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

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

Zone Leader Life

Well another week has come and gone. This week was super busy with us driving a ton. Yea, for zone leader life. 

On Tuesday we went to dig in the garden for a guy called Lazarus. We dug for a couple hours then went home. After lunch we taught Peter about Tithing. Then we taught Henry the Ten Commandments using Mosiah 13. After that we went to the church for the Mission Prep class. Elder Latola taught it and he focused on how to teach about the Great Apostasy. The class turned out to be really good. In the evening we taught a less-active called Kita. We talked about Family History and how we can take the names of our ancestors to the Temple for their ordinances and we also talked about the gospel being preached in the Spirit World. It was a great lesson. Usually we need a translator when we teach him but this time we did it all in English and he understood everything! Awesome. 

Wednesday was great. We had our ZDM (zone development meeting). So at around 9:30 am we left to go to the Bugembe chapel. At the same time as ZDM, President Chatfield was there doing interviews for the Bugembe and Mpumudde Elders. Sister Chatfield provided breakfast for all of us! She made dough for homemade tortillas. So we got to cook our own tortillas and we had breakfast burritos. It was amazing!! When President finished the interviews he came and joined us for our zone meeting. It was nice to have him there and we gave him some time to talk at the end. We didn't get back to Iganga until about 3:30. At 4:00 we met a guy called George; he had just showed up at church on Sunday so we made an appointment to meet him. We taught him the Restoration. It was a great lesson and the spirit was there. We also set a baptism date for the 14 of September for him. Our next several appointments we had fell through so we went to the church to be part Institute. After Institute we went to Collins and taught him about the Law of Chastity. 

Thursday we did surprise exchanges in Mpumudde. We left Iganga at 7:30 am so we could go and be a part of the their morning studies and planning. They had planned to do service in the morning so we went with them to do service. We went to a members garden to dig. If you haven't noticed, digging in the garden is usually what we do for service. We had a good time even though the ground was super hard and made digging a challenge. I counted 11 blisters on my left hand and 2 on my right hand. Then I worked with Elder Kasambala and Elder Oliphant. Kasambala is the District Leader and he is from Zimbabwe. Elder Oliphant comes from the same Ward as Elder Latola in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. We had a great day working together.

We stayed the night in Mpumudde and Friday morning we left at around 9:30 am. On our way to Iganga we stopped in Bugembe to do some baptism interviews for Elder Allred. Then went back to Iganga. When we came back we planned our day and then went as a district for lunch at a members house. Then we went on splits cus we had tons of appointments. We ended up teaching 9 lessons for the day. 

Saturday we did service in the Relief Society garden. Yes we were digging! The rest of the day that we had planned got super disorganized and the things we actually did were completely different from what we had planned. But we had several great lessons. 

Church on Sunday was powerful! It was one of the more spiritual set of church meetings that I have been in. In sacrament meeting we had the District President and Elder Casperson there. They reorganized the Branch Presidency! Our Branch President was called to be the second counselor in the District Presidency. The previous second counselor recently moved to the US. Now we have a new Branch president with two counselors. Our closing hymn was "If You Could Hie To Kolob." And, of course, I was playing the keyboard. With all of the testimonies from the leaders and that closing hymn, the spirit was very strong there. I felt so warm and happy inside; I even felt like crying.  Elder Casperson and the District President did the setting apart of the new presidency during Elders Quorum so that the members could see what happens when they set someone apart. It was awesome! After church there was a baptism service for an eight year old girl. The primary took over the whole baptism service; two little kids did the opening and closing prayers and one primary kid conducted the music, again with me at the keyboard! It was awesome! After church we taught Collins and the children to an recent convert called Loy. We had a dinner appointment with the RS President at 8:00. Well we finished the lesson with Loy's kids at around 7:45. When we walked out we found Loy cleaning a chicken that she had just killed. She said she was preparing it for us for dinner! Ahhh. Talk about late notice. We couldn't refuse because she had already killed the chicken so we promised to come back after our other appointment. So we ate with the RS President and then at 8:45 we went back to Loy and had her dinner. Two dinners in one night! I was soooo full. 

