"The Sexiest Thing You Can Do Is Love God" - Tom

 Howdy

I hope that everybody had a great week! Probably the biggest thing that happened this week was the transfer call. Last transfer wasn't nerve-wracking because Elder Robinson was an AP and logged into the system a couple days early and spoiled the surprise, but this time I was really nervous. I was pretty sure I would be leaving Lawrenceburg to a Spanish area, but it turns out I'm staying! It also turns out that the Spanish leaders are giving a Spanish speaker to me and Elder Boren to teach because it was destroying their miles to drive out here. I'm happy to be staying in the Burg with Elder Boren, and I'm happy to welcome in Elder Wilson. Elder Wilson is from Las Vegas, Nevada. He is a nephew of my old bishop, and he was MTC companions with Spencer Willis. Elder Leavitt is headed up to Xenia in Dayton East. I will miss him, but I am excited for his adventures. 

On the way to transfers, we stopped at Jungle Jims, a super crazy store. They have "over 180,000 items from over 75 countries." Literally, anything you could ever want you could find at Jungle Jims. They also have a waterfall in front of their store. They also have a dancing Elvis monkey thing in there. It's the craziest store I've ever been in. It is crazy that people actually go there to shop.

A couple of weeks ago we made a video for the Facebook page with a member family where they had us do some dancing and stuff. We asked them how the editing was going, and they said they made it but it was too bad to go on the page because I'm just bad at dancing and they couldn't make it look good. 😂 The mom said I was a cute missionary for trying though. We got a big kick out of that conversation. 

I hope that you all have a great week! 

Keep striving everybody!

Elder Rogers

Us at transfers

Us with a tree in Lawrenceburg Elder Leavitt likes

 The new companionship

The new companionship again 

The most expensive hot sauce at Jungle Jim's. ( they have A TON of hot sauces. They also have a locked closet with crazy expensive hot sauce. That's where this is)

Ranch soda at Jungle Jim's 

Jungle Jim's soup isle

Me by the big cheese sign ( the big cheese was a nickname given to me by Ronald Ence in high school)

Sounds Like You Need A Meat Lovers Pizza

 Howdy,

This week was pretty great! There hasn't been anything super exciting, but it was just a really solid week. I really love both of my companions, and so I'm bummed that this is the last week of the transfer, but I'm also a little excited to see what happens.

Elder Boren has helped me to grow a lot in Spanish, and I am starting to see improvements. I was able to speak with a member in our ward from Mexico and that was fun (and nerve-wracking).

One day this week I took off my watch while I was sleeping, and couldn't find it in the morning. I was super bummed because I wanted it for running. I checked all over but no luck. While we were saying our prayer to leave our apartment, I had an impression to check one place one more time. After the prayer, I hurried over and found it right where I was impressed to check. I know that God cares about the small things in our lives and that He hears and answers our prayers - even if it is for simple things like finding your watch so you can track your run. Running has been going well. I wish I could run more, but I got in 22 miles this week. My best run this week was 5.4 miles at 5:35 pace on Thursday. 

We had stake conference yesterday, and it was such a great experience to sustain our church leaders! As I raised my hand in our apartment I could feel the spirit confirming to me that both the general church leaders and those on a more local level were called of God. Most of the people in the stake I have never met, but I could feel the spirit, and I knew God needed them in their callings. 

Make sure not to buy deluxe or rich and creamy mac n cheese - they aren't as good as original. Also, the flamin' hot Cheetos mac n cheese is alright, but not worth the 63 cents more than the Walmart brand.

 I'm getting better at cutting hair. I didn't give Elder Leavitt racing stripes this time.

Have an awesome week!

Keep Striving Everybody!

Elder Rogers

Us with a confetti gun (I usually smile and they have straight faces in pictures so they told me to switch for this picture)

Us in front of a weird sign at a bank by our house

Us eating at Chipotle with the gift card Aunt Debbie gave me for Christmas

Me sleeping (Zac and I used to take pictures of Grandpa Rogers sleeping so I guess this is payback)

A funny sign outside one of our investigators house

 Just me in front of the weird bank

"BBQ Burger"

Howdy,

I hope all of you had a happy new year!! I am kinda happy the holidays are over so that we can get into a regular teaching schedule. Holidays in the mission field are kind of an annoyance because they inhibit our ability to meet with people. It's ok though. Our schedule is crazy busy this week with all the meetings we're catching up on. 

