Tis the week.

Of transfers.

Yep, on Tuesday we get the call telling us where we go and then Thursday we ship out. fun times, eh? Haha there's a fifty-fifty chance I'll end up serving somewhere else, but I'm hoping I stay in Olathe. (Sister Dalsing, you got my back?)

I don't have a whole lot of time to email, but I will tell you that we have definitely seen some incredible miracles in the time I've been serving here. When we got here we legitimately had nothing, simply because we were brand new to this area. We've worked hard. I've shed a fair amount of blood, sweat, and tears (literally. All of them) here, and the Lord has answered our prayers and blessed us according to our obedience. We have three investigators who are progressing in the gospel, and others that are working with us. The members here are incredible, and I have been so blessed to get to know so many of them in such a short amount of time.

It's been hard, but so worth it :)

Expect more details next week haha for now, check out one of my all-time favorite videos. I love you all so much and hope you don't forget it. or else. Just kidding.

You're in my prayers! LOVE YOU

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=911104781001

-- 

Sister Annika Rogers

Isaiah 49:16

The bear at coldstone :)

She'll be so glad I sent you this.

left to right, our recent convert, Sydney, our investigator, Kelsey, and ME :D We're pretty much a gang.

 Look at how long my hair is!‏

EFY all over again...‏

Remember going to EFY/girls camp and it's just like a straight up spiritual rocket boost?

That's how I feel right now.

This week was full of awesome meetings - we had zone conference on Thursday in Independence for most of the day, and I got to see some of my favorite sisters from the VC up there! Ah it was so good to see them. You don't know pure joy until you see two sister missionaries reunited. We're cheesy over the TOP.

Then on Saturday...WE WENT TO THE TEMPLE. That's right! For the first time in like four months I went to the temple! I just wanted to cry the whole time. They announced now that missionaries can be baptized for the dead (we couldn't before), so we did the WHOLE shebang (except for sealings because I decided I want my first sealing to be with my hubby). It was seriously so great, people. I LOVE THE TEMPLE. my comfort wall is covered in them haha.

My zone leader, Elder Ofahengaue, says hello haha I'm an obedient missionary so I'm just passing the message along.

There were a couple of announcements made at Zone Conference that I want to pass along because I need your help. First of all, we're not using backpacks anymore. Yep, I just bought a new backpack a month or so ago and now? No more backpacks. We're all using shoulder bags! Yay! My problem is that all I brought is my grey purse, and that was NOT constructed to hold scriptures...so, there's a birthday request haha a nice shoulder bag that is professional but doesn't make me look like a businessman. I like the fake leather look, and I don't really care what color so long as it's professional :) This isn't an urgent request, but definitely the beginning of a birthday list.

Also, any Christmas packages sent will need to be shipped by DECEMBER 7th. Yes, that is really early. I don't know the whys of all things, I just know we are to do them.

PS I love Christmas.

I've had a lot of intense studies about some deep stuff because apparently I know doctrine well, so other missionaries have come to me with questions....it's kind of scary. BUT I love studying all the little details of this stuff. Today I was learning all about resurrection - best EVER. I need a t-shirt that says "I  Bible Dictionary"

Sorry, this is a really scattered/brief email. I've just had a lot of spiritual dumping and it's very difficult to share these kinds of things via email...so here's a mormon message haha it's a lesson I'm learning very well

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=1452683656001 

 The Lord trims us down so that we can grow up and into ourselves, people. I have a testimony of that.

Today I'm getting my knee looked at finally because the darn thing is still complaining. My left knee is my favorite. Quiet and hardworking and not a pain. I'll be sure to give you an update as soon as I know something :)

I don't have much else to add...we're just doing great :) I love you all and I'll send some pictures.

LOVE YOU!!!

PS thank you for all the written support it makes me SO happy - Bonnie and Deidre and Nat and Mom/Dad and erryone.

-- 

Sister Annika Rogers

Isaiah 49:16

• One of the little boys in our ward threw a rock through a car window and we cleaned it up for them haha good times :)

Seven months in and I think I'm dead.

But if this is heaven, the postal service is terrible.

THIS WEEK HAS BEEN SO BEAUTIFUL THE WEATHER IS NICE AND COOL AND I LOVE KANSAS.

Fall is definitely going to be my favorite month! Not to mention all the leaves that will change...although they haven't yet. I do miss the rusty mountains, but that's beside the point.

So a miracle from this week! We've been struggling finding people to teach, remember? Well guess what...WE FOUND TWO PEOPLE THIS WEEK. Both of them were referrals through members! miracles! One of them is a fifteen year old boy named Brennan who thinks he's an atheist. Not to downplay atheism at all, but we think he's just had a rough life and he thinks he doesn't need God. It's just a matter of getting him to see this. The other investigator is Sarah - she's met with missionaries before and learned a LOT. She's the one that let us borrow the ESV bible I sent a picture of. Her fellowship is our Primary president (who is like a three year old in a thirty year old's body, btw).

