March 25th, 2015

At the end of my mission, my mission President asked those of us going home to write a letter to him stating what counsel we would give to missionaries, based on our experiences. This is my response.

What Counsel Would I Give To All Of The Missionaries?

Missions are a strange and beautiful thing. God takes and places you with people and in situations that you never would have found yourself in without His direction. He provides you with challenges that give you the opportunity to come closer to Him and find a greater understanding of the Atonement of His son. With each new person you meet, and circumstance you encounter, He gives you the chance to act upon the two greatest commandments He has ever given us. “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. (Mark 12:30)”
These commandments are far easier said than done, but the effect that they will have upon your life and the work you do is worth every effort you put into it. In our mission quote, D&C section 4, it mentions the importance of having charity or love three separate times within those few verses. Why is love so crucial in this “marvelous work (that) is about to come forth among the children of men”?
The answer comes in Corinthians chapter 13. Paul tells us,
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
It is the reason behind what we are doing, or our motive so to speak that makes the difference. In the war in Heaven, Lucifer’s objective was to make it so every single one of God’s children would come back into God’s presence to live with Him. A worthy goal. He however was driven by his desire for glory, not for the welfare of his brothers and sisters. His love for the Father or for us was overshadowed by his desire to increase his own status. Mormon taught, “If ye have not charity, ye are nothing. (Moroni 7:46)”
The prophets have made the importance of charity rather clear, and lucky for us Paul also gives a clear understanding of what charity is,
4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. (1 Corinthians 13)
So if I were to give any counsel to other missionaries it would be to love where you are and who you are with. Love your mission! There will never be another time like this! Love the scriptures. If you don’t already love them, study them and pray. Love your companion. It makes a difference in the spirit you have while teaching. If they are hard to get along with, then pray. Love yourself. Not in a self-obsessed way, but know that you are capable of whatever the Lord will ask of you. If you do not see anything within yourself to love, then pray. Love the other missionaries. We are fighting for the same team. If they bother you, that is all the more reason to love them. If it is hard, then pray. Love the people you meet and work with on a daily basis. They aren’t just a number, they are sons and daughters of our most high God and our brothers and sisters. If you struggle to see them in that light, then pray.
“Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as He is pure. Amen.” (Moroni 7:47)
I have lots more that I need to learn about charity, and I still struggle to apply the things that I have been taught about this important principle, but one thing I have learned for certain is the extreme importance of love in this work. When things are hard, remember “charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all” (Moroni 7:46) The love that I know God has for me is often times what has helped me to push forward. I know that Heavenly Father loves me. He has proven it to me again and again. I know that this is His work and He wants us to include Him in it. We have the incredible opportunity to be His hands and lift His children by helping them to understand their true divine potential. We are trusted to love His children! What an incredible and challenging blessings! There is no better place than a mission to get to exercise and work on the Christ like attribute of charity. I am so eternally grateful for the perfect example our savior has given us. I know Jesus Christ is risen and lives to help strengthen and lift us. I know that the power of the atonement is real. It works. Through His love we have the ability to change. He enables us to be better and do more than we could ever possibly do or be on our own. I love my savior. The apostle John said, “We love him, because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) I know that to be true. I share these truths in the name of my living Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

March 16th, 2015

What an incredible miracle week!!! My heart is truly filled with gratitude for the many blessings that the Lord has provided 🙂

One of the most incredible people I know was baptized this past week in my last area. even though we were no longer in her area anymore Sister Winkel and I were blessed to get to still teach her and her two children, who were baptized with her and we got to attend her baptism! I think one of the neatest things that we got to witness with this situation was how incredible the ward is that she has come into. They love her and her family so much and for good reason! She is strong, faithful and a wonderful testimony that miracles do happen every day! I’m so grateful I’ve had the opportunity to work with her and learn from her beautiful example 🙂

On a sad note… this week Sister Winkel and I were informed that our area would be closing. There will no longer be missionaries here in the Sand Hill branch. Truly it has been an incredible blessing to have been able to serve around these wonderful people. You will never meet a more charitable, patient, and diligent people than those that are here in this little town. I have learned so much from them and I don’t think they will ever know the extent of my gratitude for them 🙂 The branch only has about 25 members that attend each week, so that means that we have lots of opportunities to help out. Every Sunday it has been my privilege to lead the hymns in sacrament meeting and this past meeting I couldn’t help but cry a little as I stood at the front looking at all of these incredible, faithful saints. I really can’t express in an email how much they each mean to me, or how I have grown to love them.

