February 23, 2011 {Email}

Hey! What a crazy week! Well I would just like you all to know that things are going good with Elder Yapo and this Abuakwa area. We have been going around to all of these people that I have known since i came here and for some reason Elder Yapo can get to them and they start to progress. Their is something about his character that makes them take us seriously, i don't know what it is but it works ha. We have one investigator named James who has always been stubborn since Elder Harris and I met him. He's one of those guys who tries to preach us instead of us preach him. Everytime we go there it takes a long time to teach a lesson. Anyways i took Elder Yapo there a couple of weeks ago because we had time to spare and he got to meet him. The next time we went he took over and told him how the lessons were going to go. It was sweet and worked! James has been progressing very well these past few weeks.

On Friday, we had zone conference where we got a new mission goal! The last one of having a recent convert go and do baptisms for the dead ends on the 28th. We still have 2 missionaries who have not completed, but we know with faith it will happen. Our new mission goal is to get a family sealed in the temple and to baptize a family member of a member of the church! President Sabey knows that this goal is going to be very hard especially with this Ghanaian culture, where they aren't usually civilly married, or members for over a year, or have enough money to go to the temple. It's not an easy goal but it is going to be so sweet when it is accomplished. President Sabey will go out with a bang! That's for sure. What an opportunity it is to work with the members and teach them about the blessings of the temple. I have gotten to know the members more in the past week than i did the rest of my mission.

Well, I have been having a great time here. I love serving a mission and i wouldn't trade it for anything!

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

Elder Rogers

February 14, 2011 {Email}

HELLO!

Well everything is still just chugging along here in Abuakwa! It seems like every time i think about time it seems like it just disappears! Elder Yapo and i have already been together for half a transfer. Things in the branch are going great and once again the highlight of my week is Emmanuel. We have continued teaching him since the baptism and last night we had the sweetest discussion about missionary work. He told me last sunday he was going to serve a mission, which is what they all say so i usually just say that's great! but don't think much of it. But Emmanuel is for realz about it! He purchased his new scriptures and liahona yesterday and was telling us how much studying he needed to do. He is putting all his effort into becoming a missionary and i can tell you he is going to be a great one!!! I love having discussions about missionary work because it is a reminder of why i am here and how great of a work this is! I always read my favorite scripture in D&C 18:15-16 to tell them how i feel about it. That scripture is really good and keeps me going.

Today for Valentines day, the sisters made us fried rice which was way good! They also expected us all to bring them valentines gifts??? I had forgotten it was even valentines day ha as i'm sure everyone else had except for the african missionaries of course, they are all over it! It was funny though ha. Not too much you can do for Valentines day when your on mission. Oh well haha.

I hope you all have a great day!

Love,

Elder Rogers

February 8, 2011 {Email}

What a sweet week!!! So much has happened this week that has just been great and very uplifting. This weekend we had our baptism planned for Emmanuel Addai and he, along with Elder Yapo and I were way excited for it. First we had to have the interview by our new district leader Elder Baron. When we got to his house Emmanuel pulled me aside and said he needed to talk to me small. I had no idea what about and i was kind of nervous it was going to be about the baptism and he wouldn't be ready. It wasn't though, he has recently been getting a lot of hard feelings from his grandmother that he lives with about joining our church. I guess she had told him and Juliet, his sister, that if she ever saw us there again they would be kicked out of the house :/. Wow, so I told him not to worry about it we can meet some other place. He has been staying faithful through all of this persecution from his grandmother and it has been really cool to see. Anyways we went to find a place to do the interview and wouldn't you know it we found a place to sit at a Pentecost church haha. It was pretty funny to see a baptismal interview done in another church. Everything went great!

On Saturday, baptism day, he said he had a football match at 2 and the baptism was going to be at 4 so he would get there right on time. I was a little worried about it, but i knew it would be ok because he really wanted to be baptized. We showed up at 3 to the baptism and wouldn't you know it, Emmanuel was already there ready for it to start!!! He told his team that he was going to have to miss the game for his baptism. Pretty awesome! The baptism went very well and he seemed very happy afterwards. Elder Yapo and I told him after to make sure he was at church early the next day because they will do the confirmations right at the beginning of the meeting.

