Das Leben eines Missionars....Week 17 in Wiener Neustadt

Ich begrüße euch alle! 

     I am getting worse and worse at recognizing time. I look at my watch on Tuesday and I think. Holy its 4:00 pm and its Tuesday, then the next time I look its like Sunday Morning and I'm sitting in Church. I actually look at my watch a whole lot more frequently but im trying to explain a point which is the extent to which time flies. 

     But think about that. How many expressions do we have for time. Since when did time adapt characteristics of living things. Time... Flies, Crawls, Walks, Runs and Zooms. What is time. IS it real? I am so fascinated with the aspect of time. I remember experiences of days from years and months ago like they were but mere days ago. And then I look at other ones and I'm like holy cow, that was like forever ago. How does time do that? It has a hold of my mind. Then look at time in relation to the scriptures. You get into the little books after Nephi. The book of Omni is one of the smallest books and it takes up almost 200 years of time. The sons of Mosiah were on missions for something like 14 years. Dude. Time is so cool. 

     The news of the week is as follows... I, Elder Rodgers, will be staying in my wonderful ward which is Wiener Neustadt. My new companion will be the one and only Elder Durrant from St. George Utah (if I remember right). He is wonderful! He is in my group! (went in the MTC at the same time) so we know each other already. We are the same age on our missions. Wondrous! I look forward to seeing him again! After he travels for like 12 hours across the Mission haha. I'll be spending that day in Wien most likely. Elder Smith is off to Germany. According to the members here he "Sinned" and therefore was cast out to the land of Germany. Really quite funny actually. 

     I was on Tausch with Elder Croft this week. Oh that blessed soul! Friends for life me and him. He is hilarious. We worked so well together. Had our 2 hour thing fall out in Wien so we walked around in the rain going by on people who needed some follow up. A conversation can really go anywhere at that point. I respect him very much! And I will be able to have another tausch (exchange) with him this transfer too! So the was Tausches work is that the District Leader will tausch with all the missionaries in his District. Elder Smith was the DL so that's why I got to do all the tausches. Sick right!!! (Tanner is now the district leader so he will going on exchanges with each elder in his area)

     I was fortunate enough to give the lesson in Priesthood on Sunday too. It was from the talk by Elder Christofferson called Spiritual Whirlwinds. Made me miss the temple! I wanna go to the temple again! haha I miss it! You are all so blessed back home for having one right there in Cardston. I am so totally gonna use that more when I get back. It's awesome! The Temple is one of the greatest sources we have for protection from the storms of today. It's so cool! Family History and helping people and doing all the awesome stuff in Temples. It's the sickest! Really. I admire the people who sacrifice so much to make it to the temple. 

     Alma 38:5 is my scripture of this week. Trust is the answer! I think trust will get you though any situation. Ever. Trust and then go forward. Throw that in conjunction with 1st Nephi 4:6-7 and you got the recipe for success! 

I love Austria! I love the German language! It is so full of blessings. Did you know that Joseph Smith could read perfect German? Boss right! Have a wonderful week! I really do love you all!

Elder Rodgers <3

Aint it gorgeous?

Cool dude outside the window hanging from a helicopter!

Schön!! (beautiful)

Accidentally cut part of my nail off. Whoops! Allas ok now though!

Hump day is a missionaries half way mark. Tanner had his hump day
this last week. This is his camel I sent him.

ann überhaupt nicht übersetzen... :).....Week 16 in Wiener Neustadt

Hallo liebe Familie und Freunde! 

     I'm out of words to say for this week because I used them all up in sacrament meeting yesterday! I'll get to that in a minute...

     I would venture to call this week... The Half and Half week. I was half with Elder Smith, half not. We were on 2 Tausches this week. So after our journey on Monday up the magnificent Schneeberg we had a meeting in Wien on Tuesday which was very well put together and very well done. Then started Tausch #1. Elder Kingery. 

     Elder Kingery. We came back to Wiener Neustadt. We got here just before 5 because the meeting was long. We taught German and then went home for dinner. But that night we opened up the windows and leaned out the window looking at the sky for over an hour. Counting airplanes and watching the wonderful sunset that we get every night in Wiener Neustadt. That was awesome. I love taking some time to watch the sky and just think. 

