This morning we all went on a jungle hike. I felt like I was playing uncharted in real life! We went through caves, over cliffs, over rivers, (because we can't go in the water) and saw rain that looked like snow! I called it salt flake snow, after A Lull in the Sea. (Zac, that reference was for you). It was awesome!

So here's a little fun fact for you, over by my area there's an anime and comic book shop. Last week on P-day we all went to go check it out. (Don't worry, we got it approved first) We were allowed to look at stuff, but not read anything. I did happen to find something very weird while I was there though, and that was the "Scooby Doo Apocalypse" Comic. I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it with my own eyes. Don't worry, I took pictures. They also had a bunch of custom artwork of anime characters in Hawaii. Elder Fa, the brown guy in the group photo I sent, is a MAJOR anime fan, and we talk about anime all the time.

I've been talking to more and more people as of late, and it's been great! I've met a lot of random people, so I've been able to teach a little more than usual lately!  It's been wonderful! All of our investigators are progressing nicely, and everything else is going fantastic.

I still suck at ties, and one time I messed up so bad that we just had to take a picture. Hopefully you get a good chuckle out of the sheer amount of stupidity in that photo. It's really been a great week, and I've got a lot of pictures to show you. So much to say, so little time!

I saw a fantastic sunset the other day, so I thought I'd share the literal rays of sunshine with all of you folks back home. Hopefully it brightens up your day a little. Enjoy the pictures, and fix your cars! Why is it that the second I leave you all forget how to drive?! HAH! OK, see you next week.

Aloha!
-Elder Rogers

 Pictures from the hike

Hello all!

So apparently people are freaking out about something called an Eclipse, which I think is kind of stupid. Oh yeah, let's all go stare into the sun until our retinas melt....... hah.... haha....stupid.... yeah.....(I really wanted to see the eclipse but we can't see it in Hawaii.)

So anyway, I don't know if you know this but Hawaii has something called a "Cane Spider", which is responsible for killing the only spider that has ever been good in the sight of God, that of course being the Able Spider. I hate these things. They're the size of a person's WHOLE HAND, and they can JUMP. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we're talking about spiders the size of your hand, THAT CAN JUMP. This is in fact, a terrible thing. I found out that they existed earlier this week at a service project. See, we went and chopped up palm tree leaves with friggin MACHETES, which was awesome and totally made me feel like the star of an action movie, because I got to cut through leaves with a machete in the midst of the jungle this dude called his backyard. Turns out though, cane spiders love palm leaves, and jumping at people. Also, the best part of the whole machete thing is Elder Campbell sees this big cane spider and he points his machete at it and goes "behold, I will slay thee" and he swung the blade and missed. Yeah. This spider went ham on this poor guy. I was laughing and crying at the same time because I was so scared. He didn't get bit, it just jumped at him is all. But DANG! Freaky...

Oh! And you know how we have roaches out here? Well guess what! We have some that can fly. Apparently, they're pretty big too, because the other Elders and Sisters refer to them as "Boing 707's".

In other news, we visited an inactive member by the name of "Waiamau" and his house is infested with roaches, but for some reason this time he got really mad at us and we didn't know why, but he was yelling about being forced into church as a child and something else about diabetes, so I have no idea what happened there. Also there was a smell in there, and I don't know what it was, but I've never smelled it before. I love Bro. Waiamau though, so hopefully he doesn't hate us now.

We weren't able to visit the Jellins this past week, but hopefully we'll be able to visit them this week. Tyler Ramos is still on track to be baptized, but we might have to move it back... It all depends on if he's able to keep clean from tobacco or not. Hopefully he is.

I bore my greenie testimony in Zone Conference this week, and during that testimony I talked a lot about Dad. Dad gave me a letter for my 18th birthday and it had the lyrics to the theme song for Pokemon Black and White. I recalled how strongly that letter had touched me, not only because it was Dad, and he was using Pokemon to tell me he was proud of me, but because of the song's focus on choices and how hard it can be to start a new journey and make new choices. It reminds me of my purpose, and of home, and reminds me that even though it's always hard when the journey begins, that there's nothing you can't do, because you've got the power inside of you.

