Just some Halloween Fun with the Beans!

Thanks for letting us borrow your aprons, Sister Bean!~Elders Rogers and Kelley

BOO from us to you!!!

Coooooolorado!

Hello!

This week was great! We had Zone Conference and Stake Conference! I love conferences.

But let's start at the beginning. Last p-day, we went as a district to Red Rocks. Red Rocks is a famous natural amphitheater west of Denver. It's been around since the 1950s or so, and tons of awesome people have performed there. Pretty much anyone you can imagine.

Elder Kelly took some pictures of me playing his guitar on the stage, but they're on his camera and he doesn't have a cord or any way to email those pictures. Oh well! Hopefully I'll get those to you eventually.

While we were doing some service at a thrift store, a man came up to me and started talking to me about his mission. He said he served in Temple Square when it used to be all Elders, not Sisters there. I think that would be a cool mission. It would be a totally different experience than a proselyting mission! I didn't know they ever had Elders serving there, so that was cool to find out.

Elder Kelly and I practiced a bit singing hymns with the guitar. We got the chance to visit one member and play "Sweet Hour of Prayer" for him. I think it went pretty well. Righteous music always brings the Spirit!

At every Zone Conference, they inspect our cars. The companionship with the best-kept car wins the "Golden Hubcap." That includes Subway gift cards and, most importantly, 100 extra miles! Elder Kelly and I won the Golden Hubcap! Hooray! So now we have 100 extra miles. We're going to use them all this week, because transfers are on Tuesday (the 3rd), and either of us could be out of here! We've been doing a lot of walking up until this point, so it will be nice to finish out the transfer in the car.

Elder David Baxter of the Seventy and his wife visited us for Zone Conference and Stake Conference. Elder Baxter is from Scotland, and served his mission there at around the same time President Murdock did. Sister Baxter is from England.

In the adult session of Stake Conference, the focus was on hastening the work of salvation. Does anyone else realize that this is a big deal??  I totally scored being a missionary at this time in the history of the Church. And I mean the history of the Church beginning with our first prophet, Adam. The Apostles of the Church have compared this hastening in importance with the Restoration and the translation of the Book of Mormon!

Our ward is getting excited about the work, and it's rolling forward! Remember, 1 Corinthians 4:12.

I don't know what it says, but I hope it's good! If it's not, remember your favorite scripture. Take care of yourselves, love everyone, and be righteous!

Sincerely,

Elder Rogers

 A Thought from MOM:

“Serve every day of your mission in such a way that when you get out of bed every morning, Satan says, ‘Oh no…HE’S AWAKE!’”

Elder Keel—A missionary in Boston

The leaves actually change color here!

 

It snew again!

Yup. It's starting to get cold!

So, I'm emailing next to this Canadian Elder, and he keeps using weird words in his emails, like parcel; and putting "u"s where they don't belong. It's pretty cool. I told him it was zero degrees this morning. Celsius.

Anyway! We have had an awesome week this week! About a month and a half ago, Elder Brunson and I gave a copy of the Book of Mormon to a teenage kid who lives in an apartment complex in our area. Earlier this week, Elder Kelly and I ran into the same kid. I asked him if he had read the book, and what he thought about it. He told us he had read it and he liked it. I asked if we could stop by his house some time to talk about it. He said sure, and gave us his name, Rey, and his address, "Up on the hill in 303."

A couple of days later, we went up on the hill and knocked on 303. A middle-ages Hispanic man answered. I asked if Rey was home, and he said, "Yeah, that's me."   . . .

"Do you also have a son named Rey?" I asked. He said he has one son, and his name is Marco. Confused, I explained that we were looking for a different Rey, but we would still be happy to share a message about Jesus Christ with him. He said that sounded fine, and we could come back another day.

On Friday, we went back and he let us in. We had an awesome, spiritual lesson. He committed to be baptized, and asked us to teach his children as well! We gave him two copies of the Book of Mormon, one in English, and one in Español. He would probably be a referral for the Spanish missionaries, but he explicitly told us he didn't want to attend a Hispanic church. No problem!

Obviously, the teenager was playing a prank on us. Reymundo is the maintenance man in the apartment complex, so the kid knew his name and where he lived. The Lord works in mysterious ways!

I hope you all are doing well! The work is hastening. Overall, I'm doing fine! The work is hard, but I can do hard things. Stay awesome, and be positive, and choose the right! I love you all, and will talk to you later!

