April 28, 2014

heyyyy!!!

How is everyone doing! My sweet cousin Katie is getting married this week, it's so weird to be having everyone getting married but it doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would. Of course I think that would be awesome if I could just hop on a plane and come spend the big day with everyone and then come right back but I know I am right where I need to be. And my cousins just need to promise me that they we will hangout with me every once in a while when I get home hahah :) JIM BROCK WILL BE BAPTIZED MAY 3rd. What a great day that will be. I want to cry just thinkin about it, he is worthy of it and he is ready. Our ward has made such wonderful contributions to make sure it is a special day for him. Yesterday I spoke in sacrament meeting on Christ coming to the Americas. When the Savior appears to the people of Nephi he first tells them of His Atonement and then of all things he could of addressed, he begins to talk about baptism. I think we forget sometimes how wonderful baptism truly is and just how important it is to our Heavenly Father. We all know it is a saving ordinance where all of our sins are washed away and we are able to receive the Holy Ghost, but we are human and we forget what a great blessing it is to make this covenant and commitment with God. As we keep our promise to Him to remember the Savior and keep His commandments, He promises us to have the Spirit to be with us. When we have the Spirit we are full of joy, patience, confidence, motivation, strength, trust, we are worry free (that's one of my favorite ones), charitable... the list goes on. How cool that I get to be apart of Jim's baptism. 

We have been doing a lot of street contacting lately, our President really wants us to push finding new investigators. We have found some pretty great people and weird people too, I don't think I will be scared to talk to anyone when I get home. Yesterday we didn't get to talk to anyone because guess what. I'm mad. It snowed! It's almost May! I woke up and said ARE YOU KIDDING ME. There was white all over. But this upcoming week it's supposed to be up to the 70's so I can't complain. Hopefully it warms up today, we are going on a hike up in Colville about an hour away with our zone so that should be fun. And then tonight the Goldades, a couple in our ward, is taking us out for some THAI FOOD. I have been craving Thai food and Indian food oh my goodness. 8 months so far without it ha I am really happy.

I LOVE YOU! I attached some pictures. God sent me to the right mission for many reasons but one of them is I get to see baby animals all the time. I am in heaven.

Love, Sister Rogers

Our Easter picture, we originally wanted to take one with us sitting on our tractor outside but we put it off and it got too dark outside. Are my cheeks chubbier?? Or have they always been that chubby haha I can't tell

Look at this little guy!!! There are baby ponies all over, he was so so little. He probably came up to a little above my knees. I was dying. I wanted to stay and watch him all day.

the snow...

a less active family had kittens all over! They were so cute, I wish they stayed kittens forever

April 21, 2014

I am so sorry, this email is pretty short! We had to email at the family history center today because the library was full and these computers are SO slow. 

I hope you had a great Easter, I absolutely loved it. Sister Fuller was the speaker in sacrament meeting. She did a lovely job! It was nice having her speak because I knew that it was going to be a simple powerful talk that would help our investigators understand and feel the Spirit. I felt at ease sitting in the congregation this Sunday haha some sacrament meetings can feel a little stressful when a speaker goes off on a long tangent and they share very little testimony or doctrine, or they are too quiet and all you can hear are the fussy kids... stuff like that. You are always just praying super hard that your investigators got something out of it, that they recognized the Spirit that was there even if everything wasn't perfect. But this Sunday I didn't have to worry about it, it felt nice. We had 5 come for Easter Sunday :) 2 of them attended due to the wonderful missionary skills of our pro investigator, Jim Brock. He invited some people from his work and they came! He was so excited and so were we. He is going to be a great member. We had a really cool lesson with him the other day at our ward mission leader's home. We taught the Word of Wisdom. I think it was one of the most powerful lessons I have been a part of since coming on my mission. The Spirit was thick. I love feeling the Holy Ghost that strongly... it's those moments when you feel genuine love for those around you, you feel content and worry free. You know right then and there that the Savior is very real and that He loves you. You know the gospel is true and you feel immense gratitude.

I got a COLD SORE this week... yep haha anyone who has seen me with a cold sore knows what I am talking about. I guess a mission causes a bit of stress :) Lately I have been really trying to remind myself of what I can and can't control as a missionary. This little lesson is going to help me in the long run and hopefully I won't get as many cold sores! These people are ultimately in the Lord's hands and I am just here to help Him in any way that I can. 

One of my favorite Easter scriptures is Mosiah 15:8-9. I have been thinking a lot about Christ's resurrection. I feel extremely blessed to know that through Him we can overcome death and be with our families forever. I think that is one of the greatest messages I get to share as a missionary.

