The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
"And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat upon him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword and with hunger, and with death, and with all the beasts of the earth."    -Revelations 6:8

Well, it's been a week. I don't know weather to call it a good week or a bad week, but it was without a doubt 7 days of time that will never ever return so in that regard it's been a week. You might wonder what's up with the title of this week's email. Or the quote. Or anything I say these days.  While I can't answer the third query I can handle the first two, because that's the entire point of my email this week. Bottom line is, there are four unspeakable evils that rule the land of Kekaha (pronounced by saying the word 'cake' and then 'aha') and logically, because they are unspeakable, were going to spend this whole day talking about them just because we can. This is called irony, and it's what we make jokes out of when it's 3 in the morning and we're writing our weekly email instead of sleeping because we can't sleep. Joy to the world. That's as much of an intro as I am going to give you this week, so buckle up boys and girls and get ready to go on a trip in your favorite rocket ship: the rocket ship of knowledge that leads to the magical land of Kekaha, ruled by the Iron fists of these four 'horsemen'. None of which ride actual horses.

 #1. The Fugly Ducklings

OK, so ever since I got here, there have been these two weird goose-looking things waddling around here hissing at us, and they're the most disturbing looking creatures I've ever seen in my life. I think they're supposed to live across from us in the house next door, but for the past two weeks they've instead decided to make a home for themselves on our driveway, which we never use because we don't have a car. (fingers crossed on us getting one soon) I can't say they are really that bothersome because they don't honk or quack at us or anything, all they do is wag their tail feathers and hiss and chase us around at full speed. OK so maybe they bother me, and maybe they keep us hostage in our own house sometimes, and we may or may not pay tribute to them so that they will let us live, but that's beside the point. Yesterday night Dullahan and I attempted to chase them away, but we shall see if that works permanently or not by the end of the day I presume. We call these two creatures the Fugly Ducklings because of their physical appearance, which is extremely ugly and deformed according to the appearance of most other birds of their nature. They aren't nay nays, I know that, because I feel like I've seen them before somewhere, so if any of you know what these misshapen monster geese are, then you know where to find me. If you don't know who Dullahan is, I'll explain later, just have patience for now. Anyway, that's the Fugly Ducklings.

#2. The Hallelujah Boys

In case you didn't know this yet, we live in a small cinder block cube that is stationed about 50 feet from the church building. Right across the street from our meeting house, is a regular house. But oh boy, the people living inside are anything but. They've set up their own church in their backyard, and all they do is play amature-hour chirstian rock and sing the same lyrics over and over. They only really have three songs. One just goes "glory glory, HAAAAAAALELUJAH!" over and over (which is the most common song, and also the most annoying, hence why we call them the Hallelujah Boys). Another is just "open up heaven, make it RAAAAAAIN ON MEEEEEEE" over and over. I believe this one is a crowd favorite or a new release or something because they have begun to play this one a lot more often and I hadn't heard them play it ever up until a few days ago. The third is the most offensive one. Not really because of lyrics, those are just "praise the Jesus God, he is our king" on endless repeat, but it bothers me because of the timing when they play it. The only way you can tell which song is which is by listening to the lyrics, because the beat is always exactly the same. Now before anything else, let me just say that I have absolutely no problem with other churches. You're welcome to believe what you want to believe, and if that involves singing all day, more power to you. Heck, we sing hymns every week. Here's what I have a problem with. These guys used to have an actual schedule of Sundays and Thursdays at set times, but over the course of the past few weeks, they've made what they call an adjustment. They found out what time we have sacrament meeting at, and they play their music as loud as they can at the same time as sacrament on purpose because they dislike us. Yeah, really. Anytime that we have cars in our parking lot, they decide that's a new time for a concert. And because they hold their church service under a pavilion in their backyard, you can hear them from anywhere in the entire neighborhood. Including inside the church building. They do this purely because they want to disrupt our church service because they think our religion is incorrect, and that is my problem with them. That, and they're extremely loud and extremely repetitive, which gets old....really, really quick. If they had some sort of building to worship in I wouldn't even care because at least then I wouldn't be hearing loud disruptive music while trying to take the sacrament. Anyway, that's them, and they don't like us very much.