The highlight this week was the baptism of Greg, William, and Desiree!! It was such an amazing opportunity to be able to be there! We filled up the font about halfway during ward council, but we turned it off for sacrament meeting because we didn't want to have to keep leaving the meeting to check on it. However, when we went in to start filling the font after sacrament meeting we saw that the font was EMPTY. It must have an emergency drain to prevent standing water or something because it was plugged, but it had all drained out. This was bad. We hurried and turned both the hot and cold water on full blast, and grabbed garbage cans, and started filling them with hot water in the kitchen, bathrooms, and janitorial closet to get enough water in the font. I felt bad because we had to turn on the hot and cold to try and get more water in, and so they said it was like a lake. Desiree said it was the coldest water she had ever been in, but they were all so happy to be baptized that they were OK with it. Because of COVID, they wanted to minimize meetings, and so Greg was baptized, confirmed, ordained a priest, and then baptized William and Desiree. It was a great experience, and the spirit was incredibly powerful despite the craziness. We had a meeting with them that night and talked about the sacrament. Greg is super excited to be able to help from now on. Greg rarely buys things for himself because he likes his family to have the things they need, but I had a new white shirt I hadn't opened and gave it to Greg so he could wear it for the sacrament. I wasn't sure if it would fit, but it fits him 100% perfectly, which made me so happy. They are such an amazing family. They are so happy to finally be baptized, and I am so happy for them!

We have a companionship goal to go to one local restaurant a week, and this week we went to a burger place. Elder Leavitt and I had been there, but we wanted to take Elder Boren. It's a little pricy, but the burgers are good so we saved up. We went there and I got a really good salad that I was loving, and so I wasn't paying very much attention to the burger. I got halfway done with it and was bummed cause it wasn't anywhere near as good as I remembered. It was then that I realized they didn't put any BBQ sauce on my BBQ burger. I was mega sad. I probably would have said something, but I had eaten like half of it, and I was getting kind of full so I just ate the rest of it. It was a patty with bacon and avocado with nothing else. I was bummed cause we had to save up to go there. At least the salad was good. I also turned on the wrong burner when I was trying to make dinner yesterday, and set the fire alarm off (Grandma Rogers and I must be related 😉). 

I love serving as a missionary, and helping others come closer to Christ! I know that the gift of the Holy Ghost is real, and that it blesses lives. Prayer and fasting have real power, and I'm so grateful for all of the blessings that they have brought me in my life, and especially on my mission. When we reach out in prayer, God will bless us with power so that we can overcome the challenges in our lives!

Have an inspired week!

Keep Striving!

Elder Rogers

Us with the family (Ashley, the mom, and Destiny, the oldest daughter, were baptized back in June)

The family with Mark ( the super-strong guy on the left. He participates in the world's strongest man competitions and is an amazing member in our ward) who baptized them

The guardians of our apartment

My companions at the burger place that gave me a BBQ Burger with no BBQ

Me drinking honey mustard (We were given Wendy's and my companions know how much I love honey mustard, and they bet me I wouldn't do it - it was pretty good)

At 12:42?

 Howdy,

I hope that all of you had a great Christmas. Christmas in the mission field is very different than at home, but it was still a great experience! We had a mission wide conference on the 23rd and a district activity playing basketball on Christmas day. It was also fun to talk to my family and unwrap presents with them on Christmas morning.

My favorite story from this week happened on Saturday the 26th. I woke up and saw that my watch said that it was 42 minutes after the hour. I started freaking out because we need to get up at 6:30. So I jumped up and made my bed, and went to go get ready for the day. I was getting ready to exercise when I saw that the clock said 12:42 on Saturday. I thought about it and was like well there's two 12:42s in a day, but my watch says it's Saturday, so I'm right - it's time to get up. I go back into the bedroom and tell my companions it's time to wake up. Elder Leavitt sits up and looks at his watch. In my head I'm like yes Elder Leavitt, you're seeing your watch right - we slept in by twelve minutes and we need to get up right now. He asks me why he needs to wake up, and I tell him that's it's time. I start to walk over to shake Elder Boren to wake him up, and Elder Leavitt stays "at 12:42?" It was then that I realized I had messed up. I said " Oh - sorry" Then I turned off the light and went back to bed for five and a half more hours. 

Another fun thing that happened this week is that Elder Leavitt got an expandable cane for Christmas. It starts small and locks in with a pin, and then you push a button and it pops out to a 5-foot cane. I was messing with it and trying to put the pin back in, but then I slipped and it expanded, ripping a piece of skin out of my thumb. It bled pretty bad for about 40 minutes so that was lame. We had exchanges on Tuesday, and one of the zone leaders took me on a 4-mile trail run, which was totally awesome!!

I have found my favorite Cincinnati food. It is a chillito. It is a plate of chili spaghetti wrapped up in a burrito. It sounds kinda weird, but it is really good. 

We are blessed to be seeing lots of success here in Lawrenceburg. I love it so much, and I know the Lord's hand is in this work!! There is nothing I'd rather be doing than serving a mission!! It is such an amazing experience, and it has brought me so much joy! 

Have an amazing week and a happy New Year!!

Keep Striving!

Elder Rogers

 Our zone holding up geodes during Christmas conference

 Elder Leavitt holding a battle ax during a member meeting

Elder Boren playing with a yo-yo (He loves that thing so much)

Us on a bridge over Tanner's creek

Us on the bridge again

Our district on Christmas

Us with stockings made by Elder Boren's grandma

Jiggly Bush meme

Merry Christmas From The OCM

 Howdy,

This week was a really good week filled with miracles and great experiences. Now that Elder Boren has been here for a little bit, we've figured each other out better, and everything is going great!! We've taught so many great lessons where the spirit has been super strong. Elder Boren is also really good at Spanish and has helped me so much to get better at speaking the language. I'm really glad he came here because it turns out my Spanish was straight garbage, so it's been nice to have someone to practice with and to give me tips on how to improve. 

