Another Change!

Hey,

 

Thank you so much for the letters and the packages. They really brighten a missionary's day, and his companions too haha. Thank you so much, they really help me. Mom, thank you for the message about Joseph, I used it last night in a lesson! I think both he and I needed to be reminded of Joseph's example.

 

So a quick update, last wednesday was transfers, and on tuesday morning I found out that I was being transfered. So wednesday morning, I found out that I was being transfered to West Valley into a companionship of four missionaries. And here's the kicker.......we're in the spanish program......yeah, i know.....you're probably thinking, "But Elder Rogers, you don't know Spanish!" And me response to you would be, "Si". So it's been interesting. I've had experience with a trio before, but never with a quad. I've had experience with portuguese before, but never spanish. It's been a lot of adjusting. Oh, and we are on foot now, which I love. And I'm not even joking. I love being outside walking as opposed to driving. Just thinking about walking is getting me excited haha. ohand that reminds me, thank you for the gloves and hat and scarf! They have beeen VERY useful. So I'm with Elder Zambrano who has been out about a year, and he's from Ecuador, and he's awesome. He's been in the area for two transfers already. He kinda reminds me of Kevin Tsuchida, just the Ecuadorian missionary version. So I love serving with him because he takes it seriously but he's also a lot of fun. Elder Berrios is a visa waiter going to mexico but he had been serving in the area with E. Zambrano previous to me and Elder Pavlakos. Elder Pavlakos is a visa waiter going to Salvador, Brasil, we actually showed up in SLC on the same day. He's been serving in the spanish program since we got here so he can hold his own in spanish now.

 

It's been quite an adjustment. But I've always wanted to learn spanish and so now is my chance. The only thing is that when I learned portuguese, my brain forgot all of the spanish i once knew. I'm totally serious too. MY brain doesn't seem to be able to handle both portuguese and spanish at the same time. So hopefully i dont forget too much portuguese now haha. 

So I have a few more minutes, so let me tell you about a cool experience last night. Since we are a quad, and we cover two stakes, we usually split and cover one stake a piece and we rotate everyday. Yesterday I was with E. Zambrano and we went to visit a recent convert. This guy is awesome, but he's been really discouraged because of his financial situation. He's trying to support his family and his wife's and his friends, but he hasn't been able to find work. He's been looking desparetly. E. Z and I left his house feeling bad because we didnt know how to help him. After we went to his house, we tried all of our other plans for the night. THey all fell trrhough. So we prayed to know where we should go. One lady came to my mind. That same lady as well as another family came to E. Z'ss mind. We went to both and they both didn't work out. we were thinking, "Why did heavenly Father want us to come here?" 

 

Then E. Z remembered something. "Doesn't Brother Anderson live around here?" I didn't know, but the member who was driving us around did. So we went there because Brother Anderson had brought some people to church who we didn't know, and we wanted to ask him about it. So we went there and started talking. Somehow we started talking about where he works, and all of a sudden, E. Z asks, "Your company doesn't happen to be hiring, does it?" "Yeah, it is. there are actually 5 or 6 entry level openings right now." E. Z and I just look at each other....Obviously, this is why the Lord wanted us to come to this area. So nothing has happened yet, because this was just last night, but how cool is that? We called and told this recent convert brother about it this morning and he should be applying for it today. We really hope he gets it. He's one of those guys who, if he had a spare dollar (which he doesnt right now), he would give it away to someone in need without even hesitating.

 

Oh man, I wish I had more time....So yesterday, in the spanish ward, they had two english-speaking high councilors speak, which was awesome for me, but not great for the members of the ward haha. So they had a translator for the members of the ward, when usually they have someone translating into english for visitors or missionaries like me haha. That might not make sense, but i'm sorry. And of course the talks were about gratitude. Man...It made me realize how ungrateful I've been. I really am grateful for all that's happened on the mission so far. even the visa mess. 

 

God is blessing me abundantly even though I might not recognize it all the time. all that I have to worry about is if I'm doing all that God is asking me to do. and it's tough for my to say yes to that question all the time. I have so much that I need to improve on. Sometimes, like right now, I wonder if God even has enough patience and mercy to handle me. It's tough to put into words, because I don't want to sound like I'm belittling myself to sound humble or to seek pity, but I really wonder sometimes. But there are a few things I do know. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. Through the miraculous life of that man, I know so many other essential things. Jesus Christ lives. The Book of Mormon is true. The truths of God are not hidden and they are extended to every single person on earth. I know that God lives and loves us. I saw a quote in Pres. Roque's house that I really like. It had a picture of Jesus and beneath it, it said, "The greatest gift I could give you is for you to see yourself the way I do." It reminds me of something that Elder Hales said in last conference. (His talk was about patience and "waiting upon the Lord". I've been reading it everyday for the past four days. It's a powerful talk that really really hit me in the heart. It's become one of those paradigm-changing talks for me.) He said something like, we are not able to understand or imagine how much God loves each one of us, therefore, we would do well to be a little bit kinder to everyone around us, including ourselves.