#3: The Chickens

I actually love the chickens, and when I said there weren't that many of them, I was unprepared for the onslaught to come. Every morning at exactly the crack of dawn comes the roosters. They come from everywhere around us. All over the whole island in fact. And all of them crow. At the same time. Every day. Which means we're up. Every morning. At exactly the crack of dawn. It's wonderful. Sometimes we're tired enough to sleep through it. Today was not one of those days. Other than the times when they wake me up early, I don't really mind having to deal with chickens. They're fine by me.

#4: The Great Unknown

There's gotta be a fourth thing out here to whine about, but I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it's the boiling sun that makes me feel like the physical embodiment of those banana chip things that are sun dried in California. Maybe it's the lack of wifi. I dunno. But that's all for that so I'm moving on to a new subject now.

Thanksgiving was amazing. We were fed by the Morley family, and it was almost better than eating at home. They are the coolest members. Our rules for Thanksgiving were that we were to do regular missionary work until 6:00pm, at which point we were free to eat with members if they invited us. Here's what the Morley family did to get around that. They said, "what if we have an important service project for you to do before dinner, and that just so happens to start at 11:00am?" For those of you who don't get it, the service project was basically help entertain the kids while dinner gets cooked, but because we are calling it service, show up in service clothes, also known as P Day clothes. We played games like Harry Potter Gnome Toss and Monopoly, and then we had dinner at 3:00pm, but because the Morleys also made homemade pie, we stayed until 6:00pm and after that we went home and finally finished a 1000 piece puzzle of Oahu's north shore we found in the closet three weeks ago. I didn't wear church clothes that whole entire day, and it was glorious. That puzzle took us three weeks to finish, and we keep saying we're going to destroy it, but thus far, we have not. Instead we kind of use it as a table cloth. We'll destroy it someday. Promise. Probably. Jeremy the Gecko is still around, and I've surpassed my 500 day mark, plus my next trip to Japan is already planned and flight tickets have been bought, so I have a great deal to be grateful for this year. We visited with Walt again this week, and it went incredibly well, and we're teaching Rikki the Heropon about the plan of salvation on Tuesday, and he really seems interested, so I'm grateful for those things too. There are quite a few pictures this week, so brace for impact.

Until next week friends!
-ELDER ROGERS

Pictures: The Puzzle. Which we finally finished on Thanksgiving. We found this cool tortoise while talking to a potential investigator.  Me at Walt's house. He has the master sword. It's actually metal and custom made for Breath of the Wild and he let me take a picture with it. Finally, I continue working with those pens as much as I can. I drew Captain Falcon from Super Smash Bros. (technically F-Zero) for Elder York and it turned out cool. Now I'm working on Shulk. 

This was a special occasion when Elder York hit his four month mark. Thanks to funding from an outside source (thanks parents!!) we were able to treat ourselves to dinner in a less dry area of Kauai. It was great and Elder York was very, very grateful.

Breath of the Wild
"It's dangerous to go alone, take this"
-The Old Man, The Legend of Zelda

