Why Can't I Ride a Bike??

Dear Loved Ones,

As I sit and right this email to y'all, It amazes me that I've already been out for 6 weeks. It feels like 2 days. But the most glorious 2 days of my life! Man I love being a missionary!! My life would be so empty if I wasn't! So I have received some letters, but none from my siblings, so I'm wondering if they have the wrong address or something ;) but seriously thank you all so much for keeping me that much more sane. Being a missionary is joy, but your day is that much better when you come home to package or a letter from someone! I can't believe how much I've grown in the last few months, Its incredible becoming consecrated to the Lord. Its seriously the best thing for growth that I've ever done. Just giving God all your wants and desires is the single best thing to become the person you want to be. The more we give the more we get. I know that when we turn over our sphere of influence to the Savior and let the Atonement work through us, miracles happen whether you're a missionary or not.  Besides being a big brother, being a missionary is the single greatest thing I've ever done. I love this gospel!! Ok, so here is how my week went.

Mon: So last P-day my companion decided that we would go mountain biking, an endeavor that I have zero ability or grace in. But alas, we went. When we arrived at the park, we picked a pretty sweet trail called the chutes. After about a mile or so of biking up hill I realized that A) Im not very good at riding bikes and B) Im not in mountain traversing shape. At all. But I wasn't going to quit, so I steeled my will and pressed onward with much burning of lung and leg. About half way up one of my zone leaders, Elder Reimer, started feeling sick, so quite sneakily I started suggesting that we go back, because he was feeling sick.....not at all because I was sucking wind haha....ha  but he said he wanted to keep trying, so my attempt  to escape was thwarted. Which was probably good for me! So we pressed onward, my lungs continued to erupt into flames. Eventually, after I had crashed like 3 times, Elder Reimer threw in the towel ( but luckily didn't throw up). On the way down I discovered why people like mountain biking! Its fun to go fast!! I also rediscovered my lack of skill and ability in this area after crashing twice more, with miraculously no scrapes of bruises, just broken pride ;) But I did get like two feet of air on some of those jumps! So after unsuccessfully mountain biking, my companion and I played monopoly with the Zone Leaders. I'm not good at that either.... But it was a blast! I also got a pretty sweet haircut, the flowee hair is back ;) We taught a less active that night and it was a great lesson, and we were able to give him a powerful blessing.

Tues: We do a lot of service on Tuesdays, I don't know why, but its super good to help people, and to preach the Gospel like Ammon! Every Tuesday we get to serve at a goodwill type thrift store (Dad you would love it, I definitely do!) We organize things and generally pick things up and put them down. But there is this guy there named Speed, who is the best to work with! He loves the Elders and just has the spirit around him all the time! I know he is ready for the Gospel, but because of the church program we are serving thru, we can't proselyte! But I'm pretty sure he will ask to learn more eventually! We then got to help a member clean up their yard, and I got to use a power saw, which I found a lot of valid excuses to keep using... because its really fun. After that we did a ton of stop bys, got rejected just a tad bit more, and went to dinner. We have been really focusing on getting the ward and the Fort Carson Branch excited about missionary work and its been great. Also as a side note, I get fed EVERY SINGLE DAY. Its one of the best perks of going stateside ;) Please work with the missionaries in your ward, they may be awkward, but for the most part theyre trying with all their heart, might, mind, and strength to serve both you and the Lord. Just pretend that they're me ;)

Wed. We taught a bunch of people. We are working with a lot of less active members, and a lot of what they need is a support in the church. A friend that they can lean on till their testimony is strong again. Don't hesitate to reach out and lift people, the Lord will bless you! 

Thurs. This was the first time that we had a truly effective weekly planning. Weekly planning is basically sitting down for 4 to 5 hours and receiving revelation for the children of God we are helping! It can be either really boring or really uplifting! This week I wasn't bored, which was awesome. We then had an amazing lesson with one of our less actives that we are working with. His name is Michael and he is so humble and willing to come back. The spirit is always strong when we teach him!

Fri: We taught 5 lessons friday, which was a tie with my previous record! Im so happy that as my companion and I work hard to find those who are ready, the Lord is providing them. We taught Austin, our new investigator, and it went super well, we got him to pray for us! We meet with him tomorrow as well, and I'm stoked! We also learned the power of coloring pages as it relates to crazy children. It works wonders! 

 

Sat: We rode bikes and did stop bys all day long in an attempt to teach people. We didn't get the chance to teach a lot but we were able to narrow down some of our lists that we had of potential investigators. 

Sun: I love Sundays, its so good to be spiritually recharged! We learned some more about Family Search and was able to teach a few unexpected lessons! Overall for the week we were able to teach 20 lessons, which was super awesome! I'm shooting for 30 by the end of training! 

