So Saturday night, we got a call from President Gerber (the mission pres.) who told Elder Steinagel that there is a move happening, and he's a part of it. So today, right after studies, President came and picked up Elder Steinagel and dropped off my new companion: Elder Williams. It was pretty unexpected, because this is a week before transfers, but I guess an Elder in the mission that is waiting for his visa got it, so Elder Steinagel had to go and fill his spot.
But yeah, Elder Williams is from Riverton, UT, and he has been out for 18 months, so this should be a fairly experienced companionship :) I don't know too much about him yet, because I've been companions with him for about 2 hours now, but I do know that he is into cars, so we should get along just fine ;)
Mother's day was pretty sweet. It was really nice being able to talk to my family again. It was kind of funny, because they were all in a car the whole time, so they just used an aux. cord to plug the phone into the car's speakers, and the entire time I was talking with them, I heard everything I said about 3 seconds after I said it. It was super good though.
So I don't know how many of you follow the NFL, but the new draft pick for the Detroit Lions is a guy from BYU, so between him and Ziggy, that makes it 2 members of the church that are on that team. But what was cool is that they both came to church at the Plymouth Ward yesterday :) It's not every day that you have 2 NFL players at church and teaching a bit of Primary!
So yeah, that's about it for this week. Thanks for reading
May 5, 2014
So there was a baptism in the Ward on Saturday! It was the Sisters, not ours, but it was still an awesome situation! So the story is that this guy named Chris has been best friends with a member of the church for almost 40 years; ever since they were riding trikes together, so Chris has been around the church for a long time, and about a month and a half ago, he calls his best friend and tells him that he is ready to join the church and to send the missionaries over! This past Saturday, Chris and his girlfriend that he was living with were married at 10 am, and then they both got baptized by his best friend at 2 that afternoon! Elder Steinagel and I got to be the witnesses for when they got baptized, and we were also able to stand in for the confirmation on Sunday, so that was really cool. It was the most powerful baptism that I have ever seen. The work is hastening!!
We were able to help some people move this week. The lady is a super less-active member, and the husband is Lutheran. We helped them for three days helping them pack and paint their house. It was a lot of fun, and they were SUPER grateful, so I think it was a really good thing that we helped them out as much as we did.
We had a really good Specialized Training with President Gerber. We learned some new ideas for finding people to teach, so we're pretty excited to try them out!
Anyways, thanks for reading! :
April 28, 2014
So here's a crazy thought. I only have 9 months left of my mission. Whaa?? I really don't understand how time has been going by so quickly. It's kind of freaking me out.
Anyways, this week went well! We were able to get a couple more lessons than we did last week, so that was really nice. One lesson that was really cool was that we were able to do a church tour with our most progressing investigator. She has been feeling a little apprehensive about coming to a church that she has never been to before, so we decided that a tour of the building during the week would be a good way to alleviate some of those fears. We also were able to get a sweet member family that is around the same age with kids the same age, and they made the tour so much better than we could have done just by ourselves. They pretty much did the whole tour and they were able to connect with our investigator really well. Members are awesome :)
So last week, my companion and I sold a bike that was left at the apartment from his last companion that finished his mission. At first it was in pretty rough shape, so we took it upon ourselves to clean it and give it a tune up. So last Monday we took it to kind of a pawn shop for sporting equipment, and they gave us $80 bucks for it! We split it, and my companion went straight to a Goodwill and bought a typewriter that was there. :) It's a 70's electric style, and we've been toying around with it almost every day when we come in for lunch and stuff.
We went on exchanges with the DL's area, and this Sunday, they found out that they have bed bugs.. So we thoroughly checked around our beds and stuff and..... we don't have them. Phew!! We were very grateful that we dodged that bullet.
So yeah! That was pretty much my week!
Hello everybody!