This week is full of the most incredible and amazing stories and experiences. Especially when it comes to people specifically meant for me to talk to. There were three incredibly notable encounters in particular this week that I wanted to lay out on the table because I think they are pretty cool, and I think you will too. One of them, as a matter of fact, has to do with, well what else: NINTENDO. If you didn't know this about me, you've either been living under a rock or being extremely negligent, but I LOVE Nintendo. Almost unconditionally in fact. This week, yet again, I managed to meet somebody that loves Nintendo. Unlike most however, this man's story will likely inspire even the hardest of hearts, and because of that I urge you to read carefully, and with an open mind, because it's likely this story could change your entire perspective on gaming as a whole. First off, let me introduce you guys to a man named Walt. Like any other kid, the early years of Walt's childhood were spent running around and playing with other kids. He ran, he jumped, he lived a carefree life in his happy little world, but at the age of 6 years old, something happened that would forever change Walt's life. You see, that was when Walt was diagnosed with Polio. Polio is an extremely dangerous disease to get at the age of 6, and for a long time Walt was confined to live within the walls of a hospital room. They told him he would not and could not ever walk, jump, run, or swim, ever again. In his own words, Walt says his response to these claims was simple: "Just watch me". From there Walt began to work at it daily until he was able to walk around somewhat freely. From there, his life became a day to day miracle as he continued to work his hardest to prove the doctors wrong and become successful despite the affects of polio continuing to weigh on him. He obtained 7 college degrees, swam professionally for a while, and loved life, until the dreaded disease came back to finish the job. Now almost completely paralyzed, depressed, and suffering from tremors, Walt was told his only option was to sit at home and watch reruns. Walt, being Walt of course, would not stand for that, and even though he'd never been into gaming much before, he saw a commercial for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on TV, and since he now, had nothing better to do, he figured what the heck and gave it a purchase. Walt was blown away by what he could do in the gaming world, and it inspired him to try to make the most of his situation. He says he has less tremors than he used to thanks to the game, and he feels like his other symptoms have been lessened as a result of gaming as well. When I asked Walt if we could come back and talk more, he told me it would mean a great deal to him to have a discussion with someone who knew what the symbol of the triforce meant. In other words, we were invited to come and teach him all because I happened to know the symbol on his shirt. Its amazing and wonderful to hear about video games being used for such a positive purpose. If you didn't appreciate video games before, or even if you did, I hope this story made your day, because I was absolutely impressed by Walt and his story.

As if that wasn't cool enough, we also met a guy named Dan who plays the accordion, and he's pretty cool. We will probably end up teaching him a lot more too, since he loved talking to us, and, well, he plays the accordion, so I mean how could he not be awesome?

We also had a bunch of great first lessons. One was with a guy named Rikki, who is just as incredible as the brave Heropon of the same name from Xenoblade Chronicles. If there was any lingering doubt, I love that game. Especially Rikki the legendary Noppon hero! I still don't think I'll play the sequel on switch though. I played the Wii U version for a long time, and didn't finish it, and I wanted to try the 3DS version because they are completely different games, but enough about Xenoblade, that's unrelated. Anyway, we spoke to Rikki the brave Heropon about the restoration and he was really interested, so you'll probably hear more about him in the coming weeks.

I think that just about wraps it up. Me and Elder York have been trying our best to cook up dinners for ourselves, but I'm afraid we're coming up a bit short. But anyways, that's about it from us here in Kekaha!

Aloha!

Pictures: Me and Elder York in front of Waimea Canyon.  We always somehow end up in Waimea Canyon on p days.  Also a new shirt I bought even though I told myself I didn't need any more t-shirts.  (I thought it was worth it for this one to be the exception. It matches my Jurassic Park shirt.)  And finally p day drawings.

"Let's Press On and On and On!!" -Fiora, Xenoblade Chronicles

OK, so whomever it was that told me to prep for chickens everywhere.... There really aren't that many chickens. I've seen like two so far. It's not really a huge deal over here. Whomever it was that told me to bring a rain jacket... It has only rained once so far, and that was only for like 3 seconds. I'm in Kekaha. It's the hottest and driest and least green place on the island. And from what people keep telling me this is the only area on the whole island that doesn't have wifi or a car. And that makes email or external contact a real [friend]. So if you needed me for anything that was an emergency, sorry to say but I can't really help you out with that one. Not having wifi I can live with, as missionaries we don't really use it much anyway, but not having a car is going to kill me. Our area covers HALF OF THE ENTIRE ISLAND OF KAUAI. And we bike it, with help getting around from the one and only Kauai Public Bus system. We're the biggest area on the entire island, by a long shot. And because we don't have a car, elders in an entirely different area, who DO have a car, cover part of our area for us because we are physically incapable of getting there.

