"We are sowing daily sowing..."

Sunday Oct 12-Saturday Oct 18, 2025

                                                                      Oxen yoked together

 Sunday: We attended two branches.  We were asked to give our testimonies at Pece's sacrament meeting and then went to the Bardege 2 branch conference where we had been assigned to give talks.  We have stood behind the microphone more in the past month than we have in the past few years.

Drive from Gulu to Aruu Falls

We took a little trip on Monday to relax and see some of the area.  We drove for about an hour through some really beautiful country and the roads were in good shape. There were Lots of well groomed fields and nice forested areas.  We saw cattle yoked together plowing fields, clean villages, well groomed school grounds, and vast open areas.  It was a very pleasant drive.  Then we arrived on a dirt road and actually used our 4 wheel drive for the first time as we headed to our destination, Aruu Falls.  

Aruu Falls

We changed our clothes and headed down a sleep slope with our guide.   We are at the end of the rainy season so the falls were running high and fast.  We started at the top and could see the power of the water rushing down off the rocks.  When we got to the bottom, we transversed a little river, and saw the falls from below.   We really enjoyed the view and then our guide took us out across some rocks and we sat in the rushing water at the bottom of the falls.  It was a bit cold at first but not really too bad and we acclimated pretty fast.  We turned around and sat on a rock watching the falls for awhile and just relaxed.  Just as we began to head back a large group was coming down the trail so it was good timing.  

Little tomato and zucchini plants

This week was garden week.  I had previously bought some seeds and started the seeds growing in yogurt cups.  Finally, I was able to go dig in the dirt.  After clearing out an area of other vegetation I made some rows and planted my tomatoes and zucchini plants that were started in the cups.  It's just a little space behind our home but the soil here is good and hopefully we will get some vegetables.  The very next day I noticed that the watermelon seeds I had planted in cups were also growing.  Later in the week after going out for a walk we visited with the neighbors.  They had a much better hoe than the one that the gardener uses at our place so I asked if I could borrow theirs. After a short time my little garden was twice the size from when I first started.  We stopped at the garden store and were glad to find carrot seeds which I planted along with moving the watermelon start from the cup to the garden.  There are still unused rows so something else can be added.  Probably more info than you all needed but I do like playing in the dirt, there is something satisfying about it. 

A brown hoodie?

Lots of the local people sell the things that they grow, make, etc because of that we talked about trying to get our eggs from someone in the community instead of from the store.  On our way home we saw a little three wheel delivery truck with lots of eggs in the back.  The driver had pulled over to make a delivery so we stopped to talk to him.  While I got our eggs Florence, the worker at the shop, asked Kendra where her church was pointing to her name tag which also states the name of our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  We talked with her for a bit and she agreed to let us come back with the sister missionaries to teach her.  When we came back a couple of days later her friend Brenda was there and joined the lesson.  They both were engaged in the lesson and said they will try to come to church on Sunday. We look forward to continuing this friendship and seeing where it might lead.

        "A sower went out to sow his seed...and other fell on good                             ground....the seed is the word of God."    Luke 8:5-11

Temple Preparation at Laroo Branch

We are getting more established in teaching classes and supporting teachers.  Thursday is our English Literacy group.  We enjoy working with the sisters.  This week we gave them an individual oral test to see how they are doing.  Overall pretty well.  A couple need to slow down and sound things out as they just say random words we have learned without thinking it through.  Not that different from middle school kids! There are a couple of temple preparation groups starting to meet.  We went to one to be a support and really were not surprised when the teacher turned it over to us to teach the lesson.  We will work with him learn how to plan a lessons and team up with him to help him take on more responsibility as we go.  Another group also met for temple preparation class but needs to switch the start time to better accommodate working hours for the people.  There are a couple of other individuals that we are teaching temple preparation  to in order to meet their unique needs.  They are both doing very well. We also taught Calvin and the adults a lesson from Alma 32 comparing the word to a seed (fits the weekly theme). 

"Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart... " Alma 32:28  

Sister Kaiser taught the children about family trees.

 

"The wheels on the Bus" - Family History Style  

Grandparents Say, I Love You

Parents Give Big Hugs

Kids Go Up and Down

Babies Go To Sleep!

Lots of long days this week, often until 7 or 8 at night and then still having to make and eat dinner.   We are too old for that.  The good news is we have dropped many years off of our age as we have served in Uganda.  When we ask people how old they think we are we usually get guesses in the 40's.  Who knew that was one of the blessings of serving a mission, if that was better publicized more senior couples might go on missions.  

We also spent a fair amount of time visiting the young Elder's and Sister's apartments.  We check up to see how they are doing with their cleanliness, taking and having the needed medications and we were also asked to check to see what items they should have in their apartments but do not.  They were missing many things. We submitted the list of  missing items needed to the mission office, hopefully those items will be supplied soon!  We did have a short meeting in each apartment and gave some council on being more effective missionaries.  Basically parental advice.  Since the people here in Uganda call people older then themselves "Mama, and Papa", we just accepted the name and the calling.  We do have some past experience in this area. 

Some steers here have long horns, this guys are pretty good but we have seen longer ones.

Fun Stuff:

Random sports apparel we have seen:

LeBron James jerseys are everywhere.  In all the colors of the rainbow.

A small child wrapped up in a Pittsburgh Steelers blanket and another in a  New York Giants blanket.

A Nashville Predator hockey jersey. (Why a hockey jersey in 85 degree heat and humidity?)

Little kids in random college t-shirts...Notre Dame, Texas Tech, etc. 

We have seen young adults proudly wearing their BYU Pathways t-shirts.  It makes us happy too!

What, double take....yup a Denver Broncos hoodie on a boda driver.

A Colorado Avalanche jersey for sale at a store.  That one could be there for a while.