Die zwei Weihnachten Räuber

 Hey everyone! This week was super great, but it was crazy! Just to start off and explain my weekly title, Elder Adams and I were going to the church at 6:30 in the morning to meet up with the other
missionaries in the district to play some basketball. Well when we had gotten to the church we were the only ones there at the time. We went inside and from the front doors we noticed that there were two guys with a flashlight who looked like they were working on something. The lights were off, they were speaking German, and it was 6:30 in the morning. It made no sense for anyone to be working at the church, especially where they were crouched down at. They were doing something to a door and from we were they were about 50 feet away. We decided to just flip the lights on and see what happened. And as we flipped the lights on we saw 2 robbers stand up and stare at us. Elder Adams and I started running at them and as soon as we did the went out a door that was just a couple feet to their left. Luckily, as all that happened the other elders had pulled up in their car and had just gotten out of their car when they saw the two robbers bust out the door on the side of the building. After that they ran after them, but lost them. They eventually found two guys that looked like the robbers so we will see if that was them or not.
    Anyways, as you can see we are staying on our toes for now on! We are super lucky that we didn’t get hurt or anything, but would’ve loved to have actually caught them redhanded. I’ll definitely let you guys know if we hear anything about that!
    Also in the week, was Christmas!!!! I can’t believe it was over, it didn’t really feel like Christmas to be honest, but it’s sad that it’s over. It’s also sad that Light the World is over as well! It was great to see all the blessings from that and to be able to do something simple for our fellowmen. I hope that everyone can keep the spirit of Christmas and Light the World in their hearts as we continue on to the year 2018.
    Today for pday we went to the border of Germany and France (which is only an hour away) and we hiked up to a super sweet view at these castle ruins. It wasn’t a crazy long hike but it was still a hike nonetheless!! I’ll throw in some sick pics and let them speak for themselves. Besides that, we are still working with our recent converts to help them stay in the spirit of being converted so they experience more blessings. The holidays are sadly making everybody too busy to either meet with us or just stop and talk with us. We are continuing to work hard and to get stuff done!
    I hope everyone has a super awesome week! I’m very grateful for the Savior, Jesus Christ and that He was sent by a VERY loving Father in Heaven. Because He came, i know we can become clean again, by relying on His Atonement. I know that Jesus Christ also knows the exact pains that we are going through, which means the He is able to comfort us and help us know that everything will be alright! I love Christmas time and the awesome excuse that it gives us to give to others!!
Keep the spirit going!
    -Elder Rogers

Christmas emails

We enjoyed having your awesome Elders over for dinner tonight. Merry Christmas.
Porter family

(I can't get it to flip.  Not sure why)

Hi Sister Rogers,

I know that you do not know me but your son stopped by our house the other day. He left such an impression on us. He was friendly and personable and great to talk to and a great representative of Jesus. I just wanted to say thank you! Thanks for doing such a great job raising a fantastic son. It must be a huge sacrifice to have him gone but he is doing a great work here in Germany. I hope you have an incredible Christmas and a very blessed New Year.

Love,

Jenna Layton

Christmas!!!!

This week was great!! To start off I will be staying in Ramstein for another transfer! I’ve been here since may and I absolutely love it! Elder Adams and I have been getting along just great!! We have
been talkin to tons of people and it’s been pretty easy with the light the world initiative that has been going on.
     One really cool thing that we did was go to the store and we buy 100 pieces of chocolate, wrapped them, stuck a light the world card on them, and just gave them out to people on the street! It was way cool and tons of fun! Surprisingly a couple people didn’t want to take any chocolate.
     Also in the week, we met with our recent convert Lester and he is doing pretty good. He went through a little bit of depression a while ago, but he is doing a lot better! We had some very spiritual lesson with him and I really hope that what we were impressed to say will help him.
      Well it snowed pretty good and we have had a good time. I have no time left, but I am super excited to skype on Monday! I love the Christmas season and the chance that we have to share the blessings of Christ’s birth with our families. December is always the fastest month of the year which is a bummer, but the spirit of Christmas doesn’t only have to be shared in December! We can always lend a helping hand for someone or bake a simple batch of cookies for a neighbor! I hope everyone has a super great weekend leading up to Christmas and do your best to keep Lighting the World!!!! Have a good week!
Elder Rogers

