10.28.13

This week was interesting. Almost everyday our plans for the day were completely turned upside down. That was rough. We would end up just going forward not knowing what to do and where to go. It made us put a lot of trust in the lord that he would help us. The great thing is that each day actually turned out to be really great.

On Tuesday we did some service at a members house in the other Elder's area. We were digging in her garden. That means digging up the ground with a hoe so that seeds can be planted. Its sooooo fun! Not really. Africans think that white people cant work so they would always question and laugh at us as they walked by. It was kinda annoying but it was good because we showed them that we can work harder than them! The members really loved the service. I got some good blisters on my hands. My hands are really soft now from not doing any work with them for 5 months. On Saturday we went to a member in our area to help dig their garden. That was fun. Afterwards they made us food. It was sooo good!

We got rained on pretty good on Friday. Actually, I don't think 'rained on' is a good enough description. It poured for like two hours and we got caught in it. We were on our way to the church after some lessons. About 5 minutes away the rain came. We ran the rest of the way but it was already to late. EVERYTHING was completely soaked all the way through. My shoes, my clothes, and my scripture bag. Now my scriptures are slightly water damaged, but its ok. They look more used and rugged now :). My shoes just finished drying out this morning. That was a fun experience. I was sooo wet!!! The rain then cut our day really short, so we only had like 3 lessons on Friday. On Saturday and Sunday we watched General Conference, they finally sent us the DVDs so we could watch it. It basically took most of the day on Saturday. And on Sunday we had someone translating so it took an extra 45 min for each session. After each talk we would stop and he would summarize everything in Luo. Luo is the local language here. But conference was amazing. The talks were really awesome. I noticed that they talked a lot about families and morality. Its insane that 40% of children are born to unmarried parents and that only 20% of 19-20 yr olds are married now. The world is a crazy place. Something else that was said "If the laws of men are contrary to the laws of god, it does not change the laws of god. A sin is still a sin no matter how legal it is". Anyways, conference was amazing.
After church we went to the orphanage again to play soccer. Its soo much fun! Kids are awesome.

We have one investigator named Bosco. I dont remember if I already talked about him. We have been teaching him and his wife, Cecilia. Bosco is in the Uganda military. They are amazing investigators. A couple weeks ago after teaching them the Book of Mormon, Bosco asked if the church accepts people who drink alcohol. We gave him a Word of Wisdom pamphlet and said we would talk about it next time. We saw him this week and taught the Word of Wisdom, he said that he has already completely stopped drinking since we met with him last time. That was amazing. He stopped drinking before we even taught the word of wisdom! He is awesome and is really excited to be baptized in a couple weeks. That was just one cool experience. The gospel has really changed that whole family in such a short time!

Its good that the funeral went well. That would have been awesome to go to be able to see everyone. That's so awesome that you got to see the Heges in the airport. I actually really miss that family. I have some wonderful childhood memories with them. Its awesome that they are planning to move to the valley soon. Maybe I will get to see them when I come home! How are all the other Fairbanks peeps? Haha

Yea the package had customs tape over it. I dont think anything was taken but it looked like it had been inspected. People say that if you put pictures of Jesus all over packages then they dont inspect them. Haha maybe you could try that on the next one! It might work!! And the sick stomach was worth it! Its nice to have something other than rice and beans :)

I got some letters last week that I forgot about. From Kathy Casagranda and Calvin Simmons. Thanks for the great letters!!

Andy, you are crazy!! Who would want to go running for fun? Such a waste of energies. Haha but i guess its good for you :)

Thats all I can think of for now. Have a good week!

Love Elder LeCheminant

10.21.13

This week went pretty good. My transfer prediction was correct. Me and Elder Buyers are still together. Elder Mgijima is now a Zone Leader here in the Lira Zone. Its pretty awesome to have him around again. He is a really fun guy and a great missionary. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. On Saturday we had a baptism. It was a young girl called Fiona. She is the daughter to Bruno who we baptized like 3 or 4 weeks ago. Now we are working with the wife to Bruno. She was going to be baptized with Fiona but hasnt been coming to church. The baptism went very well and Bruno even baptized her. He was very nervous and hesitant about doing it because he didn't want to mess up and ruin his daughters baptism. But we kept encouraging him and built his confidence. And then he did it perfect the first time! So the baptism went great. 

