Monday, January 27, 2014

1.27.14

Well this week was pretty good. Nothing to exciting except for Elder Bednar coming!!!!!!!!! That was seriously amazing.

Tuesday was just a normal day of work. As always the day we planned out didn't happen, but we did find a few good people. In the evening we found a family that are super duper intelligent. They spoke awesome english and they had a huge super nice house. The mom was almost too religious and kept talking about how "spiritual" she is and was showing us scars on her knees from praying so much. Yea its kinda ridiculous. But our lesson was awesome and they listened the entire time. They actually didn't have any complaints about the restoration which was good. Then our last lesson was with a Recent Convert called Flavia. She and her husband got married and baptized like a month before I got here to Entebbe. Well she was telling us on Tuesday that they were having some marriage/relationship problems. It was really sad to listen to because both of them are awesome when we are there, but I guess its what happens when we aren't there. So we are going to try our best to keep them a happy family without getting to much into their personal lives. I just hate when people are having bad relationships.

Wednesday was amazing!!! At around noon we started heading to the stake center in Kololo Kampala. We got there at around 2:30. We just sat around talking to members and other missionaries for an hour. Then the meeting started at 4:00. It was Elder Bednar, Elder Clayton of the presidency of the seventy, the entire Southeast Africa area presidency, Elder Suti an area seventy, and all of their wives. A pretty big group of General Authorities. It was a special adult meeting for the Kampala Stake. Before the meeting they asked the members of the stake to read 4 documents/ talks. The Family Proclamation, Power in the Priesthood, the Gospel Culture, and More Diligent and Concerned in the Home. Then the meeting was basically an open discussion where everyone got to contribute about what they learned and they were able to ask questions. The meeting went for 3 hours!! It was amazing. I learned so many things.

Elder Bednar talked about how the gospel is all about CHANGING and IMPROVING. There was a statement that he said at least 15 times. "If you keep doing what you have always done, then you will always get what you have always got." We always need to be looking at things in our lives that we can change to make ourselves better. Another thing that Elder Bednar talked about is how sometimes we get annoyed or bored when they always talk about the same thing in General conference. He said that if we don't like what they talk about in conference, then look in the mirror. We are the ones that determine what is talked about in conference. For example, if everyone paid tithing then they would stop talking about it, but because not everyone pays tithing they have to keep talking about it. So if you don't like it, then you need change and help others to change as well. Most of the meeting was talking about family and the priesthood. I cant describe everything through email because there was just so much stuff! Elder Bednar said it was the first ever meeting where there was so many ordained witnesses of Christ in a setting where the members could ask questions and talk about what they learned. He said that because it was so successful they are now going to continue doing it!

So that was Wednesday. The rest of the week went pretty good. Sunday was awesome. During sacrament I was reading the old testament. A couple weeks ago I decided it would be good to know more about the old testament. So i am reading it during the sacrament at church now. It is so much more interesting than I used to think it was! I have already learned a ton about Abraham and I am only in like Chapter 15 of Genesis. Anyways, during sacrament meeting Tony was confirmed!!! He is such an awesome guy. He has been through soo much since his decision to be baptized. He will be such a big support at church here.

To answer mom's question, the font is made of metal. We have that one because the church is just a rented building so there is no font inside. All of the rented meetinghouses in Uganda have a tank similar to that outside. There are only a few church built chapels in the Kampala Stake. Everywhere else has rented buildings. They just take time. The church built chapels have super nice fonts inside.

The cheesecake pudding was seriously fantastic! I got like a month ago so I don't remember anything inside. For some reason I remember you stuffed it with some money or something but I'm not sure. That was a long time ago!!

Holy Cow there are a lot of people from Palmer Alaska going on missions! When did it happen?!?!?! Haha. Yea I email aaron, hunter, packer, and cedric every couple weeks.

Good luck with the Green Room! It actually sounds kinda fun. I still remember doing the pads on the walls in the gym. That was crazy. There was soooo many people that came! How are those pads doing anyways?

