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.
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