Olé

 Howdy

This week after much probing I got a different bike with functioning brakes. This would be a good thing, except I've been on a bike without brakes for so long that an adjustment period was necessary. While riding down a steep hill we were coming to the bottom, and out of habit I grabbed my brakes and squeezed pretty hard. I felt my back tire lift off of the ground, and I thought for sure I was about to fly into the stopped car in front of me. There must have been an angel by my side because the next thing I knew my bike tire slammed back against the asphalt and all was well. The new bike is actually pretty nice. I got it from other missionaries that weren't using it. It has thin tires and can cruise pretty fast. The only issue is that it is easier to pedal, so I get less of a workout which I consider unfortunate, and the thin tires are also very slippery in the rain which has been fun. The moral of the story is if it ain't broke, and sometimes even if it is, don't fix it. All joking aside, I am grateful to have brakes and a safer bike.

On Friday we were supposed to have a lesson with a lady, but she texted us and said she might be thirty minutes late. We had another appointment not long after, and so the logical thing to do would be to tell her we couldn't bike there, and we would have to reschedule, but it didn't feel right to me. I felt like we needed to ride there and see if she was home, and that she would get home before she told us. It was hot outside, and Elder Brock suggested we made calls. It did not feel right, but I eventually agreed because biking did not seem logical, even though it felt right. I told myself that we could make phone calls instead and that maybe I was just looking forward to riding bikes, and that calls could be a better use of our time. The whole time we made calls I felt sick inside, and couldn't focus. I knew we shouldn't have been doing it. Right at the time we would have arrived at her house on our bikes, we got a text from her saying that she was there, and ready to meet. Luckily we were able to set up a time to talk later, and the lesson went well, but I still wonder what could have been if I would have listened to the spirit and acted. In President Oaks' Hear Him video he says: "When you get an impression, act upon it, however unusual it seems or however inadequate you feel in following it. There is a reason, you may not know the reason, but blessings will come to you and someone else if you hear Him." The spirit is real and will bless us in our lives, but we need to have the faith and courage to act on our promptings even if they are strange or illogical. God sees the whole picture, while we just see the pieces.

Please pray that our friend Kiara will choose to be baptized soon. Kiara and her husband Froy have two young kids, and she is originally from Puerto Rico. She is very close to baptism but is scared to commit for fear of making mistakes. We are heartbroken because she didn't come to church yesterday, so please pray that her prayers will be answered, and she will be able to hear God speaking to her.

Keep Striving and Listening

Elder Rogers

 Elder Brock and I

Me with a big cicada we found one night

A window display

Elder Brock with a kitten we found while knocking doors

Me picking up the kitten (He didn't take one of me actually holding it)

Me looking like the Meet the Robinsons villain

French bread pizza

Avondale mural 

Spider Brock

Well I Gotta Help You Cross Something

 Howdy,

This week was pretty good! We had a really good member lesson with our friend Kiara (who hopefully will be on date for baptism by the end of this week!), and the member told her that she could sit by their family at church this Sunday. Elder Brock joked that that way she wouldn't have to listen to our singing. Kiara then pointed right at me.. Rip so apparently I'm a bad singer. 

While riding my bike with zero brakes we were going down a hill, and I had to go a little bit up on the grass and down off the curb so I could make a tight corner. A little kid saw my desperate maneuvers, and said, "Hey that ain't nothing watch this." Hey then sped up and tried to go up over the curb, and wrecked his bike. We stopped our bikes to make sure he was ok. He was, and so it was funny after that. 

Speaking of wrecks - the driving coordinator made Elder Brock the designated driver in our companionship because apparently, I drive too fast. We don't drive very often, and so Elder Brock was driving for his second time on his mission, and while we were stopped at a stoplight we got rear-ended. Luckily we were all ok, it was just a pain to have to fill out all the paperwork and things. 

We got a media referral this week, and we gave him a call. Turns out he spoke 0 English, but I was very happy because from the moment he answered in Spanish, I was able to carry on a full conversation, and set up a time for the Spanish Elders to teach him. The gift of tongues is very real. It's been a long time since I've been able to speak to anyone in Spanish, and I know God helped me to be able to understand and speak. 

Another crazy thing that happened this week is that during weekly planning we heard a knock on our door. The mailman sometimes has to knock to get in, and so we go to open the door, and it wasn't the mailman, it was a Baptist missionary. When he saw it was us he instantly tried to bash us. We didn't have time so we just told him we weren't going to join his church, but that he could try the other doors in our building. He gave us a nice pass-along card which I taped in my journal though. We thought it was funny we were getting tracted. 

