It's another surprise email from Elder Rogers, he's not reliable when it comes to emailing anymore is he?
Well.... touché. But I'm here now so let's get on with it.
Of the many things going on in the outside world that I know nothing about, the worldwide release of Detective Pikachu is not one of them. Not going to lie, I'm a wee bit salty that I haven't seen it yet, but of course there's much more to life than Detective Pikachu, so for now we shall move on to what exactly has been up for the past little while in the pad and out of the pad as well! I'm finally feeling okay enough to get some work done! Hallelujah!
So, on Saturday we were able to go street contacting in search of new people to teach. Normally, walking in Hilo is a terrible idea, mostly because there's nowhere to park and we live outside of our area, but also partially because sometimes there's a sidewalk and sometimes there just isn't for some reason. We tried to figure out what on earth to do about that for quite a while, but as it turns out, the best solution to this issue is the public park. Where you can park for free between the hours of 5 and 7, which as you know is missionary finding time. The new finding plan is therefore as follows: park at the park, get out of the car, talk to people at the park, and then walk in the residential area surrounding the park knocking doors and talking to people. The end result of this strategy yielded one new person found this week, which was a HUGE breath of fresh air for me and Elder Brooksby both. It really helped to re-invigorate us after the plague of ailments swept us for a grand total of way too long. Now, with time running out and good fortune shining down on us through the clouds, I feel like it's time to put the petal to the metal so to speak. For the past couple weeks I've only been able to work for a minimal amount of time, thanks to the aforementioned plague of ailments. I'm slightly grateful for that honestly because the more time I spend laying in bed, the harder I wanted to work when I could. Now that I'm starting to recover (*rapidly knocks on wood*) I'm going to light the fire in this area as best I can. Elder Brooksby and I are committed to making this time a time to remember fondly. If we give it all we've got now, and finish with no regrets, we'll always look back on our missions fondly. Knowing we did all we could and worked as hard as we could all the way to the end is the best way to finish out the most important task I've ever had the honor of being called to perform, that of course being the opportunity to bring souls unto Christ and assist my Savior in his holy work.
Back on topic, the new person we found is named Mike. Mike is a botanist who is extremely interested in Hawaiian foliage, something I was able to use as a starting point in the conversation that ultimately ended in Mike wanting to know more. This Wednesday evening, we will be returning to Mike's house to teach him the restoration. Fingers crossed it goes well. In other news, Brother Kerr attended church on Sunday which was awesome! I count this as a grand achievement on behalf of the Lord's team, because he will most definitely make an excellent addition to member missionary work as time goes on. I'm really happy that the spirit was able to work with him enough to help him make the decision to come to church this week. The others we invited to church had Mother's Day events going on, and opted to spend time with their parents instead of coming to church which is probably why our sacrament number was lower this week than usual. Honestly, I understand that, but I also wish they would have just brought their parents to church with them... Oh well. Hopefully we can hit our goal of 4 at sacrament this week.
So this next part is something most of you would consider nightmare fuel so I'm going to include an official Elder Rogers Gross Warning™ for those of you who take issue with bugs.