The dry season is kinda coming to an end. They say the rainy season is supposed to start in a couple weeks. So it hasn't been as ridiculously hot as the last few weeks, but its still hot and really humid because we are right next to the lake. The humidity makes me sweat like crazy and it makes candy like starburst and gum get all mushy and gross. But i guess thats just what I get for being here. I am going to freeze when I come home! Enjoy the nice 40 degree weather in Alaska! I would love that over the heat here :)

Have a good week everyone. I love you all. Remember your name. Remember who you are. Stuff like that. haha :)

Love Elder Mzungu

Monday, January 20, 2014

1.20.14

Hello everyone!
This week was pretty awesome! We got a lot of good work done.

Tuesday we did some "phone tracting" all morning from 10:00 to about 12:00. It was so exhausting!!! Haha. Basically we just sat in our comfy chairs, made a list of former investigators and less actives, then just started calling. I have never made so many phone calls at once. It was pretty fun and we were able to find a couple of people to start teaching. The rest of the day we just went out teaching like normal. We saw three recent converts and watched the Restoration video with them. We have a little portable DVD player at our house so we decided to carry it on Tuesday. I love the Restoration video. It is only about 20 minutes long but is amazing at showing how the whole restoration came about. I always feel so much peace inside when we watch it. That was a great experience to watch it with these recent converts.

Wednesday we had Zone Conference!! It was a really amazing and inspiring zone conference. We were told to be at the mission home at 8:30 am. So we had to get up at 5:30. Then we left at 6:00. The taxi ride was about 2 hours then we had about 30 min of walking so we actually got there at 8:30. Well zone conference didn't even start until about 10:00. So we had over an hour to just sit around and hang out. The conference was awesome. I could seriously listen to President Chatfield all day and never get tired. He talked a lot about the importance of repenting and being spiritually clean so we can have the spirit. The scriptures say that God cannot look at sin with the least degree of allowance. And the spirit cannot dwell in unholy places. So basically we need to purify ourselves so the spirit can always be with us. That was President Chatfield. The AP's spent a long time talking about the Area Book and how we can do better at keeping the Area Book up to date. After Zone Conference we went to the Mission Office on our way back to Entebbe. I got my box from Gma LeChem!!! Thanks so much. I have already eaten everything. The Pringles and Nutella were seriously the best part.

Friday we met with Jove again. We taught him the Plan of Salvation. It was amazing! He actually read the entire pamphlet before we got there, which never happens. That made teaching the lesson incredibly easy because he already had a basic idea of what was there. As we finished he kept saying he wished his wife was there because she would be convinced if she heard it. Then he said that it was way more believable than what is taught in his own church. Jove is pretty much awesome and I love teaching him. Next week he is going to Gulu to do some memorial service stuff for some relatives that passed away. So we might not be able to see him for a couple more weeks.

Saturday was kinda messed up. We had three lessons planned in the morning but only one didn't fall through. Then after lunch we planned to have the DL, Elder Wanlass, come to Tony's house to interview him for baptism on Sunday. After a while of waiting we called him to see where he was at. Basically he had planned to meet at the church and we had planned to meet at Tony's house. Just a slight miscommunication there. So we had to take Tony to the church! It actually worked out good because during the interview the rest of us spent some time cleaning out the font. It is outside and hadn't been cleaned for a few months so it was pretty gross. The interview went good. I had no worries at all. The rest of the day we stayed at the church because we were supposed to be at PEC meeting. PEC was supposed to start at 4:00 but this is Uganda so it didn't really start until about 6:00. So we wasted a few hours at the church, but there was nothing we could do about it!

Sunday we had Tony's baptism after church! He chose me to be that baptist. I dont know why people always choose me to baptize them, but it keeps happening. Anyways the baptism service was awesome and it all went successfully. It felt amazing to finally have had a baptism! Its been almost two months.

One exciting thing this week is that Elder Bednar is coming to visit the Kampala Stake!!!!!! President Chatfield tried to see if all of the missionaries in the mission could come and do a special meeting with him but he said no. But he is letting all of the missionaries in the Stake come to the meeting. So luckily Entebbe is part of the Stake and we get to go!! I cant wait!

Andy why would ever put yourself through a half marathon? We run down our road and back in the morning. Its maybe a mile and a half total and I am always dying halfway through! But I guess good job :)

I think I already asked you but what is Lauren Hardy's missionary email? I would try to guess but there is always the possibility of getting someone else like with Hunter.

