Transfers!

Whelp, it's that time of... transfer... again!

And the news is that I am getting a new companion! The end of this transfer makes 12 weeks that I have been serving with Elder Rosequist, and that's the longest I've ever had the same companion! Time for a new adventure! I'll stay here in the Sand Creek YSA ward. I find out tomorrow who my companion will be, and I'll let you know next week!

It's been a pretty eventful week! We taught quite a few lessons tracting, which is always really good. It's still not my favorite activity, but when we get to teach it definitely makes up for it. The first person we taught tracting was Hannah. We had a good lesson with her, and immediately handed her off to the family ward, because she's married. Next we taught Adam and Rico. They're roommates going to college, and we taught them the first lesson. They both seemed to understand the message, and Rico in particular seemed fairly interested. A few days later we got another appointment with him for next week. I'll let you know how that goes! We taught a young man named Saul (saw-ool) while tracting as well. He accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon after the first lesson, and said he would read it "to gain perspective," but didn't say that he would pray about it. We'll get there. We were able to have him say the closing prayer after the lesson, though! So now, in my opinion, he's about 10 times more likely to pray on his own. Lastly, yesterday, we taught a woman named Rachel and her young daughter. She has her own beliefs, but agreed to let us teach her. She liked the message, and agreed that if it's all true, that's pretty exciting! (Um, yeah!!) We will be seeing her again soon, then hand her off to the family ward.

So there was some fruitful tracting this week! Aside from that, we've been working a lot with our recent converts! There's a lot of them in this ward! Cali, who was baptized before I arrived in the area, recently got engaged to her less-active boyfriend. Her mother, who is Catholic, asked us about classes to help her prepare for marriage, like she said the Catholic church has. Yesterday in church, we sustained a couple in the stake as "Strengthening the Family" teachers. Perfect! Now the hope is that Cali and her fiancee will both benefit from these classes, and learn to make toe gospel the center of their marriage and their lives.

Ashleigh, Shay and I are doing the Book of Mormon 42-day challenge. As you could have guessed, the challenge is to read the Book of Mormon in 42 days. That comes out to 13 pages per day! I'm going through the copy in my quad, and highlighting like crazy! I have a new set of colored pencils that I'm looking to wear out. 42 days is the length of one transfer, so I'll always know exactly how much time I have left! I've read the Book of Mormon on my mission, but not that fast! It will be fun.

Elder Rosequist and I decided to start a tradition in the area of putting up pictures on the wall of all the Elders who have served in the area. I'll attach my picture. It's pretty swell. Hopefully the tradition goes on!

I know the Church is true! The priesthood is restored! Let's go tell the world!! Choose the right, and be excellent to each other.

Sincerely,
Elder Rogers

A Thought from Mom:

“I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.”

~ Frank Lloyd Wright

Ashleigh Got Baptized!

Ashleigh got baptized! It was a great baptism. Isaac, a member of the ward and her friend, baptized her. Elder Rosequist and I stood as witnesses. One of the greatest miracles is that her family came to the baptism! Her father and brother and sister all showed up to support her. And after the ordinance, Ashleigh got up and bore her testimony to everyone, including her family! The next day she was confirmed in sacrament meeting. She asked me to confirm her! It was the first time I've ever performed that ordinance. I was honored.

Aside from that, I've been a taxi service this week!! I gave some elders a ride to a leadership meeting in Golden on Tuesday. Later that day (actually right after the leadership meeting), I drove an elder to a doctor's appointment. Wednesday we had our Mission Leader Conference (MLCs) in Vail, so we got to drive three hours there and three hours back. Then on Thursday I did a BIG clockwise loop around Denver to take an Elder to a doctor's appointment in Aurora. Phewsh! All the while, Elder Rosequist was working with the other elder's companion. That's one of our many responsibilities! Whhhewww!

So, unfortunately, we didn't get to proselyte in our own area as much as we would have liked to. We didn't find any new investigators this week, although we do have a lot of good potentials! The last time we didn't find anyone was the week we baptized Taylor and Shaylan. I'm noticing a trend... One investigator we did get to see, though, was Alex. We talked to him on the street a couple of weeks ago, and this was the first time he was able to meet up since then. He's 23 years old, and lives in a house with a few roommates. He really opened up to us at our lesson this week. He was pushed off of religion when his mother tried to force it on him, but he still has a belief in Deity. He has had experiences that have made him question his faith, and if God really cares about him. We testified of the healing power of the Atonement, and of the reality of our loving Heavenly Father and of His Son, the Living Savior. He seemed to absorb a lot of it, and I see great things in his future if he will heed the promptings of the Spirit, and take the challenges and advice we give him.

