An Elder Roderer Christmas Card

Hello!

 

So this week was pretty good! Really wet the last couple of days though. Because it was so wet, and because of all the salt that the city dumps on the roads, my bike was getting rusty on a few places. That made me quite sad, because that bike cost me quite a substantial lump of dough. So in order to protect my investment, we went to a hardware store to buy some WD-40 to help keep things in somewhat good condition. But while I was looking at the solvents and stuff, my eye caught sight of a can that I've never seen before. It was a WD-40 equivalent that was made out of soy, and it said it works better than petroleum. So I bought it :) It actually works really well! It's just funny to think that soy is what is keeping my bike in good working order :)

Anyways...

Something else that happened this week that kind of confused and irritated me, was that my gloves and my beanie got stolen... at the church... during church... I don't know why anyone would want to take them, because they were pretty smelly and dirty (I was going to wash them today though). I guess they needed them more than I do. But I finally got something stolen on my mission now, so that's kind of cool :)

I was also told this week that I have eyebrows "like eagles wings"... I'm not too sure how to take that, but the lady that told me that was jealous of my brows (at least it's not one brow), so I guess it's a good things :)

We had a really good Zone Conference last week. One of the Elders that came out with me and that I worked around a lot in one of my areas is now an Assistant to the President, so it was fun hearing him give us an instruction. It was pretty crazy though. He went from District Leader to AP at 10 months. The guy is a beast :)

But the chapel that we had the meeting at was sweet. It used to be a Greek Orthodox church, but they went bankrupt, so the church bought the building at turned it into an LDS church. It's pretty epic. I think it's the only Mormon church where you will find crosses on the pews (The church just left some of the crosses hanging around :)).

The mission is going to have a mission wide Christmas party tomorrow (Christmas Eve), so that will be a lot of fun. Our district is going to perform a musical number, so we'll see how that goes ;)

I'm pretty stoked for Christmas, not just because it's a wonderful time to remember what Christ has done for us, but because I get to Skype my family. Woo!! 

TTYL and merry Christ-mas! Don't forget Who that day is named after :)

Love,

Elder Roderer

Biking in da snow!

December 16, 2013

Hey everybody!

So this past week was pretty great! While on an exchange with the District Leader, we worked at a soup kitchen for a couple of hours. That was a fun and different experience. There are some funny people that come into soup kitchens, especially in Detroit. But it was a lot of fun, and I totally would do it again.

We were going to have our Branch Christmas party last Saturday, but it ended up getting canceled because we got like 8 inches of "treacherous Utah like snow", so we just turned it into a linger longer after church the next day. It was/is CRAZY biking in the snow though! Biking in snow is so much harder than you would think. Literally everything makes you almost wipe out. It's so much fun! But the city of Detroit stinks at plowing. All they did is dump massive amounts of salt on the road without plowing first. It was funny, because it was just somebody who had a pickup with a plow that ended up being the one clearing the street we live on. Gotta love the D :)

But yeah, it's pretty cold outside, and our heat doesn't work, so that's nice :) I am surviving the cold quite well! If I get cold, I just need to bike for a few minutes and then I'm sweating, which makes me get cold again when we stop. It's a process ;)

We had a fun experience with getting a headquarter referral. So we get a text from HQ (BYU) telling us that a person in our area requested a Bible. Of course she lives at the farthest corner of our area, but we bike the 30 or so minutes to her house only to find that she wasn't there. Then we had the brilliant idea to call her. So we do that, and she asks us to just leave the Bible on her steps. We were like ...Rats, now we can't even share our message with her. So what I did was I took a Book of Mormon pass-along card, stuck it in Isaiah 29, and underlined the chapter heading (Look it up). We'll  see if anything comes of it :)

Anyways, That's my letter for the week :)                    

                                                                                                   (What we do to District Leaders in Detroit)

I'll talk to you all next week!

Hello From Detroit

Hey everybody!

So this week was great! My new area is legit, and my new companion is even legiter...

But for real, Elder Fox is a stud. He is from San Francisco, California, He has been out about 5 months, and he is just a lot of fun to be around. People ask him "what does the fox say?" all the time. (It's from some new super popular video on youtube) It's pretty funny.

The Branch is sweet too!

So this week, I found out that Safety Kids are actually a real thing. I had no idea, but we saw some while we were biking past a school.

I went on an exchanges with the other Elders in the Branch the other day, and it was a lot of fun. There is some extreme diversity in Detroit. One street you have ghetto everything, and then the next you have million dollar

houses. It's fun :) But on the exchange, I found the most disgusting cake EVER! It was crazy.

It snowed some yesterday, but only like half an inch.

The Christmas Devotional was AMAZING! Everybody should totally watch it.

So I got another flat tire this week. I'm getting kind of sick of flat tires, so I bought a super thick tube to hopefully get rid of some of the flats. It's 4mm thick and thorn resistant. The problem is that I haven't seen any thorns in Detroit, just broken glass, so it was probably a vain investment :)

Anyways, I'll try to have many more fun stories for next week ;)

 

Thanks!

 

Elder Roderer

 

New Area

December 3, 2013

Hello everybody!

So I got transferred to a new area after being in Detroit River for only 1 transfer. It's kind of lame that I spent such a short time there, but it's okay because I'm still in Detroit, just in a different part really close to my first area. I'm still in a bike area, so that's cool I guess. I was hoping for a car now that winter is coming, but I guess that's not what the Lord wanted :) Elder Leonard had to train, and President feels that being trained in a trio isn't the best route to go, so I got shipped out.

But anyways, my new area is Belle Isle Central in the Belle Isle branch that apparently has more active members than pretty much any other Ward that I've been in on my mission, so that's pretty sweet. My new companion is

Elder Fox, and he is pretty awesome! This will be his 4th transfer, so he has been out about half as long as me, and I am super excited to be able to work with him in this area!

So since I've been in my new area for like two hours, there is not a lot to tell you about it, so I'll tell you some things that happened in my last area :)

Now that it has become winter, the heaters (which are old school radiators) in our flat decided it would be a good time to stop working; so they did just that. So we didn't have heat for a couple of days, until one of the other areas in the branch with working heat, gave us some space heaters, and that kept the apartment around 60 degrees at night, which was a good improvement.

One of our investigators recommended that we try this taco bus that was just down the street. We had seen it lots before, but we never decided to try it until then. It turned out that they sell super yummy tacos for $1.00 each, so I got two of them and decided that I would make many more visits to this wonderful bus... Except that it vanished the rest of the time I was in that area. It made me pretty sad.

We got a little bit of snow last week that stuck around for a couple of days, so we had a lot of fun fishtailing our bikes on the slippery road. At one point we decided to try to spin 180 degrees while riding. I did it just fine, and then Elder Romero tried it. He almost made it, but when he put his foot down after doing the 180, it slipped out from underneath him, and he fell over and just sat there groaning for a bit. I almost passed out and fell down too from laughing so hard. He was fine though, so it was okay :)

Yesterday for the last couple hours of out P-day, we went to a super cool member's house who's birthday was that day (he turned 16) and played a few games of Yu-Gi-Oh. I was kind of completely lost, so really it was him playing against his older brother, with two of us missionaries holding the cards, but it was still fun :)

So anyways, that's my update! :) Thx for reading!

Elder Roderer

BTW, my new address is:

3500 Bluehill St. #207

Detroit, MI 48224

Hola Amigos!

