10-27-13 Weekly update!

Sister Batty, Sister Rogers and the Sister training Leaders, Sister Tobias and Sister England

Their whole zone with President & Sister Jensen (middle).

Hey yall!
So this week has been pretty nuts! A lot went on... it seemed super long and I'm just completely tuckered out, so im pretty glad that today is pday cause Im DEFINITELY in need of a nap. Seriously though, I'm exhausted. But its so great, cause thats evidence that Heavenly Father is blessing Sister Batty and I so much with so many people to teach. We absolutely LOVE it! We go hard all week long and it brings us so much joy to know that Heavenly Father trusts us. For reals though, I'm so humbled and grateful that Father in Heaven has blessed us so tremendously.
Also, we just figured out that this weekend is daylight savings! Extra hour of sleep... BONUS! It couldn't have come at a better time. Another blessing from Father in Heaven! He loves us!

More blessings.. we obtained 4 new investigators this week! One of which was a referral from a ward member! And gosh dang it, she is solid! her name is sky and she's 14 years old. She's totes getting baptized very soon! She's awesome! She just eats up the gospel and loves everything about it! We are teaching her tonight so hopefully we will have a date for her! She's been reading the Book of Mormon like crazy and absolutely loves Young Womens and personal progress! She is a miracle blessing from the Lord and it all started with a member referral! EVEN COOLER!

We had exchanges this week with the Sister training Leaders. That rocked! They are awesome and we worked really hard and Heavenly Father blessed us with lots of miracles.
Sister batty impresses me more and more everyday at how strong and hardworking she is. Her testimony is powerful and she is getting more and more confident every single day. its awesome!

So we have three investigators that have to be interviewed by President Jensen before they can be baptized due to some legal complexities that need to be worked out. And then President Jensen has to write a letter to the First presidency and basically ask for an exception for this person to be baptized. It's quite a long process. Hopefully we will get all the interviews done this sunday and we can get that next step of the process underway. Man, we have so much to do and so many people to help prepare, but its so amazing! We are truly blessed.

So Hermana Eggett and I have become really good friends and are already planning all the adventures we are going to have when we get back from our missions. DISNEYLAND being the first thing we do. haha! But seriously, I'm pretty pumped.

ANYWAYS... it has been such a blessing to see the Lord blossom this area right before my eyes. It has been incredible, and I know with all my heart that this work is true. I wouldn't be so happy if it wasn't! I love you guys so much and am so grateful for all of your support, prayers, and everything else you do. Keep sharing the gospel and SEEK TO FIND THE ONE! I love ya!

Love,
Sister Halee Rogers

10-21-13 email!

Group of missionaries volunteering at a 5K.  Must be getting cold.

With Elder Steele and Elder Belliston.

With her companion Sister Batty.

With Sister Jensen from her ward.

With Hermana Eggett.  Her best friend from the pre-mortal existence.

So.... Hello everyone!
So first off, tomorrow marks my 5 month mark. That's just crazy! I am starting my sixth month out!!! WHAT?! Man. I am absolutely loving this work. This week was great! We were very busy! Teaching a lot! We currently have two investigators with baptismal dates, and we should have at least two more this week. Heavenly Father is pouring down endless blessings! I am so humbled to be receiving so many great things. Sister Batty and I are doing our best to continue to stay humble, obedient and working hard. I'm seriously so grateful to have Sister Batty as a companion. She is so great. She is one of the hardest workers I have ever seen and she never complains. She has such a strong desire to be exactly obedient and in turn is utilizing the Gift of the Holy Ghost she has been given to the fullest. We get along very well, so I'm just so happy about that!
Ahhhh... I don't even really know what else to say... I am just so happy. all of the time! I love every aspect about this work. I love this area, I love the people, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the ward. They are so helpful and really working valiantly to move forward the work of salvation. I have never been a part of such effective ward council meetings. We are starting to receive more referrals from members and its all because we are working together. When we do that, Heavenly Father blesses us.
My testimony is growing each and every day. I find such satisfaction and joy in repenting daily and internalizing the Doctrine of Christ. This really is the Work of Salvation. We are helping to rescue those people that are lost so that they can be saved my the eternal grace of Jesus Christ and the majesty and efficacy of His infinite atonement. I know with all of my heart that the light of the Atonement extends to ALL people. This is true.

I just want you all to know that you are amazing! Sorry for such a short update. I will give more details next time. I love you guys!

Love Sister Halee Rogers

Training already! 10-14-13

Elder Tall, zone leader, was obsessed with Halee's "Good Will" vest so

 she gave it to him as a going away present before he got transferred.  

(don't think she was too sad to give that vest away- ha)

Weekly P-Day game of Settler's of Catan with the Elders at the Relief Society President's house.

Last game of Settler's before Sister King and Elder Tall both got transferred.

Good bye to Sister King- transfer day.

Good bye to Elder Tall- transfer day.

