back ground

April 30, 2013

Happy Tuesday!


Hi everybody!

 Our schedule got all switched around, so now my P days are on Tuesdays, just FYI. It would be easy for me to be frustrated and annoyed with this new schedule.... because honestly it's not very great. They have to accomodate all 50 bazillion missionaries that are here right now, (which is definitely a good thing! hastening the work! catching the wave!) which means we have to go to class and study for TWO hours before we get to eat breakfast. which is roughhhh. And then we don't get to eat dinner until 7, when all the food is gone. which is roughhhh. And they combined our service day with our Pday so I have less time to write you all letters, and they took away two of our gym days... Buttt I just have to remember that it could always be worse! You've got to make the best out of whatever life throws at you! Actually, I have a story about that very thing....
 
So every week we all have to prepare a talk for sacrament meeting on Sunday. But the thing is that they don't actually announce who will be speaking until not the day of but the MINUTE of. Like after the sacrament has already been administered and everything. Well there are over 100 missionaries in my branch, and only 2 people actually speak each Sunday. So the chances of speaking are suuuper slim! My friends were all nervous about being called up this week, and I was all "Oh don't even worry, the odds are ever in your favor!" And I was right. About them that is. Its Sunday afternoon, the sacraments been administered, and Brother Hodges stands up and announces, "Today we will be pleased to hear from Sister Rogers." Sweet. So I reached into my bag to pull out the talk that I'd prepared..... aaaaand I couldn't find it anywhere. Sweet. So, I grabbed my scriptures, grabbed my little notebook of quotes that my dad gave me, and I marched right up to the podium to give a talk. (Crossing my fingers that some valiant missionary would jump up and say "I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute!!!" ......didn't happen. Sweet.) But you know what? I'm actually kind of glad that I lost my notes. Because I learned a lot from it. I learned to make the best out of whatever situation I find myself in. And what I really learned is to rely on the Spirit. Several people came up to me throughout the rest of the day and thanked me for my talk, and told me that they loved what I said or that it was something they needed to hear. Well I was glad to know that someone remembered it, because I can't remember a single thing I said up there! Because it wasn't me that was speaking, it was definitely the Spirit. I pray that I can always be an instrument in the Lord's hands like I was that day. All I want is for the Spirit to testify to others of the truthfulness of the gospel and for the Spirit to express to others of God's love for them through the words that I say and the things that I do. We never know what people are going through or what they need to hear, but the beautiful thing is that there is someone who does know. The Lord knows everyone's hearts. He knows exactly what we're going through, and exactly what we need.
Spencer W. Kimball said that "God does notice us, and He watches over us. But it is usually through another person that He meets our needs. Therefore, it is vital that we serve eachother."
 
My mom always used to sing to us "Have you done any good in the world today? Have you helped anyone in need? Have you cheered up the sad or made someone feel glad? If not, you have failed indeed."
I LOVE that song. And I love being a missionary, because now my whole life is about helping the Lord meet people's needs. It's the best feeling in the whole world! I want all of you to experience it too!
So ask yourself, "Have I done any good in the world today?"
Well what are you waiting for?! Why are you still reading this?! Go cheer up the sad and make someone feel glad, go help someone in need!
 
I love you all!! Have a wonderful week.
 
xoxo,
Søster Rogers

April 25, 2013

A Day in the Life!


Today is my third thursday in the MTC. I can't even believe that! I only have three more thursdays and then I will be on my way to Denmark! Well hopefully... first our visas have to come. the group before mine ended up getting temporarily reassigned to Nashville Tennesee because their Visas didn't go through yet.... pray for us! But whatever happens.... after three more thursdays the MTC is history! So today I thought I'd give you an inside look at what it's really like here, since I love the MTC so much!
 
