The work in Nsambya is flourishing

Hey everyone,

We had another great week in Nsambya. The work is flourishing for my companion and I right now. Things are officially starting to work out for us. I came to the area about 2 months ago and there were little to no investigators. Now we have about 30 and at least 15 of them are very promising! We are on FIRE right now!

My update on the area is brief. This week we should be baptizing Flavia, Jacob and Joseph! Bishop Omuya is proud of the strength in our area and the converts we are bringing. 

Cool update of the week!!!!!!!!!! We are teaching the cousins of Luol Deng! He is an NBA basketball player. He is South Sudanese. This week we found a really wealthy Sundanese family and began teaching them. They came to church this Sunday. I talked to them about the NBA and Deng and they casually said, "oh yeah he is our cousin." haha! That is the cool thing of the week!

Well, that is about it. I hope all is well back home. Keep up the good work!

With love,

Elder McLain

Some artsy shot of my neighbors compound

Chillin with my boys

 A boda delivering milk + the church in the background

 Man down :(  wrecked E30...

A wild African caterpillar I saw

An Awesome Awesome Evening

Hey everybody,

Woosh it was a good week. To be honest it was another classic missionary week. Nothing wild or out of the ordinary happened. We spent a lot of the week doing some finding and door knocking and trying to situate our teaching pool. Right now we have a good chunk of people who just aren't too serious and don't really want to progress but are willing to meet us. Those are the people we have to kindly drop and move on. I had a good week all in all. Se lemme tell you about it....

On Monday we had an awesome awesome evening following emailing. We went to the church and watched the 40th Anniversary of the Priesthood Celebration. OHHHHH BOOYY it was fire! I honestly loved it so much. Prior to watching it, Brother Backman from our ward bore his testimony and gratitude for the revelation in sacrament. He talked about how it changed his life beginning with his mission in South Africa, then his marriage, then his career across Africa. During the broadcast I was caught up thinking about how it has also blessed my life. If the revelation was never received, I would not have been able to serve here in Uganda and Ethiopia. My mission has changed my life in so many ways all thanks to this blessing of the Priesthood to all worthy male members of the church. ANYWAYS, back to the broadcast. So I don't know if all of you have seen it but you should. It is a big celebration/performance put on with singing and dancing. There is a super nice gospel choir performing unique and upbeat songs and yada yada. I felt the spirit throughout the performance as they told stories of early African "Pioneers" and sang and danced. I want to add my testimony, as it has played a big role in my mission, that the revelation given to President Spencer W. Kimball was inspired by God and came exactly when it was needed. I have been questioned, grilled and mocked over such a thing and my testimony continues to increase. No matter the past, all worthy male members of the church can hold the Priesthood and that is a great blessing! Go and watch the broadcast!

My teaching pool is doing really good right now. We still have some great investigators. Joseph was not able to be baptized this week. He had to make an emergency trip to South Sudan for something and will be gone one week. So he will be baptized on the 30th of June. Likewise Flavia and Jacob will be baptized on the 30th. Kita came to church!!!! She is awesome. She even has some referrals for us we are going to meet tomorrow! So we will have more to teach this week. Everything is going good for us. 

Unfortunately I am missing World Cup though.... Bummer. All in all it is going well for me. I hope and pray I stay in Nsambya for the rest of my mission.

That is it guys. Thanks for the love and support. Have a great week!

Love,

Elder McLain

My shirt the Elders made in Ethiopia. 

Just got it! "Straight outta Addis"

Hope's Wedding. 

She is an investigator but is quickly moving with her husband to Canada. 

Like the flames??

 Me and Elder B at the wedding

Planning while on the back of a pedal boda (bike)

I Went Back To The Future

Hey guys,

This week was really cool! We worked hard and got a lot done. It was a relatively normal week for us. We stayed busy, had some success but likewise had some upsets. That is how missionary work goes though. If you can't get over upsets quickly than a mission would be very difficult. SO, let me tell you about the week............--->

1. We have been teaching Joseph and preparing him for his baptism. It will be this Friday! Joseph is doing really, really well and progressing at a level I haven't seen in a long time. I can honestly say that of any people I have taught on my mission, South Sudanese just comprehend so well. AND they speak a really nice English that I love. It sort of reminds me of British English. Anyways, Joseph is great. And as I said last week we started teaching his nieces he stays with. They are enjoying the messages too and will likely be baptized in the coming weeks.

