Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

 Interesting Fact of the Day:

So brother Hodnett told us about a legit church called Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. It is something about having a bucket of spaghetti tipped down on your head. There is only one member and she is also the President of the Church. So silly lol.

This week has been awesome! We found four new investigators, we have three people on date for baptism and we had three of our investigators come to sacrament meeting! I know that without the help of the Lord, these miracles would not have happened. :) One of our investigators name is Sister Pelsinger, we have been teaching her for about a month and she cannot wait to be baptized! She is also really excited to go to the temple and do work for her ancestors! Isn't she just so cool? We had a lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ last time and the Spirit was so strong. I know that everyone in that room was feeling the Spirit. Experiences like that make me truly grateful to be a missionary.

Also this one day we got a YSA (young single adult) we had to check on. The Zone Leaders gave us to an address that lead us to some Jehovah Witness' and although they did not want to hear our message they where still very nice to us! They told us to check out the trailer that was behind them a little ways. Of course we tried and this lady named Myrna opened the door. And I got a little scared cause she is Hispanic and I don't speak Spanish! However she speaks English very well, we began to ask her how her day has been, she said that it was hard and that she was praying because she didn't know what her purpose was. And we showed up 10 minutes later. We taught her the Restoration and the next lesson we taught the Plan of Salvation. She loves reading the Book of Mormon and asks really great questions about it! 

I saw lightning bugs for my first time this week so that was fun! I love cute little things like that in Virginia. 

Brother Lester, our blind investigator, passed his baptismal interview and will be baptized on Saturday. 

Thank you for all of your support that you have given me.

  Love always,

  Sister Rodabough 

Bugs and Talks

No pics though boooooo 

So this morning Sister Rosengren was in her bathroom and I was cleaning, out of no where she screamed! I was so scared, she came out and in a whisper she said, "sister...there is a huge bug in my sink." So i looked and it was this huge centipede thing! It must have crawled out of her drain cause it was disgusting! I gave her step by step instructions on how to kill it with the least amount of contact as possible. We eventually got it and we lived happily ever after. But we are still on the look out for bugs haha.

I had to prepare a 5 minute talk on Sunday right before sacrament meeting so that was lovely. I wish i had more time to prepare but I chose to talk about the Book of Mormon and it was really cool. I love speaking in sacrament!

We met a new investigator and she is super prepared! She is already wanting to go to the temple and be baptized! We were going to teach her about the Plan of Salvation but we ended up talking about baptisms for the dead and temples. The spirit was so strong during that lesson, it was truly amazing.

It is so crazy to think that I've already been out here for four months because no lie I feel like I just got here. This mission has been a real testimony builder for me. It has helped me appreciate Gods timing and especially the scriptures. I love the bible and the Book of Mormon so much, they give me so much guidance and comfort that I need.

Sorry for the short email this week but I love all of you so much.
Love always,
Sister Rodabough

Mother's Day, a day we should all celebrate!

Mother's Day! This week was the best week in the mission! It was actually kinda rough at first because we don't have very many miles to cover a whole county so we could only stay in Martinsville without going up to Axton or Ridgeway but, we had A LOT of help from the Lord. We found 6 new investigators and put 3 of them on date for baptism! I know that with out the Lords help this would not have happened.

One of the investigators we found is a mother and daughter. We where tracting, we knocked on her door and she immediately let us in. We began to talk when she started to say, "we need some prayen in this house! Them devil is here!" So we were like, "We would love to pray with you!" So we prayed and taught her the whole restoration haha, It was pretty awesome! 

On that same day we ran into a whole Hispanic community in Martinsville! They where SO nice to us and a little 9 year old girl helped us translate. We found like 6 potentials and 4 of them became investigators! This experience has taught me that if we are humble and if we are all in, the Lord will put people in our path that are ready to hear the gospel.

My mission president told me that I will most likely be getting transferred next transfer...that just broke my heart. I can't imagine leaving all of these people that I have grown so close too. That is probably the hardest thing about being a missionary for me. Although, it is comforting to know that the Lord sends me where He needs me.

In closing I would like to say thank you to all of the mothers who have influenced me in my life. Especially my mother. She has done so much for me, from getting my bed ready after coming home from a surgery to wrestling with me on the trampoline. I could not have asked for a better mother, Heavenly Father knew what he was doing when he blessed me with one of His most beloved angels. Mothers truly are a gift from God and I am so thankful for my mother.

