Well this week we still worked hard and did our best!!!
Tuesday I did exchanges in my district. I went with Elder Allred in his area. Elder Allred is from Kaysville and he came the same time as me but he came from Provo MTC not South Africa. We had an enjoyable time working together. He is a good guy and has good desires to work hard. So the exchange was successful!
Wednesday we had an awesome District meeting. I decided to watch Johny Lingo. I got a copy of it from another missionary. So we watched the old version of Johnny Lingo and spent 30 minutes talking about what we learned from the movie. We had a great discussion about the potential that people have and how we cannot be someones' judge. Everyone has Godly potential and it is our job to bring that out. Also we talked about pride and a bunch of other principles that come from Johnny Lingo. It was a great meeting! I like to do things that are different for my district meetings.
In the afternoon we had an awesome activity. There is a big supermarket in Gulu Town called Uchumi. We gathered all of the materials we had like Books of Mormon, Liahonas, pamphlets, pass-along cards, etc. Then we set up two tables with all of these materials and invited the prospective missionaries from both Branches. Starting at 4:00 we spent 3 hours contacting people and handing out everything. It was a huge success. The prospective missionaries did an amazing job talking to people and spreading the good news of the church. We wanted to do this activity because there are a lot of people in Gulu that have never heard of the church before. SO we used this to help spread the name of the church. At the end of the day we had a total of around 200 contacts of people that wanted to learn more. Pretty dang awesome!! That was a great experience and I think we are going to try and make it a once a transfer thing here in Gulu.
Sunday Church went very well except that we had only one investigator come. The sacrament attendance went up again. It has been steadily going up every week since I have been here. In Gulu the Sacrament attendance was dropping significantly and it got down to the 50's. Well now it is in the 80's and still going up!
Today we got our transfer news! Yea last week was the last of the transfer. So now it is a new transfer. I am staying in my area. Elder Phiri is going to Kampala to an area called Makindye. My new companion is a Congolese (from DRC) called Elder Mukengeshayi. Has been in Rwanda and is coming back to Uganda. He is coming on Thursday so I get to go a few days with no companion. Yay!
I cant believe that its April! My Birthday is in like 17 days! What? I am almost no longer a teenager. What is happening to me.....
Thats so weird that all of these young ones are getting their mission calls. What is happening to the world?
I got a Dearelder letter from Jana Bell. Thanks!! I love receiving letters!
We dont get to watch or listen to conference live here because it would be in the middle of the night. So we have to wait like two weeks after for them to send us the DVDs then we watch the DVDs at church with the Branch. Yay for being in Uganda.
I was cooking some eggs a few days ago. I cracked one and poured it into a bowl with a bunch of eggs to beat them together first. I realized after I put the egg in the bowl that it was all green. Then I smelled it. Holy cow rotten eggs smell sooooo bad!!! I literally almost puked. That was my first time to experience a real rotten egg. It was horrible.
I dont remember anything else exciting. Have a great week!
Love the Mzungu
Monday, March 31, 2014
Monday, March 24, 2014
Sacrament Meeting Attendance is Up!
So yesterday it rained and there was no power in Gulu so we couldn't email. So here we are today!
This week was awesome. Elder Phiri and had good days almost everyday! Our teaching pool exploded this week. We were able to get a lot of families and referrals from current investigators. Now we have almost too many people to teach. This coming week will be a struggle to be able to see everyone.
Everyday was full of people to teach. We taught a lot of wonderful lessons. I also did 6 baptism interviews for the zone leaders! I did 3 on Thursday and 3 on Friday. It was kinda exhausting. I was pretty tired after each set
Sunday church was great. Sacrament attendance went up again to 78. We have a nice steady increase since I have come here. My first week in Gulu there were 54, so the branch is growing. A lot of investigators and less active members are coming to church. We had a baptism. It was sister Jackie. She is the wife to Patrick, who we baptized my first week here. It was a great experience. Saturday we forgot to prepare everything for the baptism. So Sunday morning while in the shower I realized we never filled the font! So we scrambled to get that going. The font was filling all during church until the end of Sunday School and then the water in the tap was gone. The water goes out a lot just like the power goes out here. So the font was only filled to about mid thigh. Patrick baptized Jackie. It was his first baptism ever and he did it perfect the first time. He said the words exact with no help and he even got her all the way under in the low water. So that was a great experience.
In the evening on Sunday we had a celebration dinner at their house. Jackie cooked sooo much food! She made chappatis, rice, chicken, beef, potatoes, matooke, and lots of fruit. It was fantastic. Then after eating we watched the Joseph Smith movie on our little portable dvd player. That family is amazing.
Yesterday for Pday we had a zone activity with Elder and Sister Moore. All of us went to a place called Karuma Falls. I think that is the name, not sure though. It is on the Nile River. It was so beautiful. We had a picnic provided by the Moores. They made hamburgers, baked beans and potato salad. I love american food!!!! That was a super fun activity. I have some awesome pictures but today I forgot my card so I cant send you any pics.
Mom its easy to teach someone how to run the nursery. You just give them the book and tell them to read it!! Hahahaha :)
I know there's not much detail about this week. I hurt from this chair I am sitting on and its affecting my brain functions.. Hahaha :)
Have a good week
Love Elder LeCheminant
This week was awesome. Elder Phiri and had good days almost everyday! Our teaching pool exploded this week. We were able to get a lot of families and referrals from current investigators. Now we have almost too many people to teach. This coming week will be a struggle to be able to see everyone.
Everyday was full of people to teach. We taught a lot of wonderful lessons. I also did 6 baptism interviews for the zone leaders! I did 3 on Thursday and 3 on Friday. It was kinda exhausting. I was pretty tired after each set
Sunday church was great. Sacrament attendance went up again to 78. We have a nice steady increase since I have come here. My first week in Gulu there were 54, so the branch is growing. A lot of investigators and less active members are coming to church. We had a baptism. It was sister Jackie. She is the wife to Patrick, who we baptized my first week here. It was a great experience. Saturday we forgot to prepare everything for the baptism. So Sunday morning while in the shower I realized we never filled the font! So we scrambled to get that going. The font was filling all during church until the end of Sunday School and then the water in the tap was gone. The water goes out a lot just like the power goes out here. So the font was only filled to about mid thigh. Patrick baptized Jackie. It was his first baptism ever and he did it perfect the first time. He said the words exact with no help and he even got her all the way under in the low water. So that was a great experience.
In the evening on Sunday we had a celebration dinner at their house. Jackie cooked sooo much food! She made chappatis, rice, chicken, beef, potatoes, matooke, and lots of fruit. It was fantastic. Then after eating we watched the Joseph Smith movie on our little portable dvd player. That family is amazing.
Yesterday for Pday we had a zone activity with Elder and Sister Moore. All of us went to a place called Karuma Falls. I think that is the name, not sure though. It is on the Nile River. It was so beautiful. We had a picnic provided by the Moores. They made hamburgers, baked beans and potato salad. I love american food!!!! That was a super fun activity. I have some awesome pictures but today I forgot my card so I cant send you any pics.
Mom its easy to teach someone how to run the nursery. You just give them the book and tell them to read it!! Hahahaha :)
I know there's not much detail about this week. I hurt from this chair I am sitting on and its affecting my brain functions.. Hahaha :)
Have a good week
Love Elder LeCheminant
Monday, March 17, 2014
P-day At Chobe
Another week down. This week was pretty interesting. As usual a lot of unplanned events happened.
