Guuuuuurl you better get CONSECRATED.‏

Helllloooooooooo world!

This has been a crazy week so I'm really hoping I can pack it into one email!

1. Killed a brown recluse in our bathtub this week. His name was Aragog, and he fought a good fight. Also gave us a good fright. Man, you think sister missionaries are ridiculous until you put three of them in a bathroom with a big spider.

2. We're in a trio now! Sister Morris (one of the sisters from my MTC group) is now one of our tripanionship! We are having a blast and trying to cover two areas at once haha miracles are still happening but mostly we just laugh a lot and drive around like madwomen...especially cuz I'm the only one that can drive haha stinks...

3. Went to the Nelson-Atkin Art Museum again! Family - we're coming back to visit this place someday soon!

4. The Visitors' Center is picking up again! I have taken some of the most spiritual tours through - I love it when missionaries bring in investigators because it gets WAY more personal...so great. Love it.

5. I LOVE JESUS THE CHRIST.

So a while ago we did a special study session on the word "consecration". This word has a lot of different meanings, as we are in the county where the saints first started living the law of consecration, we use consecrated oil in blessing the sick and afflicted, and we consecrate our time and talents to serving the Lord. Further study of the term, however, led me to the conclusion that consecrating is something that the LORD does by His authority (AKA the priesthood). Well, I've been set apart as a missionary, but I don't feel that I have been adequately consecrated lately...so I've rekindled my efforts towards exact obedience.

Confession: I do not do very well getting up on time. Didn't happen before my mission, isn't a miracle that's occurred now.

So, in an effort to consecrate myself and return to obedience, I made a pact with another sister in the Willis house that if I wasn't up when she came downstairs, she would spray me with a squirt bottle to help me get out of bed.

Yep, just like you used to do in the summer, Mom.

Guess what? It works haha count me as consecrated...

Let that be a funny story/reminder of the importance of obedience.

I love you all! Have a great week!

-- 

Sister Annika Rogers

Isaiah 49:16

we were there in spirit

Aragog

@ the eye doctors... :P

#thinking

@ the nelson atkin art museum...in the rain.

Easter letter

Easter :)‏

Hello everyone! I'm hoping this finds you all happy and warm :) You should all know that I pray for you daily and love any and all updates I get from you.

This week has been spectacular! I will tell you all about it in a letter home because I ran out of time... For now, http://easter.mormon.org/

Everyone watch this video and then share it with everyone you know. It is SPECTACULAR and the Church produced it specially for the Easter season. SO GOOD.

I love you all so much :) Take care of each other

-- 

Sister Annika Rogers

Isaiah 49:16

My companion in a shifty elevator...

Me, Sister Walton, and the Goodrich's! Jeff Goodrich wrote the songs Oh Lord, My Redeemer, and I Heard Him Come. It was so awesome to get to meet him and thank him for the comfort those songs have given me :) He was so humble and I secretly gave him a hug before he left. Shhh don't tell.

HELLO WORLD

I don't even know what ate my time this week.‏

My BYU application is finally finished haha so I have no excuses.

But I only have time to tell you all that I love you and that I will write a good letter for my mother to put on my blog...love ya!

Watch this: Mormon messages hope ya know we had a hard time

-- 

Sister Annika Rogers

Isaiah 49:16

We made our house breakfast for conference :)

I keep getting hurt.

This picture fell off the wall and hit me in the face...darn baby Chloe.

Saw this truck just after conference...

"It was the load!"

Her response to why so few letters and how things are going:

We're only allowed to write letters on our p-day, which ends at six. We've actually been ending our pday an hour early lately because we want to be obedient and be out of dinner by 6:30, something President Keyes has asked us to do specifically. We email for 2 hours and do our grocery shopping, as well as any other shopping we need to get done, and we have to do our laundry, which isn't too taxing but gets annoying if you don't do it right then. I actually had to wash a load twice last week because we didn't get it done all at once. Also, anything fun that we want to do we have to do on our pday - museums, art galleries, anything. We wash and vaccuum our car, which is provided us by the church through tithing funds, and we also clean our apartment. We also carpool with another set of sisters, so if we finish on time and they still have things to do, we have to wait. After all of those required things is when we typically write letters.

