Hermana Rogers: 05.03.13 | Week 3

My Familia que le amo!

Another week has gone by! CRAZY right?? This week has been definitely crazy. I can tell you without a doubt in my mind that this work is amazing. I know that I am not teaching "real" investigators yet, but it is so amazing what we are being trained to do. We are in class basically all day. If any of you know me, that's not my favorite thing to do. haha but! I am learning so much it's insane. I KNOW that without the the lords help i would not be where i am today. It's been three weeks, and here I am sitting with my companion teaching lessons to people IN SPANISH. Here I am sitting in class listening to my teachers speak in ALL spanish, and I UNDERSTAND! Here I am, talking to members (TRC) about their life and if there is anyting that we as missionaries can do to help them, then give them a little message. Its amazing to me what I can do in spanish in three weeks. Last sunday I gave the prayer in sacrament meeting. I had never been so nervous in my life! but it all went really well :) I have never prayed for more comofort, or more help from my father in heaven, then I do here. This coming week we have the oppertunity to skype with some native members for another (TRC) haha that to me is kinda of really scary. I can understand spanish but when natives start to speak really fast, i promise everything is one word. So...pray for me;) nah it'll all be good. It will be good practice:) Kort maybe suggested that I take a recording of me speaking spanish so you could all hear , i think i will do that and maybe once I gather up a little bit more pictures I will send you the memory card home and use the one I have here, that way you can see it:) then you can send it back to me when you get everything off of it:)

For my district, I guess you could say it has been a "bitter-sweet" week. We have all progressed so much on our spanish, so that is an amazing blessing for us. Like I said, the week was going so great! My companion and I committed one of our 2 investigators to baptism!! wahoo:) it feels so great here in the MTC when that happens, I can only imagine what that feels like when we are in the field. The other investigator of ours said that he is interested but isnt quite sure yet how he feels about that. So, we are going to help him get a testimony for himself. We explained to him that we are not here to force him to do anything but are so happy to teach him more about that Gospel, and how much his father in heaven loves him. One day we were sitting in class, one of the companiships had the assignment to go and do a demonstration for the new missionaries that arrived on wednsday. One of the Elders in the companiship didn't go so they did a split. He was acting like something was wrong and we sisters didn't know what was up with him. Later that day, Hermana Peterson just had gotten out of giving one of the best lessons to our investigator, and we see Hermana Gibbons crying in the hall. I go up to her and ask her what was happening and she said that an elder was going home. This came as such a shock to me. When you spend so much time with these people for 3 weeks you grow to love them like they are your family. We were all devistated. He said that "He felt that he could not be the best missionary he could be right now. He is going home and will take care of things, then in 6 months will be returning to serve a mission again." This took us by surprise. He wasn't leaving till the next morning, and luckily we had Hermana Child teaching us that night who is so intune with the spirit its insane. She was amazing with handling it. She invited us all to write down in our journals what the Attonement meant to us. Then we all came up with a question with what questions we had about the attonement. For investigators, etc. We all took one and searched the scriprues, found the answers and shared with the class what we had found. It was THE most spiritual meeting we had ever had. That elder could feel how much his Heavenly Father loves him, and how proud he is that he is not selling himself short. We were so sad to see him go, but are so happy that he is doing what we are teaching others they can do, and coming closer to christ by enabling the Attonement. Ever since that day, I have never been so grateful for the attonement. I have my own personal testimony of the attonement but cannot wait to share with the people of Florida, how much it can help them in their lives. Yes, a member of our small but amazing family is missing, but we know that he is in the lords hands and we will make sure we always remind him how much we love hime and want the best for him. We have such amaizing Branch presidency and they are always there to make sure we are holding up. Its a Bitter-Sweet situation. We as a district have grown so close from this. We are always trying to find ways to turn outward instead of inward and serve each other just like christ would. One quote that I heard this week that I just love is, "Dont ever forget, you get to live the same gospel as you preach." I absolutely love being on a mission. It is so hard, but beyond rewarding.

Thank you so much family for the letters and packages, I cannot express how much I feel the love from you. I have the best family in the world and it makes me so happy to hear of all the great things you are all accomplishing. You make Hermana Rogers, super proud:) Dad, I wish I could be there to hear all of your talks. I probably would be bawling right there with ya. But don't worry, everyone knows its allergies;) I love you so much dad. Your letters with all the great things that you are accomplishing, and all the miricles that you see happen are so uplifting. I love them:) I have been trying to notice all the tender mercies in my days. It is very easy to look past them, but it is my goal, at the end of the day to take a second and refect:) Mom, I saw Kira:) I have seen SO many people I know here its ridiculous haha. I went to the temple today and I just love it. The provo temple is so amazing and going with a bunch of missionaries, I cannot express how much of the spirit i feel. I could not have made a better choice to come on a mission. It is going to change mine and so many other peoples lives. I love you all so much. I miss you every single day, but you are all in such great hands. Have an amazing friday:) If you only get this email right now its because I took a break to go do laundry and eat lunch. But i will send pictures today:) I'll get to you all no worries. Time is just so short here! I ONLY HAVE 2 MORE WEEKS!!!!!! ah! haha pray for me. I pray for you in every single prayer I say. Which is a lot:) take care family!

Usteds son mi favorita personas!

Con Mucho Amor, Hermana Rogers