Zone conference

       This week was super great! Our tattooed investigator was to busy to meet with us so we weren't able to sit down with him, but we were able to chat on the phone with him and he's still doing great!
       We have also biked a ton lately! We went on a five-hour bike ride on Saturday so that we could visit a couple investigators and inactive members, sadly only a couple people were home and they didn't have any time. It was still fun though! We talked to a bunch of people and were able to find a couple people that wanted us to come back!
       Yesterday we went to a smaller city looking for a potential named Mr. Pinero, we had his address so we were excited to meet him. We got to the address and they didn't answer so we just started knocking doors down in that town. During that time we accidentally doored into a less active member, an active member, AND Mr. Pinero!! Hahaha it was crazy! And kind of embarrassing because we didn't know the less active member was a member... but Mr. Pinero was so funny! We is really busy with life right now, but we had a good quick chat at his door and told him to call us when he had time.
       We also had Zone Conference this week and it was our last one with President Stoddard! It's a bummer to see him and Sister Stoddard heading out. They are amazing people and I am so happy to be able to get to know them better and to rely on their advice.
       Well just to wrap this puppy up I'm very grateful to be in Germany serving the awesome German people! Elder Robinson and i are doing great and working hard together! A miracle that i saw this week was simply being in member homes! I love getting to know the member more here because our ward is so big! I hope that everyone that invited the missionaries from the ward over will remember how much they love visiting with you! Be the best friends you can! We love members!
       Everyone have a freakin sick week!
Elder Rogers

Planes and Tattoos

       This week was awesome! Ramstein definitely takes a little while to get used to, but now that I'm warming up to the ward and getting to know the area more it's been going way good! We also have some sweet mountain bikes that I am always down to ride, I'm just a bit sick of walking everywhere! And the buses here are crazy! I never know when they are coming or leaving or even going!! I'm excited to figure that out though.
       As far as the week goes! I'll just hit the highlights so you don't have to skim through my email to find them! ;) last Saturday we did service for a non-member friend. She was moving just down the street, and she had soooo much stuff! She rented a big shipping truck to get it all there and it took us just about three trips! We started at 9 and got done around 5 or 6. it was definitely hard as heck, but soooo satisfying when we got done! But we finished the night off with some awesome Chilis! I definitely miss them American restaurants! While at Chilis we were asked by the Elders Quorum teacher to teach the lesson in Elders Quorum the next day. And the topic was Service! It was pretty easy to teach about!
       Other than that, we had a pretty funny lesson with one of our investigators. Last week we shared a scripture with him that he really liked, it was Mosiah 24:14. which is completely understandable. Well a couple days ago we met with him and he was excited to tell us that he got Mosiah 24:14 tattooed onto is left arm! Hahaha! He said he wanted it tattooed so that we can always just look to his arm for strength. Hahaha! We didn't say anything about tattoos to him, and he has no idea that our church is against them, but next time we will break the news so he doesn't end up getting another scripture on his leg! Hahaha! He is way awesome though! He is here alone and is with the airforce, we love meeting with him. He has gone through so much in his life already and he is only in his mid 20's.
       Well that's about all I got for the week! I'm very grateful to be teaching people and their families about the Gospel of Jesus Christ! My favorite appointments are member appointments. There is no
feeling like the feeling you get when you walk into a families home and the Spirit works through you for them to feel our Heavenly Fathers love! I'm very very grateful to be a full-time servant of the Lord, but I know that we can all serve the Lord through the people that we run into every day! My challenge to you guys is to look for those small and simple but yet powerful ways to serve people!             Have a great week!!

US

       This week was great!! I got the call to be transferred, and so did my comp, Elder Bahr! We came in together and now we are leaving together. I'm pretty upset about it, I don't like how we came in for 12 weeks, built relationships with new people, and now we are leaving all that! They needed to close down one of the elder apartments in Cologne so the other Elders moved into ours. I am way bummed to not be in Cologne anymore, I really did love that city, but the city I am in now is great! It's called Ramstein and it is a lot smaller than Cologne for sure, but it's an awesome city! The coolest thing about this city is that there is a military base! So there are Americans everywhere here! It just feels like I'm in America, which is super weird to adjust to! I'm just so used to German people and not hearing English all the time, but I think I'll adjust ok!
       Not a lot happened after Elder Bahr and I got our transfer calls. We had to clean the whole apartment and pack everything so we were hustling to get it all done by Tuesday! On Monday night we had an awesome appointment with our favorite members! They made great food and we were able to feel the Spirit with them in their home. Last appointments are awesome but suck way bad! It's even more weird when both you and your comp leave! Traveling was pretty tough in Tuesday, but I made it and I'm very grateful to be working with Elder Robinson in Ramstein!
       Yesterday we had an awesome chance to go by on a couple investigators with a member! All of the investigators were women so we brought the member so it was all good! Sadly not too many of them answered, but we were able to sit down with one of the investigators and chat for a little bit. She had to leave soon, but she was really nice and it was awesome to hear her answer when we asked her about the Book of Mormon. She said she really likes it and is excited to learn more, she said that it just makes sense to have the Bible and the Book of Mormon together.
        Later that night we had institute and it was awesome! The members here are super cool and I'm glad to be able to meet them! I'm very grateful for this church! I know that wherever we go, whether that's a small German ward or a huge American ward in Germany, the church is the same! It's true everywhere you go and I'm so grateful to be sharing that with the people here! Hope everyone has a great week!
Elder Rogers

