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May 28, 2013

"I AM IN MISSOURI!" (my Maroon5 remix)

Hello from the beautiful state of Missouri! I'm a missionary. A real life missionary. A missionary out in the field. And let me tell ya, it is nothing what I had expected! Probably because I hadn't been planning on going to a state-side English-speaking mission... But. I LOVE it.

When we found out that we hadn't gotten our Visas and that we were for sure being reassigned, it was really hard for me. I'd been spending the past 6 months dreaming of Denmark, and the past 6 weeks planning and preparing to go there and to teach the people there. So when I found out that I didn't get to go to Denmark after all, it was rough! I struggled to stay positive and struggled to stay motivated. Of course I knew it would all be ok, I knew that good things would come of it, and I knew that the Lord wouldn't waste a second of my mission. But that didn't make it any easier. My stomach was twisted and my heart was heavy. It was really hard on all of us and it was a rough couple days at the MTC. But then one night it just hit me... A scripture came to my mind, 3 Nephi 11:29 "the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil... and he stirreth up the hearts of men." What I realized was that the disappointment and discouragement and contention I was feeling was all coming from the adversary. He wants me to be disappointed and discouraged and downhearted. Because he wants to prevent me from being the best missionary I can be. When I figured it out I was angry! I was so mad at Satan for making me feel that way, and I just wanted to punch him and kick him and beat him up! Haha. And then I realized that I CAN. By not being discouraged. And by staying strong and working as hard as I can. So that's exactly what I decided to do.

After staying up til midnight playing an insane game of tetris (trying to pack my suitcases under 50 pounds) 8 of the other Danish sisters and I woke up at 3 AM last Tuesday morning to head to the airport. And when we walked out of our apartment building, all of our elders were walking towards us! With pajamas and smiling faces at 3:30 in the morning. They carried our suitcases and walked us to our bus. It was the sweetest thing ever. It was hard saying goodbye to them! After spending every second together for the past month and a half, we really all became family. Vi ses i Danmark! 
Then with a hundred other missionaries packed into a giant bus, and a trailer the size of my house pulling everyone's luggage, we left the MTC. It was so surreal... I'd been living inside that one-mile radius for so long! It was crazy to go back out into the world, and to realize that its still been turning!
When I was sitting on the airplane flying over the country, I have to admit I was super nervous!! The kind of nervous you are when you're sitting on a roller coaster for the first time, waiting for it to take off. The kind of nervous you are when you're walking down the stairs in the dark. The kind of nervous you get from the unknown. I had NO idea what I was getting myself into! No idea what Missouri was like, no idea what the mission I was being sent to was like, no idea what the day would hold. But i figured it all out soon enough! Missouri is wonderful. This mission is wonderful. And that first day, was WONDERFUL.
President and Sister Clark greeted us at the airport with a great big "Velkommen!" (Danish for "Welcome!" They learned a little Danish for us!) And then they took us to Denmark. I'm serious. They said lets go! We're going to Denmark! So we loaded up our stuff and drove into St. Louis. And when we got out of the van, we were standing in front of a bakery called "Pastries of Denmark." I wanted to cry!!! How thoughtful and sweet and wonderful. And just wait..... it gets better. We went inside to eat our first Danish pastry, only to find out that the owner was there. And that he was from Copenhagen! He came out and spoke Danish with us. IT WAS THE BEST THING EVER

I've been here in Missouri for a week now. And I absolutely love it. I love it as much as if it had been my original mission call. I'm serving in the most beautiful area! It is GORGEOUS here. There are so many trees that it looks like a giant broccoli kingdom. haha. Its great! The heat and humidity is killllling me though.
I have two companions again, so that as soon as I get my visa I can just take off. Tripanionships rock! Sister Allen and Sister Dutson are two of the most amazing people I have ever met. Their testimonies are incredible and their spirits are SO strong and their teaching abilities are seriously unbelievable. I'm so thankful to work with them and so lucky to learn from them! Sister Allen plays the piano and the guitar and has the voice of a celestial angel. Like hello??? We are having so much fun together! We borrowed a couple guitars from some members and we're writing a song together! We even arranged and wrote some music and did a musical number for zone conference yesterday. It was so fun. You guys should go look her up on iTunes. Heidi Allen. She ROCKS.
So this past week has been great. We white washed into this area, so none of us knew any of the people or our way around at all. Which has been quite the adventure! But the ward members are sooo amazing, we've had dinner appointments every single night! You haven't had BBQ until you've been to Missouri. YUM. Anyway... The members are so kind and supportive, and it means the world to us. (This is me telling you to invite the missionaries over for dinner! Get to know them and love them! It really means so much.)

