Weekly Update 7-14-14

HAVING SOME FUN!

CUTE SISTER MISSIONARIES!

GOT KICKED PLAYING SOCCER!

Hey There!

So this week has been a really great one! A lot of good things happening. I heard you guys got some pretty heavy rain and storms down there. SO DID WE! haha I thought Arizona Monsoons were crazy.. but they are nothing compared to the thunder storms here. haha I literally thought the world was ending. haha There were so many just outrageously loud claps of thunder and lightning in the middle of the night! It was scary! I couldn't sleep... not because it was scary or too loud, but because if it was really the end of the world, i didn't want to sleep through it! haha But then I remembered there are probably a few more prophecies that need to be fulfilled before that happens:)

This week on monday and tuesday we had exchanges in Ottumwa with Hermana Eggett and Hermana Howell. It was so fun!  We had a zone p-day in fairfield and played a bunch of games. I got kicked in the leg pretty hard and now my ankle is bruising at random places, but all is well! It was a 2 hour drive to ottumwa so Sister Andersen and I got a lot of time to talk in the car which means we got to know each other even better than we do. It was great and I am still just continually impressed with Sister Andersen. She's just incredible and I look up to her a lot.

Wednesday and Thursday were really good days... we did a lot of teaching. BIG NEWS! Our investigator Norman... he's this old guy that smokes and drinks a ton and has been taught for over 7 months now... has been completely living the word of wisdom for 4 days!!!!! He is preparing to be baptized on July 26th before Sister Andersen goes home. It has been so incredible to see how much The Atonement of Jesus Christ has affected his life. He is a changed man! And when he is baptized with water and the spirit he will be a new creature in Jesus Christ! I can't wait. We are praying a lot for him that he will hold out faithful.

Friday and Saturday and Sunday we had "mini missionaries" with us. They are youth ages 16-18 from the Iowa City Stake that get assigned to an area and they go out with the missionaries and live all the rules for the weekend and in effect serve a "mini mission." It's pretty cool. A lot of good things happened and I even learned a lot. There were the occasional times where I felt like a babysitter... but overall its a really great program. It made me realize too being around a bunch of 17 year olds how grateful i am for my mission. It has made me grow up for sure. I mean, I am not all the way there yet, but it has helped:) haha

Anyways, I want you all to know that I have a testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ and it is this: He lives! And He loves us. He is a perfect respecter of agency and is our advocate with the Father. His Atonement is infinite and the blessings that can come from it are imponderable but can only be received through obedience to the laws and ordinances established in HIS gospel. He is the way and the light and the truth. I know with all my heart and by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ and he manifests Himself unto ALL people, nations, kindreds, and tongues. The Book of Mormon and Bible are convincing evidence of this. I know by the power of the Holy Ghost that Christ's church was restored to the earth through the prophet Joseph Smith just as it was in times of old with other prophets. I bear solemn testimony, in the name of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, that I know that we have a prophet today, that through him, Christ leads this church. Christ is at the Helm and no one else. How grateful I am to my Father in Heaven for the divine gift of His only begotten son.

I hope you all have a great week! I love you! Keep choosing the right! 

Love

Sister Halee Rogers

Weekly Update 7-7-14

President & Sister Jepperson are in the mission presidency and will be moving to Utah.

Joyann & Aide's baptism!

All the sisters that were able to teach Joyann.  They all got to be there for the baptism.

Everyone with Aide!

Beautiful Iowa Rainbow.

With Elder Kay.  They both were at Snow College at the same time.

With Sister Batty.

With President & Sister Jensen.

Sister Lloyd came to visit.

Beautiful Sisters, Beautiful landscape.

HOLA!!!!

So... so many great things happened this week:) Tuesday we had Mission Leadership Council! That was awesome as usual and then Thursday and Saturday we had our Zone Training Meetings for the Iowa City and Fairfield zones! Sister Andersen and I got to train on bearing testimony and the power of testimony. It was really great because we were able to tailor it to what each zone needed specifically. It was sweet! And I feel really blessed.

