Elder Rogers is going to......‏

So everyone.... Transfer 5 news came and before it came we all knew that my companion elder barrick would be leaving to go somewhere else because it's very rare for someone to stay longer than 6 months in one area.... so it comes and guess who isn't planning to leave... THIS GUY. And Elder Losee (our DL) read.. "Elder Rogers will be............. (longest gap of time ever)........ going. To American Corner in Thunder Hill District, Kissy Zone. His companion will be Elder Hamilton. And that's not all.... (I'm very confused at this point)..... he will be the new District Leader of Thunder Hill District. At this point on Saturday night i'm very nervous and this is the first time that i felt i could actually throw up from nerves..... So ya i'm now the Thunder Hill DL and boy do i miss Allen town. So I have 6 Elders and 2 Sisters in my District and the Zone Leaders are two of the Elders.... kinda crazy.... honestly what went through my head was "really president...... i haven't even hit 6 months yet....." But later i realized that God is the one that calls us to our areas so i started to prepare myself for the hair-loss that is to come. So now i'm a DL... i don't know what else to tell you cuz honestly i'm still in shock. I keep thinking that i'm going to go to sleep and wake up in the morning in Allen Town. Elder Hamilton is my new companion and he is a 19-year-old (yup... still haven't had a companion younger than me) and he is from Logan, Utah (yup... another white boy companion.) I am grateful but this transfer i will be learning much patience and this will help me for the rest of my mission and my life... 

-Elder Rogers

Letter

Zone Conference and Area 70's‏

Hey everyone! So i just got off of dropbox after i looked at the pictures and i only have a few things to say.... 1- carpet..... that's all i have to say about that. 2-that's a big mountain! 3-Tanner why are you wearing my sandals?? Not that i really care:) But really guys... the lacrosse stick in the background.... i almost cried... anyways so this week was so sweet! We had our zone conference and boy was that awesome. The instructions were sweet, the food was sweet, and i love being able to see all the other missionaries... and its kind of nice to be taught instead of teaching all the time. Also we had a baptismal service on Saturday so Wednesday we had to pay people to tote 5 gallon rubbers of water from the dam at the top of the mountain so that was a slow process and it took them all day to fill the font with about 1000 liters of water which isn't even enough for a sitting baptism so that was frustrating so Friday we had a bouzer come (truck that brings water) to the chapel and fill the tank with 3000 liters and then we were all jumping for joy! Saturday comes and we all are at the baptism and we open the font to find that the font has a leak somewhere and so there was about half the amount of water so we did a sitting baptism... sometimes Salone logic frustrates me but it makes us become much better people and i still love this place even if it has quite a bit of problems. So Sunday comes and i forgot to iron my shirt Saturday night while we had power so morning comes and i get up and i look at Elder Obeng-Poku and i tell him "watch in all the weeks that President and Sister Ostler could have come to visit the new branch this will be the day cuz i forgot to iron my shirt." Sure enough Elder Losee received a call 10 minutes later and president said that Elder Losee needs to come show him the place. So we meet at the chapel and President and Sister get out of the vehicle and then the back doors open and we're all wondering why the AP's came with them... well the AP's didn't get out.. it was Elder Curtis and Elder Koranteng... two of the area 70's... that made me pretty nervous for our confirmations.... anyways it all went well and now we have some new members in the Church. So this morning the AP's called Elder Losee and told him that his companion will be emergency transferred..... we're not sure why but that's never a good sign so pray for our missionaries!! Elder Losee will be joining Elder Barrick and I for this week until transfer news on Saturday! We're gonna be enjoying!! Malloway!
Elder Rogers

District Conference

So this week we had District Conference and boy was the chapel in Kissi packed... 2,000 members.... it was so full!! It was so sweet! I got to see all the missionaries in the East end and i also got to see my trainer Elder Sumrak.. always makes a good day when i get to hang out with him for awhile! Anyways this conference was so sweet!! We had 9 investigators come and one of them counts as like 20 and here's why... her name is Musu Jalloh, she's about 20 years old, and she has polio... she doesn't have control of her legs so how she walks is she has forearm crutches that she uses and she swings her hips to fling her legs around to take steps. It is hard for us to even extend the commitment to come to church because she has to walk up the mountain for about 30 yards which isn't too far but its very difficult for her.... we had our first appointment with her Tuesday and our second with her on Friday and Saturday night she called us from her mothers phone and told us "Elder Rogers and Elder Barrick i'm coming to church tomorrow!" "Great Musu! We'll be very happy to see youuuuuu..... oh wait. Musu, church won't be in Allen town tomorrow because of the conference in Kissi. So we'll be meeting at Kissi." "ohhhhhh...... (long silence)... okay!" and she hung up the phone. Well it was about 9:30 and the conference started at 10:00 and to our surprise Musu comes walking around the corner and into the chapel compound! Elder Barrick and I looked like 2 little teenage girls jumping around in circles together after they find out that they both made the cheer squad! We were so excited!! I couldn't get my most committed investigators to come to church in Allen town and Musu who has polio and can barely walk came without us even telling her to try and come... She's got such a strong spirit... and if you think about it... before she came down here she probably knew that she was going to get this challenge in her life... but i'm sure she looked our Father in the eyes and said "Send me. I'll do it." When you're around her you can't really understand her and she can't really understand you but you can definitely tell that she has a strong spirit. It was so sweet to see her there and she really enjoyed it. President Ostler addressed the District and announced that the district will be being split, the mission has received permission to start a homegroup in Lungi and send missionaries there, start a branch in Calaba Town, split the Waterloo branch, send missionaries into UpGun, and in two weeks there will be around 170 missionaries in Sierra Leone... in 2004 there were 60. The mission here is growing so fast and like they say... the gospel is spreading like a wildfire in the Hawmiton bush. Anyways i've gotta run! Love you all so much!!!
-Elder Rogers
..... jess really???? a snake???? you'll hold a snake but you won't jump off the rope swing...;)

