I've learned that when I think, "I have this figured out..." there's always another lesson to be learned. This mission is teaching me to not take it personally, or let myself be crushed when things don't go exactly right, but instead try to see what it is I am expected to do differently and go to work. I have had a few trials that are reminding me of the beginning of my mission over 2 1/2 years ago. When I went through those trials then, I cried a lot, had a lot of "why me?" moments, and overall didn't handle them very well. I am actually seeing a change in myself, and it's pretty cool.
I find myself telling the missionaries a story about an amazing man, Chad Hymas, from the Tooele Valley, where we lived for 20 years. Here is a LINK to this story in his words. Basically he talks about lifting a one ton bale of hay, and how much easier it is if we cut the strings and take small portions of it at a time. This mission for me was like lifting a one ton bale of hay. No matter how hard I try, it's not possible for me to lift 2,000 pounds all at once on my own. But when I look at it differently, I can cut the strings and lift one piece of hay or one small handful of hay at a time, and over three years I absolutely can lift that one ton bale of hay. This story especially helps the new missionaries who just arrive in Uganda. Many times they say, "I can't see myself staying here for two full years." I talk to them about cutting the string, and take it one day at a time, or one hour and even one minute at a time. Then celebrate the little milestones in your mission as you reach them.
Our sweet Sister Training Leaders
That being said, I had one of those very difficult trials this week. I am responsible for keeping a history of the mission. I start it at the beginning of the year. I take pictures, and try to document all of the special and historical events we have. By the last day of March I submit the history to Southeast Africa Area and they forward it to Salt Lake. The history for 2018 was 99% finished. I was waiting for a couple of signatures from some of our branch presidents and then it was ready for submission. It was 250 pages long with a few pages written about each of our stakes, districts, and branches along with experiences we had with our missionaries: When the new Prophet, President Russel M Nelson was announced, when we moved to a new mission home, President Collings' experience with the Rotary Club in Kampala, the Branch Presidency Training we did at the mission home, etc.
On Friday, I found out the computer I was using in the mission office had a virus on it. I felt lucky because the Mission History file was stored on a flash drive, so I thought everything was okay. I moved from the computer at the mission office to a laptop computer. Suddenly that laptop started having the same problems, and we realized that the virus had moved from the computer to the flash drive to the laptop. Luckily I have an amazing office missionary, Elder Hyer, who was able to help wipe the virus off of all three devices. I was able to get back in and do some more work. On Monday I opened the file again on the flash drive and it wouldn't do anything. I called Elder Hyer who came over and looked at it again, and it turns out there was a second virus. All the files in the flash drive suffered a slow death over the weekend while I wasn't looking. I lost everything! Here's a lesson learned, keep a back up somewhere! I didn't have it saved anywhere else. I looked everywhere, but I had only saved it on the flash drive. My file went from 250 pages of history to nothing...
Here's where the 2,000 pound bale of hay comes into play. Instead of completely losing it and crying, "Why me?" I felt completely calm. I cried as I told Steve I had lost everything, but then just felt peace. We cleared my schedule and Steve gave me a blessing that I would be able to recall those things that I needed to, and I went to work. I'm not letting the thought of writing 250 pages in less than 20 days overwhelm me, I'm just taking it a page at a time. Can I just say, we have the most amazing missionaries?!? I had the Assistants to the President, Elder Rawlings and Elder Hall, come to the mission home, they said they had something to drop off.
They brought this fun note attached to 2 liters of Coke Zero. It was so funny, and thoughtful of them. I have had Elder Burnham, the other office missionary calling me to offer help and sending files of different things he finds for me to add to the History. I still have a lot to do, but as I said, I'm seeing a difference in the way I have reacted to this. If the Lord thinks I should do it again, I'll do it. I keep having that scripture come to mind: Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
We had mission leadership council on Friday. Missionaries from Rwanda, Ethiopia, Mbale, Gulu, and Masaka came in on Thursday and spent the night at the mission home. I always love it when they come. We really get to know the missionaries better when we spend that one on one time with them. Of course, President Collings loves running in the morning with any of the missionaries that will go with him. It's been such a fun blessing for him to be able to run while we have served here.
Elders Johnson, Ojakol, and Heath
Training was done by President Collings, myself, the office elders, and the Assistants to the President. We had a few role plays, and I really felt like the mission is in a great place when it comes to leadership.
It's amazing that we can fit 32 missionaries in one room comfortably. We had a couple of extra missionaries come into Kampala for work permits, doctor appointments, etc. It was nice to have them join our meeting.
