Week 37- Bardege, Gulu with Elder Ankrah

Your week has been super fun, I can tell. You'll have to tell me more details, but I love all the pictures. I wish I could've been with you guys. My week was not nearly as exciting as yours was. I spent most of my week in Kampala. We drove down on Tuesday and didn't get back until Friday evening. We stayed with some other missionaries this time in a place in Kampala called Entinda. We had a lot to do, errands, getting stuff for the zone, more working fund, then exchanges and interviews. Part of the reason we stayed so long was because we were there for two full days to do things, but then we had to stay two other nights because of travel. We had interviews with President Collings, and then Elder Ankrah and I went on exchanges with the assistants to the president. It was good but going down always makes me realize how much I like Gulu. While we were down there we mostly proselyted in the slums of Kampala. I don't love their area but the people there are really great. There were two lessons that we had that I really enjoyed, one was super spiritual and the other was just funny. One was with a sister named Irene and we taught her the plan of salvation. Because we must teach so simply it makes some of the most beautiful points of the gospel crystal clear. Talking about how we're all literally children of our Heavenly Father, and about how badly he wants us to return to live with him really made feeling the spirit easy. I really enjoyed the lesson. The other lesson was with a sister named "Mama Buffatti" and it's said just like it sounds... it's also very fitting… or not so fitting... sorry those are some thick puns. She was just super funny, and she kept making us laugh. The elder I was with couldn't stop laughing while we were trying to pray so she hit him so hard and it just made it that much funnier. She's a wild lady. Btw while we were there I met a returned sister missionary who served with Elder Draper in England. Small world. Then we came home, and overnight Gulu got SO hot.  Saturday, we WALKED. We went out and saw this guy named Oyuk, and he lives a good 45-minute walk from our apartment. We felt like zombies all day. People think we're crazy because we walk during that time of the day. It was worth it though because he came to church Sunday and I know without a doubt he'll be baptized in the next 2 weeks. We had a baptism for John on Saturday as well and then he was confirmed Sunday. He'll be a powerful member here. I'm really happy for him. And that’s the week. Physically I'm good, really tired though. Sometimes I feel like I could sleep all day and then still sleep through the night hahaha. I forgot my camera at home today! I'm so sorry. I don't mind being a zone leader, I like that it makes me feel obligated to set an example and work hard. At the same time, it'll be really nice to be a regular missionary again sometime. These days I'm driving slow though. Like a grandpa... My driving really isn't crazy, I'm super safe. I promise. Driving here in general is just scary!! I can't wait to see all the little cousins again- Tell everyone I love them-Elder Payne

Week 36, Bardege, Gulu with Elder Ankrah

  Monday night was super fun though, I'm trying to learn Arabic now and while we were visiting with this one family they were teaching me a little and helping correct my grammar. Anyways they have a little boy who's about 5 years old staying with them and he's from Juba (South Sudan) so he speaks Arabic really well and he was teaching me all these phrases and casually throws in curse words while he does it and of course me being the immature young adult I am, I laughed my head off at it the first time. Then we had to explain to him not to say that. I realized some words are absolutely universal. Then Tuesday we had a terrible day because guy we were teaching, Dennis, told us he doesn't want us to come back anymore. The thing that bothered me was that I know he felt something while we were teaching him. Super sad, I hope that somewhere along the line he accepts the gospel. I wish I was going to be around when he does. Wednesday was better, but that night we had a bunch of kids throw rocks at our car. They didn't realize that I know where they lived, so later that night I went to their house and explained what happened to their Mom. She was actually gonna beat them, but instead I just told her that the kids could wash our truck the next day. I thought it was a fitting punishment. hahaha. The next day they washed the truck while we went and worked on the new chapel that is being built in Bardege. Sheesh it was hard work. Imagine doing construction work without any tools or tractors or anything.  I got to break rock for the foundation with a HUGE hammer and then help lay it. It'll be cool to come back though and see it and be able to say that I helped to build it.  I'm really glad that I'm getting to work on it. It feels cool to sacrifice to build something like that, I can only imagine how building a temple would feel. Later that day we met this guy named Oyuk, and he's such a kind guy. He has such a genuine interest in the things that we've been sharing with him and it just felt good to be appreciated. I can tell that he'll take the initiative to act on the message of the restoration of the gospel. He really wants a testimony. It was a really good teaching experience! But the highlight of the week was on Saturday... We ate cat… Hahaha it's not that good. I don't think I'd ever eat it again. It tastes like really tough chicken. Most days I eat chicken and small amounts of rice. Lots of veggies and eggs. And LOTS of bananas. Not a whole lot of variety. I keep forgetting to tell you, if you want to see what the slums of Kampala look like you can look up Unforgettable by French Montana and watch the music video. BUT turn the sound OFF. It’s not a good song. It was filmed in the slums of Kampala city, and it shows exactly what they're like. And actually, I lied, Sunday was the highlight. Sunday was great! We were able to baptize this guy Jimmy that we've been working with for a while and he shared a great testimony after. One thing that I love that I have realized here is that the people are willing to sacrifice for the gospel. They give up a lot sometimes, and I think it takes a lot of faith. The biggest sacrifice is the change of life style. The norm is partying here, so they give up a lot of friends to join the church. Another big sacrifice is travel. Some people walk REALLY far to get to church. Then the members here really sacrifice time. Opio is a missionary for fun. He shares the gospel with his friends all the time. Everyone here sacrifices something to be a member. In this branch I haven't had to do anything on Sunday except teach the investigators class. They're a lot more organized than Lugazi was.
Me and John, a guy we are teaching who is progressing well. He asks us all these deep questions and sometimes they're tough to answer. He wanted to know about the seer stones that Joseph Smith used to translate the book of Mormon last time we met. Paul is also progressing and will hopefully get baptized this week and then Opio is a member that I really like. 

