October 31, 2011 {Email}

Before i start anything i would like to wish everyone a Happy Halloween and more importantly my Grandma Bullock a Happy Birthday!!! I love you Grandma!

This week was a crazy one. We had a lot of meetings to go to including a sweet interview we each had with President Shulz. They came around to each apartment to check them and to meet with each of us. So the day before he told us to take the whole day and do a deep cleaning. WOW! I don't think i have been that exhausted in a long time. It did take ALL day too! But our apartment is very clean and it feels a lot better.

Right now we have two really solid investigators. They are both older women and one of them has two little children with her. The reason they are solid is because they are both referrals from members and the members are continually helping them, whether it's going and reading the pamphlet with them when we aren't there or they are helping them come to church. They are both having a great experience learning about the church. I'm so proud of the members for how they are working.

Speaking of working with the members. Yesterday all the missionaries taught the 3rd hour of church in their wards. It was 5th sunday so everyone was in the sacrament hall. It was a great opportunity for us to help them see what they can do as members to get the missionary work going. I pray that they understood and will act upon it. If they do then the Cape Coast 1st ward is going to be strong very soon!

Some good news! Elder Smith told me that Edmond and Judith up in Kumasi have been going to church the past two weeks and will be baptized soon!!! I guess Edmond quit his job and since then he has been going to the church. He is powerful! I'm so happy for their family.

Love,

Elder Rogers

October 24, 2011 {Email}

This week was another good one. We have had a lot of new investigators that seem very interested in the gospel. Almost all of these people are referrals from members! The investigators are always more serious when they have friends who want them to hear the message. We've just been happy that the members are starting to see the joy that comes from doing missionary work. Our bishop's referral walked into church during the sacrament yesterday and bishop had a huge smile on his face when he saw him. The joy that comes when you see someone trying to know if it's true is sweet!

We had a conference this week in which Elder Gavarret from the Seventy came. All 6 of the southern zones came and met in Cape Coast for the event. It was quite an experience to meet a general authority and shake his hand. The part that didn't go so great was trying to understand his accent! Him and his wife are from Uruguay so they had a very strong spanish accent. I don't know if any of the Africans understood much because of it and even us Americans had a hard time picking everything. It was neat to see someone of such great authority from the other side of the world coming to Ghana though!

Our mission is now starting to focus on using the Book of Mormon more effectively in the work. It's something that i think all of us need to work on. Being in Ghana we meet alot of people that cant read very well so we won't focus on the Book of Mormon as we should. In the conference we talked about how no one can be truly converted unless they know the book is true. So we need to do all we can to help our people to know it is true! We still don't know how we will do that with the illiterate but we'll figure it out. Goes to show how important the Book of Mormon is to the world.

Everything else is going great! Except today i had a terribly off day on the court! Every shot was in and out, i couldn't make a shot if my life depended on it. Just gotta put today in the past and prepare for next weeks game. I will do better!

Love,

Elder Rogers

October 17, 2011 {Email}

This week was just as great as the last one. We have a lot of people that we are teaching in our area that are progressing very well. The funny thing is a few of the most serious ones don't live in our area. Since we proselyte in town we meet a lot of people that work here but live somewhere else. We keep teaching them because they are here all day and are rarely at home, but we invite them to attend the church where their house is. It's been fun to be a help to other wards and branches. As for our family we are teaching, we didn't get to have a visit with the entire family since Justice travelled to Accra. What was sweet was the two younger boys came to church on their own will! They are so powerful. In church they sat their extremely reverent during all three hours. I've never seen such smart, polite and well behaved young boys. Now we just need the parents to join them and i'll be the happiest man in the world. Sweet family!

We also went on splits this week with the Abakrampa Elders. I stayed in Abakrampa with Elder Awatey. The place is a VILLAGE!!! Ha it was so much fun, but kind of hard for missionaries that can't speak the Twi. They always have to call a ghanaian to serve there because of it. So the whole day i didn't really understand much of what anyone was saying. The place was awesome though!

Today for P-day we got our sight seeing done! First we went to the Kakum National Park to walk on the ropes up in the trees! It was sooooo scary! And it didn't help that all the other guys knew i was nervous so they would shake it as we walked across haha those jerks. It sucks being afraid of heights, but it was way fun and felt great when i finished the last one. I never thought i would be able to do something as cool as that. We were like 40 meters above the ground walking next to the top of the trees.

Then we went to Hans Cottage! This place is where they have a lot of crocodiles that are somehow tamed so we can walk right out to them. That was intense being so close to a vicious animal and not being attacked ha i kept waiting for it to just snap me in half. It was a way fun p-day!

