“I wish to be up and doing. I wish to face each day with resolution and purpose. I wish to use every waking hour to give encouragement, to bless those whose burdens are heavy, to build faith and strength of testimony.”


—Gordon B. Hinckley, “Testimony,” Ensign, May 1998, 69

“This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).






“My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.


“… He that keepeth thee will not slumber.


“Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:2–4).


FEED MY SHEEP
Don't be discouraged in times of difficulty, But hang on, exercise faith, and keep up good courage, let what will, come; don't deny the faith, and all will be well."



----Joseph Smith


YOU ARE INVITED TO COME UNTO CHRIST

"Mormons Believe in Jesus Christ"

"Mormons Believe in Jesus Christ"
WE BELIEVE

"Oh, Lord, thou shalt save me if thou please; if not, thou shalt lose me; yet Lord will I keep my rudder true"

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009

WHAT'S UP?

Hey everyone! This week has gone by way to quick and I'm not joking, but we have had some awesome people that we knocked into and set return appointments for. Most of them we gave a Book of Mormon so that really helps. We have one progressing investigator right now, which is sad I know, but we are working really really hard and yet nothing for our efforts. I know the Lord doesn't put us through things we can't handle so we are bound to rise up soon. The weather dropped to -20 with the wind chill and that's like -8 in Fahrenheit so that's FREAKIN COLD! Ha! But I'm acclimating really well to it - well it helps when I have about 6 layers on, but yay lol.

Me and my new comp are getting along great. We really teach well and it just so happens to be we are the youngest companionship in the mission. He has only been out a month and a half longer then I have.

Our 'gators are doing great. We have two families that are looking really promising. One we have taught alot and the other we have just started teaching. They are both sweet families and love having us over, so me and elder beus are really hopeful to have someone on date by the end of the year. But who knows what will come up from now until then. That's what is so hard about this place, there is so much anti-stuff here it's incredible. The Lord knows what He is doing though.

Elder Rogers
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Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009

Wow, so this week was so cold it snowed all day on Sunday and lucky us, we had to go out knocking in it. Unfortunately we didn't get anyone to let us in, but we placed alot of Books of Mormon.

So me and my new comp are getting along great. He is a guitar player and so he always plays at night - that's just about the only problem. When I want to sleep or at least try to, he is playing and trying to write songs.

WE GOT A CAR .......yup no more walking everywhere its so awesome. Ha! I know I'm lazy, but walking for the last 3 weeks really took a tole on me. Ha! We got a 2009, dark blue cobalt. Tiny, tiny car. I feel like I'm going to die in it if we wreck and that's common on icee roads. So good thing my comp knows how to drive in the winter. I love you all.

Elder Rogers
Posted by at No comments:
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2009

Hey Everyone,
>
> wow this week was crazy it went by so fast. this week was transfers and im sad to say that tomorrow i will lose elder prince and he will be going to halifax to be my new zone leader so he isnt going very far so that means im getting a new comp his name is elder bues thats all i know about him he is apparently a really hard worker which is good because in my area we need hard workers or it wont be good. some other good news is that we migth get a car :) the down side is its one of the ones they are trying to sell so we have it as long as it doesnt sell so pray it doesnt sell for a while lol jk. it snowed yesterday and me and elder prince were out in it when it happened it was so stinkin cold when it started to come down i didnt think it was going to snow so i just left our appartment without any warm stuff on so it was pretty brutel for me but it has all melted away now there are still a few ice patches here and there so thats about it with the weather. our investigators arent happy that my comp is leaving he has been here for 6 months so everyone has grown attached to him so i hope that doesnt effect the teaching pray for them please they are still being stubborn but we did alot of finding this week to try to get more people to teach for me and my new comp but we didnt find anyone to invite us back :(
>
> i love you all and have a great week
>
> Elder Rogers
Posted by at No comments:
> Date: Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:16:39 +0000
>
> HEY EVERYONE
>
> so this week has been jam packed full of stuff which is ok because it makes it seem like it goes faster first of all i had 2 exchanges one with the zone leaders and the other with eastern passage again unfortunately though i did not go anywhere i stayed in my area both times for them which is ok but elder packard who is our zone leader has a sprained ankle and we are in a walking area so we were going at a really slow pace that whole day but it was good it gave us time just to talk and get to know each other better. Me and elder prince are doing well with the investigators the bad part is that aden the boy we want on date soon just got H1N1 and now is not aloud out for another week so he hasnt been able to come to church so we have to wait even longer now barbra and her family are doing good they still are praying i think though she has stopped being open to the gospel anymore this is what me and elder prince are sad about that but we both feel the same way about it we are going to still teach her and see where it continues to go. HAPPY thanksgiving everyone i sure hope you eat to your hearts content and eat some for me as well the canadaian thanksgiving was in october it was a little weird for me having it then but ill survive i guess its only 2 thanksgivings ha well the weather continues to fall but very slowly it is suppose to rain 3 inches today so we will be wet today
>
> well i got to go i love you all have a great week
Posted by at No comments:
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:32:58 +0000

Hey everyone!!!

