Allow me to paint you a picture with words...‏

...Because I didn't take a single picture this week.

I'm going to do better in the future, I promise.

Well, this week has been a rather uneventful one, but I do have some funny stories for you so BRACE YOURSELVES.

Adventure numba 1...

Last week I went on exchanges (day-longcompanion swap) to Iola, Kansas! Just in case you were wondering, it is the freaking boonies. You know that movie Tremors with the giant worm things? It's got like...Reba McIntire in it...? Well, that's kind of what Iola reminded me of, just with less mountains. Lots of cute little farmhouses but they're all about half an hour apart haha it was a long day. The best part was perusing the fridge for breakfast, because we don't take our own food when we go to another area. There was a jar of BARBECUED RACCOON in their fridge. I wanted to try it out SO badly, but I couldn't get the dang thing open! I could've broken the jar, but it seemed kind of rude of me to go to another missionary's area and break open their own personal jar of "BBQ COON" without even asking permission.

Adventure numba 2...

We spoke in sacrament meeting! And we taught relief society! And I accompanied one of our ward missionaries in sacrament meeting! Craziest weekend of my LIFE. My funny story is about the accompaniment, and it's really not that funny except for the fact that it happened to me. So our ward missionary, Sister Adams, had contacted just about everyone in the ward looking for someone to play. She told me about how no one could do it and I offered to. Bam. Two days later I get the music. This is on Thursday night. We don't have access to a piano or even keys to the church yet, so I had no way of practicing for the first day or so. On Friday, we went and got us some keys, went to the church, I practiced for a few hours, and that was it. Saturday, Sister Adams meets us at the church and we practice for an hour or so, then she has to leave and I practice for another hour before we have to go to an appointment. Sunday morning rolls around and I can count the number of times I've played this song on my fingers. We practice once before sacrament meeting.

We have officially practiced the whole song together from beginning to end about four times. I've had the music for two and a half days, and about four or five hours total practicing time. Sister Adams and I were prepared for if she skipped the lyrics, if I lost my spot, if either of us rushed, if I missed an entire measure, pretty much anything under the sun.

So she stands up to sing, and all is going well, I'm not butchering it, the Spirit is strong...and she stops singing. The Spirit was so strong that she started to cry and couldn't sing. So I just kind of plink along slowly, thinking, "Crap. Crap. Crap. We didn't plan for this. Crap."

Anyways, she turned around and we started again from a measure we were both comfortable with, and it was great.

I was so proud of us haha but I felt like grabbing the microphone and saying, "LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHERS. PRACTICE THE PIANO. I BEAR YOU MY SPECIAL WITNESS AS A MISSIONARY THAT THIS WILL BLESS AND ENHANCE YOUR LIVES."

And that's been my week so far :) 

The Bell's Palsy is clearing up really nicely haha I can do like 70% of a smile! Thank you so much for all your prayers - I've really felt them helping me along.

Okay, this next part of this email I've been kind of stressing about for a while, because I'm just not sure how to present it in a way that will show how much I love you all and how much I love your support.

A lot of people asked me before my mission what would be good and bad things to send me, and I honestly didn't know. BUT now I do, so here we go :)

I don't really need packages. I would rather get a one paragraph letter than a one pound package. BUT when sending a package, I will tell you one thing that makes me happy beyond compare...HOMEMADE COOKIES. I've got a couple of those on my mission now and I don't even know if I'll be as excited about Christmas morning. Just kidding I love Christmas. but you get the point.

Letters :) I. LOVE. LETTERS. I love letters more than a Kansas chigger loves a sister missionary's thighs. But I want to give some pointers about good and bad things for letters. Please, please, please don't count down to when I come home. Please. Count down to my birthday. Or Christmas.

Please don't encourage me to be negative in any letters or email. I appreciate that you're all willing to be sympathetic and listen to my problems, but we're actually told in the Missionary Handbook not to include anything negative in our letters or emails home :) So don't tempt me haha help me be obedient.

And that goes the other way, too - don't be sending me vaccuums. Those are letters that suck...the Spirit away. Not that every letter has to include a new revelation or something, but if you dump your life's negativity on a piece of paper, please don't waste a stamp. You should be venting to Heavenly Father, not to me. Only tell me about things that I can help with or laugh at, because I'm pretty limited on resources here in Kansas...you're only going to get prayers and laughter.

I LOVE IT WHEN YOU BEAR YOUR TESTIMONIES TO ME IN WRITING. Spiritual letters are the BOMB. I want to hear how things are going at home - don't stop filling me in on that. If you start leaving me out of the loop I'll go insane. But letters that have included spiritual thoughts or scriptures or have stories of how you've felt the Spirit? Home run, folks. Right outta the freaking park.

I hope that I don't offend anyone with these pointers...but I was just thinking about the awkward conversations we would be having in a year if I didn't say it now... ("What! Why didn't you tell me that? It was such a pain to do all that math and figure out when you came home! Christmas would have been WAY easier!")

Hopefully this email has made you smile :) I love you all lots and pray for you always.

LOVE YOU

-- 

Sister Annika Rogers