We had another family that we found. The parents are Bosco and Cecilia. They are a really awesome family. After coming to church both of them expressed the desire to officially be a part of this church and be baptized. They both said they felt that other churches they have been to talk about Christ but this church seems like it is actually led by Christ. I was soo surprised when they said that. It was awesome and made me sooo happy. They are going to be baptized closer to the end of November. I love it when people accept the gospel so easily!! 

Yesterday after church we went again to the orphanage to play soccer. And of course I forgot my camera again! One of these times I will remember to bring it. Soccer was fun. I am starting to get better and can almost get the ball past the little kids. They are just way to good! Afterwards when we got home I cooked dinner. I made rice and beans, but it was super delicious! I can make some dang good beans. Elder Buyers and I also discovered an amazing drink. Africans love tea so they have all sorts of different kinds of "tea." One is hot milk with sugar. You just boil milk for like 20 or 30 minutes and then add sugar and drink it. Its sooooooo goooood!!!! So I made that as well last night.

That reminds me. I finally got my box! It was seriously better than Christmas. And it reminded me of home waaayy to much, but I loved it. Btw.... HOLY COW ON THE DEODERANT!!! I have never seen that much in my life. It will last me like 5 years. Haha maybe not that long. But thanks anyways. And the food was amazing, even though all of the preservatives have really messed up my digestive system. Nothing here is preserved or manufactured like food in the states. So I am totally not used to it, but it was worth it. Keep sending me delicious junk food :)

To answer Dad's question. We do have a water filter. Every missionary apartment has a water filter system. If the water goes out then we just have to buy water. If there's no water to buy then we have water storage for emergencies. Every apartment also food storage for emergencies. I hope we never have to use any of it, even though it would make some great stories!! Haha. And I do have plenty of sunscreen, I just forget to use it and then halfway through the day its to late. But I am going to use it more because the dry season is coming and the sun is getting more intense every day. We are allowed to wear hats that have the brim all around. Like those fishing or safari hats. The only problem is that I don't have one. 

Its really sad to hear about Jon Tanner. This past week I had been thinking a lot about Fairbanks for some reason. I had no idea why or where it came from, but random memories of Fairbanks kept coming at really random times. Now I guess I know why. Usually hearing about someone passing away doesn't affect me that much, but I feel so sad for everyone there(in Fairbanks). I cant imagine what you are all going through. One of my favorite memories is my first moose hunting trip with Jon Tanner, Jerry Bastian, Dad, and me. We went to Galena and then went in boats up the Koyukuk River. That was a really fun trip. I cant remember how old I was, I think maybe like 4th or 5th grade. Its weird because I remember a lot about that trip. We didn't have the big tents so we wrapped some trees with a roll of plastic and made a shelter. Then I remember all of the great adventures we had wandering around and having crazy things happen. It was a lot of fun and is one of my favorite childhood memories. I love the plan of salvation. It brings so much purpose into our lives. This kinda made me realize that we don't know when our time will end here on the earth. Heavenly Father can call us back at any moment. One thing I like to teach people about is being ready to meet the Savior tomorrow. If you are not ready then some things in your life need to change. The plan of salvation is very real. I know that if we really apply it to our lives then it will bring so much peace and happiness. My prayers go out to all of you.

Well there's not much else. I am going to be sending some pics in another email later today. Have a good week! I love you all. Thanks for everything.  

Love Elder LeCheminant

p.s. Everyone should send me a package cus I like delicious junk food :) hahahahahahahaha

10.14.13

So today is officially start of transfer #4. I'm pretty sure Elder Buyers and I are going to stay together this transfer so there will probably be no changes. But we don't find out until tomorrow. 
This past week went very well. We worked hard everyday. Wednesday was Uganda's Independence Day. Uganda has now been independent for 51 years. Last year was the 50th. The holiday pretty much ruined missionary work for the day. We were only able to see a couple of recent converts. The rest of the day we just spent at the church playing volleyball and watching some movies (they were church movies, don't worry). It was fun. I hadn't played volleyball for like three months. It was nice to play again. We also didn't have running water for three days. There was something wrong with the pipes at the central pumping station that pumps water for the whole town. So all of Lira had no running water for a few days. That was fun. Not really. 