So these past couple of week have been good! I got my bike fixed, so now I get to bike in some wonderfully cold weather. Seriously, 20 degrees did not feel this cold back in Utah. I got a sweet flat tire this past week though! We rode over some railroad tracks and I picked up a lovely piece of metal that went through both ends of my inner tube. Super fun. 

We had the most awesome Specialized Training ever a couple weeks ago! The Church sent some guys over to

figure out how to help this mission have more success, and what they came up with was legit! We learned how to get people to teach themselves while we teach them using the pictures on the pamphlets! It works so well, and we are able to teach way more simply now! We have already seen some sweet miracles using this new method. 

It's pretty crazy to think that this transfer is already almost over! I have been on my mission for nearly 10 months now, and it just gets better the longer I am out here. 

I am out of time now, so that is why this is super short, and has very little useful info :)

Thanks for everything!!

Batten Down the Hatches

November 18, 2013

My week was really good! I got my bike fixed, and it was soooo nice using that instead of the heap that I was using while it was getting fixed. It ended up being cheaper than I thought it would be too! It cost me about $45 dollars to get it fixed. Totally worth it. 
 Yeah I think I am being blessed with some extra 'chillness', because I have been really patient with my companions. Like nothing they do really bothers me, which is weird, because every other companion I've had has in some way been annoying to me. Marriage should be pretty easy (lol) :) Too soon to worry about that though!

We had a sweet rain storm last night! We had the car, so we were able to still go out and see people. We still got super wet though. It was raining sideways for a bit ;) It took down some trees and stuff. It's our turn to have the car, so we were able to still go out and work, but it was still pretty exciting. We saw a live wire sparking on the ground while we were driving. I'm glad cars are grounded :) The finding is alright. When winter hits, people in Detroit tend to batten down the hatches so to speak, and not answer the door, but we are still finding some cool people. 

My investigators are doing well. I am doing well too! It's crazy to think that I am almost half way done with my mission. It's actually really scary.. Cool thing though! The lady that was super elect in my last area got baptized last Saturday! Woo!

Street Art

November 13, 2013

Hello!

This week was pretty good! The South area in the Branch had a baptism for a really cool lady. I guess a lot of her family are already members of the church, so her sister and nephew came up from like Arizona and Texas to see the baptism. Her nephew actually baptized her. Super cool Spirit filled baptism. 

The storm that happened in the Philippines was crazy! That is super good to hear that Justin and the rest of the missionaries are okay. Super nuts though.

We had our first bit of snow last night. It was a bit of a fun surprise. But we took the bus for the rest of the night.

I gave a talk in church Sunday. I think it went quite well. It was sort of different because they combined the English and Spanish parts for Sacrament meeting. Obviously I can't speak Spanish, so someone was with me at the pulpit translating everything I said into Spanish. I also gave the FHE lesson Monday night at the church. It was sort of fun!

I had my last checkup for my finger with the doctor today! He was really pleased with the movement that I am getting out of my finger (I can put my hand into a pretty tight fist now). It is still pretty swollen, and he said it would take a few more months for all of the swelling to go away. 

My bike is still in the shop because they had to order a part. Hopefully it will be done soon, because I have been having to use a really junky bike that was in the basement. 

For P-day yesterday, we went to the Renaissance Center/GM Headquarters. It was actually pretty cool. If you

work there, you pretty much never have to go outside (even though that would be super depressing) because there is a huge apartment building with an enclosed bridge that connects it to the GM building which is crazy big, with a bunch of food courts. We also went and saw Comerica Park and Ford Field where the Tiger and the Lions respectively play.

We took some pictures of some really cool street art that is around here, so here are some pictures :)

Anyways, that's pretty much all I have for this week. Thanks for reading! I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Hola!!

November 4, 2013

^^ See what I did there? HA!

Anyways,

This week was pretty good. It has been raining some, and has been pretty cold. We found and taught some cool

people that really need the gospel. One person has already felt the joy the the gospel brings. Hopefully they act on the light that they have received so far. 

Church was cool. There were over 50 people in the English sacrament meeting. The Stake President was also there, and he talked and gave a cool lesson.

So funny story, (not really) I messed up my bike even more this week. When I got into the wreck where I broke my finger, there was a part connected to the chain tensioner that got bent. The bike still worked, but the chain tensioner was a little crooked. So we were riding along the other day, and for some reason we thought it would be a good idea to shift into our respective lowest gears. The problem with that was that because the tensioner was bent, when I shifted into the lowest gear, it caught on the spokes and got wrenched all the way around. It stopped me pretty quickly. So I bent it back into the general shape of what it was supposed to be in, and rode it around some more. We are going to go into a bike shop and see how much they want to charge for fixing the bike. Poor bike. 

Oh I think I forgot to tell you guys that I have a 3rd half cousin, once removed in my district. He has my mom's maiden name: Redd. Cool guy from Arizona.

My finger is doing well. I'm like an old person in that I can now "feel it in my bones". Pretty fun.

Anyways, that's all for this week,

Elder Roderer

P.S.

Here's a picture of the house across the street from our flat. It's in pretty good shape for being abandoned.

October 28, 2013

Hello!

So yeah, I've been on my mission for 9 months! It's pretty crazy! I'm becoming one of the older, more experienced Elder in the mission! (Yeah, right)

Anyways, being in South Detroit is quite the experience. I can see why in 'Don't Stop Believin', Journey sang about the city boy that was born and raised in South Detroit took a midnight train going anywhere.. JK, I love it here :)

But I've already had some fun experiences. We got chased by a rabid German Shepherd my first day here on our bikes, and the next day while it was dark, some guns were shot across the street from where we were while we were biking toward home. We started riding faster when that happened ;) But it's actually really safe to be a missionary here. Almost everybody loves us.

The Branch is a lot of fun. It's pretty small, and they split the Spanish and English speakers, so it gets even smaller. But it's really cool :) Having a gated church building with bullet proof glass is a new experience for me ;)

We had a really cool Zone/mission conference last week! Elder Carlson of the Seventy came and talked to us about how we can be more consecrated missionaries. He is a retired 4 star general in the Air Force. Super cool. We also found out that we won't get our i-pads until Spring, and we're going to start wearing man-purses (little

satchels) at some point. Super not cool. 

Here's a picture of my Zone, plus Elder Carlson and President Gerber.

The two Elders to my right on the third row are my old companions, and the two Elder on either side of me on the second row are my new companions. Good times.

Anyways, I'll talk to you all later!

October 23, 2013

Hello everyone!

I am in my new area now, with my new companions. Yep, I'm in a trio once again. Pretty fun. But I'm in Detroit now! I have mixed feelings about being in the hood, but this area seems pretty friendly. It's interesting though, because both of my companions are Spanish speaking. Like they are both American (Actually, one of them is Mexican-American), but they are some of the Spanish missionaries we have in the mission. And I am in the part of Detroit that is called Mexican Town... No joke, that's what everybody in Michigan calls this area. So they do quite a bit of Spanish work, and this is primarily a Spanish Elder area. So I really don't know why President/The Lord decided it would be a good idea for me to be paired up with two Spanish missionaries in a Spanish area. But whatever. Their names are Elder Leonard, and Elder Romero-Carbajal. Both of them have been out 6 months, and I've been out 9, so I've got 3 whole entire more months of experience than they do... Soo I really don't know what the purpose of me being here is, but I guess there is a reason. Oh and this is a bike area too :) I thought that was a little ironic. But I guess we share a van with the two other areas in the district, so that will be handy to have. There isn't a Ward here, it's just a branch that has about half Spanish and half English, so I'll still be able to mostly understand what's being said. :) But yeah, I'm kind of excited to spend Halloween in Detroit. ;)

So my last doctors appointment actually ended up not being my last appointment. Doctor Ottoni was really pleased with the movement that I have been able to regain with my finger, and he told me to keep stretching it, so that hopefully I'll have almost all of my movement back. But he set up another checkup for 3 weeks from now, so I'll be able to visit near my old area again! Woo!

