Sorry, no time. . .

hey, no time but I love you. 

LOVE YOU Mwah

Sister Zito at her desk...sister leader swag.

I'm going to have fifty billion pictures of the temple by the time I get home.

Me and the Godfreys, the senior couple that went home on Friday :( we miss them.

I have become a master of planner-making :) this is Sister Singh's next transfer.

Mine this transfer.

An elder in our ward that asked me to make him one.

A mural in our area :) we stopped and took pictures while the weather was beautiful yesterday.

One of our members that feeds us lunch every sunday has a hammock :) We can't watch movies, but I laid in the hammock and listened to 17 miracles haha paradise!

I'm going on a diet.‏

Because of the ten pictures I've sent home, six of them involved food. Sister Singh told me that the reason she loved me was because I eat...a lot.

Anyways. This week was totally awesome! We have an investigator with a baptismal date! I finally met Karla, she was the last of our investigators, and she is awesome. She told us that she still wants to be baptized and she said yes. She just needs to quit the cigs...never ever ever start smoking, children. EVER. that's where we spent our morning - wiping tar off the walls of her apartment as a deterrent, so she won't buy any more cigarettes.

SO I promised you I would talk about the guys, starting with Sidney Rigdon, so here we go :)

Sidney joined the Church in 1831, when six missionaries met him on their way down to Missouri to teach the Gospel to the Native Americans. Rigdon joined soon after. Rigdon had served for some time as a baptist minister, preaching for a sect called the Disciples of Christ. So when he did, so did a good portion of his congregation. Best lesson ever taught to a recent convert, I'll say. When imprisoned in Liberty Jail, Rigdon was serving as the first counselor in the first presidency of the Church, and was Joseph's right hand in many things. In January, the men were given an early hearing in which they could be represented by a lawyer, or they could represent themselves. The other men chose to be represented by Alexander Doniphan, a legal man who was very friendly to the church. Rigdon represented himself, and, using his talent as an orator, did such a good job that those listening took up a collection plate for him. Sidney was let go on bail, but waited over a week in the Liberty Jail, still fearing for his life. The jailer finally gave him a pistol and he left. After the martyrdom of Joseph Smith, Sidney remained in Illinois with a small group of followers who eventually left him. He passed away and is buried near Nauvoo.

I love Sidney because he and I have something in common - our mouths get us in trouble :) He's a great guy to learn about, and the first one I talk about because he is the only prisoner not portrayed in the Jail as we see it today.

Sorry that was kind of long-winded :) if you find anything on a church websites that contradicts what I said, please go with the website haha

I love you all!

-- 

Sister Annika Rogers

Isaiah 49:16

Waffle House!

This is my food.

Waffle House pt II.   I ate it all!

•    Seva Indian Quisine‏.  With my Indian companion!  Well. . . mostly Indian.

Once we went to this really yummy sushi place...I tried wasabi. THAT was fun. Man, forget exercising. If I can't wake up in the morning, I'm just going to go take a lick of that.

This is the cell tower we can see from our house. It's a giant pencil. Pretty cool, eh? Haha...missouri is so weird.

Here to stay is the jailbird...‏

Haha it's like sixty degrees outside - definitely NOT a winter wonderland. I can't believe it's January. The weather here is so backwards. Can't wait to have normal seasons in Utah.

Hey errybody! This week has been a blast :D We had a miracle yesterday - we had our first investigator at church! His name is Jon and it was SO awesome to finally see him there. We have an appointment with him on Wednesday night...can't wait to tell you all how that goes.

Had an awkward situation happen...we went to a member's home for dinner prepared to eat with her and her little boy because there was a note on our roster saying that she'd moved to get away from her husband, who we are not to have any contact with because he's in trouble with the law. Well, we get the correct address (it was wrong in the roster), arrive at dinner to find our member, her son, two daughters, and husband. Yep, the one we were not to contact. Needless to say, we were surprised, and so was the bishop when we told him the next day...moral of the story is, don't keep secrets from your bishop because he will always find out. Always.

So this week, I wanted to start a little trend :) For the next six weeks, I will be spotlighting each of the prisoners at the Historic Liberty Jail - Lyman Wight, Sidney Rigdon, Alexander McRae, Caleb Baldwin, Hyrum Smith, and Joseph. I would start this week, but I'm out of time :( p-day with other sisters is always crazy.

I love you all so much :) Add my invite to Sister Youngbergs - go read D&C 121 :) LOVE YA

-- 

Sister Annika Rogers

Isaiah 49:16

the cat that was protecting Sister Singh's purse while we vaccumed her human's carpet

Sister Singh and I at the temple

our elders - Elder Manusaouloa and Elder Dayton (the wind kicked up perfectly haha candid shot)

their model shot

Can I please be reincarnated in the Bahamas?‏

Hey, folks! I know, one wimpy email after another...promise that your letter will be good...especially considering that I didn't get a letter out last week. Oops. Anyways. It's a balmy -2 degrees outside...it's actually so cold that we've been told by President Keyes not to go tracting or stay outside too long, just in case of frostbite. WHAT. Where am I?! Anyways, my week in bullet points:

-bought a new camera...then traded it in for a nicer one

-dropped an investigator after she told us that she has a testimony of reincarnation

-took a couple through the Historic Liberty Jail...on their first. blind. date.

