12.30.13

This was an eventful week! Lots of stuff happened. I almost went crazy, things like that. 

First of all, Tuesday we had our Christmas party at the mission home. It was a lot of fun! We were just hanging out all day playing games and eating food. We had a ton of pizza, basically one whole pizza per missionary. They were really good pizzas too. And for dinner we had KFC fried chicken!! Yea they just built a KFC in Kampala. It was some pretty delicious chicken. 

Then came Christmas!! It was such a good day. We got up in the morning and made ourselves some delicious pancakes. Then we unwrapped all of our presents. We had a little tiny tree with our presents all around it. Pretty awesome. After going through the presents we sat around eating all of our delicious junk food. Then at around 2:00 we went to the Balyejusa family for lunch/dinner. We played Phase 10 for like 2 hrs then ate a TON of food. Holy cow I couldn't move when we were done. They kept making us go and refill our plates. Then we left at around 6:30 to go back to our house so we could call home. Holy cow calling home was amazing! It was so good to hear all of your voices. I know mom hogged all the time. The rest of you could have had more time if you would have actually talked!! It was the classic LeCheminant phone awkwardness. So you have until May to practice talking on the phone, then you can have more time to talk to me. Haha :) But it was still amazing to talk! The time went by way to fast. Christmas was a lot of fun even though it wasn't what i am used to. It was really really hot all day. I'm used to cold and snow for Christmas. But we still had a good time. 

Then came the Christmas Hangover. Both me and Elder Wulfenstein were pretty much dead. I slept on my scriptures for like 30 minutes. Then the rest of the time we just sat there eating our sorrows away with chocolate. It was seriously a hangover. We were tired, had massive headaches, wishing we could call the family again. We managed to leave the house to do some work. Friday we were recovered and were able to actually have a normal day. Saturday was also just a normal day, nothing really different happened. 

Then Sunday there was a good thing that happened. About 15 minutes before sacrament ended we had 4 of our investigators walk in. We have been working with this family for like 3 weeks and today they just unexpectedly showed up! It was so awesome and made me super happy. 

After church we went home and made ourselves a ton of Chappatis!! They are super delicous. Chappatis are basically thick tortillas and are a very very very popular traditional Ugandan food. We learned how to make them last week so after church we made ourselves a bunch. Then we went over to the DL's house on the other side of Entebbe. We chilled with them for the night and I made some delicious dinner. I made the stuffing, potatoes, and gravy that you sent to me. And we had that fillet of smoked salmon and that can of turkey. It was seriously way to delicious. It reminded me way to much of home. So that was a lot of fun. 

Then today we went to the beach as a district! That was awesome. Basically when we all come to Uganda as a family I know the hotel we are staying at. It is called Imperial Resort Beach Hotel. It is the biggest and nicest hotel I have ever seen. And it is right on a beautiful beach of Lake Victoria. We played in the sand and went and stood in the water. Then there was some sweet rocks and caves that we messed around in. The lake is beautiful. It looks a whole lot like Prince William Sound just without the mountains everywhere. I have a few pics of it that I will send.

I'm super jealous that you got to go snowmachining. I seriously miss that a lot. Classic getting stuck and rolling machines all the time. Thats what makes it so much fun! Sorry that everyone managed to get hurt in some way.

Oh yea mom I got your second box on Friday. The ZL's picked it up and brought it to me. It was awesome! Thanks for the CD's and the picture and the food. 

I know there is like a ton of other stuff I was going to tell in this email but it has escaped my brain. So i will prob remember it tonight when we are at home. 

Thanks for all of the Christmas presents and stuff! I cant wait for Grandmas and Rick/Lindsey's box.

Have a happy new year! It will be 2014 next week. 

Love Elder LECH 

12.23.13

Christmas time is now really here!

This week went way to fast. Now Christmas is just going to fly by and be done in the no time at all. 

So we had a great week. Elder Wulfenstein and I have been getting a lot better at teaching in unity and our lessons are getting better every day. Again there is not really much to talk about. But there is a few things.

On Saturday we had the Ward Christmas party! It was pretty awesome. Every organization in the Ward had some activity or something to perform. The primary put together a cool play and they acted out like the entire story around Christs birth. It started with the birth of John the baptist, and then went to Christ, and then Herod wanting to kill all the kids 2 years and younger, and then Joseph and Mary leaving to Egypt. It was a pretty complicated play but they did a good job! Then us missionaries played charades with everyone. That was interesting because no one really knew how to play, but it was fun anyways. The Young Men and Young Women sang a couple hymns as well as the Relief Society and Priesthood. Then after all of the activities, we ate! The food was so good. It was just the normal rice, potatoes, matooke, beans, and a few other things. But it was a real feast. My plate weighed probably 5 pounds (exaggeration). It was super delicious. At the party we met this Ugandan guy that lives in St George, Utah. He was awesome to talk to because he has been really Americanized. His wife is from St George and they met on their missions in South Africa. So when they got home he went to Utah to visit her and then they got married and they have been in St George ever since. 

Then Sunday was great. Church was really good. When we walked in there were two white guys! Haha pretty sweet. I went over to talk to them. Basically they were here for like a week doing humanitarian work with the US Army. It was really nice to talk to an american that actually understands what i am saying. So that was pretty sweet. Both sacrament talks were two people leaving for missions this week. That was cool. One of them is part of the Balyejusa family. That is the family that has 5 of the kids as returned missionaries and now they are sending another one! After church we went to an investigators house, his name is Tony. He is super legit and is getting baptized next week. His wife is a strong member so that is pretty much how we started teaching him. But we went there and they taught us how to make some really really really really good tasting Chapatis. That is like this delicious Ugandan flat bread kinda thing. Everyone makes it and its super cheap. But they taught us how to make really good ones. So now I know how to make chapatis!!!!! So when i come home I will teach everyone. I promise you will be addicted after the first one. They are so good! 

Then we went to the Balyejusa family for dinner and to have FHE with them for the rest of the night. It was super fun.

Now today we got up in the morning and went to Kabowa. We have been chilling with the Zone Leaders all day. We went into Kampala to the mission office. I picked up my package from you mom, and one from Tashah. After we left the APs called and said another one came in for me, so I will probably get it tomorrow. I don't know who it is from. Tomorrow we have a Christmas party in Kololo with all of the missionaries in the Kampala area. That is super exciting. And then Wednesday is Christmas!!!! I'm so excited to call home! Thanks mom for reminding me of our phone numba. I completely forgot what it was. So I will call at around 8 pm here so that will be 8 am there. Cant wait! 

Its so great to hear that Kathryn's wedding went well. I wish I was there to hang out with everyone in Utah. 'Im glad everyone survived all of the crazyness. Now just enjoy Christmas and try not to let any stuff distract you from the family and from having a good time. Thats so awesome that Kathryn is related to a Ugandan now. If she is from Lira then I can speak a little bit of her language!!!! hahaha. 