Have fun at the fair! Hearing about school starting and sports and the fair and all that good stuff makes me kinda miss it all! 

Mom I already said this to you, but. I have really grown fond of pictures recently. I think its a sign that I have been gone too long but I love pictures! My happiness increases like 79% when I open my email and find that someone sent me pictures. I even have started printing some and I have an album that I keep pics in. It would be nice to fill the album (wink wink)! 

So that's all for Elder LeCheminant this week. As it is said in Lusoga (the local language here in Iganga) - Siba Belungi! (that means have a good day)

Love Elder LeCheminant senior

Playin' in Poop.

Well this week started out slow but by the end things turned out awesome! 

Anyways on Tuesday morning we played with poop for about three hours. Ha ha. I'm sure all of you are wondering right now if I said that right. Yes, we played with poop for a few hours! We were doing service for a family. We were covering the outside walls of their house with a mixture of cow dung, dirt, and water. It made a dark green colored runny mud that smelled really nice! It didn't smell nice.. So we would use our hands and take some and smear it on the wall. We did it for 3 hours until all the walls outside were covered. It makes some kind of protective coating on top of the normal mud walls. Of course I managed to get the stuff everywhere! It was in my face and all over my arms and legs. When we got home I scrubbed everywhere I could but I still smelled like poop the rest of the day. Literally, I smelled like poop the rest of the day. Ha ha, but it was fun. I added a couple pics of it. 

Tuesday night it rained and got super cold! We actually used the heater in the truck as we were driving. According to Alaska standards it was actually pretty warm, but I was freezing! It also made Elder Latola get some flu. All day Wednesday he wasn't feeling good, then in the evening it got bad enough that he decided to go home and sleep. All morning on Thursday he slept and finally woke up at around 10:00 and the flu was gone! So we were able to then prepare to go out. 

We also had interviews with President Chatfield. President and the APs were in Mbale and Busia all morning doing interviews there and on their way back to Kampala they stopped here in Iganga to do our interviews. It was awesome. President asked me about what happened with Jim. So I told him the whole story. He gave me a lot of encouragement and support. President Chatfield is the best! 

Friday we did weekly planning. Then at 2:00 we taught Peter about the Law of Chastity. We are preparing him for baptismnext Sunday. So I hope that by Sunday we will have taught him everything. Its going to be a scramble but I think we will be able to do it. Peter is awesome. He struggles with English but he keeps his commitments and is progressing very well! After we drove to Bugembe to do some baptism interviews. We did one interview in Mpumudde and three in Bugembe. We ended up spending the whole rest of the day there because the interviews were really spread out. 

Saturday was a fantastic day! At 10:30 a sister from Bugembe came here and took us to a family she knows. Then at 11:30we went to a family that was referred to us by a less active we have been teaching. Those two families have a ton of potential. It was awesome to be able to be referred to them. Then after lunch we visited another family that we recently started teaching. So now we have 3 families that we are teaching!! Its so awesome. I have never taught this many families all at once. Its difficult to get families. Usually we teach single people or just one person in a family. In the evening we taught Collins about the Word of Wisdom. At first he had some concerns with Coffee and Tea (just like every Ugandan). But we explained that most importantly this is a commandment from God and he gave it to us for specific reasons. He understood and was willing to start living it. It was awesome. Collins is preparing for baptism on the 31 of August. After him we taught a less active called Kita. We went through the Plan of Salvation with him. When we got to the judgement something clicked in his brain. He then said "So when we are judged God will ask us if we went to church every Sunday, paid our tithing, kept the law of chastity, and followed all the commandments?" I answered and said yes. He then said "So that means I need to repent and do those things so I can go to the celestial kingdom!" Haha we all laughed. It was a surprise to me that he would say something like that. I guess us teaching him the Plan Of Salvation actually worked. Then we taught a family called the Kanyoros. We got there after 8:30 so we only had about 15 minutes to teach. We taught about family history and gave them a blank 4 generation pedigree chart to fill out. I hope it helps them on the path to reactivation. 

So basically that was the week! Things turned out pretty well. We ended up with 10 referrals and 11 new investigators for the week. 

