"We were proselyting in his area, and we saw this chicken lying awkwardly on the ground, looking like it was dying. This guy came over, covered it with a huge metal bowl, and started banging on it with a coconut..."

Dear Family and Friends,

     This week went by extremely fast, probably because our building is finally being renovated. They are about halfway through right now. Now they are bidding that it'll be done mid-February, and we can start using it early March. I'm sooooo stoked, it will be such a huge blessing to this area. The work has been pretty slow lately as we are waiting for the building. We told most of our investigators that a building would be built soon, because it's exciting. Unfortunately, they all decided that they won't come to church now until they building is finished and it's convenient for them. Most of them only need to come to church to progress. So, I have a lot of random stories to tell this week.

     Elder James and I have been cooking like mad. Last Monday, we took 3 hours to make a stew, and it's a killer stew. We've been eating it for a week and it will last about a week more. The best thing to do with it is pizza. We just throw down some simple dough with egg, flour, baking powder, a pinch of salt, and fry it with a lid to make a little oven.. I've been adding that taco seasoning I brought with me. Total it costs about 2-3 cedis making one ourselves, when buying one is about 15 cedis, and it doesn't taste as good. Also, I found real potatoes down here, so I made the most amazing, greasy, so-bad-for-you french fries. (I love you mom) :) We're having a hay-day down here. Dad, you should send me your recipe for salsa, I could make some killer salsa down here with all the fresh stuff. And Mom, in response to your question about protein, I eat tons of eggs, so my protein count is fine, but I will appreciate the calcium.

     We got a new, rechargeable light for our room in case of lights-out, and when I pulled it out of the package, I couldn't stop smelling it. It smelled so new! I haven't smelled something new in so long, ha,ha. You really enjoy the simple things down here.

     So, there is this school really close to our flat, and almost every morning the marching band marches around our building. It's really annoying when you're trying to do personal study, but I actually listened to the song they were playing yesterday and I recognized it. They are always playing Confederate marches. (Nate, it immediately reminded me of Fallout) I found it really ironic that they were playing those. If they only knew where those songs came from---the people in the U.S. fighting to enslave them. Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

     I saw something hilarious on splits with Elder Carstens again this week. We were proselyting in his area, and we saw this chicken lying awkwardly on the ground, looking like it was dying. This guy came over, covered it with a huge metal bowl, and started banging on it with a coconut. We were laughing and asked the guy what the heck he was doing, and he said he was waking it up. Apparently he threw a rock at it to stop it from digging in the dirt and making dust, and he nailed it in the head. And he was trying to 'wake it up'. I just giggled to myself, because he probably gave it brain damage or something. But then, he grabbed it's neck, opened it's beak, and started blowing air down it's throat. Elder Carstens and I just about died watching this guy perform 'chicken CPR', which likely wouldn't work anyway.

     So, there is something really depressing that happens to white guys down here. You'll meet some people, start greeting them, and everything, then smile and say something to their baby or small child. Then said baby or small child immediately bursts into tears of bloody murder. It's really sad, because I've gotten pretty fond of kids down here, they are fun to meet and stuff. But some of them are deathly afraid of Obruni. :-).  Oh well.....

     But some people down here, mostly immature teenagers, love to come up to white guys and chatter Fante at them, and laugh about it amongst themselves because we haven't a clue what they are saying. At first, it made me kinda mad, but I found the greatest combat for it. I found that if you throw some Spanish at them, they panic, ha,ha. One particular time, some guys at a taxi station were doing this to Elder James and I, it was really rude actually, so I looked at them and said, "Yo quiero queso e un gato en me pantelones! E tu?" Ha,ha! That wiped the smiles off their faces, and they got all nervous looking. Then they asked me if I spoke English, I told them no and tossed some more Spanish around. It really ruined their joke. Haha so I've been dredging up any and all Spanish I know is floating around in my head.

     This week Elder LeGrand R. Curtis of the Seventy is coming to tour the mission, so we did a DEEP clean of our apartment this morning in case he rolls around for an apartment check. Our zone will be meeting with him for some kind of conference on Wednesday, so that should be cool. Also, Elder Quentin L. Cook is coming to Ghana for a training conference. Unfortunately, he will be staying in Accra, so we won't see him, but our Branch President will. Jealous.

     I have a long story about another investigator, but that will have to wait until next week. It's been an interesting time with him, but we are slowly finding the truth about him. So we'll meet! Yebesheya wye!

