Letter from MTC President

30 August 2013

Dear Brother and Sister Rodgers,

Your son will be departing from the England Missionary Training Centre on Wednesday, September 4.  We want you to know how much we have enjoyed having him with us.

Elder Rodgers is a fine young man and we are grateful for the opportunity we have had to work with him on a daily basis.  He is well-prepared for his mission and he continues each day to grow spiritually.  He is developing good teaching skills and is excited about the work.  He is ready for full time service in the Alpine German-Speaking Mission. 

We love this young man and are grateful to you for all you have done to prepare him for this wonderful time in his life.  Your love and continued support are important to his success.   Letters from home are always greatly anticipated and appreciated.  Please address all future mail to:

Alpine German-Speaking Mission

Lommelstraße 7

81479 München

Germany

May you and your family be blessed as he continues to serve our Heavenly Father.

Sincerely,

President and Sister Edwards

President and Sister Edwards

President and Sister Durkin

We just received this letter from the Preston MTC President. Its exciting to think Tanner will be in Germany at the Mission home and then we will see where he goes from there. It's nice to see he is doing so well. Thanks for all your support!

July 25, 2013   First Day at MTC

August 22, 2013   4 Weeks at MTC

Week 5 in MTC!

   Well!! Hey again! This week went by way fast. Nothing terribly exciting has happened. Just the regular language learning and stuff. I think the biggest story from this week is my improvement with the language. Elder Graver and I were able to teach one of our investigators about faith and how faith leads us to repentance and that the ultimate form and outward expression of repentance is baptism. When I gave the main part of the lesson my ideas were flowing so well and I was able to really speak clearly and with the Spirit. Our lesson went for half hour! We were interactive, and asked many questions. I think overall it was the best lesson yet. ~Glaube and Jesus Christus ist der erste Grundsatz dem Evangeliums. Umkehr ist der zweite Grundzatz des Evangeliums. Wir sind für unsere Sünde verantwortlich, aber durch Jesus Christus können wir Sünde überwinden!~ haha I love german! but like its going really well here. 

     I haven't been talking in my sleep as much this last week I believe. I'm pretty sure that I haven't said much. I did speak in German though. Which is super cool and I realize I dream in German too. I wake up remembering my dreams and some of them are odd because of the German running through my mind.

    I leave next Wednesday to München and from there I'll find out where I'm headed. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna remember no German and I'll basically be clueless. Yet I'm looking forward to that an insane amount! Really all we do here is study in German, and learn. Tons of that. German German German. We met a German lady the other day, I could carry on about a half conversation, so not too shabby!

   
    I've realized I've been gone for 5 weeks now. At times it seems way longer, other times it seems like just last week. I'm very glad that everyone is doing great back home. I hope that it keeps going well for you all! Thanks for the support! From here on out I'm almost certain that my pday is Monday, but that will start in over a week. I'm not sure if ill have time to email Wednesday or Tuesday before I leave. Guess i shall see!

Elder Rodgers

    
      OK so I've realized my ability to grow facial hair is exceptional. I have a literal 5 o'clock shadow! So cool! but way annoying...I haven't gained weight which is good. Although like 3 weeks ago I split my old pants when I bent over but sister Edwards fixed them and they're just as good now.

     Tanner had this last part added on the end in some notes. I think its funny because he was sure he could go a couple days without having to shave. Several people have told him that most missionaries will gain a lot of weight in the MTC so he has been very cautious about that. 

     
    

Week 4 in MTC

     German is progressing very well! The biggest event from this week was when we went out to Manchester via Train to find people! Elder Graver and I were able to place three Books of Mormon! haha and talked to a ton of people. The first one we gave was my favorite. We stopped a guy about our age who was walking to work. I was impressed to ask if he believed that there could be a God who can personally help us and if he ever had any questions or experiences in his life that he wasn't able to answer. Straight off he replied with an amazing personal story. He said during the event he had a thought like something was talking to him telling him he could be better, he has potential and he needed to change. He said he could never explain what it was. So right then, I bore testimony that God loves him and that the feelings and thoughts he got were from God, through the Holy Ghost. I then told him about Joseph Smith, who had a question and prayed. I told him what his experience was and how it allowed the Gospel to be restored through Joesph Smith. I had him read in Moroni 10:4-5 and I promised him that if he would read in the Book of Mormon his question could be answered and he could know that that was a true message from God and that God personally loves each of us. He gladly accepted and I got his name and number for the missionaries in the Manchester area. He said he'd be happy to meet with them.

     It was such a great time! We talked to many others and handed pass along cards, more Books of Mormon and then we ran to the Burger King to use the washroom and  I'm pretty sure a guy followed us in there cuz we went upstairs to the bathroom and right as we left he was there and asked if we had 5 minutes to talk to him. We were like yah!!! haha but as we sat down I instantly recognized the Spirit leave and I knew where he was taking this discussion. He ended up ratting on the church and on me and Elder Graver. We realized it was just 1 guy, and to focus on all the success we had! it was really cool.

    As we talked to people I found myself thinking in German, even so much that I said German words by accident haha. I started bearing testimony in German then realized I should probably be speaking English. Its so cool to see our progress in German!