For starters, Wednesday in the morning we had our DDM. It was really awesome. As the DL I am in charge of planning it. Its kinda hard sometimes planning out the meeting every week. Like I still haven't planned the one for this week. Woohoo. Anyways one of the Elders gave a training about patience and I gave a training about forgiveness. It was really awesome. The spirit was there pretty strong. After that my companion got kinda sick again and we didnt go out to work. Then the AP's showed up to work with us. So I got to go out for the evening on Wednesday with one of the AP's. It was good to get out after sitting around all day.
Thursday morning President Chatfield came to do interviews with all of us. He has been going around the whole mission doing interviews. I love President Chatfield. He always encourages me so much to keep working hard. After all of the interviews the 8 of us had a meeting with him for an hour where he talked about a few things and then we were able to ask him any questions. It was a great experience. After that we had PIZZA for lunch!! Then we went out to work with one of the AP's again. It was a good experience. We spent most of the day finding people because we had to drop some people from our teaching pool. There was one funny experience. We met this old guy as we were walking. He stopped to talk to us. He said his name is Modest. Then he made it into an acronym. Man Of Discipline Educated Social Trustworthy. Haha it was so random and hilarious. We were just messing around with him and having a good time.
Friday and Saturday were just days of normal work. It did rain finally on Friday!!! It was so amazing. It was just drizzly rain all day long. It made things actually kinda cold. At night it is like 70 degrees now and I get kinda cold. I used to sweat to death at 70 degrees!! Saturday evening we met with Jackie. She is preparing to be baptized on the 23rd. Jackie is probably the most prepared person I have ever met for the gospel. Her and her husband Patrick are just amazing people. Jackie taught us the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson.
Sunday was a good day. At church there were improvements in the Branch. Patrick received the Priesthood! So now he can baptize his wife Jackie! Super exciting. He also gave a powerful talk in church about Hope, he was using scriptures all over the Book Of Mormon and D&C and he has only been a member for like 3 weeks! They are an amazing family. After sacrament we helped the Branch start a nursery. It was kinda hectic. But it needed to happen because all of the young babies were disturbing the Primary. Now we just need to train the new nursery leader how to run the nursery. Also, another good things that happened was that many of the recent converts received callings; Even Patrick. He was called to be the 2nd counselor in Sunday School. After church for lunch I made homemade caramel syrup and pancakes. Holy cow it was AMAZING!! Haha
I just remembered that I also rolled my ankle pretty bad, I heard it pop really loud then it kinda hurt to walk for a while. Now it is just sore but nothing serious. It reminded me of dad messing up his ankle.
Then there is today. Today is probably one of my favorite Pdays. 5 of us went to Chobe. That is the safari lodge that I went to when I was in Lira forever ago. But we went today and it was amazing. We saw TONS of monkeys and baboons. Like hundreds of them all over the road. It was amazing. We also saw tons of giraffe, deer, and warthogs. At the lodge we got breakfast. Holy cow that was amazing. It cost 30000 but it was sooo much amazing food. Then I took a nap for an hour. It's soo peaceful falling asleep to the sound of the Nile River and birds and animals everywhere. Chobe is such a beautiful place. I love it there!!! On the way out we saw an Elephant!!! That is a beautiful creature. God is good at making amazing animals. The elephant had been rolling around in mud then we watched it scratch its whole body on a tree. I love elephants. Today was just an amazing day. Chobe is amazing its so hard to describe. At some point I will try to send some pics. :)
Also today I filled my memory card for my camera! I never thought it was possible but I did it. I think I will send it home with Elder Hofheins and you can get it from him when you go to Provo next month. There's lots of pics on it :)
I dont really know what else to say. Have a good week all! Until next week. One of my favorite quotes from Singles Ward 2
"He never said it would be easy, he only said it would be worth it."
-Him
I love that movie. Haha.... I will probably remember a lot of important things in a few hours. Oh well.
Love Elder LeCheminant
For starters, Wednesday in the morning we had our DDM. It was really awesome. As the DL I am in charge of planning it. Its kinda hard sometimes planning out the meeting every week. Like I still haven't planned the one for this week. Woohoo. Anyways one of the Elders gave a training about patience and I gave a training about forgiveness. It was really awesome. The spirit was there pretty strong. After that my companion got kinda sick again and we didnt go out to work. Then the AP's showed up to work with us. So I got to go out for the evening on Wednesday with one of the AP's. It was good to get out after sitting around all day.
Thursday morning President Chatfield came to do interviews with all of us. He has been going around the whole mission doing interviews. I love President Chatfield. He always encourages me so much to keep working hard. After all of the interviews the 8 of us had a meeting with him for an hour where he talked about a few things and then we were able to ask him any questions. It was a great experience. After that we had PIZZA for lunch!! Then we went out to work with one of the AP's again. It was a good experience. We spent most of the day finding people because we had to drop some people from our teaching pool. There was one funny experience. We met this old guy as we were walking. He stopped to talk to us. He said his name is Modest. Then he made it into an acronym. Man Of Discipline Educated Social Trustworthy. Haha it was so random and hilarious. We were just messing around with him and having a good time.
Friday and Saturday were just days of normal work. It did rain finally on Friday!!! It was so amazing. It was just drizzly rain all day long. It made things actually kinda cold. At night it is like 70 degrees now and I get kinda cold. I used to sweat to death at 70 degrees!! Saturday evening we met with Jackie. She is preparing to be baptized on the 23rd. Jackie is probably the most prepared person I have ever met for the gospel. Her and her husband Patrick are just amazing people. Jackie taught us the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson.
Sunday was a good day. At church there were improvements in the Branch. Patrick received the Priesthood! So now he can baptize his wife Jackie! Super exciting. He also gave a powerful talk in church about Hope, he was using scriptures all over the Book Of Mormon and D&C and he has only been a member for like 3 weeks! They are an amazing family. After sacrament we helped the Branch start a nursery. It was kinda hectic. But it needed to happen because all of the young babies were disturbing the Primary. Now we just need to train the new nursery leader how to run the nursery. Also, another good things that happened was that many of the recent converts received callings; Even Patrick. He was called to be the 2nd counselor in Sunday School. After church for lunch I made homemade caramel syrup and pancakes. Holy cow it was AMAZING!! Haha
I just remembered that I also rolled my ankle pretty bad, I heard it pop really loud then it kinda hurt to walk for a while. Now it is just sore but nothing serious. It reminded me of dad messing up his ankle.
Then there is today. Today is probably one of my favorite Pdays. 5 of us went to Chobe. That is the safari lodge that I went to when I was in Lira forever ago. But we went today and it was amazing. We saw TONS of monkeys and baboons. Like hundreds of them all over the road. It was amazing. We also saw tons of giraffe, deer, and warthogs. At the lodge we got breakfast. Holy cow that was amazing. It cost 30000 but it was sooo much amazing food. Then I took a nap for an hour. It's soo peaceful falling asleep to the sound of the Nile River and birds and animals everywhere. Chobe is such a beautiful place. I love it there!!! On the way out we saw an Elephant!!! That is a beautiful creature. God is good at making amazing animals. The elephant had been rolling around in mud then we watched it scratch its whole body on a tree. I love elephants. Today was just an amazing day. Chobe is amazing its so hard to describe. At some point I will try to send some pics. :)
Also today I filled my memory card for my camera! I never thought it was possible but I did it. I think I will send it home with Elder Hofheins and you can get it from him when you go to Provo next month. There's lots of pics on it :)
I dont really know what else to say. Have a good week all! Until next week. One of my favorite quotes from Singles Ward 2
"He never said it would be easy, he only said it would be worth it."