2. Flavia is still just doing A okay. She is progressing at a great pace too and has incredible understanding of the messages. It is as if she knew a lot and our short messages are connecting the dots for her. She is looking forward to her baptism next Saturday. A funny short story about Flavia took place in Sunday School. We were sitting in a room with about 40 people and she was called on to answer a question. She was asked "How do we receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit?" She got a bit nervous (because she hasn't received or seen someone receive it) but answered and said, "I believe it is following our baptism and goes along with our confirmation. Worthy men lay their hands on your hand and give you the gift of the Holy Ghost." ............ My companion and I were super proud. The teacher said that was true and she somehow loudly leaned to us and said, "BOOM, I am a genius!" hahahaha. Then a returned sister missionary raised her hand and tried to correct Flavia for saying Holy Ghost instead of Holy Spirit and that ghosts are evil. Flavia responded confidently that evil ghosts are evil but the holy ghost is holy. She even told her to read in Acts 19 where it refers to the Holy Ghost as a Ghost. It was soooooo awesome. Flavia is a genius for sure!

3. We found a new investigator named Kita. She is 17 years old but seems much older. She is also from South Sudan. We taught the Restoration first lesson and she loved it. We committed her to baptism on the 29th of June. She was excited to accept and even said she will be bringing her friends to our next appointment on Tuesday. 

4. Another new investigator is named Ayantu. She is from Ethiopia! She is a 7th Day Adventist but is somewhat interested in our church. She enjoys the messages but of course is caught up on the sabbath day being on Sunday instead of Saturday. So when we meet tomorrow we are talking about that.

5. We dropped a few investigators this week :( We were teaching some powerful people that are easily ready to learn but just won't come to church. It isn't that they don't want to but rather that they don't know what their priorities are. So when something comes up on Sunday, they put that before church. Soooooo this week we are going to do some door knocking and street contacting to fill up our teaching pool again. I think back on my favorite moments in my mission and they all come from finding and door knocking so I am really excited for that. !

To answer your questions about the people I work with, I would say 75% are Ugandan. A majority of the people we talk to or find are Ugandan. But still daily I am meeting Congolese, Kenyans, Tanzanians, Rwandese, Ethiopians, Eritreans, Somalians, etc... 

As far as Ethiopia goes, things have improved. I am still the most recent missionary to transfer from there but I think next transfer they will send some people up. Work permits are becoming easier to get now! 

I just tried printing off President Nelson's talk and our internet cafe is out of ink. I will try to speed read some of it today. Or print it next week. It seems to me that President Nelson is doing a super job interacting with members across the world, both youth and adults. I love that about him. He is a great man.

And yeah, I am gaining weight! I am getting healthier here I think. The food I eat isn't the healthiest. There is a lot of oil but overall I am getting a better variety of things that are good for my body. So I am happy!

OKAY I had a super cool experience this week! So there is a family that was living in Ethiopia and working for USAID. Just as I went to Ethiopia they moved to Uganda. Then I returned back to Uganda and found that I was serving in their ward! They are the Backman family. Brother Backman is from the US and Sister Backman is from Ghana. They have 4 kids. So this Tuesday we went to their house for dinner. As we were sitting at the table, Brother Backman was asking all of us where we are from. When he got to me I mumbled, "provo" because I always get beef for being from Provo... Anyways, after I told him he was like, "have we talked about this?" I told him no. He asked the school I went to and I told him Timpview. He asked where I lived and I said above Timpview. His brow wrinkled and he said, "Which ward?" I told him the Edgemont 14th. He asked which street and I told him 920 E. He then told me he grew up in the condominiums in Quail Valley. I was shocked and told him I was raised in a house across from the tennis court. He said he loved that court in High School. Skipping a lot of detail, Steve Backman was raised in the condo next to the Anderson condo and across from the Palmers. He knows everyone in the ward and said he was good friends with the Reichman's son. He knows the Reeves and their kids, Miners and their kids. Going on and on he just told me all about his teenage years in Quail Valley and that when he went on his mission he had no idea what he would do for a future career. He was called to Johannesburg, South Africa and served there for 2 years. On his mission he fell in love with the people, the place and everything about it and quickly decided he would come back to Africa for work. Right now he works to improve child education across the continent and is doing really well. It is crazy to me and this is why I say, "back to the future".... I was also raised in the same neighborhood, about a stones throw from his house. I also was a bit confused on a future career. I was called to the same type of place and during my mission have gained a great love for the place and the people. Now I have decided my career path will involve coming back to Africa and working on water resourcing. He said his mission was the greatest blessing and biggest life changer for him. I can definitely say the same! So I met somewhat of a future version of myself this week. Brother Backman is awesome!