Farewell pic

Pic with Akbar
Photo credit: Elder Bahr

Before we left

Last dinner appointment

Comp pic

The Dome

GUTEN TAG

       Well this week was pretty great!! We were able to meet with one of our investigators and he brought his friend with him this time! They are both from Kurdistan, but both speak some English. They are very cool and humble dudes, it's so awesome to be able to meet with them. Elder Bahr and u decided to just read the Book of Mormon since they haven't had time to read in it. We decided to simply read 2 Nephi 31 where it talks about Christ's baptism. So after we read that we planned to invite them to baptism! Well little did we know, the language barrier is a lot bigger than we thought. We barely got through half of the chapter in an hour and a half because we had to define soooo many words!! It was great though, we had a great discussion with them and decided we would go hard on baptism next time when we finish the chapter, haha!
       Other than that! The weather has been warming up a ton lately! The other day Elder Bahr and I were in the apartment having lunch and we thought we heard American police sirens going off. We opened the window and it was sure enough! Our apartment is next to a bridge so these American Cop cars were driving down it with their sirens on!! It was sooo sick!! Haha definitely not the best when you are being pulled over by them, but they are definitely awesome to hear when you haven't for so long!! Hahaha!
       Anyways, besides that, we have our transfer calls this Saturday! I'm pretty nervous and honestly don't care if I don't get transferred or not. I definitely don't wanna pack up again already, but I'll do whatever I gotta! Just to close! Elder Bahr and i seemed to have shared a scripture with a lot of people this week, whether they were members or random people on the street. You can find the scripture in 2 Nephi chapter 25:26. Or if you don't want to look it up, it's cool I got it right here :)
           26 And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.
       One thing I'd like to point out is that it says we should "write according to our prophecies," so in other words: we should be writing in our journals daily! Before my mission I was terrible at it, but ever since I have left on my mission I have not missed a day and don't plan too! It definitely doesn't start out hard and get easier, but the more you do it the more blessings you will see! I can promise you that as you write down simply an experience you had that day that best explains that day, whether that is a good or bad experience, I know you will be able to see the hand of the Lord playing a big part in your life. But if you don't believe me then just read this talk by President Henry B. Eyring titled "O Remember, Remember" from the October 2007 General Conference, I know he can convince ya! I hope everyone has a great week and writes in their journal every day starting TODAY!
Elder Rogers

Being grateful

       Well just to clear up some confusion real quick. Last week the beer we drank was 100% Alcohol-free!! No worries, I'm still keepin the word of wisdom! As far as this week goes though, it was great! The biggest thing I learned this week was to always be grateful!! I had a couple experiences in the last few days where I realized not how ungrateful I have been, rather how not grateful I have been. There is a big difference.
       By not being grateful we realized that we should be grateful, but we keep ourselves from showing how grateful we are. When we are not grateful we are simply clueless to the idea of expressing our attitude.
       Elder Bahr and i had the opportunity to meet two separate people that live in refugee housing. This first one was a single mom and her three girls all under the age of 10. They are just trying to live a better and happier life away from what they ran from. The mom is already a member and she smiles all the time and laughs when she talks! She is amazing! Currently she is struggling to receive a visa to be able to stay in Germany, so we happily gave her a blessing that she had requested. She was so happy and so grateful for the blessing and our visit. Although she had nothing, and even tried to give us food, she was so happy and proved that she was grateful. Not once did I hear her complain.
       After that, we met with one of our African investigators and his best friend. They are two of the coolest guys I have met!! We talked to them about the first vision and the Book of Mormon. They said that they have to read the Book to find out if it's true, which is incredibly right! Like I mentioned earlier, they also live in refugee housing and their apartment is even worse off. They each had the own "apartment" that was just smaller than a shipping container on one of those huge ships. Which means enough room for a bed, a small fridge, and a small rug. He had a couple bags with clothes in them and that was just about all he had to his name. These two guys taught me a huge lesson!! Just like the lady I just talked about, they were always grateful! Yes, they mentioned that life was hard. But they never complained once. Instead, they would say, "We thank God."
       As I left their humble homes I walked home feeling guilty and pretty embarrassed at how I had not been showing how grateful I should've been. I hope that we can all realize how much we are blessed. We all have so much, so be grateful! No complaining. Yes, we all have our own trials and our own hardships, but whining about never got anyone anywhere. I've challenged myself and I challenged everyone that reads this to do what the Spirit of the Lord tells you to. Act on impressions, don't complain, just simply do as the Lord commands!
       Before I dip I thought I would just finish it with a quote from our outstanding Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson: "My brothers and sisters, to express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven."
       I'll catch you all next week! I hope we can all be a little bit more grateful! I know that as we do, we will truly recognize more and more blessings every day because we are pointing out our blessings! Why would you waste your time whining about your wants, when you could be helping someone with their needs? Think about that!
Elder Rogers

