‼️ACHTUNG‼️

     Ok, everyone, this one might be a little long, but please read the whole thing!! 😊
     Ok! well I guess I better start off with the big news! Our pday is being moved!!!! We had a worldwide mission broadcast and they gave us a new daily schedule routine and our mission (I don't know if it is every mission) said our pday will be moved to Thursday. Kind of weird and honestly I don't know why the day was changed, but I think it's kind of dumb. No one likes Thursdays because it's the day before Friday. Right!? Haha so now if the only day you couldn't email me was Monday, you can on Thursday!! But if Thursday's the only day you can't email me, then sucks to suck. Haha just kidding! It will be weird but it is what it is!
       Ok, and other news! I am staying in my area (Gelsenkirchen, for those of you that only read the first little bit of every paragraph in my weeklies and miss the details; such as the area I'm currently in). 😂.  I'm glad that i get to stay here for another transfer! This ward here is really cool and it's been a lot of fun already! And I don't need to train a missionary this transfer, but my trainee is staying with me, which I'm not saying is a bad thing! I'm excited to keep working hard but mostly excited because I don't have to pack up and travel around Germany like a hobo.
     Speaking of hobos and people that unfortunately don't have places to sleep/live, food to eat, and a friend to talk to. Yesterday we had just got done eating lunch at our apartment and then someone rang our doorbell. We were really confused, but let them into the apartment. They came up to our floor and it was a humble guy in his older 30's and a little rugged looking. We talked to him outside our door for a bit.
     He said he knew someone that knows us and that they sent him here. He said he just got out of jail for being there for 2 years, has no place to sleep, no food to eat, no money, his family lives in Poland, least to say this guy had a lot of worries and not a lot of anything else. We gave him the food we had, which wasn't much. Just some bread, meat, and cheese. But he was so grateful for just that little bit.
     I told him that we have one more thing that is better than anything we could give him. I hurry and grabbed a Book of Mormon and a card with our information on it, returned to the door and handed the book to him. I simply told him that this book will change his life and that it has changed ours. I told him because it changed our life we have left our homes for 2 years to help others find the way back to their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He was filled with joy, and I know that for just a moment he had felt the Holy Ghost or a better name for that would be that of the Comforter.  I know that as he reads that books and learns more about it he will be able to have that constant Comforter with him always.
     Besides that! Which is probably the highlight of my week to be honest, not a whole lot happened! Actually, I lied, we set another baptismal date with our investigator Ahmir!! This guy is so freaking awesome and is really loving everything we tell him about the gospel, it's amazing. He told us how much he loves that our church is centered around Christ and Christ only. I agree!!! He is still working to gain a testimony for himself of the Book of Mormon, so pray that he will receive one! The baptism is for the 11th of February, so I hope he is ready by then.
     Oh I almost forgot!! Michael was able to receive the Priesthood yesterday at church, and I gotta say, it was really special. As a missionary, I'm very blessed to be able to work with the Spirit 24/7. From that, I get to see God's hand multiple times a day. But you do not need to be a missionary to be able to see His hand every day! All you have to do are these three simple things, which are:
     1.) pray! The Lord loves us, He is our loving Father in heaven and wants to hear about how we are doing and if we need anything. I testify that He answers every single sincere prayer! Without doubt.
     2.)read the holy scriptures! The only books I will ever read, and my mom would agree, are the Bible and the Book of Mormon. They are truly holy and because of that we can have everyday questions answered, it's amazing and sometimes mind-blowing.
     3.)simply go to church. Besides the temples, I can't think of a place that feels more like home and makes me feel more at peace than a simple house of the Lord. For example, the church that we have here is a four-story office building and the church owns the first two floors. Don't judge it though! The meetings are carried out the same as they should be, and the Spirit is still powerful, if not more than in other churches!
     Well I think I've ranted on long enough! But I challenge you to do those three simple steps. Trust me, when i was younger and also dummer then I am now, i thought I knew that there was no way reading a book, praying, and going to church were going to make me a better person. At the time I didn't want to be a better person.  I thought I knew everything and my life was perfect. Well if you thought like me, your wrong! Simple as that. And if your going that way or thinking that way stop! I promise it's not the right way. I've been further down that road that i will ever go again, and I would hate to hear about someone else following it. The only way out, is through the Almighty Savior, Jesus Christ. He suffered so we don't have to. I can't think of a better way to show your love for someone. For that I will always be in debt to Him, to pay that debt I will show my love for Him back. The Book is blue, the words a true! Talk next week(Thursday)!
Elder Rogers

