12-4-17

'Tis the season! I can't believe it's already December!

Tuesday was short but fun. We had district meeting in the morning and we talked about how we can share the message of Noël with everyone. We are currently working on 2 things at the same time, Venez et Voyez with the ward (Come and See, a special sacrament meeting where the members will invite their friends and neighbors to discover our church) and Eclairer le Monde with the church (see mormon.org). We are so excited for both events but it's sometimes really hard to juggle both of them! Make sure to check out the new video on mormon.org, it's so beautiful!

Wednesday I went to Paris to attend the temple! At the last minute Soeur Peterson wasn't able to come, so it was a bit of a bittersweet experience, but wonderful anyway. Because of a couple mixups and soeurs getting stranded and then delayed, we were almost late for the session- and it was the last session before the temple closes! Thankfully, with a little jogging in the rain, we made it barely on time. It was SO incredible to return to the temple after spending so much time outside of it, in the world. The Spirit was so strong. And in case you didn't know, the Paris temple is the most beautiful temple I've ever seen.

Thursday we had a conference with half the mission and Elder Sabin! It was really really good. One of my favorite things that he said is that our trials are sometimes like chocolate chip pancakes. We see these funny little black spots in our pancakes and we think we don't want them, but then we find out that they are sweet and wonderful and exactly what we wanted. I think my entire mission has been like that haha :) there have been so many experiences that I've lived that seemed terrifying or difficult before or during, but at the end I've realized that it just made the entire journey sweeter.

Because we were out of our sector so much, on Friday we had 4 lesson set up! Ultimately we taught Meredith and Chatou, then went on splits with the other soeurs. Two of us went to JA soirée with Godrich (a less active JA) and the other two went and had a meeting with our Relief Society president. On the way back Sœur Peterson delayed Sœur Daines on the tram (aka sat on her until the next stop) while Sœur Potter and I sprinted back to prepare a surprise for Sœur Daines' 9 month mark! We put a note on the bedroom door and hid balloons and a present in her bed, and then waited FOREVER for her to go to bed and find them! It was hilarious, she came home and didn't see a surprise and thought we hadn't actually prepared anything and were just pulling her leg :)

On Saturday I saw the biggest miracle! I had been thinking about Thierry (my ami from Mulhouse) a lot recently so I decided to add him on Facebook. He added me back instantly and we messaged back and forth for about 30 mins! He said he's been reading the Book of Mormon and that he wants to go to church but doesn't know where. I gave him the address of the church and the phone number of the missionaries. He said he's going to go next week! I'm so thrilled that he's once again progressing, and hopefully this time he'll make it all the way.

Sunday was beautiful. Fast Sunday was very Christ-centered and so spiritual. I love this Christmas season. One of the testimonies that I loved was by a young man who talked about how everyone says that Christmas is so commercial, etc. He said, "I don't really agree with that. I don't think I know anybody who, at the same time they're buying presents, isn't listening to Christmas carols or baking someone cookies or reading Luke 2 with their family. I think everyone comes closer to Christ during Christmastime."

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!
Sœur Rogers

11-27-17

Hello everyone! Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I would like to begin with an excerpt from the weekly of my wonderfully creative and inspiring beautiful friend Sœur Potter:

"We have a crazy downstairs neighbor who told us not to shower before eight and not to do a lot of other things because of some 'rules' that don't really exist, and after a week or two of me being there she wrote us a note telling us we were not being respectful to her, so then we just started showering before eight because the neighbor below her told us that she was crazy and does that to everybody. Also our downstairs neighbor and her mom yell at each other all through the night, so who's really disrespecting who here...????¿¿¿¿ One time they were yelling at each other in the middle of the day, so I stomped my foot really hard on the ground and they stopped. Hahahahaha. We've never seen the woman. It's an interesting relationship. She yelled bad words at us on Sunday morning because we were getting ready for church and she threatemed to call the police. It was laughable."

