Howdy,
It's been a pretty good week. The highlight of the week was receiving Elder Ostler. He's from Ephraim, Utah, has been in the Manti pageant, played soccer and basketball in high school, and used to work at Little Ceasars. We've been having a pretty good time.
Our family that we were super excited about rescheduled with us twice this week and didn't come to church so that was quite a bummer, but we are still hopeful that they will keep reading and increasing their desires to come to church. One of our friends named Eliar seems to be doing really well and has enjoyed reading. He told us that he wants to be baptized, but then he came to our English class but not to church so we're working on how we can help him realize what the commitment of baptism would look like for him in his life.
We are getting to be friends with the Latina that runs the bake sale on Fridays. We're pretty sure that she'll come around eventually. On Thursday while out tracting we knocked on a door and nobody answered until we knocked on their neighbor's door. At that point a super drunk guy walks out of the house, says hi, calls us over, and then turns to the side to start peeing off his porch. Unfortunately, his plan didn't quite work out so he ended up peeing all over his porch and himself. He sat down, took a swig out of an old corona bottle filled with flies, and tried to have a conversation with us. We didn't really have any idea what he was talking about so we just got out of there pretty quick. It was another reminder to me of how grateful I am for the commandments of God that help us to create happy homes where the spirit can dwell and everyone has complete agency.
This week I thought a lot about conversion and repentance. The definitions of these words are very similar. To convert is to change the nature, purpose, or function of something. To repent is to change our mind, knowledge, spirit, and breath. Both involve making changes in our lives. Conversion is changing our nature and our purpose to align with God's while repentance is changing our actions to align with God's will, which will become our will as we become more and more converted. This change can be difficult, and it is an event, not a process. We receive the power to make these changes as we make and keep covenants with the Lord. M. Russell Ballard taught "Sometimes we are tempted to let our lives be governed more by convenience than by covenant. It is not always convenient to live gospel standards and stand up for truth and testify of the Restoration... Opportunities to serve others in meaningful ways, as we have covenanted to do, rarely come at convenient times. But there is no spiritual power in living by convenience. The power comes as we keep our covenants." I'm grateful for a loving God who helps me each day to repent and become more converted. I'm grateful for the strength He gives me as I try to walk the covenant path, rather than the convenient path. I know He will help all of us as we faithfully take the first step and every step that follows towards conversion.
Keep Striving,
Élderito Rogers
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An alleyway by the downtown building |
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| Mirror selfie |
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| A cool trail we found |
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| The levatating Libro De Mormon |
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| Picking up Elder Ostler |
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| The levee with Elder Lancaster |
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| Tracting in the rain |
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Another cool trail we found that is full of mysteries |
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A grasshopper found its way into our apartment building |
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