I love the Holy Ghost!

This week was kind of a good and not so good week. We haven't found any new investigators and our appointments keep canceling and people are mean and they hate the gospel. BUT! Let me go into more detail about some way cool experiences I have had.

So we are tracking (which I LOVE) and we knocked on this door (duh:) and this older man opens it. We start doing the whole missionary intro thing and he just starts going so ham on bible bashing us (sister Callister was the one talking the whole time so that was good) he was saying things like, "My Jesus isn't your Jesus." And, "God doesn't love us." He just continued to say things like that and he would try to explain to us how the Godhead works and he said he has been preaching the gospel for 30 years and I really wanted to just yell at him.

Eventually sister Callister said something like, "Contention is not of God, thank you for your time but we must be going." Even while she was saying that he was still talking over her! He was so awful.

After we left I was felling really down and sad and slightly heart broken but sister Callister sang the first like of 'I know that my redeemer lives', I continued to sing the rest of the lyrics in my head and I had the heaviest feeling of comfort I have ever felt in my life. It was SO amazing and it really taught me how strong the Holy Ghost really is. I was/am so grateful I had this experience because it taught me that whenever we go through tough times, the Holy Ghost WILL be there to comfort us. 

Experience #2: ps sorry for the super long email this week haha

We where driving home to go get lunch and we see this short little black lady picking up trash on the side of the road. Sister Callister pulled over and we ran down the hill to catch up to her, she was picking up soda cans so she can sell them to her mom to get money. We wanted to help her and as we where doing so we taught her the restoration haha. Little side note: when we teach the restoration we like to recite JSH: 16-17 its about the first vision. Anyways, when we where reading that part about when Joseph Smith is praying, she began to cry, she said, "I asked that same prayer this morning." And BOOM! The spirit was SO strong! After that she was so excited that the Lord answered her prayers. And I really hope she will start/continue to live the gospel.

As you can see being a missionary is the best thing ever.

In my ward there is this little girl, she is four years old and she has blue eyes and curly brown hair. Her name is Miracle. And I love her SO much! She will always gesture for me to pick her up and it just breaks my heart because we aren't aloud to. Sorry for that random little story but I feel like I have to tell everyone about how amazing she is haha. 

Brother Hodnett was so funny at dinner this week, there was probably 10 people there and right in the middle of dinner, he stood up and said, "Now we will see Sister Rody preform a song from the last musical she was in!" Little did he know I have only been in one musical (Sound of Music) but I was like, "um no thanks." and he was trying so hard for the longest time just to get me to preform. I never did but it was so funny, I love that family so much.

Anyways, thank you so so much for all of your constant love and prayers. I love and miss you all dearly and I will talk to y'all next week.

With all my love

-Sister Rody

Humility at it's finest!

Well hi, I love all of you so much and thank you for all of your prayers and support.

First of all: Slaw is way good and y'all are eating hot dogs wrong. This week I've missed doing all of my fun things but being a missionary is even cooler. 

So last week I talked about how watching my people go through all of these hard things is really hard. Well it still is. But I have learned (thanks mom:) to appreciate my life way more then I ever have. I've gone through a lot up to this point but that doesn't matter. What matters is the person I am now and who my Savior wants me to be.

Brother Hodnett (my ward mission leader, you'll here a lot about him) is my favorite. He likes to name all of the sisters after a Disney character and a lot of you are probably thinking like Cinderella or Snow white. No. This man means business! My companion is tinker bell and I am Sam, who is that you ask? First of all get educated, nah just kidding but she is the reporter chick from cloudy with a chance of meatballs. Look up a picture and you will see how accurate he is. Also HAPPY ALMOST BIRTHDAY KELSEE! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

If any of you are going on missions soon read this scripture: D&C 43: 15-16.

The routine is really good for me because it is always the same and it is always consistent. Today was my day where I cleaned EVERYTHING and organized as well so I feel good haha. We have meal appointments pretty much every night so its super fun to meet people and eat spaghetti lol. Almost every house I've gone to, they always have a dog and it is so much fun. Also Kenna, these people in my ward have like 7 cats and they want to give all of them away so I told them about you (you're welcome).

I love you all so much and I am missing all of you. Please write me letters (Dylan). Thank you again for all of your love and support.