I know I shouldn't choose favorites with people we are teaching, but I really love this guy named Leon. Leon was given a life jail sentence a long time ago and was introduced to the Book of Mormon by one of his cellmates. He gets one thirty-minute phone call a week, and he uses it to call me. :) Leon is a special assignment from President Ensign given to Elder Robinson and passed on to me, so I will be teaching him over the phone for my whole mission. It is impossible not to love Leon, and I'm so grateful I know him.. Hopefully, there will be a miracle that allows him to get baptized someday. 

It was snowing pretty hard Wednesday morning, so I had to beg my companions to let us go out to exercise in the morning. They finally agreed to let me go for two miles around the park, and it was so fun! It also allowed me to convince them to let me take some longer runs at the end of the week so I could still hit twenty miles. Running is so fun, even if it just laps around the park. One day when we were playing basketball I made a three-over Elder Leavitt and some guy driving by in his car rolled down his window and yelled "(Dang) you're a baller!" That was pretty cool.  

We are so blessed. We have seen so many miracles in Lawrenceburg this week. We held a special ward fast this Sunday for missionary work, and we saw many miracles. We have found so many amazing new people to teach, and currently have 4 people on date for baptism (two more coming soon)!! I know that this is the Lord's work, and I have seen His hand in so many ways this week!!

Merry Christmas!! Keep Striving Everybody!!

Elder Rogers

(Elder Boren has a tripod and likes taking pictures which is why there's a lot of us)

Our district

Us in the road by our house

Us with our car at the Batesville building

Us with a broken heart mirror we found at Walmart (kinda bugged they made me take my mask off for that)

Elder Leavitt holding a cactus (The sisters demanded that they took a picture of him like that at district council🤷‍♂️)

Eating Chicken Poop Will Do It To You

 Howdy!

This was a pretty good week. The biggest change from this week was saying goodbye to Elder Robinson, and welcoming in Elder Boren. I really like Elder Boren. He was originally assigned to Uruguay and was in the MTC when all the COVID stuff went down. I'm now the only OG to the OCM in my companionship. It was sad to say goodbye to Elder Robinson, but I really like the feel of our new companionship. 

We had a pretty good week. We are staying really busy and have found a lot of awesome people to teach! One of our friends who is usually high came to church, and it was so awesome! Church is a really different experience on the mission life. You pray less so that you can have a good experience and more that your investigators will have a good experience. Missions really are thinking about other people and how you can help them all day and I love it. 

As a going-away gift for Elder Robinson, I shaved my legs for him. I cut my legs twice, but they are the smoothest legs on planet earth. They felt way cold whenever I went outside though, and I'm just not a fan of the feel. Sorry to all the girls that do that on a regular basis. 

Also, we were in the middle of a lesson this week, and the dog puked because: "she likes to eat chicken poop". It was really funny/gross, and I was glad I was wearing a mask (for the first time ever) cause I couldn't smell the poop vomit. 

I ran 20 miles this week which felt so nice! I wish I could do more but twenty is MUCH better than zero!

Have a super great week! The church is true!! Keep Striving!

Elder Rogers

Me with Elder Robinson, Boren, and Leavitt

Me while we were filming a video for Facebook

A sticky note I made when we sticky noted one of our investigators 

Sleeping In A Member's Bed

Howdy,

The highlight of this week was Alyssa Hägbloms baptism!! We co-taught her with the sisters, and since only one companionship is allowed to go we weren't allowed to be there in person. The baptism was after church at our building though so we filled the font and set everything up for the baptism and then left the relief society room and headed for the primary room on the other side of the closed curtain where we joined the meeting through zoom. We could kind of hear what was going on, but having zoom was nice. After the baptism, we left and went back to talk to everybody and stuff. The spirit was really strong. It was amazing to watch- even if we were on zoom from the room over.

Another weird thing that happened is when we made a Facebook video. Sister Eliason has wanted us to make a video with her forever, and we've been reluctant because she's a little crazy, but we finally did. We decided we would just go and do it finally to make her happy. I ended up wearing her husband's PJs and being in her bed for one of the scenes. Elder Robinson then throws water on me. Anyway, it's a dope video that I'm excited to see uploaded in a couple weeks. 

We also got transfer news. I learned that I will be staying in Lawrenceburg with Elder Leavitt, and we will be receiving Elder Boren. He seems nice with how much I've talked to him today. 

God is involved in missionary work and in our lives. Miracles are real, and I have seen so many in my short time out here. I'm excited to begin a new chapter in my mission, and to keep helping the people of Lawrenceburg!!

Have a great week everybody! 

Keep Striving!!

Elder Tanner Rogers

Elder Robinson with the camera when we filmed the video

 The Ice Skating Rink was at "full capacity" but nobody was inside

 Tanner's Creek

Us by the Lawrenceburg tree

Us with Alyssa after her baptism