Have a great week everyone! Good luck at school. Choose the right. 

Elder LeCheminant senior

Tons of Teaching and Service!

What a week!

On Tuesday we continued with the bricks for brother David Baffa. There were no snakes this time. It was fun. Later we taught Peter about the Plan Of Salvation. It was a great lesson. Later we taught Kiprotich, who was baptized a week ago. We added an emphasis on obedience as we were explaining each of the points in the POS. It was a great lesson.  We waited at the church for some other people that never showed up. At around 6:30 we went to the market in town and bought two chickens then as a District we went to the village. We visited one of the counselors in the Branch Presidency called Ciprian. This guy is powerful and is a story that you can share about testimony and dedication to the gospel. 

Ciprian met the missionaries a couple years ago in town and they directed him to the church. He went to church on Sunday and they started teaching him, then he invited his wife to come and join the church as well. The catch is that Ciprian lives 20 kilometers away from town in the village. He rides his bicycle 3 hours every Sunday to come to church. He leaves home at around 6:00 am so he can be at church by 9:00 for meetings and then church starts at 10:00. He NEVER fails to come to church even if it is raining. If it is raining he holds an umbrella while riding his bike 3 hours to the church. His wife and daughter take a boda-boda (motorcycle taxi) every Sunday to come to church as well. Those 3 hours every week are a testimony to his conversion and dedication to live the gospel.  Even he and his wife are preparing to serve a mission as senior couples. They are just waiting for their daughter to go on her mission first. Are you dedicated enough to ride a bicycle 3 hours every Sunday to church? If not then maybe it would be good to consider where your testimony is and what you need to do to become more converted to the gospel. So there is his story.

On Tuesday night we went and visited him. In the truck it took about 30 minutes to drive there and they cooked dinner for us. It was a wonderful humbling experience. Some of us complain about going to church because we are tired or "sick" or it is far. Most of you can either drive or walk to church in less than 10 minutes. Some of us always come late to church. The only excuse for someone to be late is if they live 20 kilometers away and have to come on a bicycle! But this man always comes an hour early to attend his meetings. Just something for everyone to think about :)

The rest of the week went well. We did a lot of service and taught a lot of new people. Our teaching pool is growing and we now have many great people that we are teaching. Throughout the week Elder Latola and I made a lot of progress and improvements in the way we work. Things are looking good for this coming week. 

Have fun going back to school this week!

Love Elder LeCheminant

Relief Society Garden, Missionary Treasure Hunt, and Transfers

So again I forgot my planner today so I am doing this completely on my brain's very limited ability to remember important things. Haha I should work on that. 

Anyways, On Tuesday we went and did some digging in the Relief Society garden. We were weeding a big section of it. Yea not very exciting, and no mom I don't know anything about gardens so don't get too excited! Haha It was fun though.

Wednesday we had our District meeting. We were asked by President Chatfield to focus the meeting on Elder Ballards talk about 'Follow Up' from general conference. We watched the talk and then discussed the important principle of follow up. That is a great talk. In the evening we went to a member that prints shirts and gave him a design we had for a zone t-shirts.

Thursday we went to the Relief Society garden again. We were weeding in the same area and then got to a place that had some veggies growing so we stopped because we didn't want to ruin whatever was planted there.  There was a member in the next garden over who was harvesting maize so went and helped him finish harvesting the maize. Then we loaded it into giant sacks and helped him transport it home. It was fun. I have never harvested maize before.  In the evening we went back to the member that makes shirts so we could approve the design he made and to give him the money. 

Friday after the morning schedule we went to the church to meet with the Branch leaders to plan out an activity we were going to do on Saturday. Of course the meeting took way longer than it should have. But it was probably the best planning meeting I have ever been in because each of the Branch leaders were actively participating and contributing. Usually meetings have someone talk the whole time and everyone sits there as if they could care less what was going on. So that was great. After the meeting we went out to buy the refreshments that we needed for the activity. We ordered 65 samosas and 65 mandazis. Samosas are delicious triangle shaped things filled with stuff and fried, and mandazis are similar to scones. They are basically just some fried bread. We didn't go home for lunch until 2:00. But we were able to get everything ready for the activity so it was almost worth the time we spent. A member gave us a duck! So for lunch we had a duck. The meat was actually pretty good. 

