Elder Tanner Rogers: 50 Papes

Howdy,

It's been a pretty good week, with a lot of fun things. This is the first time since February 2021 since I've been in a trio so it has been a fun adjustment. It has been good having Elder Kenney and Elder Moeller around. Also, the church released a new Youth song called Found Me about a week and a half ago with a Spanish verse so that has been pretty exciting. All of the Elders in Spanish-speaking areas across the mission got together for a training from people in Salt Lake on how to organize and more effectively teach English classes. It was really insightful. Long story short is that a lot of things are going to be changing for the better and I'm really excited to see how we can continue to serve the community and help others come unto Christ by helping them learn English.

We also got another set of Spanish-speaking missionaries to join us in the branch which will be really good. They moved into our same complex which is both good and bad. We split up our area and gave away a bunch of people to them. We will be working more in the south part of Dayton, which is richer but tends to have fewer Latinos, and they will be working in the northern part, which is poorer but has a lot more Latinos and a lot more members. So far it has been really fun. Our little branch needs all the support we can get so that has been nice. It was sad to have to give away some of the people we have been working with though. One of those people who we found not long ago was Flor. While walking down the street on the way to another appointment we felt prompted to turn around, go down a side street and knock on a door. We did and nobody answered, but from the porch, we had a perfect view of a house with Latino kids playing out front. We went over and started talking to the mom who said she had been talking to the missionaries and coming to church but hadn't since she moved a few years ago. She was excited to see us and said she was looking forward to coming to church again. It's crazy to see how God directs us to the people who need the gospel. The door that we felt like we needed to knock on didn't answer, but God sent us there so we could find those who we needed to talk to. That was kind of cool.

Another cool experience came with our friend Jesús. He has had great experiences with the Book of Mormon and has wanted to come to church for the last little while, but hasn't been able to because his boss wouldn't let him have off work. He had talked to his boss twice before, but we had a lesson and talked about Esther and Nephi being brave and invited him to try again. He did and his boss gave him permission to go to church. We think he was sick yesterday which is why he wasn't there, but he said he will be here this Sunday.

We were teaching a group of about twenty Nicaragüenses, but none of them seemed to be very interested. We felt like we should go over yesterday and talk to them. Once again none really seemed interested, and so we went to leave. When we got to our car, one of them was sitting there waiting for us. When we got closer we saw that he was crying. We talked to him and he said that back in Nicaragua he was a devout Christian, but had broken some of his promises with God. He told us through tears that he wanted to know if there was hope for him and if he could repent. We had a great conversation with him about how we can always repent, and that Christ is always waiting with open arms. I shared Isaiah 1:18, and Elder Moeller pulled open a scripture, but the wind turned the pages away from it. The scripture that he ended up with after the wind was about how we can be forgiven through repentance and baptism. It was pretty cool. We are excited to keep working with him.

Other exciting events from this week include broccoli with hard-boiled eggs and a variety of condiments for dinner, dropping the batter of the pie we were making for our friend Tito all over the floor (it did make my socks smell super good though), and my companions got trash talked a ton by the black lady who rides her electric scooter thing through the park as I ran.

A scripture I really liked this week is Mosiah 12:26. It talks about how if we understand the scriptures but we don't share what we know we have perverted the ways of the Lord. To pervert is to deviate from what is acceptable. God gives us truths and spiritual experiences not just for our own benefit, but so that we can take the things we know and bless the lives of others. He blesses us with good experiences and when we share them with others and he sees the way we live he'll let us feel that way again. Those experiences can change everything.

Keep Striving!

Élderito Rogers