Today for p-day was amazing! We went to a place called Chobe. It is a lodge that is inside a wildlife reserve. On the way here we saw tons of giraffes, water buffalo, warthogs, and a few monkeys, and some kind of deer. Then we got to the lodge. Holy cow it is nice. This place is a 5 star lodge that overlooks the Nile river. It is so beautiful and gorgeous. There are tons of hippos just chilling in the water and giraffes outside. The lodge is super fancy and has amazing food. We have  been out here all day. They have computers here so I am emailing at this lodge. It is an incredible place that would be really great for like a family vacation or something like that (wink wink). I cant send pictures today because I don't have an adapter so I will send them next week. But you can go to the website to see. It is chobelodgeuganda.com. I have tons of amazing pictures and videos of all the animals. There is an airstrip for the lodge and you can fly here directly from the Entebbe International Airport in Kampala. Everything here is so gorgeous and peacefull. I want everyone to be able to come and see it!!! 

So that was today. I don't really have much else to talk about this week. On Saturday I had some of the young men from the branch come and wash my clothes. We dont have a washing machine here in Adyel. So I was washing clothes by hand every week. That pretty much sucks. It takes sooo long! I would do most of it on Mondays then the rest at night during the week. Its not very fun. So I decided to pay some of the guys from the Branch. I gave them 5000 shillings to wash everything for me. Thats basically 2 US dollars. It was worth it. 

So that was the week. We are going to leave Chobe in about an hour. We have to change a flat tire on our truck and watch the sunset first. I am excited. It is going to make great pics that I will send next week!

Yay for Galena and her family. Its always exciting to see someone follow the example of Jesus Christ and get baptized. That is the first step towards eternal life. I love when people get baptized. 

Congrats to Palmer football and volleyball. And good luck to those in the Play at the school. I remember those days. It was sooo long ago! Back when I was in high school! Hahahahaha. Just make sure no one forgets how good I was in all of my plays and shtuff. Kidding. I was pretty bad. I don't know why Mr Harris kept letting me in. :)


Love Elder Chem

10.9.13

Another week down, A LOT more to go. We had a good week. Nothing really crazy happened this week. We just did normal missionary work. The usual walking ALL DAY long. I havent been inside a vehicle for about three weeks now. Its really great to walk everywhere. My legs hurt more if I sit around doing nothing than when I am out walking. I dont know how that works, its kinda weird. Hahaha

Two members of the branch got their mission calls this week. Both are going to Ghana but different missions. There are now almost 10 missionaries from this branch and there is like 3 more that are working on the papers right now! Its amazing. Even a small branch of under 200 members has that many missionaries! The gospel is true.

We spent a lot of time this week trying to build our teaching pool. At the end of last we basically had to drop almost everyone. So now we are just preparing for next transfer. We found a few really great families. I love finding families because when they accept the gospel they will most likely be very strong in the church and also have the temple to work towards.

Elder Buyers and I have been doing really good together. I dont remember if I already talked about this. But our lessons have been getting very good. Almost every lesson we had this week had the spirit present and we were able to teach powerful lessons. Its amazing what the spirit does. I have been getting better at recognizing the spirit. That is something that I have never been good at, and I have been really working on it recently. The spirit is an amazing resource that we have.

We were not able to watch general conference yet. If we were to watch it live then it would be in the middle of the night here. So in like two weeks we will recieve the DVDs and the branch will be able to watch it. So our conference weekend is in a couple of weeks. But Elder Buyers and I are downloading the audio for each session from lds.org and we are going to listen to it during the week. One thing that is really amazing is that we now have 80,000 missionaries! And the church membership is now over 15 million. That is truly an amazing thing. In just 183 years the church has grown a lot. I cant wait to listen to all of it!

As for music. We have a portable DVD player that we can watch church movies with and listen to music on. We either put CDs or flash drives that have music on them. And we are not allowed to use headphones, only speakers. But any music that is uplifting and doesnt take away from the spirit we can have. So you can either send the CD or somehow send the files in an email. Whichever you think is easier :)

Haha to Andy! :) Thats two years in a row now that BYU has beaten Utah State. hehehe. I remember last years game. it was awesome.

One of the pics is me sleeping while Elder Buyers is emailing. We are using the computer at the church.

The other is a super legit picture of all of us walking to church yesterday. I think its a pretty awesome picture.


