Monday, September 29, 2014

Potential Concussion

Howdy do

SO today I forgot my planner again and my head hurts really really bad. We were playing capture the flag in Jinja today with Jinja Zone and I was running backwards to get away from someone and I was going too fast and they tagged me and then I fell and hit the back of my head really hard on the ground. For a few minutes I couldn't focus out of my left eye, but its okay now so DON'T worry! Haha, my head just hurts really bad. I took some ibuprofen but it didn't really do much. Anyways, because of all that I kinda don't want to take much time today for emailing. Sorry Bambi! (Bambi is a word here that kinda is an expression of feeling sorry for someone.)

We spent the whole week kinda reorganizing the way we work each day. Elder Mkutswana and I want to do things a lot different than how they have been done in the past. So each day we struggled to get lessons, we were bounced a lot!

We spent a lot of time working with David. David is an awesome investigator who was super prepared for the gospel. He lives about a 15 minute drive into a village. He was originally taught by Elder Latola before I got here to Iganga. We taught him for a couple weeks then we dropped him. A couple weeks ago he came back; now he is even more prepared. For the two months we weren't teaching him he was reading the pamphlets and the Book Of Mormon. He knows everything perfectly now. He has to ride a bicycle for about 30 minutes to come to church. Surprisingly, yesterday at church he showed up with his wife! It was awesome! We are preparing him to be baptized next Sunday.

We had MLC on Friday, so we left for Kampala early. The meeting was fantastic! Afterwards they took us to a super nice hotel called the Protea for dinner. It was sooooo goood and way too fancy. Saturday morning we went to a guy in Kampala who makes plaques out of Ebony wood. I just wanted to see where the guy is so I will probably spend some money next month when we are there :)

Yesterday for church we had Branch Conference. Many District Auxiliary Leaders were there and Sacrament attendance was huge!!! We had 109 in attendance. Since I have been here it has been around 85 so that was awesome. We also said goodbye to the Caspersons; they are the senior couple that is over the Jinja District and they are going home this week. They will be replaced by Elder and Sister Squire who are from Layton, UT. They are awesome!!!!! Elder Squire completely reminds me of Mike Owens, same walk and everything. Its pretty cool :). They have been here in Uganda for about 6 months and Sister Squire was the mission nurse but we are getting a new doctor couple to replace them. The new couple is from somewhere around Provo or Orem and President Chatfield says he is the best OBGYN in Utah or something. We will see when they get here.

Dad I can't believe you actually bought a tractor!

The deal with the terrorists has kinda settled down. We go home at 9:00 now as normal so that is nice. It is really hard to always be coming home early.

That's all for now. I love you all.
Elder LeCheminant

Monday, September 22, 2014

New Companion!

Well this week was a MESS!!! It was a crazy transfer week. Tuesday we spent all day going around so Elder Latola could say goodbye to people. In the morning we went out to Ciprians house again. It was fun and we ate nice food :).

Wednesday around 12:00 Elder Latola was picked up by the AP's. They were driving to Busia and then to Mbale. In Mbale they dropped him and picked up Elder Mkutswana and dropped him here in Iganga on their way back to Kampala. Then we were in a three-some because Elder Thomo's new companion wasn't even in Uganda yet. Thursday we did our best to work in both areas to visit a few people but it was difficult.

Friday Elder Mkutswana and I did our weekly planning. We were still in a three-some and we went and visited a couple people then had to go to Bugembe to do a baptism interview. We didn't get back until after 7:00. We have to be home at 8:00 for security reasons so we weren't able to do much when we came back.

Saturday morning we spent some time at the church with some members there. Then we taught a lesson at 2:00. We were supposed to be in Jinja at 3:30 to pick up the new missionary. The AP's didn't arrive until about 4:30 so we were playing volleyball at the church with some members while waiting. The new guy is Elder Chinunda and  he is from Tanzania. He was serving in Zambia for the last transfer because of visa problems. Uganda has been getting crazy with visas. USA and South Africa are not letting Ugandans into their countries, so Uganda is in turn not letting people come in. So we have been adopting a lot of new missionaries from other missions because they couldn't come to Uganda when they were supposed to.

