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November 25, 2013

Taksigelse

"Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever." (Alma 26:37)

Last night Sister G and I were walking through town, and as I was walking past the cute storybook houses I couldn't help but glance inside all the glowing windows... So many homes full of moms and dads and grandparents and children and friends all gathered around warm candle lit tables.
Meanwhile, I'm walking down the dark street with frozen ears and frozen toes, a million miles from my own warm home. 
It's easy to miss home this time of year.

But how blessed am I, to have something that I miss so much....

I'm thankful for all of the reasons I have to miss home.
I'm so thankful for my family who I love more than life and who's love I can feel from oceans away.
     For my strong dad who's testimony and love motivates me to be strong and work hard and be better.
     For my beautiful mom who uplifts and inspires me with every aspect of the woman that she is.
     For my brothers and sisters who have made my life so much more colorful, and who I get to be best friends with for eternity.
I'm so thankful for all of my incredible friends! (And especially the ones who actually write me :)
For the house my dad built and the home my family created.
For the mountains that decorate the horizon of all of my cherished memories. 
And for those cherished memories. That are stashed in every corner of my red dirt town.

But I'm also incredibly thankful for all the reasons I have to be so far away....
I'm so thankful for the Gospel. And everything its done for me.
For the strength I receive from the Lord everyday.
For the peace and hope that I find from knowing my purpose in this life and in eternity.
For my Savior Jesus Christ. For His example. His atonement. and His presence
And for the constant love that I feel from God, who is my Father.
I'm thankful for all of the ways He reminds me that He loves me...
     Like waking up to a beautifully painted sunrise.
     Or like flipping through the Book of Mormon to find a perfect answer to an unspoken prayer. (Which book itself is the greatest            evidence of His love, and the greatest thing to be thankful for.)
     Or the fact that He called me to the best mission on earth....

I am so thankful for my mission!

I'm thankful for this beautiful country with its special atmosphere and unique culture, and how its becoming a part of everything I am.
I'm thankful for the chance I have to learn one of the most difficult (and in my opinion most beautiful) languages in the world. Even though there are only a handful of people on the whole planet who actually speak it.......
I'm so thankful for the opportunity I have to serve the Danish people, and to share with them the most cherished thing in my life.
I'm thankful that I'm able to help others find and build and strengthen their testimonies. And I'm thankful that my own testimony continues to grow exponentially along the way. 
I'm thankful for the good times that I'll remember for the rest of my life.
And I'm thankful for the hard times that make the good times even better and make me even stronger.

I'm thankful for the little things and the big things that make all the dark danish days a little bit brighter...
     Like my sweet companion/best friend/sister Søster Madison Grant, and how patient she is with my guitar-playing tomatosoup-craving totally imperfect self! And that instead of wandering in this foreign country all alone I get to explore it with the most genuine, loving, hard working, easy to be around, most adorable girl I've ever been so lucky to meet.
     And for my perfume that smells just like my mom.
     And the pumpkin candle that smells just like my house.
     And my wool tights and mittens and scarves that keep me a little bit warmer.
     And for the handwritten letters that sometimes find their way to my little pink apartment.

I'm especially thankful for all of the incredible incredible people the Lord has been so kind to place in my life over the past 8 months! 
From my inspiring teachers and leaders and family of missionaries back in the MTC, to my two awesome companions and all the ward members and investigators I had the special privilege of getting to know in St. Louis, Missouri. 
And for the wonderful people here in Denmark. Who have welcomed me into their homes and adopted me into their families. Who have shown me sooo much love and friendship that I often forget how far away my own family is.

I'm SO thankful for my mission.

For the 228 days full of trials and blessings and struggles and miracles spilling out of the pages of my journals.
And for the 319 days full of lessons to be learned and memories to be made and stories waiting to be written.

