Elder Tanner Rogers: 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