I hope everyone had a good Easter weekend! My companion and I forgot it was Easter or rather never really figured out but it turned out to be a great weekend for us too!
These last few weeks have just been very normal weeks for us. Not a whole lot out of the ordinary is happening and to be honest the work is slowing down a lot in our area. I have been here in Ntinda for a little over 3 months and just started another 6 week transfer so I will be here for a while! We really hope things pic up here and are trying our best.
Our investigators are all struggling right now. Esther is the most promising and says she wants to get baptized soon but just doesn't know when. Ntinda is hard because it is an area that people move to for work. So just when someone progresses they get a break from work and go visit family in the villages. It can be hard on us! It leaves us a lot on days with not many lessons to teach. This week was a bit different for us. We worked extra hard and decided to change our plans. After praying for help we both felt the need to just take a break from finding and knocking doors and begin working through members. So we spent most of our week finding where members stay and meeting with them. After teaching them we would ask for a referral. It worked out well and we will continue it this week and through this transfer. We told our ward mission leader that this transfer would be a foundation builder and that next transfer will be our big progression transfer. Ntinda is a large ward boundary and members can stay pretty far. But they generally bunch together and we can see a few out in each area. I've been learning the area a lot better this way and it has been a fun week! Once we get closer to members they are a lot kinder too! We went far from our area this week into an area called Kabanyoro. Google it. it is far!! We taxied some 2 hours to get there. Met a member and then came home.
Yesterday I got a call from Church Head Quarters in Salt Lake. She had a referral for us in Ntinda. How cool is that!! We gave the referral to the other Elders in our District. The weirdest part was that she asked me which country in Africa I was from. I kindly responded and said I was from where she was sitting right then. I told her to tell Utah hello for me and I missed it very much. She was surprised to hear that I was from Utah and said I sounded like an african :) Wowza!
We did find one tender mercy this week that really stood out to me. I don't think I will ever forget this moment in my whole life. One day after coming in a bit later my companion and I were pretty exhausted. I went to my study room a bit mentally defeated for the day and got down to pray. I prayed hard for help and guidance in our area. My companion as well has been praying hard for the same things. We are both very young on mission, I being 6 months and he being 2 months out. It can be hard for us sometimes to know what to do. After praying we felt the need to go up to the senior couple in our area and talk to them. We followed the prompting and went up to there place. There they invited us in and we talked with them for a few minutes. After a good conversation Elder Whitwer pulled out his tablet and told us a cool story of his neighbor. Elder Whitwer is from Santa Clara, Utah and had a neighbor go to London England on a medical school trip. There she met a girl named Grace from Uganda! Grace was on the same school trip and just graduated as a Medical Doctor. After the trip they both returned home. The Whitwers later found out they were serving in Uganda and their neighbor gave them Grace's contact. They were told to try to contact her and become friends but all they had was a number. He gave us the number and I gave Grace a call. I have never heard someone so excited to hear a young muzungu missionaries voice. She said we could come later that week when she was off work to meet her! After I asked her where she stayed she said "Bukoto, near Kampala International School". This is when I knew our prayers were answered. It was a few days earlier that I learned of Bukoto and tracted just around the school. Wow... of all places and all times for Grace to live, it was in our area. We went to bed that night so grateful. On Saturday we went to Grace's house. She flipped out when she met us and was so so excited! We went to her nice little place and her brother and mother came in. The Whitwers and my companion and I had an extremely powerful conversation with them over some pizza and water they gave us. They are Protestants from Church of Uganda. It was one of the greatest nights and blessings on my mission. It's a day I will never forget!
Well Brothers, Sisters and dogs.... The Church is too true! I have seen everything I need to see and experience to solidify my testimony. I know without a doubt in my mind that we have the fullness of the Everlasting Gospel and we are His covenant children. We are so blessed to have found our route to salvation. Quite literally we know and have what it takes to become like Him. Let us continue to push forward as a light to everyone and spread this Gospel. There is no greater joy than this! I love this church so much.
Have a great week everybody. Give the missionaries in your area a referral! Read the scriptures and stay safe! I love you all and pray for you always!
Love,
Elder McLain
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