REASSIGNMENTS DUE TO EBOLA OUTBREAK

Dear Family and Friends,

                I had an interesting experience reading my patriarchal blessing this week.  As I read, I noticed some particular words in the expressions therein, and I decided to look up direct definitions of said words in my dictionary. As I understood the true meaning of the words and pondered why the patriarch was inspired to use them, I gained greater insight into the calling and expectations the Lord has for me. I also could fathom the Gifts of the Spirit that have been granted to me.

                What I love about my blessing is that everything is implicit, almost nothing is directly stated. I have to actually study it and pick it apart. Occasionally there are things that stick out to me, which I had never before noted or fully considered.  I think the Lord knew I have a love and knack for literature in general.  With the scriptures and my blessing I love to find truths that have been concealed.

                As we closed our day Saturday night the assistants called and gave us some sad news.  Due to a deadly ebola epidemic sweeping upper West Africa, the Sierra Leone and Liberia missions are being closed-- effective immediately. The missionary department is re-assigning all the missionaries to the 4 missions here in Ghana, and to the 5 missions in Nigeria. Our mission will receive one senior couple (hopefully they will come to our neck of the woods), one sister missionary, and 17 elders. We can expect them within the next week or two;  then two weeks after that we have 16 brand new missionaries coming for transfers. The mission home will be a busy place; there's always something huge going on...

                I do not envy those missionaries who have to be uprooted and planted in a strange new plot in the Lord's vineyard.  Imagine leaving everyone and everything you had come to love: the members and investigators, culture, experiences, etc.  That would be so hard; all at a moment's notice.

                Yesterday the assistants informed us that the missionaries might be stopped from leaving their countries because they were shutting down the airways.  But this morning we got word that there are 8 coming and they will make it tonight. The rest will come later, and we're still praying for them.

                K came to church! Late, but he came. We were very happy, he's a free guy and he enjoyed himself.  He just fit right in. Then we called him last night just to check up and he said he was sitting with his wife teaching her all the things he learned at church and his experience there.  He's so powerful! Although, it seems his word of wisdom concern may be larger than he is admitting.  So we're working on that.  Keep sending your prayers up for him.

                We also got like 4 referrals this week which is really impressive.  We're re-building our teaching pool right now so we really need it!

Love,

Elder Doggett

The ebola outbreak is on both sides of Ghana.  Prayers needed for our missionaries and the people in West Africa.

MORE RUMINATIONS ABOUT FIDO.........

.....poor, little thing!

The following is Elder Doggett’s father’s thoughts on his report last week of eating dog meat:  Dog food. The aforementioned term typically denotes nourishment usually reserved for various types of the canine species.  Some humans however, have mistakenly come to the conclusion that it means "dogs as food"!  You appear to be a member of that latter group!  Be it known that the typical social norms in place that you most likely refer as "Back Home” may prevent you from indulging some of the appetites that you have become accustomed to in Ghana.  Any time that your dinner was previously referred to as "Fido" or "Rover" or possibly the unfortunate appellation of "Lucky" should give you a clue that the meal that lies before you may not be deemed appropriate by many of your "Back Home" associates.   As one who has in previous times claimed to be your Father and now doubts somewhat the wisdom of such claims, I would encourage you to hold tight to the teachings of said Father.  Please consider holding your eating habits to consuming such things as hot DOGS or corn DOGS.  Try not to think of “Fido the DOG” as lunch (even if he is cooked with hot peppers).

Elder Doggett’s response:  Hahaha dad I had to eat it-- my name is DOGgett! 

Elder Doggett’s email from Jul 29, 2014:

Dear Family and Friends,

                Recently the weather has been really cold. It's raining everyday a really light drizzly mist; it's pretty much snow but it's not frozen. I love it because it's a welcome relief to proselyting; but coming home to shower at night is terrible. So we've got a water heater to warm buckets, which is pretty much just this open coil that shoots current thru the water to heat it up. Don't touch the water when it's on...

                We met a pastor a while ago who wanted us to come and share ideas with him. We've sat with him twice. The first time he was going off the rails ranting about his strange doctrines; he was hard to control and I was getting frustrated.  Luckily my companion had enough patience to handle him.  When we met this week though, he was much better.  He was trying to understand how Peter, James, and John appeared to Joseph Smith to restore the priesthood.  He believed that here would only be one resurrection all at once for everyone, but we reminded him how MATT 27:52-53 states that many saints arose after Christ's resurrection, and appeared in Jerusalem.  Of course, we don't know exactly when the apostles were resurrected, but will God all things are possible.

