Les Enfants Du Monde Entier

I don't know about you, but Christmas had a few bumps in it this year, but in terms of the mission, I am now halfway done, just one more to go! Crazy to think like that, but I am sort of a crazy guy. There was an interesting story that happened on Christmas, but I think that is one best left untold (just mentioning it to make you all sit on the edge of your seat). What's Christmas without a little... excitement?

It was great to see and hear my family! I had a good time talking with folks back in home, and the happiest day of the year has a mighty high fall when it is all said and done. Despite Christmas not existing here in Togo the spirit comes as you get to spend precious moments with those that you cherish. Easily I can say that I miss my loved ones, but just as easily I can tell you all that I love being here on my mission even through all the things that I miss.

I am looking forward to this amazing new year, all the joys and wonders that await us all. It has become a time to resolve to do better, to strive a little harder for excellence, to do all that we can to perfect ourselves and become the examples to the world so often mentionned by the Savior.

There have been so many chances granted unto all of us to better ourselves, but for one reason or another we seem to fall short of our personal expectations, why is that?

In personal experiences I have learned that our biggest critic is ourselves. We have amazing capacities to see the bad all around and in ourselves as well. We are narrow-minded as we look for the good and bad that is in the world, I have typically only been able to see one side of this spectrum. I spent many years of my short life seeing me as bad, whether there had been good or not it did not matter, I saw only bad. It took the loving support of others, and the divine help of the Redeemer to bring the light into my heart to see the good within myself and the world around me.

My point(s) is/are this:
1.) When you want to change, don't think that it will be as easy as telling yourself, get those around you to help you through this process.

2.) Don't allow yourself to think that there is nobody there, there is always the Savior close-by for those that sincerely seek. Those the ask with a heart full of real intent have the eternal promise that we can overcome whatever is holding us back.

Life is a thing to be cherished, and just like the coming of a new year, a restart to the year that we have just topped off, we can always change who we are and make ourselves better. We can become that better friend, that better father or mother, that better husband or wife, that better hometeacher, that better missionary (my hope), that better student, that better son or daughter of God. Life is a chance that we have to better ourselves in such a way as to become eternal, and it doesn't start tomorrow.

The cliché line is "tomorrow never comes" but it is so very true. The day that we have been given to live within is the perpetual today, and we can hope and dream for our castles and mansions as long as we want, but we MUST start today in working for those things that we desire. We gain with time the ability to see the things that are vital for this eternal life we aspire for, and those things that if held onto would weigh us down. There are my hopes and dreams that I am striving for here on my mission, and I know that the preparations and changes that I make here will forever bless my life if done sincerely.

My heart goes out to all of you as you "restart" the year, and I pray that each of you find a worthy ambition and strive for it. Put your hand to the plow and don't look back. Let the Lord be your guide, your everlasting light in the wilderness of self-discovery, and your stalwart companion to lift the burdens of your daily cross as the jungles of the world attempt inevitably to ensnare you. The road to eternal life is a simple and hard one, but it is anything but impossible. It has been walked perfectly before, and the pathway is well-lit by the torches of the gospel. Make your inheritance of the kingdom of God your first ambition, and the rest of the blessings you desire will surely follow.

Love you all! Have a great week!
--
Sincerely,
Elder Robert Haggard

Mission Bénin Cotonou
Cadjehoun Lot°1158 Bloc F
01 BP 3323
Cotonou, Bénin

Joyeaux Noel! It's (not) Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!‏

Dearest Family and Friends,

The Holidays have snuck up on us and this week is the week the rest of the world is celebrating the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, while here in Togo Christmas "is for the children." Sadness of the world when they let significant moments like these pass them by and they don't appreciate it. Then again, despite the angels harking to the lowly shepherds of the fields, the luminous star shining in the east, and the predictions of countless prophets announcing the signs of His birth, the Savior of the world was born in a manger. The Son of Man came to save us from our sins, and the world went on as though nothing important was happening.

I appreciate the simplicity that the Savior embodied as He was here upon the earth. He sought not the fanfare of the courts of Israel, or the praise of the Roman influence, He came simply to do, not His own will, but the will of He that sent Him, God our loving Heavenly Father. Isn't that amazing?