This week has been good, but you wouldn't think that by looking at our numbers. I really don't know or understand why our numbers are so lame when we put in a good effort. Elder Steinagel said that he and his last companion would get about 15 lessons a week, and we got 5 key indicated lessons this week. It's super frustrating. I know it's not all about the numbers, but it would be nice if the number better reflected the effort put in. I guess it might have helped that his last companion was a Zone Leader for over 6 months..
We did however have an absolutely amazing miracle this week though. It is probably the coolest experience of my mission. Tuesday night while we were planning for the next day, Elder Steinagel felt that we should go finding at 4:00 at a certain apartment complex. So of course the next day we were there, and my companion chose which building we were going to knock. We knocked the bottom floor, where not a single door was even answered (so we cranked through the doors pretty quickly) so we went to the second/top floor and started doing the same thing. As we were going along, one person answered their door, but was not at all interested and shut the door quickly. But when we knocked the next door, this guy answers and I launch into what I thought was a great door approach, and then he tells us to come on in! I was thinking "All right! My door approach worked!" and then he told us that he is a member of the church, but he goes to the YSA unit in Ann Arbor. I thought "Oh. So much for the sweet door approach." But he continues to talk to us, and starts telling us that he has been having a super hard time and also that he had accidentally run into some anti that pretty much shook his faith in Christianity all together (Although he has continued to read the Book of Mormon here and there). He also told us that he had been super stressed and had been going through some crazy affliction, and he didn't even know what to do or what the right thing was. He almost broke down in tears like 5 times. So we talk to him and testify a bunch of the Book of Mormon and the of church and what not, and along the line, we mention that it would be a great idea for him to get a blessing, either from us or from his bishop. I think he didn't really understand what goes on in a blessing and that you don't need to be an active member to receive a blessing, so we cleared that up and he asks if we could give him a blessing because he felt like it was an emergency. We said sure, and I gave him the most powerful blessing that I have ever given. I pretty much exercised every particle of faith that I had while giving that blessing. I truly felt the power of God working though me while I blessed one of His children. After the blessing was finished, he was crying, but for a different reason, and his countenance was totally different. Instead of fear and doubt, it was peace and comfort that emanated from him. All what he said at first was "wow.." We ended up having to leave right after the blessing because he had to go to school right then, so it was all part of God's perfect timing for none of the doors before this one to be open to us. This was one of the most humbling experiences I have ever had, to realize that God really DOES look out for, and love ALL of His children, and that He really DOES perform miracles today, and that he allows two 19 year old kids to perform those miracles in His name. Later that night, we got a text from him saying "I think u guys might have saved my life today. All that affliction is just gone."
God is good.
April 14, 2014
Hey everybody!
Sister Edie got baptized last Saturday! I wasn't able to go because my new area is a ways away, and I couldn't find a ride. So that part stinks. Both of my baptisms have happened within a couple weeks of me leaving. But she is a member of God's true church, so that is what's important.
But yeah! I've been transferred to the Plymouth East area, and my new companion is Elder Steinagel from Washington state. Plus we have a bunch of the same interests, so that is really cool. This area is the bomb! The first couple of days, I had a smile on my face pretty much the whole time :) I actually live in Canton, and we cover parts of a couple different cities... on our bikes :) Yeah buddy! It was kind of interesting though, because so far, every companion I've had I could out bike pretty easily, but Elder Steinagel SMOKED me. Part of the problem was that the back bearing on my bike has frozen up a little over the winter, so it was like biking with your brakes touching lightly. That was my excuse anyway. I got that fixed, and now I'm just waiting for my legs to recover from trying to keep up with him the first two days so I can keep up with him to an extent. His thighs are the size of logs though, so that makes me feel a little better.
We worked our rear ends off this week, but our numbers did NOT reflect the effort put in. It was pretty frustrating. Hopefully next week goes better.
We had interviews with the Mission President this past week. It was pretty sweet, as always.
Anyways, that's about all I've got for this week. We're going to go check out some junk yards or something now :)
Thanks for reading!
~Elder Roderer
P.S.
My new address is
42215 Carriage Cove Cir.
Bldg. 20 #203
Canton, MI 48187
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