March 28, 2011 {Email}

This week was really good! It started off with Juliet suddenly becoming very excited about our message. She even came to church when she was sick yesterday. It was awesome. She is slowly starting to allow herself to go with what she knows is true. I'm very excited for her. Our two baptismal candidates John and Charles weren't able to come to church this week so we are postponing the baptism again. I think that is good because maybe if all goes well Juliet could join them!

We also met the coolest little boy this week! His name is Phillip and is only 13 years old. He came to church by himself after we had invited him and some other people around him. After the service he was saying how happy he felt in the church and he wanted to be baptized and become a teacher. Ha it was so cool . He is really smart too! He memorized our phone number we gave him within a day. He's like a boy genius i swear. After teaching him a couple discussions he came to church the next week but this time he brought his whole family! It was the coolest thing! They all loved it too. Elder Yapo and I made it a goal to baptize a family before he went home. It would be hard to baptize them that quick and everything would have to go nearly perfect, but it could happen! I'm really excited about this family!

Today we finally played full-pitch football again! We had President Sabey doing the refereeing so that made it fun and fair. I'm still not getting any better but i'm trying ha. It's a good thing all i do is play defense so i can rely small on my basketball instincts. That is my only chance ha. It felt good to finally run around again and try to burn off some of my newly acquired fufu belly ha. I wish we could do that more often!

Well it's been great here in Abuakwa. Elder Yapo's days are dwindling very quickly and it is sad. I will miss him a lot. It's been really fun to work hard with him and to learn from him. 

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

Elder Rogers

March 21, 2011 {Email}

This week has been pretty fun. This greenie Elder Japhet is really something ha. He has been waking up every morning at 4;30! I don't know why, but he is pretty loud and always turns on the light right outside my room so it's right in my eye. Ha I guess he just really wants to get the day going fast fast. Tonight i am going to put some duct tape on the light switch and write do not turn on until 6:30! Ha 6:30 is early enough, I can't be waking up at 4:30 every day or i will not make it ha. I have had the opportunity to go and teach with him a little this week since Elder Yapo wasn't feeling too well. This guy has so much energy! He just wants to walk and walk and walk some more ha it's sweet to see that energy. Sometimes i would get worn out so I would have to say slow down big guy ha. I have been introducing him to what it's like to walk with an "obroni" (white man) ha it was shock to him at first when i got attacked by twenty little kids. He got used to it though and thinks its pretty fun, which it is. I love the little kids!

Every night this week there has been huge thunder and lightning (kacey, the thunder LOOKS so cool! haha love ya sis) but really i could watch that all night, the lightning is more powerful than i have ever seen.
Another thing i have been doing is trying to learn the Twi language. In my studies i have been trying to read the book of mormon in Twi. It's not easy but i can see it helping me small small. It's been quite a frustrating but fun thing to do. I hear that is how everyone else learns their languages on mission so i thought i would give it a try. We'll see how it goes.

The work has been going great too. Elder Japhet really helped us this week with some of our progressing investigators. Charles will probably be baptized on the 2nd as well as John who has been preparing for a long time. We are still working really hard with Juliet, when i see her i just want so badly for her to overcome her challenges and do what she knows is the right thing.

Today for p-day we went to one of our members house and guess what i did??? I mowed the lawn!!! Yeah, ha i thought i wouldn't have to do that for two years, but that thought was spoiled today. It was actually really fun to do it again and of course i made it look like a baseball field. They do tend to let the lawn grow a little too much but we were able to get'r'done! After we had some amazing fufu with some light soup so right now my belly is very satisfied!! Gotta love Ghana! Have a great week everyone!

Elder Rogers

March 14, 2011 {Email}

It has been another great week in Abuakwa! We added a new face to the apartment, his name is Elder Japhet. He is also Nigerian, just like Elder Mbong who left. So same situation for another transfer. It is really sweet to be living with these guys! Elder Japhet has that amazing greenie spirit and loves the work. It is cool that he is on mission, this guy is 25 years old and was baptized in 2009. Yeah, he is basically a recent convert but you wouldn't know it if you didn't ask him about it. Pretty inspiring to see what a strong testimony this guy has.

Our mission acquired 11 new missionaries Wednesday. All of them are African, 4 of them were supposed to go to Ivory Coast but came here because of the problems there. Our mission will be very young within the next few months. The work has been great. We got a lot of member referrals this week. There are 3 girls that are sisters that are really fun to go and teach. Their names are Diana, Juliet and Gifty, all around the age of 25. They are so smart and they really put us to the test with some questions about the principles we teach them. They enjoy our discussions though and are progressing very well. I heard this week about the tsunami in Japan. I'm very relieved to hear all the missionaries are ok because i was extremely worried about my good friend Elder Ovard. The Lord really protects his missionaries. They are all in my prayers as i'm sure they are in yours. 

I love you all so much!

Elder Rogers

March 7, 2011 {Email}

Well, looks like its one more transfer in ABUAKWA!!! We just got transfer news today and Elder Yapo and I are still together and i'm stoked! Everything has been going great for us lately and it will be neat to be with him when he finishes his mission. We do have a change in the apartment though, Elder Mbong is going down to Cape Coast and now Elder Marsan will be training a greenie haha. Its going to be fun to be around someone that is younger than me on mission, i haven't been able to experience that yet. We don't know who it is or where they are from yet, chances are its another African since there is only one new American coming. Who knows though!

This week was great for work! FINALLY Juliet came to church! I was so excited when i saw her walking towards the meeting house with Emanuel. We have been working on this girl for like 3 or 4 months now and she kept making excuses not to come, but she also kept saying how everything we have taught is true. But she came finally, ha and i'm pretty sure she liked it. Hopefully she will continue to come so she can be baptized before Elder Yapo leaves.

So today at P-day i basically made a big fool of myself. We were playing football and everything was going great, i even had an assist! But after that assist, when i was on Cloud 9, they kicked the ball towards our goal and i saw it late so i went to kick and ended up kicking it right in our goal.... Yeah, just when i think i'm getting good at this game it knocks me flat on my face again ha. It's not easy though.

I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Rogers

February 28, 2011 {Email}

Another good week!

Everything has been going really good for us and also time is flying! Next monday is already transfer news. It seems like Elder Yapo just got here and all of the sudden he only has one more transfer to go home. He has been pretty nervous about going home with all of the trouble going on in Ivory Coast and mostly his hometown. I can't imagine what is going on in his mind right now. It's not easy thats for sure. Today i heard that we now have acquired 3 new missionaries from the Ivory Coast mission. It's getting that bad there that they have had to ship them out. It's too bad. Why can't all of Africa be peaceful like Ghana! I'm very thankful that i am in this country, what a blessing to be able to serve with these people in Ghana!

This week we were able to get a baptismal date out of Charles! He his the father of one of the families we are teaching. We were planning on doing it this week and then working on the wife because she is not so interested but he didn't come to church so we will have to postpone it. I think it will be better because we should get a couple others to join him and hopefully the wife so we can baptize a family! This week we were expecting Juliet (Emanuel's sister) to come to church but once again she wasn't able to come... I guess her grandmother isn't going to let her come as easily as she allowed Emanuel to come. It's ok though, i know it will all work out as long as her desires are to come! As for Jennifer, we have been trying to find her! Everytime we go to her place she is not there and her phone is always off. We will continue to try and try again. Hopefully this week we will see her!

Well, this week marks my 6 month mark! not that i'm counting or anything haha jk i think every missionary counts! ;) crazy how fast it has gone so far!

Hope everything is well back home! Also i hope the Jazz will be able to do well with their new team :) AND GO BYU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Haha love ya all!

Elder Rogers

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