Weeks 61 & 62: White Christmas

Comp! ❤️

 Hello from Hiroshima!

In our mission, we have been given permission to use Facebook. Because of my calling as a missionary, I won't be using it to browse around and catch up with people back home right now. Please feel free to send me a friend request though. :)

This week was very miraculous. We might see baptism this Christmas; please pray for Sayaka-chan!! She is an angel.

Merry Christmas!
Sister Rogers

The special pizza prayer

Teaching at the doorstep

The time I accidentally dyed my hair blue  😬

Sayaka-chan!!

Using Line for the first time. Heh

Children in English class

Weeks 59 & 60: Hiroshima

Sister Sakuma and me with Coco-like holding water!

I am now in my dream place, Hiroshima.

For the four-hour bus ride from Fukuoka to Hiroshima, I was sitting next to Sister Bradford who would be my upcoming sister training leader in the area. As we saw the city lights jump out against the dark night sky, Sister Bradford said, "This is all yours."

In a moment, across the bridge, all the lights and the tall buildings were passing around us. The city was alive. I gazed out at what what would now be my new home and found myself thinking, "Haven't I been here before?" I was overwhelmed by a fleeting sense of familiarity. I couldn't see anything through the tears except the street lamps that looked like stars. I am so grateful to be here now.

Let's light the world this Christmas season!
The kanji for light is 光 (hikari). The bottom half of this kanji means "human legs." (ninnyou). The light is within us. There are people everywhere that need our light.

My new companion is Sister Sakuma. She is wonderful! She is from Osaka and before the mission, she attended BYU for a year (her dad is a professor there), taught English in Japan, and was an editor in Tokyo. She reminds me a lot of one of my previous companions, Sister Sakamoto. She has a bright light!

I love you all! Thank you for your support and love. It means a lot to me.

Sister Rogers

Nakaima family dinner

Waiting in Fukuoka... some random Korean people wanted a pic

Traveling through Fukuoka

Getting unpacked....

Sister Sakuma and an old friend of hers.

 Coco-the cutest dog ever❤️

Yankee Squat lol

 First Costco meal in Japan ✊

Weeks 57 & 58: " My wife is like a tsunami"

Visiting a Shrine

  Hi there.

Happy thanksgiving. 🍁 For Thanksgiving, because there is not really much turkey in Japan, I'm planning to cook up some spam stir fry. Try it. It's delicious with the right sauce.

So we're teaching this one investigator English.
"Let's practice with writing a letter in English to your wife."
"My wife is like a tsunami. She is scary."
"Well, for the sake of this letter, when you miss your wife, is there anything that reminds you of her? Like a flower or a bird?"
"A nightmare."
Well, we helped him remember, "smile" and "curry" and you can see the final result turned out alright in the picture below.  He almost wrote "sweatheart" instead of "sweetheart," but it worked out and he was very happy with his letter.
"This is English that is alive. It breathes. I want to learn more English like this. Not textbook English." I really liked that comment. I can say the same for Japanese.

The English letter

These past two weeks, with the appearance of wreaths and tree ornaments around the local mall, I've asked people on the street, "What do you think the meaning of Christmas is?" Girls wear their school uniforms with the plaid skirts, button up jackets, and the long socks. Some of them wear hospital masks for colds, and their eyes dart around as they consider the question. They pause as the monorail above us races alongside a cool breeze and then say, "God?" "Jesus?" and the most common: "I don't know." I share the video "Light the World" with these people on the streets, and it feels like just yesterday when I first came to Japan and was doing this same thing.  Amidst vibrant red candy canes and glittering Christmas trees, will this message about celebrating Christ's birth shine brighter? Just one person at a time learns a little bit more about Christmas. It doesn't feel like a lot, but it's still something.

"Heavenly Father, I am grateful for your eternal presence.
I am learning to be patient and that you are really there.
Sometimes I am afraid and I know that's lacking faith.
But I am beginning to understand that for me you have a plan." ("My Little Prayer")

I know God has a plan for the people of Japan. The church members in Japan are incredibly kind and devoted. I could write so much just about how they have helped us time and time again these past two weeks. I am so grateful for them.

Sister Rogers

We went to Shuri Castle again

Beautiful Crane

Elder Segura

You'll have to be observant with this picture... :D

Companionship goals

Shuri Squad

Best buffet ever

 The mom said, "when we can't come to the English class, my daughter cries because she always wants to come!" :,)

When everyone draws one facial feature to create your face... wrecked

Our District

Weeks 55 & 56: If you give an investigator a church invite....

Other Japanese missionaries will understand...the magical furugura!

Hello.

My pictures have devolved into meal selfies. Sorry in advance!