The district

WEEKLY 🤑

       Well this is going to be a short one because the week was a quick one with not a lot of stuff that happened! Well, we did have about 9 appointments set up between less active members, active members, and investigators, but sadly only about 3 or 4 actually happened.
       I guess to start off we had Zone training this week! It was way good and we learned tons about the Book of Mormon! We also got to hear a couple of sweet leavers testimonies! It's pretty cool to see and hear from the oldest people on the mission and get their insight on things.
       I guess something funny in the week was last pday! We had just got done with an appointment with our recent convert brotha Michael. We were walking down the street at night and before he caught his tram we decided to take a picture! Haha he was all confused and said it wouldn't work because it's dark outside and he's dark! Hahaha we just started busting up! I'll send the picture. He definitely is hard to see unless you're looking right at him! Hahaha!
       Well besides that, and all the little miracles we have seen this week, there isn't much more! Just to end, I gave a talk yesterday in church on temples! I really hope that the ward understood everything I said because I love temples!! The fact that we can all be sealed to our families for time AND all eternity just makes life so much better. It's still tough though, we stopped an older lady on the street this last week and asked her what she thinks about eternal life (we didn't even say that we were missionaries or anything, just the question). She just gave us the evil eye and walked away. Then she stopped and asked if she could say something, but she was mad, she then just started going off on how there is no eternal life because God is terrible for letting bad things in the world happen. She just turned around and left without saying anything else.
        I can testify, that even though this world may be corrupt and terrible things happen because they do, our Heavenly Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ to save it. I know that is true with my whole heart, without Him the world would be lost and we would have no chance at eternal life. Without Him, we would have no perfect example to follow. But because He left His Father, and came to the earth, and took upon each and every one of our crosses, and was resurrected three days later. We too will be resurrected, and perfect, and with our families for the eternities. I hope and pray that we all realize how huge the Atonement of Jesus Christ was, without it I would not be the person I am. It terrifies me to even think of where i would be without the reassuring feeling of being clean again. This church is so true, and I'm so blessed to be a part of it, but even more blessed to share it with those who will listen! I say that in the perfect name of Jesus Christ, amen.
       Hope everyone has a great week!!
Elder Rogers