There was a youth baptism in our ward this week that we got to help out with. It was really fun to be there and help. She got very nervous right before and was crying as she was in the font. As soon as she came back up she yelled "I did it!" It was really cool to see her overcome her fears to follow the Savior. It brings me a lot of peace knowing that despite all of my fears, flaws, and imperfections, I can do it because of Jesus Christ, and everyone else can too. He is the author and finisher of our faith, and He makes everything possible. I am so grateful for His love and His strength. He is there for me, He will be there for you.

Thank you all for your prayers for my support and safety! I definitely feel them as I walk the streets and ride my brake-less bike! 

Keep Striving! 

Elder Rogers 

Us with our friend Ben at a Mexican restaurant 

Elder Brock wanted a picture with Yonkers Ave.

Scary stories 

 Elder Brock with two tags on his suit at church 

A Little Bit of Rusteze and An Insane Amount of Luck

 Howdy

The transfer call was this week, and I got the news that I will be staying here in Norwood! That was pretty unexpected because two days before the call President Ensign looked me straight in the face and told me I would be leaving and Elder Brock would stay. It's definitely been a weird week. We had a nice mission party with a taco truck and a talent, which was really fun. It was really fun to see everyone, and unlimited free tacos are always a plus.  My favorite talents were a guy doing yoyo tricks, and another guy spun a basketball on a chopstick in his mouth.

Earlier this week we were teaching a lesson on the streets downtown. It was going pretty well until a random drunk guy intervened and started swearing at us and ruining the spirit of the lesson. The alcohol smell on him was very strong, and we kept telling him we were studying the scriptures so he could join us or leave, but he wouldn't- he just kept interrupting and swearing a ton. One time he walked away for a second, but then came right back and he started talking to me pretty close to my face. He kept swearing, and I was a little nervous because he was so drunk, but he was getting in the way of our lesson, and his language was really bothering me. I told him "Hey, we'd appreciate it if you cleaned up your language. We are trying to talk about God, if you are willing to join us we would love to have you, if not please leave and let us study." I wasn't sure what he would do, but he apologized and said that I reminded him of his son, and then he left and never bothered us again. The lesson went really well, and the people we met with said they really wanted to meet with us again, so I was happy about that and also happy that I didn't have to get in a fistfight with a drunk guy in the streets of downtown. Sometimes when we want answers to our prayers we have to be bold, brave, and work hard for the desired outcome to occur.

We were really busy this week, and we had next to no time to find new friends, because of everything. We prayed that we would be able to find people while we hurried to and from our different appointments and mission activities. Yesterday night as we rode our bikes around we had 3 people stop us and we were able to teach all of them a little more about what we believe. It is amazing to me how amazing God is. We didn't even look for them, we were just riding our bikes, but He put people in our path who wanted to learn more, and gave them the courage to stop us. It's crazy to me. I know God lives and is aware of us, and that this truly is His work. I'm grateful to play a small part in it. Missionary life is the greatest!

Keep Striving Everyone - God notices

Elder Rogers

The Norwood Mound (Not as cool as the other one, but still cool. They named the high school after the history of the mound, so it's got a subtle impact on the community here.  No signs or anything at this one to explain it though.)

 Lightning storms around here are cool and pretty common

My first trainee Elder Brinton achieved his goal

A cool car we found at the Children's Hospital parking garage. We thought we should take a picture so we jumped out of the car and hurried and then ran back in and drove off - there was one car that got behind us in the process who probably thought we were weird.

There were two deer so I tried to take a picture with them, but they ran into the bushes.
(You can see them if you look very closely at the very back but I was a little bummed.)

Closer up of me on the mound

Beef Stroganoff we made- better than North Star's 

Selfie on the mound

A picture of me

First, I'm Going To Take Your Stick

Howdy!

This week, we almost called the Jehovah's Witness missionaries and talked to them about what they teach. Our friends' wife is investigating the Jehovah's Witnesses, and he doesn't like it so he reached out to us. He wants us to help him and his wife join the church together. We realized that we didn't know much about Jehovah's Witnesses, so we thought about calling their missionaries, but the only way we could get in contact with them was to refer ourselves and have them come over.... that wasn't going to work out. It was fun to think about for a second though. 