Love Elder LeCheminant

9.30.13

So this week a lot of weird stuff happened. First of all we had no electricity for almost FIVE DAYS!!!! It went out on Tuesday and didn't come back until Sunday morning. By Friday night the running water stopped flowing, so we had no running water for a while; even at the church. So we almost didn't have any water to fill the font for our baptisms on Saturday, but the water came back on Saturday morning just in time to fill the font. That was kinda nerve racking, but we survived. The fridge started smelling REALLY bad after like the third day and we had to live with candles and flash lights every night. Just one of those awesome things about Africa! :) It also rained a ton like almost every day. We got rained on a few more times and there was one huge storm that lasted a couple hours. Tons of thunder, lightning, wind and rain. And then it stopped just as fast as it came. That was probably the most intense storm I have ever been in. Luckily we were inside so we didn't have to get completely soaked. 

We had three people baptized. Two of them were ten year old boys. They are really intelligent and have basically memorized everything we taught. They are called Oscar Omara and Solomon Epwopu. Last week Solomon's older sister had been giving him tea and we told him that he needs to stop drinking it before he got baptized. The next time we saw him we asked how he was doing and he said that when she makes tea, he asks her to just fill a cup with hot water and give it to him without the tea. A TEN year old! They are so awesome. I love those little guys. The other baptism was a guy called Anthony Okot. He is 22 and a student at a university here in Lira. I will send a picture. 

So that's some of my craziness that's happening over here. Today I turned 4 months! I feel like I have been here forever, but I really just got here. Time doesn't mix well with missionaries. It is all way to messed up for me, it goes fast and then goes slow. The days are like weeks and the weeks are like days. Its really weird. 4 Months! 20 More to go. And its already October, the year is almost over! Pretty soon it will be Christmas.

Tha'ts awesome that Dad was able to give all those blessings. The priesthood is real. I love giving people blessings because those are the times when I feel the influence of the spirit more than anything.

That sucks for BYU football, but its ok because they haven been very good for a few years; haha, sorry to all you fans out there! What really matters is volleyball!! I miss going to watch Kathryn play. And with Kathryn... What?! You are no longer my favorite cousin because you don't tell me important things like getting marriaged and stuff like that! Haha :) I actually kinda guessed it. Emily kinda mentioned something about it in her emails that Melinda sends to me. But I didn't ask or say anything because  nobody else was saying anything! I guess I should say congrats. :)

With packages. The office couple or the AP's are the ones that pick up things at the post office, then it sits in the mission office until someone can pick it up. Since we are like 5 hours away here in Lira, its usually the Zone Leaders that would bring it. They go to Kampala at the end of every month for meetings and stuff. They just went last week but didn't have my box so I guess it was still at the post office. In two weeks is transfers so maybe someone will be able to bring it, or I would have to wait until the end of the month. That also goes with any mail. You can send regular letters to me, it just takes a little more postage. And you can send smaller packages with whatever. You just mail everything to the same address, it is the address for the mission office. Elder Buyers just got a ton of stuff like candy and food and a few letters. 

I think that's enough for one email. Andy finally emailed me! Its about time!!! Haha. I will probably remember some more stuff to tell you all tomorrow when I cant email.

Love Elder LeChe!!

9.23.13

Well this week was just a normal week of missionary work. We didnt have any baptisms but this saturday we have 3 planned. Two of them are these 10 year olds that were given to us by their family members to teach. It reminds me of Jacob getting the lessons now. These two kids are super ridiculously smart! One of them, Oscar, doesnt know english so we have to have someone translate. But he memorized all 5 points in the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson the first time we taught it and still recites them to us everytime we go see him. So awesome! The other 10 year old boy is called Solomon. On thursday when we went to go see him we had to wait for like 20 minutes for him to come home. While we waited there was like 10 little kids playing around in a little field. I went to go play with them. They were climbing all over me and grabbing my arms and going crazy. It was soo much fun!! It reminded me of Teji and Gennet always climbing on people.

Anyways the transfer is now halfway over already. Next week I will have hit my 4 month mark! What?!?! Time is flying like crazy. I really love Lira. It is a great place and the people are VERY willing to let us teach them. 90% of the time they dont progress or anything, but they are always super welcoming.. Most of the time when we are tracting people bring out chairs for us to sit down on before we even introduce ourselves and explain the whole missionary thing. People are crazy. :) But I love it! Yesterday after church the whole Lira Zone went to an orphanage and we played soccer with all the kids there for like 3 hours. It was really fun! I got to see how ridiculous my missionary tan is. Basically I am turning black on my arms and my head. :) Haha i crack myself up. The neck is super white under my white shirt collar. It really shows when I wear a T-shirt. Pretty bad! I didnt take any pictures though, I will try next time.