A really neat thing happened this week! We went to visit a man who never come to church and is never home and surprise surprise, he was home! He came out on the front porch and we had a wonderful lesson with him and he even pulled his scriptures out so he could study along with him. Just as we were finishing up our lesson with him his son came down the hill with his teenage daughter and they sat down to visit with us as well. We then pulled out the scriptures and started reading and the man that never answers the door turned to his granddaughter and says “We should do this more often,” and she just beams back at him 🙂 it was so wonderful and the spirit was there super strong! I love sweet simple miracles like that 🙂

Sister Winkel and I learned something new this past week as we were teaching a lesson. We were speaking with this family about trials and miracles, and suddenly it dawned on me, before every single miracle that Jesus preformed there was a major trial that had to take place before hand. it may seem silly that it has taken me this long to realize that, but it truly struck a cord for me. Before Christ could heal the blind man, the blind man first had to go through years of dark days and struggles. Before the leper was healed he struggled through a horrible disease that caused painful soars to blister all over his body as his own flesh rotted right in front of him. The trial proceeded the miracle. I know sometimes I’m guilty of getting frustrated when things get challenging, but the challenge is simply a beautiful opportunity for us to see the mighty hand of the Lord.Miracles come! Not always in the way we expect them, but they do always come! And if we remain faithful through the struggle then our eyes will be prepared to witness the glory of God 🙂
I love you and the church is true!
Sister Mignonne Rogers

March 9th, 2015

What a week!
While out door knocking this week we had a rather eventful experience-
We had parked our car on one of the many country roads that cover our area and began knocking on doors. Since there weren’t many houses we decided to knock on some on the way down and then hit up the ones we had skipped on the way back so we would have something to do besides a straight mile walk back. Well we would knock and then skip and then knock and then skip, when we came to a nice brick home at the top of a hill. A very sweet elderly lady answers the door and tell us that she has company over at the moment, but we are welcome to come back at another time. Apparently missionaries had visited with her before and she had been very impressed by them. Just as we are saying goodbye and turning around a white car pulls up and a rather angry looking llady with dark curly hair gets out of the car. The conversation with her went something like this –
Winkel – with a big smile, “Hi I’m Sister Winkel!”
Lady – not smiling, “What are you all doing?”
Me – smiling, “We are missionaries.”
Lady – still not smiling, “What are you doing?”
Me – still smiling, “Well we’re sharing a message about Jesus.”
Lady – “Why did you skip my house?”
Winkel – “What?”
Lady – “Why didn’t you stop at my house? You walked right past it why didn’t you stop?”
An awkward moment followed where we tried to explain that we would be knocking on doors on the way back up the road as well, where she didn’t listen to us at all.
Lady – cutting us off, “There are a lot of scammers going around. I’d hate for ya’ll to get shot.”
Me – “Thank you for your concern-”
Lady – “Stay away from my mothers house.”
Us – “What?”
Lady – “Stay away from my mothers house.”
Me – “Is this your moms house?”
Lady – while shaking her head yes, “Stay away from my moms house. I’m serious. I’d hate for ya’ll to get shot.”
and with that she disappeared inside her moms house leaving her elderly mother looking confused and us feeling slightly frustrated that she was so ready and willing to shoot us but not to listen farther down the road we met her sister who was super kind and spoke with us for a good minute. When we told her tat we thought we might have met her sister a little earlier she suddenly got grim and told us, “Oh,… that’s a sad situation. She’s not saved…” so I’m guessing she’s just having a hard time right now 😦
Also on the route of funny stories we were out visiting people this past week with one of the members. Do you remember a few weeks ago when I told the story about the lady who had been wanting a Book of Mormon for years and then we finally got her one when she was at work at the jewelry store. When we gave her the book we had also swapped numbers but it turned out later that the number was had gotten was incorrect. We didn’t really know where she lived, we only knew where she worked so we went to her work with the member who had originally promised to get her the Book of Mormon and just as we were pulling into her work we saw her car pulling away. So of course naturally we go into oober big creeper/ secret agent mode and start tailing her. We followed her through winding country roads for a good 20 minutes!!!! When she FINALLY pulled into her drive way we pulled in right behind her. I was terrified that she was going to be slightly annoyed or even scared since we had followed her for so long, but the member we were with just rolled down her car window and yelled, “Hey girl” and everything was all right 🙂 The south is truly a wonderful and unique place 🙂 Where else can you stalk someone for 20 minutes and have them be totally okay with it?
A wonderful mixed blessing had happened this past week! The last area I was in had two sets of missionaries in it, but when Sister Winkel and I left from there the area we had then become covered by just the one set of elders that were there. A week ago they ended up having to leave the area which left the people we had been teaching without missionaries. One of them was about to get baptized, but without missionaries there it made it a little bit of a challenge for her. So here is the wonderful part… We got permission to teach her over the phone and she will be getting baptized this upcoming Sunday!!! That lady is so incredible and we feel so very blessed to be privileged enough to get to help her prepare to enter the waters of baptism 🙂 What a beautiful blessing she is 🙂
I hope you all know that I have a strong testimony of my Savior Jesus Christ. I know that it is through him that people are able to turn darkness into light as they are cleansed from sin. I know that as we diligently search for knowledge and continuously pray to our Heavenly Father, he makes all things possible. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is not passive nor is it easy, but I can tell you this much, it is very worth it. The world offers happiness that will not last, but the joy we can find from being truly and completely cleansed of sin is all encompassing and worth more than the grandest worldly mansions. I love the gospel so much! It teaches me how I can be healed. I love my Heavenly Father, He gave me the ability to be healed by sending His son for a sacrifice for the sins and pains of the world. I love my savior Jesus Christ, he made the healing possibly. I love my family, they have taught me to use the healing power of Christ’s Atonement in my life. I love being a mission, because this has been an incredible opportunity for me to share with other the truths that I know and love 🙂 Truly there is no better place to be than in the service of our fellow man, because when we are in the service of our fellow man we are really in the service of our God 🙂

