Email from Nov. 5, 2012:
Family and Friends,
Here are some more fun experiences: One of the ladies we are teaching definitely has a crush on me. She is around 30-35 and she asked if I had any children. Haha I said, 'No, I'm a missionary, I'm only 19!' She didn't believe me, she thought I was around 25-30 years old. The breastfeeding lesson was definitely the first of very many, haha. Since then, I can't count how many times it's happened. Hahahaha. Africa, man...!
The split with Elder Kinikini was really cool, we went to his area to proselyte, and I learned a lot from him. We were also driving a brand new truck from the mission home with A/C. It was nice to talk with an American too, haha a bit of a security blanket to talk about home. I learned a lot from working with him though, he has 7 months left. At lunch, at his apartment, there was a man fixing the A/C and we were watching him. Elder Kinikni took a step back and started sinking into a hole in the ground, haha it freaked him out. I started to use a broom to break away the hole and see what was inside and something huge and brown flew through the hole into another tunnel. I jumped and Elder Kinikini was like, "what man, what is it???" I turned around, and it was hilarious to see a 220 lb. islander linebacker 20 feet away peeking around the corner. He was seriously spooked. Haha he said, "Doggett, this is Ghana man, you gotta be careful. You don't know what could be in there, a scorpion nest or something. We caught a gator the other day in the mission home." Haha he's right. I can't even describe the spiders here. The size of your head, I kid you not. But we found out if we spray them with permethrin, they just shrivel up and die. Or we can tape them to the wall hahaha. This morning Elder Nwoko was going crazy with the permethrin, spraying every creature in our apartment. It will kill anything. I walked into the washroom to start my wash and he has crouching on the floor, spraying ants and singing, "Carest thou not that we perish?" from the hymn "Master, The Tempest is Raging". Haha we're really beginning to be good friends, despite our differences. The Nigerians in my apartment are cool, I've adjusted fast, we all get along.
Speaking of wash,I finally got some bruises on my knuckles haha. It's not as bad as everyone says, washing by hand, it just takes forever. But Mom, if you send something to help that we be awesome. And the only Motab CD I have is 'Praise to the Man'. Speaking of music, Elder Nwachukwu and I are writing a Christmas song on my guitar for the Christmas Devotional in December. I've started using the hymnbook dad gave me, but honestly, it's really hard.
We cut my hair the other day, and to no surprise, we burned up the clippers I brought. Haha it started smoking. We cut it a little too short thought, to a 4, so my head has been getting sunburned this last week. The sun here is nasty hot. It will tear you down if you don't drink at least 1 liter of water a day.
Another funny thing I saw was while we were proselyting in a village the other day. Some kids came up to me and started showing me a piece of string. Then I heard a buzzing and realized there was this huge black and yellow beetle tied to the end trying to fly away. The kids would just hold on to it like a little kite as it tried to escape hahahaha, it was a riot. Then they would throw it in the air, it would try to fly away and slowly fall to the ground.
So while we were walking past a chop shop the other day, I saw this lady stirring a HUGE pot of stew, it had to be 10 gallons I swear. You know what immediately thought of, Uncle Kelly and Uncle Mike? "Where's my companion?" Hahaha. (Clint's uncles teased him before he left for Africa that if he couldn't find his companion at a dinner appointment, he would be IN the dinner pot!)
I learned yesterday that I should refrigerate steak strips, the ones came with. I busted them out after eating half the bag a while ago and they were all moldy and nasty, haha. I may need some more of those. I've also been using the crystal light packets in my oatmeal, because I really needed some more taste! It's not too bad, but I'm running out fast. And Mom, keep sending mail to the mission home, we get mail through the zone leaders on Tuesdays. That's the easiest way. I haven't gotten your package yet, maybe tomorrow. And Dad, could you send some of those satellite pictures to me? It's a brand new area and we have no map. The villages we are in are called Ntranoa, Koful, Abee, and Emisano (or something like that). And there is the prison on the middle of them.
