Week 59-Entebbe, Uganda with Elder Budu

Seriously starting the week off getting to talk with you guys was super awesome! Made the rest of my week go great. I'm really enjoying this area and my companion is a great guy. Some of the highlights from this week are- Tuesday we found a new lady to teach who seems really cool! Her name is Betty and she's a single mom and lives on the outskirts of town. We had an awesome discussion with her, and she's super interested in the Book of Mormon. People who are interested in the Book of Mormon and want to learn about it almost always progress. She works on Sundays though, so we didn't see her at church.  Interesting thing, I've realized the women here recognize the spirit quickly and are more receptive to the gospel.  A lot of time the men are very stubborn and just want to argue. But you can tell that most of the women we teach are in tune with the spirit. One thing I've learned and can see plainly now is how important the relationship between men and women is. I have a huge testimony of the family. The two people I know I'll never have to worry about testimony wise are Faith and Jared in lugazi. It's the only couple I've baptized on my mission, but you can just tell that they strengthen each other. Wednesday we had our district development meeting, but our district is kind of big as in it covers a large amount of land and we had to travel to a place called Kajansi for the meeting. It takes a good chunk of time to get there on a taxi. But the meeting was good, I gave a training on ministering to Christ's people in the way that He would. After that we hung out with Elder Woodland and Bimpe (from Ghana) in Kajansi for a while. It was cool to catch up with Woodland, who I trained. We got lunch with those guys and then some guy offered to give us a ride back to Eentebbe (which never happens it was so nice) and saved us some money and a super uncomfortable two-hour ride in a hot and stinky taxi. Small miracle. The rest of the week we spent trying to find new people to teach and didn't have much success. There’re two other guys who are progressing well named Innocent and Tonny and they're almost ready to get baptized. Saturday, we spent the day helping clean the church, and then hung out with some of the members that night. It's kinda cool, there's a lot of guys our age here so it's easy to be friendly with the members. Sunday, I bore my testimony in church and then Budu got surprised and had to give a talk. That night we went to a member’s house who's been in the church a pretty long time (21 years this May) and he will be the first stake patriarch in the Kampala south stake in a few weeks.  He's a really neat guy, he'd get along well with Papa. He's been to Provo a couple of times too so he really feels like he can relate to me and loved to talk about Utah. They fed us some chapati and juice and then we went home.

I'm so excited to be in a city and shop in a store where I have a variety of food!! Look FROZEN chicken-

 Love you guys 

Week 58 - Entebbe, Uganda with Elder Budu

Wow this has probably been the best week of my mission. First of all, I can't even tell you how excited I am about BYU, I literally jumped up and down after reading my acceptance email. I'm so happy! And then on top of that I found out I get to call you every Monday now! It's super exciting that I can talk to you. I have tons to tell you guys about this week, you know about half of the good stuff already. I got the chance to meet Elder Stevenson of the quorum of the 12 TWICE this week with his wife. He came to visit Uganda, so we had a mission conference with him on Saturday this week and it was one of the coolest experiences of my mission. His presence was extraordinary! To just be in the same room with him was awesome. You could feel the love he has for people just radiating off his person. It was so neat. And then to hear his testimony of the reality of Jesus Christ and the atonement gave me chills. The Spirit was so powerful! It was so cool to be in a room with him and such a small audience and to just listen. We also had Elder Palmer, our area authority there, and Elder Chatora of the 70, who will be our new mission president in July. Then the next day for Sunday we had a huge stake conference with both the stakes in Kampala and Elder Stevenson spoke again. But before the conference he walked over and visited with me and a small group of the other missionaries. It was so cool. The conference was really great, people from all over the country came to hear him so I got to see my RC's from Gulu, and Lugazi all in the same place. It was so fun. So, on top of all of this, I got to Entebbe finally this week and have had such a good time. My new companion Elder Budu is super cool. He's so fun, a little wild, but still likes to work hard. Plus, he likes to run so we ran 12 miles the other day. And Entebbe is amazing, we have to walk a lot, but the people are great. I'm just super happy and can't wait to talk to you! 