Anyways, So now you have an update on where I'm at and stuff :)

Thanks for reading!

October 21, 2013

Hey everyone.

Today is the end of the transfer, and I am SUPER mad because I'm getting transferred. I guess I loved this Ward too much, and I was too close to actually getting someone baptized, so they decided I could only spend 2 measly transfers here. But in Warren where the Ward stank, I stayed for 6 months. I totally thought that I would spend at least another transfer here, mostly because my last appointment with the doctor is on Tuesday afternoon, which is transfer day. But no, I'm just going to miss the transfer meeting, go to my appointment, and then get shipped to my new area where I have to be the senior companion AGAIN. (BTW, I have no clue where my new area is, President just told me what I'm telling you) Sunday was terrible though. We got the transfer news that morning, and the rest of the day was super lame. MANY tears were shed (they were all mine though). I guess it was in part a lot of pent up emotions that all of the sudden came to the surface. But I feel a little better now. It'll all work out somehow :) Although I am worried about my companions. They're going back to a duo, aaaand that's going to be really tough..

But anyways, we found some super cool people this week. They said they would come to church, but they didn't. One of the people we found read like 5 chapters of the Book of Mormon in the first day we gave him a copy of it. It was cool.

Quick update on the finger. It's doing super good. It is still a little stiff, tender, and swollen, but it is healing really well. It's going to be a pretty sweet scar when it's all done. I have my last checkup with the doctor tomorrow, so we'll see what he thinks of the progress :)

It's been raining a bunch this past week, and has gotten a lot colder as well. Kind of a bummer, but I guess that's how seasons work. 

So yeah, this week went well except for the last couple of days, which STANK.

TTYL,

October 15, 2013

Hey everybody!

I'm actually typing with two hands this week! I got my stitches out last Monday, so I no longer have a cast! Yay!! Getting the 20 stitches pulled out felt really strange. It didn't really hurt, it just felt weird. My finger (actually my whole hand) felt really stiff when they first took the cast off and moved my fingers around (My hand smelled pretty funky too). But I could hardly bend at my finger at the joint where I had surgery at all, like only a couple of degrees. But I that is normal, so doctor Ottoni told me how I should stretch the finger and stuff, and that hopefully

by the next appointment on the 22nd, I'll be able to put my hand in a fist. It's a frustratingly slow progress getting the movement back. But it's okay because the screws look awesome ;)

Our district was finally able to go to the temple together last Thursday! It was suuuper awesome! I loved it!

But otherwise, this week was pretty meh. Pretty much all of the people we're working with either couldn't or wouldn't meet with us. I don't know why, but whatever, it happens. But we were still able to meet with the super golden lady named Val that is on date for baptism for the 26th. Pretty excited for that! We were also able to get in contact with a really cool less-active couple that really are trying to make the changes they need to be awesome active members again. They said they were going to come to church, but they didn't. It's such a battle getting people to church.

So yeah! That was pretty much my week. Thx for reading! :)

Being a Lefty

Just a clarification: These posts are a compilation of the emails we receive from Elder Roderer. They are posted by his sister, Gabbi. :)



October 10, 2013

Hey guys!

This week was pretty good! I've gotten a lot better at doing everything with my left hand, it just takes forever to do anything :) I had one of my companions decorate my cast a bit :)

I got offered a lit blunt this week! The guys that were passing it around were raving about how it takes pain away and how there's no chemicals like msg or anything. It was pretty funny, but pretty sad that smoking that is like their whole existence. So we're going to go back and teach them how to really be happy :)

Conference was the bees-knees! Although I couldn't take any notes, so I forgot a lot of it already.

I get my stitches taken out today! So my cool neon orange cast will probably be gone. *sad face. Actually, not really, I'm pretty sick of it.

We're going to go to the temple this Thursday!! Woo! I'm super excited about that. I really hope I don't have a cast for that though.. We'll see. 

Anyways, that's all for this week! 

Surgery??? What???

September 30, 2013

Hey everyone!

So this was a bit of an interesting week for me, but I learned a cool truth; that is, the Lord always provides. On Tuesday, we were riding our bikes back home from a lesson... aaaand I crashed in our apartment complex... I felt pretty foolish, but then I looked at my right hand because it was hurting quite a bit, and saw a very bent out of shape ring finger. I thought "Oh flip. I hope I just dislocated it or something and didn't break it." So I pulled it out and back into a straight shape, but it felt a but crunchy when I did that. I was like "Oh great, I totally broke it. Hopefully it was a clean break at least." So we called Sister Gerber (The mission president's wife) and told her what happened. She gets clearance, and finds an urgent care for me to go to. So we do, and they get me checked out and x-rayed, and after a bit, the doctor comes in very serious and says I broke my finger "very badly" and that I am going to need to see a hand specialist as soon as possible. Then they put my finger in a splint and sent me on my way. So the next day rolls around, and we go to district meeting, then to an appointment we had with a less active, then we stop by at a now new investigator's house and teach her. This

was in the farthest corner of our area, and by the time we get back to the apartment, it's like 4:30. So we start making a zillion calls to doctors offices and Sister Gerber, but nobody is accepting my insurance, and everything is taking forever. But something I didn't think about, is that most doctors offices close at 5:00... So now I have to wait for the next day to even try to get an appointment set to see a hand specialist. While this is going on, I'm getting a little frustrated and wondering why nothing is working out. I mean, I put off trying to get my finger fixed to do missionary work, and now I have to wait even longer to find a hand specialist that will even accept my insurance? Well that doesn't make sense. Shouldn't the Lord be providing and helping me out with this? So I'm praying for help and stuff, but I'm still feeling pretty confused and frustrated that things aren't working out very well. After a while though, I notice a reoccurring thought that I am having, and that is to give my Ward Mission Leader a call. I'm not sure exactly what he does, but he oversees different medical practices. So I call him and tell him the situation, and he says "I know the perfect doctor to fix your finger". I was like "Oh awesome! But I don't know if he"ll accept my insurance", and Brother Budd is like "Don't worry, we'll get you in". I was like, Yayy!! The next morning I get a call from someone at a doctor's practice to set up an appointment for me to come in that same day! And all of the sudden, there were no issues with my insurance or anything! So we go in and talk with doctor Ottoni, he looks at the x-ray and talks me through what's messed up and what he'll have to do to fix it. Basically, surgery and three screws. And on Saturday, I went under the knife! They put me under, so I don't remember a lot that happened at the hospital, but now my finger is in one piece! And I'm not in hardly any pain! Even without pain pills! It was also really cool, because several people just raved about how awesome doctor Ottoni is, and that he is the best hand doctor around and stuff. So yeah, the Lord ALWAYS provides, even if it is not in the way or the timing that you would like. Like without me knowing, the Lord set me up with the best Hand doctor in this area! Yay!