We've also been working a lot with all of our recent converts. One of them, Taylor, is sad that she works during institute, where they're studying the teachings of living prophets. So we've decided to teach her the new member lessons found in Preach My Gospel, and base our teachings off of conference talks! We did our first one yesterday with Elder Perry's talk entitled: "Obedience to Law is Liberty." It went really well!

We also started teaching a member of the ward who has been less-active for a while. His name is Brandon. the Bishop told us he was thinking about serving a mission, and that we should teach him and help him get prepared. We went over this week and taught him about the importance of the Spirit in conversion. He had good insights and examples, and I think he'll be prepared soon enough to be a missionary. Right now he's working at Goodwill. They have him working every night, so he can't come to any of the singles' activities! But they've started making him work Sundays, so he's looking for a different job. They have him working the fork lift in the back. And he's blind. I forgot to mention that; he's blind. AND THEY HAVE HIM ON THE FORK LIFT!!! I don't understand their reasoning, but I'm not in charge.

At church yesterday, Ashleigh gave Elder Rosequist and me each a little book that contains evidences of the Book of Mormon. One of my favorites was chiasmus. Chiasmus is a form of poetry used in ancient Hebrew. It follows a patter of addressing topics in a certain order, and then revisiting them in reverse order. In my studies this morning, I discovered this chiasmus in the Psalm of Nephi (2 Nephi chapter 4, paraphrased):

(a) God hath shown me his marvelous works......................................................................v 17

    (b) Nevertheless, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh...................................v 17

        (c) Yet I know in whom I have trusted.....................................................................v 19

            (d) And he hath confounded mine enemies.........................................................v 22

                (e) So why should my heart weep?...................................................................v 26

                    (f) And why should I yield to sin?................................................................v 27

                        (g) Rejoice, O my heart!.............................................................................v 28

                        (g') Rejoice, O my heart!...........................................................................v 30

                    (f') Cause me to shake at the appearance of sin!.....................................v 31

                (e') My heart is broken, and my spirit is contrite!.......................................v 32

            (d') Let me escape from before mine enemies...................................................v 33

        (c') O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in the forever..................v 34

    (b') I will not trust in the arm of flesh..........................................................................v 34

(a') I know that God will give liberally to him that asketh.............................................v 35

How awesome is that! Nephi's a poet and we didn't even know it! It was cool for me to discover this ancient Hebrew art form for myself in the Book of Mormon. I enjoyed studying it! And of course, there is much to be learned from the verses themselves. I love the Psalm of Nephi!

The Book of Mormon is true! It's an ancient record of scripture written by prophets in the Americas who came out from Jerusalem. Joseph Smith was and is a true prophet of God. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord's kingdom reestablished on the earth. Thomas S. Monson is truly a prophet, and Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of the world! I know these things to be true. How blessed am I?! How blessed are we!

Sincerely,
Elder Rogers

A Thought from Mom:

“For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more….”

~2^nd Nephi 28:30

 

August!

Well hello everyone!

What an amazing week this has been! It started out on exchanges with the Assistants. Elder Whiteley joined me in our area, and we had a great day. We taught a former investigator named Angel. He seems to have trouble understanding the concepts of the gospel, but we set up a return appointment with him (which we went to later that week; not much had changed). That day we also tracted into a really nice girl named Christina! We taught her the first lesson and it went really well. We weren't able to set up another appointment with her, but we'll be trying back this coming week! We met an interesting man named Al who we found in our former investigator files. We had a lesson with him, and he explained all about how he keeps the Law of Moses to a T. It was interesting.

On Wednesday Elder Rosequist interviewed a young lady named Gabby for baptism in one of the areas in our Zone. At the same time he was doing that, Ashleigh passed her own baptismal interview!! Woohoo! So she will be baptized on Saturday, August 16th! That night we were walking around an apartment complex, and talked to a young lady on her porch. We taught her the first lesson. I think we teach that lesson more than anything... It went well, but we couldn't get a return appointment. Her name is Kathrine.

