Week 24 in Lugazi with Elder Woodland

Hey family! Sounds like you guys had a crazy busy week. Tuesday, I got quite the adrenaline rush. I almost got hit by a drunk driver and had to literally dive out of the way. Elder Hyer thought I was going home for sure, he couldn't believe that I made it out of the way. Thank goodness for quick reflexes. We also saw a boda man who was plastered drunk. I don't know how he was even walking. We saw him walk (stumble) out of the bar and then climb on his boda. He only made it about a hundred feet before he just tipped over. It was awesome. I found a place that sells raisins here! They're super expensive but as an occasional treat they're okay. We had exchanges with the zone leaders in Jinja. The best part was I got to take a real shower. A HOT shower!! It was unreal. So crazy the little things that I took for granted at home. Like carpet, the day I get home I’m going to take a nap…on the carpet!
 No baptisms this week because the zone leaders couldn't come to interview my investigators. We have quite a few people who are ready. 

    



Then that's me with Sister Whinnie. She had her farewell Sunday and she's about to leave on her mission. She's someone that I'd consider a real friend that I've made here, so it's kinda sad that she's going to be leaving. We're going to go to her house for dinner tonight, hopefully everything is cooked all the way through lol. She has been called to Zimbabwe! She leaves with Elder Ojakol, the one who's been living with us. They'll go to the MTC in South Africa together. I got a picture of a letter from Bailee in Belize. Her group leader sent it to me.  It made me laugh big time. She's experiencing some of the same stuff as I am right now. Poor living conditions, doing service and work, no internet, and poverty.  Really proud of how hard she's working. That's legit hard work and she's there for almost 3 weeks. I can't wait to hear more about her experience. I just found out though that I'm going to be spending the next few days in Jinja. They're doing a deep clean on our house, so we must leave for a few days.  I'm stoked to get our house cleaned and sprayed for bugs. It's so filthy right now. I have no clue where we're gonna stay or how it's gonna work out. Who knows hahaha. Hopefully someone will tell us soon. President just called me like 5 minutes ago and just told me we had to be gone tomorrow and the next day and didn't say much else.
I've heard every member a missionary before but now I see why that's so important. Our church is so much more than just a church. It is a way of life and the way to eternal life. I've learned a lot being out here. I love you all so much! Hugs-Dylan

Week 23 in Lugazi with Elder Woodland

 

 

  

 