Winter wonderland

This week was super great!! It was so fast but I feel like we got so much stuff done! We do have transfer calls coming up this Saturday, so I’m getting a little worried about that. But I’m here to do the Lord's work and He knows exactly where I’ll be able to do that work best at. I’m very grateful for the area I am in now and for all of the work I have been able to do here.
  Anyways enough about transfers! Earlier in the week we got to got finding a lot! We went to the university a couple times and it was super fun! It also snowed a ton on Sunday and because it snowed so much on and a half wards got canceled. So we only went to 1 and a half wards which was nice, but driving in the snow was awesome! I miss snow. Sadly it melted and got washed away by the rain the next day.
  We also had two awesome ward Christmas parties on Saturday. One was a brunch that we got a less active to go to! We were really happy to see him there and he seemed like he had a good time. After that ward party we had the second one that night. There was some awesome steak and a lot of nonmembers.
   One of my highlights of the week was when we went on splits with the Zone Leaders and elder Clarke was with me! We went to the Tanner family’s house. Which was super fun, it’s also funny because brother Tanner's first name is Stephen and his last name is Tanner and my first and middle name are Steven Tanner. Anyways just a fun fact, haha. But while we were there we had some edamame beans and elder Clarke ate the whole thing!! If you have ever had edamame beans then you would know that you just pinch the bean on the inside of the pod out and you don’t eat the whole thing, but elder Clarke had no idea and just did his beast to get them down hahahahaha!
  Also in the week we had a super awesome Zone Conference! We talked a lot about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and of course Christmas as well. We learned some amazing things about how we can become comforted through our hard times and also to repent and become clean again! To me there is no greater gift, then Jesus Christ and His Love for me.
   Well that was about it for the week!!!! I hope everyone has a great week and remembers CHRIST this CHRISTmas!!!!!

 -Elder Rogers

Taufe!! 🤙

 This week was awesome!!! The highlight was definitely Jeffs baptism, but not only was he baptized, but the other missionaries in our district had their investigators baptized as well!! So there was one investigator from each companionship (3) that were baptized over the weekend. It was an awesome weekend here in Ktown, the Lord is really blessing not only us as missionaries but more importantly his children as he put us in the right place to be able to help them find their way towards Christ.
     Before the baptisms, Elder Adams and I have been working hard to find more people to teach! Although we had the baptism coming up, we always want to be teaching people. We have a couple other people that are really ready and we are excited to teach them as well!
     We also had super awesome member appointments. The members here are amazing! At first I wasn’t a huge fan of being over three American wards, but I learned real quick that we get to meet so many awesome people that want to be a part of the work! It’s awesome to see the miracles of their hard work, and it’s even better to be able to learn from them.
     Today we went to Heidelberg for pday and checked out the Christmas markets!! It was super awesome and not too cold, we got lots of pictures too. It’s crazy that Christmas time is already here again! I can’t believe it will be my last one in Germany, I’m really excited to talk to people about Christ’s birth.
      Speaking of which! I just wanted to end by talking about the Christmas initiative that the church has introduced! If you haven’t heard of Light the World then definitely go to Mormon.org and watch the launch video!! I challenge everyone to watch the videos (starting tomorrow) that will be for the next 25 days, and follow the 25 ways you can spread the Christmas Spirit! I hope you all have a great time as you do this! I know that we are all on earth to do good things for others, I know that Heavenly Father will help us out as long as we ask AND act on the promptings that we receive from Him. I challenge you all to pray for the opportunity to do something good and act upon what the Lord tells you!
Have a good week!!
Elder Rogers

