That was the greatest Christmas.....possibly the best ever!

How is it that you can love a place you've never been and people you've never met? That's exactly how I feel right now. I am seeing this mighty change in my son and it fills my heart with great joy. I know that it is because of what he is doing, where he is at, and who he is serving. I also know that he is being blessed beyond measure. What a privilege it is to be in the service of God and to teach and testify of His son Jesus Christ. I give thanks for this season to celebrate His birth and for the opportunity to see my son serve and watch him grow each day. My cup truly runneth over. Merry Christmas!


Merry day after Christmas!

I had such an awesome Christmas this year!  Getting to skype my family was super duper great! It was bitter sweet to see you guys and made my Christmas so wonderful. You all look so good! But super pale hahaha! I felt overwhelming joy when I saw all of your faces and was so happy to call home. Like you, that was the greatest Christmas present. To me, possibly the best ever. I loved it so much. It truly helped me to overcome my homesickness even more and be super happy. I thought it would have an opposite effect and cause my homesickness to come back, but it didn't! I gave thanks to my Father in Heaven for such a chance to see you. I hope I get to do it again! I love being on the mission and serving others during this time. My family is doing well but I am doing the best!

I will be honest, my update today will be super short. I am exhausted and already talked to my family. And my keyboard is the crappiest thing on earth and is breaking my hands to type on it. 

Christmas day was super sweet! After talking to the family we had our first baptisms in the area for a long time and my first baptisms as a missionary! Ruth, John, William and Nora were all baptized. It was so cool to see how happy they were. To see someone's life take a turn for the best because of my missionary efforts was so sweet to see and made my heart so happy. Seeing converts dressed in white and being baptized was one of the most spiritual and powerful things I have ever experienced. I look forward to many more! They will be confirmed next week as members of our church. Man, missionary work is the best! After the baptisms we went to 2 different members to hang out and eat. Brother Sam is on the wealthier end of life here and fed us the BEST food I have had on my mission. It was super sweet! We ate BIG! Chicken, beef, pork, rice, salad, greens, matoke, potatoes, and tons of soda. Then we had a nice cake for dessert. I will add pictures later.

On the way home we found some members using the church property to park cars and earn money for a party taking place next door which is super against the rules and we had to settle business there. It was a crazy and fun twist to our day but all is well!

Thank you for making my Christmas away from home so great! The presents were so awesome. Cuticle lotion and pocket knife were so sweet. I loved it. And the basketball hoop! Cracked me up... I have it set up and play on it when I have time! 

Thanks for the update on everyone. I love to hear what and how everyone is doing. I am doing super well and am improving more and more every day. Today is p-day. We went to the stake center to hang out with all the Elders. Some played sports but I went with Elder Randall and my Zone Leaders to Pizza Hut to treat myself to a good meal. It was super good! It tastes the same as pizza hut back home. It was nice to be with all the elders too!

All is well right now for me. 

I hope everyone has a good new years and week! 

I am so happy to be here and love my mission so much! I hope you have a great week back home.

Love,

Elder McLain

I have come to realize what it means to celebrate Christmas

A little note Colby sent his dad on Christmas. 

Hello Father!

This year has been a different Christmas season for me but in the best way. I have come to realize what it means to celebrate Christmas. We truly are here to celebrate the birth and life of The King of Kings. I have spent these last weeks focusing on giving everything I can instead of expecting to receive and it has made me love Christmas! The Savior is a perfect example of being selfless. As we strive to be Christlike, we too need to be selfless in all we do. That includes giving. The receiving that comes is the blessings of obtaining this Christlike attribute of selflessness. I have grown to love missionary work. The mission has taught me to love my fellow man and be selfless in my dealings with them. I am grateful to spend this Christmas in the service of my Father in Heaven and His Son. I hope too that your Christmas season is full of as much joy as mine. I can't wait to see you when I skype!

I thank you for everything you have done for me. You are the greatest father and best example to me. I love you!

Love

Elder McLain

It's Christmas season in Uganda.....and it's super HOT! Plus I was famous for a day!

Hello!

How is my family? I miss you guys so much! I had a great week this week. It was a super, super slow week. It is the first week of the transfer and my companion said they are always slow. But it is over now and I am happy! Week 2 is said to be super fast too. Wooo!

