January 30, 2012 {Email}

It was a sweet week again. We had the baptism for the four, Ruth (jennifers daughter), the two brothers Benjamin and Richmond, and Henry! It all went great. So many members came to support them so it couldn't have been any better. We are looking forward to another one this week for Enoch. We were planning on doing it for Patrick as well but he has some things he needs to work out. We are going to give him another four weeks at work to give him sometime to work them out. It will all be ok and he is still excited to be baptized! It's amazing how much a person is willing to change there life once they know this Church is true.

We have been enjoying this area so much. Transfer news is coming this week and we are both praying that we will stay. I would love to stay here for some more time and be with Elder Gibson and to continue with the people that we have going.

Ok now mom i'm sorry i didn't answer your question about the weather. But the Hamatan has gone now. It is back to being very humid! We did have a nice rainstorm for the first time in forever this week and were cold all day. That was nice. Ha.

So what else happened this week. OH! Emmanuel and his entire family came to church! They love it there and look so happy. Emmanuel is really improving on his addictions. His wife is very interested in the Church. We are so excited to see what happens with this family. They are awesome! Also the Africa Cup of Nations has begun. These people LOVE their football. Ghana has won their first two matches so far so everyone is way happy! We even saw a goal while buying some bread the other day. It was so awesome to celebrate with all of the people. The town blows up when they score a goal! GO GHANA!!!!

Elder Rogers

Picture from the baptism on Saturday

Oreo's in Ghana!! Yeah, be jealous haha i'm enjoying!

January 23, 2012 {Email}

So this week has been just as good as the other. Patrick came to church and is preparing for the 4th of February for his baptism. The other three are ready to go this week! We have a new sweet investigator. I may have told you about him last week my memory is terrible so sorry if i'm on repeat. but his name is Enoch and he is 26 years old, teaches at a school and loves to play football. This guy has been powerful right from the start! We met him through a gospel conversation, which has been one of the focuses of our mission right now. It's like contacting but trying to be more personal with them and bringing the gospel into the conversation. He was interested and he has since kept every commandment. He can tell us the story of 1 nephi 1-4 better than I can ha and he loves going to church. This week we gave him a big commitment and that was to not play football on Sunday. It's something that he loves to do in the morning before church. But we were teaching the Sabbath Day and we had to tell him. I was kind of worried about how he would take it, but he humbled me right away when he said well if that is what God wants then i wont play football on Sunday. He is so ready to do whatever he has to to follow the gospel. On Sunday he didn't play and was on time to church. We were so stoked when he came in and told us he didn't play. He will be baptized on the 4th of February.

Everything has been going great! It's crazy that Elder Lawton goes home in 2 weeks! I hope you all have a  FABULOUS week! Love you all!

Elder Rogers

Me with our Ward Mission Leader "Paa Kwesi"

January 16, 2012 {Email}

Things are going even better than last week! I feel like everytime i come to email i am just bragging about my area, but it's really just going good! Our investigators are awesome people that are very sincere. It's not every day that we have several people that are interested like they are. Patrick came back! We met him Saturday night and he was way excited to see us. We had a good lesson and he was still ready to be baptized. The only problem was we forgot to tell him earlier that church was at 9 now! AHH! I'm so mad at myself for forgetting that. We told him that night and he said he had a very important appointment he couldn't miss and he scheduled it in the morning because he was going to be at church in the afternoon. So he didn't come to church yesterday. It only means that his baptism will have to be delayed at least one week. We are going to see him tonight so we'll figure it out with him. Everyone else is still progressing well. I don't know if i told you but our two recent converts Jennifer and Charlotte are now serving in the Primary Presidency! They love it and are a little overwhelmed but it's going to be so good for them.

This past week the weather has changed entirely. It is now time for the Hammatan (spelling?). But the Hammatan, from what i've heard, is when all the dust from the Sahara desert blows over the top of us. So right now we basically walk in dust. It also makes the mornings pretty chilly and we become very dry. We played a football match today and i hardly even sweated. It almost feels like weather back home when it's just hot and dry. I don't know how you all survive back there ha! I'm suffering with it right now haha.

But it's been a great week! Love you all!

Elder Rogers

me at the Kakum National Park doing the rope walk ha i look so excited...NOT!

Thanksgiving Dinner

All of them are Zacks - "Z"

January 9, 2012 {Email}

This week was a great one! The work is exploding here for us in the Cape Coast 1st Ward. Seriously we suddenly have a lot of people with potential baptismal dates that we are almost overloaded. It's AWESOME!!! We are still preparing the 5 for the 28th and Patrick will be coming home this week! Just this past week we have had a few more investigators share with us their desire to join the Church. I can't explain to you how exciting it is. It's amazing to see these people and how the Lord has prepared them for this time. The Lord has really blessed us in our time here.

As i think i already told you our ward made a new goal for the next 4 month and now they are actually doing the whole planning on their own without our help. It has been so great to see them doing the missionary work and setting up how they are going to accomplish this goal. I'm also way excited to see how the work and the members improves in these next few months. We have really been enjoying these past few weeks here.

I love you and hope you have a great week!!!

Elder Rogers

January 2, 2012 {Email}

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! What a great year this is going to be. I'm so excited for all of the wonderful experiences i will have as my mission comes to an end. Still plenty of things to do like you said and plenty of people to help. I hope you had a great week!

This week was good for us too. We switched our church time to 9 in the morning which was awesome. We now are preparing 5 people for baptism on the 28th of January! It's been so sweet! One of them is Jenifers (recent convert) daughter, Ruth. She is 13 and was a very stubborn girl when we first met her, but since she came to church and has been taking the teachings she is really changing. Jenifer is so happy with her now and excited for her to be baptized. She says once she gets the Spirit she will never be stubborn again haha. We are also teaching two other young boys whose sister is a member, they are 16 and 9 years old. Then we have a man, Henry, that has taken a long time to progress. He has come to church a lot but just doesn't take the the time to have lessons. This week was a big one for him. Our bishop called him up to speak in sacrament meeting ha he went up there and said some words in Fante than finished. After that he was acting as if he was already a member so we took him around on Sunday with us to meet one of our blind members and then a new investigator. He really seemed to be ready to be baptized and he has wanted it for a while. This week we hope to give him a date for the 28th. The last is Patrick, the man out on the oil rig right now. He will be back next week and should be right back into preparing for his baptism. We are pretty busy right now with these people and it has been great. Our ward also set another goal for baptisms from January through April, it will be 10. It's a really good goal for this ward and will force them to be involved with the missionary work. They seem excited about it though!

Other than that not too much else happened. We didn't do much for New Years, but all of Cape Coast are going to big beach parties today ha. I wish you all a Happy New Year!

 

Love,

Elder Rogers

This was our FHE last week with our Relief Society president Georgina and the kids
she takes care of in her compound. It was way fun!