Week 49- Kabowa, Kampala with Elders Hunter and Mboya

My week was mostly driving. I left Gulu on Tuesday and spent all day driving to Lira, then we had to stay the night there because of a storm. It was super crazy, there was like a river on the road. Then Wednesday I drove to Kampala with this guy who works for the mission. He's like 35 but he acts like a deacon. He educated me on the prostitution rings in Uganda. In case you wondered you can get a prostitute for the equivalent of about 30 cents... He didn't want to take me to my new area that night, so I slept in a different part of Kampala, then the next day got to Kabowa at around 8 at night. The view from our apartment is super cool. The hard thing is that since I’m only going to be here a short time I don't want to unpack- so I'm living out of suit cases. My comps are cool though, I'm with Elder Hunter from Lehi and he's awesome, we get along and Elder Mboya from Kenya who barely speaks English. He's super funny though! The rest of the week I was just trying to adjust to a new style of missionary work, most of the people in Kabowa have heard of the church and just aren't interested. It’s hard to find serious people to teach here. This one girl named Jen seemed serious but, she didn't come to church. Speaking of church, Kabowa is a ward, so I spent my first Sunday in almost a year in a ward. It was nice and organized, although attendance was only about 50. That's about my whole week.
Haven't seen a real Christmas tree here, they sell small fake ones at the store. Like the one Corbin always put up. I made us a little dinky tree out of a bush tho hahaha. I've missed you loads this week. .Fun fact #1 Sacrament Meeting attendance was 131 in Gulu and 95 in Bardege. The new Branch President’s name is Lubangakene Joel. Bardege, the other branch in Gulu town, has outgrown its current building. They have been meeting in this building which was previously a home. They used two of the rooms as a chapel, but no matter how we tried, no more people could fit in the building, and people are continuing to join the church in the Bardege branch. We are building a new chapel right next to the current building. So, when it's finished, sacrament meeting can be held in the new chapel, and we can still use the current building as classrooms. It was really fun to have an opportunity to work on the new chapel when I was in Bardege.

Fun fact #2 President Collins is the church leader for all the districts and branches that are not in the stakes within our mission. There are 13 branches and 2 districts with an additional 6 branches in the districts, so he oversees a total of 19 branches in 3 countries. There are also 3 stakes in our mission, but they are presided over by stake presidents. We have 147 missionaries in three countries serving in the branches, districts and stakes. In addition, there is a unit called the mission branch. This comprises all the individuals and families who are members living in Uganda but are too far from any branches. There are over 200 members in the mission branch. These individuals and families worship in their homes. They hold sacrament meetings with their families. They pay their tithing to the mission president instead of a bishop or branch president. They can still baptize their family members and even go to the temple- (closest one is in Johannesburg, South Africa) but because they are so far away from any organized unit of the church they meet in their homes.

Corbin, Bro- I miss you! I hope you're happy right now, and that your toe is getting better. Can't wait for you to try and take me down... The scriptures are giving me old man strength, I might have lost weight, but I can still take ya don't worry! Love you!