Brothers and Sisters, I leave you with my testimony. Christ lives, and He is our Savior. He loves us and wants to bless us. Those blessings are completely reliant on how obedient we are. Obedience brings blessings, there is no way around it. The Book of Mormon is the most correct of any book. If you want to receive revelation in your life, read the Book of Mormon. If you take your question to God, He will answer it. I've seen it in my own life. I testify that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, that he did see God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. His testimony was sealed in blood and I raise my voice with his, that this is the true church, that it is led by a modern day prophet. If you want to know for yourself, take it to God. He will let you know. I testify of these things in the name of my Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Keep at it and keep me posted! I want to hear from y'all. Love you lots!

Most excellently yours,

Elder Rogers

I Love putting this tag on everyday!

 

United we Stand!!

Dear Loved Ones

What a week!!! So much happened this week so forgive me if I ramble in an attempt to remember. Ok, I will just do it like this.

Monday: This is not this monday, but last monday. For most of the day it was pretty ordinary! I wrote yall, went shopping, and played a LOT of basketball. Like 4 hours of it. After that my comp and I drove to our dinner appointment, which was a solid 20 minutes outside our area and in the mountains. For a good five minutes I thought I was going to be made into a skin coat by our dinner appointment. But in reality they were really nice! Theyre the snell family and they have 40 acres of mountain that was so cool!! they had goats and lamas and a special forces survival training camp and basically when the stuff hits the fan Im going to be living with them. The road to get to theyre house was basically non exsistant, and they had a quarter inch steel plate on the bottom of their little sedan that somehow made it possible to challenge a jeep in an off road event. Suffice to say it was a blast! Dad, you would have been in heaven. They told us that the roads had been flooded for a few weeks, so they had to zipline and repel to work. Everyday. They were seriously too legit to quit. After that my comp and I finally had a legit comp inventory. I just told him where I was at and that I wouldn't be disregarded and stepped on anymore. He got mad like I expected him too, but heres where it gets awesome. Because of the contention in the apartment the Spirit could not be there to help us with daily planning. So i just got up, went to the bedroom, and started praying. And he totally came around!! We were able to come together and get everything figured out and it was a very spiritual experience. So you could say this week has been better!

Tues-Friday: Pretty cut and dry missionary work! We've picked up a ton of Less Active members and we had to step away from one of our investigators because they aren't progressing. We are hoping that she will cultivate real intent to change, but thats ultimately up to her. We've been teaching like crazy and its been soooo satisfying to just pass out at night from exhaustion. By the way HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOGAN I LOVE YOU BRO!! Friday night we found a new investigator, a great kid named Austin who has been struggling with some things in his life. We didn't expect to find anyone because it was at a member dinner appointment, but as we all know, God works in mysterious ways! We have another appointment with him this Friday and Im so excited to bring him the message of hope and love that I hold so dear to my heart.

Ok so Saturday was quite an experience, readers beware: So we didn't have any appointments on Saturday but we had a ton of people to find! We got to give a struggling member a blessing, and this is what occurred next.We went to go check on a part member family and this sweet old lady answered the door. And proceeded to blast my companion and I with so much Anti Mormon Literature I started to look around to see if I was getting punked. And I was, by Satan. This old lady is a member, who, for whatever reason, has decided to interpret the Gospel as, and I quote, "Luciferien" As she ranted on and on about the same vague things over and over I realized my testimony was being attacked in a way that I had never experienced before. A direct frontal assault by the adversary. As we walked away from the door my comp and I were a little stunned.This was a lady who had been through the temple, and here she was denying the truth and calling my companion and I satanic at the same time. I had to self check, at that moment. I will be honest, I had a moment of doubt. But as I chose to have faith instead of doubt the words of Moroni echoed through my head. You receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.(Ether 12:6) So I decided to wait and have faith and pray. And as we relayed this faith building experience in ward council the next morning, the Lord gave us a witness. Apparently this sister suffered from a lithium imbalance, which causes craziness as well as hallucinations and other disturbing things! So this little anti Mormon spitfire was literally insane! She was just a crazy old lady. And so brothers and sisters, I testify that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. Joseph Smith, who was indeed a prophet of God, would not seal his testimony in blood for anything else. I know, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that this Gospel is the kingdom of God, and that while the leaders of the church arent perfect, and do make mistakes from time to time, we are led by Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world, my personal Savior and friend. I know that as a missionary I stand as a special witness of Christ. I bare his name on my chest and in my heart. He did suffer in the Garden and on the Cross, and more importantly He lives! My Saviour and your Saviour lives! We can come back when we mess up. The Church is true brothers and sisters. Read the Book of Mormon, pray to know. God cannot lie, and He will let you know the truth of these things. I love you all and I will be sending letters off today! Your'e loved by the most powerful Being in the universe, so be a little happier today. I miss you and I will see yall on the flip side.