Of course we had an amazing lunch after the meeting. Christine always makes such great food, and there is always plenty for the missionaries. They pile their plates high, and eat until they are full.
Sure do love these missionaries!
Here's another crazy trial we have had to deal with the last little while. I had been working in my kitchen one day. I always wear an apron as I cook or do dishes. I went upstairs and was sitting in the meeting room, and felt a "tickle" on my back. I reached back to scratch it, and there was a bug on my back! I quickly killed it and got rid of it when I had that same feeling again. Obviously, I was now just paranoid, right? Wrong! I reached back to scratch my back again, and had another bug! This happened three times! I had no idea where the bugs were coming from, so I ran in and shook out all of my clothes and took a shower. I couldn't see any more, but had no idea where they came from. Later that day, I went back into my kitchen and noticed one of those same bugs crawling on the counter top. They are just tiny round bugs with a hard shell, but they actually fly. As I looked around a little bit more, I saw that in my pantry there were a lot more. In fact, as I was looking, one of them flew straight in my eye. The apron I had been wearing earlier hangs in the pantry, and must have been crawling with bugs. I decided to go get the bug spray and just spray them all. As I really looked, there were tons of them throughout the whole pantry. In fact, they were in the boxes of cold cereal, and there were hundreds of them on the ceiling all around the light fixture. I decided not to worry about the food and just went crazy, spraying EVERYTHING! I even stood on a chair to get close to the bugs on the ceiling and sprayed and sprayed. Then I shut the door to the pantry.
The next morning, Christine came to the house to clean. I talked to her about the bugs in the pantry, and took her in to show her. I expected to have dead bugs all over the floor because I sprayed them all the night before, but there weren't any! The spray didn't do anything to them! These are SUPER BUGS!!! We had to take everything out of the pantry and of course throw away anything that had previously been opened because I went crazy with spraying them. Then Christine shook out all of the aprons and linens, and used a broom to kill or sweep out any of the bugs that were still in the pantry. They are mostly gone now. This was a lot like what happened to me at the beginning of my mission with a bug infestation in the mission home. I had a bit of a meltdown back then. I'm happy to say that I handled this incident much better than the one I had 2 1/2 years ago. But WOW! There are some tough bugs here!!
We had Stake Conference with the Kampala South Stake this weekend. I had another learning experience that I wanted to share. Elder Lono, the Area Seventy that was presiding at this conference, is from Congo. We received a phone call on Saturday before the Priesthood and Adult Sessions of conference. Elder Lono speaks French, and they were trying to find someone who could translate for him. We have several missionaries who are from Congo, but many of them are new, and although they understand French, they are still learning to communicate in English. We have one missionary from Congo, Elder Massissa, who has served here for quite a while, and he understands English and French very well. He has a small problem with stuttering, so as President Collings asked him if he would be willing to translate for the three sessions of Stake Conference, he was concerned that he would be too nervous in front of such a large congregation, and it would cause him to stutter too much, so he turned it down.
The Stake Presidency found two people who understand French and they felt like they would be able to translate for the meetings. It turned out that they understood French well, but didn't understand English very well. The person who translated just translated word for word. For those who know several languages, you know that if you translate word for word, the sentences end up being backward or jumbled up, and don't make sense. It was a struggle. By Sunday, they had decided that Elder Lono would just share his thoughts in his limited English. He kept his message short, but we felt his spirit, and his humility, and it was still a wonderful meeting.
When the meeting ended, we greeted many of the members of the stake. At one point, Elder Lono excitedly came up to us with Elder Massissa. He said that they were from the same town. He said he wished that this missionary had translated for him. President Collings just told him that we wish he could have done it too. It was a good learning experience for Elder Massissa, he just needed to trust the Lord and he would help him. I know he would have done it just fine.
Elder Lono, Elder Rasi, and Elder Massissa
Back to the Stake Conference. They had a choir sing, and it was absolutely the most beautiful singing I have heard since I arrived in Uganda. They were incredible! We are able to feel how well a congregation is doing just by the actions of the members in that congregation. In this stake conference, the people were so reverent. You didn't even hear children cry. But then as they sang the songs, they sang with their whole heart and soul. I felt the spirit so strongly as each speaker got up. I felt so blessed during this whole meeting. It was truly an edifying experience.
My favorite person!
This stake has been without a complete stake presidency for a while now. Both of the previous stake presidency counselors have moved out of the country. When Elder Stevenson was in Uganda a couple of weeks ago, they called a first counselor. During this stake conference, they called a second counselor. Now the stake has a complete stake presidency. Fredrick M Kamya, President, Silvester A Kilama, First Counselor, Christopher Kalebala, Second Counselor.
