Hey. Sorry it's been a little bit, and this email is crazy late, but here we are. Busy, busy, busy that's what I've been. This one's gonna be short because I have to write comp reports and do trainings, but I'm gonna pack it with info as much as possible, so here we go! The past week in a nutshell! Ready? Go!
Last Monday we went on an adventure down to the south tip of the island which took four hours round trip, good reminder of how big the Big Island is huh?
On Tuesday I trained the district on our missionary purpose. We played Pictionary and after each word we'd discuss how it related to our purpose. It turned out well and the district seemed to like it alot.
Wednesday we had exchanges and Thursday we had exchanges and Friday we had exchanges and then those carried over to Saturday, so in that time I didn't even set foot in my own area, but in the mean time my glorious companion Elder Lopez managed to bring this area back from the dead and he found four new people this week. I'm super proud of him.
I have a bunch of exchanges to do this week so it looks like it's gonna be busy too... Today we went to the lava caves and found a pizza shaped rock. If you've never seen the Sam Ramey Spiderman movies (starring Toby Maguire) you really should. We all have crazy intense in jokes about it and we quote it all the time. So the first thing we all said when we found the rock was "Pizza Time!" And then the picture we took looked like an album cover so we made a meme out of it. Despite all the busyness, we still have time for fun. I'm really gonna miss this place.
I'll try to write more next week to make up for this one being short. Sorry for just dissappearing on you all like that but hey, sometimes that's how it goes. Look forward to next week's email being really long and well written and stuff! Huzzah!
-Elder Rogers
Monday, June 24, 2019
Monday, June 10, 2019
The Beginning of the End (おしまいの始まり)
With only 5 weeks remaining on my mission and an entirely new Hilo Zone set to welcome me in, having any time to write at all should be considered a blessing. All it takes is a quick peep at my calendar to notice just how crazy busy I am these days. I don't even know where to start honestly, but I think I'll start with last week. Transfer news night ended up being completely ruined by a call from President Bekker himself at around 11:00 am. This is never a good sign by the way. If President calls you on transfer news day it's only because he wants to ask a favor of you. And THAT means he's probably going to ask you to do something difficult. Which, by the way, he was about to do. "Elder Rogers" President asked, "Can I trust you?" Oh no. I tried to think of something, anything to say to convince President that he absolutely could not give me a leadership position. I wanted to say: "I listen to violent rap music while I study the scriptures!" or something like that, but all that came out of my mouth was "Yes, President. You can trust me." And so, despite the fact that I hate being in position to lead people around (leading people around is in fact my least favorite thing to do, except in the circumstance of leading my family around Japan, which I am very excited to do.) I was called as a District Leader. To give you an idea of what that means, and why it isn't exactly "wonderful news", here's the list of responsibilities that I received with my calling:
-Accounting on Sunday nights.
This means I call each set of missionaries including the sisters and ask them how their week was and what their numbers are. I write them down and give them to the zone leaders. Following that is a Sunday night council meeting involving myself and the zone leaders.
-On Mondays
I will be expected to help plan district bonding activities and group events. I must not avoid these events or activities, even if I don't want to participate. I'm the district leader and representative, so I have to be at them every week
-District Trainings
Monday night is spent planning out a training lesson for district council, which I run each week. My training must be applicable to the area and include several scriptures, a conference talk, and activities to help the missionaries learn.
-Tuesday Morning at 10:30 is district council.
If a district lunch is wanted, I have to go to that directly afterwards and cannot avoid being there, regardless of the location. I must always be motivated and excited, and must constantly hold my conduct to a high enough standard that those around me can respect me.
-Exchanges and Comp Reports
At some point in the week, each week, I go on exchanges with another elder. So if I don't do one this week to allow the others to get settled in to their new areas, that's 2 per week. Because I also have to do exchanges with the Zone Leaders so they can evaluate my abilities and report back on my proficiency at being district leader
Somewhere in addition to all that I need to be doing my regular missionary work type stuff and working with my companion. And I'm not even including the full list here, because it's too long to put in an email. Long story short, I wasn't exactly ecstatic about this new bundle of chores to do, but it keeps me busy this last transfer I guess. After the call ended I just sort of sat there quietly and took it all in. Elder Brooksby knew at this point that we for sure weren't staying together, and it took a bit of silence to let everything kind of sink in. Transfer News itself is always exciting for everyone, so we had a big group campout sort of thing to await our fates. I of course, already knew my fate, and was still coming to terms with the whole situation. But, for the joy of everyone else, and because I still didn't know who my new companion was going to be, I played along and went. I actually got a scary story to tell to kind of enhance the atmosphere of the whole situation. Anyway, what we did at this mini campout was first have everybody bear their testimony, which was a cool spiritual experience that I really enjoyed. Then I got to tell my scary story (which ended up being a big hit with everybody by the way) and then the scariest story of all happened: I found out who my new companion was going to be. And his name is Elder Lopez.