Yours truly,

Elder Rogers

 

My Crazy Comp, Who's training who...?

 

My Zone leaders: Top Elder Smith, Bottom Elder Reimer

 

Writing a letter to a lucky someone

 

 

 

Are All Homeless People Crazy??

Dear Family and Homies

Hello, First off, Rhett Wilhelm, you better write me mister. Second I have an SD converter availble sooooooo, yall get pictures!! The last month has been one of the hardest and most rewarding experiences I've ever encountered. Let me be clear, the Lord sustained me. I realize that I've been saying how hard a mission is, and I'm not going to sugar coat it. It can be hard. But hard doesn't mean impossible or improbable. Hard typically means rewarding. Anyone can serve a mission if they A) have the desire. and B) Learn to trust in the Lord with everything they've got. Pray your way through your day. You will see the difference I promise! 

So some good news and some great news on the missionary front. This last week was jam packed with a lot of finding and teaching so I was only able to send out 1 letter this week. Next week I will send out a bunch!! Bobby,   one of my investigators, came to church yesterday and loved it! He is definitely progressing and I'm sure we will baptize him soon!! Sister Kless's baptism had to be pushed back but that's OK, I WILL see her in the waters of baptism. So cool missionary story and then some funny ones! 

The Cool one: Earlier this week we got a referral to check in on a part member family who was going to move sometime this month. Their names are the Richins and the husband, Aaron, is catholic and the wife is a less active member. We knocked on their door and they totally let us in!! We got to know them, found out they were moving the next day, and taught them the importance of putting on the armor of God (Ephesians chapter 6). We didn't expect anything to come of it. Then, by the grace of God, they texted us, and said they wanted to feed us! We asked if we could share a message and they said yes to that as well! It was awesome! So after fasting all day long we got to eat over there and help them move for like 3 hours. When we finally sat down to teach them the spirit totally led us to talk about the restoration, and we committed Aaron to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it was true. Even tho that was the last time we will probably ever teach them, I know Heavenly Father needed them to hear that message, and I pray that that seed we planted grows into a desire to know the truth and seek it out. It was definitely a miracle.

Ok, now for the funny one. So as my companion and I were driving out of the library parking lot Friday, after grueling through some paper work, we were flagged down by a homeless guy. He proceeded to ask us for money so he could by food, and we told we would just buy him a pizza instead. The next 15 were the most incoherent I have ever experienced in my life. We discovered his name was Joseph, and that he talked to other missionaries all the time. That was the only normal thing that came out of his mouth. He then launched into a profanity laced rant about how God wanted everyone to be white, that even though he was mexican, he identifies himself as white, and that all black people worshiped the devil. Then he started talking about twelve goat-men dwarves and how they were Snow White's and they represented Hitler and other various mass murderers. As much as I'd like to think that this guy was shooting up massive amounts of Heroin, he was mostly like a baked Schizophrenic. We could not get his pizza and leave fast enough. The last time I encountered that much nonsensical crazy, it was a lot more friendly haha. 

The work this next week is going to be baller, and I'm so grateful for the many blessing I'm receiving. Your'e all in my prayers and I know that God will take care of you. I know that my Redeemer lives. I know that my parents taught me to walk in the light of His love, that they taught me who to trust in, who to pray to. I know that the church is true, that the more we CHOOSE to have faith in Christ and His Atonement, the more we are blessed. I know that missionary work can't be done without member support. Please help the missionaries in your wards, they are striving for success, but its going to take work on both their side and yours. Pray to know who to share the Gospel with. The Lord will lift your burdens as you lift others. I love you. I miss you. But not as much as I love the Lord. Stay faithful my friends

Love,

Elder Rogers

Tired Selfie in my apartment

I love my back scratcher

Chillin like a villain, looking at my getswolebar

So if This is Colorado, Where is Mary Jane?

Salutations my family!,

  

Can I just start by saying that I am so grateful that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is led by God Himself? I testify of the divinity of the mantle of the Prophet. Thomas S. Monson is called of God. I know it, deep in my heart. The Spirit of truth told me so! Conference this weekend was so amazing, but i mean come on, its dictated by God through the Spirit, so its always amazing!

So here is what I got out of Conference. 

1. You are enough. God doesn't want you to Run faster than you have strength (D&C 10:4-5) Build on the testimony that you have, no matter how small, and I promise, as a representative of our Savior, God will magnify it. Just remember that you receive no witness until after the trial of your faith! 

2.Be the clay on the potters wheel. CENTER YOUR LIFE IN CHRIST!!!!! I simply cannot stress this enough. If im being 100% honest with you ( and myself) I have doubts every five minutes. Im tempted every five seconds. Im under attack every moment of my day. This should all sound very familiar because this is all of us. The only way I have not given up, rolled over, come home, or died these past few weeks is simply because I make the conscious choice to center my life in my personal Savior. Its not just A choice its THE choice. You have already been bought. Christ paid the price. Do yourself an immense favor and doubt your doubts and choose to follow Him. You'll never regret it.

