4-23-2019 and 4-24-2019 - Surprise Surgery!

Monday afternoon, 4/22/2019, Elder Rose began to feel sick to his stomach, and he began to think that he had caught the stomach flu that his companion, Elder Craner had dealt with all last week. As the night continued, he felt worse and worse. It is my understanding, as his mom, that he called the mission nurse Tuesday morning and expressed that he was very sick. She, at first dismissed the worry, and told him that he and his companion had shared the bug. But, she told me later, that she had another thought, so she called The Church of Jesus Christ's of Latter-Day Saints Mission Medical Team in Salt Lake City. Between her feeling and what they had discussed on the phone, she talked to our Elder Rose again, and after having him do some tests while she was on the phone with him, she sent him to the E.R. around 3pm, Texas time. They originally weren't sure what was going on, because his white count was perfectly normal. 

After doing a CT scan, they discovered that his appendix was the source of the problem, and the appendix needed to be removed! So, Elder Rose called home around 6pm, Idaho time, after he got the ok from President Hales to call. Elder Rose's dad was on the phone with the mission nurse at the very same time. We were told that he would be having surgery because of appendicitis, and that we would be updated as soon as things were complete. What a nerve rattling phone call!

Many tender mercies occurred throughout the evening: Elder Craner keep me (Mom) in the loop with lots of pictures and texts. Sister Bergeson also was updating Dad. Then, a Brother from Elder Rose's ward in Abilene just happened to be his anesthesiologist, and he sent me (Mom) a text while they were in the operating room, and then he called me while Elder Rose was in the recovery room too! What a blessing!! I couldn't thank him enough, and I sure don't remember the whole conversation, but I do recall him telling me that Elder Rose was doing very well, and that the surgery was quick. I thanked him over and over, and he said, "That is what we do. We take care of each other."

Lots of tender mercies... The Lord is aware of us, individually, and wants to bless us. And it is through others that He does this. I believe this with all of my heart.

Dad and Mom, Ta'Lee and Ryan and Stockton all gathered together that evening, and after hearing the news that the surgery went well, we knelt in prayer as a family and gave thanks to our Loving Heavenly Father for the many blessings He has given to our family, and to our dear Elder Rose.

The last picture is from Saturday, 4/27/2019, and Elder Rose felt good enough to attend the ward party that was planned for Saturday evening, and the Abilene ward's Bishop's wife sent this picture to us through text to let us know that he was feeling better and looking better too. I'm sure that this has been a very long week for him, and I know that he was telling Sister Bergeson that he was feeling quite stir crazy. So, I am certain that getting out and about to do the missionary work that our Elder Rose has been loving to do was a breath of fresh air for him.

I'm so grateful to those that have kept us, as Elder Rose's parents and family, in the loop of his improvement. We can't thank those around him enough for all that they have been doing to love and care for our son. Many loved ones that we have never met.......

BUT are angels on earth.

4/22/19

Hello everyone, 

Hope y'all had a great Easter yesterday and were able to reflect on the Saviors life and Resurrection. What a beautiful day to remember all we have been given.

This week has been very tough. Last Monday Elder Craner woke up not feeling very good. Later that night he was not doing so hot at all, and the next day he was miserable. He got a little case of the stomach flu. Being sick as a missionary is the worst because we cant do much just sitting in the apartment. So the 4 days Elder Craner was sick I got about 26 hours of personal study. 😅

While Elder Craner was sick I went on a little exchange with Elder Jensen as well. That was a good time and mostly cause I got to be outside again Haha. 

On Easter we had dinner with our Bishop's family, a lesson with Kèlè and her family (went over the baptismal interview questions), and we tried to be out on our bikes and talk to as many people as we came across. Which was very sad honestly. I've never been treated by people on my mission so poorly, but if God can love them so can I, I guess. Their time will eventually come. 

