Hey Dad!

Hey Dad!

Elder Sofele is a good missionary. He is kind of shy, but honestly he's doing much, much better with it now than when he first came out. He has righteous desires and is a diligent worker. It's good that he's here in Gunnison (or as President Murdock calls it, "that distant land") away from other missionaries, because sometimes the Polynesian missionaries tend to choose disobedience, and they would probably attach themselves to Elder Sofele. I explained that to him, and he understands and is determined to be a good missionary. And yes! I will be follow-up training Elder Sofele as well. I've been a district leader for about 6 or 7 months now. It's a bit of responsibility, but it's not overwhelming or anything. There are 5 companionships in the district, or 11 missionaries (one trio). I get to conduct companion exchanges, organize and conduct weekly district meetings, interview investigators for baptism, and do my best to lift, encourage, inspire, and set the example for the other missionaries. Our district, I'm guessing, it the biggest in the mission, geographically. We cover from Tuluride and Naturita to Montrose, to Gunnison and beyond about 30 miles east and north. HUGE! The first time I was district leader in Littleton, we only had three wards, or about 5-6 square miles. And in GJ, we had the Spanish missionaries, so their area technically covered the whole Grand Valley.

We are having a lot of luck finding people in Gunnison! And as far as Spanish, I never seem to have the time to study!! Elder Sofele talked about it, and we decided we need to make the time. We're always either doing service, or having a meeting, or going to church or something, and I only get to study it like 2 days in the week. So we're going to make time from now on, and I'll be studying diligently. Mr. Borba told me to read the Book of Mormon in Spanish a lot. And PMG actually encourages missionaries to learn far beyond a gospel vocabulary. We are encouraged to not be satisfied with only being able to teach the lessons and talk about gospel topics, etc. We should strive for complete fluency so the Lord can use our language abilities throughout our life!

I should probably write a big email too. Maybe I'll include some of this stuff so it can go on the blog. Anyway, I love you!!

Sincerely,

Elder Rogers