First week in the new area + even more miracles!! 🙏🙏🙏
Date
August 29, 2023
Area
Las Vegas, Nevada
Companion
First week in the new area + even more miracles!! 🙏🙏🙏
This is already probably my favorite transfer so far!
Even though these wards have a reputation for being a "dead" area (not having much work to do) we've had more lessons this week than I've ever had in a week!!
My first day in the area, we went to a nearby park to study together. A man approached us and asked if he could study with us- we gave him a copy of the book of Mormon and our phone number. He said he's already read a lot of it and loves it! Unfortunately he lives in the east Vegas mission, but it's actually pretty cool how we found that out. The east side missionaries called and said they ran into him, and noticed he had a book of Mormon already. So they got his address and are hopefully going to continue meeting with him. (#westsidebestside though)
There are two kids in this area who want to get baptized, but they want their dad to do it and he isn't worthy atm. But he's got an interview with the bishop and so hopefully he can start coming to church again!
There's also a guy named Kevin, insanely nice dude. When we set up a lesson with him, he was like, "can you guys bring me some cookies?". So we got some Keebler cookies at the gas station lol. He lives in a rehab center, he's recovering from a really nasty motorcycle accident that caused some brain damage. So he can't read, we've been reading a chapter of the BoM with him when we visit starting at 1 Nephi 1. We think he'll get baptized, but with his mental problems it's kinda tricky to know if he actually needs to or not. (Since if someone doesn't have the mentality past the age of accountability they are perfectly innocent, according to our mission president who we asked about him).
Also, side note, the first text I got when I came to this area was an invitation to a funeral for Pete the Peacock. Unfortunately we couldn't make it because of a lesson. But the peacock belonged to a convert in our ward, who has apparently visited every single temple! Also, the peacock was killed via crossbow by a neighbor, and someone called the news so apparently its gotten a lot of attention (heard about it from the bishop, we live right next to their house in their Casita). It's been the local drama here, apparently there's been several news vans come through. I just feel bad for the guy, he really loved his peacock. RIP Pete.
This week, we also found someone to teach and put him on date for baptism! He actually was baptized in '97, but there's no record of him getting confirmed so he can't get sealed or go to the temple or anything. So he had a pretty difficult time keeping his faith in the church since they lost his records, but he's always believed in the faith since he was converted. He said he had just about given up on being able to be sealed and being a part of the church when we called him- right when we did he asked if we could meet immediately.
That's when we learned his situation, and we had a follow up lesson on Sunday, and Bro Wareham who we brought to the lesson was awesome, and testified hard on the Book of Mormon, and even played his original rendition of my redeemer lives on the piano for him. One of the most spiritual lessons I've had on my mission.
There is also a somewhat recent convert who we met with, she has had a really bad family life for several years and lots of medical conditions, we just sat on her porch and listened for a while. She's super nice, just has the worst luck with people. She hadn't been to church in a long time, so we invited her and she came! It was awesome to see her, and it looked like the Ward was trying to fellowship with her. We're planning on meeting her again this week and bringing her ministering sister; our goal for her is to have her receive a patriarchal blessing and go to the temple.
I've met a lot of people who have been baptized in the past 5ish years or so, who don't have or even know what a patriarchal blessing is. So I try to mention it a lot, especially to converts- my own has personally helped me a lot, and given me spiritual strength.
I was also asked to give a talk in one of our wards my first week here and a training in the first district council here!! They actually record their sacrament meetings, so here is a link to the talk I gave; (I have no way of testing the link lol)
https://www.youtube.com/live/KIqFk5RO9j8?si=ZT65k12K2c1CpX1v
(it will only be around for a few days or so before they delete the link) I spoke on "Accepting the Invitation to Come Unto Christ". I've given a fair amount of talks/trainings on my mission, and each time is a little easier than the last but not by much 😅.
For my training, I talked about being genuine and working on christlike attributes found in PMG in order to love the people we teach more. And part of that is to speak to everybody, which can be intimidating, so I stole an idea from one of my trainers;
I gave the district all a small rock, with the invitation to "be a little boulder". 🪨 We can all be a "little boulder" (bolder) when inviting others to come unto Christ, remembering that has helped me a ton- nobody is offended when you are BOLD with LOVE.
🙏God bless y'all💛
-Elder "boy it's kinda hard to come up with a new nickname for my signature every time" Rogers
Pics
The "McMansion" where I live (is very tiny)
Tom sent me another laser engraved piece, this one is way bigger and on plywood
Helping a guy move some furniture out of a storage unit, saw a Mach 1 70's mustang (didn't even get it in frame because it's so bright out lol)
Serving downtown again 💜 I didn't think I'd miss it haha! Well, less downtown than last time but still near the inner city.