Saturday we had the activity. We called it the Missionary Treasure Hunt. The name was made to get people interested in coming. Each of us Elders were paired with an Returned Missionary in the Branch. Then we made 4 stations each led by an Elder/RM pair. Each station was given one of the lessons in Preach My Gospel to do a short teaching about that lesson. During the activity we split everyone that came into 4 groups, one for each station. Then every 10-15ish minutes the groups would rotate.  I was teaching about the commandments. We focused it on the Word Of Wisdom, Law Of Consecration, Tithing, and Sabbath Day. It was sooo hard to talk about all of those commandments in just 10 minutes. But we managed to get through it all. Then we took each of the groups out into the field to get some hands on experience doing missionary work. Each group had 30 minutes to go out and get at least 10 contacts. My group split up in the area. I was working with 3 others. I told them that if they see a person or a door they feel like going to, then go there, and I just followed behind and let them do the work. It was awesome! They did a great job. I had to help a few times when they would be at a loss for words but we managed to get many good contacts. One of them even took us to her sisters house and led us down a road that had many people she knew. Then we all met back at the church and had some closing remarks and had the refreshments. We had planned to take an hour and play some minute to win it games but the other two parts went way over time so we couldn't do the games. Then we used all of the people there to clean the church. The activity turned out to be a huge success.  We didn't get home until about 4:00 and were all super exhausted. After some rest at home we went goat shopping!!! Haha, yes we went shopping for a goat because we were planning to use it early Monday and we weren't shopping on Sunday. That was fun. I have never bought a goat before.  We went to see a Sister who had a birthday and gave her a cake that Elder Latola made. She even made it into a little birthday party with soda and popcorn. Then we went and picked up the zone t-shirts we had printed. 

Sunday was pretty good. Church was awesome. After church a member that we work with a lot came over to teach me how to make pilau. Pilau is a popular dish here. It is basically brown rice with spices and meat and it is sooo good!!! I have always wanted to know how to make it. Now I know and I will probably be making it a lot when I come home. Then we went out to the village! We drove to a town called Bugiri and then out to the village. We went there about a month ago. We had a nice discussion with Joshua and were able to answer many questions he had. We even gave him a Bible to use with his Book Of Mormon. Joshua is awesome. He is an older man and is super smart but he is humble and listens to us and accepts the answers and teachings we give him. The only problem is that he is kinda far from Iganga so it will be difficult to come to church. But he is awesome and the seed is planted for the church to reach his area some day in the future. When we came back we stopped at a members home for a quick dinner appointment and had some delicious food. Then we went home and packed, got the goat and went to spent the night in Bugembe. 

Today for Pday we had a zone activity. We slept in Bugembe because we had to get things ready early in the morning. We went to the church in Bugembe at around 9:00 and  cooked some of the goat meat on a charcoal grill and rest we made with some soup. I also made pilau with the goats meat. Elder Lassig and I were the chefs in the kitchen. We were in there for about 3 hours. The pilau took a long time to cook. And then Elder Lassig made an apple pie and I made a chocolate cake. While we were cooking the rest of the zone was outside playing soccer. The chocolate cake was sooooo good! I made it completely from scratch. There's no nonsensical cake in a box type things here so I used a chocolate cake recipe we have. I even made chocolate frosting to go on top!!! Ahh it was so good. When everything was finally finished we feasted. It was fun having the zone together enjoying some good food. It was an awesome zone activity. 

So that was the week. It was pretty hectic and we had way to many things to do because we were preparing for the activityon Saturday and also the Zone activity, but the week turned out pretty good in the end. 

