Praying for Faith

May 26, 2014

            Well hopefully all of you are having a fantastic Memorial weekend.  The greatest news for the week is that we are going to the temple!!!!!!!!!! So we don't get a p-day, but it is so worth it.  I don't know if I mentioned it in my last letter, but this month’s goal for our zone is “Praying for Faith in Every Prayer.”  Well when you pray for faith, basically what happens is you experience trials of that faith.  Well, let just say that Sister Walton and I experienced 2 very hard weeks, but just as we were at the last end with people who were a little less than nice and all of our investigators basically being drop, and most of our appointments not going through there came the overflowing of blessings.  At first they were small—people simply being nice to us at the door.  Others followed like people responding to the scriptures we sent and being inspired by them.  Eventually this week we even received a new investigator that is living with one of our amazing members who is helping her out.  I feel so much more grateful for the little things in my life that God places there every day to help me through the day. 

            Miracles happen, but we need to just keep our eyes open.  One trick I learned on my mission is that if I want to be happy, I must continually be grateful for everything I have been given daily.  So my suggestion for all is that if you desire to feel of great joy in your life, say a prayer of gratitude every day no matter how rough the day goes.  It is opening our eyes to faith and hope that the Savior provides.

            My new address is:  507 Hawthorne Pl. Morganville, NJ 07751

I love you. 

Sister Rogers

P.S. Sorry my letter is short, but I only had 30 minutes to email.

 

Transfers........From City Streets to Trees of Green

May 19, 2014

            I was so nervous at transfers that when president announced my name I didn't even hear where I was going or who my companion was.......It was a good thing she was paying attention.  Well, I'm in the south of Jersey with all the forests, which basically means that everything is engulfed by trees and then some.  I have an awesome companion named Sister Walton.  She is super-fun and apparently can't understand sarcasm (which is the language of our ward).  Her home state is California and my favorite thing about her is that she loves to read; we are definitely kindred spirits.

            This week the Primary president came out with us to teach an investigator, Rosa, who is having some struggles with why life is unfair. Sister Walton and I had prepared a lesson, but it became increasingly obvious that what we had prepared was not exactly what she needed.  However, amazingly Sis Cobb stepped in with her testimony that was backed by the intense feeling of the Spirit. They made such a connection and Rosa really understood and the spirit bore witness to her.  Sis Cobb said afterward how she had never felt such a connection to anyone like that before. It was such a testimony to me that the best way to share the gospel is as the members do missionary work.
    
            Well, time for a new start in a new area and of course Heavenly Father wants me to grow a lot, so I can already see some of the difficulties I will be facing. It is actually quite laughable. Somehow I have managed to lose my missionary name tag while wearing it, which has just been one of the many funny mishaps in this area so far.
        
            This month our zone goal is to pray for increased faith in every prayer. Well, when you pray for faith I have noticed a few things that the Lord sends your way. They are usually in the form of trials to test your faith.  So I can say with all confidence that have I seen the miracles of many trials that are placed in our path. There are days where everything has fallen through or no one wants to listen, but I have also witnessed many blessings so far that I would not have seen otherwise and I am starting to become grateful for them. In that lies true happiness.   I love you all!

Sister Rogers

Leaving Englewood behind......

May 12, 2014

            Well I am being sent to another area.  It was official at 8 this morning.  It is really exciting because a brand new missionary fresh off the plane is coming to take my place.  It will be so cool because she actually gets to experience a baptism in her first week, which will be such a neat experience for her.

            Katie, who is 8 years old, is getting baptized on Sunday and we are so excited for her.  She is constantly reading her scriptures. Katie wanting to be baptized has caused her grandma to come to church regularly and begin striving to live the commandments better.  She is such a great example to her family, especially her parents that are not members.

            We saw so many miracles this week.  They began on Wednesday when we met Linda.  From the first few moments that we met her she told us that she had learned lots about other religions and the Holy Spirit told her to learn about the Mormons.  Of course my companion and I were grinning from ear to ear.  As the lesson progressed, she listened so intently, soaking everything in.  I have never had anyone listen so intently to the words coming out of my mouth.  Linda is so prepared that she already invited us to teach others and told us she is planning to attend bother her church and ours. It will be over 4 hours of church for her. That is dedication right there.

            Another amazing news is the member that we have been working with in our ward is going to the temple for the first time next month.  She has been in the church for 19 years and has always been a bit nervous about it, but as we talked and she felt the spirit she knew it is what she needed to do. She is going to have such a neat experience there and we are so excited for her.

Sister Rogers

Working as Missionaries Do

May 5, 2014

            Okay I have a confession.  I haven't wanted to write the past couple of weeks because they have been a bit stressful, but everything has basically worked out.  Well the exciting highlights of the past couple of week are as follows:

            We saw Elder L. Tom Perry.  It was so cool.  We felt such a power as he walked into the room.  We all had the privilege of shaking his hand. Now I have shaken hands with an Apostle of the Lord!  He also asked me where I was from, and of course I said I was from Richmond.  He replied, "Oh, Black and White days."   His wife also told me that they were related to the Datons from my ward.  It was a pretty neat experience and his talk afterwards really inspired me to know the scriptures. 

            We were also able to get in touch with a recent convert who has not had any contact with the church since she was baptized in September and we were able to get in with one of the members.  The most incredible miracle is that she still has a strong testimony of the church and she hasn't been letting anyone in because her son has been house-bound for four months because he has so many medical issues and the doctors haven't been able to exactly discover what is wrong.  He is five and has already had three surgeries, one of which was to get his sinuses removed.  But his mom has so much optimism and trust that God will see her through.

            We also were able to meet with the Bucaballs who are Philippine couple that are less-active because they work crazy work schedules because they are saving up for a mission.  We asked them to pray about it and they came to church, which was such an amazing experience for us to see that many people just need to be invited to partake of the gospel and they will come.

            A new ward mission leader!!!! So we are saying goodbye this week to our ward mission leader, Brother Chavez who is moving to Oregon in the summer and then to Ecuador in the fall.  But our new ward mission lead is Brother Koeling who has been a convert about 10 years.  He was baptized in college and then went on his mission to Florida.  He is super cool and actually has a job in the entertainment business.  He loves member missionary work and was baptized because his friend introduced him to the church.

            Last piece........ We have a baptism on May 18th.  Her name is Katie Diaz she is 8 years old and her grandma is a returning member.  She is super excited to be baptized and reads in the children's Book of Mormon 30 min every day.  When we were watching the Joseph Smith movie and during the part when he saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ Katie told us that she really liked this part and it made her feel super good.  She feels the spirit so strongly.  She is super- prepared to be baptized.

Have a Super Week,

From the Sister in Jersey