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

Catching Pigeons

 Howdy,

This week was a pretty good one. We are excited for a baptism for the next two weekends in our area. Thanksgiving was pretty good. A member brought us a turkey and stuff at the beginning of the week so that we could cook ourselves a Thanksgiving meal, so we made that on Tuesday, and then a different family brought us food on Thursday. It didn't feel very festive because we were just eating alone at our apartment, but we got to call home so that was good. 

We were able to go and watch them light the Christmas tree in Lawrenceburg which was really fun. They were handing out free Christmas tree ornaments so I was happy I went cause the ornament is cool. 

Today we got our first snow of the year which was really fun. We played pickleball in the middle of the blizzard which was fun. It reminded me of running in the snow, which is one of the most fun times to run. After we played pickleball we ate the Cincinnati special - chili spaghetti at Skyline. I thought it was alright. I wasn't super hungry, but my companions told me to get a lot of stuff just to try. I thought it was just alright. I'm excited to try Goldstar - the competing Chili spaghetti place which I hear is way better. 

Anyway it was a good week. We attempted to go catch pigeons on Saturday with the zone leaders, but there weren't any pigeons under the overpass we went to, so we just went and ate Jersey Mikes - where we witnessed a car crash. We are blessed to have a lot of success here. I love working with all the people of Lawrenceburg!! 

Have a super great week!!

Keep Striving,

Elder Rogers

My district

The lighting of the Christmas tree

I love the mail service

Water is the best drink 

I'm thankful for sleep and a warm bed

Pickleball at the park

I Don't Think I Could Force Feed You My Toenails

Howdy,

It was a pretty good week. We all got our test results back and they were negative, which was good. We got as much work done as possible during our quarantine though. We also did our best to have some fun in the apartment. One day Elder Leavitt was singing "It's Cold Outside" because, well, it was cold outside, and I started quoting Elf. I was closer to the wall than I thought I was because instead of pretending to run into the wall I actually did and bruised up my arms pretty good. This is why you don't cover your eyes and pretend to run into walls. We also had some of the pills that turn into animals from the care package from the sisters and we put them in our mouths to see if they would work. They did. Mine was a rabbit. They were very slimy.

It was a bummer that we couldn't participate in all the things that we wanted to in person because of the virus, but I'm grateful for the technology that allows us to have meetings with our investigators and other missionaries over zoom calls - even though they are not as good. I really enjoyed listening to President Nelson's address on Friday and it has been fun looking for things I am grateful for.

I finally got to go running out here. It was pouring rain on Saturday, but my companions promised that we could go to the track. It was so awesome!! They said I could have a little less than 20 minutes so I just did 3 miles. I did it in 16:50 (5:53, 5:35, 5:22), and it felt nice. The 400 jump lunges two days before made it a little stiff, but it wasn't too bad for a fat guy in the wind and rain who hasn't run in almost a month, especially considering I was just trying to enjoy it. I love running so much. 

Lastly - haircuts are a rip-off. When my companions told me that it cost 17 bucks to get a haircut I was super bugged, so I went out and dropped 40 bucks on some clippers so Elder Leavitt could cut my hair. I cut his hair too. I may have spent all of my weekly allowance on hair clippers, but it will be worth it for the rest of my mission. Good thing I have some gift cards, member meals, and top ramen to live off of this week haha. 

Anyway, have a great week you guys!! I know God lives and loves all of us!! Happy Thanksgiving!!! 

Keep striving!! 

Elder Rogers

Us at a part member family baptism yesterday - Elder Robinson did the baptism and confirmation. I was able to be a part of the circle for the confirmation.

 Us with our Christmas tree my mom sent us

Elder Robinson photo bombing my picture by kissing me (Little punk 🙄)

 Us celebrating on our walk after quarantine

Someone Peed In A Pie Tin

Howdy! 

Even though we were in quarantine this week, we were still working hard to share the gospel, and made some quality memories. I'm so grateful for phones, and the USPS that allow us to share the gospel even during quarantine, and for exercise time that allows us to leave the apartment. Even though we're in quarantine, we had someone commit to baptism December 5!! On Friday we went for a walk at this cool park, and the trail came out right by a power plant. We saw signs that said there was a visitors center so we followed them so we could see if there was a tour we could take after quarantine. We got to a building with a huge VISITORS CENTER sign on top, and we walked in expecting a gift shop where I could buy a sticker for my journal and stuff, but that wasn't what we found. We got yelled at by some guy saying we should leave cause we were on federal property, and it was only for visiting contractors. We left, bummed that we couldn't take a tour or buy a sticker, but we think they should change their signs to say visiting contractors, instead of visitors center. 

We also got sticky noted by the sisters this week. They put lots of nice notes on the door and left a box with fun toys to play with. One of the things was lemon starburst jello. I was bored so I made it in a pie tin for my companions one day, and we challenged Elder Robinson to eat the whole thing in one sitting- which he did. He didn't feel very good after. 

We got tested for COVID on Friday - which isn't as bad as people make it sound. It hurts a little, and gave me a small headache, but it really isn't as bad as I was expecting. We still are waiting for our results. We hope we either all have it, or none of us do so we can get out of quarantine faster. 

This week of quarantine has been another testament to me that God lives, loves us, and is aware of us in our trials. Being in quarantine as a missionary is pretty discouraging, but even though it was a tough week, I saw many miracles, and instances of God's hand in my life. One of the examples that touched me the most was yesterday. Because we were quarantined, we weren't able to do many of the things that we normally would, and I was unsure if I was making a difference. We sent cards in the mail and made a lot of phone calls, but most people just seemed annoyed at our efforts to help. I spent a lot of time praying that I could help people, and make a positive impact on someone's life. I was unsure if I had helped anyone or done any good or if me being out here was a waste of both God's and my time. We had to stay at home for church, which was a bummer, but one of the speakers opened his talk by saying "Last week we heard from Elder Rogers. His talk really connected with me and helped me this week." It sounds like a small thing, but those comments meant the world to me. I'm so grateful that I followed the spirit and said something to help him, and that he followed to spirit to answer my prayers and remind me that I have made a difference, and that I have helped people while I've been out here. I'm so excited to continue to work hard to try to help and serve others.. There are many other instances where the Lord has helped us this week. I am so grateful for the knowledge that we never have to go through our struggles alone!!

 

Keep Striving Everybody!!

Elder Rogers 

Me at the power plant before we got kicked out

 Us with a meal a member left on our porch 🙌

Elder Robinson kissing a fox statue 🤷🏻‍♂️

Me with frozen Skyline Chili Spaghetti - I hear Gold Star is better but I haven't been there yet.