Dad you asked for some ideas of things to send with that guy who is coming here. Also just a few ideas for a box that anyone would want to send. I love food. Pudding is amazing! I actually made some cheesecake pudding today that was in my Christmas  box. Nutella and macaroni is also fantastic. If it worked out that you could send some stuff with that guy, would there be a possibility of me sending some stuff home with him? Just me thinking ahead :)

I cant really think of anything else. Here are some pictures from the week. One is us cleaning out the font. One is of a cool tree. One is the 4 of us Elders in the district getting some drinks. One is of the baptism! Yea my baptism suit is way to small, i know.






Love Elder Me

Monday, January 13, 2014

1.13.14

Another week down! The weeks just keep moving right along like they never even happened. Its pretty awesome!

Tuesday was a really great day. It was a day that we were super in tune with the spirit. A lot of things happened that were awesome. One lesson that we had after lunch was with a guy called Innocent. We have been teaching him for over a month now.  We had planned to go through the Plan of Salvation. Well as soon as we started both of us knew that it wasnt what we should teach that day, so we both just went right along teaching him the importance of the Book Of Mormon and we never communicated it to each other. The lesson turned out amazing, it was for him and not just a lesson! After that we visited a guy called Jove. (yea it reminds me of Madames Been Murdered when I was the crazy old guy that yelled "jove" everywhere) He is an older guy and is a lifelong catholic. When we met him before he basically told us he wasn't interested. we stayed anyway and just had a nice conversation about random things going on in the world. Then Tuesday we did the same thing. We were just talking about random things like politics, his family, etc. Then suddenly he totally opened up to us and said he didn't know if there was a life after death. I just sat there amazed. It was so sudden and random that we didn't really know what to say. It was perfect to start teaching him the Plan Of Salvation. So hopefully we can continue teaching him.

Thursday in the morning we met one of the recent converts called Sharon. We have never met her before but luckily she has been very active. It took like an hour to find where she lives because the area is confusing. There is basically no such thing as an address in Uganda so she was trying to direct us and it took a long time. But we finally found her. The rest of the day was just a good solid day of teaching people. Our last lesson was with the guy we worked with. His name is Afiman. He is like 17 yrs old and he was baptized about 4 months ago. He is super excited about missionary work and works with us several times a week. Well since he is still a very new member he doesnt know much about teaching the lessons. So we decided to start training him how to teach and be a missionary. It was fun training him how to be a missionary. We started with the Restoration and every week we are planning to train him how to teach a different lesson. So that is exciting watching Afiman be so excited and soaking up all of the info we give him.

Friday was a bit rough. We did our weekly planning then had lunch. Elder Wulfenstein was feeling sick so we sat there at our house until like 3:00. When he felt good enough to go work we went out. After a couple hours we called the ZL's and told them about him being sick. They said he had signs of either Malaria or Typhoid and they said we needed to go get him tested. So we went and found a clinic and he got tested for those diseases. They drew his blood and put it on microscope slides and looked at it under a microscope. Luckily they found no disease and said he just had some bacteria that was making him sick. Now he is basically recovered. It was fun going to the clinic though. It was my first time taking someone there.

Saturday was kinda weird. In the morning we went to visit Daniel. Unfortunately he wasnt around. As we were standing at his door a guy walked out the looked super familiar. I couldn't figure out where I had seen him before. Well he immediately recognized me and said his name is Simon and he lives in Mukono. He is the brother to one of our recent converts in Mukono called Cassim. Elder Jimu and I were teaching Simon for like a month. And apparently Simon is related to this guy called Daniel here in Entebbe. Kinda a small world experience. It was really cool. Tons of memories from way back in Mukono just flooded back. Later after lunch a helper at the mission office called Godfrey came with some stuff that we requested. It was amazing! He brought us some things we desperately needed like bowls, utensils, a pot, a mop, an iron, and some light bulbs. We now have light in the kitchen and in the bathroom!!! We went all last transfer with no light in there. This week he is going to bring us some new mattresses because ours are totally dead. And he is bringing us a couch couch because we dont have one. Exciting! Also on Friday the Sister Missionaries arrived. Now there are two sisters in our district! Its kinda weird being in a district with sisters but it will be fun.

