Prayer is so, so wonderful!

Three weeks in and there is already a mighty change of heart. Blessings come to those who lose their life in the service of others. 

Hey everyone,

This week really flew by! I am back on the jammed keyboard so sorry again for typos... I am amazed, I feel like I just emailed yesterday! I am really loosing myself in the work and noticing a big difference in my attitude towards my mission and the people! I am finally feeling like I want to be here! I look forward to busy days and good meals now, it feels great! Don't get me wrong, I still have my days, or moments where I get down in the dumps or wish I was at Del Taco with friends or grocery shopping with mom and dad, but overall I am improving. I thank everyone for the thoughts and prayers on my behalf, I can really feel the answers and blessings! Thank you thank you.

So, a few things... Dad, I really loved your BYU Devotional talk. I have listened to it 3 times now and will listen to it plenty more! I loved it so much and agree with everything you said. I haven't realized the importance of the companionship of the Holy Ghost until the mission. Now, I pray for it about 50 times a day, haha. Cafe Javas is THE BEST!!! Its american food. Sadly, it is about 10x the price of any other meal, so I cant eat it often. Tell your friend Dan that I will think of things to include as he comes and I look forward to the day! That will be so so awesome. Tell Jeremy Severe that they only have 4 or 6 missionaries in Ethiopia now. They are having some war problems and closing many areas. They might even close the country. They are sending way more into Rwanda now. Rwanda is known as the promise land in our mission cause I guess its like Uganda but way cleaner, safer, better food, nice apartments, less people and more to baptize! I hope to go there one day.

Mom, you continue to comfort me with your emails! I love the updates on friends and family. I am doing much better. I miss my friends! Tell Austen I say good luck and to write me while he is out! I think you mail packages to the mission office and then my Zone Leaders pick them up weekly and take them to me. So mail them there I believe. Tell Brother Vaughan I say hey! And that there are a billion cool land cruisers here and I think of him every time I see one. He would love them. Also, I just barely got your letter you wrote to me in the MTC! Hahaha, I'm not sure what happened but thank you for it!! I love hand written letters!

Thanks to the rest of the family for writing me! It may not seem that big to you but it makes my week! Your letters are so awesome and I love reading about how you are doing! Keep them up! I love all of you so much and think about you every day!

Oh, by the way. My area is called Makindye but my companion and I teach in Masajja, Najjanankumbi and Endejje. So look there. That is our area.

So, I will summarize the week now:

Monday: After emailing we went to FHE and had a really good lesson on taking Christs Yoke upon us. It was really neat! I wish I could go into detail. Then my companion was feeling sick so we went home and got to bed early. I started Jesus the Christ that night by James E. Talmage and it is consuming me. I love it a lot right now.

Tuesday: We went to the mission home early for a training that was extremely powerful. We just talked about things we need to do and get in the habit of as new missionaries and I learned a lot. We got a new A.P., Elder Schweitzer and he is a great, great, missionary. He taught us some great things. We had some good food at the mission home and then I went home. I was happy to see all of my MTC brothers. I love them. Once home, we taught a member a small lesson and went grocery shopping very quick then went to bed.
'

Wednesday: I started running in the morning. I dread morning work outs but running helps me to wake up fast so that I am alert during studies. So I run in the mornings now.We had a District Development Meeting and talked about improving the area. Then I ate a PB&J for lunch. Really a few because I eat SO MUCH on the mission now. You'd be shocked what it takes to fill me out here. After we met with Brother Jerrad, a member, and went out to teach a few lessons. It was a pretty successful night. We found a man named Rammy from Rwanda who just moved here. He speaks french so Jerrad helped us translate. He is loving our teaching. We got him a french Book of Mormon and he said "give me one week to read this, thank you" haha. So we are moving quickly with him!

Thursday: We had a zone leader exchange this day. It was really cool. Our zone leaders came to our district and each went with a companionship. So we got Elder Chifamba. He is from Zimbabwe and is a really powerful missionary. I learned so much from him on not being hesitant to talk to anyone! That day we got 13 referrals from contacting. It was crazy. I tried Pilau for lunch and it was super duper good. Look it up. I have had it twice since. I was a bit homesick in the morning but I have noticed that I am homesick almost every morning and then not at all by night time. That is usually how it goes.

Friday: A really normal day in the mission. Not much extra happened. We taught many lessons and also got rejected a few times. Appointments fell through and others came up.

Saturday: It was a good day. From Saturday, I started to really feel like this lifestyle is normal. I feel at home here now and the work is getting to be normal. It is a good feeling. We got rained in at the apartment for a good 2 hours. Sometimes it is annoying but other times it is nice. I was tired and so I read some of my books and then we went out when the rain stopped. On the way to one appointment we saw a woman lifting some barrels and so we helped her. After, a kind man saw us helping and bought is waters. It was really nice and made my day. I love service on the mission!

Sunday: Church was good. I enjoy church here because it is so different. We had a good discussion on the Abrahamic Covenant. After, we got some lunch and then started a two and a half hour walk to a dinner appointment on the far side of Endejje. Man, it was looooong. On the way home we got a taxi. I paid for my companion and myself. After about a minute, the taxi started making a funky noise so my companion started freaking out and made us get out. Then we were about a 2 hour walk from home and had no money. So we walked. 

Monday: Today we deep cleaned the apartment. It is much nicer now. And then we got some Pilau for lunch and now I am here!

So, all around it was a really good week. Our numbers boosted this week in all categories too. The hard work paid off in many ways.

So, this week I wanted to briefly talk about prayer. Prayer is the most powerful tool we have. And we all are capable of it! It is literally a direct communication with God. You are crazy if you don't take advantage of such a powerful tool! It can help you in any way you can think of. Pray for blessings, help, comfort, gratitude, anything! I have come to realize that God truly answers my prayers. Each and every prayer I have presented to him has been answered. As I pray more seriously on one topic, I feel comfort and help there. And as I change to another topic, I see the same results. Prayer is so, so wonderful! It has helped me more than anything else on this mission and I invite every one of you to get in to the habit of regular prayer. You would be a fool to put such a thing on the shelf.

So, that is it for the week! I am really happy that I am doing better. The mission is getting better for me every day. I look forward to the next 2 years! I love all of you and thank you for everything you are doing to help me! See you in no time.

Until next week.

Love,

Elder McLain