That about does it for complaints. I find with a place as incredible as this, it's just easier to list off what I don't like, because that list is short enough to fit into an actual email. As for the list of things I like, it's incredibly long and hard to describe the feelings and thoughts that I have for this wonderful island. It's kind of on the rural side, so in terms of fast food, there's none. Like, none at all. I think I've seen one McDonald's, and that was at the airport. We have a P.O. Box because our actual house is a tiny shack with no real address that is right next to the church building. Kauai is gorgeous though, and the people here are super sweet and friendly. We've already had a baptism for a girl named Ipo, and we met 3 new investig-I mean um... "people" this week, and they all seem super interested and excited about learning more. Other than that, my new companion is Elder York and he's just the best around. His sense of humor is awesome and we have been making the most of every day as companions and as missionaries. He's been out for a little over 3 months now, and he already knows so much! He manages to teach me something new everyday, and I'm grateful for his support. Truth be told, this is the first time I have ever had a companion that is younger than me in mission age. In actual age though, he's still older than me. He was born January 21st 1999, so he's 19 as well, but he chose to go to college at BYU for a year first. He's from the one and only Las Vegas, and yes he's more than worthy to be serving a mission. We get along really well and have been working really hard this week. I'm exhausted, and so is he, but it's a good exhausted and I hope it keeps up for the remainder of the transfer. As the "older" companion and the one with the most experience it's my job to kind of be a follow up trainer and a guide to Elder York, but I'm convinced he's already got what it takes to be a Zone Leader. The guy is an incredible missionary. That said, making sure I'm setting the right example for him and the others in my district (more on that later) is keeping me in line and diligent in my new surroundings. It's a lot of hard work out here, and I'm very busy all the time, but I'm still grateful for the chance to serve with him, and I hope I can be his best companion. Whenever I get lost or feel like I'm having a tough time, I ask my self "What would Elder England do?" and I try my best to live up to the legacy he left for me to carry on. I'm convinced that if every elder was as good as Elder England, the powers of Hell would tremble in fear. Needless to say, I love that man.

Now then. There's a lot that is happening in the mission, and all of it is going to shock you guys. Especially this next part. Starting now, missionaries can no longer eat dinner with members. Yes really. It's not allowed. The previously free and emptied schedule that allowed us to follow the spirit to find, and work with members through dinners, (which is how we found Solomon AND Maiko by the way, was through dinners) is gone. 4-5pm is now dinner. During dinner missionaries will eat at their apartments, by themselves, and are not permitted to eat with other missionaries. Monthly payments will not be changed, so we must now budget to make sure we have enough food money. (Please do not send food or recipes or anything like that. We have already received supplies and will be fine). In addition, missionaries are now only allowed to talk to those missionaries who are in their own district, and are not permitted to spend time with those in the other district, even if they are a part of the same zone. We may only talk to others in our district, and it is only allowed on p days or at district meetings. No exceptions. Needless to say, this is a big change, and has been extremely difficult to get used to. Especially because on Kauai, even the streetlights turn off at 6:30pm, and it's pitch black outside. We actually ended up bumping into each other just because we couldn't see each other at all! Tonight we are going to use flashlights, and I think that will help. We also had zone conference and interviews this week, which happen on Kauai in the first week, so that was exciting. I tried to get us a car. We shall see how it goes.

I also got the wrong boarding pass and nearly missed my flight because of it. But that's another story for another day.

Have a great day guys!

Aloha!
-Elder Rogers

Pictures:  There are tons of geckos on this island. The small one is in our house. His name is Jeremy. The other picture is outside, where the front door is. The sunset picture houses a view of the island of Niihau. The last one is a picture of Shulk from Xenoblade Chronicles. During zone conference Sister Bekker asked if we were really feeling it when we teach, and Shulk's catchphrase is "I'M REALLY FEELING IT!" so I tried to draw him and we put it on the door so we can always remind ourselves to really feel it when we head out for the day. Thanks, Shulk! Seriously though Xenoblade Chronicles is like one of my favorite games, and I want the 3DS version someday. The Wii U edition is different because it's a spinoff. But I still love Xenoblade Chronicles X too. Anyway, lastly the pun regarding the cute island is because the Japanese word for cute is kawaii. I mean, I guess it could also be 'moe' but kawaii is more common because moe is a term for more Anime cute.