I love this picture!
President Collings, the new Stake Presidency, Elder Lono, and the Stake Patriarch, Brother Balyejusa
As we spoke with Elder Lono after Stake Conference, he told us he has been called as a mission president. He will begin serving in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mbuji-Mayi Mission. It was so fun to get to know him a little bit better. I found his picture online.
Democratic Republic of the Congo Mbuji-Mayi Mission
W. Jean-Pierre Lono, 59, and Angel Lono, nine children, Kingasani 6th Ward, Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Kimbanseke Stake: Democratic Republic of the Congo Mbuji-Mayi Mission, succeeding President Alfred Kyungu and Sister Lucie Kyungu. Brother Lono is an Area Seventy and a former stake president, stake presidency counselor, high councilor, branch president, branch presidency counselor, and branch clerk. He was born in Katanga, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Sankuru originally), to Longandja Ohonge Pierre and Dikondja Walo Juliènne. Sister Lono is a Relief Society teacher and a former ward Relief Society and Young Women president and branch Relief Society teacher. She was born in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, to Mfuni Raphael Muzenga and Ntumba Jeanne Kashala.
Finally, I wanted to share a story of our friend Jackson. We met him several months ago.We had seen his artwork, which is amazing, and when we met him, he shared his story with us. We asked him to make us something to remember our mission. When he asked what we would like, we just told him to surprise us, but on the back we asked if he would please write down his story. With his permission, I'd like to share it with you.
"My name is Mokoto Jackson Jeke I was born on 24 April 1996 to Rex Abdallah and Mariam Killa Manoah originally a South Sudanese but I spent most of my life in Uganda from childhood up to adulthood due to education and also political stability back home in South Sudan.When I was done with my junior high school I was left wondering how life would be after. By then I was a year and some months in the church and I was called to be the young men president. Life wasn't easy that year for me and I was almost off school but miracles happened I was able to finish my junior high school. So during the vacation of my junior high school, Elder Hamilton of the seventy visited us at our ward (Mengo Ward Uganda Kampala South Stake). He emphasized on the importance of paying tithing. I was excited about its blessing. Despite paying tithing from the money that I get from my friends and family, I felt I needed to improve and be better at keeping the commandment of tithe. I felt I had no job but all I wanted was to become independent and be self-reliant. So a week later I was home seated on my bed thinking of what I can do for myself to earn something for sustainability. That very morning I told my sister to send me some money because I was broke. Luckily enough she was able to send me 10,000 Ugandan Shillings (about 3-4 dollars). I was wondering what I could do with the money. I had lots of suggestions.
- If I am to buy a T shirt it would be done and still I will remain broke
- I thought of using it slowly and carefully but still 2 to 3 days it would be done and I will still remain broke.
So immediately something miraculous happened to me, I felt something different, then I heard a still small voice instructing me and said, "Jackson wake up and stand on your feet and go to the carpenter and order four boards (plywood) and go to the market and buy beads and start this work right away." I was like, "what is happening to me?" Again and again the same voice instructed me to do the same thing I had previously heard.
So I stood up and walked towards the dining in our house and still the same voice instructed me. I then walked out the gate to the carpenter and told him to cut for me plywood (boards) according to the sizes I told him. I then remembered Nephi's experience in the scriptures, "And I was led by the spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do."
After two weeks, one of the sisters in our ward, Sister Nancy Atieno told me, "Jackson, do you mind selling some of your art pieces to me because I am shifting to a new apartment and I want new things there." I was out of words and this reminded me of Nephi's experience, "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded for I know the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them."
I was glad that the Lord was able to show me the direction and give me a vision about my future. I testify that we have a loving Father in Heaven who cares about each one of us, He wants to hear from us and He wants to hear from us and He wants to provide for us but He expects us to show faith in Him. He is our Father and He is mindful of our righteous desires to follow Him and his son Jesus Christ and keep his commandments. I know the Book of Mormon is written for our day. Nephi's experience related to mine. And this I say in the Name of Jesus Christ, AMEN."
Jackson is preparing to serve a mission, and will be putting in his mission papers very soon. What an amazing example to others! Here is a LINK to his art in Instagram. Enjoy! Maybe he can make something for you too!We have been so blessed to get to know so many wonderful people here in the Uganda Kampala Mission. I love being able to keep these memories and share them with others.