I love you guys, and miss you a lot, but I'm working hard out here, so.... wish me luck! Alohey!

Also, a gecko got into our house, so that was cool.

-Elder Rogers

Zone Conference

The house we live in

Our little gecko friend who lives in our house

Hawaii Rain

Hello!

I got a package from you guys! In case you were wondering, it takes a grand total of 4 full days to send something from Hawaii to Utah, and vice versa. Elder Campbell got his 1 year package the same day I got my greenie package! How cool is that! And we wore shirts matching the boxes! ​ I don't know if I mentioned this yet, but Elder Campbell is like an awesome mixture of Justin Zager, Connor Keddington, and Cameron Hilker, and we get along really well.

Anyway, I was so excited to hear that Cameron served in Wahaiwa too! How did he like it? Personally, I love it here, despite the uh, "chronics" if you will. A "chronic" is a homeless person who also suffers from a mental illness. We have a lot of them around here. They don't hurt anybody, usually, but sometimes they act in very odd ways. Yesterday Elder Campbell and I got attacked by one of the chronics. “The Wild Man”, as we call him, is definitely the most dangerous thing out here. He has schizophrenia, and he screams at fire hydrants a lot. Yesterday though, we were stopped at a traffic light, and The Wild Man spotted us. He got very very close to our car, and the light would just NOT TURN GREEN!!! It was so scary I almost started crying. This dude is a VERY SCARY MAN. If you look him in the eyes (or answer the call of the wild) He ATTACKS! Yes, really. We barely made it out of there alive. The least dangerous chronic so far is "No Pants Stan" but he doesn't wear pants, so you know, that's kind of an issue. As you can see, Hawaii is not all rainbows and sunshine, and it is definitely not a vacation.

The other day I caught my first Gecko! His name was Hermin! I let him go though, because I wanted him to be free to choose his own way in life... I think he goes to college now, but I'm not sure. Speaking of lizards, I shot this cool video of a brown Anole yesterday. Did you know they have these cool bright orange frills? I wanted you to see it all the time, and pictures don't do it justice, so I filmed it for you all to enjoy.

Four of our investigators came to church yesterday! WHAT WHAT! Oh, and we now have a baptismal date for Tyler Ramos. Yes, you read that right, we invited Tyler Ramos to be baptized and he said he would! He's going to be baptized on September 2nd!  It's going to be hard for him, because he drinks and chews tobacco, but I know he can overcome those things. The spirit was very strong during our last lesson. He comes to church often, and even though we thought he only came because his wife is a member, when she has work and can't come he brings his 2 year old daughter BY HIMSELF and comes to church!

The people out here are amazing! The other day I was able to sit down and enjoy a wonderful spaghetti supper with a member named Leonard Lopez. Leonard is the most Christ-like individual I’ve ever met. He loves the missionaries and so do his two daughters. His charity, and love for others was such an example to me, and I wish you could have seen how his eyes lit up with joy when he spoke about the Book of Mormon. He said with a twinkle in his eye, “I’ll nevah read no othah book!” And that any servant of God, Mormon or otherwise, would always be welcome under his roof. He is the definition of the Aloha spirit, and meeting him was one of the greatest experiences I think I’ve ever had.

Sometimes I miss home a lot, but the islands are full of wonderful things, like lizards (lots of them), and I’ve been so caught up in the work of the Lord that most of the time, no offense, I can’t think of anything but this place being my home. It’s a lot like Japan. Like, we have Ramen and stuff and, I was able to use my Japanese to talk to a Japanese family. I wish I had time to tell you about all of my adventures, but I don't have time in my 1-hour of computer time I get per week. Anyway, last week we went on a pretty hike, and I thought you'd want pictures, so here you go.

You're Welcome.

AND THANK YOU!!!

-Elder Rogers

Our Dwelling Place

Lots of chickens everywhere

Banana Bush

Pictures from our hike

The lizard video...enjoy!

 

Family! I've been out of the flow for something like a week.