Sunday church was good. Afterwards we had to stay for Ward Council. Then we didn't get home till like 3:00. At around 5:00 we met with Tony. He is the one that was supposed to get baptized a few weeks ago. Basically he said he wants to be baptized as soon as possible. He officially quit his job on Wednesday and confronted his family about being baptized. He told us he knows the gospel is true and he doesn't care what others think. That was soo amazing and it made feel so happy and warm inside. So we will be having a baptism this coming Sunday!!

There's the week. I know it was really long. I got a letter from the Alan LeChems this week (thanks a ton bytheway!). Someone in the letter said they want more details about my week. Yea I know my letters are kinda undetailed. So today I tried harder. Hope it was better! Haha.

Sorry dad that you have to wear a boot now. Its kinda a funny picture in my mind of you walking around in a boot. I hope the ankle gets better.

That's awesome that Stephanie's(from Garth's office) husband has been to Uganda. I cant really think of anything right now to send with him. Remind me when it comes closer to him coming.

I hope you like the Ugandan Hunter. I thought it was pretty sweet. Im glad to hear that it made it there. I was beginning to think it got lost in the mail or something. Did you like the super ghetto box? Haha thats how the post office here did it for me. I thought it was funny.

Joey don't hurt yourself in the Green Room doing that Eagle Project! Its a whole different world in there.

So this email is ridiculously long! The pic is of me washing my clothes in our bathroom. I am doing it Ugandan woman style. Standing with my butt straight in the air!! They can somehow do it for like 2 hours but I only lasted a couple of minutes. Its painful. I usually sit on a stool to wash but I thought it would be funny to do it with the booty in the air.

Have a good week everyone! If you fell asleep reading this I'm sorry. Its Alan's fault. haha kidding!!

Love Elder Chem


Monday, January 6, 2014

1.6.14 - Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!
Well for starters, this week was hard. Tuesday was great. Tuesday night for New Years Eve we went over to the DL's house and slept over then stayed with them on Wednesday. We went around all day to food appointments. It was pretty fun. Atmidnight there was even fireworks that we woke up to watch. That was cool.

Then the rest of the week just was hard. Every day we would have a nice schedule and lots of people to see.  But then nobody was available and people just kept not being home for appointments.. I think we tracted more from Thursday to Saturday than I ever have. Not very fun. At the end of the week we ended with 14 lessons. Thats like the lowest I have ever had in a week! 

One good thing that we started was running in the mornings. Basically all last month we never exercised because we were always super tired. So on Thursday we were just sitting there hating life and decided to start running in the morning. Our run is just down our road and back. We think its like about a mile and a half. Holy cow we are soooo out of shape! I have gained like 10 pounds last month. So the running was ridiculously hard, but it was worth it. I felt a lot better physically throughout the day. I am just really really sore. But I will get over it eventually. Hopefully this will help me lose some weight as well. Yay! :)

Oh yea.. Haha on Saturday evening we were sitting at a persons house waiting for them to get home. We got there at like7:00 and waited until 9:00 and she didnt show up. Anyways while we were waiting there was a group of like 6 little kids that came over to us. We were messing around with them and playing and having fun. Then Elder Wulfenstein asked how to ask them to give us a massage in Luganda. Totally random but so worth it!  We just sat on the ground and had 6 kids massaging our backs. It was pretty dang awesome. The kids loved it. And we of course loved it. My back hasnt felt this good in like 8 months! So that was our funny for the week. 

We also got our transfer news today! Because last week was the last week of the transfer so that means today is the start of my 6th transfer. Yay! Elder Wulfenstein and I are staying together here. I'm not really surprised at all. We both were expecting to stay. So just thought I would let you know. At least six more weeks in Entebbe for me! 

It sounds like everyone had a good holiday season. You survived the crazyness. Why do we always end up having a million people at our house for holidays? You should go to someone else's house sometime. Just a suggestion :)

Sarah I never said you could have my room. I guess its ok though as long as I get the bonus room above the garage when I get back! Hehehe :)

Thats kinda funny that Logan Hanneman got a compression fracture on a trampoline! I have never heard of anyone doing that before. It sounds painful.  :)
Good Luck to Reese & Logan trying to qualify for the Olympics!

Have fun going back to school everyone! I remember those days. It was such a long time ago... Hehe 

Did you ever get the package that I sent? Its been like 3 or 4 weeks since I sent it.

Love Elder LeCheminant