Email sent January 20, 2015: Baptisms and Belts

Howdidily-Doo family!

In case you were wondering, which you probably won't, yes I do begin every letter I send to President Bennion with Howdidily-Doo. He hasn't said a word about it, so I assume he's ok with it. 

Anyways!

So family it has been a wonderful week! Sorry for the lack of an email yesterday. Due to MLK day we had our P-day changed to today. But alas, I will email you all a wonderful letter describing our week. Paz, Calmense... 

So this week it was pretty awesome. We had the baptism of Carmen on Friday. We thought everything was planned but as we woke up on Thursday morning we realized that we hadn't done a program for it! I was going on exchanges so Elder Castro and Elder Portillo were able to go and get it situated. I'm glad I have two companions I can count on to be honest. It's pretty nice. But on Friday, as time got closer and closer to the baptism more things kept happening. We got there at 6 to begin filling the font for 7pm, the time of the baptism. Carmen wanted it warm and so we filled it with as hot as water as we could. During that process, Elder Castro told us he didn't have a change of clothes, since he was the one going to baptize her. So he and I ran back to the apartment while Elder Portillo translated for the interview. Oh, which they thought was going to be held at their house, so they had to fly over to the church so that a member of the mission presidency could conduct the interview. Then while waiting for the baptism, nobody showed up, not even Carmen until around 6:50 hahaha Hispanics. So we postponed the baptism a little bit to wait. Carmen then informed us that they didn't have baptismal clothes, despite the fact that they'd told us they had some.... got that situated. Then the daughter, Maria, asked us what she was supposed to speak on during the program, which we set a week ago haha so I just had to wing my talk based off of what she said haha. IT was a pretty interesting baptismal service if I've ever seen one. Because during all the waiting, the water cooled and was cold hahahah. 

After the baptism we had a really interesting night. Elder Portillo and I have some fun playing little pranks on Elder Castro. So while Elder Castro was using the bathroom, we closed the door to the bathroom and shut off all the lights in the apartment. Then we waited in the laundry room with belts. Elder Castro opens the door and immediately starts freaking out. He was yelling things like, "Where are you guys? Don't be stupid! I'll find you!!!" And at one point he came running out of the bathroom with a can of Febrez spraying it in the air. I guess trying to make a smoke screen for defense. But he ran back into the cloud and yelled, "OH IT"S IN MY EYES!!!" At that point we came out of the laundry room and started lightly, and I emphasis LIGHTLY, whipping him with the belts. He had a Nerf gun and shot me in the face so we thought it was equal. I love this companionship!

But alas, transfers are this week. It's pretty crazy actually what's happening. Elder Castro and I are staying together, but going to whitewash in Lawrenceville. I'm happy to take a challenge like this under my belt. The first time I whitewashed I was being trained and so I'm happy for the chance to do it when I actually know what I'm doing! I don't know my address but I'll email you guys next week to let you know :) I love you all so much and I loved getting emails from you all this week :) Have fun! Keep being strong! Guarden la ley de Castidad!!!

Love,
Elder Rodabough the second

Happy Penguin appreciation day!

Email sent January 12, 2015: Keeping it Kosher in Kennesaw

So this was a really awesome week for the majority of the District this week! So for us we had a really good week all full of miracles. I'll just give some highlights of the funniest and craziest moments.

On Monday we ate with the Ayala Family and did a Family Home evening with them. We decided to teach a basic Plan of Salvation lesson and have everybody draw their own Plan on paper with Crayons. Here are some of my favorite quotes:

 

Ivy (10yr old daughter): Do we draw Adam and eve with clothes or without clothes?

Hno Ayala: Depends if this is before or after the fall! Let's keep it clean and put clothes Ivy.

Me: Who are some people who will live in the Telestial Kingdom?

Seth (12 yr old son): Hitler!

Ivy: Miley Cyrus!!!!

Elder Portillo: Well, we've reached that point in the world. Good to know...