Sunday morning? I was there. In the shower actually, it was terrifying. But the rest of our Sunday was great! We saw the Primary program (all the kids from 3-12 did a presentation) and it was ADORABLE! We have 4 languages represented in our Primary (French, English, Spanish, and Portugeuse) and all the kids did their little talks in their own language, it was adorable! And then when they sang songs they sometimes sang the last verse in Spanish or Portuguese. By far my favorite Primary. They were all pretty well behaved too which was cool, except for a couple times when they were all SUPER squished together on the bench and there was a little giggling with kids sitting in each other's laps :)

Also this week we hosted exchanges in Bruxelles! I went with Sœur Durant and we taught Tanya the 10 commandments, complete with cute little hand signs to help her remember them. She laughed so hard! We also had some deep conversations and went finding for about an hour. I don't think we talked to a single person in French during that entire hour, it was hilarious! They were all from Romania and spoke English. I think we must have been close to some sort of Romanian embassy, seriously! Probably they are all coworkers and came into the office the next morning going "these weird American girls tried to talk to me about God last night" and about 4 or 5 people go "me too!!!"

Finally, an update on Meredith. So as of last week she had decided to be married before her baptism, and it looked like that probably wasn't going to happen until March or April. Super sad, right? PSYCH!! 

So we asked her to pray about it, right? Meredith always prays about things. She's great. When she prayed about the Word of Wisdom, not only did she stop drinking tea on the spot, she stopped drinking energy drinks as well. Anyway so she prayed about her marriage and baptismal date, etc before going to bed. Then, in the middle of the night, she woke up. Michel Ange woke up at the same time too. They turned to each other and said, "we need to move up our marriage date" So now they are getting married ASAP, probably in December!!! I'm SO SO excited for them, and I'm so happy that Meredith can be baptized sooner as well! They are already planning their temple sealing in a year, and every time we see her, Meredith is just GLOWING!!!

I love this gospel. I love the opportunity I have to see other people change their lives and come unto Christ. Our new missionary purpose has been simplified: Teach Repentance, Baptize Converts. As we teach repentance and help others to come closer to the way Christ and Heavenly Father live, they will have more joy in our lives, and we will have joy in serving others. 

I LOVE YOU ALL!!! Have a beautiful week!!

♡Sœur Rogers

1. Exchanges with Sœur Durant! Sorry that it's Parc Cinquantenaire again...

2-3. More pics of pretty Alost

4. We finally took a picture with Meredith!!!

5-6. Grand Place at Christmastime

7-8. The Christmas Marché. We are going shopping next week when it's not raining and I'm PUMPED!!!

11-20-17

Scene: it's Monday morning. Sœur Rogers be chillin' and decides to try to write her weekly before 5pm this time. She then poses the age-old question: What did we even do this week??

Then she looked at area book planner, and remembered;

- we had a very stressful chat conversation/lesson thing with Yvannie. It was crazy becuase we had no idea what was going on but also chill because we could talk to each other in the middle of the lesson. We talked about the Book of Mormon, bore our testimonies of how we came to know it's true, and engaged her to read it every day and pray about it. It was so cool!

- ‎we also took a train out to visit Tanya (our lesson was incredible, as usual. We talked about living prophets and watched Pres. Monson's talk on the Book of Mormon). On the way back our train broke down so we had to sit in the train for 20 mins, then stand outside in the cold waiting for the new train to come pick us up for the next 25. It was a fun adventure.

- ‎we did service for Bernadette and helped her paint her shelves white. The entire time we worked, she was playing Christmas carols from her phone and we sang along to all of them. We are SO excited for Christmas!!

We also saw Meredith this week. We taught her about the 10 commandments and the law of chastity, which eventually turned into a lesson on eternal marriage and temples and why marriage is so important. Meredith is currently living with her fiancé, who is a member of the Church. They are keeping the law of chastity but because they are living together, Meredith can't be baptized. She told us that it would be too difficult for her, both emotionally and financially, for Michel Ange to move out for a couple months before they get married, so it looks like her baptism will probably get pushed back to spring. It was a very bittersweet lesson. We all felt like it was the right thing for her, but it was hard for all of us to know that Soeur Peterson and I won't be there for her baptism. However, while we were teaching her about temples on-the-fly, we showed her several pictures of temples (the random ones we had saved on our tablets or that were in the brochures) and she said "well maybe we'll come to America for our temple sealing!" 

Church was sooo crazy yesterday but sooo fun!! Right before sacrament meeting started, Mariza, the girl from last Sunday, showed up out of nowhere! She told us that Frère Adrienson, the family history consultant, had asked her to come to the chapel at 11:30 so he could help her with her family line. But sacrament meeting was literally starting in 2 minutes! So I asked her if she wanted to stay for sacrament meeting and she said yes! She came in and sat next to me (Sœur Peterson was playing the piano). It was SUCH a good sacrament meeting, and she LOVED it! When it was over, she was like, "wow, it's over already? It was so fast!" She really felt the Spirit. I got her started with Fr. Adrienson but I had to leave her there because we were teaching Primary, and that was a whole other adventure!

