December 26, 2011 {Email}

Christmas Eve we had fun going to a stake devotional and going around and singing to our members. We probably didn't sound very good since it was just me and Elder Gibson but we had fun and the members enjoyed it. That was a sweet experience.

We are excited for this next week of transfers. Nothing really happened in our zone except we are adding two more in the assistants area. Elder Reid from Colorado will train there so it will be sweet to get to know him better. On Wednesday me and Elder Gibson will have to take care of the transfer, scary! I hope we can do it without Elder Lawton ha who actually only has to wash his clothes by hand four more times in his life! Crazy! But i hope everyone has a great Holiday season and a Happy New Year!

Love,

Elder Rogers

My sweet new basketball shoes that I've wanted forever! I used them today and they worked PERFECTLY! Such a good Christmas present, thank you me :)

December 19, 2011 {Email}

This week was a good week. The Christmas spirit definitely is here in Ghana. Everyone gets excited for it, but its cool because it's more because of the real purpose of Christmas, to remember Christ, instead of for gifts. That is something i have always had a problem with. I always get so caught up in the gifts and not really focusing on the true meaning. Hopefully that is something i can take home with me from being here in Ghana. These people really have their priorities right, and i think they still would if they had all that we had back in America. they are just great people.

This week we have been focusing on helping one of our long lost members overcome an addiction to alcohol. He was baptized ten years ago and stopped coming to church about 9 years ago. He is like the most popular police man in Cape Coast since he is around 6'7" tall and HUGE around the waist. ha but he is the most friendly guy i have ever met. he stopped us one day and said i have a problem and i want to stop and i want to be baptized again. So we have been trying to help him. It's definitely out of our normal routine, but it has been good. He is not having much success right now. The good part was he chose to come to church this week where he really enjoyed it! I hope that will help him to get a little more strength.

Everything else is moving right along. Patrick has gone off to his oil platform at sea so the countdown is on for him to come back. Only 3 more weeks! We had our Christmas party this week and got to watch Forever Strong. It was really sweet. President and Sister Shulz do so much for us, they are amazing! I can't believe it's already Christmas again, so crazy!!

Elder Rogers

Jennifer, Charlotte and Paa Kwesi's Baptism

Christmas Dinner

December 12, 2011 {Email}

This week was another good one. Our ward had a big change happen to them. Three of our powerful young adults went on mission! Two of them are going to Port Harcourt, Nigeria and the other a sister is going to Calabar, Nigeria. It was really cool to see them go and to see the support the ward gave them as they went. They're enjoying the MTC right now with that huge food! These missionaries were powerful in our ward, could possibly say three of the strongest members we have so it won't be easy to replace them in their callings which were institute instructor, ward clerk and sunday school teacher. Our bishop is kind of stressing right now ha. I'm way excited for them. Going on mission will help them so much and their families too.

We have a new powerful investigator named Patrick! He was a member referral that we got at the end of last week and we have only had three lessons with him but we are already through the Book of Mormon, Plan of Salvation and he came to church yesterday. POWERFUL! To top it off he has a baptismal date for next month on the 28th of January. The reason for being so long is because he is a chef on a big oil rig that goes out to see every four weeks and will continue going on four week cycles. So he will be gone for a month then back for a month. He will be baptized when he gets back! He is awesome and knows it is all true. He first learned about the church at his work from a family in Ephraim, Utah.

That is our joy right now! We are still working and hope to have one more baptism before the end of the year.

I hope all is well back home and everyone is freezing cold haha sorry! Love ya all!

Elder Rogers

December 5, 2011 {Email}

This week was awesome! It went just as planned with the baptism and all. Jennifer and Charlotte were both baptized on Saturday then confirmed on Sunday. The coolest thing was Charlotte is dating our ward mission leader Paa Kwesi and he was the one who referred her to us before he was even dating her. So they have progressed a lot in their relationship even getting closer to being married. She didn't join for him though, she did it because she knew it was true. I've really enjoyed the time we've had to teach her and see her learn more. At the baptism we had Paa Kwesi do the baptizing and they both had the biggest smiles on their faces during the ordinance. It was powerful! Paa Kwesi doesn't like to show his emotions much so of course he was trying to hide the smile and look serious the whole time, but we caught him smiling ha. He also confirmed her on Sunday. This guy just had the most rewarding week of his life! On Friday he went to the temple to be Endowed then Saturday he baptizes his girlfriend and Sunday confirms her. Can't think of a better week than that!

We have a couple people that we are preparing for baptism on the 25th but they both live in a different ward but work here in our area. It has been really fun to be the ones to teach them and then know they go to church at the other place.

Today Elder Gibson and I had an opportunity to do some service. One of our investigators has been helping a Health Service place to go around and hang free mosquito nets over peoples beds in every house. We were able to help them do it for a few hours. It was way fun! Going in and just seeing these people so happy to receive these nets so they can stop sleeping with mosquitos all night. Really humbling experience. Well, we are looking forward to another sweet week!

Elder Rogers

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