Monday, February 23, 2015

How much do I love the Lord?‏

Wassup wassup everyone! This week was pretty much the same old same old. We have been doing a lot of preparing for a meeting that we have on Tuesday that we will be teaching and its 3 hours so we have been doing A LOT of preparing for that. We got out and taught some people and didn't have any crazy stories like Dixon's about the gun in his face but I don't really want that to happen! The members here are so awesome! The Branch President up here is probably the most Christ-Like guys I've ever met in my entire life! He loves everyone and he never misses an opportunity to tell us that. 
This week Elder Riddle and I taught the youth for their mutual activity. Our youth are EXTREMELY immature. So they really didn't expect what was coming. They came in and sat down and were messin around like usual and once all of the youth got in the room and sat down we made them get up and do some push-ups and sit-ups and jumping jacks and they were complaining about it, they expected us to teach them how to be a missionary. Well what they didn't know is that we exercise every morning for 30 minutes. After that we proceeded to be very bold with them and stern. We were there to show them that being a missionary and growing up in general requires three things 1-Respect. 2-Sacrifice. 3-Maturity. All of those things are part of one thing. That thing is a question that we should allow to drive our lives. "How much do you/I love the Lord?" That was what we taught them. We as well needed to hear that. Often times i've noticed that we don't do what the Lord wants us to do and we never think very deeply about that but what we are doing when we want to do our own thing instead of sacrificing what we want for what the Lord wants we immediately disqualify ourselves from being able to tell the Lord that we love him. No one will stop you from saying it but when you say that and you are willfully disobedient to the Lords commandments you are showing the Lord that you love him with your voice but your actions are proof that you are mocking God. As we taught the youth with this kind of mindset i think that they really took it as a reality check and i think that we all should as well. When we kneel down to pray at night we should make sure before we tell the Lord that we love him, we better make sure that we are doing as the Savior directs in the book of John "If ye love me keep my commandments."  Whenever we are faced with a decision in which we have to decide between something we want and something the Lord wants we should let that question echo in our minds... "How much do i love the Lord?" 
I love you all and i hope that this may help you in whatever way you will allow it. Be obedient and the Lord will give you what you deserve.
-Elder Rogers

Monday, February 16, 2015

The Black Box

Wassup wassup everyone! This week was pretty much the same old same old. We have been doing a lot of preparing for a meeting that we have on Tuesday that we will be teaching and its 3 hours so we have been doing A LOT of preparing for that. We got out and taught some people and didn't have any crazy stories like Dixon's about the gun in his face but I don't really want that to happen! The members here are so awesome! The Branch President up here is probably the most Christ-Like guys I've ever met in my entire life! He loves everyone and he never misses an opportunity to tell us that. 
This week Elder Riddle and I taught the youth for their mutual activity. Our youth are EXTREMELY immature. So they really didn't expect what was coming. They came in and sat down and were messin around like usual and once all of the youth got in the room and sat down we made them get up and do some push-ups and sit-ups and jumping jacks and they were complaining about it, they expected us to teach them how to be a missionary. Well what they didn't know is that we exercise every morning for 30 minutes. After that we proceeded to be very bold with them and stern. We were there to show them that being a missionary and growing up in general requires three things 1-Respect. 2-Sacrifice. 3-Maturity. All of those things are part of one thing. That thing is a question that we should allow to drive our lives. "How much do you/I love the Lord?" That was what we taught them. We as well needed to hear that. Often times i've noticed that we don't do what the Lord wants us to do and we never think very deeply about that but what we are doing when we want to do our own thing instead of sacrificing what we want for what the Lord wants we immediately disqualify ourselves from being able to tell the Lord that we love him. No one will stop you from saying it but when you say that and you are willfully disobedient to the Lords commandments you are showing the Lord that you love him with your voice but your actions are proof that you are mocking God. As we taught the youth with this kind of mindset i think that they really took it as a reality check and i think that we all should as well. When we kneel down to pray at night we should make sure before we tell the Lord that we love him, we better make sure that we are doing as the Savior directs in the book of John "If ye love me keep my commandments."  Whenever we are faced with a decision in which we have to decide between something we want and something the Lord wants we should let that question echo in our minds... "How much do i love the Lord?" 
I love you all and i hope that this may help you in whatever way you will allow it. Be obedient and the Lord will give you what you deserve.
-Elder Rogers

