Sufferin' Suckatash, Sylvester...‏

It's official...the Bell's is back.

I'm taking steroids and some kind of antiviral nastiness (they pretty much just slipped me a horse pill and said this should fix it faster). I can ALMOST close my eye. So close.

So this week has been great! We've been busy trying to find some new investigators and none of it has really worked out. We got our first referral this week and tracting is NOT effective for us. We're mostly working with less-active members of the ward, which is kind of fun, honestly. They're all just wonderful :) It's really fulfilling to help them find the path again.

I'm sorry my emails have been so skimpy as of late - I promise I am doing missionary work, it's just not the kind of missionary work that is super instantaneously rewarding.

So we're working with a couple of less-actives that want to go through the temple on August 13th. They're in a kind of bad living situation, but we're trying to get them to move into a better apartment. The problem is that they've come into a lot of money as of late because of the husband's disability, which is good but bad, because now they keep buying things they don't need. Like a dog. they bought a dog. A big puppy. Bull Mastiff. An $1100 dog that they don't need. It's very difficult not to just take them by the shoulders and shake them and say, "BUDGET BUDGET BUDGET." That's not socially acceptable, though, so we don't do it.

There was a baptism into our ward - a mother and daughter, Elysa and Laticia Thompson. It was such a great service :) And I got to see some of my VC friends haha Sisters Zito and Moody came down. Sista Zito and I were cracking up making jokes about my face - she's a good sport.

So about the face :) It's still not movin', but I can lift the corner of my mouth a little bit so hey, we're just improving lol one facial muscle at a time. I'm already excited for the day when I won't have to tape my eye shut every night.

I've decided that this is a trial that is preparing me. You know, sometimes you come across trials that push your faith to the next level or realign your perspective? Well, this one is just for me. I'm definitly learning the meaning of patience and humility. It's hard not to be able to smile at people or eat without covering my mouth or pray clearly, but I know that I literally cannot do missionary work like this, unless Heavenly Father helps me. Like I said, humili-to-the-tee.

Thanks so much for all your love and support :) I feel your love clear over here haha and thanks for the letters - my primary class and Tonya and my mom (of course). Don't worry about writing me too bad, errybody. You're helping me stay focused.

LOVE YOU ALL A BUNCH!!! UNTIL NEXT WEEK!

PS I tore a hold in the pocket of my backpack. I'm a real missionary.

-- 

Sister Annika Rogers

This is what my face looks like right now.

    Kind of like this :S

This is what the weather has been like lately... also, notice that there is NO HORIZON IN KANSAS.  Creepy.

Me feeding a goat :) baby goats is cute an creepy.

We think we're funny haha we got drunk texted...wrong number

Hahahahaha‏

It's back

This morning I received a call from the mission nurse.  She informed me that Annika thought her Bells Palsey was back and that they were going to have her go to the ER to be seen. She promised to update me later, which she did.  She let me know that Annika had been to the ER and after having a CT scan done, they confirmed that it was her Bells Palsey. She told me that Annika had been given a prescription for an antiviral med and Prednisone.  She said that Annika sounded as happy and positive as always.
Later in the day, Ryan and I were each pleasantly surprised to get a call from Annika.  Her mission president, President Keyes, had given her permission to call, knowing that it would bring us a lot of comfort to hear her voice.  He was right!  It was so good to be able to talk to her and find out how she was doing.  She said that her "Bells" headache had come on about three days ago, but she got worried when it was sending pains to her shoulder.  That is when she called the mission nurse.
She sounded a little discouraged saying that she isn't able to blink her eye at all and her speech is slow.  But at the same time she is positive and trusting in the Lord, looking to see what she is to learn from this trial.  As we talked we were grateful for the tender mercy that Heavenly Father blessed her with.  The Bishop in her new area is a doctor in the ER that she went to.  She was able to call him that morning and he took care of her during her visit.  I felt extremely grateful as I was reminded that she is being watched over and taken care of.

In the ER.

I left my camera in Independence.

Full Pros! (whu-whut!)‏

OOOOOOOOOOOLATHE!!!! (Haha not Oklahoma. Psych.)

The transfer call came and now I'm in KANSAS!!! It's great! It's hot! It's flat!

Thanks to everyone that is sending me love via mail! The old mail address works just fine, but I have a direct one as well:

13987 W. 131st Terrace

Olathe, KS 66062

This address will be good until August 17th, so keep an eye on it, peeps.

