Duck Tales

Howdy,

It's been a great week in Kentucky. Elder Moeller and I are starting to get a grip on this new area. It is definitely an adventure every day. My Spanish is still coming along, but most of the time at least one of us will hear and understand what is happening in the lesson, so we both usually aren't lost at the same time. Even if my Spanish is progressing slowly, my ability to pick up on racist stereotypes has skyrocketed. We are here to find everyone, but especially all the Latinos we can. When we are out tracting, we want to go straight to them so we can spend our time working with Spanish speakers. That means that we have to know where they live. So after 2 weeks in a Spanish area, I have compiled a list of things to look for to identify a Latino home.

1) Christmas lights or decorations (If there is a wreath on the door it is 100% guaranteed)

2) Shoes, paint, power tools, mops, or indoor furniture outside on the porch.

3) Doormats with the words facing the door, rather than away from the door.

4) The beeping sound from a smoke detector without batteries (We will oftentimes walk around very quietly in an attempt to try and hear a smoke detector, and as soon as we do we book it to the door from whence the sound came)

5) Corona tabs

6) Big antennas on their roofs so that they can pick up international fútbol games. 

7) Trucks that have been lowered

8) Mariachi music

Yes, this list is very stereotypical but has proven very helpful and accurate in our attempts to find Spanish speakers. If you notice any of these around you, feel free to give the local Spanish-speaking missionaries a call. They are probably already on the case, but they will most definitely appreciate your efforts.

Another highlight from the week came while we were out knocking on doors. After knocking on a door a HUGE and mean dog came bolting out the door, followed by its flustered owner. She quickly grabbed the dog's collar in an attempt to prevent it from ripping us to shreds, but the dog, snarling, drooling saliva, and barking like crazy, ripped itself out of the collar and again ran straight towards us. At this point, I was scared out of my mind and was ready to surrender myself to certain death in the jaws of this monster. I raised my hands to the air in an attempt to keep the dog away as it jumped on me. Its attempts (thankfully) shifted to Elder Moeller, who was not so fortunate as I, and it bit his arm. While the dog was on him, the owner threw the dog back into the apartment and proceeded to yell at it while we waited patiently. She came back, without the dog this time, and we had a very nice chat. She didn't speak any Spanish, so we gave her information to the sisters, which means I won't have to see that dog again. Luckily Elder Moeller was wearing a poofy coat that was able to soften the blow, but he was left with a nice bruise on his arm. On another note, we have a goose couple that likes to hang out by one of the doors by our church building that scares everyone into using the other entrance. 

This week I have been reading a lot of Saints before I go to bed. It is amazing to me to see how much the early Saints had to sacrifice and do in order to live their faith. It makes me want to boldly stand up for my faith as well. These quotes and scriptures were motivating to me this week.

"The Lord sets high standards because He loves us. Because we love the people we serve, all of us want to do better in lifting our Heavenly Father's children to the faithfulness and purity they need to have all the blessings of the Lord. You begin by holding up the Lord's standards clearly and without apology. And the more the world drifts from them and mocks them, the bolder we must be in doing that." - Henry B. Eyering 

"Old values are upheld by the church not because they are old, but because they are right." - Spencer W. Kimball

"Thou art my servant; and I covenant with thee that thou shalt have eternal life, and thou shalt serve me and shalt gather together my sheep. - Mosiah 26:20

This is the work of the Almighty God and I am so grateful to be able to be a part of it!

¡Seguir Luchando!

- Elder Rogers

Corona bottles make great flowerbeds

Us with the Corona bottle tree

Us after a good day of work

You Hurt Your What?

 Howdy,

It's been a pretty great week, and my time in the office feels like a whole world away, it passed away like as it were unto me a dream. We got transfer news last Saturday night. We got the news that my next assignment would be in Florence, Kentucky in the Ohio River Spanish branch and that I would be serving with Elder Moeller from Santa Rosa, California. Elder Parry learned that his assignment would be Florence, Kentucky as part of the Northern Kentucky ward. We currently live 5 minutes away from each other and serve in the same district. I was really happy to hear that! Elder Parry and I served together for 3 transfers while I was in Liberty, and in the same district for 2 of those transfers, took a 2 transfer break while I was in Norwood, served as companions for 6 months, and now are serving in the same district again. Transfers proved to be extra crazy as we tried to help the Speths get everything ready, say goodbye to our friends, and get all of our things packed. We ended up being up until 1:00 the night before transfers making sure everything was all ready. I lived up to the nickname "Cranky Lanky". Luckily since then, we've been able to get to bed on time to recover.

