August 12, 2013

 Dear family,

Sorry I didn't wear sunscreen! I meant to; after we left I remembered that I forgot...

"Is it disappointing when people cancel or don’t show up for appointments? What do you do then? Do you ever tract? If so, how is that?"

Yes, it can be disappointing when people don't answer the door for scheduled appointments. It depends on who we are going to see. Unfortunately, my mortal mind has me prefer some people we teach to others, so I won't particularly be looking forward to seeing someone (because they're rude, boring, disinterested, etc.), so I'm not super bummed when they don't answer. I hope that doesn't make me a bad person. I will work on that. I can't pick out many times when someone hasn't answered that I was looking forward to; I look forward to seeing people who are happily progressing, so they usually don't bail on appointments. But it does happen from time to time, and it is a bit of a bummer.

We haven't tracted once since I've been here. The only time I've tracted was back in Mesa with Elder Loomis. It just doesn't typically bring about many results. So, when we have "spare time" (which is a LOT of the time), we will have written down the night before certain people who we are working with, or are hoping to work with, who should be home at a certain time of day, and we stop by them.

"I hope you find your camera! I won’t like not having any pictures of you!"

I found it! It was in the lost and found at the family history center where we do our emailing! Yay!! I took some pictures this week, but unfortunately I don't have my camera cord with me today, so I'll have to send them next week.

"Are you guys using facebook or anything yet?"

Nope, not yet! Haven't heard anything about it since the broadcast.

"Randall Lebaron got his call last week. He is going to a new mission in Argentina. He reports December 4^th."

Way to go Randall! It will be a blast for sure.

So! What's been going on this week?... Umm, I can't really remember. Sorry! I can tell you what has been going on Today, though! Elder Curth and I went to Breckenridge today! It's a town in his last area (the name of the area is Frisco), where he spoke Spanish! We stopped by a couple of people he wanted to say goodbye to, and a member took us out for a really nice burger for lunch. I hate when other youngsters drive. Especially Elder Curth. Hate it, hate it, hate it!!! I feel like my life is legitimately in danger many times every day. It rains a lot here, and he refuses to use the windshield wipers until it is physically impossible to see out the windshield. Even then, he only does them manually. (He won't let them go on intermittent, or whatever.)

Anyway!

We got the transfer call on Saturday night, and the APs told us Elder Curth is going home (as expected), and they told us that I'm . . . . . . budududududududdududum . . . . . staying!

I knew there was about a 99% chance of that, so no big surprise there. They don't want to whitewash the area (bring in two missionaries at the same time who are new to the area). They'll be splitting the area at the end of this transfer (end of September), since we cover two wards and there are so many missionaries coming in. This transfer we're getting about 30 and only 9 are going home! When they split the area, to avoid whitewashing, they'll split me and my new companion (who I'll meet tomorrow) up and give us each a ward with a new companion. So, I'm here until the beginning of November for sure. Fine by me! It's a good area, and it will be even better when I don't have to keep two wards straight, and attend two full block of church. On Sundays, Elder Curth and I usually have to show up at 7:30 for the Priesthood Executive Committee, when go through a church block from 9:00-12:00, another from 12:30-3:30, then we usually have Ward Mission Correlations with the other ward until 4:30 before we jet off to dinner.

Sundays are full.

We have 5 companionships in our district, and every companionship has one companion leaving this transfer! Sister Baker, who was also in my MTC district, is leaving us to co-train a greenie sister in another area (she'll be in a tripanionship). They have so many new sisters that they're recruiting 6-week-old sisters to train!! She'll do great, though.

The work has slowed down just a tad over the last couple of weeks in our area, but I'm not discouraged. I'll bring in my new companion and tell him only great things about the area and the people we teach! Ha!

I'm glad to hear that Isac is talking, Charlie is crawling, Rose is doing the Macarena, Carrie is starting pre-school, and Brigette is walking-- wait. Brigette is walking?!?

Kai wrote me and told me that she saw Hairspray. She said it was the best show she had ever seen at Hale! Way to go, Dad!

I hope things are going well in school with the new job, Mom!

Best wishes to all in their work and maternal pursuits! Stay happy! Read rom the scriptures!

The Church is true!

Sincerely,

Elder Rogers
 

A Thought from Mom:

"The work of our missionaries is a magnificent expression of the Lord’s redeeming love." ~Elder D. Todd Christofferson