Love,

Elder Clinton Doggett

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”
     

Crowded fishing port

Apartment in Elmina

Balancing act

Kakum National Park canopy walk

Elder N. not so sure he likes being over 100 ft. from forest floor

Elder Doggett enjoying the view

The ants take over in the jungle

Elder Doggett in front of bamboo

 ".....this area is a giant stack of dry wood. All we need is a match. The match is the chapel. With that, this place will light up like an Idaho summer brushfire."

Dear Family and Friends,
     On Wednesday, we had transfers, Elder James came from the Western Region in a village called Nkroful. He is a really cool guy. He's from Evanston, Wyoming, and he is only a transfer ahead of me. In Nkroful, he was speaking mostly another local language called Enzima, so I now know more Fante than my companion. Which is not a lot, ha,ha.
     When we first met, I told him I hope he is a hard worker, because I'm sick of wasting so much time. He is a very hard worker. We decided to follow every rule as closely as possible and push ourselves. This week we had two investigators come to church, which is a record for this area. In the first 13 weeks I was here, we had only 1 come to church, but she came every week and was soon baptized. I am absolutely convinced that obedience is our key here. And as for teaching, he is a powerful teacher. He had a brilliant trainer from the UK that taught him a lot. So he's helping small with some of the things I missed out on. We kicked this week in the pants. Unfortunately, it kicked back. I got really dehydrated and I'm still recovering from that. Apparently dehydration has all the same symptoms of malaria and can be just as bad. I honestly feel like a dry sponge. Or a sack of flour. So I'm pounding water like a camel. This time of year is actually the hottest. Most of the year is chilling in the rainy season. It can get to a steady temp of 15 Celsius (59 Farenheit). Pumped.
     In these next 8 weeks, we are expecting to have the chapel in Ntranoa finished. But there is a lot of stuff going on in the area offices: the new temple in South Africa, incoming missionaries, an apostle is coming to tour the mission, and some authorities are moving around in position. So someone has to suffer for that, right? I have a sinking feeling that the building will be finished in the end of February and one week later I'll leave on transfers. That's the nature of mission. But ideally, an Elder Jones from Idaho Falls is coming in March; I ran into him in the temple 3 days before I came out on mission. I'm hoping to get called to train him, so I can stay in this area. But that's a bit of a stretch. The mission will need a LOT of trainers very soon though. Elder James and I decided that this area is a giant stack of dry wood. All we need is a match. The match is the chapel. With that, this place will light up like an Idaho summer brushfire.
     The other day, during a sunset, since the harmattan is real thick, we could look straight at the sun. Before is disappeared beneath the haze, if you looked close, you could see a tiny dark spot in the upper right quarter. It was the planet Mercury. You'll never see that in the States.
     Kirsten, I got your Christmas package this week, and I loved it. Thanks for all the cool junk! I can't even explain how good that banana roll was!
      Tyson, I'm glad you are working on your papers. Having friends in the field, wherever they are, is a huge strength. I don't even know how to describe it.  I'm pretty sure after you get to see Cully and Carson, they will kick you out the door to a mission, ha ha. They wouldn't let you stay if you wanted to. If I don't get a letter from you before you leave, so help me.... I will send a note home to your parents! Seriously though, I may be inclined to physically or otherwise maim you in a friendly way. :)
     The work is about to explode like the Death Star here very soon. I'm very excited.

Love,
Elder Clinton Doggett

P.S. My hair got kinda long, and when I swept it back apparently I looked like Marty McFly. So far, its Marty from Back to the Future, Shawn Spencer from Psych, and Rod Kimball from Hot Rod. You'll get a picture sometime.

"There is this little girl named Nanaba....she's always around and she LOVES me. Ha,ha! she is the cutest little girl I've ever seen.  She [styles]  my hair on my arm and on my head......I've really come to love these African children and their obruni-loving ways. "

January 7, 2013 email:

