Hi there! This week has been super busy with zone conference, district meeting, weekly planning and exchanges all with in a space of three days! I don't even know what to write about because so much happened haha.
Tuesday: We had zone conference! It was kinda crazy because it only went from 9:00-1:00 but before it went from 9:00-4:00. It was so spiritual I can't even remember anything. All I know is that it was amazing and that I love my Mission President. We also had exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders! I went with Sister Wevers and I have mad respect for her. She is so awesome but its way sad because this is her last transfer before she goes home! We walked around a bunch and did some rapping too, it was a good time.
Wednesday: Right after exchanges we had to travel from Christiansburge to Radford for district meeting. We got three new Elders and they make our district SO much more fun. Our district is goals...just sayin, I will try to get pictures with them for next week.
Thursday: Most stressful weekly planning session ever! For those of you who don't know, weekly planning is a 3-4 hour planning session that we use to plan out the rest of our week. Normally I do fine during weekly planning but for some reason this one was just really stressful. We got a lot done though so that is a blessing. We had dinner with the Smiths that night as well and they are super smart people but they are SO funny! I love talking to them because they have been all over the world! (Germany, Africa, Switzerland etc.) They are just too cool for school (literally). We also taught Emily and Haley that night about the Sabbath Day, fasting and tithing! During the lesson I asked, "Haley, what is fasting in your own words?" And she said (keep in mind that she is only 9) "Putting my tablet in my closet for three days." Haha! We told her that some people can't fast with food because they have to take medicine or whatever so she just said that she would give up her tablet instead of food. She is precious.
Friday: We taught Brother Lewis (less active member) with the Zanders about the Plan of Salvation and he loved it. He is so smart and I hope that he will come to church again.
Saturday: We had the ward trunk-or-treat! We handed out candy to the little kids and it was so much fun to see all of there cute little costumes.
I can't remember what day this was on but we were doing companion study and Sister Adams was telling me that she was reading about the stripling warriors in the Book of Mormon. She said that it was so amazing how such young, innocent boys were so willing to fight for their country and families. She also mentioned how much hope they brought to all of the other Nephites. She said, "See, God gives us hope in all shapes and sizes!" Lol, you had to be there. It. Was. So. Funny.
Love being a missionary and I know that I wouldn't be here with our the support of you all. Thank you and I hope you have a Happy Halloween!
Love,
Sister Rodabough
A lot of good things has happened this week! We found 6 new investigators and taught a lot of cool lessons. There are a lot of changes happening as well. For example zone conference used to be from 9:00am-4:00pm but now they are from 9:00am-1:00pm. President Lindhardt calculated the amount of time each zone conference took in the mission and he said that it was equivalent to a years worth of proselyting! They really are starting to hasten the work!
Friday: So we had to call President to get a Halloween activity approved and this is kind of how it went: President: "Hi Sisters how are you doing?" Sister Adams: "Great!" .....long pause..............(Sister Adams was suppose to say "How are you President?") President: "Well you sound great!" Sister Adams: "You too President!" Lol I should have saved her from the awkwardness but it was far too late and I'm just as awkward so I probably wouldn't have been any help anyways. 
🙂 On Friday night we had dinner with Emily and Haley! Emily is the reactivated member and Haley is the 9 year old! We had pizza and we talked a lot so it was a good time. Afterwards we taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Saturday: I have a story for y'all, are you ready? During our daily planning session we planned to go contact a referral that was suppose to be contacted like a year ago. We get to the ladies house and begin to talk to her. We reminded her that she ordered a Bible but then we remembered that we didn't have it on us. We walked down her porch, opened the trunk of our car, got the Bible, gave it to her and then taught her the Restoration. She got really excited about the Book Of Mormon and she is excited to learn more! Afterwards, we start to go back to our car and Sister Adams couldn't find the keys! We where frantically looking everywhere. We called the vehicle coordinator, he gave us all of the numbers to call and all of that jazz. Suddenly, a man pulls up to that ladies house and just stares at us through his car. He gets out of the car and Sister Adams asks, "Do you know how to break into a car?" The man was like, "Yeah, only if it is your car." (lol) He went inside the house and came out with a hanger and got us in in about 2 minutes! It was kinda scary how fast he got us in but that man saved us from a lot of trouble. We thanked him and asked if we could do anything for him and he said, "Just say a prayer for me." We where like, "You betcha sir!" This showed me that Heavenly Father always watches out for us...even when we lock our keys in the trunk. 
