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
