Never Ending Cycle

Here they come... and there they go... This is the life of a mission president and wife. Everyone sees the cycle, and I'm sure everyone sees how busy our lives are, but I don't think anyone could see the huge change that takes place in the hearts, or the love that we develop for these missionaries!

       
                                     

We received 5 new missionaries this transfer. 

It's nice to know that we are in good hands. We are sent very strong missionaries who are able to take the place of the very strong ones going home. We are so excited to get to know them all better. 

However... it's always hard to say goodbye. 

We are losing 4 stalwart missionaries. It's exciting to see what they do with their lives! 

It makes me happy to know they will be able to spend Christmas at home with their families. God be with you till we meet again!

Family time in the Mission Branches

We have had an amazing month. So amazing, I haven't taken the time to write it all down. Conner spent the months of November and December with us. He was able to see most areas in our mission, and while we were together with him, we tried to show him some of the sights of the countries we visit.

Mission Home Decorated for Christmas

After Zone Conference in Ethiopia, we were able to go out to eat at what looked like a western steak house with pictures of cowboys on the wall, including John Wayne. The food was a little more international, but we really enjoyed our time there

While we were in Ethiopia, we visited the Debre Zeit branch. We spent time at the church, and while President Collings was meeting with different members and the missionaries, Conner was entertaining the children. They really loved his phone. One of the applications on his phone has filters for photos. When your face is in the screen, it will change it to look like you have dog ears, or a hat on your head, etc. He had quite a large group that would gather and act so surprised when they saw themselves with ears or whiskers. It was pretty funny.

We attended church in the Debre Zeit Branch that day. President Collings had a really neat experience. As he was sitting on the stand during sacrament meeting, he had already planned that he would teach a combined Priesthood and Relief Society lesson. He wanted to teach them that the Lord would bless them with their righteous desires, if they had faith and were doing what they were supposed to do. While he was sitting on the stand, he closed his eyes and said a silent prayer that people would just come to church right off the streets. He said he had no doubt in his mind that his prayer would be answered. As the meeting progressed, people would come into the chapel. By the end of the meeting, he leaned over to the counselor in the Branch Presidency, who was sitting next to him, and asked if any of the people who came in during the meeting were new. The counselor pointed out a couple of them who he hadn't seen before. They walked together to say hello. President Collings asked why they came to church today, and several of them said that they were walking by and just felt like they should come in. There were four who came in throughout the meetings.  He was able to introduce them to the missionaries, and then share this experience with the men and women in the combined Priesthood and Relief Society class. After that experience, 3 of the 4 who came were baptized. Truly a blessing! 

 We were also invited to have dinner with Yeshi. She is a sweet woman who is so kind to our missionaries. She has a daughter serving a mission right now. Although she doesn't speak any English, she is lively and happy, and always serving others. We had an amazing meal, and we were able to share a spiritual message with her and her family.

One of my favorite experiences that happened over the Christmas holiday was having President Collings' parents come to Uganda. We had a very busy schedule, with firesides in the mission branches, and interviews, and meetings, but we brought them along with us. They were able get a small taste of what we do here.

We stopped in Busia, Uganda and President Collings interviewed with some of the members. Then we went over to the home of the Branch President, President Ojiambo. It was so fun. He has 8 children. Six of them were there, along with a couple of grandchildren. It was fun to spend time with them. Grandma and Grandpa Collings loved interacting with them. 

I don't think he liked being placed between Grandma and Grandpa Collings

Yummy refreshments with President Ojiambo, President Okello, and Grandma and Grandpa Collings

President Ojiambo's family, and some of President Collings family.

President Ojiambo's home

When we left Busia Uganda, President Collings went with President Okello to our branch in Busia Kenya. He met with President Imende. We are so excited to be able to serve the people of this branch.

Dinner at the hotel

We weren't sure if we wanted to cross the border to Kenya for just a quick visit, so we went to Mbale and had dinner at the hotel while we waited for President Collings.