-Him
I love that movie. Haha.... I will probably remember a lot of important things in a few hours. Oh well.
Love Elder LeCheminant
Monday, March 10, 2014
Baptism Interviews Left and Right
Greetings from Uganda!
This week was full of surprises. A lot of unplanned things happened. Well our plans never work out anyways but this week was extra unplanned events.
For starters we had a mission fast from Tuesday to Wednesday; it was an amazing experience. But that along with fasting on Sunday had some side effects. My comp and another Elder in the district got extremely dehydrated and sick Wednesday afternoon. Its soo hot and dry here in the north that fasting for 24 hours is a bit of a challenge. But we survived! So don't worry.
Then Thursday was interesting as well. We didn't get much done in the morning but we were able to go out after lunch and teach some people. We were talking to a couple about the Law of Chastity, then the husband starts to cry and he started telling us that he has another wife that lives in the village. It was so sad to hear him tell us. So huge bummer! :( Later in the day we did have a great lesson. We taught a lady that we are also preparing for baptism soon. We had Sister Moore (the senior couple in Gulu) and the RS president in our branch come to the lesson. It was an amazing and spiritual lesson. So that was awesome.
Friday after lunch I did a baptism interview for the other Elders. She has been coming to church for about a year now but she is only 18 so she's been coming to church for a long time in order to be baptized. The interview was great even though it took over an hour to do! She is an emotional person and had a lot of things to talk about. But it was a success.Her baptism was on Sunday after church. It was a great baptism. She was so happy to finally be baptized. After church she invited all of the missionaries to her house to celebrate. She made a cake and on the top she wrote "I am MORMON." It was a cool experience to see someones life change so much from the church.
Saturday morning all of the missionaries went to do service. We went to a member in the other Branch in Gulu. She broke her arm a while ago so she hasn' t been able to wash clothes. So we spent three hours washing their clothes by hand! It was pretty fun. Then after lunch I wasn't feeling good. I got some small flu and it just knocked me out. So I slept for like 2 hours after lunch. Then I felt better and we went out to work.
Sunday was a great day. Church was great. I played the keyboard again. This time I actually did pretty good and only messed up a few times. In the evening after the baptism celebration we went to teach an investigator called Jackie. She is the wife to Patrick, a guy we baptized the week I got here to Gulu. Jackie reads every pamphlet like 3 times before we teach her. So lessons are basically her teaching us and we just make sure everything is understood. Well we decided to teach her with Patrick. Normally they work at different times so we couldn't see them together, but we got them together last night. We taught the Law of Chastity, then we extended a baptism invitation to Jackie and my heart was pounding like crazy and I couldn't find the words but I felt good about it inside. For some reason it took me forever to get the words straight to ask her the question. She immediately said YES with no hesitation at all. She said she was even ready to be baptized today. Well that made me so happy inside. Then I told her that Patrick will be receiving the priesthood and he will have the authority to baptize. She instantly got super excited and almost jumped out of her chair at the thought of her husband baptizing her. So that was a memorable experience. I love that family a lot.
Yay for Dad's surgery going good. I knew it would all be ok.
Lucky everyone gets to travel and have fun for spring break. Wish I could do that... haha :)
Holy cow super sad story about the Obergs dairy barn burning down. I kinda had tears in my eyes when I was reading the article. I don't know why they were there or where they came from. Haha tears are weird.
Love Elder LeCheminant
This week was full of surprises. A lot of unplanned things happened. Well our plans never work out anyways but this week was extra unplanned events.
For starters we had a mission fast from Tuesday to Wednesday; it was an amazing experience. But that along with fasting on Sunday had some side effects. My comp and another Elder in the district got extremely dehydrated and sick Wednesday afternoon. Its soo hot and dry here in the north that fasting for 24 hours is a bit of a challenge. But we survived! So don't worry.
Then Thursday was interesting as well. We didn't get much done in the morning but we were able to go out after lunch and teach some people. We were talking to a couple about the Law of Chastity, then the husband starts to cry and he started telling us that he has another wife that lives in the village. It was so sad to hear him tell us. So huge bummer! :( Later in the day we did have a great lesson. We taught a lady that we are also preparing for baptism soon. We had Sister Moore (the senior couple in Gulu) and the RS president in our branch come to the lesson. It was an amazing and spiritual lesson. So that was awesome.
Friday after lunch I did a baptism interview for the other Elders. She has been coming to church for about a year now but she is only 18 so she's been coming to church for a long time in order to be baptized. The interview was great even though it took over an hour to do! She is an emotional person and had a lot of things to talk about. But it was a success.Her baptism was on Sunday after church. It was a great baptism. She was so happy to finally be baptized. After church she invited all of the missionaries to her house to celebrate. She made a cake and on the top she wrote "I am MORMON." It was a cool experience to see someones life change so much from the church.
Saturday morning all of the missionaries went to do service. We went to a member in the other Branch in Gulu. She broke her arm a while ago so she hasn' t been able to wash clothes. So we spent three hours washing their clothes by hand! It was pretty fun. Then after lunch I wasn't feeling good. I got some small flu and it just knocked me out. So I slept for like 2 hours after lunch. Then I felt better and we went out to work.
Sunday was a great day. Church was great. I played the keyboard again. This time I actually did pretty good and only messed up a few times. In the evening after the baptism celebration we went to teach an investigator called Jackie. She is the wife to Patrick, a guy we baptized the week I got here to Gulu. Jackie reads every pamphlet like 3 times before we teach her. So lessons are basically her teaching us and we just make sure everything is understood. Well we decided to teach her with Patrick. Normally they work at different times so we couldn't see them together, but we got them together last night. We taught the Law of Chastity, then we extended a baptism invitation to Jackie and my heart was pounding like crazy and I couldn't find the words but I felt good about it inside. For some reason it took me forever to get the words straight to ask her the question. She immediately said YES with no hesitation at all. She said she was even ready to be baptized today. Well that made me so happy inside. Then I told her that Patrick will be receiving the priesthood and he will have the authority to baptize. She instantly got super excited and almost jumped out of her chair at the thought of her husband baptizing her. So that was a memorable experience. I love that family a lot.
Yay for Dad's surgery going good. I knew it would all be ok.
Lucky everyone gets to travel and have fun for spring break. Wish I could do that... haha :)
Holy cow super sad story about the Obergs dairy barn burning down. I kinda had tears in my eyes when I was reading the article. I don't know why they were there or where they came from. Haha tears are weird.
Love Elder LeCheminant
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Attendance Boosts and Mud Bricks
This week was an awesome week! We did a lot of great work helping the area progress. The Branch is new and there is a lot of teaching to do, but that's what we get for being in a place where the church has only been for a couple of years! When Elder Bednar came in January he told everyone that we are the pioneers for the church in Africa. I have seen that firsthand here in Gulu. It makes me realize some of the things the pioneers in the early days of the church went through.
Anyways, throughout the week we met a lot of people. Most of the time we spent just getting to know everyone and building relationships of trust. We have about 6 progressing investigators and 4 potential/planned baptisms for the 23rd of March. At church on Sunday we managed to boost the attendance by 20 from the previous week. It was cool to see something good so soon come from our work.