Everything is going great here in the mission. On Friday we are having a member of the first quorom of the seventy, Elder Gavarett, come visit us. I'm way excited for that!

Elder Rogers

October 10, 2011 {Email}

Well, this week was a sweet week! We have found a new family that i love just like all the other families i have talked about. Their names are Justice and Efua, their children, Victor (17), Stanley (10), and Kelvin (6). They are strong Methodists and live right behind the big Methodist church. We met them through other missionaries that were teaching Victor in our area, so they gave him to us. He has gone to school, but we met his family! They are all very smart and they seem to have enjoyed the message a lot. On Saturday night we had a really cool lesson about Families. Sister Efua really enjoyed it and wants to start trying the things we suggested so that their home can have more happiness. We haven't gotten to far yet into the message, but they know the direction we are going and all say they are willing to learn and find out if it's true. We look forward to teaching them this next week!

The past 3 days Cape Coast hosted a huge Muslim convention right down at the Victoria Park. It was awesome seeing thousands of Muslims walking around and doing their prayers and stuff. Their religion is definitely different but i respect them greatly for their devotion to it. All of them are strong in their faith. We went and walked around it and noticed they were selling Muslim clothing! Ha me and Elder Lawton are looking pretty good in our long Muslim gowns! It was a cool experience.

The work has been moving along nicely. This week was good for us to see some progression in our investigators and we even received two referrals! I'm excited for the next week to come. I also am very depressed about the Yankees losing! But hey, they can't win them all right? Next year baby!! 

Love,

Elder Rogers

October 3, 2011 {Email}

Wasn't this week just one of the greatest weeks? I think when all of you are having a great week i am also having a great week. I'm so glad you got to meet Elder Lehr and Elder Wright. ha that's funny how you recognized Lehr by his tie. Both those guys i was really close with and i miss them a ton. I hope you enjoy all the stuff. And i'm so glad the pictures made it there safely again, we have been so blessed so far with that.

Well, Elder Lawton and I just came back from the mission home saying good bye to all the missionaries that are going. So many people that i have grown to love and just feel like they are my best friends. It's so crazy to see them go and it once again hits me that mission will one day come to an end. They all said it is bitter sweet. ELDER HARRIS came early with Elder Holmes so they could find some last minute souveniers so i got to walk around town with them all day! It was awesome to see him again since it has been like 8 months! He is still the same guy that i loved being around. I was sad to say goodbye to them but i'm sure i will see them again.

Also, transfer news came this week! Elder Lawton and I are staying, sweet! The coolest thing is that Elder Smith is coming to Abura, the other zone in Cape Coast, to be a zone leader! So I will get to see him all the time again and find out what happened to Edmond and Judith! I'm excited to be around him again.

The work is moving right along. We had three more people come to church this week along with Selena again! We found out that Selena has some problems with being married to a man that actually has another wife so we can't baptize her unless she divorces :(. We haven't told her that yet since we've been taking it slow, but we're going to have to let her know soon. It's too bad because she loves the church. We'll see what happens and of course hope for the best. The other three really enjoyed the church and say they will keep coming. It was a good week for us with meeting new people that are interested.

The whole weekend i kept thinking about how sweet it is that a prophet of the Lord was speaking to the rest of the world at the same time we were here. I can't wait to hear or read the messages from General Conference. We should get them next month. I'm way jealous that my family got to go there!

Well, this week is transfers and we have 18 new missionaries coming and i heard one is from St. George so that's cool. We will be busy as usual ha. Have a great week! Go Yankees!

Elder Rogers

Our family ran into Elder Lehr after the Saturday morning session of Conference. Good thing Dad and Kyle were sporting their Ghana ties like Elder Lehr so they could make the connection!

We were lucky enough to meet Elder Wright and got to talk to him for a while and pick up a bunch of stuff that Zack sent home with him.

September 26, 2011 {Email}

This week was great! The work is really coming along here in our area. We had two members that gave us referrals so that was a good start. I think as we keep encouraging it the members will see and follow the examples of the members who are trying. I hope so. Ghana is the perfect place for members to share the gospel. Everyone lives together in family compounds and they all know each other. It's like a big campground. As you walk around, all the neighbors will be outside cooking and pounding fufu. At any time they can share it and also for us it's a great place to just mingle with the people and offer them chances to meet with us and come to church.

