We have only been here half a year but the Ugandans have filled our hearts completely.
Feb 9-March 2
We have passed our six months mark. Things have been a little crazy lately and we are behind in our blog so this will be a compilation of our activities.
A New Career?
Who needs to retire when there is still so much work to be done. We went to Brandon and Delwin's grain mill to visit and see how things work. Soon Delwin had Sister Kaiser working along side her and eventually Elder Kaiser was also put to work. The grain is poured into a machine that grinds it into flour. The flour is sent through a tube overhead, the flour is trapped in a large bag. The bag of flour then gets emptied into jerry cans that are cut at the top for full access. Then finally put back into the customers original container. They grind: maize (corn), sorghum, cassava, and millet. We worked for a couple of hours. Our ears were ringing and our clothes were dusted with white powder, the only victims of our efforts.
Teaching English Classes
We are practicing with learning practical words such as items of clothing and kitchen items. Then using these things in sentences. Higher groups are adding in adjectives and descriptions. We are excited that Eveline has had a break through. Her daughter is living with her and they are coming to class together. They are practicing English at home and Eveline has made progress with her English and has become more confident in her abilities. It os fun to see her growth and excitement.
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."
Nelson Mandela
Geoffrey's nephews had a very rough go of it a couple of weeks back. We ended up leaving before we were done with the lesson. It was rough on everyone. We were hoping to try to teach them a lesson about their behavior. Geoffrey and one of the dad's were disheartened by our leaving but understood and spoke to the boys. School is back in session and when we returned the group was smaller. We found out that 2 brothers were able to attend at a school where their school fees are covered. If they do well they get to continue at the school. We were happy to hear this news! The fewer number of students reduced our class size to four boys. We set some new rules and things went much better. We worked on "I am" sentences with them, and were shocked when one boy who we were not sure understood much English laughed when Elder Kaiser said, "I am white." The next week we only had two boys and were able to work one on one. Both fathers of the boys stopped by and we were able to hand them some papers that the boys had worked on. We updated them as to the skill level of their son. As they would say here the progress is "small small."
Sister Kaiser and the Lacor Ward LadiesThe women here are up for wearing anything that they like any time they want. You might notice that Doreen is wearing a pink party dress. Clothes are brought in bales for vendors to purchase then the vendor resells the used items. The women like bling and sparkle and fancy things. They don't care if they are just going to the market for vegetables they wear their prom dress like a queen.
Temple Preparation Classes
Temple preparation classes are in full swing in Lacor, Bardege 1, Gulu and Pece Wards. We have completed one round of classes in these wards and are starting with new groups. Pece has a group of 8 young men and a couple of women, we really enjoy them. Lacor temple preparation is mostly made up of our "Literacy Ladies." It is so fun to have them preparing themselves to go to the temple. The attendance at Gulu and Bardege seems to change every week but we teach those who show up. Bardege 2 has a returned missionary who is teaching on Mondays and does not need our support. We need to nudge the Laroo Ward leadership and have them start their class again.
We visited with Amos and his family. They recently went to the temple to be sealed, and we shared his testimony in our blog a few weeks ago. They are wonderful. Sister Kaiser taught the kids the Noah's ark lesson and Elder Kaiser taught the parents the follow up lesson given for those who went to the temple for the first time. Then Elder Kaiser taught Amos how to give a father's blessing. We are realizing that priesthood holders here do not understand about the power of the priesthood and the many ways it can be used to bless others life's. Our next visit was to Stella, Vincent and their children. The Noah's ark lesson was a hit every where! We taught Vincent about being a child of God.
Surprise Baptism!
On a different day we visited with Stella and Vincent again and read the Book of Mormon together. Vincent has read quite a bit on his own. It was good to share the versus of Christ coming to the Americas. On our next visit Stella was in town and we visited with just Vincent. The young missionaries joined us and to our surprise we found out that Vincent had been baptized a few months ago! The sister missionaries taught Vincent and did not let us know. We are glad he is baptized and progressing. The piglets keep us entertained when we visit.
We visited with Calvin and Eunice as they begin a new school term. We took Bishop Mike, Brother Christopher, the Elder's Quorum President, and Sister Agnes, the Relief Society President with us for a Sunday visit. Calvin and Eunice were all smiles, so happy to be remembered. Later that week we visited again and brought the Primary President Sister Susan. We taught the first temple preparation class to Calvin and Eunice and later Elder Kaiser left a priesthood blessing upon the staff, students and school for the new term.
Many of our temple class members from different wards were planning to attend the temple in Nairobi Kenya. We decided to try to pull off a big surprise and join them at the e temple. We got permission from the area presidency on a Saturday and then had to scramble to put things in motion as we needed to leave on Monday. Buying the plane tickets became a huge issue but Shane was able to help us out with that. We drove to Kampala and then the missionaries drove us to the airport early Monday morning. We got there and found out that the workers at the Nairobi airport went on strike. Our 10:55 am flight was delayed After waiting for hours, it was cancelled. They put us on a different airline leaving at 8 PM. This became 10 PM, then 1:30, and then 2:30 AM. It was very disappointing. We were concerned that even if we made it to Kenya would we be able to return to Uganda. The strike was suppose to last a week. At 5 AM we finally gave up and found out what we needed to do to get our tickets refunded. We arranged for an Uber to drive us an hour back to the mission home so that we could get our truck and drive back to Gulu. Our hearts were heavy about not going, but there are always reasons. We will try again, perhaps someone else really needs us to be with them.
"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart: and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." Proverbs 3:5-6
We will schedule the temple class lesson number 7 for those who went to the temple to discuss their experience and answer any questions. We look forward to hearing about their experiences.
Teaching seminary
We have a very different problem here in the Lacore Seminary class vs students in Broomfield. At home students can talk too much or have side conversations. Here, they do not talk at all. They are shy, but also either very young in the gospel or non-members. This poses it own challenges. Add to this that they don't have their own scriptures and teaching becomes a whole new ballgame. We are learning to get them into small groups for discussions or do writing activities; this seems to work better with them. We are happy they are attending and want to learn. With that in mind the other things will work out.
Birthday Dinner With A Sunset View
Elder Kaiser had a birthday on February 28. At 8AM his phone rang and one of the Sisters from the Lacor Ward was singing Happy Birthday to him ending the song with the lyrics, "How old are you, How old are you." We all giggled. He loved all of the Marco Polo's and WhatsApp well wishes from the grandkids. There were wonderful cards and messages that they showed him. Shout out to Sister Kaiser who made three home made cakes to share at zone conference. (There are no boxed cake mixes for purchase). Cakes here are very dry and tasteless so her efforts were greatly appreciated. That night we celebrated by taking President and Sister Bell and their son out for a nice birthday dinner to celebrate with us. We had nice steak dinners, a great view and wonderful conversation.
Fun Stuff:
A bit more about one seminary student. The first time Brenda walked in to class we both immediately thought of the women warriors from the Black Panther movies. Brenda has short hair, is strong, and acts tough. She tries to not smile. We have figured out ways to get her to smile anyway. Now she has given up that battle with us :) Recently she shared her conversion story with power. She is a leader. She knows what she wants. She is a disciple of Christ.
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