I also played the keyboard in Sacrament Meeting. I will probably be playing every week while I am here because the members don't really know the hymns very well. I was playing from the hymns made easy book because I can play those with two hands now!! It was an interesting experience. Our closing hymn was a disaster. The congregation went off so I had try and adjust to them, then it messed me up which made it all worse, and it just went downhill. We barely made it through the hymn. Haha me and Elder Phiri were just laughing all day about it. Good times.
Gulu is sooooooo HOT! My comp Elder Phiri has a clock with a thermometer on it. Since last Wednesday the temps are ridiculous. During the day and night inside the house the temp is between 85 and 90 degrees even with the fans constantly on. I sleep completely uncovered on my bed with a fan blowing on me and its still hot. Then outside during the day it is between 100 and 115 degrees. Yea I am sweating a lot!!! Hopefully before next year I will be somewhat used to the heat. My Alaskan blood is gone :(
Monday we spent the whole morning doing service as a zone. There was someone in my area that was making bricks. After making the bricks they stack them in a giant oven thingy and burn the bricks to make them hard. Before burning they have to cover the entire outside with mud. So all of us spent about 3 hours making mud and throwing it onto the pile of bricks. It was tons of fun and I got super duper muddy everywhere! I love playing in mud.
That so awesome that you know the Hoffheins from Provo!!!!!!! Elder Hoffheins is an awesome guy and we have a ton of things in common with sports and life and such. He said he knows the Logans very well. Its a bummer that he is finishing at the end of this month.
Good luck dad with the surgery.
Congrats Joey for being accepted to the Lord's University!!!!! Haha :)
I cant imagine Jacob driving the by-side-by-side by himself. Scary thought!
Thanks for everything!
Love ME
Anyways, throughout the week we met a lot of people. Most of the time we spent just getting to know everyone and building relationships of trust. We have about 6 progressing investigators and 4 potential/planned baptisms for the 23rd of March. At church on Sunday we managed to boost the attendance by 20 from the previous week. It was cool to see something good so soon come from our work.
I also played the keyboard in Sacrament Meeting. I will probably be playing every week while I am here because the members don't really know the hymns very well. I was playing from the hymns made easy book because I can play those with two hands now!! It was an interesting experience. Our closing hymn was a disaster. The congregation went off so I had try and adjust to them, then it messed me up which made it all worse, and it just went downhill. We barely made it through the hymn. Haha me and Elder Phiri were just laughing all day about it. Good times.
Gulu is sooooooo HOT! My comp Elder Phiri has a clock with a thermometer on it. Since last Wednesday the temps are ridiculous. During the day and night inside the house the temp is between 85 and 90 degrees even with the fans constantly on. I sleep completely uncovered on my bed with a fan blowing on me and its still hot. Then outside during the day it is between 100 and 115 degrees. Yea I am sweating a lot!!! Hopefully before next year I will be somewhat used to the heat. My Alaskan blood is gone :(
Monday we spent the whole morning doing service as a zone. There was someone in my area that was making bricks. After making the bricks they stack them in a giant oven thingy and burn the bricks to make them hard. Before burning they have to cover the entire outside with mud. So all of us spent about 3 hours making mud and throwing it onto the pile of bricks. It was tons of fun and I got super duper muddy everywhere! I love playing in mud.
That so awesome that you know the Hoffheins from Provo!!!!!!! Elder Hoffheins is an awesome guy and we have a ton of things in common with sports and life and such. He said he knows the Logans very well. Its a bummer that he is finishing at the end of this month.
Good luck dad with the surgery.
Congrats Joey for being accepted to the Lord's University!!!!! Haha :)
I cant imagine Jacob driving the by-side-by-side by himself. Scary thought!
Thanks for everything!
Love ME
Monday, February 24, 2014
2.24.14
Well this week has been crazy. Tuesday I spent the morning packing and getting ready to go. Then in the afternoon we went to go to a few people for me to say goodbye. It is seriously hard leaving an area and saying goodbye to the people that you have grown to love! Then Wednesday and Thursday we literally sat and waited. We thought that we were being transferred in the morning on Wednesday. So we waited. Then
they didn't come so we waited until the afternoon. Then they didn't come. SO we called the person coming to get us and he said he wasn't coming until Thursday. It was not fun just sitting and doing nothing. Then Thursday we also waited all day again. Originally the guy said he was coming in the morning, but he didn't show up until around 5:00 pm. Then we were taken to the missionary compound in Ntinda to spend the night. I didn't leave to Gulu until around noon on Friday and then 6 hours of sitting in a truck on Friday. Now I am here in Gulu! My area/branch is called Bardege. Its just a little section of Gulu. My companion is called Elder Phiri. He is from northern Zambia. Elder Phiri came on his mission way back in october. He has been on the other side of Gulu with the Zone Leaders. Now he has moved to this side. Yay for whitewashing again!
Gulu is an interesting place. I'm still getting used to it. Gulu is soo much different than areas in Kampala. By the end of this week I will be good to go. There are 7 missionaries and a senior couple here. All of us stay in the same compound. Sometime I will send a picture. The couple is Elder and Sister Moore. They are the ones that drove me up on Friday. My district stays in one apartment, the ZL's and their companions stay in the apt next to us, and the Moores stay in the next apt. It is super hot here. I think it might be more hot than Lira. Hopefully after a few good sunburns I will get used to it. :)
On Saturday we spent the day just going around getting to know some people. There are a lot of great members in our area. We have like 20 recent converts. But half of them are less active. The whole branch has a ton of less active actives. I will just say that we have A LOT of work to do. Something I almost forgot is that on Saturday I also did my first baptism interview. The zone leaders called me at 7:00 and said they were coming in 30 minutes for me to do an interview. I had no clue about it but I still went. It was a little girl 9 years old. Her mom is the RS President in the Gulu Branch. She was super shy but knew everything perfectly! It was a cool experience. I had completely forgotten that as a District Leader I have to do interviews. But it was a success. There's plenty more for me to do in the future. Yay.....
Sunday we had two baptisms. It was pretty cool having two people ready to be baptized. They are awesome guys. One is called Ivan and the other is called Patrick. Since we were both completely new to the Branch everything about the baptism was super unorganized. We were scrambling everywhere to get the baptism suits and the font ready to go, etc. The branch president and a lot of the members are awesome people and are always willing to help with the missionary work. I am excited to work in this area! Gulu seems like a great place.
Good job Joey on getting your Eagle Scout stuff finished. You cut it closer than I did! Hopefully it all works out. Also happy birthday! I remember when I was 18. Such a long time ago.
So this is a really really short email. Today I got 3 emails!!!!!!!!!!! Not a whole lot to work with. But its ok because the internet is extremely slow here. I waited for like 45 minutes for everything to load.
I hope everyone has a great week. I'm just gonna be here suffering from to much sun. I will have more to talk about next week. Thanks for everything!
Love Elder LeCheminant
Monday, February 17, 2014
2.17.14
We finished the last week of the transfer great! I will tell you the transfer news later in the email :)
On Tuesday in the morning we went digging again. We had an enjoyable time. For some reason I had tons of energy and was just non stop digging for like an hour straight. I got a lot done. It felt so good to do some hard physical labor. After lunch we had four lessons. One of them was a guy called Walter. He is an interesting person. We have been pushing along with him for like 5 weeks now and he hasn't been showing any real commitment. So we put the ball into his court and let him take the initiative. If he wants to learn more then he will call us. We actually did that to a lot of people this week. There was several investigators that weren't being committed to anything so we gave them the responsibility. Our last lesson was with our recent converts Emmanuel and Flavia. They are the ones that we have been digging with in the mornings. On Tuesday we helped them do FHE. It was pretty fun. We had an opening hymn and spiritual thought and games. I think they really enjoyed it.