Otherwise, the rest of the week went pretty normal. We did put a super golden investigator on date though, so that's pretty stinking awesome!

I got a new cast today, and took a picture of my finger for your enjoyment ;)

BTW, typing with just your left hand takes FOREVER!!

Prayers Please

September 27, 2013,

Just a note: We got a call from leadership in Elder Roderer's mission to let us know that he has been in a

bike accident and broke the 4th finger on his right hand in several places. He will be going in for surgery tomorrow. As far as we know he is doing just fine. Your prayers are greatly appreciated.

Thank you!!

Pro-ball, Trios, and Ninjas

September 23, 2013

Hey guys!

So about this week. We found some new investigators, and picked up a former that we decided to stop by. The former is a pretty cool lady, but has some funny ideas about doctrine. She actually has read the whole Book of Mormon. She said she read the whole thing in 5 days. Of course, she didn't read it with the purpose of wanting to know if it is true scripture (ie. With no real intent) so she didn't get the answer that it IS true scripture. We'll see what comes from meeting with her a few more times. Hopefully she will allow the Spirit to soften her heart.

We have been biking a TON this week. It's actually a lot of fun. I'm glad I bought the bike that I did, because it is durable. Ask me how I know.. Okay, I'll tell you. So this week, I messed up a wheely for the first time and fell off the bike.. I didn't even get a scratch, but the pavement tagged my bike seat and my back fender. The rest of the bike would have been just fine had it not fallen in front of another Elder that we were on exchanges with.. He kind of ran over my bike and broke the front fender. That made me sad. But otherwise, my bike is totally okay! So props to Trek for making a baller bike! But wait, there's more! After we got reassembled, like 100 yards down the same street, the Elder that we were on exchanges with accidentally cut Elder Burton off and caused my companion to crash. But he did like a sweet ninja roll so he didn't eat the pavement with his face. The Elder we were with has only been out in the field for like 2 weeks, so we forgave him pretty quickly ;) It was fun day. ;)

Speaking of destruction, we were doing a service project a little bit ago, and after we were almost done, I stepped up onto a platform that we had build... and shredded my jeans. I don't think I have to tell you where.

Anyways, ;)

We as missionaries have been assigned by Brother Budd who is our Ward Mission Leader to go around to all of the auxiliary leaders and discuss some talking points that he has come up with, to help prepare the leadership to help update the Ward Mission Plan. It has been (for the most part) really neat going around to all of the leaders in the Ward, and seeing their excitement and willingness to help the missionaries and the Ward work together better and become more unified. It's pretty great!

So cool story. Earlier on last transfer, we had an investigator lady who was in her 50's that had to move. So we of course helped her out. Her brother and sister there helping, but that was mostly it. So needless to say, we did most of the heavy lifting of glass cabinets and stuff. But what was cool was that our investigator's sister was SO grateful that we came and helped them, that she was like "I'll listed to anything you have to say!" (I think I talked about her in a previous email). So we gave the referral to the Elders (actually the ZL's) that covered her area, and we heard at the sweet Zone Conference we had this past week that she is doing awesome, and that she read like half of the Book of Mormon in 3 days! I was so excited!

Anyways, this is a pretty long email, so I'll stop now :)

September 16, 2013

Hey everyone!

So this week was straight up, a blast. I LOVE Elder Hall so much! He is probably my favorite companion that I've had so far. He is SO funny! We have been getting some awesome work done as a trio! It is sooo nice being able to go into single woman's houses. It makes doing the work so much easier. We have been biking quite a lot this week. Partially because we are running low on miles, and partially because cool things just happen when you are on bikes. Like sometimes people will wave us over to talk to them and stuff. I have been having a lot of fun biking, and I have been getting pretty good at doing wheelies too :)

This past week, the missionaries went on splits with some of the Elders in the Ward. It went pretty well! I found a new investigator with my "companion", so that was pretty sweet. 

We had a bunch of non-members come to church yesterday! We got an investigator family there (a single father with his two kids) plus a couple others that showed up! Woo!

Anyways, that's about all for this week! 

TTYL

September 9, 2013

Hello everyone!

This week was pretty good! 

We were planning to go to the temple, but it was overbooked like a week in advance, and our district leader didn't call more than a week in advance... So we didn't get to go. That kind of stank, but I guess there are more opportunities to go. 

Elder Burton had a fun experience playing "pros-ball" with a couple of black dudes near a trailer park the other day! We saw these two guys playing, and we thought it would be a fun idea to ask them if we could play a game with them, and that if we won, we could teach them a lesson, but if we lost, then we would just go on our merry way. We asked them this, and they were like "sure", so we played them.... We got stomped (probably 'cause they were black), but one of the guys said "since you took the time to play, I'll listen to your message". We were like....Cool! So we taught him and gave him a Book of Mormon! So loosing works sometimes! :) 

We found out that both of us are staying, but that we're getting a third companion tomorrow! That should be fun to see how that works out. This apartment is a lot bigger than the one in Warren, so it shouldn't be a squishy as when I was in a trio in Warren.

Anyways, I have to go, but I'll give some more updates next week! :)

7 Months in the Field

Hey everybody!

So in a couple of days, I'll have been a missionary for 7 months. One more, and I'll be a third of the way though my mission.... What??? That is crazy.

Anyways.

This week was pretty good. I went on an exchange with the district leader (An awesome Elder that was in my district in the MTC), and that was really cool. Nothing crazy exciting happened on it. Actually, that's not true. Some weird stuff happened though. And no, I'm not going to elaborate. But there is a reason why I'm not. (Not just to get your imaginations going either) :)

But a sweet thing that happened was that a lady from I think Tennessee called us up and said that her son who is less active and lives in our area, is wanting to come back to church! She set up a ride for him, and she really just wants us to work with him and help him get his life back in order. This was Saturdaynight, and Sunday morning at church, he was there! I did my bestest to fellowship him, and we well be going by later this week! I'm really excited to help him come back to the church!

By the way, the iPad minis won't come for a while longer. I have no clue how soon they'll be here, but at the World Wide Leadership Training Broadcast a little while ago, they said by the end of the year. So who knows? And I'm sure the church has a way figured out to keep silly missionaries from getting distracted by whatever on the iPads too. It will be fun to find out how things will work with them though!

So yeah! I will talk to you all next week!

Thanks for reading :)

-Elder Roderer

The Power of a Personal Witness

 

August 12, 2013

I had a cool experience happen yesterday. We, plus the other missionaries in the Ward were at a member's house for dinner. While the lesson was being given (which was very spiritual. It was sweet), I got this wonderful feeling that I was in the right place. What I mean is that I am in the mission that the Lord wants me to be in, and that this is where I need to be. It was a wonderful feeling, because I hadn't gotten that confirmation yet. Yes, I have been on my mission for over 6 months and I never got a spiritual witness that the Michigan Detroit Mission is where the Lord wants me. I had been asking for that for quite a while, and I guess I just forgot about it and accepted it for what it was. I was super grateful for the witness I received. 

Hey Peeps!

August 19, 2013

Hey peeps!

