Week 10 I had to kick a dog...

October 28, 2013

So this letter isn’t going to be so long and crazy mean this week. I got some hommies to right. SO we will start with the crazy things that have happened this week. I had to kick a dog, it was going to kill me I swear, but I showed it whats uppp!!! And I love dogs so I felt super bad afterwards but I really don’t want rabies but threat avoided. In our Zone there was 3 kids shot and killed in a gang fight. They were 11, 14, and 18 years old... It’s crazy. I am talking it almost 100 percent spanish even though my comp speaks english its tight. I give almost an equal part in every lesson he isn’t teaching the whole time anymore. I just cry every time I teach the atonement of Jesus Christo. It really is so close to my heart I love teaching it. I have already seen it change many lives. 

We had 181 people attend church this week normally we have 110. We had 15 investigators and 5 or 6 less active families come back to church. 15% of Mexico is less active. Our ward has 400 members and every week we only have 110 show up its succcks. But when I leave it better be up to at least half are coming every week to church. We are so busy we have been getting home past 10 every night. Not to toot my own horn or anything but we are having a lot of success right now.

 I feel like all I do is walk around and then I cant remember what I say during the lessons so that’s good cause I know now that God has taken over and I am just a body for Him to use. I like the work and the food is great. My comp is great he has taught me everything and I am super grateful for his parents. I have met some really amazing missionaries that have really helped me through some hard times. I am kinda the spokes person for the new missionaries whenever they are having problems they come talk to me. Most of them have crappy companions that take advantage of them and I give them advice cause i dont take crap from the latinos they will take advantage of you if you let them. And they will respect you if you make them respect you. They treat the white comps like crap and I hate it so I have to stand up for them cause they wont do it themselves. So I’ve gained a lot of respect from the latinos and the whiteeyysss. But some of the mexican comps don’t like me. But that’s okay cause they are the dead missionaries. But yeah everything is really good I get to watch soccer all the time, its everywhere here. The members are super tight with us. All the mexican moms just introduce me to their daughters and they make me feel really awkward every time cause I’m just like "hola que pasa" and they just laugh at me cause I’m just so awkward, cause I am just not attracted to the women here, no offense to anyone. But I am nervous for Ty cause the dominicans are hunnies (don’t hate me for saying hunnies mom) But yeah the Mexicans can cook like no other country on the planet I don’t know how I don’t weigh 220 lbs yet haha. Probably cause I have encountered the two headed dragon this week and wow it was a fight to the death but I slayed him.... #twasnuts. Well anyways the church is true and I fall more and more in love with the gospel everyday. I want you all to be safe. Don’t text and drive, wear your seatbelt, and pray every day kids. But I love you all and can’t wait to see you in a little bit!!!!

Here is a pic of the family I talked about in my last letter. They are going to be baptized on the 5th of December

Week # 9 Feshhhhhhh

October 21, 2013

       Feshhhhhh (fetch) that’s what all the Mexicans in this mission say haha. I love it. Wow the mission is so great. We are seeing so much success, we are working 18 hour days and are teaching and walking and teaching and walking. Its crazy! We have 15 people in our area with baptism dates but they wont come to church and i don’t know if I have mentioned this but in our mission it is a rule that the investigators go to church 5 times before they can get baptized. Or else we would have 5 baptisms every week. Everyone here just wants to be saved and live with their families, but for some reason they don’t want to put forward the effort which sucks but we wont give up. This work is too great to just give up. And it is so sad to see so many dead missionaries that just don’t want to work and just are here for crap reasons. Feshh I am here to save souls, not here to impress the hunnies or my mom, or to say I served a mission, or even to find a wife that only wants a returned missionary. (These are all great reasons, but not the right ones.) I am in no way a perfect missionary, I want to hit my companion so bad at times haha. I sometimes am not as diligent as I could be in my studies or my prayers. But I am here for the right reasons. I am a pair of arms legs, eyes and mouth for the Lord for 21 more months. I will never be a dead missionary. I am going to work until I can work no mas. I am running myself into the ground for the lord. We spend 8 months of our missions sleeping. That sucks!! That means for the other 16 months I am going to run myself into the ground cause I only get those 16 months ONCE!

       I want all of you who will serve a mission to commit to yourselves to be an instrument in the hands of God cause that’s what we need here. If you are not going for the reason to bring many souls unto salvation then just don't come. We don't need you. We need people that will preach with power and with authority and if your not going to give it your all then please either change or don't come. Freak I was coming here for the wrong reasons and to be honest I was planning on serving a half effort mission but I’ve had a change of heart. I have seen the change in people’s eyes. They become happy and purposeful you would be surprised how many people live an un-purposed life. This gospel gives you purpose.