Friday was the 4th of July! We were on exchanges in Washington so that was a blast and then that night we watched some fireworks:)

Saturday was such a special day!!! Not only did we have zone training meeting but Joyann and Aide got baptized!!!!!! Oh man, the service was SO great! Seriously, the best baptismal service I have been to on my mission. It was so spiritual and great! We had a lot of people there... there wasn't even enough chairs there was a bunch of people having to stand! We had 4 investigators there, so that was bomb, and also President and Sister Jensen were able to come as well as the Assistants to the President and all of the sister missionaries that had taught Joyann. It was so great. But the best part was that Joyann's mom came. She was the one who wouldn't allow Joyann to be baptized in the first place... so it was really great to have her there and be able to feel the spirit. While everyone was getting dressed after the ordinances, everyone made their way back into the RS room and Sister Andersen and I were able to give a presentation of the Restoration of The Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was awesome. The spirit just filled both of our mouths and took over. We were totally being used as instruments. I have never taught the restoration so clearly and simply before. And Sister Andersen and I had never taught so well together before. President Jensen came up to us after the service and gave us some really high quality compliments about it. And so did a few other people. It felt good to know that. 

So the baptism was awesome and their confirmation in church the next day was great as well! They both have the Gift of the Holy Ghost now:) What a blessing it has been to be able to experience these things. This is the pure joy of missionary work.

One last funny story... yesterday was fast sunday as you all know. SO we were fasting of course. And I personally had not really eaten that much in the past three days because we were so busy with stuff so I was kinda malnourished and WAY dehydrated. SO we went to a small town outside of Iowa City after church to go check on a referral and as we were talking to this lady on her porch I started getting really hot... it was about 85 degrees with high humidity. Then all of the sudden everything started getting really bright and then my vision was gone and then my hearing left as well and I was totally deaf. Next thing I know I am sitting in this lady's house with a cup of water in my hand. I had more or less passed out on this lady's porch!!! Sister Andersen said that they were talking and then looked over at me and I was about to fall of the railing of her porch and I was not a normal color so they grabbed me and brought me inside. hahah man I was so embarrassed!!! We decided it was time to probably break our fast:)

haha so anyways... I am just really blessed. missionary work is awesome and I know I still have A LOT to work on but I can feel the Atonement working in my life to help me change.

I love you! Have a great week!

Sister Halee Rogers

Weekly Update 6-30-14

Halee sent these pics with no description!  We'll let them speak for themselves.

Hey There!

SO this week has been a great one as usual! Just being blessed a lot by the Lord. Big news is, we have a baptism this week on Saturday! Along with the Elders in our ward. SO we have 2 baptisms on Saturday! We are really excited! The people getting baptized are Joyann and Aide. They are both so solid and have such strong testimonies! Joyann is incredible. She is 17 but will be 18 on Saturday! She has gone through a lot to get to this point and her faith is growing because of it. Her parents wouldn't let her be baptized earlier since she was a minor so now she is getting baptized on Saturday and she will be 18! She is so amazing! And then theres Aide... she is a spanish lady. So sweet! She called Sister Andersen and I this morning and asked if we would sing "There is Sunshine in My Soul Today" at her baptism. haha so we are doing that:)

I have been studying the spirit and the mission of the Holy Ghost a lot this week. It has made me ponder the spiritual gifts that I have been blessed with that I need to cultivate more. So I am excited to pray and seek to find these gifts!

I am still just loving Iowa City! It's a good thing too cause I will probably be here a while! haha It's been pretty stormy this week! Lots of rain!!! Which I love! It reminds me of monsoon season in AZ! haha I really just love being a missionary. Its the best thing in the world! The scriptures are awesome as well. And I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real and infinite. Even though I may not understand fully how the Atonement was performed I have still felt of its enabling power.

