悲しみ物と神業

Well, if there's one thing I've learned on a mission it's that a lot can happen in a week. This week in particular was extremely eventful, but before we get to that, I wanted to share my thoughts on something not missionary related for a bit. I already made a Facebook post about it, but I wanted to put it in the email as well just to further relay my thoughts.

So, Japan. I'm not sure how bad it is, or what exactly is happening or has happened beyond what members in my ward told me, but from what I understand at least 11 are dead and a great deal more injured in the biggest typhoon in 25 years which slammed and destroyed central Japan. In addition, the days that followed contained around 3 major earthquakes, which added to the damage and death toll substantially. This... is horrible. I was completely crushed by the news and it was a very scary moment for me as well considering the many friends I know who either live in Japan or have family living in Japan. I fasted for them when I heard, and I pray every night that the people of Japan will be able to recover quickly from this tragedy. It hurt a great deal to hear of a people I've grown to love and care for so much having to endure such hardships. Any extra prayers on their behalf would help.

And there's still another hurricane, Olivia this time, coming through Hawaii this week, as if Hector, Lane (or lame as you might recall), and Norman hadn't caused us all enough excitement for the summer. Well Olivia, the Hawaiians are getting pretty sick of you and your hurricane pals causing shenanigans all the time, so allow me to tell you nicely to back the heck off. Trust me, you don't wanna mess with fed up Polynesians. It never ends well. So if Olivia shows up this week next week's email is probably going to be even more interesting than this one is, so hold on to your banana stands folks. (there's always money in those you know)

Well anyway, you were promised miracles this week, and hoo boy can I deliver! The Lord rewarded our hard work this week and man! It was so cool! Of the many great number of things that happened, the coolest one comes first, because it's the most relevant. And also because my ability to write emails with professional-grade pacing and suspense in them is inversely proportional to the amount of excitement I feel about this topic, so to heck with the build up to the climax thing, this week you get to eat your cake and bake it later! Guess what boys and girls, on Sunday, Bro. Finau came to church. Yes, he actually came, for real. If you feel like you're struggling to contain your excitement fear not, because you are not alone! I have been trying to get Bro. Finau to come to church since April, and yes, I was still in this area back in April. But he caaaaaaame!!!!!!! Finally!!!! *shoots off confetti canon* *blows one of those party blower things, you know that curl up and then uncurl and make that weird celebration noise? yeah one of those things*

But wait! If you thought that was the biggest miracle this week, well, you wouldn't be wrong but....ok I built this up wrong. The point is there's another miracle on the same level as this and I'm going to talk about that one now. *party blower thing sound again* So for the past 2 weeks Elder England and I have been playing phone tag, for lack of a better term, with this potential investigator named Solomon. More specifically, it's his kids that are investigating, not him, he's just less active. Anyway, we finally managed to get a time to meet up with him and his kids for a lesson in person (that's what we were playing phone tag about) and it went much better than expected considering how frustrating it was to get the dang lesson set up in the first place. We taught them the Restoration just to begin with. And now all three of them want to be baptized, and do you want to know what the secret is? This entire family loves these four things in this order: Horizon Zero Dawn, Playstation, Anime, and comics. Now, it just so happens... that I also love all four of those things, not necessarily in that order, but still. Horizon Zero Dawn threw me off, as I loved that game a lot when it came out. I even posted on Facebook about it when it came out. Glad to know even that was part of God's plan, and it's just so crazy to think that all of those experiences getting excited for the game and buying it were all part of the plan to help me connect with this one specific family I needed to teach on my mission. God is definatley not a poor planner, let's get that out there. We teach them again this Tuesday, and I was able to strike up such a friendship with them that they actually said they couldn't wait for the next lesson. This my friends, is what we in the biz call: "pleasant".

Oh, and that's not all either, because we have 2 more new investigators to talk about this week as well! Lucky you! So much to read... So little time... *a third party blower sound, quieter this time, as though conveying the exhaustion of 47 straight hours of celebratory dancing* One of the two is Gina, who we met because a lady in our ward has medically challenged kids and so does Gina, and Gina wanted to know God's plan ASAP. We taught her 2 lessons this week, back to pack. (backpack). The Restoration on Thursday, and the Plan of Salvation, which was very emotional and spiritual by the way, on Friday. Assuming Olivia the poopy hurricane doesn't ruin everything, we will be visiting her again this week to discuss the gospel of Jesus Christ. She is super into it and it is amazing to see the light in her eyes when we teach her the gospel. The other new investigator is from Aiea. She simply came to church saying "I want to know how to get close to God" and now we're teaching her and she wants to be baptized, which is pretty cool.

So that was this week. Oh and our ward mission leader went to China so we taught gospel principles class on short notice and it was awkward. That's not even a joke. He just said "I think I'll go to China this week" two days before church and come Sunday we get a text from him saying he's in China. At this point I feel like I should be asking questions but I feel like the answers are the kinds of things that the FBI would need to hunt me down for if I knew. So I'll leave things be for now.

Have a good week. Don't try to shave with a cheese grader. (it doesn't do what you think its going to do, trust me.)

Until next week!

Elder Rogers 

Not much in the way of pictures this week, but I fixed my shoes with flex glue, and I drew a Pop Team Epic of Dead End, which I colored, because.... I'm 19 and I can do what I want with my life now. I'll take some more interesting photos next week. I promise. The tie pic is to show that I too love Playstation, and will be wearing it next time I meet with Solomon and his epic fam.