I was very grateful for those days and the time that I had to study and strengthen my testimony. This week in my studying and pondering I have thought so much about the Savior and the final acts of His life in the New Testament. Seeing the character that Christ had is incredibly humbling. Jesus Christ was our perfectly sinless older brother with the sole purpose in life to perform the Atonement so that we one day would be able to return to our Father in Heaven and gain that same glory. Everything that Christ did in His life reflects the love that He had for each and everyone one of us. Even though he faced so much rejection he loved all of God's children and desires our eternal life as well. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have of Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for His example and infinite Atonement he performed for me and you. I know that through His resurrection that one day we may all become like Him, and gain our perfected and glorified bodies. 

Hope y'all had a very Happy Easter. Thanks for the prayers my way and support. Love y'all! 

-Elder Rose

Elder Jensen

Mowing a Forest

4-15-2019 ~ 102° to 39° real quick

Family and Friends, 

What a week. We were able to see so many miracles and great things happen this week. The title of this explains the weather this past week......one day it was 102° and the next morning we woke up to pouring rain, 39° and tornado warnings about 60 miles away. Texas weather is nuts. But my week started out with a good exchange with Elder Newman. He is honestly the funniest person I've ever met. So that in its self made for a good exchange. This week we also drove over to Midland for Zone Conference. We normally just stay in our Zone for Zone Conference but this was a special occasion because they installed new Tiwi's in all of our cars.......tiwi is now a shewi. Zone Conference was great though. Elder Craner and I were asked to instruct on using the Book of Mormon in conversion. Studying and preparing for the conference I was able to reflect back and think how powerful and important the Book of Momron been in my personal conversion. There are so many things that I know because of the Book of Mormon, and I wouldn't want to replace that for anything. 

Amos, Kélé, Sophie and Abby are doing so good right now. They have been killing it on their goals to live the Word of Wisdom, they are 6 weeks free from alcohol, and about 4 from smoking. Kélé has only been struggling with coffee,  but the other night we had a great lesson with them. Afterwards their house was pretty chaotic with like a million things going on ha but I had a few minutes to talk to Kélé while everyone else was being crazy and we had a good little heart to heart about coffee and the only thing I think she needed was just another little shove to be done. Cause right away she told me that tomorrow was her last day. So please pray she can keep having strength to overcome these things before her baptism and see blessing in doing them.

For the past 5 months that I have been here in Abilene we have work so hard trying to find people to teach and it has been a struggle. One of the things that we have been doing is going over and seeing member families and teaching them the Restoration and talking about our ward mission plan and inviting them share the gospel. We've kept following up on the commitments we leave with them (just like would would if we were preparing them for baptism) and it has been hard to see any fruit's of our labors, but has been the best way to find people. So after setting and setting the table up for a big feast we were finally able to see some huge tender mercies this week and some meat for our feast that will eventually happen. We softly committed 2 more people that we are teaching to baptism. And we got 3 referrals from members in the ward this week. It has helped me realize how vital members are in the work that we are doing out here. Every thing us as members of the church do make an impact on someone somewhere.  I encourage you all to do a self evaluation on how well you to at sharing your testimony or beliefs with those around you. President Nelson said the single most important thing going on in the world right now is the Gathering of scattered Israel. And we can and should all be apart of that. 

Love y'all and hope everyone has a fantastic week.

Much love, Elder Rose

4-8-2019 ~ Conference, Tech, and Crosses

Hey family and friends,

The week started out going to Texas Tech campus on exchanges with Elder Taylor. It was such a good time. Campus is super crazy right now because Tech is in the Championship tonight, so I sure had some interesting contacts while we were there talking to people. But also saw some miracles. I was able to have some great conversations with people about Gods plan for us that was able to help strengthen my testimony of our Father in Heaven and I know they felt the same way. 

So this week on our bike day we ran into this lady that was doing some yard work and we asked her if we could do anything to help her so she started taking us into her back yard where her husband was. He was not happy to see us ha, he started mocking us so in return we started asking him some questions that made him really think. He finally got settled down right in time for his wife to bring out 2 boxes full of crosses that Jesus apparently told her to make? Haha she wanted us to take a whole box and pass them out to people but we had to turn her down on that one. But she still wouldn't let us leave without taking one for ourselves. After that we rushed over to our dinner appointment to find out that within the 8 hour we confirmed it she forgot that it was her son's b-day party ha so they gave us some pizza in a bag and then we had a lil picnic by a little lake and watched some people play the back 9 of the golf course!! 