Oh and since when did the married brother get to decide what we do as a family for Christmas!? I thought it was the next younger than the married brother! Haha just kidding :)

Talk to y'all on Wednesday! Cant wait. 

Merry Christmas. 

Love Elder Me

12.16.13

Christmas time is here! Its so weird that Christmas is so close. A lot of the shops here in Entebbe have Christmas decorations and they play Christmas music all the time. It reminds me waayy to much of home. Christmas is such an amazing time of the year. 

We had a great week. It was our first full week in the area. There isnt really much to talk about. Everyday was just a normal day of teaching and finding people. We now have the area set up really well. Our teaching pool is now existing. So I am excited for this coming week. We can actually do normal work instead of tract or wander all day.

One crazy experience. On Saturday we had to go to a local restaurant for lunch because there was no food at the house. Most of our food got spoiled by rats. Now we don't put anything in the cupboards that rats can get into. Rats are dumb. Anyways! So we went to a local restaurant for lunch. There are no open tables except one with a white guy and an African sitting together. They said we could sit with them so we did. We come to find out that both of them are pastors. To make a long story short, the white one basically condemned us to hell. He knew about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. Then he just started blasting us. He wouldn't give us a chance to say anything. He kept saying we are to young to be preaching the gospel because we haven't experienced life and don't know the scriptures and junk like that. It was really a huge waste of time. That guy basically goes around to churches and tells them how they are wrong and does everything he can to destroy their faith. And then he somehow believes that his church is the right church. It doesn't make sense and the guy is crazy! In my opinion he is just intimidated that a couple of young guys can go around to teach the gospel and actually have success at it. But that is just me :) My mind keeps going back to him and I just get angry at him. Moral of the story, dont go around trying to destroy peoples faith. Its not really a good thing to do :)

Anyway, Sunday, yesterday was really awesome. Attendance at church was really low but that is just the curse of Christmas time. A lot of people here go to the village to be with their family during Christmas. But its ok. Church was awesome and the spirit was there. And also there were monkeys again during church! I had my camera this time and got a few pictures. After church in the evening all of us went to the Balyejusa family again. That was really awesome. That family is seriously amazing and they are a huge blessing to church in Uganda. i think i said it before but 5 of the children are returned missionaries. They are just awesome.They were playing a bunch of the Christmas songs that you would normally hear on the radio in the US. Holy cow that sucked. It made me miss home a lot. I love good Christmas music! We had a great time eating food and playing a bunch of fun games. 

So I know that I didn't have much to talk about the week but just deal with it :)

First things first. When is the best time for me to call on Christmas. (This is weird already talking about calling home). I was thinking about maybe calling sometime in the evening on the 25th here so that would be Christmas morning for you guys. Personally I feel like 8 or 9 PM here would be the best. That would mean all of you would have to get up early. Haha :) Just let me know next Monday if that is ok. 

Second. Congrats to Kathryn!! Your last week as a LeCheminant. Make sure you appreciate the last moments with the best last name. Hahaha :) Thats so exciting that you are getting married this weekend. 

It stinks that I cant be there. I'm kinda a little jealous that all of you get to go down to Utah for the wedding. But when I think about it, Africa is way cooler than Utah :) 

Happy Birthday to Jacob last week! Since when was he 12 years old? That doesnt make any sense.

Happy 27th Anniversary mom and dad!!!!!!!!!!!! You two need to like find some time to go out together and celebrate. Go and get away from lifes crazyness and spend an evening or a day just the two of you. That would make me super happy if you did that :)

The first two pics are of the monkeys at church yesterday. The third is just an awesome view of a part of our area that we walk past sometimes.  

Have an amazing week. Dont go crazy with all of the crazyness happening. Make sure you dont get distracted from the purpose of the Christmas season. I know Christ is our Savior and redeemer. He really was born to Mary and he lived a perfect life in order to perform the Atonement. The gospel is true!

Merry Christmas

Love Elder LeCheminant

12.9.13

Well this week went by really fast. We only had three days to work. On Tuesday we had ZDM. That is zone development meeting. SO we went to Kabowa for that. We had it in the brand new Kabowa Chapel. Holy cow that is a nice chapel. It was dedicated 4 or 5 months ago, It is so nice. Anyways the meeting went until like 2:00 ish and then we all went out to lunch together. Then it was another hour and a half back to Entebbe. So we only had about two hours to work when we got back. Then on Wednesday it was a half day because we had DDM. That is district development meeting. So we didnt start working till around 3:00 ish. 

Then on Thursday we had Zone Conference. It was at the Mission Home. So we had to travel 2 hours to Kololo to the mission home. It was amazing though. President Chatfield is awesome. Sister Chatfield and some of the Senior Couples in Kampala made lunch for us, it was sooooo good! They made us lasagna with rolls and salad. I love some good old fashioned american food! They also made us brownies and we had them with ice cream .I love food soo much!! That was almost the best part of the zone conference. Then we didnt get back to Entebbe until like 7:00 so there was basically no point in going out to work.

So we got friday and saturday to work for the whole week. It was awesome though. We did a lot of finding that was very successful. We found several awesome families. They are going to be a challenge to progress and get to church. But the big fish are the hardest to bring in but the most worth it. So I just hope and pray we can get some of them progressing in the gospel. Now this week we are going to do some more finding and learning more about the area. I think that after this week we will be good to go and will be able to actually have people scheduled and have some idea of what we are doing. Its hard not being able to plan for the day because there is no one to teach. All we could do last week was go tracting. 

Oh yea one thing I forgot about DDM on Wednesday. When we showed up at the church there were monkeys everywhere! It was so awesome. There is a mango tree and they were just hanging out eating all the mangos. I went and bought a couple of bananas and the monkeys just went crazy. They swarmed all around us and just sat there patiently for us to give them some banana. It was so awesome. I would break a piece and they would just nicely grab it out of my hand. It was the coolest thing. So were just hanging out with monkeys at the church for like 30 minutes. The only thing is that I forgot my camera!!!! So i didnt get any pictures. But next time I will make sure I have my camera because apparently the monkeys go to the church a lot. Its pretty awesome. Dont be to jealous :)

Its good to hear about all of the good stuff going on at home. I have seen a bunch of pictures of the snow in Utah. Holy cow they have a lot of snow already. I miss the snow. Christmas is not the same without snow. 

Anyways yay for surviving the Madrigal. I can see Mr Harris yelling at everyone in class. Some people just dont learn! 

I prob wont get the box until the 23rd. We are planning on going to Kabowa to stay with the ZLs on the 23rd because there is a Christmas eve party in Kololo for all of the missionaries in kampala. So I'm super excited to get it! I just want it right now. 

