Week 11 in Lugazi with Elder Millecam

I took a bunch of pics for you, but of course the wi-fi isn’t great today. I don't know if they will even send. That's sick you got a pool table! I can't wait to wreck you guys when I get home!!!! I haven't been able to set up my fitbit. It's super cool and fits and looks awesome, but I'll have to wait until Thursday to set it up because it has to be done on an Iphone. Thankfully Sister Collings has one and we have interviews then!
I pulled some money to buy protein powder, I think that will help me a ton. I honestly thought about eating that lizard we caught.  I just didn't want to clean it or I would've eaten it. It probably would've been super good. The flavor packets you sent me are AWESOME marinades. The Italian dressing stuff is so yummy on my steak! As far as other animals go, I see monkeys all the time, they're just hard to get pictures of.
Power and water are both good right now.  Yesterday was the first Sunday I've been here where we've had power all day. Actually, it's a good thing, since I had a ton of beef in the fridge. It doesn't rain every day, but it usually rains two or three times a week. We got poured on Sunday afternoon and this morning.
We had a baptism on Sunday, a girl named Cheri, and then two confirmations. We had NINE investigators at church and that was super powerful. The record in Lugazi was 8 so we're doing super good. We're on pace for almost 20 baptisms this transfer, so we're going to keep working hard. On Tuesday I went on exchanges with one of our zone leaders Elder Anim and had a really good time. He's from Ghana and a really cool guy. That Book of Mormon stories book you sent me has been AWESOME. Malayka took it home to study it. We've been having a really hard time getting her to read the Book of Mormon because she says it's boring, but I knew she'd like the stories. I think that realizing what was going on in the stories got her excited to read, so way to go Mom!!  One day this week while I was cooking, I had a salamander fall off of the ceiling and land on me. I thought that you and the boys would think that was super funny. I thought you'd think this was interesting.  I've told you a little about Faith and Jared, right? We've been teaching them for a long time and they're almost ready to get baptized. One thing that Africans struggle with here is the law of chastity. Because marriage is so expensive often, they don't legally get married, and they just move in together and then say they are married. So, we had to find out if they were really married. Another problem is dowry. Here in Africa the father of the bride can ask for anything that he wants for dowry and that can make it super hard to get married. However, if the man has paid a dowry and has met the parents then it counts as a "tribal wedding" so they can be baptized without being legally married. The church recognizes a tribal wedding as a legal binding marriage. Kind of interesting culture huh?

 I am really going to miss watching conference with the family. Not just because of the treats and the comfy couch but because of the company. I hope you guys have a happy Easter. Love you all so much!  love you with all my heart. I'll be thinking about you all week long. 

Week 10 Pictures

 

Week 10 in Lugazi with Elder Millecam

 

The number of tender mercies that we have seen here, especially in this last week, has been amazing. Everywhere that we look we see small miracles. We had one man who was really struggling to accept the gospel. When we showed him the Book of Mormon, he told us that his father had one growing up, and since his father was a man of God, what we are sharing must be true. How his father got a Book of Mormon, we have no idea! Super neat though. He's scheduled to be baptized in two weeks. We've also been teaching a few separate groups of Muslims, all around the age of 17. The only thing that was keeping them from baptism were their parents. After much prayer and fasting, all their parents softened their hearts and are allowing them to be baptized. It was a miracle. We've also been looking for opportunities to use our priesthood to bless our investigators. We blessed a baby who was super sick on Tuesday and on Wednesday she was healed. All kinds of great things going on here. The work is exploding, truly love being here.
It rained a ton. We were out of water and power all week and we used rainwater for showering. Kind of an adventure, I guess. I am almost done reading Jesus The Christ. I think you've read that. I'd love to hear what you think about it and stuff. We did a service project on Saturday and cleaned up garbage around town. That was a good day, we were all so tired after though. We also finally got water to do baptisms this week, so we were able to get a couple people baptized. Sam and Fahima. Fahima is a Muslim and had to deal with a bit of local persecution over being baptized, but it only made her want to be baptized more. Her parents were okay with it and she had permission so hopefully all goes well. We did get some threatening texts over it but nothing serious. It was a cool experience. She was afraid of water though and I had to baptize her 3 times because she kept reaching out of the water to pull herself up. It was probably traumatizing for her. 