 

Dear Family, I love you all so much. Thank you for all of the support. It means more than you know. I'm sorry I never seem to answer any of your questions or respond to any thing you say, but please don't stop sending them. I'm sorry about that. I love you all soo much. E. Berrios asked an investigator a question the other day that I liked. "If you could take one thing with you to Heaven, what would it be?" Her answer, and my answer, is family. There is nothing more precious to me than all of you. Thank you again. I love you.

 

Sincerely,

 Elder Rogers (promounced with a spanish accent now)

happy p-day!

This has been a very unusual p-day, and thus, I just got on the computer with 15 minutes to write both you and my mission president. First of all, thank you all so much. Mom, thank you so much for those pictures! I LOVE them so much! And E. Ramos taped them on the wall haha. And thank you very much for the news about the visa. It's all very interesting. Don't worry about me. I'm in a much better place (concerning my attitude about the visa) than I was before. I'm doing very well. Transfers are this Wednesday and we found out today that E. Ramos is going to be receiving a brand new missionary to train. That doesn't mean I won't remain with him, but we'll find out on Wednesday. I've learned a lot this past week. Well, maybe not a lot as in quantity, but I learned one very big thing. I learned how much I need patience and faith and trust in God. I don't claim to have achieved those things in perfection yet, but I've made solid steps this week.

I heard a quote that I really like. "Don't go to God and tell Him how great your problems are. Go to your problems and tell them how great your God is." That's what I'm telling my visa. A few pieces of paper will not stop the Lord from placing me where we wants me to be. That's just silly. I wish I had more time to write, it really was a great week. Know that I'm doing well. KNOW that I love you all very much. And thank you for all the support, all the letters. Mom and Ricole, I got letters from you last week on Thursday, and Thursday was the day that my mission changed. Your letters really helped me. Thank you. I love you. Ate mais.

Elder Rogers

Some pics : )

                                           With E. Ramos, and someone else, on Temple Square

 

                                                  With E. Ramos on P-day (Preparation Day)

                                              In the old tabernacle on Temple Square

                                         

                                            With E. Ramos and E. Novakovich at a baptism!

                                                          E. Novakovich, haha

                                     E. Ramos with some of the Halloween goodies I sent them  : )

                                             E. Rogers and E. Ramos at a baptism!

Another great week

 

Thank you so much for the Halloween package! We love it! And it's been really fortunate because just like my first week as a visa waiter, E. Novakovich didn't have his own food or money until today, so the packages with delicious food has been very useful for feeding all of us. Thank you so much! You were inspired! You got that little package that I sent  you from the MTC right? I'm still planning on sending another package soon, but it's so hard to find time on p-days. Speaking of food, I have to thank Ricole for teaching me how to cook tortillas on a stove burner. For every breakfast and lunch that we have at the apartment, I cook up some tortillas and put either peanut butter or cottage cheese on them, depending on my mood. We found some honey in the apartment, but it's all gone now haha. Some members gave us some eggs from their farm so this week has been spiced up by some fried eggs in the morning. Other than that, we find junk food basically everywhere we go, especially with Hallowen being today. I'm being fattened up very very well here haha.

 

This week might be a very good and busy week. With E. Novakovich, we set some high goals for the week, and I really think they are possible. I don't know how we're going to accomplish them exactly, but for some reason, they feel very possible. I really hope E. Novakovich is with us for as long as possible, but at the same time, I know exactly how he feels and I'm sure he wants to go as soon as possible. We really need him this week though.

 

So here's a random note. We listen to the tabernacle choir all the time here. We play it in the car and in the portable dvd player in the apartment (the dvd player is given to all companionships to watch training segments and listen to approved music at approved times) and E. Ramos has about 9 tabernacle choir cd's now. I really honestly love MoTab (Mormon Tabernacle Choir) now. Maybe this is crazy, but I really think I'm going to listen to them regularly when I get back. Anyway, one of the cd's is a collection of famous songs from movies or musicals performed by the choir. One of them is called "The Impossible Dream" and it's from "The Man from La Mancha". It's an amazing song, you should look it up. Also, I developed a love for the primary song "A Child's Prayer". It's definitely cracked my top 5 songs list. I love it and I really feel like I relate to it now.