Dear Family and Friends,

     Where to start? I guess I'll start with transfers. Coming Wednesday, Elder Nwoko will be headed to an eastern area called Assin Foso and Elder James will be coming to be with me. Yes, he's an American. Yes, I'm excited. He's from Wyoming, I believe. I'll tell you more about him when I meet him. He's only been out one transfer longer than me.
     I'm really excited to have someone new to work with because I know we can be successful if we follow all the mission rules.  I'm ready to start again and GET TO WORK. I've heard Elder James is a really hard worker. This area, very very soon, is about to be lit on fire with activity. The one roadblock is: the meetinghouse. When it is finished in  Ntranoa, members, less-actives, and investigators alike will find it very easy to attend church and see the light we have. Every church here is super apostate all about giving money to the pastor--lots and lots of money--singing and dancing the azonto (a pop dance here), and banging drums and being ridiculously loud and rowdy. The meetinghouse is expected to be done ASAP so I'm really excited to see it.
     During Christmas and all this week, these villages have some kind of parade/festival where people dress up in masks and costumes and go around asking for money. Kinda like a twisted flip of Halloween and Christmas. EVERYONE asks me for money because I'm white. I just tell them, 'Menti Fante' which means I don't understand Fante. Ha ha! but I did pay a few kids 20 pesewas each to take a picture with me. That's like 10 cents. But I didn't rip them off, you can actually buy stuff with that here.
     The other day we went to see our recent convert who lives with a member family. They were busy with gutting and preparing sea snail. Lots of sea snail! I had seen them doing it before with  one that were about the size of my fist. This time they were bigger than my head and weighed about as much as my thigh! Hahaha!  It was ridiculous. I took a lot of pictures so you'll see it all sometime. They just bash the shells open and prepare these snails to be roasted up. It's genius really--there are no bones, it's like a perfect, ready chunk of meat. Grab your forks, kids! I had a laugh at that. And the members had a laugh for the fact that I had a laugh at their sea snails. Apparently the fishermen can only catch the snails when it gets cold and they come close to shore. More like snailsermen.
     Speaking of the cold, harmattan has begun!  I absolutely love it. It gets cold in the evening and in the mornings. I was recently discussing with an American elder how we miss getting into a cold bed at night. No more! Elder Nwoko, however, got a cold from it. So he hates it. It's funny, actually the Nigerians will wake up and throw sweaters on while Elder Doggett just basks in the cold morning glory. I hear harmattan gets even colder, and dusty. Just like home! I heard it's like 20 below there? I don't even remember it getting that cold. So THAT I don't miss...
     You should know who Ghana's number one celebrity is. Mr. Barack Hussein Obama. He is everywhere here. I think I've seen his face more here than I ever did at home. He's on signs, shirts, cars, notebooks, and even a box of pens.  I laughed really hard at that and took a picture. "Obama Quality Pens!" Ghana recently had their own election and I saw a video of a guy campaigning for John Mahama, the current acting President, saying, "Obama Mahama! Obama Mahama! Obama Mahama!" That's seriously all he said for his speech and people just cheered. It doesn't even make sense. Most people, when they hear I'm from the States, say, "Oh, so you're an Obama man, huh?" I resent that! Haha. I am NOT Obama's man. But I won't go to politics :)
     There is this little girl named Nanaba who lives in one the apartments of a small building we teach a boy in. The building is owned by a member and is very small, so she's always around and she LOVES me. Ha,ha! she is the cutest little girl I've ever seen. Her sister was scaring her by flipping her eyelids inside out and chasing her, so she ran straight to me during a lesson and wouldn't let go. Then she started styling my hair--- on my arm and on my head---my hair has gotten a little too long for a missionary.  I've been blasting it back 80's style. I haven't had time to cut it, but when I do, she will be very sad. There is also a girl named Precious who is the daughter of a less active member here. We are good friends with the family (they always give us Waakye--- love it!). She is about 2 1/2 or 3 years old and absolutely refuses to let her mom cut her hair. She just pulls it straight up and looks like a little Rasta child, it's hilarious. I got a really good picture of it I'll try to send. Our recent convert, Linda, has a little 5 month old baby named Jojo. He is adorable, I'm holding him every time we meet with her. Haha He has a little afro. I've really come to love these African children and their obruni-loving ways.
     So I'm learning a ton everyday. I can already see how these lessons are affecting me as well. The biggest lesson is patience. Always patience. But it's very good for me. And since I learned how to make fried rice I have been LIVING, let me tell ya. I'm going to attempt no-bake cookies very soon. I'll send some home! Haha yeah, right.....

Love you all!
Elder Clinton Doggett

Elder Doggett at Cape Coast Christmas Devotional

"If you're walking by, and someone is eating, they'll say, 'you're invited'.......I asked Elder Nwoko if they really meant it, he said, 'heck yeah they mean it.'  If you go over there they will stuff you with food. These people are so giving, they are willing to share their food, even out of their own bowl, with some white stranger passing by."