     

Week 57- Mbale, Uganda with Elder Asare

I read all your talks this week, they were incredible. Thanks so much for sending them. Tell Corbin to email me next week I haven't heard from him in a while and I miss him. My week was really low key, nothing super interesting happened. But I had some good experiences with the book of Mormon this week. Just reading it in my personal study has been like a pillar of strength for me. It's so true and I love it so much.  I will really have to make time to study my scriptures better when I come home. I feel like there's something for me to learn on every page. It does make me sad for the people who can't read English here, who don't get a chance to experience the powerful witness of Jesus Christ that the book of Mormon is. We're so lucky. I love this gospel so much and I love you guys so much!

Week 56 Mbale, Uganda with Elder Asare

I really missed the watching the Superbowl but I'm pretty happy Tim Brady and the Patriots won. Just so you know, I think you're the best mom in the world and you always have been. I got your package today! Super-duper awesome, especially all the talks. Haven't got to read them yet but I eyeballed them, and they look super good. Monday night we had a really fun family home evening with this family from Kenya, and they have the cutest little 6-year-old boy and he said the best opening prayer. It made me miss home super bad, family home evening is so great to strengthen the home and family.  For the activity we danced, and then had avocado tea. That's a new favorite of mine. It was super great, that family’s neighbors have persecuted them for joining the church so one of the younger girls in the family shared a spiritual thought on the atonement and about how Christ died for more than just our sins, how His Atonement can help us through all the challenges we face in life. Tuesday through Thursday we spent getting all the people we teach ready for baptism, so we had a lot of lessons this week. Thursday morning a member named Gerald made me a dish I'd never tried here, and it's my new favorite. It’s called Amukakay and it's basically boiled sweet potatoes that are sun dried after with a peanut butter tomatoes sauce. I'll totally make it at home, it would probably be good on like yams. The peanut butter is different here, it's all natural. I'm sure we can find some. I bet you guys will love it. It's the only thing here that I really LOVE when it comes to the food.  On Thursday night a girl named Ester who was baptized last week told us about her boyfriend who had been beating her. When he found out she got baptized he beat her severely and told her that if she got confirmed he'd kill her. So, on Friday night we went and visited him, and he was pretty confrontational, but we talked some sense into him. He realized that if it happened again, he was going to have serious problems. It was super awesome, we didn't get a chance to tell Ester about our visit with him, but she came to church to get confirmed despite the threats. I won't lie, life here is hard a lot of the time and it makes me realize how good we have it at home. Friday, we did baptism interviews. Saturday, we had 16 baptisms. Super cool, but the baptism service was chaotic. Sunday was wonderful we had loads of confirmations and got to hear some wonderful testimonies. We have an apostle coming to visit sometime this next transfer and I'm really excited about it. This week I'm hoping to start the new testament study manual, but I'm also loving my Book of Mormon right now.

Week 55- Mbale, Uganda with Elder Asare

Wow mom and Dad- you really take such good care of me. I'm super excited to get that package! Thank you so so so much. It's amazing that you put in so much effort to take care of me on the other side of the world. I just hope you know how grateful I am. Monday after emailing we went to family home evening with a family from Kenya. Tuesday, we taught all morning and then later that day we found out someone stole some of our chairs for church.  Anyways Wednesday, we went and did service at an orphanage. We helped them get water for the week. We're preparing about 15 people for baptism this week, so we must teach a lot of lessons every day. Thursday, we did service and planted elephant grass all morning. Also went on exchanges that day and had a good time. Saturday, we did baptism interviews all day and then Sunday we had four baptisms. One of the kids, Josh, is 9 years old and the son of a convert. Really love that kid and had fun teaching him. I’m going to confirm him this week.

