My Last Week

My Zone

June 21, 2016

Hey everybody,

          I`m doing really well.  I feel really weird though.  I can`t believe that today and tomorrow are my last days in Uruguay. It is crazy to think that my mission is already finished.  I have learned so many things here on the mission. 

          I don`t know how I can explain my mission in just one letter, but I`ll try to give a brief message.  I am so grateful for this opportunity that I have had to serve a mission and to be able to help people know more about the gospel.  I am also really grateful for all of the gifts that God has given me that I have been able to develop.  I know that everybody has so many gifts that God can help us develop.

          One of the biggest gifts that has changed me is ability to serve other people and to love them. I have been able to see such a big change that has happened to me over time by serving people.  I have learned to stop just thinking about myself. I know that I`m going to miss the people here and all of the things they do. I`ll see you guys soon.  Love you guys, 

Elder Rogers

Ups and Downs

 



 

June 13, 2016

          This week was full of ups and downs.  One of our investigators stopped the lessons but we were also able to see the miracles of Lourdes and her son Fernando. They both went to church this week and they are doing really well.  Lourdes has been a member of lots of different religions, but not too long ago she stopped going to her religion and a member from our ward talked to her and we have had a couple of lessons based on The Book of Mormon and the Restoration.  She prayed about it many times and also read a lot and this last lesson we had with her her she bore her testimony about The Book of Mormon.  We put a baptism date with them for the 9th of July.

          Something we have been doing in our zone is to try to have more investigators progress toward baptism. We have been doing lots of different plans and in the zone, the amount of investigators that are progressing have doubled! It is incredible to see how some of the small things like lessons with members can help investigators attend church.

Love you guys,

Elder Rogers

 

Our house

Giant hot dogs

milking alfajores and concilio

 

 

Chocque de Fuerza

Me in front of our house (we live on the top floor)

June 6, 2016

Hey everybody.

          We had a super great week, Hugo went to church for the third time!!! We have been having lessons with Hugo.  He has a baptism date for the 18^th  of June.  We were even able to start on his family history work and he is really excited to find his ancestors. This week we are going to start teaching the commandments.

          We did a choque de fuerza this week.  It is when all of the missionaries from the stake come and work in one área for like 2 hours and this week we did it in our área.  The missionaries found a lot of people so this week we have been focusing on trying to find those people and set up dates to visit them.

          Everything is going good here I hope you guys have a great week,

Elder Rogers



Our neighbor's dog that always put his nose through the fence



More Miracles



Our multi-mission conference

May 30, 2016

 

Hey,

          We are doing really well here in El Bosque.  We have been seeing a lot of miracles here. Hugo (our investigator) went to church this week even though it was pouring rain. We have been able to have a couple lessons with him and he has a big interest in family history work so we are going to work on that this week.

          Another miracle is our ward missionary is really excited about missionary work and she invited us to give a blessing to one of her friends, Maria, that is from a different religion. We gave the blessing and she was very happy to receive it and the member invited her to go to church and told her that she would pass by in the morning. Maria and her son both went to church this week!

          With Elder Brumble we have been having a lot of ideas for cooking stuff.  Right now I`m not able to send any photos that are on his camera but I will send some in the next weeks or so.

Love you guys,

Elder Rogers

 

Miracles

May 23, 2016

Hello everybody,

          This week went really well.  We had some miracles happen, especially with the investigators that we found recently. Yesterday we went to church and there was a non-member that showed up, Hubo.  He has been going to a lot of different churches trying to find the truth. The members were really excited to see someone in church and the helped him feel comfortable there.

          The other miracle we had was we were able to have a lesson with an old investigator, Claudia.  She has a different religion, but her sister is a member and she is reading the Book of Mormon.  Claudia believes that it is scripture, but still believes that almost all of the churches are true and good. But she said that she will pray and ask if she needs to join our church.

          This week our zone has been focusing on talking with everyone.  We have been able to see a lot more success in our zone due to talking with everybody and also asking for references.