Elder Mkutswana is the best. We get along very well together and have too much fun. He is a great guy. I am excited to work with him.

I miss the winter! and mountains.

Oh yea I just remembered something that happened!!! So we have a new returned Sister Missionary, of like 2 months, in the Branch. Her name is Helen and she served in the Kenya Nairobi Mission. Well, on mission there was an Elder from Utah who she got to know and last Wednesday he showed up here in Uganda!! They are planning to get married sometime soon. Yesterday they went to Helen's village to meet her family. They invited us to come along, so we went with them and several members of the Branch to spend the evening at her village. There was a meeting where we sat there and someone was introducing all of her relatives to us. It was pretty fun and kind of a cool experience. His parents are coming at the end of October to meet her family as well and then they will do a traditional wedding here. They also requested that we are there for that as well. So its pretty exciting. .





So the picture with the chickens is from Ciprian's house on Tuesday.  Then the other two are from our gathering yesterday.



This is me and Elder Jimu. He finished his mission last week and is now home. He is the first of my companions to go home!!!!!!! It was too weird.



Also our baptism we had last week of peter. We did the picture together with the other elders to make it go faster.



Have a great week everyone. You are the best.
Elder LeCheminant senior

Monday, September 15, 2014

Transfer #12

So I will just dive right into it this week.

Tuesday was a great day. We met with Peter to finish teaching him the commandments from Lesson 4. He is doing great. Then we met another guy called Robert. He is an investigator that is still in the stage of promising but not yet progressing.  In the evening we taught Ibrahim about the Book Of Mormon. He is a funny guy but remembers everything about the Restoration and is excited about the Book Of Mormon. Then we finished the day by teaching Collins(recently baptized). We talked about the atonement with him and then left an assignment to study more about the atonement and be ready to teach us next time.

Wednesday we went with our RS president, Aida, to a family she wanted us to teach. The husband is a fellow teacher at a school that Aida works with. His name is Fred and his wife is Tabitha. They are awesome!!! They were so humble and willing to listen to us. They were good "students" as well and listened and learned from everything we taught. It was nice. They stay a bit far in the village though so it will be a challenge for them to come to church regularly, but they are awesome! We finished the day teaching Ibrahim again about the Plan Of Salvation. He loved it and was even starting to explain some things to himself.

Thursday morning we met with the Elder's Quorum President and helped him some more with reorganizing the home teaching. We met with Peter and reviewed the interview questions for his final preparation for baptism. Then at around 5:00 we went out to President Ciprian's house! When we got there we killed two chickens and they prepared dinner for us. While we were waiting for the food we participated in what has now become a tradition in Iganga. I planted a tree!! The missionaries before me started a tradition of planting a fruit tree at Ciprians house. So I planted a mango tree!! In 20 years when I come back (hahaha) I will tell everyone that that mango tree is mine!! So that was cool. After that we played UNO, Then we ate. :)

Friday we met some more families. Last week on Sunday there were these two mamas that came to church. So we planned to go and visit them on Friday and took the Branch president with us. It was in a small village about a 7 minute drive from town. We met the first mama called Florence and her family. They were awesome and are listened to us as we introduced the Restoration. Then after that we went to the other mama called Joy. It was interesting. We got to her house and met her husband, we were sitting there about to start introducing ourselves, then they started calling the family to come and join. It took like 5 minutes for everyone to come! There was a ton of children crammed in the doorway. The husband started talking and said that he has 17 children!!!!!!!!!! Elder Latola and I just looked at each other and just went right ahead introducing the Restoration. For them it will a bit difficult to progress towards baptism, we are suspecting that he has more than one wife because Joy could not have had 17 kids on her own. But both Florence and Joy came again to church this Sunday and they brought some kids with them as well. In the evening on Friday we saw Ibrahim again. When we sat down we noticed that the Koran was sitting on the floor under the table. Then we found out the he is Muslim. We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he wants to be baptized but still considers himself to be Muslim. We were planning to set a baptism date for next week, but now we have to wait until he decides on Christianity or Islam. He wants to be both somehow!

