January 13, 2014

YEAHAYAYAHYWHAH!

HELLO!

You might want to change my blog name to Sister in Sandpoint because Sister Rogers is staying here for another transfer!!! WOO HOO!! I am sosososo excited, I thought for sure I was leaving. My eyes kept welling up with tears this last week when we went to members and investigators homes yesterday, I thought I was never going to see them again! False alarm haha. I am so happy and grateful. We have some wonderful people who are prepared to be baptized and I feel blessed to be able to stay here and continue working with them and with our wonderful members. I love them so much.

Sean Foley wasn't baptized this last Saturday. Our last lesson we asked him baptismal interview questions which is pretty much asking him about his testimony of Heavenly Father, the Savior, the Church and Gospel, and Joseph Smith. He feels he hasn't quite developed a testimony that he would like to have when he is baptized. I knew he was sincere when he mentioned that to us and that is alright with me! My purpose is to not drag people to baptism but to help them progress and develop a testimony and have increased faith that will prepare them for baptism. We love Sean Foley and he is continuing to meet with us and read the Book of Mormon so I can't complain. Just keep praying for him and I will do the same :)

Weather is funny in Northern Idaho. It is cloudy and grey almost everyday. The sun goes down at 4:00 pm too but I am used to it now! We knock on peoples doors 8 at night and they act like it is 3 in the morning haha they aren't too happy with us. 8 o clock in Sandpoint is like 12 am in Utah Valley. Sister Workman and I get a kick out of it. They all go to bed so early here so we teach a lot of lessons to our members during that time and try to set up any other appointments that we can.

Elder Anderson came to our mission the other day! All the missionaries met in Spokane and received a training by him and Elder Christensen of the 70. I had a blast, the Spirit was incredible. At the beginning we all got into a single file line and had the opportunity to shake their hands. Those men are called of God. You can't shake their hand with out being punched with the Holy Ghost. I was called on by Elder Anderson to share my thoughts about mercy during his training. It was nerve racking haha I thought my heart was going to pop out of my chest it was beating so fast but I think I did a pretty good job :) You never would have thought but he is a super funny man hahah he has a sassy attitude and it made us all laugh. Elder Christensen is awesome too. The words they spoke were wonderful and I learned a lot. I forgot to bring my notes, there were some things that were said that I wanted to email to you so I will share them with you in the future!

I need to go but I love you! I pray for you all the time. XOXO

Oh and Logan I had a dream that you were called to China.. Just wanted to let you know! :):)

Love, Sister Rogers

 

January 6,2014

BEST WEEK IN THE MISSION THUS FAR. Goodness I love love love being a missionary. Ether 12:18 describes a little bit of my week. "And neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith" We have been praying fervently, continuously, day and night for the Lord to place in our paths those who are prepared and ready to receive the gospel. There are moments in the past where my faith was lacking in the human race. Sister Workman and I would be walking up to someone and I would already be telling myself that they were going to say no. I kept asking myself why wasn't this working, why are we not finding people who want to have the gospel in their lives? I realized the thoughts that I was having and decided that I needed to increase my faith in The Lord and in missionary work. I have been studying and studying and applying and applying and praying my little heart out to grow in my faith. I will often say "Heavenly Father, please help me to increase my faith in missionary work and in the power of the Holy Ghost and the Book of Mormon." I am very specific with The Lord because I fear that if I just pray for faith, He will provide me with a trial that I really do not want hahaha. He is funny like that. Heavenly Father answers prayers, He truly does. We have worked hard to talk to everyone, to be diligent and obedient and exercise our faith. He has blessed us incredibly. 