       We were walking down the street and I got a prompting to talk to this family sitting on the curb we were talking to her, and I found out she spoke broken English, because she lived for 2 years in the USA. She got deported and lived homeless in Tijuana for a while then she moved here, and was making money boxing for a local gym. She is really good! She had brain cancer and lost all the money that she had earned. She is still boxing though ahaha, but anyway when we started talking to her she agreed to listen to the messages. We taught her the plan of salvation and I bawled my eyes out to her for like 20 minutes in my broken Spanish. I testified of the truthfulness of the Resurrection and the Power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. She then committed to pray and read the book of Mormon and we set up an appointment for the next day. We met with her and she had read 1st Nephi and all of 3rd Nephi. She is already changing. She wanted to know how she could more follow Christ. We committed her to baptism, she accepted, but she wanted more. We committed her to come to church, but she couldn’t cause her sister was coming into town, but she wanted to know how she could more follow Christ. We talked about law of chastity word of wisdom and tithing. She isn't married and doesn’t have a boyfriend, and she only drinks coffee (which is a miracle here in Mexico) and she said she didn’t have money to pay tithing, but she wanted to give us 10 percent of her bread and fruit, that’s all she had. We told her that God knew the intentions of her heart and as soon as she was making more money again that she could pay her tithing. She had a 180-degree turn of heart and desire in 24 hours. This is why I am on the mission cause there are people that need to hear this gospel and have the desire to truly follow Christ.

       How can I find these people and teach them to follow Christ and change their lives if I cant do it myself so I’ve really had to do a 180 degree turn and I’m doing it poco a poco little by little. I can see the fruits and dang do they taste good. Fesssshh I love this gospel and am so stoked to hear about all my friends and family (Ty, Taylor Watkins, Jaleisa Jones, Austin Measels, Austin Birrer, Danielle Eggleston just to name a few, my time is limited sorry family, and friends) Holy crap we have such an amazing group of kids going to some really cool places. All of you have had a major impact and some of you have never known but its happened and thank you and I love you so dang much. Please stay strong we have work to do. And please all of you Kiddy Cats at home that are sitting on the "should I serve a mission" fence fetching jump down and start preparing for a mission. It’s the hardest thing I have ever done hands down, and I’ve had to do some hard crap in my life. This has also been thee most amazing most rewarding time in my life hands down. Nothing comes close and I wish I ‘d been better prepared. You don’t have to be perfect to serve a mission I was far from it. But I was eligible for the spirit and worthy. But not perfect. Nobody is no matter how good they look, or act.

       But anyways that is my final thought for the night. My Mom has always told me to live big. Yet I’ve remained small. I’ve done cool things, but when I go to sleep at night can I say that I lived this day BIG. Here on the mission I feel I am. I feel like I need to do something great and awesome in my life, if the mission is the greatest thing I do in this life, I will be happy, but if there is something even greater then heck yes. “THERE IS ALWAYS ROOM AT THE TOP" I love this quote it was told to me by a straight up angel set in my path by God himself and I have taken it to heart. I will try as hard as I can to live it everyday. I am done living small. I want to be at the top. I want to be remembered not in the eyes of world but in the eyes of God. I do not want to have my name scratched of the wall of great people latter day saints or not. I want to be at the top in whatever I do. Whether that be my mission or business or whatever. I want to be the best I can. And I can only do that through God and Jesus Christ. They are the best! But anyway holy crap I love you all and hope to hear great things from you. Don’t be afraid to do some cool things and live big. I love you all. #prayforgrant cause stealing all my moms 80´s clothes wont make him look cooler than me.  

Love, Elder Rodabough

Week # 8 SHOUT OUT...

October 14, 2013

So a big shout out to myself for being a real idiot these past few weeks. I have been so negative and it’s really stupid because it’s all in my attitude. I realized that my mission is only as good as I make it. So I’ve really tried super hard to be positive and keep the gospel the focus in my life. And I’ve come to realize 2 things more than ever in my life, in my 2 months that I have been on the mission. 

1. My family and my true friends are the most precious things to me. You never realize how much something means to you until you don’t have it anymore. The mission would be so dang easy for me if I could email, or talk to my family and friends everyday. The getting up at 6:30 and working non-stop until 9 is nothing. I could do that so easy if my family surrounded me. But that’s just not how it goes here. I am really lucky to have experienced this because I might not have realized it if I hadn’t come on the mission. My memories in my head are my most prized possessions (idk if I spelled that right #stupidspanish) I am so grateful for the family I have and the awesome friends I have been majorly blessed with in my life. I am so grateful to have been born in the USA! Its truly is such an amazing place, when fourth of July rolls around I will go so hard in the paint its crazy. I just love America, who would’ve thought. Not only am I in love with the USA, I am in love with Utah!!!! The mountains, the lakes, the snow, the freezing cold, the insanely hot, the people, the temples, the roads, the cars, the cleanliness. Just Utah it thee BOMB. Now don’t get me wrong I love Mexico and there are a lot of things that I love about Mexico that the USA doesn’t have, and I will get into that later.

