Dear Family and
Friends,
Things are going ok here. The area is still really slow, though. It's in an awkward place, because it's over a 30 minute walk from the chapel. The West Africa Area Presidency has said that we shouldn't proselyte over 30 min walk from the chapel. And our entire area is out of that radius. It is really hard to get people to church. But that's the story of my mission so far, just struggling to get people to attend. The area is poor, too so that doesn't help a bit. We're just starting over pretty much. I'm trying to help Elder Cowan realize that missionary work is fun, even if you don't have people to teach yet. I remember being very frustrated when I first came. But I won't lie, my first area is kind of a missionary death pit. This area isn't that bad.
Our apartment is pretty good though. We have guys from Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, and two Americans. It's a really big apartment, we're always fighting for time in the kitchen, haha.
Most of all recently, I've been impressed with how fast Elder Cowan catches on to everything. He's learning how to teach, speak the local language, assimilate to the culture, and just pretty much accept that we're not in America anymore, haha. I remember that was hard for me. I was very stubborn against the culture and stuff, because it bothered me, but now I'm fine. I wish I could have assmilated faster. But let's face it; I was NOT enjoying my training. It was a good experience, though.
Up until now, we've been teaching lessons point by point, kinda slowly in this mission. President Shulz told us we need to teach more simply, and faster, so that people can feel the Spirit in the first lesson and know what we are about, right from the get-go. It's been sweet so far! When we can teach someone the entire message of the Restoration in 30 minutes, they understand out purpose and intentions. And most people will realize how enormously huge our message is. We're not saying a small thing, here. Before, it was hard to get people to understand the implications of our message, but now it's so easy. I won't lie, this strategy is straight out of Preach My Gospel, but the whole mind of the mission used to be that, 'PMG stuff doesn't really work here'. That's just not true. When we teach this way, we can weed out the not-serious people very early, and move on to find more people who will act on our message.
Things are going ok here. The area is still really slow, though. It's in an awkward place, because it's over a 30 minute walk from the chapel. The West Africa Area Presidency has said that we shouldn't proselyte over 30 min walk from the chapel. And our entire area is out of that radius. It is really hard to get people to church. But that's the story of my mission so far, just struggling to get people to attend. The area is poor, too so that doesn't help a bit. We're just starting over pretty much. I'm trying to help Elder Cowan realize that missionary work is fun, even if you don't have people to teach yet. I remember being very frustrated when I first came. But I won't lie, my first area is kind of a missionary death pit. This area isn't that bad.
Our apartment is pretty good though. We have guys from Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, and two Americans. It's a really big apartment, we're always fighting for time in the kitchen, haha.
Most of all recently, I've been impressed with how fast Elder Cowan catches on to everything. He's learning how to teach, speak the local language, assimilate to the culture, and just pretty much accept that we're not in America anymore, haha. I remember that was hard for me. I was very stubborn against the culture and stuff, because it bothered me, but now I'm fine. I wish I could have assmilated faster. But let's face it; I was NOT enjoying my training. It was a good experience, though.
Up until now, we've been teaching lessons point by point, kinda slowly in this mission. President Shulz told us we need to teach more simply, and faster, so that people can feel the Spirit in the first lesson and know what we are about, right from the get-go. It's been sweet so far! When we can teach someone the entire message of the Restoration in 30 minutes, they understand out purpose and intentions. And most people will realize how enormously huge our message is. We're not saying a small thing, here. Before, it was hard to get people to understand the implications of our message, but now it's so easy. I won't lie, this strategy is straight out of Preach My Gospel, but the whole mind of the mission used to be that, 'PMG stuff doesn't really work here'. That's just not true. When we teach this way, we can weed out the not-serious people very early, and move on to find more people who will act on our message.
Love,
Elder Doggett
Elder Doggett
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