Hello to Sister Batty.  Halee was just made a trainer and is excited to work/train Sister Batty.

Yellow!
This week has been pretty darn awesome! As you know, transfers were on Wednesday and I got to drive 3 hours all the way to Iowa City to pick her up. It required waking up at 3:30 am to do it... but I was pretty excited. My new companion's name is Sister Batty. She is from Wayne County, Utah (central) and she is 19 years old! Thank goodness, I was really scared I was going to get someone really older than me and it would be super weird, haha. But SIster Batty is way awesome. She is a very hard worker. She doesn't like to talk much but that will soon change once she realizes that part of her training is leading the discussions in the lessons and inviting people to be baptized. So she should be broken in here pretty quick:) haha She likes to run... so we went running one morning... I DIED. Holy crap, I am so out of shape. Its like I can't be physically and spiritually in shape at the same time I swear.. Cause before my mission I was physically in shape but not so much spiritually in shape... and now I'm on my mission and I'm spiritually in shape but not so much physically in shape. LAME! I need to work on that. I'll start simple and maybe eat a banana or something today. Then next week I might do a burpee. Who knows... I don't want to get to crazy here! haha

Mostly this week we've had a lot of meetings but have had some good teaching opportunities as well. We have two investigators with baptismal dates... Casey for December 5th and Brandon for November 16th... we are pushing very hard to make our mission goal of 550 baptisms by the end of the year! We have been fasting and praying full force for this goal and I know that with the Lord's help we can accomplish it! It's all about obedience and humility at this point. We also got a new investigator this week... her name is Debbie! She is one of our investigators' mom! She's way sweet and really looking for a change in her life. We had a wicked sweet lesson with her the other night about the restoration and invited her to be baptized and she readily accepted! Hopefully by this week we will have a date set for her. We are supposed to be giving her a church tour on Tuesday so I'm pumped!!!

Every P-day we go over with the Elders to the Relief Society President's home and play a round of SETTLERS OF CATAN! Man... its so fun!!! It's like everything I've hoped for and I just get really excited throughout the week! haha It reminds me of playing with Riley and sadi and morgan! haha

Anyways... things are going really great! I have a goal to read the Book of Mormon in a month. I started yesterday and I'm like 20 pages in.. so I think I can do it! I just want you all to know that from the bottom of my heart I know that this is the only true church on the earth. And as crazy as this world is getting, the gospel is the only thing that can save it from it's own self destruction. Families ARE forever and Jesus Christ is really the Only Begotten Son of the Father. He Lives.

I love you all so very much! And you guys just keep me motivated! I love ya!

Love,
Sister Halee Rogers

Mission update!

Brother Clark bought her a $20 rib eye!  Made her day!!!

With Sister King and Sister Hendrix from their ward.

Iowa Barn!

She's obsessed with cornfields- ha!

District meeting!

Fun in the car!

Loving the Iowa landscape!

More cornfields- ha!

Fall in Iowa!

Funny red thumb!

Hello again!!
First I must start off this email by making a shoutout... to my wonderful sister Sadi Pope... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!! I hope its the greatest day ever! I love you so much! Also... happy anniversary to both sets of grandparents! I love ya!

Okay... SO.. this week has been great! And I bet you are all wondering about the transfer calls we received this morning... My transfer doctrine is that I will be staying in the Ft. Dodge West area and I will be training a new missionary! I'm kinda nervous but pretty stoked as well. I will get my new companion on thursday so its going to be exciting! Hopefully she's cool... haha but if not I will still love her cause thats what Jesus would do!!

Now that the exciting news is out of the way... This week has been great! GENERAL CONFERENCE ROCKED MY WORLD! Seriously though... I was going to share what my favorite talk was in this email but then as I went back through all my notes I couldn't decide on a favorite... so I thought I'd tell you my favorite from each session... but that didn't work either cause they were just all so flippin good and inspired!!!! For real though.. when President Monson stated that this was one of the most inspiring sessions of conference that he had ever attended I agreed completely! M Russel Ballards talk about missionary work was incredible. SEEK TO FIND THE ONE!!! Another talk that I am definitely going to have to go back and read and study again was Ulisses Soares talk about Meekness. So inspiring. Boyd k. Packer on Scripture power...man so powerful! GAHHHHH they were just all so good! I could go on forever and tell you what I thought about each talk but I'm not going to. I just want you all to know that I know that we are Prophet led. That the leaders of this church are divinely called and truly inspired of God when they speak to us. Their words are scripture!

