Elder LeCheminant Goes to Africa: 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