Monday, August 6, 2012

August 6, 2012 {Email}


These two years definitely have gone by a lot faster then i had expected too. I can't believe this is my last week! I still don't believe it when i tell people i go home next week. It doesn't seem real.

So, with Lucy and her family things are going better then we could've ever hoped for! Last week monday they all committed to be baptized on the 11th! But because of conflicts with the ward schedule we have changed it to be on the 10th! (mom's birthday :) ) It's going to be a great day! Lucy will be baptized with 3 of her children and then we are also going to baptize one 19 year old boy named Enoch. He has two brothers and a sister in the church. It will be a powerful day. Other then that it's going to be a week full of saying sad good bye's to the amazing people in the ward. I will miss these people so much. It's been such a great experience to be able to gain a close relationship with this ward. I am grateful to have served here for so long.

Everything is going just great! Thank you all for all your prayers and support. I love you all!! See you next week.

Love, 

Elder Rogers

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

July 30, 2012 {Email}


The time is going by way too fast here it is so crazy! It seems like everytime i think about what day it is it's always Sunday and we'll be like wow that week was fast. But everything is going really great!! I still can't believe in a few weeks i will be with you and all the family. It's been sad every night i think another day is gone. We go to close our day and i don't even want to because that just means i am one more day closer to leaving this place. I really don't want to leave. It's such a strange feeling and i think this will be one of the hardest things i will ever do. You're right about these people here in first ward, they are my family. Every one of them. I do not want to say good bye to them, but i have to. It's going to be hard.


Lucy and her kids are doing great still! Tonight we are going to have a lesson with them and hopefully that will be the big one where they tell us when they want to be baptized. It was amazing on Sunday Lucy couldn't come to church because her family was having some funeral for this old woman, she had to cook for it :(. But the amazing part was when we went to pick up the family for church we didn't know she wasn't going to come, and still all the kids were running around getting ready to come to church. They love it! In primary they are memorizing the articles of faith and singing "We'll Bring the World His Truth". They are so excited about everything with the church. We are just waiting for Lucy to commit to a date and i'm sure the rest will follow. I pray that it will be on the 11th so i can see it. 

Imeh, the rasta man is still doing good but these past two weeks he's had some tough conflicts on Sunday mornings. He still knows that his baptism is essential and wants to do it, just having a hard time with committing to a date. This week will be a big week for him to see if he's ready for it. It's gotta be up to him. Right now i am battling the selfishness in me to see them all baptized before i go. It's been hard to just have faith that when they are ready then they will be baptized. It's not easy. 

Today for p-day we played some serious basketball down by the beach. It was the first time we've played in a while and man we were all rusty ha. I also gotta throw the baseball around with Elder Durfey from Spanish Fork so that was awesome. Any time i get to pick up that ball and glove it just makes me excited. I miss baseball and i can't wait to just get out there and play again. 

Well, that's really all that i have to tell you this week. Everything else that is going on i will just wait to tell you in person. 

Love, 

Elder Rogers


Playing catch with Sister Shultz

Played some basketball with Elder Saili


Thursday, July 26, 2012

July 23, 2012

This week was great! Things are progressing very well in our area. The time we've been able to spend with Lucy and her family has been my favorite parts of the day, every day. They are so excited every time we come. All the kids run to get their chairs so we can sit in our big circle for the lesson. This week was the first week they all came to church together! They were well received by the ward members. I gotta brag about our ward members small, they seriously are the most powerful i have seen at fellowshipping new people into the church. Every one in Lucy's family had a friend by the end of the service. And tonight our relief society president is inviting her entire family over for family home evening! It's such a blessing to have such sweet members to work with. For Lucy and her kids, they are now praying about a baptismal date so i hope that day will be before i go. If not, that is fine as long as they get baptized! I just feel blessed to be able to have met them and introduce the gospel to them.