That's why my letters tend to be short and my thank you notes even shorter. I haven't intentionally ignored anyone. Usually I simply run out of time. There are always more letters to write...some of them just don't happen.

I loved conference :) we watched some of it at the Stake Center near the VC and then some at the VC. We had some connection problems, so the 2nd Saturday session was watched on a smartphone...I can't imagine waiting until next month. (like Braxton)

Training is good. It's just hard.

The trees are starting to bloom! I'm waiting for the blossoms to actually come out so I can send you a picture. The humidity is spiking up again...BLEGH.

Love you so much!

My body is allergic to missionary work.‏

This week has been one of those roller coaster weeks, where one minute I'm like "THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER!!!" and the next I'm like "Whyyyyy is missionary work so haaaaard..."

We're really struggling to convince our investigators that they want to keep learning about the gospel. Almost every appointment this week fell through. It has definitely been a trial of my faith - I miss having investigators that were excited about this! But we are still seeing miracles.

One of our appointments that did work out was yesterday afternoon, with a woman who had attended a different ward and was referred to us by the sister missionaries in that area. We had gone to her home because her phone wasn't working. She wouldn't let us in, but set a return appointment which was yesterday. When we showed up it was the same deal - she didn't really want us to come in. She said her kids had gotten into her coffee and spilled it all over the floor and she was just in the middle of cleaning it up. We finally talked her into letting us in to help clean it up.

The home that we walked into was the kind of place I knew I would find on my mission. The house was filthy - stuff on the walls as high as her kids could reach, no sheets on the bed, coffee and sugar and baking powder covering the floor in the kitchen and dining room, dirty dishes piled on the table and counter space, the only running water was from the bathtub - needless to say we were a little overwhelmed. So we rolled up our sleeves and got to work. We swept and scraped and scrubbed and mopped. There were so many times when I would pick up a dish, take a whiff, and think, "Heavenly Father, please don't let me throw up on this woman's floor." The whole time we worked, we talked with her about her kids, her parents, her husband, work, her religious background, her friends in our church, and her trials. She was so humble and she'd been through so much, I just knew that this woman had been prepared. Sadly we don't have time this weekend to go help her some more, but as soon as next week comes we're going to go back. She asked if we could meet at a shopping mall or somewhere with a play area so that her kids could learn and explore while we talked and we told her that would definitely work. This miracle is still pending, but I just want to tell you that God answers prayers - especially the ones that keep us from throwing up.

One of the trials of my faith this week was that I woke up on Tuesday with the WORST migraine. I couldn't do anything...so I slept most of the day and still woke up exhausted. BUT the Lord provided because that was supposed to be our exchange day, so the two appointments we had scheduled still happened, thanks to my incredible Sister Leader and her companion.

This is like the most scattered email ever, but I just want you all to know that I loved the women's conference! My comp and I just cried through the whole thing haha I was so afraid I would see someone I knew on the broadcast...the problem with living in Utah...but I loved every second of it. I love being a Sister Missionary! It's so hard but so good. That's the gospel for you - hard, but good :)

AND I AM SO STOKED FOR CONFERENCE THIS WEEKEND. Y'all better be watching it :) write me a letter between sessions! I love mail!

Sorry this is terrible but I keep running out of time.

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH

PS Tina, your story about the bucket had me dying of laughter. Best story ever :)

-- 

Sister Annika Rogers

Isaiah 49:16

This is a less active's dog. She watched part of the General Women's Conference with us :)
She is so happeh...

watching the conference :)

Gotta love those Independence sunrises :)

I haven't sent you a sunset lately...