          I hope you all have a great week,

Elder Rogers

Good Times with Elder Brumble

May 16, 2016

Hey everybody,

          This week was a very good week, we were able to find some new investigators that are really cool. It can be very difficult sometimes when their religion is very similar in some ways and in other ways it is completely different. But we have a message that is very different than just convincing people.  It`s all about them asking God.

          This change is going to be really fun.  I`m with Elder Brumble from West Valley (Salt Lake City) and we have had many crazy things happen.  It is insane!  First off, I got bit by a dog, but don`t worry it`s not infected or anything.  And we also saw a porta potty that is by our house that got knocked over and nobody came to take it away, ha ha. Yesterday in Uruguay was Mother’s Day, so happy mother`s day from Uruguay yesterday!!!

Love you guys,

Elder Rogers

 

The Final Change

May 9, 2016

Hey everybody, 

          Changes is this week and I`m staying in my area and my companion is leaving and going to Rocha. My new companion is Elder Brumble, I kind of already know him.  He has 6 weeks less on the mission as I do. Something crazy is that this change (6 weeks) is my last change. Don´t worry I´m not trunky.  I am really excited to work the best I can in my area and finish the mission strong.

          Happy Mothers Day to all of those mothers out there, I hope your day was very special. Something crazy is that here Mother’s day isn´t until next week, so it was kind of weird to do skype last Sunday and for everybody else it was just another day. 

          Well, I would love to send you some photos but the computer I´m using doesn´t have a USB drive that works, so until next week.

Elder Rogers

Learning Patience

May 2, 2016

Hey everybody,

          This week we have been focusing a lot with working with our new ward mission leader and the ward missionaries. It is really great to have ward missionaries.  This is the first ward that I have been in that I have had ward missionaries and they are so cool. They have been going with us to the lessons that we have been having and also contacting the investigators and the less-active members that we are working with.

          My companion and I decided to work on patience this week and when you decide to work on patience, you`re asking for lot of difficult times, haha. We have had kind of a difficult week, but we are passing through it with patience and I know the Lord is preparing people in our area for us to visit.

          I hope you all have a great week,

Elder Rogers

God’s Tender Mercies

April 25, 2016

          So, this week was a really great week.  We have been starting to find a lot of new possibilities for people to get baptized in May. This week I learned a lot about God`s tender mercies.  For example, this week the ward council helped us a lot.  The ward council asked for us to visit some less-active part-member families and also some old investigators. We are also working a lot with the ward missionaries and they are so great. They have become auto sufficient.  We don`t have to invite them to go visit somebody or invite someone to church. They do it on their own and are really excited to be working in His work.

          I had an exchange this week.  It was so awesome.  We started talking about study plans and the different ways to study the scriptures. We had heard about how some people study the scriptures. So I decided to put my own study plan that is very similar. I have started reading the Book of Mormon in this way.  What I do is read a chapter like 1 Nephi 1 and after I read I go back and for every verse read all of the footnotes for every verse and then write my impressions in a journal. Even though it has taken a lot longer to read, I have been able to understand so much more about the Book of Mormon and how important it is to have the Bible and how well they work together to both testify of Christ.

          I hope you all have an amazing week,

Elder Rogers

My birthday chips & Salsa



April 18, 2016

Hey everybody,

          So yesterday was my birthday and it was alright, haha. It rained so much yesterday is was insane. But something super awesome is that I found salsa and chips woohoo!  They were really expensive but, I bought them anyways because I was like YOH2BM (you only have 2 birthdays on the mission). My companion even made me brownies, so we had those as well.

          With investigators, almost all of them fell through, but we are sure that God is preparing people for us to teach. We will just continue in his work and try the best we can. 

          Some of these photos are from last week when we went to the beach and the others of me with my chips and salsa. 

Love you guys,

Elder Rogers



 

 

 

Zone Conference & Hamburgers

This week we went to the beach

April 11, 2016

          This week was pretty crazy.  We have been traveling a lot. First we had a concilio on Wednesday and then on Thursday we had zone conference with our mission president. We had to buy all the food for the zone, which was really crazy because here the food is really expensive. After looking at different restaurants, we decided that we needed to make food instead of buying it.