I love the Ayala Family hahaha

Tuesday I got to do an exchange with Elder McArthur which was so fun. We got together and he came with Elder Castro and I. We didn't have a huge day planned to be honest but he didn't really care. He knows that we're working and there's always that one day of the week when you have nothing planned and you just look for potentials. But at night we had a super long talk till about 12pm. We mostly talked about sacrifice and the eternal principles behind it. Yeah we have super deep doctrine conversations because we're cool like that. We also talked about how much we look forward to hanging out with one another after the mission. He's probably my best friend out here in the mission. You'll all like him. He's super sarcastic.

Friday, I had a super mega blessing come my way straight from the clouds above. You all remember Sheny right? The little tiny Guatemalan lady that we baptized back in January of last year? SHE WENT TO THE TEMPLE!!!!! Elder Galvez called me Thursday night telling me that we both received permission to go to the temple with her. So on Friday I exchanged with Elder Galvez and he got a member ride form the Norcross Branch down to the temple in Sandy Springs. It was so wonderful to see her. She makes me feel like a good missionary haha. But to see someone finally get the blessings that come from the temple after one year of activity was so amazing. To see why we baptize. Not to get people in the waters of baptism, but so that they can get to the temple. It was nice to do another session in Spanish though! The veil worker was mumbling a ton so it was a little bit harder this time through. But I made it!

Saturday we taught Carmen who's getting baptized this Friday and Sunday she came to church! We were able to teach her along with another super prepared girl named Estefania. She's like 20 yrs old and wants to make a bunch of changes in her life. She didn't come to church yesterday, but we'll do our best to see her again this week.

It's been a really awesome time here in Cherokee Spanish. It's been everything that I've ever hoped for. We have transfer calls next week and it's looking like a real toss-up. I might stay, I might go, I'm up for a transfer, but I could just as easily stay. President likes keeping people towards the end of 6 months in an area lately, but I'm just going to keep working no matter where I am. That was something nice I learned last transfer when I was a little disappointed that I wasn't going to train. But as I thought about it I realized something very deep. It doesn't matter hahaha. It doesn't matter where I am because I'll be doing the exact same thing everywhere I go. The Lord has prepared people everywhere, so I'll just go find them wherever my boundary limits are.

 

I love you all so much and hope you are all having a good time! Keep it fresh Rodaboughs!!!

 

Elder Rodabough

Email sent Jenuary 5, 2015: Teaching, Teaching and Teaching

Well family we didn't have a super crazy filled week. But we did see a steady stream of miracles come our way which was amazing!!

So with Carmen this week we had the chance to teach her 5 times which was really nice. We had the chance to bring members from the branch to the lessons so she could get to know people and at church Hno Estrada (who we brought him and his wife) sat with Carmen and her daughter who was already a member named Maria. She's just really happy with the church and mentions every time we teach her how she feels like she's found a real truth and is happy she found it after all these years. She's around 70 I think... So retention of info is low.... but the Spirit is high during the lessons so we're ok!! She actually just changed her baptismal date to Friday the 16th! We're a little scared about how much time we have to teach her since she's out of town for the whole business week. But she gets back on Saturday so we'll be able to finish the lessons with her.

But the coolest miracle that I saw this week would have to be on Thursday, New Years Day. I was in Roswell on exchange with the Cumorah Branch Spanish Elders. I stayed in Roswell which I'm pretty familiar with and was with Elder Wood. He's a fairly new missionary, only been out about 7 months now. We went out tracting and I was super determined to teach a lesson with Elder Wood. So much so that right before I left I just muttered quietly out loud, "Ok, Lord, I'm walking with the faith that we're going to teach someone during this time. Help me with that please." We walked to a complex and the very first door we knocked on a white guy opened it and said "Hold on let me go put on a shirt." Then he came back and invited us right in without us saying a word. We sat down and started talking to him. When he opened the door I noticed he had a probation anklet on and so we got to talking about that. (He brought it up...) He went on to tell us that he'd had enough with 2014 and was ready to make 2015 a better year. That he'd made enough mistakes, he said as he motioned to his anklet haha, and he wanted to start over again. We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and explained that through baptism, he could have a new start and be clean again. We invited him to be baptized and he said he would think about it and "try out the fruits".  It was such a wonderful blessing and testimony grower that the Lord really does hear our prayers and bless us according to our faith. It's happened multiple times since I've been back where I say a little prayer in my heart for a lesson here, a door opening there, and he does answer! Not everytime. Because if it did happen that way, it wouldn't require faith, and that's not how the Lord works! haha