So I thought I would miss movies more, since all I did last year was make them and edit them and watch them. But my whole life feels like a movie now, so I really feel no need to watch any. That reminds me, our mission motto is "Forever Strong", from the movie. "I need you to be strong on the field, so you can be strong off the field." The mission really is a LTC, or Life Training Center. I'm really seeing that.
I love personal study in the mornings. I wish I had studied more back home. I find myself feasting on the words of Christ as I plan lessons for the day that would best help our investigators.
One morning, before we went out we were talking about how people seem to be apprehensive of us, as the missionaries. So I prayed that people would recognize us as servants of the Lord. After a lesson that day, an old Fante woman approached us, and said she needed a prayer. I think she was suffering from early stages of Parkinson's. We gave a her a blessing, and people were crowding around. She now wants to come to church. She doesn't speak a word of English. But she was able to see that we are representatives of Jesus Christ, and had the courage to ask for a blessing. It was humbling. We are still waiting to get a meeting house close by though, so people can attend church easily.
I've begun to understand teaching by the Spirit as well. Sometimes during a lesson, when I see our investigator's sincere search for the truth, I feel an overwhelming love for them. I feel the love that the Savior has for that child of God being channeled through me as a missionary. In those moments, as I bear sincere testimony with a smile, the Spirit of God explodes in this little bubble around us, blocking out all the sounds of noisy Africa. Teaching by the Spirit is amazing, and has the most profound impact on our teaching. Last night we taught such a lesson to a woman with 5 kids, as the Muslim prayer blared right outside the window of her small home. Such contrast was terrific.
This area such a blessing. Building a new branch is so busy, I don't have time to think about home or worry about anything else. I've really started to get sucked into the work and sometimes I feel like time is against me. I even see eating as more of an inconvenience than a necessity. I still eat though, don't worry Mom. This work is divine. The Gospel of Jesus Christ the way to happiness. Remember everything our Father has taught you!
Love,
Elder Doggett
Here are some more fun experiences: One of the ladies we are teaching definitely has a crush on me. She is around 30-35 and she asked if I had any children. Haha I said, 'No, I'm a missionary, I'm only 19!' She didn't believe me, she thought I was around 25-30 years old. The breastfeeding lesson was definitely the first of very many, haha. Since then, I can't count how many times it's happened. Hahahaha. Africa, man...!
The split with Elder Kinikini was really cool, we went to his area to proselyte, and I learned a lot from him. We were also driving a brand new truck from the mission home with A/C. It was nice to talk with an American too, haha a bit of a security blanket to talk about home. I learned a lot from working with him though, he has 7 months left. At lunch, at his apartment, there was a man fixing the A/C and we were watching him. Elder Kinikni took a step back and started sinking into a hole in the ground, haha it freaked him out. I started to use a broom to break away the hole and see what was inside and something huge and brown flew through the hole into another tunnel. I jumped and Elder Kinikini was like, "what man, what is it???" I turned around, and it was hilarious to see a 220 lb. islander linebacker 20 feet away peeking around the corner. He was seriously spooked. Haha he said, "Doggett, this is Ghana man, you gotta be careful. You don't know what could be in there, a scorpion nest or something. We caught a gator the other day in the mission home." Haha he's right. I can't even describe the spiders here. The size of your head, I kid you not. But we found out if we spray them with permethrin, they just shrivel up and die. Or we can tape them to the wall hahaha. This morning Elder Nwoko was going crazy with the permethrin, spraying every creature in our apartment. It will kill anything. I walked into the washroom to start my wash and he has crouching on the floor, spraying ants and singing, "Carest thou not that we perish?" from the hymn "Master, The Tempest is Raging". Haha we're really beginning to be good friends, despite our differences. The Nigerians in my apartment are cool, I've adjusted fast, we all get along.
