This week was cool.
We got on a train to go to a district Meeting in our Zone but
there was an earthquake and we ended up just riding trains back and
forth for like five hours before we were able to make it back home.
On Saturday I went with a less active to his samurai dojo and he
let me swing a real katana around and cut stuff. It was pretty fun.
We brought a kid with us and he had a great time and then this less
active samurai starts teaching him all about the church and how he
knows it's true. I was pleasantly surprised.
On Sunday we visited Melkio and he let us right in and wants us
to come back whenever we feel like it. He came to the church with us
because he couldn't find it before and now he wants us to teach his
kids and bring them to church! He said he knew that God had
definitely sent us to find him and bring his family to the church and
he felt different now that he had met missionaries again. It was
really cool to see that just meeting him made him feel different. I'm
really looking forward to meeting him again!
Elder Rogers
Monday, March 20, 2017
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
Busy
Here's the highlight reel for the week.
We had Missionary Leadership Council and it was cool. They told us what they wanted us to do and Elder Lilya and I had guessed the same a week ahead of time so we were way excited we didn't have to really change much. Then we gave lots of training's at Zone Meeting which actually went far better than expected. We planned it out good and had notes and things we wanted to say, but in the end I just put the notes down and didn't look at them and it went better than planned. Everybody seemed really excited and pleased with how it went anyway. Elder Lilya is a great companion. We think so much alike it's ridiculous. In a good way. We get along great.
We took Bro. Seki to the temple for baptisms for the dead and it was great. Afterward he went straight home but we stuck around a little and met people from every one of my previous areas! It was really cool and unexpected. It was just a perfectly timed trip. I posted some pics on Facebook but the comments are in Japanese because I'm tired of translating it.
We also went to Mormon Village for a party and got a ton of food. The members here feed us too much and I might get fat again. Oh well. That's about it.
Love y'all!
Elder Rogers
We had Missionary Leadership Council and it was cool. They told us what they wanted us to do and Elder Lilya and I had guessed the same a week ahead of time so we were way excited we didn't have to really change much. Then we gave lots of training's at Zone Meeting which actually went far better than expected. We planned it out good and had notes and things we wanted to say, but in the end I just put the notes down and didn't look at them and it went better than planned. Everybody seemed really excited and pleased with how it went anyway. Elder Lilya is a great companion. We think so much alike it's ridiculous. In a good way. We get along great.
We took Bro. Seki to the temple for baptisms for the dead and it was great. Afterward he went straight home but we stuck around a little and met people from every one of my previous areas! It was really cool and unexpected. It was just a perfectly timed trip. I posted some pics on Facebook but the comments are in Japanese because I'm tired of translating it.
We also went to Mormon Village for a party and got a ton of food. The members here feed us too much and I might get fat again. Oh well. That's about it.
Love y'all!
Elder Rogers
Monday, March 6, 2017
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
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
Monday, February 27, 2017
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
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) |
Monday, February 20, 2017
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
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. |
Monday, February 13, 2017
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
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
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
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
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
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