😉
Monday: We painted rocks with the Radford sisters and the Leftwitches (I do not know how to spell there name)
Thursday: We had dinner with the Atkins! They live in Draper Virginia and I LOVE Draper! They have a super nice big house so that was fun.
Well that's all I've got for today! Thank you for being awesome. I am so grateful for all of you and I love you all dearly. Thank you.
Love,
Sister Rodabough
And we're BACK! This week was just fabulous have been finding a lot of new investigators lately. The work is really progressing. Just so y'all know I am staying in Pulaski! I have been here for 5 months now so that is a really long time for a sister to be in an area. But hey, I'm not complaining.
The trees are turning all kinds of colors out here in the East! I love walking around because we just casually run into so many beautiful places. I can't wait to take my family back up here.
So about the caption. We did indeed find Nemo. Literally. We where going to see our investigators but they where not home so we where working the area and we tract into this guy and he said that him and his family are looking for a church! His name was a super hard to pronounce black name but he just goes by Nemo. He is so cool and so prepared! As we where praying a bit later, I said, "We are grateful that we found Nemo..." And we just busted up laughing SO hard. I didn't even realize what I said until after I said it which made it even funnier. That was a good day.
A few days ago we tried called Dominick (recent convert/future missionary) and asked him to come to a lesson with us. He said he would so we met him at the gas station by our apartment and went to our appointment and our investigator wasn't there. So we drove around with Dominick following behind us for about 15 minutes trying to see if any of our investigators where home and they where not. We then said goodbye do Dominick because we didn't want to waste any more of his time. We felt prompted to try a less active member named Jackie. We go to her house and there was Dominick! It was so funny because its like the Spirit led us all to the same place so clearly we really needed to be with Jackie. We taught her an awesome lesson about the Book of Mormon.
Last Wednesday the young woman leader asked us to do a face 2 face thing with the youth in the ward. It was a really cool experience. We had dinner and then all of the little kiddos asked us a bunch of question about the mission. And it was so weird because I remember being those little kids and now I'm the one that is a missionary...crazy huh?
Jonah (8 year old boy) and Michelle where baptized on Saturday! Their baptism was so powerful. I did not teach them but the Spirit there was just so strong! I am so glad I went, I will never forget how strong I felt the Spirit that day.
For those of you who may not remember, Haley is the 8 (almost 9) year old girl we are teaching. Her mom is Less Active but they are both coming to church consistently and are ready for baptism soon. I love them with my whole heart. Emily (Haley's mom) is super strong. She has been through a lot but she is still wanting to come back to church.
I could tell y'all about all of the other miracles I have seen lately but that would take waaaay too long. But thank you for your prayers, love and support. I am so grateful.