Speaking of wash,I finally got some bruises on my knuckles haha. It's not as bad as everyone says, washing by hand, it just takes forever. But Mom, if you send something to help that we be awesome. And the only Motab CD I have is 'Praise to the Man'. Speaking of music, Elder Nwachukwu and I are writing a Christmas song on my guitar for the Christmas Devotional in December. I've started using the hymnbook dad gave me, but honestly, it's really hard.
We cut my hair the other day, and to no surprise, we burned up the clippers I brought. Haha it started smoking. We cut it a little too short thought, to a 4, so my head has been getting sunburned this last week. The sun here is nasty hot. It will tear you down if you don't drink at least 1 liter of water a day.
Another funny thing I saw was while we were proselyting in a village the other day. Some kids came up to me and started showing me a piece of string. Then I heard a buzzing and realized there was this huge black and yellow beetle tied to the end trying to fly away. The kids would just hold on to it like a little kite as it tried to escape hahahaha, it was a riot. Then they would throw it in the air, it would try to fly away and slowly fall to the ground.
So while we were walking past a chop shop the other day, I saw this lady stirring a HUGE pot of stew, it had to be 10 gallons I swear. You know what immediately thought of, Uncle Kelly and Uncle Mike? "Where's my companion?" Hahaha. (Clint's uncles teased him before he left for Africa that if he couldn't find his companion at a dinner appointment, he would be IN the dinner pot!)
I learned yesterday that I should refrigerate steak strips, the ones came with. I busted them out after eating half the bag a while ago and they were all moldy and nasty, haha. I may need some more of those. I've also been using the crystal light packets in my oatmeal, because I really needed some more taste! It's not too bad, but I'm running out fast. And Mom, keep sending mail to the mission home, we get mail through the zone leaders on Tuesdays. That's the easiest way. I haven't gotten your package yet, maybe tomorrow. And Dad, could you send some of those satellite pictures to me? It's a brand new area and we have no map. The villages we are in are called Ntranoa, Koful, Abee, and Emisano (or something like that). And there is the prison on the middle of them.
So I thought I would miss movies more, since all I did last year was make them and edit them and watch them. But my whole life feels like a movie now, so I really feel no need to watch any. That reminds me, our mission motto is "Forever Strong", from the movie. "I need you to be strong on the field, so you can be strong off the field." The mission really is a LTC, or Life Training Center. I'm really seeing that.
I love personal study in the mornings. I wish I had studied more back home. I find myself feasting on the words of Christ as I plan lessons for the day that would best help our investigators.
One morning, before we went out we were talking about how people seem to be apprehensive of us, as the missionaries. So I prayed that people would recognize us as servants of the Lord. After a lesson that day, an old Fante woman approached us, and said she needed a prayer. I think she was suffering from early stages of Parkinson's. We gave a her a blessing, and people were crowding around. She now wants to come to church. She doesn't speak a word of English. But she was able to see that we are representatives of Jesus Christ, and had the courage to ask for a blessing. It was humbling. We are still waiting to get a meeting house close by though, so people can attend church easily.
I've begun to understand teaching by the Spirit as well. Sometimes during a lesson, when I see our investigator's sincere search for the truth, I feel an overwhelming love for them. I feel the love that the Savior has for that child of God being channeled through me as a missionary. In those moments, as I bear sincere testimony with a smile, the Spirit of God explodes in this little bubble around us, blocking out all the sounds of noisy Africa. Teaching by the Spirit is amazing, and has the most profound impact on our teaching. Last night we taught such a lesson to a woman with 5 kids, as the Muslim prayer blared right outside the window of her small home. Such contrast was terrific.
This area such a blessing. Building a new branch is so busy, I don't have time to think about home or worry about anything else. I've really started to get sucked into the work and sometimes I feel like time is against me. I even see eating as more of an inconvenience than a necessity. I still eat though, don't worry Mom. This work is divine. The Gospel of Jesus Christ the way to happiness. Remember everything our Father has taught you!
Love,
Elder Doggett
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