The day starts dark and early when I happily roll off the top bunk at 6:13 AM. And I'm not even being sarcastic at all. I'm always happy to get out of bed. Weird. I know. Then its a race to the showers, where a lot of the sisters like to re-enact Pitch Perfect. I have yet to take a shower when the girl next to me isn't singing at the top of her lungs, and the girl next to her isn't trying to harmonize with her. Its entertaining...... to say the least. We have to be to class at 7 to study for half an hour before breakfast. But nobody's brains are ready to study that early! So we usually end up making up handshakes or talking about aliens. After breakfast is 3 hours of class... We learn grammar and vocab, plan lessons, teach lessons, play games, and learn about Denmark. Then its an hour of personal study, which is my faaavorite! The scriptures ROCK. I'm in love with them. Up next is lunch time! The food here is OK.... on a scale of one to ten- one being Oak Hills Elementary cafeteria and ten being the Cheesecake Factory- I'd give the MTC food a solid 4. After lunch its back to class for 4 more hours. That seems like a super long time, but it honestly goes by super fast! I'm convinced I have the very best teacher in the history of teachers. Somehow we can learn insane amounts of Danish, be spiritually enlightened, and laugh and have so much fun all at the same time. Its amazing. Then we eat dinner and go to gym! Sometimes we play a friendly game of kickball against the Italians and Romanians (and by friendly, I mean insanely competetive...) and sometimes we go to the gym, where I run or bike while watching mormon messages and conference talks. Its like the cardio cinema at Gold's.... Mormon style! Then some nights we get to go to devotionals, some nights we get computer study time, and some nights we go play the piano. (totally singing Some Nights by Fun in my head right now....) When we finally get back to the room at 10, my park bench of a bed looks even more inviting than a california king size cloud. And after passing out and dreaming dreams where I show up in Denmark to find out they changed their official language to Spanish.... my alarm goes off and it all starts again! The days just melt together and fly right by.
 
Honestly, I think I'm going to be sad to leave this place! I love it that much. It just gets better and better every day. My roommates have become my best friends, my companions have become my 3rd and 4th legs, and my district has become my family. We do EVERYTHING together. We pray together eat together study together sing together learn together walk together laugh together cry together grow together.The crazy thing is that most of us have little or nothing in common. Like seriously, we all are SO different that not a single one of us would probably ever have become friends in the real world. But here, none of that matters. The only thing that matters is the one thing that we DO have in common. We're all children of God, here to serve Him and preach His word. And i've realized that thats how it should always be. No matter where you are. It doesn't matter what you look like or where you come from or what you think or what you do. We're ALL children of the same Heavenly Father. I love that! And I love the friendships and realtionships that I've built as I've learned to love people the way that Christ loves them.
 
The MTC is the best thing thats ever happened to me! (Besides the nightgown my mom sent me, and besides the necklace thats a map of St George that Amanda sent me!)
There's a quote that says something about how the companionship of the Spirit is a taste of what its going to be like to live with our Father in Heaven. I think thats why the MTC is so incredible.... because that companionship of the Spirit is CONSTANT. It never ever ever leaves. I'm surrounded by no one but missionaries and nothing but the Spirit. But you don't even have to be at the MTC to experience that! In Mosiah 2:36 it says that WE withdraw OURSELVES from the Spirit of the Lord. God doesn't take it away from us, it's a choice we make ourselves. And so as long as we are making good choices and living what we know to be true, we will always have the Spirit as a constant companion in our lives.
 
I love you guys so much and miss you all like crazy! Thank you all so SO much for all the love and support and encouragement and prayers!
Hey now that I've shared with you a day in the life (and a million of my other thoughts.....) you should tell me about a day in yours! Seriously. Mail is like candy. I'd LOVE to hear from all of you!
 
xoxo,
Soster Rogers
 
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
Elder Wawro (tall skinny thespian musician) says to His companion, Elder Madsen (huge football player/wrestler/total jock),
"When Christ was born, God didn't send down a football team of angels! He sent down a CHOIR of angels!"
HAHAHAHAHA. made my whole day.
 My soul sister-Soster Peterson
 Hanging out with my bff Joce at the temple
 Danish sosters!
The best district