I love you and the church is true!

Sister Mignonne Rogers 🙂

March 2, 2015

This week has been… a wonderful learning opportunity 🙂

Have you ever studied the attributes of Christ? There are many and He was/is the perfect example of every virtue. At a first glance it is easy to say that one is more important than another. Perhaps it is our nature to assume that one thing is more important to attain than other, but I’m not sure that is the case.
When working out you don’t just bench press or only do pull ups, but you try to be well rounded. Back in high school I remember working out for sports and the coach would always have different exercises that we did each week so we would be well rounded in our heath. Some days would be agility, others endurance and my least favorite was core. The coach provided us with the work out plan and then it was up to us to give it our all and actually work and progress. In life it seems that Heavenly Father is the coach and He gives us the work out plan to increase and grow, but it is up to us to actually make the best out of the work out that we are going through. Some athletes that I have worked with would resent the coach and slack off if they were not being guided every single step of the way. Others took little to no prompting to push through and make the most of the opportunity they were given because they understood that it was all for their benefit.
This week has been an endurance workout and I have learned a lot 🙂

Enough random stuff. Let me tell you a wonderful thing-

One of our investigators has come to church not just once, but twice now! He brought his daughter with him and she told her primary teacher that she was surprised to see her father in a church and about how much she had enjoyed coming 🙂 It is so wonderful to get to teach this man! In the few weeks that we have known him an incredible change has been taking place. Literally every time we meet with him there is a tangible increase of light within him that can be clearly seen. He doesn’t just understand what we are teaching him, but he remembers and applies it as well! It is such a blessing and privilege to get to work with him and Sister Winkel and I could not be more grateful 🙂 The gospel is true and it changes lives! The light of Christ chases away darkness and illuminates possibilities that would not be accessible to us if it wasn’t for the atoning blood of our Savior Jesus Christ 🙂

I love you and the church is true!

