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 

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

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

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