                This pastor was asking very good questions and he had humbled himself a lot this time. We slowly led him to the topic of the Book of Mormon.  We introduced it, but next time we will expound all things unto him.  My comp accurately compares him to Apollos in ACTS 18:24-28. He's a man "mighty in the scriptures" and "fervent in the spirit". He really just wants to know the truth.  In fact, he's searching for the truth so he can teach it to his congregation. Hopefully when he finds it, he'll know what he REALLY needs to do with it.

                I find in him a very desirable trait: he is willing to listen to what others believe and learn from it. Even if he doesn't agree, he is not ignorant. That's something I have learned to do on mission, not in the gospel sense, but in general.  If someone if more informed on a topic, why not listen and take note? Again, it's admirable in this pastor, especially since he is like 40 years our senior.

                Now again our investigator K is making progress. He is receiving our teaching so well, once again it is not even us who is teaching, it's the Spirit. He feasted on the Plan of Salvation, and even began sharing the pre-mortal existence with his friends, haha.  We were hopefully expecting him at church on Sunday, but he failed to come.  When we saw him in the evening, we didn't hide our disappointment at all.  He has a problem with the Word of Wisdom and confessed that he drank in the morning, that's why he didn't want to come.  Maybe it's a good thing we didn't hide the disappointment, but in the future we have to give lots of encouragement.  He and his family have so much potential!  Please keep him in your prayers.

Love,

 Elder Doggett

PS Elder Cavaness is our assistant right now, and he told me the other day what my flight schedule is... Don't get trunky!  (We were informed Elder Doggett comes home on October 1^st!!!!)

Elder Doggett's email from July 23, 2014:

"MAN'S BEST FRIEND" IS NOT A PET IN GHANA........

Dear Family and Friends,

                I ate dog for the first time last week! It was pretty good; tasted like beef really.  Except Elder Etim boiled it with WAY TOO MUCH fresh red pepper  It was insane. After gorging myself on dog and rice, my head felt like it would explode and I was sweating a waterfall.  I had to crash on my bed with the fan blasting into my mouth haha.  E. Etim was just laughing his head off, but even he was dying.  Man there is nothing here with enough base to neutralize the sting-- there's no milk!

                Elder Nakedi and I were discussing recently about one great evidence in an investigator's progression: they will volunteer information such as stories, insights, personal concerns, how they are feeling, etc-- without you having to ask. Most people will just sit and let you preach at them while you have to try and pry participation out of them. We have a few good people you exemplify this. One is P., we've been teaching him for a while, we met him thru his sister, whom the missionaries were teaching since before I came to the area. Another is K., we met him just last week. He used to attend the church some years ago.  He traveled for work a lot and fell out of contact, but now he has settled down with his wife and son.  He's ready to start over and fix some problems with his life; he and his family show a lot of promise, I'm excited.

                Our area is seeing progression, except I don't think we'll make our trimester baptism goal of 7. We've had some hang-ups and all the new people we meet and contact don't live in our area! We had to refer K. to the sisters; he doesn't live in our area either.  Our area is really small... The zone however, should be very close to our collective goal by the end of August.

                Transfer news is in: only one change in our zone. Everyone is staying together except for our Achiase elders.  Elder Boamah, the Ghanaian is shooting off to Sekondi.  We don't even have to do anything, he is just leaving from Achiase with his comp, and his comp will come back with the new missionary.  That's incredibly easy for us... and our pocketbook :)

Love,

Elder Doggett

"THE FIELD IS WHITE.....

Dear Family and Friends,

            We had a ward conference yesterday and I just feel like expressing how awesome the growth of the church is here in Ghana. It's amazing how fast the church grows! Just as they reported the statistics compared to the last conference I was impressed. The field is seriously white and ready to harvest. I just wish we had a harvester... that would make it even faster.

        Elder Nakedi and I also attended a stake council meeting because the stake president wanted us to report on how meetings are going in the stake. We asked our missionaries and they told us how things were going, so we forwarded that on to the stake leaders and various bishoprics. It was a good chance to address any problems or concerns that our missionaries have; very effective meeting. In addition, Pres Fokuo explained how fast the stake is growing, he just created 3 new branches just over a month ago and now there are 10 units: 7 wards and 3 branches. Assin Foso has only been a stake for 3 years! And they created a district just over a year ago. In a way, it's so exciting to see the numbers on a large scale. Surely the stone that was cut without hands is rolling forth to fill the whole earth. 