The lesson was on Le Dîme (tithing). I'm not entirely sure how much they ultimately learned about tithing. They enjoyed the chocolate coins though :) The highlight was when I asked the kids, "How do we give this money to God?" One of the kids responded, "I know! I know! You put it in an envelope in the middle of the floor, and then you put lots and lots of candles all around it, and then you pray really hard and send it to God! But you don't send it to Satan, that's evil" Not sure where this kid is getting his education, but it put a little spice into my Suday!

I am so excited for my second Thanksgiving in Europe! We are doing a Thanksgiving dinner as a district with the Christensens on Tuesday, and a little party as an apartment on Thursday. We are so excited! In the spirit of Thanksgiving, don't forget to eat loads of turkey, and tell your loved ones how grateful you are for them!!

I am grateful for all of you. Thanks for taking the time to read this email/blog entry. You're the best. Yeah, you. And remember, Heavenly Father loves you!!

♡Soeur Rogers

 Parc Cinquantenaire (again, haha! We live so close and it's so beautiful!)

 Doing service for Bernadette, we painted those shelves!

  Another pic of Alost. It is so beautiful!

  Comp selfie when we were stuck in Liederkirk 

 It was so cold but so beautiful!

11-13-17

Welcome welcome to a brand new transfer in the life of Soeur Rogers! This week we said goodbye to Sœur Biggs and Elder Hidalgo (Elder Eyring was long gone to Versailles) and we welcomed some old missionary friends, Sœur Potter and Elder Schultess, along with Elder Kiene, a blue!

On Thursday we got to live the VIP life and we went to the European Parliment to attend Women in Faith!! It was a really cool event. Jean Bingham spoke, as well as other members of the European Parliment and other distinguished speakers that are super cool. We weren't allowed to wear our missionary tags (because they didn't want people to think that we were going to proselyte) but there were several people that tagged us as missionaries anyway ;) it might have had something to do with my beat-up boots, hahaha. 

We were allowed to put our plaques back on for the little sandwiches afterwards, and we got to meet and talk with Jean Bingham for a moment and with Sharon Eubank for several minutes. It was so cool!! Sister Bingham's comments were really inspired. Many of the speakers took a more political or general view, but her talk was a lot more about how women of faith are strengthened in moments of trial. It was super inspiring and really cool to be there! More information about the event is on mormon newsroom, and if you look closely, you can see Soeur Peterson and I in one of the crowd shots :)

We taught Meredith several times this week. She continues to progress really well, and is on track to be baptized in December. We taught her more about the Atonement and about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we have noticed that she really applies the things she learns. In the words of Boyd K. Packer, “True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior. The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior.”

Sunday was stake conference! Our mission president asked us to be there several hours early so we could have a mini-conference about the Venez et Voyez (come and see) sacrament meeting we'll be having on December 24. The stake president asked every man, woman, and child to invite someone to that special sacrament meeting. We're so excited to just keep encouraging the members to do missionary work! The missionaries are going to be very minimally involved in this effort, we will literally just be there to support the members.

However, Soeur Peterson and I actually heard about all of that secondhand. Just before the missionary conference started, a woman walked in the door asking about a family history center! Soeur Sorensen (the mission president's wife) immediately started talking to her, and then she turned to us and asked if we had a family history center. We were like, "um, we have a computer!" So we got Mariza set up with a FamilySearch account and showed her how to use FamilyTree to search the records of her ancestors. She was looking for the marriage record of her great-grandparents. Unfortunately we weren't able to find it, but we got her phone number, gave her the number of the family history consultant, and invited her to come back to church next week! Just as we waved her out the door, the other missionaries came out of the chapel, and we realized that we had missed the whole thing! Whoops!

Anyway, the rest of stake conference was super inspiring. Elder Sabin and Jean Bingham spoke, as well as their spouses. Afterwards, there was an event for all the women ages 12+ and Jean Bingham spoke to us again. 

Sooo it was a cool week! Be on the lookout for pics to come! I love you all, 

Sœur Rogers 

  The Basilica is sooo pretty!

 We visited this super cool cathedral! It's called the Petit Sablon and it has the most beautiful stained glass I've seen in my life. The rest of it was gorgeous too :)

11-6-17

Coucou!