Now, the rumors regarding this particular Elder ran rampant after he and an unnamed Elder began to quarrel resulting in Elder Lopez receiving multiple pounds to the face and being placed in a choke hold. The only thing I was told about him came from Elder Atwood, who didn't have very nice things to say, honestly. And I'm of the opinion that if Elder Atwood talks poorly of you, something is very, very wrong. I wasn't really in the greatest frame of mind for the next little while. I was suffering from the weight of what I had to do. Of course, come transfer day, they made me wait until 2:00pm to find out if the rumors were true. Luckily though, Elder Lopez isn't actually a bad person, or a bad elder. He was simply the victim of multiple companions in a row who all suffer from anger issues. Which I guess would explain the multiple punches to the face from earlier. Fun fact about him though, he was actually trained by my MTC companion: Elder Kalani Johnson. It didn't take long for the crew to come together. Elder Hollist, Elder Bass, Elder Rogers, and Elder Lopez. Four people, one tiny pizza hut shaped house. The first thing we did was decide on a group hymn. That hymn was "Love at Home". Now, I said Elder Lopez isn't a bad guy, which he isn't. He's got a heart of gold and a strong will to do the work of the Lord, and he's really kind and hasn't got a judgemental bone in his body. I get along with him pretty well, and generally things are just peachy. However, I can definitely see where the rumors come from, because while Elder Lopez is gentle and kind and loving, he's also extremely bizarre.
When I say these things, I don't want the consensus to be that I dislike him, because I don't. I actually like him a lot. These are just some of the interesting quirks I've noticed about him. Elder Lopez is constantly doing the evil villain thing with his fingers. You know, the thing a cartoon mastermind does with his hands while he's scheming? Yeah that. He also thinks out loud at all times, regardless of what the thought is. Good or bad. Today he threw a nerf gun at me and played the efy song he knows I hate the most until I agreed to shoot him with it. I wish I made that up. I told him I wouldn't do it and for the next hour we were at a stale mate, and that was because I actually did want to shoot him, I just felt it would be wrong to do so. He also sings in Spanish opera while he sleeps. Yes. You heard that right. Spanish opera in his sleep. Do you know how difficult it is to sleep while someone is singing opera in Spanish? But hey, at the end of the day, his quirks aren't as annoying as they could be, and he's not mean or anything, so I'll take it.
The first thing we did to build pad unity was start a game of Risk, which has been going on in the background all week, and it shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. I never understood exactly why my dad loved that game so much, but I kinda get it now. It's like a multi-player combat oriented version of that game Plague Inc. for iOS and Android. It's a long experience, as evidenced by the amount of time we've sunk into it so far, but really we only play after 9:00pm when the day is officially over, so to that end I guess it probably wouldn't last so long if we sink more time into it. But hey, missionaries and free time don't exactly co-exist. Some of you may also note that this week was my birthday. That's right boys and girls, I'm now officially 20 years of age! Hooray! Not any wiser I don't think, but I'm sure older, and my chronic back pain and slow but sure hair loss has had a blast reminding me of that fact. The entire district threw me a surprise party, and we even made my favorite: chocolate pudding cake!! It was actually a pretty awesome birthday, despite the fact that I had like 5 separate meetings on that day. (hooray for responsibility) As the district leader, everyone's business is my business, and it's been....... interesting. It's... not fun. I've had to do a lot of praying this week, and I never realized how truly exhausted an individual could get. I don't think I've got more than 3 hours of sleep per night this whole week, and it's not because I'm staying up late intentionally either, it's just that I have so many things to take care of now with such a huge district that it's not even funny. That's just about all the time I have for now, but before I go, we found two new people to teach this week. One is named Donna and the other is Thomas. I'd tell you about them, but I have no time left to type. I have to go back to work now.
Until next week, this is Elder Rogers, under whose eyes reside massive dark circles, signing off.
-Accounting on Sunday nights.