It is Christmas season here in Uganda! A super hot Christmas season though. I am super sun burnt and its far too hot to be December but I am getting used to it! How is the weather back home? Any good snow?

Well, this week I pondered hard about two quotes. One was given to me by Uncle Scott and the other by a missionary here. Uncle Scott gave me a quote by President Monson that says, "By the yard it's hard but by the inch it's a cinch." When he first mentioned it to me I didn't understand the significance. NOW I understand how true it is. When I think of my mission as a full two years, I get discouraged to see I am just starting. When I look at a transfer as a full 6 weeks I also get discouraged, but am somehow less discouraged as when I think of the full 2 years. When I go day by day, that is when the mission is SO SIMPLE! A mission truly is easy. I have learned that when I think of it yard by yard, that is when it is hard. So thank you Uncle Scott! The quote is so true! The second quote goes like this, "Be the missionary your Mom thinks you are!" Haha! I laughed when I first heard this. As I thought about it I quickly realized that it is also very true! And I am trying my best to be that missionary! My cousin Ryan said, "the hours turn into days, the days into weeks, the weeks into months and the months into years." So I just need to live hour by hour and the mission will fly by. It already is!

Man, I fell sick AGAIN this week. What is wrong with my body?! Africa is beating me up! This week on Tuesday I fell sick with a head cold. I had a sore throat, runny and raw nose, cough, plugged ears and a head ache. nooooot easy to work with. I pushed through and it went away in about 4 days. Everyone asked me if I was sick when I would see them cause I had a red nose, nasally voice and my handkerchief was always in my hand. Haha. I am glad I am okay now!  I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired!

On Monday we ate dinner at a members house. This dinner was a really weird and gross experience. So Mama Felister is an older woman who lives with her one grandchild. Earlier Monday morning, her grandkid and his friends stoned one of her turkeys to death. We saw the turkey dead in her yard as we passed in the morning and went and told her. Super crazy. Later that night we went to her house for dinner and noticed one of her goats was missing. We went looking for it and found it laying in a shed in her backyard. It was dying and dying fast. This goat is really young and white and super cool so I was bummed out. We left it there to die and went in for dinner. Guess what was for dinner...... turkey! We asked her which turkey it was and she said it was the one her grand kid stoned.  WHAT?! We were all eating a super gross turkey that laid dead for hours in the sun before being butchered. But at the same time, Sister Felister is super poor and only has like 4 turkeys so we had to finish it. We couldn't leave any food left. So that was terrible. Right as we were about to finish eating, we heard a terrible noise from the backyard. We went out to find the goat taking its last crying breathes and then watched it die. Man, it was pretty sad. Elder Nambale then grabbed the goat by the legs and dragged it out to the dirt and just slit its throat. I was super confused and grossed out. Mama Felister asked if she could eat it and we assured her it was not safe to eat. Man, Ugandans are crazy!

On Wednesday we sent Elder Nambale off the go home. He took a bus home to Eastern Uganda and gave us a call that night to introduce his mom over the phone. We are so happy for him! Nambale was a great missionary who served hard until his last day.

I am gaining weight here. Both because I am exercising and lifting every morning and I am eating like nothing. My waist is already getting smaller. Haha.

My glasses broke :( Already.... Good thing I have a backup pair. Maybe I will need to get another pair soon. Again, Uganda is beating me up.

We got two new Elders in our apartment. One is named Elder Randall. He is from Southern Utah from a small town East of Cedar City. I can't remember the name. A super duper nice Elder who plays guitar for us and loves to talk. I enjoy him a lot. Plus I am happy to serve around an Amercian. The other is Elder Osei-Tutu from Ghana. He is wild. Just another awesome missionary. They will do wonders here in Makindye. We are super happy to have them.

I want to share a spiritual thought this week from D&C. It is D&C Section 38: 7-9 "But behold, verily, verily I say unto you that mine eyes are upon you. I am in your midst and ye cannot see me; But the day soon cometh that e shall see me, and know that I am;... Wherefore, gird up your loins and be prepared. Behold, the kingdom is yours, and the enemy shall not overcome." Wow! I love those verses. Our Savior is in the midst of us! He is watching over us every single minute of every day. He knows our every action. We need to be prepared for the day of his coming. Not even the angels in heaven know the day or hour of his coming. So gird up your loins, go to work, serve the Lord and be prepared for his coming. The kingdom is ours!