I love you guys so much!  Have a wonderful week!

Elder Rodabough

Email sent December 29, 2014: Christmas, Casts, Miracles and too much food!

Well my family, it was wonderful to talk to you guys! I really loved it actually. Sorry if I seemed a little awkward, I've just had a lot on my mind lately! But thank you for your love and support guys, seriously I appreciate it  :) It was good to see that everyone is happy and healthy (ish hahaha) and that you're all working hard.

Christmas Eve started out pretty crazy. We headed over to the doctors office so Elder Castro could get his cast off. I'd never seen how they take a cast off and to be honest it was terrifying to watch!! So the nurse walks in, grabs out this tiny hand held circular saw and then went straight to work. She just sawed right into his cast!!! I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but it was still way surprising. He took off the cast and it smelled really bad haha. Again, not really sure what I was expecting differently, but still concerning none the less. We then spent the rest of our day passing out our Christmas gift which were pictures of Mormon Jesus to everyone. 

Our Christmas was pretty good, pretty low key to be honest which I was grateful for. After the weeks we've been having it was nice to have a calm day. We had Elder Castro drive us to our breakfast which was quite the experience. He only almost killed us once in the 6 mile drive and so we'll chalk it up as a win for now. He has his driving test on the 7th and I'm not so sure how it's going to go yet. We still are teaching him to drive but it's a slow process since he's a little nervous at times. It's all good though. We ate about 4 different times which was killer on my stomach. Lots of sweets, meat, and Hispanic fruit punch which was pretty strong. I wasn't feeling to good during the night and I actually threw up! hahaha it wasn't the best after Christmas sleep.

 

But there was a really surprising plot twist on Friday. We had interviews with President Bennion and he explained that if I wanted to I could extend till August 10th and get back the time I spent in Utah recovering. It was pretty crazy to hear. I just assumed that I couldn't get it back since I was gone for such a short time. I also don't know if I'ld even be able to with my scholarship responsibilities. It's something I'll have to talk about with Mom and Dad more in the future. But it's an option on the table if I want to. 

Last night though was the miracle of the week!! If not the transfer!! So a couple of days ago we received a call from the Acworth missionaries in the mission that boarders ours. They explained that they had a recent convert who's mother wanted to be baptized and had been reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish. The same member called us last night asking if we had time that evening to stop by and teach the mother who wanted to be baptized. We went over and taught most of the first lesson and it went amazing. The woman, Carmen, accepted a baptismal date for the 17th of January! It's a quick date, but we think we can teach her and she seems more than willing to do it. They invited us to come over every day for the next week to teach the mother and so we're really excited to teach them! 

We've got some great miracles on the horizon for us here in Cherokee. We've also got some other new investigators that are way promising. The Lord keeps giving us people to teach. He must have a lot of trust in us!  

 

Love you all!