We, unfortunately, had a lot of experiences with people bashing us this week. At 8:59 one night we called a guy, and he talked our ears off and tried to bash us. We talked about some scriptures in the Bible, and he said I knew the Bible way better than he does, but then said I was possessed by the devil and that the Book of Mormon had no power in it. I asked him if he had read it, and he said he hadn't even opened a copy. I was bothered and tired at this point, and kind of went off and told him that he was in no position to tell me anything about the Book of Mormon or my beliefs and told him to read the Book of Mormon then we could talk more. Then I said I was going to bed and we ended the call. I felt bad about that one.

On the other hand, we taught another person this week named Gregory. On the day of our lesson, he asked us to meet him outside his church where he is a deacon. We got nervous because we thought we were headed straight for another bash situation, but it ended up being one of the most powerful lessons on my mission, and he said that the spirit was very strong when we talked about the Book of Mormon. He said he wasn't sure if he was ready to change, but that he felt the truth in our message. We hope we will meet again with him soon. 

We got cussed out a lot this week, I fixed my bike, but it is broken again, I volunteered to play the kazoo in the mission wide talent show, we locked ourselves out of the church, I found out I really don't like Buffalo Wild Wings, and that I am extremely grateful for the commandments. The people here are amazing. They don't have much, but they give what they have. I know the Book of Mormon is true, and that when we follow Christ's example we will have true joy, not the fake stuff the world is full of.

Keep Striving!

Elder Rogers

Member meal

Us with pasta salad

A random selfie

The Walgreens Pharmacy thing

 New Super Listerman Bros (a bar)

The district at Buffalo Wild Wings

Us at the church

I'm The World's Best Backwards Driver

Howdy

Norwood never ceases to surprise me. It was another very busy and eventful week. On Thursday we were riding our bikes to go to visit some people at the children's hospital, when we heard some gunshots about 150 yards away on the street we were supposed to turn on to.  We looked down and saw people running away as fast as they could, and others running into either help or get into the fight. We crossed the street and took a little detour to get around it, but we still saw all of the cop cars and emergency vehicles hurrying in. I am grateful for the spirit and prayers for our safety that keep us out of those situations. I also appreciate prayers of safety because my bike has no brakes on it and we didn't have time to fix it during the week, so that lead to some sketchy situations as well. Luckily with everything going on, I came out with only a couple scuffs on my shoes and some scratches on my hands.

While we were walking around trying to talk to people, a drunk lady asked us if we had a dollar. I knew I didn't have any cash, because I never carry it with me, but I figured I would take out my wallet pretending to check so she would be happy. When I opened my wallet I was amazed because there was a dollar there. I couldn't believe it and gave her my dollar, and we walked and talked with her as she walked to the corner store. Fast forward a couple of days and we're making some phone calls. We call a guy who said he had seen us walking, and talking to people right where we had been talking to her, and said we had looked nice, and that he was willing to talk to us.  We'll see how that lesson goes this week.

This week we heard a cool story from a less active member we have been helping out. She struggles with finances, and if she paid her tithing, she wouldn't be able to afford a full bus pass. This meant that she would have to walk the 3 miles to get to church on Sunday because she couldn't afford the fares. She woke up early Sunday morning and walked to church, and then walked home afterwards. The next day she was waiting to catch a bus, but it was very late - she said two hours. A public transit worker stops and told them that the bus was late because of a driver shortage, but that another one was coming. Some other people there complained, and because of the inconvenience, the lady gave them all free bus passes through the end of the year. When we make sacrifices to keep the commandments, God gives us blessings. (Shout out to Doctrine and Covenants 130:20-21)

We also had zone conference this week. It was one of the best I've ever been to, and the spirit was so strong. One of the questions that hit me was: "What is your relationship like with Heavenly Father?" That made me think - am I satisfied with my relationship with Him? The answer I got is no I'm not, and I hope I never will be. I hope I keep growing closer and closer to Him so that I can become like Him. Also on the way home, we watched a man back up 150 meters on I-75 because he missed his freeway exit. That's how it's done in Kentucky. 

Have a great week everybody!

Keep Striving!

Elder Rogers

Me with a monarch butterfly 

Elder Boren and I

Elder Boren, Elder Johnson, Elder Brock and I

Us with the city in the background

 Me with terrible lighting and the city

 Rogers Park Place

Zone Conference (I am the third from the left on the back row)