BYOB

       Well I won't lie, I gotta keep this one short because I'm gettin low on time! Plus I got a lot of pics to make up, besides who reads the weekly other than my parents anyways! ;) haha!
       As far as the week went, it was way awesome! We met again with our Kurdistan buddy and he is doing great! Since he lives so close to us we see him almost every day, it's sick. Every time we see him we check up on his Book of Mormon reading. Sadly he has been really busy with family and school so it's pretty understandable.
       We also had Zone Conference this week and it was amazing like always. We focused mainly on bearing our testimonies, it was sweet. They printed off all of our call letters and gave them to us again, we read them and wrote down thoughts we had from it. What stuck the most out to me the most was the second to last paragraph where it talks about how we will not experience more happiness.
       This doesn't just apply to missionaries, yes serving a mission does bring forth blessings to you and also your family and future children, but it also applies to all of us our whole lives! We will all have our ups and downs, we will all have our trials of faith, but we will all, through the power of Christs Atonement, be able to find that happiness that we have never experienced.
       I hope everyone has a great week!
Elder Rogers

Pierre selfie

Pierre's last week

Zone conference with the old men!  (They leave in a couple weeks)

Just so everyone knows!  

The beer in the pictures is completely alcohol free!

German BBQ

Beer

Successfully drank it all!

Post beer /grill

Super sick mustang just soakin up the sun

We came ready for some good grillin'

Wunderschöne Woche!!

       This week was great. I really learned to appreciate my comp so much
more. I already had a lot of respect for him, but this week I really
saw his awesome example as we talked to people about Christ. He really
has been a great example for me and I have learned so much from him in
such a little time.

       Anyways, as far as the week!! We had a super great appointment with
one of our investigators! We met with him in a bakery and he brought
two of his friends with! They are all from Kurdistan and they were
really cool guys. Our investigator and one of the other guys could
speak pretty good English, but the other guy couldn't. We just talked
with all three of them till the two friends from our investigator had
to leave for work. So we didn't get to teach all three of them, but we
had an amazing lesson with our investigator!

       We talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Spirit was so strong. The lesson went so smooth and we were very happy to be a part of that. At the end we challenged our investigator to say a prayer before he read in the Book of Mormon next time and to ask God if he should be baptized into the church. He said that he would do it.
      He then said the closing prayer for our lesson and the Spirit was really strong. After the prayer we asked him if he could feel that good feeling from the Spirit, he said he wasn't sure what it was but he said that it felt good. It was really awesome! He is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet!!
       That same day, we went to our bishops house to have dinner with him and his awesome wife. They are the most humble, but coolest people ever. Their house is just that kind that when you walk in you feel right at home, they are just so nice! We had awesome food and talked about a lot of stuff. We also made some soap because they have a crazy hobby of making their own soap, shampoo, and other stuff like that. Hahaha I never would've guessed that they loved doing it so much, but it's actually pretty cool!! It's also easy and free, so those are two bonuses! After that we had an amazing spiritual thought with them, the Spirit was just so strong that whole day.
       Just to end I wanna let you all know about how awesome bishops are! Every bishop I have met in my life so far has always been hard-working, humble, friendly, and just simply shows so much respect to people. I'm very grateful for bishops everywhere! They are normal people just like us, and they have normal jobs just like us. But yet they show so much happiness and love for every single member!! Personally, when I think of bishops, I'm reminded of all the bishops that I grew up with. I'm eternally grateful for all of these amazing men, but especially the bishop that was there to help me through the hardest trials of my life so far. I'm very grateful for him and the time that he had taken out of his busy life to listen to my faults, assures me there is hope, and most importantly to show me how to reach for the outstretched hand of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
        If you yourself are going through a hard time, feel lost or without hope, or just need to get something off of your chest, I highly encourage you to talk to the bishop and meet with him! Preferably personally, one on one. I can promise from my own experience, you will feel the Saviors love for you through his humble servant, the bishop.
       I hope everyone has a good week!! And if you didn't, then look at the glass half full. Haha Ciao!
Elder Rogers