We actually have gotten a couple more serious investigators! We met a girl at a less active boys house as we were trying to get him excited about church. She was kind of listening as we talked and then we asked her if she liked what she was hearing and she said yes so we set up a time to come back and meet with them both again. The next lesson was about baptism and how there can only be one true church. She really enjoyed and was interested in why we say these things. We gave her the only pamphlet that we had left which was the Gospel of Jesus Christ (we usually give the Restoration the first time). The next time we came back she had read the whole thing and recited what she learned about as good as i have ever seen anyone do it. She was powerful. The next time we met she had read the entire Restoration! We haven't discussed all the way through yet but she loved it. The cool thing about her is she is like 19 years old and looks a little like a punky girl ha. But she is very cool and ready to listen to the gospel! Her name is Auntie Esi by the way. We are hoping she comes to church this week. Also Selena continues to come to church!!!

We had a tight p-day today. All of the Assin Fosu zone came down to play basketball and American football on the beach. It was so much fun and i gotta be around Elder Holmes and Elder Jaggi again so that was sweet to catch up on things with them. I don't think i'm ever going to be normal about being right next to the ocean all the time. Today i just kept looking out there as we were talking, just thinking how amazing this world is. The ocean is so awesome!

OH! Another thing! This week we made Gorilla Poop cookies!!! (No Bake Cookies) Oh my gosh they were so stinking good! I can't imagine being at home and having them all the time! I'm so jealous of all of you that you just have them in stock by the fridge all the time! "LUCKY!" (Napolean Dynamites voice) ;) ha have a great week everyone!!

Elder Rogers

September 19, 2011 {Email}

First, i will definitely see Elder Harris when he comes to the mission home and i will see Vanchiere and holmes since they are a part of this huge group! This next transfer i think we are getting like 19 missionaries and the one after that is like 29! Crazy! Our mission is going to be so young, i don't even know what to think. Every missionary will be training or holding a leadership position i swear. The weather here is perfect for me. We have been around the mission home alot this week helping out with one of the missionaries in our zone so we have been experiencing "air conditioning". Yeah A/C! Ha the funny part is we all suffer with it. It's too cold and every time we go outside or leave the room i am relieved to feel the warm, humid air ha. Who woulda thunk that? I seriously would prefer no a/c now, it's crazy! I have no idea how all of you survive with it all day every day. I think i might die because of too much a/c when i get back. Anyways last night we had a pretty long day doing some things and at the end of the day Sister Shulz insisted that we allow her to cook us a dinner ha. She did and it was amazing!!! We had a spaghetti dinner with some green beans, carrots, pineapple, and bread. It was so good! It was also cool to sit around the table with a bunch of people like it was a family dinner. President and Sister Shulz are the coolest people! They seriously love being here and being with the missionaries.

As for the work, Selena came to church again! She is powerful! We will have to see how much she can progress with the lessons this week so we can know when to set a baptismal date. All of our other investigators are still in the early stages, not too much progression but we hope they will come around soon. We also hope this new ward mission plan we have to baptize 10 people into our ward before the end of the year will bring some referrals. Referrals are the best way for the work to be effective, so we are praying that it will happen. We'll see! Anyways it was a cool week here in Cape, hope all is well back there! 

Elder Rogers

September 12, 2011 {Email}

Well this week was awesome! Time is just going by way too fast. Elder Harris and all of his mt's will be leaving in like 3 weeks! It's so crazy! I don't even know what to think. Well as for Cape Coast, Elder Lawton and I are doing our best to find people that are ready for this message but it hasn't been as easy as we both had it in Kumasi. So our most serious person right now is from... KUMASI! Yeah ha she is awesome. Her husband weaves kente right across from the castle and we were referred to him a couple weeks ago. He has some problems and isn't quite ready to act on the message right now. As we met with him though his wife came and she enjoyed the message and said she would come to church. They both speak very small English and a lot of Twi. It's fun to have someone speak Twi since i don't hear the Fante at all ha. Anyways, Selena, the name of the wife has come to church the last two weeks! She enjoys it so much and says she will come every week as long as she is here. I don't know when they will go back to Kumasi, but i hope it's a long time away. She has been just a joy at church. She brings her 1 year old boy Junior as well and he loves it too. Always running around the Chapel with the other kids.

Our mission president has an awesome focus right now for the mission. He met with the stake president's and bishops this last week and told them how important it is for the missionary effort to be a combined effort from the members and the missionaries. As missionaries it is so hard for us to find people who will keep committments. Everyone is willing to listen but not really ready to keep commitments. If the members are involved they can introduce us to people who they know are ready to listen and keep commitments. Every ward had this introduced to them on sunday and by the end of this week each ward should have a goal of how many baptisms they will get by the end of the year. I'm so excited for it and how it will allow us to work more closely with the members. This could change the church in our mission. We could see some serious growth if the members do what they say they will do. It's an awesome view and direction that President Shulz has brought to this mission.
Everything is going great as you can tell. Today i had the best hamburger in Ghana! Elder Holmes came down from Assin Fosu, so that was way cool to see him again. I hope all is well back home. I love you all!

