July 30, 2012 - News From the Hood!

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO my Utah peeps!  Keepin everything slingin I hope :) Here's the weekly update from the thug side of Jersey! haha

Monday:

 Today was my first "P" day out here.  It was awesome cuz I got to send my sweet, wonderful mother a letter and email.  Yeah I wrote her a letter AND email.  She is my Superhero! I gotta do all I can to keep in as close of contact as possible.  After "P" day finished at 6pm,  we went and met with Chrislie.  After meeting with her we decided it would be best to drop Chrislie.   She doesn't really care about the Gospel, she just liked the previous missionaries.

Tuesday:

Today was the 24th!  Su Wahhh! HAHA!  Shockingly enough we heard fireworks! My mind was Blown! We had Zone Meeting today and it was killer.  I learned alot about the importance of investigators coming to church.  We went to tell Chrislie of our decision tonight,  but she juked us so it shall be done tomorrow.

Wednesday:

Today was exchanges.  I learned why Heavenly Father wants me English not Spanish.  I would get SO fat! My mind was blown at the enormous amount of food they eat at every appointment.  I felt gross from all of the food I ate.  BLEH! We also had correlation meeting with Brother Autobot! (Attaban) We accomplished a lot in the meeting.  He is way cool, like straight outta the Phillipeans!   Back to exchanges.  We ate at a bar that one of the Spanish less actives works at, it was good!!! Then I had the pleasure to meet the crazy old lady. Unfortunately, I was so sick I fell asleep for an hour during that lesson.  Luckily she doesn't speak English so I couldn't have said anything anyway.  I'm glad I had the opportunity to get to know Elder Christiansen, he is really cool. I forgot to mention something about Sunday.  We were crossing the street at one of our investigators apt complex and this 4 year old boy named Sylva came up and grabbed my hand as we were walking!  He is such a cute kid!

Thursday:

Today was car fast. We taught a crazy awesome investigator from Belgium!  She is black and her name is Pierra.  She is super cool and is looking to do what is right. We got juked on all of our other appointments ……..LAME.

Friday:

We woke up and played soccer as usual then we did service for the first time and it was so awesome!  I love doing service!  We, as an apartmentship, helped the same guy that they help every week.  We helped him cut down a tree and cut it up. It was so awesome!  I went to the doctor to find out what in the world I have been sick with.  Low and behold I have a sinus infection!  Welcome to Jersey Elder Rodeback!  Needless to say, I'm  not very thrilled about it.

Saturday:

I felt crazy sick today.  We met a sweet investigator named today named  Kevin, commited him to baptism! I'm so pumped!  He is such a solid guy!  And then got juked for the rest of our appointments.  It's ok though, we brought one man to Christ today and helped him find the way.

Sunday:

I gave my first talk in church and guess what?   It was about Family Home Evening which we weren't very good about at home.  I had to study alot!  Laventure was at church today and I'm thrilled because he now only has to come 2 more times before his date! We also met Mel.  He is legitimately  straight outta Compton.  He said that he sold cocaine on the corner and has shot people, stabbed people, pistol whipped people, and sadly killed people. He was way cool though because he really wants to turn his life around. He also served a 7 and a half year sentence in prison.

Welllp, that's it for this week!  I am sending pics to my mom this week so look for those!  Peace from the Hood!

Elder Rodeback

July 23, 2012 - The first Play-by-Play

HELLO Everyone!

It's my first week here in Jersey and its been krazy! A lot of ups and downs, but I know that the work the Lord has me doing here is more important than anything I could be doing anywhere else.  I guess I will just jump in to the play by play.

Monday:
We got up at like 4:15 and showered and finished packing and hopped on the bus. It was a very strange experience knowing this would be the last day I would be seeing Utah for 2 years.  I wrote sister Davies a letter cuz she is one of the coolest people EVER! She helped me alot at the MTC. We are gonna be buds for a long time.  We did fear buster today too... I don't really wanna write about it so Momma will you just put up some of the stuff from the letter? We are staying at the mission home tonight! Sister Jeppson's cooking is almost as good as my momma's ALMOST!

Tuesday:
Today was full of ups and downs. I would get waves of pumped out of my mind and then waves of I miss home.  We didn't find anyone and it rained today. blehh its nice though cuz it stays warm when it rains. We went and saw some of the investigators that the previous elders left and none of them brought anything.  We did set a return appointment for Chrislie and one for Charles so thats good.  Hope tomorrow is better.

Wednesday:
Today was the same as yesterday.  We got a baptism date set for Chrislie though and Charles so if they are both at church Sunday then them can get baptized on August the 5th.
 
Thursday:
Today was good and I am beginning to like it more and more. I'm in the ghetto and at points things get sketchy.  Today was our car fast so we walked everywhere... we were walking down the street and had some solid contacts. Although I still miss the family and friends like crazy, its getting easier..:) we met with Charles and Chrislie again today with Brother Clark who is on the High Council and he is just like Darin Peper, that really made me smile! We also stopped by Carline's house, she is a new investigator through someone in the ward! She seems solid.

Friday:
Today was killa tight! We taught some crazy investigators in the rain (its been rainning for two days.) But we met Anna Marie who is Jehova Witness and she is really interested in the Gospel. She has a lot of questions and I am super pumped to teach her again on Sunday! Luckily we have the car today!

Saturday:
Killed me. It was very very discouraging. We taught 2 solid lessons and that was it. It rainned all day today too. We did find a new investigator though his name is Herman!

Sunday:
Church was cool! It was nice to be at a semi normal Sacrament Meeting. Our branch is small with a lot of inactives so my companion Elder Heward, and I both had a solid prompting that in order to leave the branch better than it was,gotta concentrate on reactivating first. Both Chrislie and Charles bailed on church so we had to push back baptism apparently this isnt the first time and it makes me sad. We had a super solid lesson with Herman though I'm super pumped!
 Well, there is the play by play! Hope you enjoyed it PEACE!
Elder Rodeback!


Write to Pat at:
859 Cross St. #3
Elizabeth, NJ  07201

First Email! July 16, 2012

Hey Momma!
My mission president is studly enough to let all of us email our families and let them know we are here and safe.  So, we got here and the first thing we did was fear buster.  I placed a Book of Mormon and Spirit was able to save a man from suicide. He said that if he had a weapon right now he would do it. By the time my temporary companion and I  left he was smiling!  I saw the lords work at hand for the first time I will tell you more in my letter.

 I love you momma!

June 27, 2012 - MTC Drop-Off!

On Wednesday, June 27, 2012 Pat reported to the Mission Training Center in Provo, Utah.  Pat spent most of the morning writing letters to his friends that he would have me deliver after he left.  He was to report at the MTC at 1:10pm.  We spent a while on the grounds at the Provo Temple waiting with the rest of the families for the designated drop-off time to arrive. 

We drove the short distance from the temple to the MTC and were ushered to the southwest curb.  It was a quick "get my stuff", "I love you", and "See ya in two" and he was on his way!