Mr. Bluebird's On My Shoulder

Howdy, 

This week was pretty good. Thanksgiving was really fun! There was a pool table at the family who fed us and so it was fun to play with the kids. Our friend Alissa finally got out of quarantine but then she was puking buckets and we weren't able to meet up again.

This week it seemed that every time we talked to anyone something about farming and funny animal stories so that was fun. It didn't matter if it was zone conference, with our friends, or just around the office, I've learned a lot about animal parts and how to deal with farms. At zone conference when we weren't learning, sharing stories about cows or sheep, Elder Parry and I were doing car inspections which have been lots of fun. Most people's cars were pretty nice except that they all smelled bad. I really like some of the little tree air fresheners like vanilla bean, cherry, piñacolada, and Black Ice is ok sometimes. 

Our friend Rickey is doing really well! We are excited because he is so excited to learn about the gospel and he has been reading the Book of Mormon daily and taking big steps in faith. 

 Thanksgiving was a great opportunity to look back and remember all of the things that I am grateful for! I truly am grateful for this gospel and the opportunity I have to share it every day as a missionary! I found a quote that I really like from my great ×5 grandpa John Tanner that explains why I chose to serve: “Conversion is the greatest miracle. It is even more wonderful than healing the sick or raising the dead. For while a person who is healed will eventually fall sick again and ultimately die, the miracle of conversion can last forever and affect the eternities for the convert as well as for his or her posterity. Whole generations are healed and redeemed from death through the miracle of conversion.” I love serving as a missionary because I know the Savior lives! 

Keep Striving Everyone! (Also buy an air freshener)                                                                                                              Elder Rogers    

P.S. it's a plum

Thanksgiving 

We found some deer visiting our friend Heidi at the care center

Elder Parry took a selfie 

We found pork chops on clearance at Walmart so we bought them and cooked them for a 9pm dinner 

A Penny Lost Is a Penny Found

 Howdy,

So every day we go and run at Bicentennial Park, and we always talk with our two Catholic Priest friends, Larry and Bob. About a week and a half ago our friend Larry went missing. He just stopped showing up. We started to get really nervous, and we missed him a lot. At district council, we got an invitation for more of the friends of the missionaries in the district. So Elder Parry and I decided we would take the invitation pretty seriously. It came as a nice reminder to be better at praying more specifically for our friends and their needs as well. We decided that we would pray for our Catholic Priest friend Larry and that we would see him again soon. We went to the park the next day and he was there and we were all very happy to see him. We had a nice chat with him. Long story short prayers are answered. 

I also learned that it is important to double-check the math on spreadsheets, make sure you carry a spare mask, and that pizza trays are not a worthy substitute for aluminum foil. 

As I studied the life of the conclusion of the Savior's mortal life in the New Testament this week, I thought a lot a lot about Peter denying the Christ, and how I sometimes act similarly. I would hope that I would stand tall, and defend Christ in every circumstance. Each and every time we don't share the full message of the restoration of the gospel and of the Book of Mormon we are in a way denying the Christ. We fear men and ridicule or rejection more than God. Perhaps today there are loving words which Jesus would have me speak. I know that with the help and encouragement of the Savior, my voice shall echo the message sweet, and I'll say what He wants me to say. Christ lives and there is a work to do. I pray that I will live worthy, listen, and act so I can fulfill my part. 

Go enjoy some rainbow jello this Thanksgiving 

Keep Striving

Elder Rogers

The sign Elder and Sister Ockerman made for my chair so the assistants will stop stealing it (It stands for The Most Amazing Vehicle Coordinator Ever)

