EASTER!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well hello there. Easter was fabulous! I love this holiday because we get to celibate such a wonderful event! The resurrection of Jesus Christ. Such a powerful day we have.

Spring time is blooming here in Virginia and I am so in love! It is so green! I am so glad we have the blessing of walking around our area because being in nature is one of my most favorite things:)

 

 

For Easter it all started with a lovely Sabbath Day, we had spectacular speakers, amazing musical numbers and the Spirit of the Lord was so strong! We then had lunch with the Sechrists (the usual ham and mashed potatoes and veggies) and then we had dinner with the Hodnetts (the usual mashed potatoes and veggies). It was so much fun and I am so grateful for this amazing holiday!

Along with Easter we started this project where we got a poster and on it we wrote, 'who is Jesus Christ to you?' And we walked around to see what people said. We got tons of responses like 'my Savior, my Redeemer, everything, my friend.' It was so cool how people of different faiths love Jesus Christ the same as we do.:)

Sorry for the short email but I never have time anymore. I love you all so much and thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers. I am truly grateful for all of my friends and family who are supporting me!

Thank you

Sister Rodabough

Hola Family

 

Hello everyone! This week was fun and full of adventure! I love this work! My love for the Book of Mormon has grown so much! My bishop invited my ward to read the Book of Mormon by next conference so I would like to extend that invitation out to all of you! Even if you are already reading it, try to finish by conference! I know we will be blessed and that our testimonies will grow from reading this amazing Book!

On Wednesday last week we went to dinner with some less actives in our ward and they are SO nice, we went to this place called El Perell and its Mexican so it made me way sad because my brothers and I used to go to Cafe Rio all the time but it was so fun because they came to church the next week! They must like us lol.

On Saturday we did some yard work!!! Yard work is so much fun as a missionary because we get to wear jeans and we get to play in dirt haha, I feel like such a child sometimes. Service is so great and it makes me feel really happy because I know that it is what Christ would do:)

On Thursday we had dinner with the Walkers and I love these people because they play instrumental movie soundtracks for us and we talk about LOTR and Star Wars and Avengers...all of the nerd things haha. It is just so much fun. Sister Walker also plays music so we talk about that a lot too.

So yesterday we got a media referral which is where people can go onto mormon.org and they can request a free bible and/or Book of Mormon, then the missionaries deliver it. So we walk in this cute ladies house she is about 4'9 and shes black so she is just the cutest darn thing. We begin with a prayer, then we start teaching about the prophets and her giant husband walks in and hes like "do y'all believe in Jesus? Do y'all believe that Jesus died for our sins? Do y'all believe that Jesus died on the cross?" He was kinda shouting these questions and we where just like "yes...yes...yes" and he was like "okay y'all are fine, keep teachen." haha it was so funny. When people 'yell' at us they really are just testifying haha they just don't know it.

The mission is super great (as usual). Thank you so much for all of your love and prayers. I love you all so much!

Thank you,

Sister Rodey

Saratoga Springs Utah Temple!!!

 

 Hola family and friends! This week was AMAZING! We had zone conference, exchanges (trading companions for 24 hours), district meeting and to top it off general conference! It was an amazing week filled with learning and driving lol. Please allow me to share some of my personal insights from President Monsons talk:

President Monson:
“I speak about the power of the Book of Mormon and the critical need we have as members of this Church to study, ponder, and apply its teachings in our lives...This is the Lord’s Church here on the earth. … If you do not have a firm testimony of these things, do that which is necessary to obtain one.”

The Book of Mormon is so so important in our religion for it is the keystone of our religion. I desire to have a greater passion and love for this Book. Even though you may believe in it, does that mean you love it and desire to learn from its teachings? This is the question we must ask ourselves to receive that greater love and desire.

Here are some things I learned at zone conference from my mission president:

1. Always be led by the Spirit

2. Expect the miracle to happen!

3. The commitments you make to yourself are some of the most important you will ever make in your life.
4. We are two hundred consecrated missionaries serving with exactness and honor endowed to draw upon the powers of heaven to bless everyone in our assigned area through our sacred callings!