We had a pretty good week. The world cup is going on right now and this week the Muslim fasting period ended, so it was a huge celebration all week. We got bounced A LOT because of all this. Everyone is too busy celebrating. Tuesday, we had a slammed day and taught  18 lessons. It was so crazy, we were so dang busy. When we got home I went straight to bed. I feel like we walked like 20 miles that day. There was a guy who offered to give me a Noongueza tattoo that day as well. Tempting, I know, who doesn't wanna risk picking up HIV from an African tattoo needle. You'll be glad, and shocked I'm sure, to know that I turned him down….This time. We had exchanges with the zone leaders on Thursday. I was hoping to get to go with Elder Millecam, but I went with his companion Elder Kagson instead. We got bounced for every single appointment, so we did tracting all day long. We got 14 new investigators though. That day Elder Woodland also got extremely sick. He started throwing up during a lesson and didn't stop until the next morning. We called President and Sister Collings but couldn’t get a hold of them due to travel. So I called the area doctor. Elder Hyer and I gave him a priesthood blessing and things changed within the hour. It was cool to see a miracle like that. Poor guy has been wrecked for the last few days. He's a lot better now!  Been thinking a lot about Dads this week and I sure am grateful for mine. Dad has been such a good example to me and he's such a good guy. I really love him tons! Happy Fathers Day Dad!   The boys will get a kick out of this story. Saturday for lunch I ate something that I really wish I didn't. A ridiculously hot pepper called Hell peppers. I didn't know the name in English until after I ate it and almost died hahaha. I bought these little red peppers from a mama who didn't speak any English in the market. She tried to warn me and told me that they were too hot, that even the Indians won't eat them because they were too hot. I thought she was exaggerating. She wasn't. After I ate it my mouth and stomach and throat felt like they were on fire for the rest of the day. Nothing brought relief either, I must've drank like 3 gallons of water. Even my hands hurt just from handling the pepper, and I touched my cheek and my cheek started to burn! It was soooo bad, I was miserable for a little while. Everyone thought it was so dang funny though, Andrew couldn't believe that I ate one. Those peppers are not for man, I will never eat one again. On Sunday we were able to get Matia confirmed, and then this next Sunday hopefully Mercy will get confirmed. Malayka loved the book of Mormon stories book and Britton loved the coloring book. I gave the other coloring book to a girl named Joan (in the picture). She's the tailor Mourine's daughter. They loved them.  I got the package btw!!!! It came with unreal timing, I was missing you guys SOOOO badly. Man did I love that package. I really needed it, I was dying to hear from you guys. I loved the ties you sent, I wore one of them on Saturday and the other to church on Sunday. And I love the glasses. I know what you're thinking, that I need to cut my hair- don't worry I already did -hahaha. That picture of Woodland is after I white washed him in pool last Monday. That means I sunk all my balls and the eight ball before he sunk a single one. I made him take a picture with all his balls, so I could hang it up in the apartment hahaha.  So the door is at the cathedral. Every one of the doors there is hand carved and they're pretty amazing. I'm trying to convince President to let me stay in Lugazi one more transfer after this. Things with Woodland are good, we get along really well most of the time. I really wanna spend another one with him. We have a lot of fun together. Ya the huts are in the middle of the jungle. It's a trip to get there. Makes for some cool pictures though. No missionaries have ever been out there, but hardly anyone speaks English so it's slim pickings. My Luganda is getting good though. I can pray and teach quite a bit of the lessons in it. I can understand most things too, I just have a limited vocabulary when it comes to responding. But if I get transferred it'll be a new language. You walk 40 minutes in any direction and it's a different dialect or an entire different language. By the way-  I did take care of things with the neighbor’s chicken. I bought her a new, and improved chicken, with no chopped off head, I got a good deal on it- so it was a FAT chicken. Also got her and all her kids chips for dinner. Chips are just fries. She was super happy and even tried to feed us during the week. Love and hugs-Elder Payne

Week 22 in Lugazi with Elder Woodland

  

 

Hey Family! I missed you a lot this week! The next time that you send a package you'll have to throw some raisins in there. And then you can just load it up with candy. I eat healthy everyday out here, I should be fine if you send me some junk. Reese's are always missed dearly. I love those so much. Jelly beans are always good, Oreos, basically anything that I love from home. My options are very limited here. I miss tons of stuff!  Guess what made my week? I finally got some of the letters that you guys sent! I got a bunch from Corbin that made me laugh my head off, but super homesick and then I got a really good one from you, mom that made me want to give you a hug.
 The week was pretty good. Really rainy. There was a political assassination this week and on top of that some corrupt mayor was released from prison so there has been a bit of civil unrest here. The people aren't too happy so there have been marches and riots all week. We didn't know that it was going on, so when we got to town, we just stayed at the church for a while. We had a lot of good lessons this week though and we were super busy. Sunday, I gave a talk on the signs of the second coming and I'm pretty sure half the branch is terrified of it now. -opps We also had two baptisms Sunday and the lady who got baptized is the mother to one of the other girls we baptized. Pretty dang cool. We are still teaching Malayka. She is a super cool lady, and she's a single mom. Her son, Britton is 5. But she lives with her mom and her sister and they all kinda take care of each other. I am hoping to get to baptize her before I leave this area.
By the way-they call me Kinyama. It means muscles. I get it a lot and I love it. - I think it's hilarious

