Annika in Independence, MO: 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