There has been so much success this past week with our investigators. Our rasta man is doing great! He is also praying for his baptismal date. It's been almost like instead of going from lesson to lesson, it's going from miracle to miracle. I am so excited with the way the work is going right now. We have been so blessed. I love going around with Elder Saili, we have been having so much fun with these investigators and our members. 


It's so crazy how soon i get back. I still don't think it is real and i know that day is going to come, but it still feels weird. It has been so cool to see so many miracles happening these past couple weeks. I have felt more intune than ever before. I don't want to finish my mission now that i feel so comfortable and one with the work. It's like i am getting to that peak right now, instead of the bottom. It's going to be a lot of fun to sit down and share mission experiences with all of you. We all have a lot of catching up to do, 2 years is a long time.  


Well, i hope you all had a great week too and have another one this week! I love you all!

Elder Rogers

Zack and Elder Saili playing baseball...Ghana style

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

July 16, 2012 {Email}


As a district today we watched 17 miracles and we all enjoyed the m&m's and skittles. That was my first time seeing that movie and it's gotta be one of my favorites! I'm also way grateful for the things to give to the ward members. I will do that in some kind of fun way for them before i go.

With the mission split things do feel a lot more focused. I know that President Shulz is very excited to see what we can do now as a mission. It definitely is weird being separated from them up in Kumasi. They gave both missions new phone numbers so there is no communication anymore, kind of sad. We had our council this week and a lot of it is just how we can better work with members and get them to do missionary work too. President and the AP's have been very inspired with the plan they have put together. We will be strengthening our members in missionary work a lot more then we have been. It's pretty cool to get these new ideas and we get to try them out on members that we already know very well. I feel so good with these members here, they are just like family. The work is going to improve even more as we put this new plan in motion.

Lucy and her kids are doing awesome!! We are hoping that they will be baptized before i go, but it's not set yet. The other night they all came to the church to watch the Restoration film with us. It was great and now the kids know a lot more about Joseph Smith. Lucy was teaching them all as the movie was going, just showing us that she has really made it a part of her life. We have been so blessed to be able to teach this family, they are so powerful.

Everything is going just great here! I hope all is well back home. I love you all.

Love,

Elder Rogers

Monday, July 9, 2012

July 9, 2012 {Email}

This week was another good one! We have been blessed with powerful investigators like Imeh (rasta man) and Lucy (the mother). Imeh came to church again and loved it. Lucy was sick on Sunday :( but she is very certain she will come this week. Both of them we are pretty sure will be baptized sometime but we feel we should let them get settled before we rush right into giving a baptismal date. I've always been the one to get so excited and just give it right away, but from the past i've seen those baptismal dates get postponed for various reasons. We want to set a solid date for them when they know they are ready for it! Hopefully in the next couple weeks we can have a date for them after they come to church one or two more times! With Lucy we had an awesome lesson on the Word of Wisdom and all of the little kids were sitting around. These little kids are smart telling us all of the things they shouldn't take ha they knew more then i did. We are having some difficulties with the older daughter because all of her friends are in another church and she wants to stay with them. She's a typical teenager ha and i can understand why she would do that.Everything is just going great here! I get to celebrate another birthday in Ghana this week so i'm stoked for that. We'll probably have a big coke and make some burritos ha i can't wait! Have a great week everyone! 

Elder Rogers

Elder Saili and me at Takoradi last week
The Cape Coast 1st ward
Victor and his family at his baptism
Our baptism on June 9th. Mankessim branch and Cape Coast 2nd Ward also joined us 


Tuesday, July 3, 2012

July 2, 2012 {Email}


So yeah, it is official that the mission has split. It's strange to think that Kumasi is now separated from us. Kind of weird that i served for a year in a different mission than i am in now. But it's going to be so awesome to see how both of these places can grow with having more focus from the mission presidents.