My new companion is Sister Ewell, whom I have been living with for the past 4 months, but now we're actually companions. It's a little bit awkward, but that should wear off. Sister Lettig and I hit it right off as friends AND teaching partners, so this is new. But I am optimistic :)

We are living with a member! Which is where my funny story for this week comes in. Our member's name is Sister Moseley, and she's 69 years old. She's lost more than 50 % of her hearing, and she has a little dog that helps her around the house. The dog's name is Rivie, and she's 14 years old and (this is the best part) is also losing her hearing. So the very first day we get here, we throw our bags in our basement apartment, and then go to lunch with our district (TENDER MERCY - Sister Stobbe is in my district! Which means that I'll see her all the time!). We get back to our apartment about an hour later, and cant get in...no one answers the door, our key won't work, we can't get in through the back...turns out Sister Moseley had laid down for a nap and taken her hearing aid out, and Rivie fell asleep too. So we were locked out of our apartment for about 3 hours.

Also, I've learned to depend on a map here, so the very first thing we had to try to find here is a road map of Olathe...3 days. It took us 3 days to find the map. But we have one :) And all is well.

There are elders in our ward, and they've taken really good care of us. We have two investigators that are pretty much already baptized. We had our first lesson with one of them yesterday at a member's house. It was okay...we overwhelmed her/maybe offended her, but she texted us later that night, so it must not have been too bad.

We're seeing a lot of miracles - this ward is so excited to have us, and the area is on FIRE! We're getting so much support from everyone we meet. It reminds me a lot of Layton here (for your mental image since my drawing wasn't very good), just without mountains. Road construction and all.

Sorry this is such a vague email...all you need to know is that I'm alive and I'm having fun and I'm thinkin' Arby's ;D

I love you all so much and I'll send you pictures as soon as I get my camera back from Independence...oops.

LOVE YOU!!!

-- 

Sister Annika Rogers

Isaiah 49:16

TALOFA

(Samoan for "Hello" - I think this may be the last time I can use that, what with probably getting taken out of a Poly ward and all that...)

Mom, I got my package, and Sister Lettig got hers and they're just great :) Love you tons! Thanks a bunch. I'm finally sending some stuff back haha hopefully that'll make my packing a little bit lighter.

So I have had a long week. So long, in fact, that I don't think I can remember all of it to put it in an email. On a sidenote Brother Pendleton came into the VC, so that was fun :) Also, Sister Seamon from Weber State! It was a fun adventure haha earlier that day I took the sweetest little group of old people through. I loved them so much haha I wanted to keep them :) I love the bus tours of old people, because I get like five new Grammas and Grampas every time :D What's not to love??

So let me just tell you a little bit about our 4th of July. Soooo we may or may not have helped usher at the Community of Christ's auditorium. They had a cool little dancing/singing show that night, and we got to stay and watch! It was a lot of fun and kind of cheesy, with some cool numbers that were like...native american and hawaiian and a LOT of clogging. Clogging is cool, but I was pretty sick of it by the end of the first act. Intermission comes and goes and we're sitting halfway through the second act when all of a sudden...

THRILLER STARTS TO PLAY.

FOLLOWED SHORTLY AFTERWARDS BY DUBSTEP.

The Missouri Independence Mission is a very obedient mission...and especially where music is concerned (which is why I had to send two of my books home - sorry, mom). Needless to say, as soon as the synthesizer kicked up Thriller, I just about came out of my seat. Half of me wanted to sing, the other half was like, "I SHOULD LEAVE I SHOULD LEAVE I SHOULD LEAVE," Dubstep comes on and I kind of just hugged myself and held my breath.

I miss real music. So feel free to write down some songs that you think I'll love, but don't tell me about it for at least another year.

OKAY enough funny bizness. I gotta tell you the best miracle ever. So, we've been teaching a guy named Mark that I just have SO much respect for. He's golden through and through, the only thing holding him back is his wife. He doesn't want to divide their family by being baptized. That's also why he can't come to church. So this probably being my last Sunday in the 1st Ward, we texted him the Saturday before and said that we would be sharing our testimonies in church, and it would be great if he could come to the first hour.

So we're just chillin before sacrament, talking to some members, when all of a sudden, Sister Lettig starts smacking me in the arm. "Look who's here. Oh my gosh. No, down there."

AND

-- 

Sister Annika Rogers

Isaiah 49:16

TALOFA pt II‏

oops sent it on accident. CLIFFHANGER

AND THERE. SITS. MARK.

I could've died and gone to heaven, I was so happy. He stayed through sacrament and then we introduced him to the bishop and he left. AH IT WAS SUCH A MIRACLE AND I CAN'T EXPRESS IT IN THIS EMAIL.

Also, Rashida bore her testimony and it was AWESOME. Seriously though that Stake Center was so full of the Spirit, it almost got lifted into heaven.

