Monday, March 23, 2015

More Miracles

Hey family!!!! 
This week was craaaaazy. Pretty sure I say that about every week but this last week was insane, and next week will probably be even more crazy. It is my companion's LAST WEEK IN THE MISSION! I am more stressed out than she is haha she is handling everything really well and I am freaking out. But it is okay we will get through it! 
ALSO JON AND KATELIN!!!! That was such a great surprise to see them and thank you so much for the package!! It made me so happy :) :) Also glad to hear dad had a great week in Houston! 

I am going to go day-by-day this week because every day was just so great!!! 

MONDAY: was a really funny day so you know that one whipped cream thing I would try to do where you put a squirt of whipped cream on your wrist and then shoot it up in the air and catch it in your mouth? Well we ate breakfast at a member's house and I showed them that and then their 2 year old granddaughter wanted to try..oops. So I gave her a little whipped cream on her wrist and everyone counted 1-2-3 and instead of flinging it in the air she just clapped her hands together and the whipped cream splattered EVERYWHERE it was SO funny. I don't know if explaining that story in words does it justice. I laughed So hard I fell on the ground haha. Other than that it was just a normal P-day. We did some service at a member's house and then went and taught Moises! He is doing awesome and is totally getting baptized on Sunday!!! :) We are so excited!! Him and Nyomi are the cutest and have a goal to get married in the temple so thats awesome :) 

TUESDAY! Okay whoa so this day was officially awesome. 
We were contacting people like crazy and at one point we went to try and teach this guy named Joel but he wasn't home. So we were about to walk away and saw these two guys SUPER tattooed up and looked rough but we said to ourselves "alright we fear no man lets go talk to these guys!" They were SO AWESOME! So their names are Victor Sr and Victor Jr and they said that had been talking to missionaries before but all of a sudden they stopped coming. Victor Jr had bloodshot eyes, and bruises everywhere but he was SO happy and friendly to us. They were laughing with us and making jokes and told us they wanted us to come back! It was so sweet and I was so grateful we had taken the opportunity to talk to them even though at first glance we were nervous. It was a HUGE testimony to me that God loves ALL His children, not just the ones that are cleaned up and have things really easy. That made me so happy! 
--While we were leaving we saw another few people, their names are May May and Joe and they also were formers that hadn't talked to missionaries in a long time. We set up a return appointment with them to do some service in their yard and they were so grateful! 
--After our lunch appointment we were going to drop something off at the Elder's apartment and we met this group of construcion workers. They were so surprised to hear what we do as missionaries but they told us it lifted their hopes to know there were people out there helping others come to know God. They all seemed really happy to meet us as well and we were able to bear our testimonies to them and hopefully the Elders will be able to teach at least one or two of them! 
--As we were talking to them, this lady pushing a wheelchair told us about a car accident she had gotten into and all the damage it had done to her, and asked us for $5 because she was on her way to buy a loaf of bread but didn't have money.. we didn't have anything on us so we said we were sorry and she left. As we were leaving after talking to the construction workers, Hermana Fonoimoana said, man I really with I had $5! She said that she knew she needed to give money to anyone who asked because nothing she had was actually hers, it belonged to God (that really stuck out to me). So she said a prayer because she knew there wasn't a $5 bill in her wallet, but she asked for something that she could give to that lady. Then she opened her wallet and there was a $5 sitting right there! She said it was such a miracle because she had spent the $5 that she had! It was so cool so we ran after that lady and gave her the money and she IMMEDIATELY said, "Oh I am SO grateful I need to pray come over here with me angels! Will you pray with me??" She said the most gratitude-filled prayer I have ever heard. It really made me think how I express my gratitude. This lady got a $5 and expressed her gratitude for maybe 10 minutes! It was a powerful prayer that brought tears to my eyes because I knew she was truly grateful to God for EVERYTHING that He helped her have. Ah it was so awesome. 
--As we kept walking we saw this guy with his 2 daughters and we stopped them to talk for a while and he told us straight up that they had been looking for a church to join! They really want to come visit and had been driving way far away just to go see different churches but when we told them about ours and what we believed he looked so happy. He said he would go right home and tell his wife about it. We also invited them to the Luau! Hope they will make it! They have 5 people in their family!!! AH it was so exciting :) 
--OH MAN SO this morning we had prayed SPECIFICALLY to find someone named Claudia. I had a feeling as we were getting ready in the morning that we would meet someone that day that had the name Claudia so we prayed to find her. Then as we were biking past this parked car I saw someone sitting in the driver's seat, but we kept biking past. Then I had such a strong impression to talk to that person that my bike practically turned itself around, I don't even know how to explain it. But I yelled out to my companion and my bike turned itself around and we went to talk to the lady in the car. HER NAME WAS CLAUDIA and she was sitting there waiting for her friend to come out. So we talked to her for a while and she didn't seem very interested, but she said she had friends that were members so I prayed that one of her friends will invite her to church. But we met her!!! I guess next time we just have to make our prayers more specific that she will be interested too.... haha but it was still a cool experience with a specific prayer and the Spirit's promptings! 
Okay that was pretty much the cool highlights of Tuesday!

Wednesday! We had Zone Conference, which means that a bunch of the zones got together with the President of the Mission and his assistants and they taught us all day from 9 AM until 5 PM and so that was most of the day, but we still had a goal to contact 10 people that day! So after the conference (which by the way the whole theme was obedience--it was AMAZING) 
But we were going around talking to people and we had prayed to find a family of 3! So the first people we talked to was a family of 3!! We met all of them, but then the son and the dad were the only ones that really stayed to listen but the dad loved talking to us! They are "catholic" but like a lot of other people here can't really even remember the last time they went to church so we had a great lesson with them. And a lot of other cool thing happened that I don't have time to talk about this email got REALLY long really fast!! 

But I have to tell you about Luisano!!!! OKAY so this guy is amazing!!!!! Hermana F-L had met him while I was on exchanges, but I got to be there when we taught him for the first time and OH MY GOODNESS HE IS AMAZING! He told us all about how he wants to change his life and how his friends had been inviting him to churches but they are too far away... as we taught him the restoration and explained to him what the Spirit feels like, he told us that that was what he felt right then. We asked him to pray about it to find out if it was true and he said, well yeah I will pray about it too, but I already know its true! So we asked how he knows it was true and he told us that it was because he felt that feeling in his heart. HE IS SO PREPARED!! Sunday instead of US calling HIM, He called US and asked if he could follow us to church!! So he came and LOVED IT!!! He is so amazing :) The ward was so welcoming and there were people offering to bring him to different activities, explaining different things to him, and invited him to dinner that night. It was so great and made my heart SO happy!!! :) 

ALSO I GOT TO GO TO THE TEMPLE WITH PACO AND MARCO AND THAT WAS THE MOST INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE EVER :) Marco was SOOOO excited and absolutely loved it. He told me all about how he is progressing in the church, has a calling, has invited his friends to come and left a lot of his bad friends behind. HE IS DOING SO GOOD and just wants to know everything and its so great to hear about :))) Paco when we got there told me that he wasn't going to do baptisms, that he just wanted to watch. I told him, "Great!! You can watch Marco do baptisms right before you do them!" hahaha I think at the time he was a little mad at me but afterwards he told me he was grateful I told him to do baptisms because he had a really great experience. :) It was so amazing to be there with them and to feel the Spirit and watch both of them keep progressing! I love them so much!!! 

Last miracle story real fast. So we hand out cards all day every day with our number on the back and the address to the church...and usually nothing happens. But on Friday we met this guy named Tony. He was moving stuff around in his yard and we offered to help him but he told us that he was fine. So we tried to start a couple other conversations, and he kinda just looked like he wanted us to leave. But I remembered a message the the Zone Leaders had sent us this morning "Work hard to find the people that God has prepared, and don't forget to testify and refer quickly to the Restoration. We know we will be able to receive our goal of new investigators if we put our ALL into it" So somehow we turned the conversation into the gospel....and me and F-L bore our testimonies over and over about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the difference between us and other churches. He said well its nice to talk to you and so we handed him a card but before we walked away I said, Tony. Our number is on the back and we invite you to call us because we know that this message will bless your life and the life of your family! Then walked away........HE CALLED US LATER!!!!! He asked us a few questions then said he wanted to set up a time where he could meet with us and we could talk more!!!!! NO ONE EVER CALLS US!!! hahaha it was such an exciting moment and strengthened my testimony yet again that people are prepared to receive us when we bear our testimonies of the Restoration! :) 

OKAY sorry I have to go but I love you all so much!!! Ah so much happened and this is already so long but I love yall HAVE AN AWESOME SPRING BREAK!!!! 
Love, Hermana Rogers

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