On Saturday in Bugembe there was a crowning ceremony for the new king of the Busoga. The Busoga is the tribe in this part of Uganda. At the ceremony were tons of people and also President Museveni, the President of Uganda, and leaders from other tribes in Uganda. So security was super tight and people were going crazy. We were talking with the Elders there and with President Chatfield and he decided to close the District for the day. In the morning we drove to Bugembe, picked up all 4 elders, and brought them to Iganga for the day. I spent the day working with Elder Allred and my comp worked with his comp.

Sunday was also great. Church was nice and we had the baptism of Peter. After church we went to a village in Bugiri District to a guy called Joshua. We last saw him about a month ago.  During the lesson a huge storm came;  it was super windy and pouring cats and dogs. The roof of his house is just iron sheets so when the cats and dogs hit the iron sheets it gets really really loud! We were doing our best to speak over the noise but it was really difficult. Then There came a point when Elder Latola was teaching and a thought popped into my head that I should pray. So I said a prayer asking God to reduce the rain until we finished the lesson so we would be able to hear ourselves, then after waiting a minute the rain only increased and it got louder! So I said another prayer pleading with God to let us be able to finish the lesson and within a minute the main part of the storm passed over and the rain went to a drizzle. :) So it was just a cool experience for me to see Heavenly Father answer my prayer like that! Its something that I will always remember.

Yes there was attempted terrorist stuff in Kampala this week. Since Saturday we have had to come home by 8:00pm. The AP's said today that things are still going on so we still have to go home at 8:00 until further notice. So yay for that.

Oh yea!! Haha today we got our transfer news. Elder Latola is going to Mbale. My next comp is Elder Mkutswana. He is coming from Mbale. So he and Latola are just swapping. We are ZL's together. Elder Mkutswana was in Entebbe the same time that I was so I already know him. He is a cool guy. He comes from South Africa. Today I started transfer #12!!!!!!!!!

So there's what happened with me this week. I love you all. The church is true!
Elder LeCheminant senior

Monday, September 8, 2014

Sending Roaches to the Spirit World

So I spent a long time replying to others. So now I don't have much time left. Sorry!

Wednesday we had ZDM. I gave a training about the area book and using it effectively. It was great training and I even learned some new ways to use the area book while I was training the other Elders. Thursday we did exchanges with the other companionship in our district. I worked with Elder Mfolwe. We had a great day and taught some good lessons.

Friday evening we went to see Patience, Praise, and Tony - the three people we baptized last week. We said goodbye to them and they went back to school on Sunday. It was sad to say goodbye. Those kids were the best! I could stay at their house all day. We then went home, got our stuff, and drove to Bugembe. We arrived there at around 9:30. The drive was not fun. The road was full of big trucks driving slow. Driving at night here is so painful. We stayed the night there and then worked with them on Saturday. I worked with Elders Mayeya and Rindrafifaliana. Elder Mayeye is from Malawi and Rindrafifaliana is from Madagascar. They are awesome elders and we had a fun day together. We went to their coordination meeting with them in the morning and then worked. In the evening on Saturdays they have a Preach My Gospel class. They invite all members to come so they can teach the members the principles in PMG so the members can better be able to do missionary work. We were with them for the first part of the class, but we had to leave at around 7:30. We went to Mpumudde to give the elders some things then drove back to Iganga. Again the drive was painful and it took us 20 more minutes to reach Iganga than it should have. We had to come back early to do some baptism interviews for Elder Thomo and Mfolwe.

Church on Sunday was awesome. Testimony meeting in Iganga Branch is always a humorous time. Many of the members just make you laugh sometimes from things they do. I love Iganga Branch. We had a lot of investigators at church as well. 4 were investigators and there were 6 other people that just came to church to see what was there! It was awesome so we will be following up with those people this week.