So this week was really sunny for some reason but still cold it never got above 10 C or 50 in your terms so its cooling off and stayuing cold lol our investigators are still going good but the boy that we had hoped to have a date for his mom didnt bring him to sacrament meeting so we have to bump it back AGAIN its getting really annoying but we will get it sooner or later hopefully sooner and the big family that we are teaching still has some issues about the gospel we are trying to sort out but we have them praying as a family to get their answer which hopefully will come soon we cant do much more unless they progress. our other investigators that we have are basically classified as eternals and have been taking the lessons and coming to church for a long time just dont see the need to be baptised again. i guess that its a good thing that temple work will be done in the after life right?!?
>
> so the coolest thing that happened this week happened about 3 hours ago after the temple we got out and the olympic torch was coming through cole harbour so we went to go see it and see it beeing past off and i got some really cool pictures so hopefully i will get them printed off soon and send them but it was a cool experience to see that
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Everyone that knows Elder Rogers:

At the end of every post is the word "comments." If you would like to send some words of encouragement and or your love, just click on that word and it will bring up a comment box for you to type in and then just save it and it will be attached at the bottom of his posts for him to read the next time he gets on. He would love to hear from all of you.



Thank you to those of you who have left a comment to let us know how you know Elder Rogers and have become a follower. It will be a memory for him in his mission book that will be made from his blog. We would love to hear from everyone eventually.....Just go to Monday, May 3, 2010 in the archives list and pull up the "Getting To Know You" post and leave a comment. Thanks so much for supporting Elder Rogers.







A Title of Liberty

A Title of Liberty
In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children. Alma 46:12

The Book of Mormon as a Personal Guide

The Book of Mormon as a Personal Guide
By President Henry B. Eyring First Counselor in the First Presidency:

All of us feel, in our best moments, a desire to return home to live with God. He gave us the gift of His Beloved Son as our Savior to provide the path and to teach us how to follow it. He gave us prophets to point the way. The Prophet Joseph Smith was inspired to translate the record of prophets that is the Book of Mormon. It is our sure guide on the way home to God.

Joseph Smith said of that precious book, “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”1

The precepts of the Book of Mormon are the commandments of God we find in it. Some are direct commands from the Savior through His prophets as to what we are to do and what we are to become. The Book of Mormon gives us the Savior’s example to increase our faith and determination to obey His command to follow Him. The book is filled with the doctrine of Christ to guide us. Here is an example from 2 Nephi:

“[Jesus] said unto the children of men: Follow thou me. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, can we follow Jesus save we shall be willing to keep the commandments of the Father?

“And the Father said: Repent ye, repent ye, and be baptized in the name of my Beloved Son” (2 Nephi 31:10–11).

The book makes plain that we must receive the Holy Ghost as a baptism of fire to help us stay on the strait and narrow path. We are taught that we must pray always in the name of Christ, not fainting, and that if we do, we have this promise: “Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life” (2 Nephi 31:20).

The Book of Mormon makes plain in the marvelous sermon of King Benjamin what it means to have a love of God and of all men. When our natures are changed by the power of the Atonement and through our faithful obedience to the commandments, we will be filled with the love of God (see Mosiah 4:1–12).

The Book of Mormon also gives us confidence that we can become so purified in this life that we have no more desire to do evil (see Mosiah 5:2). This hope gives us courage and comfort as Satan tries to tempt and discourage us on our way.

Each time I read even a few lines in the Book of Mormon, I feel my testimony strengthened that the book is true, that Jesus is the Christ, that we can follow Him home, and that we can take those we love home with us. It has been for me the book of books. It is the word of God.

I pray that we and all those we love will drink deeply and daily from it. I testify in the name of Jesus Christ that it is a true guide.

