You Never Know What Might Happen...

Sunday, September 21 - Saturday, September 27, 2025

As a full time missionary you know to expect to be asked to share your testimony, share a message, give a talk or help in unexpected ways at any time.  We are a church of service minded people, we look for opportunities to serve, lift and strengthen others, it is what we do. 

On Friday of the previous week we met Brother Thomas Sankara, 2nd Counselor in Bardege 1 Branch. He found out that we were going to be at the Bardege 1 and 2 Branches on Sunday and asked us to prepare 2 - 20 minute talks for Sunday and gave us our topics.  The Great plan of Happiness or The Plan of Salvation and Tithing.  

We love arriving at church and shaking hands with the members and asking them their names.  They speak very softly and do not assume we will come to them but when we do their faces light up and they are glad to greet us.  This is their way, they are so gentle.  The sisters often give hugs to Sister Kaiser on both sides.  She likes it and says, "My Relief Society Sisters." This makes the sisters happy. 

After sacrament meeting the District President Orombi suggested that we read our talks that afternoon at 1:00 at the local radio station.  We were told to shorten the talks to 10 minutes each.  It wasn't until we were sitting in the radio station on a couch outside of the door with the red lit up sign that said "On Air" did we get a chance to quickly edit our talks.

After the commercial break the moderator played Tabernacle Choir music, introduced the name of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, welcomed us and we each gave our shortened talks.  After each talk Brother Isaac Ocakacon, Bardege 1 Elders Quorum President, interpreted our talks into Acholi, the local cultural language, then the moderator brought up some points about our talks with Brother Isaac.  He played more Tabernacle choir and we were done!  It took about 40 minutes, including opening and closing prayers and a commercial break.  Only afterwards did we find out that the radio broadcast was for the upper region of all of Northern Uganda.  Later at District Council meeting President Orombi said it sounded like General Conference talks, Ha! Ha!  

Earlier that day during a talk in church in Bardege 2 Branch a brother said, "Elder and Sister Kaiser are not here to rest and relax their brains on a vacation, they are here to do the Lord's work in Gulu."  Yes, we are here to serve but giving a talk on the radio was an unexpected way to serve!

     

Our radio show host, our interpreter Isaac and his fiancé, Mercy.

On Sunday nights we meet as an entire mission on Zoom to review the weeks progress, celebrate birthdays, and this week President and Sister Bell asked the missionaries to share miracles that they witnessed recently.  Once the first person started the flood gates opened, President Bell had to give a cut off.  It was sweet to witness these young people share testimony after testimony of miracles that occurred in their lives.  After our zoom call President and Sister Bell called to check in with us.  They want to make this a regular phone meeting.  We are okay with that.

Two working women having a visit.

We had a battle with our little washing machine all day Monday.  We put a load of whites in as soon as we were up on Monday morning.  It took all day to get that load washed because the machine kept turning off for reasons we cannot tell.  Now we do really small loads so that the washer likes us.  It seems to be working, most of the time.  

                                 

It was also market day and we went back to the Main Market without the sister missionaries and visited the sellers that they took us to the previous week.  For some reason the prices went up!  We pushed back a bit and the seller lowered the price.  They have to try what they can to get a little extra but Kirk will watch his cash carefully.  We also had a dressmaker make us a simple cover for our bed, sometimes we (Sister Kaiser mostly) gets a little chilly at night and it's nice to have another thin layer.  The print we picked is bigger and bolder than we realized but its fun to have an African print on our bed!

Tuesday was fun!  After doing training with Elder and Sister Ence to learn to help prospective missionaries with paperwork we went to meet our neighbors.  We met Mercy, the matriarch and her "daughter in law" Jillian.  In Uganda they are very open about saying "we are cohabitating." Mercy is a biology teacher and Jillian is a university student in Marketing she eventually wants to be an accountant.  They were lovely to talk to about school, customs, their garden and so on.  

Mercy and Jillian

Next we went with the Sister Missionaries Muava'a and Sikwera to visit Margaret and Sarah.  Our friend Anthony came along to be the Acholi interpreter to make sure Margaret's questions about the temple were answered in a way that she understood completely.  We all left each other with hugs and good wishes, the women walked us to the truck and waved goodbye.  It felt good to spend time with these sweet sisters!

Anthony in back, Sisters Sikwera, Muava'a, Margaret, Sister Kaiser and Sarah.

"Arm in arm with you I want to stand with Him Forever. Wholehearted."  

