October 25, 2010 {Email}

Alright well as usual, another great week in Ghana!

Elder Harris and I are getting so busy lately and starting to branch out pretty far. The referrals we get are so awesome. We just got one this week of a girl named Priscilla. She had gone to the church in Asoeubwa so they directed her to us since she is in our area. The thing is she lives all the way out in Akropong! That is like a twenty minute Tro-Tro ride. I don't think any of the missionaries in Abuakwa have been out there since the area opened up so we are pretty excited to be the first ones to try and do some work out there. Priscilla is a solid investigator and we asked her after our first lesson if she had anyone that would want to hear our message as well, she said YEAH! The next day we went back out there and she had 4 friends with her!!! It was sweet! I have a really good feeling about that Akropong village. It's kind of cool to be the ones who establish the gospel there.

Everything has been going great with the work. We are still working with Tony to get him ready for baptism. It was awesome the other night when we were going to teach him. At first we couldn't find him so we went back to the apartment to wait a little bit to go to our next appointment. It was late and when we went out of the apartment to go Elder Harris looked at me and said which way should we go? To go left would be our scheduled appointment, right was towards Tony's place. At first I was like left man we have it scheduled we need to go there. Then I said a quick prayer to know which way to go and I knew we should go the other way. So I said to Elder Harris lets go to Tony's. I'm pretty sure he knew all along we should go that way. Not even kidding, one minute later as we are walking, Tony walks right into us! He was going to the apartment to find us to go and teach him. I was stunned! So we went back and taught him about Faith in Christ and Repentance. He expressed after the lesson how much he enjoyed our lessons with him and he felt good inside during the lessons and when he read the BoM. Wow, that moment was so spiritual. I could feel the Spirit so strong and I knew he could too. He was gaining a testimony. We explained what he was feeling and he understood everything. Man not only is this kid gaining a testimony, but he has already helped to strengthen mine so much. It helped me to realize how we are really just instruments in the Lord's work. We need to do all we can to allow these people to be in the situation that will allow that spirit to overcome them so they can know it is all true! I'm very grateful Elder Harris had that first instinct to go right and to let me find out for myself too. That was the spirit guiding us to that investigator that needed us at that time. It was so awesome!

Today for P-day 12 of us Elders all got together to go and hike "The Mountain". Sounds pretty intimidating huh? Ha this mountain is like the only one that is in Ghana I swear. It is all the way out west past Akropong. The funny part is it is probably barely considered a hill in St. George. But it was way sweet! We had to mob going up it since there wasn't really a trail. We felt like man v. wild climbing that thing. I kept praying to see some wildlife, but all I saw was some more of those evil lizards. It was a really fun P-day though. To top it off, when we got near the apartment there was a shop that had an old Dan Marino Dolphins jersey hung up. I had to get that! We went over there and the boss asked 6 cedis for it, but I have been getting good at bargaining so I said 4 cedis. Then I pulled my 4 cedis out of my pocket and said thats all I got. Little did he know I had my wallet in my other pocket ha. He didn't like it one bit but finally gave in. 4 cedis for a Dan Marino jersey! that is like 3 dollars in America. Not too shabby.

Well thats about it for this week! I'm looking forward to another week on mission, I love it out here!

I love you all,

Elder Zack Rogers

The First Batch of Pictures

October 18, 2010 {Email}

Hello!

Another great week in Ghana!

Everything has been going great! I am finally starting to get more confident out there along with Elder Harris' help. We have been so busy this week! The area of Abuakwa is so powerful! I love it here, everyone says how lucky I am to be in this area. The spirit is just so strong over here. This past week we have picked up quite a few investigators that seem to be pretty serious but who knows with Ghanaians. They always seem to be interested at first just so we will talk to them. It is really difficult to tell who is serious, i think that is part of the reason we are so busy, we have to keep teaching them until they make it notice to us that they aren't going to do anything with our message. We have some certain things we do to try to tell if they are serious or not and that helps a lot.