        On Thursday, we had interviews with President Stevenson. Our zone is huge, so it took all day. We did it by district though, so everybody would at least have a bit of proselyting time. President did 20 minute interviews to get to know everyone. We gave an instruction on working with members, which is a general weakness in our zone. I think it was effective and hopefully our missionaries have some new ideas to take to their areas. It went longer that we expected, so I felt bad because the Assistants had to cut their instruction in half. 

      We were actually supposed to go on splits with President after the meeting, but it was getting too late by the time we closed.

       Too bad, because we had a really powerful lesson that night! One of our seemingly insincere investigators got an answer to his prayer. How? By going to church on Sunday, even though he went to the other ward in town.  Revelation comes through church attendance.  K just did a 180, he was so excited about all he had learned,  he asked us to be baptized. I wasn't surprised, but I didn't expect it. It's become clear to me that as soon as any person exercises their agency to give our message a chance, and as soon as they open their heart-- the truth will be revealed. You just have to put forth a LITTLE effort to 'experiment upon our words.'

       We're starting to see more progress with the people we've been teaching. We are focusing hard on setting baptism dates and working with our members. (You have to practice what you preach, right?) Our ward missionaries are really gaining enthusiasm, and they've been helping us like never before. They're referring us to their friends and proselyting with us a ton. 

Love,

Elder Doggett

I'm happy you went to the Shulz's homecoming! Sounds like it was so powerful! And it's funny that you met Kinikini haha. I'm sure you remember how many times in my emails I have praised President Shulz. He did SO much for this mission. He's a very loving man.  Enjoy camping, I wish I could be there!

.....I JUST WISH WE HAD A HARVESTER"

MEETING PRESIDENT & SIS. STEVENSON

Dear Family and Friends,

                On Tuesday we had our first Mission Leadership Council with President Stevenson.  He's a tall man; that was my first impression of him. Come to think of it, my first impression of Pres. Shulz was that he was short, haha.  Pres. Stevenson is pretty young for a mission president, and he's full of energy. He was just released as a stake president and he was in administration in a finance company. I can tell he is used to getting things done with efficiency.  He's got a lot of good ideas to speed things up with technology, even though this mission is nowhere close to other missions... *cough* iPads.

                Since I've been serving as a Zone Leader, we travel to Cape Coast every so often for meetings. Every time we do, we pass through one of my old areas, and I've noticed that every time we do I start feeling homesick... for Green Hill! Those were the golden days of my mission.  I love the members; I love my converts there; most of all though, I felt the most loved by them. The people there feel like family to me.  I was catching up with Elder Z Larsen who served there after me and he told me what's going on with everyone.  He told me all my converts are still strong and that the branch finally got their own building. I miss that place! At times, the work went slow but the progress we saw there was REAL progress.

                We didn't do anything too crazy this year for 4th of July like last year.  Elder Holmgren and I just sang the national anthem early in the morning; he was wearing a flag draped around his shoulders. There was no time to even do something fancy, so we just made hot dogs. Elder Nakedi and I taught 7 lessons that day though.

                This week I got my travel request forms.  Every missionary gets them when he has 3 months left. So I need to fill them out and then get the actual travel plans. The truth is gradually becoming a reality but I'm still blocking it out, haha.  I will stay in denial as long as I can.

Love,

Elder Doggett

Mission Leadership Council with Pres. and Sis. Stevenson

FURNITURE SHOPPING FOR THE PRESIDENT

Dear Family and Friends,

                President Shulz called this week and said, "Elders, I'm going to ask you to do something strange..." He continued to explain that they wanted a new leather recliner for the mission home before they left.  They had a hookup for a recliner in Accra for 1400 GHC, but he said he saw one at the Melcom store in Assin Foso.  He asked us to go to the store and check, so we did--amongst the plethora of other things we had to do that day, haha.  Good news….. we found one for 895 GHC on sale for only 825 GHC! It was a steal. So we got an invoice and photo copied it and sent it to him.

                The funny thing is, we had so much to do that we needed to split with the other elders in the apartment-- but they were already on splits!  So we conducted what I call split-ception.  A split inside a split.  So Elder Collins came couch shopping with me, it was legit.

                On a more serious note, we had an investigator baptized yesterday. His name is E.  He is a student at the local college and he's a genius, in general and in the gospel.  We found him in the chapel early morning before his baptism in one of the classrooms running through calculus on the chalkboard haha. The missionaries were teaching him before I got here, and it is strange because we can only see him once a week.  The boarding school hardly ever lets him out, haha.  He has a very strong testimony though; unfortunately we won't be able to teach him and help him integrate because he is going on vacation from school so he'll be attending in Takoradi.