Wheelchair basketball 

Elder Parry and I in wheelchairs

My two newest ducks

Most Little Birdies Will Fly Away

 Howdy,

This week was quite wild. Transfers were at the beginning of the week, and we made a total of six trips to the airport over the course of 4 days (3 on Monday, 0 on Tuesday, 1 on Wednesday, and 2 on Thursday). This was the McGuire's first transfer ever and thanks in part to a power outage in the Phoenix airport and delayed flights, it was wild. I feel bad that all of the crazy things happened on their first transfer here. The weirdest thing that happened to Elder Parry and me is that we were at the airport trying to pick up missionaries whose flights had been delayed. We wait and wait and finally one sister missionary comes through alone. We ask her about the Elders on her flight, and she said that there were none. We called missionary travel, who told us that they could possibly be in Houston or Charlette, but they really didn't know. That meant that Elder Parry and I drove back this one sister missionary back to the mission home. It was a little weird, and we felt bad for her. We survived though. We were insanely busy, but the APs had it much crazier than us. They woke up at 4:30 am on Monday to get some missionaries to the airport, had a crazy day, had to go back to the airport that night (to meet the lost Elders), and didn't get to bed until 2:00 am Tuesday (21.5 straight hours). They then woke up at 6:30 on Tuesday (after 4.5 hours of sleep)  and had to do a ton of stuff to help with transfers and conduct the new missionary training meeting. I'm not sure how they survived. 

An exciting thing about this week is that we were able to put our friend Alissa on date to be baptized on December 18! We had a great lesson with her where the spirit was so strong. She is so excited to be baptized and continue to study in the Book of Mormon and come closer to Christ. Everything was going so amazingly until yesterday she found out that she has covid and has to quarantine. We are in the process of figuring out how we can do lessons with her over zoom, and trying to help her watch church online and everything. It is a bummer, but really just a small bump in the road. I am excited to continue to help her strengthen her relationship with the Savior!

This week, like most weeks in the office, has flown by in a flash. I have come to realize here that life is exactly as fun and as enjoyable as we choose it to be. It is easy in the office to be bugged that we can't spend all of our time doing "regular missionary things", but life is so much more enjoyable when we find joy in the opportunities that we have to encourage, uplift, compliment, and serve those that have made sacrifices to serve the Lord. When we stop focusing on things that are out of our control and start focusing on doing better at the things that we can, life becomes a wonderful and joyful journey. "Saints can be happy under every circumstance (because) the joy we feel has little do with the circumstances of our lives, and everything to do with the focus of our lives. For Latter-day Saints, Jesus Christ is joy!" I know that Jesus Christ is the source of all joy, and I love and rejoice serving as one of His representatives.

Keep Striving, Drive Safe!

Elder Rogers

Me with a hammer at the Loveland Castle today on our P day adventure 

 Me with a sword

Elder Parry with the hammer 

Us and the APs in front of the Loveland castle 

Us with "Pastor Mom" on a special assignment from President- we all have the same goal of bringing people to Christ!

Us with Denise at church

Us with Elder Dixon at Skyline (he liked it 💪)

A Million Dreams

Howdy,

This has been a pretty great week in the Ohio Cincinnati Mission Office. It's been quite busy preparing for the upcoming transfer, and we also had some fun adventures with the police. On Wednesday we woke up and got ready to drive to a nearby park so I could get in my morning run, but the truck sounded quite funky, so I turned it off and back on again but the noise persisted. Upon further inspection, we saw that the exhaust pipe had been cut with a saw and the catalytic converter had been removed. Apparently catalytic converters on foreign makes contain rhodium, which sells for about $30,000 an ounce. Apparently, it's becoming an all too popular trend to steal them. Our truck still runs, it just sounds like we straight piped it by taking the muffler off and it smells pretty bad. We had to call the police and I feel like a big boy talking to insurance companies and the like. I'm excited to get it replaced. We felt really cool driving the loud truck for about five minutes, but then it started getting us headaches and we felt like punks. 

We had a fun trip through Lawrenceburg, IN to help open up a new missionary apartment last Tuesday. We stopped and ate there, and it made me really happy to be back. Elder Parry's mom sent him a message on Thursday saying that we could get free tacos from Taco Bell because of something that happened in the world series. We had fun going to 2 Taco Bells during our dinner hour. At the second one, we ordered a taco, and they gave it to us, but we had to pay because they ran out of "free tacos". It was ok because it was cheap. A free taco is way better than a cheap taco. We got high fives and called bad A's because we knew a scripture reference, and we also had a really fun time jamming to Christmas music.