This week was good! We had a really good Specialized Training meeting with the Westland Zones that was all about helping members become better member missionaries. And it just went in depth about how and what we can help members with. There was a "panel" of members that were invited to come. We asked them a bunch of questions about their fears about why they don't share the gospel more, and learned some really good insights on how we can help members get over their fears and uncertainties. Pretty cool. We also found out that our mission is one of the first that is slated to have the new technology. ie. Ipad minis :)

By the way, my mission president is the bomb.com. He really is. I'm not sure how to explain exactly how or why, but he is :)

Cool story about how boss the bishop is. We went to the his house this week for dinner, and afterwards when we were about to leave, he pulls this monster 50. rifle out of a closet and is like "thought you might like to see this". We were like... What?!? Yeah!! It was sweet. I didn't touch it of course, because that is against the rules, but he said it weighs 32lbs :)

I got sick for the first time on my mission this week! Well, the first time if you don't count having bronchitis as getting sick. Last Monday, and we were driving to a member's home for dinner, I suddenly felt like throwing up. I don't know why, and I ate very little that day, so I don't know what from, but I felt nasty. But I end up throwing up at the member's house (in the toilet, so it was okay) and I felt better for like 10 minutes, and then I felt like throwing up again. But by then we had already left, and we went on an exchange with the Zone Leader. So I was with the ZL's companion in his area for that night and the next day not feeling too good. By Wednesday, I felt pretty good, but somewhere along the line, I got diarrhea. So at Specialized Training, Sister Gerber told be to take some pepto bismol, which I started taking Thursday evening, and by Saturday, I was pretty much fixed. It was pretty weird.

Anyways, that's all for this week! Hope you enjoyed hearing about how I got sick and stuff :)

 

Thanks for reading! :)

A Monster Pothole

August 12, 2013

Hi everybody!

So I'm pretty much loving my new area. I feel like this area is just full of people ready to get baptized! I'm loving Michigan weather a little less though. It's raining pretty good right now. 

Guess what I did Saturday night... I blew out a tire on the car and bent the rim on a monster pothole! I truly hate Michigan roads.. Happily however, they (Bell Tire) were able to fix the wheel, even though it is cast aluminum (I only bent it a little..), but I guess they had to put on a new tire, because they did. I was pretty (super) upset about blowing out the tire. Plus it dinged my pride pretty good.

Aaanyways,

Church was sweet! We didn't have any investigators make it, but we are working with a less-active that is really trying to put her life in order and make it to the temple to get her Endowments! 

It is really nice being in a Ward with a decent amount of active members. The Warren Ward was more like a branch... actually more like a twig. So it's a nice change :) 

We are going to have a "Specialized Training" on Thursday, so that should be exciting. They are always good, plus I will get to hear more from President Gerber! I'm not super sure about his personality yet. At the "Meet the President" meeting, he was super goofy and funny. Other time though, he seems a lot more... somber? ish? I dunno. 

Anyways, I'll talk to you all next week! :)

Opening a New Area

August 6, 2013

     So this last week has been pretty interesting. Opening a new area is a little strange. You don't have hardly anything to work with, because you don't know anybody and your Area Book is empty, so knowing what to do can be frustrating. The other missionaries in the Ward have been super cool though! They have given us some former investigator forums and stuff to put in the Area Book. I was a little unsure about how it would be to have Sister missionaries in the same Ward at first, but these Sisters are super cool! They are also pretty boss at basketball, and pretty much dominated when we played yesterday. It was pretty fun :) The Ward is super awesome too! The Elder that said there are only 100 active members was a little off. There are more like 150-200 (and 400+ less actives, but whatever). There are a lot of great people in the ward, and there are actually quite a few families with little kids! Soo different than Warren. The bishop is over 70 years old, but he is a total boss! And he is super excited about missionary work as well. Plus he loves cars! :) The Ward members are also pretty pumped for missionary work, which is great! They also have a dinner calender for us, and we have about 3 dinners a week planned with members! So far, I really like my new area :) 

     Until next week!

    

Up Until Now

July 31, 2013

Hello everybody!

So I am in my new area with my new companion. My new companion is Elder Burton from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Our area is called Riverview West, and the Ward is called the Riverview Ward.. Go figure. There are two sets of missionaries already in the Ward. A pair of Elders and a pair of Sisters. I've never had Sisters in my district or anything, let alone in the same Ward. So it will be interesting how that works out. The Ward according to one of the Elders has about 600 members, but only like 100 of them are active. Pretty sad. But the building is really nice! It is kind of like the Stake Center in Wellsville, so it actually has a full size gym! Yay! 

It was pretty interesting driving to a new area with a new companion, and neither of us knew a thing about where we were headed. We were just given a car, an apartment key, a phone with zero contacts, and a gps with only our apartment saved in it. This place has a really different feel compared to Warren. It's almost rural, which is great! :) We actually have about half of the airport that we flew into in our area as well. Our apartment is really fresh and clean. It is actually more like a town home than an apartment. 

It was/is a little stressful being plopped into a random new area with nothing to go on, but it will work out. We got in contact with the other missionaries in the Ward and got some stuff like contacts, area book stuff, and a ward directory. Since I'm apparently the senior companion (even thought Elder Burton has been out a transfer longer than me) I get to drive the car, which is a 2012 Cruze, and so far today, I averaged 36 mpg :)

Anyways,

My new address is:

15619 S. Plaza Dr.

Taylor MI, 48180

I really miss Warren and Elder Tripp right now, but I am excited to get things figured out here and to start tearing it up!

Something else that is cool, is that it looks like this Library doesn't even have time limits on the computers! Woo!

I'll talk to you all later!

July 29, 2013

Guess what everybody! I'm getting transferred!

Actually I'm a little sad. Change is pretty hard for me, and I am going to miss Elder Tripp a bunch! 

President Gerber actually called me this morning and told me that I'm going to be opening a new area, that I will be the senior companion, and that the Elders before were not the greatest because all they did was hang out at members houses. So it will be my responsibility to fix the relationship between missionaries and members... Great. I don't have a clue where this area is, but I guess I'll find out tomorrow!

We played tennis again with my ward mission leader again this morning. It was a lot of fun.

And I'm out of time... Oops.

July 22, 2013

Hi everybody!

So yeah, Detroit is bankrupt, and nothing feels different... It felt pretty bankrupt before, so it's pretty similar :)

I finally exchanged out of Warren this week! I hadn't actually left the ward boundaries on an exchange my whole mission thus far, so it was pretty exciting. I exchanged with the Zone Leaders in Hamtramck which is in deep in the D. It was a lot of fun biking roughly 30 miles in broken down Detroit!

Here is a cool story about the exchange. After switching companions, the ZL, another Elder, and I were driving down a main road in Detroit, and we came across a tree that had been struck by lightning a few minutes before (it had been storming) and had fallen across the road. We decided to help the locals clear at least one lane so that traffic (and us) could get through. It was sweet! These three white guys in white shirts and ties helping these Black dudes break up a fallen, wet tree. There was one part where we all were yanking on the main branch/trunk to try to break it because that was the only thing left blocking the far lane.. Well, it broke, and a couple of Elders (me..) landed hard on our rear ends, and got super dirty. (See pictures of my shirt :)) It was the coolest bit of physical service that I think I have done on my mission, and we all became "brothers" with the guys we helped. It was SWEET!

So that's my cool story for the week :)

(other bits of stuff)

This morning we played tennis with our Ward Mission Leader. That was a lot of fun.

The other day I saw the WEIRDEST car I have ever seen. It was like this 80's stretched limo that was lifted and looked like a monster truck... And it had a giant stuffed tiger on the roof. It was crazy. 