Sister Michelle D. Craig, Wholehearted, October 2022 General Conference

Mildred 

The "neighborhood" children, Mildred is in the back in the colorful dress.

The most we laughed since we have arrived in Uganda was when we met Mildred.  She is our other neighbor along with her little community of family and friends that live on the other side of our apartment.  She goes to school all day, like many children do, but here they go to school from 8 am - 5pm.  We were talking with her "Uncle Alan" in the yard under a Jackfruit tree when suddenly Sister Kaiser was being slammed with a hug!  Mildred was so happy to see us.  Elder and Sister Zaugg had told her we would be coming to live in the apartment.  She is delightful and curious and not as shy and quiet as most of the children. She likes to read books.  We also met other children, they held back but were also curious.  Our skin, eye and hair color are fascinating to all of the children we see or meet. As we visited with Mildred we asked her if she could run fast, she replied, "Of course."  We asked her if she thought we could run fast, her reply was, "No, you are too old."  It didn't take long before we had a game of tag going on and Mildred was getting a work out!  The other kids joined in and all of the adults in the community were laughing and laughing.  It must have been a sight to see a white man and a white lady, with her skirt pulled up to her knees, playing and running with the children.  We know how to "grandparent with gusto!!!"  After a different game of tag we had to say good night.  We walked home smiling!

A Prayer Request Please

Our regular afternoon appointment on Wednesdays will be to go visit Calvin at his school along with his wife Eunice who we met for the first time, she is lovely.  She was not well last week.  They are full of faith and spent time with us expressing the righteous desires of their hearts that they want a church congregation in nearby Kamdini.  They live so far from the nearest branch, and are only able to make it to church once a month.  We support their righteous desire and told them we would pray for a church nearby, the Lord's will be done.  We told them that we would ask our friends and family to pray too.  We believe in the power of combined prayer, petitioning the Lord for righteous requests.  Please pray with us.

This week there were 65 children! We taught them the lesson, I Am A Child Of God.  They already knew it but we had fun activities that they liked.

  

Sister Zaugg taught them the song, "I Am A Child of God" and they sang it so well.

Sister Zaugg also taught the school children "Here We Are Together" another Primary Song.  Calvin is pointing to children and their name is inserted into the song.  

They meet in the shade of the tree before going home.

This is what going home looks like.  Calvin has a red flag, he stands on the highway to stop traffic and says, "Go Home! Go Right Home!  Go Home!" as the children cross to the other side.  

The big kids look after the little ones. This gives Sister Kaiser anxiety, all of it. 

Eunice, baby Samantha, Kearon (in yellow) 2 friends 

(the friend in back has a strap across his head, not braids) and Calvin.

Electricity is a precious commodity that you can't take for granted in Uganda.  Since arriving in Gulu we've lost power multiple times. On Wednesday we lost power from 8 am - 9:10pm BUT senior missionaries are well taken care of.  We have been provided this massive 4 battery back up system that keeps our apartment running on electricity even when the city power goes down. If the green light on the top box, mounted on the wall, goes out that means the city power is off.  There is usually a click and a brief loss of power then we are back in business.  Elder Kaiser is ultra ultra conservative and is very mindful of our power usage when the switch takes place. There is a voltage regulator on the floor.  The Zaugg's (previous senior missionaries) said they lasted nearly 3 days on battery back up power when the city power was out.  The batteries are solar powered and are very efficient and lose very little energy.  They require no maintenance, we mostly leave all of this alone and do not disturb. If you want to go off grid this system is what you need.

Jane, Omalini, Evelyn, Stella, Aida, Beatrice

                          

The Lacore building is very new, less than one year.  It is neat and tidy. The building behind Omalini is the chapel, and offices across the porch, behind Jane, are all of the classrooms and the Primary room.

We have been hoping for this moment.  Elder Kaiser taught middle school for 38 years, teaching is a natural gift for him, he really enjoys it.  Sister Kaiser taught guided reading for 8 years at the Elementary School near our home, it was enjoyable for her.  They both hoped that they could put their teaching skills to use on their mission.  We attended a literacy class  on Thursday at the Lacore building to simply observe and ask questions then offered to come back the following week to teach.  

Beatrice - Relief Society President / Teacher 56 yrs old

Aida -Teacher/ RS 2nd Counselor 71 yrs

Jane - Student 25 yrs

Evelyn - Student 60 yrs

Stella - Student 49 yrs

Omalini - Student 67 yrs, RS 1st Counselor

Doreen - Student 64 (came late/missed class)

These women are all diligent learners, no chatting and getting distracted in class. Not all are sisters are English speakers, they speak Acholi the local cultural language.

