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