Hi!

March 31, 2014

How's it going?

This week, we did a lot of service! We did a few hours at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, where we clean a lot of the donated items and price and shelve the merchandise. On Wednesday, we went to a member's house and helped them clean up their backyard! It was a blast. We dug out a couple of stumps and rocks, and hel[ed level some ground. I love digging. Everyone's renovating their yards now that spring is here! But nobody has planted vegetable gardens yet. They always say, "Don't plant until the goose's neck is broke."

On the Grand Mesa, there's a patch of snow in the shape of a goose, and when the neck melts away, they say it's safe to plant! They also say "As long as there's snow, the wind will blow," meaning that until ALL the snow is melted off the Mesa, it will be windy.

On Tuesday I went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I got to join Elder Donovan in the eleventh ward. It was fun! First of all, I got to be in a car. Secondly, I got to be companions with Elder Donovan! I've known him since the MTC. He was on the main campus, but we met at our mutual meeting there with President Murdock. The Zone Leaders are whitewashing their area this transfer, so they're trying to find a lot of new investigators. We didn't find any that day, but we did tract into a less-active member who we gave a Book of Mormon to, and I was just told today that he came to church on Sunday! Woohoo!!

I've officially been on a bike for the majority of my mission! It's been fun, but tiring... I'm sure it's kept me in shape! I love you all and pray for you daily! I hope all is well with you! Be excellent to each other!

Sincerely,

Elder Rogers

A Thought from Mom:

"I invite you to listen, listen if you will by the power of the Spirit, to the speakers who will address you today and tomorrow as well as this evening.  If you will do so, I do not hesitate to promise that you will be uplifted, your resolution to do what is right will be stronger, you will find solutions to your problems and your needs, and you will be led to thank the Lord for what you have heard."

~President Gordon B. Hinckley
   CR October 1996

Shayla!

March 24, 2014

Shayla got baptized!!!

March 22, 2014

We had the baptismal service at 10:00 on Saturday, March 22nd. There was a really strong Spirit there, and I loved being a part of it! Shayla's father, a member coming back into activity, gave a talk on baptism, and I was asked to give a talk on the Holy Ghost. Then, Brother Krabbe, the Ward Mission Leader, baptized Shayla. She was confirmed in sacrament meeting the next day.

Elder Rogers, Sister Laws, Shayla, Brother Laws, Elder Curran

Waz up?!

Right after the service, we went to a lesson with a potential investigator named Curtis. He is a guy we met on the street a while ago, and he's in his twenties. He seemed to be one of those people (we run into them every now and then) who just wanted to know what Mormons believe, and leave it at that. But we testified that he needed to read the Book of Mormon and pray for himself to know if the message of the Restoration is true, and hopefully the Spirit touched his heart. We will be seeing him again soon!

We had an awesome opportunity this week to give some service! We stopped by a less-active member's house to see if we could meet with the family. An adult son of the family we hadn't met was outside cutting beams with a hand saw. He told us he was making flower beds for his mom, who decided she wanted to plant flowers this spring. We told him and his mom we'd help (and of course had to convince them we were in our "work clothes" already [our suit and tie]). Then we got to saw some wood, dig a bit, clear out some weeds, till the earth, and build a little fire pit! It was lots of fun. I've always liked gardening. I'm partial to growing food instead of flowers, but it was fun nonetheless!

We've been able to get a lot more members to come with us to teaching appointments, which is great! It really helps to be able to have a "normal person" in a on lesson. If you get the chance to go out and teach with the missionaries, do it! Investigators and less-active members just need friendship, the kind of friendship missionaries can't provide on their own. But anyway, it's been fun to see people progressing and coming closer to the Savior.

It's spring now, so enjoy the weather! Be excellent to each other, read the Book of Mormon daily, and choose the right! I love you all!

Sincerely,

Elder Rogers

“If for a while the harder you try, the harder it gets, take heart. So it has it been with the best people who ever lived.

~Jeffrey R. Holland

Hello!

 Hi,

Shayla had her baptismal interview on Saturday. It went well, and she is getting baptized on Saturday!! I'm really excited for that! I think I might have told you before, but Brother Laws has a daughter on a mission in California. So I just love to think about how excited she is to hear that her half-sister back home is getting baptized! Robyn said she wasn't quite ready to be baptized yet, so we talked about it and postponed her baptism until April 12th. That will be another awesome day to look forward to! All in all, things are going really well. Shayla says she has lots of Mormon friends at school she's inviting, and the Bishop announced her baptism in sacrament meeting yesterday, so the ward is well aware. Shayla asked me to give a talk on the Holy Ghost at her baptism, which I'm looking forward to. She asked our ward mission leader to baptize her. I'm sure you'll get all the pictures next Monday!

We have the new APs in our zone, and a ton of other great missionaries, so I feel like this is going to be a great transfer for us! Elder Curran and I are working on getting more appointments in the evening. It's always awesome to have appointments fill our time after dinner, because that's the hardest time to go find new people to teach. So far it's going well!

