Elder Tanner Rogers: Just Keep Swimming

Howdy,

It's been a pretty good week. We had zone conferences which were pretty crazy, and also a lot of fun. It is always fun to see everyone. After one of the zone conferences, we went to deliver some bikes to some missionaries in need. We went to go park in a parking lot in downtown Dayton, near their apartment, but the parking meter was broken and wouldn't give us a ticket so we decided to leave to be honest, and also so we wouldn't get towed. We went to go park on the street by a meter in front of their apartment, but when we pulled up we saw that the meter only took coins. We didn't have any. I went to search for some in the car, and Elder Parry started looking around the van. While I was searching I said a silent prayer that we would be able to find a coin to pay for parking. We were running a bit behind, and we were trying to help the missionaries. Just as I finished my prayer Elder Parry walked around the back of the van with a quarter he found on the ground. We then were able to deliver the bikes and get back on the road with 2 minutes left on our meter. As someone who actively looks for coins on the ground, I thought it was extra cool because quarters are an extremely rare find, and it was the exact amount we needed. I am grateful that God wants to be involved in our lives, and will help us out even with the little things like being able to pay for parking.

The highlight from this week was Rickey's baptism on Friday night. It was an amazing experience, and it was great to see how far he has come. Rickey has had a hard life, and seeing the spirit work on him has been such a blessing. He was able to overcome smoking and many other addictions to be here. I am so proud of him and grateful that God has allowed me to be able to get to know him. We filled up the font nice and warm for him, and it felt like a sauna to go into the font room. We turned off the font about 15 minutes before the baptism started to let it cool a bit, but it turns out that the plug here doesn't work very well at all, which meant the water level was a little lower than we wanted. I baptized him the first time but his knees came up. The second time the same thing happened. By the time the third attempt came around the font was noticeably lower than it was when we entered. On the third attempt, I stood on his feet to keep them from coming up and lowered him all the way down to where he was laying down on the tile and kept him there long enough to see that his whole body was under, and then I pulled him out and we shared a very big and very wet hug. As we went into the bathroom to change Rickey was asking me about how he could serve a mission and Elder Parry and I taught him how to tie and put on a tie for the first time in his life. It was such an amazing experience and I'm so excited for tomorrow when he will be receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost.

I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon. Reading it every day is a pleasure that brings so much light and peace into my life. It is amazing to see how Jesus Christ can take us where we are and help us to become better. I have a long way to go before I get to where I want to be, but I am blessed and grateful that God uses an imperfect person like me to assist in His work. It brings me so much joy, and I love being a part of it.

Keep Striving Everyone,

Elder Rogers