 Conference was amazing. I loved the emphasis on teaching the gospel in the home, sharing the gospel with everyone, repentance and the peace that the Atonement of Jesus Christ can have on us. All of these things are so crucial in the time we are in. Hopefully y'all were able were touched by the spirit and were able to learn something you can apply to you life. 

Thanks y'all for all the support and prayers you send my way. Hope you all have a grate week and remember all of the many blessings that you have in your lives.

Much love, Elder Rose

4-1-2019 ~ God's Timing is Perfect

Hi family and friends,

It is hard for me to believe that its already April. This week was a quick one with lots and lots going on. This week I got my new companion (Elder Craner). He's a great guy and really good missionary. We have so many weird things in common both being from Rexburg. But I'm excited to see all the miracles and blessings that come this transfer. 

This week Elder Bauer, serving in 1st ward, had to get a surgery, so we were bouncing back and forth with Elder Jensen doing some exchanges so he wouldn't go insane just sitting in their apartment. They are a bike area so that makes everything else for them a little tougher also! But through the Atonement of Jesus Christ anything is possible to get through. 

This week we went to MLC in Lubbock. It was a great meeting with lots of good council and we were able to set some good goals for the mission to move forward and continue to find those souls that are ready to hear the message of the Gospel and be baptized. President Hales gave us some great council on Obedience to God's commandments. One thing he said was, "Being disobedient to God's commandments is like dancing on the Saviors grave." And that is so true. God gives us these commandments to help us draw closer to him and when we dont do that and reject his love we are denying everything that the Savior has done for us also. Just some food for thought. But while we were over in Lubbock, Elder Terry and I had the opportunity to swing in and see Dale Keyser. 

Dale that day had had a pretty long day working and lots of stress. He was pressured into failing back into some old habits by a couple guys he was working with. But when he got home he was so devastated in himself and felt remorseful for falling down again. But about about 30 minutes after he got home we showed up to his door. It was such a testimony builder for me to remember  that God knows us PERFECTLY. He knows when we make mistakes and he knows our deepest desires to do good. When we do make mistakes or fall down, he is willing to give us anything and everything to lift us back up and get us back on track to do good. But it is up to us to accept that!! When we showed up Dale knew that God timed that perfectly just to help him remember that he wasn't forgotten about after he slipped up. 

But God loves you, and if you don't know that for a fact I invite you to get on your knees and ask. You will get and answer and feel his love if your faith is sufficient.

Love y'all and hope y'all have a great week! 

-Elder Rose

3/25/19

Happy Monday everyone.

Well we got our transfer information last night and I got some great and very unexpected news!! I will be staying one more transfer here in the Abilene 2nd ward and training Elder Craner to be a Zone Leader. Elder Craner is actually from Rexburg....don't know him at all but hyped for this new transfer. Definitely was not expecting to stay because everything was just pointing to me leaving but I love this area so much and am super pumped to be here for Kélé's baptism!!  Kélé had her surgery this week and everything went super well for her. So far her recovery has been much quicker than her last cochlear implant surgery so she is positive that she will be ready for her baptism by May 4th. 

This week was a rough one with most of the people we were teaching....had to turn 2 people that we thought were pretty solid over to the Lord. One of the most discouraging things as a missionary is being able to see the potential that someone has and see their growth and testimony grow in the Savior and then have them deny what you know they feel. But the Lord will continue to prepare them in his time. 

This week we also hit up the Brownwood district council and then the next day drove to San Angelo to interview a couple people for baptism. (Another 150 miles on my record just like that) also got pulled over on the way back from San Angelo....but don't worry mom just got a warning;) 

Love y'all and hope every has a good week!! If y'all want my address is the same so if you are bored feel free to send me some Gatorade or ketchup...need some asap😅

❤Elder Rose