Elder Rodabough the second 

Email sent December 15, 2014: Our Little UN in Kennesaw

Well family, it's gearing up to be quite the interesting transfer over here in Kennesaw. So Elder Castro and I came together on Wednesday and he is so awesome. He is so humble and values his mission so much. He has such a sweet, peaceful demeanor about him and when he testifies it's just full of the Spirit. We were out tracting on Thursday when we received a text from President Bennion saying to call him immediately, so we went back to our car and I called him. He explained to me that I was going to receive a new companion the following day due to an emergency transfer. I wasn't too sure what to think but I said sure and as of Friday there's now 3 of us again here in Kennesaw. Elder Portillo the new elder with us, is from El Salvador by birth but moved to Utah when he was 16. He speaks fluent Spanish and has amazing English. It's been super hilarious to be honest. Like the other day Elder Castro was writing a letter in Spanish to a girl and he was asking me in English how to say words in Spanish, I would translate and then tell him how to spell the Spanish word in English. It was way crazy. Elder Portillo wants to learn Portuguese so he's studying that and I'm just sticking to my Spanish for now! It's like a little Central and South American HQ in our apartment. It's just a slurry of Spanish, English, and Portuguese.

On Saturday we had Angi and Lucy's Baptism!!! I'll try to send a photo later... Elder Auelua has the photos since I'm still feeling like an idiot for losing my camera in Winder.... But anyways... The service went awesome! It was really really long and included, 3 talks, a photo slide show of the life of Lucy, a musical number, and "Welcomes!" from three of the auxiliary units in the church. So it was about an hour and 20 minutes. It was ok, because the branch party was right after so we were good. The actual Baptism was the best part.  So Elder Long came all the way from Athens to baptize Lucy and so they went first down in to the font. She went down and up without a hitch, but then Angi went. She asked Hno Beltran to baptize her and when she went under he lost his grip and she ended up floundering in the font like a fish on the Deadliest Catch for a couple seconds. But she went all the way under so we were good! 

 

 

After the baptism we had the branch party which at first was pretty dismal. We were in charge of serving the plates but when we got there to serve there was hardly any food. Everybody got what they could and were all very thankful. Then we ended up writing Christmas cards to a member who fell asleep at the wheel a few weeks ago and ended up in jail. The climax of the evening would have to be when they brought out the pinatas. There were three for the three age groups. The kids, the teenagers, and the adults. The kids pinata took awhile, but the teenagers one went so fast. The second pinata was a horse and when it got knocked down the kids swarmed it ripping it to pieces. A member sitting next to us turned and said, "Have you ever seen the Walking Dead?" and then pointed at the kids. We were laughing so hard. Then we got our turns and Elder Auelua smacked it off of the rope and it landed in a huge thud on the ground. Afterwords there was music and dancing (which I refrained from!!!!) and we headed home.

We've got some good stuff coming up this week in the mission. Mission dinner, temple trip, and we also are going to the Portuguese Branch so Elder Castro can translate the activity they are doing there on the 20th. It's going to be fun!! 

For Christmas call, we're working on getting a place to Skype... Angi says we can go there but I'm not so sure.... I'll find out this week and then have her text you guys with some details. I'm looking forward to talking to you all!!! I love you all and I'm so greatful to know that we are all safe, and working hard. I pray for you all every night by name and I know that the Lord is protecting and guiding you all. Keep it real family.

Love,

Elder Rodabough the second

Email sent on December 8, 2014: Portuguese Companion

Well everyone, we didn't have a hugely crazy week. I don't have a ton to report actually. My email next week will have lots to write about because we have one doozy of a week coming up.

So we had transfer calls today! Elder Long is going over to Athens to train a new missionary and open a new area over there. He's pretty dang excited, but kind of nervous for what's going to happen for the next 3 months. I know that he'll be a good trainer and will be able to have a ton of success over there. As for Cherokee, my area, things are getting a little weird here. So the Portuguese elders have been slightly disobedient and President Bennion has had to keep an eye out for them. So he decided to change things up and give me Elder Castro as a companion. He's straight from Brazil, he's been in the mission for about 6 months, speaks little English, and will have to make the transition from Portuguese to Spanish. It shouldn't be too hard of a change. The languages are pretty similar to be honest. I'm looking forward to having a very interesting 6 weeks coming my way. But what I'm not worried about is the work because Elder Castro is a super hard working missionary that has been a convert for about 3 years now. I've been told he carries a strong spirit with him as he testifies and I'm very excited to serve with him.