Well, I'm sure you've all been dying to know the transfer decision (because, you know, you've got my transfers marked on your calendar) so I'll tell you already... I'm staying in Bruxelles!! No way!! Yeah... that's not really a surprise. The real question is, who will be my companion? Stay tuned to find out!

This week we got to see Meredith twice! She is still on track for her baptism in December and this week we taught her the Plan of Salvation. She had a million zillion questions and it took us several appointments to answer all of them, but she now has a really good understanding of it all. My favorite part of our lessons this week was when she asked us to explain the Atonement to her. She told us that when she learned about it in cathecism she never understood it. We explained that it's as if Jesus Christ is paying a debt that we cannot pay, thus satisfying the demands of justice and mercy. It was so incredible to see her understand this principle and begin to apply it in her life! She invited us to her wedding! She's getting married on March 21 to the member that brought her to church.

We also had a really fun FHE with Nene's family again!! They are less active, partially because they live so far away from the church, partially because the mom is the most motivated of the 5 to come. The 3 girls have varying interest in coming but they LOVED our FHE, complete with a lesson on warm fuzzies, warm fuzzy-making, scattegories, and banana muffins! We hope to help them make friends in the ward so they have more reasons to come on Sundays :)

For this lesson, I got to translate the warm fuzzies story into French. It was some intense language story. Fun fact: there is no translation for the word "warm;" neither is there one for "fuzzy." Our solution? Call them "cozy balls" or "boules douilettes" No matter what they are called, they are stinking cute and fun to make! The kids loved it!

The rest of this week was busy trying to see a lot of amis and members. Highlights are Tanya (incredible as ever), the Trigo family (3 generations all living in the same house-- we taught the grandma and 6 of her grandkids) and Sr Ballon (the surprise mangez-vous from last time. We were prepared this time and enjoyed some crab soup, noodles, spring rolls, and cassava? I think? something in banana leaves). We also got our flu shots from some cool British doctors and I ate several delicious piping hot gauffres :)

What was that? Transfer decisions? Oh yeah! I get to stay with Soeur Peterson!! HOORAY!!! We are so pumped for next transfer. We've got a lot of momentum going right now in our missionary work and we are so excited for all the goodies next transfer will bring.

Je vous aime tous, à tantôt!!

Soeur Rogers

10-30-17

Hello hello! 

The big news for this week is... We set a baptismal date with our ami Meredith! Remember, the one who is polytheist? We got a call from her friend on Monday night informing us that she had turned to him during sacrament meeting and said, "I want to be baptized!" We had a great lesson where we explained exactly what it means to be baptized. She was on board, so we set a date for Dec 15! We are so excited for her :) We saw her again on Friday and on Sunday for church, and she was telling everyone that she was going to be baptized on Dec 15. She is the cutest and we're so excited for her!

Speaking of baptisms, Saturday was the baptismal service for Albert, the elders' ami. Albert has a really cool story! On General Conference weekend, we decided that we wanted to go to the church to watch the priesthood session (because duh, the priesthood session is super cool). As we were walking in, a man followed us in. Thinking that he was a member (it was my first weekend in Bruxelles, okay?) I struck up a conversation with him and quickly discovered that he was not a member; in fact, he had never been to church before and lived clear on the other end of Bruxelles, but had decided to come that day to discover what it was like. The elders soon arrived and helped him to feel at home. He watched General Conference with the missionaries on one side and the stake president on the other, and in his first lesson later that week, they set a baptismal date for October 28! It was a mad rush to teach him everything he needed to know before then, but he was on board from the beginning, and the day of the service, he was all smiles. Everything went off without a hitch, he was confirmed yesterday, and next week he will recieve the Aaronic Priesthood. Albert's story was a miracle for all of us here in Bruxelles, and I was reminded of the words of Elder Anderson, "When one baptizes, we all baptize."

Let's see, other things we did this week... We had a super awesome Halloween activity on Friday evening, complete with cute kids in costumes, cookies decorated like spiders, an arm in the trashcan, a hallway of terror, and even trunk or treat! The members weren't super sure how to organize a trunk or treat, so the Christensens had to help out a bit :) We also got to know the less active family that we bumped into last week. Chatou LOVES the church even if she hasn't been for years, she was singing hymns and everything! We met her 4 kids, who are all young adults and are all baptized except the youngest. We invited them to come to JA soirée and the oldest said, "I surely will avail myself this coming friday" and yes he actually said that. So we get to go to JA soirée next week! Woohoo!