This week while studying in Preach My Gospel, I was led to an insight that brought me a lot of peace.  A couple of months ago while serving in Western Hills our friend, Rickey, asked for a blessing.  During the blessing, I felt very strongly to promise him that as he shared his testimony with those around him that he would be forgiven of his sins.  At the moment I was hesitant to say that because it seemed kind of bold, but I felt very strongly that it had come from the spirit.  Since then I have had a concern in my heart if what I said really had come from God and if I had the right to say those things.  I knew I had felt the spirit so I trusted that, but I was never sure.  Then while reading in Preach My Gospel under the section about bearing testimony I was led to Doctrine and Covenants 84:61 which says in effect that as we share our testimony of the Book of Mormon that we will receive forgiveness of sins.  I was filled with so much peace knowing that I really had been following the spirit as I gave the blessing. 

I have absolutely loved serving in the Spanish branch! It is so fun to be able to speak Spanish all day! The gift of tounges is a real gift and blessing from God. Most of the time I stumble over my words trying to think about what I want to say and how I need to say it. There are times in each lesson when I know that God needs our friends to hear something very specific and He needs it said in a specific way. The words will come to my mind clearly and they seem to flow from my mouth. I know it does not come from me because words that I do not regularly use will come out of my mouth perfectly conjugated with little thought on my part. I can always tell when our friends have heard what God needs them to hear because I try to expound or say something extra and I am back to stuttering trying to express myself.  This happened a lot in English areas as well, but it is much more obvious to me and to our friends as well when serving in an area where I don't fluently speak the language. 

2 Timothy 1:7 has come to my mind a lot this last week. "For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Sometimes it can be scary to open your mouth and share the message of the gospel with others, but those feelings of fear do not come from God. I have come to see for myself that as I trust in God and act in faith I am filled with the strengthening power of the atonement of Christ. Through Him all things are possible. "God giveth no commandments unto the children of men save He shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." I know that this is a true statement from Nephi because I see it in my life every day.

¡Seguir Luchando!

Elder Rogers

Dad sent us money to take all the office staff to lunch. We went to Penn Station

Bye to Larry

Bye to Rickey

Taco Bell (First Meal with Elder Moeller)

Torta Loca ( the members here feed us a lot)

We got a notice from the complex saying our apartment was unacceptable because we had a folding chair on our balcony

We had a person we were going to stop by but the address lead us to a burned down house

Tanner's Lane

Mischief Managed

Howdy! 

It's been a pretty good week. Now that the Speths are further along in their training we were able to spend more time out of the office and doing regular missionary work which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was fun to get back on the grind. 

We had a lesson with our friend Ryan last week and he accepted a baptismal date of April 9 which was very exciting. We've been working with him for a long time. He's really smart and is working on getting a patent for an invention he has that he thinks will help treat cancer and prevent diseases by using high-volume sound waves. It will be sad to say goodbye to all of our friends. This is a great ward and I have loved serving here. There is a lot of work to be done. I'm grateful for all the relationships that I've been able to build. I'm also very excited about the future. I'm not quite sure where I'll be headed, but I know God has a plan for me, and that as long as I'm sharing the gospel I will have a good time there, just like I have in all of my previous areas. Serving in the office has taught me a lot about life. I will miss many aspects of office life, but I'm excited to get out to the field and spend more of my time finding, teaching, and baptizing. 

A scripture that I read this week that stuck out to me is Jacob 1:19: "And we did magnify our office unto the Lord, taking upon us the responsibility, answering the sins of the people upon our own heads if we did not teach them the word of God with all diligence; wherefore, by laboring with our might their blood might not come upon our garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and we would not be found spotless at the last day." There are people out there who need the gospel, and it's such a blessing to be able to represent the Savior to go find them, stand up for the truth and share the good word. I hope that I can serve diligently and represent Him well wherever He sends me.

Keep Striving! 

Elder Rogers

Breakfast with President and Sister McGuire

Crazy truck we saw playing Frisbee golf last preparation day

Us with Ingrid

Mom sent me a package and the rest of the office staff went crazy. They made me go through everything and get all dressed up to take pictures. Those pictures were then sent in the mission chat and posted 3 times on Elder Ockerman's Facebook page and on Sister Speth's as well. It was a good time.

St. Patrick's Day pictures with President and Sister McGuire

St. Patrick's Day with Elder and Sister Ockerman

St. Patrick's Day with Elder and Sister Speth

Elder Ockerman's Facebook Post

Now That I'm Grown I Eat 5 Dozen Eggs

 Howdy

It's been a pretty good week, albeit pretty slow. A lot of our time has been spent training the Speths which has been fun, but some of the days in the office can be kind of long. We have helped them get most things down, so we kind of just sit back and watch them work, help answer questions, and file paperwork. We only have to do that for one more week though. President told us not to leave during the days and to help them so we have pushed all our lessons to the evenings which means our evenings are packed full leaving no time for finding. It is pretty fun but sad to see our teaching pool diminish and not be able to go find new people to teach. As far as we know nobody will be coming to replace us as "normal missionaries" in our ward and so all of our friends we have been working with will be given to the assistants or the sisters. 

