July 9 Utah

Kyleigh and I were able to go listen to President and Sister Christensen report on their mission to Ecuador in Utah this weekend.  They are amazing people and I appreciate them taking such good care of my son, these past months.  I also met the group of sisters Elder Rogers traveled with from the MTC to Ecuador and his trainer companion!!!  So many missionaries came to hear the report, and you can tell how loved President and Sister Christensen are.  Their daughter is pretty amazing too!!

July 10, 2017 Week 89 Quito, Manantial

Isn't it great that we live in a free country where we can worship whenever we want..  Happy birthday to America. It has been a good week here.  If I was there I would be lighting off fire works right and left.
Well this week I have been trying to cut my own shoe soles out of this tire.  Let's see if it works.  I tried once before, but it didn't work.
Well it has been a little bit stressful this week.  We are preparing for 5 people to get baptized and 5 other people are doing the baptizing.  So just trying to organize that is a lot of work.  It is going to be great though.  We had divisions this week, which were pretty good.
We found some new people this week, but no on was able to come to church Sunday.  We are hoping to find more people pretty soon.
Also something interesting just happened a little bit ago, our neighbors car got stolen, so that's weird.
My new shoe laces

Cotopaxi

Well Love you guys
Love Elder Rogers

July 3, 2017 Week 88 Quito, Manantial

Well another week of training going on here.  No photos so sorry about that.  Also we had verifications this week, saying goodbye to President Christensen and Sister Christensen.  It was great to be able to say a real goodbye.  Sister Christensen did take a few photos, she always does at these meetings.  She is really good with that.  President spoke a bit and said some really cool things, he said we would never lose touch, because we are all brothers in the work and such.  Also about the stone being cut from the mountain, the work goes on, even though they are leaving. I have very high regard for President, he has taught me many things and I strive to be like him.  He is very dedicated to the work, I hope to be like that some day also.  I want to be of service to the Lord all my life, just like he has been.  He's just been a fantastic mission president.  Probably one of the greatest examples I have ever seen in my life.  The perfect example of magnifying your calling.  I got to see Elder Syndergaard and talk to him quite a bit at the meeting, and he is also training.  So it was great to see him and hear how he is doing.  Also President was giving away all his stuff, I got some great shoe laces.  Which was good because I needed new ones.  It was kind of sad to see them give away all their stuff that they don't need any more.

We had divisions also this week.  We had a little service, and helped some Hermanas move into a different house.  Our darn baptisms got moved to next week again.  It's a bit of a bummer, but that's ok.
I'm starting to wonder if these clothes are going to last the rest of my time here.  It's starting to get a little iffy.....
Tomorrow is the 4th of July Happy America!!  I like how lunch here is like only 2 dollars, it's a great deal. Had some meetings....

The old zone leader Elder Cox wrote to me, it was great to hear from him...  So I guess that is all for this week.  Later
Love, Elder Rogers

June 26, 2017 Week 87 Quito, Manantial

Well my stomach has been hurting again a little lately, I thought I had it figured out, but I guess not.  I have started this new remedy of boiling oregano and then drinking the water.  Around here they just think if you boil coke and add some lemons to it, it will cure anything.  I haven't tried that yet, I might not.  My foot is feeling better though.  I did some capacitations again this week, the zone leaders came to watch.  I am trying to be a good leader and trainer here.  My companion was a little sick this week, so I read a lot of scriptures and talks.  I enjoy Alma, it's my favorite.  It tells about all the things the Lord has done for us, and we should always remember all the things he does.  People always turn wicked when they forget what the Lord has done for them personally.  It's hard to for some people to understand, that we need to be active in our salvation.  We need to change and try and live righteously.  Maybe I will be a Book of Mormon historian, it's such a great book really.  I love learning things from it.
Then I cleaned some of the house, and called all of our new investigators and contacted some other people.  Just everything I could do while stuck inside. It's important to be a good babysitter when your companion is sick, I gotta watch over him and such.
I'm not sure if I ever want to share a bathroom again with anyone, just a random thought.  Anyway all is well here. Having a great time.  Had a fun activity with the zone.

Well I guess I will write next week.
Love Elder Rogers

June 19, 2017 Week 86 Quito, Manantial

Hello Family,

There is so much to do....  We are doing well, getting to know my companion and such.  I have discovered he is a fan of Justin Bieber..... Also I like the new zone leader, Elder Gonzalas, He seems cool.  I've only talked to him once.
I'll tell you about this thing on my foot, it is a little concerning, maybe I'll send a picture later.  It is pretty swollen now, and hurts quite a bit.  It's interesting, we may have to amputate......  Still teaching our investigators.  Still getting ready for baptism, some got pushed back a few weeks. Satan works hard sometimes on making our plans harder.   We did find a new guy this week who is pretty cool, but he works a lot of Sundays so I'm not sure he can come to church.
Also made some no bake cookies, put a little root beer extract in there.  Not a bad idea.
We went bowling as a zone, it was fun.

Tell Granny that I am in fact getting my shoes fixed today, so no worries....  There's a guy that will patch the holes, if I had smaller feet I'd just buy new ones, but there are none in my size.  I think they will last the rest of the time here.  He's putting tires on them.  It's magic!!

It's a little lonely without Elder Astin, back to speaking Spanish all day.... Now I don't know if I'm speaking English or Spanish, I get all mixed up. There are some new Sisters in our zone too. Everything is going pretty well so we will keep up the work.
Love Elder Rogers

June 12, 2017 Week 85 Quito, Manantial

Well this week was interesting.  We did a service project this week.  Building a house.  We got a bunch of sand and some concrete to make our own foundation.  That is how they do it here.  With a shovel and all by hand, no big cement trucks coming in.  20 buckets of sand and 20 buckets of little rocks to start this foundation.  Then we carry a cement mixture over all in buckets.  Pretty tough work.   It's hard to explain, but somehow it works out.  Then after that we went home to shower, to discover that the water was off again.  So we dumped some buckets of water we had saved from when there it rained on ourselves just to try and get off the concrete.  Luckily I have some old spice deodorant, so it's all good!!  We had some amazing food also.

It was funny, right after the whole concrete thing one of our investigators asked us to help her move a stove.  I was like, but I'm gonna die, but we are missionaries and we are doing service.  So that is what we did.  She wants to be baptized next month so that is great....
We have another baptism this month also.

Well changes were today and my new companion is from Columbia and is Elder De Leon.  Elder Astin is off to my old sector the hottest place on Earth.  Santo Domingo.  I'm sad to see the old guy go.   But at least he will be in my old stomping ground, seeing all my friends there.  The kids, my homies.  Here's the district before the split. Serious....

We saw President for the last time this week.  He is great, he gave us temple recommend holders. I will miss him.  Also had divisions this week, it's been very busy.  Sorry I don't really have more to say.  I'm just tired and busy.... 

Until next week Fam
Love Elder Rogers

June 5, 2017 Week 84 Quito, Manantial

Happy bday Bean!!
How's everyone?  It has been a really good week, we had 9 investigators come to church, and several would like to be baptized, so we are so excited about that.  It has been a week of great things.  I got my other bday package, so thanks for that.  Cruel joke though... Any way, we had conferences with President this week, and it is his last one in the mission.  I am still trying to figure out how to be a good district leader.  We had a meeting about that and I learned a lot so that was also great.   We just meet a lot of new people and had some good visits and lessons.   This is a great area with some really great people and I love the ward.  It is going great.  Thanks for writing I will talk to you later
Love Elder Rogers