I know, from many attempts of my own, that it is extremely difficult to let go of our selfish desires and cling solely to the desire of our Heavenly Father. It is funny how a loving Father willing to give us ALL that He has somehow comes second to the carnal desires that we carry within us. We just need to learn a little more about looking inward rather than outward. That is the spirit of Christmas I believe, to give freely to those that you love.

That idea goes along more with the embodiment of our Savior, for as the simplicity of our Savior's life has shown us the grandeur of giving, we realize that His coming into the world was inevitably to give ALL that He had for us, even unto the laying down of His life. What then did He ask of us? The most specific term that comes to mind is "Come Follow Me." We become His true disciples in living His example, by giving all that we can to those we love, and those that have hurt us, and finding the love for those that have injured our own hearts. You find love for those around you, as you find ways to give to them, not money, not presents, but by giving unto them love, simply love.

I would implore each of you, those that I love, to find someone and reach out to them. Bring them into a warm and welcome home, show them true Christianity by becoming like unto the Christ Himself.

Now, a little about the happenings here in Bè-Kpota! Funny tidbit about the name Bè-Kpota, Bè is another part of Lomé, and Kpota means hill, so Bè-Kpota means the hill of Bè. Cool how they throw words like that together to tell you where you are... I still don't find it as effective as an actual address system, but good enough I guess.

Sad day here, Elder Ringle is being transferred to Adidogamé, the "village." He is getting transferred sometime this week, which is horrible to have to move Christmas week. I will be getting Elder Oliverson in my apartment, they happen to be MTC companions, so I met him as well in the MTC during my Referral Center days. He is a cool cat too, but I'll be missing me some Elder Ringle. I think that is the hardest part of the mission, leaving behind the friends that you have made in each of your areas and heading off to make more that you will eventually leave behind.

So we had our Fête de Noel the 17th and it was great! We got to eat lots of rice, and chicken, and "salad," and the Christensen's made us some delicious cashew and chocolate chip brownie thing! Each district sang a cantique de noel, and then President Weed played his guitar and sang us a song about Joseph (the Papa of Jesus). It was a fun day! However...

So, when we have long activities that take up a large portion of the day, it is usually a "day off" but the Assistants to the President chose our district to do splits with afterwards... It was fun, but it was tiring. We missionaries are the WORST creatures of habits, and anything that changes in our days automatically destroys or stamina. I speak in general based on what I have seen here, but perhaps there are those zealous missionaries that are impervious to the effects of schedule change and I tip my hat to them!

 *I do in fact have a hat, but my companion refuses to go out with me if I wear it, it makes us look like Jehovah's Witnesses.*

Next on the week was my JOUR D'O.V.B.! I got to go on splits with Elder Ringle on Thursday and nigh on all of our appointments fell through, so we went to Emergency Procedure number 1 for missionaries, we went tracting. Luckily, we had success! We found us some new investigators! I have hope for two that we found because after making the initial contact, he took us to talk with his sister! A contact! They both seemed interested, but due to it being Christmas week it is hard to find time to meet with them again this week, so we shall see.

That is all that I've got to talk about, just know that I am alive, I love my mission, I love my Savior, I love all my friends, I love my family, and only I will know how important and vital each of these are in my temporal and eternal life.

LOVE YOU ALL!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

--

Sincerely,

Elder Robert Haggard

Mission Bénin Cotonou

Cadjehoun Lot°1158 Bloc F

01 BP 3323 

Cotonou, Bénin

Photos of a Missionary's Life

This week Elder Haggard was unable to write his usual email, but he was able to upload some pictures for us! Here are just a few...

Baptisms!

Choirs!

Eating?

New friends

Soccer 

A Whole Lot of Walking!!!!

Beautiful Country

Beautiful People

A Stake in Lome

Dearest family and friends,

Well, today the internet is being super super super super slow and so I can't open the contacts page here on the emails to send out a mass email. So be sure to spread the word around to everyone that I am alive, and tell people about my blog.

To explain the feelings that surrounded the amazingness of this District-turned-to-Stake Conference would be impossible, like in all matters of sacredness, the Spirit stands as an individual witness to all involved, and then all of those feelings are so personalized that they won't be the same as the one standing just next to you hearing the same words being said.