Sister Mignonne Rogers 🙂

February 23, 2015

Happy Mardi Gras!!!
This week has been wonderful as always 🙂 truly there is never a bad week as a missionary! Sometimes rough hours or days, but the Lord always makes sure to give us what we need to continue onward with a hop in our step and a smile on our face. Sometimes the smile we have isn’t for us, but it is to help lift another who might be worse off than we are. My mission President told me this week rather emphatically, “The gifts you have are to bless the lives of others. Not your own.” I feel like that goes for sunny dispositions and infectious laughter as well.

So I suppose I can start with our terrifying story this week – we were out door knocking and we were coming up to this house. We were almost all the way up the drive when these two massive dogs (a pitbull and a bloodhound) came sprinting around the corner! Before we even had time to blink they were literally right in front of us and I seriously thought, “I am about to die!” Lucky for us, they didn’t rip out our jugular vein, but instead they bounced around us wagging their tails and lifting up our skirts as they tried to kiss our faces. Honestly when we got to the door both of us were still trying to swallow our hearts from where they had jumped into our throats so when the lady answered we sounded like idiots as we struggled to keep our skirts down while the dogs bounded around us and we tripped over our words. It was probably the worst door approach that I have ever been a part of!

We had a lesson with an investigator this week that went pretty well, and kind of interesting. Any confusing part of the gospel that could have been brought up, was. Like “why was the Book of Mormon written in ancient Egyptian?” That is easily explained but not really pertinent to our salvation. Even though the lesson went every which way he still came to church this past Sunday 🙂 Truly the Lord is in charge of this work. If it was left up to us missionaries, then it would be a mess lol The man that we were teaching lives with a recent convert. As we were explaining the Book of Mormon to our investigator the recent convert spoke up and said, “Really man, if you want to know if it’s true you just have to read it and then pray. That’s the only way you’ll know.” Yay for having a testimony of the Book of Mormon! I love that book so much. That and the Bible are what help us to have a full understanding of Christ’s gospel. Reading one without the other is like only reading Matthew and Mark, but leaving out Luke and John. They many all tell about the life of Christ, but if you left one or two of them out you would be missing so much! The same goes for all of God’s scriptures and that includes the Book of Mormon and the Bible 🙂 They truly are both the word of God and we are so very blessed to have access to both of them 🙂

Also I learned a new form of measurement this week, “It’s within hollerin distance!” That means they live close enough they could hear you yelling at them. Oh the South, how I love thee 🙂

I love you and the church is true!

Sister Mignonne Rogers 🙂

P.S. “It doesn’t do me any good to figure out what other people’s problems are. I can’t change them. I can only change myself.” – Sister Ava Price (one of the ladies in my current ward)

February 16, 2015

My fabulous week!
As always a wonderful week full of miracles! Lately in this area it has been difficult to find people to teach because the houses are mostly spread pretty far apart and door knocking is kind of illegal, but this week the Lord truly did provide 🙂
We went out visiting with a member and she told us, “There is a lady that works in a jewelry store and she told me that she wants a Book of Mormon.” Of course we were super happy to hear that! When we asked a little more about the situation we found out that the conversation with the woman about the book had taken place 3 years ago, and randomly the sister had remembered it and thought that it was worth a try! We drove out to the Jewelry store and the sister said she would go in first to talk with the woman and if the situation looked promising she’d invite her outside to meet with us. She went in and the conversation went something like this –
Friendly greeting to each other and then,
Lady – “Hey, you still owe me that book! Someone was just in here the other day and I told them that if they see you then they have to remind you that I still want my book.”
Sister – “Well (name) that is exactly why I’ve come. I brought the missionaries with me and I’m sure they have an extra copy of the Book of Mormon with them right now. If you’d like, you can come outside and meet them.”
Lady – “Of course!”
Stuff like this doesn’t typically happen! She came out and we were able to have a wonderful conversation with her and exchange information. We are really looking forward to getting to go visit with her again and answer some of her questions. Anyone that is still that interested after 3 years is going to have to have some pretty great questions 🙂
We also went to visit a lady that we’ve taught a couple of times, but it had been a while since we’d been over there. As we were visiting with her she told us that she has actually been reading from her Book of Mormon and then she told us about what she’d been studying!!! Not only that but she also told us, “I know that book is true!” Yay for miracles 🙂
Well as always I’m running a little short on time… sorry. I love you all and I hope you know that Christ lives and that He still speaks to us today 🙂 I know that Heavenly Father is very aware of each of us and He is always ready to send His love to us as we look up to Him 🙂 We are so blessed! We just have to take the time to open our eyes, see the blessings, and be grateful 🙂
I love you and the church is true!
Sister Mignonne Rogers 🙂

