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! :)