Love,
Sister Rodabough
Okay y'all. Virginia officially has my whole heart. I love this place and I hope I never get to leave (sorry mom). It is so beautiful, especially in the fall. We went on the best hike ever today as a district called Buffalo Mountain in Floyd Virginia. It is a 3 mile hike round trip and I can't wait to take McKay there someday. I'll take the rest of my family after but McKay and I get to go first. It was also fun because on the way down we where quoting Emperors New Groove so that was fabulous. Also there is a little story. So we woke up this morning and we where suppose to be in Radford at 9:00 (so that we could carpool with the other sisters) and in Floyd ready to hike at 10:00 and it takes 1 hour to get to Floyd from Radford, so we had to leave Pulaski at 8:30. We got to Radford right on time because we are sisters. Then we had to take like 10 minutes to plug in the address and then we had to call the Morgans because the address didn't exist on the GPS so we had to right down step by step directions on how to get there. THEN we missed a turn and ended up at a random gas station and we had to get the right directions there. So we turned around and found the place but there was like three different trails so we went down the middle one, which we found out later that was the wrong one so we had to get out and back on a supper skinny road and then we got to the right trail at 10:45. We where only 45 minutes late. Mormon slandered time am I right? But we got there and it was lots of fun. Sorry if that story was totally confusing lol.
Other than that I honestly can't remember what else we did this week. Time is going by so fast. Here are some random highlights though
Sunday: We fasted and we had two of our investigators come to church! We hit standard this week by having 4 on date for baptism, finding 3 new and had 2 at church on Sunday. I know that this was a miracle given to us from Heavenly Father. Also we where tracting and we ran into this guy and he came out and he was like, "Well look at who we have here!" We have never met this man before but clearly he knew about us. He told us that he has done a whole bunch of 'research' about Joseph Smith and Brigham Young leading the pioneers to Salt Lake and stuff. He even knows about our temples and he was like "Do you have a temple pass?" And I was like, "Yeah." Then he asked my companion the same thing lol. After we both said yes he was like, "Good for you." He is a funny man haha. We also met Jackie who is super legit! We have her a Book of Mormon and she loves the idea of praying to know if it is true. She said she would have to talk to her husband before we can teach her though so we'll see where that goes.
Monday: Sister Adams and I got our nails done! That was a good time. Thank you mom for giving me money so that we could do that.
So as a mission we are going to be reading the Book of Mormon together at the same days that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery translated it! I cannot wait. It is a 60 day challenge so that seems pretty doable. When I get the information, maybe y'all can do it with me!
That's all for this week folks but thank you for your continued love, prayers and support. I couldn't ask for better friends and family.
Love,
Sister Rodabough
Brothers and Sisters,
This past conference weekend has truly been a blessing from our Father In Heaven. I have learned SO much. The three main themes that stuck out to me are: Trust in the Lord, and having a stable family, and the importance of the Book of Mormon. All of these topics touched my heart. I loved what a member of the 70 said about families, "Salvation is an individual matter, exaltation is a family matter." I loved this because it tells us that we must help our family members stay on the right path so that not one of them is left behind. I also loved how President Nelson said to have such a love for the Book of Mormon that we cannot live with out it for one day. Conference was just amazing and I loved every second.
This week was kind of rough at first. One of my investigators died because of lung cancer and another one of my investigators got kicked out of her house and is now homeless. It is very humbling to see what these people go through. They have very hard lives. My investigator that is homeless only has $8 and she has to put her belongings in a garbage bag because she doesn't even have luggage. She has such amazing faith though. She knows that God will ALWAYS help her. She is so powerful. She wont let anything get her down. I look up to her and I love her.
Wednesday: We found Will! He is an old man and he lives in a trailer park. He said that a lot of his family lives there too so once we baptize him we’ll will just baptize his whole family. They are all so nice! I just want to teach everyone in that trailer park lol.
Thursday: We had a steller lesson with Angie! She is a recent convert. We shared the 'Hope of Gods Light' (amazing video I would recommend everyone to watch it) and she loved it! We also shared with her the story of Naaman and we talked about how it is the small and simple things that matter most.
I have been out for almost 10 months! This is not okay. I like being a young missionary like my besties Kelsee and McKenna. They are still little baby missionaries. Why does it have to go by so stinking fast? (That is not a rhetorical question)
Shout out to my Grandma Rodabough and my Grandma Geri for sending me clothes and packages. Thank you so much!
Have a great week everyone!
Love,
Sister Rodabough