In the morning i called him at 7:30 to make sure he would be there on time and he said he was already on his way!! Wow what a stud! He was to church one hour early because he knew the importance of what was going to happen. I talked to him for a while and discussed what was going to happen. I kept thinking how cool it would be to be the one to do the confirmation, but i knew it wouldn't happen because they always have ward members do it. Before the meeting started i gave the baptismal record to the branch president and he asked me if i wanted to do the confirmation!! I couldn't believe it, i said yes of course. Then when i was walking back to my seat i realized i have never done this before so as usual i got nervous about it. Everything went great! It was a neat experience to be able to confirm him a member and give him the holy ghost! An experience i will never forget!

Apart from Emmanuel, we also got another investigator to commit to baptism. His name is Frank and Elder Harris and I had been teaching him for a while and finally it clicked! Elder Yapo committed him and he should be baptized at the end of the month. Way sweet!

Things are sweet in Abuakwa, besides Elder Yapo rubbing it in that he only has 2 months left and i have.. a lot ha everything is cool!

Hope all is well back home! Love ya all!

Elder Rogers

Pictures {Saying goodbye to Elder Harris and Elder Jaggi}

4 month pizza!

Christmas at Jennifer's
{She isn't in the picture though sorry she was busy doing someone's hair}

Me and Rose's two boys, Kingsford and Maxwell.
My favorite family that we are teaching! I love those boys!

The 4 getting split up! Holmes and I stay. Jaggi and Harris are leaving.

Saying goodbye to Elder Harris at the bus station.

Us and Sister Vida, our powerful member.

Tony's baptism

January 31, 2011 {Email}

Well it has been one crazy week! First Elder Harris left Abuakwa to go to Sekondi on transfer. Things have been very different without him in the apartment and i miss him a lot. But losing your father (trainer) means that you are getting somewhere on mission. It was going to happen sooner or later. He was a sweet guy and i loved serving with him and i am very grateful i was able to be his companion. My new companions name is Elder Yapo! He is from Ivory Coast and has been on mission for 21 MONTHS! This man is dying! I was very nervous to be a companion with an African because i just didn't know how it was going to be and how i would handle it. Not only that but i am living in an apartment with three africans all from different countries. I was nervous!

After a day with them i quickly realized how cool they are and i love being around them! It's definitely different because i don't have much common things to talk about with them but i have been learning a lot about their cultures, it is really fun! Elder Yapo is sweet! He is always being sarcastic with me and it is hard to pick up on because he seems so serious all the time. He also tells me he is going to make me be in charge a lot because he is dying off slowly and he wants me to do all the learning ha. It's ok with me to get out of my comfort zone a little bit. He is really cool! Emanuel is going to be baptized on Saturday! I can't wait for that baptism it will be the best one yet. He is a solid guy! We also went back to see Jennifer. I keep thinking maybe there is something that Elder Yapo can say to her that will make her realize that she needs to be baptized. We will see how that goes.

Anyways i am having a great time here and i am actually right now sipping a nice cold Dr. Pepper :) ha i'm in heaven!!! I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Love you all! 

