Boundin'

 Howdy!

I hope that everyone is having a great Memorial Day! This week has been an adventure filled with lots and lots of bike jobs. We have been all over the mission, and it has been fun to be able to make lots of quick roadside stops to see something cool about Cincinnati. One of the most fun things that happened this week was that I was able to race Brother Maddy in the ward. I gave him a two-minute and fifteen-second head start, but I still passed him at the start of the fourth lap. I wanted to break five minutes for my mile, and I ran a 4:57 so I was happy about that, but I think I paced myself too hard, and that if I go into it trying to break 4:50 I can, so I'm excited to try again in a couple weeks. (Proverbs 23:7 is facts)

The most annoying thing that happened this week was that we had to get an update to our phones. It was not a fun experience. Part of the process was that we had to factory reset our phones. I thought I had followed the instructions for how to back up all my photos, but apparently, I missed a step because all of my pictures got deleted, and when I tried to back them up from Google photos after the reset none of them were there. That was a bit of an annoyance to me, but it made me glad that I send so many pictures in my weekly emails because at least some of them aren't lost forever. 

The mask mandate for the state of Ohio ends on Wednesday, June 2 and we are all excited about the new rules. We will now be able to knock on someone's door if we already have a contact for them, we can take off our masks if our friends are comfortable with it, we can talk to people while we walk down the street, we are allowed to do any service as long as we can do it with our proselyting clothes on, and we will now be able to eat with members as long as someone is there who is either not a member or is less active! Yay! 

The greatest experience of this week came Friday. We were out walking with our friend Jim, and he told us he was sad because he had lost his really nice football. I had a feeling I should ask him if he had prayed to be able to find it, and he said no and he felt like God was just laughing at him. I had a split second of doubt about saying a prayer to find it because I knew if we didn't find it after we prayed Jim's already struggling faith would be squashed. I followed up on my feeling and told him if we prayed God would help us find it. We said a prayer and started looking. He left to go to the bathroom and the whole time I was praying hard that we could find this football. He came back and right as he walked back up to us, we still hadn't found it, but I did an eye sweep of the area, and my eye caught hold of the football right in the middle of a place we had already thoroughly searched. I was nervous to look away because I thought if I blinked it would disappear again. We grabbed it, and I told Jim we needed to say another prayer of thanks to God. He said the sweetest prayer and said that he took it as a sign that he needed to start meeting with us more. I was very glad that I had acted on the prompting that I had received. 

God is real! He is willing and waiting to answer our prayers, we just need to ask Him in faith! Have a great week!

Keep striving everybody!

Elder Rogers

A couple we are teaching from Gauna

The Cincinnati skyline (from left to right you can see The Bengals' stadium, the suspension bridge, the Reds' stadium, and the Great American building)

Me on top of the Middletown Mound

Elder Brinton and I on top

 Elder Brinton in front

Me in front of the Middletown Mound