Zone Conference

Freetown Zone Conference with visiting authority, Elder Vinson

Psych!‏

Found some extra time to type one. Well first things first i hope that all is well with home. Daulton's death was mourned here and i feel for the family. I hope and pray that things start to heal and mend. My prayers are there. 

This week was pretty rough but hey we push through. I've learned two big lessons on mission so far... 1-HOW TO SURVIVE!! 2- on a serious note this one is patient perseverance. One thing i learned this week is that some areas are there not for you to build the area but for the area to destroy you and build you back up... welcome to Freetown Area. It's been rough but i have a great companion and we both have overcome some difficult things and kept pressing forward. I love my mission so much. I will cherish the lessons that i learn till the day that i die and ever onward. 

So the reason that i am emailing on Tuesday...... is Muslims. Yesterday was prayer day which is a holiday for the Muslims to celebrate the finishing of their month long fast. Crappiest month ever if you ask me.... fast every day from 5 in the morning to 7:30 at night for a month... hah. Anyways almost all of the shops and cafes were closed yesterday due to the prayer day so that's why we changed p day to this day. 

I shared small about football.... i'm getting pretty good, if i might say so myself. I definitely will be getting a football to practice... not like i'll play competitively when i get home but it's another talent to try and acquire. All the missionaries played one of the wards in the stake and of course we won 8-6 (hah you can't beat the lord's army). I love you all so much and i hope that all is going well. 

My birthday will be well celebrated... for lunch on Friday my companion and i are going to a Ghanaian restaurant to enjoy some FooFoo and Bonku. You have no idea what those are but they are something that i'll be enjoying:) 
Love you all!
-Elder Rogers

no big email this week

no big email this week due to time because today we played football for a long time..... love playing that sport so much now! Love you all!

"Hello Elder Rogers......‏

So i am sitting there in district meeting on Tuesday morning in the chapel that i started my mission in and i get a call from President Kargbo, one of the men that drive things around to the missionaries for the mission, and i hear him say the sweetest words... "Hello Elder Rogers. Where are you at? There's a package here for you. Should i bring it to you?" Since i was next to the mission office i went to pick it up straight after the meeting... it was all covered in University of Utah tape and had big blue letters written in the same three letter pattern all over it... BYU. Elder Stanford met my package before i did and he enjoyed coloring it. I wasn't sure if i had to wait to open it on my birthday or not but i couldn't wait that long so i opened that baby up.... pop tarts are finished. Well i was very happy from that but back to the work.. this week we had three investigators at church and we had an investigator interviewed for baptism that day as well. The work this week was small small.. the area seems to get tougher and tougher each day but we're still doing our best. This week i was sitting in my room Saturday night and i was just thinking to myself and then a thought popped into my head.... in a week Annika will be sitting at home.... oh boy see trunkiness.... oh well i'm over it now! Sometimes its good to think about home.... sometimes. Anyways this week we'll be working on many things... one of them being finding families... we've noticed that where a strong father is then a strong family is there also... we've also noticed the opposite. We're doin our best to stay positive and diligent... by the way i don't have ebola... i feel normal now. I actually feel good enough to play football monday's and i've actually gotten decent now... i scored a goal... i'm still white so im not that great but small small. Anyways i love you all! Sorry that this email was all over the place... i'm holding a conversation with a white guy from Seattle as i'm writing so my focus is not here. Love you all!
-Elder Rogers

Stayin positive‏

This week has been rough... we've know been afflicted with sickness.. my companion had a fever of 103 on saturday and the real bummer about bein with someone 24/7 is if they get sick... you're turn is comin... so now my temperature is high.... so honestly i don't have a lot of strength to email and i don't wanna throw up all over the computer. I love you all and i'm doing good. Keep praying for my country... ebola is persistent. Love you all!
-Elder Rogers

 These missionaries have been taught to take their shoes off when entering a home.

(From the mission Facebook page)

Just not the same‏

Well i'll tell you what... the 4th of july is very different over here.... just a normal day. Man does it make you think of home though. Elder Halterman and i enjoyed it with our apartment pretty well. We cooked hashbrowns and we found some bacon, that was a miracle, and put some eggs in with them to make it similar to a mountain man breakfast, except it was for dinner. We also found some sparkling cider and enjoyed that as well. I have some sweet pictures for us to all enjoy when i get back home. The 4th just isn't the same but its not too bad. This week Elder Appia and i only taught 22 lessons in an effort to make our lessons longer and to try and make more progress... we still only had 2 investigators in church but work here is small small. Since the focus of the mission has changed now on who we teach and baptize... most people that we are now teaching hold positions in their own various apostate churches. Today was super p day so our zone got together and played some small games and then we went into the new mission home (so beautiful) and watched "Ephraims Rescue" which was a very sweet film and very motivating to go and do the work. Love this country and the lessons that it brings for me to learn! Love you all!
-Elder Rogers