Nutin

What up what up what up!? This week has been a lot of traveling, as usually, and doing exchanges with missionaries. It's been fun, it's been hard, and it's been crazy but its always worth it! This transfer has just flown by. Elder Browning and I have been together for a month and i've been in Atmore for 4 months now. Time flies on by. I'm not that close to going home but the time left on my mission is reaching an uncomfortable amount and I. Don't. Like it. But time goes on and all we can do is enjoy it right? Well that's what we've been doing. Elder Browning and I are never short of a laugh and are always having a fun time wherever we are in the zone. We've had quite a few crazy spiritual experiences this week that would take forever to type up so you'll have to wait till i get home and i'll read them from my journal. Thursday night Elder Browning and I are out teaching one of our investigators and we're teaching her on her porch at about 8:00 p.m. and we're sitting under a light bulb. In the evening hours in Alabama the bugs start to flock to the lights... and there is nothing more terrifying to Elder Browning than the infamous, flying, demonic, highly aggressive insect known as...... the moth. A moth is a flying insect... not dangerous or aggressive but they make Elder Browning sprint around like a little girl.... it's hilarious. So we're sitting there and guess what flies around Elder Browning's face (hitting him in the chin) and lands on his back.... a moth that is about the size of a quarter. He took it like a champ and pushed through his fear until the end of the lesson.... i thought he was gonna take off running down the sidewalk but he stayed composed. After the lesson as we're walking away he asks me if i saw the Pterodactyl that attacked the side of his face.... no shortage of laughter. 
-Elder Rogers 

From their dinner appointment the night prior.  The baby had been fed a little too much.

Braxton's response to Annika's email telling him that she is engaged.

SO MUCH HAPPENED THIS WEEK!

Wassup wassup!? SO MUCH HAPPENED THIS WEEK! I can't email it all but i'll hit the highlights of the week. Tuesday we had our zone training which Elder Browning and i taught. It went extremely well and it was a lot of fun. Following our zone training we had a zone activity and that's where all the missionaries in our zone (so 40 of us) get together and have an activity...  this transfers activity: DODGEBALL! We split up into districts and battled each other out in a double-elimination tournament! And of course our district (Monroeville District) dominated! We didn't lose once throughout the whole tournament... it was a blast. Later Tuesday night (Tuesday was super eventful as you can tell) Elder Browning and i had a meeting with the Mobile Stake President, President Jergins. This guy is super awesome! He calls it how he sees it and something that i love about him is he is no respecter of persons.... he doesn't care if you were the richest man in the world... he'll still tell you what he doesn't like about you. Great guy with a HUGE desire to make things change in Mobile and help the missionary work hasten out here and anyone who wants that to happen is our best friend! We had a meeting with him to coordinate the work in the Stake between members and missionaries and then he took us out to Applebees for dinner. When we sat down the hostess said "Sorry we're a little busy tonight but you're waitress is Erin and she'll be here shortly... and she's cute." Don't know why she threw that on at the end but that's not what we wanted to hear  but you could see the lights brighten in his eyes when he heard that and we knew that this was gonna be a little uncomfortable for us.... long story short Erin was cute and it wasn't that bad but at one point when we were sharing a mormon.org card with her she hopped up in the chair next to me to hear better or something, not sure the motive, but holy crap i bout had a heart attack..... i haven't sat so close to a girl in 18 months.... i had absolutely no idea how to react... but mission accomplished she took the card and we got her number (also something i couldn't do unless i had a missionary purpose). My face was red fo sho and President Jergins new exactly how i felt cuz he got a pretty good laugh out of it..... It was one of the funnest nights of my mission though! Saturday we went to a birthday party for one of our members. His name is Patrick and he has muscular dystrophy. He wasn't supposed to live past 12 but he had his 34th birthday party. Every year they have a skeet shoot tournament for his party and this time we got to be the guys that pulled the traps to shoot the skeet's up for the shooters.... cuz we can't shoot the guns and man was it tearin us apart to not shoot those guns! Anyways that's all for the week!
-Elder Rogers

Nothing beats a quick game of football in the rain after dinner.

General Conference!‏

What up what up? This week was killer! We've been doing a lot of sitting this week with meetings, planning, and General Conference! First is the meetings. Elder Browning and i had a meeting in Crestview Florida on Wednesday with President Smith so that was fun. We got to travel and stay the night with some missionaries over in the Pensacola area (between Atmore and Crestview). It was a lot of fun and the meeting went great. Us and some other missionaries were at the meeting and we got to discuss some of the work that is going on in our part of the mission and how we can improve in different areas. It's always fun to be around President. Elder Browning and I had an exchange after the meeting and Elder Browning went to Tallahassee for the night and next day and i got to have Elder Palau with me in Atmore for that time. Elder Palau is a big Tongan from Salt Lake City. Fun facts about Elder Palau: 1- He went to East High 2-He played football for them which means that we have hit helmets quite a few times (i was on the receiving end of the blows for sure). 3- He speaks Tongan, English, and Spanish. 4- He has a full-ride scholarship to play fullback for BYU when he gets home. 5- He's the most loving guy that i know. It was a lot of fun to serve with him for a few days and it was great to learn from the great example of love for all men that he showed to me. 
I cannot believe how much i have missed throughout the years as i have been playin with legos instead of listening to General Conference and taking notes. Never has General Conference impacted me so much in my life than right now. It may be because i am in a missionary mode and mindset and that's why it affects me so much but it's a beautiful thing to know that we have Prophets and Apostles to advise us and help us to not be lost in the dark of the continually darkening world. It was the exclamation point to finish a very spiritually lifting week! Love you all and hope that all is going well! #hearthemusic
-Elder Rogers
Oh and the woman that President Eyring talked about in his first talk on Saturday, Sister Abi Turay, I met her husband one time when i was in Freetown walkin around.. Great people!