    Overall the MTC is wonderful. Great food, great staff and people called to lead us. I love our teachers. Its just great. We have a new batch of 2 weekers in tomorrow. The last group before we leave too!! haha. Then its off to Deutschland!  That's about all I have to say! Just a great spirit this week. Its awesome here!

Elder Rodgers

Week 3 in MTC

Hey All.

     

       So we had visitors!! Elder Holland, Elder Nelson and 3 members of the 70 came. Almost a 2 hour meeting with them! They gave us so much stuff to think about. They spoke so well and it was amazing getting to hear them. We got to meet each one personally and shake their hands. It was something never to be forgotten. Then Elder Ballard popped in! He spoke to us for 10 minutes or so. Then That night he was at the Pageant so we sang to him there. Friday, Elder Holland, Elder Nelson and new 70's came back and so they talked to us again. We had soooo many people with great authority talk to us and we were all so spiritually uplifted here. It was unbelievable. As the 2 German districts we sang for them the first night.. Joseph Smiths First Prayer. Half English, half Deutsch. It was so great! I loved having them!

      So we do this thing at the MTC called the TRC. Its the teaching resource center. We have fake investigators (the teachers) but they play the role perfectly. We teach them and whatnot. At the moment we have 5 investigators that we are going at. 1 committed to baptism. When I asked him to be baptized and he accepted, Elder Graver like died out loud haha and he was super excited! It was a great testimony to me because with hard work, sooner or later we get rewarded and he was super jacked to be rewarded! Its really fun teaching them. We also do it in German, so that's hard. But as of recent we have been challenged to leave our notes behind and really use our knowledge and the spirit to guide us. So I have been doing that and I really have felt like I can express my thoughts and feelings. Even if its not in a perfect manner, it still works so good! Our German has gotten so much better!!!!! I love learning it. This week I've been really trying to focus on using time wisely to do all I can to learn the language. My prayers are strong in asking for help and immediately to start off the week my first lesson in German went so well! I learned new stuff in the class, I taught better, and it was just a great feeling. I know that the Lord blesses his servants. Its so evident here.

      I've been trying to be more selfless and focus on others. It has helped me learn more I believe. Really, once you learn to forget yourself, time goes by faster and the language comes easier. Next Tuesday we get to go out to Manchester and go finding! hahaha like in English, in England, real people.... finding and teaching. Its gonna be EPIC!

     I went to the temple last Tuesday and again today. Such a wonderful place. Such a great place to be and spend time. I love the thoughts that I get, and the feeling of pure comfort and joy. As I write in my journal now i'm accidentally writing words in German and using German spelling for half my words. German is rubbing off. This MTC is such a great place. We love the chefs, the Mission Pres and his wife and all who work here. The teachers are amazing and as a missionary, this is indeed the best place in the world to be trained to go out and share the gospel.

 I love being a missionary! 

Oh and on a side note... thanks to everyone who has supported me, I really mean it! I feel the difference!! 

Love you all! Elder Rodgers.

Tanner has said that if anyone is wanting to send him a letter after this week to send it to Germany to the Mission Home. The address is on the side to the right.

another Tanner selfie

his desk

his tag with his scriptures

Week 2 in MTC

      This week has been amazing. Absolutely amazing. So much has happened but at the same time, nothing has really happened. German is coming along well. We have a lot of time to study it. We've completed modal verbs and so I can conjugate those rather well now. I can say sentences better and ask good questions. Picking up words is easier and its so fun! I just get so excited! We speak it a lot and it is a huge help for us to have such good teachers. The Rosetta stone before was good because it gave me a start on vocab and pronunciation and so I've been able to pick things up a tad easier. Its so great! Speaking German is so much fun. We taught a lesson to our investigator and we had planned on teaching baptism but he asked about the Book of Mormon so i ended up going by memory for 10 minutes in a convo (all German) and i bore a great testimony in German! after the fact, i realized there was no way i could have done that without the Spirit in the room because i used words in orders that id never done before. It really allowed me to understand that we can be led by the spirit. So much!

      That pageant here is real cool. We sing in it every night but Sunday and Monday. If you go on LDS.org and click the link to the British pageant thingy I'm the middle missionary on the stage on the right. Kinda neat! Its a real good pageant! And so we found out 5 general authorities are coming to watch it, then they're coming to the MTC and were having a special fireside tomorrow. Although that's when the 2 week missionaries leave so there will be 34 missionaries here instead of 92! so thats super cool!!!! And the 17 missionaries from the German districts are gonna sing Joseph Smiths first prayer... Half in English half German. 'be so powerful1 Ah so great!

      We had testimony meeting Sunday (3 hours long) and i was able to get up and bear testimony on the power of the Holy Ghost in blessing us, especially those who are learning languages. My favourite testimony was from a french dude who is learning English. He told the story of how he gave up the France National Rugby team to serve a mission. He made the team but chose a mission. Hes a super cool guy.

    I'm writing in my journal every night and my prayers are consistent. Everything is getting into a good habit and I'm loving it! its really great to see how missionaries are blessed. I love the MTC and I love my mission!

Elder Rodgers

 Elder Quilter, Elder Packer, Elder Graver, Me, Elder Mckenzie, Elder Martinez in front

Streets of England while running

In the Districts room! My flags

Preston MTC

Classic Tanner Selfies

Stretching for a run! haha