 

 

I would also like to invite y'all to go onto lds.org and watch the new video, it is called 'prince of peace' and it is our Easter initiative for this year. I is amazing and powerful. also watch the 'because of Him' video (my most favorite video ever!). This church is just so amazing haha, I love it and I love y'all!

Love,

Sister Rodabough:)                                                                        Note from Mom: No Sister Callister 
                                                                                                       is not flipping off the camera lol, a
                                                                                                       bad pic...made me laugh though!

Little Miracles

 

 

Well hello family and friends! I hope all is well back home.This week has been pretty fabulous, I am loving the south even more every day! Spring is here and every time it rains I skip down the street (sidewalks don't exist) and I sing, "I'm singing in the rain! I'm singing in the rain!" Haha its so much fun! I love the mission, it is just the best life to live.

This week we had dinner with some members and they had these giant bunnies, I kid you not they where the biggest bunnies I have ever seen! She spins the fur by hand and then nits whatever she wants! They are so cool! She brought them in and was like, "Sense you can't hold my child you can hold these bunnies." haha it was so funny.

Journal entry #1

Today (Monday) we went to go see a less active, a man walked out the side of his house and we asked if he knew her and he said that she moved away. So of course we offered to teach him. He was pretty resistant at first but we kept being persistent. We eventually gave him a Book of Mormon and you could tell that right as he touched it, his behavior changed, it wasn't a dramatic change but you could tell a difference. He began to ask more questions and wanted to come to our church! This experience really taught me the power of the Book of Mormon and I am so grateful I was able to experience this.

Journal entry #2

Today (Wednesday) we went to see Sis.Stowe (less active) to help her move some furniture out of her house. One of the men working there was her cousin. He was a very nice man, when everyone else left he started asking us questions so we sat down and talked with him and Sis.Stowe for about an hour and a half. He would say "I'm not trying to offend you." or "I don't want to come across as disrespectful." But he still was pretty harsh but we where able to calm him down a little and he wants to learn more! This experience was the coolest ever and I cannot wait to teach him more!

Just a reminder that general conference is THIS WEEK! I am SO excited guys you don't even know! I hope y'all have a great week and know that I sure do love y'all!

Love always

Sister Rodey

   

Transfer Week

Hey y'all! I hope you're having a fantastic week! ps I'm sorry I didn't email on Monday, we had transfers which is where President will send us to a new area in the mission with a new companion, but luckily I am staying here in Martinsville, Virginia with Sister Callister!

So I am going to share a little bit about each of my investigators/recent converts just so y'all can know who I am talking about in future emails:
Josh- he is a 17 year old boy, he has a bit of a learning disability but he is SO Christlike and he has a really rough life but he is an amazing example to me

Lisa- she is 29 and she has extreme anxiety, borderline personally disorder, she is paralyzed is one half of her body the list goes on but to top it off satan works really hard on her with temptations and stuff like that but she is the most faith ever! she is a recent convert so she has been baptized and I love her so much!


Journal entry:  

Monday:

Coolest day ever! This week I promised myself and the Lord that I would be EXACTLY obedient with all of my heart, might, mind and soul! This day, I had some of the best teaching experiences of my whole mission and it was a HUGE testimony builder for me about obedience. Now, of course I still messed up and made mistakes but I knew that the Lord would forgive me and that I would continue to try harder. THEN today as I was reading my letter from my mission President, he stated the following, "Thank you for this letter Sister Rodabough. I feel impressed to share something with you. One of the greatest things you can think about and do on your mission is exact obedience so that you can have a full measure of the spirit. This is a spiritual work and must be guided by the spirit. As you consecrate yourself and turn your heart, might, mind, and strength to this great work, feelings of home and home sickness will fade. As you write home only on preparation day and on no other day (from the missionary handbook), you sustain me, you sustain your companion, you sustain the prophet, you show your love of the Lord. Little things matter. This may seem little but I think you will find that as you focus on the little things the big things go away. By the way, your companion has said nothing of this to me. I just feel impressed to share this with you. I hope it makes sense to you. Exact obedience, heart, might, mind, and strength. Thank you for all you do! Thank you for exercising great faith! John 7:17 2 Kings 6:16Love, Pres. Salisbury" I did not say anything to my mission President about what I was doing that day so this says to me that the Lord knows EXACTLY what we need to hear, who we need to hear it from and when we need to hear it. I know that there is no such thing as 'coincidence'. Everything is in the Lords timing. I know that if we do what we are suppose to do each day! I am a witness of the truth of this church! I KNOW that Jesus Christ is my Savior and if we follow Him, we will be able to be with our families forever and we will be able to live with Heavenly Father again in the Celestial Kingdom.