We found 8 new investigators this week! And not just any investigators. These are the big ones! The elect and the prepared! Some may be more than others but I am excited to teach each and every one. They are wonderful. We found a family and they are excited to learn more about the gospel and read The Book of Mormon. They are the Parsons :) Dani, Nick, and their little daughter Elle. We found them in a pretty miraculous way... a few weeks ago we went to go visit an inactive family. At their house was a friend of theirs named Jackie. We talked with her a little bit and she said she would be alright if we came to her house sometime and shared some more. She gave us her address and the next week we went over. We knocked on the door and another woman, Heidi, answered. She told us she was Jackie's room mate. Jackie wasn't home but she allowed us to come in and share a message with her and her family. The next week we decided to go back and see them again. When we knocked on the door another woman answered, it was Dani! She told us that they had just moved in, we were a little confused haha Heidi was just there the week before but we shared our testimonies with Dani and told her the gospel with strengthen her and her family. She was quick to set up a return appointment with us! That doesn't happen all the time haha. The other day was our appointment, we taught the Restoration to her and her husband and answered their questions. Nick told us that the reason they invited us to come back is because Mormons are so happy and they want to see what that is all about :) That made me smile. They committed to read the Book of Mormon and pray everyday and they wanted us to take them on a church tour the next day! When we took them on a church tour, the Spirit was so so strong. They told us they felt good and at peace and they are excited to continue meeting with us. Tonight they are having dinner and family home evening with a young family in our ward who joined us for the church tour. Sister Justeson is a convert so it should be good! WE ARE SO HAPPY! I am telling you, nothing brings greater joy and satisfaction than sharing your testimony with others and inviting them to come unto Christ and experience the happiness that comes from living the gospel. As I have been talking to everyone the Lord puts in my path and testify to them of the gospel and the Savior and His Atonement, I feel so good. I can feel myself becoming converted and that is the best feeling in the world. 

This last week has left me with a greater desire to search more diligently for those who will accept our message and receive those blessings that come from the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the miracles we have seen and the blessings that have been given. I have never felt so happy. This is the true church and as we do our best to follow the commandments, including sharing the gospel with others, and use the Atonement of our Savior in our lives, we will have real joy and contentment. Pray for missionary opportunities! Being a missionary is the best thing ever and anyone can experience it. I love you! I hope you have a wonderful week.

Love, Sister Rogers

 

 

 

Here are some pictures of my new years eve party! Sister Workman and I had too much fun with our confetti poppers and martinellis :) 

 

December 30

woo woo woo!

First off, thank you for the wonderful packages and letters you sent me. I am so grateful. I felt so loved and my Christmas was wonderful. Thank you! It was such a treat to skype with you on Christmas! I am sorry if I wasn't able to answer all of the questions you may have had haha probably because I was crying the whole time. Man I just love my family so much. It made me happy to see your faces. The next day felt a little weird, it felt like talking to you the night before was all just a big dream! And I kept thinking of things that I forgot to tell you guys or ask you! Oh well haha Mother's day is coming up and maybe I won't cry so much.

All of our investigators are doing wonderful :) We haven't had the chance to see Phoebe or Babs in awhile. I feel a little worried about them. I am praying hard that they will find the time to meet with us soon and that they are reading The Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is so so important oh my goodness (last two paragraphs of the introduction) and getting investigators to read every day is a challenge. If we want to have a strong faith and testimony, and be converted to this gospel, we need to be reading from the Book of Mormon. Sean Foley on the other hand is reading everyday and he is going to be baptized on January 11! Please pray for him. Satan works diligently on our lovely investigators. John Bell refuses to go to the addiction recovery program because he said that he has already been to programs and they do not work for him. We have explained to him that the Savior can help him overcome smoking and this program is based on Christ and his Atonement. He still won't do it. SO we are bringing addiction recovery to him. Sister Workman and I are going to be missionaries/stop smoking miracle workers with help from the Lord of course. John is so amazing, he could be baptized right now. But those cigarettes, they are tough... so we will be fasting and praying hard! 

Sister Workman and I have met a lot of great people over the last couple of weeks who seem interested and willing to learn more. I am excited to get to know them better and teach them. I will let you know what happens. 

I want to share something with you that I read this morning in personal study. 3 Nephi 9:13-14. The Nephites have just experienced some massive destruction prior to the Savior's coming. They are feeling incredibly sad at what just happened and The Lord begins to speak to them and asks (practically begs) them to come unto Him. He says "will ye not now return unto me"... now that you are finally at your lowest of low will you please use the gift of repentance that I am offering you and start being happy! It made me cry thinking of the Savior and how much it must have hurt him to see them suffer and feel sad because of their sins and iniquities. He wants so badly for them to come unto Him so he can bless them and give them eternal life. The Savior is always desiring that we will make good choices. And if we make a mistake, He hopes that we will repent and try to be better. That is what will bring true healing and happiness. I am grateful that he is so merciful because I have messed up a lot but I have felt the peace that comes from repentance and trusting in The Lord and his Atonement. How blessed am I to be able to invite others to repent and feel that same peace? 

I wish you a Happy 2014! I love you!

 

Love, Sister Rogers

December 23

Merry Christmas :)


Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you have a wonderful week. I am having so much fun in Sandpoint, I love it here. It's pretty magical, I hear it's even more magical in the summer time so I am crossing my fingers that maybe just maybe I will be able to stay here that long hahah you never know!