Week 21 in Lugazi with Elder Woodland

 I'm glad that you went to graduation mom! Although I was a little sad to miss it, I have to remind myself how much better it is this way. I've got an awesome head start. Definitely the right choice for me. I have a testimony that this is the right place for me to be and the right time. I really feel like I’ve grown up a lot. I’m glad to know that you haven’t changed too much mom, a good book and a Dr. Pepper can still keep you entertained 
 Baylor looks super good in a baseball jersey. Sushi sounds sooooo good! I'm glad Dad is home on Saturday's now, that sounds super fun. I can't even believe Corbin will get the priesthood this fall. That makes me kinda sad that I won’t be there for that. I really miss him. He applied for student council? Ah man that's awesome, I’m so proud of him!
 My week was just a lot of teaching. Our investigators are all doing really well. I found out that this will most likely be my last transfer here in Lugazi and there's really only one person I want to baptize before I go and that's Malayka. Please pray for her! We've been spending a lot of time over there teaching her. That's me with her son Britton on my shoulders. Love that kid! I had a tick fight with him in her shop and he is just so dang cute.

 We had 5 more people get confirmed Sunday and that was amazing! Also, two of our recent converts got the priesthood and that was neat as well. I was counting attendance in gospel principles and get this: There were 24 people in class total and 18 of them were people that I baptized! That made me feel happy to see the progress. I don't really care where I am anymore. I like Lugazi because I've figured out a routine and if I had my way I'd like to stay here a little longer actually. But I think this will be my last transfer here. We've been out of power for a while now. I'm feeling pretty good health wise. All that I ate this week was eggs. 105 eggs. 5 per meal and then some veggies. I'm not sick of eggs. That's all that there is to eat if I wanna get protein. I feel a lot better just eating eggs to be honest. I think the beef could've been what made me sick. Send pictures-the more pictures the better, I love seeing you guys. No, we did not hear anything about the 40^th anniversary of the priesthood revelation celebration. I'll look for President Oaks message though, that would be interesting. Millecam is my new zone leader .

 I love the prophets message to the youth, I hope that the boys take it to heart and really focus on some of it. They need to take the words of the prophets more seriously, I know I didn't until I came out here amazingly. I missed you guys all a lot this week, it was kinda hard for me. Thanks for getting up to chat with me. Can't wait to hear from you next week. Hope you have a good week too. I sure love you 

 

Week 20 in Lugazi with Elder Woodland

Ahh it's always so good to hear from you. I'm doing lots better this week still a little sick but getting better. How's the 220? Man, that sounds like so much fun. I'm glad Baylor traded for the truck, he'll love that. I loved the picture of Corb on the dirt bike. What a stud.
I had a pretty good week here. Other than I accidently killed my neighbors chicken with a machete and then she tried to get me thrown in jail, but the chicken was eating the maize that we have growing in the compound and I thought it was a free-range chicken.  So my guard explained that it was eating the garden and we didn’t know it belonged to her.
Also had a run in with some goofy guy who told me that I couldn't proselyte in Getti Getti (an area in Lugazi) he said we hadn't gone through the local religion council and we needed to submit a letter, so that's the second letter that I wrote to the council. Funny huh? 
Zone conference was good. I enjoyed the leadership training. We talked about communicating the vision of the mission. That was my favorite thing because it can be applied in real life too. Knowing the vision makes you more successful.

We baptized four people this week! Rose, Joan 1, Joan 2, and Cathy. Been teaching Joan 1 since my first day. It was really cool to baptize her. I like the jumpsuit sometimes just because it's so easy and then my white clothes don't get wrecked. they always get so dirty when you change out of them.

I went to a real gym this morning. That was so nice, made me miss a real gym. That's a rolex stand in Nemengo (Na-mango, it's in Lugazi, where we live) and then those are matoke bananas. 


 I'm so glad that you guys are seeing blessings. That makes it worth it for me mom. On the hard days that's what I focus on so knowing that you're seeing them makes me super happy. I have to go now, but I want you to know that I love you tons.