HhhhA-ppy New Year!

Well, it's the beginning of another year! Great things will be going down in 2015!

The year started differently than expected, though. On Monday night we got a text from "Skynet," the mission-wide texting source, explaining that due to weather, transfers would be postponed until Thursday! That hasn't happened in the history of the reign of Murdock! But it happened. So Elder Smith got two extra days in San Juan! He had some sentimental moments saying goodbye to people, mostly to Alejandro and Chelsey. Then, on Thursday, se fue. He is now serving in Vail, a ski town far away in the mountains.

At transfers that day, I met my new companion, Elder Baker. He is from Redding, California, and he's been on his mission for about six months.

Elder Rogers and Elder Baker

Still pretty new. He just came from serving in Carbondale and Aspen. a fun fact is that his companion there, Elder Finkenthal, came to our mission a few months ago when he and all of the other missionaries were shipped out of the Sierra Leon Mission after being quarantined due to the Ebola virus!

With transfers being postponed, the departing missionaries didn't get to give their testimonies in transfer meeting, because they were home before it happened. That's okay, though! The Sisters that were in the MTC with me went home, and I was pretty bummed I wasn't going to get to hear their departing testimonies (because they would be given in the transfer meeting in Denver). But if I can't hear them, NO ONE CAN! Haha.

We've gone back to the good old fashioned survey/tracting approach with the end of the "He is the Gift" initiative. We've taught a few good little lessons from that this week. Elder Baker is a good teacher, and he's a pretty bold missionary. He has been a good example to me of beginning to teach and testify immediately when we meet someone. We tracted into a white guy, and he said, "Hey, can we leave you with a pamphlet?" The guy said, "Sure." So Elder Baker pulled out a Restoration pamphlet, and before giving it to him, he gave him a little overview of the contents as he flipped through the pictures, in essence, teaching him a short first lesson! It was pretty sweet. He then left the guy with a commitment to read the pamphlet, and we gave his information to the English missionaries. You can always learn things from those you serve around!

We had a church tour with the Morenos on Saturday night. They're doing pretty well. We invited the Sandovals, a family in the branch, to come to the tour as well. It worked out just as we had hoped! We'd had some trouble engaging Oscar in the lessons, but Brother Sandoval was able to relate really well with him and they got to talking after the lesson. Good things are happening. They didn't come to church again...  One had a massive headache, and the parents had to go to the border of Utah near Fruita to pick up their niece who had just flown in from Mexico. Bummer. They need to come to church! We had a great Gospel Principles lesson prepared for them, but we just ended up teaching it to the whole branch instead, because the other Sunday School teacher wasn't at church either. It was about prayer.

Well, it's the beginning of a new month, a new transfer, a new year, a new companionship! Lots of news! I know I'm going to learn and grow a lot in 2015. Let's make it the best year yet! I love you all! Be sure to choose the right!

Sincerely,

Elder Rogers

A Thought from Mom:

"Cultivate an attitude of happiness. Cultivate a spirit of optimism. Walk with faith, rejoicing in the beauties of nature, in the goodness of those you love, in the testimony which you carry in your heart concerning things divine."

~President Gordon B. Hinckley