Last night we headed over to the Christensens (senior couple) to celebrate 3 special birthdays-- Elder Christensen, Elder Eyring, and Soeur Biggs! It was a super fun party and Soeur Christensen made some incredible cake :) One of our favorite things about Elder Christensen is that he writes these adorable funny stories about when he was younger, growing up with his siblings and all mistakes made and lessons learned. So us four sister missionaries wrote our own little stories about Elder Christensen and read them out loud at the party. It was so fun to put together that little present for him, and he was obviously touched. 

So, voilà, that was my week! There are only a couple more to go! I'm so happy to be out here serving the Lord and meeting all these incredible people. I know that I have been an instrument in the hands of the Lord throughout my mission, and I know that as I continue to be faithful and obedient, I can be the kind of tool that He WANTS to use to accomplish His purposes.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Soeur Rogers 

10-23-17

Hello all! We had such a crazy busy week, I hardly know where to begin!

On Tuesday we had district meeting and then quickly ran to the gare to catch a train to Liège for exchanges! I got to spend some time with Soeur Warr and it was one of the chillest exchanges I've ever had. We visited a less active member (who was pretty crazy, not gonna lie) and a recent convert (who was pretty awesome). The next day we went to HEMA to use the wifi and we talked a lot about how we can more effectively use Facebook in our missionary work. It was actually really cool. I feel like up until this week I had been sideyeing Facebook and poking it with a stick, and now we are just going to dive in! I'm excited to start using this technology as a positive force for good.

On Wednesday afternoon we got home from exchanges and immediately left to go visit a less active member. On the bus ride over we had the coolest miracle! We sat across from a woman who looked at our plaques, smiled, and said, "I'm a member of your church, except I never knew where to find the church building!" We kept talking with her and found out that her name is Chatou, she was baptized 30 years ago in Cameroon, and she would absolutely love to come back to church! She had to work this Sunday but she should be coming the next week. 

We also had a really interesting lesson on Friday afternoon with our new amie Meredith. She came to church last week with her friend Michelangelo and she has a lot of really... interesting... beliefs. She was polytheistic, but she has since decided that she probably made up her other gods, so now she just believes in one god. She has been reading the Book of Mormon and said that she believes it's true. She has a desire to find out the truth and to live it, so we are excited to keep teaching her!

On Saturday we had a finding day and I got to go finding with Soeur Christensen! It was super fun because she speaks about ten words of French but loves talking to people, so she would approach people and ask, "Do you speak English?" Mostly they didn't, or weren't interested. We got to talk to some American students though, and we would have given them a copy of the Book of Mormon except I didn't have one in English. We gave them a card instead, and Soeur Christensen had a wonderful time :)

After our finding day, we went to go visit a less active that we had never met before named Soeur Ballon. We stopped at Carrefour Planet on the way there to look for root beer (which was sold out) and we found a cheese aisle!!! I was PUMPED and bought a bunch of cheese (Soeur Peterson hasn't tried cheese yet okay??) So we came about 20 mins late to our rdv because of trams etc and it turns out that Soeur Ballon made us food!! Unexpected mangez-vous are the best! We spent forever chatting with her and getting to know her, and finally we had to leave to get home on time. We came home with 2 massive bags filled with fried rice, spring rolls, gauffres, cheese, baguette and Nutella. The other soeurs were like "what happened??"

Guys I love busy weeks!! We are working with so many incredible people here and I feel like I'm hitting my groove as a missionary. Soeur Peterson and I are working super well together. Watch out, week 5! 

Hope you all have an incredible week! 

Soeur Rogers

10-16-17

Hello all! A bit of a short email but don't worry, I love you all just the same!

On Tuesday all of Bruxelles was having grèves. Naturally, Tuesday was the most jam-packed day of our week! Luckily district meeting was cancelled, so we were able to get to the gare and find a train that was running in enough time to see Tanya! We taught her about the temple (she already knew a lot) and set a goal with her to go to the temple on November 11. We're going to work hard with her to be able to get an interview with the bishop and to help her find family names to take to the temple. We are so excited for her!

Wednesday was zone conference, and we talked a lot about using Facebook in our mission. We talked about how it can help us to improve our relationships with the people we teach, help the, get integrated with the ward, add uplifting things to people's newsfeeds, etc. We've been talking a lot about how to teach with technology. I'm excited to keep learning more and working with these new tools!