WE HAVE BEEN SO BLESSED.

(This was obviously a caps-lock kind of week.)

In the last verse of the first chapter of first Nephi, Nephi coins one of my favorite scriptural phrases - "tender mercies." He prefaces the last of his record by saying, "But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance."

There's a cross-reference in Genesis 32:10 that says, "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant;" Amen, Moses. amen. This is exactly how I feel - I can't bear my testimony to you in any better way than these two prophets have said.

Altogether I just feel really blessed :) I'll give you all a mini health update because I think I'm falling apart. I'm going to get my right knee checked out by an orthopedic guy because it's not getting better. With the information that my mom sent...I don't think it's Osgood-schlatters (I can spell it now!), so I'll report on that when I know more :)

Funny stories this week. Hmm. Well, our new investigator Sarah told us she had a DVD that her father had given her called "The Difference between Mormonism and Christianity." Obviously anti material. She told us and we were both thinking, "DANGIT." Losing investigators because of anti material is sadly pretty common, and very frustrating. Well, remember our primary president that I told you about? She approached Sister Ewell and said, "Sister, forgive me, for I have sinned...you remember that DVD that Sarah told you about...? Well...I hid it."

That's right, folks.

She took the DVD and hid it behind the TV while Sarah was out of the room. We have a winner. I couldn't stop laughing - one day, family, you will all meet this incredible woman who hides anti-Mormon DVDs and conquers primary children single-handedly :)

That's all I've got haha I hope you all are doing well!

LOVE YOU

-- 

Sister Annika Rogers

Isaiah 49:16

This is Sister Ewell and I at the Historic Liberty Jail with Addison, who is getting baptized on the fifth of October, and her mom Abby :)

This is a bible that Sarah, our investigator, gave us to study :) The English Standard Version, compared next to my King James. Thank heaven we don't carry those around...

Ignore how tired I look...I think I might be getting the sniffles. And I don't like wearing makeup on my preparation day :)

CAN I GET A' AMEN?!?‏

Hallelujah, the Lord answers prayers!

Okay, so I've got a great miracle to share.

So our mission had a fast this Sunday in which we all fasted for "Finding Fall" which is exactly what it sounds like - a fast to help us find new investigators. The past nine weeks that we have been serving here in Olathe, we've had our goal for New Investigators set at 2. So this week with the fast in mind, we bumped it up to 5, expecting miracles. A new investigator is technically someone who we teach two principles of a lesson, leave a commitment, and set a return appointment. Easy enough, right?

Well, Sunday night rolls around (the end of our reporting week), and we have 0 new investigators. Not. A. Single. One. We do really great teaching people the principles and leaving a committment, but no one wants to set a return appointment.

So Sunday night we have an appointment with an inactive member of our ward and his fiance, who is a nonmember. When we pull into the parking lot of the apartment building, I think, "Okay, Heavenly Father...I'm not leaving without a new investigator. Help us out here."

AND THEY WEREN'T HOME.

Needless to say, I was quite upset. I mean, the only set appointment we had that day besides dinner and it's no good.  So we go back to our car and call our Zone Leaders, intending to go tracting with them and hit up a neighborhood in sync, when one of them points out a lady sitting outside with her kid and says, "Go talk to her! You sisters have got it! Tear it up!"

AND GUESS WHO GOT A NEW INVESTIGATORS. THESE SISTERS.

Her name is Laura and we had a blast talking to her. She's super sweet - we taught her about the plan of salvation and eternal families and I was playing with her 2-year old boy Andrew (who has the biggest smile I've ever seen on a human being). We see her Wednesday and I just have such a strong testimony of answered prayers. Although I must admit that's the first time I've ever actually heard a voice say, "GO DO THIS."

Granted it was Elder Lunt, but still.

So my companion has a real problem with...outdoors. Actually, really she's just the opposite of me. (Now, people at home, this may shock you, but keep in mind that I've changed a LOT since I took the mantle of missionary.) I like tracting and talking to EVERYONE and generally being actively doing missionary work. If I get sunburnt and sweaty, it's all right, because then  I look like I've been busy. Also, I like playing sports now. What? I know! Basketball and volleyball are my only means of simple, mindless, energy expenditure (hence the bloody eyebrow). So every time we go to do any of this things, I know she's pretty miserable. BUT the funniest part of it is that nature seems to hate her, too.

For example.