Thank you all for all your letters and emails and other things. I can feel your love and it means more than you know!

Love you and have a great week!!

Love

Sister Halee Rogers

Weekly Update 6-23-14

Got caught in a recent crazy Iowa Storm.

Fun at a ward party.

Hey there fam!

So crazy stuff... transfers were this week! So i got a call telling me I was emergency transferred and I am now serving in Des moines!

Just kidding... I'm still here in Iowa City! It's such a wonderful place and full of prepared souls:) Sister Andersen and I are still companions and I am so happy about that. She just continues to impress me every single day. She is a spiritual giant! And I have 6 weeks left to learn all of her wisdom before she goes home and gets married and stuff! SO wish me luck! haha

This week was really great... we were blessed to find 4 new investigators. One of them was a referral from a member! They had us over for dinner and then we taught a lesson. It was so powerful and the spirit was strong. I felt like I was in movie! haha But we are setting something up to meet with them again this week. Her name is Renata and she has 2 daughters. I'm stoked!

Other good news... Joyann moved her baptism up a week! She is getting baptized on July 5th on her 18th birthday! Her parents are supportive of her being baptized so this is a huge step that I know Heavenly Father will bless her for. It is the ONLY way through the gate.

There were like 3 ward parties this week which was awesome because 1) we got a lot of interaction with them and hopefully further gain their trust and 2) Free food:) It's been wonderful!

Yesterday, Sunday, was a very special day. First, a lady who hasn't been to church in years just showed up. She told us that she quit her job just so she could start coming to church again. She was sick of missing it. I was amazed by her faith! I know I couldn't be strong enough to do that. It was a huge sacrifice made by her. Second, we went and visited another member and her roommate. Her roommate isn't a member but has been taught by missionaries several times. AFter talking with her we found out that she wants to be baptized but hasn't because it would cause contention within her family especially with her Father who is a Lutheran minister. We plan to continue to go help her overcome this concern so that she can be baptized, And lastly, there was an incredible experience we had with one of the elder's investigators. I won't go into detail because it was such a special experience, but in summation, this lady has been taught for a while but hasn't been committing to baptism, after our visit with her, and completely by the spirit of revelation this lady decided she must be baptized. She hasn't told the elders yet... so we have to keep it a secret until they meet with her on wednesday. But it was truly remarkable and one of the most powerful experiences I have had on my mission.

I just feel continually blessed and so undeserving. I am so grateful to be a missionary for the Lord. I am so grateful to labor alongside with you all to prepare the way for the Savior of the World to come again. It is better than anything I could imagine!

Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Halee Rogers

Weekly Update 6-16-14

The title of her email this week was "Missions Are Great".

So... I just want to start off this email by saying how truly grateful for Heavenly Father I am. Everything He does is out of pure charity for His children. What a blessing it is to be used as instruments for this great cause! This week has been full of blessings and experiences that have been inspiring, humbling, and and great in ways that words just can't explain. 

Second thing I would like to say... I have the best companion ever. Sister Andersen is the best to be around. She is SO in tune with the spirit always and teaches me new things daily. She makes me want to be and do better! How grateful I am that God has placed her with me at this time before she leaves for home. Man she's such a stud. I have said it before and I will definitely say it again... she is the best missionary in this mission. Hands down.. she knows what it truly means to serve the Lord with all her heart might mind and strength.

Third thing, This week was really really great. I can't really describe any huge event that took place, but it was the summation of a bunch of small but evident tender mercies of the Lord that made this week great. We were blessed to find 4 souls this week who are prepared to receive the message of the restoration. HUGE BLESSING! One guys name is jacob. He was a media referral! You want to know how he ended up on mormon.org?? Through his study in the bible he thought about how there needed to be a prophet today. SO he googled "Modern day prophet" and up came a bunch of different listings from a bunch of websites. Eventually he was drawn to mormon.org because we believe in modern-day prophets. As he researched on mormon.org he decided he wanted to learn more about this guy named joseph smith and thats how we got in contact with him! SO we taught him about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it was incredible! This guy has been prepared. We are looking forward to meeting with him this week and setting a date for baptism.

