The blessings of getting hit by a car

So this week had a couple of firsts for me.

     For starters I became the area leader and my companion is a transfer 5 Zone Leader! He's way cool and such a great missionary. His name is Elder Lilya and we just get along so well. His dad is Air Force so we tend to think alike. We just can't agree on which is better: Air Force or Marines. The answer is Marines by the way.
     Anyway, I won't make you wait until the end of my email like I sometimes do. I got hit by a car. I was riding by the highway and this car was coming at me and I realized that the lady driving wasn't looking so she didn't slow down as she got closer to me. She wasn't actually going fast, she was coming to a stop. Anyway, I couldn't dodge it but it didn't look too bad so I just braced for impact and BOOM! Actually it wasn't bad at all. There was no boom. It bumped me and I just continued on like nothing happened. Nothing hurt and my bike was good so I went to check if she was ok because she was freaking out. After assuring her that I was NOT hurt at all and my bike was NOT broken she calmed down. Interestingly enough the only thing damaged was her car. It had a scratch on the front but was nothing severe. Since there were no damages done to either party we called it good and just kept going. And as we kept going we met Yamamoto. He's a mid-aged guy who was kind of interested in what we had to say so we did another first and took him to the church right then for a tour. He thought it was great when we explained that we help others come unto Christ by getting baptized and traded numbers with us. Later that night he even called us to give us his address and check our appointment!
     I don't have much time, but those are probably the only things you'd really care about. Is week was pretty good, I just left out a lot of it. I'll fill you all in sometime when I'm not a Zone Leader.
Elder Rogers

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

QUARANTINE

So you may be able to guess from the title but not much happened this week.

     Monday night Elder Watabe and I found a young Chinese guy and he invited us back for lessons later. Yesterday we found a Filipino lady who also invited us back for lessons later and she'll be coming to church soon.  My call should've said:

"Elder Rogers, you are called to serve in the Japan, Tokyo Mission, Chinese and Tagalog. speaking."

      Anyway, Monday night I got sick and went to the doctor's on Tuesday morning. They told me I had "Infruenza" and then freaked out way hard and told me to go straight home and not leave the apartment until Sunday. So I was quarantined to a little room in the back of the apartment for five days and forced to sleep as much as possible. Hibernating is cool for like the first day and a half but then you get over it. I slept for like 2 days and woke up just to eat and then I got bored and studied scriptures all day for 3 more days. That was actually fun though. I really like the full set of scriptures. They're way cool.
     I did sneak out of the sick bay one time for a Worldwide Missionary Broadcast and it was way cool. They changed our schedule so that we have a lot more freedom to work at more effective times. They've started to trust us a lot more and it's great. I don't feel like a little kid getting directions for every little thing. They basically just say "these are thing you need to do every day at some point. Other than that just go be effective and work hard." It's really nice because we've seen a lot of improvements already from it. Missionaries are doing a lot better work now!
     Yeah, that's about all the important events from this week. We went back to the big Buddha and found out that you can go inside it. So we climbed up to the top and it was cool. One of the members is going to take us to Costco tonight and I'm way excited because I've never been to Costco on my mission. It's going to be awesome because we're having a pizza party with all 6 missionaries. It's good to be in Takasaki.
     Oh yeah! While I was sick the members kept waking me up to tell me "get well soon!" and give us a whole ton of food. It was so awesome. I just build relationships with members by crashing bikes and getting horrible diseases. The other elders were happy about it and I'm now the favorite in the apartment. We'll see how long that lasts. They'll turn when I'm not the bread winner anymore, lol.
Elder Rogers Chinese New Year?

Something about Missionaries and False Idols...

Hey everyone!

     You may have guessed it but this week was busy again! I'll just hit the highlights this time.
     One, we met with a college student who runs an English Speaking Society for the nearby business college and he wants us to help teach his class. There are over 100 students so there's a lot of potential there! I'm way excited for that. That'll probably happen sometime in early February. I think I'll still be here for that but President Nagano has surprised me before.
     We met with a less active member and he said he'd come back to church next month so that was good. He also invited us to go be samurai with him at his dojo in the mountains. Not forever, just on a weekend sometime. He said he'd let us borrow some swords. Apparently the previous elders always asked him to let them go. I'm just fine without all that but if it makes him feel better I'll go cut some bamboo with the old guy. He's an interesting guy but I kind of like him.
     Since Elder Ito transferred into our apartment it feels like Kisarazu/Chosei District again. We're getting the band back together! All that's left now is Elder Purba! We're all old missionaries and Elder Ito is Japanese so we just speak Japanese all the time and my English is terrible. I'm going to get made fun of for speaking English like a Japanese person when I get home! Maybe I'll just have to stay in Japan. Okinawa's pretty nice....hmmm. Well, that's post-mission thinking so I'll leave it alone for now.
     We had a sports activity with the Ward and when Elder Watabe and I tried to leave after an hour to go do missionary work they said, "this is missionary work! You can't go!" So we weren't allowed to go. It was fun. We played volleyball and leg dodgeball. (Roll the ball across the floor while one team is in a small box and the other team surrounds them). It's for kids but it was way fun.
     Something else that was fun is Elder Watabe and I hiked a mountain to see a giant Buddha statue. Something about missionaries and false idols... We just can't stay away. We HAVE to go get a selfie with it! It was way fun but way cold. In fact, it was so cold that I was ready to go home and just call people for the night. But I remembered that before I left Kisarazu I made a promise that I would go to Takasaki and serve as hard as I could as a better missionary than before so.... we didn't go home. Instead we started knocking on apartments where a lot of Chinese people live. I like Chinese people, they want to hear about Jesus when they get out of the China bubble. (: So anyway, this young guy named Ben (Chinese people also have American names) answers the door and when we asked if he wanted to learn more he said yes! He said we could come visit him again after he finishes his big test because there's a nationwide giant test going on next week. So after that we'll go over and start teaching him. I'm so excited and so happy that we were immediately blessed for our effort. God doesn't always give us blessings right away, trust me I know, but He does always bless us. Sometimes it takes time and we wonder if it will even be worth it but I can promise you it will be and it is. I've been given too much to ever doubt that God loves me and will continue to help me. I know I'm not anything special either, God loves each and every one of us because we all are His children. I love being on a mission right now and being able to show people, maybe for the first time, that God is there and that He knows and loves them. There's no better feeling. I'm so grateful that I could come out on a mission and come to more fully realize just how good I've had it being raised in the church. For those of you who are church members already, "Don't ever take it for granted! Every minute is a blessing because you know your purpose and you know the truth." There are a lot of people who don't. You also have an obligation to at least share what you know to be true. Please be an example by living your beliefs.
 I love you all!
 Elder Rogers

 It snowed