So last week i remember telling you that we were kind of having a hard time finding some serious investigators. Well, with a lot of searching and praying we have got some serious people now! One kid named Enoch Dadzie has been coming to church whenever he is back from school and he was here on sunday so we found out he will be back for a while at the start of August. So when he gets back he will be baptized on August 11th! We were so blessed to meet him and he is ready for it. We also had a rastafarian man we have been working with come to church. That was his problem, he accepted all the teachings and even had the desire to be baptized but the joining a church thing was the problem holding him back. We have been trying to just get him to come for over 3 weeks and this week he finally showed up with his sweet dreadlocks ha. I was very grateful that all the members were friendly with him there, and he loved it! We'll see where it goes from here but i really enjoy teaching this guy. 

We also had a woman named Lucy come with two of her children. Same thing, we have been trying to get her to come for a while too and finally she made it. When sacrament meeting ended our relief society president ran over to her and gave her a huge hug. I guess they are sisters! It was pretty sweet so now she has a great friend in the church! We'll also see where it goes with her! Everything is still great and now it's even better because we got some people acting upon the message. It makes the work exciting. I am thankful to be here.

Today for P-day we went to Takoradi to play football. I was so excited to go there because i have never seen any place in the cape coast mission except for cape coast itself. Takoradi is a way cool place and i wish i could've had some small time to serve over there but it's all good where i am now.

It's been a good week! I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Rogers



Tuesday, June 26, 2012

June 25, 2012 {Email}

In our apartment we now have 6 elders! The Bakaano elders are staying with us now because their apartment is not finished in their area which is right next to us. So we welcome Elder Barnett (England) and Elder Adair (Utah) to our sweet apartment. Last night we celebrated Elder Saili's year mark by burning shirts and eating Chips Ahoy cookies while playing Monopoly Deal. It was tight and the cookies were amazing. Today is Elder Saili's birthday so we had some elders over to make hamburgers with us. It was like an actual McDonald's right in our apartment. SOO good!!! I'm lovin' it. 

Our area is going pretty well right now. We've got some potential serious investigators. The only trick is to get them to church so they can have that spirit and be among the members. We will be switching to 9 o' clock this week so i think that will help us out. I know it will come if we just keep doing what is expected of us.

We visited Millicent (our recent convert) last night and watched The Testaments with her. It was very spiritual and Emmanuel is going to try again to quit his smoking and drinking. He really wants to hold the priesthood! Bishop Essien has been talking to him a lot so hopefully he can get working with the members more and not just us so that they can help him always since we will be leaving one day. And by the way Millicent is WAY pregnant! Emmanuel is way excited because he says it's going to be a boy which is what he has always wanted. So within the next few weeks we will find out! It's crazy because i've been seeing her through the whole process. Man, i guess i have been here a while if i'm going to be able to see the baby come! 

Everything is going well!! Our mission splits on Sunday, pretty crazy to think we will be separated from Kumasi.

I love you all!

Elder Rogers 

Thursday, June 21, 2012

June 18, 2012 {Email}


Our area is once again kind of in a tough spot with progressing investigators but we're not too worried about it. We have been working a lot better with our sweet members to get it going. Even though we don't have much progress right now, we are definitely progressing with the members. They seem to be a lot more excited and concerned about the missionary work. If we can get them strong in the work then this area will be strong forever and that's what it's all about. I kind of feel like i am still here because i really know these members and they trust me so i need to be a part of making this push of getting them involved more. 

I had one of those "pay day's" as mom would call it. On Sunday, Victor showed up to church early. We had invited him to come and bless the sacrament. He was definitely nervous but he went for it. He messed up the first time but nailed it the second time. He had just a huge smile on his face when he looked at us and we gave him a thumbs up. That kid is going to do so much in the future. I hope we can get him to serve a mission later on. I love seeing members so happy and strong as they fulfill their duties. Victor is solid. 

Oh, we also did transfers this week. Everything went great! It was pretty cool to see all the new missionaries again. We have 10 new ones, 6 of them have gone to Kumasi. Down here we kept one from Australia, one from England and one from Western Samoa. Elder Saili was stoked to see the Samoan. They all had some big culture shock as we put them on tro-tro's to their new area ha. I remember that first day and how crazy it all was. That will be the last time i see new missionaries come in. Crazy. Have a great week everyone! 

