It seems that the longer I am in Uganda
the more I have learned to respect the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It may seem
simple at first: Faith, Repentance, Baptism, etc, but really, there's kind
of a beauty behind it all. Learning more about the Gospel and how it changes
lives, thoughts, and behavior, makes me realize how important the
Church of Jesus Christ is to the whole world.
In this mission because of how
young the church is here (every single member in Lira is a convert) the largest
part of our job as missionaries is to help the church to develop and become
more like the organization that you find in the States, Europe, and other parts
of the world. We need to help the church to learn to function, and become more
like you see it around the world. Sundays can be a little stressful at
times because its up to us missionaries to guide the church meetings and
members to fulfill their callings. It may take a few years but I
really hope that I can see the day that the church in
Lira operates the way that the church was meant to. I think
that's the reason why most of the missionaries in Uganda are either from the
States, South Africa, Zimbabwe, or Kenya. In all of these places the
church has been around long enough that it operates the way it's supposed to.
This week I had an interesting
experience with an older lady who chased me down as we were going to
an appointment. She chased us down shouting something in Langi (the
language used by locals in Lira), and when she got to us she got down or her
knees and started pleading with us in Langi. It was kinda freaky cause we had
no idea what her problem was and she made us feel really uneasy. We were
getting ready to walk away from her (because for all we knew she
was probably just asking for money or something) when she then took
out a picture of a young Ugandan man wearing a white shirt and tie and a
black name tag that said "Elder Sencka" and "The church of
Jesus Christ of latter day Saints" We managed to grab someone off the
street that could translate for us and then this lady told us a story about the
missionary in this picture, "Elder Sencka". What had happened is that
her son, Elder Sencka, had moved to Kampala in 1992 and stayed there for
schooling. While he was there the missionaries found him and converted him and
he became a strong member of the church. In fact he even decided to serve a
mission, and went to serve in the South Africa, Cape Town mission. He served his
2 years and then came home and got released, but then rather than stay in
Uganda, immediately after being released he used the visa that he
had received from his mission (it hadn't expired yet) and
returned back to South Africa, where he lived as an illegal immigrant.
Since then he has gotten married and become a citizen there, but now
It's been over ten years since he has ever seen his family and this
old Lady (his mother) was now pleading for us to bring him back to Uganda (even
though we really have no control over that). As strange of a
circumstance as this was my companion and I were talking and it turns out that
his isn't a rare thing. Especially back in the 80s when the church
was just developing in Kenya there were missionaries who would go on missions
to the States, and then some of them wouldn't even finish their mission, they
would just disappear. Become Illegal immigrants. That's why today most
missionaries from Africa serve in
another African country. Occasionally you'll hear about an
African missionary serving in the States but it's really pretty rare.
Honestly you don't realize how
good you have it untill you come to a 3rd world country. Everyone back home
needs to take full advantage of the life that they live and live it to the
fullest. I know I will whenever I return home.
Have a great week everyone, and
I'll update you next time.
MOM- Got a package from you this week Thanks for
the power bars and pictures of the familly. Honestly though my favorite
part of the package was the letters from Todd and Sarah. What's Todd's and
Sarah's email, so I can talk to them as well. It was really good to hear
from them.
You know that blog
that you were reading before I left on my mission. The one by Elder Brandon
Winters serving in the Uganda Kampala mission. Well he's sitting right next to
me right now. We live in the same house and he's my Zone Leader. Just thought
you might be interested to know.
To Answer your questions:
1- I was able to get photos taken by companions but none of
them ever had a cord to connect their camera to the computer so I was never
able to send you any pics (sorry).
2- Linda got me some sweets, some cliff bars, some really
cool looking ties, and some word find books. Really liked the bubble gum they
sent. Its really funny to blow a bubble in front of some little kids (who have
never seen bubble gum) and they freak out. It's hallarious.
3- I get 2 hrs to email, but honestly its hard sometimes to
think about what I should email you. I like it when you send me questions, it
makes it alot easier for me to know what to email about. I think I
got the package with the letters in them, and I got the pictures in them as
well. Everyone in my house was interested to see what
my family looked like. Good to finally have pictures of the
fam.
4- Ya I'm still losing weight. Really fast too. The suite
coat that I came with is huge on me now. soon I'm going to need a new one.
5- The shoes are still going good. Their supper dirty all
the time but they're champs. I could see them holding up for another 12 months
at least. I look at the shoes that the older missionaries have and how poor of
a state their in and I'm really glad I came with 2 pairs of shoes.
6- Working out has become much more difficult since I became
a District Leader. I usually need to stay up later than normal because I need
to receive/ send reports and this makes me much more tired in the
morning. I sometimes find myself falling asleep in the living room
while stretching before workouts. I'm trying to get better at going to
sleep on time, but it's really hard sometimes.
7- Tell sarah to email me and then i can tell her how my
pigstead is doing.
8- I will don't worry.
Love you guys have a great week. Stay strong in the church
and Love everyone as the Savior did.
-Elder Grilliot
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