We've been teaching our recent converts a lot more recently. We taught Taylor, Cali, and Shay. They're all learning the new member lessons, and it's going great.We unfortunately weren't able to get appointments this week with any of the less-active members we usually teach. I hope we can contact them this week!

We taught a couple of lessons this week to Elisa, a friend of a member of the ward. She is strong in her faith as an Evangelical Christian, and is trying very hard to understand the doctrine of the Church. She has studied a LOT. She's read the Book of Mormon, True to the Faith, and is beginning to read Jesus the Christ by Elder Talmage. The lessons went well, and ultimately resulted in the invitation for her to continue her investigation and to make sincere prayer an important part of her search for truth.

There are a few other people we taught, but I'll save those for another day when I have some more progress to share!

I also met a sister who served in the same area as dad in Japan at the same time! That was super cool. She said, "Oh, I remember. Rogers Choro sang very well."

Rogers Choro and Sainsbury Shimai

I've been practicing recently with Elder Mazankowski for a special musical number (or as Elder Rosequist always says, "specical musical number") that we'll be singing at the Sister's Conference on Saturday. We're singing "Oh Lord, My Redeemer." It's starting to come together. It's written as a solo, so we've had to go in a write a harmony for it. For some reason I was having trouble just winging a harmony, so we took the time to write it in the music. Elder O'Rullian is a musical prodigy, and he's playing the piano for us. I hope it goes well! Maybe I'll get Elder Rosequist to record it so I can send it to you!

The work is hastening! Be involved! Don't forget to choose the right. And if you do, RAD-B (repent and do better)! I love you all! Continue in excellence!

Sincerely,
Elder Rogers

Zone Conference!

This week was Zone Conference!

As you know, I love Zone Conferences. This one was just a little different, because President Murdock asked all of the Zone Leaders to give a 50-minute training to their respective zones. That's the first time he's asked Zone Leaders to do that, and it's my first Zone Conference as a Zone Leader! But I think it went well. We prepared a training about helping people make the decision to be baptized. Basically, we demonstrated all of the opportunities we have to talk about the covenant of baptism in the first lesson. Then we explained the reason why-- when we invite someone to be baptized at the end of the first lesson, it really doesn't make much sense to them if we haven't mentioned anything about baptism before the invitation! Typically we don't talk about it, and then spring the invitation on them. But now, hopefully, the missionaries in our zone will take the opportunities they have to explain the importance of baptism as they talk about restored priesthood authority, and the life of the Savior.

We also heard some great trainings from President and Sister Murdock! President's training was about "becoming". This mission is not just something to check off, e.i. "I went on a mission. Check!" But it's a HUGE opportunity for personal growth. We need to become like the Savior, and now is a great time to start.

Sister Murdock trained us on the importance of the Book of Mormon. The one thing that really stuck out to me was what she said about our investigators reading and praying, or more precisely, praying and reading. She said that the Spirit often bears witness to the investigator, or anyone for that matter, that the Book of Mormon is true as they are reading it. We usually invite people to read the Book of Mormon and then to pray about it. They get the confirmation of the Spirit that it is true while they are reading; they get the good feelings the Spirit brings to testify of truth. Then they stop reading, and pray about it. At this point, they're expecting some grand answer. Those answers can come, but more often the Spirit speaks in a still, small voice. As we invite our investigators to pray about the Book of Mormon, and then read it, they will recognize the peaceful feelings they get from the Spirit as they read. They will know that the book is true, and that the Lord's Church has been restored to the earth!

As far as the work, it keeps on! We have been finding new investigators pretty consistently, but none of them seem to be very solid. We teach them once, and then they slip out of existence forever. It's a real bummer. But we'll keep searching!! There are prepared people out there! We're going to find them. Ashleigh has been doing great. She told her parents she is getting baptized, and they are super unsupportive. It's really sad for her, but her testimony is strong, and she knows what is right.

I hope that you're all having a wonderful summer, and getting ready for fall! It's August! That means pumpkin carving soon. Okay, well, in like three months. But still! Happy August!

I love you all! choose the right, and be excellent to each other!

Sincerely,
Elder Rogers