Called to SNOW....I Mean Serve!!!: Week 58: Remembering Lot's Wife

Hey Family and Friends!:) HAPPY NEW YEAR! 🎉🎊🎇🎆

This last week has literally been insane. Saying good-bye to Sister Vera was sooo hard, you would think after being in 4 areas and having 9 companions it would be easy peasy, but it just seems to get harder for me. However, saying hello to Sister Mathis was a piece of cake! I adore her! We have been working so hard and having a lot of laughs! She is from Heber City, Utah and I have known her my whole mission so it is so fun to serve with her. Funny story, at half mission Christmas party Sister Mathis asked me jokingly, "Sister! When are we going to be companions?" And I jokingly responded back, "Sister! Never! You only have 2 transfers left and we all know you are dying on MSU!" Well, Heavenly Father proved me wrong. Just like he has many times. Haha!

But we have seen so many miracles this week as we have really been focusing on our faith and increasing it as well as "Remembering Lot's Wife". Here are some of many miracles we saw this week:

-We door knocked into a couple that lived on our stake president's street. Their names are Mike and Hillary and they let us right in! What interested them so much is they knew President Smith as well as some other Smith's in our ward. Jackson Smith is serving a mission and their kids wrestled with him in high school. So Mike was really interested in our drive and motivation to serve missions. Well, we had a return appointment and President Smith came that time. It was such a spiritual lesson and everyone was in tears. They said they are going to read the Book of Mormon and we are still staying in close contact with them, so we will see what happens! We have a good feeling about them though! We already love them! Thanks to Jackson Smith, a seed was planted! Member missionary work is the bomb!

-We also picked up two other investigators this week, Vernesha and Agnus. Agnus is Vernesha's mother-in-law and she is from Africa. We door knocked into them and they let us in right on the spot! We taught them the restoration and we meet with them again on Wednesday!:)

-24 people this week gave us their number and were willing to meet with us! That is a miracle in and of itself! And we got to invite 137 people to learn about the gospel this week!

-We got to go teach Andy since the holidays and new year died down and he is so much more accepting of the gospel. He always reads the Book of Mormon and admits he has to come to church to see if what we are saying is truly from our Savior. He said he would come this next Sunday! Pray he doesn't get sick and he keeps that commitment! We love him so much and really want him to be baptized!:)

-WE HAD A MIRACLE WITH SHANNON AND LILY! So the other day we were sitting in the car about to go do something, but we didn't feel right about it, so we prayed and asked God what he would have us do. I got nothing and Sister Mathis said she felt like we needed to go to the library and look up service opportunities on justserve.org. I didn't feel right about that either, but I didn't have anything better in mind, so off we go to the library. Well we are going down the street Shannon and Lily live to get to the library and Sister Mathis said, "Let's stop by Shannon and Lily's." The car was home and so we stopped by! (Keep in mind they weren't responding to our phone calls, emails, answering the door, etc. for a couple weeks!) Well...LOW AND BEHOLD, Shannon answers the door! She didn't get anti'd!!!!!! She just said she had been super sick and busy with a ton of legal stuff and just couldn't keep commitments right now, but Lily still wanted to come! So Lily came to church on Sunday and then we taught her the Plan of Salvation after church and she was in tears and asked us how she can know if God really exists. We testified of prayer and put her on date for January 28th. Shannon is totally ok with it as long as we talk to her about it and make sure Lily really understands! Lily is all for it and we are pumped! Just pray that Satan won't have power over Lily these next couple weeks to make her change her mind! <3

-I gave a talk in church on Sunday about "Bearing our Burdens with Ease". A talk that I challenge you all to go read because it is so good. It is by Elder Bednar. But I know I needed to give that talk. Our burdens can be light in the joy of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And I have definitely felt that this last week with all the change that has happened. I just know God loves us and has a plan for us.

-I got really sick (yes, again people, my immune system sucks). Anyways, I got a blessing from one of the Zone Leaders and Heavenly Father told me in the blessing that I would never get sick or injured again on my mission. So cool! Now I am going to work hard so that blessing can come true! :) So grateful for the priesthood power!

-As I was telling you earlier, Sister Mathis and I are working to increase our faith. So late last night, I was just minding my own business and talking to some of our sisters on the phone when all the sudden I see this fat spider up on the ceiling! I freak out and after 10 minutes of me and Sister Mathis screaming I wipe it off the ceiling with an umbrella. Well, that was smart Sister Rogers.....now where the heck did the little ugly go?!.....So we looked for like 10 minutes and Sister Mathis said, "Let's say a prayer." So we prayed and as soon as we opened our eyes, Sister Mathis saw it! We sucked that thing up with a vacuum so fast! And luckily we did find it because it totally had a nasty egg sack! *GAG* But Heavenly Father even answers prayers about finding spiders so we could sleep easy. He's the best.:)

So if you ended up getting to the end of this email, congrats! And if you skipped and just looked down here at the end, go back and read it! (Not only because it took me a long time...) But because Heavenly Father is real! He answers our prayers and blesses us according to our faith and obedience! Me and Sister Mathis studied "Remembering Lot's Wife" by Elder Holland earlier this week to help us increase our faith and move on with all the crazy changes. Here are some of my favorite things he said:

-"Apparently what was wrong with Lot's wife was that she wasn't just looking back, in her heart she wanted to go back."

-"Her attachment to the past outweighed her confidence for the future."

-"We look back to claim the embers from glowing experience but not the ashes."

-"We remember that faith is always pointed toward the future."

-"She doubted the Lord's ability to give her something better than she already had."

-"We are not going back. We are not going home. The future holds everything for us."

If you haven't read this talk! Do! It's so good! I leave you my testimony which is these scriptures from Alma 32:41-43.

"But if ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing up into everlasting life. And because of your diligence and your faith and your patience with the word in nourishing it, that it may take root in you, behold, by and by ye shall pluck the fruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet, and which is white above all that is pure; and ye shall feast upon this fruit even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither shall ye thirst.

Then, my brethren, ye shall reap the rewards of your faith, and your diligence, and patience, and long-suffering, waiting for the tree to bring forth fruit unto you."

I love you all and hope you have a stellar week! Remember, keep the faith!:)

Remember the church is true and I love you!

<3Sister Rogers<3

Michigan Lansing Mission