Weekly

 Hey everyone!! This email is going to be short because today was Thanksgiving and we had two appointments. Anyways! Besides eating a lot of food today, Elder Adams and I have had a really great week! We talked to some crazy people and some cool people! Elder Adams has great German and he is just 2 transfers behind me in the mission. So it’s been humbling but still great to learn and speak German with him.
      So this Saturday is Jeffs baptism and we are super excited for him! We are very happy that he has made the decision to follow Christ and we are happy that he will continually ask his Heavenly Father and friends for help. Keep praying for him to be able to enjoy this awesome experience! I don’t have any pictures this week, but don’t worry I’ll get some next week so you don’t just have to read my weekly! Have a good one!!
-Elder Rogers

Transfers!!

  Hey everyone! This week was good. We did have transfers and my boy Elder Forsey headed out! It was a bummer to see him leave but this will be his first time in a German area, so that’s good for him. My new companion is elder Adam and he’s a great guy! We’ve already been working hard so there has been no problem getting along. He is also only a couple transfers behind me so his German is great and it’s easy to just get stuff done.
     As far as the week goes, we have been really busy meeting with investigators and members. Kind of a funny story, last night Elder Adam and I decided to go by on some part member referrals from one of the wards here. The member that referred them, said that she had recently talked to the mom and she told us that the mom wanted to have the missionaries over so that she could be reactivated and get the rest of her family to church. This lady has a couple kids that we aren’t sure are members or not and her husband isn’t a member. So the member told us that they just lived across the street from them so we decided to run by!
     Well we get there and they answer the door. All we tell them is that we were friends of their neighbors (the members) from across the street and they said that we should just stop by and see how they were doin! Their daughter said her parents were home so we just came in. Well we get talking with the parents and the one kid and they were telling us about the mission that the husband served in Guatemala and how they talk to the members every day. They also asked why they haven’t seen us at church on Sundays. I had only met them a couple of times, so I didn’t remember that they were active members. In my defense we are over three American wards and it’s hard sometimes to keep everyone straight!! Haha! Anyways, they got some Chinese food for us to eat with them and then we left for our next appointment.
     So the reason why that’s so funny is because the people that we thought we went by on actually live next to the people that we accidentally went by on. So we will be going back to that town to meet the actual people that we meant to visit.
     Well other than that it was just a crazy week and I’m about out of time. I hope everyone has a great week and remembers the importance of Thanksgiving that is next week! I hope everyone can think of something that they are grateful for leading up to Thanksgiving AND after Thanksgiving. I know that if we recognize those simple things that we take for granted or even the big things that we can’t live without, our gratitude for so much will be deepened. And everything will mean more to us. Everyone have a great week!!!
Elder Rogers

