Elder Tanner Rogers: De América, Yo Soy

Howdy,

America is pretty much the greatest. None of the patriotic songs are in the Spanish hymnbook, but yesterday as we sang "Himno de Batalla de la República" I was so grateful for all of the blessings that I have been given. 33 people showed up at the branch yesterday, I get to live in America, I know the truth, and I get to spend my time focusing on helping bring others closer to Christ.

We had 2 exchanges this week which were really fun and I was able to learn a lot. One of our exchanges happened down in Western Hills. While we were there we were able to have a lesson with Rickey. It is absolutely amazing to see how much he had grown and changed since I first met him. Seeing him grow to overcome his struggles and come to know and love the Lord has been amazing. It is one of the greatest blessings that I have had in my life to be able to know him. He is such an inspiration to me.

Yesterday was a crazy day. After church, we showed up to a lesson to find all of our friends super drunk. They were out of their minds. We tried to teach them and that didn't work at all so then we tried to get politely excuse ourselves and that didn't work either. My two favorite quotes: "Modelos will make your Spanish better." "So are you with the Church of Jesus Christ of the Saints of the Final Days or are you Mormons?" (The conversation was in Spanish so these are loose translations). They tried many times to get us to take Modelos but we politely declined. Finally, they got us to agree to take water. They pulled out some glass bottles and cracked them open using the side of a Modelo for us. We awkwardly and suspiciously took them and left. It actually was sparkling water, but we dumped 100% of it out because we were super suspicious of them. They told us to come back next week, but before they got so far into the beers.

After we left there we went to another lesson with a lady named Yorleni. A week ago when we met her and set up the appointment we had the impression to give her a 4×6 painting of Jesus and invite her to put it somewhere in her house. It was a weird invitation that I'd never thought of before. When we showed up we saw a painting of Christ on the wall and felt prompted to ask about it and that lead to a really good conversation. Later when we extended the invitation she got really excited and she told us about another painting of Christ she found and had been excited to put it up for a while but had forgotten to do it. She was really excited about the invitation. She was skeptical when we showed up but she really liked us when we left. I never would have thought to do that or talk about her painting, but God knows His children and everything worked out fantastically. We walked out of that lesson and somebody driving by rolled down their window and yelled at us telling us that someone down the street needed to talk to us. Usually, when this happens it doesn't end well, but this contact was fantastic and we were able to get in contact with a cool guy named Derek who has been struggling and looking for truth.

After that contact, it was a little after 9:00 so we started to head home. Outside of the car was a lost phone. We called the emergency contacts but nobody answered. We called the phone store who couldn't help us and two police stations who didn't answer. We left and went to the police station to drop it off. Nobody was there but there was a 24-hour call box so we pushed the button. Turns out it called 911. So we ended up calling 911 over a lost phone. Luckily the lady was really nice and we told her where we put the phone so the police could grab it and return it when someone came into the office. We didn't want to take it home so that if someone could track it they wouldn't break into our house to get it back or tell the police we stole it.

Something that's been on my mind a lot this week was a thought Josh shared in his weekly email. He talked about a BYU devotional by Elder Eyering called "Waiting Upon The Lord." In the talk, he told about his dad who had done service at a church-owned farm. Afterward while talking about it he said " I didn't come for the weeds, I came for the Savior." There are a lot of weeds in the world, but the Savior is the most important thing we can focus on. When we focus on the Savior stress goes down, and joy increases. I know Jesus Christ is our Savior and that He loves us. I'm so grateful that I am a member of Christ's church and that I have the freedom to share that message as a missionary.

Keep Striving!

Élderito Rogers

Leaning back in 4 chairs at once

Emergency call box

What we did with our car today🦅

Me after carrying cement bags

The other Elders liked what we did to our car so they wanted a picture. This was in the Walmart parking lot. A bunch of people were taking pictures of us. Hopefully, that turns out well...🦅