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
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