-spent two hours at the doctors today...only talked to the doctor for 5 minutes

-have an appointment tonight with our new investigator who speaks mandarin chinese...

-sweet miracle with a less active yesterday :) thanks to the snow!

-Last and definitely my least favorite, had a dog stick his nose UP MY SKIRT. Owner = not apologetic.

More details in the letter :)

LOVE YOU

-- 

Sister Annika Rogers

Isaiah 49:16

Even though they're dirty, I LOVE THESE BOOTS

NEW YEARS

The repealing of the extermination order. . .dated 1976.

I CURLED MY HAIR :D

GAH.

So my companion has a dentist's appointment and I don't have any time :( I want you all to know that I love you and I'm going to give y'all a two-week update. Also, I'm getting a new camera this week :) I love you all! BYE

OH MYGOSH THE OGDEN TEMPLE

Love you :)

-- 

Sister Annika Rogers

Isaiah 49:16

Merry Freakin' Christmas, errybody :)‏

Well, transfers came and went and whaddya know  -I'M SERVING IN THE HISTORIC LIBERTY JAIL. Say What! So many Visitors' Center Sisters never get a chance to serve here, I'm so humbled by this. It's been incredible to sit in the same room as the jail and feel the spirit there. It truly is a prison temple. My new companion's name is Sister Singh (as in "sing a song"), and she's awesome :) she's also from Fiji, so the three inches of snow we got on Sunday were quite awesome. I get to drive while there's snow and ice...I feel like I'm going to be driving a lot in the next few months.

(PS mom, those stockings are the BEST. We bless your name every day - you're a saint.)

Leaving Olathe was so hard. the night before I left, the ward had a little goodbye party and many tears were shed. I'm going to miss those people a lot, but I know the Lord has called me here for a reason. This area, Shoal Creek, is moving a lot slower than it was in Olathe...but Sister Singh and I have some great ideas for pumping this area up. We've met a couple of the members and they're great...but we didn't have church yesterday because of the snow. So I pretty much don't know anyone. Worst. Ever. I knew everyone in Olathe! This is definitely going ot take some work...and some miracles.

This Christmas is going to be a different one than I'm used to, but being in the Liberty Jail on a daily basis has truly helped. Because no matter how lonely or homesick I get, my Christmas experience cannot be any more difficult than December 25th, 1838, when Joseph and Hyrum Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Alexander McRae, Caleb Baldwin, and Lyman Wight spent their Christmas in a basement prison behind four-foot thick walls, with the only news from their families being the saints' departure from Missouri, amidst persecution and violence unimaginable.

I wanted to give you a long, meaningful email about this season, but all I feel impressed to do is to bear my testimony that, as one of His servants, Jesus Christ lives. He was truly born in Bethlehem, amidst angels' songs and shepherds' praise  - he came for you and me, to save us from our sins. He loves us. If you feel alone, you are not, because He is aware of you. D&C 50:41&42
"41 Fear not, little children, for you are mine, and I have overcome the world, and you are of them that my Father hath given me;

42 And none of them that my Father hath given me shall be lost"

I love you all and hope this finds you well :) Merry Christmas

-- 
Sister Annika Rogers

Mary had a little Lamb,
and He became our Shepherd.

No coat, no tights...I have a problem.

It's like 55 degrees out there. Somebody PLEASE tell Kansas that it's December 16th and this sister needs some snow.

One of the members in a neighboring ward is taking us to get pedicures (EEEEEEEEE), so this won't be too long. We also have a zone Christmas party :D so that's where I'll be for the rest of today.

This week has been an awesome one. Sister Doolittle was called to train on Friday, which means that I'm definitely leaving the Olathe 2nd ward. We got home that night and I called the Relief Society president to tell her and just cried a little bit. I've spent half my mission (literally) here. Leaving is going to be so difficult. I won't know until Tuesday night where I'm going, but it will definitely be to an area in the Independence Visitor's Center or the Historic Liberty Jail. No, because I served in the VC before doesn't mean I'll go to the Jail. Legitimately no idea - I just know I'm leaving. Stinks, huh. I have a list of people to say goodbye to...just kidding I highlighted the whole roster. I got a really cute goodbye card from a family - I'll attach a picture.

Sister Doolittle got the stomach flu this week, so I got to take one of the Laurels out with me. It was a blast and we saw some pretty sweet miracles. We also had an all mission conference and that was a blast. I think I was sick, though, because I didn't get the headache of pure excitement and happiness that I usually do. whatever's up with that.

In other news, my follow up trainer, Sister Lettig, goes home this week. Sad. Day. Yo. I'm gonna miss that little lamanite and all the goodness she taught me.

I'll be sending a package home, so I'll write on it where I'm going :) Love you all! Sorry this is short!

PS IF YOU SEND ME ANYTHING THAT I CAN'T OPEN UNTIL CHRISTMAS PLEASE LABEL IT AS SUCH

 -- 

Sister Annika Rogers

Isaiah 49:16