I sent a small package home today with my Christmas present to the family. They said it will take no more than 14 days so if it is not there in two weeks then let me know. Its something super awesome from Uganda that you are going to like :)

Thats awesome dad about the movie about Entebbe. I didnt know anything about that. Nobody really talks about any of that kinda stuff here. I do know about 

Idi Amin. He was a pretty crazy guy. There is a movie called "The rise and fall of Idi Amin". its really entertaining. 

And yay for Tashah for her mission call!!! its so great to have all of my friends going on their missions!!!!

Oh yea one more thing. I registered a sim card today. It is what I am going to use to call home on Christmas. I am also buying the airtime. It is a ton cheaper for me to call to the US. I can get like 3 hours for about 30,000 shillings. So basically all of the missionaries here have their own SIM card for the phones. I am going to test it out tonight and make sure it works for the US so if you get a call from a random out of country number dont answer because its me. now i am out of time so will tell more next week.

Love Elder LeCheminant

12.2.13 - 6 Month Mark!

Well I officially turned 6 months on saturday!!! I will just say that 6 months went by super fast. I only have to do the same again 3 more times!! 

So the week has been crazy and a lot of stuff happening. On Tuesday we spent the day going to see my recent converts and some other people that I wanted to say goodbye to. That kinda sucked. I hate saying goodbye to people that I love. One guy I baptized a while ago was the worst to say goodbye to. His name is Anthony. He is super legit. He has already finished reading through Alma in the Book Of Mormon. We taught him about the temple and preparing to go there in a years time. When we were about to leave he started to cry a little. That was hard because it is super rare for a Ugandan to cry! Of course it kinda started to jerk a little tears out of me as well. Goodbyes are not fun. That night we went home and I finished up packing. 

Then Wednesday morning we just waited around for the Zone Leaders to come and pick us up. They finally came at around10:30 am. Driving away from the house sucked because I felt like I was leaving my home. Lira is such an amazing place. We drove to a place called Kamdini. It is like a small town that is kinda a meeting place for Gulu and Lira. Its an hour away from Gulu and Lira on the way to Kampala. We met up with the missionaries that are being transferred from Gulu. Then a guy from the mission office came in a van to pick all of us up to take us to Kampala. Another 4 hours sitting in a van full of missionaries, and their luggage, later we were in Kampala. The drive was beautiful though! Uganda is a really beautiful country. We almost ran over a baboon. Haha that was funny. There is a part where we cross over the Nile River and there's always monkeys and baboons that hang out on the road. Well we were just cruising along and a huge baboon just ran right in front of the van. Luckily we didn't hit it, but it was really really close. There is a house in Ntinda in Kampala where the APs and the senior couples stay. It is a big compound with some apartments. We were dropped there. It was great to see a bunch of other missionaries that are being transferred around the country. There was even a few of my MTC brothers there from Ethiopia. They are here getting their visas renewed. So that was all fun talking with everyone. 

Thursday morning we loaded into a van. We stopped at the airport in Entebbe first to drop off a couple Elders flying to Rwanda. Then after that I got dropped off at my new house! Entebbe is super nice. It is a huge area as well. There are two other Elders in the Entebbe. They have their own little house on the other side, then the church is right in the middle of us. The church is like a 40 minute walk from our house. And most of our area is super spread out. We have to do a ton of walking! Not excited for that. My companion is Elder Wulfenstein. He is from St George Utah. This is his 3rd transfer. He is a cool guy. He has a scholarship for track and field at BYU. He said that they are going to have him do the decathlon. So that's pretty cool. I am basically training him because he wasn't really trained at all the last two transfers. So here I go again. I kinda did the same with Elder Buyers. 

Anyways white washing really stinks!! White washing is where both of us are new to the area. The last two elders left us two investigators that are teenage girls. And most of our RC's are women as well. Entebbe is a Ward in the Kampala Stake. Ward membership is like 250 but only about 80 are active. So we have a lot of reactivating work to do. Other than that, Entebbe is a great area. It has a lot of potential for good missionary work. I have basically gone through culture shock all over again. Seriously going from village to Entebbe, there is a huge difference. Entebbe is basically a resort town and It is right on Lake Victoria. The airport is like 6 kilometers away. There are a ton of super fancy hotels all over the place, tons of rich people live here, and the weirdest thing is that there are a lot of white people!!! Its weird to regularly see white people. It's weird to have civilization. Things like sidewalks and paved roads and good electricity and people that can actually speak really good English! Entebbe is a whole different world from the village. I love it here but a part of me wants to get back to the village. Its weird. I will get over it eventually. 

Friday and Saturday we just spent going around with a member that lives close to us. He was showing us where a few recent converts and members live. Its really hard when both of us don't know where we are going. We cant do any planning. We just kinda go out and wander around trying to find people. But it has been a huge learning experience. I feel like I have a grown a lot in these past few days. White washing is a whole new experience. Church yesterday was great. After church we went home and I made us some super delicious rice and beans. They were actually really good. I can make good rice and beans. At around 6 we met up with the other two elders and we went to a family in the Ward that feeds us every Sunday. They are an amazing family. They have 5 returned missionaries. Most of the family is older and off doing other things but every Sunday they get together and have FHE. It is like the coolest thing ever. They all are super strong in the gospel. We had dinner and then played games and had a ton of fun. It is super rare for a family here to all be together at one time and they were together to have FHE. Awesome. 

Then today Elder Wulfenstein went over to the other Elders house. They live about an hours walk on the other side of Entebbe from us. We took a taxi because there was no way we were going to walk. We made spaghetti and then played some games. Now we are emailing. 

So this week has been a crazy adventure. There is a ton of other things I could say about Entebbe but this email is already long enough. This coming week we have a lot of work to learn the area and build our teaching pool because right now it doesn't exist. I think there is a reason that this area is being white washed, I just have a feeling the last two elders didn't really do much. 

Anyways, Christmas time is finally here! We sang Christmas hymn at church yesterday and every once in a while we hear someone playing a Christmas song. Its really weird to not be at home for Christmas time and its super weird to not have any coldness or snow at all! Its still super hot here. Its actually more hot than normal because it is the beginning of the dry season. My whole life there has been snow at Christmas time. But I guess tha'ts what I get for being in Uganda. I hope all of you are enjoying the Christmas season. 

Haha did joey get his applications in on time?! I remember I turned mine in at 11:00 pm AK time. That was a close one. 

That's cool to have Elder Gardner back in the Ward. I hope he remembers all of us pushing down the cabin by hand and then making into a massive bonfire. Hahahahahhhaha. That was super fun :) He is going home and I have been here for 6 months! But I will be coming home before I know it. 

Tpp bad, Dad that you couldnt go riding. At least there is snow there. I miss the snow a lot. And now that we are right next to Lake Victora it reminds me way to much of going out on the boat. It looks a lot like some place out in Prince William Sound. Haha I dont feel like I am in Africa anymore! Its weird but I am getting used to being in Entebbe. Its a good place. 