Week 35, Bardege, Gulu with Elder Ankrah

  

  
My hip is a lot better. It hasn't been bothering me much, so I didn't end up getting it checked out. I'm all good.  I can't believe Dad caught himself on fire! That's nuts! I'm glad that he's okay! I wish that I could hear Corbin give his talk. Will you send me a copy of the talk, so I can read it?
Monday night was pretty good we went and had family home evening with my favorite family in the branch. I don't know what to call them all because they don't have a family name, but they're from South Sudan and they're also super-duper funny and I really enjoy being around them. We had popcorn and played games. It's so humbling to see how such a small gift like popcorn makes them feel. All I did was buy them each a bag of popcorn for the night and it cost me less than one US dollar total and when I gave it to them all of them were so happy. Even the Mom, and they were so genuinely grateful for something so small. It made me feel really good. Tuesday, we traveled to Kampala which took all day.  I stayed that night in the mission home and then the next day we had a conference with Elder Koch, of the seventy. I loved mission tour and I learned a lot from what he said. We talked a lot about teaching repentance and how through repentance we can help people feel the love of the Savior.  I got myself into a sticky situation though because I wore my sandals down and forgot my other shoes. So, at the last minute I had to run back to one of the missionary apartments and borrow some shoes hahaha. Mission tour took all day and then we stayed the night again. The next day we left after I went for a run and made the drive back to Gulu. Wednesday I was so tired. I actually fell asleep during a lesson and dropped my scriptures on the ground. That was super embarrassing. Idk what's wrong with me but I can sleep like crazy lately. I'm always tired. Thursday was interesting, we did service in the morning and I learned a lot about what a stumbling block pride can be. We were trying to dig a trench for this one member, and we were going to connect a pipe so that he could get running water to his house. But we had to connect it to his neighbors tap. He and his neighbor seriously don't get along. Well he wouldn't let us connect the pipe even though it would've made his water pressure better. Because they don't like each other they wouldn't even get together to talk about it. They kept wanting the other one to come over to his house and ask for permission. So, neither of them would leave their own property. It was a joke, and because of this we had to dig a trench like three times as long and connect it somewhere else. Stupid that they couldn't just have a little humility and talk to each other about it. That day I got a couple of super nice text messages from members in the branch, and I was going to send them to you, but I forgot our phone at the apartment today. We taught some good lessons though. Dennis didn't come to church Sunday, but I think he's super serious about the gospel. (This Dennis is different than the orphanage Dennis, that one is a member) You asked if there was anything I liked about Africa. There's a lot I like! I want to tell you about something specific to Gulu. A lot of people beg for money here. Because I'm white I'm a target too, and it can get super annoying. But the people here are a little different. I had a lady approach me a few days ago and instead of asking for money she asked if I had any work that she could do to EARN money. I didn't have anything for her to do, but because she came to me and asked for work instead of money I figured out some stuff for her to do, and because she'd asked for work it made me feel a lot more generous than if she'd asked for money. I told her that and she told me that her father had taught her that it was wrong to beg, but if hard times came to ask for work, because it's important to work for our money. I thought it was interesting because it's a gospel principle. 
I'll go on exchanges every week for the rest of the transfer starting this week. So the other elders all live in Gulu town, but the zone is expanding and there will be elders in Lira and Adyel within the next couple months and they'll be in my zone as well. The tie in the picture is from Ethiopia! I traded Elder Mclain for it, I thought it was way cool. Those are baboons and you have to be really careful because they are NOT nice hahaha. 