This means I call each set of missionaries including the sisters and ask them how their week was and what their numbers are. I write them down and give them to the zone leaders. Following that is a Sunday night council meeting involving myself and the zone leaders.
-On Mondays
I will be expected to help plan district bonding activities and group events. I must not avoid these events or activities, even if I don't want to participate. I'm the district leader and representative, so I have to be at them every week
-District Trainings
Monday night is spent planning out a training lesson for district council, which I run each week. My training must be applicable to the area and include several scriptures, a conference talk, and activities to help the missionaries learn.
-Tuesday Morning at 10:30 is district council.
If a district lunch is wanted, I have to go to that directly afterwards and cannot avoid being there, regardless of the location. I must always be motivated and excited, and must constantly hold my conduct to a high enough standard that those around me can respect me.
-Exchanges and Comp Reports
At some point in the week, each week, I go on exchanges with another elder. So if I don't do one this week to allow the others to get settled in to their new areas, that's 2 per week. Because I also have to do exchanges with the Zone Leaders so they can evaluate my abilities and report back on my proficiency at being district leader
Somewhere in addition to all that I need to be doing my regular missionary work type stuff and working with my companion. And I'm not even including the full list here, because it's too long to put in an email. Long story short, I wasn't exactly ecstatic about this new bundle of chores to do, but it keeps me busy this last transfer I guess. After the call ended I just sort of sat there quietly and took it all in. Elder Brooksby knew at this point that we for sure weren't staying together, and it took a bit of silence to let everything kind of sink in. Transfer News itself is always exciting for everyone, so we had a big group campout sort of thing to await our fates. I of course, already knew my fate, and was still coming to terms with the whole situation. But, for the joy of everyone else, and because I still didn't know who my new companion was going to be, I played along and went. I actually got a scary story to tell to kind of enhance the atmosphere of the whole situation. Anyway, what we did at this mini campout was first have everybody bear their testimony, which was a cool spiritual experience that I really enjoyed. Then I got to tell my scary story (which ended up being a big hit with everybody by the way) and then the scariest story of all happened: I found out who my new companion was going to be. And his name is Elder Lopez.
Now, the rumors regarding this particular Elder ran rampant after he and an unnamed Elder began to quarrel resulting in Elder Lopez receiving multiple pounds to the face and being placed in a choke hold. The only thing I was told about him came from Elder Atwood, who didn't have very nice things to say, honestly. And I'm of the opinion that if Elder Atwood talks poorly of you, something is very, very wrong. I wasn't really in the greatest frame of mind for the next little while. I was suffering from the weight of what I had to do. Of course, come transfer day, they made me wait until 2:00pm to find out if the rumors were true. Luckily though, Elder Lopez isn't actually a bad person, or a bad elder. He was simply the victim of multiple companions in a row who all suffer from anger issues. Which I guess would explain the multiple punches to the face from earlier. Fun fact about him though, he was actually trained by my MTC companion: Elder Kalani Johnson. It didn't take long for the crew to come together. Elder Hollist, Elder Bass, Elder Rogers, and Elder Lopez. Four people, one tiny pizza hut shaped house. The first thing we did was decide on a group hymn. That hymn was "Love at Home". Now, I said Elder Lopez isn't a bad guy, which he isn't. He's got a heart of gold and a strong will to do the work of the Lord, and he's really kind and hasn't got a judgemental bone in his body. I get along with him pretty well, and generally things are just peachy. However, I can definitely see where the rumors come from, because while Elder Lopez is gentle and kind and loving, he's also extremely bizarre.
When I say these things, I don't want the consensus to be that I dislike him, because I don't. I actually like him a lot. These are just some of the interesting quirks I've noticed about him. Elder Lopez is constantly doing the evil villain thing with his fingers. You know, the thing a cartoon mastermind does with his hands while he's scheming? Yeah that. He also thinks out loud at all times, regardless of what the thought is. Good or bad. Today he threw a nerf gun at me and played the efy song he knows I hate the most until I agreed to shoot him with it. I wish I made that up. I told him I wouldn't do it and for the next hour we were at a stale mate, and that was because I actually did want to shoot him, I just felt it would be wrong to do so. He also sings in Spanish opera while he sleeps. Yes. You heard that right. Spanish opera in his sleep. Do you know how difficult it is to sleep while someone is singing opera in Spanish? But hey, at the end of the day, his quirks aren't as annoying as they could be, and he's not mean or anything, so I'll take it.
