Hello!!
Man it has been a crazy few weeks and I haven't emailed in so long! I am doing okay though. First things, most of the keys on this keyboard are jammed and I am emailing out of a tiny shack so I'm sorry for typos.
The last week in the MTC was good! It got old in there though and I was eager to get out to Uganda! I am sorry if my email is scattered thoughts but so much has happened and I am just going to spit it all out.
Dad! Your emails are the best!! I love updates from home. It makes me feel normal and close to you guys. Tell your friend who wrote me about the mission thank you! I dont have time to write him but I read his email and it will definitely help!
Mom! Boy I miss you so much! I miss all of you so much I cant believe it. Homesickness is a really serious thing! I love all of your tiny letters to me. It almost feels like texting so keep doing it! Remember I write this time every Monday so be ready for me! I know its early for you but if you can be on you should! Thanks for keeping me updated and getting those few things. Love you!
Caitlin, Nate and Ruby! I miss you guys a ton!!! You'd be surprised how much I think about you guys! Chicago was the funnest trip and I am so glad I went before I left! Tell Ruby hi for me!! And Nate too! I'm repping the Cubs hat here is Uganda haha <3
Reeg! How was your trip to Chicago?? Seemed fun! Mom showed me some pics. I loved it so much and hope you did too! I miss you and hope you are having a good time working and making fattt stacks $$ Keep me updated on your life and tell me if you get married haha!
Tab! Dude I miss you! More than everyone else (No offense everyone) Man whenever the mission gets tough I just think about yours and how you did it and it helps me! I'll be honest, State side seems so sick! Uganda is hard because I eat rice every day and it gets old and its hot and I walk on dirt trails all day. And cant understand anyone cause my first area is all Congolese people that speak Swahili or French or Luganda. Man I miss our cars! Tell me about yours! and keep me updated if anything new comes on mine. Love you man!
Rorie! I heard you rocked the world this term in school!!!!! That is so good! Keep it up because trust me now I am realizing that school was easy! Just keep on top of the work and its easy! Keep me updated on my friends and stuff! <3
Well, tell G-Pa and G-Ma congrats on the move and I hope they love it! And thanks for taking care of my child while I'm gone! (Car) You can throw my wheels in the backseat too to get them out of the way. And tell G-Sharon I miss her too.
Well well well I am sure youve been itching to hear about Uganda! It is a CRAZY place! When I first got here we hopped off the plane and had to walk across the tarmac to get to the airport. It was funny. Right as we got in we got chewed out by a cop but couldnt understand him. He eventually said we could go. President and Sister Collings got us from the airport. President is the BEST! I love him very much and am so glad I get him for 2 years. He took us to the mission home and it was stinkin nice!! Nice home. After a meal and talking we stayed the night in Ntinda (area and apartment by the mission home) and it was transfer night so everyone was there and it was a mad house.
We got up the next day and went to... PIZZAHUT for lunch hahahah! it was so good. They serve it with chips (fries) too which is funny. I loved it. They were playing goood music there too so I jammed while I ate. Then I went to my new area, Makindye and met my complanion. His name is Elder Ndamane. He is such a humble and good trainer from South Africa. I love him. He is hilarious but knows when to be serious and work. It is a good balance. He loves me too and we get along perfectly. We are in an apartment with two other elders. Elder Nambale from Uganda village and Elder Boakye from Ghana. They are all 23 so Im jsut this young white guy who cant understand any of them even when they speak english so its funny. Ugandans are terrible at speaking english but I am already getting better at listening.
Makindye is about 20 minutes from downtown Kampala. It is said to be a nicer area but man the people are so poor. It is really sad to see. The children are skinny and sleep on cement and every home is a small cement home with one or maybe two rooms. Dad, its sad to say but addresses really dont exist here. the best I could tell you is that we walk Salama (i think) road a lot and our house is on the opposite side of the city from the road. We live near the LDS church which is next to Calenda Hotel. Try that. I'll send a picture of our road and drive way next week for you to google maps it. Our house is fully cement, even floors and has 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, small living room and a kitchen. We use the kitchen for our laundry room too. It is weird living in something like it. The shower is awful but when everyone found out my area they said it had the best showers in the mission hahaha. So we will see how that goes. Also, there are always monkeys around our apartment just walking around and climbing on our roof.
Most everyone in Makindye is a Congolese or Sudanese refugee. They tend to colonize together too so each area has different races. there are some Eritreans too. Most everyone speaks french or swahili and not many speak english. My companion knows some Swahili and Luganda so he can mainly talk to people. Its hard though for me because I cant teach much and when I can it would be the equivalent of teaching Ruby about the restoration lol. I have picked up a little Luganda and Swahili and my companion teaches me new things every day.
My first few days were really hard. Homesickness smacked me like a brick. It was so tough. I miss everyone so much! And I just miss the ease of living in Provo. Here, you have to think before even breathing to make sure its safe. It's hard!
One of the first days we did service for the bishops wife by filling these yellow jugs full of water from the spout in a village and took it to her. Just like the jugs and job from Queen of Katwe! Exactly like it. That was cool. I'll send a picture of it.