We did have opportunities to go and knock on doors last night in Price Hill. The fun part about knocking on doors in Price Hill is that a majority of people there only speak Spanish. It's been fun to be able to talk to people in Spanish, even if we have to give all the people away that we find. I've been studying a lot more to try and get ready for when President will supposedly send me to a Spanish area. I've been told I'm going to a Spanish area so many times that I don't know if I can get my hopes up, but I've been practicing just in case. 

We also had a lesson with a member in our ward named Kojo. He's originally from Ghana. We got to his home and talked for about 5-10 minutes and then he told us he had made drinks for us. It was hot chocolate that he put ice in. We talked some more and were getting ready to head out when he told us he made food for us. We thanked him, and I assumed he would send it with us. I was wrong. He gave us big plates of Ghanaian food and sat there watching us eat and yelling at us to eat more. It was very good food, but we had eaten a big lunch. When we were finished we tried to get out but before we could move he threw down a fruit salad dessert and in a similar fashion demanded that we eat more of it. It was very good. He is a very kind man and if was fun to talk to him. We were crunched for time though, and we're supposed to have a friend there when we eat with members. He told us to bring one of our friends we are teaching over, which we will definitely take him up on. There are lots of unexpected situations you find yourself in as a missionary, and it is an insane amount of fun.

This week while studying in my scriptures I was struck by 2 Nephi 1:21: "arise from the dust, my sons, and be men, and be determined in one mind and in one heart, united in all things, that ye may not come down into captivity". I thought the imagery of rising up from the dust and becoming a man was cool. I also listened to this talk by Elder Christofferson called Let Us Be Men which I very much enjoyed. A true man is someone who follows the example of Christ and who puts others before himself. I like that. Here's to becoming a man not only by definition but also in character. 

Keep Striving,

Elder Rogers

 Elder Ockerman brought tacos to district council

Office

President McGuire took us to Longhorn for Elder Tolley's birthday and also to say thanks to us for serving in the office

 

Wow Look At That Shine

 Howdy,

This week while contemplating in the shower I was struck with a revelatory-esque flash of genius: Mac-Moroni and Cheese. It's pretty much a boxed Mac and cheese with noodles in the shapes of Book of Mormon things. After I had this genius idea I knew I needed a way to advertise my product. That's when I had another revelatory-esque flash of genius: HelaMan and the Masters of the Book of Mormon. It's a He-Man spin-off based on the Book of Mormon - kind of like the living scriptures videos but everyone is insanely ripped. Each episode has its own individual intro, but they are all pretty similar. An example would be like this: "I'm Alma, son of the prophet, I used to be one of the vilest of sinners but one day I was visited by an angel and caught up in the memory of my sins. Then I remembered the teachings of my father, looked heavenward, and said in my heart: 'Christ has the power!' Amulek became my companion and I became Alma - the most powerful missionary in the universe!" For Nephi it would say his back story and then say: "I became Nephi the most obedient man in the universe!". I made up one for each person in the Book of Mormon. Each episode will end with "This episode of HelaMan is brought to you be Mac-Maroni and cheese." If any of you want to join me and invest just let me know and we can talk further. We'll be millionaires in a matter of a couple of months I am sure. 

Rickey is doing very well. He has a meeting with the bishop tomorrow to create a plan to go on a mission. He keeps bringing it up to us and telling us how much he wants to do it. We are also teaching Ingrid and her son who is 36. Ingrid wants to be baptized, but she needs to kick out her boyfriend Doug first. She told him he needs to move out, and Doug didn't like that very much so now Ingrid says that Doug is mad at us, so we're a little afraid of him now, but Ingrid says she's determined to kick him out. The Speths got here on Monday, and they are our replacements in the office so we were very busy training them this week, and will continue to do so this upcoming week. They will do well in the office, and Elder Parry and I are looking forward to going back to more normal missionary work.

I'm grateful for the Book of Mormon. The more I read it the more I love it and the more it teaches me about the Savior. 

Keep Striving!

