Colby in Kampala: Some CrAzY things happen in Ethiopia....

Hey guys,

My mission is kind of weird right now. It is still really fun and I love Ethiopia more than any place on earth. I am enjoying everything a lot. I am now about 4 or 5 weeks on no resident's ID or working permit and so I am still not legally allowed to proselyte.... Yeah. Right now we visit all the members we can and then just sit and try to figure out what else to do. This week we found a cheater tactic that is kind of working. We are going to try it more this week. We found a really public place in the city called Meskel Square. It is a cool place you should google it. We go and sit at Meskel Square with a soda or something and just chat or read as a companionship. It draws a lot of attention to see two white guys just sitting there talking and so occasionally we get someone come up to us and see what we are doing. That is about it for us right now. Ha!

Honestly my update for missionary work is really short. We were able to see Emiyu get baptized this week! That was great. She asked me to baptize her. The water in the font was FREEZING and they ran out of water and so it was only up to my knees. So I had to really bend down to get her all the way under. It was a challenge but worked first try! Woo! Another surprise was Getachew, the first member in Ethiopia, came back to church. He was really sick for a while and finally recovered enough. It was great to finally see him at church and he was so happy to be there.. That is as much of an update as I can give for the week. Sorry it was another slow one!

We had some funny and crazy things happen to us this week. We witnessed some interesting stuff! I will just list em off...

1. On the way to an appointment we saw a man cover his mouth and begin vomiting like no ones business. After he finished he just collapsed to the ground with a bang. With others helping we carried him to the shade and got him some water. We had to go shortly after though.

2. I kid you not this one took place 5 minutes after the first incident. We were still walking to our appointment and saw a young boy with a bag on his head (typical African thing). Out of nowhere he just fell face first and smacked on the cement. He flipped over after and had a seizure and foamed from the mouth. It lasted about 30 seconds. After getting him to shade too we didn't know what to do. There were many to help so we continued walking again...

3. Later that night this FLAMBOYANT lady wearing the most makeup I have ever seen just sat next to me on the train and would not stop staring at me. It was really weird. She looked like Boy George and she was just super make up crazy....

4. On the same train ride we watched 3 police man pile a guy on to the the train and sit him down. Long story short the police were using the public train to arrest a man. Haha...

5. The next day this man was sitting across from me on the train. I noticed a little stick in his head and pointed it out to my companion. Later the man just grabbed the stick and started rubbing his teeth with it like a toothbrush. They use sticks here as a toothbrush. This man stored his in his hair!

6. THIS ONE WAS SO FUNNY.... Again, on the train. 9pm on the train is a weird time. This guy sat by us. He kept looking at me. After about 5 minutes he opened his mouth and in the most american voice says, "Yo you want some weed?" Hahahah. I just laughed and said what??? He went on to tell me he can get me anything I want for cheap... I asked where he was from and he said he was raised in Seattle and that he was deported for drug trafficking and was sent back here.... It was a long conversation with lots of drug talk and swear words and me just trying not to laugh.

7. Some white people came to our church on Sunday. One was a Doctor and the other a Dentist. I literally could not summon the courage to talk to them. I am so so bad at talking to Americans now it is terrible. If you aren't a missionary or an Embassy member I just can't do it. My social skills with white people are at rock bottom right now. Ha!

Oh, we ate dinner at the Moore's yesterday. They fed us BIG.. The husband is from Mission Viejo, CA and the wife is from Osaka Japan. They are so cool. They fed us Korean Ramen with the egg and then brownies and fruit for dessert. THEN things got cool. While dessert was cooking we went downstairs and played Ping Pong. YOo! It was so fun... Then Ayako the mom came with a cardboard box and said to follow her. We went into a storage room and she said, "fill it with whatever you want." Okay so imagine heaven...... American foods of all kind there. We filled a box and it was soooooo nice!!!

Soooo you got to meet Elder Haines!!! That makes me so happy. I can't remember what I sent home with him. Either way I love that guy so much. He is an energy ball! He is a good talker and fun to converse with. I will see him soon in Provo! Can't wait!! Awesome awesome awesome!

That is it for the week. Sorry it was sort of a lame one. Guess you need one of those every now and then.

Love you guys!

Love,

Elder McLain