Other adventures from this week that I don't have time to tell you about:

-We went to another little Dutch town and got fruged but saw some cool ducks and swans

-‎We went on splits Saturday afternoon and I taught a cute Chinese family with Soeur Daines. We skyped in the Chinese elders and it was great!

-‎I was almost late to church trying to get the other soeurs ami there

-‎A member brought a friend to church. We are seeing her on Friday!

Today we got to finish seeing the Museum of European History. Let me tell you my friends, I love museums, and I love history... this museum blew me off my feet. Because it caters to people that speak about 20 different languages, there is no text anywhere in the museum. Instead, they give you a tablet that has information about everything there as well as audio and videos in your own language. It was super fun!

I am loving Bruxelles and my life as a missionary. We got to attend a special broadcast from Elder Ballard last night. He told us, "We need you to believe in miracles. I bless you to believe in miracles. What is the greatest miracle that can possibly be given? The miracle of bringing someone to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Don't be afraid. Let the miracles work within you. Where do miracles start? They begin on our knees. We ask Heavenly Father to know His will and do His bidding. Do your best and then turn it over to God"

I know that this is true. Miracles can happen! I love you all!

Soeur Rogers

10-9-17

Hello all! This week was full of moving furniture, baptismal dates (for the elders, not for us, don't get your hopes up) and Nutella. Lots of Nutella.

On Tuesday we were able to have a lesson with our recent convert, Tanya. Tanya lives in Alost, or Aalst if you speak Dutch, which most people in this cute little town do. Tanya was just  baptized in August and has 3 little kids all under the age of 4! We reviewed the Plan of Salvation together. Let me tell you, Tanya is a champ. She knew everything and had a clear understanding of why it was necessary and important. Then we started talking about the spirit world, the resurrection, and the judgement, and she all of a sudden was full of questions. "So are the people in prison really in a prison? Can the people in paradise and prison see and talk to each other or are they in different places? Aren't we going to ascend to meet Jesus? Where is Jesus right now? Who will be there at the judgement? Do we have a Heavenly Mother?" We were a little blown away, to say the least, but we wracked our brains for all the deep doctrine we had ever learned and were able to help her out. :)

We also had the opportunity to travel out to Dunderleeuw (another Dutch-speaking town that is technically outside of our sector... then again, Bruxelles itself is technically outside of our mission so our "sector" is really just insofar as people speak French). We went to visit Nene (pronounced Nay-nay), a really cool less active member with 3 adorable little girls. We had a wonderful lesson and were able to get to know these people a lot better. We talked about daring to choose the right, showed them how to watch General Conference online, helped them order a year's subscription to the Liahona magazine, and set up a time to come visit them next week. We're going to have a family home evening! We hope they'll be coming back to church soon. The girls seem apathetic about it, except the oldest, who seemed kind of excited to come to Young Women's instead of Primary. The mom knows she needs to come back, but is nervous that people will judge her. She said, "Maybe I'll come wearing a scarf over my head and face, then nobody will know it's me. Then again maybe they'll think that I have a bomb and hit me over the head with a casserole dish. So I think instead we'll just stay home this week." Pray for this family so they can have the courage to come!

Remember how I said people in Dunderleeuw speak Dutch? Well, just as we were walking out of our lesson with Nene, this girl suddenly runs up to us and starts speaking to us in Dutch! I was super surprised and said, "Pardon?" and then said, "English?" and she said, "yes I speak English" and I was like "oh good!" She asked if we were the Jehovah's Witnesses and we said no, we're missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She looked confused for a moment and then said, "Well, I want a Bible. Can you get me a Bible?" We said, "Yeah, we can probably do that" We exchanged numbers and names and told her we'd be back on Saturday. Hopefully we can come up with a Dutch Bible (and Book of Mormon) before Saturday :)

Sunday was kind of a crazy day. It was my first opportunity to meet the ward, and we also had an ami and a less active we've been working with come for the first time. Our ami, Dou, is Buddhist and was very confused about everything. She had good reason, too. I think that was the craziest fast and testimony meeting I have ever seen. She also did not understand the lesson in Gospel Principles class on the Sabbath Day. But then right before she left she had a really positive conversation with Chin Rivas, a returned missionary that I served with right at the beginning of my mission. They talked about seeing the positive in the world, serving others, and how the Book of Mormon brings us peace and joy. She said, "I think I'm going to have to read that book." 

Today we're going to see a really cool vantage point of Bruxelles and hopefully the Museum of European History. Pictures will be forthcoming! Hope you all have a great week!