Another cool experience I had this week with the spirit was on Friday night. A bunch of us missionaries took our dinner hour and went to this cupcake shop to celebrate a spanish sister's 15 month mark.. I didn't get a cupcake because I dislike cake.. but as I was sitting there with about 12 missionaries I looked across the shop and saw a woman and a man enjoying ice cream and a cupcake together. For some reason I felt strongly prompted to go speak to them. I sat for a minute trying to think of a clever way to go talk to them so it wouldn't be weird, but the prompting persisted until almost automatically I got up and walked over to them. I awkwardly introduced myself and asked them their names and they hesitantly responded. At this point I had no idea why Heavenly Father had prompted me to speak to them, so in order to save my self from further awkwardness I asked them if either of them had met missionaries before. The lady laughed and then said "Actually I was baptized about 15 years ago in Des Moines" I knew then, EXACTLY why Heavenly Father had prompted me to go talk to them. He was watching over one of His sheep who had been wandering for the past several years. I talked with her for a little longer and then they had to leave. I don't know the result of our conversation or if it had any affect on this woman, but I know for a fact that Heavenly Father was aware of her and wanted her back and he so graciously allowed me to help Him in that effort. What a tender mercy.

Lastly, I just want everyone to know that you are all sons and daughters of a Heavenly Father who loves and cherishes you. This truth has been so evident to me this week. He cares. He does. He weeps with us when we struggle and He rejoices with us when we do what is right. He is a perfect Father of perfect understand and charity. Always, always remember this.

PS There are transfers this week. We haven't got a call yet so most likely both of us are staying here for another 6 weeks. This is Sister Andersen's last transfer... crazy!!

Love,

Sister Halee Rogers

Weekly Update 6-9-14

Working with Zone Leaders from Iowa City and Fairfield. Mission Leadership Council theme- Bright Colors! Hey There! This week was a busy but great week! On Tuesday we had Mission Leadership Council and received some really great trainings from President and sister Jensen as well as the assistants to the president. We then got to take these trainings to the rest of our missionaries in the zone training meetings. Thankfully President an Sister Jensen attended the Iowa city and Fairfield Zone Training Meetings so they gave their trainings and sister andersen and I didn't have to give one! haha We just got to soak it all up three times:) And we also got to spend a lot of time with president and Sister Jensen because we were with them so much this week. It was a great learning opportunity! On Friday Sister Jensen came out proselyting with Sister Andersen and I. It was way fun and we got to learn a lot from Sister Jensen! She's amazing. I wish i could've just spent all my time asking her life and marriage advice! haha We also had exchanges in Muscatine this week. So we obviously didn't get that much time in our own area but it all worked out. We had Stake Conference this week. Awh, SO GOOD! Elder Payen of the Seventy was there and I definintely just learned a lot. It was amazing to see how the things that were discussed in Stake Conference correlated exactly with my studies this week. I learned a little more about Charity this week and what it means when it says it is the pure love of Christ. In order to have Charity we must understand what it is. Charity is not just love or even deep love for someone. It is the type of love that leads us to ACT in behalf of their eternal welfare and salvation REGARDLESS the cost. That is the kind of love that Christ had for all of us. He did not care that many people hated Him or cast Him out, He did not hesitate to invite others to come to Him, and He did not look on the outward appearance, but He looked on the heart. He was willing to pay anything to save us. And He ended up paying everything for us all. His Atonement did not exclude anyone. He did not share only to a select few... He shared with EVERYONE even if they were comfortable in their own religion or even if their friendship was at risk. He acted regardless the cost because He knew that in the end, in the eternal perspective, it would save us. And it made me think about how I can develop charity, how I can develop this kind of love. I think about how many times I am out here trying to share the Gospel but how many times I don't open my mouth because I fear man more than I fear God. I shy away when people tell me they go to a church already or that they are comfortable where they are at. I shouldn't shy away! I should love these people enough to share with them the truth! All of the truth! And I know that I don't have perfect Charity but it is definitely something i seek to develop and I hope everyone can seek to develop. True Charity for our fellow men will NEVER lead us to shy away from sharing the truth. It will ALWAYS lead us to act in regards for someone's eternal welfare no matter the cost. None of us are perfect... but we can pray for this kind of love. In fact, we are commanded to do so! Oh how I long to be like my Savior! I have got a long ways to go, but I am very grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ that allows me to grow and learn. I feel very humbled and grateful to be a part of such a marvelous work. To be surrounded by such amazing people. I am teaching a young girl that just graduated high school and she just thrives on the Book of Mormon. It is amazing to see how she marks her scriptures and just applies the words to her life! What a special opportunity I have to witness her conversion. She is getting baptized on July 12th and I cannot wait!  Sister Andersen and I have been praying to find families that are prepared to receive the restored gospel. We are continually searching for all of those who are prepared and ready. I love this work. And I am really just enjoying Iowa City a lot right now! The summer is here and the gnats are out but all is well when in the service of the Lord! I love you all! Jope you have a great week!:) Sister Rogers Move to:                                                                                                        Drafts                                                                                    Sent Mail                                                                                    Spam                                                                                    Trash                                                           [New Folder]

