Dear family and friends, It's good to
hear from you all. Life in Seeta is Good right now I feel as though God is
really blessing my companion and I this transfer. Things are just going very
smoothly.
There are some people that I really
feel as though I have helped this transfer. There is this one guy named Issac
for instance (who was baptized this week), he had actually been investigating
the church since 2004. Even read the entire Book of Mormon... twice. But his
problem was that while he was investigating the church (in 2004) he was only 17
years old, and his parents wouldn't let him be baptized into another church. So
he continued to attend church service but he never got baptized. Eventually missionaries
just forgot about him until it came to the point where the missionaries and
most member just assumed that he was member of the branch. Even after he moved
out of his parents’ house and got a place of his own years later he continued
to come to church but he was never baptized as a member. It's kind of crazy to
think about, but this guy had been attending Seeta branch longer than most of
the members of the branch had been. Anyway my first Sunday attending the branch
I walked in and decided to make myself familiar with the branch members, so I
went in and greeted the members and introduced myself and learned their names
in return. As I went from member to member shaking hands and trying to be
social I found myself greeting Isaac. I felt like I needed to sit next to him
during the service so I sat down next to him and we began to talk a little as
we waited for it to begin. As I was talking to him I realized that he really
knew church doctrine well and I felt as though he must have been a member for quite
some time. When I asked him how long he had been a member of the church he told
me that he had been a member since 2004. I felt satisfied with that answer but
at the same time I felt as though I needed to ask a little deeper so I asked
"do you remember the names of the missionaries who baptized you?" to
which he told me that he had never been baptized and that his parents wouldn't
let him be. I was super surprised at what he was telling me because he was
about 25 years old and living on his own and yet he was telling me that the
reason that he was not baptized was because of restriction from his parents. I
learned as I continued to talk to him that he wanted to be baptized badly but
he believed it to be a church policy that you can't baptize anyone (no matter
the age) if the parents don't allow it. After the church service I talked to
the branch president and asked if he had realized that Isaac wasn't baptized,
and learned that the branch president knew that he wasn't baptized but the
branch president thought that Issac didn't want to be baptized without approval
from his parents, as we explained we both realized that, that was just
mis-communication. So we scheduled an appointment to see Isaac and got him
baptized a few weeks later. He's a really funny guy though, Even though it's
kind of an outrageous story about how he got baptized, it's still really cool
as well.
There's another two investigators that
were found last transfer by the missionaries before I came. They're getting
baptized next week. One of them is a guy named James and also his girlfriend
named Febe. They live together and even have one child, but have never been
married. As part of Ugandan (and African) culture the husband is supposed to
pay a super expensive dowry to the father of the Lady that he wants to marry. I
don't know the exact price but usually it involves buying a whole bunch of
livestock and stuff. It's extremely expensive and most Ugandans don't have the
means to pay that much. Many families don't have legally married parents until
the parents are in their mid 40's or so when they finally have saved up the
money to pay for their spouse (I even met this one couple who were in their
60's and still had never been properly married). It is a wicked practice and
causes the law of chastity to be broken all throughout Uganda. Anyway this
young couple were in this same situation when the missionaries met them for the
first time, no way to pay for each other. As we continued to visit them they
continually asked for us if it would be possible for them to get baptized, but
we could not baptize them unless they first were married. Luckily the church
performs Legal Church marriages for free, and we could marry them easily, but
the problem was that if they got married at the church then most likely the
Father of Febe (the wife) would dis-own her completely for being married
without paying dowry. Both James and Febe wanted baptism super bad but they
were to fearful to consult the father about it. As my companion and I thought
about what we needed to do to to help them we decided to fast (both me and my
companion and James and Febe). We started our fast Saturday Afternoon and
planned on breaking it Sunday Evening. As we came to church that Sunday, James
came running up to us and told us of something that had happened that very
morning. He told us that, that very Sunday morning Febe's father had come and
surprise them by visiting them at home. As he was visiting them, it came up
that James and Febe wanted to get married at church. As they discussed about it
the father began to get more and more upset until he was in a rage. The father
left them and told them that if they were married outside of tradition then
they would not be a part of his family. When the father left though, James and
his wife said that at that time they felt more comforted and more happy than
they had in a long time. They knew with all certainty that a church marriage
was what they wanted to do no matter the consequences. This Saturday is going
to be their marriage at the Chapel in Kololo. Sunday is going to be their
Baptism. I'm super excited for them.
Love all of you guys. Do your best to be
great member missionaries!
Mom's Questions:
1- In
this new area are you able to teach single sisters? In Lira that was
discouraged for the lack of priesthood
2- Any
news on the new building? Any progress towards finishing before the end
of August?
3- You
seem to like this new area or am I reading your e-mails wrong? There
seems to be much more convenience and more abundance of shopping? How is
the missionary work going?
to answer your questions
1- Teaching sisters is still
frowned upon unless they show lots of potential. Really the focus is on families
and potential priesthood holders. There still are not allot of priesthood
holders even in Seeta. The attendance per week is like 60-70 people but only
about 8-12 of those are Melchizedek priesthood holders.
2- The chapel is going to be
finished in October this year. I don't really know if I will still be around
for it.
3- I think that I really like
this area. There are some bad things about Seeta and also some good things, but
I think that the good outweigh the bad right now. I'm having lots of success in
this area right now. I feel as though the lord is really blessing me at this
time. I also really do like the shopping, but we don't get nearly enough money
per month to get very much food. Things like bacon and sandwich meat are so
expensive that I have been found crying in supermarkets as I stare at the
forbidden fruit.
Dad's Questions:
1.
Are you still a district leader?
2.
Do you have more than one Zone for all of the missionaries in the Kampala area?
3.
Elder Bitter, who I believe is in Jinja right now, talked in his letter last
week about several members of his district getting sick because they got
careless with their drinking water. You haven't mentioned anything about that,
so I'm hoping that hasn't been a problem with you or any of the missionaries in
your district?
4.
Do many people smoke in Uganda? Is alcohol your biggest Word of Wisdom
challenge?
5.
So what kind of suit or clothes did you get? I noticed that you had withdrawn
money from your account.
6.
Are baptisms as frequent in your new area as they were in Lira?
7.
Are you enjoying the weather in Seeta?
1- yes I am still the
district Leader.
2- There are three zones in
Kampala. Right now I'm in the biggest zone
3- I haven't heard of any
problems with people not drinking clean water, but I know that sometimes if the
filters break and you don't realize in time then you can accidentally drink
unfiltered water. But for those of us who are obedient we check the filters
regularly and change the filters regularly.
4- Honestly because Uganda
used to ruled by the British Empire the biggest Word of Wisdom problem most
people have is drinking tea. Alcohol and smoking is here, but it is looked down
upon by most of society so it's not a huge problem for most.
5- I withdrew the money to
get a better suit and also to buy some exercise equipment (jump rope and a few
weights)
6- Seeta has a history for
being kind of a dead area as far as baptisms go (in the last year there were
only 8 baptisms) but I'm actually getting more baptisms in Seeta right now than
I did in Lira. We had one baptism this last Sunday and 3 more planned next
Sunday.
7- The weather here is very
cool. Some days it can be kind of warm but there is always a nice breeze
wherever you go.
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