♡Soeur Rogers

10-2-17

Well my friends! After a full day of organizing, cleaning, and planning things to get ready for the elders in Arras, and another full day of trains, suitcases, and waiting around in gares (a total of 5+ hours waiting in various gares) I have finally arrived in Bruxelles!! And I am PUMPED!!!

This city is so cool. I haven't seen very much of it yet, but it is beautiful. A lot of the smaller older streets look a lot like Arras or other French cities, but some of the bigger areas look like New York or Boston. Today we visited Grand Place (the main square that is just in front of the town hall) as well as some of the cute touristy shops around there. We also got some great Thai food and my first gauffre!! It was SO GOOD!! I can see many more in my future :)

But my new companion, Soeur Peterson, is even cooler!! She's from Hyrum, Utah, and she is the fourth of 7 kids. She's studying history (score! She tells me about everything) and she's a reading fanatic like me :) She is super sweet, very organized, and speaks great French for her third transfer. I feel so lucky to be her companion. I just get to follow her around and learn the ville at my own pace, and it's super relaxing. We already get along really well and have established the seeds of a really trusting companionship. I'm so excited for the next 5 weeks!

We've already had some really cool lessons with several of our amis. We taught Yvannie the very first night over some excellent frites (although Soeur Peterson said they were only so-so, I have yet to try the really legendary ones) and we chatted about our faith in God and invited her to watch General Conference. We also taught Dou a lesson about the Book of Mormon. She is Buddhist, but she pored over the pictures in the front of the Book of Mormon with great interest. I could just tell she was feeling the Spirit. Finally, we had a wonderful impromptu lesson with a less active member Bernadette. Our conversation naturally turned to the blessings we receive when living the gospel (D&C 130:21), and I felt inspired to challenge her to begin living the commandment of keeping the Sabbath Day holy by coming to church. She said she would!

We also had General Conference this weekend, which was INCREDIBLE! Quick reminder: twice a year, we have the opportunity to hear from our leaders, the prophet and apostles, who speak in a conference in Salt Lake City. It's then rebroadcast all over the world! So far we've watched the Priesthood session at the chapel, Womens Conference and Saturday Afternoon at our apartment, and Saturday & Sunday morning at the senior couple's apartment, the Christensens. Every time a new conference rolls around, I find myself to be more and more "thirsty" for the word. 

One of my favorite talks from conference was President Uchtdorf's talk from the women's session. He talked about how we can choose how we react to different situations in our lives. He said, "You cannot allow circumstances to make you sad. You cannot allow them to make you mad. You can rejoice that you are a child of God. You can find joy and happiness in the grace of God and in the love of Jesus Christ. You can be glad"

I love you all and hope you have a very "glad" week!!

Soeur Rogers

1. The Park de Cinquantenaire (built to celebrate Belgium's 50th anniversary)

2. A pretty church in the center of Belgium

3. Soeur Peterson and I our second day together!

4. Grand Place

5. We had a combined rdv with all 4 soeurs to teach Frank, a recent comvert.

We met him at the military hospital where he works and took this fun picture!

6. My first gauffre! Ft. Caramel and WAY too much whipped cream

7. We found berets at ZARA and tried them on :)

8. Us in front of l'Église Notre-Dame de Laeken

9. My beautiful comp made French toast for conference breakfast

10. Fun street art in the city of Tintin!

 

9-25-17

Hheeelllllooooo! I am so exhausted right now, this week was so crazy and full!! We took 11 trains, went to 6 different cities, and ate only about 3 meals at home. Not sure how that 6 months to sexy thing is supposed to work...

Sooo transfers again!! Although I thought I was going to be able to finish my mission here in the wonderful ville of Arras, instead we are getting ready to have elders whitewash in!! Soeur Erichsen is going to Compiegne and I'm going to BRUSSELS!!! I'm so sad to leave Arras, but I am PUMPED to go to Belgium! We've been working like crazy to get everything ready for us both to leave and prepare the elders to have a smooth transition.