I love you all so much. I hope you know how thankful I am for you! For your love and support and your testimonies and your prayers.
I hope you have the best Thanksgiving ever. Eat twice as much turkey and two pieces of pumpkin pie for me ok??
JEG ELSKER JER.
xoxo,
Søster Rogers

"To express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven." President Thomas S. Monson (thanks for the awesome quote Mom!)

"I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another-
I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another- I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants." (Mosiah 2:20-21)

 
:)
So fun to see the kitchen where all the magic happens! :) 
Thank you Grant Family for posting. :)

November 18, 2013

Six years ago today. I sat in the hospital room when my beautiful baby sister took her very first breath. It was the most beautiful miracle. My cute sister has always been so special to me. I can't believe its been 6 whole years! I can't imagine life without her.
 I LOVE YOU ABSTER! More than I love Denmark and more than I love pumpkin pie. Tillykke med din Fødselsdag!  

WHAT a week!

On Tuesday Søster Grant and I left our apartment at 7AM in our sweatpants to go catch a train to Copenhagen. We were supposed to meet up with the missionaries from all over Sjælland to play some Thanksgiving American football.... but instead we stood at a bus stop in the rain for 45 minutes waiting for a bus that never decided to come. Bummmmmerrrrrrr. But on the bright side we got to travel in our sweats :) Highlight of my life. Sweats are like my long lost best friend.... forcefully replaced by skirts and tights. I have a feeling we'll be inseparable when we're reunited again in 10.5 months time.

But even better than being reunited with my sweatpants was being reunited with all the other missionaries. I LOVE big zone trainings and conferences and activities. Because it really reminds me that I'm not alone. I'm a part of a huge ARMY of missionaries and we are all fighting this same battle together. There are over 80,000 warriors in God's army of missionaries. Isn't that crazy?! Gives me goosebumps.
After our missionary training we got to have a THANKSGIVING FEAST. We're talking turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and yams and pumpkin pie and everything in between! And we ate until we never needed to eat again. Home sweeeet home.

On Wednesday our plans fell through.... so we decided to bake some cookies to bring to one of our less active friends, even though she is almost neverrrr home. (she works full time AND is in school full time). But even though there was prob only a 5% chance of finding anybody home, we took a chance and took the 30 minute bus ride to her house. Because it felt like the right thing to do.

It was.

Not only was Karin home, but so was her nonmember husband. They welcomed us in and told us how it was a great coincidence, because we caught them in the middle of the only 2 hours they'd be home together before 10pm the whole week. We had a nice hyggeligt chat about Denmark and America and Harry Potter and other normal people things. I could tell Karin was nervous when we asked if we could share a scripture with them... (previously she'd told us how she has a hard time bringing up the gospel with her husband and that she didn't know if he'd ever be open to talk with missionaries...) But he was totally open to it! We shared a scripture and bore testimony of Jesus Christ. Karin testified too, and the Spirit was SO strong. After a closing prayer, her husband said he'd love to have us come back sometime! I was DYING. Karin walked us to the door and the look in her eyes changed my life. "Thank you. Thank you SO much. THANK you" she whispered to me as she gave me the worlds tightest hug. I walked out of the apartment building with tear drops falling down my face and an overfull heart. As I thought back on the whole experience I realized that it all went back to when our original plans had fallen through. Sometimes the Lord has to pull a few strings to get us where He needs us to be.

I don't believe in "coincidence."
I believe in the Lord.
I believe that "the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith" (1 Nephi 1:20)
and I believe in miracles.

Lots of other good things happened this week too. 
One day we biked out to our friend Hanne's house so she could help us with our language study. Nobody knows Danish like a Dane! Her house might be my very favorite little corner of the whole planet earth. She lives in a little cottage with a thatched roof at the end of a long bumpy road lined with towering trees. It looks like it belongs to Snow White. So hyggeligt. And Hanne is teaching me how to knit! So we practice Danish while knitting and drinking steaming cups of vanilla tea. 
Best hour of my week.

Except for I had a lot of "Best hour of my week"s this week.....

