Monday, February 23, 2015

Tough Week

Well this week again was a tough one. I thought it would work out a lot better because of all the referrals, but it didn't.
On Tuesday our District leader Elder Elapu did an exchange. I went with his companion Elder Makuku into their area and he stayed in our area with Elder Harmon. So that was a good day. It was nice to go to another area to work. It was weird being on an exchange when I wasn't the leader conducting it. Every exchange I have been on in over a year was when I was conducting it. But it was a good day working with Elder Makuku. We found a few good people in their area.

Then Wednesday and Thursday turned out pretty good. Friday was when things went downhill. In the morning when we were calling people to confirm appointments literally nobody's phone was available. So we were hoping to find each of them home at our scheduled times. Of course that didn't help either. The same thing happened on Saturday. None of our people we had scheduled were available and we didn't find a single person to teach the whole day.

Sunday was the general session of the Kampala Stake Conference. It was actually an amazing meeting. Saturday was the adult and priesthood sessions. It was all held at the Kololo Chapel so we didn't have to travel at all for the conference. That was nice. Elder Hamilton from ASEA Presidency was there presiding at the conference. He and the Stake President both gave powerful talks about the Book of Mormon and who we are as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. There was over 900 people at the church. It was huge! So that was the highlight of the week.
Even after getting home from the church and having some lunch we tried calling people to go out and teach. Literally nobody was available that evening.  All of them either had their phones off or could only meet later in the week. So we had received tons of referrals and couldn't teach any of them.  So Sunday evening we went to a family home evening with a bunch of members in the area.

I hate sounding down in an email, but this week was tough. It took a lot to keep going each day and get through all of the things not working out. When nothing works out it really affects you physically and mentally. I just hope and pray that this next week we can be able to start teaching all of the referrals that we have received in the last two weeks. This is the last week of the transfer. I want to end it good so that next transfer can start on a good note. The church is true!

Quote of the week that I heard someone say. "If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything." - Anon

Have a fantasmic week everyone! Enjoy the warm weather all around :) Cus here it is really hot!

Elder LeCheminant

Monday, February 16, 2015

Rough Week Topped Off With A Miracle

Happy Late Valentines Day!

So this week was kinda tough. Our teaching pool was starting to dwindle and we really struggled to find new investigators. I gained a testimony of how faith works miracles. Basically how it happened was that each day we would plan to find at least one new investigator. It is usually through teaching someone new that we had set an appointment with before or we get a referral from a member.  We usually don't tract because that is discouraging.

So everyday our plans for the day didn't work out. Several appointments would fall through each day and then we would suddenly have two or three hours of nothing to do. Our option would either be to sit and rest for a while or go try to find someone. Each time we would try to find someone, we would be unsuccessful. It was really discouraging on my side by the end of the week. I felt terrible about myself, but we kept going to work and doing what we could. The miracle came on Sunday; we had received 11 referrals throughout the week and 6 of them were on Sunday! I was amazed. So Sunday we were just handed tons of new people to teach that we will be starting with this next week. I felt so happy. God is willing to bless us only when we show our faith and go to work. I believe that because we didn't quit and continued pushing through each day God saw how much we wanted new people and then he just handed us 11 all at once! Its crazy how that works.

So that was my learning adventure this week!

Elder LeCheminant

Monday, February 9, 2015

Powerful Confirmation of the Lord's Prophet

So this one will be short because I don't really have much to write about. The week was just a solid week of going out and teaching all day, and sweating like crazy because its super hot during the middle of the day! So nothing really interesting happened.

A cool experience to me was church yesterday. It was pretty awesome! We had Ward Conference and there was tons of people there. They had to open the overflow curtains in the back! That was weird. I forgot there was even such thing as an overflow. Haha. I had a pretty cool spiritual experience at the beginning of Sacrament Meeting. One of the Stake Presidency was doing all of the sustaining of church leaders like they normally do for Ward/Stake Conference. He started off with the sustaining of President Monson; something happened to me that has only happened a few times. As he read the name 'Thomas S. Monson' and proposed to sustain him as our Prophet, Seer, and Revelator, time seemed to slow down. I listened to every individual word he spoke and then looked around and watched every individual hand raise up. This all kinda happened in slow motion, and as everyone's hand was up I felt a powerful something right in my chest. It was strange and amazing. I instantly recognized it as the spirit confirming to me that President Monson truly is the Lord's Prophet for us today. As they went through the rest of the sustaining everything was just normal. It was an experience that lasted just a few seconds but I will remember it forever. I was debating whether or not to share that with everyone, but I felt like I should. :)

I also got a small letter/package thing from Brother and Sister West. Thanks for that! It was nice to read all the little notes from different people there. Except for yours mom. All it said was "Love Mom". Wow! Haha, kidding.

