Week 32 Bardege, Gulu with Elder Ankrah

 
Hey, I'm doing better, slowly and steadily. My week was super busy too… Sister Collings doesn't know what to do for me with this virus, so I guess I just gotta tough it out. But anyways, Tuesday we were just super busy trying to see people and we met this new lady who's amazing named Belinda. She's in her early 30's and I had the most spiritual experience of my mission teaching her. Then it was just the same old on Wednesday and Thursday, except I went on exchanges with another missionary on Thursday, Elder Newman and we had a great time working together. Anyways there was a lot of stuff that happened at the end of the week. On Friday we had to go to Lira again, to do more interviews for baptisms. We got into a car accident, it was bad enough that the truck couldn't be driven. The wheel of the axel broke, so it's still in Lira getting worked on. but the problem is we were stuck in Lira. We had to take like a 5-hour taxi back to Gulu and It was such a long day. And since we're out in the middle of the desert they don't have the parts to fix my truck, so I don’t know when I'm gonna get it back. We got back super late that night and then we had Zone Conference on Saturday along with some baptisms and it was just crazy trying to get it all ready since I'm in charge of all of it. But the baptisms and zone conference went fine, I had to give a training on unity and was supposed to talk about how being united as missionaries helps us to get ready to be married. It was good because there's been some drama in the companionships in the zone. Baptisms also went well, this guy Dennis we've been teaching for a while got dunked. We went to Chobe; the game park and it was a blast. We saw all kinds of animals, but I can't send pics because of the Wi-Fi, I already tried. If we ever decide to come back and visit this place that's where we'd stay is on Chobe. Anyways it was a crazy week, I'm glad that it's over haha. Sure love you a lot. Elder Payne 

Week 31 Bardege, Gulu with Elder Ankrah

                                             

Tuesday, we did service for this crazy lady named Irene. We went and fetched all her water for the week.  We get water from a place called a bore hole, which is like a fresh water well. We have to pump the water into jerry cans and then carry them back to her house which is super far away. I love her little daughter, she's the cutest thing ever. I have no idea how to spell her name though.  After service we spent all morning just hanging out with her family and the kids and teaching them. We also met this dude named Lakanna that day, he's like a DJ and makes really weird music videos. He wanted to learn about the church, so we taught him a little bit. He's not very serious though. Wednesday was good, but we found out something super sad. So, do you remember that girl Gloria?  We've been teaching her for a while and she's really great, but we found out she had an abortion when she was 13 years old. How sad is that? Anyways we talked a lot about repentance with her and she was still able to get baptized Sunday. For some reason the branch wanted me to do the confirmation, so I got to do my first confirmation. That was a neat experience, the spirit was super strong. Lately we've been having branch members do the baptisms too since it's a good way to get them fellowshipped. Thursday, I went on exchanges with a guy named Elder Harris from Liberia (the one holding the girl in the picture). Friday was just really long but we taught this lady that was super funny and she's having us over for dinner tonight. I just hope she doesn't try and feed us pig ears…No joke, some lady tried too.  My name in the Acholi language is sweet. It's Elder LIT. How cool is that? I'm learning some small Arabic from a new lady we are teaching too. Love that language. I wish I could speak it fluently. I'm learning a lot from my studies right now. I feel like I can't study enough. Sometimes I have to just relax and not study because I feel like I'm too intense and learning too much. Bruce R. McConkie has some talks that I LOVE. There are two books I'm trying to get ahold of other than Eragon hahaha. One is called Mormon Doctrine and the other is Doctrines of Salvation, both by Bruce R. McConkie.  If they're not too hard to get ahold of I’d love it if you could send them to me.
We played scrabble slam with a member this week. Dad and Corbin would both love it so much.
We get a limited working fund for fuel, so we have to manage that well. It can be tough because we're so far away from everything. Plus, we're both a little sick right now so we don't feel like walking anywhere. There are missionaries all over Gulu but they're all pretty close together. No missionaries in Lira yet, but there should be soon. They need them there so bad, those people are ready for the gospel.
The weather here is just hot. Always hot here in Gulu. It's more of a desert though so at night it can get chilly. We don't have any AC but we have a fan. And the Africans don't like fans, they get too cold, so I snagged another one from some other missionaries and now I have two fans! If it dips into the high 80's people put on hoodies. My hair got butchered by a guy I paid to cut it. I'm not going to need a cut-I’ll be growing my hair for a while, it was pretty dang short
Thank you so much for taking care of me. I don't really know what's going on, I think its just a virus. I have a bad cough and am super tired I think it's just a virus that will pass. 