Valentines Day

I was just reminded by my companion about something that happened to us this week... It started on Friday night. We were walking back to our apartment and a van with two girls in it drive by and the driver honks and blows us a kiss as they drive by....... we both kinda are a little stunned cuz that has never happened to us before..... well the next day was even worse.... we were walking in a different part of our area and as we're walking a red car with 3 younger looking girls in it drive past and as we always do when cars drive by, we wave at them.... well 30 seconds later the same car passes us again and we both kinda got a little weirded out but whatever their probably just looking for a house or something.... well then they come up from behind us and one of the girls rolls down her window and yells out to us "Hey! My friend wants your number!" There were like 500 things flying through my mind of things that i wanted to explain about how we're missionaries and that we don't give it out for that reason ...... things like that. And Elder Riddle must have felt the same way because nothing was coming out of our mouths... I was trying so hard to say something but nothing would come out of my mouth...Finally elder riddle wrestles words out and says... "sorry we don't give it out" when actually that's what we do all day every day but we were both just so shocked that one someone actually talked to us first and two they wanted our numbers....... dealing with the opposite sex when we get home is gonna be an awesome experience for those around to watch! And that actually happened on Valentines Day.... anyways that was one of many crazy things that happened this week!

The Black Box‏

Wassup wassup??? Life in Atmore is pretty much still the same! This week we have been doing a ton of family history and i'm loving it. I've gotten pretty good and i've found out a lot of stuff about my ancestors. Learning about them is way fun and hearing stories is even better! Family History is by far the most effective tool over here in Atmore! Lessons are hard to come by.... we average probably around 2 but we taught 5 this week and they all were related to Family History. Its a ton of fun and if you haven't started i would suggest starting on yours. Or try indexing! A while back i was indexing and i stumbled upon a set of marriage records from the 1960's from the Weber County area... well on this one it had been a marriage performed in the temple... and it was performed by none other than David O. McKay.... the prophet! Cool things like that don't happen every day. Last week i set a goal of doing 1000 push-ups in a week.... persistence is key! I achieved my goal with 1010 pushups... it was actually a lot of fun and it was hard which makes you feel good at the end of the week... i challenge everyone to try it! On Tuesday we had a zone conference in Pensacola Florida. The purpose of the conference was so that all the missionaries could get "black boxes" installed into our cars. A black box is pretty much like driving with your mom.... it tells you when to slow down... if you brake to fast... if you hit bumps to hard... if you are belted up..... and then if you don't do what it says you could lose your driving privileges. Just like driving with your mom.... anyways that's pretty much it for the week down here in the south! 
-Elder Rogers

Monday, February 9, 2015

How hot can it really be???‏

This week we got to go to the transfer meeting even though neither of us were being transferred and we got to watch as everyone got their new assignments! It's really fun to be at that meeting when you aren't going anywhere or getting anyone new. There were not that many changes made to our zone this transfer but it was a good meeting to attend. 
President Smith has now invited all of us to rise to the challenge of being consecrated missionaries. What it takes to be a consecrated missionary is to sacrifice 5 things:
1- Any disobedience. 
2- Fear
3- Romantic Passions
4- Pride
5- Sarcasm/Negativism. 
It's a really hard challenge... the hardest one is FEAR. Fear is something that everyone faces and its something that to overcome you have to confront and push yourself through it. Fear stops me especially from talking to people that i know i should. So that is what i am working on. Pushing myself through my fear and talking to people and taking every missionary opportunity that i see. It's hard but small small:)
Last night we were at the Sizemore's for dinner and Brother Sizemore collects hot sauces... well he had the number three hottest hot sauce in the world and so i was like "ya i'm awesome and can take on anything".... that way of thinking led to a very painful next 60 minutes. I only put the amount of what sticks on the tip of a toothpick three times on my tongue..... it was so hot. But now i can say i did it so pride is now restored:) After i conquer the fear aspect of being consecrated then i'll work on the pride.... This week i've set a goal to do 1000 push-ups in a week... i started today and so far i'm at 185. My arms cannot push me off the ground anymore so if i don't make it its because i physically cannot do it. Anyways that's all for this week!
-Elder Rogers 

Monday, February 2, 2015

Whats up whats up!

What's up whats up! Life out here is the same ol same ol. We did more exchanges so i got to go to Mississippi for a night this past week and i got to go to Monroeville Alabama and if anyone knows the book "to kill a mockingbird" that is the city were it took place and that's about there only claim to fame but they do have a McDonalds so their population isn't the lowest i've seen yet. 
Other than that the big thing that happened this week was transfer news. Elder Riddle and i are staying so that's super awesome and we are way stoked for this next transfer. There were only 4 people being transferred so i hope that like Elder Milne comes up to one of the spots that are open in our zone.... that would be an all-star zone!
 So last night we had dinner with the Sizemores and Brother Sizemore works in the Holman prison out here which is a max security prison and one of three prisons that have authority to do death sentences... so people come here to die... but he brought out a box with all the stuff that he has confiscated from the cons...... he has like 100 shanks and some really cool homemade stuff like tattoo guns.... but i'll send those pictures when i have more time and better internet! That's all for this week! I wish you all a great week!
-Elder Rogers