There are a group of saints in Mbale who walk very far to get to the branch for church. Many of them faithfully come even though it takes 1 to 1 1/2 hours to walk there. We decided to have a fireside in the area where they stay and just get a feel for how many are members of the church in that area. There was quite a large group. We really enjoyed spending time there and we were able to teach them, and share a beautiful experience beside the huts, under the mango  trees.

Picture of the Palissa group. Many of them walk an hour to church on Sunday. Very faithful men and women.

After our time in Mbale, we spent time in Lira. We have two mission branches in Lira Town, Lira  and Adyel. We had a fireside and spent time with each branch. It was wonderful to see the saints in this area of Uganda. Grandpa Collings wasn't feeling very well on that day, so Grandma Collings came with us while he stayed back at the hotel and got some rest.

Conner loves entertaining the kids!

Fireside in Lira Branch

We weren't able to get any pictures at the Adyel branch because it was late and very dark. After the firesides in both branches, we were invited to have dinner with the Branch President of Adyel, and his family. His wife just recently had their 6th child. It was so fun to be able to see her for the first time. We have visited a few times, but have never been able to meet President Oyet's entire family. What an amazing blessing.

Dinner was spectacular!

What an amazing family

We also took President Collings' parents to Masaka. The Masaka branch has really been growing, and it was time for it to be split. We received approval to split the Masaka branch and create the Kijjabwemi Branch. This was done on December 17th. The members were all so excited to be there and witness this special occasion. 

Masaka and Kijjabwemi Branches combined for a picture

Kijjabwemi Branch Presidency

Masaka Branch Presidency

Of course on the way back,  we needed to stop at the Equator to show President Collings' parents. We had such a wonderful time sharing this experience with them!

A Thanksgiving Feast

On Sunday, stakes and districts in parts of the Southeast Africa Area had a televised Stake Conference. My husband and I were really looking forward to it. It’s always nice to hear from some of the General officers of the church who are talking directly to members in our area.

We left early so we would be able to have plenty of time to park and find our seats. As we were driving to the Stake Center, which is just a couple of minutes away, we saw that every road around the church was blocked. Uganda had a marathon on Sunday morning, and it took place directly across the street from the church. A lot of people walk to church, or take a taxi, so they were just dropped off up the road a bit and were able to make it just fine. We, however were not able to drive the car anywhere near the church where we could park. We could have parked back at the mission home and then walked to church, but we were already driving, and we were concerned that the roads back to the mission home were too congested with cars and people. We finally decided to keep driving another 10-15 minutes and watch the Stake Conference broadcast at the South Stake Center instead.

We arrived in plenty of time, greeted our missionaries, and then found a seat towards the back of the room. (Many people had come early, which was nice.) As the meeting got started, we sang an opening hymn and had an opening prayer, and then they did some stake business. The stake presidency was supposed to take the first 30 minutes, which they did, and then turn on the broadcast. After President Kamya spoke, he said something...interesting. He said that as they had planned this meeting, they looked at the time wrong, and the broadcast was not going to start for another hour. They had decided to make a DVD of the broadcast which had aired earlier, but they were not finished with it yet. Then he said, “what a relief that we have our mission president and his wife here. They can come and speak to us, and when they are done, hopefully we will be able to have the broadcast...” WHAT? Haha. We literally had about 2 minutes notice to fill about 30 minutes of the meeting. It actually was fine, after being here on a mission for 1 1/2 years now... almost, I don’t get too surprised when I am asked to speak. But I must admit, I was shaking quite a bit as I stood up. I was able to have a clear mind, and my fears left as I started to speak, which was a blessing. President Collings always does really well, and after we spoke, they were able to start the broadcast. Haha.

Unfortunately, we had planned a pretty tight schedule for our day. After the broadcast, we had interviews with two of our missionary districts, a meeting with both stake presidents, and more interviews to take us to 7:30 pm. We hadn’t planned for the conference to go so long in the South Stake, and had to leave after the first talk because the missionaries in the North Stake were done and waiting for us at the mission home. Sometimes things don’t go exactly as planned.

