Week 10 in Lugazi with Elder Millecam

 

The number of tender mercies that we have seen here, especially in this last week, has been amazing. Everywhere that we look we see small miracles. We had one man who was really struggling to accept the gospel. When we showed him the Book of Mormon, he told us that his father had one growing up, and since his father was a man of God, what we are sharing must be true. How his father got a Book of Mormon, we have no idea! Super neat though. He's scheduled to be baptized in two weeks. We've also been teaching a few separate groups of Muslims, all around the age of 17. The only thing that was keeping them from baptism were their parents. After much prayer and fasting, all their parents softened their hearts and are allowing them to be baptized. It was a miracle. We've also been looking for opportunities to use our priesthood to bless our investigators. We blessed a baby who was super sick on Tuesday and on Wednesday she was healed. All kinds of great things going on here. The work is exploding, truly love being here.
It rained a ton. We were out of water and power all week and we used rainwater for showering. Kind of an adventure, I guess. I am almost done reading Jesus The Christ. I think you've read that. I'd love to hear what you think about it and stuff. We did a service project on Saturday and cleaned up garbage around town. That was a good day, we were all so tired after though. We also finally got water to do baptisms this week, so we were able to get a couple people baptized. Sam and Fahima. Fahima is a Muslim and had to deal with a bit of local persecution over being baptized, but it only made her want to be baptized more. Her parents were okay with it and she had permission so hopefully all goes well. We did get some threatening texts over it but nothing serious. It was a cool experience. She was afraid of water though and I had to baptize her 3 times because she kept reaching out of the water to pull herself up. It was probably traumatizing for her. 

We have so many investigators who are ready to be baptized they just need to show up now. Because of where our area is we have investigators who just take off back to their local villages and then we don't see them forever and that's what we're dealing with right now. They will come back eventually.  I decided to start eating the beef here... The other missionaries all thought it would make me sick, but I only buy on days when they fresh cut and I have been totally fine. I had beef liver for lunch today and it wasn't too bad.  I am having a really hard time maintaining weight, hopefully the beef helps.   I gave myself a haircut this week and a bald spot to go with it! I want you to send me another list of your favorite scriptures, so far Luke 1:37 is still my favorite but I loved the ones you sent me.  I sure miss you Mom. I'm so excited for Mother’s Day and to finally be able to talk with you and the family. Love Elder Payne

Week 9 in Lugazi with Elder Millecam

Basically, this week was hard. I got sick on Tuesday night and didn't get better until Saturday. I was super sick. Like could not get out of bed. Not fun. The time went so slow because we couldn’t be out teaching.  I'm doing okay now. I have no idea what got me sick, since I cook all my own food. It was miserable though.  I also got to give a talk on Sunday, that was tough to prepare even though I had the whole entire week. We are also out of water at the church, so no baptisms this week. Had to push them all back. We have a ton planned for next Sunday though.
Something funny that happened today, I got robbed when I was in a taxi by a guy that I was trying to buy water from. I chased him down and got it back- so that was sweet. People here take whatever they think that they can get away with. The crazy part is not just the thievery but actually the way they charge us more for EVERYTHING. It drives me nuts because I know how much stuff costs but now, I can haggle my way to a fair price. Sorry I don't have many pics this week. Only from Sunday because we didn't really get out. Oh well. Hopefully this week is better.
We can’t really plan that far ahead because people are so unorganized and unreliable as far as appointments. We usually plan the day of or just show up and things always work out. This week we'll focus on teaching Faith and Jared, a boy named Daniel, a girl named Fahima, a girl named Cheri and a man named Sam. Maybe an old man named Wamota too. We will just have to see. I don't know their whole names. They are impossible to say. They have like a simple name and a crazy one. One problem we have is our house is forever away from anyone we teach. We only have a few investigators by our house who we teach in the morning and then we go to town for the day. 
Family night looks like a blast! Wish I was there for that! Dad is the master of parables. I sure miss Corb. I wish I could have taken him to the pow wow. Hey, I also need a list of birthdays for the family so I can send home these cool birthday cards! I know our families MOM. I just don’t have grandparent’s birthdays. I sure love you guys-Love Elder Payne

Week 8 in Lugazi with Elder Millecam

 

 

 

       

We had a good week here. It rained a ton on us. It is crazy, the rain here in Africa is HUGE. It hurts really bad actually. It's the start of the rainy season here and at night I get cold sometimes. Like I shut my window. I took a nasty fall on Tuesday in the rain and mud, I got some sweet road rash, and I was super bruised up. It was a little bit funny/embarrassing. We had a baptism on Sunday, a man named Moses that we have been teaching for like a month now. He's a stud. He has a super powerful testimony, and it was super awesome to baptize him. He is 25. Our teaching pool is HUGE. We are teaching about 40 people right now. And that number is always growing. It's crazy to see how fast some people progress in the gospel. We have a husband and a wife, their names are Faith and Jared, who are going to get baptized together on the 18th. They're both ready now, and they both have super strong testimony. Faith is just scared to death of the water. Which is funny though, because originally, we were just teaching Faith and then when she was ready to be baptized her husband forbade her. Then we started teaching him too, but he speaks no English, so Faith must translate everything into Lugandan. It's been cool to see them learn and grow and teach each other. They bare their testimonies to each other almost every lesson and that's my favorite part. It will be awesome to baptize them. We went and saw the source of the Nile today, but the jungle spiders ruined the experience for me. Ya no pictures of the spiders. I was so scared. They were as big as my hand! They're HUGE. The Nile was really cool though. If you want an accurate idea of what it looks like and what the area, I'm in looks like go watch Indiana Jones and The Crystal Skull or whatever. That river is identical to the Nile, and the ants and ant hills are similar as well. They just don't eat people here... I don't think... 