I have been really wanting to see a moose! Supposedly they are everywhere in Sandpoint but since I have been here I haven't seen one. A couple weeks ago I was considering praying to Heavenly Father and asking specifically if I could see a moose before I left the area, but I never remembered to mention it when I said my prayers. The other morning after personal study I opened the blinds and right there outside my window was a big MOOSE just hanging out right there! I was so excited! I yelled to Sister Workman and she ran into the room and we watched him for a good ten minutes haha she knew how happy I was. I have wanting to see a moose for a good while now. Heavenly Father knows the desires of our hearts :) 

We have been teaching a family in our ward. The Bennetts :) I love them, they are awesome. Brother Bennett is (was!) a less active and has struggled with his testimony of the gospel. As we have taught them the Spirit has been strong. They started reading the Book of Mormon and praying as a family and Brother Bennett has been coming to church every Sunday with his family. Last Sunday he invited us to watch him be ordained a priest! He looked so happy afterwards and I was really happy for him. He is planning on baptizing his daughter the beginning of next year and has been talking about getting ready to go to the temple with his family to be sealed. I feel so grateful to be able to witness the spiritual progress of this cute little family. I have seen the impact the gospel has had on them as they strive to keep the commandments. I know the gospel strengthens and blesses families! When I have a family I want to do my best to have daily scripture study and prayer together. It makes a difference!

Merry Christmas again! And Happy New Year! I love you! A departing missionary in the Sandpoint ward said something last week at his farewell that I loved and wanted to share with you! He said "There are so many ways The Lord blesses us if we put ourselves to work." - Elder Speakman

Love you! 

Love, Sister Rogers

December 16
ho ho ho

Hey Family!

Phoebe is back on track! Don't know what I said and I don't know what Sister Workman said but I think we did everything we could to make sure we taught by the Spirit. By the end of our discussion it was all smiles again :) (That wasn't the case when we first came into their home, I was a little scared haha but The Lord helped us out!) They recognized the Spirit and realized that they need to be reading The Book of Mormon and praying about it and understanding will come. I felt so happy when we got home that night. I just laid there in my bed feeling very very grateful for the Lord's help and his willingness to bless us with the Spirit, nothing beats feeling like you were an instrument in The Lord's hands.

Sister Workman and I have been singing to everyone! Some of my most favorite experiences on my mission have been when I am singing to others. The Spirit swoops in like crazy. And it softens some of the hardest hearts :) This Sunday in Sacrament meeting Sister Workman and I are singing O Holy Night for the Christmas program. I am a little nervous but excited too! I love that song, it makes me cry sometimes. I'm a bawl baby out here oh my goodness. I think the Elders are going caroling with us this weekend too, that will be fun! They are so funny haha they make Sister Workman and I laugh hard. I am blessed to have an awesome district. We all got to stay here in Sandpoint for this transfer and I couldn't be happier. There are six of us and we tons of fun doing missionary work together. The last couple of Saturdays we have done blitzes where we all get together and go tracting in each companionship's area. Each of them are hard working missionaries who are happy to be serving The Lord. They are good examples to me.

Mom! I haven't had a chance to read your email yet, I am going to print it and read it later on today. But I did get a chance to see the pictures. The little Dominican Republic babies are so cute! I hope you had a blast! I bet you did. I am happy you got to have that opportunity!

All of my cousins are getting married oh my goodness! SARA, KATIE, AND ALLISON! I can't believe it haha it blows my mind but I am so happy for each of them! They are all going to be beautiful brides. 

I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week getting ready for Christmas! Christmas time is fun in Sandpoint. They have Christmas lights wrapped around every tree I swear. It's beautiful! Sister Workman and I are going to the nutcracker tonight with the Will's, one of my favorite families in the ward. They love us :) hahaha we are going to invite millions to be baptized while we are there. LOVE YOU!

Love, Sister Rogers

FOR CHRISTMAS!! I will be skyping at The Bell's and plan on me calling you around 7:00 pm your time so Mom can get her work hours in! Does that time work for you? Let me know. I gave Sister Bell your number mom so she will be giving you a call this week to figure things out. Where are you all skyping? Do we even have Skype?

I am so excited! I love you MUWAHH

 

check out that baby! It took me a couple of shots. Gotta love God's creations

 

found these at a vintage shop. I think they make me look pretty dang smart

 

The Bell's! They had us over for dinner and we had a white elephant game! I love these guys so much! 

