Fantastically Delicious!

Hello Everyone,

This week went quite well! We have been teaching a fair amount of lessons and Holly is getting really close to baptism. We're almost as excited for it as she is! In other uplifting news, one of the Recent Converts who we haven't been able to see or get a hold of for three weeks came to church yesterday! It was such a joy to see him there, and it was even better when we taught him afterwards. We weren't exactly sure what we were going to teach him, but at one point as he was talking I received the impression that we should read the Parable of the Sower with him. I turned to my companion and whispered "Parable of the Sower" and he responded with, "That's exactly what I was thinking!" So you could say that we're growing in unity as a companionship.
On Friday we had our Zone Meeting in New Bern. We talked and learned about faith. I loved it! We learn from Ether that our faith will lead us to have hope and do good. "Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God." I would invite each of you to exercise your faith in Christ by doing good to your fellow men. I know that Christ lives and loves us. Through Him we truly can receive everlasting peace and joy.
I love you! Have a fantastic week!

With Love,
Elder Rogers

P.S. I tried Sushi for the first time ever! Also, the subject of this email is in reference to the large cheese biscuit, and bacon-wrapped hot dogs that we had this week at members' homes!

He Lives!

Hello Everyone,

Happy Easter! I know I'm a day late, but I hope that everyone enjoyed this wonderful day of rejoicing! This week went really well for us here in Washington, North Carolina! The weather has been nice and several of our investigators have been progressing quite well.
I went to New Bern this week for a day! One of the Elders there is also from Pocatello, so we shared several stories and had a great time working together! I was proud of Elder Fuller as he led our area for a day. He did really well!
We have a new sister missionary in our District and District meeting went exceptionally well this week! The Spirit taught all of us many truths and we were all edified.
Our investigators have been doing well! We taught them several times this week and they came to conference! We were very excited and they liked it a lot!
I thoroughly enjoyed General Conference! It is always nice to hear the inspiring messages of God's servants. The many testimonies born of Jesus Christ, our Savior, strengthened my testimony of Him. I know He lives. He has overcome death and sin, and because He has, we can live with Him again. I invite everyone to listen to and relisten to the many talks given at conference. I know they can and will brighten our lives. I also invite each of you to watch the video on HeLives.mormon.org. It's a beautiful video about Easter and I really like it. Well I love you all and hope everyone has a magnificent week!

With Love,
Elder Rogers

Listen to a Prophet's Voice!

Hello Everyone!

Let me just start off by saying how miraculous this week was! We were so packed with lessons and things that the week just flew by! Two of our investigators, are really progressing! This week they: Came to the family history center, met with us for a few lessons, came to the Relief Society Conference, and came to church! And...they loved it all! So you could say that we're pretty excited for them!
This week we also taught a few other families that are showing a lot of potential. One of them is a part-member family and the father who is a member hasn't been to church for 48 years...haha so that was a little bit of a shock when we first found out! But his wife and daughter are both interested in learning, so we just started teaching them all from the beginning. A miracle from that family is that their nurse was also interested in learning about the gospel, so we set up an appointment with her and her husband. We were about 30 miles from Washington, where we live, when we met them, but the nurse told us that she also lived in Washington. Haha and we later found out that she lived literally right next to our house!
Now I'll talk a little bit about conferences. First of all, we had our Branch Conference yesterday and there were several inspiring messages shared. Also, we had food afterwards which is always a nice bonus! Secondly, this upcoming weekend is General Conference. It will be broadcast on television and also online at lds.org. The Lord Himself will be giving us counsel and guidance through His servants. I exhort each of you to attend several sessions with questions and an open heart. I know that as you do, you will receive revelation concerning your life and how you can better it through our Savior. This is the Lord's church and He speaks in our day.
I love you all and hope your weeks are marvelous!

With Love,
Elder Rogers

P.S. This week we were walking around, talking to people and this cat ran up to us and just started following us! I decided that his name was Fido and he followed us for several blocks. We realized that he was probably hungry and so we stopped by a less-active lady's house who loves cats and she brought some cat food right out for him! She was happy to add him to her collection of cats!

I Love to See the Temple!

Hello Everyone!

This week was amazing! I'm just gonna start out with Wednesday, because that's when we went to the Raleigh temple and it was definitely the highlight of my week! We drove over in the morning and I was lucky enough to ride shotgun next to my Mission President on the way there! Haha I was nervous and excited! He is a very great man and I am grateful for all that he does for the Mission!
We got to the temple around noon and it was such a wonderful and spiritually uplifting experience! I'd go there every week if I could! But anyway, afterwards we had Zone Conference in the Raleigh meetinghouse and the whole meeting was centered on the temple. I was able to play the piano as the congregation sang "High On a Mountain Top" and "We Love Thy House, O Lord." And the speakers, including the Temple President, all spoke of the Lord's House. I loved it so much! The Spirit was abounding and I was refreshed.
The rest of the week was a miracle. We received 8 people who want to learn about the gospel this week! And we had some really powerful lessons, especially as we taught the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ to them. I am excited for what the future holds for all of them.
On Saturday, Keith Buck was baptized! The senior couple here has been teaching him and we were all very excited for the steps that he is taking towards Christ. He was so happy and his testimony was so very powerful.
This week I would invite each of you to repent. Whether it is of a large misdeed or a little lie, each of us needs to repent so frequently. The Savior, Jesus Christ has provided us with a way to be forgiven of all things. His Atonement is infinite and so we should gratefully apply it often. Alma the younger describes his experience with repentance as follows. "And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!" True repentance brings true joy! I know that as each of us repent, our souls will be filled with rejoicing! The gospel of Jesus Christ is true and it is a gospel of happiness. I love you all and hope everyone has a fantastic week!

