Welcome Home

     My family was so happy to see me.  They greeted me with signs and hugs.  Then we went to dinner at Texas Rodehouse.  My parents had a plaque made for me with a funny picture in to.  We changed it out latter, but I had a great laugh when I saw it.

Weekly email 12

     Hey everybody sorry this email is late. So basically this week was just a normal week nothing too special. But all the missionaries who are leaving got together and talked with the mission president and his wife and it was really good. We got a lot of advice about life after the mission and stuff like that. Then we all went to the temple which was fantastic and afterwards we went to the cafeteria and had prime rib. It was pretty darn good! 

    The only other cool thing was I burned a tie. So with missionaries there's a tradition where you burn certain clothing items after certain amounts of time. So I burned a tie because it was falling apart. And that was about it, I'm gonna be home this Wednesday so this is the last email. I love you all and thanks so much for listening to my mission story!

-Elder Rogers 

Weekly Email 11

Hey everyone! 

     So this week was fairly uneventful. We just did the regular missionary work and didn't really get any new people who want to be taught about our church but that's okay. 

     The best part of this week was conference. They made a big change in the church, which most of you are familiar with, that instead of three hours of church on Sunday it is two. But they said that because we've always emphasized teaching more of the Gospel in the home but we weren't super good about that. So it's not shortening the time of church for the sake of more time at home. It's so there's more time at home for Gospel study with the family which I think is super cool. 

     But other than that nothing really happened. We got news that Elder Holland (for those who don't know he's an apostle in our church or a guy that's high up in the church that gives really good spiritual talks) is going to be coming to the Mission and having a conference with us. I get to shake his hand!!! (Probably) I'm super excited! 

      Other than that it's just the news that I go home in like 9 days so that's pretty exciting. 

Well I sure love you all and hope everything is going well with you!

-Elder Rogers 

     Oh and also we had Greenie Graduation, which is essentially when all the new missionaries (me) go meet with the mission president and show that we know the first three lessons and can teach them on our own. So that wasn't stressful at all (sarcasm). But it went really good and then I got a certificate saying I'm a "master teacher" which I am not. But it was nice we got a good lunch afterwards too. 

     Also here's the very few pictures we got this week. The first is Greenie Graduation and the second is from exchanges with Elder Debrine.

Weekly email 10

     Hey everybody! We're getting pretty close to the end of my mission but don't worry I'm still gonna be working hard every day until I go home. 

     This week was crazy and not a ton happened. 

So basically last Monday was just a regular day but we had a great dinner. We went to this Asian buffet and it was awesome, but about halfway through the dinner my companion noticed that my neck was getting kind of red. So I went to the bathroom to check it out and I was covered in hives. Now mind you this is super weird because I'm not allergic to any foods, just penicillin, which I hope wasn't sprinkled on the food. But we "rushed" back to the apartment and I got some benadryl in me. We called up the mission nurse and she said to go to the ER but by the time we got there the hives were gone so we just went home. BUT the next morning I woke up with way more hives than before so we went to the ER and they gave me a steroid shot in a sensitive area (I'll let you guess where) and said that I should see an allergist, they also said I should have an epipen but those are expensive and I wasn't having any breathing problems so I think I'll be fine without it. But then we went home and I slept. And every single day this week I have woken up covered in hives and with a pretty high fever so I'd just take some benadryl and go to bed all day. 

     But then Saturday came, and we had a baptism that we had scheduled for that night so we were gonna go even if it killed me. But this whole week I didn't do anything to prepare for the baptism (I'm new to this so I don't know what all requirements there are) but my super veteran companion forgot everything too. But luckily God is good and literally everything fell into place last minute and worked out fine. We got all the necessary forms and approval and people where they all needed to be and it was great. I've taught this family since like the first week I got here and it was amazing to see them make the decision to be baptized and join the church. It was super touching to see them all do it together as a family and see how close they were. 

     But yeah I'm still sick but it's just a fever now and I'm pretty sure it's going away anyway. That's about it for this week. Sorry no pictures of the adventures.

But I sure love you all!

-Elder Rogers 

Weekly email 9

     So last week elder Pontious was super sick. We stayed in the apartment for like three days straight. We didn't go to P-day last week but we should be going today hopefully. Anyway some time ago we ran into a guy at church who isn't in one of our wards, but he owns a dental building or something and he said he has a boatload of teeth whitening kits that he just gives missionaries for free. So last week we finally got a ride down there and did the whole thing, they had to put that goo in our mouths to make like a retainer or something. It's actually super legit so elder Pontious and I are trying it out and hopefully it works. 