Along with conference... our week was pretty eventful! Yesterday.... we found out that one of our investigators stabbed someone at a high school dance and is now in jail... haha I'm not even joking. We were like what the??? So He's probably not going to be getting baptized very soon. Crazy thing is, is that we literally saw him right before the dance and he was showing us his cool new pocket knife he got..... YIKES! We had no idea he was going to use that new pocket knife to stab someone in the back. CRAZY! The guy he stabbed had to get life flighted to Des Moines but is doing okay now. And as I stated earlier, our investigator is now in jail and will most likely be tried as an adult because he turns 18 in a week. Lesson to learn here is DON'T BE STUPID.. or you'll end up in jail!
Another good story from this week, and quite frankly a much happier story from this week was when Libby called us on the phone Monday night. She called and was talking to us for a little while and then asked, "Sister Rogers and Sister King... Did you get a message from God last night?" I asked her, "what about?" She said, "Last night I prayed to God and asked Him if He would let you guys know that I loved you... Did He tell you?" I smiled really big and told her that yes we had received the message. She got so excited! It was seriously the cutest thing ever! haha That girl is so precious!
Last little bit of news for the week... I FINISHED THE BOOK OF MORMON!!!! woo hoo!!!!! My goal was to finish it before the end of the transfer and I did! So i'm pretty pumped about that. Gosh dang, that book is so true and so freakn good!!! Words can't express how amazing that book is! Also.. Its been getting pretty chilly here! I whipped out my boots a few days ago... I am so not looking forward to the FEET of snow that lie ahead! YIKES!!

Welp... I love you all very much! Keep the faith and always REMEMBER HIM! Trust in the Good Shepherd:)

LOVE YOU!
Sister Halee Rogers

SHOUTOUT LIST

Dad...... I love your letters so much! And thank you for the gift! It was awesome!

Ali.... I had one of the other sisters in my district read your letter you wrote to me cause it was so good. and this is what she said about it.."This reminds me of everyone I freakn love so much!" haha so youre letter was awesome!

Carlee... Thank you so much for the package!!! That notebook is adorable and I absolutely LOVED all the pictures you sent!! Can't wait to hear more about blakers!! Also... I think Ranger would be an AWESOME middle name... keep the BRB initials going!

Mama Jane Ward.... THe pictures of the wedding and your note and postcard were so great! Thank you so much!

Momma... Thank you for sending all of my winter clothes! YOU ARE THE BEST!!! I LOVE YA!

9-30-2013 email

All the missionaries in their ward!

With Elder Steele and Elder Tall- zone leaders!

Wearing her Grandpa Rogers International Harvester T-shirt!  

Thanks Grandma Rogers!

Hello again everyone!
This week has been really great! We taught a lot this week and I was able to really focus back on the work. I learned a lot this week too. First of all, i just love the Book of Mormon. It is SO good!! I am in Mormon right now, and I have a goal to finish all of it by the end of this transfer... which is next week on the 10th! I'm pretty pumped. This week we got a couple new investigators, brandon and quincy! They are brothers. Brandon is 15 and quincy is 8! We also were able to set a baptismal date with one of our investigators Casey for december 23rd! She is really progressing quickly but still needs to make a lot of changes. But I know that Heavenly Father will help her to be ready by the 23rd of December! She's been reading and praying a lot which is way good! She also attended a baptism with us on Saturday and came to the Relief Society General Broadcast that night as well and then came to church in the morning! It was awesome! Speaking of the Relief Society General Broadcast... MAN THAT WAS SO GOOD! I just want to go to the temple so bad after watching that! I also learned that i really want to be a mom that teaches her children the importance of convenants and how essential it is that we keep them. That story that Sister reeves told about the boy who blessed the sacrament with such reverance and then she called to thank him when his mother answered and said that she was grateful cause they had been stressing the importance of it... I loved that story. I want to be a mom like that!! Also this week, There were some struggles that my companion was having that we needed to try and work through...she said something that really meant a lot to me. she said, "Your kids are really lucky, because they are going to have a great mom." Immediately I thanked her but my thoughts automatically shifted to my mom. I owe all the credit to her. She taught me how to be kind and how to truly love people and taught me what it means to be selfless. So mom, I want you to know that the compliment I received this week was in credit of you. You are the best mom ever and its your example that I try to follow.

On another note, I'M REALLY EXCITED FOR GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!!! Seriously, I can't wait! I'm super jealous that you guys get to attend... LUCKIES!
Man, I just want you all to know that this church is true. Thomas S. Monson was divinely called by God to be our prophet today. Any commandment we are given is for a reason. Even if we don't understand what that reason is. Sometimes God gives us commandments simply to show our faith. I know that He would NEVER lead us astray. He is God... He does not make mistakes! He loves us so much! And I love you guys so much too!!:)

STAY AWESOME! YOU DA BESTEST!

Love,
Sister Halee Rogers

P.S. Transfers are next week and we dont find out til next monday so... any letters or packages should probably go through the mission office at this point:)


SHOUT OUT LIST
Mother dearest... I don't even know what to say... youre seriously the best! It was so good to see all those pictures and to get grandpas shirt. I love you very much!

Emmee... Youre letter rocked! Its crazy to read all of your exciting 7th grade adventures! I love you!