The other Elders in the Ward had a baptism yesterday! A sweet guy named Bob that is about 20 years old.

So that is my email for the week :) I'll let all of you know next week if I get transferred...

July 15, 2013

Hey everybody!

This week we had interviews with the new Mission President. He is super awesome!

(I have two minutes left to write this, so it will be short :))

This week was pretty good. We are just figuring out what we need to do to be better and we are working on getting promptings from the Spirit. It is a process, and not a very easy one, but I know it is something we need to do. The other Warren Elders are going to have a baptism this Sunday so that will be great!

July 8, 2013

So nothing much different has happened this week. We did go on an exchange with the AP's though. That was pretty cool. I stayed in Warren of course. I haven't actually been out of the Warren Ward my whole mission (excluding my first day in the field). Every time we have exchanged with anyone, I have stayed in Warren. I guess it didn't help that the district leader was in the Warren Ward as well :)

I've been struggling a bit with everything for the past little while. It just breaks my heart that people won't except the gospel. But I think things will get better soon.

The 4th was okay. We had to be in by 9:30, so we didn't really see any fireworks except for the ones      that people light off themselves.

Other than that, there really isn't much else to report on. 

June 24, 2013

So if any of you went to the World Wide Broadcast on Sunday, way to go, because it was AMAZING! And if you didn't... I dunno, you missed out. It was sweet. Saying that missionaries will start using Facebook in the coming year was a shock. That means I would have to get a Facebook account so that I could go on during my mission... That's a weird thought!

Another weird thought is that I won't be one of the 'young' missionaries after this week, because I'll be 19! Whaaat?! 

Anyways. We had a couple of investigators come to church yesterday which was very nice, but it should have been more. One of our investigators who seemed to be progressing super well has all of the sudden come up with all of these beefs with the doctrine. It's really annoying.

We also got lectured by an angry born-again guy while we were tracting, who of course was telling us what WE believed. I actually didn't realize that until later, because he was telling us some DUMB stuff. He also gave us lots of anti-ish materiel (which if you look at the picture, we disposed of thoroughly) and the stuff on there about what Mormons believe was so dumb it was almost funny.

But yeah, missions are sweet! :)

Until next time when I'm 19,

June 17, 2013

Hey everybody!

So we had some pretty sweet experiences this week! On Saturday, Elder Christofferson, Bishop Davies, and three other general authorities came and talked to the whole mission! The were actually there for a leadership training meeting, but they decided to speak to the missionaries as well. It was stinking awesome. They said some things that really struck home with me. President and Sister Holmes are also going home in a couple weeks, so at the meeting, all of the missionaries sang the EFY Medley for them. We had planned to do this a while in advance, and President didn't know exactly what was going to happen, he just knew that there was going to be a "special musical number". And about 15 minutes before the meeting, I found out that I would be leading the men's part in front of everyone.. That got my heart racing a bit, and many silent prayers followed. But it turned out amazing, so I was very grateful. Afterwards, as a mission, we buried our "weapons of rebellion". Like we actually buried a box with a list of all the things we were giving up by the church. (here's a picture) It was pretty awesome. And while we were all there, they said who was getting transferred. That was super unexpected. But I'm staying another transfer in Warren with Elder Tripp! Something else that was really cool was that Elder Tripp and I had 5 investigators come to church! And the other Elders in the Ward had a few come as well! Some members were saying that there has never been so many investigators coming to church than there is now! Woo! Makes me happy.

It's weird thinking that on the 27th, I won't be one of the "young" missionaries anymore... weird.

June 10, 2013

This week has been pretty good! We had a really cool Zone Conference. Part of what they talked about is 'purifying' ourselves, and burying our 'weapons of rebellion', so we all wrote on a piece of paper some things we were going to 'bury' and some things we were going to start doing better. It was really hard getting to the point of being willing to give up certain things that may distract me from being a more focused missionary. Like some of those things that keep me from being a more Spirit filled, focused missionary are things that have been some of my main focuses in my pre-mission life, so it was tough giving them up to the Lord. But it was cool, because after I decided to give those things up, I felt a really deep sense of peace. I have noticed an overall improvement with pretty much everything since I have tried to give up my 'weapons of rebellion' :)

We also were able to go to the Temple on Thursday! It was super cool, but the Michigan Temple is tiny! 

Seriously, it's puny.

But it was still a wonderful experience, plus I got an answer to a question while I was there, so that made it even better :)

Our investigators are progressing quite well, and several of them are wanting to make some covenants with God in the near future :D

It's raining and quite cool outside right now, but we're going with the other Warren Elders to Foreman Mills so get some Detroit bling in a bit, so that will be fun :)

Anyways, I don't know if this made a whole lot of sense. I took forever for me to fall asleep last night, so I'm kinda tired, and things from my brain aren't translating to words as well as I'd like :)

June 3, 2013

Yeah! I've been out for 4 months already! That means I only have 20 more to baptize lots of people.. Geez, I've got to get some people in the water! But things are heading in the right direction because we had 4 investigators at church! Woo!! It was great, but kind of stressful at the same time (weird, I know). Elizabeth is progressing super well, and so are some other investigators! There is one investigator that we have who is such an interesting cookie. It's a blast to go over there, because he is pretty much trying to convert us to whatever his religion is. It's hilarious :) But he knows the Bible SUPER well, and he said that he would read every word of the Book of Mormon. It's really funny though because he is telling us to have an open mind to what he is saying, but he is pretty sealed off himself.. I love missionary work!! It really is the funnest thing ever!

May 20, 2013

Someone got baptized into the Warren Ward last week! It was one of the East Elder's investigators, but it's still super sweet! This girl that got baptized is just SUPER elect. The bishop's daughter has been like best friends with her for a couple of years now, and this last year, she has been going to Young Womens every week, and early morning seminary every day (which starts at 5:40am!!)! She was totally ready to get baptized by the time the Elders got to teach her. Like all they had to do was teach the lessons and schedule the font...kinda. :)

But I had a few cool experiences this week. There were a couple of times where I was blessed with a lot of Charity for everyone. Usually while tracting I don't feel a lot of Charity for people (Maybe because I have a fear of getting yelled at or something, so I close myself off to an extent. I'm not sure) but there was one night in particular where I truly loved everyone, and it was so amazing! I think people could tell that I truly cared about them, because even if at first they were kind of closed off, by the end of the contact, they were all genuinely friendly and happy. I really wanted that feeling of love for everyone to last for ever, but it didn't. :/ However, I'm still so happy and grateful that the Lord blessed me with pure love for everyone for at least a couple hours. I feel like I had a glimpse of really applying 'My Missionary Commission'.
A little less happy was that our star investigator (Elizabeth) didn't come to church. I don't have a clue about what happened. We had a great lesson with her on Friday, and stopped by on Saturday, and she was super excited to come. She even had the directions to get to the church memorized! Oh yeah, and her daughter who lives in Tennessee got baptized last week! (Yay!!) That was actually awesome to hear. But it gets kind of depressing when really elect people don't come. I know that I shouldn't get depressed and discouraged because that is what the devil wants me to be. It's just a lot easier said than done :)

A little more happy is that we got a brand new car on Thursday! :D It's a 2013 Chevy (it still nice though ;)) Cruze that had 47 miles on it when they gave it to us :) But then the East Elders has to one-up us and get a 2013 Ford Fusion >:/ But they only get it for the rest of the transfer, then it's back to their bikes, while we get to keep our Cruze forever, so it's okay :)

But over all, this week has been super great! I'm loving it! Thank you for all of your prayers and support! I really felt them this last week!