I love you! I hope everything is going well! XOXO

Love, Sister Rogers

April 14, 2014

We had 9 investigators come to church yesterday!!! NINE. Sister Fuller and I couldn't even believe it. I felt very very blessed and grateful. Sister Fuller and I also sang in Sacrament meeting yesterday, so that was really fun! We sang "Nearer My God To Thee" acapella. I love that song, hymns always invite the spirit. I know I have said this multiple times but I just love our members... they are the best. It so cool to be apart of a ward that feels the spirit of missionary work and acts on it. It makes a huge difference! And I know it makes our Heavenly Father and Savior really happy and proud. Jim is still planning on May 3rd. He is practically Mormon already. He has been throwing some really strange concerns at us lately which is fine haha but it can test my patience a little bit! I will be so so so patient when I come home.   :)

We have been having a blast lately. The sun has been out shining for the last week and it makes us SO happy. We drive from place to place through the country with our sunglasses on and the windows rolled down with our church music turned up hahah we have been loving the group Pentatonix lately. I think thats how you spell it. They aren't a church group or anything, we just have their Christmas songs. I know we are crazy listening to Christmas music in April but whatever, it is really good and a little change from your usual mormon tabernacle choir. My favorite song they sing is the drummer boy song, you will have to give it a listen! 

CONGRATULATIONS SARA AND JC THOMAS!!! I am so happy for you both! I'm glad I finally got the wedding announcement in the mail. I was freaking out for a little bit there haha now I am just waiting for Katies.

I love you all, thank you for all of your prayers and the prayers for our investigators, I am soaking up every bit of them. 

HAPPY EASTER <3<3<3

Love, Sister Adrienne Rogers

April 7, 2014

I loved General Conference :) Easter Conference is always good. I love that feeling that I get as I listen and learn more about the Savior and His gospel during this time of the year! I had too many favorites this weekend... all of the messages were wonderful but I really loved Scotts, Uchtdorfs, Sister Stevens, Bishop Stevensons, and Bednars <3 Those were the ones that struck my heart pretty hard ha the ones that The Lord used to answer my questions and concerns. There is always an underlying theme to everyone's messages. I think some of the big themes that I really noticed was charity/loving God & others, God's commandments vs. worldly trends, the importance of making and keeping sacred covenants.

We had some pretty awesome miracles this last week! Patricia and Caylee, Sister Alexander's friends that she referred us to (who were interested and we taught a few lessons to early March and then they dropped off the face of the Earth) texted us earlier last week and told us they would like to meet with us! We spent a lot of our time with them answering some concerns Patricia has had by sharing scriptures with her and Caylee and helping them see how it applies to them. At the end of our meeting Sister Alexander who was with us invited them to watch general conference and asked if she could come over and watch it with them Sunday morning at their house. Patricia and Caylee were all for it so of course we were really happy! We haven't had a chance to talk to them about it yet but we are praying and hoping that the messages touched their hearts and they were able to recognize the Spirit. Patricia and Caylee believe that Joseph Smith is a prophet and the Book of Mormon is true but they also believe that multiple people are prophets... they think all religious leaders are called of God, like the leader who started the 7th day Adventist church, or the pope. We have been praying hard that General Conference has opened their eyes and helped them to better understand the Restoration and it's importance. We will see! Elder Corbridge's talk was perfect for them. Patricia texted us and told us she recorded the sunday afternoon session and will watch it and that she will see us this week so we are counting on it.

Jim is on date for May 3rd!!!!!! He is so excited! Sometimes I just get teary eyed when I think about him or pray for him because I feel really blessed to be the missionary who gets to teach him. He is so prepared and willing to learn. Satan is throwing in some tricks to try and bring him down, he has a lot going on in his family right now that is causing him a lot of worry and heartache, but he is hanging in there! He attended the Sunday morning session of general conference with us and the second Uchtdorf began to talk until the very last speaker, ALL of Jim's concerns were addressed. Hopefully he recognized that revelation just as much as we did. We were blown away! It was like God was speaking directly to him, it was so cool to witness. Sister Fuller and I are staying in Deer Park another transfer so we will be able to continue to help Jim progress and be prepared for baptism! I am so grateful!

I love you! By the way there is a woman here in our ward who reminds me so much of my Aunt Val. It makes me happy haha she has a lot of the same mannerisms and the same cute wavy hair and they are about the same age. She did marketing and all the stuff, I could talk to her for hours haha we love her. Sister Riegle is her name :) 

It's starting to warm up! I hope you have a fun spring week!

LOve, Sister Rogers