I was assigned to serve on Oahu! Which I thought would be boring, because I've seen Oahu before, but I'm actually on the opposite side of the island from where we visited, so it's all new for me. I'm glad I grabbed my sketchbook, 'cuz some of the stuff over here is pretty sketchy. HEYO! So, I'm serving in the Wahiawa 3rd ward, which is in the Mililani zone! AKA you know that massive yellow area that covers most of Oahu? That's where I am right now. My companion is named Elder Campbell. He's almost exactly the same as I am, personality wise, and we get along great! He looks like a 20 year old version of President Chugg actually. Like, uncannily so.

As for the people here, I love them so much! Every new person I meet is my new favorite person! I even ate mexican food so as not to offend them! Yep! Also, I'm the designated driver, and driving in Honolulu was absolutely terrifying. The only reason I'm driving is because Elder Campbell is just like me and is scared of driving, but unlike me he just decided not to bring his driver's license with him because he doesn't want to drive at all. Smart kid. Most of our area is military, and while we're on base we aren't allowed to proselyte at all, unless someone either asks about it or is already a member. If we try to preach, we will be thrown out of the base and not be allowed to return. EVER. Spooky huh? We do have proselyting areas, but those are the sketchy places, and the houses there have a bad roach problem. And when I say bad, what I really mean is that when you look at the floor for long enough, you realize that it's not carpet, and that it's actually alive and moving. That my friends, is what you call terror. Pure, unedited, terror. God knows I love horror and fear, so I guess I got sent to the right place huh? I hate roaches though. Especially the big ones. But yeah, the roaches are terrible. Not on base, mind you, those houses are nice, but off base? yikes. The biggest one I've ever seen was about the size of my whole entire thumb. AND NO IT WASN'T DEAD. IT LIVES. IT LOOKED AT ME. HEEEEEEELP!!! Also, speaking of creatures, there was a gecko... IN OUR MAILBOX!!! WHAAAAAAT!!!! IT WAS SO COOL! There are lizards everywhere and I love it!

Right now, I'm teaching a family called the Jellins. Brother Jellins grew up in Salt Lake City, and was forced by his parents to go to church when he was little, even though he HATED it. Instead, all he wanted to do was play video games. So, he joined the military, which payed him enough to support his habit. His wife also loves to game, in fact before they got married, they played through Final Fantasy 7 together as a couple! They have a Nintendo WIi, Wii U, and Switch, a Sony PS3, PS4, PSP, and PSVita, a Microsoft XBOX 360, and an XBOX ONE X, and finally, not one but TWO Alienware computers, which all run at max graphical capacity. This is, in a word, perfection. The problem though, is they have three kids who are often neglected because of the gaming. It wouldn't be so bad if they played games together, or if the Jellins kids were allowed to watch their parents play, but they aren't. I feel very strongly that I can help them, because I understand and relate to them, but I also know I can't do it alone. I encourage all of you at home to pray for them, and I've been praying for them too. Sister Jellins is a good mom, and takes time for the kids, but brother Jellins is so scarred by his past church experiences that it's been hard to get through to him, but something in me resonates with him, and I feel very strongly that I can help them, like I said, so keep Brother Jellins in your prayers. I teach a lot of military families, actually.

Three of our investigators came to church this week, and that includes their families as well, so in total around 9 investigators came to church on Sunday.

This week we have 2 brand new investigators too! One of them has a baptismal date. Heck yeah!
Until next week! Jya ne!

Wahiawa

Elder Campbell

Gecko in the mailbox

Pizza and Sour Patch soda

Geckos everywhere!

Another mom post:

We just received an email from Elder Rogers' mission that he has made it safely to Hawaii. His address for all letters and packages for the duration of his mission is:

Elder Caden Rogers
Hawaii Honolulu Mission
1500 S. Beretania Street, Suite 416
Honolulu, HI 96826

Here is a picture of him, a picture with his mission president, President Bekker, and his wife, and a couple of pictures with all of the new missionaries arriving in Hawaii with him (there are a lot!).

We do not know yet which area he has been assigned to serve in. We are very excited for Monday (p-day) to find out!