April 18, 2013

I am a MISSIONARY


 On April 10th my life changed forever. I was set apart as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I'm officially a MISSIONARY!!!!!
I'm not going to lie, saying goodbye to my family and my best friends, knowing I wouldn't see them again for a year and a half, was one of the hardest things I've ever done. When we were driving to the MTC it all really started sinking in, and for the first time since this whole thing started 6 months ago I started having doubts. I felt so unstable and so emotional and so uncertain and uneasy and scared. I found myself wondering what the crap I was doing and why on earth I was doing it! That's right when the Lord sent me my first tender mercy.... As we were pulling into the MTC, I looked out the car window and saw my beautiful best friend from SVU, Sister Joce Boer (she came into the MTC on April 3rd) walking right towards my car! I got to say hello to her, and it lifted my spirits SO much! Somehow I was able to find enough courage to get out of my car, say goodbye to the 7 most amazing people who I love more than life, and follow the friendly elder as he pulled my heavy suitcases and whisked me away into this world of missionary training. And IMMEDIATELY all of my doubts and fears disappeared. I felt so much peace and excitement and joy. Can I just say, the MTC is AMAZING. The most incredible place I've ever been. I'm surrounded by thousands of young people all dedicating their lives to serving the Lord. Everywhere you go, people say "hello" and "thank you" and "how are you" in a million different languages. It's the coolest thing ever! I absolute LOVE it.
So I have 2 companions. Sister Handley is a firefighter, and she is the sweetest little thing ever! The sound that our intercom makes is the same as the sound at her fire station that meant she had to go save someone's life. So every time it comes on she jumps up and wants to go save someone. She was sad one day because she really misses being a firefighter. And so I came up with this whole analogy... I told her that she still is a firefighter! We all are. Right now we're at the fire department getting ready to go save people from the worst kind of fire ever. That made her really happy, and I thought it was a pretty cool way to think about it too!
Then there's Sister Hall. She is from Virginia and she plays competitive Pokemon. Yeah. She ROCKS. One day she said "Missionary work is just like playing a game of Pokemon, because its very strategic." I love her. We are all super different from each other, but we work together really well because we all have such different insights and such different things to offer. Sometimes its hard being a triplet, because there's 3 of us to please and we're all stuck together! But it's really fun and I'm learning so much from both of them.
One of the things I miss the most is my bed..... my bed here is more like a park bench. And my blanket is more like a doormat/ rug. But I'm always EXHAUSTED so I sleep like a rock anyways. And it just makes it a ton easier to get out of bed in the morning!
The days here are suuuuuuuper long. But they go by really fast. If that makes any sense. All we do is eat, study, eat, study, eat, study, study study. It's awesome. My teacher is INCREDIBLE and I honestly can't even believe how much I've learned already! A couple months ago I got that app on my iPhone that was supposed to teach me Danish, and every time I'd get it out I'd try it for like 30 seconds and then be like YEAH RIGHT maybe tomorrow. I didn't know how I would ever be able to learn this language! But as soon as I got to the MTC, it totally turned around. I LOVVVVVE Danish! The gift of tongues is so real and I know the spirit is truly helping me to learn this language. Even though I accidentally keep thinking in French and whenever I don't know the word in Danish I accidentally say it in French.... haha. But I could pray in Danish my very first night here! and I taught in my first lesson the very next day! IN DANISH. We've taught 5 lessons now to our "investigator" named Runne. Every time we teach him I can understand more and more of what he is saying. It's sooo awesome. One of our lessons we were teaching him about prayer, and we had him read a scripture for us. He read it and then was super confused like what the crap, what does this have to do with me? Well we didn't realize until later that night that we had accidentally had him read from the wrong chapter, and since it was in Danish we didn't even realize that he was reading a scripture about war and being taken into captivity and going to battle and killing people. Instead of reading about God answering prayers. Woops! We didn't stop laughing for like ten minutes straight. Then yesterday we were teaching him again, and when we asked him to be baptized he told us that he didn't want to give up his lifestyle. But we didn't understand the word "style" in Danish so to help us understand he started dancing "gangnem style." IT WAS HILARIOUS. Teaching lessons is so fun! Even though they aren't real yet.
On Tuesday night Elder Richard G. Scott came to give us a devotional. It was SO incredible. He talked about prayer and how Heavenly father loves us and wants to hear from us. It made me think about how much it means to me to get letters in the mail from my family, and how I love hearing about their day and how they are doing and how much they love me. It really means the WORLD to me. And I'm sure that its the same way for our Heavenly Father. He loves us and he misses us and wants to hear from us! One of my favorite quotes from Elder Scotts talk was "He will not abandon you. He knows who you are. He knows what you need. He knows what He wants you to become." I know that that is true! I've never prayed more in my life than I have during these past 9 days. I know Heavenly Father is listening. I can feel Him. Sometimes my prayers are answered by the familiar face of a dear friend walking toward my in the exact moment I need extra encouragement. Sometimes my prayers are answered through the little notes of encouragement and love that I find tucked in my suitcases. God really does hear our prayers. I know He does and I know that He loves each and every one of us!!
Being here is the most incredible experience ever. Its HARD work. And I know that it's only going to get harder! I've never worked harder in my life and I've never been more exhausted. But I've never felt closer to the Savior and I've never been happier! I'm loving every second of it. I'm learning things I never could have learned and growing in ways I never even knew were possible.
I love this gospel.
I love this place.
I love this feeling.
I love the name tag that I get to wear and I love everything that it means and everything that it represents!
I LOVE being a missionary.
Remember that the Lord wants to hear from you! PRAY. Even when you don't feel like it.
And I want to hear from you too! So write me a letter. Or a Dear Elder. Those things rock.
I love you all! Jeg elsker jer!
(Don't even try to pronounce that. You've definitely got it totally & completely wrong.)
                                          Saying goodbye
                                          Name tags
                                          Mountains of books
                                          Elders & Sisters all going to Denmark
                                          My Roommates
                                          My district
                                       2 Companions! Sister Handley, Sister Rogers, Sister Hall


