Transfer Calls again

Sorry my emails have gotten so boring but that's just the way it is here. Having responsibilities keeps us busy but isn't very memorable or noteworthy.

     Anyway, pretty much the only interesting thing from this week was Transfer Calls. After being in Takasaki for one transfer and some change..............................that's how it's going to stay! I will continue on being Zone Leader here for at least a little longer. Elder Watabe will be transferring down towards Tokyo in a place called Urawa. He always gets city areas. Except for that one time he was near me in the most country area of our Mission. My new companion will be Elder Lilya. He's way young for a Zone Leader so he must be pretty amazing. He's coming from Niigata way up north which has more rice and cranes than people. We'll make sure to have lots of fun together. Another thing of interest is that Elder Purba will be coming up to join my District again. How cool is that! We're getting the band back together!
     Anyway, that's about it. We spent today packing while I jumped rope and ate all the moon pies in the apartment because I was bored. Junk food + boredom = bad combination. Love you all lots!
Elder Rogers

Our neighborhood volcano really started going off good the other day.
(It's not a cloud)

Sent home early :(

Soooo......
     You know that awkward moment when your interview with the Mission President takes an unexpected turn? Yeah. My last interview with President Nagano really surprised me because I was not expecting the curve ball he threw at me. I sit down and he asks me, "So Elder Rogers, you're Transfer 12 now right?"
     "I'm actually 10."
      "Oh, so you're still pretty young then. When do you go home?"
      "November 7th."
      "Oh! Actually I have news for you. You're going home early."                                                                "...............?.........?.....?.?..?.?????!?!?!!!?!?!!!!!!!?"
      "You're entire group is going to go home just 3 weeks or so early. You'll be home sometime in            October."
      "........?....??.....oh-kayyy...?" "So you just need to work harder for the rest of your time, ok?"
      "Yes sir!"
      And thus my mission was shortened. I will be home sometime mid-October. I don't know the exact date anymore. It just got changed because there's some Mission President Conference that messes with the transfer day. I'll find out exactly when I'm coming home later because I was thinking about it too hard and forgot to ask that important question. Whatever.
      As for the rest of this week:
     We had splits and during splits we were able to talk to Tsuneyasu, a little Chinese boy, about getting baptized. He was a little unsure about it until we explained it how a kid can understand. We put some water and pepper in a bowl and called the pepper "sin." Then we had him put his finger in it and he got dirty. We washed it off (baptism) and then put dish soap on his finger (the gift of the Holy Ghost). When he stuck his finger back in the bowl the pepper ran away from his finger and he stayed clean. After visually seeing a representation of what we were trying to explain, he got it and wanted to be baptized. I'm excited for him!
     We also helped some older members move into an apartment near the church, apparently so they can have us over to eat and practice teaching or so they can help us teach. They're way awesome and even took us out to eat afterwards. We went to a restaurant and had spaghetti while some American music played in the background. (I don't like listening to music on my mission by the way). Anyway, the members asked me if the song was English.
     "Yes."
     "What did he just say?"
Now this was a rap song so.....
     "It's probably better I don't translate it actually. Let's just say it's not something he should be saying."
Then he laughed and went on clueless that we were bleeding out of our ears. Lol
     Elder Holland did a special Conference just the other day and it was way awesome. Apparently there were like three of them but we only saw two. He was so into it and we all loved hearing what he had to say. I learned a lot and the lady in front of me was thinking about it real hard. I know because she kept nodding and at one point was actually laying down in the pew. (She was asleep). It was way good though.
     This week the Ward had a party and gave us all the leftover cookies. There were a lot and I sinned way hard with gluttony. So good though. Takasaki members are just too nice.

Well, that's about it for this week!
Love you all, Elder Rogers

Oh yeah, this is an erupting volcano we saw while driving around.  It
was cold so we decided to go warm up a bit.

My Week

This week can be summed up pretty briefly.

     On Tuesday we had temple Pday. Elder Wilcox was there and he brought Takashi. We all hung out and went to a car show that was way cool.
     The next day Elder Watabe and I had splits with the Assistants in Tokyo. That was fun but different from the work I've done in the past. Tokyo is the biggest city on earth and I've been in the countryside for my whole mission so it was new for me but good.
     Later on in the week we had Zone Meeting and some missionaries said it was better than last time. After Zone Meeting we visited Ben, our Chinese investigator (everywhere I go) and we taught him the Restoration. It went well and we'll be meeting him again soon.
     We had a sports night and we played badminton and ping pong. It was way fun but I haven't inherited my dad's Olympic level skills it seems.
     On Sunday we received a mountain of food from the members that made it a little tricky to bring home but made our grocery list a lot shorter. We also had Japanese sign language class. That was fun and actually not too hard.
     Today we had a lot of reporting and cleaning. I bought a jacket that's so waterproof it holds up to the faucet and I can even make a bowl out of it. It's pretty cool!

That's about it for this week. Love you all!

Elder Rogers

I apologize in advance for this email

Yeah.
     Life since becoming a Zone Leader has not been as glamorous as some may believe. I am soooooo tired. I'll just sum up everything in about 30 seconds.

     We went to visit a college and help out but instead we got locked out. We'll try again later. There were Christmas lights though because the city didn't feel like taking them down. That was a plus.
     We went housing and found a Chinese couple. Everywhere I go there's more Chinese people. I think I'm supposed to learn something from this. Like, learn Chinese so I can teach them better! However, that's easier said than done. And it's not very easy to say.
     Almost all the rest of our time was taken up by trainings and meetings. My head is so tired I can't speak Japanese OR English.
     And today. Well, since today is Tuesday that means it was temple P-day. That was much needed. I managed to do that in Japanese without dying. A lot of my friends were here so it made me happy. Elder Wilcox was there and afterwards we spent the day in Tokyo with him. To add to that, they brought Takashi from Kisarazu! It was so good to see him after so long. (BTW it's been like a whole month). We went around all over the place and sat in cars, rode segways, took selfies with giant robots, y'know, just the usual day in Tokyo.
     Tomorrow we have splits with the Assistants in Tokyo. I've never done missionary work in Tokyo before but I'm excited. I actually don't want to move to Tokyo because there's so much worldliness to get distracted by but I guess it can't be helped and it's only for a day.
Love, Elder Rogers