Week # 24 Come what may and love it! -Joseph B. Wirthin

March 24, 2014

Subject: Come what may and love it! -Joseph B. Wirthin

So I don’t know if anyone even reads these anymore, but maybe it can relate to just one person. So as you all have figured out is that I am pretty much my own generation of missionary, and I haven’t decided if that is good or bad. I have changed a lot, a 180 degree turn actually for the better, and I like who I am. I never realized how being surrounded all the time with other people actually affected me, and changed who I am. These 8 months I have been on the mission have literally changed my life and I have 16 months to go. Hardest 8 months of my freaking life. But for sure the coolest 8 months of my life. 

           You just have to live it, I guess, life sucks and life rocks! If life always rocked we would forget what rocks, cause it is just always a good time it just becomes the normal. The suck is what makes the "Rad" actually "Rad". So come what may and love it. That’s gonna be my motto I decided. I am just not gunna worry, just come what may and make the best of it. Suck the juice out of every second. Drink, #differentkindofthirsty I will continue to live this way forever. And I will not lose focus because of where I am at now. 

To be honest I’m so out of touch right now its so dope! I have literally no clue what is going on in the United States. My spanglish has taken a turn for the worst I cant hold a normal conversation with a person that speaks english without using spanish words, so thats dope. I can’t even begin to think about how bad its gunna be when I finish my mission. Just got straight shocked by this whacked wire. And these fat mexican men are just saying all the swear words in Spanish, but I love it here. Life is a great journey and people want to rob you of that by making you worry about things that don’t matter and I’ve learned.

The work is so good we will have 3 baptisms this week in our ward so that’s super good. All super good converts. Me and Vasquez are killin it here in Real Del Bosque. 

Love,  Elder Rodabough

Week # 23 F.O.M.O. (Fear of Missing Out)

March 3, 2014

F.O.M.O.

Acronym of the week: F.O.M.O Fear of missing out. One of the things I worry about most is the fear of missing out. So this acronym has inspired me to live more, and go do things that I normally wouldn’t do. I need to live this moment more fully. And that is my dare to you guys this week. Having the fear of missing out is one of the best "fears" we can have because it inspires us to live more in the moment. Then you notice things that you’ve never noticed before. This is what God wants for us, is to live every moment. He wants us to notice every creature that crawls on this earth. Enjoy the beauty of every mountain, every wrinkle of every face, everything on this earth is for us to either learn from, or enjoy. We should even enjoy the times that suck because we need to know the suck to realize the good. That is my semi deep thought of the week.

So this was the fastest week of my life. And it was super dope. Well I have good news and bad news... I will start with the good cause I like the good news more. I had a great week and learned a lot, and we had a great time at the visitor’s center with our investigators. Many of them saw the temple and could feel the power and the holiness there. Many had the desire to get baptized when they saw the temple so that really strengthened my testimony of the temple. So that’s the good news! 

      Now the bad news. Totally just got straight out robbed this week haha. We were straight walking down the Lopez at 5:30am, in the morning with the sisters, taking them to the taxi station because one of the sisters had a doctors appointment. Then two hommies (strangers, never seen them in my life), straight flexin on the curb stood up and told us to go over and face the wall. And out of nowhere a car just pulls out of some alley and a guy hops out of the car and grabs me, and the other two grabbed my comp, and pushed us against the wall. The freaking guy that had me was pretty ripped but I had like a whole foot on this fella so I was tempted to try to fight him (and this was my thought process). My comp is mui tai champion and he would knock out the other two guys, and then save me from the other guy haha. But, the spirit was just like "take it easy" and it was a super strong feeling/voice so that was cool. We didn’t bring anything besides like our cell phone, and keys so they were outa luck. My comp had his planner and that’s it. So they pretty much chose the wrong people to rob. The guys took the sisters scriptures and I was like screaming for them, and the guy that had me was at the car with all the stuff they had robbed from us. Then, I asked super loud for the scriptures and the guy at the car just looked at me, and pulled out a pistol from the back of his pants just like in the movies, and pointed it at me… so I thought I was dead. So I just straight turned around and waited for him to either shoot me, or leave. The longest 20 seconds of my life but the guy just left and I didn’t die, so this is actually more good news than bad haha. 