Today Pday kinda sucked. We spent literally all day deep cleaning the house. We were cleaning for about 6 hours!!!! It was exhausting. Now the house is clean and roach free. The kitchen was infested with roaches. It was pretty disgusting. Today we took the time to clean out all of the cabinets and spray roach killer. I think we sent at least 200 roaches to the spirit world. But I am super tired from all the cleaning. So today was not very fun but now I can enjoy our house! :)

Thanks Alan for confirming my memory of Great Great Grandpa LeCheminant. I think it would be cool if someone could find some more info/stories about his mission to South Africa and send it to me. :)

Have a great week everyone!
Love Elder LeCheminant senior

"You will probably get many confirmations that your great grandfather LeCheminant did serve in SA. He was there during WWI and spent 4 years there because all the passenger ships were being used to transport troops and supplies to the war effort. He eventually circumnavigated the globe to get home."  Alan LeCheminant

Monday, September 1, 2014

September!

Howdy do!

This week was awesome!!! We were super busy every day preparing people to be baptized. Last Sunday one of our recent converts, Loy, brought her 3 kids to church. They were home for a break in the terms at school. They all go to boarding schools like most kids in Uganda. Anyway, after church last Sunday Loy asked if it would be possible for the kids to be baptized before they go back to school. They go back on the 7th Sept., so we spent the week preparing them. We taught them every day and managed to finish all of the lessons by Thursday. We had a special baptism service on Saturday for them so they could be confirmed on Sunday.  Every night we were there. Their names are Patience, Praise, and Tony. Patience is 17, Praise is 12 and Tony is 11. They are awesome kids! They all know English perfectly and are super smart. They would spend all day reading the pamphlets and they remembered everything we taught them. We finished the lessons on Thursday,  interviews on Friday, then baptism on Saturday, and confirmation on Sunday. The kids also requested that I baptize them, so I was the baptist on Saturday. They were so excited. I forgot my camera today so I will send pics next week.

We also baptized Collins on Sunday. Elder Latola baptized him. Collins is 24 years old and he is a teller at a bank in town. He is awesome and is really excited about the gospel. He loved everything we taught him especially the Plan of Salvation. We visited him every day during the week to finish up the lessons and make sure he was ready.

Friday we went to the big city. We left to Kampala in the morning and arrived around 1:00. We went to the mission office to get some supplies for the Zone then to the distribution center. MLC started at 3:00 at the mission home. This MLC was amazing!! Last month we had the ZL's from Rwanda and Ethiopia connected on Skype. This time they added the ZL's from Gulu, Lira, and Mbale onto the skype. So the only ZL's physically there were us, Jinja, and the ones in Kampala. It was pretty awesome. The meeting was great and we learned a lot from President Chatfield. We also had a great discussion where we were able to counsel together on certain issues in the mission; it was a great experience. President Chatfield is the funniest guy ever and always has the best stories.'I could listen to him all day long and never get bored. After the meeting we had dinner at the mission home. We had local Ugandan food this time.  We slept in Ntinda for the night. In the morning we went to Shoprite!!!! That is a big grocery store similar to Carrs or Fred Meyer. It is way to nice and I felt like I was at home. Then on our way back we stopped at a service station to get our truck serviced and then we drove back to Iganga. The drive was nice and traffic wasn't really as bad as usual. Sometimes it's hard driving in traffic especially with a clutch. I always feel like I am going to destroy the clutch always going in and out, but we survived and made it back safely.

Today for P-day we played soccer as a zone. It was pretty fun. I actually played today and I didn't do to bad. My foot-ball coordination sucks but I did a lot better today than in the past. It felt good to get some good exercise. Afterwards we went to an amazing restaurant in Jinja called 'The Keep.' It is an expensive "white person" kinda restaurant. It is set up like a medieval tavern, kinda Lord of the Rings style. I got a cheeseburger and a peanut butter banana milkshake. It was sooooo goood!!!! Just like at home. It is so nice to get a taste of quality food every once in a while. Local Ugandan food is good but American food always hits the spot perfectly.

So that was the week in short.

I have a vague memory of someone somewhere saying that we have an ancestor, like grandfather or great grandfather or something, who served his mission in South Africa. If that is true and not something I just made up then I would like to maybe get his story. That would be awesome! :)

Have a great week everyone. You're the best.

Love Elder LeChemy