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