Also a pretty weird thing happened yesterday. Before we went to the orphanage we worked for a couple hours. Elder Buyers and I went to go see an old guy we met during the week. When we got to his house there was this middle aged white woman there with some other ladies. I kinda got excited for a second. You dont see other white people here very often. Anyways as we were walking up she says "No need to teach me Elders. Im R-LDS." I literally didnt believe what she said, so I had to ask her again. But she is part of the Reformed LDS church. Kinda weird! She was really nice and she is a nurse and is here teaching nursing at a new nursing school in Lira. The other interesting thing is that she used to live in AK. She said she was in Dillingham and then Barrow for about 6 years. Now she is from Buffalo, New York. As we were saying our names she asked us to say our first names. AHHH!! Its been 4 months since I said that name. I didnt feel like arguing so we just told her. It sounded so weird and unnatural. I like going by Elder a lot better than that other one. But that was just kind of a weird experience. 

Also we got rained on 3 times this week! And not just some Alaskan drizzle. It was literally raining cats and dogs and we were caught way out in the middle of nowhere with nothing to hide under. We had to walk like 20 minutes each time to find somewhere to hide. Which meant that we got absolutely soaked all the way through. But it was fun! I like getting rained on. There is kinda a saying that goes around here that says if you drop a Book of Mormon, your wife gets more ugly. And if you get rained on she gets more beautiful. So last week I only dropped the BOM once and got rained on 3 times. I think my hopes of the future are pretty good so far. :) Haha i just started laughing at myself.

One thing that sucks about the rain/storms is that it makes the power go out for very long periods of time. Today we almost didnt get to email. The power was out all day yesterday and came back like just a few hours ago today. But thats just what I get for being in the middle of Africa! So if I ever miss a week emailing, it was probably because the power was out.

Anyways we had a great week. Elder Buyers is doing really well and we work great together. The area is doing good and the work is moving forward. The church is true!

So mom, its not really a "I told you so" kinda thing. I can sight read with one hand really good so I think my couple of years of piano lessons were enough. :) Hahaha. Kidding!

That kinda stinks that the hunting party got nothing. But its ok. If I can live on rice, beans, and bread then you can live without some moose! Haha kidding!! I really miss moose meat, and good american food in general. Yay Africa!!

I am going to send pics in another email. There is a computer at the church that is super fast that we can use to send pictures. The computers that we use in the internet cafes are pretty slow and dont do good with pictures.

Have a fantasmic week everyone! Our mission motto is "Seek the Spirit." I think its something we can all do no matter where we are. Just always find ways to seek the spirit. It reminds me of seminary when Bro and Sis Grover would always say "How can I invite the spirit into this situation." Hey I actually learned something from seminary! Haha thanks Bro and Sis Grover.

Love Elder LeCheminant

Getting soaked in the rain

Playing with the kids

Baptism

New haircut! 

9.16.13

September is already halfway done! We had a really great week. Elder Buyers is doing really good and he has been improving a lot in his desire to work. One thing that I noticed a couple days ago is that he is even starting to teach like me. I wasn't expecting that to happen, but I guess its what I get for having a new missionary. It actually is kinda nice because it showed that I might be doing something good.. :)

Church yesterday was awesome! We had the senior couple from Gulu come and also one of the couples from Kampala. I have been playing the keyboard during Sacrament Meeting. I think I forgot to tell you last week, but I played last week and this week, and I will probably play the whole time I am here. Having the piano really helps add to the spirit of the hymns. Most of the time we sing  Acapella and it can get pretty bad sometimes because the hymns are new to most of the people here. I didnt know what the hymns were going to be yesterday, so I wasn't able to practice. I found out when they would announce the hymn right before we sing. The opening hymn was one I have never played before! That was an interesting experience. I was sight reading the entire time, but of course everyone thought I did amazing.. yea whatevers.. :) Anyways, the whole sunday service was very spiritual and we all learned a lot.