On Wednesday we after lunch one of our lessons was with Tony. We taught him about Eternal Marriage. We talked about the temple last week. He was so excited about the concept of an eternal family. He understood everything about how to have a happy family. If you want to know what the Lord has said about how to have a happy eternal family then go to Lesson 5 in the PMG (Preach My Gospel) and read the section about Eternal Families. There is some good stuff in there.
Thursday we went digging again in the morning. We almost finished the garden. There is just a small little section at the end that will take another hour to do. In the afternoon we went tracting in a place that we haven't been to for about 4 weeks. It was soo nice tracting in a newish area! It was actually a lot of fun. We found a couple of awesome families of people who have a lot of potential.
Sunday, yesterday was fun. At church we had 3 investigators. Sacrament attendance was 87. Last week was 88. It was good to see the increase. In the past many weeks it has been hovering around 70. So now we are seeing some progress. There was two visitors at church too! One of them is from Canada. I dont know what he is doing here. Some kind of government work i think. The other guy is a Stake President from Florida. He is working with US Embassy. Its so different to have them at church. They speak normal english that is easy to understand. Its seriously gonna be soo weird coming home and having everyone speak normal English! In the evening after church we went to the Balyejusa family for FHE and dinner. We played an insane game of spoons. There was like 10 people crowded around a tiny table. Every time a round ended, whoever didnt have a spoon had to drink a big glass of water. There was no eliminating, just drinking water. One person lost like 5 times and had to drink 5 huge cups of water. It was super intense and hilarious. He almost peed his pants from so much water. It was a fun way to play spoons.
Today we cleaned the house in the morning. Then we went to the other elders house. Elder Wanlass made an amazing chocolate cake! It was so good. Then we played some cards. Then we went to a pizza place in Entebbe Town. It was soo good. The pizza was only 26000 shillings and it tasted amazing. I love pizza. Then we came to the internet cafe to start emailing. Basically all day we have been waiting for the ZL's to call and tell us the news for this transfer. Finally it came about 30 minutes ago. Ready? I am going back north to Gulu and I am going to be the District Leader and I am white washing (two new missionaries at the same time). My companion is coming to Uganda from Rwanda. So yea its pretty crazy! I am soo excited to go back north to the village. I kinda like being just a normal missionary but the leadership will be a good change. Hopefully white washing there wont be as hard as it was here in Entebbe. Elder Wulfenstein is staying here and getting a new companion. He is going to be great missionary. So next Monday I will be emailing from Gulu!! Back to the extreme heat and village. But it isn't very humid there so its a bit more bearable. Entebbe is extremely humid.
Mom my shoes are still doing pretty good. The insides are wearing out faster than the outside. I think they still have many good months of use. I will let you know when they start to get bad. For now they are doing great. I love them.
I cant imagine Jacob driving the 6 wheeler all by himself. That is seriously a scary thought! Holy cow!!!!
Happy Birthday to Joey and Sister LeChem!!!! We are getting so old
The first pic is the garden that we have been digging in. Yea its pretty big!
The other one is a little boy from church. Yesterday at church he came wearing that awesome suit. So I put my name-tag on him. He loved it. He was walking around showing off his name-tag and even put it in his pocket to take home. It was pretty funny. I'm gonna miss that little guy. He always calls me "Muchuminant"!! haha there's another way to say our name.
Have a fantastic week.
Love me
Monday, February 10, 2014
2.10.14
Howdy do!
This week was a bit rough. After last week I was hoping for an amazing week but of course it didn't happen. Nothing ever goes how we want them to go.
First of all last week after emailing, us 4 elders went out to this big fancy "white person" restaurant. Its called Faze 3 if you ever want to look it up. Holy cow it was way to much like home. I had an amazing steak with some mashed potatoes and vegetables. My mouth was freaking out with all of the amazing flavor! My mouth is used to the bland no spices or flavor Ugandan food. That was an amazing experience.
Tuesday we went to Kabowa for ZDM (Zone Development Meeting). It was a great meeting. We talked a lot about small issues that need to be solved in the mission. We had a great time. Then afterwards we went to hang out at this MASSIVE shopping mall. It is called Freedom City. It is seriously huge. It has like 5 or 6 levels and on the top is a huge kids play place and a swimming pool. What the heck, a swimming pool in Uganda? haha it was super funny to see people in the pool because Ugandans seriously have no idea what to do in a swimming pool! That was pretty entertaining. So that was fun.
Wednesday in the morning we had DDM (District Development Meeting). That was awesome as well. We all just talked about ourselves and got to know each other more. The rest of the day almost everyone we had planned to visit were not around. So we ended up just walking and walking and walking and walking. Sometimes I just hate walking!
Thursday in the morning we did some service. We went digging again like last week. It was pretty fun.
Then Friday was supposed to be a great day with like 10 lessons but that didn't happen, we only taught 3 lessons. It was another day of just walking and walking because everyone decided to not be available. We did find one guy called Jibbs Ojok. Yea super weird name, even for Uganda. We taught him and his son under some massive mango trees. It was a great lesson.
Saturday in the morning we did service again. This time we made bricks. It is seriously sooo much fun!! There is a pile of wet clay. We would take a chunk and stick it in a mold and pack it in. I was soo covered in mud afterwards. It was so much fun to basically play in mud for a couple hours. I will try to send a pic. After showering we went to teach Tony. We taught him about the Temple. It was an amazing lesson. He had never known anything about temples for his whole life so he was amazed and super excited about it all. I seriously miss the temple! The closest temple to us is all the way down in South Africa. I wish I could just go to the temple all the time. That is something I am going to definitely appreciate more at home. All of you are so blessed to have temples close by. It is a huge blessing and you need to take advantage of it. Only in the temple can we really feel close to Heavenly Father and it is a great way to have the spirit more in your life. :)
Sunday was pretty awesome. Church made up for everything we went through during the week. We had 5 investigators come to church! None of them were people we had planned on coming but it was still awesome. Two of our recent converts brought their two young boys with them. It was so awesome. I was playing with them all the time. i should have taken a pic with them at church because they are the cutest little guys ever!
Today for Pday we went to the other Elders house. We bought a ton of potatoes and made homemade chips (french fries). It was super cheap to. 2000 shillings for enough potatoes to fill a big sized pot. The other Elders bought a chicken and we killed it and cooked it! It was actually pretty fun to pull all the feathers off and then cut it up. I actually used some things I learned from cutting up moose. After getting the legs and wings off we opened up the inside and went through all of the innards. Yea pretty gross. We also cut off the feet and fried them and then ate them!!!! Actually we didn't eat them but I pretended to eat one and took a good picture "eating" it. There was no way I was going to eat a chicken foot, but people here do it all the time! They also eat the liver and the gizzard and the flappy things on the head. yea its disgusting.
So that was the week!
The pics of the 'green room' look pretty good! Why didn't anyone think of doing that before? Good job everyone.
It sounds like everyone had a good week.
Only mom and dad emailed me this week so there isn't really anything else to comment on about other peoples lives cause I have no idea!! Thanks everyone :) haha
Oh yea, whats the deal with Obama? We keep seeing stuff in newspapers about Obama and Michelle splitting up or something like that. We don't know any details because all the newspapers are in Luganda and Ugandans don't do a great job translating what it says. I know its really extremely unimportant but I was just curious.
Happy Valentines Day!!