Planes, trains, and Mexican food

     Hey everyone!! This week was great and I don’t have much time, but a lot happened so I’ll try to get you all informed!! To start off, last week after pday we went and taught a members son that is currently 9. we are preparing him for baptism, and he is a great kid!! We started the lesson by asking him if he was excited to be baptized and he said no, but as the lesson went on and the spirit got stronger he got more and more interested in what we had to say about baptism. We had an appointment with the Carmichael’s right after so we had to keep the lesson kind of short. The Carmichael’s were awesome and we had a super great time!
      On Friday we met with Jeff and he is super close to setting a baptismal date!! Keep praying for that homie!!
      On Saturday we helped out a little bit with a move with someone in the ward here. They are a really young family that didn’t have a ton of stuff so it was pretty easy compared to the ones we have done in the past. After that we headed over to the Lawerence's and had amazing casserole with them. They are a great family and are always a great time!
      Sunday’s was a crazy day, just like always, but it was awesome! Fast Sunday’s are great and the Spirit is always booming! After church we had an early Thanksgiving dinner with the McLarens and a couple other families. It was sooooo good! I really wish germans celebrated something like thanksgiving. They should just do it for the food because I know they would do a great job at it!! Haha anyway, that was a blast and we ate waaay too much and even took some food home. #overblessed
     Monday night got a little crazy. Monday itself was pretty normal, but when we got home for the day the police knocked on our door and at first we had no idea who it was so we turned all the lights off. But they are police so they weren’t about to leave. Eventually we saw it was them and came outside in our PJ‘s. They were talking to another guy about our car and they asked us for our licenses. They then explained that three guys were going around the neighborhood and breaking into cars and the guy they were talking to saw the guys going through our car so he called the cops quick. Luckily nothing was taken, except for my sunglasses!!! (Which were actually only $15 so it wasn’t a huge deal). I am definitely grateful nothing else got stolen, but I gotta say that these guys suck at stealing things!! Both of our jackets were in the back and they are both over a hundred bucks, our credit card for gas was in there, our GPS was in there. There were so many things and all they took were crappy shades.
     Anyways, the story goes on and the cops called us later and told us they found the shades so we went and picked them up, it was wild and the police were super friendly. The next day we went to Frankfurt and stayed overnight for the elder Sabin conference with a lot of our mission! Elder Sabin was awesome and a very intelligent guy! I can’t believe the memory that some of these guys have! The spirit was strong and we loved it. Elder Forsey and I then booked it for the train and we barely caught our connection to get us close to home, but the train was slow and we were late for our last connection so it took us an extra hour to get home. Anyways, once we finally got home we got some amazing Mexican food. We have transfers next week so we figured we might as well go on our bro date before Elder Forsey dips. Hahahaha man I’m gunna miss that guy, the last three transfers have been bomb!
      Well just to wrap all this up, lately Elder Forsey and I have been listening to talks that I have on my Flash Drive as we drive places. So far we have only listened to three, but they have been so amazing! I just want to simply testify about how we individually are here on earth to help specific people at a specific time. The Lord knows us PERFECTLY, He needs us to always be listening for the still small voice of the Spirit to be there for the people He puts in our path. I know that we can not only help others through their trials but that we can get through our own trials as well! And guess how easy it is. All we need to do is pray and ask Heavenly Father for help and guidance, attend church and listen for the Spirit to whisper to us, and to study and ponder the teachings of the scriptures! That easy!
      I know that when we do these simply things our spirits will be lifted and that great never ending power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ will always be there for us in our hard times. I invited everyone to just try a little harder to say that one prayer or read that one chapter or give church another chance. I know your life will be touched.
Elder Rogers

Weekly

       Hey what’s up everyone! This week was great! I don’t have a lot of time, but I’ll just hit the highlights!! First off, we don’t quite have a baptismal date set just yet with Jeff, we will find out tomorrow on that one! So keep praying for him if you have been! Also, we met a guy named Jim that one of the YsA’s here brought to church and he is a great guy! We were able to talk about the Book of Mormon with him and he said he would get a hold of us if he had questions. Which is great!
       We also had an awesome district meeting and while we were there we learned more about Facebook and how to use it. We also learned about how careful we need to be while using facebook. The big thing is is that we should never be on it while our companion isn’t right there, which is totally true! Facebook has been very helpful and we have been able to save a lot of time because of it.
       Last week we got to go to three trunk or treats that the three American wards had put on. They were sweet and we got to meet some cool friends that members brought! It was also fun to get some good chili and tons of treats. We didn’t do much for Halloween, Elder Forsey's mom sent him some Halloween decorations a couple weeks ago so we definitely celebrated it! Hahaha!
       Well just to close, I just wanted to let you all of you guys know how important it is to be a friend! And I don’t mean just to be nice to family and friends but to everyone! I know that the more we are nicer to others they are more likely to be nice to someone else they come in contact with. So give it a try! It never hurts to be nice! Everyone have a great week!!!!
Elder Rogers

For some unknown reason, these pictures will not download correctly.  Sorry