Today all of the missionaries in the Lira Zone went to a burial service! Thats something that not many missionaries get to do. There was a sister from the Adyel Branch that was a missionary in Ghana. She came home three weeks ago after getting really sick. And then she passed away on Friday. So all of us missionaries here were invited to attend the funeral. We drove about 50 kilometers out into the Bush. It was some village out in the middle of nowhere. Pretty awesome though! We were in a real African village. The burial service was interesting, it is a lot different than what we do in the U.S. for funerals. All of us Elders had a chance to introduce ourselves in front of everyone and share something. I really hope it made a big impact in the lives of the people that were there. I enjoyed supporting a fellow missionary who died in the service and we know that now she is a missionary in the spirit world and has an even greater calling there. I love the Plan of Salvation!! After the casket was buried, we all ate. The villagers made a ton of rice, beans, and some kinda meat. I don't know what it was but I'm guessing it was goat meat. There were no utensils, so we got to eat with our hands! Its really hard to eat rice and beans by hand, but it does help you get more into the food :) haha. So that was an experience I will never forget. I got to go to an African funeral/burial service!

Lira is a wonderful place. It is a pretty big place. Its not really village, but it isn't city, it's more like a country town, African style. The work is a lot different than being in the "city" in Mukono. I really enjoy it though. I love being a missionary! We had a baptism on Saturday. His name is Bruno Okello. I have only known him for a week but he asked me to baptize him. I was really surprised because I was sure he was going to ask Elder Buyers,but I had to accept. He was confirmed in church yesterday. After church we were talking to him, he was extremely grateful for us teaching him and bringing him the gospel. He told us that his entire life has changed, he is much more happy, etc. Even he said his wife loves him more! We are going to start teaching her this week. It made me so happy to see him so happy. The gospel really does change lives. The Church is true!

Enough about me :)

The work is truly being hastened! In like two or three weeks it will already be General Conference. I cant wait to hear what the Prophet and Apostles are going to say about missionary work this time. Its weird to think that conference is already almost here..

Elder David Bell wants Joey to write to him. He asked me to tell him that. Which reminds me, Andy hasn't talked to me at all! I want to hear about his life trying to get marriaged and stuff like that. :) Haha tell him to at least say hi to me or something. 

I am going to try to send a few pictures next week, I don't have my camera with me right now. But have a good week! Elder LeCheminant loves you all! Stay good, choose the right, remember who you are, remember your name. :) Haha that just brought back some memories....

Love Elder LeCheminant 

9.10.13

Well I have been transferred!! I am now in a place called Lira. It is the second farthest north place in the mission besides Gulu. There are 8 missionaries in the Lira Zone which is a big change. My Branch is called the Adyel Branch. It is in the Lira Mission District. So now i am no longer with a Ward or stake. Just Branch and Mission District. Things are a lot different here but the Branch is amazing! My companion is Elder Buyers. This is his second transfer so I am mothering now! Haha. I have been helping him kinda regain the desire to work hard because his last companion was one of the most apostate missionaries in the mission. Elder Buyers is a really great and spiritual guy. He is from Rigby Idaho and is straight out of high school. I have grown so much this past month. I finally figured out how to work as a missionary and not have to follow others around. And being with Elder Buyers has shown me how much I have grown.

It has been fun working here in Lira these past few days. The people here are amazing and the members of the Branch are very strong. The only thing bad thing is that it is sooooo extremely HOT here in the north. I am sweating all the time, even at night because it is so ridiculously hot. And the mosquitoes are really bad here. Other than that I am so excited to be in this great place. Northern Uganda is completely flat. There is no hills as far as you can see. The language spoken in Lira is called Langii. It is a pretty awesome language. I was just getting used to Luganda and being able to hear what people were saying, and now I have to start over and maybe try to learn some Langii. But basically everyone speaks very good english so I dont have to worry to much." White man" in this language is "munu." Its funny! Little kids chanting "munu" as we walk by. Kids are crazy.

The drive to Lira took about 5 hours. It was so hard sitting for so long! I am used to walking all day, my legs hurt sooo bad after the first 2 hours. But the drive was absolutely beautiful. We went through some real Africa. We crossed the Nile River, which was amazing. The part with the bridge over was like a class 5 rapids. When we passed the river we saw like 15 baboons just chilling on the side of the road. They are pretty goofy looking animals. I wish I had taken a picture but I didnt have my camera available. But now I can say that I have seen baboons!! Be jealous :) The rest of the drive was amazing. When you watch Lion King and it shows the flat plains extending forever, that is basically what we drove through. So awesome! I saw some legit villages with mud huts and everything. I love Africa! 