Like our lesson with Ghulam. He is SO great and has the kindest heart. Towards the end of our lesson I was telling him he could ring to us if he ever needed help or anything. He said "I know. I have 'Rogers' on my phone under 'family.'"
I wanted to cry. I love cute Ghulam.
Who would ever have thought I'd be best friends with a 60 year old Muslim man?

Another one of the best hours was when we met up with our rockin investigator Bettina. She handed me a wrapped up package and when I tore away the green paper I found a  heart shaped chocolate cake. She said "Its because you have a heart of gold." Haha! I think it would've been more fitting to say that I have a heart made of chocolate.... more accurate too! But oh my heck she is the sweetest ever. Did I mention that she doesn't know ANY English? We can sit and talk with each other for an hour or two with no problems! Sometimes I forget how cool that is.

But one of the very very best hours of the week began with our morning prayer on Saturday morning. It was Sister Grants turn to pray- she was praying for some of the less active members that we are working with, and when she asked Heavenly Father to belss Christa and let us know what we can do to help her, the thought came to me like a neon sign in the middle of the desert that we needed to visit Christa. Not even 10 seconds later, our prayer was interrupted by the phone ringing. Usually I'll silence it until we finish praying, but when I glanced at the caller ID and saw none other than Christa's name, we paused the prayer and answered the phone. Christa said she needed help. I said we'll be there in 20 minutes. We finished our morning prayer and then forgoed our studies as we threw on our coats and scarves and headed straight to sweet Christa's house. Turns out she just needed us to take her trash out and get her mail from the mail box. (She lives on the 5th floor and has a hard time climbing all those stairs.) 
But really, I think the trash and mail was just an excuse. Just a reason to have us come over. What she really needed was a little bit of friendship and a lot of love. I was soo happy that she knew she could call us. When we walked back home after visiting with her for about an hour, I felt like I'd made a difference in the world by making a difference in her day.

Sometimes love is the best service you can give.

Christ, of course, is the perfect example of selfless love. One of my favorite scriptures is 1 Nephi 19:9...
"And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught, wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it, and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yeah, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men."

That's what love is. Putting others before yourself. 
I hope we can all be more selfless, all show more kindness, all share more charity and love.

"Happiness doesn't result from what we get, but from what we give." -Ben Carson

Love really is the best thing we can give. Remember that this week.
And remember that I love you all so much! 

XOXOXOXOXO
 Søster Rogers

 polka dots
I guess you could say we've missed each other...

November 11, 2013

Walk in the Light

This week.
I met Jesus!!! And by Jesus I mean Thomas Kofoed AKA the man who plays Christ in all the newer church films. (He is Danish and lives in Copenhagen.) That was #1 on my mission bucket list and I checked it off on my 7th monthiversary. Looks like my 7th month is gonna be a lucky one :)
Ohh my goodness though, it was SUCH a neat experience to meet him. Thomas is so cool. He has such a good spirit and an incredible presence. He makes you feel special. He has kindness and love pouring out of his countenance. I'm pretty sure that's close to how it will be to really meet the Savior. (except multiplied by 12000....)

Well that's how I want to be when people meet me.

Its great because as a mission we are studying Christlike attributes this month. Get your hands on a PMG book and flip to chapter 6. page 115. Its the best part of the whole book. Read it. Read it twice. Study it. Ponder it. It ROCKS.
At the beginning of His mortal ministry, Jesus Christ walked along the shore of the Sea of Galilee and called out to two fishermen, Peter and Andrew- "Follow me." The invitation to follow Christ is an invitation to follow Him and to become like Him. Through His perfect example, He has shown us the way.

As a missionary, I am a literal representative of the Lord. I wear His name on my chest every day, everywhere I go, for everyone to see. Everything I do, everything I say, everything I am represents the Savior. (no pressure...) 
But that didn't start back on April 10th and it definitely won't end along with my missionary days. You don't have to have a little black name tag with Christ's name on it to represent Him. As disciples of Jesus Christ, His name should be engraved on our hearts, shining through our countenance, always evident in our character.