Elder Nwachukwu and Elder Doggett performing song they wrote

December 31, 2012:

 Dear Family and Friends:  Christmas. It was very eventful actually, I didn't even have time to feel homesick really. It's hard to feel like Christmas anyways when there's no snow here. We had a mission Christmas conference which was very good. We had a devotional, free food (the best), and a talent show. We had to do a zone talent, so we put it together after doing a big service project a week before Christmas. We didn't know what to do so we decided to translate the story of Ammon in the Book of Mormon defending the flocks of King Lamoni. We translated verses into six different languages: Aramaic, Egbo, Swahili, Ga, Sign Language, and Pigeon. Pigeon was hilarious, because it's a slang of English (verrrrrry slang) and we gave that one to the verse of Ammon cutting off all the arms. Haha. Elder Nwachukwu and I played a song afterwards. It's a Christmas song we wrote, I barred a few chords and Elder N. wrote the lyrics, it was pretty fun. After all that we got to watch a movie! Shhhhh. It was Forever Strong, which is out mission motto, so President and Sister Shulz figured it was appropriate. 

    We had a new office couple come to the mission, Elder and Sister Crittenden, from Rexburg. Talking with Elder Crittenden at the devo, he recognized my name and said he worked with a Doggett in the temple. "A big, square guy". "Ha ha," I said, "Yep, that's my Uncle Murray!"

     A few days before Christmas, I decided to give some of the cookies Mom sent from home to an investigator who had an unexpected turnaround. She wasn't taking us seriously at all, and she kinda just laughed at us as we taught important things, so I was frustrated. But when we challenged her to pray about the Prophet Thomas S. Monson, she got an answer. A friend of her's who is a member of the church and never calls her, called her out of the blue, so they talked about the church. She asked him if the prophet was really the true prophet and they talked about that so she took it as her answer. She started to take us more seriously. Then after a lesson talking about Christmas, I sorta bragged about getting all those goodies from the states and such, so I felt bad. I decided to give her the rest of the cookies and a Christmas card from the First Presidency that all the Elders received for Christmas. I'm hoping she can feel that we are truly representatives of Jesus Christ, that we care about her. 

     During sacrament meeting some weeks ago, we were about to sing, "O Little Town of Bethlehem", and as the chorister started, I realized she was singing the words to the melody of "I Saw A Mighty Angel Fly", hymn 15. I sat there silently busting up in laughter at how well it actually fit together as we sang. I figure a lot of members here don't know the real melodies for a lot of the hymns. Ha ha,it was just one of those, 'Only in Africa' moments.
     On Christmas day we had SO much fufu. We went to a few members' houses and they spoiled us. I thought I wouldn't eat for a week. I'm actually starting to like the stuff, I'm eating it so much. My favorite is groundnut soup (peanut) with chicken. Of course the phone call home too was great. Although I ran out of credit really fast. I dunno how the fees work here, really so i'll figure that out. Nate, I'm sorry we didn't get to talk much but I'm glad you had me call Kelsey. It was really good that we talked, we found that we are going through a lot of the same challenges. All the more reason for YOU TO WRITE ME :)
     I had a cool realization the other day. There's something that people say all the time around here. If you're walking by, and someone is eating, they'll say, "you're invited". I always thought it was just a common, courteous thing to say to people. But I asked Elder Nwoko if they really meant it, he said, "heck yeah they mean it." If you go over there they will stuff you with food. So we were passing a few guys roasting chicken gizzard barbecue style and they invited us, so Elder Doggett happily accepted.( It smelled like American BBQ!) We had a good conversation about the church and such. They gave us a lot of meat and were so friendly I was really impressed. These people are so giving, they are willing to share their food, even out of their own bowl, with some white stranger passing by. Granted, meat isn't cheap around here. I was thinking, "This sort of thing would never happen back in the States, it's too bad. The people here are so generous." I mean, I was super duper impressed by this, and I still am. Seeing how little people have, and how fast they'll give part of it to you, is simply amazing. They're not blinded by the vain things of the world, like prejudice and pomp, or social status. Those things don't exist here. I can't really describe it.
    So this is my last week of training, by next Monday I'll know whether or not I'm staying in Elmina for the next two month long transfer. I'm excited to be finished with training, I don't really like being a new missionary. Some of the other Elders are a little condescending to new missionaries.  I feel like a freshman again,  ha ha. I'm not sure if they know they're being condescending though. Oh well, it teaches me lots and lots of parience. :)

Love to all! And Happy New Year!
Elder Clinton Doggett

Elder Doggett had a very WHITE Christmas.....his first baptism on Dec. 22nd, 2012!!

Elder Doggett, Linda Y.