4:30 and drove to the other Elder’s apt so he could pack, then headed to Knoxville again.   We went to the mission office for a bit, then the Picketts took us to lunch at Red Robin.  Then we said our goodbyes and headed back to Hendersonville and worked the rest of the night.
So right now we have Elder Fox from Safford, AZ running around with us and it has been fun!  Hope y’all have a good week!
Elder Roden


From May 20:
Mon:

We had a good Pday as a district at the church. Then that night we took Elder Fox, who had been with us for a couple days, up to Asheville to be in a trio and cover the 2 Asheville areas.
Tue:
Tuesday morning, we drove up to Cherokee, NC to go to their district meeting. After it was over, we went on exchanges with the Cherokee Elders.  I got to go with my former companion, Elder Farley, which was really fun.  We did service for a lady that lives way up on a mountain and has a really cool property with a lot of really cool stuff and vegetation. On her property there was even a super old moonshine distillery from way back.  Then she gave us some chili with bear meat in it, which was interesting, but not bad though. Probably the coolest part the Cherokee area is that they live on the reservation in a cabin home, and you can see and hear the river from the back porch.  I would not mind serving there at all. 

Missionaries and moonshine?

Wed:
In the morning Farley and I went out tracting for a bit, then we met up with the other guys for lunch.  Then Ostler and I headed down to Franklin to do a little exchange until we had to head home at 6:30. We are really short on miles, so we had to take a canyon road home and it took about 2.5 hours. But it was one of the coolest drives I’ve ever been on.
Thu:
We had a really good district meeting as well as interviews with President.  Then the rest of the day was pretty normal.
Fri:
Today we kept the truck parked and walked around and tracted for a while.  At one point some other Elders were in Hendersonville for a couple hours for something so we split off for a little bit.


Sat:
Today was super hot.  We started by moving a bunch of furniture out of a ward members storage unit into her house. Then we came home to find ourselves locked out of our apartment. We had given the church keys to another set of sisters that were going to use our building that day, but our apt key was there too.  Luckily, they were going to be in the area in about an hour so it was too bad.  Then we tracted for the rest of the day.
Sun:
Sunday, we got to mix and pour concrete for 3 hours which was pretty fun. We also got to go to the stake president’s house and have dinner with his family and the family of a guy we are teaching named Brandon. He knows its true, it’s just his wife isn’t super keen on the whole idea. So, this was a good time to meet and fellowship her.
Hope y’all had a good week, all is well here in NC!

Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Love N.C.


  Well, good news is it was a really good week. Bad news is we don’t really get a Pday today so I’ll have to keep it short. Elder Costa of the Seventy is coming for a special training meeting in Knoxville today, so we have to pick up the STL’s and go to that.  But we might get an extra half p day sometime this week.
Tuesday:
   Jean Patton is getting Baptized on Tuesday the 7th! We are super excited and so is she. She is the sweetest old lady. We went over on Tuesday and rebuilt a big dog house for her which was fun.  Her daughter breeds and trains dog so they have a really cool setup there. But yeah, we have been over there a few times this week to help her prepare and get ready.
Wednesday:
   Tonight we met a super cool family and taught them, the Grays. They are super funny and we are excited about them.  Then at the church that night we taught the Young men because the leaders want to have them come out with us this summer.  Elder Ostler was in one room talking about teaching and teaching them how to, then I was in another room teaching them how to do door approaches and talking to people in general. It was pretty fun, and we did some role plays with them and it actually was pretty fun. We got some Young men on board.

Check out the sign 🤣

Thursday:
   Today was super long and super hot, haha. We were out in the boonies and our allergies were both going insane.  But it was fun being out there nonetheless.
Friday:
   Friday we taught a few good lessons and had a really good dinner.  Then the Elders from Franklin came down that night for the last couple hours.
Saturday:
   I took Elder Silva from Maricopa, AZ out for the day. We had a really good time getting to know each other and finding a couple of cool new people to teach.
Sunday:
   Busy day. 1st Sunday at the usual building, picked up a guy named Tyler that Ostler found on splits and took him to church with some members, went out to contact some Hispanics with a member (I’m not much help there), did some administrative stuff we have to do each week at the church, dinner at the Queens, then went and saw Jean, then were doing weekly calls from 8:00 to 10:4,5 haha. Pretty good day though.
I hope y’all have a good week!

Last One

Well, this will be my last email, pretty crazy.   We had an awesome week!!   On Wednesday we got to go to the Sevierville building for o...