Once we moved our things out of the mission home, President Collings and I stayed in a hotel for a few days. They moved all of our furniture, and then covered it and went to work! The air conditioning units were taken from each room in the old mission home and moved to the new mission home. To hang the new units requires making holes in the walls to the outside of the house. The walls of the house are all cement and brick that is about 6 inches thick. So there was drilling and hammering and chiseling, and every other noisy tool you can think of to make the holes in the walls in each of the rooms to hang the AC units. This obviously caused a lot of dust and dirt in the house. They also hung fire extinguishers, smoke alarms, and even the nice artwork on the walls. Then people came in and deep cleaned the entire house because we were supposed to have a house full of missionaries for MLC. We spent the weekend in the new mission home and then traveled to Cape Town for the mission presidents seminar. While we were gone, they worked on the house again. The furniture was sanded and re-stained and varnished, rugs and new furniture were purchased, the curtains were replaced, the entire house was painted inside, and the generator was moved from the old mission home to the new one. While we were in Ethiopia, the landscaping has been updated, and the wall around the compound is being stuccoed. This home is just perfect, and we are so happy with all the work that has been done.
Living room
Kitchen
Sitting area
Bunk room (we are adding one more set of bunk beds)
Office
Stairway
Stairway
Another sitting area
Second bunk room
We call this our conference room where we will have zone conferences and mission leadership council meetings.
I put this in the last post, but here is the outside of the house.
The person behind all the work on this house is Jimmy Okot. He is the Facilities Manager for the church here in Uganda. He has been so amazing, and has really taken such good care of us! This will be one of his last projects. He leaves at the end of June to the Provo MTC for the training for new Mission Presidents. He is the new mission president for the Zimbabwe Bweyogerere Mission. He and Sister Okot will be amazing, but we will surely miss them here in Uganda.
Mission Leadership Council at the new mission home was so great! We had zone leaders and sister training leaders come in from all over Uganda, Rwanda, and Ethiopia. Those coming in form the outer countries and zones stayed at the mission home. We had a full house, but it was a lot of fun too. As we were starting the meeting, the power went out in the mission home. As you look at the timeline above, we didn't get the generator at the mission home until the week after MLC. We assumed that it would just be out for an hour or two, but it lasted the whole day. What I loved about it was that there was so much outside light, and a large sliding door that we could open. There was a nice breeze blowing through the room for the whole meeting. We had an open discussion with the mission leadership, and tried to see what concerns they have in their areas with the missionaries. President Collings focused his remarks on the difference between ministering and administering. Both are important, but we need to really focus on ministering the way the Savior did because that is the way we will see success as missionaries. We also talked about the importance of administering, such as filling out baptismal records, sticking to the daily schedule, being on time for meetings. If we are administering properly, we will be more successful ministers. I talked about our culture as a mission, and had an open discussion with them on what we need to work on. They talked about 4 or 5 areas where we can improve, and they will focus on those improvements during their upcoming zone conferences. The Assistants to the President had training on using the Book of Mormon more effectively, and on being obedient to the White Handbook. They asked questions and got clarification on some of the rules that the missionaries may be confused about. All in all, it was a great day! We have amazing missionaries. I can't say that enough.
Set up for the meeting
Amazing how many cars we can fit in the compound
11 cars with room to spare!
Lunch during MLC
Lately Christine has been making all the meals for MLC and Zone Conferences. I don't know what I would do without her! Jackie has been right there to help me whenever I need it!
Some of the missionaries who stayed at the mission home. I had them make their own dinner.
I'm getting a little bit lazy about cooking...
Someone got a package from home!
I forgot to say, the power came on at about 10:00 at night. We were so happy to be able to see for about 30 minutes before retiring to bed. I am not very good with lighted candles. There are wax drippings all over my house. The next morning at about 10:00 am, the power went out again! Again it stayed out all day long. This time as it got dark, we noticed that all of the neighbors had power, but we did not. I remembered looking at the box where the main line comes into the house. It was pretty scary looking. I decided to go outside and see if there was a problem with the main line. Sure enough, this is what I found...
Can you see where the fuse is completely fried?
Cape Town was amazing! We didn't really do the tourist thing, we just went and enjoyed the spiritual feast that was placed before us! Elder Brent Nelson who is over the missionary department, joined us for the seminar. It was so amazing to get some insight from him about missionary work, and where he sees it going in the coming years. I left there just excited to be a missionary! So grateful we have one more year to serve the people in our mission, but it feels like there is not enough time to accomplish all we want to do. We also heard from the Southeast Africa Area Presidency and their wives. Elder Hamilton, the area president has been reassigned, and will be leaving Africa in July. We have had so many wonderful experiences with him and his wife. It is hard to see them go. We are just grateful for the time we were able to spend with them. Elder Palmer, who is the first counselor, has been called as the Southeast Africa Area President, and we are very excited to continue working with him and Elder Koch, who has been serving as the second counselor. The newest addition to the Area Presidency is Elder Sitati. We have not had a chance to work with him yet, and are so excited to get to know Elder and Sister Sitati in the coming year.