I love all of you so much. I continually give thanks for the blessing and prayers I receive. I pray that all of us can be prepared for the coming of our Savior. He cometh quickly! Uganda is getting more and more prepared every day. I love this country and these people so much. God loves all of his children more than you could ever imagine. I am grateful to be here.

Family, I love you and miss you. Be safe and strong!

Love,

Elder McLain

p.s. I forgot to add a funny story to my email.

This week my companion and I were walking past a school graduation for 3rd grade kids. All the children and parents saw me and started freaking out. A random man ran out to us and said it would make the school so happy to have a white "Mzungu" in their graduation picture. I laughed and accepted the offer. So my companion and I stepped up in front of a crowd of about 300 people and stood in the back of their graduation picture. My companion and I will forever be in this picture when the kids look back and see that day. It made me laugh so hard. Hahahaha. They love white people here!

Last thing I forgot to add!

Last night I woke up to this noise by my ear. It was about 2 am. I was sitting still then I felt it crawl onto my ear and onto my hair so I jumped up and grabbed my flashlight and THE BIGGEST cockroach was just crawling all over me. I smacked it off and then lost it. After about 5 minutes of looking I gave up and went back to sleep. Gross!!!

K love you! Bye!!!!!!!

He will bind up your broken heart, dry your tears, and set you free

This kid and his letters! Almost weekly I get a text or email from someone saying how much they love Colby's letters and appreciate how honest and expressive he is. It warms my heart to know that others feel the same way I do. I appreciate the kind words, the prayers in his behalf, and the love that is extended to him. It definitely takes a village to raise a child and he is blessed with the best of family and friends!

Hello and welcome transfer 2!

Wow, a wonderful week in Uganda. The week absolutely flew by and I have completed my first transfer. Nothing on transfer news, I am staying in Makindye with Elder Ndamane.

Like I said earlier, this was a super good week. It was the first week where I experienced little to no homesickness! I can thank my mission president for his help and advice. He is such a great man. So, no offense family but I didn't think of you much this week and it helped me out a ton! I still love and miss you of course and would pay $1,000,000 to see you all right now. :)

Thank you again for a good week of letters. I love reading your letters so much! Sounds like a normal, cold Provo right now. I am just going to rant a few random things I remember from this week that I want you to know:

 Mom, I met Elder Smith this week. He is the one who Elder Wilson said I look a lot alike. Sure enough, we look a ton alike! He is actually my new Zone Leader so I will be serving around him a lot this transfer! He is a super awesome missionary.

There is an elder in my mission just one transfer older than me. His name is Elder Ellsworth and he is from Houston. He said he knows the Guajardo family! He is a great missionary that will FOR SURE be a leader in this mission.

Thank you SO MUCH for the packages. Both from mom and caitlin. They brought me to tears I was so happy. Thank you!!!

I spent time in Katwe this week. In fact I live a lot closer than I even thought. My area overlooks Katwe and members in Katwe attend Makindye Ward. So, that is cool. Dad is right though, I am not on a Queen of Katwe fan boy hunt. :)

A funny thing. Uganda sells a ton of fake designer clothes. My companion doesn't know any of it is fake either so he sees Versace sandals or Gucci bags and he just thinks they are the coolest things ever. But the fake Gucci bags are like $15 hahaha so I just let him think they are real. He loves designer stuff and is super stylish"".

I met a man this week while knocking doors. When he opened his door he had a massive painting of the Chicago skyline and I freaked out and asked him why. He said he is a painter and his life goal is to visit that city. I didn't mention that my sister lives there because I hate to put myself on a podium here. But anyways, he painted it himself and it was super cool! Unfortunately he is muslim so we continued on and will probably not go to his door again.

I have been getting really bad bites since day one here. The whole time I was thinking mosquitoes just loved me. The other night I found a bed bug on my sheets and came to the quick realization that bed bugs have been feasting on me for 6 straight weeks! Ew! These bites are even scarring my arms and legs. Dont worry, we had a mission worker come kill them and clean my bed up. So the last few days have been much better. But my bed had the bugs when I got here so it has been 6 weeks of bed bug bites! They hurt!