 

I wish I had more to tell you about that family I mentioned the other week, but it's been difficult. We should meet with them again this week. This weekend we are hoping to help two kids from a part-member family be baptized. But they've been really sick and we'll have to meet them a lot this week. Hopefully, I'll have good news next week about them.

 

Well how is everyone doing?? Those pictures of Ricole and Michael are awesome! You are so beautiful, Ricole! Man, it's still weird to think about haha. Two more months! But you were proably already aware of that... Mig, how was the band trip? In one of our ward's buildings, there is a picture of a youth camp out and there is this picture of a young man who reminded me of you. He was wearing a gray zip up sweatshirt just like the one you have, and he had glasses, and he had hair like yours, and other things, but anyway...Dad, how's the hunt been going? And Mom, how's the seminary class? Last week President And Sister Winn took some missionaries out to Ihop for breakfast and she asked every missionary there one question...What is the best thing that you've ever learned from a seminary teacher? Easiest question I've ever handled on my mission. Violet and Quinn, basically all of the area that we cover is either really old people or young couples. Everytime I see a young couple with a kid (or two) I think of you two. Congrats on the new apartment!

 

Familia, I love you all. Thank you for all of your support, all of the prayers. Fica forte.

 

Love,

E. Rogers

 

Another great email!

First of all, thank you so much for the package, it meant so much to me. It really lifted my spirits. And i also received a goody-box from the Vasquezes, so could you pass on my thanks, please? I got a letter from the Sants, which was awesome. It's also really nice to get mail, even when it's just a little note or something. Gabby also wrote me. Thank you all so much for your support and your willingness to not forget about me.

 

Mom, thanks for letting me know about the visa, that's exciting. i just got an email from one of my friends (E. Orr) from the mtc and he said that he and e. ortega are both in brasil now haha. did i tell you about that bishop that works in the missionary department? he told me on saturday  that 70 visas to brasil came through last week. isn't that crazy? so things look positive about the visa. probably the best indicator is that our area here in slc is really starting to heat up. that probably means i'm leaving soon haha. i'm just kidding of course. (i just talked to one of the assistants for the mission about 2 minutes ago and he told us that tomorrow we are going to receive another brasilian visa waiter. back to a trio! which is actually really nice because with a third missionary we are allowed to enter the homes of single women. apparently, E. ramos wanted another one haha, so we're getting on!) i usually try to forget about the visa. last week i made a list of 5 things that i'm going to forget about, one of them was my visa. it's not always easy, but when we're busy, i never think about it.

 

this weekend has been really amazing. we had a baptism on saturday. i might have mentioned her before, she is an older sister who was referred to us from the ward immediately after we arrived here. we started meeting with her that week and she was baptized yesterday. it was so incredible because she says she has been waiting for her baptism since 1987! isn't that crazy? there is just such a sweet and pure spirit at baptisms. i never noticed it before my mission. but baptisms have easily been the most peaceful moments of my mission. sundays are usuallly crazy busy (i got to pass the Sacrament yesterday! haha) and so it's harder to feel that same peace. and i havent been able to go to the temple yet, so baptismal services are just amazing. i never want them to end. i'm starting to notice something about the nature of baptisms. that is, missionaries really do very little to bring them about. of course we call people and schedule the buildings and help people pick a date, and yes, we usually offer the invitation, but the truth is that God is the One preparing these people for their baptisms. it's been amazing to witness, especially after some of the miracles of this weekend (which i'll mention in a second). The Spirit has already been working with these people and one way or another, they get in contact with missionaries, and that's when the dance begins. and if the investigators keep acting in faith, keep listening to the holy ghost and the missionaries don't get in the way of the Spirit, they will eventually receive the blessings that God has in store for them, which comes through baptism. man, every time i write an email i feel like i can only communicate about 30% of the meaning that i want to say, but i just don't know how to do it. I'm sorry, fam.