We got a new investigator yesterday. His name is Max. Elder Curran had met him a couple of weeks ago on exchanges, and he just got back into town so we were able to follow up with him. He is in his sixties. He told us he had just been in the Phoenix area. He talked about going to downtown Gilbert, and checking out the flea market by the water tower. Shwaaaah?!? I told him that's exactly where I worked back home, the theatre across the street. If I had known he was going, I would have told him to go in and say hi to all the office staff for me! But that was a funny coincidence from this week.

Things are going well and I am stoked for Shayla's baptism! I'm glad to hear things are all good at home, and I hope you all are loving life and living it to the fullest! Choose the right! I love you all!

Sincerely,

Elder Rogers

A Thought From Mom:

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”

~Mahatma Gandhi

I'm not sure I like this as much, but it's all good! (Talking about Daylight Savings Time)

Hello!

So this week is transfers! And the big news is nothing! Elder Curran and I will both be staying here in the Grand Junction 7th Ward. It's a good thing, because we've got a lot of work to do, and we'll get to be here for Robyn and Shayla's baptism!

Elder Curran and I have both learned a lot this week about communication. We've both become frustrated with each other quite a bit, but talking about it really helps to resolve it. That's a good skill to have learned.

President Murdock is changing things up here! Elder Whiteley (I think I might have written about him before...) and Elder Merrill, our Zone Leader, were both called as new Assistants to the President! The design is to have two Assistants here on the Western Slope, as well as the two that are in the Metro side of the mission. So that's a lot of change!

The Laws are progressing well, and keeping all of their commitments. There's a lot of good things happening. Thanks in large measure to a visit from our Area Seventy, our ward is getting a lot more involved in the work, and I think we'll see a lot of benefits from that this transfer.

Last P-day we went for a Zone hike up Mount Garfield! It was a blast! I could tell the whole time I was going up that it should have been a really hard hike, but thanks to my usual mode of transportation, it was a breeze! I must be in better shape than I was when I left. I guess that can be expected from several months of daily bike-riding.

High on a Mountain Top

But, anyway, I lost the SD card to my camera on Mount Garfield, so that was not cool... But I do have a few pictures, and I'll send them! I know kind of where I lost it, so we might go back another P-day to look for it. but for now, if you have any and all of the pictures I've sent in emails, if you could save them on a computer and back them up onto a disk or something, that would be swell!

Oh What a Beautiful Morning!

I love you all and hope things are going great for you in the Valley of the sun. Here in the Grand Valley, it's starting to warm up a bit. Spring is around the corner! Oh, and speaking of that, we had daylight savings time begin yesterday. I like it in the fall. Now, I'm not so sure... That's what the title of the email is all about. I'm not sure I like the spring time change as much as the fall. But I'll adjust! Things are moving along! Choose the right and stay sweet!

Sincerely,
Elder Rogers

¡Otro día en español!

March 3, 2014

Hello!

This week has been good. The Laws came to sacrament meeting! Noah unfortunately moved back to California to be with his mom. Hopefully he'll be back sometime in the future, but I don't know if I'll see him again. Our investigator James has been having a hard time getting to church lately. It's been three or four weeks since he came. So we decided to postpone his baptismal date. I'm not sure when he'll be baptized, but he's got to start coming to church first!

I went on exchanges with the Spanish Elders yesterday. I went into their area with Elder Olivas. Elder Curtis was really excited to go to our area because he hadn't been in an English area in a while, and in his 12+ months on a mission, he had never been on a bike!

Elder Olivas and I had a pretty productive day. I got to drive the car, because he doesn't have a drivers' license. Their area covers the entire Grand Valley, so there was quite a bit of traveling! We taught a few good lessons, and I used a lot of good Spanish! I can express myself in saying pretty much anything I need to, and I'm remembering and using a lot of grammar that I hadn't thought about in a while. What was interesting was how I was able to understand some people reasonably well, and 95% of what some other people said flew right over my head... But I know the Lord was in it, helping me the whole time. I woke up the next morning thinking in Spanish, and I've accidentally slipped into Spanish in my prayers. And all just because of one day! Crazy. Anyway, it was lots of fun!

Transfers are coming up, and I have no clue what will happen!! I'll know by the time I email next week.

We had a great training yesterday from Elder Rhodes, our Area Seventy. He taught us and the bishops how to conduct effective Ward Councils. He was very bold and plain in speech. It was great!

Be good and read the Book of Mormon. Every day! I love you all and pray for you always! Hasta luego!

Sincerely,

Elder Rogers

A thought from Mom:

Missionary Work

 We don't ask any people to throw away any good they have got; we only ask them to come and get more. What if all the world should embrace this gospel? They would then see eye to eye, and the blessings of God would be poured out upon the people, which is the desire of my whole soul.

History of the Church, 5:259.