                We have another investigator who has SO MUCH potential. His name is R. and he is married with two daughters. He is learning tons from our lessons and he is slowly gaining a testimony. He is very open with us and tells us what he's thinking. He's just a little afraid of having to change his life and things if he finds out what we are saying is true.  But he and his family would be so great in the gospel!

Please keep him in your prayers.

Love,

Elder Doggett

PS I would love to send pics of the baptism but I have neither the time or network to do so. Sorry!

Dad, it’s funny that you mentioned Isa 55 because this morning in our apartment devotional  I used verse 2, I think, where it mentions, 'let your soul delight in fatness' Why? Because we got subsistence money today! Haha

"I don't want to get somewhere down the long road of eternity to watch

someone I know break down in the arms of the Savior, and realize that I could have helped them discover that familiar embrace years ago"

Dear Family and Friends,

                We've seen P., the boy who lost his mother two weeks ago. He was playing futbol and enjoying life with his friends a few days ago, and he joined us for free banku from the stake president last night. I'm always impressed with the way people handle death here.  It doesn't sting them very hard. But Ghanaians in general already kind of inherently believe in an afterlife, so they are just happier (than Americans are) when death strikes. Ghanaians have great faith.

                I was reading Elder Packer's talk in the conference Ensign the other day. At the end of his talk, 'The Witness', he bears strong testimony and indirectly states that he has seen the Savior. I was pretty surprised initially, but then I realized that there must be something that sets apostles apart as 'special witnesses' of Christ in all the world.

                I had to preside at a baptismal service this week for some of our missionaries' candidates. The service wasn't planned very well, their ward mission leader didn't come and they had no presiding authority. That happens pretty often here... When that happens in the GCCM, the elder who has been out the longest presides--and that was me, haha.  All I had to do was sit there and make sure everything went the way it should; it wasn't hard. Five were baptized and I must say I'm impressed with how our missionaries are doing in the zone. Total this week:  7 were baptized.  Hurrah for Israel!

                We had our final zone conference with President Shulz this week. It was mostly just to say goodbye to everyone. Like I mentioned in an earlier email, we had an object lesson. (I didn't describe it before because we wanted to keep it secret so we could use it with our zones) We went outside, blindfolded everybody, and in different groups we led everyone by having them hold on to ropes in silence.  There were some obstacles to get over, nothing too difficult though.  Then one by one we had everyone individually let go of the rope and 'wait for further instruction'. Then someone started singing the first two verses to the hymn 'Come Follow Me' #116.  One by one people started to realize that was the 'further instruction' and slowly trickled over to where we were singing. We hugged those who made it, and they removed their blindfolds and joined us in singing until everyone made it.

                Afterwards, we went inside and discussed how to apply the experience in our missions and lives. The rope is the Spirit, the leader of the rope is the Savior. The obstacles are trials, and the choice is ours to heed to invitation-- 'Come Follow Me'  The first time we did this activity, I was a participant. This time, I was leading one of the ropes. I had a much different view and I had a profound observation in my group.  Sister A was the first one on my rope, and the more obstacles she hit, the closer she moved up the rope towards me-- until she was pretty much touching my hand.  It was easier for her to follow and hold on that way. But because she was so close to me, there was a big gap going to the next person on the rope. Consequently, the rope became slack for Sister N.  She was struggling with every obstacle she ran into; she nearly fell many times because the rope wasn't tight enough to give her solid support.

                Towards the close of the activity when we turned everyone loose and told them to wait for further instruction the singing began. People meandered in and were subsequently hugged and their blindfolds removed.  When Sister N. made it, Sister U. gave her a tight hug and removed her blindfold.

Sister N was in tears. I think she felt so overwhelmed at the chance to finally have someone to hold on to. I was touched inside because I had watched the whole time and had observed how hard the walk

was for her.

                Application: How often in our attempts to get closer to the Savior, do we leave someone behind who also needs support in the gospel? As we try to be more righteous, we must be wary lest be become self-righteous.  How do we miss the opportunities to pull someone along with us in the gospel?

There are people who need support; people who need truth. But they are kept from it because 'they know not where to find it'. I don't want to get somewhere down the long road of eternity to watch

someone I know break down in the arms of the Savior, and realize that I could have helped them discover that familiar embrace years ago.

Love,

Elder Doggett

Yeah I forgot to mention Ghana was super depressed after losing to the USA in the World Cup.  I felt bad for them.  They tied with Germany just the other night, so they have one chance left to stay in.

It's so fun to watch everyone--literally EVERYONE freak out when Ghana makes a goal. That [Coast Guard] breakfast [Kelsey and Joe cooked] sounds so amazing... I miss food!!....It's cool that the whole neighborhood was there, though!