GHANAIAN VIGILANTE JUSTICE
Dear Family and Friends,
There was a lot that happened this week. We watched the full Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration film with one of our investigators. She is the cousin of one of the member families in the branch, and we teach her at their house. Towards the end of the movie, the members brought us juice and homemade candy bread. Their main room has A/C too, and a full HD 60 inch TV. It was a goooood lesson, haha. Talking with that investigator yesterday actually, I found out that her parents own the building they rented out for Ntranoa meetinghouse. She used to live there. So it's still a small world out here in Ghana.
So on our way to Mission Conference this week, we saw a whole crowd of people in the street and it stopped all traffic. We asked the driver what was up, and he said there was a thief. Pretty soon we saw who was in the middle of the crowd; a short, young, Ghanaian man in a white shirt, getting railed on by the crowd. He broke free and started to run from everyone, and lots of guys followed him as he dashed into a half-constructed building. They all started to pick up rocks and boards and went after him. That's about when our taxi drove away. It was pretty chaotic, they will KILL YOU here if you get caught stealing. It's the mother of all crimes here.
But the mission conference was really good! The focus was on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and how we can help our investigators better understand it. President Shulz gave a very good talk about the actual sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He went through the 'consequences of sin'--- what happens when you sin. The eventual consequence is death, both spiritual and physical. He explained how Christ felt every single effect and sorrow of our sins. Because one of the consequences is removal from God and loss of the Spirit, Jesus felt that too. When you lose the Spirit, you feel confused, uncertain, and alone. President explained that Christ probably didn't understand why or what he was doing. Hence, "Nevertheless not my will, but Thine be done." But he just knew he was doing something he had to. He thought he was sacrificing EVERYTHING. He thought he was sacrificing his own personal salvation and exaltation. And he did that for us. We know now that he didn't sacrifice salvation and exaltation, but at the time, he did not. It makes sense when you liken the story of Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac. Abraham knew what he was going to do as he went up into the mountain with his son, But Isaac didn't know the whole picture. Until it was all said and done, they didn't realized a sacrifice would be provided for them, in the form of a ram caught in the nearby brambles. This really helped me to understand the scale of the Atonement, and what Jesus Christ gave up---what he thought he was giving up. But he loved us and his Father enough to do it anyway. It really helped me put it in perspective. (Mom, I met Elder Larsen at the conference, he seems like a great guy.)
On Saturday, we went up into Green Hill to meet a member referral at their house. When we got there, the referral had gone out. But the A. family has two 8-year old twins. The Fante words for twins are Paein and Kakra. Paein is the elder, and Kakra the younger. Elder Hansen loves these girls because he's a twin, too. He is Kakra. So Kakra came out to see us, and to go call on the referral for us, but when he was gone, she ran into the house and grabbed a Book of Mormon Stories manual and brought it out to show it off to us. She brought it over to me, so I decided to tell her a BOM story! Haha the pictures in that book are great; they're from like the 1950's. I was gonna tell her the story of Coriantumr and Shiz, but I decided that was too violent. So I settled for the story of Ammon. (Not much better, right? Haha) She thoroughly enjoyed it,
though. She was so thrilled and enraptured in the story. Especially when Ammon cuts off the Lamanites' arms. :) Then Elder Hansen shared his favorite story with her, when Nephi prophesies of the murder of the chief-judge. It was fun.
We've started teaching a newly-wed couple that lives right in front of us. They were invited to the branch conference by President Davies, who is their landlord and ours. They're not Fante, they are from upper eastern region, so they speak a language called Frafra. They're both very intelligent, and have a somehow American sense of humor. It kinda throws me off when we teach them, because they feel so first-world, haha. I might be kinda rusty when I come home. :) Both of them are very interested in the gospel, the husband came first and noticed just how happy everyone is. He said there has to be something different with the church. His wife is a little less excited. They're both Catholic, so as we teach, we can see some of those beliefs coming through. I have a lot of respect for people who know what they believe though, because most people here have NO IDEA. Going to church is just a social event here. We're a little worried though, because they've been reading anti-Mormon stuff on the net. But we're trying to focus on the family aspect of the gospel, since they are starting their own family now. It's hard to get them to church though, because they don’t speak FANTE. But the Relief Society president caught me sleeping yesterday in church, so she told everyone to throw more English into the meetings. Haha she will never let me hear the end of that though, she is very troublesome.