May 13, 2013

Hey all! So my new companion is pretty much awesome! And we're related! He's my third half cousin... yeah.. He's super cool. I miss my trainer a lot, but I'm really excited to do some epic work here in Warren! I learned some pretty cool lessons this past week. The first few days after transfers especially, I was feeling SUPER stressed. I felt like the salvation of all the souls in Warren rested on my shoulders. But I was feeling a physical crushing (and painful) pressure. I was sleeping terribly (that tells you right there that it was pretty bad ;)) and the only time it let off was when we were teaching somebody. So there was a was a lesson for me, that when you are outward focused, and trying to help others, you are also helped. But yeah, there were lots of tears shed, and

lots of prayers said. But the Lord really was/is looking out for me. My companion is so supportive and understanding of how I was feeling. He made it so much more bearable for me. But the Lord inspires people in your path to help you. In my case, it was a less active member who's sons are investigating the church. Somehow, during the lesson, she figured out that I was having a really hard time, and asked me to explain, and I pretty much dissolved into a crying mess in front of all of them... But they were all really full of the Spirit. They helped me understand that I don't need to be so hard on myself for not being a perfect missionary, that the Lord will use what I have to offer, that I have my own strengths and weaknesses, that my teaching will get better as time goes on, that it's not my fault if people don't except the gospel, because it's their own decision, and that I shouldn't be comparing myself with missionaries who have been out for 7 times longer than me. I have felt so much better since then. The Lord really does look out for us, we just need to see His hand in our lives.

Anyways, thanks for all of the support you all have given me! It means a lot! :)

May 8, 2013

So yesterday Elder Jackson got transferred and I got a new companion. His name is Elder Tripp, he's been out 6 months, and his dad is a military guy, so he's been all over the place. He is a very nice guy, and we should get a lot of work done.

But I really miss Elder Jackson. The first time things on a mission seem to be really hard. I really grew to love my trainer a lot, and I really enjoyed serving with him. Elder Tripp said he totally understands that this is pretty hard for me, and he is being really supportive.

I'll try to send off my sd card today, so you should be able to look forward to that :)

I'm super excited to be able to call you on Sunday!

May 6, 2013

 I'm staying in Warren for at least another 6 weeks, but my companion is getting transferred somewhere else, which kinda stinks, but it's all part of the experience I guess. But this week was good, Missionary work can be mega frustrating, but it is also mega amazing. We found a lady (Elizabeth) this week who is just super solid. She has such amazing faith in Christ. It was actually really cool when we found her. We had a feeling that we needed to be in this area, but we didn't really know why. We started working down a street, when like the second house we knocked on, Elizabeth came to the door and just started laughing. Turns out that she was just telling her mom that her daughter who is in Tennessee was starting to go to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Not 5 seconds later, we knocked on the door! It was pretty sweet! She's progressing really well. I also had an interesting experience this week. I was thinking about Christ like attributes, and being outward focused. At the end of one day, we were walking in the apartment from the car, and I felt really blah, and being outward focused came to mind, and I tried just not thinking about myself. It was really amazing how much better I felt almost immediately. To the natural man, it doesn't make sense, but it works! Aaaand then I started thinking about myself again...

I dunno. Being a missionary is just so cool! :)

April 29, 2013

Yep, tomorrow is my 'click day'. I went in the MTC on January 30th, and it's already April 29th. It's pretty crazy that I've been on a mission for a quarter of a year!

More than likely, this will be the last week the Elder Jackson and I are companions. He's been in Warren for 6 months now, so it's pretty sure that he'll be leaving this transfer, then I'll be taking over the area... Yikes!

This week has been a learning experience for me. You reap what you sow, and we NEED to always have the Holy Ghost with us when we teach. We had a pretty startling realization on Saturday when we were talking to a guy who was super knowledgeable about the Bible. He had some misconceptions about what we believe, and let us know that he was worried about us believing that there is more scripture than just the Bible. But we realized that we were more worried about defending the church than loving the guy and teaching with the Spirit. In the end, no one was rejoicing or being edified, and he didn't even say a prayer with us. It was pretty depressing, but it was a really good wake up call for us.

I've really been trying to discern when the Spirit is prompting me to do or say something, but it's not very easy. Sometimes this whole learning process thing is frustrating, and it feels like it takes forever. But I know it is something I need to learn to be okay with.
A mission teaches you so much and it's great, but there is so much to learn in a very short time. It's great :)

April 22, 2013

This week was good. We were able to get back in contact with a super awesome investigator named Marsha. She has a brother who is a member that lives in Utah, so she already has really good feelings about the Church. We also found a really cool guy who is super sincere and excited to read the Book of Mormon. We didn't have any investigators come to church (The other area/missionaries in the Warren ward had quite a few people come, so that was cool) but we did have some less actives come! It's crazy to think that there are only two more weeks in the transfer, then my trainer will probably get transferred, and I'll be taking over the area! Yikes! But then I'll get to drive... ;) I went on an exchange again this week, and got to ride another Elder's junky bike. I swear (not really..) it takes like 7 times the effort to pedal compared to mine. My legs felt the burn that day :) But things are good! Being a missionary is so awesome!

Sooo yeah! :) 

April 15, 2013

Things have been going well. We had interviews with President Holmes, and I learned a cool lesson about the power of attitude. While at interviews, Sister Holmes talked to us about light, which President loves to talk about and instructions. I don't have the time to write about it, but light is soo cool! I wish I could tell you all about it. But with attitude, earlier this week, I didn't really feel like doing anything. I was feeling frustrated with everything and stuff. I realized that I was waiting for something to make me pumped up to do the work, but that something wasn't really coming, and that I was waiting to be acted upon, and not to act. So I just decided to be happy to be a missionary and to be cheerful about doing the work. That made all the difference! Even though it was raining cats and dogs, I was happy to be out knocking on doors and talking to people. That was a really cool lesson for me.

I had another experience with my bike! :) I was on exchanges with the other Warren missionaries, and they are on bikes, so I got to bust out my bike again! It was a lot of fun pedaling around... Until my tire went flat.. soo we walked our bikes a mile or two to a members house. The member was super nice, took us to a bike shop and bought us a patch kit, took us back to his house, helped fix the inner tube, and got us going again! It was pretty sweet. Our miles for April got pretty slashed (I guess that's what we get for going 10 miles over our limit ;)) so we'll be getting out the bikes some more this month too.

But yeah. I gave a talk in church yesterday. It went okay. :) We found some cool new investigators last week as well. We also got super cussed out by a guy that we tracted into! That was pretty exciting ;) Missions are so great! :)

April 8, 2013

Sorry about not getting an email sent off last week. The computer decided I had been on too long... And I ran out of time.

It's been a pretty good week. We had specialized training for two days which was awesome. President Holmes is amazing! He has such an enormous understanding and love of the gospel, that you just get blown away whenever he talks.. especially when he goes into deepdoctrine. You have to give him like 130% of your attention, the whole time, or else it goes all over your head. But he has such an ability to teach simply as well. It's nuts.

We were taught really good things to help retain investigators and keep them from slipping though the cracks.

Conference was amazing, even though we didn't have any investigators come.

