May 21, 2012 {Email}

We are working with Ema right now. We are not yet sure if his baptism will be this week or the coming weeks because he has been very busy and we haven't been able to sit down with him for a while. He is still really excited, we just need to get all the preparations done before he enters the water.

One crazy thing that happened this week is one of our roommates is keeping a scorpion as a pet in our apartment. After Stake Conference, the assistants came up and warned us that it had been done by him in previous apartments so we were to look out for it ha. Yeah, that made me real comfortable in the apartment... We ended up just asking him if he had scorpions and he said yes. :/ So we went to his room and inside a box was this black scorpion the size of my hand!! I have been sleeping in the same apartment with a scorpion for 3 weeks! He has to set it free though. He loves scorpions haha crazy guy! I hate those things. He is now considered the Scorpion King.

We are still working with some of our investigators that have run into that brick wall. It's not easy to help them past their challenges, but this work is on the Lord's time not ours. We just have to be patient. When they are ready, they are ready. This work is awesome! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Rogers

Cape Coast and Abura zone at Stake Conference

Our food! :) hot dogs and rice. With a PB&J on the side.

 

 

Our creepy pet scorpion!

 

May 14, 2012 {Email}

This past week was a busy one. We had zone leader council on Tuesday and then on Friday we went on splits to Moree and Yamoransa, which is always fun. We are gaining another focus in our mission and that is how we can better involve members in our missionary work. Not just in getting referrals but having them stay involved and be a part of the investigators progress so that they can have somebody there to help them when they have questions or concerns. That way they are building their foundation with the members in the ward they will serve in forever and not with the missionaries who will come and go. It's definitely going to take a lot of effort to get them involved and at lessons, bringing them to church and other stuff but it will be worth it. This past week we had Enoch (our ward mission leader/recent convert) come with us to Ema's place. He is learning about the restoration right now and we told Enoch about him before so he could know what we were going to discuss. Enoch bore a powerful testimony afterwards and Ema got way into it because he related to Enoch. We even ended up giving Ema a goal to be baptised on the 26th of this month! Members bring the spirit so much stronger!

Other than that not too much else happened this week... JUST KIDDING! I got to see my amazing family and talk to them for a bit! I love them so much and am so grateful to be a part of their family. Happy Mother's day mom! 

Have a great week!

Elder Rogers

Millicent's family

Saying goodbye to Elder Gibson

New companion Elder Saili

May 7, 2012 {Email}

Everything is just fabulous here in ghana with Elder saili. We have been having so much fun going around and meeting all the members and investigators. It's crazy to be showing ANOTHER companion the area. The members seriously love him. The work will keep going on here in Cape Coast! It was a fun week though doing the transfers and getting to see all the missionaries going there separate ways. Our zone had changes in every companionship except for one, so we got tons of new faces here. Today we had a powerful fufu feast so we could all get to know eachother. We've got a sweet zone! We met with Patrick again! He is improving on his "bad habits" but he is still really busy to be coming to church every week with us. It was great to see him again and to be able to help him out a little bit. We also found out this week that our Bishop has found Emmanuel's record number in Accra so he is officially a member and doesn't need to be baptized. That doesn't mean that we will stop working with him, we have got a sweet chart made up to help him overcome his "bad habit's" too. He is excited about it and ready to try again. It's just a gradual process and he is definitely improving. Elder Saili was so shocked when i introduced him to Emmanuel, "That's him?? He's huge!!" haha. But yeah things are going great! We finally got to see General Conference yesterday which was awesome! I love Elder Holland's talk! Well that's about it.. i can't believe this week is Mother's Day! Happy Mother's day to all you powerful Mother's out there! 

Elder Rogers

May 1, 2012 {Email}

This week was full of Elder Gibson saying goodbye to everyone. It was awesome to see how much they have appreciated all his hard work and love he has put into this area. He will definitely be missed by them and by me. He is a great missionary. So we were pretty busy doing that and trying to see our investigators. The serious investigators were very busy this week so we didn't get to much time with them. Hopefully this week when my new companion gets here we can get things going better with these people.Josephine came to church and we listened to Elder Holland's talk on the Lord of the Vineyard. She loved it. She is really enjoying her time at church. She will be in Accra this week so we have to wait until next week to see her again. Our zone had a powerful week of baptisms, we had 15 total. Our monthly goal was to get 26 and we only had 7 by the end of last week. Miracles do happen though and 5 out of the 7 companionships accomplished their goal left only with a couple that were just a little bit short, including ours. It's really cool to make these goals and have something to target for and then to have something to measure at the end. 22/26 is really good! It makes everyone pretty excited. 

My new companion is coming down from Kumasi today! His name is Elder Saili and he is from America Samoa. If i'm right he is coming up on 10 months in the field soon and was trained by Elder Hair. My apartment will be him and two other of his MT's ha. I hear he is a way sweet guy and he likes to play basketball and stuff. We will have fun. It's possible he could be my last companion. Well, i hope you all had and will have a great week!