Weekly Update 6-2-14

Sister Anderson & Sister Rogers!

Having fun!

Habitat for humanity.  Laid sod at this house.

Missionaries working hard.

Taking a break!

Nice sunburn after!

SO its been a hot week! But its been such a great one!

It was such a blessing to be able to call home on Friday and talk with you. I wanted to talk with everyone, so I am sorry I couldn't but know that I love you all! Riley... congrats dude! You are going to be such a great missionary! If I could give five points of advice for ANY who is preparing to serve a mission, it would be this...

1. Repent- make sure you take care of things BEFORE you come out. It will be better. Don't be stupid! And if you have been stupid, make things right! The Savior loves you and wants you to repent!

2. Set goals for your mission.. not just number of baptisms but what YOU personally want to accomplish

3. Learn the importance of scripture study, prayer, and The Atonement of Jesus Christ. Missions are really really hard. There are times when you feel beyond inadequate or you just want to give up and go home to where things were comfortable. Don't give up! There is no growth in the comfort zone and no comfort in the growth zone! If you endure, you will be blessed beyond measure!

4. Study PREACH MY GOSPEL AND BOOK OF MORMON everyday! Those two books will convert you.

5. Grow where you are planted. Don't wait for your next transfer or your next area or your next companion to work. This work is a lot bigger than all of us.

I know I said five points, but I just have one more! Well actually I have LOTS more, but we will start with 6.:)

6. Lastly, gain a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as your brother and Savior and Redeemer. You first must experience the pure love of Christ, Charity, for yourself before you can feel it for others.

Alrighty... those are my words of wisdom for now. haha I have so much love for this gospel and for my God. Know Him and His Son has transformed me into a new creature. The best blessing I could ask for!

So a little update on this week... Saturday, we got to give service for a foundation called Habitat for Humanity. I am sure you have heard of it. anyways all of us missionaries in the zone got to lay sod for this house that had just been built for a family who is in need of a home. It was a really great experience! Service is a wonderful thing! Plus, I got some sun! haha Pictures to come:)

The work is going great. We have a lot of people to teach it is just a matter of helping them keep commitments and progress. Through prayer and inspiration though things are moving forward. I LOVE my companion. Sister Andersen, she is incredible. So amazing and just helps me be better! She's really great. 

Alrighty, welp! I love you so much! Have a wonderful week and thank you for everything you all do! Your support and love means so much to me!!

Love,

Sister Halee Rogers