But things are going well. Even though I feel totally inadequate, I'm learning, and I have been getting tons of help. Thank you all so much for praying for me. I really do feel them.

I love being a missionary and able to serve the Lord!

March 18, 2013

I've got a couple miracles to share this week! Woo!

So last Tuesday/Wednesday the zone leaders were on exchanges with us, and since I'm in a trio, I was in a threesome with one of the zone leaders for a day. That was pretty sweet. But on Wednesday, we were down in the D (Detroit) trying to contact some less active members. After stopping by a less active, we decided to go around the block and do some tracting. There was one house that we walked by, but I had an impression to try it, so I stopped my companions and we did. The lady that answered the door ended up being super nice and really interested in learning more about our message, so we set a time to meet with her again and teach her more! Unfortunately, she wasn't there when we had our appointment, but it was still a really cool experience for me to be guided to a new investigator. We're for sure going to try to teach her again.

The next day though, was really cool. We were back in our normal trio, and we just had an appointment with an investigator fall through (He wasn't there.. It's pretty hit and miss with people where I'm at) so like always, we decided to knock on a few doors. the second door we knocked on was this super awesome family (A Mom, her early 20s daughter, and an Aunt) who was super interested in our message. We actually committed them to an "as you, will you" baptism date, and they were super excited about it!! It was awesome!!

And then the day got even better, if you can believe it. We found another family of investigators who have been looking for the truth, and had a sweet lesson with them as well!!

People! SEVEN solid new investigators in two days!!

Then we didn't get any other investigators the rest of the week, but that's okay :)

So yeah! That's pretty much the highlight of my week!

The weather went south again... It's snowing right now. But who cares! Because the Lord is awesome, and the Gospel is the best thing ever!

Thank you all for your support!

March 11, 2013

So first off, the Church changed their policy about emailing. Now, I can talk to pretty much anyone via email! So if you want to email me, go for it! :)

This week has been pretty great! We are working hard to help this work progress, and we should have at least one baptism in the coming month or so! There are some really good people here. I mean, there are quite a few

funny ones as well, but there are lots of good people. You just have to love them for who they are, even if they're a little different. Shoot, I pretty different myself! I'm an 18 year old who is out teaching people about God's plan for us! It's great! :)

Anyways, the weather is getting warm and sunny, there is more or less no snow on the ground, and daylight savings is wonderful because we don't have to tract in the dark for as long, but other than that, there is not a whole lot else to report!

With all the best from Mo Town,

March 4, 2013

This week has been pretty exciting! My comp and I are actually in a threesome with the district leader right now! It's pretty cool!

Okay, so I've got an exciting story.. :)

Last Tuesday, my companion and I were forced to ride our bikes because our car was needed my some other missionaries for the day. That in and of itself is pretty cool (In my opinion), but the weather made it really exciting. It had been raining earlier that day, so things were pretty wet as we started biking south toward our first appointment, and somewhere along the line it started raining again, but that was no big deal because we're like the mail man. You know, "through rain or shine" (And as it turned out, hail and blizzards as well). By the time we got out of our second and last appointment, our faces were getting somewhat tenderized by the hail that was blowing sideways. Plus at that point, we were down by 8 mile, and our apartment is a little North of 13 mile. And then we had the great idea to take back roads instead of the main uber busy ones, but those roads didn't exactly take us where we wanted to go (there was a highway in the way..), so that added a couple more miles to the trip. Somewhere along the way home, the hail turned into an all out blizzard, and we lost pretty much all feeling in our faces, feet, legs, and hands. We were seriously worried that we could be getting frostbite, and I think I was going into delirium 'cause I couldn't stop laughing.. But yeah, we made it back! And none of our body parts are missing either! :D It was actually super super funny. I can only imagine what people in cars were thinking seeing these to white kids wobbling around on bikes in a blizzard :)

Otherwise, things have been pretty uneventful.

I did however get an anonymous package full of wonderful things (Foodstuff as well as angry birds band aids:D)! So thanks super tons to whoever that was!! It totally made my day/week! :)

February 25, 2013

So week one is pretty much over! Being a missionary straight up rocks! I love it! My companion and I have been zipping all around Warren and a bit of Detroit trying mostly to find less active people and to try to get them back into the gospel. I'm sooo glad we have a car right now... unlike the other pair of missionaries in Warren :) Warren is a fairly nice place. When you go south of 8 mile and into Detroit it gets a little more exciting :) Like burned out and abandoned

houses and stuff :) It's pretty cool how people know who we are though, and they are pretty nice to us. The Warren ward that I'm serving is somewhat small, like 80 or 90-ish active members, but they are all super cool and super excited to have 4 missionaries in the ward. We haven't done loads of tracting, but we have had some pretty fun experiences when we have.. :) So far, I absolutely love being a missionary! The experiences and growth that I have had are just so cool. At the library that we go to, I only get 30 minutes to write which is super short, but you have to take what's been given to you.

Sent from a seasoned missionary of 1 week,

February 20, 2013

Sorry I'm a little over due for sending an email. We didn't have any time before now. So I'm here! Michigan is pretty cool! It's a little different, but that is totally okay :) My new companion/trainer is Elder Jackson from California. He is a

super cool guy that loves music. He actually brought his cello out to his mission and bought a keyboard from a yard sale here. What's really funny though is that he knows Jessica from USC! I guess he has done some musical numbers with her in the past :) It was pretty funny when we found this out. My first place to serve is the Warren West area (and we have a car!). It includes a little bit of Detroit, and there is this outrageously huge GM building, but it's still a really cool place ;) The members that I've met so far are very friendly (and like half the ward works for GM) and excited to have 4 missionaries in their ward rather than 2 like they had. The first day here, we were at the mission president's home and he sent us out with other missionaries to go tracting. I placed my first Book of Mormon during that time! :)

So I don't have much more time, so I have to go now.

February 13, 2013

Week two is done!! And it was a million times easier. But time means absolutely nothing anymore. It feels like I've been here for months, but the weeks (all two of them ;) ) just fly by... It's weird.

My district is great! All of us are going to Detroit, and all of us are Elders. Some of them are the biggest goofs ever, so it's never boring! :) My teachers are great, and I feel like I can actually teach

a half way decent lesson! It's great! :) It's funny because we are like the veterans on the floors of our buildings because we've been here TWO whole entire weeks! It's pretty funny.

I can't believe I'm leaving on Monday! I am SO STINKING EXCITED!!! It's going to be amazing!!! :)

I don't have much else to write, but I am having such a great time! I guess I'll write either on Monday or whenever my P-day is ;)

Thank you all so much for your support!! It means so much to me!!

February 6, 2013

My first week at the MTC is over.. And what a week it was! The first few days I was just so home sick that I cried at almost everything. It's pretty safe to say it was the hardest few days of my life. But my branch president (President Peterson) made us a promise, that if we stick with it, by Sunday we would be okay. And sure enough, by Sunday evening I felt okay! But I wouldn't trade those days if I could. I grew so close to God during that time, and I felt such an

outpouring of love from him and my family. God really knows what's best for us. I have grown more in this last week than probably any other time. My companion is Elder Lehnhof from California. He will be a powerful missionary and has a great knowledge of the gospel. I truly know that this is where I am supposed to be, and that Detroit is where I am supposed to serve.

I love the God Head with all my heart. They have done more for me than I can ever know.

Until next week :