Deliberate practice with the help of the Savior makes perfect. We can all become better as we remember the Savior in our day-to-day lives. I know He lives and that the Book of Mormon is true!

Keep Striving!

Elder Rogers

Cincinnati parking (Not us)

What they sawed off

District

"Free tacos"

Elder Ockerman's Facebook post about me

What they sawed off from the other side

Tanner's Creek Drive

We finally found the basketball hoops at our apartment complex after we asked our landlord if there were any security cameras to find out who stole our catalytic converter

It Started Raining Gumballs

Howdy, 

I hope everyone had a great week. It was a pretty good week here in the mission office. I'm looking forward to the beginning of the month because I will have a lot of work to do with receipts and mile logs and things. One sadly exciting thing that happened this week in the office is that one of the cars got broken into, and the gas card got stolen. I had to scramble to shut off the card and make sure they couldn't use it to get money. On the teaching side of things, we are really excited about our friend Alissa. We have been teaching her for a couple weeks now, and we are hoping to put her on date at some point this week! 

I usually talk while I'm sleeping, and this week Elder Parry caught me. Apparently, I was in the process of chewing out some Elders for misbehaving - it went something like this. "How do you lose a Tiwi?!?" *pause* "It is literally stuck to the wall!" *pause* "Ugh, you idiot!" I guess I'm a true vehicle coordinator now because I dream about Elders ripping out and losing their driving safety machines. 

This week while studying in the Book of Mormon I came across a scripture that I never noticed before, but I really liked it. In Ether 2 the Brother of Jared is preparing to cross the ocean. Verse 16 says "And the Lord said: Go to work". It was after the call to go to work that the Lord provided all of the instructions for how to build the barges. Sometimes we worry so much about every detail that we miss the big picture and delay our progress. As Ty Davis once said, "God can't direct a parked car." It is important to put our doubts and fears behind us, and walk forward in faith, trusting that God will prepare a way for us to get where we need to go. 

The downer news of this week was that I had a seizure. This is my second since coming to Ohio, and my fourth since starting on my mission. I have been doing pretty well, my biggest worry is that I was told if I had another one, I may be forcibly sent home. Please pray that I will remember to take my medicine and that I'll be able to stay seizure-free so I can stay on my mission. 

Stay safe out there, and Happy Halloween!

Keep Striving

Elder Rogers

New PJs from Debbie

Cravings box from Taco Bell

Flex Tape

The Only Problem Is, I Can't Remember What I've Forgotten

 Howdy,

This week was pretty cool. Everyone in the office always told me fables that after about two or three weeks, I would walk into the office and have no idea what I should be doing. It's like an "I know I should be doing something, I just don't know what it is" kind of feeling. I was trying hard to make sure that wouldn't happen to me, but this week it happened. I walked into the office and worked for five minutes, and then I stared at my computer and thought oh no - I have nothing to do. I couldn't remember for the life of me what I needed to be doing. The cool thing is that we got a bunch of new computers this week, and so I was able to help everyone else in the office set up their computers while I didn't know what to do. That had me occupied for about two days, and by then I was able to remember all of the things that I should be doing. The new computers are really nice, and so that has been fun.

Every day at 12:00 Elder Ockerman goes to the kitchen and makes half of a sausage and a can of seasoned black beans for lunch. This lunch might not sound like much, but it always smells so good, and the aromas continually torture Elder Parry and me. That is until last Saturday when we bought ourselves our own sausage with seasoned black beans, which we used to make our own lunch. It was pretty good, and Elder Ockerman got a kick out of it because we were copying his lunch.