          So, we decided to make hamburgers, which was really crazy because after being in Montevideo (on Wednesday) until about 5:00, we got home at 6:30ish and started buying the food.  We bought 56 hamburgers for 24 people and we also had to buy, juice, cheese, lettuce, buns and some other stuff as well. Then we put the majority of the food in the house. Then on Thursday (the day of the conference) we started cooking the hamburgers at around 11:30 and we thought that it probably wouldn`t take that long to cook because on the box it says that it take 10 minutes for the hamburgers to cook in the oven. Well we put the hamburgers in the oven for 20 minutes and they were still not cooked. So we had to start frying them so we ended up eating lunch later then planned but everything worked out really well and we all had a good time at the conference.

          In the zone conference, we talked a lot about letting the investigators solve their own doubts and not just giving them the answers.  That is so important because when they have questions we can help them by finding the answers in the scriptures. Missionaries are not in the mission to just answer everybody's questions.  We are here to help people come unto Christ and find the answer in the scriptures.

          I had a really great week. I hope you have a great week as well.

Elder Rogers

Leaving Bella Italia

My New Area of El Bosque & General Conference

April 4, 2016

Hey everybody,

          I`m in El Bosque right now and this will almost certainly be my last area of my mission and I like it.  It is a really nice area a lot different from my last area haha. The house here is really nice and we are 30 minutes (walking) from the beach, so that is really cool. It hasn`t started to get cold yet. Sometimes it does get pretty warm. My new companion is Elder Perry and he is form North Carolina.  It is pretty crazy but I have been in the same zone as him twice and we have had a lot of intercambios. 

          Here in El Bosque we have some pretty good investigators.  We have one who is named Tomàs and his daughter named Nadia.  They are really great people. We have a baptism scheduled for the 16th of April and the confirmation on the 17th, which is my birthday, so that is going to be a pretty great day. I can`t believe I will be turning 20 years old.

          I really liked the General Conference.  There were so many good talks given. One that I really liked was by Elder Holland and he told us that God is willing to give us blessings if we are willing to try our best and if we have a desire to follow him.

          I hope you guys really enjoyed the General Conference.  Love you all,

Elder Rogers

Changes – I’m moving to El Bosque

 

March 29, 2016

Hey everybody, 

          We had changes this week and I am leaving Bella Italia and I`m going to El Bosque, which is right on the beach. The only problem is we are approaching winter here so it is going to be really cold in my area. It is really sad to leave Bella Italia. I love this area and I`m going to miss it a lot. But I am also really excited to go to El Bosque. I have heard it is a really strong ward.

          We had a really good lesson this week with Adrian and Jessica.  They are really excited to learn more about our church. They really like to ask questions, which is really great.  I love it because I can tell it is something really important to them.

          We found a couple of new investigators this week that seem pretty interested. Sorry I didn`t write that big of an email, but I don`t have a lot of time. So, anyways, love you guys. Have a great week.

Elder Rogers

Teaching about the Book of Mormon & Multi-Zone Activity

 

March 21, 2016

          Hey Everybody, how are you all doing? Anything crazy happen lately? It happen something crazy happened to me. We found some amazing investigators.  How we found them is kind of a long story, but we first talked to this guy named Adrian and he is very active in another church. But he is completely willing to change his beliefs and follow the answer that Christ gives him. His wife is willing to as well. 

          We have been focusing a lot on the Book of Mormon and how they can find the truth through the Book of Mormon and know that it is true. Sometimes we have some differences in doctrine, but we always explain to them, that if the Book of Mormon is true, then that means that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that he restored Christ`s church. They are very excited to learn more about the Book of Mormon and more about the church.

          We also had a multi-zone activity today and it was really fun we played jeopardy, dodgeball and did some other game shows.

Elder Rogers

       



 

 

Family History Work

March 14, 2016

Hey everybody,

          Hey, how are you guys doing?  Everything is going well down here in Uruguay. This week went by super-fast, I can`t believe it is already P-Day, We had a conference multi-mission conference with President and it was really good. The message that hit me the most was having the investigators make their own commitments and help them understand how to act through scriptures and inspired questions. It was really good.  We started doing that in our area and it has helped us a lot. 