But anyway that was pretty rad, but anyway kids I love you and will talk to you next week. 

Love your cellphone-less Elder Rodabough  

P.S. I’m the white sheep in an all black fold son!!!! (minus the other white kid but he doesn’t count)

Week # 22 “Celestialized”

February 24, 2014

“Celestialized”

So this week I had some pretty deep thoughts, deeper than I’ve ever thought in my entire life. Had this hommie named axacautyl (yes, thats how you spell it) about some super cool stuff about the Book of Mormon, and the temple, and Joseph Smith. Made me think a lot about the next life, and how this world will be changed into the Celestial Kingdom, and how sick will that be to be able to visit like Zion National Park but like celestial style. That just made me pretty stoked. 

My week was good! We had a bunch of investigators at church, not gunna tell how many or how many investigators we have cause I don’t want to live my mission like a competition. I feel like to many missionaries worry about the numbers they base their success on numbers. I could care less about numbers; I just want to help as many people as I can, and if that means I only help 1 person I’m good, mission completed. 

So we had 18 investigators at church....Kidding kidding

No but for real this week was super good helped lots of people, We will be going to the visitors center with a bunch of investigators, so that’s super sick. Had the 2 families in my other ward get baptized so that’s awesome. Just the work is going forward in 2 more months there will be 100,000 missionaries in the field. The time is almost at hand.

Love you all like crazy talk to you guys next week:)

Love, Elder Rodabough

Week # 21 Totally got kissed today

February 17, 2014

 Totally got kissed today

Today not even an hour ago my comp and I dedicated almost all of our P-Day to this super dope service project. We were translators for this huge organization from the states called the lions club. They collect old glasses from people in the states and fix them up. Then they give them away to people who can’t see and never have been able to... It is super sad, but it was an awesome service project. I just chatted with some people in english and translated for them. I had people cry when they finally put the glasses on cause they have never been able to buy glasses before because they are too expensive. When they finally get these free glasses they are so stoked! I even had an 74 year old lady plant a super fat kiss right on my cheek haha! Felt super violated but what do you do?

So we have been helping out so many people, we haven’t had a single day when we get back inside the house before 10pm. We had tons of stuff to do this week so we have woken up before 5oclock 3 times this week! Our service started at 6:30 in the am, so we had to get up to shower at 4:30 so that was super dope haha.

Our president passed a rule that we need to contact 20 people everyday. But I haven’t done it because we have so many freaking citas its crazy. Never a time to relax or anything, which is super good cause the time goes by really fast, but at the same time I don’t like how freaking huge and muscular my legs are getting... or fat not sure I eat a lot of tortillas most likely its fat haha. We have a lot of people ready to be baptized, and we need to marry this other couple so they can be baptized. We have a lot of people and my comp is super sick he’s from Honduras, and he totally plays league of legends, so we just talk about that for days.

The sadness is real right now because hardly anyone writes me anymore pretty much just like the same 5 people of every week. So that’s cool shout out to those 5 people. But regardless, I love everyone and hope everyone is doing okay. You guys are always in my prayers and thoughts.

Have a good week everybody.

Elder Rodabough

P.S. And yes there are castles in Mexico

Week # 20 CHANGES! THEY KICK MY BUTT!!!

February 3, 2014

CHANGES! THEY KICK MY BUTT!!!

So I got changed and it was probably one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. I will probably never see some of these good friends ever again. I had to say goodbye to Karina, Sergio and Tsunamy yesterday. They were my best friends in the mission, and it wrecked me when I had to say goodbye to them. I got changed from the smallest area in the mission to the second largest area in the mission. It’s called Real Del Bosques its huge. I can’t believe that this place is only 20 minutes from where I was serving before. Here it is so spread out the streets are dirt, there are random horses tied to trees behind my house. We all just pile in these taxi things and they only drive on one street. We have a Wal-Mart in our area and like an outlet mall that is super dope. But the bad news is we can only go there and we need to pay 30 pesos each to get there cause it is so far away haha.

