Colby in Kampala: I am too blessed!

Hey guys,

Well it was a pretty eventful week for me in Nsambya. I am still seriously adjusting to the life and culture of serving here in Uganda. I have easily been the most culture shocked on my return to Uganda than any other time in my life. I think it is because going to Ethiopia I hadn't really immersed myself into any culture and was still pretty much a typical American teenager. But now coming back to Uganda, even after knowing the culture before hand, I had fully immersed myself in the culture of Ethiopia and am really confused and whacked up on how to act/talk/travel here. All things I do I am pretty much noticed haha. My companions and the members can easily tell that I have not been in Uganda a long time. In fact, most of the Nsambya ward thinks that my companion is training me! I just let them all think what they want, haah!

So first things first, I fell sick this week! Funny enough I started out on Tuesday with a bad cold. I had a fever, chills, sore throat, head aches, plugged ears and all that jazz. It lasted a good 3 days and kept me inside most of the time and out of the hot sun. On the third day I woke up with a paining eye. Wasn't sure what was wrong and so I just went about my day. By Saturday my eye was just super duper fat and in the most pain I have been in on my mission. Seriously it was so painful! I called Sister Collings and she had me go to the doctor to get it checked. I guess I got Staph in my eye.... or rather on my eye lid. It was one of the more painful things I have experienced in a long time. I really didn't think something so small could hurt so bad. Every single tiny movement just made my whole face ache. So I pretty much spent Friday - Sunday laying on the couch with an ice pack and a good book. It was an eventful weekend! I was able to go to church though. Can't miss that one! Right now it is all a bit better. I think by tomorrow i should be back to regular proselyting schedule. So that is my week for the most part!

Now I can tell you a little bit about my ward. Nsambya ward. As I said earlier in my serving here, I was trained in the neighboring area Makindye. While I served in Makindye I was ALWAYS jealous of Nsambya. It had a higher attendance, nicer and cleaner area, more active members, etc. You name it Nsambya had it. So I was thrilled beyond thrilled to find out I would serve here. And now, 18 months later it is still the best! Our ward is about 115 active members strong. Kind of funny that this ward alone has more active members than the entire country of Ethiopia! gulp.... Anyways, it is powerful here. We have about 12 ward missionaries assigned from the branch to help us and almost any of them can help at any time. And they do! We have members from Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Congo, Kenya, Ghana and Liberia. So across the board we have members who can speak most any language found in West, Central and East Africa. And that helps us a lot. We can find people who will help us teach in Luganda, Swahili, French, Kiswahili, Kinyarwanda, Amharic, Tigrigna, and so on. So yeah, we got the hook ups. We have some seriously awesome members. Some of my favorites for the time are these:

Castro: He is a Ugandan that was baptized a little less than a year ago. He is around our age and super energetic about the work. He can help us any time and is really fun to be around.

Patrick: Hahaha Patrick is a joker. He has been a member for years and is in his late 20's. He knows missionaries and the mission cultures really well and pretty much fits in perfectly as a missionary. He is a good friend.

Aisha: She is from Burundi. She speaks 1 million languages (not really of course) and was formerly Muslim. She is super willing to help us at any time.

Bishop Omuya: He is a younger and energetic Bishop. He is a returned missionary and is powerful when it comes to helping the work here. I think that is why the work is so strong in this ward. If the Bishop or Branch President is active in the work, it will do well.

And there are a few other members but because of time I will just go forward. I will probably talk about them over time. So, the ward is doing really well!

As for investigators, we are a bit low right now. I came into a somewhat slow area. And then immediately fell sick and we haven't been able to do much work yet. So this week will be a critical week for us and we will be doing a lot of finding and teaching to progress the area we are in. Just a few investigators we have are these:

Joseph: He is a South Sudanese man who has been living in Uganda for some time. He is 28 and educated. He is super duper powerful. I can't imagine he would not be baptized in the coming weeks. He was found while walking home and "talking to everyone".

Alfred and family: They were an old family that was learning for a while and dropped. They have now been contacted again and we are reteaching them. It is a family of 8, 6 are of age to be baptized. They progress slowly but could soon be baptized.

Aisha: She is from Western Uganda and is the niece of a recent convert. She is Muslim but loves church and is willing to learn more. She came to church this Sunday and we will start the lessons with her soon. She is 18 and has a 1 year old baby. Great girl.

And so that is my wrap up of the work and the ward I am in. I hope it's sufficient and you can get an idea of what work is going on here. It is all going pretty well. Side note, I live in a super nice and brand new apartment that is in the middle of the bush. Imagine that! It is sooooo sweet. Nice shower, kitchen and all that jazz. I am too blessed!

Have a great week everyone!

Love,
Elder McLain