We had zone conference on Wednesday, and district meeting on thursday. They were both super fun! I love being in a smaller zone (we only have 21 missionaries). Our interviews went way over and we managed to not miss our train, but 3 other companionships did (including the other 2 from our district) and had to sleep over. So after their fun sleepovers, we rejoined our tired compatriots in Amiens for a district meeting and formation on putting on the armour of God. And due to grèves and travaux (gotta love SNCF) we had a lot of extra time there. We profited and bought a solar-powered sumo wrestler for Soeur Erichsen. Guaranteed to make you smile :)

Friday afternoon found us doing service for Soeur Boucry. We helped her clean out her china cupboard and donate the things she doesn't use. We both walked away with some beautiful teacups as well as some crepes that she made us :) 

Saturday morning we did some inspired porting in centreville. We got very lost, turned down an alleyway, and then both noticed this beautiful blue door. We knocked on it and met Fabienne, who first met the missionaries 20 years ago! She was super kind and although she didn't want to meet with us again, we felt like we had been led to talk to her.

Sunday was a super crazy day. All the members were really surprised about the transfer decision, and a lot of them were super sad that they were losing their soeurs. So we had lunch with our new DMP and his family. We ate langue du bœuf. I recognized it pretty easily (thanks dad) but Soeur Erichsen was a little surprised when they told us what it was... after we had each taken a couple bites of course :) 

Afterwards we were invited to go on a lovely Sunday afternoon walk by the Citadelle and to eat dinner with one of the members. We didn't get home until 9:30 and I was SO EXHAUSTED!! Haha I love the members and I'm so happy that they love us, but wow that was a long Sunday!!

I have to go pack again :) so I will leave you with a favorite scripture from this week:

1 Timothy 4:12 Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

I love you all!

Soeur Rogers 

 From district P-day... the elders followed us around while we were shopping :)

The elders are always carrying our stuff lol :) long live the sistrict!

 Sunday walk and the art museum we went to today. I will miss Arras so much!!

9-18-17

 Post-porting selfie :)

Hello all! This week went by so quickly, it's crazy! We did a lot of work with members which was kind of crazy but we finally got to settle down to plan and find near the end of the week. 

                                                Soeur Marechal

On Tuesday we went to visit a member who is recovering from heart surgery. We sang hymns with her for over an hour! We also spent a lot of time in the gare because of work strikes but were finally able to make it to our rdv that evening with the Rivière family. We met Soeur Rivière's daughter, who is less active, and her three children. They were sooo cute!

So in our zone we've been doing a focus on service and referrals. On Wednesday we came early to a mangez-vous to do service for this member. I organized a closet of party supplies and then pruned and watered the flowers in her windowboxes. Soeur Erichsen learned how to iron and ironed a bunch of clothes for her. We then had a beautiful dinner with them. This family loves cheese, and, quelle coinkidink, we do too!! (see pics)

The cheese plate the Nivard family made us-- with 9 types of cheese!

Friday we had the opportunity to work with a member, Soeur Paullion, to go visit our recent convert Gregory and a new ami Claude. It was a busy and stressful day, but having Soeur Paullion with us just helped me to calm down so much. Gregory made us lunch and was super excited to show us what he had prepared for his very first talk on Sunday! When he gave it yesterday I just felt like a proud momma, he did such a good job and testified so powerfully! He is one of the coolest members ever, and he's trying to be prepared to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood before stake conference in 4 weeks. We are so excited for him!

We finished out the week with a second district P-day!! This time we came to Amiens and were able to see the biggest cathedral in Europe. Unfortunately we weren't able to go up to the top because it was raining, but we did get to see the inside. We also got poutine (hooray!!) and went shopping. Soeur Pischer was so excited to buy a big blanket scarf and tried on nearly every scarf in the store. The elders sort of just followed us around, but they were good sports about it :) we had a great time. I love small districts, we all feel like we're best friends.

In my personal studies this week I was really struck by a poem that I've read before, but haven't taken a lot of time to ponder. Thought I'd share:

“‘Father, where shall I work today?’

And my love flowed warm and free.

Then he pointed out a tiny spot

And said, ‘Tend that for me.’

I answered quickly, ‘Oh no, not that!

Why, no one would ever see,

No matter how well my work was done.

Not that little place for me.’

And the word he spoke, it was not stern;

He answered me tenderly:

‘Ah, little one, search that heart of thine;

Art thou working for them or for me?

‘Nazareth was a little place,

And so was Galilee.’”

I know that wherever we are called to serve, we are doing the Lord's work. Whether it be in a big city or a little one, in France or America, as a full-time missionary or serving in another capacity, as we serve the people around us we are serving the Lord. I know that this gospel is true and that we will be blessed for our efforts, big and small. I love you all and hope you have a great week!!

Soeur Rogers

                      We visited the Amiens cathedral for district P-day!