Mutant Mudds

So yeah, this week I played Dig Dug 2 in real life, and it was worth it no matter what my shirt looks like.....K maybe I have a few regrets, but that's not really your concern is it?

ALOHA PEEPS! and welcome back to my weekly email/blog thing! Where all the long hours of pain and suffering in the blistering heat have been skipped and I bring you just the highlights! Ready? 1,2, here we go!

At some point this week, Elder York and I ran out of budget money. We get paid $160 a month to use for groceries, and before people were allowed to feed us so we could actually get buy on that, but now we're the extreme budget savers!!! Anyway, because this transfer started right after the month of November did, and as you may or may not know I had to ship A LOT of stuff home from Kaneohe to make sure I could travel safely to Kauai, I was already kind of running on low oil so to speak. Elder York and I tried to budget the best we could, but this week we were officially run dry. Things on Kauai cost even more than they do on Oahu, so for a fair amount of time it was Cup of Noodles for every meal. But alas dear folks do not be alarmed! I have made it to pay day and by extension to life anew! GROCERY MONEY!!! HALLELUJAH! I'm not sure who it was, but someone took the time to actually send me the Zelda cook book. "Hyrule: Taste of the Wild", arrived from Etsy first class shipping a few days ago, and I cannot WAIT to try out some recipes. It even included the heart potions, which heal you in the game. Breath of the Wild included a lot of different foods and ways to cook them, so what this book here does is tell you how to recreate the items found in the game with common ingredients! Using this as a template Elder York and I made a grocery list and budget plan, and later today we will be going to the grocery store in Lihue to purchase our "items" and cook ourselves a video game themed feast for kings! The package this book came in didn't say who it was from. I have had a few thoughts as to who it was, but I can't say for sure. So whoever you are out there, thank you so much for sending that in! I'm so glad to have friends and family who have supported me through my mission so far, and I am very grateful for your gift. I wish whoever it was that sent it a very merry Christmas this year. Thanks a bunch! That said, next week we will have tried out a few recipes so look forward to pictures of that... But anyways, the best part of all of this is simply the fact that we don't have to eat chicken cup of noodles for every meal anymore. Ah, blessed day, pay day! Blessed, blessed day!

We haven't seen Walt again yet, I guess he was up to something this week, but we should see him later tonight so I'll let you know next week how that went. We've been teaching this really nice guy from Africa recently. This week's lesson went for three hours! He kept asking questions and wanting to know more, and he told us at the end of the lesson that he loved it when we come over. He said that he knows what we are teaching him is true because of how he feels when we are there, and he wishes we could stay all the time because he likes the feeling of calm and warmth that he gets when we are nearby. These are the kind of things that make the Four Horsemen of Kauai worth dealing with you know. Speaking of, I learned what the fourth one is. Last time I said it was the great unknown. But now I know it to be gnats! These wretched bugs come out after it rains, and I got the joyous experience of having to fish one of them out of my eyeball. Yeah, that's a good picture for you. These things are everywhere, but luckily after a while they slowed down. Personally I love the rain, but what I didn't realize was how much mud there was over here. We live on the dry side of Kauai, in a tiny village called Kekaha, and it's all dirt. Of course, when it rains it pours, and let's just say that if you accidentally happen to go through a puddle while standing above your bike seat, do not sit down again afterwards. It looks.... questionable. Elder York thought it was hilarious though. At the end of the day we were both grateful that all the mud came out in the wash. We weren't really paying attention to what time it was, and we had to zip back to to our house to make it for curfew. The result of riding in the dark with no sense of what is and isn't mud is shown on our shirts. That said, it was fun to go mudding. Perhaps not so much fun for the church clothes, but fun for us anyway. #muddybuddies4life

We also finally found our Christmas tree on November 30, and put it up in time for December 1st. We put it up next to our desks, and while I know it looks kind of cramped in the picture, there's a method to it. As I said earlier, Kekaha is on the dry hot side of Kauai Island.  We are one of the few places with AC. It's not like Utah AC though.  It's basically just really cold air blowing in a straight line across the room. The decor in our house when it comes to furniture follows the design principle of: cram as many things in front of the AC's line of cold air as you possibly can. So essentially our decorating is a line of furniture in the middle of the room and open space every where else. Speaking of AC, the one in the bedrooms had a nervous break down the other day, but I'll leave that story for later.

Happy Holidays everybody! Stay warm out there! And drive safe in the Utah snow! I don't want anybody dead before I get to see them again in July!

-until next week, Elder Rogers

Pictures: 

#1 I guess they've had problems with this in the past......?

#2 I made some rolls (via Rhodes) to bring the taste of home to Kekaha!  They rose a bit too much and too quickly in the Kekaha heat, but they tasted great just the same. (This was taken on the last day we ate rolls before we ran out and had to eat noodle cups for the rest of the week....luckily those days are past....for now.)

#3 The sunsets in Kekaha are awesome!

#4-5  When it rains in Kekaha, I get super excited about it.  Maybe it's just when it rains in general.  I like the rain. 

#5-7 Mud on the front side.  Looks OK and all.  Not too bad just a little mud splat here and there- 

......oh crap.  Elder York got destroyed as well it seems. 

#8  If there's mud on the seat when you sit down, you end up looking like this.  

#9 Mud buddies at the end of the day

#10 I set up the Christmas tree!  

#11 Our decorating all lines up with the AC unit

#12 I tried drawing something new this week.  How'd I do?

#13 The Taste of the Wild cook book