Well I think this email is long enough. Have fun with Madrigal and the Nativity display and all of that fun stuff going on at home. Have a great week!

I love you all.

Elder LeCh

11.25.13

So this is transfer week! I will talk more of that later.

First of all this week was really awesome. On Monday night after we got home we heard a car honk at the gate. So we go to see who it is, and it was the AP's!! They came for surprise exchanges. So they slept at our house on Monday night then worked with us all day Tuesday then slept on Tuesday night then went back to Kampala on Wednesday morning. 

Tuesday was awesome. We had a great time working with Elder Reed, one of the AP's. The whole day went almost completely as we had planned it, which hardly ever happens. Most of the time 75% of our appointments don't go through. But it was an awesome day. We had a really enjoyable time. Not much happened Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday we spent some extra time in the evening going on splits (exchanging companions). It was really successful and we were able to get a ton of new investigators. On Saturday we had a baptism!! It was a sister to one of our recent converts. She doesn't know English but speaks Luo and Kiswahili, but she was very ready and excited to be baptized. There was also another child of record baptism of a young boy who just turned 8 years old. Josephine asked me to baptize her; That was a huge shocker to me. I wasn't expecting her to ask one of the missionaries to baptize. I was expecting one of the members that stays close to her. But I did baptize her and it was a great experience. 

Saturday evening we went to our Branch Presidents house for dinner. They made cow liver for us! I think I would have been fine if he didn't tell us before we ate it, because it tasted good but I was thinking about it way to much and lost my appetite really fast. Just the image of a liver and the thought that I was eating it wasn't going to well for my stomach. But it did taste good. Haha that was a good time. 

Church yesterday was really great. Sacrament attendance was 95 again. That was great. It has slowly been growing since I have been here. All of the meetings were very spiritual and we all learned a lot. After church I sat outside in the sun to get my super white legs some sun. I felt like I was sitting in an oven that was like 500 degrees! It was so hot. Now my legs are less white, but they are still super white compared to my head and arms. Then we went and played football (soccer in America) again at the orphanage. Then chilled at the house for the rest of the night. 

Then came this morning. The Zone Leaders said they were receiving the transfer news today. So we spent all morning waiting for the phone to ring to find out what was happening with the new transfer. After forever we finally found out. I am being transferred to a place called Entebbe. It is where the International Airport is for Uganda. The surprise is that I am white washing (two new missionaries at once) the area!!! This will be an interesting experience. I never imagined that I would be white washing. I am excited to be leaving but at the same time I wish I was staying in Lira. There are a few people that we are teaching that I would love to see get baptized  and the members of the Branch here are amazing people. I could hang out with them all day and still have a good time. But I am also excited that I am going. It just stinks because its like a 5 hour drive to Kampala and then another hour to Entebbe. We are leaving on Wednesday. So next Monday I will be in a new area!!!!

So that was our week. Sounds like you all had a crazy week. Lots of things going on. Music stuff and sports stuff and mission stuff. Life is crazy! 

Its about dang time Andy!!! I was actually beginning to think I would have a chance of beating you. I guess its exciting for you :)

Have a fantabulous week everyone!!

Love Elder LeCheminant

grass hut in the village

recent convert

11.18.13

So this is week 6 of the transfer. Its weird but awesome that we are already at the end. Then I get to do it again, and again, and again, like 12 more times!! 

This week went a whole lot better than last week. We had exchanges like every single day. On tuesday we had district exchanges. I went with Elder Hardman in his area and then Elder Manyakanyaka came to our side with Elder Buyers. Then on wednesday in the evening Elder Buyers and I went to their side and we split and went tracting for the rest of the night. Then on friday they came to our side and we split and did tracting. Also on thursday the zone leaders came for exchanges and Elder Mgijima came with me and Elder Buyers for the day. Then saturday morning we did district exchanges again because Elder Manyakanyaka had to interview the person we baptized on saturday. So that was all lots of fun and helped the week go by really really really fast. It is all just a blur now. 

So tuesday with Elder Hardman was interesting. This is his first transfer so he is still going through all of the "new guy" stuff. He still talks super fast in an american accent and doesnt really know the area very well. But we survived and only got lost a few times! We had a great day together and taught some great lessons. It just reminded me of when I first got here and all of the things I went through. At the end of the day I gave him a lot of advice about things that helped me get into the swing of things. He is a great guy and is from Morgan Utah. Me, him, and Elder Buyers always talk about 4-wheelers and dirt bikes and snowmachines. 

Wednesday nothing exciting happened. Thursday was super fun. In the morning we went and did some service with one of our recent converts. He is a fantastic guy and loves the church. Anyways he is building a new little house kinda next to the mud hut that he has been living in. So we went to help. We started by taking apart the mud hut. We took the grass roof apart and then took each brick out one by one so that they could be used on his new house. That took about 3 hours. It was really fun. I love demolition! Then the ZL's came and Elder Mgijima came. We had a great rest of the day and taught a lot of great lessons. 

Friday, In the evening when the others came over to our side for tracting, I went with Elder Manyakanyaka. We tracted for like an hour and didnt find anyone. Then we started heading to the person we baptized on saturday so that he could interview her. Her name is Dilish. She is the wife to Bruno, whom we baptized the second or third week I was here in Lira. On the way to their house it started raining cats and dogs. We were instantly completely soaked all the way through. So we decided to just go home since we were close. I was sooo wet!!!!! When I took my shoes off I dumped like half a liter of water out of each shoe. We decided to reschedule the interview for the morning. 

Then saturday Elder Buyers and Manyakanyaka went to interview Dilish. So I went with Elder Hardman again in his area for the morning. We all met up for lunch and then went to the church for the baptism. So Dilish was baptized, and Bruno got to baptize her. He was really hesitant at first but we took care of all of their concerns. Also the daughter to our Branch President was baptized. She turned 8 last week. The baptism went really well. Its been a while since we have had a baptism. Afterwards we went and worked for the rest of the day. 

Sunday church was really great. Our Sacrament Meeting attendance was 95!! It has gone up like 15 since I have been here. Dilish was Confirmed and Bruno also got a Calling! It has been awesome to see that family come to church, they are amazing people. After church Elder and Sister Moore came to our house to inspect our cleaning. They are the senior couple in Gulu. We dont have any senior couples in Lira so they have to come down to check on the Branches and inspect our cleaning. Sister Moore made us some amazing chocolate chip banana bread/cake. That is like basically my favorite food of all time. Chocolate, bananas, and cake all in the same thing!!! Haha it was delicious. Then we went and played soccer at the orphanage and then the zone leaders came over and chilled with us for the rest of the night and we had dinner and messed around. 