We also will be having the baptism of Lucy and Angi this Saturday!!!! Seriously guys, these two are so elect and prepared by the Lord!!! We just ate lunch with Angi today and she told us about how one of her friends approached her and told her if she really knew what she was getting into. Angi responded saying that while she doesn't fully understand the doctrine, and there may be stuff she doesn't fully agree with, she has seen the fruits of the Gospel in the lives of her children. She's seen them happier than they've ever been before. They don't fight as much, they work together more, and she sees that as a sign of this being the direction that they need to go. Lucy and Charlie have fallen head over heals for the church. On thanksgiving Lucy texted us saying how she's grateful that she has found a church where she feels like she belongs and feels loved and needed. They are so amazing. We might Skype with them on  Christmas so you can get to meet them!

That's all for me folks! I love you lots and I hear that everything is going good! Have a happy week!

Elder Rodabough

Email sent December 1, 2014: Thanksgiving, Football and Accordians

For our week it was pretty interesting to say the least. 

Tuesday we had our zone conference with President Bennion and the assistants. It was dang good actually! During it they introduced a new initiative that the church is coming out with this Christmas called "He is the Gift". It's intention is to help the world once again remember the reason why we have Christmas in the first place. The church is going hard with this plan. They've purchased the major billboard space in Times square, they purchased the front page ad space on You Tube on December 7th, and even gave us new pass-along cards. You guys should check out the website!

christmas.mormon.org

 

Zone Conference

I went on a two day exchange with Elder Auelua after zone meeting that lasted until thanksgiving. It was funny actually we stopped by the house of a member in the Branch just to say hi. We'd been there for less than five minutes when I found a mini accordion sitting there. I picked it up and started messing around with it. The member said I could borrow it for a couple days and so that night I began to do what I now call, "The Accordion Surprise". We get into bed, and Elder Auelua and I started talking for about 20 minutes, you know, pillow talk as they call it on the streets. But as we finished up we both said "Goodnight!" and then it got quiet. I waited for about five minutes and then began. I'd hid the accordion under my bed and after a few minutes of peace and quiet, I jumped up and started playing it and jumping on my bed. Then I made the voyage from my bed to his bed in one fell swoop and jumped on his bed. He was quite surprised to be honest. As was Elder Long when we returned from exchange. But he got me back so we're all good. It's going to become a mainstay for exchanges with Elder Rodabough in the future. 

Then for Thanksgiving we all got together and went with the Hickory Flat Ward Elders and ward members and played football in the morning. We got a missionary team together and we got slapped as hard as the Seahawks/Broncos Super Blast year. We changed the teams around and had some fun after that. Afterwards we played some volleyball with a few branch members and Lucy Meyer came. Then we changed and headed up for our dinner with the Zapatas. They're a part member family that Elder Auelua and Elder Glaittli are teaching right now. They also invited the Pereyra family to come over and so it was a hoot. Hermana Pereyra is from Puerto Rico, and the women from Puerto Rico are known for being very energetic, crazy, and unpredictable. She later proved that by telling me she's planned out the next 8 years of my life which ends with marrying her daughter and being her son-in-law hahaha We had a huge feast and drove home very stuffed and filled. 




Elder Long at the Thanksgiving table!!!

Thanksgiving dinner friends

 
For Sunday we saw a huge miracle! So we've had an investigator in the area for the past 4 1/2 months now named Moses. He's partially crippled and can't work or drive so he's had a hard time making it to church. Getting a ride for him is near impossible since he lives at the bottom of our area but this Sunday a member agreed to help us out! He loved church even if he did sleep through most of it since he was exhausted from being active so much. But still it was so cool! Lucy and Angi are still going as strong as ever. Angi is going to be called as a primary teacher and she's so excited. Their baptism is on the 13th of December and it's going to be so wonderful!

That's about it for me this week guys! I look forward to talking to you all over skype in exactly 24 days!!! 

Love, 

Elder Rodabough