Week 70: Gators, Gators, and more Gators!:D

Hey family and friends!:)

SO GOOD NEWS....I AM STAYING! Meaning I will be in Wyoming for at least 7 1/2 months!!! I only have one more transfer left after this next one so we will see if I just end up dying here! My new companion will be Sister Osmond and I get to train her how to be an STL! I am way excited! I have met her briefly at mission things and she seems really nice!:)

This week has been awesome though! We picked up 11 new investigators! So many miracles here! So this email is going to be about pure gators from Michigan!:) Love these people!:)

-Marla: She is the one we met at Panera a few months back. She is progressing slowly, but really wrestling with God to know if the church is true! She has already finished 1, 2, 3, and 4th Nephi in the Book of Mormon and listening to all the Doctrine and Covenants. She is living the Word of Wisdom even though she doesn't fully understand why we have it. She told us she even got through one of her night shifts at work and didn't have any coffee! And she wasn't even tired, when she said she usually would be if she didn't have any to drink! It was way cool! We had dinner at our ward mission leader's home, Brother Linford, last night and they invited Marla as well. It went really good and we are super glad she has good fellowshippers. She told us, "I want to make sure I know people in the ward in case both of you leave!", before we knew about transfers. But then when we told her I was staying she was super excited! She is coming to sacrament meetings, but leaves after because she is really stuck on her church. Pray for her that a miracle will happen and she can start coming to all of church!

-Scott: He was our good ol' friend that we met door knocking when it was hailing on us last Friday. He then met with us at the library 45 mins after that and was in tears as we talked about why he was so willing to meet with us! We have taught him a couple times, and we even taught him at the York's the other day! He was SO INTO The Book of Mormon! We told him to read 1 Nephi 1 and he is already at 1 Nephi 20ish! Crazy! He had all this good insight and questions! Probably the most in depth conversation with an investigator about The Book of Mormon that I have had my entire mission! And then we put him on baptism date for May 27th! He is coming to church and we are pumped that he is progressing so well!

-Miguel and Alondra: We met Miguel and Alondra door knocking! We have met with them twice and Miguel loves the Book of Mormon and Plan of Salvation. He has been listening to the Book of Mormon on the app on his iPad. Haha. He is 43, a retired army vet, divorced, and has been through some hard things in his life. Alondra is his 11 year old daughter! They are coming to church tomorrow, and they are even on date for baptism for May 27th, as well!!! We just have some major setbacks to work through with them so pray they will have softened hearts to keep God's commandments.

-Omari, Claude, and Swazalene: They are the family and friends from Congo, Africa that we met and they let us right in their house a couple weeks ago. Super weird and cultural experience. Anyways, they are meeting with us! Omari is the only one who speaks English and if you have ever tried to teach a group of people when they are making comments to each other in their own language, it is kind of rough! But they are coming to church tomorrow and one of our converts in the ward, Daniel, who's from Africa, is going to help translate. Claude is Omari's friend he brought the second time we met with them and Swazalene is Omari's girlfriend! Craziness! So fun though! They are cool!:) It is super cool when Claude talks because his english is rough so he says our names really cool! Hahaha!:)

-Collin, Donovan, and Katelyn Pendergrass: So by a miracle, we picked them up again as investigators! They are so cool! They make me miss my siblings! Especiallly Collin! He reminds me of Noah. Collin is 15, Donovan is 12, and Katelyn is 10. Their parents are less active, and they haven't been baptized yet so they are on date for May, 27th as well! Yay! 6 people on date for baptism that day! Miracles are happening here in Wyoming! Pray that they all stay strong and Satan doesn't have power over them!

-Brenda: Met her at the Wyoming Library walking in with her daughter. She let us teach her about the Book of Mormon then and there and said she will meet with us again! We will have to hand her off to the Wyoming Elders eventually because she is in their area, but she wants us to teach her for now.

-Ryan O.: I had this strong feeling that we needed to go talk to these kids at a skate park! We went and met Ryan! He's sweet! 22 and really looking for truth as he's going to college and working. He met us at the library right then as well! These people and meeting with us right away has been so awesome!

-Ryan: Our other gator named Ryan! He does jujitsu and is really open minded! We will see how serious he is about change though! There's always hope!

-Shawn: Our cool friend that we met in our apartment complex's! He works at Meijer and is in his early 20's. He shared his story about how he used to not believe he needed God in his life and now he knows he does! He is super open and we are trying to help him get Sunday's off so he can come to church!

-Jim: We got in contact with our Jehovah Witness friend and we're meeting with him next Thursday! I have never taught him before so fingers crossed!

-Chris: So we called his boss in our lesson this last week and literally got his Sunday's clear for church! We literally said a prayer before we called his boss and the prayer was answered! So cool! Chris was like, "What the heck?! I asked him before and he would never give me an answer." So knowing me and Sister Mathis, we just took it into our own hands. His boss was super nice and said, "All he had to do was ask!" Chris was pretty confused and mad about it! But it's all good! Because he is getting his schedule changed so he will have Sunday's off soon! But he got in a bad accident and his car is pretty messed up! And his work schedule for the rest of the week is still super crazy! So prayers for our homie who is MJ's cousin! He is so cool! Funny story: In the lesson this week, Sister Mathis was using a black pen for an analogy and said, "Chris, this pen is you!" And he responded, "Why?! Because I am black?! We all died laughing! If you know Chris, he is super shy! So the fact he even said that was out of character! But he is definitely getting way more comfortable with us! He is so cool!:D Haha!

-Leticia (and Brock): They have been sick, but we are seeing them on Sunday! Yay! They are really opening up to us and like us so we are hoping we can get them to be comfortable having ward members come to lessons with us soon! Pray for their hearts to be softened and opened!

So these are our 17 gators right now that I love so much! It's so fun to pray for them specifically! "Specific prayers get specific answers! Onna is also doing great! Sister Bell and Brock are our only 2 less actives that we are teaching right now, but they are doing good as well! The gospel blesses lives! These people are having more light and happiness come into their lives! So cool! We are all so blessed to have the knowledge of the gospel! I love you all and hope you have a stellar week! Keep the faith!

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Remember the church is true and I love you!

<3Sister Rogers<3

Michigan Lansing Mission

Us with our homie, Chris!:) He's pretty cool!

Our friend, Pedro, from Meals on Wheels who's now taking the discussions from the Spanish Elders! He's so cool! P.S. He painted that picture in the back!:O

One of the coolest miracles ever on my mission: Literally drove to a gas station for quite a few miles on 0 miles of gas left. We were dumb and forgot. #blondemuch?!