Even though these wards have a reputation for being a "dead" area (not having much work to do) we've had more lessons this week than I've ever had in a week!!
My first day in the area, we went to a nearby park to study together. A man approached us and asked if he could study with us- we gave him a copy of the book of Mormon and our phone number. He said he's already read a lot of it and loves it! Unfortunately he lives in the east Vegas mission, but it's actually pretty cool how we found that out. The east side missionaries called and said they ran into him, and noticed he had a book of Mormon already. So they got his address and are hopefully going to continue meeting with him. (#westsidebestside though)
There are two kids in this area who want to get baptized, but they want their dad to do it and he isn't worthy atm. But he's got an interview with the bishop and so hopefully he can start coming to church again!
There's also a guy named Kevin, insanely nice dude. When we set up a lesson with him, he was like, "can you guys bring me some cookies?". So we got some Keebler cookies at the gas station lol. He lives in a rehab center, he's recovering from a really nasty motorcycle accident that caused some brain damage. So he can't read, we've been reading a chapter of the BoM with him when we visit starting at 1 Nephi 1. We think he'll get baptized, but with his mental problems it's kinda tricky to know if he actually needs to or not. (Since if someone doesn't have the mentality past the age of accountability they are perfectly innocent, according to our mission president who we asked about him).
Also, side note, the first text I got when I came to this area was an invitation to a funeral for Pete the Peacock. Unfortunately we couldn't make it because of a lesson. But the peacock belonged to a convert in our ward, who has apparently visited every single temple! Also, the peacock was killed via crossbow by a neighbor, and someone called the news so apparently its gotten a lot of attention (heard about it from the bishop, we live right next to their house in their Casita). It's been the local drama here, apparently there's been several news vans come through. I just feel bad for the guy, he really loved his peacock. RIP Pete.
This week, we also found someone to teach and put him on date for baptism! He actually was baptized in '97, but there's no record of him getting confirmed so he can't get sealed or go to the temple or anything. So he had a pretty difficult time keeping his faith in the church since they lost his records, but he's always believed in the faith since he was converted. He said he had just about given up on being able to be sealed and being a part of the church when we called him- right when we did he asked if we could meet immediately.
That's when we learned his situation, and we had a follow up lesson on Sunday, and Bro Wareham who we brought to the lesson was awesome, and testified hard on the Book of Mormon, and even played his original rendition of my redeemer lives on the piano for him. One of the most spiritual lessons I've had on my mission.
There is also a somewhat recent convert who we met with, she has had a really bad family life for several years and lots of medical conditions, we just sat on her porch and listened for a while. She's super nice, just has the worst luck with people. She hadn't been to church in a long time, so we invited her and she came! It was awesome to see her, and it looked like the Ward was trying to fellowship with her. We're planning on meeting her again this week and bringing her ministering sister; our goal for her is to have her receive a patriarchal blessing and go to the temple.
I've met a lot of people who have been baptized in the past 5ish years or so, who don't have or even know what a patriarchal blessing is. So I try to mention it a lot, especially to converts- my own has personally helped me a lot, and given me spiritual strength.
I was also asked to give a talk in one of our wards my first week here and a training in the first district council here!! They actually record their sacrament meetings, so here is a link to the talk I gave; (I have no way of testing the link lol)
https://www.youtube.com/live/KIqFk5RO9j8?si=ZT65k12K2c1CpX1v
(it will only be around for a few days or so before they delete the link) I spoke on "Accepting the Invitation to Come Unto Christ". I've given a fair amount of talks/trainings on my mission, and each time is a little easier than the last but not by much 😅.
For my training, I talked about being genuine and working on christlike attributes found in PMG in order to love the people we teach more. And part of that is to speak to everybody, which can be intimidating, so I stole an idea from one of my trainers;
I gave the district all a small rock, with the invitation to "be a little boulder". 🪨 We can all be a "little boulder" (bolder) when inviting others to come unto Christ, remembering that has helped me a ton- nobody is offended when you are BOLD with LOVE.
🙏God bless y'all💛
-Elder "boy it's kinda hard to come up with a new nickname for my signature every time" Rogers
Pics
The "McMansion" where I live (is very tiny)
Tom sent me another laser engraved piece, this one is way bigger and on plywood
Helping a guy move some furniture out of a storage unit, saw a Mach 1 70's mustang (didn't even get it in frame because it's so bright out lol)
Serving downtown again 💜 I didn't think I'd miss it haha! Well, less downtown than last time but still near the inner city.
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