          So Alicia went to the temple last Saturday and she said it was a really cool experience. The day before she went to the temple we visited them and help them start their family history work. They are still looking for dates of their great grandparents, but we were able to put her parents, grandparents, uncles, and siblings. They are really excited to keep on looking for more names and find more information. 

          I had a really good week, I hope you do to!!!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Rogers

Alexandra’s Baptism

 

Alexandra's Baptism

 

 

 

 March 7, 2016

          Hey, how are you all doing? I`m doing really good.  We had a baptism on Friday.  Her name is Alexandra.  She has been going to church for like 4 months now and she even went to EFY as well. She didn`t get baptized earlier because she had a crazy busy schedule and could never receive the lessons. She these last couple of weeks we were finally able to have the lessons and she was super-excited for her baptism. 

          Something crazy about the baptism was when we started filling up the baptismal font clean water was coming out and about an hour later we checked on it again and it was completely dirty. There was some pipe that broke or something and dirty water was coming out. So we only had an hour until the baptism and we called the bishop up and he told us that the dirty water was going to keep coming out. So that was crazy but everything went well after that. 

          This week we also did a crazy service project and we had to move all of this sand it was so crazy.

Have a great week,

Elder Rogers

 

 

 

Multi-Mission Conference with Elder Bednar

Alicia's Baptism

February 29, 2016

Hey everybody,

          We had a multi-mission conference with Elder Bednar and it was so great!  In the conference he talked a lot about how we as members have a lot of bad customs. For example, a lot of times we write down almost everything that is said in the conferences when we should just write down the things that the Holy Ghost is telling us. 

          Something else is he focused a lot of having faith and explained that a huge part of faith is acting and not just having an assurance or believing in something that is true. A huge part is acting and that is how we should learn by faith. We need to keep acting, learning from scriptures, doing all that we can to try to receive answers from the questions that we have and we need to keep on praying and asking god for more revelation.

          My new companion is Elder Cabrera from Paraguay and he has about 5 months on the mission. This is his second area.  It was pretty funny; his first day in the area it rained a ton. We are getting to know each other better and better. I hope you guys have a great week, 

Love you guys,

Elder Rogers

Alicia is Baptized! Elder Bednar is Coming to the Mission!

February 22, 2016

Hey everybody,

          How are you all doing? So this week is changes and I am staying in my area and Elder Pierce is leaving. My new companion is Elder Cabrera and he is from Paraguay. He is going to be my first companion from Paraguay. 

          Alicia got baptized it was really nice to have the support of the members especially from the young men and the young women that are the same age as her. Alicia`s grandma and sister both went to the baptism, so that was really cool, we are going to see if we can do a family home evening with their family.

          Elder Bednar is going to be coming to our mission Friday and we are going to have a multi-mission conference with him. I am super excited! I think that there are few missionaries that get to see two apostles live in their mission. I have been reading some of Elder Bednar`s talks and he talks a lot about learning by faith and not just receiving answers.  It made me think a lot about the importance of asking God to be able to understand his doctrine.

Until next week,

Elder Rogers

 

Rosario Gets Baptized!

The Mission Conference

February 8, 2016

Hey Everybody,

          This week was amazing! Rosario got baptized this Saturday, Woohoo!  It was so amazing to see the change that she has made.  She is really excited to follow the gospel. Something else awesome happened as well.  Her daughter went to church and she really liked it so we are going to see if she wants to hear the lessons.

          We also had some other investigators in church, Loreley and Alicia.  They are mother and daughter. Alicia (the daughter) was visiting her friend in another city a couple hours away and her friend invited her to church and she liked it, so she decided to go to church and showed up with her mom. They are really great people and have a lot of faith in Christ.  They have heard from a lot of different religions so they are a little confused, but the Lord will help them figure things out.

         We had a really fun zone activity today.  We played volleyball and ate watermelon.  Well, I hope you all have a great week.

Love you guys,

Elder Rogers