Monday for preparation day we decided to have our Thanksgiving Dinner. We have not been able to find any really good turkey here in Uganda, so we decided to cook the next best thing... GOAT! It was such a fun day. We had the Assistants to the President come early and prepare the meat.

They put some in a stew, and fried the rest. They also made some rice and sauces. Our Sister Training Leaders brought rice, the Wittwers brought an incredible pumpkin dessert, Godfrey and his wife brought chapatis, Richard brought fruit, and we made mashed potatoes.

It was an amazing Thanksgiving Feast. We enjoyed spending time with everyone, and it felt like we started the holiday season off right. It was definately the most unusual Thanksgiving dinner we have ever had, but it tasted amazing, and was a blast. After we ate and people went home, about 16 missionaries came to the mission home for interviews. We had enough food left over to feed all of them as well, so it really felt like a true holiday. They were all so happy to have a meal, and spend time talking with President Collings.

We took some time on preparation day to take Conner to the Entebbe Zoo. We have been told that going on the "behind the scenes" tour is amazing. You know what, it's true!! What an amazing day we had!

This was right at the beginning of our experience. The animals are in their natural habitat, with several different animals living together. It was very nice.

We were taken right into the cheetah's cage, and took turns petting him. I was pretty nervous at first, but he was very docile. I'm pretty sure he was purring, but his purr sounded a lot like a growl. 

Next we got to get up close with the rhinos. There were two, a male and a female. We got to feed them, and pet them. We were just warned to stay away from the horn on their nose. It was amazing. 

Our next "hot spot" as the zoo keeper called it, was the leopard. He was not docile or sweet. He saw us coming and ran up to the cage where we were standing. We were given some raw meat to feed him, and WOW! It was shocking to feel his strength as he grabbed onto it with his claws and pulled the meat off the bone with his teeth. We each took turns feeding him, and it was pretty intimidating. 

I can't believe we fed a leopard, touched a rhino, pet a cheetah..... 

and played with a baby elephant!! This is Edward. He is an orphan who was found in Lake Albert. He is a sweetie! We really enjoyed feeding him and playing with him. So fun.

We got up close and personal with this giraffe. He loves to eat fresh vegetables, but does not like to be touched! The guide kept saying, "don't touch him." Do you see how close he is? How can we not touch him? Haha. 

And finally, a shoebilled stork. Very rare, and very unique looking. What surprised me the most was how soft his feathers were. He flew over the pond to us, and then would bow his head to greet us, and we were supposed to bow back to him, haha. He made this clicking sound with his bill. They say these birds are prehistoric. I would agree that they really LOOK prehistoric. It was such a fun day!

With Thanksgiving over, it was time to decorate the mission home for Christmas. We pulled out the Christmas tree and got it all set up, but I didn't feel much like decorating it. Good thing a have so many missionaries who are willing to help!! 

It really felt like a holiday with Steve and Conner watching a ballgame on the iPad, eating snacks, Christmas music playing, and setting up the Christmas tree. 

The lights on the tree were pretty depressing. Luckily the missionaries helped fix two strands of lights and hung all the ornaments on the tree. It ended up looking so nice. 

Each time a group of missionaries comes in they comment on how nice it is to see a real Christmas tree. (A real fake Christmas tree, haha.)

These missionaries continued serving after the decorations were up. They all pitched in and started slicing vegetables, and washing dishes for me. I feel so blessed to have so many helpful young men and young women around. 

Because of the Mission President's Seminar, we needed to combine our zone conferences. Although we had a lot of missionaries each day, we really had wonderful meetings. I was surprised with how well they all did in preparing for the meeting. There was a lot of participation, and we had an incredible time with each of the zones. 

Central  and South Zone Conference

North and Masaka Zone Conference

Jinja and Iganga Zone Conference

Ethiopia Zone Conference