"We are in the last days now, the 'Saturday Evening of Time'. Things will only continue to spiral downward as we get nearer to the 2nd Coming of the Savior..... That realization makes me want to be stronger; I want to be a light to those around me."

Dear Family and Friends,

     This week was interesting. We were preparing an investigator for baptism, and we went to see her on Tuesday. When we got there, she was gone and didn't answer the phone. That was strange because she had never missed an appointment. She lives with her auntie, so she came out and told us that she packed her things and left yesterday. She got a job and just up and disappeared. That happens a lot here. People just disappear. I can't say I'm surprised though because she really didn't like staying with her aunt. Her aunt would dump her kids on her and leave for days on end. So we were a little deterred from that, but that evening things switched around.
     We have another investigator who was a referral from a member family, who lives with the family. She has pretty much since birth. She is what we missionaries sometimes call a 'dry member'. So we've been seeing her, and we've taught all the lessons, but we felt that she wasn't ready for baptism. Last week we told her we wanted to post-pone, because we felt she didn't have the desire for herself, and because she was moving to Accra for school the next weekend. The next day she called us up and asked, "So the baptism is not happening next weekend? Why?" So we decided to sit down with her again and have a serious talk about baptism. She told us she really did have that desire, and that she has been paying tithing for some time now, and going to church and institute at school. We were surprised, but pleased, and we just switched her name with the previous investigator's name for the date of August 10th.
     Yesterday our recent convert C. blessed the sacrament. He nailed it on the first try; I was impressed, haha. I winked at him from the congregation and he winked back all chill-like, haha. "Yeah, no sweat. I'm awesome." He was strait business up on that stand.
      That's very interesting about the girl who was talking to her JW friend and needed scriptures. I recently wrote a journal entry about the JWs and all they're efforts to confuse and corrupt our investigators. Another example of changing scripture: In Ezekiel 37, where the prophecy about the Book of Mormon lies, in their Bible they change the 'stick of Joseph, and for Israel his companions", to "stick of Israel". They completely omit "Joseph and Ephraim". Which we now know that is key information, as Nephi tells us in 1 Ne. 6:2 that they are descendants of Joseph. So, I'm glad I could help someone out by venting in my emails :)
      Recently I was reading in the Book Of Moses--- I'd never read it before. It was very insightful and clarified some of the events in Genesis. IN Ch. 7, Enoch is talking with God, and God himself begins to weep over the Earth. Enoch asks Him why he is weeping , saying, "Were it possible that man could number the... millions of Earths like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of thy creations..." (Moses 7:30) God answers Enoch saying, "Among all the workmanship of mine hands there has not been so great wickedness as among thy brethren." (Moses 7:36) I put two and two together and realized what that means. This world in which I live is the most wicked of ALL of God's creations EVER. That's seriously heavy.
("Gee, this is heavy Doc." "Weight has nothing to do with it!" ha,ha [One of Clint’s Back to the Future quotes]) Although after this conversation God flooded and cleansed the earth, Jesus Christ said in Matthew 24:36, "but as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." We are in the last days now, the 'Saturday Evening of Time'. Things will only continue to spiral downward as we get nearer to the 2nd Coming of the Savior. This world is a terrible place. That realization makes me want to be stronger; I want to be a light to those around me.
     Anyways, have a nice week!
Love,
Elder Doggett

Zone meeting from July 2013