So last week on P-day we went grocery shopping and everything so that was fun having to buy my own food for the first time, I got a lot of eggs and Sunny-D and milk so you already know I'm gonna starve to death. I'm just kidding. I actually have a fairly good grocery list that is healthy and filling and most importantly CHEAP. It's pretty good out here. Some other Elders from our district came over to give us a ride and I shared some of my Sunny-D with them and they drank like half so I had to ration it for the whole week but it's fine, they needed it more than I did.
On Tuesday we had zone conference where a ton of missionaries all get together and talk about our goals as a mission with our Mission President and then we have lunch, so that was a fun day and I got to meet a lot of Elder Myers' old friends or companions that he's known on his mission so far.
The rest of the week was pretty slow, since we live right in the Bible Belt most of the people are super religious in like the Baptist or Methodist or Catholic or whatever other religions there are out here so nobody really wants to give us more than a sideways glance and we get a ton of doors closed in our face, actually we have yet to meet a single person who is interested in what we have to say. But eventually we will find somebody and it'll all be worth it.
So now for the part everyone's been waiting for, the part where I talk about all the crazy things we've seen and heard out in the mission. I'm sure you all know but Texas is in the South which of course means that there may be some racism, so basically we were out walking and knocking on doors and somebody had like a KKK scarecrow on their porch. Like I thought it was a guy all dressed up in his Klan outfit just standing on his porch, so we avoided that house. There was this one guy we met who is an Anglican Priest, his name was Father Eric. He invited us into his house and basically asked us all the historical questions about our church, like dates and stuff and why we thought we were Christians and stuff like that. He was kinda weird but definitely an interesting character. Sometimes we do our morning studies in a Whataburger or a Dairy Queen and in the Whataburger we had a guy who talked to us as he was leaving basically asking if we believed in Jesus but he left before we had a chance to tell him all our beliefs but it's whatever. Apparently DQ is the place to meet up with all your war buddies because we saw a group of about 6 WW2 Vets who were talking about like their grandkids and church and stuff, and one of them out of nowhere started singing like a church hymn and then the others joined in and it was actually super cool but not something you would expect to see.
Once Friday hit we finally had Elder Myers' bike fixed and a member from one of our wards let me borrow his bike, which meant we had to use them and boy we did just that. We started that day by going over to the church which is about 2 miles away but like 5 miles up in hills (I'm exaggerating but you know what I mean). Those hills were absolutely massive, especially since I hadn't ridden a bike in months, but we made it to the church without anybody dying too much.
That night we had dinner with the Nahoolewas (pronounced nah-ho-lay-vuh) and they're from Hawaii, hence the name. Brother Nahoolewa cooked us the best brisket I've ever had in my life, he made it just because I had never had Texas barbecue and he started me off at the top. I probably ate about too many pounds of the stuff and then they sent us home with a ton of it so that was awesome.
Oh and yesterday was fast Sunday and we were at church from 9am to about 6:30 pm because we had to show up to meetings before both of our wards that we cover and let's just say it was a long day. But of course we made it through and it was all good. During Testimony meeting though one of the recent converts, her name is Connie, went up to bear her testimony. Now Connie was raised in a Baptist background so she pretty much didn't even need the microphone for everyone to be able to hear what she was saying. Then we saw another recent convert who's name is Cordelia and she's from Nigeria, like born and raised. We visited her one day after dinner and she gave us so much food and we just couldn't say no. She's like the sweetest old grandma ever and her accent is seriously the best.
That was about our whole week and I hope you all enjoyed.
Just a reminder that if you want to email me back please hit "Reply" and not "Reply All" just so you aren't emailing everyone else. I love you all and really enjoy hearing how you all are doing.
-Love Elder Rogers
In Texas the weather can swing 50 degrees in a day, I've seen it multiple times. It's typcially just this hot every summer. Sometimes we get more rain. I think our missionaries have a difficult time finding interested folks as well. Lots of good Christian folk, though. Glad he's helping us Texans out.
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