 

so let me tell you about some of the miracles that God poured out yesterday. It started with the confirmation of the sister that was baptized on saturday. She was confirmed by a man in the ward who just came back from inactivity and who has been teaching this sister with us. that whole story with him is a miracle in itself too. being able to stand in the circle and listen to this man perform such a sacred ordinance for a sister who has been waiting for 24  years was just incredible. miracle. this man has become one of my favorite people that i've met on my mission, i consider him a great friend. then, after that Sacrament meeting, e. ramos and i went to different parts of the chapel to talk to two different investigators who were in that ward. one is the daughter of the recent convert woman and the other was a referral from the ward that has been really difficult to meet with, so we really wanted to catch them both before they left. I met with the latter, and after 2 and a half weeks of struggling to make an appointment, this young woman and her mother (a less active member) told us we could come over that night! miracle. she has never met with the missionaries, but she has already born her testimony at church, and she already wants to be baptized. double miracle. (like i said, God is already preparing His children to be happier, one of the biggest responsibilities of missionaries is to not get in His way. it's so true. we're trying haha.) meanwhile, e. ramos is talking to the other lady, who agreed to meet with us on tuesday, our second meeting with her since we arrived. boom, miracle. we go to another building with another ward, where we talk to the mother of a 9 year old boy who we're teaching. they all want him to be baptized, he wants it, and we want to make it happen for him. the only problem is that the person who is supposed to perform the baptism for him (his uncle) has been really difficult to work with, especially since we've never been able to talk with him directly. but this boy's mother agreed to give us the grandmother phone number so that we could get the uncle's number from her. i know, it's confusing haha. miracle. in the same ward there are two young kids who have been coming to church with their mother who want to be baptized, but again, it's been tough to work out a time to actually sit down with them. all of a sudden, on sunday, their mother is super receptive to us, she talks to the bishop and both of the kids are preparing for baptism in a few weeks. miracle times two. remember that family that i went on about last week? the one i compared to the carpenters? we've been trying to catch them at home throughout the week because we got bought a picture frame at wally world and put The Proclamation in it and we've been wanting to deliver it to them. last night they were home! we had a great discussion with them and the wife told us that she had seen the Proclamation in her parent's house and she actually wanted one of their own. well now they do. bam, miracle. there are even more, but i dont have time for all of them, so i'll just mention one more miracle.... i'm learning....i think i'm actually changing...miracles.

 

i don't have a lot of time, but i also wanted to mention that we just had zone conference on friday. it was the first one i had ever been to and i didnt know what to expect, but it was just awesome. the day was filled with learning and training and snacking on pretzels and practicing and feeling the Spirit. and i wont explain it in this email, but zone conference ended with one of the greatest spiritual experiences i've ever had. It was one of those times when God lets one of His children know that He loves them, but this time it happened to me. i'll never forget it.

 

 

So, thank you, family, for making that happen. i love you all. thank you so much for all the support and the prayers, i dont want to think about what it would be like with those things or without all of you. stay strong and be happy. part of our covenant is to endure to the end, it's just as important as faith, repentance, baptism, and the Holy Ghost. i'll try to remember that if you do too. i love you all so much.

 

sincerely,

 

E. Jonathan Todd Rogers

 

P.S. Dad, happy 30th birthday this saturday. i'll be thinking about you, and i'll say a special prayer for you. it will probably mostly just be me thanking God for letting me be your son. I love you more than I know how to describe.

sorry, posted a week late

Thank you for the emails! I really look forward to them! Since transfers I'm in a new zone so our weekly meeting is on Thursdays now, so that's the new mail day, so I actually wasn't able to get that package, but that means it will most definitely be there this week. Thank you SOOO much! I can't wait for it! Speaking of, I will probably be sending home another package with some things that I would like to keep, but things that I don't need in brasil or things that I don't know if I can spare in the baggage. I'm sorry again because there really isn't anything I can buy here to include as gifts for you. To be honest with you, the wal-marts here in salt lake are quite similar to the one in spokane and therefore my market doesn't have many things that I think you would find cool. I could however include a university of utah bottle opener...I promise I'll make up for it in brasil!

 

Speaking of Brasil, (no, the visa is still m.i.a.) but we met a lady from Santa Maria at church, could it be a sign?? probably not haha. I think I let myself forget that the Lord has a purpose for having me here. When I forgot that, it made things more difficult, but I've been better at remembering that the past few days. I don't know what the purpose is, and I really might never know what it is, but that's where faith bridges the gap right? I still haven't done the electronic part, just so you know. That's about all I know haha. But, we received two portugues referrals this weekend and we're going to contact them tonight or tomorrow, so that will be really exciting. I'll be able to see E. Ramos really shine, but then again, he's always on his game. Let me say a little bit more about E. Ramos...now that I think about it, maybe the reason I'm in Salt Lake is so that I could learn from him. I'm so lucky to be able to work with him. He is so driven and so organized and so good at being a missionary. We had a really cool experience this weekend.

