February 13, 2017 Week 68 Santo Domingo

Great week and a great day today.  We visited the tsachila tribe.  They are really cool people. They have these natural saunas that they make, and a medicine tent type thing where the shawmen do stuff. They do some interesting things....  They make their own clothes.  We also threw some spears, I'm not very good at it.  I'll practice more when I get home.  Get me a spear please.

Sunday was real good.  We had people come, to church and we have a baptism set up for the end of this month. So that is great.  We have had some really good lessons, which is just great.  Spiritual stuff happening here....
 It has been raining every day here and there.  We saw someones roof caved in.  Everyone is trying to build damns and stuff.   Big rain storm, thunder, lightening, everything.
Teaching and knocking on doors.  Work work work....
Also we got some of our clothes ruined!! Don't ask..  It's ok, I'll be fine.  My companion might not be though, cause it was his fairly new suit.  Destroyed....   Also it is time for the kids to be throwing that chalk powder again.  I hate it, it stains your shirt.
We had reunions this week, just quick ones.  I'm teaching a little English.
We are tired, so we must be working hard.  We have a little bit of stress.  Not to worry, we can handle it.  Ether 12:27

PS Happy Valentines Day

Love Elder Rogers

February 6, 2017 Week 67 Santo Domingo

Hey family,
We ate some cow feet today, not my favorite.  Lots of people like it here..... I'm still not sure.  Also I finally got my shoes fixed.  I just had this guy put this new stuff on the bottom to cover the holes, and now I think they will last the rest of my mission.

A couple of our investigators have agreed to be baptized the end of Feb.  So that is really exciting.  They are awesome people.
Learning to play the guitar.....

Also I went for a run the other day, so that is something new.  Elder Rogers running.
Also I am growing a lemon tree.  It's coming along nicely.

We had a good stake conference this week also.  President came, which was real good.  He is all about numbers.

 Another thing, I think we all need to step it up with this work.  Every member a missionary!!!!  I think if we all did that it would be great.  If you see new people coming to church, just really talk to them and make them feel welcome.  That would be great. It's all about obedience really people.

We went around in a group of about 4 a little bit this week.  I'm learning to speak a little Navajo, it's super hard!  Well that's about all.  Thanks for all the letters and emails.  Love you guys

Love, Elder Rogers

January 30, 2017 Week 67 Santo Domingo

Hello Family,
Sorry for the short emails this week, I had to spend a little time on a college application.  I had to write some essays, it almost killed me for sure...  I wrote real ones this time.  It's really hard to decide what to do, you know.  There are so many things I am interested in.  Gun smithing, hammock making, chemical engineering.  Ya know.  I can't really think about that now, because I do have a lot of work still to do here.  Anyway we contacted today, no one really wanted to talk to us, so it was kind of sad today.  No pictures this week either...  We are heading to Ambato for meetings this week.  That means a pretty long bus ride.  I am excited to go there though,  It will be super cool.
There is a lot of agriculture in this area.  Lots of people ride motorcycles or 4 wheelers.  I like the area a lot.  People start fires in the middle of the street a lot around here, and there is a bakery on every corner.  It's pretty noisy and there are many bugs, including cockroaches and mosquitos.  Also many of the men walk around with no shirts on.
We met a lady today, and she just started talking English to us.  It was so strange to just start talking to someone and then all of the sudden they start speaking English.  Turns out they are missionaries of some sort.  It was interesting.  Anyway the world needs more people trying to help each other, so it's nice.  Well I guess that sums up the week.
Love Elder Rogers

January 23, 2017 Week 66 Santo Domingo

Well we taught the gospel today, which is what we do every day.  No breaks.... We are very busy.  We went to see a couple departing missionaries off today.    Found a couple nice people to talk to.  Two of our investigators are getting married soon, so that is a great step for them.  We found 4 new investigators.  We had some good lessons with them.  A little zone meeting this week.

Hey Kolt remember when we went mudding in the mazda, trying to go through a mud puddle, we got stuck instantly.  It wasn't a good idea.  Anyway off topic as usual.  

We have been seeing some miracles here.  A nice less active family, just got busy with life, but anyway, they are getting back to it now, which is great.   Just a lot of great people here.  I am hoping to help them.  

I had some really pretty good bread here the other day, of course it doesn't compare to grannys bread of any kind, but it is pretty good for here.  I do miss her baking skills. They are hard to come by here. Plus we don't have an oven.....  Well geez.. I'm hungry.  

Shout out to Elder Bradshaw and Elder Pawlak in Texas!!  Well Team 3 over and out

Love Elder Rogers

I think maybe I will start a hammock business here in Ecuador.  It's in the works....

January 16, 2017 Week 65 Santo Domingo

Hello Family,

I am super tired this week, we have been working hard.  I got my hammock done, no photos of that yet, but I am definitely sleeping in it soon.  I can't wait to take it to the forest.  It is so hot in the apartment,  I think this will be good to sleep in....  I just sweat all day long.  There was a baptism this week, it wasn't ours but it was real nice.  A lot of people came out to support our newest member here in this ward.  No pictures of that either... oops....
We did some service this week also, I believe I lost my painting shorts darn it!! They were good for such projects.
The ward here is really good, there are some good members here for sure.  A teeny earthquake also this week, nothing major, so don't panic.... We hung out with the zone leaders a bit this week as well.
We had some great lessons this week I gotta say it was good!! We also taught this group of kids, there were like 10 of them just hanging out and they came to talk to us.   We were teaching them a little English, seems they already know a few swear words.  Not may fault.
Anyway that is all for now.
Love Elder Rogers

January 9, 2016 Week 64 Santo Domingo

Hello Family,
Great Week here in Santa Domingo.  We met a new investigator today, he is awesome.  I'll tell you what happened.  We were contacting like usual, and it started to rain super hard.  We were hiding under a big beam for a while, but it didn't look like it was ever going to stop raining.  So we decided to knock on a couple more doors.  This guy opened up and talked to us in the door way for a while, and then he just told us to come in because we were super wet.  He was really interested in what we had to say, and invited us back again.  So that was a great experience.
Here's a picture of a guy building a house.

And me

We traveled to Quito this week also for verification.   It was a long trip.  I am growing a lime tree by the way.  Three actually.  My hammock is coming along nicely.  Sorry got to go very busy here.
Love Elder Rogers  (Team Three)

January 2, 2017 Week 63 Santo Domingo

Hey family,
We had a really good week this week.  The baptism was great.

We just got back giving a blessing to a member at the hospital.  It was nice.  There is this really nice guy that we went with lunch with, he is member and he works really hard to help the missionaries.  He goes at all day just talking to people and inviting them to hear a message about our church.  He helps us find people to teach.
I tried to make some lemonade, it was a fail, turned out really gross.  I ate the last potato and rations are running dangerously low!!  I have also decided to buy a hammock, I'd like to hang it up here at the house, but I haven't decided where.
I am preparing a talk for a meeting tomorrow about contacting people, so I better get on that.
It is still super humid here.... It's killing me.
I did sleep through another earthquake.  Oh well the house was still standing. We also slept through New Years, not a big deal.  We live in this apartment type place that is 6 floors high.  The bottom floor seems to be some kind of church, and the top floor is a discotechia.  So it is pretty weird...
We also had an activity this week, played some games, got super sunburnt oops.  It was lots of fun.  Ya know last year was officially a full year that I spent in Ecuador.. just throwing that out there.  Hold your applause till the end please....
Talk to you next week
Love, Elder Rogers