     We also biked 20 miles in one day which was crazy. We biked to the church and then back for lunch, and then back to the church and past it and then back. There was a lot of back and forth and up and down hills, it was a crazy day. 

     The best part of the week was when we went and did some service for this fair here. We put up a bunch of tents and stuff (and by we I mean all 16 missionaries in our zone, it was great). We left before any of the fun started, because it was a regular proselyting day. But they had ponies that were smaller than some dogs I had and they were the cutest things ever. I don't think I have a picture tho. Afterwards the Spanish elders came over to eat some pie and then they had to go. 

The craziest thing that happened was it rained super hard, which is a normal thing here and they have drainage things that usually take care of it, but not this time. The lake was flooded super bad, the water rose like 10 feet at it's highest and every single road into and out of our area was turned into a river, so we couldn't go anywhere because we were trapped. But it was cool we took lots of pictures of our park that was now underwater. It was apparently the worst flooding of this area in the past 70 years. I really am just that lucky. 

     But that was about it. 

I love you guys and always wanna hear about how your lives are going!

-Elder Rogers 

Weekly email 8

     So as many of you know, it was my birthday this week! It was an awesome birthday too. We started off by going to the senior recreation center to do some service from 8am to 1pm. It was incredible. We were in charge of giving out some food, they had pears, potatoes, cilantro, and kale. We gave the fold to any old person who walked by and helped carry it to their cars because it was too heavy for them. Then in the middle of it I got a call from someone saying happy birthday and then they asked to speak to my companion. Then like 5 minutes later this lady shows up with a cake and doughnuts and asks for Elder Rogers (that's me by the way). It caught me totally off guard. Then everyone sang to me and it was fun. Then we continued to help out and I talked to so many old people it was great.
     The night before we had dinner with the Thornocks, which means we got to teach Nicki and her kids another lesson. It was great and the lesson went over super smooth, right at the end though the Thornocks brought out this cake and they sang happy birthday too. I hate getting all this attention but I am grateful that they got me some cake lol.
Some other time during the week a lady came by and gave me a massive pumpkin pie and I love pumpkin pie.
     Not a ton happened the rest of the week because we had exchanges and elder Pontious is super sick right now. And it keeps raining over here. This is Texas it's supposed to be a desert but it rains like every day. Once elder Pontious gets better more things will happen.
     We also got to feed some ducks the other day. And we got stuck in an underpass trying to cross the freeway and elder Pontious has decreed that we must make crazy faces in like every selfie now. And I made brownies and found an apron so of course elder Pontious said we had to take a selfie. We also went to Hutchins again and it was great. Best brisket I've ever had. I also got an antique Marine Corp gas mask so of course I had to put it on (after I cleans it of course).
     Well I love you all and hope you're doing well!
- Elder Rogers

Weekly email 7

 Hey y'all! 
     So we had transfers this past week and I got a new companion! His name is Elder Pontious. (Yes, just like Pontious Pilate). 
     The last P-day it rained cats and dogs all day so I got soaked but that's just part of life. The first day with elder Pontious someone, who's name rhymes with smontious, rode a little too close on the bikes and I slammed the brakes and fell off the bike for the first time on the mission and scraped my hands. It wasn't too bad tho but I had a rock stuck in there which hurt pretty good. 
     We found five new people this week who said that they would be interested in meeting with us so that's awesome! Usually we will find one every week or so, so five is a crazy amount. 
     We saw an armadillo the other day while we were riding our bikes back to the apartment. We went through this nature trail as a shortcut and this armadillo ran right in front of me and I didn't hit it but it got close. Oh and it also rained for like the past four days. So the lake flooded a decent amount but we still went over for our studies. I also fed a few ducks who were hanging out there. 
     I got a free drink at taco bell too. That happens a lot. Like the more miserable we look the more often we get free drinks, like we want to pay but they just give us the hand and they're like "nah man it's good" so that's always fun. We had dinner with a family and they have three cockatoos and one was $10,000! Can you believe that? I can't. 
     But yeah that's about how the week went. I hope you guys are all doing well back home!
- Elder Rogers