2. The gospel next to my family or just as much as my family is so dang sacred to me. I am telling you right now that I will never ever fall away from the church. Everything about the church, the members’ world wide, the fact that we have our hands where ever they are needed and are always willing to help other people not of our faith. There is not a single doubt in my mind that this is the true church. I’ve started to read the Book of Mormon and I have never been so touched by so many scriptures and thought so deeply about my life than when I read the book of Mormon. The bible testifies of the Book of Mormon. It is so awesome. The members here are so great they feed us every single day for comida (aka lunch) they never miss a meal and if they can’t feed us they give us money. It is just so humbling to be fed by these people who have literally nothing, yet they feed us with all they have and sometimes that’s just tortillas and chili. Three days ago I had a guy that has half of his body paralyzed feed me food. I couldn’t help but cry when I saw this man try his very hardest to walk to and from the kitchen serving me food. I insisted on him letting me help but he said that it was his privilege... these things happen to me on the daily. We have catholics and atheists feed us, and just the people down here are amazing they always take the time for you, they never make you feel worthless and they always make you feel important. The Lord is truly blessing me every single day and I have really grown a lot and figured out a lot about myself over these past 2 months. I can only imagine how I will be in 2 years haha.

So now I will talk about what Mexico is like. We are in an area called Rancho, it is the smallest area in the whole world, smaller than Temple Square, but we have like 10,000 plus living in our area. It’s nuts, but so cool to be in a new place. The food here is so dang weird. I cant count on two hands how many times I’ve eaten cactus while I’ve been here. At first I thought it was green beans but holy crap it was not green beans, it tastes so dang weird haha its like a mix of green beans squash and has the toughness of an apple #superweird. Mexico has the best tortillas in the whole world so fresh. They are made at the local street corner tortillaria. I live above a little shop that sells pipes and we have a little kitchen tiny bathroom and our house is surrounded on every side by windows kinda cool. Random tangent sorry. They always have lemonade for a drink for comida (aka lunch) and its always super good I really like the lemonade. They have fruits for every meal and I just tell them that it makes my stomach feel like crap haha, which it does it might just be a little lie haha. The tacos and tortillas are amazing and I haven’t had any run in with the diarrhea yet which I’m sure will come haha. But anyway this is getting pretty lengthy and I hope that in some way this next miracle that I want to end with, will touch you because I can tell you it changed my life for the better and probably saved my mission cause I was so close to coming home last week... but God placed this man in my life to help me stay here.

So last week I was going to go print off an email and some pictures but the normal computer lab we use to email we use was full so we had to walk a little ways to the other computer lab. We get there and the storeowner is listening to something in English... I’m thinking that it’s weird that in Mexico there is a guy that is listening to things in English cause I’m in Mexico ya know, not only was it in English but he was watching 17 miracles. So he spoke English and was LDS like WHAT ARE THE CHANCES!!!! But anyway I finish printing off my emails and I send this email to my mom that apologizes for my crap attitude and as soon as I press the send button the owner comes up to me and in English asks for a blessing, so I was kinda nervous but I gave him a blessing. His name was Moroni... and I was 100% completely overcome by the spirit and by the time I said amen he was crying, like out of control sobbing. This 23 year old man out of control sobbing. So we end and he told me that his girl friend wanted to break the treaty with him (law of chastity) and he said no so she breaks up with him, and he is just destroyed because he was going to propose to her. But I said some stuff to him that God was proud in my blessing and he said he had such a huge sense of peace. Then the craziest part was when I got done he looked at my face, then to my badge then looked me straight into my eyes and says "how do I know you?" I asked him if he had ever been to Utah he says no. He’s never left Mexico except his mission to Chile, he asked me like 10 times how do I know you. I have never met him before but then as clear as day the thought came to me you know him from the pre-existence. That morning I had prayed harder than I have ever prayed before asking god to send me a sign that I was needed here in Mexico and that I was supposed to be on a mission. There was my miracle as an answer. God cares about every single one of his children, and I now know this for a fact. God is real and Jesus Christ is his son. I have seen the effects of His hand and the miracle of the atonement in my life. And I leave this experience with you in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Love you all and I look forward to seeing you when I get back and in the eternity to come. Keep the faith God cares about you even if you don’t know it yet.

Week # 7 Shout Out to Elder Nielsen

 October 7, 2013

Yeah big shout out to the awesome computers in Mexico for deleting my giant email I had all finished and ready to go out to all you kind people. It was awesome and super long and I’m super angry. And I feel super bad cause I have to go now, and I don’t have time to write another. But expect a really long one next week. But I just want to tell you how much I am blessed and how steadfast and how strong my testimony is. I will always be an active member. And I will always strive to be a missionary. I love you all and miss you all but I gotta go save tons of people and bring lots of hope into people lives so talk to you next week.

P.S. A BIG SHOUTOUT TO ELDER NIELSEN for joining the ranks of missionaries. I love the kid like my brother and he is going to kill it in the D.R

October 1, 2013 Arrival in Mexico City email from President and Sister Hall

We picked up your son yesterday at the airport with 17 other Elders. He had an interview with the President as well as dinner. After the training today he received his first companion. All North American Elders have Latino companions. This is a picture of your son with his new companion. We love your son and are so excited to have him in our mission!

-President and Sister Hall