     Wednesday we then proceeded to do missionary work then travelled to Wien to tausch back. Elder Smith and I spent that evening together at a lesson. Way cool :) Then came Thursday. Tausch with Elder Gomez Torio.

     Elder Gomez Torio. We came back to Wiener Neustadt. Went to our Missionary Council meeting thing with the ward mission leader. Went to a lesson. It was so sad. We actually were dropping him. And he was so sad at the end. He even punched my arm when I told him we wouldn't be coming back. But he really wasn't making progress or doing anything we had asked him to do. It was sad for sure. We taught German then had another meeting. Lots of meetings on a mission... haha

     Friday we tausched back, had an eating appt. Ya. Sport Evening. Played soccer with some cool people! Then it was already Saturday... on which we did lots of heavy lifting at a service activity. Tons of marble man. Holy Cow so heavy! Great lunch! Then a few things to do then, ya. 

     Time really just flew this week though. Ok then Sunday... hahahaha so funny. It made my week! So there was a baby blessing so we had a ton of visitors! Then some other random visitors decided to come too. So we had almost double the ward size. Well there was a family from California. So in Sacrament I got to translate. So we have a microphone and I sit on the stand beside the piano and translate and the listeners have a headset. Well... I understand German fine. I speak it fine. But translating is so hard! 

     I translated the Baby Blessing, all the announcements and whatnot. Calling and releasing of High Councillors. Wow. Ok then Elder Smith was the first speaker. The hardest thing with this is listening, saying it in English and then as I'm saying it, listening for the next line. Its so crazy! I cannot multi-task. I grew in respect for women. Well American German, I could handle that. Slow speaking. Clear. Then you get the real German speakers... Wow! The 2nd speaker started with a picture and the whole first part of the talk was based on this picture. Well I couldn't see the picture so I was lost. After the words I finally guessed it was a flower and confirmed that by looking to the Americans and saying in my mike " I assume its a picture of a flower right?"  They nodded. Well by this point I had missed the next 5 lines haha. It was a mess. At points I'd just say into the mike, "Sorry, I totally missed that" or " I really didn't understand what she said". Ha it was hilarious. At least they got something out of it! And the last speaker used a thousand scriptures and quotes and I didn't have English scriptures or the quotes lol so I just had to summarize them in my own words. hahah I was a mess. But so funny! Won't be forgetting that any time soon! 

I love life. I love my Mission! Its the best thing ever! What a great place to be! And to learn! I love it!

Have a wonderful week :)

Love, 

Elder Rodgers <3

Sick Sky eh?

LIGHTNING!

Liebe; das Thema der Woche....Week 15 in Wiener Neustadt

     Oh I love being a Missionary! It is the coolest. In absolutely every aspect. It is simply the coolest thing in the world! Everyone should go serve a Mission. Couple Mission or anything. Go do it! Its the best! 

     I love so many things. I've become a lil... maybe say... infatuated... with the aspect of Love this week. I've always loved the concept of love. But I took it to a new level this week and applied it in everything I did. It made a huge difference. To me. I looked into different qualities of love and just like.. every aspect of it. Well ok there are hundreds but every study was revolved around that. 

     It started with the Talk from this last conference from President Monson... " Love, The Essence of the Gospel". Well if that didn't just spark me right up.. MAN! Go read that talk! Its so good! So good! I also really enjoyed the talk "I Have Given You an Example" by Elder Scott. I think that one applies to many situations. Especially to those who are trying to help others come back to the Gospel. It really is great. Gives a ton of ideas on how to help others. I love talks! 

     Had another P-day today...Just another nonchalant day in the office.... I went Hiking... I love my Mission. Ha our area is great! We went and hiked up the Schneeberg again today! It was was great! I love the things I get to do on my Mission. I have the best Mission in the World. No offence to anyone else's Mission. 

     Last Tuesday we took a wonderfully long train ride to visit the city of Salzburg. The weather wasn't  exactly the most beautiful so I couldn't see all the mountains and enjoy the scenery to the max.. but it was still great. What a cool city! We met there with our new Mission President and his family. Way cool people! Its gonna be awesome having them as our Mission Leaders. I got to see a bunch of my other Missionary buds too! Its been a while for some of them! Ah so wonderful! I love Missionaries! 