Now that I'm out in the field, my name tag means so much more. Everyday I teach real people and meet real people who don't have the gospel in their lives. And Heavenly Father trusts ME to bring it to them. I am so humbled and so honored. There are so many people to help! I just want to reach out to every single person and tell them that God loves them and that through Jesus Christ they can find peace and strength and happiness. I want everyone to know of the blessings that the gospel brings!
I'm such a greenie.
The other day we were sitting under a bug-infested tree behind the public library teaching a lesson to a 72 year old muslim man named Bajwa. And he said something that really struck me.
"You meet millions of people in your life. But only a few of them touch your heart."
I hope that I can be one of those few. To all of the people I teach and meet and cross paths with over the next year and a half, I hope I can be one of those few.

I love being a missionary. I'm so happy to be here in Missouri.
xoxo
Sister Rogers









May 14, 2013

As Sisters in Zion!

It's my 6th week in the MTC. Holy. COW. I've loved every second of every day of every week here. I honestly have. Even when its hard and even when I feel stressed or overwhelmed and even when it gets frustrating and exhausting, I absolutely LOVE it. Can I just move in and stay here forever?!? No I'm kidding about that one.... I can't wait to get out of here and eat real food again!!! And I can't wait to start working and teaching and serving for real. I am sooooooo excited to go to Denmark! the more I learn about the country and the people and the culture, the more I realize that its the perfect place in the WORLD for me. And the more I learn about the gospel and the closer I grow to the Savior, the more excited I am to teach my Danish brothers and sisters about Jesus Christ and His restored gospel. My testimony grows SO much every single day. Just through the simple things my companions share with me, through the lessons my teachers give, through the testimonies and sweet letters that my family and friends send me... the Spirit is constantly testifying to me that this church is true. That Heavenly Father knows me and loves me. And that serving a mission is exactly what He wants me to be doing. I love the MTC. Am i driving you guys crazy by how often I say that?? I love it I love it I love it I love it I lovvvvve it. Every single moment has been absolutely incredible. But I want to tell you about my all time favorite moment.....
 
On Sunday Janice Kapp Perry spoke to us in Relief Society. (She wrote a lot of primary songs and hymns and she is amaaaazing.) So she re-wrote the words to the song "As Sisters in Zion" for sister missionaries, and its called "The Sisters OF Zion." And we- thousands of sister missionaries from all around the world- got to stand up together and be the very first people to ever sing it. The spirit in the room was overwhelming and I couldn't even sing because I was choking on my tears. And when I looked around I noticed that tears were streaming down the faces of every other sister in the room too. I didn't know how the song could sound so beautiful when we were all sobbing! That's right when we sang a line of the song that went "...with angels beside us." And that's when I knew. I knew that there really were angels beside us. Right then and there. I could hear them. And I could feel them. It was the sweetest most wonderful experience and I never want to forget it.
 
I'm sad that my time here at the MTC is almost up! but I am sooooo stoked to go to Denmark! Or somewhere else..... we still don't know about our visas yet. On Thursday they will tell us if we have them yet or not. And if we don't, then I'll either get to go to a stateside mission for a while (which would rock) or I'll get to stay here at the MTC for a few weeks (which would rock). Obviously it'll be a huge bummer if I don't get to go to Denmark right away. Because that's where I was called to serve. We've all been pretty tense and anxious and worried about it! But the other day during scripture study I came across a scripture that really helped and encouraged and lifted everyone's spirits. 1 Nephi 7:12-13 "Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him? Wherefore, let us be faithful to him. And if it so be that we are faithful to him, we shall obtain the land of promise."
If there is one thing I've learned here at the MTC, its that the Lord is in my life, and through faith in Him, all things are possible. And I do have faith. So I'll go where He wants me to go, when He wants me to go there. I know the Lord won't waste a second of my mission! If He wants me to go to Denmark next week, AWESOME. But if not, that's ok. I know I'll get there eventually!
If I do get a reassignment on Thursday I'll get to email real quick and let you know where I'm going. (So just cross your fingers that you won't hear from me!)
 
I love you all!
Jeg elsker dig!
CTR
ETTE
 
xoxo
Søster Rogers



May 7, 2013

I CAN SPEAK DANISH!!

Kolby har fødselsdag, og det har han jo og det er i dag!!! Kolby har fødselsdag og det har han jo i dag!!!!!!!!
(Me singing the Danish happy birthday song to Kolby. PS the Danish song is wayyyyyyy cooler than the English one. It's like ten minutes long. Go youtube it or something.)
MY BABY BROTHER TURNS 12 TODAY!!!!! Tillykke med fødselsdag my little Kolbster!! Du er super mega fet og jeg elsker dig!!!
 