So that was the week!!! 

We kinda heard through a few members about the typhoon in the Philippines. It sounded crazy!! That would be a crazy experience to go through something like that. I'm glad all of the missionaries survived. 

Mom I wasnt going to tell you but I did get a Ugandan nativity. So sorry to ruin the surprise for you :)

That's great to hear about Hunter leaving !! He is going to do great in Brazil. What is his missionary email? Also I want Aarons missionary email as well. He goes to the MTC soon. Yay for Lauren and Kali for going to the temple this week. I really wish I was there to see everyone preparing for missions and going to the temple. But i cant really do anything about it because I'm in the middle of AFRICA!!!! Hahaha Good luck to all of you. 

Its funny that joey doesnt want me to be the only eagle scout!! haha you better get on it! Only like 3 months left and there's a ton of stuff that you have to do that takes time. 

Have a great week. In Luo we say "Donga Ber" for "have a good day." I don't know how to say have good week. 

Love Elder Me

11.11.13

Well this was a super fast week. Not much happened. Just the usual walk all day and teach people the gospel kind of stuff! It was really interesting. I could really feel the adversary working very hard against us. Things just werent going good in the beginning.

On Tuesday we had 5 lessons. There was a period of like 4 hours where we just walked and taught nobody. Our appointments cancelled so our only other option was to tract. Then as we were tracting there was literally nobody home that we could teach. On top of that my body was dead tired and not in the mood to do anything. So that was a real struggle to make to the end of the day. Then on Wednesday I felt a lot better, but we only had 4 lessons. There was two recent converts we had planned to see at the church. They both said they were on their way so we stayed there and waited, after 20-30 minutes we would call them again and they would say they would be there in 5 minutes. That went on for 3 hours; so a ton of wasted time sitting at the church. That kinda made the rest of the day not really go according to plan, but we just endured. The rest of the week we did really great teaching people so it kinda made up for those two days. 

Another thing thing that  was kinda a bummer is that 3 of our people that we planned to be baptized this Saturday weren't home at all last week. They had gone to their villages and were supposed to be back on Saturday so they could come to church, yesterday, on Sunday. But all of them got stuck in their villages with no transport, so they couldn't come back for church. 

So that was all super depressing!!! Haha don't worry to much; Missionary work isn't meant to be easy all the time. This week was just one of those weeks. We are just pushing through and trusting that the Lord will bring us out on top. That's kinda how he works, He lets us fall only to help lift us and make us stronger. It's one thing that helps to keep me going. Missionary work is just soo great! :)

So today was pretty awesome. Before we came here to the internet cafe to email we went to a Trade Show. That is basically like a mini fair. There was a bunch of small booths selling things, so we decided to go as a zone. It was totally awesome but a bad idea at the same time. I spent waaayyy to much money! It was worth it though. I got some pretty nice things that all of you will have to wait for a couple years to see. Hahaha. I really didnt spend very much when you compare it US Dollars. But for Uganda, I spent a lot. Just some cool African things. It was fun and exhausting bargaining with all of the sellers all day. 

To answer your question mom. 1 US Dollar is like 2600 Uganda Shillings. So 3000 shillings is a little more than a dollar. I love Uganda currency. Everything is in thousands. 

I'm super jealous of the coming snow. Here the rainy season is coming to an end. It still rains a lot and the weather isn't as hot as normal. But the dry season is supposed to be coming at the end of the month. They say that the sun is just out frying everything and it is really hot even for Ugandans. Not to excited for that, Its already hot enough! Haha I have been complaining a lot in this email. Sorry about all of that :)

Have a good week! 

Love Me

11.4.13

Hello Everyone!

First of all, yesterday was awesome! After church there was a solar eclipse!! It was pretty sweet. You could only really see it with sunglasses. I took a few pics through my sunglasses. They are pretty cool. A lot of the young people here didnt know how to describe the eclipse. So they just would say that the sun was fighting the moon. And then I told everyone that the moon won! Haha funny people. Then after that we went to the orphanage to play soccer. I was the goal keeper. I did pretty good. My old keeper skills were coming back from however long ago it was when I played soccer. It was really fun! 

Anyways. The rest of the week went well. I cant believe it is already November. I just left yesterday in May!! We kinda forgot about Halloween until the evening on Thursday. Then we started telling everyone "Happy Halloween!" and they would have no idea what we were talking about. We would try to explain it but Elder Buyers and I realized that we really dont know why we have Halloween. It seems like kinda a pointless holiday. One of the companionship's in our zone switched each others name tags for the day. Funny! I wish we would have thought of something like that.

On Wednesday we had our ZDM or zone development meeting. There have been a ton of changes made to the mission! First of all, the mission is going away from being numbers oriented. We were really focused on daily numbers (of lessons) and used to even report to the zone leaders every day, now that is done away with. Also President Chatfield wants us to start focusing on rescuing people that are lost and retaining our recent converts. Basically the mission has had about 17 or 18% retention over the last two years. So there are a ton of less active people. So now we are working on that as much as we can. Crazyess.  Anyways, I'm really happy and excited about the way the mission has changed. Its really hard to describe everything over an email but there was a lot of other things as well.

On Saturday we had a fun party at the church. It was a graduation celebration for our Branch President. He just got his bachelors degree from a university here. So we had a big party. Ugandans really love their celebrations. The "ceremony" part took forever. They spent like 2 hours just introducing all of his friends and family members from the village. My head hurt sooo bad! Oh yea, I have had the flu since like Wednesday morning, it is now just about done with. So my head was hurting really bad from the flu and just sitting there forever, then it started to rain!! Haha, everyone picked up their chairs and ran inside the chapel. That was really funny to watch. There wasnt enough room in the chapel because it is really really small. So people were just crammed in. They decided to cancel the rest of the program and bring out the food. The food was sooo good! We had rice, beans, goat, sheep, chicken, steamed cabbage, and cassava. Super delicious. Cassava is like a giant root that they boil. Also typical to Uganda, for big groups of people they always have a ton of bowls for food but they have zero utensils. So we got to eat by hand! I actually really like eating with my hands. It helps you get more into the food. Hahahaha. Enough about that.

I cant really think of anything else that happened. 

Congrats to Becky Sorenson! I feel like she just left like less than a year ago. But that's awesome that she is back.

Yea i got the exercise band and the ctr rings. Shanks a lot!! We do have to pay a little bit to get packages. It costs 6000 shillings for a bigger package and 3000 for a small one. SO whoever picks them up at the Postbank (that's what they call post office here) pays the money and we just pay them whenever we get it. I think it is just a flat charge regardless of what is inside. I'm not 100% sure about that though. Just put pictures of Jesus all over the box, I've heard that helps it go through customs. Oh yea, I few things I wanted you to send. Some taco seasoning and that Johnny's all purpose seasoning. I cant remember anything else for now. Thanks!! :)

Thanks for everything. I love you all. Until next week

Love Elder LeCheminant

10.28.13

This week was interesting. Almost everyday our plans for the day were completely turned upside down. That was rough. We would end up just going forward not knowing what to do and where to go. It made us put a lot of trust in the lord that he would help us. The great thing is that each day actually turned out to be really great.

