Monday, October 27, 2014

Voting is Over!

October 27, 2014

            So this week has been pretty awesome. One thing that I am very happy about is that vorint is over, haha. Voting here is crazy. Here it is required to vote. The presidents that run get paid for every vote they receive, so for the past month here we have heard the same music (music that they use for the candidates) over and over again. All the missionaries know it by heart because we have all heard it so much.  So I am very excited that it is over.

            So one really cool thing that has happened this week is we got some really good lunches this week I don´t know why, but the lunches have been so good. I am so glad that most of the time we get fed by members because if we didn´t our lunches would get pretty boring.
            Last Monday me, my companion, and the zone leaders that live in the same house with us all went to Acegua, Brazil. It’s so cool we can go there because that is part of our zone. Our zone only has a little town in it. To get to Acegua, it is about a 50 minute bus ride. We went to Acegua and ate some really good food, then we went shopping there (because Brazil is a lot cheaper than Uruguay), I bought stuff so I could cut my hair. I´m going to cut my own hair today so I´ll see how that works out.

            Have a great week!!!!!
Sincerely,

Elder Rogers

Monday, October 20, 2014

Armando looks kind of scary in this picture but he is not scary at all (haha)
October 20, 2014

Hello Everybody
            How are you all doing this week? This week has been crazy for me.  I got to do a baptism (ordinance) for the first time. It was so cool, scary and awesome.  The man’s name is Armando and he is 67 years old.  We met him on the way to a lesson and talked to him a little bit and said we could visit him. Then when we went to visit him, he was home and invited us inside (most people don`t invite us inside, haha).  It was so awesome how things work out, but anyways Armando is a really smart guy and is really funny.

            So right before the baptism my companion and I were crazy stressed because we could not find any white pants for him. We checked in the church, in our house, and talked with the bishop but there were no pants that were his size. So that was crazy; the day before we looked for pants for hours and didn`t find anything. That night when we got home (after having kind of a bad day) I was looking for pants and in our house. We have couches and on the couches there are always blankets on top that cover the couches (because the couches aren’t in the best shape haha). So I lifted up the blanket and there was a pair of white pants that would fit him. Such a cool experience. If I hadn’t found those pants I have no idea what we would have done.
            So before the baptism and basically all of Sunday I was so scared because I have never baptized anyone and now I`m baptizing a guy who is like 6’ 2” and is probably around 220 pounds and I have to do it in Spanish as well. Here people have long names so I had to remember his full name which is 4 names. But everything worked out and it all went well.

            The last thing that I`m going to talk about is, here they are voting next week so for like a month they pay people to drive around cars and motorcycles with giant speakers and advertise the presidents and stuff and they play the same songs over and over and over again. It is crazy annoying; all of the people here are super-annoyed by it. I can`t believe how big politics are here .
            Hope you all have a great week

Sincerely,
Elder Rogers

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Guidelines for Sending Packages to Elder Rogers

According to Michelle, here are some guidelines for sending packages to Uruguay:

It takes about 2 1/2 months for him to receive packages.  Only mail packages through the U.S. Post Office (not FEDEX, UPS or any other carrier).  You can send use first class mail packages in your own envelope and that might be the cheapest way to go if the package is somewhat light.  Or you can send one Flat Rate Priority Mail.  The Flat Rate rates are:

$24.75 - small
$61.75 - medium
$80.50 - large

You can determine what the cost of mailing your package through 1st class mail would be by going to usps.com and "calculate postage."

Do not send any packages larger than 4 lbs. (even with the flat rate package) or more than $40 in value.  When you declare the value of the package, estimate low on the value and make sure it is not over $40 or 4 lbs. or it will be confiscated.

Do not send:
-Homemade food items
-medicine
-personal hygiene items

Dominique loves peanut butter and candies with peanut butter.  He also likes to make maple syrup with maple extract, so you could also mail him maple extract.

Mail packages to:
Elder Dominique Rogers
Uruguay Montevideo Mission
Dalmiro Costa 4635 Bis
Malvin
11400 Montevideo
Uruguay

Monday, October 13, 2014

Hola From Uruguay

October 13, 2014

Hola,

            This week has been pretty good even though it has rained a ton here. It is so weird; here it was really hot a couple of weeks ago and now it is pretty cold and wet. I am really glad that I brought some waterproof shoes because down here when it rains, it rains.

            There has been so many crazy things happening this week, it is just crazy.  But some of the things that are really good are that right now we have like 3 really good investigators and about 2 more that we are working with some more. We might even be baptizing this 60 to 70 year0old guy named Armando next week.

            Just recently we had cambios (or transfers) for this week.  We have cambios every 6 weeks. Cambios is when you find out if you are going to get a new companion or leave your area. In my mission, the average amount of time a missionary is in an area is 3 cambios so about 18 weeks. Usually you will be with a companion for 1 or 2 changes. So what happened to me is I am still in the same place, Melo, and I am staying with my same companion, Elder Mata.  I was expecting that I was going to stay because I have only been here for one change (6 weeks), and I am really happy that I am staying here because I really like my area.

            One thing that is kind of sad here is that when it rains in Uruguay on Sunday, the church attendance drops in half, it is so different than the states, ha ha.  Hardly anyone has cars and a lot of people have to walk or they take a motorcycle or moped. So when it rains they don`t want their kids to get sick from the cold and they don`t come. But we still got two investigators to church, so that was a big plus. We also had some less-active people that haven`t been to church for a while so that was really cool.

            I hope you all have a great week and don`t have too much fun.

Sincerely,

Elder Rogers 

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

General Conference was Awesome!

October 7, 2014

Hola,

            This week was awesome!  We had an awesome General Conference. I felt like it was given directly to me.  One really cool thing about the General Conference was that I got to watch it in English, so that was really awesome, I heard that some missionaries in my mission didn´t get to because the church they were in didn´t have it in English.

            One of the speakers in the conference was from Uruguay.  That was so cool. We were all super excited to hear him talk and it was also awesome that he went on a mission here in Uruguay as well. He actually lives in our mission in a place called Venus I think.

            Another really cool thing they did with conference was that some of the speakers spoke in their native tongue. That was really awesome for the members down here to hear a general authority or a member of the Seventy, speak in Spanish. That was so cool they did that.

            One talk I really liked a lot was Elder Bednar´s talk because he spoke mostly to investigators or nonmembers who were listening to General Conference.  We had an investigator at Conference and he really liked it.  I think he said his favorite talk was Elder Bednar´s.

            General Conference is awesome and I learned so much more this General Conference than I have in all the other ones that I have watched previously. I hope you all have a good week.

Sincerely,
Elder Rogers