Week 32 Bardege, Gulu with Elder Ankrah

 
Hey, I'm doing better, slowly and steadily. My week was super busy too… Sister Collings doesn't know what to do for me with this virus, so I guess I just gotta tough it out. But anyways, Tuesday we were just super busy trying to see people and we met this new lady who's amazing named Belinda. She's in her early 30's and I had the most spiritual experience of my mission teaching her. Then it was just the same old on Wednesday and Thursday, except I went on exchanges with another missionary on Thursday, Elder Newman and we had a great time working together. Anyways there was a lot of stuff that happened at the end of the week. On Friday we had to go to Lira again, to do more interviews for baptisms. We got into a car accident, it was bad enough that the truck couldn't be driven. The wheel of the axel broke, so it's still in Lira getting worked on. but the problem is we were stuck in Lira. We had to take like a 5-hour taxi back to Gulu and It was such a long day. And since we're out in the middle of the desert they don't have the parts to fix my truck, so I don’t know when I'm gonna get it back. We got back super late that night and then we had Zone Conference on Saturday along with some baptisms and it was just crazy trying to get it all ready since I'm in charge of all of it. But the baptisms and zone conference went fine, I had to give a training on unity and was supposed to talk about how being united as missionaries helps us to get ready to be married. It was good because there's been some drama in the companionships in the zone. Baptisms also went well, this guy Dennis we've been teaching for a while got dunked. We went to Chobe; the game park and it was a blast. We saw all kinds of animals, but I can't send pics because of the Wi-Fi, I already tried. If we ever decide to come back and visit this place that's where we'd stay is on Chobe. Anyways it was a crazy week, I'm glad that it's over haha. Sure love you a lot. Elder Payne 

Week 31 Bardege, Gulu with Elder Ankrah

                                             

Tuesday, we did service for this crazy lady named Irene. We went and fetched all her water for the week.  We get water from a place called a bore hole, which is like a fresh water well. We have to pump the water into jerry cans and then carry them back to her house which is super far away. I love her little daughter, she's the cutest thing ever. I have no idea how to spell her name though.  After service we spent all morning just hanging out with her family and the kids and teaching them. We also met this dude named Lakanna that day, he's like a DJ and makes really weird music videos. He wanted to learn about the church, so we taught him a little bit. He's not very serious though. Wednesday was good, but we found out something super sad. So, do you remember that girl Gloria?  We've been teaching her for a while and she's really great, but we found out she had an abortion when she was 13 years old. How sad is that? Anyways we talked a lot about repentance with her and she was still able to get baptized Sunday. For some reason the branch wanted me to do the confirmation, so I got to do my first confirmation. That was a neat experience, the spirit was super strong. Lately we've been having branch members do the baptisms too since it's a good way to get them fellowshipped. Thursday, I went on exchanges with a guy named Elder Harris from Liberia (the one holding the girl in the picture). Friday was just really long but we taught this lady that was super funny and she's having us over for dinner tonight. I just hope she doesn't try and feed us pig ears…No joke, some lady tried too.  My name in the Acholi language is sweet. It's Elder LIT. How cool is that? I'm learning some small Arabic from a new lady we are teaching too. Love that language. I wish I could speak it fluently. I'm learning a lot from my studies right now. I feel like I can't study enough. Sometimes I have to just relax and not study because I feel like I'm too intense and learning too much. Bruce R. McConkie has some talks that I LOVE. There are two books I'm trying to get ahold of other than Eragon hahaha. One is called Mormon Doctrine and the other is Doctrines of Salvation, both by Bruce R. McConkie.  If they're not too hard to get ahold of I’d love it if you could send them to me.
We played scrabble slam with a member this week. Dad and Corbin would both love it so much.
We get a limited working fund for fuel, so we have to manage that well. It can be tough because we're so far away from everything. Plus, we're both a little sick right now so we don't feel like walking anywhere. There are missionaries all over Gulu but they're all pretty close together. No missionaries in Lira yet, but there should be soon. They need them there so bad, those people are ready for the gospel.
The weather here is just hot. Always hot here in Gulu. It's more of a desert though so at night it can get chilly. We don't have any AC but we have a fan. And the Africans don't like fans, they get too cold, so I snagged another one from some other missionaries and now I have two fans! If it dips into the high 80's people put on hoodies. My hair got butchered by a guy I paid to cut it. I'm not going to need a cut-I’ll be growing my hair for a while, it was pretty dang short
Thank you so much for taking care of me. I don't really know what's going on, I think its just a virus. I have a bad cough and am super tired I think it's just a virus that will pass. 

Week 30 Bardege, Gulu with Elder Ankrah

Tuesday and Wednesday were totally normal missionary days. We got bounced at every single appointment Wednesday, so it was really slow. Thursday was great though, we went and saw these two sisters that we've been teaching who are going to get baptized Saturday and they're really funny. They are CRAZY though. Their names are Prossy and Gloria. At first Prossy thought that that we were illuminati, and that we prayed naked hahah. Took a while to convince her otherwise. Then we went to Lira Saturday and did a bunch of interviews. It's always cool to get to hear other people’s testimonies! So, I love to go out there. Our house has a water tank, but it gets filled a lot more often than the last one. Yes, we have a nice toilet. We do have a fence around the compound, but we don't have a guard here. We do have a washing machine. I drive a Ford Ranger, I took a pic but the wifi isn't good today. They don't really have maps here. I don't know why because it would be so helpful. Thank you for taking care of me. I miss you a ton. I love you lots and lots mom. Have a good week and keep an eye out in the mail.

Week 29 Bardege, Gulu with Elder Ankrah

We had Mission Leadership conference at the Mission Home this week. So, because of that we didn't spend much time in our area-Bardege. Only a couple of days. Miraculously we still found 12 new investigators.  We drove all day on Thursday to get to Kampala and then had MLC Friday. I really enjoyed MLC, and I never thought I'd ever say I'd enjoyed a five-hour meeting. I just loved all the trainings and the spirit was super strong the whole meeting.  I got to catch up with Elder Millecam, my trainer, so that was cool. I also got to pick up all my homemade weights. In our area we have a neyabo named Gloria and her sister Prossy that are getting close to baptism. Another thing we are working on is that I've been teaching Elder Ankrah how to drive. If he passes a driving test the mission will pay to get his license so I'm helping him learn. It's a serious challenge though because not only has he never driven before but he has to learn driving a manual shift in the most driver unfriendly country on the planet hahaha. I learned a good lesson from the Porsche incident and always keep my hand on the e- brake. Dad will be so proud. Elder Ankrah is a really great guy, super fun and super humble. We get along great. I really like him. By the way, each of those spiders? Ya they're bigger than my hand.  The new house is so nice compared to Lugazi. I would actually bring you guys back to this place.  However, the bed is terrible. I think it has bed bugs… Along with my comp I live with Elder Newman, from Ogden and Godfrey, from Idaho. 
I bore my testimony and talked about how we can follow Christ. My branch president's name is William, he's a great guy. We could go to dinner here every night if we wanted to. I love the people!  We haven’t been in the area long enough to set up service opportunities yet but we will. I haven't been to many refugee camps yet. But hoping too -South Sudanese people are great investigators.