One simple request. Its been a while since I got pictures from anyone. I love pictures! So please send a few if you can. Thanks :)

That's all for now! Thanks everyone for all the love and support. I really appreciate it. Quote of the week is Ether 12:27. Read it! :)

Love Elder LeCheminant

Monday, February 2, 2015

A Trip to Jinja For A Wedding!

This week was a pretty great week. Lots of good things happened and cool experiences. First of all, I made a mistake last week. I said that Elder Harmon was from Sacramento. Actually he is from the San Francisco Bay area. So I thought it would be good to clear that up. Haha!

Tuesday was our zone conference. It was at the mission home. Cool thing is that the mission home is kinda in our area, we walk past it when we go to the church. Anyway, the zone conference was amazing. We got there 45 minutes early so we could have time to just chill until it started. So we also got about 30 minutes to just sit and chat with President Chatfield. I love every opportunity I have to just talk with him, he has the best stories. The zone conference was all about Unity and we did a bunch of activities to learn about building Unity in the companionship. I was reminded of some past things I used to do that I haven't done for a while :).

During the week we made some good progress. We set three baptism dates with some investigators and found an amazing family!!! We had just finished visiting a recent convert and as we started walking down the road this guy just randomly came and stopped us. His name is Moris. He said he had been visited by missionaries a long time ago and really wanted us to come visit him and his wife. So, of course, we agreed! The best way to find someone is when they bring themselves to you. :) We visited him and his wife and they were so focused in the lesson it was just amazing. After teaching about Joseph Smith we asked Moris what he understood about Joseph Smith to kinda check if he was really paying attention. He told us perfectly about the First Vision and Restoration of the Church. It was awesome because that doesn't happen very often. Moris even came to church early on Sunday and was intently listening in all three meetings. His wife didn't come to church becaue she had to stay home to take care of their small baby. So that is a cool family that is very promising.

Then Saturday we went to Jinja!!!!!! There was a family in Iganga that Elder Mkutswana and I were teaching for about three months. I think I told you about them; it is the family of Kenneth and Betty and they were getting married on Saturday in Jinja. Well at zone conference I asked President Chatfield if we could go and attend the wedding, he said it was ok this time but he usually wouldn't let us go. :) So we got kinda lucky and were able to go. I was soo excited! Saturday morning we went to Jinja. Elder Harmon was super excited to see some more of Uganda because he has only seen Kampala. It was funny watching him as we drove over the Nile River. Anyway, we got to the Jinja chapel at around 12:30. The wedding was supposed to start at 2:00, but the group from Iganga didn't show up till 2:00. So of course it started late. Elder Mkutswana didn't tell anyone that I was coming because I wanted it to be a surprise.  When they all got there we stood at the door but I stood in a way that they couldn't see me until they were inside. As soon as they saw me they all freaked out and came and hugged me to death. I know we aren't supposed to hug, but I wasn't hugging, I was being hugged! haha :) Some of the Iganga members were soo happy to see me especially the Elders Quorum President and Relief Society President. It was fun to see my people from Iganga. Then the wedding started around 3:00. It was a beautiful simple ceremony. They asked me about 2 minutes before the ceremony started to give a short talk about marriage. They thought it would be extra special for me to do it because I had come all the way from Kampala. So I quickly looked up some scriptures and made a few notes in my planner, then the Branch President gave some opening remarks and said like 75% of the things I had planned to say and everything I had prepared in 2 minutes was useless. So when I was giving my marriage talk it was literally pulled out of nowhere right there! haha. But afterwards everyone said I did a good job. It was just a fun and happy experience. That was the only couple that I was able to be a part of getting married, it was a happy moment for me. I love Iganga. The members there were soo awesome. Afterwards we had to take a taxi back to Kampala. It was miserable. It was hot and packed and took an hour longer than usual because of evening traffic. We didn't get home until about 7:30 and I was just exhausted. It was worth it though. We got some beautiful pictures.

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Kololo is a great area. I am adjusting slowly and learning the area, it has a ton of potential. We are working on just building our teaching pool and getting it to be consistent because that was a problem for the past elders in this area. Things are happening though and we had a ton of referrals and investigators at church on Sunday. I also finished reading the Book of Mormon. We had started a 3 month challenge the first of November. A lot of the missionaries didnt' take it seriously but I did and finished it by the end of the three months. It was a great sense of accomplishment to finish it again. Now I want to finish it at least one more time before the end of my mission. The Book of Mormon is amazing!!!!

Today we went to the mission office because we had nothing else to do. I got some letters!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They were my first letters in almost a year! So that was exciting. They were from Brother and Sister Scoresby and Sister West. SO thanks for those. It was nice to receive those letters. Then I got a package from Rebecca which was exciting. I haven't opened it yet but will tonight. So thanks Rebecca! You're the best :) All of those were sent before Christmas and just got here. It was nice because today I had Christmas all over again! :)

Pics are from the wedding. Some with the couple, some with me, elder Mutswana and his new companion, elder Sherwood. And some for the ladies... :) hahahaha

That's all for now. Until next week.
Elder LeCheminant the elder