Elder Rogers

January 24, 2011 {Email}

Well first things first! Today was transfer day and there have been ALOT of changes in our zone! Transfers are so stressful, this time we were in the zone leaders apartment listening to the phone call! So crazy! I just kept waiting to hear mine or Elder Harris' name. There was 6 people who left and Elder Harris is one of them! I'm really depressed, it's sad to say goodbye! He is a sweet companion and it definitely will not be the same. He is going down to Sekondi to be with one of his MT's. He is way stoked and i'm happy for him he will love it down there. Well since he is gone that means i now have a new companion! His name is Elder Yapo and he is from Ivory Coast! All i have heard about him is that he is way cool and only has 3 months left on mission so I will probably end up "killing" him. Crazy stuff! My mind is all over the place. I don't even know what to think right now! It will be me, a Nigerian, a Liberian, and an Ivorian in our apartment! I've got a lot of adapting to do! It'll be fun though i'm way excited to show Elder Yapo around Abuakwa, which could be split up soon! This week we went out to Nkawie with Prosper (the mission maintenance guy) to find a new place to put a branch. We will have a new apartment for two elders in Abuakwa and then two will go to Nkawie to start up a new group! Everything is changing and i can't keep up with it all! Transfers are crazy! I just realized I have used a lot of exclamation points ha sorry i'm just freaking out right now.

As for the work, Emanuel is set to be baptized on the 5th or 6th of February. That is going to be the coolest baptism. It's too bad Elder Harris won't be here for it. We ended up dropping Jennifer this week which was very depressing. She just doesn't really have the desire anymore. She says she knows it's true but she still won't leave her church. There is nothing more we can do for her, it is all up to her now. Hopefully she will realize the importance of it someday.

Well this week has been great! I'm sad to say goodbye to Elder Harris but i'm excited to meet Elder Yapo and start working with him.

Hope all is well back home! Love you all!

Elder Rogers

January 2, 2011 {Letter}

Dear Family, 

Did that year go by fast or what? One year ago I was playing baseball in my warm sweat pants and awesome jackets. I said bye to Tyler Brooks. All that stuff seems like yesterday. 2010 was a big year for us, a lot happened. I will never forget that April 15th when we got the phone call that my mission call had arrived. That was the longest day of my life waiting for 9:00 to come. I remember being so nervous at work and everyone telling me to just go home, but I didn't want to be anywhere near that envelope until I had to be. Isn't that crazy to think before I opened it we had no idea that I would be spending the next two years in Ghana. I had no idea of what was ahead of me. It could have been anywhere, but I am so thankful it was here in Ghana. What an amazing experience it is for me to be here and to be able to share it with all of you. I have probably complained a little about it in my emails, during the phone call and letters, but I want you to know that I love it here. I hope I am doing a good job of letting you know what life is like here. Not only for me but for the amazing people that live like this every day. If it's not enough detail please let me know because I want to share this experience with you as much as I possibly can.

Tomorrow will be my 4 month mark! Time is flying. My main goal for this year is to forget myself and serve the Lord every day. It's not an easy goal but I'm going to do my best at it. That is what I'm here to do so I'm going to give it my all. I also have a goal to gain weight as usual ha :)

I hope you all can look back with me and think what a great year we had. A lot changed with me going on a mission and Kort getting engaged. It's crazy how fast we all grew up. Thank you Mom and Dad for helping us get to where we are. I love you all so much! Happy New Year! 

Love, 

Elder Zack Rogers

January 18, 2011 {Email}

Well it has been a great week for Elder Harris and I! It's amazing how fast the work can just pick up. I don't really even know what happened but suddenly we have quite a few pretty serious investigators, it's way exciting! I don't remember if i mentioned it before but we have one investigator, Emanuel Addai, with a baptismal date on the 30th and he is progressing very well. I love it when we go and teach him because he actually wants to learn more. He always asks good questions that apply to him and will help him to live the gospel to its fullest. One of the coolest things about this guy is that he wants his family to live this gospel too. He has been talking to them about it and now has them wanting to have discussions with us. So, we now have 4 investigators in one house! 3 brothers and 1 sister! It is awesome to see him wanting to share our message with his family. We are going to be very busy for a while with this family, it will be good.

This is the last week before transfer news! It is so crazy how fast this transfer has gone by. I have been in the field for 3 transfers now! I can't believe it at all. I always get very anxious for transfer news, especially now that Elder Harris and I have been together for so long. I just feel like something is bound to happen soon, I hope not, but if it does it is ok. Wherever the Lord sends me or whoever he matches me up with will be what is best for me and the mission. So next week i will have the news and i will let you all know.

