If The Blow Won't Kill You The Tetanus Will

 Howdy,

This week was a great first week of the transfer! Elder Wilson, Elder Boren, and I get along great and Elder Wilson is one of the funniest people I know. We also saw a lot of miracles in our area this week, so I'm excited about this transfer!

On Friday we had a noteworthy experience. We knocked on the door for one of our meetings, and the guy opens the door with a full-on machete. When he saw it was us he put down the machete and told us to walk around back to come in that way. When we sat down for the lesson we saw lots of credit cards, throwing knives, a bat, and some chew and alcohol. Elder Wilson said he saw meth and thinks he was a meth dealer but I'm not sure. The lesson went really well and the spirit was strong, and he seemed excited to read the Book of Mormon and have us over this week. I know that the gospel can change lives, and so I'm excited to get to know him better and help him grow closer to God. 

On Saturday the postman stopped us while we were walking, and he was like oh here's your mail. So ya the mailman knows me so I guess I'm a legit Lawrenceburg resident now. 

I am amazed by the faith of the members in our ward and those we are teaching. We have seen many miracles in our finding efforts as well as with those we are teaching and with member missionary work. I am so grateful to be serving as the Lord's servant here in Lawrenceburg! I know the church is true and that prayer has real power!

Have a great week! 

Keep striving!!

Elder Rogers

The growing army of ducks protecting our apartment 

Us at district council. We wore sweaters with suits because it looks legendary. 

"The Sexiest Thing You Can Do Is Love God" - Tom

 Howdy

I hope that everybody had a great week! Probably the biggest thing that happened this week was the transfer call. Last transfer wasn't nerve-wracking because Elder Robinson was an AP and logged into the system a couple days early and spoiled the surprise, but this time I was really nervous. I was pretty sure I would be leaving Lawrenceburg to a Spanish area, but it turns out I'm staying! It also turns out that the Spanish leaders are giving a Spanish speaker to me and Elder Boren to teach because it was destroying their miles to drive out here. I'm happy to be staying in the Burg with Elder Boren, and I'm happy to welcome in Elder Wilson. Elder Wilson is from Las Vegas, Nevada. He is a nephew of my old bishop, and he was MTC companions with Spencer Willis. Elder Leavitt is headed up to Xenia in Dayton East. I will miss him, but I am excited for his adventures. 

On the way to transfers, we stopped at Jungle Jims, a super crazy store. They have "over 180,000 items from over 75 countries." Literally, anything you could ever want you could find at Jungle Jims. They also have a waterfall in front of their store. They also have a dancing Elvis monkey thing in there. It's the craziest store I've ever been in. It is crazy that people actually go there to shop.

A couple of weeks ago we made a video for the Facebook page with a member family where they had us do some dancing and stuff. We asked them how the editing was going, and they said they made it but it was too bad to go on the page because I'm just bad at dancing and they couldn't make it look good. 😂 The mom said I was a cute missionary for trying though. We got a big kick out of that conversation. 

I hope that you all have a great week! 

Keep striving everybody!

Elder Rogers

Us at transfers

Us with a tree in Lawrenceburg Elder Leavitt likes

 The new companionship

The new companionship again 

The most expensive hot sauce at Jungle Jim's. ( they have A TON of hot sauces. They also have a locked closet with crazy expensive hot sauce. That's where this is)

Ranch soda at Jungle Jim's 

Jungle Jim's soup isle

Me by the big cheese sign ( the big cheese was a nickname given to me by Ronald Ence in high school)

Sounds Like You Need A Meat Lovers Pizza

 Howdy,

This week was pretty great! There hasn't been anything super exciting, but it was just a really solid week. I really love both of my companions, and so I'm bummed that this is the last week of the transfer, but I'm also a little excited to see what happens.

Elder Boren has helped me to grow a lot in Spanish, and I am starting to see improvements. I was able to speak with a member in our ward from Mexico and that was fun (and nerve-wracking).

One day this week I took off my watch while I was sleeping, and couldn't find it in the morning. I was super bummed because I wanted it for running. I checked all over but no luck. While we were saying our prayer to leave our apartment, I had an impression to check one place one more time. After the prayer, I hurried over and found it right where I was impressed to check. I know that God cares about the small things in our lives and that He hears and answers our prayers - even if it is for simple things like finding your watch so you can track your run. Running has been going well. I wish I could run more, but I got in 22 miles this week. My best run this week was 5.4 miles at 5:35 pace on Thursday. 