And that is a fishing pole they use for tiger fish. I thought Dad and the boys might think that was cool. NOOOOOOO I don’t eat any of the fish here. I don’t eat any of the meat here. Not in Lugazi. It's so unclean and they butcher it and just leave it out. It's not good meat. The fish stinks so bad. It is just carp mostly. I'll take a picture of the market for you. They do have like 120 lb. carp though. They are bigger than me. Transfers are on this next Tuesday technically. My whole district will stay the same I think so no big changes. I miss video games- but not playing them, I miss hanging out with Baylor and Corbin while we played. I love those two. Mom, I cannot even put into words how much I miss you. And the rest of the family too. You guys are my whole world. I love you. I hope that you guys really know how much I love you all. Like when I get home I wanna spend my time with family because you are all so important to me. Love, Elder Payne

Week 7 in Lugazi with Elder Millecam

I can't even tell you how lucky I am to be in this mission. I am in love with Uganda, and especially Lugazi. I hope that I get to spend quite a bit of time in this area. Something special is happening here. I know I'm a young missionary, but I really don't feel like it. Elder Millecam is doing a great job training. I love that guy. I'm always learning and loving the people. It has been amazing how much I have already learned. I'm extremely happy to be on my mission!

 My daily schedule goes like this: we get up at about 6:30 and I pray and then exercise, and we usually go for a run and then lift weights. Then we take showers with a bucket and get dressed, study, and plan. Usually, we cook breakfast around 8. Then we go out around 10:00 to proselyte swing home around 12:30 or 1 for dinner and to relax for a minute and then go back to town and teach until 8 and then come home and eat dinner and relax. That's about it. My mission is obedient.  I'm obedient and I work hard. I am strong willed though, and I don't want to break any of the rules.
It has a roller coaster week for sure. Lots of ups and downs. We found out something super funny this week. We have this investigator named Karyn. She's super nice, but when we teach her, she's really hit or miss. Like she could be two separate people. Sometimes she is all there and asks really good questions and other times she's just flat. The other day we went to teach, and it turns out, she has a freaking twin sister! Sometimes we had been teaching the twin and she was just not interested, and then other times we were teaching Karyn. 

So we gotta start over with the lessons. We did not get to do any baptisms this week even though we had them all lined up. Saturday night someone broke into the church and stole all our water, so they're going to have to wait another week.

Hey mom, I tried sugar cane. It's just eh..not that great. It is a weird texture for sure. It kinda tastes like kool-aide. Here is a picture of some sweet new shoes I picked up in the market. I bet dad would love a pair! LOL They are super comfy. I can only wear them sometimes though. Of the shoes I brought- the Steve Maddens are the BEST! I love them. The other ones were not good walking shoes, and I gave them to one of the guys in the ward who really needed a pair of shoes. I won't need another pair. When I do, I'll just buy some here.
 I got your package and I loved it!  I love the notes that you put in them, I hang on to them and have a folder for them. Sure, Love you guys! Send more handwritten letters and PICTURES! Love, Elder Payne

Week 6, Lugazi / Elder Millecam

This week's email was the best yet! I loved it and wished I could print it off. Corbin's valentines party looks so fun! He looks happy. I've been praying for our family to be happy. It is so neat to hear about the guys at school receiving their mission calls! I want to stay in touch with nick!! Get his email for me.
This week we have had no power and no water. We had to kind of rough it extra hard, but it was fun. We might get water this week, but we don't know for sure. The electricity went out right when my comp was cutting his hair! I fixed him up good though. I am pretty good at cutting hair! But I need some tips for my own.
We had a super powerful Sunday. The church is a 30-minute walk from our house. The investigators we brought to church are Amazing. They answer each other’s questions and have asked how soon they can be baptized. We also had an investigator who saw an angel this week. Mom, I'm not joking. This lady we have been teaching was praying to find out if the message we were sharing was true, and she saw a being dressed all in white, whiter than our shirts she said. He appeared in her room; she was so scared. He told her not to fear, and that the message the missionaries shared is true. I've got the chills writing this. The spirit was ridiculous. I felt it so strong. She is going to be baptized on Sunday! Hearing that kind of stuff is so powerful. Another cool thing that happened- we taught the word of wisdom to these two brothers. Derrick and Steven. We know that they are hard core drinkers.  We told them that they should not drink alcohol and told them that waning off it slowly would be easiest. They looked at each other and said that they were done. They went cold turkey right there, and it was super cool. We also had a dinner appointment with a lady named Malayka. She's super stubborn and loves to tease. We have a special relationship because she reminds me a lot of you.  I've thought about you mom-specifically this week. Malayka is such a good mom and some of the stuff she wears is stuff you would wear. I don't know exactly why she reminds me of you. But she's my favorite investigator -because she reminds me of you. I told her that and now we're super tight. I will attach some pics! She renamed her son after me. His name is now Britton PAYNE...something...something...something. There was also a wedding on Saturday. The wedding had some super strange customs. Since there's not a temple close by, they just got legally married at the church, and then we had a reception. We ate with our fingers! So, our guard sucks actually. He may have been the shirt thief. He is really more of a buddy that plays cards with us. Our yard is all fenced in and the guard has a little hut in the backyard. I feed him my egg yolks and he loves them. I also saw monkeys and a hippo this week but couldn't get a picture.