Love Elder LeCheminant
This week was a bit rough. After last week I was hoping for an amazing week but of course it didn't happen. Nothing ever goes how we want them to go.
First of all last week after emailing, us 4 elders went out to this big fancy "white person" restaurant. Its called Faze 3 if you ever want to look it up. Holy cow it was way to much like home. I had an amazing steak with some mashed potatoes and vegetables. My mouth was freaking out with all of the amazing flavor! My mouth is used to the bland no spices or flavor Ugandan food. That was an amazing experience.
Tuesday we went to Kabowa for ZDM (Zone Development Meeting). It was a great meeting. We talked a lot about small issues that need to be solved in the mission. We had a great time. Then afterwards we went to hang out at this MASSIVE shopping mall. It is called Freedom City. It is seriously huge. It has like 5 or 6 levels and on the top is a huge kids play place and a swimming pool. What the heck, a swimming pool in Uganda? haha it was super funny to see people in the pool because Ugandans seriously have no idea what to do in a swimming pool! That was pretty entertaining. So that was fun.
Wednesday in the morning we had DDM (District Development Meeting). That was awesome as well. We all just talked about ourselves and got to know each other more. The rest of the day almost everyone we had planned to visit were not around. So we ended up just walking and walking and walking and walking. Sometimes I just hate walking!
Thursday in the morning we did some service. We went digging again like last week. It was pretty fun.
Then Friday was supposed to be a great day with like 10 lessons but that didn't happen, we only taught 3 lessons. It was another day of just walking and walking because everyone decided to not be available. We did find one guy called Jibbs Ojok. Yea super weird name, even for Uganda. We taught him and his son under some massive mango trees. It was a great lesson.
Saturday in the morning we did service again. This time we made bricks. It is seriously sooo much fun!! There is a pile of wet clay. We would take a chunk and stick it in a mold and pack it in. I was soo covered in mud afterwards. It was so much fun to basically play in mud for a couple hours. I will try to send a pic. After showering we went to teach Tony. We taught him about the Temple. It was an amazing lesson. He had never known anything about temples for his whole life so he was amazed and super excited about it all. I seriously miss the temple! The closest temple to us is all the way down in South Africa. I wish I could just go to the temple all the time. That is something I am going to definitely appreciate more at home. All of you are so blessed to have temples close by. It is a huge blessing and you need to take advantage of it. Only in the temple can we really feel close to Heavenly Father and it is a great way to have the spirit more in your life. :)
Sunday was pretty awesome. Church made up for everything we went through during the week. We had 5 investigators come to church! None of them were people we had planned on coming but it was still awesome. Two of our recent converts brought their two young boys with them. It was so awesome. I was playing with them all the time. i should have taken a pic with them at church because they are the cutest little guys ever!
Today for Pday we went to the other Elders house. We bought a ton of potatoes and made homemade chips (french fries). It was super cheap to. 2000 shillings for enough potatoes to fill a big sized pot. The other Elders bought a chicken and we killed it and cooked it! It was actually pretty fun to pull all the feathers off and then cut it up. I actually used some things I learned from cutting up moose. After getting the legs and wings off we opened up the inside and went through all of the innards. Yea pretty gross. We also cut off the feet and fried them and then ate them!!!! Actually we didn't eat them but I pretended to eat one and took a good picture "eating" it. There was no way I was going to eat a chicken foot, but people here do it all the time! They also eat the liver and the gizzard and the flappy things on the head. yea its disgusting.
So that was the week!
The pics of the 'green room' look pretty good! Why didn't anyone think of doing that before? Good job everyone.
It sounds like everyone had a good week.
Only mom and dad emailed me this week so there isn't really anything else to comment on about other peoples lives cause I have no idea!! Thanks everyone :) haha
Oh yea, whats the deal with Obama? We keep seeing stuff in newspapers about Obama and Michelle splitting up or something like that. We don't know any details because all the newspapers are in Luganda and Ugandans don't do a great job translating what it says. I know its really extremely unimportant but I was just curious.
Happy Valentines Day!!
Love Elder LeCheminant
Monday, February 3, 2014
2.3.14
Hello again.
This week was pretty fantastic! We taught like 24 lessons. The most we have had here in Entebbe. For Uganda that is actually extremely low, but for Entebbe its way good. I remember back in Mukono we would have like 50 ish lessons a week. Anyways,
On Tuesday in the morning we went and did some service. We went digging in a member's garden. That was fun. I was sweating so much that when I tasted it there was no salt. Tooo much sweating!! It actually wiped me out because I haven't done anything physical work like that for several months. I am soo out of shape its ridiculous. When we go digging we get a hoe and go and dig up the ground so it can be ready for planting. Its a popular thing in Uganda because most of the people grow their own food. After lunch we had a great day and taught 7 lessons. They are all awesome people and have huge potential.
Wednesday morning we had DDM. That is our district meeting. We did a fun activity. In the Preach My Gospel at the end of the chapter on Christlike Attributes there is an Attribute Activity. We did the whole thing. It was a great chance to look into myself and see how I am with all of the Christlike attributes. I highly recommend doing that activity. It helps you really see what you need to improve on.
Thursday we had another 7 lesson day. On the way to one appointment there was a young boy carrying two jerry cans of water. I asked where his home was and he just pointed up the hill. So I took the jerry cans and started walking. After 5 minutes of hiking uphill I asked him again and he just pointed up. 5 minutes later the same thing. We finally got to his house at the top of the hill like 20 minutes later!! Holy cow it was way to far for a kid to carry water. Even though he was like 10 years old it felt good to do that small act of service. His mother was very happy that we did that for him. We even taught her a lesson. It was a great seed planting lesson. There was basically no way we could set a time to go back because she is always busy with stuff at her church. But when missionaries find her again she will be ready. Our last lesson was with a less active called Samuelson. He has the Conference DVDs for Oct 2004 and April 2005. They are super old but he loves them and really wanted us to watch a talk. So we picked a talk from Oct 2004 by Pres Hinckley about the women in our lives. It was an amazing talk about the importance on women and how men need to treat the women. I recommend going back to that conference because there was even a bunch of other powerful talks by other General authorities.
Friday was pretty good. We taught Tony about the Priesthood. He was preparing to receive the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday. So we talked about the priesthood and how it all works and even got into some deep history with the priesthood. He was just so amazed the entire time. Then I showed him my Line of Authority. That just blew him away! He was glued to it for like 10 minutes just completely amazed. The Line of Authority is an awesome thing. There is no other church in the world where you can trace authority all the way back to Christ himself. It was fun to see Tony get all excited about receiving the priesthood.
Saturday in the morning we did some service again. We helped another member called Afiman make some papyrus shades. They are really difficult to describe, but its like strands of papyrus strung together and people use them to cover their little shops or fruit stands. That was fun. Then when we finished we went and helped him herd some goats. He gets paid to take care of some peoples goats. So we took the goats and tied them in a grassy area where they could eat. Later in the afternoon we went to church for PEC. Unfortunately it didnt happen so we just spent some time with the members there.
Sunday was awesome! Church went great. Tony bore his testimony during sacrament/testimony meeting. It was awesome to hear him give his testimony of the truth he has found. Then in priesthood meeting he was ordained a Priest. After church he came and told me that it was his birthday and he invited us over to celebrate. So at like 4:00 we went to his house to celebrate. His wife Teddy made a pretty good chocolate/lemon cake. She works at some German tourist place so she knows how to bake and make a ton of good food. The cake was delicious and even they gave us the best rice and beans I have ever had. Teddy put some black pepper and other things in it. It was some good old rice and beans.