Well this week has been GREAT. And like the most hilarious week ever.... I'll tell you some funny stories.
So one morning I was alone in our bedroom while my roommates were taking showers and stuff. It was a beautiful morning so I opened the window and pulled my chair up next to it, where I peacefully ate my bowl of cereal with the sun shining on my face. When all of the sudden a DEMON BIRD FLEW IN RIGHT AT ME!!! I may or may not have jumped ten feet out of my chair and screamed really loud. and that's right when my companions walked in. They laughed at me. :(
Haha then on cinco de mayo our district had a llama pinata! Except for we didn't have any string. So Elder Metcalf hung it up with his dental floss and we all started beating it with our classroom's feather duster. The floss and duster combination didn't work out so well.... so we found a broom and played baseball with the little llama pinata instead. Whoever says the MTC is lame, is OUT OF THEIR MIND.
Ok, one more funny story. Last night all my roommates and I decided to go take showers at the same time. Aaaaaaand we all forgot to take our room keys. So we were locked out of our room in our towels for half an hour! I almost had to go across the whole MTC campus in my bathrobe to get a key from the main office!! But luckily our branch president's wife saved the day by showing up and being more than willing to go get a key for us. :)
 
Even though this week was hilarious and fun, I probably learned and grew more than ever before.
The other day we got to teach a lesson over skype with a member who speaks Danish. We just talked with her about the Book of Mormon and shared our testimonies, and then at the end of the lesson the lady couldn't stop thanking us. She told us that her teenage son has been very inactive and that she's been praying for him and praying for help. She said that we had really brought the Spirit into her home, even just through skype, and that she knew her son would be able to feel of that spirit. It was such a neat experience!
Another day my companions and I prepared a lesson to teach our "investigator" named Mads. We had this whole great lesson planned out about faith in Jesus Christ and about the atonement. We found all these great scriptures and just knew that it would be our best lesson yet! But... when the time came we didn't end up teaching a single bit of that lesson. The Spirit took us somewhere completely different. We ended up teaching him about prayer, and how to have faith and receive answers. I flipped right to scriptures that went along so perfectly. Scriptures that I had never even marked. And we all taught and bore testimony without any notes or vocabulary words. Sister Handley, who struggles the most with the language, started using all these words she didn't even know that she knew! The Spirit was SO strong. I don't know why our lesson went in the direction it did... Maybe it was a lesson that one of us actually needed to hear. But it was definitely an experience that impacted all of us and taught me sooo much! God is real. And He's here. His spirit is so present here at the MTC and so present in my life. Everything that happens is an opportunity for so much learning and so much growth.
Every day just seems to be even better than the last. You guys. I CAN SPEAK DANISH. Ok so maybe I can't speak it very well at all, and maybe I totally butcher it half the time...... but that's not the point. I've been here for a month now. And in that one short month I've learned how to pray and how to bear my testimony and how to teach lessons and how to talk to people.... IN DANISH. Its so hard. I'm not going to lie. Its the hardest thing I've ever ever done!  Especially the pronunciation... man its ridiculous. Let me tell you. We were teaching a lesson about the atonement, and I asked the investigator "So what are your thoughts?" Except for I pronounced one word a tiny bit wrong.... And so what I really said was "So what are your sins?" HAHAHA. woops. It was pretty aca-awkard. There's so many words like that.... like I might tell someone to "plant a little seed of faith" but accidentally say to "plant a purple frog of faith." Or i might say that "the spirit will testify to you" but accidentally say that "the duck will testify to you." Or I might say "I want to marry you" but accidentally say "I want to poison you." (Don't worry I haven't told anybody I want to marry them. Or poison them!) Hahaha. Danish is so hard! But I'm getting it. That's the thing.... I'm actually getting it. My teachers were talking to each other in Danish for like 30 minutes straight the other day, and I UNDERSTOOD EVERYTHING THEY SAID. After 4 weeks at the MTC I can speak and understand Danish better than I ever could French. After taking French classes for 5 YEARS. Its absolutely incredible and such a testimony builder to me. If there's one thing I've learned here at the MTC it's that absolutely anything is possible through the strength of the Lord.
 
God is REAL. And He's here. His hand is in your life more than you even realize. Let everything that happens be an opportunity for learning and growth, and every day will be even better than the last! Sometimes its hard. Life is HARD. But I know that anything is possible through the strength of the Lord.
 
Well Sunday is Mother's Day!  I want to thank all of the wonderful mothers who have been such incredible examples to me. My grandmothers, my aunts, my cousins, my friends, my neighbors...... I have SO many amazing examples in my life, and I am sooo thankful for all of you! My ultimate goal is to become the kind of woman that all of you are. I am SO thankful for my incredible, incredible, incredible mother. She is the biggest blessing in my life! Her love and her friendship and her testimony is 100% the reason I am who I am and 100% the reason I'm at where I'm at.
"God couldn't be everywhere, so He created mothers."
I LOVE YOU MOM! Happy Mothers Day!
 
I love you all! Jeg elsker jer!
xoxo
Søster Rogers

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