                                     

Week 34 Bardege, Gulu with Elder Ankrah

You're a huge support to me being out here. I don't think I could survive going more than a week without hearing from you. This week was just long. I'm kinda struggling a little bit and idk what to do other than put my head down and work. Time is just crawling for me and this area is tough. It's hard because the people are just hard people. They either reject the gospel or won't keep commitments so it feels like we're working for nothing.  Tuesday was a regular day and then Wednesday we drove to Kampala to pick up the new missionaries coming to the zone. The drive down was a lot of fun, we listened to Disney music the whole way down hahaha. One of the missionaries that I was taking down is this super wild guy, and he'd hang his head out the window and scream at people when we passed them. Driving down took all day, and we stayed the night in Kampala. Then Thursday we picked up the new missionaries and came back to Gulu. One of the new missionaries is from Provo and he's super cool. His name is Colby Mclain. He's going home in a month. A lot of travel this transfer!  On the way home we fed some baboons and I got some sweet pictures. We also swung by the game park, so the new missionaries could see some animals. We saw giraffes, elephants, and hippos.  I ran over a dead crocodile on accident, it was a blind corner and it was just lying in the road. So, we don't have MLC this transfer. It's mission tour, so Elder Koch, an area authority is coming here. We go to Kampala this week for that and then we go again on the 19th for interviews with president.
My studies are one thing that I look forward to big time. I always find some comfort in the words of the prophets or in the scriptures. Sunday was good though, this guy Dennis that is super smart finally came to church. He's the most stubborn dude, and he heard a lot of negative things about the church, so it's been a battle to convince him that the church isn't what he thought. I think he's finally coming around. I've had some of my most spiritual experiences of my life sharing my testimony with him. In fact, I think what got him to come around was that during the week I kind of unloaded on him. I'm a little bit sick of all these fake people who we teach but never keep their commitments and never do anything to find out for themselves if the church is true. Dennis just wasn't really putting in the effort necessary to get an answer and I told him that it was just our job to share the message and I told him that if he didn't do anything about it he'd never find out if the church was true and he'd miss out on blessings. Then I shared my testimony with him Elder Holland style and told him if he didn't keep his commitments I'd never come back hahaha. Then he came and just getting him to come to church made me feel so happy. If he becomes converted, he'll be a leader in the church here without a doubt. We had a wild game of cover your assets last night as a zone and It really made me miss playing games with our family. Btw I found a really great eagle scout project for Corbin if he's interested. There's an orphanage ran by a member here who lives out in the bush that could really use his help. The guy has an amazing story and has given up his whole life to take care of these children with his wife. They have about 50 kids living with them right now. An eagle scout in Colorado did a project to raise money for him so that they could build a building for them all to live in, but now they need school supplies and clothing. If Corbin wanted he could do a fund raiser to get money for them to buy school supplies like desks and what not. They have teachers who have come from BYU and do volunteer work and teach them, but they have no school equipment. There's some other stuff that they need to. Idk if that's something he'd be interested in but if he wants he could make a serious difference here for those kids. I'll be thinking about you guys! Have a good week Mom, I love you! Tell the whole family I love em for me. Miss you guys more and more all the time! Love, Elder Payne

Week 33 Bardege, Gulu with Elder Ankrah

I'm so proud of Corbin that sounds like such a cool award, a title of liberty necklace! Baylor needs to do something fun for his birthday! Tell him to do a barbecue, that would be a blast. Dad works so hard. I've learned so much from him about sacrificing and serving in the church. I'm really doing good, but my hip bone is always sore. I think I just need to stretch it better.
 Last Monday night was bad. We walked to this lady’s house, who got baptized a little while ago, and she just talked for the whole entire night about random stuff.  And then at the end of the lesson she tried to feed us, and she wanted to feed us this stuff called posho and odii. It's disgusting. I don't even know how to explain it. It is like this lukewarm, white, mashed potatoes looking stuff. But it's a little bit harder. It has no taste at all, and then odii is like peanut butter… with anchovies in it... And then we walked home in a storm and got soaked hahaha. Tuesday, we got bounced a lot and by the end of the night we'd walked around our entire area. We went to bed at like 8:00. Wednesday, we had this super funny lesson. We were talking about how God loves all of us, and we about how he's blessed us with talents and stuff and the woman we were teaching was like "oh ya I have tons of talents and gifts from God" and I just looked at her and said "ya, like humility huh?" and my comp laughed so hard he fell on the floor. Thursday, we went to Lira to pick up our truck. Sheesh that was a long day. We had to take a 4-hour taxi ride that was really more like 5 hours because the taxi was super slow, and I hate taxi's here so much. It's like a van right, but then they cram like 5 people onto a 3-person row. Anyways, I fell asleep with my arm out the window and now I have one arm that's super sun burnt and the other is pale... But I got the truck back so that's really nice. This week we did a ton of service and on Friday we went and carried jerry cans to a well and got water for this super old lady in the branch. We also dug a huge trench for this neyabo so that she could get running water to her hut. The best day of the week was easily Saturday...  I got your package! I loved it so much, you have no idea. You take such good care of me. I'm so spoiled. I love the tuna fish, I had the best lunch ever today. Also, the books, I read Mormon Doctrine until 3 in the morning last night. I'm learning so much! That book is crazyyyyy good! I was reading my patriarchal blessing and it talks about how I'll find treasures of wisdom and knowledge on my mission. I have without a doubt. My most spiritual part of the week was Sacrament on Sunday of course. I've heard the riots have calmed a bit in Kampala, I drive down Wednesday, so we'll find out. The riots aren't in Gulu, so I'm all okay. I love you guys so much!