Sincerely,

Elder Rogers

A Thought from Mom:

 "An invitation that is born of our love for others and for the Lord Jesus Christ and our desire for the happiness of these friends and family members will never be seen as offensive or judgmental."

—Jeffrey R. Holland

 

It's been a week!

Hello!

Well, it's been a week. The work has slowed down, because our investigators keep dropping us. That's not fun. But, we're going to work harder on getting the members involved in finding, because people are more receptive to us when their friends invite them to hear us. It's really the best way. There's no substitute.

Elder Kelly bought a guitar last p-day, even though I told him he might not be able to take it with it when he gets transferred. We've been making covers of Beatles' songs and applying them to missionary work. We usually just come up with them while we're in the car. No, we don't bring the guitar into the car, but we can come up with the lyrics there! One of them is a cover of "Girl."

Here goes:

Is there anybody going to listen to our story

All about the boy who chose to pray?

God the Father and His Son appeared in all Their Glory;

Returning truth to those who'd gone astray.

We haven't come up with the chorus yet, but we're working on it. We've also made some progress on "Hey Jew", "Dear Prudence" (where Prudence is the name of an investigator), "Revelation" (instead of "Revolution"), and "With the Help of my Friends (the Missionaries)". We also had something going on "We all Live in a Yellow Submarine", but I can't remember how it went.

There's not a whole lot to report on this week. We just keep trekkin'! I hope you (Mom and Dad) had fun in DC! And Mexico!

We went to a fireside last night with Matthew S. Holland, Elder Holland's son. He talked about the importance of reading the Book of Mormon. It was really powerful, and reaffirmed my conviction of the book's importance. Read it! Together, and individually! It's the best.

I love you all and hope you have an excellent week. Stay true and faithful!

Sincerely,

Elder Rogers

A Thought from MOM:

I know you are an amazing young man, and I know you are an amazing missionary. I love you and you are in my thoughts and prayers constantly. Keep up the work, and the Lord will bless not only you, but those around you as well!

 

It Snew!

Family!

So! You asked about the weather. It snew on Friday! The ground was too warm for it to stick to the roads or anything, but the grass, cars, rooftops and trees got a good few inches! Big flakes were coming down for a good part of the day. While Elder Kelly was tying his shoes in the morning, I prepared about a half dozen snowballs on the back of our car, Britney. (Our car's name is Britney). He didn't see it coming. I definitely won that snowball fight.

We've been visiting a few members Bishop asked us to see, and that's been good. Other than that, we've been trying to find new people to teach. The best best best way is for members to invite their friends to learn about the gospel. And I LOVED how the leaders of the Church exhorted us to do just that during the Saturday morning session of General Conference. Yay! Now we can all share the gospel! We've always been able to, but now we can all recommit ourselves to do it!

Mom, Dad, how's DC? I went there once. It was good. Good muffins. Okay, I only had a layover in the DC airport, but their muffins were good. Not anything super special, but good. I bet it's cold there!

Things are looking up in our area. We just keep working, and finding, and teaching, expounding, exhorting, and hopefully soon we'll be baptizing!

I loved several of the talks in General Conference. Did you watch all of it? I hope so! If not, you still can. And you all should! It is so super special to be able to hear from inspired servants of the Lord!
Apparently another one of my friends got engaged. Cool! Congratulations to Chris and Natalie! Live long and be excellent to each other!

I am excited about the hastening of the work. In D&C 88, the Lord said, "I will hasten my work in it's time." The time is now! 92 of the 210 missionaries in the Denver South mission have been out for 3.5 months or less. Crazy! There's a new generation of missionaries. There's a wave rushing in! The stone cut out of the mountain without hands is rolling faster than ever, and it's filling the whole earth! Be a part of it. "It becometh every man, when he hath been warned, to warn his neighbor." It's a joyful work. We live in a seriously exciting time in the history of the world, and it all revolves around the hastening of the Lord's work!
I love you all and hope things are going great! I pray for you always!

Until Monday,

Elder Rogers

A thought from Mom:

—Dieter F. Uchtdorf--General Conference October 2013

"The words spoken at general conference should be a compass that points the way for us during the coming months. If we listen to and follow the promptings of the Spirit, they will serve as a Liahona, guiding us through the unknown, challenging valleys and mountains that are ahead."