Week 30 Bardege, Gulu with Elder Ankrah

Tuesday and Wednesday were totally normal missionary days. We got bounced at every single appointment Wednesday, so it was really slow. Thursday was great though, we went and saw these two sisters that we've been teaching who are going to get baptized Saturday and they're really funny. They are CRAZY though. Their names are Prossy and Gloria. At first Prossy thought that that we were illuminati, and that we prayed naked hahah. Took a while to convince her otherwise. Then we went to Lira Saturday and did a bunch of interviews. It's always cool to get to hear other people’s testimonies! So, I love to go out there. Our house has a water tank, but it gets filled a lot more often than the last one. Yes, we have a nice toilet. We do have a fence around the compound, but we don't have a guard here. We do have a washing machine. I drive a Ford Ranger, I took a pic but the wifi isn't good today. They don't really have maps here. I don't know why because it would be so helpful. Thank you for taking care of me. I miss you a ton. I love you lots and lots mom. Have a good week and keep an eye out in the mail.

Week 29 Bardege, Gulu with Elder Ankrah

We had Mission Leadership conference at the Mission Home this week. So, because of that we didn't spend much time in our area-Bardege. Only a couple of days. Miraculously we still found 12 new investigators.  We drove all day on Thursday to get to Kampala and then had MLC Friday. I really enjoyed MLC, and I never thought I'd ever say I'd enjoyed a five-hour meeting. I just loved all the trainings and the spirit was super strong the whole meeting.  I got to catch up with Elder Millecam, my trainer, so that was cool. I also got to pick up all my homemade weights. In our area we have a neyabo named Gloria and her sister Prossy that are getting close to baptism. Another thing we are working on is that I've been teaching Elder Ankrah how to drive. If he passes a driving test the mission will pay to get his license so I'm helping him learn. It's a serious challenge though because not only has he never driven before but he has to learn driving a manual shift in the most driver unfriendly country on the planet hahaha. I learned a good lesson from the Porsche incident and always keep my hand on the e- brake. Dad will be so proud. Elder Ankrah is a really great guy, super fun and super humble. We get along great. I really like him. By the way, each of those spiders? Ya they're bigger than my hand.  The new house is so nice compared to Lugazi. I would actually bring you guys back to this place.  However, the bed is terrible. I think it has bed bugs… Along with my comp I live with Elder Newman, from Ogden and Godfrey, from Idaho. 
I bore my testimony and talked about how we can follow Christ. My branch president's name is William, he's a great guy. We could go to dinner here every night if we wanted to. I love the people!  We haven’t been in the area long enough to set up service opportunities yet but we will. I haven't been to many refugee camps yet. But hoping too -South Sudanese people are great investigators. 

Week 28 Bardege,Gulu with Elder Ankrah

  






My new area is super great. On the drive down I saw lots of cool animals. Baboons climbed all over our truck and stuff on the way here. Also, there were elephants on the drive, and nearby there are hippos, lions, zebras, and giraffes. I love it already. It's so bush though ahhaha. Like we actually teach in huts with dirt floors. The people here are amazing though. They're so kind, and sooooo smart. It's way easier to feel the spirit teaching because of their education and ability to read. And the Branch is so great. There's total like 150 members and we had about 105 in sacrament meeting, it was great. It could be a ward soon, there's just a few qualifications it needs to meet.  We have a very nice church building! Way better than the last one. I will like it here I think. The church is about a five-minute walk, not far at all. We already have a bunch of people to teach. We were only in our area for like half a day and we got 6 new investigators. Luckily, I didn't have to drive down. President's assistants brought us down. They showed us the area a little bit on Friday and we had dinner appointments Thursday and the two on Friday. So Elder Colvin set the dinner appointments up, he's the AP right now and he used to serve here. I like him a lot and I had a blast learning the area with him. I ate with Jolly Joe and his family, and man named Yosum and his family, and then two Sharron’s also fed us. Hahaha a lot. I didn't even eat Saturday I was so full. The apartment is an upgrade but not a huge one. The best thing is that we have a shower that has hot water sometimes and a really nice tile floor. I'll send pics later because internet sucks so bad today. Anyways, we've been sooo busy. On Saturday we drove to a place called Lira. There's no missionaries there but the branch is doing missionary work, so we had to go and interview the baptismal candidates. It was a super cool experience! I got to meet some people with really strong testimonies. One of the ladies that I interviewed had been investigating for over a year. Another said she knew the church was true as soon as she went in because of how Christ like the people were, it could only be Christ's true church. By the way, I love driving here. NO RULES. It was weird at first but I'm getting the hang of it. I've realized you just have to be aggressive on the road and then you're okay.  My companion is Elder Ankrah. He's a convert from a part member family. He's a really nice guy from Ghana. He's been out a little over a year now. He was raised in the church by his Mom since he was 12, he's 25 now. He's Hard working.
I'll only be in Gulu for two days. Then we'll be in Kampala for mission leadership council. The area we proselyte in is called Bardege. Gulu is the zone I'm over.  It's one of the smaller zones, and it's the furthest away in the country. My responsibilities include taking care of the zone, make sure everyone is being obedient, drive people around, interview candidates, plan activities for the zone, and report to president. It's a lot of fun.  The water here is better, electricity is still sketchy but that's no big deal anymore!!   I sure love you guys!