Elder Rogers

Thursday, June 14, 2012

May 27, 2012 {Letter}

I am so grateful for this time I've been able to serve a mission.  Looking at where I am now with my testimony, priorities, self-reliance and knowledge compared to before I came is a huge change.  I feel like an entirely different person when it comes to my mindset.  I now KNOW with a surety that this is the true gospel and Church of Jesus Christ.  Because of this I now KNOW the importance of staying active, reading the scriptures, listening to the prophets and sharing this gospel.  We are so blessed to have been born into the Church.  Our test is to stay faithful all the way to the end.  Aren't we lucky to have each other to help us out with that?!  Everything in this gospel is perfect, because it is founded by our Savior.  There are so many times that I just think about Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, President Thomas S. Monson and it all just clicks, it is all true.  Along with getting to KNOW all these things are true, my mission has strengthened me the most in my trust in God.  With Him all things are possible.  The way we are used as instruments in His hands is incredible.  He has led us into so many peoples path's so that we could help them find their way.  It has been so great to be that instrument.  One of the most valuable lessons I've learned here is the power of prayer.  I have so many experiences of my prayers being answered.  I don't dare to do anything big without counseling with Heavenly Father first.  I can't wait to come back and tell you all of the stories.  I want you all to know that yes these 2 years have been hard, but they will be the best 2 years FOR my life.  The things I have learned and experienced I will never forget.  I know I will be crying a river when my time comes to leave this amazing place.  I wish I could just bring you all here and stay here forever.  It's sad, but exciting to come home.  Please don't judge me too quickly when I get back ha I will be a bit weird. ha.  I love you all so much!

FOREVER STRONG
Elder Rogers

June 11, 2012 {Email}

This week was a great one! Everything went perfect with the baptism for Eric and Victor. The coolest thing was seeing Victor's mom, Efua, coming with him to the baptism and to church. Elder Lawton and I were working with her for the entire time i was with him but she couldn't take the step to come to church. She finally did this week! I really feel like Victor can have a big impact on her right now. We'll be sure to follow up on it this week to keep her going. The baptism was huge because we combined with Cape Coast 2nd ward and Mankessim branch. The room was packed tight and everyone was excited and ready to watch baptisms. Of course they are never perfect here in Ghana because the water isn't their best friend but we made it through ha. Elder Baird, a new missionary in Mankessim, got to baptize for his first time on mission so that was neat. It took me back to my first baptism and how excited i was. Baptisms never get old. That is why we are here is to help bring others unto Christ and when it happens, it is so true about how great our joy is. I love it!

A crazy thing happened the other day haha and please, mom, don't worry this doesn't happen often or ever.. But ok! We were walking by the park when we saw our homeless/drunk friend Peter who always says hi and follows us around talking about crazy things for a while. This time he really insisted that we should sit down and talk. We were in a hurry so we just told him sorry, we had to go. He got real upset this time and threatened to kill us and shoot us, which was out of the ordinary. So we started walking faster getting a little bit nervous. When we turned and looked at him we saw him reach into his pouch bag. Both of us were just in shock thinking he was going to pull out a gun.... We started walking really fast.. To our relief he didn't pull out a gun but instead pulled out a bunch of rocks and started throwing them at us! ha it's a good thing he's not a baseball player, but still it was crazy to have someone throw rocks at us. It was intense though, stuff like that never happens here. I actually was way scared for a second. Today we saw Peter again and he was cool and talking to us like normal. I can't imagine what that was like for all those prophets of old who got stoned and even killed. That's my fun story for the week! :)

So transfers.... well i'm going to be crying a lot saying goodbye to everyone here in cape coast. I've spent almost 10 months here and to have to leave these people is not going to be easy. This is my home and i don't want to leave it. It's a good thing i won't have to say goodbye to them for another two months. I'm very happy to continue doing the work here with Elder Saili. We're going to help bring more souls these next two months. I'm stoked!

Well, i hope all of you had and will have another great week! I love you all!

Elder Rogers

Elder Saili and me with Victor
Victor and his family

My recent convert, Alfred from Asuoyeboa! He called me when he was in Cape seeing the castle. He's still strong :)
My old high school classmate Rebecca and me
Rebecca's group took us to lunch

Friday, June 8, 2012

June 4, 2012 {Email}

We had a great week! Zone conference was awesome! We are taking a big focus on how we can better use the members to help us with this work. We need to create a bond between the recent converts and the members and we need to do that during the teaching process. So now we are going to do a better job of planning on how we can use the members to encourage investigators. It's going to be really cool to get this going. Our area is going good! We will baptize Eric and Victor on Saturday. Still working with a lot of others that are having some challenges. It's great though!! I'm way excited for saturday!! So the craziest thing happened yesterday! A group of white people showed up at church to worship with us and one of them happened to be a girl that i went to school with! her name is Rebecca Powell. It was so awesome to meet her again! her and the rest of her group were on some service trip for SUU so they came to church. It was pretty cool to have all of those strong members join us. They were bearing their testimonies in sacrament meeting and everything. I couldn't believe i met someone that i knew back home haha it's crazy. Today they invited us to join their group for lunch which was way good! I was completely nervous to have full on conversations with Americans because my English has changed so much, but they were able to understand us ha as far as i know. But yeah! That's what is going on here. The work goes on. This week is transfer news and will determine where i finish my mission :) i love you all! 

Elder Rogers

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

May 28, 2012 {Email}

This week has been wet! The rainy season has come and every morning it pours rain! I love the rain but it really puts a damper on the work. The whole town shuts down when the rain comes ha even the library! It's really funny. The other day we literally watched a huge rainstorm creep in from the ocean and make it's way towards us. It was crazy, i will try to attach a picture so you can see. It was just like this huge battle front crawling towards us and we could hear the rain on the rooftops like an elephant stampede ha. Not going to lie it was intimidating. It came and blasted us and then it left. It has really helped to keep the days nice and cool, which i love! To me it's like a cool spring day, but the Ghanaians don't like it at all though. They all put on jackets and hoodies ha.
 
The work is going good! We are still taking time with Ema because we can't seem to get enough time to sit down with him. It's been frustrating but we just gotta have patience and we will get there with him. We are preparing two others for baptism on the 9th of June! I don't know if you remember the family we were teaching a while ago, Justice and Efua? Well anyways we stopped by there to say hi to them the other day and Efua was way excited! She told us that her oldest son, Victor, had returned from school. He just graduated from High School so he will be around for a while. He was the reason we met the family in the first place. He was preparing for baptism, but had to go to boarding school. Now he is back and says he is ready to be baptized!! It was so sweet! Hopefully it will spark his family to gain that desire again. They have kind of lost it because Efua can't seem to stop her Methodist church. We will keep on keeping on with them :) The other person we are preparing is Eric. He is 26 years old and is a sweet guy! He is into all that cultural dancing and stuff. By the looks of him you would never know but he can't speak English. So we've been having translators help us and he is really accepting the message. So on the 9th they will be baptized. We are praying we can get Ema prepared by then too. 
 
Just so you all know we sadly had to kill the scorpion this week... Ha it actually isn't all that dangerous as long as you don't act dumb around it. We played with him a little and then Elder Ametewee had to kill it. Sad day. Mom, i would love to have a pet monkey but yeah some of the monkeys i send you pictures of are pretty vicious. The ones in Kumasi were ok but down here they use them to show to the tourists so the monkeys aren't happy. Maybe i'll find a tame one and take it home with me. But yeah, everything is great!! I love Ghana. Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Rogers
 

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

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!







Tuesday, May 15, 2012

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

Monday, May 7, 2012

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

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

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

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

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

Monday, April 16, 2012

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.

Monday, April 9, 2012

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



Monday, April 2, 2012

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

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

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.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

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.