Thank you once again for your continued love, support and prayers.

Love always,
Sister Rodabough

R&R and New Companion

Wasssup family! This week has been wonderful! I drove to Roanoke and back for the first time and it was so beautiful to see all of the beautiful nature! It is such a joy to be able to experience the different cultures. I love how beautiful Virginia is, it is green EVERYWHERE! I just love it so much:)

I have my new companion, her name is Sister Rosengren so people just call us R&R cause our names are too hard to pronounce lol. But they call her Sister Rosie for short so I think that is way cute!

I cant remember if I have told y'all about one of our investigators but he is completely blind and he already knows the church and the Book of Mormon are true so he is going to be baptized soon and I cannot be more excited for him! We had a lesson with him on Sunday and at the end I asked him, 'will you commit to praying and asking God if the Priesthood is real and if it is the power of God on the Earth today?' I thought that there was no way that he had already done that so he was like, 'I have already done that dear...I know its all true.' I was just like, 'oh...okay. well...I would like to commit you to...um...read a general conference talk!' lol that was legit the only thing I could think of that he hasn't done haha.

Stake conference was AMAZING! I want to share a few things that I wrote down:

What is faith?

1. Assurance of hope

2. Evidence of things not seen

3. Action

Do we put faith in before the obstacles at hand?

Bonnie H. Cordon:

Light dispels darkness

We need our own light

Believe that God can bless you

Let your light grow brighter and brighter until the perfect day

Anthony D. Perkins:

The Book of Mormon was written for us

Guilt = a spiritual prompting to repent

Dallian H. Oaks:

We must choose between Jesus' way and the worlds way

The Lord knows the hearts of his children

Cell phones should be your slaves, not your masters

Maintain a strong testimony

Are we active in the church or in the Gospel?

Heavenly Father loves ALL of His children!

I just love this Gospel with my whole heart! It has given me so much happiness and peace, and that is why I chose to go on a mission. I want to give others the divine opportunity to experience this joy. I love you all so very much and I truly am so grateful for all of your continued love. Thank you.

Love always

Sister Rodabough  

Officially done with training!

This is the note I received from her companion. Such a sweetheart ❤

Oh how I'm going to miss your sweet daughter. She truly is a light, and has taught me so much. I tell her all the time that she was the one training me! Thank you for sharing her with me and with Martinsville, we simply adore her. I know you probably worry a lot about her, but I know that the Lord is taking good care of her, she will do marvelous things and bless so many lives. Thanks for raising up a good, righteous young lady, I just love you for it!
Hope all is well with the Rodaboughs :)

Sister Callister

Well this week was amazing and kinda hard. I am officially done with training so that's cool! It is transfer week but I am staying in Martinsville Virginia so I will get a new companion! I am so excited to meet her and I know she will be amazing!

We have a new investigator and he was born partially blind but as of May 2016 he has been completely blind, we put him on date for baptism on June 17 and he already knows the church is true and he is already reading the Book of Mormon so I am VERY excited!!!

So yesterday we had district meeting about humility. We where each assigned to do a 7 minute lesson/presentation about humility. So one of our dear Elders did an object lesson. He took us outside and told his companion to go into the bathroom where he could not see or hear us. While we where outside the Elder said, "okay so I am going to bring my companion back out here and I'll share a story about Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdrey then we will walk back inside but I'll lock him out here and then you, he said pointing to another Elder, will go into the bathroom and fill this bucket of water half way and wait in the door way so he can't see you, then when he asks if he can come in three time we'll open the door and you'll dump the bucket of water on his head! Any questions?" So we put the plan into action and the poor Elder was drenched with water haha. We all went inside and sat back down and he told us the story about how Oliver Cowdrey wanted to show the golden plates to his wife, Joseph Smith prayed and ask God if it was right. God said no two times and on the third time he said yes because Joseph wouldn't listen. The Elder related this to humility because sometimes we keep asking God until we get the answers we want. and when God finally gives in, a consequence normally follows. This is why we have to humble ourselves towards God and listen the first time.

I am so excited for the upcoming transfer. Thank you so much for all of your constant love, support and prayers. I love each of you dearly.

Thank you,
Sister Rodabough