Faith Preceeds the Miracle‏

Hello, all my lovelies! It's a balmy thirty degrees here in Olathe, KS with your favorite sister missionarycicle :)

This week has been so awesome. I've had to number the miracles that I write in my journal (yes, in my journal. Count that as miracle # 0).

First of all, let's just talk about the miracle that I'm not sick yet. Everyone in Olathe is sick right now. In fact, by the sound of things out in UT, it sounds like most of 'Murica is sick right now.

Secondly, let's talk about the miracle that we have an appointment tonight with a part-member family and I'm SO STOKED. This nonmember is so prepared - she just refuses to acknowledge it. So we arranged our evening so that she could be there for our dinner, which leaves us eating at 7 pm (which is the latest I've eaten dinner since I left the VC), but you sacrifice for the things you love :) Like helping people come to Jesus (Tanner, I just had this memory of you singing that song on that one Sunday... "Climb to Jesus...Swim to Jesus...Fly to Jesus...Crawl to Jesus...Roll to Jesus... Hahaha man, you still crack me up from two states away.)

Thirdly in the ways of miracles, I want to tell you a story about Brother Bagley. Brother Bagley used to write for Hallmark cards, and his wit is about as sharp as his ballpoint pen (not that sharp, now that I think about it, but compare the ballpoint pen to the broad side of a two by four. Pretty sharp, huh? Huh??) Anyways, Brother Bagley had a massive stroke about two months ago and actually  had a clot the size of a golf ball that was removed. The doctors were saying that he would get about 80% back at the most, if he got anything back. Pretty dire straits. When Sister Ewell and I heard, we were devastated. I think everybody else was trying to brace me for the worst, because as soon as I heard, I just felt like he would get better. Now, especially with strokes, there's a difference with being okay and getting better. So people would say, "Did you hear about Brother Bagley?" And I would just be like, "Yeah - he's going to get better so fast, just you wait!" I just knew Heavenly Father would bring a miracle to the Olathe 2nd ward through the Bagleys.

Well.

Brother Bagley's come to church and taken the sacrament for two weeks now. Sister Doolittle went and sat with him and had an hour-long visit with him and his wife.

Faith - no matter the source - will always precede miracles, no matter what kind of miracles they may be. You're hearing this from the girl who couldn't move half her face two months ago :)

Anyways, I know that this email is pretty brief, and the pictures were few, but know that I still love you all :) I hope you're still seeing miracles wherever you are.

LOVE YOU

PS Christmas is seeping through at a WalMart near you... XD

-- 

Sister Annika Rogers

Forgot to add my challenge.

For Family Home Evening tonight, I would challenge you to have every person in your family talk about a miracle that they've seen or heard about or witnessed or read about. Write it down. Send it to me. I'm going to tape them on my wall :)

Me and Sister Doolittle in our matching shirts :)

This is me with Brother and Sister Bagley

The dog that our less actives got. not too happy about it, but he is cute. His name is Boomer.

Sister Area Supervisor

I've seen it all.‏

Well hello there, everybody! So we had a wide range of experiences this week and I'd like to tell you of some of them :) But I have limited time because I was looking up pictures of temples. So here's the rundown.

1. We got yelled off a doorstep for the first time.

2. We got a miracle referral from a less active member! We see them tonight.

3. Transfers came and I said goodbye to my companion of four months - PEACE OUT YO.

4. My new comp is Sister Doolittle and she's a rockstar.

5. I've been called as an Area Supervisor, which is the equivalent of a district leader for sisters, except without the priesthood and accountabilities.

Anyways, I'm totes out of time but I love you all a bunch - stay cool. Stay cool.

Sister Annika Rogers

Isaiah 49:16

 (l-r) Sister Doolittle, Elysa, Me, and Laticia (Elysa and Lil Kelly's mom)

 Elysa's little brother, Lil Kelly

This is one of our member's daughters, Eve

She eats ice cream and chicken enchiladas with her bare hands...at the same time :)

Hollaback for a scripture chase! And bobcats :)‏

Haha you guys have to be patient! Transfers are THIS Wednesday - we find out for sure tonight who will go where :) Don't worry, haha I'll let you know as soon as I can.

So this week has been great! We have been pretty busy with EVERYTHING, it seems. Gotta tell my first exciting story - I played with a bobcat on Friday! I know, right! If there's one thing I've learned about the mission, people, it's that it surprises me every day. I'm so grateful for the decision I made to come out here...I could never have played with a bobcat while sitting on my laptop at home! The Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead has a couple of bobcats and we went for our last day of service (WOO), which turned out to be a day of raking leaves. We were raking around the birds of prey area (don't ask me how a bobcat is considered a bird of prey), and the bobcat jumped right up against the wire cage and let us start petting it. Then we started putting a feather through the bars and that cat was all over that thing! It was a blast :)

In other news, we had our Stake Conference AND our specialty training...no Facebook yet. BUT we had some awesome training on the importance of Preach My Gospel. I love President Keyes because he doesn't waste his time diving into deep doctrine with us, he just keeps going back to the basics. That might seem kind of demeaning, but honestly deep doctrine is completely useless in missionary work. All you need is a testimony of the Restoration of the gospel to be a missionary - Elder Ballard said that himself.

