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.

March 12, 2012 {Email}

It has been a very good week! We have just been continuing to meet with all of the people that we are teaching. One thing with the work right now is that we are going to have to be a lot more patient with the investigators we have such as Jerlon, and Patrick. They are sweet guys, but they are just going to need some more time to REALLY know that this is what they need to do. I have enjoyed being around them because we haven't known what we are going to do to help them so we're just being forced to rely on the Lord to guide us. I'll be sure to let you know what is going on with these two. But this week we won't be having a baptism, we will hopefully be shooting for the 31st of March. Before i forget i have to give a shout out to my little sis, Happy 18th Birthday Kacey!!! Or are you 17 again? haha love ya! :) I can't believe Brayden, Blake and Junior are all going to be home this week! I'm way excited for them. 

This week on Saturday we will be getting transfer news and me and Elder Gibson have NO IDEA what is going to happen! The mission is going crazy right now so we could go anywhere or we could just stay put. I don't know. I'm really anxious for it though ha i don't think i will be able to keep it off my mind all that much. I have loved this area soo much. I can't see myself leaving this place so we'll see what happens. 

Elder Rogers 

March 5, 2012 {Email}

This week was another great one! We are having tons of people that are really thinking about this message and coming to church to see if it's true. We are teaching a family that owns a drinking spot. We just randomly met them one night when we were going for a follow up visit of another guy we had contacted. They said they wanted us to come so we did. The wife, Patience, has been coming to church for 4 weeks straight! The husband, Ben, came this week for the first time. We extended a baptismal date to Patience on the 31st. Ben can hopefully show more faith and repentance so he can join her. The only problem is their marriage. In Ghana it happens that people just start living together when they have children without actually being married. They have to do at least the traditional marriage which is like the bride price to be baptized. They are both wanting to get married so hopefully we can get that done before the 31st. She is a really sweet, quiet lady that just loves the church.

Enoch was sustained as our new ward mission leader this week. It's going to be awesome to work with him in the missionary work. Joel and Benjamin, two recent converts, blessed the sacrament on sunday! They did great too.

The work is just great here! I'm a little full right now from the powerful lunch we had with my MT's. We made some Chicken, rice and bean burritos! It was sooo good! Just like cafe' rio I swear!

Well, it's crazy to hear that all my friends are getting home soon. They have been such great examples for me to follow. Wish i could be there to welcome them but that time will just have to wait another 6 months when they can welcome me home. Crazy how fast time flies!

Enoch and his sister Veronica

Me and my MT's at the mission tour 

 Today eating my 18 month celebration meal

February 27, 2012 {Email}

The baptism went great! Veronica and Joel are very happy. Enoch was the one who baptized Veronica (his sister). It was a funny, but awesome thing to watch. Enoch is making me so excited! He is always willing to come around with us to teach people and to fellowship them when they are coming for the first time. Right now, we have a good 3 or 4 people that are very interested so we will see how that goes! At the beginning of the year our ward set a goal to baptize 10 people by April 30(Elder Gibson's "death" day ha) and already the ward has gotten 9 and we are only half way through! It's been so much fun to be a part of the success that the Lord has brought to this area. That is 9 more people under the covenant of baptism! So awesome! 

Yesterday we had a mission tour with Elder Dickson! It was a neat experience to meet a general authority. He is the africa west area president. Having these conferences with such powerful leaders gets me so excited to get out and do the work! It makes me want to give it an extra push each day. The main things that we discussed was sharing the gospel with everyone and working in unity with your companion. Both things that are great things that we always need to be improving on. I was also privileged to have an interview with Elder Dickson, so i was just excited the whole day ha. 

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

Elder Rogers

February 20, 2012 {Email}

Well, we have a baptism coming this week for Veronica (Enoch's sister) and Joel (a members step son) who is 16. It's going to be a great week! We also have ANOTHER man who has a baptismal date for the 17th of March (Kacey's B-day). His name is Jerlon and he had heard small about the church before when he was in Swedru so he was really quick to commit. It was cool cause Enoch was there when we taught about the BOM and he asked to be baptized. Enoch loves to go around with us and teach people. It's been a lot of fun having all of these solid recent converts.