 

So we were tracting a little bit in an apartment complex (we cover a lot of complexes, it's just the kind of area we're in) and we met a young woman who had just had surgery and wasn't feeling very good, she also told us that she was a member and had served a mission herself. She told us a story from her mission and gave us some advice, advice that I think I was really needing that day. and she told us that she had a feeling that we were going to find someone today. It was one of those times that I was really glad that we knocked on that door. So we went on. And we left the complex. later in that day, we went this little culdesac of four really nice houses tucked away in the corner of some apartments and duplexes. We started knocking. Door one: nobody home...door two: not interested. door three: nobody. door four: Not interested, but he took so long in telling us that he wasn't interested that while he was talking to us, a car pulled into the driveway of house number one, and he pointed to the car and said in a suddenly, slightly more friendly way, "Them! They need a lesson!" A young couple got out of the car and laughed. the wife said, "yeah, my husband needs a lesson." Door four took the opportunity to close the door and we started talking to young couple. we helped them take in their groceries and they invited us in. We started talking and she told us that she doesn't go to church anymore, and that her husband is catholic. Their 2 year old son obviously isnt too concerned yet. But then she invited us over for dinner on Sunday! Which was a miracle because we actually didn't know what we were going to do for dinner that night anyway, and we don't get random dinner invitations from people, members or non-members, very often. We had a great time talking with them on saturday and I was SOO excited to go back on sunday. This is just one of those families that you can't help but love (like the Carpenters haha) and you just love being in their home. This is the second time on my mission where I just had this immediate love for someone we met. This is a family that could change so many lives in the Church, not to mention their own. It's a family that already wants to be together forever. The love that they have for their son is just incredible. There are soo many blessings waiting for this family! E. Ramos and I just have to do our jobs as missionaries and step out of the way of the Holy Ghost. If the Holy Ghost touches this family, so many lives will be effected! It's so amazing, so exciting. I can't wait to see them again.

 

Family, I'm doing well. Like I've probably said many times before, I'm learning so much every day. 

I can't even really describe it, but I'm so lucky to be on a mission. It's not always a walk in the park (sometimes it literally is a walk in the park, but metaphorically, it rarely is), but what an amazing experience a mission is. like Bruce R. McConkie said, "How great is my call!"

 

I love you, family. Pray for me, and I'll keep praying for you.

 

E. Rogers

Back in the Valley (Utah Valley, that is) : )

Well my stint in Wyoming was fun, but it's over now. Basically everyone in the mission came back to one building for transfers on Wednesday. It's cool when the whole mission gets together because I get to see the Elders from the district in the MTC. E. Powell (my MTC companion) is amazing, all of the Elders in his district don't want him to leave to Brazil, they want to keep him. So let me tell you how tranfers unfolded. The mission is split up into zones, and each zone has two desinated zone leaders. At transfers the zone leaders (standing in the parking lot) hold up a poster board with the names of everyone in their zone and their companions. So once they hold up the posters everyone runs around trying to find their name. I got lucky, mine was on the first board I saw. Guess who my companion is.............his first name is Elder.......his last name is Ramos! Sound familiar? It should, because we were in the trio together before. I'm not sure I gave you a sufficient idea of how great E. Ramos is. I couldn't have asked for a better companion. It's common for only one companion to move out of the area so that after transfers someone is familiar with the area, so E. Dodge is still in our old area and E. Ramos and I are in an area just south of that old area. I think with all of these visa waiters the have enough missionaries to spread them out a little bit more than usual, so E. Ramos and I inherited a part of two different stakes that used to belong to the other Elders in those respective stakes. I don't feel like I explained that very well...Oh and E. Ramos is still designated over the Portuguese branch. So this week has been really exciting because everything is so new to us, but we both want to work hard to do what the Lord expects of us.

