And the work goes on!

     It's a breezy afternoon. Two missionaries coast their bikes to a traffic light, cross the street, and begin to walk up a hill along a major road. It's warm outside and cloudy overhead, though the sun can be seen setting low along the rocky mountain ridgeline. It begins to rain, a sprinkle at first. Near the top of the hill, the missionaries mount their bikes and begin to pedal.

     As they reach the summit, the rain drops become bigger, more frequent. In a matter of moments, the rain is pouring down. As the missionaries pedal rapidly towards their destination, one turns to the other and shouts, "Can we go home now?!"

     The addressed Elder contemplates his soaked clothing, his fight against the unfriendly headwind, and the promise of a warm shower awaiting him at home.

     "No!" comes the reply, "The work must go forth, rain or shine!"

     And so they pedal on.

Elders Rogers and Brunson

 Hello!

Yes, we rode bikes this week. And yes, we got a little bit soaked... We are only allotted 225 miles in our car per week, and we were running very low towards the end of this week. So, we decided it would be a good idea to save some miles by riding our bikes!

Wrong.

Our area lies on the foothills of the rocky mountains. Just like Elder Beeson on the isla, we're always either going uphill or downhill. I never really took note of it until we decided to bike! I have been a little bit exhausted because of that. It's been tough getting up in the mornings. But such is the life of a missionary!

On Thursday we had a wicked cool storm! We went to a Mexican restaurant called Olivero's to eat with a member family. As we pulled into the parking lot, it started to hail. I was a little confused, because it was probably about 80 degrees outside! All of the sudden, we heard loud 'BANG's on the roof of our car.

It was a little scary, I won't lie. We rushed from the car to the restaurant under an umbrella. Inside, we had a great view of the storm from our table through the large glass windows that stretched across the wall.

 The wind was blowing so hard that Elder Brunson couldn't help but ask if it was a tornado! The wind was blowing towards the windows, so they were continually being pelted with hail about half the size of a golf ball. Rain mingled in with the hail. There was so much rain, and the wind blew so strongly that it blew around as mist in all directions! After about 20 minutes of this, the ground was covered in hailstones, and it looked like it had snowed. A muddy river, about 6 feet wide, ran through the restaurant parking lot. The hail stopped, but the rain continued for another half hour or so, melting away most of the ice build-up on the ground. After all was said and done, the city was covered in leaves! Branches and leaves of trees were skewed about on all the streets, lawns, and sidewalks of Littleton.

The next day, we decided to do some contacting. Up until this point, we had done almost no street contacting, which I thought was just a little sad. So we spent about an hour walking around an apartment complex in our area before an appointment with a less-active member who lives there. We talked to four or five people, offered to say a prayer with them, and gave them a copy of the Book of Mormon. They were all polite and fairly receptive to us. Unfortunately, they were almost all people who worked at the complex, but lived outside our area! Oh well. Now the Englewood missionaries have a family to teach! I really enjoyed our contacting there, as well as the little bit of tracting we did in other neighborhoods.

We taught a lot of less-active members this week. We've been utilizing two of the Church videos: The Testaments and Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration. They are really powerful; I love them! I think I saw both of them twice this week.

The ten-year-old girl named Tayte from a member family we have been teaching is getting baptized this Saturday. Hooray!!

We were told by the Stake housing coordinator that we will definitely be splitting the area on September 24th. That means I'll have had three companions in the first three transfers! Crazy.

I love what you've done with my room! I hope the girls enjoy it. What a big bed for a four-year-old!!

Elder Brunson is better now, but there's a bug going around and I can only hope that neither of us have caught it... We both keep coughing... Updates to come. I keep taking vitamin C!

The work goes on, and my planner and white handbook are dry now! (They were soaked after I insisted we pedal on). The Church is true! Don't ever forget it! I think about all of you, and you are in my prayers! Stay true! I love you all SO much!

Sincerely,

Elder Rogers



A Thought from Mom:

“I have often said that one of the greatest secrets of missionary work is work! If a missionary works, he will get the Spirit; if he gets the Spirit, he will teach by the Spirit; if he teaches by the Spirit, he will touch the hearts of the people and he will be happy. Work, work, work—there is no satisfactory substitute, especially in missionary work.”
President Ezra Taft Benson