December 9

This last week has been great even though Sister Workman and I have had a couple of bumps in our missionary work. Satan is real and he is so annoying. We taught Phoebe the law of chastity and during the lesson she asked more about our beliefs on homosexuality because she has friends that are gay and she was concerned. She asked us some valid questions. Sister Workman and I explained to her that everyone is a child of God. Heavenly Father loves all of His children and we need to be loving as well. We taught her that as men and women we have divine potential and homosexual relationships are contrary to our Heavenly Father's plan for His children, however, we have a Savior who made a sacrifice. He knows how each of us feel. Through Him we can be strengthened, we can receive help to overcome trials, challenges, and temptations whatever they may be. A couple of days later Phoebe texted us and said that she doesn't think organized religion is for her and she doesn't want to be baptized. She told us that our beliefs about homosexuality is what caused her to change her mind. I have never felt so discouraged on my mission than I did in that moment. I quickly remembered a part in Preach My Gospel that says "do not let others agency cause your faith to become weak". Sister Workman and I held tight to that statement. We know we did everything we could to teach Phoebe simply and by the Spirit. She has felt the Spirit in the past testifying to her that the gospel is true and that it will make her happy. We decided to pray and ask Heavenly Father how to go about the situation. After we prayed we decided we should try and meet with her one more time. We felt we needed to leave her with our testimonies and also help her to recognize those past experiences where she did feel the Holy Ghost. We texted her back and she agreed. We are meeting with her tomorrow and we are praying our hearts out that The Lord will prepare her and that her heart will be softened. I will let you know what happens! Despite this set back, we have seen so many miracles! We are having success in Sandpoint and I feel so blessed to be apart of it. I am grateful to Heavenly Father for his help and his love. <3

I love you all so much! Mom and Dad, I will let you know more about what is going on with Christmas in the next week or two. Stay safe!

Love, Sister Rogers

December 2

The good Lord has seen it fit to keep me in Sandpoint, Idaho for another transfer! He knows how much I love this place and the people. Everyone in the ward says I'm spoiled because this is my first area and I won't find any place that's better. I believe them and that makes me a little nervous haha I DON'T EVER WANT TO LEAVE! But I know that no matter where The Lord sends me I am going to love it. Maybe not as much as Sandpoint... we'll see :)

I am so sorry to hear about the chickens! My heart broke for all of you, especially Sadie and Dad. And then I quickly cheered up when I read about how Sadie came in crying in the middle of the night because the kitten wouldn't let her sleep hahahaha! She is so funny! Reo is a little cutie, too bad he meowed too much. Let me know if you get another kitten or puppy and send me more pictures, you know I love baby animals.

That is so cool Mom that you have the opportunity to go to the Dominican Republic! What an awesome opportunity :) I hope you have so much fun! Be safe and take lots of pictures. Tell me all about it when you get home. When I get back it would be really fun if we all went on a humanitarian trip together. I would love nothing more then to serve others with my family. And now I'm thinking about how cool it would be if we could serve missions as families haha. Go out and preach the gospel together! It would be heaven. You would all rock it out in the mission field.

I love the members here more than anything, they are so supportive and loving, but they won't stop giving us food. I swear our fridge is packed with pies and cakes and cookies and thanksgiving dinner and we have bags of candy. Trust me we have turned down a lot of offers and we still manage to return home at night with loads of stuff. I really need you to send me that work out program Dad! Thanks!

This last week I have really been studying faith. Sometimes it is easy to question everything when your investigators aren't keeping their commitments. When you are teaching and testifying and no one is accepting your message. You can get in a habit of looking at someone and thinking there is no way they will listen to what we have to say or there is no they will keep commitments. Where is the faith!? I decided I need a huge dose of it! So I am working on it and I am proud to say that as I pray and ask my Heavenly Father to help me, I have the faith that He will so that's a step! During my personal study I have read so many awesome things about faith. When you get a chance, read Hebrews 11! It's wonderful, I love it. One of my favorite parts is in verse 6, "He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him". I love you! I hope you have a wonderful week. BE SAFE! Especially in the Dominican Republic Mom. XOXO. Please pray for Phoebe, Sean Foley, and John Bell! Pray for Dillon and Carter too :)

Love, Sister Rogers

 

This was hanging up at somebody's property in Libby, Montana. There are so many weirdos there! But they are good people. This thing was huge! The picture doesn't do it justice. I'm not sure if it was a deer or a cougar? Probably a deer but it would be cooler if it was a cougar.

 

 My favorite little alley way in Sandpoint. There is art everywhere.

 

This is John Bell! He is a little sweetheart and a future member of the church!