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