Which reminds me of something I kind of wanted to talk to y'all about. Bust out yo' Book of Mormon, because you're going on a little scripture chase with me. Open to 1 Nephi 17. I've learned something interesting as I've spent more time with Nephi...he really, really likes Moses. They have a lot in common, after all. They were set apart by God to help lead some people out of wickedness, and the people they were leading were a little crew of ingrates that had no problem in voicing their concerns. They even had to cross water by the power of God. Therefore, Nephi = B of M Moses. So, with that in mind, Nephi draws an interesting parallel in this chapter - 1 Nephi 17:41, Nephi refers to "the simpleness of the way." Think about that for just a moment as we visit the children of Israel. "Oh, I see you've been bit by a fiery flying serpent. That stinks. Here, look at this brass serpent on my staff and be healed." - Moses. What happened? Tons of the children of Israel died because that was just too easy (Numbers 21:4-9). Let's jump forward a couple hundred years to Naaman, the leper. "Gee, that's nice of you to come all this way with a fancy caravan to visit Elisha. He told me to tell you to go wash yourself in the Jordan River seven times, and you'll be healed. Have a nice day!" - Elisha's messenger. And Naaman throws a royal fit because it's too easy.

Jump forward a couple hundred more years. An Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ stands before all of His church and invites all who are listening to invite one person that they love to come and feel of the Spirit that the Restored gospel has to offer, before the anniversary of Christ's birth.

How will this story end?

 "...if the prophet had bid thee do some ^agreat thing, wouldest thou not have done it?" (2 Kings 5:13)

 "O...do not let us be ^aslothful because of the ^beasiness of the ^cway; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would ^dlook they might ^elive; even so it is with us. The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever." (Alma 37:46)

Consider again the story of Naaman. The scripture I quoted above was what his servants said after the royal fit was over. I can only imagine the amount of love and humility that they had in their hearts as they approached their master...imagine that I am coming to you in the same attitude. But this time, I leave you with a promise. If you will do this "simple" thing, if you will just ask a neighbor to come to the ward Christmas party or invite a friend to family home evening or offer some cookies and a Book of Mormon to someone who is struggling, I promise that your testimony will grow until you, like Naaman, can declare that, "Behold, now I ^aknow that there is no ^bGod in all the earth, but in Israel." (2 Kings 5:15)

I love you all enough to know that you are more than capable of helping in this Work of Salvation - God has not just called full time missionaries. He has called you. Please, don't be intimidated by the simpleness of the way.

I love you all so much - stay out of trouble :)

-- 

Sister Annika Rogers

Isaiah 49:16

 Finally got my b-day packages! Thank you so much to everyone who contributed!

 My favorite things in the whole world...HOT AIR BALLOONS.

 Me and Sister Jarman, growing a foot or two.

A spider we found in a member's windowsill (it was already dead, thank goodness)

Lost Books and a Birthday!‏

Guess what, errybody!

I'm old!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes and the packages that are pending...since the mail is slow here and everything gets forwarded through the mission office, I haven't actually got them yet. BUT I have it on good sources that they are coming :)

So remember how I wanted a baptism on my birthday? Well, that didn't happen. Remember how Sister Ewell and I set a goal of giving out 21 copies of the Book of Mormon by my birthday? Well, that didn't happen either. BUT...we ended up with four investigators having a baptismal date, teaching 20 lessons again, and had a downright blast. Sometimes we set goals, and we tell Heavenly Father, and he recognizes our efforts...and then he blesses us in the way we didn't want to be blessed :) This was probably the most unorthodox birthday I've ever had, but I enjoyed it immensely :)

So, let me tell you about some awesome studies I had this morning. Yes, this morning! So I've been reading the Book of Mormon for something like a month now, and I'm moving at a snail's pace because I'm marking everything up and reading between the lines...so I'm on 1 Nephi 19, and I read verse 10 today, and got really confused. "Sister Rogers," I says to myself, "Who in the world is Zenock?? Who is Neum? Where is the book of Zenos?" So I check out the footnote for 10b, and it reads, "BD Lost Books" (btw this is referenced in 1 Nephi 13:23, I just didn't really get it the way I got it this morning).

Whut.

Anything lost is instantly 100 billion times more intriguing than anything else in my attention-deficit brain, so I flipped over to the Bible Dictionary and read about the Lost Books of the Bible (http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bd/lost-books?lang=eng&letter=l), and  if you go to that reference you'll see a list in the very first paragraph. So I start to read that list...and it goes on and on and on. Needless to say I was floored! What in the Whorld! More than 20 books that are missing from the Bible, and in them countless prophecies of Christ and miracles of the priesthood and who knows what else! So then my companion and I were talking about the books that Mormon hides in the hill Cumorah (Mormon 6:6) and how few of the records we have and I just kinda freaked out because I have a lot of reading to do when I get to heaven!

I am constantly overwhelmed by how exciting it is to be part of a gospel that will keep teaching me forever! How boring would it be to have a cap on how much intelligence we could gain?!

I have kind of painted this image in my head of this huge museum that Heavenly Father has up in spirit paradise, full of things like the Liahona and the original Gold Plates and the sword of Laban and the Ark of the Covenant and Moses' staff...maybe that's what our first day in Paradise is like - a personal tour :)

So there's some food for thought :)

Thanks so much for all the letters :) all y'all know my love language is words of affirmation haha my joy is full every time I get a letter :)

KEEP BEING GREAT, ERRYBODY! LOVE YOU
-- 
Sister Annika Rogers

Isaiah 49:16

LEAVES!

These are across the street from our house.

I love them.

piece of the Berlin Wall.
Historically Significant Piece of Gravel

 me in a cemetery.

This is me with some of the members in Iola - Gramma and Grampa Stoll (they requested us at dinner because I met them before and I love them - sweetest people ever!)

Pumpkins!