Elder Tanner Rogers: We Siphoned Your Gas Tank While You Were Out

Howdy,

This week brought back memories of when that one player for the University of Utah dropped the football on the one-yard line, just for Oregon to pick it up and run it back 99 yards for a touchdown. The only difference is that this time I was the one dropping the football, instead of the BYU fan laughing at the replay. After a couple of weeks in a Spanish area, I was very happy to be living a "normal missionary life" until I got a call from President McGuire on Wednesday that began with "Elder Rogers, I'm calling you back to the office." I was floored. Turns out that Elder Speth had a couple of health complications and that I would need to return to serve in the office for a while. I felt like Ammon in Alma chapters 20 and 22 - he witnesses an amazing change of heart in King Lamoni's father and was probably incredibly excited to find teach and baptize. However, he was "called another way" by the spirit of the Lord. I am sure Ammon faced a little bit of disappointment, but he trusted that the Lord had bigger plans and that everything would work out amazingly if he followed God instead of himself. It certainly did for him, and I know it will for me as well. I was actually greeted by a nice piece of news today that Elder Speth was feeling better and will be able to return to doing the office work this week. As for now, it seems that my second term in the office is once again over and much shorter than anticipated - both great things.

I was amazed at how the spirit worked on us this week. It was our goal to follow the spirit more in finding. I am one to roll up to a development, start at #1, and work my way up to the end. Elder Moeller helped me to see this week that there is a better way. Instead of just pounding it out, which is good, we would pray for direction first, which is better. While out knocking on doors we said a prayer asking where we should go to find Latinos who we could share a gospel message with. We were led across the parking lot and around the corner to a door that did not meet our racist stereotypes. We knocked, and it was a Latino family who talked to us and invited us to come back later. Another time this week while focussing on spirit lead finding we were having zero success. We had knocked and knocked and knocked but to no avail. Again we were led to a door of someone who did not meet our stereotypical standards. This time a white guy named Scott, and we had a very nice 25-minute conversation with him and he accepted a Book of Mormon. We were led to that complex just to talk to him, and we were led to a bunch of rejections so that we would be humbled to the point that when we knocked on his door we would be so grateful to talk to anybody that we were willing to pry a little bit because we were excited to share a message with him, even if it was in English.

Another cool experience happened towards the end of the week. I felt prompted that I needed to prepare a training for district council about how to act confidently when you are put in negative situations or someone tries to bash you. It was an odd subject, and I wouldn't be able to present it for almost a whole week, but I felt prompted to prepare it then. After my second day of thinking about it and organizing it, we rolled up to the lesson to find out that we scheduled it with a preacher from another church. It was a little bit of an uncomfortable situation, but because I had followed the promptings of the spirit I was prepared. The lesson went very well, and the spirit was very strong as we taught the principles of the restoration.

I know that the Lord's hand is in this work and that He is very mindful of each of us, especially as we make an effort to share the gospel with others and do His work. I am grateful to serve as a representative of the Savior and to be a part of the gathering of Israel.

¡Seguir Luchando!

Elder Rogers