Elder Vincent, the Seventy that came to organize the Stake, is an Australian. It was sort of funny to see the translator struggle because how thick his accent is. He was powerful, and I dare say he has the foundations of hell rumbling a bit like Moroni. Maybe I just haven't heard a really powerful talk in a while, but I feel as though the two he gave over this conference were absolutely astounding.

He showed me so much that I need to look for in the Gospel and the things that the Lord wants for us in our lives. I loved the focus of his message on Sunday, "Focus on the Mountain of the Lord!" He spoke of an incident in Exodus 10:19 where He (the Lord) tells Moses to go down and tell the people to sanctify themselves because He wants to make Himself manifest unto ALL in three days, but the Children of Israel refused. They placed their focus on things of the world, the Gold Ram, and they wouldn't prepare themselves to go up to Sinai.

We need to all be preparing ourselves to go up unto the Mount of the Lord, and how well are we working on that? Are we putting other things above our devotion to the Lord? School, work, movies, friends, etc.? How can we turn out attention from the things, though truly important, to something of higher worth? We must turn our attention to things of eternal value, preparing ourselves for the Temple. Making and keeping covenants with our Heavenly Father, be it for ourselves, or most importantly, be it for our eternal families.

I miss the Temple very much. I wish I had a Temple that I was able to go to every once in a while here, but alas I don't. I just need to remember the beautiful things of the House of the Lord, and continue to prepare myself for the next time I get to go. I have realized that things in this life need to be taken seriously, for they are far too easily taken for granted. Hold on to the precious things that you can take with you into the next life, and don't overburden yourself with useless temporal things that have no importance in the grand scheme of it all.

Find your testimony in the beauty of Eternal Life, it carries you over the most difficult of times.

That is a bit of what I learned this week! I love you all, have a great week!

--
Sincerely,
Elder Robert Haggard

Mission Bénin Cotonou
Cadjehoun Lot°1158 Bloc F
01 BP 3323
Cotonou, Bénin

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

Dearest Children,

So last week I was a little tired as I wrote, but I got over it, I am looking back at this last week and saying that I actually enjoyed it!

So to begin, these first two things took place on Thursday, which you all well know was Thanksgiving, Happy Thanksgiving ya'll! Despite you all knowing that it is a VERY VERY important day of the year, it was somehow overlooked here on the African continent, but NEVERTHELESS, we Americans celebrated! (and we brought a Frenchie along with us as well, but he just wanted an excuse to eat.) 

We went over to a Middle-Eastern Restaurant called, "Akif's" where we ate! (I realize the redundancy of going to a restaurant and eating but it is dramatic/emphatic).  One down, one to go!

 I had a half-chicken, a charwarma, a plate of fries, a side of "salad" and a can of Sprite. I don't know about you, but that just screams "HAPPY THANKSGIVING" to me! 

We had me, and we had Elder Ringle, and we had Elder Layton, and we had Elder Faerber, and we had Elder Shearer, and alas le français, Elder Lemaire.

To top off our festivities, we were invited to an end of the year festival at the church of one of our amies. Well.... looking for words to describe this... once in a lifetime occasion... Worshipping in song and dance was taken a bit too literally. It was a moment where I felt I shouldn't be there, but it was torn between I don't want to insult our amie for her invitation. So, the Spirit not being there was uh-oh number one, the next uh-oh was that it was ALL in Ewe, save all the "Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!" I don't know if you could ever fully comprehend all the things that went down in "The House of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ." The question that she kept asking was why we don't worship God... It is an awkward question when people get so deep into the traditions of their fathers and confuses adoration and worship with songs and drums. We shall see how we can help her; it is hard when that is ALL that they have known their whole life.

So...

HISTORY IN TOGO: The first stake in the country of Togo will be constructed on December 8th 2013!!!! 

It will be a fantastic week here in Togo! Love you all, and I constantly pray for you!  The Lord loves you so very much, but I would dare say I am a close second! Talk to you later!

  

-- 

Sincerely,

Elder Robert Haggard

Mission Bénin Cotonou

Cadjehoun Lot°1158 Bloc F

01 BP 3323 

Cotonou, Bénin