Much to be Thankful for

Wow, what a whirlwind of a week! Transfer weeks are always busy, but this was extra busy! I just have to say... I say this every 6 weeks... it's SO HARD to say goodbye!!! We have such amazing missionaries and I hate to see them go!! All of these elders served in two countries. Three of them served in Uganda and Ethiopia, and two of them served in Uganda and Rwanda. They have been stalwart missionaries and can go home with their heads held high. We are so grateful for their service and wish them all the best in all that they do. 

Moncur, Neff, Mukaro, Chandler, Richardson

Departing missionaries with the AP's and us.

We had a farewell dinner at the mission home, but then decided to treat the missionaries to a nice dessert before they got to the airport. We leave early because sometimes traffic is so bad that we don't want to be late.  There's a nice place we can stop if there is time, and on this evening we had plenty of time before the missionaries were supposed to fly out. 

Four of the five departing missionaries are from the United States, but we only took two to the airport because one was leaving to Zimbabwe the next morning...

 ...and two of them had their parents come to Uganda to pick them up.

It was so fun to meet Brother and Sister Richardson, 

 and Brother and Sister Chandler and their daughter Mesi. 

We really enjoyed spending a little bit of time with each of these families. They will be touring around the mission for a little while before they return home with their missionaries. I think they will enjoy their time here. 

The missionaries usually depart on Tuesday night or very early Wednesday morning, and while we are at the airport dropping them off, missionaries from Johannesburg MTC are arriving. After sending 5 missionaries home, we welcomed 10 new missionaries from Johannesburg MTC, 3 new missionaries from Ghana MTC, and 2 new missionaries from New Zealand MTC. 

FIFTEEN new missionaries! 

What an exciting time it is.There are a lot of emotions as we bring these new missionaries to the mission home. Some are extremely excited, some are a little bit nervous, some are full of energy and just want to go to work, some haven't slept in many hours and are exhausted. 

We are so grateful to have them all here. We can't wait to get to know them better. We spent time with orientation, work permits, and had a devotional and testimony meeting. We had three Polynesian missionaries staying at the mission home. Two new and one who will be transferring to Rwanda. As part of their morning work out, President Collings asked if they would teach the missionaries a HAKKA. It's what they do when preparing to go to battle. We decided it would be like preparing to fight against the Adversary as missionaries. I'll say this... Elder Moller scared me a little bit. He is usually so quiet and sweet. He led the Hakka, and was pretty intimidating! I'll attach the video below.

Then on Thursday (Thanksgiving) they went to their new apartments and met their new companions. It was a very busy day with missionaries traveling all over Uganda and flying to Ethiopia and Rwanda. It didn't feel much like Thanksgiving, but it was a very good day and week.

President Collings and I decided to celebrate Thanksgiving on Sunday evening. We invited the Mission Presidency and their wives along with our friends Godfrey and Beatrice. They all brought food with them and we had such a FEAST! We had beef, pork, and goat, along with potatoes, chapati, and matooke. We also had some veggies, salad, and dessert. It was a different kind of Thanksgiving Dinner, but wonderful feelings, wonderful friends, and plenty of food. We can't complain at all. We are so blessed!

After Thanksgiving, it's time to set up the home for Christmas, right? So we spent Monday setting up the Christmas tree with Christmas music playing in the background. I realized when the song "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" started to play on the radio, that I was starting to sweat and had to turn on the air conditioning. The thoughts of sitting in front of a fire seems so funny when it's 85 degrees outside. All part of the Ugandan experience! We love it!

Looking forward to a wonderful Christmas Season.