We have so many investigators who are ready to be baptized they just need to show up now. Because of where our area is we have investigators who just take off back to their local villages and then we don't see them forever and that's what we're dealing with right now. They will come back eventually.  I decided to start eating the beef here... The other missionaries all thought it would make me sick, but I only buy on days when they fresh cut and I have been totally fine. I had beef liver for lunch today and it wasn't too bad.  I am having a really hard time maintaining weight, hopefully the beef helps.   I gave myself a haircut this week and a bald spot to go with it! I want you to send me another list of your favorite scriptures, so far Luke 1:37 is still my favorite but I loved the ones you sent me.  I sure miss you Mom. I'm so excited for Mother’s Day and to finally be able to talk with you and the family. Love Elder Payne

Week 9 in Lugazi with Elder Millecam

Basically, this week was hard. I got sick on Tuesday night and didn't get better until Saturday. I was super sick. Like could not get out of bed. Not fun. The time went so slow because we couldn’t be out teaching.  I'm doing okay now. I have no idea what got me sick, since I cook all my own food. It was miserable though.  I also got to give a talk on Sunday, that was tough to prepare even though I had the whole entire week. We are also out of water at the church, so no baptisms this week. Had to push them all back. We have a ton planned for next Sunday though.
Something funny that happened today, I got robbed when I was in a taxi by a guy that I was trying to buy water from. I chased him down and got it back- so that was sweet. People here take whatever they think that they can get away with. The crazy part is not just the thievery but actually the way they charge us more for EVERYTHING. It drives me nuts because I know how much stuff costs but now, I can haggle my way to a fair price. Sorry I don't have many pics this week. Only from Sunday because we didn't really get out. Oh well. Hopefully this week is better.
We can’t really plan that far ahead because people are so unorganized and unreliable as far as appointments. We usually plan the day of or just show up and things always work out. This week we'll focus on teaching Faith and Jared, a boy named Daniel, a girl named Fahima, a girl named Cheri and a man named Sam. Maybe an old man named Wamota too. We will just have to see. I don't know their whole names. They are impossible to say. They have like a simple name and a crazy one. One problem we have is our house is forever away from anyone we teach. We only have a few investigators by our house who we teach in the morning and then we go to town for the day. 
Family night looks like a blast! Wish I was there for that! Dad is the master of parables. I sure miss Corb. I wish I could have taken him to the pow wow. Hey, I also need a list of birthdays for the family so I can send home these cool birthday cards! I know our families MOM. I just don’t have grandparent’s birthdays. I sure love you guys-Love Elder Payne

Week 8 in Lugazi with Elder Millecam

 

 

 

       

We had a good week here. It rained a ton on us. It is crazy, the rain here in Africa is HUGE. It hurts really bad actually. It's the start of the rainy season here and at night I get cold sometimes. Like I shut my window. I took a nasty fall on Tuesday in the rain and mud, I got some sweet road rash, and I was super bruised up. It was a little bit funny/embarrassing. We had a baptism on Sunday, a man named Moses that we have been teaching for like a month now. He's a stud. He has a super powerful testimony, and it was super awesome to baptize him. He is 25. Our teaching pool is HUGE. We are teaching about 40 people right now. And that number is always growing. It's crazy to see how fast some people progress in the gospel. We have a husband and a wife, their names are Faith and Jared, who are going to get baptized together on the 18th. They're both ready now, and they both have super strong testimony. Faith is just scared to death of the water. Which is funny though, because originally, we were just teaching Faith and then when she was ready to be baptized her husband forbade her. Then we started teaching him too, but he speaks no English, so Faith must translate everything into Lugandan. It's been cool to see them learn and grow and teach each other. They bare their testimonies to each other almost every lesson and that's my favorite part. It will be awesome to baptize them. We went and saw the source of the Nile today, but the jungle spiders ruined the experience for me. Ya no pictures of the spiders. I was so scared. They were as big as my hand! They're HUGE. The Nile was really cool though. If you want an accurate idea of what it looks like and what the area, I'm in looks like go watch Indiana Jones and The Crystal Skull or whatever. That river is identical to the Nile, and the ants and ant hills are similar as well. They just don't eat people here... I don't think... 

And that is a fishing pole they use for tiger fish. I thought Dad and the boys might think that was cool. NOOOOOOO I don’t eat any of the fish here. I don’t eat any of the meat here. Not in Lugazi. It's so unclean and they butcher it and just leave it out. It's not good meat. The fish stinks so bad. It is just carp mostly. I'll take a picture of the market for you. They do have like 120 lb. carp though. They are bigger than me. Transfers are on this next Tuesday technically. My whole district will stay the same I think so no big changes. I miss video games- but not playing them, I miss hanging out with Baylor and Corbin while we played. I love those two. Mom, I cannot even put into words how much I miss you. And the rest of the family too. You guys are my whole world. I love you. I hope that you guys really know how much I love you all. Like when I get home I wanna spend my time with family because you are all so important to me. Love, Elder Payne