     The Train rides were long. But we were with other Missionaries so it was fun lol. About 6.5 Hours total on that day. Lots of it. 

     We were actually dropped by 4 investigators this week. That's a pretty good hit eh? So goes it by the work! Sad. But hey. Maybe another time! Now we just gotta go find some more new people who will love the Gospel! YEAH! 

     I gave a couple blessings this week :) I love that. I can so totally feel the Spirit working through me when I do that. I love that feeling. I love the Power of the Priesthood. This Church is so true!

     I love my Mission. I love people! I love everything! Life is so good! I am so glad to be on a Mission. Its the biggest blessing ever! Life is simply awesome!!!

Have a wonderful week! Love you all!

Elder Rodgers :)

Met up with some friends while in Salsburg

Good ole Elder Graver

Caught in the rain! Got a little wet

Hike up the Schneeberg

Schneeberg Mountain

David, Elder Me, Elder Phillips, Elder Curtis, Elder Smith

FLOWER!

Workin' the way down!

WUNDERBAR!......Week 14 in Wiener Neustadt

     I love that word. I love Austria. I love the word Love. I love so many things. I love happiness. I love German. I love my companion. I love you. I love me. I love the Gospel. I love my Family. I love that I can sit here at a computer and write about the things that I love. I love it. 

     I did that because I do that all the time. I'll be laying there in my bed and I'll just talk to myself. Elder Smith comes in and is often a lil confused. So is life right! So is life when you are with your companion all the time. For 3 months. I don't know how we do it. I really dont. Talk about miracles eh? haha blessings from the Lord that's for sure. I'm going a little stir crazy. I feel like this email has become my rant. It takes to long to write this all out by hand so I save my inner thoughts for Mondays. 

     I can honestly say this week was so fast. One of my top 3 fastest weeks. It's likely because we were on Tausch (exchanges) more than half the week. Started out on Tuesday (Which was CANADA DAY!!!!!) with Elder Sumsion. We were in Wien (Vienna) together. Spent a great amount of time on the streets. There are so many people to talk to in Wien! So we did just that. Wednesday we just helped with a move! The whole day, 9-3 then we Tausched back. It was awesome moving in Wien! We drove across the whole city in a moving truck. It was so cool! What a beautiful city! 

     Thursday was a member day. We were with members a ton. We had our Ward Mission Leader Meeting, then we went to an appointment with another member, then taught German, then we had Priesthood meeting with leaders, and ya. So is life right? So many members! 

     Friday we were then again on Tausch! I stayed here and Elder Curtis came to Wiener Neustadt. We had a good evening at the church playing soccer with a bunch of investigators and members. Then  Saturday we had a lesson at lunch. We were fed to the brim. But then we gave a really well put together thought. One of my favourite lessons I have ever been a part of. Everyone, all 4 of us, learned something from that that we could apply to our lives.Then we tausched back. 

     My week went so fast! Church was great! Our Sunday School teacher is so awesome! He is an amazing teacher! I  just love that. Testimony meeting was wonderful too. The Spirit is such a huge presence in my life now. It is an awesome feeling always being able to have the Spirit with me. 

So now to this thought. 

     Started with 3 Nephi 17:7-9  Jesus Christ can heal us. He did it then, He lives today, He can therefore heal us in the same way. Cool right? Well then we look into many of the examples form the Bible and we learn that He heals us... " According to our Faith which is in Him ". So then, Do we believe He can heal us? If so, how do we show that Faith because we know that Faith without works isn't Faith. We show that by Repenting and following Him. Keeping Commandments and applying the Atonement in our lives.  We have Faith that when we come unto him and give up our weaknesses and our infirmities that he will then be there to support us. We act in Faith. 

     I know that when we follow Christ, He will be there to lift us up and carry us through. His Grace is sufficient. His Power is endless. He loves us more than we know.  I know that this is true. I have seen it happen. I see it happen. Faith... is always pointed toward the future :)

Have a wonderful week! I love you all :)

Elder Rodgers <3

Canada Day / July 4th Burgers!