3. Simplify your life! This one makes me laugh, a kind of deep, rolling, self deprecating chuckle, because its so obvious, that I ways seem to miss this! During conference I found myself thinking 

" Mason, you dingus, this is for you!!" But i testify that this is for all of us. The Gospel is simple. but it cannot be understood through mortal eyes. That's the entire reason that we are given the gift of the Holy Ghost when we are baptized! Rely on prayer brothers and sisters, rely on prayer.

4. Obedience! I think honestly, this was the overall theme of conference. We can't always see whats on the other side of the barrier (commandments) but God KNOWS whats on the other side. and 100% time its a terrifying sea serpent-shark-octopus that wants to rip us in halves of halves. No joke. 

5. Women are divine, and motherhood is the single greatest calling on this earth. I am so grateful for a mother who took the time to show  me right from wrong, what to do, and Who to trust in. She taught me the Gospel. She helped me build my foundation in life. She literally gave me the tools and the opportunities need to reach exhalation. I cannot thank God and her enough. So if you haven't told your mom that you love her today, you're slacking, get on it. As for me, mom I love you.

 

Now that I've given you a basic summery of conference, I guess i'll share some of how my week went! Let it be known that colds are literally Satan. I've been stuffy and sore throaty and generally miserable haha But I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!! We got one of our investigators to commit to baptism so me and the comp are PUMPED! another one of our investigators told us he only wants to meet with us once a week, and at first we were bummed! but he then told us that he wanted to watch conference by himself, so he wouldnt be influenced by us!! That means that God is answering my companion and I's prayers that he would develop real intent. He also said he loved conference, so im excited to see how God will influence his life more! This really is His work, Im just here to enjoy the show! or at least thats how i feel sometimes! Im going to be sending letters to some of you lucky ducks pretty soon, and some people should be getting mail in the next few days so be on the look out! also if you want a handwritten letter, let me know, and then write ME! I promise i'll write you back! 

K, now for the funny story. So every Friday we have district meeting, at which we discuss how to help our investigators,  practice role play, and in one instance they made me do 150 push ups so everyone could choose to have a doughnut! ( it was an object lesson about the Atonement, not cruel and unusual punishment.) So after these spiritually uplifting meetings the whole district gorges themselves on a ridiculous amount of food! Its Celestial. But not this last time. After retiring for the evening on Friday, i was awoken by an incredible experience! I had gotten food poisoning from the chili I had eaten earlier! How Exciting! so for the remainder of the evening, my stomach would wake me to deal out more pain. If you ask what the best part its, here is what I would tell ya. The best part is my comp and i had been rotating the entire night! and we didn't even know it, I swear! not only had we contracted so minor form of e. bola but the entire district did as well! When we compared notes the next day, it turns out it hit us all at the exact same time. So i hope you found my pain lightened your mood! But more importantly i hope that my testimony will lift yours just a little bit more.

I know that my Savior lives. That He suffered in the Garden, Died on the Cross, and Is Risen. He is the reason. My conversion is not to this church but to Him, and because of the Comforter I know that this IS Christ's only church on the earth today. If you suppose that you can find the fullness of truth elsewhere, ask God, He will set you straight. I know that my prayers are heard by the most powerful being in the Universe. He is Real. He answers my prayers, and if He answers mine, I know that He answers yours. Joseph Smith Jr. was a prophet of God. Don't let the doubts of the world cloud the revelation that you've received of the Prophet. And if they have, ask God if Joseph Smith Jr was indeed a prophet of God. I know exactly the answer that you will receive. I have been to Carthage jail. I have been to the Sacred Grove. I have seen with my own too eyes what the Lord did through Joseph Smith. But I knew He was a prophet the moment I knew that the Book of Mormon was the Word of God, the most true book on the earth today. That is honestly all you need to find your testimony of the reality that God talks to man still. I know that our trials here are temporary and for our benefit. That's right, the hard things we go through HELP us. I know that if you center yourself in Christ, that your trials will become lessons, and that you will grow to become that valiant person that God already sees you as. If you've found yourself lost, come back, God needs you on His side. He is literally waiting to pour out the blessing of heaven upon us. Its completely up to us to decide if we want to or not. I would like to conclude with my testimony of the Sabbath day. In the MTC, they teach you that stress + rest= growth. The Sabbath is that rest. If you make an effort to make it a day of Spiritual learning and rejuvenation, the Lord will help you grow. I promise you.

I love you all very much. Your'e in this young missionary's prayers.

With much affection,

Elder Mason Rogers