A little old hymnal I found at an antique store:)

February 10th, 2015

My last transfer calls… can you believe it?! Transfers are every 6 weeks and that is when we find out if we are going to be moving around or staying where we are at. I am so very grateful to be able to say for the first time in over 4 months my transfer calls came and I will be staying in the same area with the same companion 🙂 SO very very grateful!!! I love the area I am in and I love my sweet/crazy companion 🙂 I feel so incredibly blessed right now!
Our music devotional that we have been planning for the past month was Saturday evening. Truly miracles happened and it was even better then we had thought it was going to be 🙂 Lot and lots of prayers went into the program. The main goal was that everyone would be able to feel the spirit while they were there. We had other missionaries that were willing to come and participate and also a few other people from other areas that came to help out as well 🙂 Typically at church there are about 25-30 people. On Saturday we had over 40 people there! It was wonderful 🙂 Sister Winkel and I were practically in tears because we were to happy with how it all turned out. We had one lady come up to us afterwards and say, “It was a crazy day today. This was exactly what I needed.” Another person went on and on about how strong the spirit had been during the devotional. Also, one lady who hasn’t been to the church in over 20 years, possibly close to 30, came to the devotional! Not only did she come, but she brought her sister in law with her who isn’t a member of our church! Not only did they enjoy themselves while they were there, but later than night we got a call from the lady and she was telling us that she wants to come back to church!!! When we went over to visit with her yesterday, one of her friends came over and told us that she has been talking all about it since she went! Miracles my friends 🙂

A door knocking story from this week – We were out in the middle of no where trying to share the gospel when we came upon a skinny dirt road that led to a beat up looking trailer. We started the long walk to it and from the back we could hear this ferocious dog barking insanely. Nailed to a tree was a sign that read “BEWARE OF DOG Dog eats anything owner shoots” Just as we knock on the door yet another dog, this one is inside the house, starts barking like it wants to eat us. As we began the second knock, a rifle shot is heard not too far off from where we were. This was about the time that we turned tail and walked very quickly away, praying the entire time! Thank goodness the Lord watches out for His missionaries or else I would probably have been a goner.
I LOVE my mission and I’m so grateful all the many lessons that the Lord is teaching me daily 🙂 I couldn’t feel more blessed or taken care of! This work, the Lords work, is an incredible thing to be able to be apart of 🙂
I love you and the church is true!
Sister Mignonne Rogers 🙂