Love,

Elder Rogers

April 23, 2012 {Email}

Hey mom! Thank you for the package!!!! It is great! I am loving every bit of it! And millicent's little girl had her birthday on Saturday so we gave her that kite you sent and we taught her how to fly it on the beach. She loves it! Thank you for being so thoughtful. and Millicent loves the Friend magazine! I am totally in on going to disneyworld in florida with the family. You know if you want to go back in august i have no problem with that! :) That would be so much fun! 

This week we got Benjamin and Patience other son baptized! Ha on Saturday the Cape Coast 2nd ward had a baptism so we were able to join them and they were confirmed together. It worked out great! Also during this week we have been seeing alot of our recently contacted people. A couple of them are seeming pretty serious. There is a lady named Josephine that owns one of those shops where they sell all the souvenirs. She had been taught long ago but didn't understand really and she loved her church. She came to church last week and saw the baptism as well. She enjoyed it alot so when we saw her she had a lot of questions. Her main question was why do we not do collection? After explaining that to her and how it is not part of Christ's doctrines to pay collection she was really startled because her church is all over paying collection. She came again yesterday to witness our Church again and seemed to enjoy. I'm excited to discuss the Restoration with her! I feel like it will all click as we go through it. The cool thing is the people that own those shops usually aren't responsive at all because they just want us to come and see their stuff and not talk gospel, but she is a serious woman.

We have a couple other people progressing right now. Our main focus is still finding more people. We will have our fireside this week so hopefully that can help the members to bring some more of their friends to the Church. Everything is going great! It is definitely strange being a companion to a going home missionary. Elder Gibson will be going on Monday next week! Also our big transfer news is coming on Saturday! I'm excited to find out who my new companion will be. Go Yankees!

Mom, thank you for everything! I was wondering if it's possible for you guys to register me to vote this year. I would love to be able to vote for Romney when i get back if it's possible. Well, i hope you have a great week! I'm glad you enjoyed Florida :)

Love you!

Elder Rogers

April 16, 2012 {Email}

This week was great! Benjamin, Patience and their daughter Christabel were baptized. THey were also supposed to have their 11 year old son Aaron join them but i guess he ran out with his friends and they couldn't find him ha so hopefully we can get him baptized soon as well so he can join his family! We even left during the middle of church to look for him but had no luck. But the three were baptized! It was way cool too because we did it right after church so the entire ward came to support them. It was one of the best baptisms i've been a part of. Poor little Christabel was terrified of the water too. She wanted nothing to do with going under, but after a few tries it finally happened and she was so relieved. She is very happy she doesn't ever have to do that again ha. We have been meeting a lot of new people this past week and even having some of our investigators who are really busy start to have time for us. Hopefully it will continue so that we can help them progress like they were before they were busy. For right now we don't have any planned baptisms but it should start to pick up again soon. Another crazy thing is that Elder Gibson is going home in 2 weeks! It's so weird being a companion to a missionary that is going home. He handles it well though so it's not too hard on me. Time is just flying by! He really has had the best way to finish his mission with all of these powerful people we have met and experiences that we have had. It will be sad to see him go. He only has to hand wash his clothes one more time!!! That is what i am most jealous of haha.

Well, i hope all is well for you back home! Go Yankees!!

Elder Rogers

Elder Gibson and me with Benjamin & Patience's family on their baptism day.

April 9, 2012 {Email}

This week was full of trying to find some more people to teach and also preparing Benjamin, Patience and their two kids for baptism on this Sunday coming. We aren't having the same success with our contacting before even though we are out doing it the same way. But we're doing our best and know that the people come. Elder Gibson came up with a brilliant idea to do a fireside where each ward member is expected to bring an investigator. We're planning on that by the end of the month. It should help us to get our teaching pool going again. It's just a manner of using different tactics I guess. One month the contacting is the thing working and the next month it's referrals. Mission just keeps us on our toes ha.

Also we have been really enjoying going around and teaching our recent converts about the temple and family history. Jennifer is so excited!! She is already finding names and going to our family history teacher to put them in the computer so she can be prepared for the temple trip where they will take the recent converts on April 21st. They will have a great experience there. We've given the temple liahona to Millicent and she is amazed at how beautiful the temple is. It's really exciting to see them continuing to progress after their baptisms.

It was easter weekend! Easter is one of the most celebrated holidays in Ghana. A lot of the shops have been shut down since Friday. In Cape Coast they have huge conventions for certain churches where members from all over Ghana come and stay the weekend and worship the entire Easter. So we have been surrounded by really loud music, pastors screaming in tongues and loud prayers ha. It's cool to see their culture but when it's like a hundred meters from the apartment and they go all night then it gets on my nerves a little ha. They are all leaving now so we can have our peaceful sleep back, thank goodness ha!

