November 28, 2011 {Email}

It's so good to hear from you again and to know that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. You are right it is so much better to just savor every moment. I've been thinking about that too. This week i will only have 9 months left, crazy. It's very bitter sweet, still a lot of time but just to know it will go by so fast is scary. I just want to soak it all up.

We had a great thanksgiving. We actually made us a meal that was way good. It was all Elder Gibson's idea too. He loves to experiment with food. We decided we were going to make burritos! It really wasn't much different from what we usually eat since we just made tortillas, put some beans, rice, chicken and tomatoes on top. But it was so good! The only thing that could've made it more of a Thanksgiving would be sitting with my family and watching the NFL ha.

It's been a great week for us though. Our members are really starting to do the missionary work! We received 5 new referrals last week with more on the way tonight. We have been so blessed. The work is so much more fun and effective when the members are involved. Charlotte and Jennifer are progressing very well right now and will be baptized at the end of this week! I can't wait! It's going to be so great to be a part of a baptism again. It would be sweet if Elder Lawton could be here for it but he's up doing work in Obuasi.

Elder Gibson and I have been enjoying the area this past week and a half. Today we played some flag football on the beach with the other zone for the last time. It was a ton of fun. Even though the Africans didn't know how to play the game they were still way better than us because they are so fast! Man, it's not fair ha.

Everything is going great here! I hope you all are doing good! I love you all!

Elder Rogers

November 21, 2011 {Email}

Well, things are going great here for us. Our two baptismal candidates are progressing very well and should be ready by the 3rd to be baptized. It's so exciting to have some people that i can see changing their lives to live this gospel.

Our apartment is very different now that Elder Lawton and Elder Eke are gone. I definitely miss Elder Lawton a lot but i am still having fun. Elder Gibson is a sweet guy! He played soccer for Canyon View so he is pretty athletic. Today we were balling it up on the court with all the other guys including Elder Hair who is the new AP. It's so much fun to meet up with these guys. Starting next month we won't be able to meet up with as many missionaries on P-day like we do now. They are changing it to where we can only meet with our districts on the 2nd and 4th weeks and then on the 3rd week we get to meet together with our zone. And on the 1st week it's a "deep cleaning" p-day. It's a lot different and a lot of missionaries definitely aren't happy, but it's what we are told to do so we gotta do it. The only effect it will have on me really is not being able to play ball with Elder Smith each week, other than that it doesn't effect us much because our zone is one district anyways.

Teaching with Elder Gibson has been pretty smooth. For only being our first week it's crazy how in tune we are when we teach. I really enjoy it and i'm sure the investigators do too.

Wednesday was a crazy day sending around all the missionaries. Nothing bad happened though, thank goodness. Elder Lawton was able to stick around and help out before he went to Obuasi, which i hear is an awesome place! It's nice to have that done though, the next one will be a lot less people with only 10 new ones coming.

Not too much else has happened. The work moves on! I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving! We are still pondering about what we want to eat on that day, so much to choose from ;). haha.

Elder Rogers

November 14, 2011 {Email}

Hey good news!!! I got your small package with the pictures this week AND the box of goodies!!! Holy cow you are way too nice! Seriously it is the sweetest thing ever! Elder Lawton and I have been enjoying it so much. Eating spaghetti with real spaghetti sauce, real pancakes with real syrup and all the snacks are amazing including the REESE'S PUFFS! Thank you so much! I am also wearing the new sandals right now and they are the most comfortable thing. I think i will just wear these every day for the rest of my mission ha. Really though, thank you so much! As for the Christmas package i don't have any requests, maybe a couple new white shirts (church ones) would be nice, just a couple though. The pictures were awesome in the small package! Thank you for that! You and the family look great! It is so sweet to see my granparents again and the rest of our family. It's been a long time. I love seeing you all so happy! Kortney looked beautiful.

Ok, so on Friday night the AP's took us over to the mission home so we could see the transfer board and plan out how we are going to figure out the transportation for this biggest transfer ever!! There are 31 new missionaries coming and 8 of the zone leaders and 1 of the AP's are going home or being changed! It's crazy! We went there and saw the transfer board for the first time since my first day in the mission field! Ha it was so cool! Anyways the first thing we saw was Elder Lawton is going to Obuasi to train. Obuasi has a branch but hasn't had missionaries for a few years so he is starting it up again. He's excited about it and will enjoy there. He is training Elder Smoot from Utah. I am receiving Elder Gibson!!!! He is coming from Abuakwa and he was the one who went there when i got transferred to Asuoyeboa. I'm way excited to be with him. It's cool that i already know him before he becomes my companion. Elder Gibson is from Cedar City, UT! So now i'll have a companion that is close to home. He came in April 2010, just 3 transfers ahead of me. He will most likely finish here in Cape Coast. I'm excited to work with him since i already know he is a hard worker. Other news is Elder Baraza is going to Sekondi and his son (my grandson) Elder Orobotar is coming to be in my apartment! It'll be sweet. Elder Wheeler and his son split just like me and Elder Wright did so they are both training in Asuoyeboa.

Our area is going great too. We now have two baptismal dates for December 3rd. Jennifer and our Ward Mission Leader's girlfriend, Charlotte. Ha Charlotte still has a ways to go, but Jennifer is solid. She loves the Book of Mormon even though she can't read very well.

It's been a great week! I hope you all are doing great! Love you all!

Elder Rogers

November 7, 2011 {Email}

This week was way cool. We are having some sweet investigators right now. One woman named Jennifer has come to church 3 weeks in a row. She was brought the first time by her older sister who was baptized a few months ago. She loves the church and said it's exactly what she is looking for. Her main problem right now is getting along with her 13 year old daughter, Ruth. She is definitely in her teenage years and with Jennifer being a single mom she is really frustrated. The other day we had a long talk with them after one of their arguments and we pulled the "give each other a hug and say i'm sorry" haha they didn't want to do it at all but they finally did. I really think as she prepares for baptism they will both find that happiness.

On Sunday i think all of Cape Coast ate their Wheaties for breakfast! We had 9 investigators come to church! It was unbelievable seeing them all walk in one after the other. That hasn't happened since i've been here, it's usually one or two so we were stoked. It was also Conference Sunday so that made it even cooler. We got to watch the Saturday Afternoon session in English and then the Sunday Morning one in Twi. I didn't understand the Sunday one at all ha but the Saturday one was powerful! We need to do our FAMILY HISTORY my fellow generation! I enjoyed that entire session.

We are going to be very busy this week with zone leader council on Wednesday, splits with Yamoransa on Friday and trying to find time to teach all those people that come to church! In other words it will be another way fast week!

Love,

Elder Rogers

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