With Love,
Elder Rogers

P.S. There are some really beautiful white trees here!

Come Unto The Mountain of The Lord!

Hello Everyone!

That's right! We're going to the temple this week! The Raleigh one to be exact! I really just can't wait! The temple truly is the house of the Lord.
This week was good! We did a lot of street contacting and one of the days I was on exchanges with one of our Zone Leaders. He taught me a few things about street contacting. We talked with literally everyone! One of the people we talked to was about 40 feet away and most of the time I would have just thought she was too far away, but he said hello (Haha more or less yelled hello) and we went and talked to her. We had to kind of do a mini-jog to get to her, but it was good! So I learned from him that we should just talk to everyone, even if it's a little awkward.
One of our investigators is starting to come along a little bit. We went over last night with one of our members and had a really good lesson with him. He told us that he had read from the Book of Mormon, which he had never done before, and he really connected with the member. I am excited to see what the future holds!
I would invite each of you to attend the temple in the next month. It truly is the house of the Lord and we can receive so much peace and guidance in our lives as we make it a priority to go to that holy place. I know that if you will always live worthy of the temple, the Lord will bless your lives immensely. I love you all and hope everyone has a fantastic week!

With Love,
Elder Rogers

The Lady with the Leopard Cape

Hello Everyone!

This week was extremely busy! We had zone meeting on Friday and we taught a fair amount of lessons and our car had some maintenance done on it and the weather was amazing! Also, our Mission President has put out a standard of excellence which involves talking with as many people as possible about the gospel. So this week we did an exceeding amount of street contacting! And it all started last Monday night with the Lady with the Leopard Cape.
The plans we had set that night fell through and we decided we would go to the waterfront and see if there were any people we could talk to there. And there really weren't many. But we decided to get out of our car anyway and do our best! After about five minutes of walking around, there was a lady walking towards us on the sidewalk. When she was about a short stone's throw away, she crossed the street to the other side. But that didn't stop us! We said hello to her and asked her how she was doing! She said fine and that she already knew who Jesus Christ was. After we stated to her the wonderful truth that we had a prophet on the Earth today, she started talking with us. To make a long story short, we talked with her for quite some time about some pretty crazy stuff! She told us her name and, as the subject of this email suggests, she had some sort of a leopard cape on. Anyway, she kept referencing Revelations and some manner of apocryphal books. We listened and described to her some of our beliefs and offered her a Book of Mormon. She didn't want it and a short while later we parted ways.
At that time we decided to go try meeting with one of our investigators who seems to be rarely home. After knocking on his door, he opened it and invited us in! We had a wonderful lesson with him covering a broad spectrum of topics, but mainly focusing on the restoration of the gospel. The Spirit was very strong and he has a desire to know if these things are true. And he believes and understands several passages of the Bible just as we do, like the three degrees of glory and baptisms for the dead, both found in 1 Corinthians 15. I won't go into too much detail, but it will suffice to say that it was a wonderful lesson and he has a lot of potential!
Now you might be wondering why I told you that story. Well let me tell you! After we talked with the Lady with the Leopard Cape, I kept thinking..."why did we talk to her for so long? Perhaps we should have just left earlier." Later I realized that one reason may have been that we weren't supposed to go over to our investigator's home yet. If we had only talked to her for a short period of time, we would have gone to his home earlier and he might not have been home, and we would have missed that whole lesson we had with him. Nonetheless, the truth that stuck out to me from this entire experience is that the Lord's purposes will come to pass. In His way and in His time. Sometimes we may not understand why the Lord asks us to do certain things, but I know that when we follow Him in faith, we will receive so much more happiness than we can by any other way. The gospel is true. God lives. And it is by obedience to His commandments that we shall receive eternal life. D+C 14:7
I love each of you and hope you all have a fantastic week!

With Love,
Elder Rogers

Snowrth Carolina

Hello Everyone!

We got a bunch of snow on Tuesday!! It reminded me so much of Pocatello! We weren't allowed to drive during that day, so my companion and I got all bundled up and went street contacting! At first, I thought nobody would be outside that we could talk to, but there were actually quite a few people! That was really fun, and it made us feel really wonderful at the end of the day to plop down on our slightly-worn recliners and relax for a moment!
Anyway, the snow melted pretty quickly which allowed us to drive for the rest of the week. We might have taken that a little too far when we almost drove 100 miles on Wednesday! Haha we had received two referrals from Mormon.org and so we drove to them and talked with them! They had both requested Bible's and so we brought them that and also introduced them to The Book of Mormon and gave them each a copy of that as well. I love how well each of these books of scripture go together. As we study them both with a sincere desire, we will be protected from the adversary and receive spiritual strength.
This week, we weren't able to meet with many of our investigators, but we did do some work with some of the Less-Active members of our branch. One of them was a lady and she had this rope swing in her yard and she told me to ride it...so I did! Haha that was fun! But we were also able to teach her about the importance of the Sacrament and that was even better!
One lesson that was reemphasized to me this week was the power of the word of God. In Helaman 3:29 we learn that "whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and powerful, which shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil..." What a wonderful promise! And there are so many more like it. I invite each of you to study the word of God daily. Pray and ask your Heavenly Father to teach you what you need to learn and He will. I know that as you do, you will receive strength over temptation and peace through the storm. I love you all and hope you have a brilliant week!

With Love,
Elder Rogers