Love,
Elder Doggett
There was a lot that happened this week. We watched the full Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration film with one of our investigators. She is the cousin of one of the member families in the branch, and we teach her at their house. Towards the end of the movie, the members brought us juice and homemade candy bread. Their main room has A/C too, and a full HD 60 inch TV. It was a goooood lesson, haha. Talking with that investigator yesterday actually, I found out that her parents own the building they rented out for Ntranoa meetinghouse. She used to live there. So it's still a small world out here in Ghana.
So on our way to Mission Conference this week, we saw a whole crowd of people in the street and it stopped all traffic. We asked the driver what was up, and he said there was a thief. Pretty soon we saw who was in the middle of the crowd; a short, young, Ghanaian man in a white shirt, getting railed on by the crowd. He broke free and started to run from everyone, and lots of guys followed him as he dashed into a half-constructed building. They all started to pick up rocks and boards and went after him. That's about when our taxi drove away. It was pretty chaotic, they will KILL YOU here if you get caught stealing. It's the mother of all crimes here.
But the mission conference was really good! The focus was on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and how we can help our investigators better understand it. President Shulz gave a very good talk about the actual sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He went through the 'consequences of sin'--- what happens when you sin. The eventual consequence is death, both spiritual and physical. He explained how Christ felt every single effect and sorrow of our sins. Because one of the consequences is removal from God and loss of the Spirit, Jesus felt that too. When you lose the Spirit, you feel confused, uncertain, and alone. President explained that Christ probably didn't understand why or what he was doing. Hence, "Nevertheless not my will, but Thine be done." But he just knew he was doing something he had to. He thought he was sacrificing EVERYTHING. He thought he was sacrificing his own personal salvation and exaltation. And he did that for us. We know now that he didn't sacrifice salvation and exaltation, but at the time, he did not. It makes sense when you liken the story of Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac. Abraham knew what he was going to do as he went up into the mountain with his son, But Isaac didn't know the whole picture. Until it was all said and done, they didn't realized a sacrifice would be provided for them, in the form of a ram caught in the nearby brambles. This really helped me to understand the scale of the Atonement, and what Jesus Christ gave up---what he thought he was giving up. But he loved us and his Father enough to do it anyway. It really helped me put it in perspective. (Mom, I met Elder Larsen at the conference, he seems like a great guy.)
On Saturday, we went up into Green Hill to meet a member referral at their house. When we got there, the referral had gone out. But the A. family has two 8-year old twins. The Fante words for twins are Paein and Kakra. Paein is the elder, and Kakra the younger. Elder Hansen loves these girls because he's a twin, too. He is Kakra. So Kakra came out to see us, and to go call on the referral for us, but when he was gone, she ran into the house and grabbed a Book of Mormon Stories manual and brought it out to show it off to us. She brought it over to me, so I decided to tell her a BOM story! Haha the pictures in that book are great; they're from like the 1950's. I was gonna tell her the story of Coriantumr and Shiz, but I decided that was too violent. So I settled for the story of Ammon. (Not much better, right? Haha) She thoroughly enjoyed it,
though. She was so thrilled and enraptured in the story. Especially when Ammon cuts off the Lamanites' arms. :) Then Elder Hansen shared his favorite story with her, when Nephi prophesies of the murder of the chief-judge. It was fun.
We've started teaching a newly-wed couple that lives right in front of us. They were invited to the branch conference by President Davies, who is their landlord and ours. They're not Fante, they are from upper eastern region, so they speak a language called Frafra. They're both very intelligent, and have a somehow American sense of humor. It kinda throws me off when we teach them, because they feel so first-world, haha. I might be kinda rusty when I come home. :) Both of them are very interested in the gospel, the husband came first and noticed just how happy everyone is. He said there has to be something different with the church. His wife is a little less excited. They're both Catholic, so as we teach, we can see some of those beliefs coming through. I have a lot of respect for people who know what they believe though, because most people here have NO IDEA. Going to church is just a social event here. We're a little worried though, because they've been reading anti-Mormon stuff on the net. But we're trying to focus on the family aspect of the gospel, since they are starting their own family now. It's hard to get them to church though, because they don’t speak FANTE. But the Relief Society president caught me sleeping yesterday in church, so she told everyone to throw more English into the meetings. Haha she will never let me hear the end of that though, she is very troublesome.
Love,
Elder Doggett
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