Hello my friends!

How is everybody doing! I hope all is well. This week wasn't very eventful. Though on saturday we went caroling with the ward and that was amazing. I'm glad I was able to use my talent to share the spirit and to make people smile. That Saturday we also had a ward activity and it was fun. Then on Sunday, I got to go give the sacrament to this lady at a retirement home! My companion had lost his voice, the guy that took us had lost his voice as well....and who was left to sing...me! Normally at home I would have said no...but I decided to not be shy and to just do it. It was amazing having the spirit there and doing an act of service. It was a neat experience. Sunday night we had dinner at a tongan family's house and OH MY GOSH....I felt like I was going to explode!! They were telling us about the massacre in Connecticut and I felt the spirit telling me to teach about life after death and how those children will have eternal life and the spirit had worked so strong. I bore my testimony of it's truth and it felt real good. We should all know and lean on the plan that Heavenly Father has for us.

Christmas is coming up! I'm so stoked to talk to my family. This week for our zone conference I get to go to Geneva! It's gonna be so much fun being in Switzerland! Well I hope all of you have a good week and may the Lord bless you!

Elder Rogers

 

                                                                                                                    (E-mail written 12/17/12)

Wooo Hooo!

We got to hike Chateau Crussol again
I got to meet up with all the members of my district again last week!

Sorry this week is short! Next week will be better!

MY BROTHER GOT HIS MISSION CALL TO CHILE!!! WOOOHOOOO!
Have a good week people!

                             (written 12/10/12)

 

Starting Second Transfer

Hello my friends!

Nothing really big happened last week! I did get to go on splits with other missionaries and that was really fun. I got to meet alot of members. I actually had a lesson during that transfer and the missionary I was with had told me that I was gonna engage this investigator to be baptized. So, I did, and he agreed to being baptized. It was a neat experience. On Friday we woke up and were expecting our mission president to call us to find out where I was gonna be sent if I was going to be sent some where else. I get a call and it turns out that I am staying in Valence and that my trainer was getting transfered. So I still have the same address! If anyone needs it again it's:

2 Avenue de Chabeuil
26000 Valence
France

My new companion is named Elder Foote. I am currently waiting for him to arrive. I am excited. On Sunday, we got invited to a Tongan family's home and they cook so goooood. I have decided that I am going to learn Tongan and then go to New Zealand or Tonga after my mission. There are 2 Tongan families here and they are gonna teach me how to speak it! My french is coming along! :) I love my mission! I am so excited to hear where my brother is being sent. He gets his mission call 1 week from this wednesday. I really hope he gets sent here! Well my friends...I dont have anything else to say! I miss you all and I hope everyone is doing well and may God bless you all as well. Take care!

A La Prochain,

Elder Rogers
                                                                                                         (Monday, December 3, 2012 7:11 AM)

Last Week of Transfers Numero Uno

 I started week number 6 of my first stransfer. It feels like I was just sitting at this computer

2 days ago. I hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving Holiday! You really are grateful for everything when you're so far away from your family and from home. When you have a testimony and all you're doing is trying to share it with the world, the lord continues to bless you. You know that you are grateful for the opportunity you have to share this message. I love my mission. Even though times are hard and sometimes you want to just take a 3 hour nap and you cant. One thing is for sure. There is not enough time in 2 years to get enough work to where you feel satisfied. An AP that is going home next week told me that. In my eyes...he is an amazing missionary and looks like he did plenty of work that would satisfy me if I were him! 

I have been thinking alot about being grateful and giving thanks for my blessing. I am so grateful for the family that the lord has blessed me with and for the wonderful examples they are to me. I miss them dearly. I am especially grateful to be a missionary and live this experience and be an example to my younger Brother. He is just waiting on his mission call which should arrive in 2 weeks from Wednesday. Wouldnt it be so cool for me and him to serve together in the same mission? I am praying so hard to our Heavenly Father, asking him to send him here. I'm also grateful for my sisters. My 2 oldest sisters are pregnant and its a blessing to see my family growing already. I'm grateful for having my little sister, Abri and to see that she is becoming a great little dancer. I am especially grateful for my parents and all the hard work they do for my siblings and I.

I would encourage each and every one of you to count your many blessings. Be grateful for the wonderful atoneing sacrifice of Jesus Christ that we have and that we can have for the rest of our lives. Heavenly Father loves each and every one of you, so make him happy and follow his son.