((((；ﾟДﾟ)))))))Gross Part Begin
So fun fact for you guys, Roaches have a season in Hilo. Yes, a season. Japan has a rainy season, Utah has a depression season (冬) and Hilo has cockroach season. I've talked in length about cockroaches and how they are the spawn of satan, and to be fair Japan does have cockroaches too, but I only ever saw one in Japan and it was dead, so it was less of an issue for me back then I guess. Anyway, the kitchen is the place where they all convene, because conveniently for them, there happens to be a hole in the window screen so they can get in. And if you're wondering why, it's because there was an Elder Valle (pronounced "Vai-Eh") who liked to play with fire and burn things instead of actually taking care of bugs. He enjoyed burning Roaches so he decided to let them establish a nest in the pad somewhere, he also burned one off the window screen which created a hole. So now they can come in from the outside. After 7:30pm I don't set foot in the kitchen... Usually. But after we purchased some Raid, I had a night when I absolutely could not sleep. So I decided to play shooting gallery in the kitchen. I turned on the kitchen light, stood in the doorway, and waited. That night between 1:00am and 1:30am when I started to feel to tired and sick to stand up anymore, I killed somewhere around 8 cockroaches by raiding them to death. It was just like a video game honestly. Once you got a direct hit the roach would react in one of a few ways, but it wouldn't immediately die. I discovered actual death took anywhere from 3-9 direct hits with raid. This is because of the outer shell on the back of the thing which protects the roach from all manner of attacks, hence the phrase: "you can't kill a cockroach". They can even survive radiation, which I know because once I trapped one in the microwave and fried it for like 2 minutes, and it was fine. Not even hurt at all. Anyway, after the roach discovers you it attempts to escape by running away. Occasionally this is a trap to get you to follow it, allowing others to surround you. That was something I only fell for once. There's a reason I stood in the doorway and not in the kitchen center. Sometimes the roach assumes (correctly in many cases) that you are more afraid of it than it is of you. In Call of Duty: Roaches though, this trick is foolish. It just makes it an easy target. Like I said, the initial spray hurts the roach, but this triggers panic in their minds, and they begin to absolutely sprint full speed all over the place in no particular pattern. Fun fact, cockroaches also have wings, and not a one I've seen in here has been less than full size (about the size of my thumb for reference). So sometimes the enemy takes flight, in which case there are two options. Option A: shoot it down before it flight at your face, or option B: smack it out of the sky by hand. I recommend option A which is significantly less gross. The underside of the cockroach is more vulnerable to attack, so shooting it in flight, which difficult, will often finish the job, especially if you crush it by foot when it hits the ground. Always wear shoes, to prevent Roaches crawling on your bare feet, and to use them as weaponized attack shoes as needed. Continuing in the similarities between Call of Duty: Roaches and an actual video game, the challenge increases with time, because the more raid is in the kitchen, the more your enemies will attempt to leave the kitchen to escape the residue, which will kill on contact. If they step on it on their way out, they speed up like they hit a rainbow ramp in Mario Kart, and because the kitchen has only one exit, which I was occupying, they all come directly at you. With raid on the floor, they may try to fly out or crawl on the walls to escape. Wall crawlers are better whacked with a loose shoe than raided as that results in roach flight nearly 100% of the time. The temporary vulnerability caused by removing your shoe to smack the wall crawler is the most terrifying and challenging part of the game. You must multi-task to prevent others from escaping on the ground while you smack the enemy on the wall. Ultimately, it was more of a horror game than an action one, but in collateral damage, 14 were dead on the ground the next morning. That means I killed 8 in person, and the others died after running around for who knows how long because they stepped on the raid in the kitchen. No food or food prep surfaces were harmed in this process, and the kitchen was promptly cleaned. Also, I do not play Call of Duty. Like, at all. I used the name as a pun because it rolled off the tongue better than "Galaga: Roach Edition". It's a battle friends, but we are winning for now, and their number are depleting. At least we don't have mice like Kekaha.
((((；ﾟДﾟ)))))))Gross Part End
I found at Target the other week a real scale stuffed animal version of Detective Pikachu, and I couldn't resist picking it up. I took a few pictures with it, so if you ever wondered just how big Pikachu is IRL, (that's gamer terminology for 'In Real Life' by the way) now you know! I couldn't resist putting a seat belt on it for the car ride back. It was a fun P day activity for the day. I had fun with it and I think it's super cool. If any of you have the chance to see the film in theaters, please check it out. I wish I could but I'm sure it will still be around come July. Anyway, that's it for me this week!
Happy Mother's Day one day late!
Aloha!
-Elder Rogers
Pictures: Elder Davies enjoys the most picturesque ice cream I've ever seen on a pday adventure , a cockroach in the bathroom corner for size reference, Detective Pikachu in the car- all buckled up and safe, I was wearing the perfect shirt to find this tiny male Jackson's Chameleon (Rango).
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