These past two weeks have been packed with a lot of lessons (seven of those lessons involved church members even), but we are still struggling getting people to come to church. Last week, they had a
pretty legit excuse, "There's a typhoon, so I'm sorry but I can't."
But this week, well...
The church is a 30 minute bike ride all the way to Itoman. A little bit far. BUT one of our investigators was explaining to us how he runs to Itoman on the weekend so he can go get drunk with his friends. He can't drive home drunk, so that is his reason for running. We don't use wine for the sacrament, but we invited him to church anyways. He can't because, though right now he's living away from his family for work, his family will soon come to Okinawa. So he can't come to church
because he has a family to think about soon. Hmm.
Another of our investigators can't come to church because he says a 20 min motorcycle ride to church would be too dangerous... Hmm.
Another investigator was sitting in church with us on Saturday night, having a long discussion about church. He says baptism is "divine" (kougoushi or 神々しい (the kanji means "god")) and that church is his favorite English, but because he doesn't believe in God, he can't come to church (and we've invited him many times). But he will pray every night and read scriptures. Hmm.

Our apartment smells like an old person library and that is mystifying. But our investigators and their reasons for not coming to church are slightly more mystifying perhaps. Maybe it's time to put more emphasis on finding new people. Nothing is more peachy than having investigators attend church, and there is a lot of peach flavored food in Japan so that's saying something.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween. The weather is great in Okinawa--barely need a jacket! But still we hear the locals saying, "Wow it's getting cold!" Ha ha :)

Until next time,

Sister Rogers

Curry dinner with the district.

Powerful curry!

Member Dinner

 

McFlurries, yay!

Road. Train. Lamp.

 

Sister Hansen :)

The Forest of Owl

Cheers!

Sister Hansen and me--"say cheese" sign.

Chinese dinner with the district

Weeks 52, 53, & 54: New Transfer

Sister Dimmit with her pitchfork.

 
Hey everyone!

It's been a while. It's a new transfer so I had to say goodbye to my last companion, Sister Dimmitt. I will miss her "Oh my Gina"s and her crazy facial masks and her mad biking/piano/Japanese/life skills. She's going someplace called Nagasaki where there's a lot of hills and no mercy. With faith, why move mountains when you can climb them?! ;)

Well, now Oroku has a new face, but she's my old friend--Sister Hansen! I worked with her a little bit in Kumamoto. She's a partay! We are already seeing a lot of miracles this transfer. It's been a strong start. We made 7 appointments our first full day together.

Yesterday,  the members helped us so much. They drove us to and from church, volunteered to joint for two of our most solid investigators, and treated us to an amazing dinner. One of the members wants to take us to a World War 2 museum a few P-days from now. I am just in awe at how kind and helpful the members in Itoman ward are! It makes me want to work harder than ever to bring people to church. I'm so excited for this transfer. :)

Sister Rogers

Fall Festival

My stupid basket is broken. U_U

Sister Dimmitt carries all the things because my basket is broken. U_U

This dirty cat followed us while we were knocking on doors. One
door slid open and the cat darted in. "Is that your cat?"
"Noooooooooo." 😂

Our children's English class.

To honor my memory of Grandpa, I threw bread at the fish and ducks.

Going to a fancy restaurant with a member

Fancy restaurant part 2 - amazing food!

Sister Hansen and Sister Rogers!

Weeks 50 & 51: Waldo had a baptism date....

We go to the beach for the first time in Okinawa (but we can't
swim as missionaries unless it's in sweat).

HEY. We had a person that set a baptism date, but now he has dropped off the face of the earth. If you find him, lmk! The weather is cooling off, so when we face rejection it doesn't burn so much. Foot tan line is very powerful right now.

Today, Sister Dimmitt did a Japanese makeup style on me. The main feature is putting blush right under your eyes--the desired effect of this is looking a little puffy-eyed/drunk. Weird yeah?

The Japanese makeup style

A member just walked into the church where we are now writing emails and gave us duck meat. I have no idea how to cook this, but excited! Also excited because we are going to watch general conference at church next Saturday and Sunday.

Hmmm....
Last night we walked into our apartment and saw a delightfully large gecko skitter away. Sister Dimmitt went into attack mode with a large container to try and catch it. I sat at the table to make some calls, playing it cool, but then another gecko darted out of hiding and jumped off the table and I
screamed into the phone as a lady picked up. Turns out there were three geckos. Haha, sorry lady.

The elders dropped some treats by our apartment earlier in the week, and when we called them to thank them for the treats, they pretended not to know anything about it and rick-rolled us. I wanted to put a gecko in their bags this P-day to follow-up w/ that, but the gecko I was going to gift them kind of escaped--maybe into our apartment again. :,( Karma. Well, I got to write letters now.  Thanks for all of your support and encouragement. I really appreciate it!

Favorite quote of the week:
"Indeed, the essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ entails a fundamental and permanent change in our very nature made possible through our reliance upon “the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah” (2 Nephi 2:8). As we choose to follow the Master, we choose to be changed—to be spiritually reborn." - David A. Bednar

Favorite video of the week:
Pride Simulator (old LDS video)

Favorite food of the week:
Okinawa soba!

Word of the week:
Shinzui - essence (I memorized the above quote in Japanese)

Have a fabulous week everyone. Stay genki! (happy)

Rogers Shimai

Sun-kissed beach faces!

Sister Dimmitt, candidly perfect

Chicken Nabon with the District!

My talented sister Noelle made this for me!!! <3

I still get to see my friends from Naha!

The snails are HUGE. I poke them.

Pensive Sister Dimmitt at the beach.

Buying groceries... art.