We heard the official news on Wednesday at zone leader council that our mission will be splitting. It was kind of depressing to hear even though we all knew it was coming. It will be great for Ghana. Now we can focus more on each area and Kumasi can continue to spread North! Signs of the times ha. 

About our apartment and our area. It's not too different then Asuoyeboa. Since we are in a town we tend to stay a lot cleaner because we walk mostly on paved roads. Every thing with lizards and cockroaches, mosquitoes is about the same always wherever you go. I definitely enjoy the breeze here a lot more. Our food isn't too different either. I still am eating pancakes, rice and stew, fried rice, and of course plenty of fufu and banku. The thing about this place is they love fish way more than chicken! It's taken some adjusting but i'm loving smoked fish now. Thank goodness for that big ol' ocean by me to provide our meals. I don't really know how to explain my surroundings to ya since it's all normal to me. Sorry i tried.

Well, I don't have too much time today but i got a couple pics attached that you might like. I touched a crocodile today!!!

I hope you have a great week! Love ya!

Elder Rogers

I am very proud of my photography! ;) notice the croc in the background.

Elder Randall and me

February 13, 2012 {Email}

This week was a great one! The baptism went perfect for Ama and Mary! Elder Gibson had the opportunity to do it this time so that was pretty cool. One of my favorite parts of the week was on Sunday. Enoch had been really sick with malaria but he still said he would make it to church. Well, church begins and still he is not there. About ten minutes later he walks in with his white shirt and tie on looking fresh with a big smile on his face. After the service we asked him what happened and he said their power was out at his house so he couldn't iron his white shirt so he had to run to the market to buy a new one! Haha yeah i thought that was pretty awesome! he was breaking the sabbath to keep the sabbath i guess ha. But he is really solid. Bishop Essien has been doing a great job of retaining these recent converts. I'm really excited for all of them.

I also got a call from Elder Wheeler the other night. He has been transferred to Atonsu, where Elder Smith was when he continued teaching Edmond and Judith. Edmond was baptized a few months ago but we all knew that. So Elder Wheeler says, "You'll never guess who i just did a baptismal interview for!" I couldn't think of it. Then he said, "JUDITH!" I was so happy! She was baptized yesterday so now the both of them are baptized. It definitely took some time, like 8 months but they've made it :) I am so happy for that family!

We are still working with Millicent and Veronica for the 25th. Not so sure Millicent will be ready by that date but we are moving forward for it! She is loving the church! She says she will never miss a week. Last night she took us to meet her parents (gave us a referral), i'm really enjoying teaching her and also trying to help her husband, Emmanuel. He is coming small small. Still has a long ways to go.

Well, everything is great! Love you all!

Elder Rogers

 Baptism for Ama and Mary (mother and daughter!)

Elder Slade and me before he went to Kamasi.

Me, Elder Gibson and Patrick before he left to sea.

February 6, 2012 {Email}

I am staying another transfer here with Elder Gibson! I'm so excited to stay here to see this work continue to progress. We also just got done saying goodbye to Elder Lawton. It's crazy i probably will never see him again since he is in Australia. He is way excited to go back to his family. Only 7 more months :)  

This week was great! We had the baptism for Enoch and all went well. I got to do it this time and it is such a sweet experience to be the one performing the ordinance, the spirit is so much stronger. Enoch was so happy that day, he brought his mother and sister too. His sister Veronica will be baptized on the 25th! We have also been teaching Emmanuel's wife and they have been coming to church. She, Millicent, has accepted to be baptized as well! She loves the church. She is pregnant and we have been doing chores for her like every other day the past month. She comes to church, loves the teachings, studies them through the week and she is really praying for Emmanuel to overcome his addiction. He is doing better but is still falling from time to time. It will come, bishop is helping a lot now too. We will give her the date tomorrow and it should also be the 25th. It is starting to look like Emmanuel will also have to be baptized again because we are having no luck in finding his records since it has been so long. 

Things are moving so fast here it is crazy! Plus we have transfers to do this week, AHHH! I'm going crazy. I love it though. I'm way happy i get at least one more transfer here. OH, Elder Wheeler has been transferred to Atonsu, which is where Edmond and Judith moved to so he will get to see them again. Other than that i don't know what else to say, my mind is kind of all over the place right now. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Rogers

Enoch's baptism

Saying goodbye to Elder Lawton