This week has been okay. I got to visit two Tongan families this week. They are my favorite people and I hope to either go to an island after my mission or to New Zealand! Im gonna learn some Tongan too! :)

Well I hope everyone is good! Please take care and I wish you a good week!

 

 Elder Rogers

                                                                                                                                                                                         (Monday, November 26, 2012 7:37 AM)

On the train!

Hello my friends,

 

So this last week has been a good week! We had a multi-zone conference in Lyon last Tuesday and we got to meet the Apostle, Elder Anderson! I am quite surprised with how much french he still knows! It was pretty cool! I got to see some members of my MTC district and it was nice to catch up again! My MTC companion, Elder Thackery has a companion that was from my home stake and I spent alot of time talking to him about home and about people we knew! It was fun chatting it up! Last thursday we went on exchanges and I was with Elder Hughes, he was really cool! We had a rendezvous with an investigator and it turned out being an amazing lesson and our investigator was really learning, but then the next day, we decided to teach him tithingand he didnt like it very much and he dumped us! I was pretty sad, but we still showed our love for him and we told him that we are

still here for him! We also visit this less active togan family and they are the best: the dad plays rugby and he is BUFF! They are so nice and they opened up to us last rendezvous we had with them and they told us that they are planning on getting married and that they want us to help them achieve it! It feels nice to be apart of it! They also asked us to teach them more about the gospel! I love that family! Nothing really happend last week! Time is flying by sooo fast! I can't believe that my first transfer is already almost over! It feels like a time warp! I love the feeling! It feels like I was just sitting at this computer yesterday! I got to reading 2 Nephi and it was an amazing chapter! I would encourage everyone to feast on that chapter, it is full of godness and truth!

I hope that everybody has a good week and that everyone is okay!

Love Elder Rogers

                                                                                                    (written via E-mail-Monday, November 19, 2012 7:22 AM)

How is everyone doing?

I hope all is well and that everyone is being blessed! Last week was a pretty rough week. I have never felt that overwhelmed, but I truly am learning to count on the Lord.

Let me tell you a little bit about my investigators. We have one investigator named Daniel. He is really nice and is letting us teach him. Last Sunday he made some great progress and felt the spirit testify to him that what we were teaching is true. Since we have been seeing him regularly, we have been trying to teach him, but he lives on his own and has no one to talk to. So the hour that we have planed to teach him, is taken up by him talking about his life and how this world is so screwed up. Last night it was raining and he called us to come over because he felt discouraged and was having trouble living the gospel and all that stuff, so us as awesome missionaries, walked about 45 minutes to get to his house...in the rain. He wouldn't let us talk and he wouldn't even let me bare my testimony. It was really frustrating and he kept denying everything we were trying to teach him...so as of now...he is a non progressing ami de l'eglise.

We have another investigator named Norah. Oh Norah is just amazing. We walked to her house yesterday night in the rain and she called us crazy and was upset that we hiked in the rain to go visit her. She made us tea and showed us around her house. I talked to her 17 year old son who likes soccer and video games so I know I'll get along great with him. He is also trying to learn spanish so I told him I would help him. But Norah loves the missionaries and she gave my companion and I a shirt to remember her always. It was really nice of her. She is making progress. She is not ready to be baptized but she has been reading the chapters we leave her from the Book of Mormon. We talked about it last night and she says.."you planned to give me this chapter didnt you...you knew I needed this" and my companion told her no, that it was just a chapter he chose. It is awesome to see the spirit working and it is a huge testimony builder. I wanna share with you all an experience I had teaching a new investigator..its actually a family. so we went to teach them on saturday and the missionaries that found them didnt do a good job at teaching the restoration so we started fresh.  We got to the point where Joseph Smith restores the church...and let me tell you....I am so greatful FOR MY TEACHERS IN THE MTC! If it werent for my teachers having us recite the First Vision...I wouldnt have been able to share it with them and bring the spirit by that. It was amazing and I thank Soeur Pace and Frere Wilcox for that. I really love my mission...even though I have been struggling here. Send me some letters to cheer me up! I miss you all and i am happy to be serving the Lord and seeing all the blessings that my family and I receive and the blessings that our investigators receive. I hope to hear from you all soon!

Elder Rogers

                                                                                                                    (Written November 5, 2012)