Soeur Rogers: 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