 

It's been cool to get to know the leadership in the wards. Let me tell you a little bit about Bishop Jenne. I don't know him really well, but in the little bit of time that I've had to spend with him, he reminds me a lot of Brother Shoemaker, aka, he's awesome. I'm really excited to work with him. When I was talking to him on Sunday, it came up that I was a visa waiter, and it turns out that he works in the missionary department of the church! He told me that there are about 140 missionaries waiting on visas in the world right now. Isn't that crazy? I figure at least 10% are in this mission. And he said that when he gets the report this week about visas, he'll let me know if he sees my name. So that's pretty cool. I've been trying to fight it but I find myself thinking about Brasil more now than I did in the previous three weeks. It might be because I'm trying to speak more Portuguese with E. Ramos. I don't know what the weather is like in Spokane but it seems like it got a lot colder here right after General Conference, which is a huge blessing because we wear suit coats full time now. There is snow on the mountains and it's so fun watch E. Ramos talk about snow. He's never seen it snow, he's never touched it, he seems to be one of the few people who is really excited for winter around here. As for me, I'm loving the fall-like weather we have. Fall is by far my favorite season. It just feels so special...so good to me. And that means we have Halloween and Thanksgiving coming up!

 

I'm learning a lot with E. Ramos. Because it's just me and him now, I get to do a lot more, which leads to a lot more learning. It's been really cool to notice the difference between how I felt knocking doors on September 13th and how I feel now. In September, I had no idea what to say and I was on the verge of peeing my pantaloons. But now that it's October, I actually still have no idea what to say when my fist hits the door, but at least my bladder is under control now. It's really quite an adventure knocking on doors. I've learned that it doesn't do me much good to procrastinate the knocking. Whatever planning I try to do ahead of time amounts to nothing. I don't think I realized that I could be a missionary and still have normal conversations with people, even as E. Ramos and I talk about the Gospel. I don't think I really believed the promise that if I opened my mouth, I would be given the words to say. Elder Bednar gave a talk that said something about this. He said that some people get it backwards, they wait for the words to say before they are willing to exercise the faith and open their mouth. That was/is me. Just like what my beautiful Seminary teacher Mother taught me, I have to move my feet before the Lord can direct my steps. So, here's what a common doorstep approach might look like: E. Ramos looks at me, indicating that it's my turn. I turn off my brain and just knock. Then I turn my brain back on, hopefully it starts back up before they answer the door. They answer, there are many possible attitudes that could they could manifest, and E. Ramos and I scramble to show them that we are not hostile, nor alien, nor babbling idiots. It's a tough job. But it's exciting. Sometimes the contact is less than successful, sometimes people just want to be polite, and some people really seem to be interested. It's an adventure with ups and downs.

 

The zone leader in Wyoming told me something that I like. He told me that the people we talk to are more afraid of us than we are of them. It reminds me of what Scout leaders tell Deacons on their first campout when they are afraid to go to sleep. But I thought about what he said, and it really makes sense. A lot of the people we talk to here know exactly who we are, and it's fun to see people avoid us as we walk down sidewalks. I've had to wrestle with a tough thought. I wonder why it is so dang hard to share the gospel with people. I mean, it's true! It's REAL! It will change your life! I know that, but they might not. Why do they almost literally run away? Why do they shut doors in our faces wihtout listening to us? Of course, it's their right to do that, and we respect that right, but what the heck is so grotesque about our faces that turns them off so suddenly? I don't get it. The zone leader in Wyoming gave me a copy of a talk that Elder Holland gave in the MTC a few years ago. It's called "Teach the Atonement", it's an amazing talk. There was one or two paragraphs that talked specifically about this question that I have been having. I don't have the talk with me, but I'll try to capture the meaning, but the unique Holland flavor will certainly be lost. He said, you'll have days on your mission when you wonder why people aren't lined up on your door step in the morning, dressed in white, waiting to be baptized. He said he wondered the same thing. But he came to the conclusion that Salvation is not cheap. It was certainly not cheap for the Savior. If we are to claim that we are representatives of Him, and that we accept His Gospel, we better have some evidence of it. We better have some bitter moments of our own. Our own experiences in "Gethsemane". Make no mistake, He suffered the Infinite Atonement for us, but that does not mean that the rest of our lives will be easy. But Imagine what it would be like without our Savior. Actually, don't do that, don't imagine something that dark and awful. But there is good news. It's the Gospel. It's Jesus Christ. Life is tough, but it's worth it.

 

About the carry-on bag, you can send it to the mission office, which is the address I gave you before. Thank you, Mom! Also, could you post something on the blog about how thankful I am for everyone's letters? And tell them that I'm sorry that I haven't been able to respond to any of them? Today is actually my first regular p-day in the mission and it looks like I might only be able to get one letter out...I wish it wasn't so, but pois e.

 

Well, I just found out that we have to get off.

 

I love you all. Thank you so much for everything.

 

Love,

E. Rogers