On Tuesday we did some service at a members house in the other Elder's area. We were digging in her garden. That means digging up the ground with a hoe so that seeds can be planted. Its sooooo fun! Not really. Africans think that white people cant work so they would always question and laugh at us as they walked by. It was kinda annoying but it was good because we showed them that we can work harder than them! The members really loved the service. I got some good blisters on my hands. My hands are really soft now from not doing any work with them for 5 months. On Saturday we went to a member in our area to help dig their garden. That was fun. Afterwards they made us food. It was sooo good!

We got rained on pretty good on Friday. Actually, I don't think 'rained on' is a good enough description. It poured for like two hours and we got caught in it. We were on our way to the church after some lessons. About 5 minutes away the rain came. We ran the rest of the way but it was already to late. EVERYTHING was completely soaked all the way through. My shoes, my clothes, and my scripture bag. Now my scriptures are slightly water damaged, but its ok. They look more used and rugged now :). My shoes just finished drying out this morning. That was a fun experience. I was sooo wet!!! The rain then cut our day really short, so we only had like 3 lessons on Friday. On Saturday and Sunday we watched General Conference, they finally sent us the DVDs so we could watch it. It basically took most of the day on Saturday. And on Sunday we had someone translating so it took an extra 45 min for each session. After each talk we would stop and he would summarize everything in Luo. Luo is the local language here. But conference was amazing. The talks were really awesome. I noticed that they talked a lot about families and morality. Its insane that 40% of children are born to unmarried parents and that only 20% of 19-20 yr olds are married now. The world is a crazy place. Something else that was said "If the laws of men are contrary to the laws of god, it does not change the laws of god. A sin is still a sin no matter how legal it is". Anyways, conference was amazing.
After church we went to the orphanage again to play soccer. Its soo much fun! Kids are awesome.

We have one investigator named Bosco. I dont remember if I already talked about him. We have been teaching him and his wife, Cecilia. Bosco is in the Uganda military. They are amazing investigators. A couple weeks ago after teaching them the Book of Mormon, Bosco asked if the church accepts people who drink alcohol. We gave him a Word of Wisdom pamphlet and said we would talk about it next time. We saw him this week and taught the Word of Wisdom, he said that he has already completely stopped drinking since we met with him last time. That was amazing. He stopped drinking before we even taught the word of wisdom! He is awesome and is really excited to be baptized in a couple weeks. That was just one cool experience. The gospel has really changed that whole family in such a short time!

Its good that the funeral went well. That would have been awesome to go to be able to see everyone. That's so awesome that you got to see the Heges in the airport. I actually really miss that family. I have some wonderful childhood memories with them. Its awesome that they are planning to move to the valley soon. Maybe I will get to see them when I come home! How are all the other Fairbanks peeps? Haha

Yea the package had customs tape over it. I dont think anything was taken but it looked like it had been inspected. People say that if you put pictures of Jesus all over packages then they dont inspect them. Haha maybe you could try that on the next one! It might work!! And the sick stomach was worth it! Its nice to have something other than rice and beans :)

I got some letters last week that I forgot about. From Kathy Casagranda and Calvin Simmons. Thanks for the great letters!!

Andy, you are crazy!! Who would want to go running for fun? Such a waste of energies. Haha but i guess its good for you :)

Thats all I can think of for now. Have a good week!

Love Elder LeCheminant

10.21.13

This week went pretty good. My transfer prediction was correct. Me and Elder Buyers are still together. Elder Mgijima is now a Zone Leader here in the Lira Zone. Its pretty awesome to have him around again. He is a really fun guy and a great missionary. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. On Saturday we had a baptism. It was a young girl called Fiona. She is the daughter to Bruno who we baptized like 3 or 4 weeks ago. Now we are working with the wife to Bruno. She was going to be baptized with Fiona but hasnt been coming to church. The baptism went very well and Bruno even baptized her. He was very nervous and hesitant about doing it because he didn't want to mess up and ruin his daughters baptism. But we kept encouraging him and built his confidence. And then he did it perfect the first time! So the baptism went great. 

We had another family that we found. The parents are Bosco and Cecilia. They are a really awesome family. After coming to church both of them expressed the desire to officially be a part of this church and be baptized. They both said they felt that other churches they have been to talk about Christ but this church seems like it is actually led by Christ. I was soo surprised when they said that. It was awesome and made me sooo happy. They are going to be baptized closer to the end of November. I love it when people accept the gospel so easily!! 

Yesterday after church we went again to the orphanage to play soccer. And of course I forgot my camera again! One of these times I will remember to bring it. Soccer was fun. I am starting to get better and can almost get the ball past the little kids. They are just way to good! Afterwards when we got home I cooked dinner. I made rice and beans, but it was super delicious! I can make some dang good beans. Elder Buyers and I also discovered an amazing drink. Africans love tea so they have all sorts of different kinds of "tea." One is hot milk with sugar. You just boil milk for like 20 or 30 minutes and then add sugar and drink it. Its sooooooo goooood!!!! So I made that as well last night.

That reminds me. I finally got my box! It was seriously better than Christmas. And it reminded me of home waaayy to much, but I loved it. Btw.... HOLY COW ON THE DEODERANT!!! I have never seen that much in my life. It will last me like 5 years. Haha maybe not that long. But thanks anyways. And the food was amazing, even though all of the preservatives have really messed up my digestive system. Nothing here is preserved or manufactured like food in the states. So I am totally not used to it, but it was worth it. Keep sending me delicious junk food :)

To answer Dad's question. We do have a water filter. Every missionary apartment has a water filter system. If the water goes out then we just have to buy water. If there's no water to buy then we have water storage for emergencies. Every apartment also food storage for emergencies. I hope we never have to use any of it, even though it would make some great stories!! Haha. And I do have plenty of sunscreen, I just forget to use it and then halfway through the day its to late. But I am going to use it more because the dry season is coming and the sun is getting more intense every day. We are allowed to wear hats that have the brim all around. Like those fishing or safari hats. The only problem is that I don't have one. 

