Elmina Castle

Elmina Harbour

"Always striving to have the Spirit with you is paramount, especially as a missionary. You never know 

when you will need it, or when someone else will. I was humbled to be used as a tool in the 

Lord's hands to bless someone else's life."

Dear Family and Friends,
     Sorry I missed last week, the internet here sometimes goes dark in the whole city. I've found that Ghana has been slow to accept letters and packages from the US…. The whole mission is having a really hard time getting stuff: pamphlets, Book of Mormons, blank baptismal records - we might not even have planners for the next transfer. But Megan sent me a package with candy and stuff on December 10th, and I got it January 15th.

     Oh, we made rice balls last night with country chicken gravy - it was heaven.

     Today marks my 4 months in Africa. It goes by soooo fast. Especially with how busy Elder

James and I have gotten these few weeks together. We have found that when you follow the rules, do your best, and leave the rest up to the Lord, everything else falls into place.

     I have been exhausted recently, trying to keep up with all the people we have to see every day and running around in the hot sun for 9 hours. Normally, in this mission, if you have 3 lessons in a day, that's pretty good. The week before last, there was a day where we had 7 lessons - it was insane! We didn't have time to breathe. The mission record is 9.

     Our best investigator right now is very special. She was a referral from a very strong member who was converted 9 years ago (a former Jehovah's Witnesses), named Sister Woode. Our investigator is her daughter, Christina. She recently moved back to Ghana from living in Nigeria for 20+ years.  When we first began teaching, she was very monotone and unenthusiastic. She didn't have a church, she doesn't have a job, and everything she owns is still back in Nigeria. So she was kind of feeling down. After teaching a few lessons, she became a little more interested.

But after she came to Church, she completely changed. Christina is a little bit shy, like if you looked her in the eye she would look away. The next lesson we taught, she was so animated and interested, she even looked ME in the eye and I looked away! Ha, ha. She is progressing really fast. All of Sister Woode's family are members, even Christina's son is a member, so she has been in the environment of the church for some time. But now, she is seriously interested, and is always asking questions to learn more, she says she wants to understand everything. She has a very solid understanding of everything we've taught so far, which is really rare in Ghanaians. She catches on so quickly it's amazing. We watched ‘The Testaments’ video with her, her son, and

Sister Woode. At the end, Sister Woode had more questions, and Christina was answering them all, instead of us, J. Truly, the Lord has prepared people for the true gospel. Christina is scheduled to be baptized on February 16th.

      Our recent convert, Linda, is preparing to go on a youth temple trip scheduled for the end of February. After she was baptized, I could just see how much happier she is. And when we visit her, we never teach a planned lesson, because now SHE tells US what she wants to learn about.

     As for our building.... we have a date! Renovations should be finished in February and we'll be able to start using it in the beginning of March. That will help this area SO much. We have a lot of people who have gained small testimonies of our teachings, but struggle to come to church.

When it's 2 minutes out their front door, there is no more problem. They've begun work, knocking out walls and stuff; they're going to let us help with construction cleanup near the end of the project, since the rest is all contracted out.

     Dad, since you asked me some time ago, I finally met the chief of Ntranoa. I had seen him around, and someone told me he was the chief, but I never talked to him. Elder James actually contacted him on the street and we started talking with him. There were two other men with him, and he told us they were his bodyguards. I gotta tell ya, they were super intimidating... an 85 year old man and a skinny guy that runs around in his underwear. J It's more of a formality, I guess, nothing is going to happen to him. Ghanaians are not violent at all. I feel more secure walking around in the dark here, even than doing so at home. Anyhow, the chief showed us around his palace, and his judgment seat and stuff. He said he would be willing to hear our message (so does every other person here), so we'll see. Elder James and I were saying, it would be awesome if we converted the chief; he has a huge influence on people. Even though his position is more of just a tradition now, he still has a lot of respect from the people.

     So I had a really cool experience this past week. As we were walking from a village to the road after a lesson with Christina, we saw a guy trying to fix his taxi in the dark on the side of the road. As we were walking past, he called on us and said he was having trouble. I offered to help him push the car so he could try a push-start (Every car his is manual transmission). He agreed and we tried it a few times to no avail. He got out cursing the car, and thanked us for helping. As we stood there talking with him, we learned his name was Patrick, and he told us how big of a problem this was for him. He explained that the car wasn't his, he would have to leave it overnight, and tell the owner about it, and that would create big problems for him. He started to choke up as he told us about it. Africans don't cry, by the way, so if they start to, you

KNOW something is really bothering them. Here, in their employment, people can get beat up over something like that, so he was really troubled. As we stood there talking, something told me to have him try it again. I ignored it. As we said goodbye, and started off to get a taxi, the Spirit inside me said, ‘Do NOT walk away from this guy, have him try the car again.’ At the same time, the words from President Monson in the October general conference came back to me,

‘Never postpone a spiritual prompting.’ At this time, the Spirit was constraining me to turn around and try it again. I have never felt the Spirit tell me to do something so strongly in my life.

It was as if it was putting the thoughts and actions into my mind, almost to the point where it actually took over all motor control of my body. So I immediately turned around and said, ‘My friend, let's try it one more time.’ As we got into position to push again, Patrick tried the starter again. After some seconds, the vehicle roared to life. I've never seen a happier Ghanaian. He started shouting, ‘God is great, God is great, this is a miracle!’ Ha,ha! It was awesome. He said he wanted to drop us off at home for helping. (Even though WE didn't do anything) As we

pooted towards Elmina going about 20, he was hooting and honking the horn and laughing all the way. He was SO happy. Instead of dropping us on the street, he took us all the way into our complex and right up to our doorstep. We got out, thanked him, and invited him to church (we had already told him we were missionaries).

       I didn't really expect him to come to church, and he didn't. But that's ok. Every time he sees the LDS missionaries now, he will remember that dark night in the bush where he needed a hand, and he saw God's hand in his life. God answers prayers. If it's important to you, it's important to him.
     I learned two important lessons that night. 1: Never postpone a spiritual prompting. Always striving to have the Spirit with you is paramount, especially as a missionary. You never know when you will need it, or when someone else will. I was humbled to be used as a tool in the

Lord's hands to bless someone else's life.     2. I had recently been getting very frustrated withtaxi drivers going to and from our area every day. But this experience reminded me that they are still children of God, and most of them are just trying to make a living and get by. They all have their own challenges and needs in life.

     I know that where I am right now is where I am supposed to be. I can't even measure how many important lessons I've learned so far. I'm exhausted, but I'm very happy to be here, doing the work of the Lord.

Loves and all that mushy stuff,
Elder Clinton Doggett”