⚠️HOT FLOOR⚠️

       This week was super sweet!!! I gotta be honest, after Michael was baptized I thought the blessings were just going to slow down.... I was wrong!! Never do what I did and think that blessings slow down! They can either just come as they are or more, they never decrease! Anyways, to start off I didn't really take any pictures... I know i suck, but we are going to a castle type thing today for some of our pday, so I'll get some pictures!
       I would definitely have to say the highlight of the week was at the end. We had a split with our awesome zone leaders from Friday night to Saturday night. Everything about it was just great! To start off i was in a big city called Dortmund and was in one of the coolest apartments ever. The coolest thing about it is they have a heated floor, which was also kind of a bad thing. Before we went to bed Friday night we thought it would be sooo sick if we turned up the floor just one
tab so it's nice and warm when we wake up! (Just some background, Germans don't have carpet for floors... just tiles everywhere). So that's what we did! Well in the middle of the night i woke up because it was sooo hot in the room so i tried getting out of bed to turn the heat down but the floor was so hot I couldn't step on it long enough to turn the thingy down!! Haha it was like lava in there! I didn't wanna wake up Elder Passey so I just lied back in bed and dealt with it. Well morning comes and the floor was walkable so that was good, I like walkable floor.
       Besides the hot floor! It snowed a ton, and what did we do while it snowed almost the whole day!?!? Talked to cranky Germans on the street and at their doors. Haha ok they weren't all cranky, but this one grandma that lived in an apartment told us that only old German women lived at that apartment so because of that we wouldn't have any success... hahaha pretty funny, but pretty true. Needless to say we had no success at that apartment. One really cool experience is that we went by on this member from El Salvador to ask him if he knew where we should go to find people. We get there and got up to his apartment floor and found out that this guy has lived in Germany for quite some years now and has been studying music. When we got there he had just got done playing his guitar, so we asked him what his favorite Spanish song was. He got all excited, whipped that guitar right up onto his lap and just started going Mexican crazy on his guitar!!! Hahaha at first it was pretty funny, but he was actually really good. So instead of laughing we just sat there like holy cow, this dude should have a sombrero and a couple of Mexicans behind him, one playing the trumpet and the other singing/making those funny high pitched Mexican laughs. Hahaha goodness, sorry if that was racist. Haha anyways, after that we asked him where to go find people on our map, he looked outside and saw all the snow coming down and told us not to go out there! Hahaha but we found a place and went there, and talked to a lot of people.
       Well I feel like I typed long enough and I know that everyone besides my parent's and my grandma's don't like to see long emails from me!! Haha don't worry I know! I just want to close with my testimony, because they are one of the most precious gifts that our Heavenly Father gave us in this life. I know that He loves us, wants to lead, help, guide, and be as close as He can with us. We will never know the amount of love that He has for each of us personally, but we do know one thing. That he gave his perfect Son, Jesus Christ, to show us the perfect example, suffer for each and every one of us, die so that we can return to our Father in Heaven, but eventually rose from the dead for us. He is amazing, He is the Teacher, and He willingly gave His life for us. Because of that, He is the way. Through Christ we may find lasting and eternal happiness with our family and loved ones. I'm
honored and blessed to be in Germany to share His amazing gospel with others, I regret taking this gospel granted for 17 years of my life. So don't wear ma shoes one day!! Realize what is important in the long run and what is just a Worley thing! Thank you all for who you are!!
Hope you try to have a better week than me this week!
Elder Rogers

At the coolest members house

The brotha is officially a brotha!🙏🏿

       This week was probably the best week, at least weekend, of my mission so far! Michael was able to be baptized and we are so happy for him! But it was a close one! The water in the fount was pretty near to ice-cold, which would've been nice in the summer, but it was about 25 degrees outside and the middle of winter! Hahaha the crazy thing is, a couple years ago Michael got pneumonia being in cold water and ever since he has not got into cold water. So when he felt the water today he was a little worried about not doing it, and almost postponed. His first attempt, he got halfway down the stairs and turned around. He eventually found the courage to overcome his fears and do it. It was an amazing baptism and he is truly changed.
       The next day at church he bore one of the most powerful but at the same time way cool testimonies that I have ever heard. In his testimony, he said that he thought of the water being cold as the devil trying to get him to not be baptized. He saw it as a barrier, and at first almost gave in, but he said he heard a song playing in his head that got him to get in the water. Hahaha the coolest thing about it is that he asked the bishop if he could sing that song that came into his mind, the bishop said sure with a worried look on his face. (Michael listens to this African worship music just so you know). Michael then turned back to the microphone and sang that song! Haha it was so awesome and I wanted to laugh, but at the same time you could tell he was so happy he just couldn't help it. The most amazing thing about his testimony is that when you looked into his eyes you could seriously see a perfect brightness just glowing out of them, it was one of the most spiritual things I have been a part of on my mission and I am so grateful for it.
       Anyways, the rest of the week was pretty good!!! Sadly, we have pushed back our baptismal date with Wisdom 3 weeks. Which is ok, some people need more time than others! On a funny note from the week! There is a recent convert in the area and we have been trying really hard to get him to read the scriptures on his own. He is only 15 and was baptized 6 months or so ago, but he is one of the wisest dudes I've ever met. Every time we read with him or have a spiritual thought with him, he just explains everything so well and knows everything perfectly.
       Anyways, the other night around 10:00 o'clock I asked him if he had read since we last met, which was only three days before, and he said no but I will right now. He then asked if I had read in the Book of Mormon since we last met, I took a second to think and realized I have only read in doctrine and covenants since we last met. I told him no but would also start right now! Hahaha after we got done reading the chapters he asked me what i learned from it, i sent him a couple verses I liked and explained why I sent those ones. He then sent me his favorite and bore amazing testimony on them! This kid just blows my mind! Most the time I feel like he is the missionary and I'm the one being taught!
       Well I'm all out about stuff to say about the week! We are going to eat some more fufu with our brotha this week so I'm pretty pumped for that! We also have a split this weekend and I'll be in Dortmund so hopefully I'll have some dope pics for ya! Hope you all had a great week and have an even better one!
Elder Rogers

