Dear Family and Friends,
The rains came down and the floods came up. We're getting rain finally! It rained all day yesterday and last night. Ironically though, our water shut off again this morning. So transfer news is here. I'm staying in Green Hill, Elder Kirumira is going to be with Elder Shinasi (one of my friends from the MTC). I'm jealous. But Elder Hansen is coming to be with me. He's from Utah, and he was in my first district; we went on splits once.
The rains came down and the floods came up. We're getting rain finally! It rained all day yesterday and last night. Ironically though, our water shut off again this morning. So transfer news is here. I'm staying in Green Hill, Elder Kirumira is going to be with Elder Shinasi (one of my friends from the MTC). I'm jealous. But Elder Hansen is coming to be with me. He's from Utah, and he was in my first district; we went on splits once.
So I had this crazy pear fruit this
week. Elder Kirumira noticed it on the trees in front of one of the member's
houses, so they gave us some. It's spiky and green, and looks like alien fruit.
But it tastes crazy! It tastes like pear with saltines. Then the aftertaste is
like Sprite. It's wild; it doesn't even have an English name, and you can't buy
it in the markets. So that's fun.
The coolest thing that happened this week was with our investigator G. I talked about him a bit in the phone call home. He is a former investigator from over a year ago who almost joined the church. His baptism record was filled out and everything. But he backed out at the last second; he was trying to change his line of work to be in accord with the Lord's commandments. But due to some fire his wife and elder brother gave him, he stepped back. His brother told him the Mormons were crazy, satanic, cultists. We met him through the bishop. When we first came to his place, he was really surprised that the missionaries hadn't forgotten about him. He was happy to receive us, and he said he knows what he needs to do. So when we were visiting him one day, his elder brother drove up. He got out of the car and came to sit with us. As we were sharing with G. the prophecy of two sticks in Ezekiel, his brother, D., looked at it and said, "Is that the Book of Mormon?" in an accusing tone. We said no, it's the Bible. He was surprised. He then proceeded to barrage us with questions, then he came to his 'ultimate question'. He said, "So do you believe that there is one God?" We said yes. "Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?" Yes. "And do you believe in the Holy Spirit?" Once again, yes. His countenance changed, and he said, "Oh. So it's the same. You're Christians." Ha.ha we said yes, yes we were. So he wanted to meet with us the next day. When he came he had tons of questions about... everything really. We sat with him for over 2 hours and answered them all. He wanted to understand the Book of Mormon and some other personal beliefs and concerns. He opened up to us really fast when he learned that we were Christians. He told us he is looking for a church that doesn't preach prosperity, prosperity, like all the churches here do. We told him to come and see how we do things, and he won't be disappointed. He was really surprised that we weren't payed for our work, so finally, he asked, "So if I want to give you some money, like something from my heart, will you accept it?" I told him normally, we won't. We are told not to accept money. (He is pretty well off). He said, "But what if it's from my heart?" I said, "You could give us 5 or 10 cedis, but honestly, we have sufficient money for our needs. I think you could give that money to someone poor, who actually needs it. You would find greater blessings." He looked at us, smiled wide, and said, I am now your member," then he shook our hands. It was amazing to watch this guy do a complete 180 in 24 hours. He came to us with his nose in the air, expecting to deliver us a sermon on how awful we were. (Not to mention, he's a tall, bald, intimidating black guy!) But the next day, he was sitting humbly before us, a 50 year old man asking two 19 year old boys about the questions of life. I know that as we sat there patiently answering his questions, he felt something. We've seen him a few times since then, and he is very interested. Now he and his brother are super strong, ha,ha. Even D. wants to change his line of work and put things in order. So, as Mormon would say, "From this we see that" people are truly being prepared by the Lord. Amen.
Love,
Elder Doggett
The coolest thing that happened this week was with our investigator G. I talked about him a bit in the phone call home. He is a former investigator from over a year ago who almost joined the church. His baptism record was filled out and everything. But he backed out at the last second; he was trying to change his line of work to be in accord with the Lord's commandments. But due to some fire his wife and elder brother gave him, he stepped back. His brother told him the Mormons were crazy, satanic, cultists. We met him through the bishop. When we first came to his place, he was really surprised that the missionaries hadn't forgotten about him. He was happy to receive us, and he said he knows what he needs to do. So when we were visiting him one day, his elder brother drove up. He got out of the car and came to sit with us. As we were sharing with G. the prophecy of two sticks in Ezekiel, his brother, D., looked at it and said, "Is that the Book of Mormon?" in an accusing tone. We said no, it's the Bible. He was surprised. He then proceeded to barrage us with questions, then he came to his 'ultimate question'. He said, "So do you believe that there is one God?" We said yes. "Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?" Yes. "And do you believe in the Holy Spirit?" Once again, yes. His countenance changed, and he said, "Oh. So it's the same. You're Christians." Ha.ha we said yes, yes we were. So he wanted to meet with us the next day. When he came he had tons of questions about... everything really. We sat with him for over 2 hours and answered them all. He wanted to understand the Book of Mormon and some other personal beliefs and concerns. He opened up to us really fast when he learned that we were Christians. He told us he is looking for a church that doesn't preach prosperity, prosperity, like all the churches here do. We told him to come and see how we do things, and he won't be disappointed. He was really surprised that we weren't payed for our work, so finally, he asked, "So if I want to give you some money, like something from my heart, will you accept it?" I told him normally, we won't. We are told not to accept money. (He is pretty well off). He said, "But what if it's from my heart?" I said, "You could give us 5 or 10 cedis, but honestly, we have sufficient money for our needs. I think you could give that money to someone poor, who actually needs it. You would find greater blessings." He looked at us, smiled wide, and said, I am now your member," then he shook our hands. It was amazing to watch this guy do a complete 180 in 24 hours. He came to us with his nose in the air, expecting to deliver us a sermon on how awful we were. (Not to mention, he's a tall, bald, intimidating black guy!) But the next day, he was sitting humbly before us, a 50 year old man asking two 19 year old boys about the questions of life. I know that as we sat there patiently answering his questions, he felt something. We've seen him a few times since then, and he is very interested. Now he and his brother are super strong, ha,ha. Even D. wants to change his line of work and put things in order. So, as Mormon would say, "From this we see that" people are truly being prepared by the Lord. Amen.
Love,
Elder Doggett
No comments:
Post a Comment