So transfers are coming this week, so I will probably be getting shuffled somewhere new. I'll write it on the envelope to my parents, since I'll get the call around 9:30 pm and P-day ends at 6 pm. BUT you'll find out where I am whenever I'm there lol

SO DID ANYONE GO ON TEAMUPS WITH THE MISSIONARIES??? WRITE AND TELL ME. ALSO THANKS FOR ALL THE LOVE - NAT AND TONYA ESPECIALLY YOU GUYS ARE ROCKSTARS.

Love you all tons :) I'm gonna try to get the birthday cards all written out, but no promises. Talk to you next week!

--

Sister Annika Rogers

Isaiah 49:16

 

So much happy in one email...‏

Oh mah gash this week was crazy. HAPPY TUESDAY, PEOPLE OF THE WORLD!!! This week has been one of seizing cats and temple trips...between those and shaving my legs with lotion this morning I think I've pretty much done it all. 

First of all, last Tuesday my good friend Sister Moody and I went to the Community of Christ temple. It's kind of like an art gallery...just in case you were wondering. Lots of weird things that their members have donated. It's remarkable in that way, and in the architecture, but as far as spirituality goes, there's not much there. It's quite sad, honestly. Our tour guide kept mentioning that their church is an evolving church and that they have an overall message of peace and acceptance and this organ has so and so many pipes and this cross is made of 100 different kinds of wood from 100 countries since they're a worldwide church and look kids isn't this glass remarkable that was donated too isn't that lovely this tapestry has a woman participating in an ordaining because we are an equal rights church...not too much about God or even Christ. Very different from the next day's experience. Oh, yeah...I don't think I mentioned yet...WE GOT TO GO TO THE TEMPLE AS AN ENTIRE MISSION. That's never happened before in the history of a.) my life, and b.) the Missouri Independence Mission!!! It was so great! I got to see Sister Stobbe again and she was even in my group for the endowment session! It was like heaven when we walked into the Celestial Room - there was President and Sister Keyes waiting to greet us, and some of my besties waiting on comfy couches! Not to mention the gorgeous chandeliers, which are always my favorite part :) The whole day was kind of like in Alma when he's finally reunited with Ammon and Aaron and Omner and Himni, and he sees that they're all okay, and more importantly that they're still his brothers in the Lord, and Ammon's joy is so full that he falls to the ground a couple of times. When I saw Stobbe I just kind of tackled her and then we were in this huge group hug and I thought I was going to just die and go straight to the Celestial Kingdom haha I was so happy. 

The next day we had exchanges, and I was with my old MTC comp, Sister Diederich! We had a lot of fun going out into the sketchiest area by the tracks and then getting rained out. Seriously though we thought a tornado was going to come down and suck us out to Oz (PS how was that movie?). But we had a lot of fun haha kind of put Melissa on date for August 11th but that's kind of shaky so more later. 

Remember that one investigator that some other missionaries and us kind of tug of warred over? She was baptized on Saturday! Her parents were there and they're so nice. If only they didn't have a thing against organized religion...they'd make great ward missionaries. 

Sunday we went out on our bikes again which was an adventure...we've been really trying to just meet people on our ward roster that we've never heard of before, but we're having this problem where they've all either a.) moved, or b.) won't answer the door. 

We did the same thing on Monday, but we were in a car so it wasn't so bad. We've met some great people and seen a lot of beautiful parts of our area, but we haven't met any of the ward haha. 

There's one family that our bishop has asked us to see a couple of times - the Cookstons. We went to see them yesterday and ended up knocking on their storm door, the real door was open, and no one answered. So we went next door and then as we headed back to our car saw that the real door was shut. I was a tad irritated. Sometimes I just want to tell people (especially at the VC) "I'm not a babysitter, I'm not an entertainer, I'm not a tour guide - I'm a MISSIONARY." Some people don't know that. Surprise. Also, the next time you go to the zoo or the museum or something, please keep your kids under control. Maybe Karma will help me out so that I don't keep getting huge groups of restless devil children. 

OKAY funny story...so we're teaching a cat lady...went to her house for the first time and she answers the door holding this crippled cat. Seriously, this thing looks fake. While we're teaching her she's feeding and watering it and doing kitty physical therapy to it, and we're just trying our best not to laugh. Halfway through the lesson, this thing has a FREAKING SEIZURE. Hardcore, rolling eyes and tongue flicking and everything. Sister Lettig and I were pretty calm when it happened, but after we were just like "Was that real life?!" That lady's probs getting baptized soon. But y'know...weird stuff happens haha. I love you all! PS hopefully you did your homework from last time. LOVE YOU ALL BYE -- Sister Annika Rogers Isaiah 49:16

Baptism!

Creepy art in the Community of Christ temple...