On Tuesday we knocked on a nice ladies' house. We talked to her for a while, and we asked for her phone number. She gave it to us, but she accidentally read it wrong. Elder Parry sent a text to the number she gave us while we were standing there, which is how we realized she gave us the wrong one, and then we were able to get the right one. Fast forward one day to Wednesday, and we get a call from the number that Elder Parry had texted. Turns out, out of the one billion phone numbers there are, this guy was a member who hadn't been to church in a while, but wanted to come back. While talking to him, we found out that the guy that had fellowshipped and baptized this less active member had moved back to Utah into Elder Parry's home stake in Morgan, Utah, and became the stake patriarch. Once Elder Parry got his mission call to Cincinnati, he started talking to the patriarch a lot more, and they became friends. This meant that Elder Parry had an instant connection with this guy who wanted to come back to church. We're very excited to see what the future will bring for our new friend. 

This week I read a lot about Moroni in the Book of Mormon, and I was struck with how the Book of Mormon really is written for our day. Many of our friends that we teach, and people all over the world, struggle with being lonely, stressed, or depressed. I think it is amazing that Moroni is the one to write to us. He was lonely, sad, and constantly under stress. His life was perfectly molded to be able to help our day. We can always find peace knowing that God hears our prayers, and will remember our covenants. If we keep our part of the covenants and reach out to God, he will always be there for us. 

Keep Striving Everyone,

Elder Rogers

Teaching our friend Ronnie by the Ohio River

Sausage and beans

Elder Ockerman's Facebook post about us

Ok Boomer with Elder Parry

 Ok Boomer

 Cooking the pancakes the way pancakes were meant to be cooked

 Cool Skyline sign 

I found a baby snail

Yeah A Hoagie

Howdy,

President McGuire has been interviewing all of the new missionaries in person at the office so that they can meet him in person and kind of get a sense of normalcy. This is nice and all except we spend more time in the office than our apartment, and it feels a little bit like our workspace has been crammed with invaders. It has been fun to talk to all of the new missionaries though and try to help them feel welcome. Last night Elder Parry and I left before interviews were over so we could go to a lesson, but this morning when we walked into the office there was no internet connection and our office phones were broken, so that was a little weird. Luckily we were able to get them working again soon so it was ok. This week's main focus was trying to get everything ready for zone conferences, and making sure that went smoothly for everyone. I was in charge of car inspections, and Elder Parry was in charge of getting the food and giving everyone commissary or mail that had been delivered to the mission office. My skills at pouring fluids into cars without a funnel have improved significantly since I got here. We got an order of copies of the Book of Mormon, Bibles, and pamphlets, and other things that had to be carried into the office on a pallet, so that was cool. It was worth over $8,000, which is crazy. The coolest part is that we are going to give it all away and change people's lives with it.  We also tried Richie's chicken. It is a super ghetto restaurant (we went to the least ghetto one), but it's supposed to be home to the best potato wedges in Cincinnati. I can get behind that. They live up to the hype. While eating Richie's Elder Parry and I came to the conclusion that Ketchup is in fact just a mild hot sauce. We have been blessed to go out and do more teaching and street contacting. We've been averaging two or three lessons a day, and we have six set up for tomorrow, so that's pretty exciting. I am grateful that we can still go out and teach people, even while I'm serving in the office. For the past three days Elder Parry has eaten nothing but chicken strips and pop tarts. Basically, nothing too crazy happened this week.

I was reading about the life of Gordon B. Hinkley, and talking with President and Sister McGuire, and I was amazed at how they received unexpected phone calls from the prophet asking them to do things. It made me think about how we can all receive unexpected calls from the Lord, and how we always need to be ready and worthy to fulfill the Lord's calls. I also gained new insight as I read in Mormon 2 that we can't always control our circumstances, but we can always control our reactions and our behavior. When we choose to focus on the Savior and tune out the outside noise, we are able to fulfill the calling that God has or will give to us. I'm grateful for a God that hears and answers our prayers and guides us so that we can serve those around us, and so that we can know what He wants us to do. We don't have to live in darkness or confusion, we just have to accept the brightness of the knowledge God wants to give us. He is the most powerful man in the universe - even more than Chuck Norris and He-Man combined. 

Keep Striving, 

Elder Rogers

$8,000 worth of commissary (40 boxes - the pictures don't do it justice)

Cincinnati tri-zone conference (I'm on the far left first row of Elders third in)

The Richie's sign