That will wrap up my week. Hope everyone is doing well back home. Congrats to Josh Palmer for returning safely. I am proud of you man! See you all soon :) 

Love,

Elder McLain

The Backman family! 

Brother Backman is from Provo, Utah and Sister Backman is from Ghana! 

At a burger shop and this American woman came in and asked, "so what kind of cheese is on the cheese burger?" Like come on this is Uganda girl not America. Of course the worker responded and said, "its just cheese."  Hahahaha    I was like.........

Me doing business

 Getting soaked this week!

 Went puddle jumping

 My stack of planners. Uganda is more dirty than Ethiopia. 

Can you tell when I served in Uganda and Ethiopia?

Little Donkeys for lunch today! 

I had a chicken burrito.

Making friends in Nsambya

Helloooo!

Woooooosh another week down. This was the 6th and last week of the transfer so we received transfer news on Saturday. As expected, I am staying in Nsambya and with my companion Elder Barnum. In fact, only 1 of the 8 missionaries in the area is transferring. So it will be the same as last transfer. Super happy about it. I am enjoying this place a lot. So 6 more weeks here!  Things are going really well for me and my companion right now.

This week my comp was sick. We spent a lot of the week inside and so I spent most of my free time writing my college essays and reading. He was sick for about 3ish days with bad migraines and the sweats. Almost like a knock off malaria. He is all better now and we are working again. We had some really great things happen. For new investigators, we didn't find many but we did receive a few referrals that are powerful. I will just share a few highlights from the week:

1. Teaching Flavia... We saw her on Wednesday evening and began sharing the Plan of Salvation. It started out okay until we got to the Fall of Adam and Eve. She got incredibly offended when we told her that the Fall was part of God's plan. Sooo we spent the next 30 minutes just talking about it. The lesson ended on a bad note and we even feared to go back. It was sad because Flavia is so super darn powerful and for her to get caught up over such a thing was just difficult for us to understand. She called 2 days later and said she was trying to humble herself and wanted to meet again. So we went back on Saturday and finished the lesson. From there it was great. She loved the idea of the spirit world and other doctrines. She came to church on Sunday too! We confirmed her baptismal date for June 23rd.

2. Meeting Benson. Benson is a referral from a girl in the ward named Charity. She just saw him on the street and started sharing with him. Later she took us to him and we shared the Restoration. Benson has a great comprehension and loved the message. 

3. The man, Joseph. Joseph is the South Sudanese we found a few weeks back who ended up having friends in the church. We finished the lessons this week with him. He has been taught everything and is powerful as ever. He is preparing to be baptized mid June before he takes his trip to Juba, South Sudan. At the end of the last lesson we were following up on his reading and asked to see his Chastity pamphlet. He mentioned that his nieces refused to give it back to him. After digging deeper we discovered that he has 3 nieces living with him who are reading all of the pamphlets and even the Book of Mormon when he isn't using them! So we asked if we could begin teaching them too and he said they would love it! So now we are teaching Joseph and 4 others in the same house.

Those are the highlights from the week. Noah's mission call sounds awesome! I would have loved to go there myself and speak Vietnamese!! Lucky him.

Alright, that's a wrap for the transfer and the week. Have a good week! 

Love you all!!

Love,

Elder McLain

My friend Kenzo

Attending church with Flavia

 Church with Castro and Alpha

 Castro, Barnum, and me

Me and Patrick

Some random little kid's glasses