Today we received transfer news. The whole Iganga District is staying the same this transfer. Elder Allred is coming to be the new district leader in Bugembe. So now I am his zone leader! Haha. We heard about what's going on in West Africa. There were 12 or 15 missionaries that were there from Uganda who have been reassigned here. So the mission got a bunch more missionaries! Some of them were sisters. In the Jinja Branch they added a set of Sisters; that Branch now has 4 sister companionships. They also have the Jinja Zone Leaders in that Branch as well. So the Jinja branch has 10 missionaries! Huge. Ebola is pretty crazy. There was an outbreak in Uganda about 2 years ago. Last year I heard stories from some of the old missionaries who were here during it. For now everything is safe here in Uganda! 

Recently it has been pretty difficult for people to get visas to Uganda. For me it was no problem but after my group they have been having a lot of problems.

Have a great week! I love you all. 

Elder LeCheminant

Freaking Out About Snakes and Stuff.

Howdy do! 

This week was pretty hectic and crazy. We had a lot to do and not much time to do it. I forgot my planner today so I don't remember exactly what happened so this wont be very detailed. 

Tuesday in the morning we helped a member with his bricks again. It was fun until the snakes came! Haha dont worry. While unloading the bricks we found a little snake. It took all 4 of us to kill it. After that we were super worried there would be other snakes in the stack of bricks. Then like 5 min later another snake came out! All of us jumped away and kinda freaked out. But we managed to kill it. Luckily we didnt see any other snakes. SO that was pretty exciting.

Thursday in the morning we left for surprise exchanges in Bugembe. Bugembe is about a 30 min drive from Iganga going towards Jinja. So thursday we worked the whole day with the elders there. It was a great day and we did a lot of good work. One good thing I like was that most of our appointments were at the church so we didn't have to go to the peoples houses. They came to us! That's the best way to do it. Also I went to Mpummude and did two baptism interviews for the DL there.

Friday morning we drove to Kampala for MLC. We left Bugembe at around 10:00 and reached the mission office at around12:00. At the office we got a bunch of supplies like pamphlets and other stuff. Then we went to the distribution center and got a bunch of more shtuff that was requested by the elders in the zone. Then we headed to the mission home. MLC started at 3:00. It was an amazing meeting and we discussed a lot of great things. President Chatfield talked a lot about discouragement and how it is one of Satan's greatest tools in his tool bag. One cool thing about this MLC is that we had the ZL's from Ethiopia and Rwanda connected through Skype. Normally they fly in the Rwanda ZL's every other month and then in Ethiopia there are two zones so the ZL's would alternated each month to fly in for MLC. It was costing a TON of money for the mission so this way of doing it with Skype saves a lot of money. Things are getting pretty fancy even here in Uganda! Afterwards Sister Chatield had ordered a bunch of Chinese food. It was soo good! Chinese food is delicious. She even made an amazing chocolate cake and we had it with vanilla ice cream. Food is the best.

Saturday in the morning at 6:30 a bunch of the ZL's that slept in Kampala went to the stake center in Kololo and played basketball for an hour. It was pretty fun. I haven't played bball for a super long time. We left Kampala at around 10;00 and got back to Iganga at around 2:00. We spent some time preparing an investigator called Kiprotich for baptism. We did a split and Elder Latola finished teaching him and preparing him for the interview then I went and did an interview for our District Leader. After I finished the interview we went back to Elder Latola and Kiprotich and our DL interviewed him. Then in the evening we went and had a dinner appointment with a new RM sister. She cooked some super nice food. She even made mashed potatoes!! 

Sunday was awesome. In sacrament meeting the Branch President gave a talk about the Restoration. It was powerful. He even went into detail about the priesthood. The church is true and we are the only church with the true priesthood authority given to us directly from Jesus Christ and through a prophet. After church we had the baptism. It was awesome! 

Today for pday we went to Walukuba in Jinja and played soccer with a bunch of other missionaries. Today is also the end of Ramadan. Ramadan is a Muslim tradition where they fast from dawn until sunset for a month. Today it is ending and it is even a public holiday. Iganga is packed with Muslims so we have seen a lot of it. Muslims are all walking around in their traditional clothing and even they are going to be having huge feasts at night. One thing that was a problem for us is that most of the businesses in Iganga are owned by Muslims so almost everything was closed. So we couldn't really do much shopping and we ran around for a long time looking for an internet cafe that was open because all of them were closed. Life in Uganda.