The fruit here is good. I love the mangos and the bananas. They're super yummy. Most of the food is just super bland. I haven't had any local food because it is SO unhealthy. I eat street meat once in a while though. They have beef and chicken and pork and that's about it. I pound the water and haven’t gotten sick yet. I get bottled water every day. Actually, that's what I spend most of my money on. I also really like the sweet potatoes. Matoke is okay. No bugs at all so far! I've been bit like once, and it itched hecka bad. I used Sister Drapers oil stuff and it was like magic... I sleep under a mosquito net. The hardest thing to adjust to is the warm nights. We are lucky if its cooler than like 80 degrees at night. I wish that my brothers could be on their missions at the same time as me and that we could all be companions together. Or I wish Dad was my companion. That would be the coolest thing ever. I wish I would have hugged you more and told you I loved you more mom. You were so underappreciated. I can't wait to see you all.  Love, Elder Payne

  

Week 5-Lugazi, Jinja / Millecam

This week was busy! I gave a talk in sacrament meeting on the atonement. I also taught gospel doctrine and then had to teach combined third hour about families, specifically about moms. I was fighting tears the whole entire time because I was thinking about you guys. I miss Sundays with our family so much. We taught a lot of lessons this week and walked a TON. We walk so much; I'm dying to know how far we actually travel. There were some very spiritual experiences this week. We have a lot of super good investigators and we have a bunch of baptisms this next Sunday. We got no joke, 10 new investigators yesterday. We taught a huge crowd of people and they all loved what we had to say. On Wednesday I got attacked by a drunk guy. It was funny, not scary and I promise I didn't hit him. We also had an investigator who asked us to sing a hymn for him at the beginning of the lesson. It was so bad! But we did it anyways and laughed about it. The investigators here can be tough. They all want to be baptized and if we wanted, we could baptize someone every Sunday.  We just have a hard time getting them to church. They are not super committed. We try to get investigators who will be lifetime converts and that is tougher. We also have a hard time finding a place where we can teach them during the day since everyone works. We have to teach in bars, markets, their work and around loud areas a lot so it's hard for the spirit to be there. I included a picture of our church bld, roof gatherings and font. We hold our Branch gatherings on the roof of the shopping complex, on the backside of the Chapel. We baptize right behind the chapel in a small font (white container in the corner). 

I'm eating super healthy, and I've been able to work out every day and that's making me happy. I miss and appreciate all the little things that I had at home that I don't have now. If you guys would write me snail mail and stuff, I would love it. You send it to the mission home and then they bring it out to me. I can't print any emails or pictures from here. Which means I have nothing to read to get me through the week. I'm dying to hear from you more than once a week. You can never send me enough packages or pictures. I need every bit of home that I can get our here. Tell Gwen I got her letter for me please and that I loved it! So, the picture of me with the toothpick is at a nice restaurant in Lugazi. I got pork because it was the only thing that looked cooked. It was pretty good. This bunny picture is for Natalie, I know they are not show quality. The one picture below is of a circumcision parade. I got a fine for trying to take a picture of it lol. I cook on a gas stove, but the power goes out all the time, so I use matches to light it usually. We have a water barrel on our roof that is filled once a month. We have to ration and subsidize by hauling when needed. One time, before I got here, the water delivery didn’t show up. They ran out and it is a 20-minute walk one way, with 5-gallon Jerry cans. They were able to hire a local with a bike, and a basket, to help them haul water until the truck delivered again. The water is super clean though so that is good. 

I love my companion. He's so fun, and the other missionaries that live with me are cool too. There is four of us. Three of us are from Utah and we talk about Lake Powell and home all the time and I love it. It is nice to be able to relate. Elder Thornley is from Saratoga Springs, my comp is Elder Millecam, from Vernal and then Elder Hyer from Washington. I got my hair cut last night, and It actually looks super good. I will need you to send me clippers eventually. I won a free hand wash of all my clothes from beating one of our guards in a card game! We must hand wash our clothes or pay the guards to do it. Also, I might need some short sleeve shirts soon. Some of mine got stolen while they were hang drying in the yard and I'm down to five, I think.  Hope my prayers have been getting through and helping you. Love, your son, Dylan