David A. Bednar said that "Character refers to moral qualities strongly developed, strikingly displayed, and consistently lived." The qualities and attributes we should strive to develop and display and live in order to be like Jesus are faith, hope, charity and love, virtue, knowledge, patience, humility, diligence, and obedience.

Studying these attributes and seeking to apply them and incorporate them into my daily life has really made me realize how far from perfect I am! I have SO many weaknesses. SO much to improve on. SO many things that I could do SO much better.
But before I got too discouraged, I learned that learning to be like Christ is a lifelong pursuit. You follow Christ's example and develop His attributes one action and one decision at a time. And the atonement of Jesus Christ provides us the ability to infinitely do better and become better. He's shown us the way! He is the light and life of the world. "The Lord, the King of Heaven" has promised that "I will be a light unto them forever, that hear my words" (2 nephi 10:14). 

Speaking of light... I'm learning pretty quickly about how miserable darkness is! First of all, the sun starts setting here at 4:00! Its crazy! Then one day our lamp burned out. A few days later our bedroom light went out. The next day our bathroom light died. There isn't even a light at all in our kitchen... so we were down to one tiny little light in our whole apartment! Its a pretty big problem, especially with the winter darkness creeping in at 4:00 in the afternoon! For a few days we were taking dark showers and carrying our little light back and forth between the different rooms and squinting at our scriptures and tripping down the dark stairs on the way out the door. Then in Helaman 13:29, Samuel the Lamanite called me foolish and said "How long will you choose darkness rather than light?"

So we finally got some new light bulbs. And life is so much better.

Moral of the story: 
"Let us walk in the light of the Lord." (2 Nephi 12:5)
Don't choose darkness when you can walk in the light.

Are you ready for the best news of the week?!
FRANCESCO IS GOING TO BE BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!
Sister Grant and I jumped up and down and hugged each other 17 times and cried and prayed and hugged each other again after we got back from our lesson with Francesco on Thursday. We had just had a nice little lesson about fasting, and then out of the blue Francesco asked us how soon he could be baptized. IT WAS THE BEST THING EVER! We talked about the things he still needs to learn and do to be ready, and then he chose April 12th as the special day. Just the thought of him in his baptism white walking into the water brings tears to my eyes.

Its been a wonderful week. 

I hope everything is wonderful in your lives too! 
If its not, turn on the light. Turn up the light. Carry it with you everywhere. Share it with others. 

All this talk of light reminds me of the 2002 winter Olympics, when I was a Child of Light...
"Have no fear, when darkness calls, 
'cause there's a light that shines within us all.
Although this world can turn so cold, 
when we reach inside we find our warmth.
'Cause there's a flame that burns in every heart, 
And its the will we have, that lights the spark...

Once in every lifetime there's a chance to stand apart
We can show the world our very best, reveal whats in our heart
So the story goes and glory never will end
Inspiration lights the fire within.

And if we fall, we won't stay down.
We will get back up and use the strength we've found.
And we will rise like champions
every obstacle we'll overcome.

And if we stay strong, then our hearts will move us on."

We have once in a lifetime chances every single day! To walk in the light and to share it.
So grab every single opportunity you have! Exercise faith, have hope, be charitable. Show love to your friends and family and everyone around you. Be virtuous, be patient, be humble. Be diligent and obedient in all that you do. 
Jesus Christ is the light of the world. As we strive to follow His example and develop His attributes, we will become more like Him, and we'll always have His light to guide us. 

And we'll fill the world with that light.

Jeg elsker jer. TTYL.
xoxo MKH,
Søster Breanna Rogers


 In the car with Tina and Francesco


 Thomas Kofoed in the tan suit

November 4, 2013

Hurricanes in Denmark.... & Go out and serve!