The video of the glacier made me really really miss the boat! That was a sweet video. 

When I was pulling my laundry out of the washing machine and hanging it to dry I noticed a HUGE hole in the butt of one of my pants. Haha better get that one fixed. Ive been noticing that my clothes are still good but almost to the point of being worn out. Some of my socks are getting big holes in them and my shirts are slightly yellowish. Seeing this makes me feel like I am an old missionary! Only 10 months left! 

Have a great week. Love you all.

Elder LeChem the first the second

Zone Conference, Bricks, and Teaching Gospel Principles

Another week gone as if it never even happened! 

Tuesday we spent all morning getting the brakes fixed on our truck. I didn't tell you last week but we had NO brakes for about two days. They went out last week Saturday at night and then Sunday & Monday we couldn't take it and so on Tuesday we finally were able to. We took it to a petrol (gas) station and had a mechanic look at it. Then after a bunch of craziness he finally referred us to a mechanic that teaches at a technical school in Iganga. He took us to this school and the guy looked at it. It turned out there was a big hole in one of the pipes that takes the brake fluid to the brakes. So it was big time leaking break fluid. So we finally were able to figure the problem out. The teacher guy ended up taking the pipe out (that was a hassle) then they took it and just put a weld over the hole. Then they put it back in and it worked! It took about two hours to get it all done. So we spent the whole morning doing that. It was pretty scary driving in Ugandas craziness with no brakes. But I am a safe driver and was able to keep us out of any danger. 

Wednesday we went on exchanges in the district here. I stayed in the area and Elder Latola went into the other side of Iganga. I was with Elder Mfolwe from Botswana. He is an awesome missionary and we had a great day together. We taught some referrals called Joseph and Henry. It was a great lesson. But Henry was super super excited about everything and kept trying to move ahead and explain things to himself then confuse himself. Then we would help him understand and then he would get super excited again and try to move ahead of the lesson. It was pretty funny. He is a good investigator. 

Thursday we had Zone Conference!! It was soo awesome. We had it at the Bugembe Chapel. It is a beautiful built building. Most of the zone conference was an open discussion. We were able to bring up concerns and things we are struggling with in each of the areas. Then we were able to talk about these things and President Chatfield and the AP's were able to help us resolve these concerns. It was a great learning experience and I left with a ton of new ideas for the work. Afterwards we had lunch. The senior couple for the Jinja Mission District is the Caspersons. Iganga Zone takes up half of the Jinja District. Sister Casperson made lunch. She made Shepherds Pie!!! She even made it in a bunch of crock pots. It was amazing and reminded me way to much of moms delicious food. I was inspired and I am going to make Shepherds pie either this week or next week. It was just too good. 

Saturday we went in the morning for service. We helped a member called David Baffa. We were taking bricks and piling them up. Im not sure what the purpose for piling the bricks was, but it was service and we did it! Haha it was fun though. I accidentally left my camera and work gloves on a log where we were working. I didn't realize it until Sunday after church. I was extremely worried. But when we went back luckily it was still there untouched. That was the first time I have ever forgotten my camera somewhere. It was pretty scary. Its a miracle that nobody went and took it. 

Sunday we had a great time at church. Every thing went very well. We had the District Presidency there and they spoke during sacrament meeting. Then I taught the Gospel Principles class. The lesson was about Sacrifice. It was a great lesson and a lot of people contributed so it wasn't just me talking forever. One thing that my mind was enlightened with is about what we are supposed to sacrifice today. In 3 Nephi Christ taught that we must give up animal sacrifice and instead we are to have a broken heart and contrite spirit. I recommend reading this lesson in the gospel principles book. There are even some examples at the end of the lesson of things that people have sacrificed. In the evening we went and had a dinner appointment with some of the YSA (young single adult) sisters in the branch. Don't worry their mother was home and we had a male member with us! Haha :) It was really fun though. I felt like I was at home just hanging out with a bunch of friends. The food was delicious and there was way to much! I piled my plate to almost overflowing. I love food!  

