A New Companion From Italy

February 16, 2015

            We had changes last week and I stayed in my area and my companion left. My new companion is Elder Mendoza and he is from Italy. His parents are from Dominican Republic but he was born in Italy and lived there his whole entire life. He can speak 3 languages: English, Spanish and Italian. He is a super awesome guy and is also super funny. I am excited to be getting to know him better for the next 6 weeks or more.

            This week me and Elder Mendoza are going to search and search for people. We have a goal to contact 20 people every day. That may not sound like a lot, but in a little town it is, haha. We are super excited to work in the area together and try to find as many people as we can.

            So I gave a talk for the second week in a row, haha, I guess that is one of the blessings of living in a smaller town is you get better at giving talks. I talked about the atonement and the sacrament and how they are so important.  I spoke about how we can choose to use the atonement in our lives or we can choose to ignore it.

            Well something crazy happened a couple days ago.  My Trainer went home it was so weird to see him go home and something else that is pretty crazy is that I found a guinea pig. A less-active lady had one outside so I had to take a picture of it.

 

Elder Rogers

 

Hola!

February 9, 2015

            Hey how is everybody doing this week? I am doing awesome.  This week was changes and this change went by crazy fast. I cannot believe it. But anyways my companion leaves and I am staying, I have heard that my new comp is from Italy, so that is pretty cool.

            There have been so many things happening in the ward lately and the Lord’s work is definitely growing here. But I am excited for this next change and ready for whatever is coming haha. I know we can help more people and keep on looking for the people that are ready to hear the gospel.

            This week I gave a talk about charity and there are so many things about charity that I have never thought about. I thought about how if we have charity we don`t talk bad about other people and we care for the salvation of other souls and also how it is a gift from God. We can receive this gift by doing good works and also by praying for this gift.

Love you all!

Elder Rogers

 

 

A Hard Week

Our District

February 2, 2015

            This week has been kind of hard, we have been talking to a ton of people but we haven`t been finding a lot of people lately. But it does make us work harder and I know we will find more people if we just keep working hard and keep listening to the spirit.

            So we have a recent convert that has been out of town for about 2 weeks, and we finally had a lesson with her and she is really excited to go back to church and read the scriptures. We are super excited for her.  She is super firm0member; she always wants to learn more. 

            Lately we have been talking to a lot of people that have had some very sad things happen in their life like loved ones that have died. It is something very sad, but we know through the atonement that we can all feel better and receive peace. One thing that is very amazing to me is that God gave his son, Jesus Christ, and it must have been really hard for him to watch him suffer, especially because he has so much power and he could have helped him. But he knew that it is part of the plan and Jesus had to die and suffer for our sins.

            Hope you all have a great week.  This is a photo of me and my area.  The area isn`t actually that bad.  There are around 4000 people that live here. We just took the picture close to some fields.

Elder Rogers



My new area

Multi-Zone Conference and a Miracle

A Picture of our Zone

January 26, 2015

            This week has flown by for me. We have done so many things lately.  First for our last p- day we had an activity at the church and we played volleyball for a couple of hours and after we ate snacks. It is crazy for me how I can walk all day long, but when it comes to really playing sports like volleyball, I´m sore for the rest of the week.

            We also had a multi-zone conference that was really good that talked a lot about urgency and having a lot of backup plans.  If we have a lot of back up plans, when something falls through, we don´t have to think and think about what we are going to do next.  We can just go and do it.

            A miracle we had this week was we went to see an old investigator.  This old investigator was progressing and everything, but he could not give up smoking, so he couldn´t get baptized and then he kind of lost contact with the missionaries. But anyways we went to the house and just knocked on the door and he told us we could come in. We started talking a lot about the Plan of Salvation and he had a lot of profound questions and we just kept on talking and he seemed really interested. Then at the end of the lesson, he just started talking about baptism and how he could give up smoking and get baptized in like 3 or 4 weeks.  We were like yeah, you should totally do that. It is crazy to me how God prepares people to receive the Gospel and he does it in time. 

            Hope you all have a great week and I´ll write you next week!!!

Sincerely,

Elder Rogers 

These are the kids of a member that we visit a lot.
These guys are awesome, crazy and super-funny

Mission!!!

The grave we dedicated last week

January 19, 2015

            This week has been pretty crazy.  First we went and had a family home evening with a lady named Morena. Morena is basically the grandma of all of the missionaries.  She is super funny.  During the family home evening we talked about patience and we showed that video of the kids eating the marshmallows.  It was really good. After we were done with the family home evening, Morena made us some cake and she made a ton of it.

            We dedicated a grave a couple of days ago.  The grave is of a recent convert’s brother. The family is really sad about what happened to him.  He died from a car accident and they all visit him every month. That is actually how she found the missionaries and got baptized. The graveyards in South America are very different.  The caskets are stacked up on top of each other and the middle of the grave yard is very open. It is very different than the states and also the caskets are not in the ground; they are above.

            We have been working with an investigator and her name is Maria.  She is awesome.  We had our first lesson a week or so ago and we told her to pray about our message and the Book of Mormon and she did.  The next day we talked with her and she received an answer to her prayers. I know that she knows the Book of Mormon is true, she knows the rests of the gospel is true as well.  We schedule her date of baptism on the 6th of February. 

            So this week has been pretty great for me.  Well I hope you all have a great week, Ciao.

Elder Rogers



A grave yard in Uruguay

Hello Everybody

January 12, 2015

            How is everybody? How was your week?

            So this week we had a holiday called Dia de los Reyes and it means “day of the kings.” It is celebrated on January 6^th.  What they do for this holiday is the kings give the children presents (so basically like Santa Clause but instead it is kings).  A lot of kids here have their new toys and everything.

            It is kind of weird being in a different area than my other area, but I´m getting used to it now. My area isn´t huge, so I´m starting to learn where everything is. We have been focusing really hard on trying to get families to go to church and also work on Family Home Evenings. It is crazy—when I got here we didn´t even have a Primary, Elder Araya and I have been working really hard on trying to get more young people to go to church and this week we did pretty good. We had almost as many people in Primary as we did in all of the other classes. With the Family Home Evenings we have been trying to invite as many people as we can to try to get the members closer and become better friends.

            Today we played soccer with some members and some investigators and it is so weird because as missionaries in South America we can walk all day but when it comes to running, that is a different story. We run out of energy pretty fast, especially when it is so hot outside. It was really fun to play and just have a good time. 

            Hope you guys all have a great week and I´ll write you next week!!!

Elder Rogers

 

Transfer to Vergada

Cbristmas in Melo

January 5, 2015

          How was everybody’s New Years Eve? Mine was very relaxing  just watching fireworks and stuff. So we had changes last week and now I am in a place called 33, the actual city I am in is called Vergada.  It is a small town.

          So I left Melo.  It was hard to say bye to everybody but, I don´t know it’s weird that I was sad and happy at the same time. It is sad to say goodbye to everybody but I felt like it was time to leave Melo. 

          Vergada is a lot like my last area I am still kind of close to Brazil and still really close to my last area. So Vergada is a small town for sure.  We have about 12 or so active members, and here it is really hot and humid. 

          Here in Vergada we have been focusing on family home evenings and trying to get families to go to church. We also are doing a challenge reading a chapter in The Book of Mormon every day until July or so. We are sure that is going to help the ward out a ton and we will have more spiritual strength here.

Have a Great Week!!!

Elder Rogers 

 



This is the asado I was talking about last week

Cooking the asado