Week 54-Mbale, Uganda with Elders Hall and Asare

MOM THE PATRIOTS ARE IN THE SUPERBOWL!! Tuesday, we taught all day long and went to that forest I sent some pictures of. I didn't feel very good that day, my stomach was upset.  Wednesday, we went Jinja for zone conference, that night I had a rolex, like the 3rd one I've had on my mission. It's super bland, it's literally two tortillas and then two plain eggs with no salt. Who even would think of that?
The next day was zone conference and I had to talk about goals and goal setting. It went really well I think, but after we got some crazy news. President Collings decided to call Elder Hall to a new area.  So now it's just me and Elder Asare here in Mbale. That meant we had to drive back to Mbale that night to get Elder Hall's stuff (a three-hour drive) and then get him back to Jinja (another three-hour drive). The problem was that we were supposed to be in Kampala so we could go on exchanges that next day with the assistants, so it meant that I'd have to drive through the night to Kampala. It was super wild, but it all worked out well and we made it to Kampala around midnight. That Friday we had exchanges and they were wonderful, we had a really spiritual day. We taught a lot about the Book of Mormon. Saturday, I drove back to Mbale and we stopped in Lugazi to say hi to some people. I got to see Malayka and her son Britton. It was cool. That night we visited a few people we are teaching. Sunday was chaotic, running a new branch is a lot of hard work. But it's good, it's really neat to see the gospel of Jesus Christ practiced in such a raw form. It's really just a bunch of people who are trying their very best to run the church the way it's supposed to We're teaching so many people right now. We're already booked with appointments until Friday.   Tomorrow we are serving in the orphanage again. I will send some pictures next week.
Hahahah yes-larger women are considered attractive here… that's an African guy thing... Even my companion likes big girls. They consider it a sign of a good husband/ father /provider.
 Are you getting the boys to study the Come Follow me program with you? I really wish that we could all study it as a family. I would also LOVE to study that with Bailee. I think that sounds wonderful. That is so cool and symbolic, it sounds like you are learning so much about the Savior. That is incredible! I hope they boys really get on board with it. What a wonderful potential blessing that program is for our families and our testimonies.  

Week 53- Mbale, Uganda with Elders Hall and Asare

Lemme tell you a little about my week, it's not nearly as good as yours but it was interesting. Tuesday morning, we did service at an orphanage. This orphanage is unique. It's super bush and it houses about 80 kids. Most of the kids are between 10 and 15 years old. We farmed for them mostly. It's really cool because they can grow all their own food on the property. Also tried to ride a REALLY mean cow and got wrecked. Wednesday, we went to a little village called Namabwasa that's in our area and spent the morning there. We worked with some of the members and taught a part member family. Then that day we went to Jinja which is halfway to Kampala because MLC was the next day. We spent the night there, then the next day went to Kampala for MLC. MLC was super amazing; President Collings gave some really cool trainings. He talked about the washing of the feet ordinance and then about doing the will of the Father. That day was my year mark so to celebrate after MLC I had an Oreo milkshake in Jinja. The next day we drove back to Mbale and taught a bunch of people. That day we had a baptism for Peace and Desire, so we had to get everything set up. Super cool experience at the baptism. It was soooo chaotic, as you can imagine, just having the service outside in the middle of nowhere. The whole-time people were just going crazy and were super disrespectful to the fact we were having a baptismal service. But after they got baptized and went up to bear testimony the spirit was so strong. Even amid all the chaos you could feel it so strong. It was like having one foot in hot water and then one in cold. The baptisms were hard though, because there was only like a foot of water, we had to baptize them sitting down, and one of the girls cried because the water was cold.  We didn't go to the formation of the Busia district because it's really far, but it is in my zone.
In answer to your questions- the branch does have the Come follow Me manual, we do not though. They aren't giving them to us yet and I don't know if they will even allow us time to study them. I hope they do! It takes us a good 30 minutes to set up the tent each week. We don't take it down though, someone else does since we always have presidency meetings with the Branch Presidency right after church.

Elder Walter Chatora has been called to be the new Uganda, Kampala Mission President when President Collings is released in July. Elder Chatora is from Zimbabwe and is the last man on the far right in this picture.