Elder Rogers

August 29, 2011 {Email}

Hey! Yeah, a lot has changed for me in the last week, but it is all good. I have learned that we need to change in our life to keep moving forward. I was really comfortable in Asuoyeboa and probably would've stayed there the rest of my mission if i had the choice. But coming to Cape Coast is such a sweet and new experience. Elder Harris was right about me being a zone leader. It's definitely something new for me and will be a challenge but i think just like anything else we are called to do, i will get the hang of it as time goes. The area that me and Elder Lawton serve in is right in Cape Coast town. So as we walk around we walk right by the Cape Coast castle and all the big boats they use for fishing. It's pretty neat to be in this beautiful place. Of course there is a lot of tourists so it's always strange to see and obroni (white person) walking around ha i'm definitely not used to that. The food here is a little different. Fufu is not near as big and they make it with one person. They hold a small pounding stick while sitting and they drive and pound at the same time by themselves. So i will miss pounding fufu for all the people. For us missionaries we eat basically the same thing as everywhere else we serve. The big difference between here and Kumasi has to be the weather. The humidity is off the roof! Holy cow, luckily we have a nice sea breeze through most of the day or i would suffer. When it's not there i just turn into a waterfall of sweat haha jk it's not that bad, but still it's not nice either. At night i don't have to use a fan because our apartment is on a hill like a mile off the shore so we get an awesome breeze coming through our windows. I even get cold at night. Elder Lawton is doing something i never imagined, sleeping with a hoodie on ha it's crazy! It is also way neat to be so close to President and Sister Shulz. We probably will see them a couple times a week. It's been great to get to know them better, they are awesome people! Cape Coast is actually made up of 3 wards, we are in the 1st ward and we all worship in one building so we have a block schedule. Next week we start worshipping at 2 o'clock! The members in the ward have been there for long since the church did start in Cape Coast so many of them were part of the pioneering of the church in Ghana. It's pretty neat to see these people. It's been a very different experience and i'm looking forward to becoming more acquainted with this place. I can't wait to gain that love i had for the Asuoyeboa people for these people in Cape Coast.
 

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Rogers

August 22, 2011 {Email}

Well, I had to say goodbye to a lot more people than just Elder Wright this week. On Saturday night i received a phone call from President Shulz that i was being transferred. Usually calls don't come on Saturday so i was confused. He told me that i would be going to Cape Coast. I was immediately sad because i knew i would be leaving Kumasi and Elder Baraza and the amazing Asuoyeboa ward. I'm way glad they called on Saturday though because i got to join Elder Wright with giving a farewell testimony in church the next day. It was so good to be able to say good bye to them all. Leaving Asuoyeboa felt like leaving home all over again. It was the first time i have seen Ghanaians cry in church. I have gotten so close to all of them! I will always remember the friendships i gained there. 

We had a sweet baptism too, where our recent convert Okian baptized the remaining members of his family, his wife and 8 year old son. It was awesome! After the baptism we went to Bantama to meet up with Elder Wrights MT's so they could be taken to Cape by the AP's. Our mission is going to be so strange without them. It is a sad week for all of us, but we will get new ones soon. As for me, i hopped on that tro tro with all these MT's and made my way down to Cape Coast on Sunday afternoon. What an experience that was to listen to all those guys reflect on their missions. Cape Coast is sweet though! I got here last night with Elder Wright and his MT's. What a sweet place this is! I will get to know a lot of the missionaries here pretty well. I'm in a whole new world and can't find my way around at all ha. It will be fun though. My companion is Elder Lawton. He is from Australia and is 18 months on mission. I could possibly kill him since we will both be here for a while. Who knows! This guy is tight! He was trained by Elder Wright too. This morning i woke up and saw the Ocean outside our window! Then we went to play basketball on the beach. It is so sweet! Elder Lawton and I will be very busy this next week with transfers and stuff and i'm way excited to learn from and be with this guy for a while.

Elder Wheeler and Elder Baraza are both going to be training in Asuoyeboa! It's crazy. The total age of all 4 of the missionaries there will be 7 months ha. They should do great though! Big changes in the Cape Coast mission. It's exciting. I miss the Asuoyeboa people so much, but i know i will meet some sweet people here in Cape. It was Elder Wright's old area so he told me of some people. It's way neat that i will be proselyting next to the beach ha i never thought i would.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Rogers