Baptism pics!! (Sorry this is the only one we took)

post baptism dinner!!!

Happy freakin New Years!!! 🎉

       Happy New Years!!! I have to say 2016 was probably the fastest year, but the longest year of my life!! Haha so much happened last year it was just unreal. It's crazy to think back to a year ago to January 1st 2016 and think about what I was doing then. I was probably up in the mountains shredding some beautiful fresh snow in Utah not worried at all about what I was in for that year. Well, although it was hard; physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. It's so weird to say but it was worth it, and it still is!! I can honestly say that I am so glad to be where I am, the mission has already taught me sooo much and it's almost been 9 months.
       As far as the week goes though! This week was amazing!!!! So first we had a great appointment with our investigator that is improving so well!!! He is so ready to be baptized this Saturday and Elder Moon and I are going crazy about it too!! We had covered all of the lessons earlier in the week so when we met with him later in the week we decided to just talk about his baptism and what goes down. We just simply asked him if he knew how someone becomes a member of our church and he explained everything pretty perfectly and then bore testimony on how he knows he needs to be baptized and how he knows that Joseph Smith was a Prophet. We were so amazed we had to pick our jaws off the floor. This guy is so ready it's kind of insane.
       Other than that we were able to meet with a less active that has huge hands... I don't know what that had to do with anything but I just thought you would like to know. He also is really into archery so this homie has got tons and tons of bows and arrows in his apartment, super sick. He is a really good guy and is only less active because he works soooo much! He said he really wants to get back to church so we are excited to see him on Sunday.
       Ok I gotta say real quick, Germans definitely know how to light off fireworks, heiligen Kuh. New Year's Eve/day is still my favorite at home, but this place was going crazy for the new year!!! I'll just send a video cuz I can only explain it so well. For New Year's Day, we had lunch at a members house and it was probably the best food I've had in Germany so far. It was just meat and salad, but we cooked it on something called a Raclette. It's pretty much just a little grill that you set on the table and you just cook your food right in front of you. It's pretty much just the coolest manliest thing ever, definitely getting one for my future man cave.
       Well I saved the best thing for last, which is we ate Fufu with our investigator Michael!! Haha i gotta say it is way different but really not too bad. In Germany, it's expensive to buy African food so when he told us that we decided to eat all that we could so he'd be happy we liked it. Haha so we did!! I thought Elder Moon was going to throw it all up, but he didn't! Haha! The sauce we had with it tasted like a cow farm, but it felt way cool to eat like an African!! Haha if reincarnation was true, which it totally isn't so do think I said so, but if so I would come back as an African because they are the coolest people on earth!!
       Haha anyways I know this church is true and I gladly give you all my constantly challenged but growing testimony that the right and only way to return to our Loving Father in heaven is through His perfect Son, Jesus Christ! It all just makes sense, and I love it how simple the gospel of Jesus Christ can be if we but just read the holy scriptures and pray every day. I wish you all one sweet week and an even better year!!
Elder Rogers

The fufu.