Mar. 2007

The Message: Gifts to Bring Home from the Mission Field
By President Gordon B. Hinckley
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quite a few years ago I was in an airport and happened to meet some returning missionaries. Their families were there. They were picking up their baggage, and I said to one of them, “What’s all this you have?” He said, “These are gifts I am bringing home.” And that has given me the title of what I would like to share: “Gifts to Bring Home from the Mission Field.”

1. A knowledge of and love for God our Eternal Father and His Beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
“This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). There is no greater gift that comes to anyone in this world than a certain, reassuring conviction that God, our Eternal Father, lives and that Jesus is the Christ. I believe that. I think it is so very, very important.

2. A knowledge of and love for the scriptures, the word of the Lord.
As a missionary, I read each evening before going to bed a few chapters of the Book of Mormon, and there came into my heart a conviction which has never left: that this is the word of God, restored to the earth by the power of the Almighty, translated by the gift and power of God to the convincing of the Jew and the Gentile that Jesus is the Christ. I thank the Lord for the testimony which I have of the truth of the word of God as found in these sacred revealed books. And I would hope that every missionary would leave his or her field of labor with a conviction in his or her heart that these things are true.

3. An increased love for parents.
I have attended hundreds of missionary meetings over the years. I love to hear missionaries speak of their love for the Lord, but I also love to hear them speak with great appreciation and love concerning their parents. Boys who had been careless and indifferent stand on their feet and with tears in their eyes thank the Lord for their fathers and their mothers. In these days, what a salutary and wonderful thing it is to hear a strong young man stand up and speak with great feeling concerning his father and his mother, saying things he would never have said before in all of his life. Every boy and girl ought to come home with an increased love for parents.

4. A love for the people among whom they labor.
I love the English people. No one can sell the English short in my mind because I labored with them, I lived with them, I was in their homes at their firesides, I learned to know their hearts, and I learned to love them.

I have learned to love the people of Asia. I spent 11 years among them, and I love them. To me, I love them as much as I love anybody because of the experience I have had as a missionary, as it were, among them.

There’s something wrong if a missionary doesn’t come back with a great love for the people among whom he labored.

5. An appreciation for hard work.
Every missionary ought to come to realize that work, work, work is the key to getting things done, the key to success in life. There is no substitute for work, for getting up in the morning and getting at it and staying with it to get the job done. I don’t know of a greater asset for whatever lies ahead in life than the capacity to discipline oneself to work.

6. The assurance that the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is available to each of us when we live for it.
The availability of inspiration—each of us, if we live for it, if we cultivate it, can have it. I love these great words of revelation, these words of promise: “God shall give unto you knowledge by his Holy Spirit, yea, by the unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost” (D&C 121:26). What a precious gift to bring home—the assurance, the certainty that if we live for it, we have available to us that which comes by the power of the Holy Spirit.

7. An understanding of the importance of teamwork.
No one can do this work alone. We work in pairs. “In the mouth of two or more witnesses shall [all things] be established” (2 Corinthians 13:1). We work together. There is no place for prima donnas in the mission field. Our efforts are largely team efforts, and what a marvelous thing it is to learn to work with other people.

8. The value of personal virtue.
I think there is no greater thing concerning future integrity that a missionary can learn than the value of personal virtue. I think there are fewer words greater than the promise given under the inspiration of the Lord as set forth by the Prophet Joseph Smith: “Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly.” That’s the commandment. And then the promise: “Thy confidence [shall] wax strong in the presence of God” (D&C 121:45). That’s the promise to those who walk in virtue.

9. The faith to act.
“I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way … that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth” (1 Nephi 3:7).

We ask tremendous things of missionaries. It is so hard for shy and diffident young people to do the things we sometimes ask them to do. But what a marvelous thing that they try. They have the faith to do, the faith to act, the faith to go forward and make the effort. And what a marvelous gift that is to bring home.

10. The humility to pray.
Recognize that there is a power greater than ours, that no matter how good a man is, he is not good enough, that no matter how wise he is, he is not wise enough, that no matter how strong he is, he is not strong enough for all of the things which he will face in life, and that there is a source of power to which he can go with the assurance that he will be listened to and that there will be a response.

These are 10 gifts that I would hope every missionary would bring home with him or her—not a lot of tinsel, not a lot of dolls, not a lot of rugs or furs or dresses or plates, but these great, enduring, wonderful things. God bless you to keep the faith, and while doing so, enjoy with great happiness that which you are called to do.

For more on this subject, read “Ten Things to Know before You Go” by President James E. Faust, New Era, July 2002, p. 4.

[photos] Photographs by Matthew Reier; far right: posed by models

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