A cute little spotted goat near the side of the road caught our eye.

We continued to have a good day.  Next, we went with the full time missionaries, Elders Sithole and Nzuki, to go see Geoffrey.  His story is heartbreaking.  He was riding a boda as a passenger as he was coming home from his cousins wedding and was hit by another boda who's driver fled the scene.  He was seriously injured, he had a helmet on but was in the hospital for an extended time.  He had a family and went home and went back to work.  One month later he came home for lunch, which is normal, and laid down to rest and woke up in the hospital.  More surgeries.  When he woke up he had lost his vision except that he can see shadows of dark and light.  His wife took the kids and left him.  Naturally, he was depressed. Then he was introduced to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and felt hope.  He is being cared for by family and friends, Steven is one of those people, he is 20 years old and is doing BYU Pathways.  His little buddy, Benjamin is 13 yrears but only speaks Swahili or Acholi (can't remember) and needs an English and literacy class. He helps Geoffrey get places, he is very sweet.  

              

                             Geoffrey and Benjamin

Geoffrey said, "When the Elders come I feel that God is Arriving!"  He has tremendous faith.  He walks for about an hour with assistance to get to the Bardege building for church.  We want to get him the scriptures and other church literature on audio but there isn't wifi where he lives so we need to look into options.

"....Jesus.... said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.  Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.  And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them."  Mark 10: 14-16

These young boys were pushing a tire down the bumpy road like the pioneer children.  

They used a forked stick to keep the tire upright.

This man Michael waved us over to him and we realized that he is the gardener that tends the property where we stay.  We were glad to meet his family.  The two little boys were shy.

                                                                                                                                    

This young girl, about 9 yrs, had her baby sister on her back, a back pack in front and held 

bags of food in her hands while her little brother followed her.  WOW!!!

This young woman was carrying 2 very heavy cans of water at a fast pace. 

In the other photo the 4 yr old boy was helping his 13 yr old sister carry water.  

We asked if we could help, they declined.

This is a view of the road we walked along in our neighborhood.

Thursday was our one month mark on our mission.  We went on a walk in the late afternoon down a different road we had not explored.  Its' interesting to watch the different reactions of people because of our skin color.  Some of the little children approach and want a fist bump, others are shy and stay back, they are even wary of us.  The adults are always friendly and wave especially if we wave first.  

Teacher Training class for Temple Preparation Teachers. The fans are not working, the air flow is poor.  

One of our assignments is to get Temple Preparation classes started in all of the branches.  On Saturday we held a class, "Teaching In the Saviors Way" to help the teachers understand  elements of good teaching.  There were 8 people assigned to be teachers and 6 people showed up, they all have to walk to get there, 3 came late.  One of the latecomers came from his uncles funeral and texted to tell us why he was going to be late. 

They were good students and took notes and did the planned activities willingly.  We felt that the class was a success.  Next item to address is to encourage branch presidencies to identify people who could participate in the class as candidates to prepare to go to the temple and then get classes started.  We plan to offer ongoing support to the teachers.

Things we are grateful for:

• Doxycycline (malaria medication)
• Our little refrigerator.
• Our little washing machine.
• Being so warmly welcomed.
• That the church is the same.
• The pure testimonies and prayers of the Ugandan's.
• Children and youth are excited to give us fist bumps.
• Yoga mats so that we can stretch and exercise on the tile floor.
• The pickup truck on the rough roads.
• 2 small air conditioning units in our apartment.
• 4 large back up batteries in our apartment since the power goes out randomly, the longest stretch so far was 13 hours.
• The beautiful flowers and plants everywhere.
• The sweetest pineapple we've ever had.
• Access to technology so that we can talk with family and message with friends.
• No acclimation period.
• Google maps, actually more than that we like how people can drop a pin  (if they have a smart phone) to show "where they stay" = their home location.  Addresses aren't really a thing here and Google isn't up to date on the roads here either. 
• The fun framed netting enclosure around our bed to keep mosquitoes away!
• Currency converter app on our phones.
• Never the same walk in the neighborhood twice!
• 2 water filters so we can stay healthy.
• 2 fans so we can keep the air flowing when we don't need A/C. One fan actually helps the laundry dry on the drying racks.
• We get to wear the name of Jesus Christ over our hearts each day! 💝