Staring at the Water

Helloha!
So, this week we did some funky things! Last week we taught a great lesson on the Plan of Salvation to a girl named Roni, and she told us to come back next on Tuesday for dinner. We planned on teaching her another lesson, and then challenging her to baptism, but life has an odd way of twisting things around, and that's exactly what happened. When we arrived, we found a whole group of old Pilipino women who couldn't speak English at all. They tried to get us to leave, but Elder Campbell insisted we had an appointment with Roni, so they permitted us to stay. For a long time we sat there awkwardly while they stared at us and nobody said anything. Then these other people showed up with cake, and Elder Campbell just sort of turned to look at me and said "Are we crashing a birthday party?" Turns out, we were! We were only invited by Roni because she wanted us to pray over the food. Then, we all partook of Pilipino dishes like fish with the eyes still intact, billy goat meat, and other assorted meats of questionable origin. It was honestly the weirdest thing that has happened to me thus far on the mission.

In relation to General Conference, we were all very saddened by the death of Robert D. Hales, and we are keeping his family and loved ones in our prayers. It is very hard to lose someone, especially someone who taught and gave so much to his community. Conference works a little bit differently in Hawaii, which I already knew from that time we stayed at Turtle Bay. We have to wake up at 5:00am instead of 6:30 like usual, and since Zone Conference happened on the day before Saturday, we woke up at 5:00 three days in row this week, while also having to wear suits. It was awful. Bright side is, paying attention is mandatory, so I actually took notes this time. I loved how the main focus was love for others and acceptance of culture and those around you, regardless of where on the path they may be. I finished reading the Book of Mormon a few days ago, so the talk on its truth was a massive testimony builder for me, and I felt it was the answer to all my prayers as to whether or not it's true. I can tell you now, as I could have before, that the Book of Mormon is in fact Holy Scripture and is beyond a shadow of a doubt the most true of any book on earth.

I finally got some sleep this morning, and we actually decided to go hiking today, so I'm sorry for the late email, but that's the reason. I took some pictures of the shore we hiked to, because we went tide pool exploring. The official mission rules state that if the water is 3 inches below the knee, you may stand in it. They also stated to not touch the sand or to actively go into the ocean, so looking at water and tide pools was all that we did. We avoided the ocean and it's waters of apostasy as much as possible, and we're all still dry, so don't worry about that. Mostly it was just to get some good pictures. We actually saw a spotted moray eel today, so that was freakin' scary. You'll see what I mean in the picture. Creepy.

I know the news you all want to hear is involving the upcoming baptism of the Vickers family, and we're both very happy to announce that they are progressing wonderfully. We actually were able to set another member of the Vickers family with a date too, so in the upcoming week we should see the three of them baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I'm very excited for them, and am anxious to see them baptized. It is such a great step for them to take in their lives, and I'm so happy for them! The gospel has really touched these people, and the changes I've seen in them since we first started teaching them. It's glorious.

Unfortunately, Tyler Ramos is going to have to have his baptism pushed back to November 2nd, 2017. It's been difficult for him to give up his addictions, and he's going to be off at Military School this October, so we won't be able to see him very much for a while. Keep him in your prayers, and know that he's a wonderful and honest person, he's just struggling right now. I know that we'll see him baptized at some point, but I am sad because I don't know if Elder Campbell is going to be here for it or not.

I was super excited to hear you've been keeping up with my advent calendar! When you run out of weeks, just let me know.

That's all for this week! 

Love you all!
-Elder Rogers

The centipedes are huge!  Yes, it was alive!

The spotted moray eel

Me and Elder Nunn

A ladybug!