February 2, 2014

What a week 🙂
While door knocking this week we had some pretty… interesting experiences. We came to house where a sweet looking elderly couple was sitting outside shelling pecans. As soon as we walked up they offered to let us join them for a little chat. At first the conversation started out pretty mild with us getting to know each other. Then the man said that he wanted to do some scripture study with us, which we thought was awesome! He went and got his Bible and what commenced was a 45 minute conversation where he preached to us about the fact that we are both ignorant idiots who are blindly following after the traditions of our fathers. The thing is, he said it in the sweetest way possibly and if you weren’t listening to the words coming out of his mouth, you would have thought he was praising us for our missionary efforts. The verse he held to and kept going back to is Matthew 7:28, “And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine.” His interpretation was that the people in this story were too stupid to comprehend what Christ was telling them because they were too set in their old traditions of their parents. We simply listened to him and then bore witness of having worked to gain our own testimony of the things we are going out to share. Once we’d finished he replied, “You are a perfect example of this scripture.” What a frustrating man. The scripture doesn’t even mean what he thinks it means, but it is really hard to talk with someone that is unwilling to listen to anything you have to say. At the end of the conversation he told us that, “God will not be mocked,” and also, “I’m sure when judgment day comes this conversation will come into play.” If there is any doubt in any ones mind that reads my emails that I am simply following the traditions of my parents and that I am ignorant of what is in the world, I would like to clear that up really fast. I have spent the past 16 months on a mission for Jesus Christ wearing His name on my name tag because I know that this gospel that I go out and share with people holds powerful truth. I’ve lived these truths and I’ve felt of the power that comes from them. I have prayed to God more than once to receive answers and He continues to give them to me. Do you think God would do that for me again and again if I was so mixed up in my beliefs? Missions are not easy. They are wonderful and incredible but they are not easy. Everyday in this work missionaries have their beliefs tested, abused and tormented. But still we go forward. For what? We don’t get payed for what we do. The rewards from the world aren’t over flowing by any means. We continue on because we know for ourselves the importance of the message that we bring. Even on rough days we are still able to find joy in the work, because this is not our work. If it was the work of man we would probably all quit, but this is the Lord’s work 🙂 What a comfort it is to go out each day knowing that if I do my part, then He will always do His 🙂 I am so grateful to get to be a missionary and teach people about our Lord and savior Jesus Christ 🙂 We are a blessed generation! I would strongly suggest going to the Lord for answers when you have questions. Pray for direction and then search the scriptures. He answers in many different ways, but He does answer. If we do our part He will always answer 🙂
I love you and the church is true!
Sister Mignonne Rogers 🙂

January 26, 2015

It never ceases to amaze me how marvelous the workings of our God are 🙂 This past week Sister Winkel and I had so many wonderful appointments with people. Those kept us pretty busy running from one place to the next. We’ve gotten to meet quite a few more people and I think we are both finally getting into the full swing of things here 🙂 The Lord is definitely helping us along every step of the way 🙂

About two weeks ago we started teaching this wonderful family about the gospel, and they are so awesome! They were taught about 20 years ago so they don’t remember everything they had learned since it’s been such a long time. As we teach them, they slowly start to remember things about the church and then before we are even done sharing about the principal the wife is sharing her testimony with us about the truthfulness of whatever it is we are talking about. It’s fabulous!

In a few weeks our little branch is putting on a Musical devotional about the Light and Life of Christ so we are all busy getting things ready for that 🙂 We are trying to get people who aren’t of our faith to come and participate as well and so far we have a few who might, which is exciting! The entire purpose of the devotional is to help people here to understand that we have a strong belief in Jesus Christ. It’s on our name tags for Pete’s sake! But still people like to think that we are not Christian. More than once at someone’s door I’ve had them tell me, “You don’t believe in the same Jesus that I do.” Last I checked there is only one Jesus who is the son of God and Savior of the world. That is the one that I believe in. It is in Him that I place my faith and I am so grateful for all that He did for me and for every single person on this earth.

I had a thought hit me this week when I was studying. In the scriptures it says that we must be filled with charity because without charity we are nothing. I had always taken this to mean charity for the people around you, which is exactly what it means, but I’m beginning to think there is another meaning there as well. I realized that I also need to be filled with the charity that Christ has for me. Without that I am literally nothing. More and more I have seen how that charity and love that He provided through His atoning sacrifice is exactly what is able to carry me through all the hard times. Charity is not just for other people, but it is meant for us as well 🙂 The Jesus Christ who supplies that charity is the one that we are sharing a message about. This is His church and His message 🙂 How grateful I am to get to be sharing that with everyone I meet 🙂 I am also so very grateful that we are getting to have this devotional and spend this time thinking of Him and the endless blessings that come from His sacrifice 🙂

Here is a little insert from my companions email home –
“OH MY GOSH I HAVE THE BEST NEWS IN THE WORLD!!!!! The Elders in our last area went over to see R______ for the first time last week. The last time we had taught her, we talked all about baptism and invited them to pray about being baptized. Before the Elders even started their lesson, she asked if she could be baptized, along with her kids!!! What a miracle!! She had told a member of our ward that she loved the missionaries, but she would never be a convert. I just love the way the spirit can completely change our hearts. They’re getting baptized on Valentine’s Day and we get to go! :)”

