Elder Tanner Rogers: 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