Bugs. Bugs are everywhere in Kansas. Moths, chiggers, cicadas, butterflies, brown recluses, house spiders, orange tree spiders, ticks - everywhere. And every time we go outside, they seem to go, "there's Sister Ewell - GET HER." After one day outside, she had about twenty chigger bites on her back. It's really a problem.

So one night we're leaving the YW president's house and her husband is watching to make sure we get out to our car okay because they're quite well-to-do, so their driveway is actually kind of long. As we step off the porch, I see this moth abandon its post on the porch light and dive-bomb it right in front of Sister Ewell. She kind of jerks and, hunching over, runs to our car. I couldn't quite keep up - not because she was going very fast (hard to do in skirts), but because I'm trying to say, "drunk moth" while laughing.

And with that lovely mental image, I shall leave you with a fun scripture - 2 Nephi 9:39. At the end it says something like, "spiritually minded is life eternal."

Spiritually Minded Is Life Eternal

So don't forget to - SMILE.

LOVE YOU ALL!

-- 

Sister Annika Rogers

Isaiah 49:16

Look at how great my face looks!! YAY

This is Eleanore, our ward mission leader's daughter. this is typically how our correlations go...

the second week I had Bell's (when it was in full swing) and now!

#priesthoodpower

Our fearless zone leaders - Elder Ofahengaue (or Elder O) and Elder Lunt.

Blood, sweat, and a buck twenty-five.

Helllooooooo errrybody!

Buckle your seatbelts, kids, cuz this week was totes cray. As of Wednesday, my companion and I are back on bikes! We've clocked in something like 15 miles biking/walking in the past five days, and we're doing even more today haha I feel great. My knees are definitely loving it :)

I've got some great stories to tell you! First we'll address the blood, because the buck twenty-five was actually a really spiritual experience.

So, last p-day we were playing volleyball. Let's be clear on something - I haven't played volleyball in something like 8 years. Something could've changed in that time - maybe I'm good at it. Maybe it doesn't hurt to play. I've also got so much energy built up that when the opportunity comes to do something strenuous that isn't just walking/biking, I'm all over that business. So I jump right into the game. AND I wasn't even that bad at it :) Until somebody sent the ball towards the back of the court. I go running after it, put it back up in the air before it can hit the ground, and greet the wooden paneling around the walls of the cultural center with the left side of my face (my GOOD side, for that matter). I stand back up like, oh yeah I'll just play it off. The Elders told me I wasn't bleeding, so it was all cool...until I was like..."That kind of hurt." So I grab another sister and run into the bathroom to find...BLOOD. Haha I have a scar from my mission. how cool is that??

Okay, enough silliness. The buck twenty-five. So, we're helping a less active named Shelby Bohn get back into church...it's going to be a long shot because she's not a huge fan of changing her current lifestyle. I mentioned her last week - she's the one that justifies. Yup. Her. So, we go planning to teach her the second lesson, and instead she talks about how she had to go buy another pack cuz it's hard when she's driving...and there were twenty in the pack she bought, but there are only four left, and pretty much all of them were smoked by her friends...and I just got this prompting. So I pull out my wallet and a book of mormon, and I say, "Shelby, how much did you pay for that pack of cigarettes?"

She looks all confused and stammers around a bit before saying it was about six dollars. I do some little math things on our phone's calculator, and figure that those four cigarettes are worth about a dollar twenty cents. So I pull out a dollar bill and dig a quarter out of my wallet, stick them in the Book of Mormon, and say, "I'm going to buy that pack of cigarettes from you."

Yup. Bought cigarettes on my mission.

 Afterwards, we talked about how she needs to believe that she can do it, because we do, and so does Heavenly Father, but it's up to her. We bore powerful testimony about the enabling power of the atonement and all that stuff, and then we left.

It's such a great but terrifying feeling to act on a prompting, because you know that thought wasn't your own, and that you're truly a tool in the Lord's hands. What a privelage! He doesn't need us to do this work. There are plenty of stories of people you find a copy of the Book of Mormon in the thrift store, read it, pray about it, and when the missionaries show up they say, "Oh yeah I've been waiting." He doesn't need us - but we need Him, and we are blessed to be His hands in these days.

Thanks so much for all the letters and support :) I love you all and pray for you all the time! Love ya!

-- 

Sister Annika Rogers

Isaiah 49:16

                          Guess who my new best friends are...

This is our less active - sister phillips. She and her husband are going through the temple December 7th!!! We were helping her clean her house

              That's me with a Madagascar hissing cockroach :)

                                               #yum

This is Gabe - he's 6 and we taught him a little bit. His grandma is a member but his parents aren't...we made a tower out of big legos because why not. We definitely got it like...eight feet tall.