Our swaggin investigator Michael.

The less-actives arrows.

New Years dinner pic

The little grill thingy

A Christmas Miracle!!!🎄🎁 (week old sorry)

       Well, first of all, I'd like to apologize for not wishing anyone merry Christmas last week.... but, because I'm in Germany for Christmas and they celebrate Christmas the 24th, 25th, and 26th, I can still wish you guys Merry Christmas!! So merry freaking Christmas!!! Sorry if you're in a place that doesn't celebrate it today, but that doesn't mean you can't celebrate it still!!
       Haha anyways, this week was so awesome!! I felt like I was waiting so long for the Skype call home, and it went soooo fast! This was definitely the fastest Christmas of my life, and I think it's because so much happened this year. But I'm so grateful for the blessings I have been given! Especially for the blessing of eternal life with my family! I will forever be in debt to Jesus Christ and His Atonement. I am insanely grateful for His birth and the perfect example He set while he was on the Earth. I love Him and am so honored to be one of his many representatives.
       But yeah about the week, I think the week of Christmas is always one of the best weeks of the year, especially if Christmas in on the weekend. This weekend was way cool!!! I will admit, Christmas is definitely not the same on the mission. It sounds really depressing, but it was actually really cool to be at a families Christmas party on Christmas Eve and to be able to see how happy they are. It made me see the true spirit of Christmas. It was almost like I was just a fly on the wall just watching a family enjoy laughing, giving, and showing their love for each other. It was honestly amazing and I'm so grateful to have been able to go over to their house to be a part of their Christmas!
       So yesterday on Christmas Day, it was honestly a Christmas miracle!! Just some background, to get around the city here, if you don't have a car, you have to take the bus or the street trams. During the week they come pretty often so getting places isn't too bad, depending on the time of day. On the weekends it's a lot harder. Instead of coming every 10 minutes like in the middle of the week, they come every 30 minutes. So if you miss it you're there for a while. Well yesterday since it was a Sunday and Christmas Day, the first tram didn't come until 10:00 in the morning. And our church meeting started at 10:30. Elder Moon and i weren't too worried.  We caught the train at 10 and headed up to the church. We were worried a little bit about our investigator Michael! He lives a little further from the church and we had no idea when he needed to catch a tram. We doubted that he wouldn't be there but we had a little bit of hope. Well the meeting started and no Michael. We were bummed, but about 15 minutes into the meeting he walked in!! Hahaha he came in and sat down and said, "hello my brotha!" Haha he didn't yell it, but it was definitely loud enough for the whole ward to hear it. We were so happy he was there.  He is progressing soooo well and he is excited for his baptism in just 2
weeks!!! We are so happy for him and the faith that he has. He also told us this Saturday he was going to make us some fufu, so we are pumped outta our minds!!
       Anyways, I'd like to bear my testimony on families. I absolutely love my family with all of my heart, I know they will always be there for me and I will always be there for each one of them. Whether we are going through a rough time or happy together about something. I am forever grateful for the Atoning sacrifice of our Savior Jesus Christ so that we are all able to be with our families for eternal life. Not seeing my family for 8 months was way tough, but I can only imagine what it would be like if I never saw them in the eternities. I testify to you that I know we can have eternal life with our families and loved ones, our Heavenly Father loves us so much that He gave His perfect Son for us so that would be possible. He wants us to achieve it and His Son has made that possible. I know this church is true and I am so happy to have been born in it and to be able to tell other people about it. I hope everyone knows how much our Heavenly Father loves us and that you always turn to Him in prayer!! I hope everyone was one fetchin sweet week and doesn't party too hard for the new year!!
Elder Rogers

Zone training

elevator pic

food.  It was kind of like a German version of an enchilada, but waaay good.

Coolest ZL's ever! (They brought over our packages)

Heiligen Abend at the member's house!

Lunch at the best member in the world! (Taken on Christmas)