There are so many dogs here but they treat them like crap and always hit them and stuff. They are all starving and have tons of disease. Some dont have hair and others are swollen in the face and stuff. It makes me miss Indie a ton!!
The food here is super weird. Chicken is expensive ($1.50 for a meal) but they eat rolex and chipati and Kikomando a ton. I have had them but I am not used to them and they usually make me sick. Not to be gross but Ive thrown up twice and had diarrhea since I got here. :( I drink lots of water and soda is like 30 cents for a 500ml bottle so I drink that a lot. I eat plain cornflakes for breakfast every day and sometimes dinner too. Lunch I usually eat rice and beans. My companions say I eat the amount a child eats haha.
We have had some good lessons since I got here. My companion said numbers boosted when I got here so thats good! I think its because people just want to talk to a white guy haah. We have taught like 5 first lessons and invited 2 to baptism so far. I have one cool story:
So the first thing my companion told me when we got here was that this area is hard. He said that most everyone is a Congolese refugee and dont speak english and most dont like white people either. Except the kids. They love me but I'll talk about that in a minute. So the first day we went to visit a recent convert named Albert. Albert is a good man but my companion said he is struggling and can really get mad at the missionaries at times. Sadly too, Ndamanes old companion was the only one he got along with. Albert mentioned his dislike of white people and so we were worried that I wouldnt be welcome there. We have his daughter translate from either swahili or french to english when we teach too. Her english isnt good so its hard to teach him. Anyways, we prayed a lot that things would work out when we got there and when we got there, Albert came out with a HUGE smile on his face and hugged me and said "You are welcome here elder allen" (by the way no one can pronounce McLain... No one) and we were so grateful and happy that he liked me! Like I said, he is tired of missionaries and doesnt like white people so this really was a miracle. We have taught him 2 powerful lessons and got him to church
on sunday. He paid tithing even though his wife and 5 children live in a cement block. I am already tight with him and love him so much!
On the way home from our last lesson with Albert we saw a possessed women freak out and fall over stiff and a ton of people gathered around to help her. They said she practices that stuff a lot but we just kept watching. Crazy.
Our area is big. We teach one guy who lives 2 hours walking from us. So some people take about 4.5 hours to see because 2 hours to walk there, 30 minutes to teach and 2 hours to walk home. It is tough in this heat too!! If people knew what we sacrificed to teach them one lesson I think they would be more willing. Luckily, almost anyone will let you introduce yourself and who you are and even let you teach a quick first lesson. Its cool.
Mom! If you send packages, no matter the price of the contents, declare the value at no more than $45 if its worth more. Also, dont worry about sending a flashdrive anymore. I can get one here. They said that anything over is a huge charge for me to pick up or something. They also said its a good chance I could skype on christmas! For Christmas, send whatever you want but I wanna send stuff home to you! I can get some cool stuff here. Everything here is really cheap. We get 90,000 UGX per week which is like almost $30 to live off of.
I think a lot about Tabs mission for some reason and how different yet similar it would be to be state side. Some convenience living would be nice. It gets old eating plain rice and beans every day.
Things I miss:
Normal food and fast food.
Family of course and friends.
downtime
A bed that fits
White people. I saw my first white person today actually. First in a week!
Golfing and Skating
Elder Carlson from the MTC is the man!! I will for sure be his friend when he comes home and goes to UVU.
Church was super interesting yesterday. Sacrament was in Luganda and some English.
Sunday School was in Swahili and Priesthood was in a language I had no idea. So I just did a lot of reading honestly.
Mom, we are teaching a really powerful man named Joshep Ntensib who is a painter. He paints while we teach him and right now he is working on a massive piece for some Colorado art exhibit. His art is SO COOL!!! He donates most of his earnings to underprivileged children too and lives out of a cement/mud hut. He is an amazing man. Look his work up. I told him I'd tell you. He lives about a 5 minute walk from my home.
To answer a few questions:
What have you enjoyed most? Probably having a good trainer. I am so glad I got a good companion to start. I have also enjoyed the way I feel when teaching someone and you can tell they enjoy it. And soda. Most challenging thing? Homesickness most definitely. It has hit me hard this first week. I didnt ever think I could miss home so much. If I could do my last year over again I wouldve spent every minute with the family. Food has also been a challenge. Everything is weird and Im on a tight budget. The good food is expensive. How is the food? Bland. Most food is bland and makes me feel sick. I think I talked about it earlier too. And everything is cooked out of a gross grease stand.
Dad, I really liked your thought in your last email. It is very very true. My body is exhausted every day but my heart keeps me going. Missionary work is so satisfying and thats what keeps me going. My heart leads and my body follows. No question. Thank you for that!
Spiritual Thought: Elder Bednar once said in a talk, "There is no such thing as coincidence when you are on the Lords errand." That is so true. Every person I meet and talk to is meeting us for a reason. We are impacting everyone whether big or small. No part of a missionaries day is by coincidence.
Well I hope this email makes up for missing the last two weeks! I am so grateful to be here. I can feel a huge change in my life and I love it. I love all of you. I miss you family and friends and Utah.
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