Elder Rogers

Elder Parry skater edition

Us on the top of the Wilmington Tire Tower

Just Keep Swimming

 Howdy,

It's been a pretty good week. We had zone conferences which were pretty crazy, and also a lot of fun. It is always fun to see everyone. After one of the zone conferences, we went to deliver some bikes to some missionaries in need. We went to go park in a parking lot in downtown Dayton, near their apartment, but the parking meter was broken and wouldn't give us a ticket so we decided to leave to be honest, and also so we wouldn't get towed. We went to go park on the street by a meter in front of their apartment, but when we pulled up we saw that the meter only took coins. We didn't have any. I went to search for some in the car, and Elder Parry started looking around the van. While I was searching I said a silent prayer that we would be able to find a coin to pay for parking. We were running a bit behind, and we were trying to help the missionaries. Just as I finished my prayer Elder Parry walked around the back of the van with a quarter he found on the ground. We then were able to deliver the bikes and get back on the road with 2 minutes left on our meter. As someone who actively looks for coins on the ground, I thought it was extra cool because quarters are an extremely rare find, and it was the exact amount we needed. I am grateful that God wants to be involved in our lives, and will help us out even with the little things like being able to pay for parking.

The highlight from this week was Rickey's baptism on Friday night. It was an amazing experience, and it was great to see how far he has come. Rickey has had a hard life, and seeing the spirit work on him has been such a blessing. He was able to overcome smoking and many other addictions to be here. I am so proud of him and grateful that God has allowed me to be able to get to know him. We filled up the font nice and warm for him, and it felt like a sauna to go into the font room. We turned off the font about 15 minutes before the baptism started to let it cool a bit, but it turns out that the plug here doesn't work very well at all, which meant the water level was a little lower than we wanted. I baptized him the first time but his knees came up. The second time the same thing happened. By the time the third attempt came around the font was noticeably lower than it was when we entered. On the third attempt, I stood on his feet to keep them from coming up and lowered him all the way down to where he was laying down on the tile and kept him there long enough to see that his whole body was under, and then I pulled him out and we shared a very big and very wet hug. As we went into the bathroom to change Rickey was asking me about how he could serve a mission and Elder Parry and I taught him how to tie and put on a tie for the first time in his life. It was such an amazing experience and I'm so excited for tomorrow when he will be receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. 

I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon. Reading it every day is a pleasure that brings so much light and peace into my life. It is amazing to see how Jesus Christ can take us where we are and help us to become better. I have a long way to go before I get to where I want to be, but I am blessed and grateful that God uses an imperfect person like me to assist in His work. It brings me so much joy, and I love being a part of it. 

Keep Striving Everyone,

Elder Rogers

Dinner

Exchanges 

Kentucky Fried Chicken in Kentucky (Tastes about the same to be honest)

Lunch with Mike

Rickey's Facebook story

Rickey and me in white

All the elders at Rickey's baptism

Rickey, Elder Parry and me

Rickey with his family

If Anybody Asks Ya, We Was Out Smashing Mailboxes

Howdy,

As usual, it's been a pretty chaotic week in the office. Last Saturday after delivering some necessities our van got stuck in the driveway of some Elders. We tried to get it out, and even went and bought a tow strap and had the Elders try to pull us out with their Equinox. Unfortunately, we broke a couple of things off their hitch and then we snapped the tow strap. We ended up having to call a tow truck that got us out no problem. 

There were a bunch of Elders trying to get to their original assignments and so we had some more fun adventures. Thursday we went to the airport in the morning, headed back with more missionaries in the afternoon, found out they didn't have their passports so we went back to the office and got them, and drove back. They made it through security and everything so we figured they had made it, but we got a call saying they missed their flight by just a few minutes. We drove back to the airport to pick them up. They hung out with us Thursday night and helped them get on a flight the next day after a couple covid complications. All in all, we drove to the airport 4 times on Thursday. 

Cincinnati (including me) is super excited for the super bowl. There are stands on just about every street corner selling Bengals merchandise, and they even called off school the day after the game. There is a lot of orange and black everywhere. It has been interesting to see how people's attitudes about the Bengals have changed since I first got here. Everyone is so excited now, whereas before everyone (myself included) was pretty apathetic before they were in the world championship. I hope that each of us can be loyal lifelong fans not just to the Bengals, but also to the Savior, and walk with Him through thick and thin. No matter where we are, His arms of mercy are extended, and we always have the ability to join His team. I am so grateful for His sacrifice and His love, even if I don't always make the best choices. Repentance is an amazing gift, and I love getting to share my knowledge of it with others. 

Rickey's baptism is just six days away! Please pray for him! 

Keep Striving and Who Dey! 

Elder Rogers 

Stuck van

Our divots in the grass

Me chilling at my desk

Homemade Mac and cheese made with bacon and 1 pound of sharp cheddar cheese

Us with a corvette while picking up new cars 

Batman Calzoney with Elder Sowers