Elder Rogers' new address is:
P.O. Box 719
Kekaha, HI 96752

A Hui Ho Oahu.

Let it be known that goodbye is still a bittersweet chocolate.

Well, I'm not going to tell you how long I've waited to get the chance to see somewhere other than Oahu. I also can't tell you how long I've waited to make the joke about the island I'm going to. But of course, good things come to those who wait, and that's why I'm not going to tell you what island I'm going to be on until next week. Please don't try to figure out what it is in the mean time. I've been waiting 16 months for the chance to make this joke. Please don't take my punchline away you guys. Besides, this email isn't about me and my long awaited pun about the island that isn't Oahu that I'm headed to. No, this email is about this stupid rock in the middle of the ocean. The island I somehow care about, even after all the many times it's let me down. More specifically, I'd like to take this chance to say thank you to the good people in the Kaneohe 4th ward. The people who took me in along with Elder Durrant almost 7½ months ago. I'm glad to have met my ward mission leader, Brother Hovey. I'm glad to have had the chance to see baptisms here. To have met people like Solomon, his family, the Medals, Brittney, Bro. Finau, Marcus (and the shakes), Gena, and Maiko.

Speaking of Maiko. Oh man. I had one last lesson with her on Saturday, and it was dang near close to being the best lesson I've ever had. I know for a fact that there were some of you who prayed for me to be able to do well in the lesson with Maiko, and I can say now, after the fact, that I felt the power of those prayers during the lesson. Ever since I got to live in Japan for 6 weeks, I have waited for the chance to be allowed to preach the gospel in Japanese, specifically to have the opportunity to teach the plan of salvation in the Japanese language was something that I have long awaited, wished for, and prayed about. On Saturday, that was exactly what I was given the opportunity to do. The lesson went perfectly, even better than I could have hoped, and all of it happened in Japanese. When Elder Hoke spoke, I translated for him so that he could contribute to the lesson. I'm not sure who is coming into this area after me, but I hope the Lord will bless them to able to help teach Maiko, and that she will continue in her path toward the gospel. I'm so glad I got this opportunity, I'm so glad I got to meet Maiko, and help her get closer to God by teaching her in her own language. One thing I'll never forget about her, is she loves Jesus Christ. As in, she thinks he's handsome. When we first dropped by to teach her she asked for a picture of our church's Jesus, because, in her own words, "Jesus is right thing to call him by. Because JEEZ, He's so handsome!". I got a kick out of that, but we have her a picture of Jesus Christ this time around, and she was happy. We also gave her a Japanese copy of the Book of Mormon. (Lucky I still have some of those lying around eh?) Maiko was very happy and excited to receive a copy in her own language, and when I handed it to her she exclaimed "Aha! This I can read! Thank You!" In fact, she loves taking lessons from us so much that she bought us food last night to thank us for coming by every week to teach her. It was delicious, even though we had already eaten dinner that day.... (^_^;) She wasn't super happy when we told her I might be leaving. That said, I didn't know at the time that I was headed off to the magical island of [REDACTED FOR PUN PURPOSES].

Now then, moving on from Maiko, whom I will miss a lot, let's talk about the other many great things happening here. Gena is still doing great. Last week we challenged her to follow the word of wisdom, which she follows anyway I guess, but the challenging part for her is coffee. I may have said this before, but Gena actually lives at the hospital because of her daughter, who is severely medically challenged. During the past year, she became emotionally dependent on morning coffee to help her survive the tough times provided by life at the hospital. Of course, the hospital provides coffee. In fact it provides it so well that it's impossible to not be near the smell of coffee while inside, but taking all of that into account, and perhaps in spite of those odds, the challenge to follow the word of wisdom and give up coffee for good was placed on the table. Now I'll say it. I didn't honestly expect Gena to drop the coffee time 100% in a week. I knew it was possible and that she could do it if she really wanted to. That said, I also know that since the dawn of time the enticing scent of the notoriously bitter liquid evil that is coffee has felled even the best of men. (and women of course) So this week i was expecting a solid try. I figured that she would be drinking significantly less coffee than before. What I didn't expect, was that she would actually go cold turkey and stop drinking the stuff all together. I was very impressed, but she was very tired, so our lesson was a bit shorter than expected this week, but she's really changing her life through Christ and that's been a joy and an honor to see.