Today for Pday we didn't do anything fun! We ended up just staying at our house all day. It was pretty boring. But I did make some pudding! I made the white chocolate one. We are going to eat it tonight. Haha the food stories were for you mom! 

Yeah for Joey being gone now! Maybe you can call him Junior because he is Elder LeChemnant the second. Haha I make myself laugh. Thanks for all the pictures mom! I enjoyed them. Jacob is a dork. It doesn't make sense in my mind that Sarah is getting her driver's license! I cant comprehend such a thing. Haha :) the world is definitely going to be different next year when i am back. 

Why are so many people getting married!?!?!?!

If anyone complains of heat, try living in northern Uganda!!!! So no complaints from anyone especially you, Joey. :)

Thats all for now. 

Elder LeCheminant (the first) (the second)

ZL Exchanges and the Primary Program

This was such a fast week! I cant believe its already Monday again. 

This week was great and we did a lot of good things.

Tuesday in the morning we spent the morning at the house because our fridge stopped working so we had to have a repair man come and fix it. Then we went to teach Jared and Robert. We taught them about family history as a followup to teaching them about the temple. In the evening we went to a less active man called Kita. We have been reading The Family Proclamation with him. Its a great document! If its been a while since you have read it then I highly recommend going through it especially with the family!! 

Thursday after our morning studies we went and did some service for a member family called the Sempas. They are awesome! The family has been to the temple and are sealed. Even they have a daughter that is going on mission next month and she is turning 19 in the MTC! That is super rare in Africa! Most African missionaries are older than 21. We were helping them in their garden. We we clearing all of the old maize so they can begin preparing it for planting something else. This coming Thursday we are going back to continue working in their garden. After lunch we taught an RC called Barbra. We have been trying to help her read to Book Of Mormon. We decided to go through the title page with her. I have never read the title page with someone before. Normally we just focus on the Introduction. But I felt that it would be good to talk about the title page. It helps us to learn some important things in the Book Of Mormon. It specifically says that it was not written by Joseph Smith, but it was Translated. That instantly answers a lot of questions that people. Even the rest of the title page answers some very common questions that people have. I found that it is a great resource to use when teaching people!

On Saturday we went on surprise ZL exchanges in Mpumudde. We do surprise exchanges because there was a problem in the past were missionaries were purposefully planning out crazy days just to wear out their ZL's. So we surprise them! It also helps us to see how their days actually go rather then how they are supposed to go. We drove there Friday night and worked all day Saturday. I worked with Elder Okech (from Tanzania) and Elder Hamlett (from Virginia). Anyways, we had a great day except for the fact that all of our appointments fell through. We ended up spending most of the day tracting. It was rough but they learned a lot and I was able to give them some advice to help find good investigators.

Church yesterday was nice. It was the Primary program during Sacrament Meeting! They did a great job. The opening and closing prayers were both given by Primary kids. And they actually did it in English! Even there were two kids who gave their testimonies and two that gave talks. They did a really good job. Even one Primary girl was conducting the music for the meeting.They sang a song  called "The Family is of God." How do I know the name of it?... because I was playing the piano for it. Thursday night one of the primary teachers sucked me into playing the piano for them. I tried making excuses to not do it but they wouldn't accept it so I kinda had to. :) She knew how to persuade me to do it! Her name is Rita and she is an RM from the London South Mission. It turned out pretty good though and the song sounded nice. It is found at the back of the 2014 Sharing Time book thingy. 

One other thing that happened was that the water in our house went out! So today we had to go and fetch water with a bunch of jerry cans so we could wash the clothes and clean the house and shower. I had to do a bucket shower this morning! It kinda sucked!! The joys of being in Uganda were power and water are not reliable at all. Its a good thing we have the truck though. It made fetching water a bit easier :) so we kinda cheated a little bit

Mom I don't know how to garden.. sorry!!! Haha :)

Happy birthday Rick!

Have fun going to the MTC Joey! Too bad your not going to the best MTC. South Africa MTC is the BEST!! There's nowhere like it. Haha, kidding you will enjoy and learn a ton there in Mexico. 

I miss Prince William Sound.

Congrats to the Dyers for the new baby!! That's really exciting.

