April 26, 2011 {Email}

This week was amazing! There's not a better way to spend Easter than to have a baptism. The coolest thing was as we were preparing brother okian for the baptism, we noticed that his children were old enough to be baptized too. They had been sitting in on all of the lessons, but didn't really understand it because of the English. We asked Okian to teach them everything and then they could be baptized too. He was way excited for that! He did it and his 11 year old Joseph and 9 year old Elizabeth were baptized with him! It was so neat. His wife also came to the baptism with there 7 year old who will turn 8 next month. They should both be baptized by the end of May! So sweet! A whole family is what i have always dreamed of seeing come to the truth. We also had an old lady named Agnes baptized. This was also a cool thing because it was the mother of our Elders Quorom President Alex. He did the baptisms so he was able to baptize his mother. I love just seeing the smile on their faces as the ordinance is finished. Definitely an Easter i will never forget!

The way they celebrate easter here is strange. It is huge! They start on Wednesday and don't finish till Monday. It is more of a party than a spiritual day, I guess that's how all the other churches are. Our Easter was amazing though! What a great way to spend it having baptisms. I really have been loving my mission more than ever these last couple weeks. The work is really paying off and it is such a blessing. I hope I can just be with Elder Wright till he finishes so we can do some serious work here.

Elder Wright and I are doing great, we love this Asuoyeboa area and have just been working to get these people to know the truth. There are so many people that we just love and want so badly to come to the truth. I really believe they will come with some patience and perseverance. The work has really been getting sweet. 

I love you all and hope you have a great week! (Go Yankees!) :) 

Elder Rogers

April 18, 2011 {Email}

This week has been another good one. For some reason it went by so much faster than any other week. The work is going great for Elder Wright and I. This Asuoyeboa area is so powerful, and we only are going to half of it! The other two elders are experiencing the same sweetness. I am starting to meet those people that i know i am just going to love and do everything for them to have the gospel in their lives. We are preparing one man for baptism this week, his name is Okian Danko. He is older prob around 60, and has a ton of children ha. He has been coming to church for 2 years and is an ex elder from the SDA church. That's not an easy thing to leave but he said he knew it was true so he left his church! If only all people could have that courage and strength. Anyways he has been waiting to be baptized for a long time so we are just putting the final touches on the lessons then sunday he will be baptized. Hopefully his wife and some of his kids will follow shortly! Sweet family.

One thing me and Elder Wright are getting really good at is getting beat by the rain! The only two times it rained this week we were caught in it and this rain is no small thing ha. The first time we were at our farthest investigator and as we were beginning to walk back it started pouring! We just said what the heck and kept walking ha. We were soaked! And last night we were about 10 minutes from the apartment when it suddenly came, we ran barely being able to see because of light out and water in our face. It was really fun ha! Things are going great here! 

Oh, by the way transfers were today and there are no big changes in our zone. I'm staying for an actual transfer in Asuoyeboa, yay! 

I love you all and wish you the best! Go Yankees!

Love, 

Elder Rogers

April 11, 2011 {Email}

Asuoyeboa is awesome! I love it here. It's still not quite like Abuakwa but i feel as i get to know everyone better and spend some more time here i will be able to feel that same love for the area and all of these people. It has been so hard to learn all of these new names. Man i feel like an elementary school teacher trying to remember everyone and their concerns. It's difficult when they are all black haha. We're getting there though! We have found out our area is huge! We split it in half with the other to studly missionaries, Elder Chewaka and Elder Ekaette. We have taken the Tanoso side of it and they took the Kwadaso side. Still, we have to walk forever just to get to our area. Then when we get there we have to WALK some more. Holy cow i don't think i've walked this much in all of my life put together. Well, thats an exaggeration, it just seems like a ton of walking! We have met some really cool people though. Hopefully they will continue to progress. One of the best things about this area is the chapel! It is a big white one right on the main road so there are always random people that just show up and it makes it easier for our investigators to come. It's kind of strange working in a ward now.

Being with Elder Wright is such a blessing. I have really enjoyed working hard with him. I hope we get to stay together for a little while so i can learn all that i can from him. We have had some way fun times. Today for p-day we did a talent show and our apartment did an Ethiopian culture dance in honor of Elder Chewaka. Haha it was awesome. If you are wondering what it is i'm sure youtube should have something for it. Of course we dominated since me and Elder Wright are basically professional dancers... ;). It's been a great week, and i'm really looking forward to the next one.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Rogers

April 4, 2011 {Email}

Well, things have changed a lot in the past few days. I should tell you that i am no longer serving in Abuakwa :(. There has been an emergency transfer that cleaned out the Asuoyeboa apartment this week and I will be one of the new 4 missionaries to be serving there. Yeah, big news huh? It's crazy! At first i was very sad to be leaving Abuakwa and all the people i love and to leave Elder Yapo who will be going down to Cape Coast for his last two weeks. It was a shocker to all of us. We went around and said good bye to them, but they didn't really act as if i was going anywhere ha since Asuoyeboa is just a 15 minute tro ride. I will be in the same district! The sweet thing is i will be there to see the baptisms of my people in Abuakwa since they do them in Asuoyeboa! The two missionaries going to Abuakwa are Elder Meinzer from Utah County and Elder Gibson from Cedar City. Two sweet guys and i'm very glad they are there to continue with the people i love. They will do great! 

My new companion is Elder Wright from Thatcher, Arizona! He was actually born in Springerville, Arizona where my grandparents live so they could possibly know his family! In high school he did wrestling and of course he likes bow hunting! Gotta love the Arizona people! He has been on mission for almost 20 months and was just released as AP. I'm way excited to be able to learn from him and become a better missionary like him. He is a solid guy! The other two in our apartment are Elder Ekaette from Nigeria and Elder Chewaka from Ethiopia. They are awesome! I get to learn about Ethiopia now which seems like an awesome place. These guys are funny. The Asuoyeboa ward is powerful! Church on Sunday they all welcomed us so nicely and there were plenty of people there. The area is really big so we finally figured out how to split it. Elder Wright and I will take the Tanoso side which is the closest town to Abuakwa ha it's so weird. We have been walking a ton trying to find ourselves and the members. The work is not going to be easy since we are kind of starting from scratch but i'm way excited for it! I'm excited to have a sweet companion to do all of this with! Crazy week, but i know all of this is what the lord wants!

Elder Rogers

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