Like the Show "Chopped" but Hair Edition

Hello everyone!! I hope you've all had a great week and Labor Day weekend. You might wanna get comfy cause boy do I have some stories for you. 

First German Lesson

Okay...so we've taught in German 3 times now and each time has been better than the last. Not because our german is getting better but because we make funnier mistakes. The first time we taught in German we were teaching our instructor while he acted as a nonmember. So this is how it went...we start planning the lesson and Sister Gilmour is all "This is gonna be GREAT we are going to be AMAZING." and I was all "Nah dude I don't know any german...this is going to be rough." Well, the lesson starts and Sister Gilmour just goes MUTE. Like complete silence. So with the 15 words I know I'm trying to teach this guy about Jesus and it's NOT going well. I would ask him a simple question like "do you know who Jesus Christ is?" and he'd say a bajillion words I never heard. So I'd just stare at him and then ask him another question. Anyways, at one point he turns to my companion and is like "so, Sister Gilmour blah blah (stuff in german) blah?" and she said "I literally don't know what you just said." And that about wraps up how that lesson went. 

Second German Lesson

Alright, we both had a better attitude about this one and honestly it went pretty well because we do NOT know much german. But, at the very end of the lesson my companion started to close at the same time I started saying something. But then our teacher (acting as a nonmember) said goodbye so I stopped talking. Well, she heard me say a little blep of something so she turned and asked a question to us and I thought she (not acting anymore) asked me if I had anything else to say so I responded "no." WELL IT TURNS OUT she asked if we could meet again...AND I TOLD HER NO. Haha! I. am. killing it. 

Third German Lesson

We did it! It was awful grammar and horrid sentence structure but we taught a 30 minute lesson like 95% in german!! We were lost almost the whole time but we got the point across that Jesus loves her soooo couldn't have been too bad right?

Labor Day Weekend

So, my family left up to Causey Res. for a couple days and we decided it would be perfect for me to stay with my companion at her parents place. That way we could get a real feel of the MTC experience. It was a BLAST and a half. We had so so so much fun. My first night was Thursday and we kind of freaked out our district by being in the same room so that was fun. On Friday we got some groceries for the weekend and went and got our nails done during our 5-hour break because we were bOoooOOoOred. It was actually pretty neat being stopped by so many people. I'm sure this is just a Utah thing but we were like celebrities in Walmart. All the little kids were just staring us down and waving very aggressively, it was so cute. Since she lives so close to the canyon we went on a little ride on Sunday with her sister and then went on a hike. It was fun, we found some marijuana plants in the wilderness so that stinks (literally). But for language study together we tried watching a disney princess movie (with permission from our stake presidents) in german. We got about 30 minutes in and felt like our brains were going to explode with all of the translating we were attempting. So then we watched the rest in english and WOW it never sounded better. Also we had korean barbecue and YUM. Highly recommend. 

Sunday...?

We woke up and went on that hike before church, and then we walked to church! Our district made a goal to share our testimonies in church if possible, and if not to share it with our families. Luckily, my companion and I were able to go to church and we both got up and shared our testimonies!! My companion's little sister got up after us and shared the most humble and sweet testimony ever. That night, my companion drove me up to say goodbye to Grayson (my boyfriend hehe). He was leaving the MTC for North Carolina and they had a little farewell thing for him that night. It was super rough to officially say goodbye but I am SO excited and SO proud of him. He is going to be such an amazing missionary and huge influence on the people he serves. Anywaysssss so it was a long day and I was sad so we chopped off all my hair!! Not literally all of it, but like 6 inches ish. And we didn't just do a DIY job, her sister is a professional and she cut it for me. I was kinda nervous cause I hated my hair short last time but she did amazing and I LOVE IT. 

Meeting the District!! 

Today we got to meet all of our district members that live in Utah!! I absolutely LOVE our district. We have such a variety of backgrounds and testimonies so we learn a lot from each other. We have an Elder and Sister that live in California and a Sister who lives in Washington. We were super sad they weren't able to meet the rest of us but we had quite the day with the other 5 elders in our district. It's pretty funny how different people look off camera haha! 

Weekly Spiritual Dose

This week I would love to share with you guys an experience my companion and I had with prayer. We have REALLY been struggling with the language lately. Like...reallyyyyyy struggling. We had been spending a lot of time blaming our teachers or the home-MTC for this but never really took the time to consider we were trying to do it alone and without the guidance of the Spirit. After we started praying to receive the gift of tongues, we started recognizing words in class that helped us follow along. Now that we understand what's happening in class we've been learning so much more. So basically we're fluent and ready for Germany (; haha just kidding we would probably curl up and cry if we went there right now. Anyways, the power of prayer is real. The Holy Ghost really is a member of the Godhead. He hangs out with God and Jesus all the time, and is anxiously waiting for us to ask for his guidance. He wants to help us. Heavenly Father wants to help us. Jesus Christ wants to help us. They have so much love for us that we can't even comprehend it. How crazy is that?? Did you ever think someone could love you so much that you would never understand just how much that was? I encourage you all to strengthen your relationship with ALL the members of the Godhead. You can't really have a relationship with one and not have one with the other, but that doesn't mean one needs more attention than the other. As Elder Holland said, "The Lord blesses those who WANT to improve. We get credit for trying...keep loving, keep trying, keep trusting, keep believing." 