Anyways, this week was sweet! We got to go on splits with Elder Thompson, Zone Leader, on Wednesday. It was awesome, him and Elder Harris are MT's so they really were having fun teaching together. It was cool for me to be a part of it. A funny story for this day:

Ok, so we were teaching these two men who are school teachers. We were outside underneath these trees sitting on our wooden stools. To start out the lesson I kind of zoned out, which happens from time to time, but they both looked at me wanting me to say something. I had nothing! I even had to admit I zoned out right in the middle of the lesson. Ha embarrassing I know. After this the lesson started going again and was flowing really good when all of the sudden I felt something on my leg... THERE WAS A FREAKING LIZARD ON MY LEG! My family knows how much I hate lizards. So I jumped up and started to try to kick it off, but this thing was insane! It was crawling around my legs and back, oh man I was going crazy! So you can just picture this, right in the middle of the lesson I am jumping up and down screaming trying to get this thing off of me. Finally, I kicked it off and then it went towards Elder Harris, who had been laughing at me the whole time. He wasn't laughing anymore ha. The lizard gave up quick on him though. Wow it was so scary though! I really thought it was going to kill me! The people we were teaching said they had never seen that happen before, of course it happens to me!

Well besides this near death experience, everything is still going great! I love you all and wish you the best!

Love,

Elder Zack Rogers

October 11, 2010 {Email}

Elder Rogers with President and Sister Sabey

Wow, time is flying by here in Kumasi and I am loving every second of it! I really think I am starting to adjust to this lifestyle. My comp. even said today that my Ghanaian accent is starting to come ha it is so weird how when I go to talk to the Africans, my language is completely different. Its not Twi yet, but they can understand my English now. It is really fun to talk to them. The little kids are the best to! They are always just yelling OBRUNI (white man) at me ha it's quite annoying, but I would be saying the same thing if I were them because we are probably the first white people they have seen. I've been trying to teach them how to do the Pound-Explosion hand shake. Ha it is coming along but they just don't really catch on to those things cuz they haven't done anything different than what they do now.

Everything is still going good here in Africa. The baptisms were amazing! Elder Harris and I had 2, then I got to baptize Elder Vanchiere and E. Mbongs 3. So I got to do 5 total. I was pretty nervous as usual, but once I got into the font I could feel the spirit helping me through it. Baptizing Africans is actually a pretty funny. As E. Vanchieri says it is like "trying to put a cat under water" ha they hate being in water. I imagine it was pretty funny looking seeing this white man trying to throw a black person under water. It was sweet though. I could really feel the authority as I said the baptisms. It felt so so good. We baptized that Afriyie boy, he is a stud. And his older brother was there, we have been teaching him a little. I talked to him after and asked him if he wanted to do that too, he said yes! I do! The mission is awesome!

I don't have much time today so sorry thats all I got! Everything is great here in Ghana! I love it here! And I'm stoked for the Yankees! Heck yeah baby!

Love,

Elder Rogers

October 4, 2010 {Email}

Hello everyone!

Everything is great here in Abuakwa! I don't even know where to start ha I am having so much fun. I never thought that I would be feeling the way I do so early in the mission, but my companion Elder Harris has really helped me to become comfortable here. He and all his MT's actually just hit their one year mark! Crazy, I just hit my one month mark... yeah ha. But we went out to celebrate and we ate my favorite.. PIZZA! Oh wow it was amazing! Nothing like Pizza Factory of course, but it took me back to when I was living the "high life" ha. Him and Elder Vanchiere also burned their shirts in honor of the one year mark. That seems so far away for me, but it will come. CRAZY!

I also had the opportunity to eat FUFU for the first time! It was actually really good and not even that hard to eat. Me and Elder Jaggi, my MT, downed it without much of a problem. It was just weird throwing your fingers in the soup to get the fufu out. Weird but good!

Elder Harris and I are finally starting to get into a groove. It was kind of a rough start finding people to teach since we were in a new area and the Elders before us didn't really leave us good notes to go off of. We found a great ward member that has helped us a ton and we now have 3 investigators ready to be baptized on Sunday. I have been chosen to do the baptisms this time since I'm the new guy and haven't had the opportunity yet. I'm so excited! I even get to do Elder Vanchiere's and Elder Mbongs, 4 as well. 

I feel like I have been having too much fun out here on mission, but everyone keeps on asking me what I expected mission to be like and I tell them "I thought it would be all work all the time with no breaks." I didn't realize before that missionary work is a lot of fun. Don't get me wrong it is still hard work, but it is so rewarding that it is fun!
Oh, I want to say congrats to Arie Siperly, that is way awesome by the way! You are going to be great! Tipa man keep it up, I hear your getting pretty close. Dude I'm so excited for you and to know where you are going! You guys are studs and you will love serving a mission!

Well, thats all I got for now! Thanks for the emails family, especially dad. Sorry I don't have much time here, I know you understand. But just know your emails are very uplifting and I look forward to it every week!

I love you all! 

Elder Rogers

Tell Tripp hi for me and pick him up please, he likes it :)
And GO YANKEES!!!!!!!! October time!