WATTTERRRR!!!!!!!!!‏

So as you can see we finally have received water! Wednesday, as we were about to go out to teach a lesson our phone, starts ringing and when i answer it i learn that the people who were supposed to come to connect our pipe 3 weeks ago have finally come to do it. So our whole district sprints up the mountain to the top where they were coming to connect it and we find that our pipe has been destroyed throughout these three weeks so we had to pay a man to take parts of his and connect it to our own... after 6 hours our pipe had been connected and we had finished burying it in the ground so that when water was running through it the next day people wouldn't break it open and steal our water. So Thursday comes and one of our recent converts, who lives at the top of the mountain, calls us and says that the "pump" is open. So water should be coming right?? Wrong. We were getting impatient because the water shouldn't take so long to travel all the way down the mountain and into our tank... well we hike back up the mountain to find that our pipe had been dug up and cut open in 4 different places so that people could take our water....... All 6 of us were ready to fight some people and we almost did but they could tell that we were a little upset and they took their buckets and left the pipe... we fixed it and then sacrificed the next 2 hours of our proselyting time to patrol and monitor the pipe from the top to the bottom.. Now we have a pretty full tank and are back to enjoying the A-Town apartment. Another way sweet thing is that we were telling our investigators how we love pineapple so much and were very sad that we can't buy them in Allen Town.... not two days later and we had three pineapples sitting in our freezer... I'm enjoying pineapple for sure! I eat one whole pineapple for lunch. They aren't as big as the ones at home but the taste... doesn't even compare. The fruit here is so much better than anything at home! I wish i could send you guys some bananas.

So anyway i decided i'm gonna start putting something somewhat spiritual from the week... so this week we had a very interesting experience. Monday night, very late in the night, over our compound wall comes a puppy..... we found it sitting on our back step the next morning. It wasn't hurt but man it was the cutest thing ever!!! We named it JC. We loved this thing and it definitely loved being away from people who would kick her and stone her and dogs that would attack her so she was enjoying living inside the compound... anyways that same morning during our companionship study we read out of our white handbook "Do not keep pets of any kind." Of course i justified this by telling everyone that this wasn't a pet... it was our guard dog! We decided that its best if we just be obedient.. and she helped us with that cuz she was poopin everywhere and we couldn't keep cleaning it up.... anyways we decided that she needed to go but none of the 6 of us were man enough to take her out of the compound and put her into the world.... so the agreement was she would go when someone would throw her out.... she stayed for a few days... then Elder Losee, our district leader, decided that he should lead his district in obedience and took her down to the junction and let her go.... so how is this a spiritual experience?? To be honest it wasn't spiritual too much but the dog came flying over the fence at the most perfect time of the transfer... there was so much contention in our apartment between some of the Elders (don't worry mom it wasn't me) but this small puppy even though it was only there for a few days taught us a great lesson on pure love and serving and taking care of each other... even if we all had to clean up a ton of poop to learn that... anyways it was a sweet experience. Love you all!
-Elder Rogers
Oh ya so something i learned this week is in Ghana when you are born you receive your name and also another name and the second name is based on which day of the week you were born on... so i found out my name is Kwabena. Mom, Tanner, and Korbin this is yours as well. Dad's is Kwame. Kennli and Annika's are Kwadwo. Kwadwo is Monday, Kwabena is Tuesday, Kwame is Saturday. Interesting fact. They use these names when they are in their homes.

Bummer week

Well i wish i could tell you that we have gotten water but we haven't.... now we buy sachets and wash with them.... too long to explain just know its not sweet.... also the smell from the toilets not being able to be flushed has forced us to start digging holes in the back yard of the house and... you get the idea.... I wonder if i had gotten my eagle if i wouldn't be serving here... i feel like i'm here earning now. That's not even the true bummer of the week.... Monday in the act of trying to send pictures my card got a virus.... pictures from my first 5 months... gone. So i think its pretty safe to say don't plan on any kind of picture for the next 19 months:) our 11 baptismal candidates are coming along small small but i'm pretty confident that they'll make it by the 22nd. Still teaching and furthering the work in good old Africa. This week in my studies i was thinking about something (keep in mind that this is my own opinion not doctrine). Why are missionaries called? What i think is that it's for the missionary. Think about it... if someone will accept the gospel on earth then they will accept it in heaven. So why are missionaries sent... of course to help with the work but the work will be done for those who want it.... all the temple work and baptisms will be completed during the Millenium so what are they for?? My own opinion is that missionaries are serving to build themselves. Of course we're building the kingdom but its all about quality not quantity so if we're focused on quality then isn't the quality of the church becoming greater if the members are going on missions and increasing their own quality?? In all reality the work is for both the missionary and the people they are called to teach but in my own opinion i feel like missionary work is more for the missionary than it is for anyone else... let me know what you think:) Malloway!!

-Elder Rogers