We just got back from a Tri-Zone Conference in Mbale. That is why I am emailing on Tuesday instead of Monday. We left on Sunday after church and drove for about 5 hours to the south eastern part of Uganda. We had Elder Hamilton from the Africa Southeast Area Presidency teach us. The conference was awesome and I learned a ton about how to be a better missionary. We slept at the Mbale chapel, 20 Elders sleeping on foam pads and I havent showered for three days now. I smell soo bad! Anyways after the conference yesterday (Monday) we just had the whole evening to relax and do whatever. We drove back to Lira this morning, dropped our stuff, and came straight to the internet place.

It sounds like winter time is coming there. That means that the dry season is coming here and that also means that It will only get more hot! I'm not too excited. I hope that the heat doesn't effect me to much. I'm already sweating enough. Maybe someday soon my body will decide to stop mass producing sweat. I hate sweating when im just sitting and doing nothing! Haha enough ranting.

I have really grown to love being here. I decided over these past few days that I dont want to come home in 20 months. I never want to leave and go back to normal life. Being here in Uganda as a missionary has become a part of me. I love everything about the restored gospel. The scriptures and Preach My Gospel are truly amazing things that we have. I study and mark them like crazy. Haha, i\I have set of different colored highlighters, and it looks like some little kid went crazy coloring all over my scriptures because there are so many colors on every page. The scriptures are the best gift anyone could ever receive. The church is true!

Love Elder LeCheminant.

9.2.13

I am now three months old and done with transfer numba 2! Time is moving. So this week is transfer week. We will be receiving the new son Wednesday and then transfers will be on Thursday. Pretty exciting! I'm not nearly as nervous as I was at the end of last transfer. Now I am just letting it come and I am excited for whatever happens. Mission is really great. 

This week was tough. We got bounced A LOT. When I say bounced it means someone cancelled a scheduled lesson on us. . But Elder Jimu and I finished the transfer strong and now we are just preparing the area for next transfer. Last night I realized the truthfulness of the scripture that says "many are called but few are chosen." We were totaling our numbers for the transfer and found something crazy. We had 65 new investigators overall for the transfer. And out of those 65, only ONE was baptized! Our other baptism was someone we found last transfer. One person baptized out of 65!!. People have their agency. When they fail to keep their commitments then we cant really do anything. But that's just mission life.  

Today was an awesome P-day!!! We went to a place called Ssesibwa Falls. It is a waterfall with a nice park. We were literally out in village/bush area. It was soo awesome and I got a ton of great pictures. There were people living in mud huts and caves and most of them were traditional healers or witch doctors. Obviously we didn't go and talk with them. The water fall was beautiful! It really made me miss home in Alaska. Just being out in nature with trees and rivers and mountains. We hiked around the falls and there was clusters of bamboo and we even walked through some legit African jungle. I cant really describe how awesome it was. It was really nice to get away from the city. Mukono is like a city and it is always busy.

So during personal study I have been reading in the New Testament. I am now almost done with 1st Corinthians. This book is literally amazing! Every chapter is just packed with gospel topics. One chapter that I really loved is chapter 14. This chapter Paul is teaching the people the truth about the gift of tongues. Something that almost everyone here doesn't understand is the truth about the gift of tongues. They think that it makes you able to just speak in some random language. There are pastors and preachers that do that. They just start blabbering and making noises and calling it a gift from the spirit. It is really fake. Anyways chapter 14 tells the truth. I love the scriptures! These past three months I have really fallen in love with reading the scriptures. The hour of personal study every morning is not nearly enough time. I always feel like I am just getting started and then the time is gone. The scriptures are truly a gift from God. 

Yay to Elder Aaron Cox!! That is pretty dang awesome to be going to the West Indies Mission. You will be a great missionary. Study the scriptures and Preach My Gospel like crazy before you go. It will help you more than you think. It is really hard to teach people about the scriptures when you don't know what is inside. I have experienced it myself. 