Hi guys! Don't worry, I'm alive!
You probably weren't worried...... but you probably didn't know there was a HURRICANE last week.
Last Pday we met up with the elders at the church to celebrate Halloween. We were going to carve jack-o-lanterns, except we all forgot to buy pumpkins. But I made chilli just like my mom does every year on Halloween. And we all made sugar cookies and frosted them with orange frosting. Meanwhile there was a massive storm brewing outside... We looked out the window to see furious wind blowing trees down and tossing all sorts of things up into the air. All the ward members started calling us and telling us to be careful, and then we got a message from President saying that it was too dangerous and he didn't want anybody going outside for the rest of the day. It was an Elf con 5 out there! The buses stopped running and so did the trains and the 5 of us missionaries were stranded in the church building for SEVEN hours. We played the piano and guitar and sang songs and told stories around an invisible campfire wile the storm was busy destroying things outside. My imagination went a little wild and I was worried we might be trapped forever with nothing to eat but sugar cookies and nothing to do but read hymn books and church manuals.... but the storm calmed down eventually and we were able to go home.

Despite the hurricane and the rain storms and the bitter cold wind, its been a really good week here in Denmark! 
We went out for ice cream with our investigator Bettina on Tuesday. It went really well and she was so excited for us to teach her about the Plan of Salvation the next day. Which is why we were completely shocked when we got a text message the next morning saying she couldn't do this anymore.... She was too stressed and overwhelmed and canceled our lesson and said she didn't know if she could meet with us again. We got dropped. And we were soooo sad! Sister Grant and I prayed for her all week. 
And then guess who showed up to church yesterday??!! Ok not only did Bettina come to church, SHE SHARED HER TESTIMONY in sacrament meeting!! Well it was definitely more of a thankimony but it was so great I wanted to cry. 
There is power in prayer. God really is there.

We also had a wonderful lesson with our Italian investigator Francesco. He has changed so much since we started teaching him and its been AMAZING to see how the gospel has truly brought a new light into his life and his eyes. I don't even speak the same language as Francesco! And he is 50 years old. Yet I feel like he is one of my best friends... Its wonderful how the gospel brings people together. Because we really are one family. 
Also, Francesco makes incredible Italian food. that man should open a restaurant, his pasta is to die for! And he always gives us heaping plates of gourmet food that weigh as much as I do. He said its so I won't be able to fit on the plane and have to stay here in Denmark forever....
good thing we don't eat dinner with them every day, or else that definitely might come true.

One of the questions I hear a lot as a missionary is "why do bad things happen to good people?" or "if there really is a God and he really loves us, why does he let so many bad things happen?" Well I read a really good talk by Henry B Eyring this week and he answered those questions better than I've ever been able to before. President Eyring explained how "the Lord's way to help those in temporal need requires people who out of love have consecrated themselves and what they have to God and to His work." Heavenly Father hears the prayers of His children around the world, and His way of helping them is through us. He has invited and commanded us to participate in His work to lift up those in need. That is why it is so vital that we serve each other! 
So ask yourself- 

Have I done any good in the world today? 
Have I helped anyone in need? 
Have I cheered up the sad and made someone feel glad?
If not I have failed indeed...
Has anyone's burden been lighter today 
Because I was willing to share? 
Have the sick and the weary been helped on their way?
When they needed my help was I there?

This week I want to challenge you to do something good in the world. Help someone in need. I know that "the Lord sends the Holy Ghost to make it possible to "seek , and ye shall find" in caring for others just as He does in finding truth." Pray for opportunities to serve. Heavenly Father will lead you to those who need you. 

Happy November everybody!
I'm thankful for the gospel. I'm thankful for the opportunity I have to be in this wonderful country and serve such wonderful people. I'm thankful for the warm apartment I get to go hide in from the Hurricane that's coming again today.
I'm thankful for all of you!
Have a GREAT week. Jeg elsker jer.
MKH
Søster Rogers