April 8, 2013

why I'm serving a mission

Listening to conference this past weekend brought me right back to that day six months ago, back to one of the most exciting and influential days of my whole life. I don't think I will EVER forget that October morning when President Monson stood up in conference and announced the new age changes for missionaries.
I flipped back through my journal, and found this entry from October 8, 2012:

"It was the morning of October 6th that my whole world turned around. It was a little after ten and I was getting ready for work when my Dad called me on the phone. "Breanna," he said, "are you watching conference?" I told him that no, I was about to leave for work. The words my dad said next completely changed my life: "Breanna. The prophet just announced that....." he didn't even finish his sentence before I knew exactly what was happening. I just started sobbing! I was so completely overwhelmed. In that single moment, God answered every one of my prayers, and suddenly everything made so much sense. I was late for work that day, I had to run to the TV and rewind the broadcast and watch it for myself. As I listened to the prophet announce this wonderful revelation- that sisters could now serve missions at age nineteen- I felt so much peace and so much joy. This has been Heavenly Father's plan for me all along. I know that! He's heard my prayers, He knows my heart and knows me better than I even know myself. I feel like everything has lead me to right where I am now... the choices I've made, the experiences that I've had, the paths I've taken, the mistakes I've made and all the lessons that I've learned. God has been shaping me this whole time, He's made me who I am so that I can be the missionary He needs me to be. And right now, I'm ready to step up and answer this call. I'm going to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. And honestly, there is a part of my heart, a piece of my soul, that knew this all along. I didn't know that I knew it, but I knew it. I'm going on a mission! And I am SO excited. God hears and answers our prayers, sometimes in the most beautifully unexpected ways.He loves each and every one of us and he knows us individually.I have a testimony of that and I can't wait to go and share it!"

It's been exactly six months today since I wrote that in my journal. And what an incredible six months its been! I have NEVER been happier. As I've been preparing to serve a mission my testimony has continued to grow every single day. And as my testimony and love for the gospel have grown, so has my desire to share it. 

Now my bags are all packed! I'm ready to report to the MTC this Wednesday. I can't wait to put on my name tag and join the other thousands of missionaries dedicating their lives to this great work. I don't know exactly what I should expect, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. I'm about to say goodbye to my family and my friends and everything that's familiar. I'm about to leave everything behind. I'm about to embark on a journey with people I've never met, to places I've never been, speaking a language that I can't even comprehend! There's so much I don't know... I don't know the names of the people I'll be living and working with every single day. I don't know what will happen to my hair in 100% humidity. I don't know how people will react when I try to share a Book of Mormon. I don't know how to pronounce the names of the cities where I'll be living. I don't know how good liver paste sandwiches taste.... There is SO much I don't know! But the only thing that matters is what I do know. I KNOW this church is true. I know it with all my heart. That's why I'm serving a mission. Because I know, without doubt, that its true. And I want other people to know it too. I'm definitely nervous, but I'm not afraid. The Lord is on my side. The most powerful, majestic, loving, incredible being in the entire universe is on my side! This is His work, and I feel SO blessed to be a part of it. I feel so honored to wear His name on my chest, so privileged to be His representative, so proud to be His witness, and so humbled to be an instrument in His hands.



2 Nephi 22:2-6
"Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehova is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation. 
Therefore, with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.
And in that day shall ye say: Praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted.
Sing unto the Lord; for he hath done excellent things; this is known in all the earth.
Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion; for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee."