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