We had stake conference yesterday, and it was such a great experience to sustain our church leaders! As I raised my hand in our apartment I could feel the spirit confirming to me that both the general church leaders and those on a more local level were called of God. Most of the people in the stake I have never met, but I could feel the spirit, and I knew God needed them in their callings. 

Make sure not to buy deluxe or rich and creamy mac n cheese - they aren't as good as original. Also, the flamin' hot Cheetos mac n cheese is alright, but not worth the 63 cents more than the Walmart brand.

 I'm getting better at cutting hair. I didn't give Elder Leavitt racing stripes this time.

Have an awesome week!

Keep Striving Everybody!

Elder Rogers

Us with a confetti gun (I usually smile and they have straight faces in pictures so they told me to switch for this picture)

Us in front of a weird sign at a bank by our house

Us eating at Chipotle with the gift card Aunt Debbie gave me for Christmas

Me sleeping (Zac and I used to take pictures of Grandpa Rogers sleeping so I guess this is payback)

A funny sign outside one of our investigators house

 Just me in front of the weird bank

"BBQ Burger"

Howdy,

I hope all of you had a happy new year!! I am kinda happy the holidays are over so that we can get into a regular teaching schedule. Holidays in the mission field are kind of an annoyance because they inhibit our ability to meet with people. It's ok though. Our schedule is crazy busy this week with all the meetings we're catching up on. 

The highlight this week was the baptism of Greg, William, and Desiree!! It was such an amazing opportunity to be able to be there! We filled up the font about halfway during ward council, but we turned it off for sacrament meeting because we didn't want to have to keep leaving the meeting to check on it. However, when we went in to start filling the font after sacrament meeting we saw that the font was EMPTY. It must have an emergency drain to prevent standing water or something because it was plugged, but it had all drained out. This was bad. We hurried and turned both the hot and cold water on full blast, and grabbed garbage cans, and started filling them with hot water in the kitchen, bathrooms, and janitorial closet to get enough water in the font. I felt bad because we had to turn on the hot and cold to try and get more water in, and so they said it was like a lake. Desiree said it was the coldest water she had ever been in, but they were all so happy to be baptized that they were OK with it. Because of COVID, they wanted to minimize meetings, and so Greg was baptized, confirmed, ordained a priest, and then baptized William and Desiree. It was a great experience, and the spirit was incredibly powerful despite the craziness. We had a meeting with them that night and talked about the sacrament. Greg is super excited to be able to help from now on. Greg rarely buys things for himself because he likes his family to have the things they need, but I had a new white shirt I hadn't opened and gave it to Greg so he could wear it for the sacrament. I wasn't sure if it would fit, but it fits him 100% perfectly, which made me so happy. They are such an amazing family. They are so happy to finally be baptized, and I am so happy for them!

We have a companionship goal to go to one local restaurant a week, and this week we went to a burger place. Elder Leavitt and I had been there, but we wanted to take Elder Boren. It's a little pricy, but the burgers are good so we saved up. We went there and I got a really good salad that I was loving, and so I wasn't paying very much attention to the burger. I got halfway done with it and was bummed cause it wasn't anywhere near as good as I remembered. It was then that I realized they didn't put any BBQ sauce on my BBQ burger. I was mega sad. I probably would have said something, but I had eaten like half of it, and I was getting kind of full so I just ate the rest of it. It was a patty with bacon and avocado with nothing else. I was bummed cause we had to save up to go there. At least the salad was good. I also turned on the wrong burner when I was trying to make dinner yesterday, and set the fire alarm off (Grandma Rogers and I must be related 😉). 

I love serving as a missionary, and helping others come closer to Christ! I know that the gift of the Holy Ghost is real, and that it blesses lives. Prayer and fasting have real power, and I'm so grateful for all of the blessings that they have brought me in my life, and especially on my mission. When we reach out in prayer, God will bless us with power so that we can overcome the challenges in our lives!

Have an inspired week!

Keep Striving!

Elder Rogers

Us with the family (Ashley, the mom, and Destiny, the oldest daughter, were baptized back in June)

The family with Mark ( the super-strong guy on the left. He participates in the world's strongest man competitions and is an amazing member in our ward) who baptized them

The guardians of our apartment

My companions at the burger place that gave me a BBQ Burger with no BBQ

Me drinking honey mustard (We were given Wendy's and my companions know how much I love honey mustard, and they bet me I wouldn't do it - it was pretty good)