Today, before we came here to email, Elder Wanlass and Mkutswana came over to our apartment. We made some delicious chips! Basically french fries but here we call them chips. At a market I found a big bag of potatoes for only 3000 shillings! That is soo cheap and I had to buy them. Our chips we made were amazing. Then we played cards. Elder Wulfenstein has some Book of Mormon cards. We played Memory and then Old Maid. It got pretty intense and was lots of fun! Those classic card games are the best.
Congrats for finishing the green room! I want some pictures. Thanks :)
Holy Cow I am now kinda sad and depressed from hearing the bad news. I can't imagine how everyone in Palmer is doing. Its always terrible to hear of people passing away. Here in Uganda everyone has some family member or close friend who has died. It is mostly from the wars and rebels in Uganda's history. It is a time where you get to seriously think about the Plan of Salvation. These experiences can be used to strengthen our testimonies of the truths we know. I love the Gospel and I love the Plan of Salvation. I know it is true without any doubt. Let it give you hope and be a light in your lives. It can seriously change any bad situation into something where you can learn and grow and become a better person.
Mom, we get the Liahona every month. Other magazines we don't get to read. So if it is in the Liahona then just let me know which article. That would be good if you sent me some printed stuff. Thanks :)
Have a fantabulous week everyone!!
Love Elder LeCheminant
This week was pretty fantastic! We taught like 24 lessons. The most we have had here in Entebbe. For Uganda that is actually extremely low, but for Entebbe its way good. I remember back in Mukono we would have like 50 ish lessons a week. Anyways,
On Tuesday in the morning we went and did some service. We went digging in a member's garden. That was fun. I was sweating so much that when I tasted it there was no salt. Tooo much sweating!! It actually wiped me out because I haven't done anything physical work like that for several months. I am soo out of shape its ridiculous. When we go digging we get a hoe and go and dig up the ground so it can be ready for planting. Its a popular thing in Uganda because most of the people grow their own food. After lunch we had a great day and taught 7 lessons. They are all awesome people and have huge potential.
Wednesday morning we had DDM. That is our district meeting. We did a fun activity. In the Preach My Gospel at the end of the chapter on Christlike Attributes there is an Attribute Activity. We did the whole thing. It was a great chance to look into myself and see how I am with all of the Christlike attributes. I highly recommend doing that activity. It helps you really see what you need to improve on.
Thursday we had another 7 lesson day. On the way to one appointment there was a young boy carrying two jerry cans of water. I asked where his home was and he just pointed up the hill. So I took the jerry cans and started walking. After 5 minutes of hiking uphill I asked him again and he just pointed up. 5 minutes later the same thing. We finally got to his house at the top of the hill like 20 minutes later!! Holy cow it was way to far for a kid to carry water. Even though he was like 10 years old it felt good to do that small act of service. His mother was very happy that we did that for him. We even taught her a lesson. It was a great seed planting lesson. There was basically no way we could set a time to go back because she is always busy with stuff at her church. But when missionaries find her again she will be ready. Our last lesson was with a less active called Samuelson. He has the Conference DVDs for Oct 2004 and April 2005. They are super old but he loves them and really wanted us to watch a talk. So we picked a talk from Oct 2004 by Pres Hinckley about the women in our lives. It was an amazing talk about the importance on women and how men need to treat the women. I recommend going back to that conference because there was even a bunch of other powerful talks by other General authorities.
Friday was pretty good. We taught Tony about the Priesthood. He was preparing to receive the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday. So we talked about the priesthood and how it all works and even got into some deep history with the priesthood. He was just so amazed the entire time. Then I showed him my Line of Authority. That just blew him away! He was glued to it for like 10 minutes just completely amazed. The Line of Authority is an awesome thing. There is no other church in the world where you can trace authority all the way back to Christ himself. It was fun to see Tony get all excited about receiving the priesthood.
Saturday in the morning we did some service again. We helped another member called Afiman make some papyrus shades. They are really difficult to describe, but its like strands of papyrus strung together and people use them to cover their little shops or fruit stands. That was fun. Then when we finished we went and helped him herd some goats. He gets paid to take care of some peoples goats. So we took the goats and tied them in a grassy area where they could eat. Later in the afternoon we went to church for PEC. Unfortunately it didnt happen so we just spent some time with the members there.
Sunday was awesome! Church went great. Tony bore his testimony during sacrament/testimony meeting. It was awesome to hear him give his testimony of the truth he has found. Then in priesthood meeting he was ordained a Priest. After church he came and told me that it was his birthday and he invited us over to celebrate. So at like 4:00 we went to his house to celebrate. His wife Teddy made a pretty good chocolate/lemon cake. She works at some German tourist place so she knows how to bake and make a ton of good food. The cake was delicious and even they gave us the best rice and beans I have ever had. Teddy put some black pepper and other things in it. It was some good old rice and beans.
Today, before we came here to email, Elder Wanlass and Mkutswana came over to our apartment. We made some delicious chips! Basically french fries but here we call them chips. At a market I found a big bag of potatoes for only 3000 shillings! That is soo cheap and I had to buy them. Our chips we made were amazing. Then we played cards. Elder Wulfenstein has some Book of Mormon cards. We played Memory and then Old Maid. It got pretty intense and was lots of fun! Those classic card games are the best.
Congrats for finishing the green room! I want some pictures. Thanks :)
Holy Cow I am now kinda sad and depressed from hearing the bad news. I can't imagine how everyone in Palmer is doing. Its always terrible to hear of people passing away. Here in Uganda everyone has some family member or close friend who has died. It is mostly from the wars and rebels in Uganda's history. It is a time where you get to seriously think about the Plan of Salvation. These experiences can be used to strengthen our testimonies of the truths we know. I love the Gospel and I love the Plan of Salvation. I know it is true without any doubt. Let it give you hope and be a light in your lives. It can seriously change any bad situation into something where you can learn and grow and become a better person.
Mom, we get the Liahona every month. Other magazines we don't get to read. So if it is in the Liahona then just let me know which article. That would be good if you sent me some printed stuff. Thanks :)
Have a fantabulous week everyone!!
Love Elder LeCheminant
Monday, January 27, 2014
1.27.14
Well this week was pretty good. Nothing to exciting except for Elder Bednar coming!!!!!!!!! That was seriously amazing.
Tuesday was just a normal day of work. As always the day we planned out didn't happen, but we did find a few good people. In the evening we found a family that are super duper intelligent. They spoke awesome english and they had a huge super nice house. The mom was almost too religious and kept talking about how "spiritual" she is and was showing us scars on her knees from praying so much. Yea its kinda ridiculous. But our lesson was awesome and they listened the entire time. They actually didn't have any complaints about the restoration which was good. Then our last lesson was with a Recent Convert called Flavia. She and her husband got married and baptized like a month before I got here to Entebbe. Well she was telling us on Tuesday that they were having some marriage/relationship problems. It was really sad to listen to because both of them are awesome when we are there, but I guess its what happens when we aren't there. So we are going to try our best to keep them a happy family without getting to much into their personal lives. I just hate when people are having bad relationships.