Here's a fun side note. During our travels to South Africa, we stopped in Zambia. That means I have been in six African countries. There are only 48 countries in Africa I haven't seen, hahaha. We have been to Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Burundi, Zambia, and South Africa. So far, they are all my favorite!
Our next stop on our mission journey was Ethiopia. It was a very short visit, but we really felt like we accomplished a lot. When we arrived, there were quite a few temple recommend interviews for President Collings. The branches in Ethiopia are planning a trip to the temple in June or July, which is such a wonderful blessing. There are 20 people who are preparing to go, including several families who will be sealed together.
We also have Sister Helena, who was set apart by President Collings, and sent to the MTC. She will be serving her mission in Manchester England. She is a very strong member of the church here, and will bless the lives of many people as she shares the Gospel.
We also had zone conference with our missionaries in Ethiopia. We have had some struggles getting work permits for our missionaries to go to Ethiopia. There were some who we sent a couple of transfers ago, and after their temporary visas expired, we had to bring them back to Uganda. There are some who are working there now whose work permits are close to expiring, and if we can't figure out this latest issue, they will have to return to Uganda as well. Right now there are only 6 missionaries serving there. They are amazing, and have such a positive attitude. We would like to see double or triple that number, and are working very hard to authenticate the appropriate documents so we can send in a new force of missionaries. In the mean time, we have a stalwart group of missionaries moving the work forward. They are still seeing success, and we feel very blessed that the Lord is helping them progress.
We appreciate the VanDerzees, they are the new MLS/ Office couple in Ethiopia, and they have been wonderful. They help watch over the missionaries, deal with the monotonous work of paying the bills, and help with meals for zone conferences, along with strengthening the members in the branches, and working with the missionaries. This zone conference, Sister VanDerzee made tacos, with all the fixins. She also made fried ice cream (which we haven't had in a year) and strawberry shortcake. YUM!
This is just a memory I am writing for myself. Driving home from the airport, which is only about 40 Kilometers, takes us forever! We arrive in Entebbe from Ethiopia, usually around 6:00pm. I guess that's rush hour, but honestly, every hour is bad traffic in Uganda. When we arrive at 6:00, we get home at around 8:00 or 8:30pm. This trip was our first time driving from the airport directly to the new mission home. The new mission home is actually further away from the airport, and we have been concerned about the time it will take to get home. Well, this day driving home was FANTASTIC!! They just built a new toll road to the airport. It's not officially open yet, and they aren't taking tolls yet, but they are allowing traffic to start using the road. There's also a road called the Northern Bypass. That's been around for some time, but it doesn't work to try and use it when we are coming from the airport. Well, the toll road connects to the Northern Bypass, and as we were traveling from the airport to our new mission home, we decided to take the new toll road, and the Northern Bypass. It took us 35 minutes to get to the new mission home! We were completely and happily surprised! It felt like driving in the United States. We were actually driving about 100 KM/ hour. Anyway, I know it doesn't mean much to most people reading this, but it was a day I don't want to forget.
There has been a man who has been talking online with President Collings. His name is Richard Stahle. He has been sharing the Gospel online, and has had a lot of the people he has shared the Gospel with, get baptized. Well, this week he traveled to Uganda to meet some of the people he has taught, and to baptize many of them. He had done a great job of involving our missionaries, and the online missionaries at Temple Square. While he was here in Kampala, he wanted to meet with President Collings. We thought it would be nice to have a dinner with him, and just understand more how he is doing this wonderful missionary work. When we met, he brought several of the people who have been or will be baptized while he is here visiting. This is just a great example of how anyone can share the gospel. It's easy to talk about those things you know are true, and testify to others. How wonderful that he was able to save his money and come to perform some baptisms for those he has been sharing with.
Emmanuel, who is a return missionary, helping Brother Stahle around Uganda.
We had a combined zone conference this week with the North, South, and Gulu Zones. We start out with training from myself and President Collings, and then we have a lunch with the entire group. After lunch, we divide into the zones, and each zone is taught by their zone leaders. We have one of the AP's and myself in each training, and President Collings will rotate through each one to get as much insight into each zone as he can. We have really enjoyed doing it this way. I sat in the training with the Gulu Zone. At the end, I asked them if they liked having it combined, or if they preferred to have their own separate conference. They said that they love the interaction with the other zones, and when they are in the combined meeting, they hear ideas from other zones that can really help them.
On a positive note, I remembered pictures! Last transfer, I kept forgetting to take pictures at the zone conferences. This is a great group of young men and young women!