Well on a different note, I am horrified at the news of Cory. All I know is that he has a more important work to do up in heaven. I know he is with our Heavenly Father as we speak, and that almost brings me to tears because, what a beautiful moment to be reunited with our Savior and Father in heaven after creating a beautiful family, and serving his country and community. I know without a shadow of a doubt he is where he needs to be. Although it is super duper hard for a time, we will see him again. What is even sadder is that people don’t know they can live with their families forever. They think after this life that is it. 

THIS WEEK IS FOR CORY. I am going to work harder than I have ever worked before, so that people can know that families are forever. I will keep his family in my thoughts and prayers. 

Love you all,

Elder Rodabough

Week # 19 Sup family and friends!

January 13, 2014

Sup family and friends!

So today for P-day I roll out of bed, grab my towel shower, do personal study, waddle over to the bakery, say hola to the woman that always calls me gringo, and I just say hello and she just laughs. I buy my two normal breads, give her 10 pesos, get dressed for soccer, grab my backpack, walk down the street saying buenas dias to everyone I pass, and get to the church. We talk about how awesome it is when a prophet just planches (or in other words very very frank and stern and almost rude) people of the church. Really in the church we don’t know how real the gospel is sometimes, and its soo cool when he planches you haha. I read a talk this morning about how the missionaries in the beginning of the church took the Book of Mormon lightly and Ezra Taft Benson just destroys them. He said they brought all of the children of Zion under condemnation, and it just smacked me right in the face cause I take the Book of Mormon lightly so I felt like crap. So that’s all good, now I’m cleaning my laundry and emailing and that’s usually just a P-Day for me, nothing too cool haha. Idk why I wanted to share that.

Anyway we had another super dope baptism this week and she only has 10 years old. Her name is Michell her parents aren’t even members and they didn’t want her to get baptized but she told them, “I’m getting baptized” and they were just like “okay whatever”, but they came around. They were way stoked for her, and I hope they get baptized too. She is such a great example for me cause I was such a shiz head before my mission. I wouldn’t have done what she did. She’s so strong it’s awesome!

Well I’m still doing good, I almost have 6 months in the mission but who’s counting right. WINK WINK. As we speak I am just destroying so many mosquitos it’s pretty cool. I’m still in the area with the giant sewage pond and there are tons of bugs, and dogs, and drugs, and fights, so that’s super sick. I love and miss my family and Utah and the snow but the mission rocks! You learn some super cool stuff here.

Well until next week my darlings.

Elder Rodabough

Week # 18 Happy New Year!

January 6, 2014

Happy New Year! 

I will officially be home next year! So that is pretty cool. I think I am going to get transferred pretty soon, so that will be good. I’m ready for a change, changes make the time go by so much faster. I love my zone and my area though so that kinda sucks. I have met and grown pretty close to some very amazing men in the mission. 

So New Years here is crazy I cant believe how hard people go on new years. We walked down our street in front of our houses and there were 3 people passed out on the sidewalk, just straight dormiendo on the side walk. Even the people who live below us went so hard and we just sat there and ate quesadillas for like 3 hours and played card games and went up to bed at 10 o’clock.  I set my alarm for 11:58 and when it went off I jumped on my companion’s bed and just jumped on his bed so hard he was bouncing everywhere, and was soooooo angry it wasn’t even funny, but he got over it and I gave him a hug and went back to bed. And that’s how I spent New Year!

So stoked to see how great my friends and family are doing in the missions. Ty my zone leader is from the D.R. and he speaks crazy but I like it, and can understand haha. But here it is such lazy Spanish and they have so many dichos, and crazy weird sayings that are only from Mexico City. It’s called chilango and it is crazy and doesn’t make sense like ¿Que Show? It means what’s up, its just weird stuff like that, but I like it me cae bien. 

But anyway I love you guys so much! See you next year and talk to you next week!

Your Elder Rodabough