Well, i hope everyone had a great Easter. And i just gotta throw this in here, GO YANKEES!! I know they lost but what's three games out of 162. It's all good!

I love you all!

Elder Rogers

April 2, 2012 {Email}

This week was POWERFUL! We had the baptism for Millicent on Saturday and she was the happiest woman in the world! Emmanuel was there with the two little girls and he is really starting to see how important it is for him to put his life in a way to be an example for his family. Ever since we gave Millicent her baptismal date he has seemed like a changed man. Last week he went all the way til Sunday night without a drink. And that one he felt terrible about it so he is getting a lot better. Bishop Essien really wants us to get him moving so we have started the lessons over again and i've just been amazed as we teach him. He is understanding so well and when he doesn't he asks great questions so he can understand. It is a lot different from before. We have even set a goal for him to be baptized on the 29th of April. He knows what he has to do and he says he can do it. I feel really good about him this time mostly because he is doing this because HE wants to and not because we want him to. On Sunday they learned about eternal marriage and that got them both really excited. Another sweet thing is that Benjamin and Patience have now been traditionally married! They are prepared for baptism and hopefully it will be them and two of their kids on the 14th! A complete family!! We are so excited for them.

The work is moving on just great. Hopefully we can keep finding some more sweet people so we can keep really busy for Elder Gibson's last few weeks. It's crazy how close he is getting. We also gotta find some people for after all of these baptisms so my new companion will come right into a sweet situation ha.

I hope all is well for ya back home! Happy Easter!

Elder Rogers

Millicent's baptism with her husband Emmanuel and their kids

March 26, 2012 {Email}

This week was a busy one with the transfers and everything.We had our work cut out for us to organize how everyone was going to get to their new areas ha but everything went smoothly and all the missionaries are safe in their new areas. It's crazy because Elder Hair was saying that next transfer will be even bigger. Yikes! And i won't be having Elder Gibson to help me since he'll be flying home ha it'll be exciting :) 

The greatest thing happened this week! Emmanuel and Millicent finally did the traditional marriage so they are now living together under the commandment. Millicent can now be baptized! She has been ready for like two months and finally on Saturday she will be baptized! Elder Gibson and I have been waiting for this to happen for so long ha when we heard it was going to happen we were shocked and in disbelief, but it did and we were able to witness it. It was a sweet experience. We are also working with another husband and wife, Benjamin and Patience, so they can be baptized. They will have to do the traditional marriage as well. Hopefully they can get it done this week. It seems like we keep getting trends of things we are working on with our investigators like a month ago the Word of Wisdom was a common problem and now we are working with marriage ha both things we are not experienced in at all but we try our best ha. It really helps us to see how much we have to rely on the spirit to help us know how to help them. I love this work! 

Elder Rogers

Emanuel and Millicent at their traditional wedding with their family.

March 19, 2012 {Email}

Well, transfer news came and surprisingly i am going to.... be staying in Cape Coast for another 6 weeks! I wasn't expecting that at all, but i'm way excited! I will get to kill off Elder Gibson and get to see a few more sweet baptisms in these next 6 weeks. The transfer is huge! They have created two more zones up in Kumasi. Asuoyeboa is now a zone and Elder Smith is going up there to be a zone leader in that area. I'm so stoked for him to serve there! That zone will be Asuoyeboa, Abuakwa and the sisters area Nwamase. So basically that is my zone ha! Also Elder Wheeler will be a zone leader for the new Asokwa zone so i will get to see him at zone leader council! That guy is such a stud.

Our area is going well still even though the baptisms have slowed down a bit. We had two new people receive baptismal dates this week. The first is Elizabeth, we call her Mother. She knew the church from her Uncle who was a devoted member in 2nd ward. He died in December and that got her a little interested in the church after she came to the funeral there. We met her towards the end of February and now she has come to love the message and know it's true. This lady is a sweet, nice lady. She is about 36 years old with two younger children. When we first met her she couldn't really understand the english very well so we tried to keep it very simple but as time has gone on she can understand us almost perfectly now, it's amazing. That's happened with a lot of our recent converts too. Having the Spirit in their lives has blessed them in many ways. The other person that received a baptismal date is Rozzy. He is a 30 year old that we stopped as he was walking by us about a month ago. It took a couple weeks for us to meet him and we had almost forgotten about him until Elder Jarwee and Orobator saw him and he told them he wanted to see us. So we finally got time and he has understood and accepted the Restoration so well. He was the one to ask us when he could be baptized. So we are planning for Mother on the 31st and Rozzy on the 7th. We'll see how it goes, but i'm way excited for them!

Have a great week!

Elder Rogers

Members in our ward

P-day today playing on the FIFA turf field in Cape
(there are only 7 of them in Africa!)

Me, Elder Reid, Elder Barnett and Elder Gibson on top of a fort 

The transfer board in our apartment.
It's the biggest transfer there has ever been.