Wednesday was amazing!!! At around noon we started heading to the stake center in Kololo Kampala. We got there at around 2:30. We just sat around talking to members and other missionaries for an hour. Then the meeting started at 4:00. It was Elder Bednar, Elder Clayton of the presidency of the seventy, the entire Southeast Africa area presidency, Elder Suti an area seventy, and all of their wives. A pretty big group of General Authorities. It was a special adult meeting for the Kampala Stake. Before the meeting they asked the members of the stake to read 4 documents/ talks. The Family Proclamation, Power in the Priesthood, the Gospel Culture, and More Diligent and Concerned in the Home. Then the meeting was basically an open discussion where everyone got to contribute about what they learned and they were able to ask questions. The meeting went for 3 hours!! It was amazing. I learned so many things.
Elder Bednar talked about how the gospel is all about CHANGING and IMPROVING. There was a statement that he said at least 15 times. "If you keep doing what you have always done, then you will always get what you have always got." We always need to be looking at things in our lives that we can change to make ourselves better. Another thing that Elder Bednar talked about is how sometimes we get annoyed or bored when they always talk about the same thing in General conference. He said that if we don't like what they talk about in conference, then look in the mirror. We are the ones that determine what is talked about in conference. For example, if everyone paid tithing then they would stop talking about it, but because not everyone pays tithing they have to keep talking about it. So if you don't like it, then you need change and help others to change as well. Most of the meeting was talking about family and the priesthood. I cant describe everything through email because there was just so much stuff! Elder Bednar said it was the first ever meeting where there was so many ordained witnesses of Christ in a setting where the members could ask questions and talk about what they learned. He said that because it was so successful they are now going to continue doing it!
So that was Wednesday. The rest of the week went pretty good. Sunday was awesome. During sacrament I was reading the old testament. A couple weeks ago I decided it would be good to know more about the old testament. So i am reading it during the sacrament at church now. It is so much more interesting than I used to think it was! I have already learned a ton about Abraham and I am only in like Chapter 15 of Genesis. Anyways, during sacrament meeting Tony was confirmed!!! He is such an awesome guy. He has been through soo much since his decision to be baptized. He will be such a big support at church here.
To answer mom's question, the font is made of metal. We have that one because the church is just a rented building so there is no font inside. All of the rented meetinghouses in Uganda have a tank similar to that outside. There are only a few church built chapels in the Kampala Stake. Everywhere else has rented buildings. They just take time. The church built chapels have super nice fonts inside.
The cheesecake pudding was seriously fantastic! I got like a month ago so I don't remember anything inside. For some reason I remember you stuffed it with some money or something but I'm not sure. That was a long time ago!!
Holy Cow there are a lot of people from Palmer Alaska going on missions! When did it happen?!?!?! Haha. Yea I email aaron, hunter, packer, and cedric every couple weeks.
Good luck with the Green Room! It actually sounds kinda fun. I still remember doing the pads on the walls in the gym. That was crazy. There was soooo many people that came! How are those pads doing anyways?
The dry season is kinda coming to an end. They say the rainy season is supposed to start in a couple weeks. So it hasn't been as ridiculously hot as the last few weeks, but its still hot and really humid because we are right next to the lake. The humidity makes me sweat like crazy and it makes candy like starburst and gum get all mushy and gross. But i guess thats just what I get for being here. I am going to freeze when I come home! Enjoy the nice 40 degree weather in Alaska! I would love that over the heat here :)
Have a good week everyone. I love you all. Remember your name. Remember who you are. Stuff like that. haha :)
Love Elder Mzungu
Tuesday was just a normal day of work. As always the day we planned out didn't happen, but we did find a few good people. In the evening we found a family that are super duper intelligent. They spoke awesome english and they had a huge super nice house. The mom was almost too religious and kept talking about how "spiritual" she is and was showing us scars on her knees from praying so much. Yea its kinda ridiculous. But our lesson was awesome and they listened the entire time. They actually didn't have any complaints about the restoration which was good. Then our last lesson was with a Recent Convert called Flavia. She and her husband got married and baptized like a month before I got here to Entebbe. Well she was telling us on Tuesday that they were having some marriage/relationship problems. It was really sad to listen to because both of them are awesome when we are there, but I guess its what happens when we aren't there. So we are going to try our best to keep them a happy family without getting to much into their personal lives. I just hate when people are having bad relationships.
Wednesday was amazing!!! At around noon we started heading to the stake center in Kololo Kampala. We got there at around 2:30. We just sat around talking to members and other missionaries for an hour. Then the meeting started at 4:00. It was Elder Bednar, Elder Clayton of the presidency of the seventy, the entire Southeast Africa area presidency, Elder Suti an area seventy, and all of their wives. A pretty big group of General Authorities. It was a special adult meeting for the Kampala Stake. Before the meeting they asked the members of the stake to read 4 documents/ talks. The Family Proclamation, Power in the Priesthood, the Gospel Culture, and More Diligent and Concerned in the Home. Then the meeting was basically an open discussion where everyone got to contribute about what they learned and they were able to ask questions. The meeting went for 3 hours!! It was amazing. I learned so many things.
Elder Bednar talked about how the gospel is all about CHANGING and IMPROVING. There was a statement that he said at least 15 times. "If you keep doing what you have always done, then you will always get what you have always got." We always need to be looking at things in our lives that we can change to make ourselves better. Another thing that Elder Bednar talked about is how sometimes we get annoyed or bored when they always talk about the same thing in General conference. He said that if we don't like what they talk about in conference, then look in the mirror. We are the ones that determine what is talked about in conference. For example, if everyone paid tithing then they would stop talking about it, but because not everyone pays tithing they have to keep talking about it. So if you don't like it, then you need change and help others to change as well. Most of the meeting was talking about family and the priesthood. I cant describe everything through email because there was just so much stuff! Elder Bednar said it was the first ever meeting where there was so many ordained witnesses of Christ in a setting where the members could ask questions and talk about what they learned. He said that because it was so successful they are now going to continue doing it!
So that was Wednesday. The rest of the week went pretty good. Sunday was awesome. During sacrament I was reading the old testament. A couple weeks ago I decided it would be good to know more about the old testament. So i am reading it during the sacrament at church now. It is so much more interesting than I used to think it was! I have already learned a ton about Abraham and I am only in like Chapter 15 of Genesis. Anyways, during sacrament meeting Tony was confirmed!!! He is such an awesome guy. He has been through soo much since his decision to be baptized. He will be such a big support at church here.
To answer mom's question, the font is made of metal. We have that one because the church is just a rented building so there is no font inside. All of the rented meetinghouses in Uganda have a tank similar to that outside. There are only a few church built chapels in the Kampala Stake. Everywhere else has rented buildings. They just take time. The church built chapels have super nice fonts inside.
The cheesecake pudding was seriously fantastic! I got like a month ago so I don't remember anything inside. For some reason I remember you stuffed it with some money or something but I'm not sure. That was a long time ago!!
Holy Cow there are a lot of people from Palmer Alaska going on missions! When did it happen?!?!?! Haha. Yea I email aaron, hunter, packer, and cedric every couple weeks.
Good luck with the Green Room! It actually sounds kinda fun. I still remember doing the pads on the walls in the gym. That was crazy. There was soooo many people that came! How are those pads doing anyways?
The dry season is kinda coming to an end. They say the rainy season is supposed to start in a couple weeks. So it hasn't been as ridiculously hot as the last few weeks, but its still hot and really humid because we are right next to the lake. The humidity makes me sweat like crazy and it makes candy like starburst and gum get all mushy and gross. But i guess thats just what I get for being here. I am going to freeze when I come home! Enjoy the nice 40 degree weather in Alaska! I would love that over the heat here :)
Have a good week everyone. I love you all. Remember your name. Remember who you are. Stuff like that. haha :)
Love Elder Mzungu
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