Colby in Kampala: I will miss you Masaka......Heading to ETHIOPIA!

Hello everybody,

It was a crazy week in Masaka! I figured out this would be my last week in the area... and even the country : ( I am leaving Uganda and heading to Ethiopia! I am both sad and excited. It will be a crazy experience....

I spent most of the week prepping to go. There are a lot of minor things I had to take care of. I had to figure out a way to compress everything in to ONE large suit case and a tiny carry on. It wasn't so hard. Most of the things I have come with on mission have been left behind or given to someone. I spent most of today packing.

I spent a lot of the week preparing my area to receive the new elder. My companion, Elder Kubheka is staying behind and training a new elder. So we have been really polishing the area and the area books to make sure the training can go smooth and fruitful.

We did have 2 baptisms this Sunday! Unfortunately Mirembe had an emergency death in the village and had to leave for the week. She returns this Wednesday so she will likely be baptized the coming Sunday. That is nice though because the new elder will have a baptism right off the bat. That will be a good boost for him. Our area is doing great and is very prepared for at least 6 baptisms next transfer. We did manage to revive the area!

I don't know a whole lot about my next transfer. I do know that I am serving in an area called Bekulobet. It is an outskirt slum of Addis Ababa. I have heard the branch is struggling in a way there and it is one of the hardest areas. I am excited for it though and feel that my Masaka fire will come in handy as I am there. The church is small in Ethiopia. At a time a few years back it was doing really nice. There were something like 11 branches, a district and even they began to build actual chapels. After a while the orthodox and Islamic religions began to take control and steal away many members. Many branches closed and many missionaries were taken out. Currently there are 4 branches and 8 missionaries in the whole country! This week I will be one of them! I have heard that the Orthodox church is pretty dominant there. It has become more of a culture than a religion. On top of that they believe some bizarre things that can effect the entire country. For example they have a fasting season quite often where they all go vegan for a time. That causes all food prices to go up for some reason and its a real issue for those who dont participate. I have heard the Bekulobet branch has a few american families who work at the U.S. Embassy and they treat the missionaries well. I look forward to that. My companion is Elder Munsey. He is originally from Ethiopia but was adopted into an American family from California. He is an awesome guy and it will be a blast serving in Ethiopia with an Ethiopian. We will enjoy a lot!

Ethiopia is more developed than Uganda. At least in Addis Ababa, the city (where I will be). There are 4 areas for missionaries. 2 are in the city, one is about 2 hours away in Debre Zeit. The last is 5 hours from Addis in a place called Hawassa. That is said to be the most village area in the whole mission with zero english. For now I am in the city. I will have plenty of access to internet. I am actually replacing Elder Gooch in his area with his companion. There are only a few missionaries in the entire country! Crazy!

Dad you asked about the language. Amharic.... All I have heard is that it is the national language. All signs are in Amharic. Church material is in Amharic. Its all Amharic. Little English is spoken at all. I will do 30 minutes of language study every day which will include trying to read the Book of Mormon. It will be crazy to me! The church services are held in Amharic but some branches translate. Cant wait! Personally for me Luganda has been pretty easy. For some crazy reason, even though it is a Bantu root language, I have seen similarities from learning Spanish that have helped me. At least grammatically. I can imagine Amharic will be harder to learn. Sadly I will forget my Luganda quickly I assume.

I am going to miss the amazing country of Uganda! I don't know if I will be called to serve here again. This place has changed my life. Especially the area of Masaka! This area has really helped me grow as a missionary and even a normal human. It has been a blessing to serve here and serve with Elder Kubheka. I love him. Great memories were made. I am off to a new land, new language, new race in a way, a new culture. I hope and pray that I will have an easy transition to the new missionary work. Things will be different.

Well, I hope you all have a good week. Next time we speak I will be in a different country! Thanks for the support. Love you guys!

Love,

Elder McLain

P.S. It will be a big culture difference going to Ethiopia. Many Americans see it as the typical African country when in fact its not at all. You can see in pictures that the people look almost middle eastern. The language is a lot like Arabic. The culture is entirely middle eastern. The typical African countries would be more like Ghana or Mozambique. Ethiopia is found to be a stubborn country. They only allow single citizenship and forsake anyone who gets citizenship anywhere else. They don't really like foreigners much. It is as if I am leaving Africa and going to the middle east!