Scripture of the week: 1 Nephi 17:50
I love everything to do with my mission, the people, the weather, the trees, the baby mountains everything! But I especially love that my mission is hard, it stretches me to my breaking point, but because I am able to receive help from the Lord, I am able to wake up and do it again.

I love you all and thank you so much for all you do for me

Love 

Sister Rodey 

   

Best week ever!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cool experience #1

So this week started off rough. I was feeling super overwhelmed because everything was going to fast and I just couldn't keep up. But later I got a priesthood blessing from bro.Hodnett and it completely relieved all of my burdens and I felt SO much better. The priesthood is such a powerful and sacred gift.

Cool experience #2

I had my first exchanged this week! (an exchange is when you trade companions with the sister training leaders) It was SO much fun! I went with a sister named Sister Schoemig. She is a super cute girl from Utah and she likes the same things as me so we got along great!

I gave a talk on Sunday about the Holy Ghost, it went pretty great although it could have been better. After I gave my talk, bro.Hodnett texted us and said, "Good job on your talks tonight, the

spirit was strong with you my young jedi." I legit laughed so hard!

This week I have missed my friends the most, my friends and I used to do everything together! whether it was watching movies all day or playing scary video games or walking around the park. We where always together and they are sisters and I love and miss them all dearly. Especially McKenna because it was her birthday and I just miss her so much. But I know that this is where I am suppose to be so it makes it a little easier:)

We have been getting dropped a lot. Investigators will just text us and say, "thank you but I am not interested." Honestly I thought being rejected would be 'easy' for me because I learn a lot about it when I was in theater but someone rejecting the gospel is 10X harder. But I know that God will soften their hearts and the missionaries will come when they are ready.

Thank you for you love and support and I hope everyone is doing amazing. I love you and thank you!

Love Sis Rodey

 

Fasting and service!

So my mom wanted me to type out my daily journal entries but I forgot my journal so sorry guys haha.

The mission is great as usual haha. Nothing super exciting happened this week, but on Sunday on of my recent converts had to get a priesthood blessing and I felt the spirit so strong and the blessing wasn't even for me haha.

If any of you are wanting to learn more about our church please read the Book of Mormon but specifically read Moroni chapter 7 and chapter 10 (this will only take you probably 20 minutes!). If you don't have access to the Book of Mormon your lying because you do haha. Go to lds.org and go to scriptures and study, then go to Book of Mormon and read it because you will be blessed:)

I fasted on Sunday and I felt the spirit so strong and my testimony grew because of that, I also payed fast offerings for the first time and while I was filling out the tithing slip I felt the Spirit strong then as well, because of that I now understand how important it is to pay tithing and fast offerings:) Dinner that night was awesome because everything tastes so good after you fast haha.

On Saturday we did service for Sis Hall by helping her set up for her company party and we also did service for the Bishop by helping him set up for his yard sale, so that was way fun! Later that night we had dinner with the Hodnetts! I love that family so stinken much! We had stuffed bell peppers and rice and pie for desert (sorry Chip) but it was way good:)

Unfortunately on Tuesday one of our investigators dropped us. Her name is Judy Tate and she called us that morning and said something like, "This church just isn't for me, I've prayed about it and it just doesn't feel right but you girls are some of the nicest people I have ever meet so thank you so much but I am not interested." Conversations like that are really hard as a missionary because you know their life will be better but they don't understand that.

Sorry for the shorter letter this week but I hope you all have an amazing life. Remember to love Christ and always rely on Him 100% of the time! I love you all so so much! Thank you!

-Sis Rodey