The Last Week!

Well this week has been awesome! We finally hit our groove and got things built up to a steady consistent pace of always finding and progressing people. Over the last three weeks we have had 25 new investigators. This week we have set our goals high.  Elder Barrett is going to reap big next transfer. We are setting things up good for the future here.

Each day we focused a lot on finding and met with many wonderful families. We saw some weird stuff happen a few of the days that make amazing stories to be told later. But one thing that I am sad about is one family we have been teaching. The mother is Jennifer and she has 3 kids. Then her sister has like 4 or 5 kids. They all stay together and they are just amazing! We have too much fun with them. The bummer of the week is that ALL of the kids except the youngest are going back to school today. SO we wont be able to have fun with the kids anymore; but we will still teach the mom. Yesterday she said that since she left her husband she has been wondering what church she should go to, then one day we showed up! And yesterday she told us she will be staying in the church of Jesus Christ. So we set a baptism date with her for the 13 June. So that was pretty awesome. We were there last night to say goodbye to all of the kids and got some good pics. I will attach one in the email.

Today we went to CHOBE!!!!! It was soo amazing. I missed that place. It is seriously the most beautiful place on earth. The amazing lodge right on the Nile River. After having delicious breakfast we went down by the water and were just watching the hippos, then a huge herd of elephant came walking down. There was 11 elephants sitting there in the water!!! It was so awesome. I think God was just showing off. Words can't describe the beauty of his creations. I want to say more about it but I seriously don't know what to say. It made for a great p-day. Also, on the way out we saw some Impala fighting. Then right as I was taking the picture they both looked at me. It was my first time seeing Impala. Usually there are just tons of little Kob running around. So the pics are of the impala, the elephants and my district with our beautiful butts! Yes be jealous, because there are even elephants in the background :) And then there is also Jennifer's family from last night.

Have a great week everyone. This is my last week. So next week will be my last time to email on mission. Life is good. I love Gulu and I love Uganda more than anything!! :)

Mission Countdown and General Conference

We had a pretty great week this week. Every day was just full of solid work. We focused on being consistent throughout the week and were able to hit all of our goals except like 2 or 3. We have been focusing a lot on finding each day. We have a set time of three hours everyday to tract and it has been very successful. We have been able to consistently get new investigators every week.

My last zone conference a few weeks back

There is an investigator called Ogik.  He is an amazing guy and has been coming to church for a long time. When we started teaching him we thought that he wasn't legally married so that meant we couldn't progress him and his wife. So we were just slowly teaching and hoping to find a way to get them legally married. Its really difficult here in Gulu because the church isn't registered here to perform marriages. They would have to go to Kampala to the Kololo Chapel. But Kampala is to far away for something like that. But on Tuesday as we were teaching we asked some more questions about their marriage details and found out they actually are legally married!!!! In Uganda a tribal marriage is considered legal, but tribal marriages are really confusing and work differently with different tribes. We found out that according to their tribe they are married. It was such a huge relief. SO now we are progressing Ogik for baptism the first week of June. His wife, Sarah, might be a challenge though because of her work schedule. I am kinda sad because I will be at home when he is baptized, But at least Elder Barrett will have a good start next transfer.

The baptism last week of John and Kennedy.

Then there was another family that we found. It was a referral family from Mama Beatrice. Beatrice is one of my converts from last year. She took us to a family that stays close to her house and we started teaching them. So that was nice. We are now teaching almost all families. There is only one single person that we are teaching.

Saturday and Sunday we were finally able to watch General Conference!!!! It was soo awesome, especially the Saturday sessions and the priesthood session. There was some very direct and pointed talks by the apostles. It was powerful. I felt that Elder Ballard in the priesthood session was talking directly to me because I am almost going to be a returned missionary. He said RM does not mean 'Retired Mormon'!!! Haha i laughed pretty hard. The rest of his talk was powerful. All of the talks were inspired and definitely meant for the world today.

Today we went to an Ethiopian Restaurant for lunch. Its delicious stuff!!!

Then calling home this morning was great!! After the two hours of trying to get connected. I was almost about to give up but then I knew that the family wanted to talk so I kept trying. I tried calling on three different phones with different numbers and none of them were getting through. I wonder if it has something to do with Alaska. It was really annoying though. And then getting the Google Hangout set up was painful. The microphone settings on the computer were all messed up so it took an hour to finally figure out what to do. But eventually we made it and had a nice little talk. Technology is a problem sometimes! But Happy Mother's Day mom. I hope it was a good day for you.

Elder LeCheminant

MAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well this will be a bit short. But we had a fantastic week. We applied everything we learned in the zone conference last Monday. And as a result we were able to hit most of our goals for the week and we were able to find a couple new families. We did a lot of tracting. That was kinda weird for me because the last time I seriously tracted was before I left Gulu last year. I never tracted in Iganga or Kololo. All of the people we taught in Iganga and Kololo were mostly through referrals or other contacts. But here in Gulu tracting has been the better option. And we were able to find some new families!!!

When we started on Tuesday I turned to Elder Barrett and said ok now its your time. You get to lead. I will be behind you to help out. Then his eyes went huge!!! Haha it was pretty funny. He was super nervous being the one in front approaching people and knocking on doors. I just sat back and enjoyed and then helped out when he was stuck. There was a few times he struggled to keep a conversation and it was getting really awkward so I had to save it. But as the week went on he got better and better. Our plan is to have a three hour block of tracting every day in the evening time.

Saturday was the baptism of John and Kennedy. They are amazing. We had them interviewed on Friday and then the baptism was Saturday afternoon. It was kinda weird have the baptism on a Saturday. I am used to having them on Sundays after church. But it was good and went well. I ended up being the one conducting like very last minute. Literally as we were about to start, the Branch President called me up to conduct. Haha, so I literally had no time to put together the program because I thought the Branch President had done it. So I acted like I was already planning to conduct and then just made it up as I went. It worked out very well and I don't think anyone knew that I had nothing planned. Haha but next time I am going to make sure that a program is put together before the baptism service starts. Elder Barrett baptized both of them. Then on Sunday they both chose me to confirm them. I tried avoiding it but it didn't work so I ended up doing the confirmations.

So that was basically the week. Pretty dang exciting that dads cousins son got his mission call to Uganda. The mission of missions!!! :)
Oh yea a funny from today. We were in town getting stuff figured out with SIM cards for calling home next week. Then the guy at the shop who was helping us tried saying my name. And he said 'Lechestament'. Hahahahahaha I laughed soo hard! I think it was a first that can be added to the list.

Have a great week! 3 weeks left :)

Elder LeCheminant