Its really sad to hear about Jon Tanner. This past week I had been thinking a lot about Fairbanks for some reason. I had no idea why or where it came from, but random memories of Fairbanks kept coming at really random times. Now I guess I know why. Usually hearing about someone passing away doesn't affect me that much, but I feel so sad for everyone there(in Fairbanks). I cant imagine what you are all going through. One of my favorite memories is my first moose hunting trip with Jon Tanner, Jerry Bastian, Dad, and me. We went to Galena and then went in boats up the Koyukuk River. That was a really fun trip. I cant remember how old I was, I think maybe like 4th or 5th grade. Its weird because I remember a lot about that trip. We didn't have the big tents so we wrapped some trees with a roll of plastic and made a shelter. Then I remember all of the great adventures we had wandering around and having crazy things happen. It was a lot of fun and is one of my favorite childhood memories. I love the plan of salvation. It brings so much purpose into our lives. This kinda made me realize that we don't know when our time will end here on the earth. Heavenly Father can call us back at any moment. One thing I like to teach people about is being ready to meet the Savior tomorrow. If you are not ready then some things in your life need to change. The plan of salvation is very real. I know that if we really apply it to our lives then it will bring so much peace and happiness. My prayers go out to all of you.

Well there's not much else. I am going to be sending some pics in another email later today. Have a good week! I love you all. Thanks for everything.  

Love Elder LeCheminant

p.s. Everyone should send me a package cus I like delicious junk food :) hahahahahahahaha

10.14.13

So today is officially start of transfer #4. I'm pretty sure Elder Buyers and I are going to stay together this transfer so there will probably be no changes. But we don't find out until tomorrow. 
This past week went very well. We worked hard everyday. Wednesday was Uganda's Independence Day. Uganda has now been independent for 51 years. Last year was the 50th. The holiday pretty much ruined missionary work for the day. We were only able to see a couple of recent converts. The rest of the day we just spent at the church playing volleyball and watching some movies (they were church movies, don't worry). It was fun. I hadn't played volleyball for like three months. It was nice to play again. We also didn't have running water for three days. There was something wrong with the pipes at the central pumping station that pumps water for the whole town. So all of Lira had no running water for a few days. That was fun. Not really. 

Today for p-day was amazing! We went to a place called Chobe. It is a lodge that is inside a wildlife reserve. On the way here we saw tons of giraffes, water buffalo, warthogs, and a few monkeys, and some kind of deer. Then we got to the lodge. Holy cow it is nice. This place is a 5 star lodge that overlooks the Nile river. It is so beautiful and gorgeous. There are tons of hippos just chilling in the water and giraffes outside. The lodge is super fancy and has amazing food. We have  been out here all day. They have computers here so I am emailing at this lodge. It is an incredible place that would be really great for like a family vacation or something like that (wink wink). I cant send pictures today because I don't have an adapter so I will send them next week. But you can go to the website to see. It is chobelodgeuganda.com. I have tons of amazing pictures and videos of all the animals. There is an airstrip for the lodge and you can fly here directly from the Entebbe International Airport in Kampala. Everything here is so gorgeous and peacefull. I want everyone to be able to come and see it!!! 

So that was today. I don't really have much else to talk about this week. On Saturday I had some of the young men from the branch come and wash my clothes. We dont have a washing machine here in Adyel. So I was washing clothes by hand every week. That pretty much sucks. It takes sooo long! I would do most of it on Mondays then the rest at night during the week. Its not very fun. So I decided to pay some of the guys from the Branch. I gave them 5000 shillings to wash everything for me. Thats basically 2 US dollars. It was worth it. 

So that was the week. We are going to leave Chobe in about an hour. We have to change a flat tire on our truck and watch the sunset first. I am excited. It is going to make great pics that I will send next week!

Yay for Galena and her family. Its always exciting to see someone follow the example of Jesus Christ and get baptized. That is the first step towards eternal life. I love when people get baptized. 

Congrats to Palmer football and volleyball. And good luck to those in the Play at the school. I remember those days. It was sooo long ago! Back when I was in high school! Hahahahaha. Just make sure no one forgets how good I was in all of my plays and shtuff. Kidding. I was pretty bad. I don't know why Mr Harris kept letting me in. :)


Love Elder Chem

10.9.13

Another week down, A LOT more to go. We had a good week. Nothing really crazy happened this week. We just did normal missionary work. The usual walking ALL DAY long. I havent been inside a vehicle for about three weeks now. Its really great to walk everywhere. My legs hurt more if I sit around doing nothing than when I am out walking. I dont know how that works, its kinda weird. Hahaha

Two members of the branch got their mission calls this week. Both are going to Ghana but different missions. There are now almost 10 missionaries from this branch and there is like 3 more that are working on the papers right now! Its amazing. Even a small branch of under 200 members has that many missionaries! The gospel is true.

We spent a lot of time this week trying to build our teaching pool. At the end of last we basically had to drop almost everyone. So now we are just preparing for next transfer. We found a few really great families. I love finding families because when they accept the gospel they will most likely be very strong in the church and also have the temple to work towards.

Elder Buyers and I have been doing really good together. I dont remember if I already talked about this. But our lessons have been getting very good. Almost every lesson we had this week had the spirit present and we were able to teach powerful lessons. Its amazing what the spirit does. I have been getting better at recognizing the spirit. That is something that I have never been good at, and I have been really working on it recently. The spirit is an amazing resource that we have.

We were not able to watch general conference yet. If we were to watch it live then it would be in the middle of the night here. So in like two weeks we will recieve the DVDs and the branch will be able to watch it. So our conference weekend is in a couple of weeks. But Elder Buyers and I are downloading the audio for each session from lds.org and we are going to listen to it during the week. One thing that is really amazing is that we now have 80,000 missionaries! And the church membership is now over 15 million. That is truly an amazing thing. In just 183 years the church has grown a lot. I cant wait to listen to all of it!

As for music. We have a portable DVD player that we can watch church movies with and listen to music on. We either put CDs or flash drives that have music on them. And we are not allowed to use headphones, only speakers. But any music that is uplifting and doesnt take away from the spirit we can have. So you can either send the CD or somehow send the files in an email. Whichever you think is easier :)

Haha to Andy! :) Thats two years in a row now that BYU has beaten Utah State. hehehe. I remember last years game. it was awesome.

One of the pics is me sleeping while Elder Buyers is emailing. We are using the computer at the church.

The other is a super legit picture of all of us walking to church yesterday. I think its a pretty awesome picture.


Love Elder LeCheminant

9.30.13

So this week a lot of weird stuff happened. First of all we had no electricity for almost FIVE DAYS!!!! It went out on Tuesday and didn't come back until Sunday morning. By Friday night the running water stopped flowing, so we had no running water for a while; even at the church. So we almost didn't have any water to fill the font for our baptisms on Saturday, but the water came back on Saturday morning just in time to fill the font. That was kinda nerve racking, but we survived. The fridge started smelling REALLY bad after like the third day and we had to live with candles and flash lights every night. Just one of those awesome things about Africa! :) It also rained a ton like almost every day. We got rained on a few more times and there was one huge storm that lasted a couple hours. Tons of thunder, lightning, wind and rain. And then it stopped just as fast as it came. That was probably the most intense storm I have ever been in. Luckily we were inside so we didn't have to get completely soaked. 

We had three people baptized. Two of them were ten year old boys. They are really intelligent and have basically memorized everything we taught. They are called Oscar Omara and Solomon Epwopu. Last week Solomon's older sister had been giving him tea and we told him that he needs to stop drinking it before he got baptized. The next time we saw him we asked how he was doing and he said that when she makes tea, he asks her to just fill a cup with hot water and give it to him without the tea. A TEN year old! They are so awesome. I love those little guys. The other baptism was a guy called Anthony Okot. He is 22 and a student at a university here in Lira. I will send a picture. 

So that's some of my craziness that's happening over here. Today I turned 4 months! I feel like I have been here forever, but I really just got here. Time doesn't mix well with missionaries. It is all way to messed up for me, it goes fast and then goes slow. The days are like weeks and the weeks are like days. Its really weird. 4 Months! 20 More to go. And its already October, the year is almost over! Pretty soon it will be Christmas.

Tha'ts awesome that Dad was able to give all those blessings. The priesthood is real. I love giving people blessings because those are the times when I feel the influence of the spirit more than anything.

That sucks for BYU football, but its ok because they haven been very good for a few years; haha, sorry to all you fans out there! What really matters is volleyball!! I miss going to watch Kathryn play. And with Kathryn... What?! You are no longer my favorite cousin because you don't tell me important things like getting marriaged and stuff like that! Haha :) I actually kinda guessed it. Emily kinda mentioned something about it in her emails that Melinda sends to me. But I didn't ask or say anything because  nobody else was saying anything! I guess I should say congrats. :)

With packages. The office couple or the AP's are the ones that pick up things at the post office, then it sits in the mission office until someone can pick it up. Since we are like 5 hours away here in Lira, its usually the Zone Leaders that would bring it. They go to Kampala at the end of every month for meetings and stuff. They just went last week but didn't have my box so I guess it was still at the post office. In two weeks is transfers so maybe someone will be able to bring it, or I would have to wait until the end of the month. That also goes with any mail. You can send regular letters to me, it just takes a little more postage. And you can send smaller packages with whatever. You just mail everything to the same address, it is the address for the mission office. Elder Buyers just got a ton of stuff like candy and food and a few letters. 

I think that's enough for one email. Andy finally emailed me! Its about time!!! Haha. I will probably remember some more stuff to tell you all tomorrow when I cant email.

Love Elder LeChe!!

9.23.13

Well this week was just a normal week of missionary work. We didnt have any baptisms but this saturday we have 3 planned. Two of them are these 10 year olds that were given to us by their family members to teach. It reminds me of Jacob getting the lessons now. These two kids are super ridiculously smart! One of them, Oscar, doesnt know english so we have to have someone translate. But he memorized all 5 points in the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson the first time we taught it and still recites them to us everytime we go see him. So awesome! The other 10 year old boy is called Solomon. On thursday when we went to go see him we had to wait for like 20 minutes for him to come home. While we waited there was like 10 little kids playing around in a little field. I went to go play with them. They were climbing all over me and grabbing my arms and going crazy. It was soo much fun!! It reminded me of Teji and Gennet always climbing on people.

Anyways the transfer is now halfway over already. Next week I will have hit my 4 month mark! What?!?! Time is flying like crazy. I really love Lira. It is a great place and the people are VERY willing to let us teach them. 90% of the time they dont progress or anything, but they are always super welcoming.. Most of the time when we are tracting people bring out chairs for us to sit down on before we even introduce ourselves and explain the whole missionary thing. People are crazy. :) But I love it! Yesterday after church the whole Lira Zone went to an orphanage and we played soccer with all the kids there for like 3 hours. It was really fun! I got to see how ridiculous my missionary tan is. Basically I am turning black on my arms and my head. :) Haha i crack myself up. The neck is super white under my white shirt collar. It really shows when I wear a T-shirt. Pretty bad! I didnt take any pictures though, I will try next time.

Also a pretty weird thing happened yesterday. Before we went to the orphanage we worked for a couple hours. Elder Buyers and I went to go see an old guy we met during the week. When we got to his house there was this middle aged white woman there with some other ladies. I kinda got excited for a second. You dont see other white people here very often. Anyways as we were walking up she says "No need to teach me Elders. Im R-LDS." I literally didnt believe what she said, so I had to ask her again. But she is part of the Reformed LDS church. Kinda weird! She was really nice and she is a nurse and is here teaching nursing at a new nursing school in Lira. The other interesting thing is that she used to live in AK. She said she was in Dillingham and then Barrow for about 6 years. Now she is from Buffalo, New York. As we were saying our names she asked us to say our first names. AHHH!! Its been 4 months since I said that name. I didnt feel like arguing so we just told her. It sounded so weird and unnatural. I like going by Elder a lot better than that other one. But that was just kind of a weird experience. 

Also we got rained on 3 times this week! And not just some Alaskan drizzle. It was literally raining cats and dogs and we were caught way out in the middle of nowhere with nothing to hide under. We had to walk like 20 minutes each time to find somewhere to hide. Which meant that we got absolutely soaked all the way through. But it was fun! I like getting rained on. There is kinda a saying that goes around here that says if you drop a Book of Mormon, your wife gets more ugly. And if you get rained on she gets more beautiful. So last week I only dropped the BOM once and got rained on 3 times. I think my hopes of the future are pretty good so far. :) Haha i just started laughing at myself.

One thing that sucks about the rain/storms is that it makes the power go out for very long periods of time. Today we almost didnt get to email. The power was out all day yesterday and came back like just a few hours ago today. But thats just what I get for being in the middle of Africa! So if I ever miss a week emailing, it was probably because the power was out.

Anyways we had a great week. Elder Buyers is doing really well and we work great together. The area is doing good and the work is moving forward. The church is true!

So mom, its not really a "I told you so" kinda thing. I can sight read with one hand really good so I think my couple of years of piano lessons were enough. :) Hahaha. Kidding!

That kinda stinks that the hunting party got nothing. But its ok. If I can live on rice, beans, and bread then you can live without some moose! Haha kidding!! I really miss moose meat, and good american food in general. Yay Africa!!

I am going to send pics in another email. There is a computer at the church that is super fast that we can use to send pictures. The computers that we use in the internet cafes are pretty slow and dont do good with pictures.

Have a fantasmic week everyone! Our mission motto is "Seek the Spirit." I think its something we can all do no matter where we are. Just always find ways to seek the spirit. It reminds me of seminary when Bro and Sis Grover would always say "How can I invite the spirit into this situation." Hey I actually learned something from seminary! Haha thanks Bro and Sis Grover.

Love Elder LeCheminant

Getting soaked in the rain

Playing with the kids

Baptism

New haircut!