Other than that, the Kaonohi clan is still inching towards the baptism of their mom/wife: Kalei. Unfortunately I won't be here to see that baptism happen, but I made her promise to send a picture to me when she gets baptized, so I'm glad that I could do as much as I could. Church on Sunday was a real struggle. As I bore my testimony to the ward, I expressed my immense gratitude to the people of the Kaneohe 4th ward. People whom I will miss a great deal. I'm glad that I could serve here for so long, but leaving is a tough thing to do regardless. The hymn to close out the day was 'There is Sunshine in my Soul Today' the very same closing hymn that was sung in the chapel of a ward in Kyoto Japan during the summer of 2016. A hymn that has a great deal of importance to me. The members then invited me up to the front to sing Aloha 'Oe, or farewell, and I couldn't keep it together. I was a wreck. As I gladly accepted the hugs and kind words of love and encouragement from the ward members, from my second family, there was one that stood out to me. Sister Davis, who was in tears, said that she has really loved having me in her ward. In her own words she said:

"You have been such an inspiration to me for the past 7 months, thank you so much for your service Elder Rogers. I'm going to miss you."

Everyone I saw kept telling me how happy they were to have me in the ward, and it was such a special feeling. Bishop Sadowski's last words to me were:

"Kauai is lucky to get such an incredible Elder. You've done so much for our ward, you've worked so hard here. Thank you so much Elder. We will never forget you."

Oh yeah, I'm going to Kauai by the way. I know the pun may be spoiled now, but I don't care. I'm nervous about going. New island, new companion, new everything. Nothing is even remotely familiar, and on top of that packing for the airport.... But somehow, even though it feels like I should be panicked out of my mind right now, I'm just.... Not. I feel happy. I feel hopeful. I know it's going to be OK. Oahu, you've given me an adventure. From Tyler Ramos, Curtis Zeek, and the Vickers to Lexis and her Sister to everyone here in Kaneohe, I have met such incredible people here. This island has grown to mean so much to me, and I'm so happy that I was able to get to know it so well.

A Hui Ho Oahu. It's been a blast, and a pain, and everything else. I'll miss you, you big rock. Take care of yourself Oahu. I'll see you again someday.

That's all for this week. Prayers are appreciated as I'm not sure how I'm going to do this from here, but I have hope and so should you.

Aloha Everyone, see you next week

Pictures:
1. The Yadao Family. Brother Yadao was ward mission leader for a while when I first got here. I love his family. They offered to let me and my family use their extra beach house anytime we need it. And they requested that I find a way to come back sooner rather than later.

2. The Davis family. This family means a lot to me, and I mean a lot to them too, apparently. They requested I bring my family by to visit someday. All of us cried when I had to leave. 

3. Solomon and Family. Solomon loves anime and comics, and before I left he wanted to make sure I knew how much he appreciated what I had done for his family. He gave me a signed, first edition comic book, one of a very limited number of copies whose cover was hand drawn by the author. These types of things are worth the same amount as superman issue one, and it's signed. I tried to make him keep it, as he's already given me so many spiritual experiences, but he insisted. It will remain unopened for all of eternity. This is a valuable treasure anyway, but because I got it on my mission from Solomon it's worth more than anything else in my entire collection. Nobody is ever to touch it.  The comic itself is a crossover between batman and Archie comics, which I am told increases the rare factor.

4. The Medal Family. Brother Medal told me that it was because of my efforts that he came back to church. I of course, still say it was Elder England, but the man insisted, so I didn't argue. He didn't have a ley to give me, so instead he gave me his favorite tie. In fact there were many who gave me their ties. I had made such an impact on them that they felt they needed to give me something.

Aloha 'Oe Kaneohe. I still stand by the fact that this is my second family. Kaneohe is the only place to ever come close to Japan. It's my second home. Ironically, my actual home comes 3rd.