That is it for my random things. I will say again that I had a super good week! We had a good amount of investigators come to church and will be baptizing at least 3 people on Christmas. Maybe even more. Two sad things:

Alex and Honesty are having a hard time approving marriage without bride price from her parents and so their baptism and progression will be put on pause for at least a month. I have a feeling I will be transferred before they are baptized. They will be baptized though. No question.

The Tanzanian family that was so prepared for us was declined permission by their father to continue progressing. So we dropped a really good and powerful family! It was a big upset for me and my companion. It's okay though, we will keep on looking!

This week was Mission Tour on Tuesday and our Area President, President Hamilton, came to Kololo to speak to us. It was super awesome! I love speakers now and he really motivated me to go baptize the whole country. In short, he explained that he served in France long ago. He said that when he left to go home he thought that France was a hopeless country to spread the gospel in. When he left there were no stakes and very few members. Now today there are like 13 stakes in his mission and every ward has a dedicated meeting house. So he told us that we are in the position he was in on his mission. We might feel like the church is small and that it is hopeless and useless to serve here, but that we are the foundation of the mission work in Uganda. He promised us that the church would excel far more than any of us would imagine and just to keep working hard! I came to realize that that is super true! The same goes for Dad's mission. Brazil has exploded with the gospel. So Uganda will come in due time!!

Mom, thanks for showing my mission pics off to people! I am happy that people are loving it! I will keep trying to take and send pictures! Tell Connor and Josh that I am so excited for them and am praying for them to do better than me at the start! Keep Connor updated on the things I took because I was well prepared. To answer your questions:

1. We have a market. Like imagine a Days Market post zombie apocalypse. It is sufficient though and has everything! I can get milk haha but it is kinda sketchy. I drink it and use it every day and am used to it now though. No whipping cream or half and half. You only can get that in town and it is SO expensive. Same with cheese, SO expensive... Hamburger meet is super expensive too but veggies like potatoes, carrots, onions, and more are so cheap and a woman sells them like every 10 feet. So veggies and fruits I can get... Curry powder and things to cook over rice is what I need. And a recipe on how to make it good cause I am terrible at cooking I found out. They have chapati which is like tortillas so I would just substitute for that.

2. I have an oven!

3. I am okay on Nesquik. Milk isn't the cheapest thing and tastes weird with stuff. I do have an idea though, powdered gatorade! That would be sweet.

4. Please send spices! They are super expensive here for some reason and I cant afford to buy that stuff.

5. I haven't heard much about chocolate but I'd assume it'd be spoiled when it gets here.

Alright, I think that is it for the week. Tell everyone I say hello and that I can Skype in only a few weeks! I think I am going to skype early morning here on Christmas so it will be christmas Eve for you guys... That's what I've heard works best. I love you all! Thanks for the love and prayers! Uganda says hello!

With SO much love,

Elder McLain

p.s.  We received some training from my mission president and someone else on how writing home can cause homesickness and the trick is not to focus on or write through the week what you are going to write on mondays. So I tried it this week and I will be honest, I had zero homesickness. I truly had no homesickness this week. Even when I would think of home, I would just be happy and excited to be here. So my letters may depreciate in quality but I will try hard to keep writing and make you happy! Hey don't worry. I am no baby. Even if I was homesick or depressed for 24 months I would stay here! And I am not! I was for a week or two but I am running strong now! I love the mission and Uganda!

There is a quote from Elder Holland. It says, "I promise that because of your faithful response to the call to spread the gospel, He will bind up your broken hearts, dry your tears and set you and your family free. That is my missionary promise to you and your missionary message to the world." -Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

I love that quote! It brings tears to my eyes! It's my favorite quote so far on my mission because it brings me true peace!

Alright, time is up! Love you so much!

Talk to you next week.

Giving Thanks in Makindye

Candy! Yeah! 

Colby's area. A lot like Katwe village he says.

Long-haul trucker.

The mall in Colby's area.

Thanksgiving dinner.

Solitary Thanksgiving celebration.