I hope you had fun with the fair! The fair is a lot like life here in Mukono. Everyone has small shops or booths along the road and there are people every where always busy going everywhere. There aren't really any big stores There's like two supermarkets and the rest is just small shops or booths like the fair. So you just experienced a taste of what it's like in Africa! Haha kidding :)

Keep being awesome people! I love to hear from everyone about life in the US. America is a dream here. It has really made me realize how blessed we are with everything. Don't forget the blessings and everything that God has given to you because not many people live like we do in the states. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth. All of the teachings and doctrine are true and given to us from our loving Heavenly Father. The gospel is real and blesses us in so many ways. Until next week!!

Love 

Elder LeCheminant 

8.26.13

This week was really great! I had a lot of different experiences that I will always remember. Elder Jimu and I have been working really great together. We are doing our best at handling all of Mukono. It is soo big! Basically combine the people in Wasilla and Palmer and thats how big Mukono is, all in the size of Palmer. It is a lot of work but we are really enjoying everything. 

Yesterday we had a baptism. His name is Robson Isingoma. He is basically the most golden investigator ever. The past three sundays he came at least 30 min early to church. And he has just been soaking up all of the lessons. He had problems with coffee and tea but basically gave them up with no questions when we taught the Word of Wisdom. I have really enjoyed teaching and getting to know him these past few weeks. I will attach a picture. Also I will put a picture of our baptism last week of Jackie Mahoro. 

Church yesterday was also great. We had a whopping 110 people attend sacrament meeting. That is the most since I have been here which was really great. The only thing is that there is more than that many less/in-active people in the ward. We are doing our best at finding less active people and bringing them back to church. It was such a great feeling yesterday when we saw a lot of members we have been visiting coming to church. It made all of the efforts of finding where they live and teaching them worth it. 

Every day of the week were just normal days of missionary work. There was one experience we had yesterday. After church we went out to proselyte. We went to a guy named Chris. While teaching him we found out that he is a missionary for a Born Again church. Then the lesson kinda started to turn into a one sided bible bash. He was just asking us tons of questions about random things in the bible, and then would ask if we were 100% sure of what we were doing. When we would try to explain and answer his questions he would just interrupt and ask another question and not give us any time. So we just sat there and listened to his ramblings. Every once in a while he gave us a few seconds to speak and we just gave him our simple testimonies. It went like that for about 30 min. I was amazed at how mislead he is with the teachings and interpretations of the Bible. It really made me grateful for the truths that we have been given with the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After some time we just left because it was kinda a waste of time. It really helped strengthen my testimony of the Restoration and of how plain and simple the gospel is. 

We are now in week 6 of the transfer! This week I am going to turn 3 months. Woo hoo!! Its crazy that August is almost over. The year is going to be done before we realize it. I have really enjoyed the time I have spent here. Uganda is an amazing place. Most of the people here are very nice and even though the standard of living is pretty low, most of the people are happy and all around good people. I love being a missionary!

On friday I got my first Sugar Cane! It is soo good. It looks like a big stick and you just peel the outside and suck the juice on the inside. The juice is super sweet (like sugar). I will attach a pick of me eating it. 

Thats pretty awesome that you got to go to the Foreigner concert. I remember having the most boring job of sitting at the Cokestand in the Borealis Theater. It was super boring and I didnt get paid much, but I got to see some awesome concerts!! Sounds like normal Alaska fall weather of nothing but rain. It is getting to be the rainy season here so the weather is nice and cool and it rains almost everyday. 

That's perty awesome that Valdez is now a Ward! I wasn't really expecting that to happen but it is great. The church is growing all over the world! Also super congrats to Tyler and Packer for almost being missionaries. It is such a great time and you learn soo many things! What are their missionary emails?  

As for projects you could do.. I dont really know. Scripture bags would be great because most people dont have them, they just carry their scriptures and they get super dirty and messed up.

Also with whatever you are sending, I was really wanting some of those elastic workout bands. Andy knows what they are cuz we bought some for p90x. If you could get some of those along with the hook thingy to attach it to a door that would be great! Im kinda tired of just push ups and sit ups. Last week I started laying on the floor and "bench pressing" some big jugs of water cus I wanted something different to do in the morning :)

I got another letter from Sister Casagranda! She is the only person that I have got anything from other than email :) I really appreciate it. Thanks for the great quote from Bruce R Mckonkie. 

To Sarah, there's no such thing as having hard classes unless it has to with physics! Haha :)

So one of the pics is of me, Elder Jimu and a member called Mathias that we have been working with almost every day. The others I already explained.

Love, 

Elder LeCheminant