Have a great week everyone!

Love Elder LeCheminant

An Awesome Week!

So this week was pretty dang awesome!

Tuesday we went and did some service in the morning for a member. Then we went and taught a lady that was just baptized called Loy. She even invited a friend called Sam to come and meet us. So we will be starting to teach him. Later we drove 30 KM to a guy that was just baptized called Jared. He is awesome and comes to church every week! We are continuing to teach him and also a relative called Robert who we are preparing for baptism this month. Its a good thing we have the truck because they stay pretty far away from town. 

Wednesday we had ZDM (zone development meeting). Since it was a zone meeting we the ZL's were in charge. We talked about all of the discussion points that were at MLC last week. It was a great meeting. The zone is awesome!! Later we taught an investigator called David. He also stays a bit far away in the village. It is like 15ish minute drive from town. But he comes to church and is very prepared for the gospel so we are planning to baptize him later this month as well. 

Thursday we went and did some service again. It was at the Relief Society garden. The Branch here has a garden. They grow potatoes, beans, cassava, and several different green plants. It is open for any member who needs food to go and pick something and also for church activities they use the stuff they grow so they can save some money in the Branch's budget. Its an awesome idea! Anyways, we spent about 2 hours digging in the garden. Later we met with Loy and also went out to visit Jared again. 

Saturday in the morning we went to visit an RC called Waiswa. Unfortunately he wasn't there, but we were able to find another guy that stays next to Waiswa. His name is Akram. He used to be Muslim. HE is about 22 and works as an English and Literature teacher at a secondary school in Iganga. He was very well prepared to hear from us. So I believe we were meant to teach him and not Waiswa. Akram even came to church on Sunday which was awesome! After that we went on an adventure to the village! This was not just to the village, but we went deep into the village. We were referred to a member family who moved to the village a few months ago. They haven't come to church because it is a bit far away. They told us it would take maybe 15-20 minutes to drive there so we agreed thinking it wouldn't be very far. We had the RS President and a young boy who was related to the family with us to direct the way. We just continued to drive and drive and they just said keep going. As we went the dirt road slowly got smaller and smaller until it was barely the size of the truck. We continued to go for about an hour!! Then finally we reached their house. It was a beautiful place. Next to the house was a big rock/hill that I had to go and climb. So I convinced everyone to go up it. It took about 15 minutes to get to the top. The view was incredible. We could see green and rolling hills forever on all sides. We also took a bunch of pictures. The family was super happy to see us. We sat with them talking for like two hours. We even ended up teaching a few guys that stayed close by who wanted to hear from us. It was a great experience. It was so beautiful out there that I didn't want to leave. We got back to Iganga town at around 6:00. We were starving so we took a super late lunch. Then we went to visit Jared and Robert. We taught them about temples and the priesthood and missionary work. It was a great lesson. I love talking about the temple!!

I am short on time so I will just stop there for the week. 

Iganga Zone has three districts each with two companionships. Iganga, Bugembe, and Mpummude. The other two districts are right next to each other but Iganga is about a 30 minute drive from each. Bugembe has a new beautful built chapel! Its so nice. Elder Latola and I are both ZL's together. Most of the Zones have the ZL's as companions. But some zones, like Gulu, Lira, and Mbale, the ZL's are in separate companionships. Every zone has two Zone Leaders as usual.   

For 4th of July I didnt do anything. It kinda sucked. In Jinja a bunch of the Elders are from the US so they got together to celebrate. I didn't go because Iganga is about 40 minutes from Jinja and I am the only american so It kinda would have been pointless for the others. But it was still a good day and I celebrated in my heart! 

Mom sorry but my curly blond hair is not there anymore. Now it is just super short African style. Oh and thanks for the new blades and the new shirt. :) But I do have to say that whoever invented Cookie Butter is a genius! That stuff is amazing!!!!!!!! 

So there's the week. I cant remember anything else that I wanted to say. 

Pics are from our adventure to the village. One is me and Elder Latola.

 The other is just a view from the rock we climbed. You can kinda see the house we visited with our white truck parked in front. It is kinda in the bottom middle of the picture.

Love Me