I think I might have mentioned R______ before. She didn’t even want her sister meeting with the mormon missionaries, but her sisters faith was incredibly strong even though she didn’t have a ton of knowledge. Her faith is what inspired R______ to start meeting with the missionaries! She truly is an incredible miracle that we have gotten to watch unfold right before our eyes 🙂

One last little story-
Knocking doors in our area is a little rough. The houses are spread really far apart, and there isn’t much road to park the car on. Despite all this we make it work even when it is rough. This past week we went out to knock doors and we couldn’t find a place where there were more than 3 houses in a row without a mile gap in between them. Once we had finally found a place we next had to find parking. This being done we began the long walk. At first we encountered a not so friendly mama dog, but no worries, nothing too crazy happened there. We were able to pass by her with little to no problems except for a little fear in our souls. Not many people listened to our message, but the cool part came at the end. It had been stressful and tiring, but as we were coming up the hill back to our car God gave us a blessing- Right as we topped the hill an incredibly breath taking sunset came into full view just as it was reaching its climax 🙂 It was incredible and a tender mercy from our loving Heavenly Father 🙂
I love you and the church is true!
Sister Mignonne Rogers 🙂

January 19th, 2015

Sorry it took me so long to get this email out The doctors took a good minute and it is an hour drive into town so that ate up most of our day. It seems like Sister Winkel just has bad allergies to Mississippi, poor thing

Our week was wonderful with lots of good missionary moments. One night we had two of the people who were baptized just a few months take us to meet two of their friends, and they were simply fabulous! As soon as we sat down they told us, “Just go ahead, we really don’t know anything. Just tell us what you know,” with big smiles on their faces. They know lots of wonderful members of our church that have been great examples to them, and they really admire the programs that the church puts out. We already love them and look forward to getting to go back and visit with them again soon 🙂

So kind of an awkward experience, we were out knocking doors this past week and we came to one door where a very large white woman answered the door. We explained to her that we were missionaries and then she yelled into the house, “Hey granny, do you wanna talk to these people?!” Then from around the door came this tiny little black lady. She smiled at us sweetly and then in the kindest little voice said, “Never come back,” and shut the door. Not the typical response we get at a door approach.

This week we have done lots of driving and made tons of phone calls. We’ve learned that people like to have appointments scheduled not just a few days before, but preferably they like them to be at least a week in advance. Good news is, we have lots of appointments scheduled for this week! We are excited to get to meet so many wonderful people 🙂

There was another day this week that a sweet little elderly lady took us out to visit all of her friends. She is so cute! This little lady is in her late 70’s and she’ll come and pick us up to, “go out visiting the elderly.” That woman is a true vision of dedicated service to the Lord. She loves the gospel and wants to tell everyone about it all the time! It’s inspiring 🙂

I love you and the church is true!
Sister Mignonne Rogers 🙂

P.S. For anyone that is interested in a little analogy –

The Snake

There is a lot to be learned from God’s creations and recently I realized that the little snake can teach us a lot about growth and overcoming our doubts. Every so often a snake grows a little larger and has to lose the skin it is currently wearing. In order to free itself it has to rub against rough places so he can once again move about freely. If he doesn’t loss his skin then he will be confined to never growing and reaching his full potential. Though at times it might seem difficult to rub away the old skin, he finds it is well worth it once the task is complete. There comes a point in our gospel learning that faith become knowledge and we grow to another level of understanding. In order to reach this point we have to be willing to stretch ourselves and get through the rough patches so we can reach our full potential. It isn’t always easy. In fact sometimes it is downright uncomfortable, but if we never let go of our doubts and move forward in faith so we can grown in knowledge, then we will never become all we can. I know sometimes it is difficult to get out of our comfort zone, but my testimony of the importance of the rough places has grown tremendously over my mission. Heavenly Father definitely has a clearer understanding of what is to come and I am so grateful that He only lets my understanding come in bite sized pieces 🙂 I’m grateful for the knowledge and growth I gain as I learn to exercise the faith that God has blessed me with. We are all blessed with that faith to move forward. We just have to move so we can rub the doubt away and grow 🙂