Everything here has been awesome. I still find it hard to believe how much i love the food and the culture here. It happened alot faster than i thought it would! I just got done eating some amazing Fufu and i was thinking how it is going to suck when i come home and cant have fufu anymore, unless i get good at making it ha which is highly unlikely. It is by far my favorite food here. Maybe i'll figure it out and then you can all experience the goodness that i get to experience ha.

Well, thank you all for your support! Hope all is well!

Love you all,

Elder Zack Rogers

January 10, 2011 {Email}

It is crazy how much i am beginning to love this place! Africa is sweet and i think i am actually starting to fit in a little bit. Not by my looks of course ha, but by the culture and the way people communicate with eachother and the small things that they do. For example today we went to the central market and i saw a sweet yellow Barcelona jersey that i had been looking for. The guy wanted 15 cedis, but i only wanted to pay 7 because that is what everyone else gets theirs for. I guess 15 is the price for a white man or something ha? But anyways i told him 7 and after some negotiating i got it for 7!!! I was so proud of myself haha i had actually bargained like a Ghanaian. These people are sweet and i love the way that they live their lives.

This week has been a bitter-sweet week. The down part of the week was our visit to Jennifer, she told us that she was not going to be able to leave her church for another month or so. I guess her pastor is not making it easy for her at all. Her enthusiasm just wasn't there this time, it made me so depressed to see her like this after i had seen that light come into her life. We don't know what will happen but we are still going to keep trying and hope that she will be able to put her trust in the Lord to take the steps necessary to be baptized into the church that she knows is true.

We also met up with Emanuel for the first time in 2 weeks since he had traveled for the holidays. We were planning on just a regular see what was going on with him visit but it turned into him committing to baptism! I don't know where it came from but it was awesome! We have a couple other investigators that are getting close to being committed. Hopefully we can have a baptism at the end of the month! That was the ultimate highlight of the week as sportscenter would say ha.

Everything is just great! I hope everything is well with all of you back home. Have a great week!

I love you all,

Elder Zack Rogers

January 3, 2011 {Email}

Well, I now know that Ghanaians celebrate Christmas more the week after than they do before the holiday. It has been a crazy week between all of our investigators traveling and all the members inviting us to attend their end of the year get togethers. These people will make sure you come. Last week we weren't able to make it to a couple of them and they were very upset that we weren't there, it wasn't fun apologizing to them. So we tried our best to go when we were invited and i will say our relationship with the members has improved so much over the last week. Just being around them when they aren't at church makes them a lot more comfortable with us. They also made some good food for these get togethers.

All the missionaries were invited to attend the Kumasi Stake games where each branch put together teams to compete in different sports such as ping pong, basketball, volleyball, and soccer! They even let the missionaries put a team in for volleyball and soccer. We dominated the volleyball and won the championship there ha then we were watching them play basketball and saw one of the teams win it all. After they were finished they were feeling pretty confident and told us to come play against them, so it was 3 v. 3, me, elder holmes and elder jaggi. Ha we finished them 11-1, so we were basically basketball champions too! Next was soccer, which was going to be near impossible for all us white guys. I got put in as goalie :/ which i have never done. Then i found out we were only playing 10 minute halfs so it would most likely come down to penalty kicks :/. Which it did every single game! Ah talk about pressure, i didn't block a single one, but they missed target enough times each of the three games to give us the win! We won the championship in soccer too! ha we were champions in all 3 main events. It was pretty fun and they all gained some respect for us in our soccer skills.

As for our investigators, Jennifer progressed a lot this week. She basically told her pastor that she was going to leave that church and come to ours. He was not happy about it because "it would make him look bad". He is going to do all he can to keep her, but i know that Jennifer has the spirit with her and she knows she is making the right decision. It's sweet! 

I am really excited for everything to go back to normal this next week that the holiday is over. Everyone should be coming home again and we will be busy. I wish you all a happy new year! 

Love, Elder Rogers