Well hi there:)

I am currently serving in Martinsville Virginia. My companions name is Sister Callister and she is great, she's like a mom to me haha. The weather here is way more sketchy then it is in Utah. It can be 80 degrees one day and -18 degrees and snowing the next day haha. But right now the weather is pretty good (70 degrees).

I love the people here, this is an example of a conversation we have sometimes:

Sister Callister: "Hi! We are missionaries of the church of Jesus Christ of later day saints. Do you know anything about our church?"

Investigator: "Don't y'all have your blue bible? Yeah I've heard of it but not really interested. Would y'all like to come in for some hot dawgs and slaw?"

Sister Callister: "No thank you, but it was nice meeting you!"

Investigator: "It sure was nice to meet y'all, y'all be safe out there now!"

Haha its so much fun, the people are way nice but some of them are kinda sketchy haha. I can't believe I'm serving in the same place as Aubree, its so fun but its hard knowing that I'm so close to her but I still can't see her. I have miss all of my cousins so much, y'all need to send me letters and you can get the address from grandma G.

So the food here is cool, it really just depends on who you are eating with. Last night we had dinner at a ladies house, she is from the Dominican Republic and she is a single mother with two boys and a new baby. She fed us this chicken and rice that was way good.

Its hard for me down here sometimes because 95% of our people we see have really bad health and financial problems and it is so hard to watch them be in so much pain and sadness because I can't help them in that way. Its so hard to watch people you love so much go through that but I know its going to be okay for them because we are there to share with them the most important message in the world.

Hey Jo, you where right about all of the hills and tress haha. Its sad though because the trees don't have leaves on them lol. I love tracing because its a really good way to find and teach. But like I said some people are way sketchy, I went to this one guys house and he was smoking while we where teaching the restoration and there was this LOUD banging noise (I was so scared but we had a member with us btw) and then this other big guy walks in and he like "howr y'all?" haha so funny.

I hope everyone is doing great! I love and miss all y'all so much! Please send me letters and pictures!

I finally made it!!!!

After many delays, I am here safe and sound in the bestest mission in the entire world. Thank you for all your help with getting me this far, I couldn't have done it with out you. I love you both so much! I'll chat with you on P Day!

-Sis Rodabough

"I leave in 5 Days!!" - February 2, 2017

Guys I leave in 5 days!!!
Guys I literally cannot express my love and gratitude for this gospel, it has forever changed my life. If you are wondering, "why aren't my desires happening right now? Why am I not getting what I want even if it is good and if it is of God?" Let me share with you what I learned in the MTC.

...

Elder Bednar said "there is no such thing as a 'coincidence',
everything that happens, happens on Gods time." I know this is true. I know there is a reason why I was sent to go to the West Virginia Charleston mission on January 18. I may not know what that reason is, but there is someone who needs me and there is someone who needs you. You are in the right place at the right time.

I felt very strongly to share that with you and I hope that helped someone.

This week has been a blast, lots of classes and not a lot of sleep haha just kidding, I actually took a 3 hour nap today so we're fine.
My most favorite part of this week was when I was in class with Sister Rigby and she wanted us to go walk around for a break but I didn't want to because my leg was hurting. So we have one chair in the classroom with wheels on it and she was like "just have sister Peacock take you in the wheely chair." And I thought she was kidding but she was like "go right now" so I'm in the hall and then all of a sudden sister Peacock started to push me supper fast (she was running down the hall) and we were laughing SSOO hard! It was the best ever. I also got to greet the new baby missionaries so that was way fun. And I bumped into Ashlynn completely out of no where! I thought I was having some kind of a hallucination until she was like "Lori Victoria!" And I tried really hard to not cry haha.

I felt slightly more homesick this week but it's okay now. I've
started playing volleyball more and it is so fun! Gym time is my second favorite thing because you have all of this built up spiritual energy and it's a good way to release those feelings. Living on my one is so good I don't know why I didn't do it 13 years ago. Haha jkjk, this week I missed my cousins a lot and my brothers. I miss going to family dinner and hanging out with Katy and Savannah and Bella and Ian and Josh and Dylan, you get the point haha. But I could not be in a better place then where I am right now.

I would just like to say thank you to everyone that helped me get to this point and for your love and support and please send me dear elders!!! Okay, I love you all. Bye! ❤️😍😘
-Sis Rodabough