The first thing we did to build pad unity was start a game of Risk, which has been going on in the background all week, and it shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. I never understood exactly why my dad loved that game so much, but I kinda get it now. It's like a multi-player combat oriented version of that game Plague Inc. for iOS and Android. It's a long experience, as evidenced by the amount of time we've sunk into it so far, but really we only play after 9:00pm when the day is officially over, so to that end I guess it probably wouldn't last so long if we sink more time into it. But hey, missionaries and free time don't exactly co-exist. Some of you may also note that this week was my birthday. That's right boys and girls, I'm now officially 20 years of age! Hooray! Not any wiser I don't think, but I'm sure older, and my chronic back pain and slow but sure hair loss has had a blast reminding me of that fact. The entire district threw me a surprise party, and we even made my favorite: chocolate pudding cake!! It was actually a pretty awesome birthday, despite the fact that I had like 5 separate meetings on that day. (hooray for responsibility) As the district leader, everyone's business is my business, and it's been....... interesting. It's... not fun. I've had to do a lot of praying this week, and I never realized how truly exhausted an individual could get. I don't think I've got more than 3 hours of sleep per night this whole week, and it's not because I'm staying up late intentionally either, it's just that I have so many things to take care of now with such a huge district that it's not even funny. That's just about all the time I have for now, but before I go, we found two new people to teach this week. One is named Donna and the other is Thomas. I'd tell you about them, but I have no time left to type. I have to go back to work now.
Until next week, this is Elder Rogers, under whose eyes reside massive dark circles, signing off.
Monday, June 3, 2019
I Feel Like Miles Upshur at the End of Outlast
Sorry I don't have much time to write today due to transfers and what not.
According to Elder Brooksby my transfer news is the worst he's ever seen a missionary get. Everyone has been giving me condolences or laughing at me and saying stuff like, "That sucks bro."
I'm staying in Hilo, and in the same pad, but the others here are switching out and I am getting a new companion and being made district leader.
Responsibilities as a district leader include comp reports, exchanges, and handling any and all sister missionary drama, leading the lessons at district council every week, two exchanges with the zone leaders, dealing with disobedience, keeping track of numbers and accounting and reporting back on those things, going to special meetings weekly on Sunday nights, and on top of that we have 2 correlation meetings every week with Brother Kneese (ward mission leader) on Thursday and the other auxiliaries on Friday. Something is wrong with the car from the missionaries before me and I have to work with the car company to get it fixed within the next month because they are trying to replace the cars. I have to do my plan once per week which takes up and hour extra and on top of all of THAT I'm taking over the area and the area is difficult to work in anyway. From what I hear, my new companion gets in fights and hurts people and has a poor attitude. I'm not sure if it could get much worse.
At least I'll be able to finish with no regrets. I'll be on my hands and knees, bruised and scarred, barely able to crawl by the end of this transfer. But one thing's for sure. I will have nothing left to give when it's over. Nothing. I'll be able to look back and say I gave every last ounce of energy I could give to my mission.
On the bright side, Elder Brooksby and I went to Volcano this morning.
According to Elder Brooksby my transfer news is the worst he's ever seen a missionary get. Everyone has been giving me condolences or laughing at me and saying stuff like, "That sucks bro."
I'm staying in Hilo, and in the same pad, but the others here are switching out and I am getting a new companion and being made district leader.
Responsibilities as a district leader include comp reports, exchanges, and handling any and all sister missionary drama, leading the lessons at district council every week, two exchanges with the zone leaders, dealing with disobedience, keeping track of numbers and accounting and reporting back on those things, going to special meetings weekly on Sunday nights, and on top of that we have 2 correlation meetings every week with Brother Kneese (ward mission leader) on Thursday and the other auxiliaries on Friday. Something is wrong with the car from the missionaries before me and I have to work with the car company to get it fixed within the next month because they are trying to replace the cars. I have to do my plan once per week which takes up and hour extra and on top of all of THAT I'm taking over the area and the area is difficult to work in anyway. From what I hear, my new companion gets in fights and hurts people and has a poor attitude. I'm not sure if it could get much worse.
At least I'll be able to finish with no regrets. I'll be on my hands and knees, bruised and scarred, barely able to crawl by the end of this transfer. But one thing's for sure. I will have nothing left to give when it's over. Nothing. I'll be able to look back and say I gave every last ounce of energy I could give to my mission.
On the bright side, Elder Brooksby and I went to Volcano this morning.
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