Guten tag ya'll!! My p-days have been moved to Monday!! Also I want to apologize for how long this email is going to be but a LOT happened!
The Temple
I went through the temple!!!! Ah it was so amazing. Seriously every single moment was just so overpowered by the spirit, I've never experienced something like that before. I am so so so grateful for the wonderful people that came through with me. I wish I could have invited more people but it was really special to have a small group of people who have influenced me most throughout my life. If you haven't already gone through the temple, I encourage you to read about it. There are so many awesome books that will help you understand it for the first time. If you have already gone through...still read about it! I read the same book before and after the temple and it was shocking how much more I learned about my experience in the temple from the same book!! Amazon has some great books about your sacred endowment if you're interested. #thisisnotanad
Graduating the MTC
Thats right, I am a home MTC graduate from the German class of September 2020. I absolutely LOVED the MTC. I was super disappointed I wouldn't get to go to the actual MTC, but it turned out to be such a blessing. I got to learn a whole lot about time management and ways that I study best on my own. I also got to be apart of my cousins wedding and meet my cute new second cousin babies! I loved working with the missionaries in my district, they are all so amazing. I'm so proud of all of us for learning so much German in such little time haha but it really was a blast. The last day of the MTC we all wore our graduation caps so I hope you enjoy that picture lol. We also had an amazing testimony meeting that night and WOW. These missionaries are going to be so amazing. They have worked so hard to understand the gospel more and more and it has already paid off. They will influence so many lives like the have mine! Also...rip to Sister Gilmour and Sister Rogers. We were the dream team but the time has come for us to part ways 😥. I know she'll be doing amazing things in Dallas #untilwemeetagain in Germany! Love you girl.
Leaving the Nest (for reals this time)
So I officially flew out for Texas last Tuesday! Not gonna lie that was the most stressful day of my mission so far. We got there and I said my goodbyes, then my parents came in with me to get my luggage checked and everything. Then they left and I went with some other Sisters to security. WELL we get to security and it turns out the little kiosk thingy had printed me the wrong ticket soooo I sat on this weird stool thing and cried a little before getting the right ticket 😂 I guess you could say I'm not great with stress haha. Anyways I finally made it on the plane with a whole group of missionaries, I think there were like 15 of us. But I sat next to the most talkative one so I learned a LOT about her lol. The lady next to me was telling me all about her conversion story and it was so cool!! She was on her way home from meeting the missionary that converted her 25+ years ago!!! She was SO sweet and told me all the great places to eat and the bugs to look out for.
Texas!!
Alrighty so its not just cactus and tumbleweed everywhere, its actually pretty green and beautiful! Plus we're more in the city area so we don't have tarantulas 🙌 which is all I was praying for (; my companion is Sister Lotulelei, her family is from Tonga but she grew up in Central Utah. She's SUPER cool. Like she's basically a beast and has already taught me so much. We've got a lot in common so that has been really nice. She is actually on a reassignment as well, she served in the Dominican Republic for 9 months until covid and got reassigned here! She goes home in December but I'm so glad I get to have her as a trainer for her last transfers.
Quad 😎
Sooooo the transfer that I got here for was supposed to send Sister Lotu's last companion and her greenie to another area but that area is in quarantine so there's 4 of us in a 2 person apartment haha. Sister Lotu and I are supposed to be getting another companion on Wednesday when Sister Bennion and Sister Allen's new area gets out of quarantine buuuuuut Sister Bennion got tested for covid on Saturday so now we're in quarantine in this tiny apartment haha! Its actually been so fun, we all get along pretty well so thats made the time go by quicker. I'm gonna be sad for the Sisters to leave though, they have been amazing and Sister Bennion knows where all the good food is 😂 also there's a life sized cardboard cutout of batman in every apartment in our zone...Sister Bennion says we have to reach 6 months before we can know why so I'll let you know what that's all about in 4 months haha. So just ignore him in the pictures lol.
Conference!!
I hope you all got the chance to listen to conference this weekend!! It was SO AMAZING (as usual) and there was so much good stuff in it. Since we were on quarantine we watched it on one phone and huddled around that. We had to cancel all of our appointments for the sessions but the southern hospitality is REAL and all of our appointments brought us food for the sessions. One of the members in our ward was super generous and gave us air mattresses and quilts and pillows to use until we got a third bed! The people here are AWESOME!!
Pickeball
Okay...so outside of the mission pickleball is super overrated but since its the only thing we're allowed to play right now, its basically our lives. Sister Lotu is a champ at it so I've got big shoes to fill as her teammate but I'm sure you'll all be glad to know that I went undefeated Saturday morning...I know I know you can stop cheering. I was pretty proud of it because thats one of my transfer goals so woo-hoo!
The Work
Okay so this first week was pretty slow with the work since we had so many meetings and counsels to go to. But we did find a lot of people on Facebook and more in our area so hopefully those will turn into something this week! We did invite 5 people to watch conference and 2 actually did!! We're meeting with them over zoom tonight to discuss what they liked about it. They're a family of 3 who are super interested in the gospel so I hope they felt the spirit testify to them this weekend.
Weekly Spiritual Dose
For this week, I want to share with you what my favorite part from conference was. It keeps ringing in my head that President Nelson said to "let God prevail." To me, this means I need to let God take over. Lately I've been stressing about things out of my control, and even things that I can control but just don't know how to. Letting God previal is the way we become more like Christ. Letting the Spirit of God guide each step, thought, and action we make is something Christ had that not many of us do. We have to understand that we have human minds. We are not meant to know everything. It is not in our destiny to completely grasp everything God teaches us. We MUST always turn to Him in everything we do. We absolutely cannot survive the last days on our own. I encourage you all to read this talk and think about what letting God prevail looks like to you.
I love you all so much!! Have a great week and I'll talk to you on Monday!!
Sister Rogers
Pictures:
1. Pickleball with (some of) the zone
2. Our conference dinner from a member (enjoy the hoodie, our apartment was cold)
3. Sister Lotu and I and Babe's Chicken (we're not awkward, just sweaty lol)
4. Our lovely sleeping arrangement
5. Batman? (Prior to the sleeping arrangements)
6 & 7. Sooo we have an app in our zone to make GIFs with, so here are some Texas Fort Worth North originals (enjoy)
8. I hope you like Sister Bennion pretending she's not thrilled to be in this picture. After we found out we were quarantined she cornrowed some of my hair.