I love you all so very much! Please let me know how your lives are going!!

Have a great week!

Sister Rogers (:

Germany Frankfurt Mission

Kirche Jesu Christi

Texas Fort Worth Mission

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints 

ps. enjoy the rando picture of Sister Gilmour, me and Sister Gilmour’s sister Halle in the kitchen. (I think Halle took my phone?😂)

Two Blondes Take on the MTC

Hello everyone!! I apologize I didn't email last week...the home MTC doesn't give me much to email about. Anyways, I thought I'd just let you guys know how it's going and for the soon-to-be future missionaries, I've got a few pointers. 

The Home MTC

So I moved into my sisters house for the MTC which has actually been amazing. It's been a good disruption in my usual routine (like the actual MTC would be) and has helped me feel more like a missionary even though I'm at home. Basically my schedule is up at 6 to exercise (thanks mom for being my trainer), studies from 7-12 then we have a HUUUGGGEEEE break until our last class at 5:45-8:45 and then I'm in bed by 10:30. Yes, I do get extremely bored. The first week I felt like I just laid there watching my ceiling fan spin, but I've got a few projects I'm working on now so that helps to pass the time. Basically I spend a lot of time just whooping my sister's and her husband's butts in rumikub every day (; 

Companion

My companion is Sister Gilmour, she's from American Fork and I actually hate her a lot. Just kidding, love you bro. We've decided we're actually the same person so that makes studying SUPER fun. We have a LOT in common which is so awesome except our planning sessions are like 90% laughing about something (that probably wasn't even that funny), 8% talking about nothing related to planning and 2% actually planning. Not even kidding, it takes us about 5 minutes to plan but we "plan" for an hour every night. But, all jokes aside, I'm so so so grateful for her and her testimony. I have learned so much from her and it's only been 2 weeks! She's definitely been a blessing in this MTC experience. Our personalities make learning fun but we also have the same goals spiritually which keeps us focused. I'm feeling like a winner cause I got the best companion so haha everyone else (; 

Language

Ich kann Deutsch! Haha just kidding I have NO idea what's going on most of the time. Thankfully, most of my district is in the same boat so we kind of just stare at our teachers for a lot of the time. In all honesty, it's super discouraging to be learning a difficult language when we all know we might not use it. However, knowing there's hundreds if not thousands of missionaries in the same boat makes it comforting. We'll all be studying a foreign language in a state that we won't use it, but we were called to serve in this language either way. Whether that means I'm learning it to use it on my mission or I'm learning it for something later on in life, it's Heavenly Father's plan. He knew we would be in this situation and knows exactly why. Plus, learning a language is super fun when you have great teachers that let you laugh about mistakes. 

THE GOSPEL!!!

Holy. Cow. Guys. This gospel is just WOW. I knew that when you're set apart as a missionary you're even closer to the spirit than before, but he's seriously my best friend! We hangout almost all day every day now and I hope that never changes. I want to share with you guys an experience my companion and I had with the power of fasting and the power of the Holy Ghost. We decided to fast as a companionship for someone in need of comfort. I know we weren't the only people fasting for this person, but to see how quickly they felt the influence of our prayer and fasting was a testimony to me that Heavenly Father really does recognize our efforts. I had never felt the spirit so strongly testify to me that fasting and prayer really does work. 

Anyways, I realize a lot of you aren't the people I see very often so you don't hear all of the stories. So, here's some fun facts about my awesome district:

- We have an Elder that looks exactly like Shia Labeouf

- My companion broke her back by picking up an EMPTY bag (like what?!)

- Elder Shia Labeouf can sing and play the cello like a pro

- 3 of the missionaries live out of state, but the rest of us live within an hour of each other!

- The Elders are all barely 18 so the Sister's are all "so old" 

- Sister Gilmour and I are working on nicknames for everyone so stay tuned (;

- One of the Elder's sounds like Elder Calhoun from The Best 2 Years and it's awesome 

I apologize again for not emailing last week, you guys should appoint someone to call me out if I miss a week (; just kidding! Thank you all for the support and love, I wouldn't be here without a lot of you. I know I've only been wearing the badge for a week but I love being a missionary!! It's so awesome to be so close to my Heavenly Father and to be training for His work. It's definitely quite the motivator when they compare us to servants of the Lord like Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith, the apostles and prophets, and amazing scripture heroes. 

I love you all so much!! Have an amazing week!

"Holy habits bring righteous actions" - Brother Lund of the 70

Sister Rogers 

Germany Frankfurt Mission

Kirche Jesu Christi

Texas Fort Worth Mission

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints