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!!
Monday, September 30, 2013
Monday, September 23, 2013
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
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
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| Getting soaked in the rain |
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| Playing with the kids |
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| Baptism |
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| New haircut! |
Monday, September 16, 2013
9.16.13
September is already halfway done! We had a really great week. Elder Buyers is doing really good and he has been improving a lot in his desire to work. One thing that I noticed a couple days ago is that he is even starting to teach like me. I wasn't expecting that to happen, but I guess its what I get for having a new missionary. It actually is kinda nice because it showed that I might be doing something good.. :)
Church yesterday was awesome! We had the senior couple from Gulu come and also one of the couples from Kampala. I have been playing the keyboard during Sacrament Meeting. I think I forgot to tell you last week, but I played last week and this week, and I will probably play the whole time I am here. Having the piano really helps add to the spirit of the hymns. Most of the time we sing Acapella and it can get pretty bad sometimes because the hymns are new to most of the people here. I didnt know what the hymns were going to be yesterday, so I wasn't able to practice. I found out when they would announce the hymn right before we sing. The opening hymn was one I have never played before! That was an interesting experience. I was sight reading the entire time, but of course everyone thought I did amazing.. yea whatevers.. :) Anyways, the whole sunday service was very spiritual and we all learned a lot.
Today all of the missionaries in the Lira Zone went to a burial service! Thats something that not many missionaries get to do. There was a sister from the Adyel Branch that was a missionary in Ghana. She came home three weeks ago after getting really sick. And then she passed away on Friday. So all of us missionaries here were invited to attend the funeral. We drove about 50 kilometers out into the Bush. It was some village out in the middle of nowhere. Pretty awesome though! We were in a real African village. The burial service was interesting, it is a lot different than what we do in the U.S. for funerals. All of us Elders had a chance to introduce ourselves in front of everyone and share something. I really hope it made a big impact in the lives of the people that were there. I enjoyed supporting a fellow missionary who died in the service and we know that now she is a missionary in the spirit world and has an even greater calling there. I love the Plan of Salvation!! After the casket was buried, we all ate. The villagers made a ton of rice, beans, and some kinda meat. I don't know what it was but I'm guessing it was goat meat. There were no utensils, so we got to eat with our hands! Its really hard to eat rice and beans by hand, but it does help you get more into the food :) haha. So that was an experience I will never forget. I got to go to an African funeral/burial service!
Lira is a wonderful place. It is a pretty big place. Its not really village, but it isn't city, it's more like a country town, African style. The work is a lot different than being in the "city" in Mukono. I really enjoy it though. I love being a missionary! We had a baptism on Saturday. His name is Bruno Okello. I have only known him for a week but he asked me to baptize him. I was really surprised because I was sure he was going to ask Elder Buyers,but I had to accept. He was confirmed in church yesterday. After church we were talking to him, he was extremely grateful for us teaching him and bringing him the gospel. He told us that his entire life has changed, he is much more happy, etc. Even he said his wife loves him more! We are going to start teaching her this week. It made me so happy to see him so happy. The gospel really does change lives. The Church is true!
Enough about me :)
The work is truly being hastened! In like two or three weeks it will already be General Conference. I cant wait to hear what the Prophet and Apostles are going to say about missionary work this time. Its weird to think that conference is already almost here..
Elder David Bell wants Joey to write to him. He asked me to tell him that. Which reminds me, Andy hasn't talked to me at all! I want to hear about his life trying to get marriaged and stuff like that. :) Haha tell him to at least say hi to me or something.
I am going to try to send a few pictures next week, I don't have my camera with me right now. But have a good week! Elder LeCheminant loves you all! Stay good, choose the right, remember who you are, remember your name. :) Haha that just brought back some memories....
Love Elder LeCheminant
Church yesterday was awesome! We had the senior couple from Gulu come and also one of the couples from Kampala. I have been playing the keyboard during Sacrament Meeting. I think I forgot to tell you last week, but I played last week and this week, and I will probably play the whole time I am here. Having the piano really helps add to the spirit of the hymns. Most of the time we sing Acapella and it can get pretty bad sometimes because the hymns are new to most of the people here. I didnt know what the hymns were going to be yesterday, so I wasn't able to practice. I found out when they would announce the hymn right before we sing. The opening hymn was one I have never played before! That was an interesting experience. I was sight reading the entire time, but of course everyone thought I did amazing.. yea whatevers.. :) Anyways, the whole sunday service was very spiritual and we all learned a lot.
Today all of the missionaries in the Lira Zone went to a burial service! Thats something that not many missionaries get to do. There was a sister from the Adyel Branch that was a missionary in Ghana. She came home three weeks ago after getting really sick. And then she passed away on Friday. So all of us missionaries here were invited to attend the funeral. We drove about 50 kilometers out into the Bush. It was some village out in the middle of nowhere. Pretty awesome though! We were in a real African village. The burial service was interesting, it is a lot different than what we do in the U.S. for funerals. All of us Elders had a chance to introduce ourselves in front of everyone and share something. I really hope it made a big impact in the lives of the people that were there. I enjoyed supporting a fellow missionary who died in the service and we know that now she is a missionary in the spirit world and has an even greater calling there. I love the Plan of Salvation!! After the casket was buried, we all ate. The villagers made a ton of rice, beans, and some kinda meat. I don't know what it was but I'm guessing it was goat meat. There were no utensils, so we got to eat with our hands! Its really hard to eat rice and beans by hand, but it does help you get more into the food :) haha. So that was an experience I will never forget. I got to go to an African funeral/burial service!
Lira is a wonderful place. It is a pretty big place. Its not really village, but it isn't city, it's more like a country town, African style. The work is a lot different than being in the "city" in Mukono. I really enjoy it though. I love being a missionary! We had a baptism on Saturday. His name is Bruno Okello. I have only known him for a week but he asked me to baptize him. I was really surprised because I was sure he was going to ask Elder Buyers,but I had to accept. He was confirmed in church yesterday. After church we were talking to him, he was extremely grateful for us teaching him and bringing him the gospel. He told us that his entire life has changed, he is much more happy, etc. Even he said his wife loves him more! We are going to start teaching her this week. It made me so happy to see him so happy. The gospel really does change lives. The Church is true!
Enough about me :)
The work is truly being hastened! In like two or three weeks it will already be General Conference. I cant wait to hear what the Prophet and Apostles are going to say about missionary work this time. Its weird to think that conference is already almost here..
Elder David Bell wants Joey to write to him. He asked me to tell him that. Which reminds me, Andy hasn't talked to me at all! I want to hear about his life trying to get marriaged and stuff like that. :) Haha tell him to at least say hi to me or something.
I am going to try to send a few pictures next week, I don't have my camera with me right now. But have a good week! Elder LeCheminant loves you all! Stay good, choose the right, remember who you are, remember your name. :) Haha that just brought back some memories....
Love Elder LeCheminant
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
9.10.13
Well I have been transferred!! I am now in a place called Lira. It is the second farthest north place in the mission besides Gulu. There are 8 missionaries in the Lira Zone which is a big change. My Branch is called the Adyel Branch. It is in the Lira Mission District. So now i am no longer with a Ward or stake. Just Branch and Mission District. Things are a lot different here but the Branch is amazing! My companion is Elder Buyers. This is his second transfer so I am mothering now! Haha. I have been helping him kinda regain the desire to work hard because his last companion was one of the most apostate missionaries in the mission. Elder Buyers is a really great and spiritual guy. He is from Rigby Idaho and is straight out of high school. I have grown so much this past month. I finally figured out how to work as a missionary and not have to follow others around. And being with Elder Buyers has shown me how much I have grown.
It has been fun working here in Lira these past few days. The people here are amazing and the members of the Branch are very strong. The only thing bad thing is that it is sooooo extremely HOT here in the north. I am sweating all the time, even at night because it is so ridiculously hot. And the mosquitoes are really bad here. Other than that I am so excited to be in this great place. Northern Uganda is completely flat. There is no hills as far as you can see. The language spoken in Lira is called Langii. It is a pretty awesome language. I was just getting used to Luganda and being able to hear what people were saying, and now I have to start over and maybe try to learn some Langii. But basically everyone speaks very good english so I dont have to worry to much." White man" in this language is "munu." Its funny! Little kids chanting "munu" as we walk by. Kids are crazy.
It has been fun working here in Lira these past few days. The people here are amazing and the members of the Branch are very strong. The only thing bad thing is that it is sooooo extremely HOT here in the north. I am sweating all the time, even at night because it is so ridiculously hot. And the mosquitoes are really bad here. Other than that I am so excited to be in this great place. Northern Uganda is completely flat. There is no hills as far as you can see. The language spoken in Lira is called Langii. It is a pretty awesome language. I was just getting used to Luganda and being able to hear what people were saying, and now I have to start over and maybe try to learn some Langii. But basically everyone speaks very good english so I dont have to worry to much." White man" in this language is "munu." Its funny! Little kids chanting "munu" as we walk by. Kids are crazy.
The drive to Lira took about 5 hours. It was so hard sitting for so long! I am used to walking all day, my legs hurt sooo bad after the first 2 hours. But the drive was absolutely beautiful. We went through some real Africa. We crossed the Nile River, which was amazing. The part with the bridge over was like a class 5 rapids. When we passed the river we saw like 15 baboons just chilling on the side of the road. They are pretty goofy looking animals. I wish I had taken a picture but I didnt have my camera available. But now I can say that I have seen baboons!! Be jealous :) The rest of the drive was amazing. When you watch Lion King and it shows the flat plains extending forever, that is basically what we drove through. So awesome! I saw some legit villages with mud huts and everything. I love Africa!
We just got back from a Tri-Zone Conference in Mbale. That is why I am emailing on Tuesday instead of Monday. We left on Sunday after church and drove for about 5 hours to the south eastern part of Uganda. We had Elder Hamilton from the Africa Southeast Area Presidency teach us. The conference was awesome and I learned a ton about how to be a better missionary. We slept at the Mbale chapel, 20 Elders sleeping on foam pads and I havent showered for three days now. I smell soo bad! Anyways after the conference yesterday (Monday) we just had the whole evening to relax and do whatever. We drove back to Lira this morning, dropped our stuff, and came straight to the internet place.
It sounds like winter time is coming there. That means that the dry season is coming here and that also means that It will only get more hot! I'm not too excited. I hope that the heat doesn't effect me to much. I'm already sweating enough. Maybe someday soon my body will decide to stop mass producing sweat. I hate sweating when im just sitting and doing nothing! Haha enough ranting.
I have really grown to love being here. I decided over these past few days that I dont want to come home in 20 months. I never want to leave and go back to normal life. Being here in Uganda as a missionary has become a part of me. I love everything about the restored gospel. The scriptures and Preach My Gospel are truly amazing things that we have. I study and mark them like crazy. Haha, i\I have set of different colored highlighters, and it looks like some little kid went crazy coloring all over my scriptures because there are so many colors on every page. The scriptures are the best gift anyone could ever receive. The church is true!
Love Elder LeCheminant.
Monday, September 2, 2013
9.2.13
I am now three months old and done with transfer numba 2! Time is moving. So this week is transfer week. We will be receiving the new son Wednesday and then transfers will be on Thursday. Pretty exciting! I'm not nearly as nervous as I was at the end of last transfer. Now I am just letting it come and I am excited for whatever happens. Mission is really great.
This week was tough. We got bounced A LOT. When I say bounced it means someone cancelled a scheduled lesson on us. . But Elder Jimu and I finished the transfer strong and now we are just preparing the area for next transfer. Last night I realized the truthfulness of the scripture that says "many are called but few are chosen." We were totaling our numbers for the transfer and found something crazy. We had 65 new investigators overall for the transfer. And out of those 65, only ONE was baptized! Our other baptism was someone we found last transfer. One person baptized out of 65!!. People have their agency. When they fail to keep their commitments then we cant really do anything. But that's just mission life.
Today was an awesome P-day!!! We went to a place called Ssesibwa Falls. It is a waterfall with a nice park. We were literally out in village/bush area. It was soo awesome and I got a ton of great pictures. There were people living in mud huts and caves and most of them were traditional healers or witch doctors. Obviously we didn't go and talk with them. The water fall was beautiful! It really made me miss home in Alaska. Just being out in nature with trees and rivers and mountains. We hiked around the falls and there was clusters of bamboo and we even walked through some legit African jungle. I cant really describe how awesome it was. It was really nice to get away from the city. Mukono is like a city and it is always busy.
So during personal study I have been reading in the New Testament. I am now almost done with 1st Corinthians. This book is literally amazing! Every chapter is just packed with gospel topics. One chapter that I really loved is chapter 14. This chapter Paul is teaching the people the truth about the gift of tongues. Something that almost everyone here doesn't understand is the truth about the gift of tongues. They think that it makes you able to just speak in some random language. There are pastors and preachers that do that. They just start blabbering and making noises and calling it a gift from the spirit. It is really fake. Anyways chapter 14 tells the truth. I love the scriptures! These past three months I have really fallen in love with reading the scriptures. The hour of personal study every morning is not nearly enough time. I always feel like I am just getting started and then the time is gone. The scriptures are truly a gift from God.
Yay to Elder Aaron Cox!! That is pretty dang awesome to be going to the West Indies Mission. You will be a great missionary. Study the scriptures and Preach My Gospel like crazy before you go. It will help you more than you think. It is really hard to teach people about the scriptures when you don't know what is inside. I have experienced it myself.
I hope you had fun with the fair! The fair is a lot like life here in Mukono. Everyone has small shops or booths along the road and there are people every where always busy going everywhere. There aren't really any big stores There's like two supermarkets and the rest is just small shops or booths like the fair. So you just experienced a taste of what it's like in Africa! Haha kidding :)
Keep being awesome people! I love to hear from everyone about life in the US. America is a dream here. It has really made me realize how blessed we are with everything. Don't forget the blessings and everything that God has given to you because not many people live like we do in the states. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth. All of the teachings and doctrine are true and given to us from our loving Heavenly Father. The gospel is real and blesses us in so many ways. Until next week!!
Love
Elder LeCheminant
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