Week 27 Saying Goodbye to Luguzi, Transfer to Gulu with Woodland and Mukuna

 

So, I'm going to a place called Gulu. I got the news a day early on a conference call and it came as a huge surprise. I'm going to be the new zone leader there along with Elder Ankrah. Hahaha it's gonna be a crazy transfer while we figure things out. I'm really excited though. I think we'll have a lot of fun together. I've met Elder Ankrah a couple times before, he's been in Jinja zone a while too. He's from Ghana. So Wednesday we'll head to Kampala, stay in the mission home and then I think Thursday morning we'll drive 8 hours out to Gulu. Oh ya, I will be driving a truck now. So that means I’ve got to learn how to drive stick with my left hand hahaha.  And we have to get out to Gulu all on our own because we're the only ones from that zone who are being transferred.  It'll be good for a change.
 This week was good. I got to have dinner with Lena and Tonny one last time and that was awesome. They're good friends. Sunday, we confirmed Joseph, Keith was late, so she'll get confirmed next week. My last Sunday was a little melancholy. I'm going to miss a lot of people here. I've made some good friends. Malayka came for my last Sunday and that was cool. I got to interview this lady Elder Hyer has been teaching. I've know her since I got here, and it was neat to hear how ready she was to be baptized. At the end of church Sunday, the branch all came together and sung “Til we meet again” to me and that was super neat. It was a roller coaster of emotions. It was a really good goodbye.
I'll get my package on Wednesday when I go to Kampala. I'll need it to keep me awake while I drive down hahaha.  Ya I did okay on my hair, but I did a really good job on Woodland's hair. I cut his last night and I'm pretty proud of it. I make them let me carve a small D in their hair behind their ear for Dylan. hahaha. I'm too funny. In Luganda Gulu means heaven.
Hopefully it is a heavenly place. It is a larger city.

Week 26 In Lugazi with Elder Woodland and Elder Mukuna

Hey guys- Happy 4th of July!  I missed you so much on the fourth. Like a ton. We burned a couch! Ya, the couch was kinda fun, super-hot though. Not as cool as fireworks.  I bought a nice steak from Jinja and had a good dinner that included protein ice cream courtesy of gnarly whey protein. The ice cream is super easy. It's just protein powder, dates, a banana, and canned coconut milk. But I made it without milk too and used cashews that I soaked in water and that worked and was super good too. But you just blend it all up and get the right consistency and then put it in the freezer. I loved it. So, lots of interesting stuff happened this week. No transfer news yet. This transfer ends this Sunday, but we won't actually move areas until Wednesday. They give us a day to pack and to say bye.
Zone conference was long, but good. They fed us some local food- So rice, beans, matoke, a little bit of beef, g nut sauce, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, or baked potatoes, chapatti (tortilla) and some steamed veggies I have a new companion -I'm in a threesome until transfers. His name is Elder Mukuna. He's from the Congo and is just starting to learn English soooo I'm learning some French, as we try communicating haha. We walked a ton this week. I walked right though the soles of my Steve Maddens. I'm just rocking Jesus Sandals for now, but don't worry about sending new shoes I should be able to find some here that I can get by with. They're super cheap here. Just not that fashionable haha. We had no water or power this entire week. Luckily it rained a lot, so we had lots of rain water for showering. All that walking payed off on Sunday when we baptized Joseph and Keith. (Keith is a girl btw) I've been teaching them for a while so that was really awesome. Also, really been enjoying the Book of Mormon this week.  I just feel like I can understand it well and I'm able to find stuff that I can apply to my life. Somehow Elder Hyer is related to the Cleggs from our old ward AND to Mr. Miner from 5th grade. What a small world. Funniest thing that happened this week was a two-way tie. First, we crashed a little wedding next door. We just were walking by and went and danced and hung out with them for a while and congratulated the couple. They were super happy to have us there. The other thing was someone threw a cow’s head at us on the way to church. They didn't hit us, but we thought it was so funny. I gotta cut my hair before transfers and I'm dreading it.  I just don't want to mess it up really bad. I'm good enough I can cut other peoples hair okay, but cutting your own is so hard.
Mom I'm getting really good at cooking. I don't even like going to restaurants because they're expensive and now I can cook better than any of that food. I made almond crusted tilapia with mango sauce last night mmmm.