In Which I Give You the Basics

Dear Family,

This whole having a blog thing has not worked in my favor haha. Sorry I haven't been writing as much as I know I should!

We have a baptism on Saturday, of a woman who has pretty much waited her whole life to be baptized. We've been working on her program and it is going to be such a special baptismal service! We are very excited for her and I'll give you an update of how it went!

We have another baptism planned for February 7th. It's a family that's getting baptized, a single mom and her oldest daughter. Her other kids aren't old enough yet. They have a sincere desire that is hard to come by. It's amazing to see their progress in the gospel, and their desire to be a part of it. Things are just going so great and I'm so happy!

Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Rogerson

In Which We Celebrate Christmas

Dear Family,

It was so great to see you on Thursday! You all look so happy and so tired. Don't worry, I felt the same!

This week we had one particularly incredible lesson. One of our investigators has been praying strongly to know whether he should be baptized. The only thing that is holding him back from baptism is that he has not received an answer yet. He asked us to have a lesson with him specifically on how to recognize answers to prayers. I love it, because that is showing his willingness and his true desire to receive an answer and act on it.

We have many people whom we are working with and I am so grateful to have them in my life at this time. Every area you are in, you learn different things from people and you know it's inspired that you've been sent there. I love it, and love the thing that I have learned so far.

Christmas day itself was so great. We saw many people and caroled and shared the story of Christ's birth with everyone we could. People were happy and called out "Merry Christmas!" to us. I love this time of year. It allows us to think more about Christ and His gift to us, and reminds us to think of it throughout the year.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Rogerson

In Which Transfers Come and Prayer is Powerful

Dear Family,

The news has come in! I'm being transferred from Fontana to Colton a week before Christmas. It will be an exciting time! I'm excited to meet new people and work with those who are ready to hear the gospel, especially during this Christmas season.

We had a really good lesson with D, one of our investigators. We've been working with her for a few months now, and she has never agreed to say the prayer during our lessons. We had a lesson specifically on prayer and how it is how we nurture that relationship with our Heavenly Father. We also talked about Joseph Smith and how it was his vocal prayer that brought the First Vision and thus the whole church came about.

We invited her, again, to pray at the end of the lesson. She shook her head, and we began to testify again that prayer is how we gain truth. I was praying in my heart the whole time that she would accept our invitation. Then D agreed to say the prayer! She offered the most beautiful and heartfelt prayer I've every heard an investigator say. The Spirit came into her home and it was one of the strongest experiences of feeling the Spirit I've had on my mission. Both Sister Hope and I left feeling spiritually uplifted and happy beyond measure.

I just want to testify that prayer is so powerful. It can and does change lives. It changes hearts and brings the Spirit. It is an open line to our Father in Heaven. How lucky are we to have it?? I am so grateful.

Have a great week! Love you all!

Sister Rogerson

In Which Illness Strikes. And I Remember the True Gift of Christmas

Dear Family,

Not much went on this week because I was sick and we didn't leave the apartment for a couple days. We have been busy helping people put up Christmas decorations, and we've gotten really good and putting up Christmas lights on trees.

It's been cold and rainy, so much that it started to feel like winter until today, when it's 80 degrees and we're back to summer.

I'm not really sure what else to write about, other than I think I slept more this past week than i have my entire mission.

OH! There's this amazing video that the Church has put out called "He is The Gift", on christmas.mormon.org. You can also find it on youtube, because it's the headline for the rest of the month!

How incredible is it that we can share the reason for Christ's birth with others? He was born, and that in itself was amazing, but why was He born? To make possible our salvation. His entire life, pre-mortal and mortal, was to prepare Him to do that. Everything relates back to the Atonement and how precious that gift is. We've been given so many gifts, but Christ, Himself, was The Gift.

Have a merry Christmas! 

Love,

Sister Rogerson

Elise and and Sister Hope in footsie pajamas

In Which We Give Thanks

Dear Family,

This week was full of making plans for Thanksgiving! We made a list of families we felt like we needed to see that day...and we are going to end up with 6 dinners that day. One of the families we are going to dinner with is a potential investigator family, and we were planning on talking to them about coming over. Before we could do so, they called us and invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner! God is so great, that's really all I can say.

We've been talking a lot of what we can share on Thanksgiving with all these people we are going to see, and it's made me think a lot about what I am grateful for. Of course, there's my family and my mission and my companion. But this year I'm also especially grateful for general conference and ensign talks. I'm grateful for the people I've been able to meet the past year and for my testimony, which has grown immensely since I really started to concentrate on it.

I hope you all will think of some different things you are thankful for this year! God has blessed us with so many things. Why not look for them?

1 Nephi 1:20

Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Rogerson

In Which Many Changes Happen This Transfer. Just Not to Us.

Dear Family,

Transfer calls were this morning and both Sister Hope and I are staying in this area! We are both really excited to continue working with those people whom we have come to love.

We picked up a new investigator, J. He is one of our investigator's sons. We are very excited to continue to teach him. He has great faith in Jesus Christ already. That makes it easier to teach people the restored gospel. 

Many changes are happening this transfer. We have 15 new elders coming in and 3 new sisters. Areas are being divided and missionaries added to wards. The ward I'm serving in now has one set of elders and one set of sisters, but starting Wednesday we'll have 2 sets of elders and a set of sisters (us) in the ward. This transfer is also a 5 week transfer, because if it was a regular 6 week transfer then it would land on December 23. So many missionaries are finishing their missions in December, so about half of them are going home a week before Christmas and half are going home a week after.

Well that's all the news for this week! I love my mission, it's the best!

Love,

Sister Rogerson

In Which We Have a Happy Halloween

Dear Family,

This week has been really great! On Wednesday we had a baptism of a 9 year old girl. We've been teaching her for about 2 months and she got baptized! Her mom is a returning less active and they are both doing so well.

On Halloween we had to be in our apartments at 6pm, but that didn't stop us from hanging up Happy Halloween signs on 15 member's doors. I thought our ninja skills were getting pretty good, but we got caught a few times by the members. At one house Sister Hope had me distract the member so she could hang it up on the back of their front door and another time so she could hang the sign up in their bathroom.

It also got down to the 60s the past few days. Sister Hope and I got out our winter coats and scarves and felt like winter had come. Then we found out it's supposed to get back up to the 90s this week. I can't complain. Winter here is really just like spring.

I'm so excited for these coming months! It's going to be great, I can just feel it.

Love you all!

Sister Rogerson