Happy 4th of July!

Hello All!

Happy late 4th of July! This week was a little better than last week, we are starting to get the hang of the new ward and we are teaching more lessons. Elder Wakeham still hasn't changed. He doesn't want to be obedient and he is really hindering the spirit. The other day I went on exchanges with the zone leaders and that was a nice break. When we exchanged back he got into an argument with them. He is probably the toughest comp I have had so far. He goes home in 4 weeks and he is really checked. But President is mindful of all this and I hope things will work out.

Thursday night some members invited us to a 4th of July party and that was pretty fun. There were both members and non-members there. Saturday morning the ward had a pancake breakfast and we were able to mingle with members and get to know more people. For the 4th of July all missionaries had to be home by 6pm unless you were with a member proselyting, watching fireworks or other approved stuff. Since we are both pretty new to the ward we don't know a lot of members who would be willing to come out with us. So we went back to our apartment and stayed there for the rest of the night. It was pretty boring but I was able to clean up and organize our area. The weather has been pretty hot lately but no more storms yet. Not a lot of people our signing up on our diner calendar but there is a family in the ward who we really like and they feed us all the time. We have already been there 3 or 4 times in the last two weeks and they love missionaries. They are super funny.

 I have a testimony that the Lord’s blessings are real. I can truly say that I was blessed the first week we were here. We didn't have any money and we ate scraps for food every day because nobody signed up for dinner. One day Elder Olson and I were walking home because we were really low on our car miles and we ran into a hospital employee who just got off work. It turns out he was LDS. He offered us a ride and since we had no dinner he took us to Chipotle. Another night we went to meet bishop at his house and told him our situation and he and his wife loaded us up with food! The Lord truly blesses the obedient and patient! We are doing a lot better now. We have miles, food, more dinners and things are getting better. I love you all and I'll talk to you all next week!

Elder Rodriguez