Satan don't kick no dead dogs!

Hey Everyone!

I hope you all had a good week! My week was pretty good too! We had a lot of interesting things happen here in Ntinda that really strengthened my faith! Man, this church is so true!

Well, to begin, we had a pretty difficult week as far as things not going our way. Right from the start of the week we just had constant persecution! Every single corner we turned we just had people yelling at us, throwing alcohol and spitting, and many other things. In Uganda most people see us as students of some kind which can be pretty nice and keep us away from persecution. I guess the work got out in the whole area that we are missionaries from the church and that really sparked some flames around here...

(Excerpt from Tim's letter):

Wow. Your spiritual thought hit the nail on the head. I won't lie, this week was probably the most challenging week I have had on the mission. And why? Persecution... Man, people are not easy! I learned a lot though and I am grateful!

Well, during the process of the week we had countless people yell at us and even spit on us as we worked. We found ourselves in mini arguments almost 5 times a day. For some reason we even had many foreigners just telling us off. I remembered back on my favorite talk I have told you about in the past by Jack R. Christensen. In it he starts with a quote that goes, "Satan don't kick no dead dog." I really like that simple quote. He then went on to talk about how just as everything is going spiritually perfect in our lives we lose it all. We definitely saw that this week. We have truly seen success in our area. With a planned 6 baptisms this transfer alone we know Satan felt the need to join us. He started working on our investigators and when we solidified many of them and helped them forward he just turned to strangers in the streets. Man! It was hard! Then I thought about that talk and realized that the only way to get through it is to push!

We have many promising investigators right now. Sadly Satan is making sure he has a minute to investigate them too! We had three baptisms planned and prepared for this Sunday and two of them fell through. Esther has a Muslim uncle that really doesn't want her to step on to the straight and narrow path. He's working his level best to guide her to the Great and Spacious building. It's a great thing that a testimony of Jesus Christ is far too powerful for any serious distraction and Esther is working around everything. She told us this week again that "everything would work out" and that she "knows what God wants her to do". So we are just hoping and praying for her every day. Ibrahim had an emergency trip to the village and is far out in Mbale for the week. Not really sure why but it is definitely not helping him to progress. We are keeping tabs on him like a concerned parent and making sure he doesn't pull any tricks on us while he is gone. He is still wanting to be baptized and we hope for April 2nd. Paul is doing great too. Just progressing like a golden investigator and will be ready by the 2nd too! Adumen Irene was baptized this Sunday! Everything went really smooth! Everything up until her testimony in front of the congregation. She did a great job and has a strong testimony but she also said she was grateful that Adam Smith restored the gospel and that Joseph S. Mons is a true prophet! Haha! It's all a learning experince! We just need to give her a few weeks. She is extremely converted and they are currently building a chapel very close to her house that will help a ton!

We also had a tender mercy this week. Remember Paul? I talked about him a month or so ago. Paul was an amazing investigator. He progressed well and then one day we lost contact with him. He lost our number and he didn't have a phone so he just disappeared! We were so sad. Well, yesterday we hopped on a taxi to go to Irene's place in Kyambogo. After we boarded a man jumped on and sat in front of us. The taxis here are like one way mini buses.... so he jumped on and then looked at us with so much joy! We rejoiced exceedingly, for he was still a brother in the Lord! He was so happy to see us and said he got a phone! So we exchanged contacts and are teaching him again! That was so awesome for us!

This week we had a Mission fast and a fireside for a few things. We fasted for some great things. One was for unity in our zones and areas. The other was for young missionaries to be strengthened. Believe it our not, HALF of our mission goes home in 6 months! Crazy! We lose 60 Elders and Sisters by September. So we are really helping us younger missionaries to be prepared to lead our mission. Crazy! Our fireside was awesome. President Collings gave a really powerful talk on authority and how it is only found in this church. He shared many scriptures that will come in handy for me when I come across some more crazies...

We got some crazy rats in our apartment. I saw one the other day and it was about the size of a small football. Or something. We found some nice traps and set them up all around. The rat outsmarted the traps and ate a good dinner last night! He also ate some small small part of my socks too.... :( It's okay. One day we will figure him out. Maybe we can eat him for dinner one day. Mmmm. I had some gross liver the other day speaking of bad food. I kinda pawned some off on my companions plate when he wasn't looking. He soon realized that he had more liver than what he started with and began pawning it off on mine when I wasn't looking. So we just blessed it twice and threw it back!

I think that is it for this week. We are really hoping that Satan takes a smoke break or something on our investigators this week. We all need it right now. Ntinda is such a great place. When the work rolls forward I just love the mission. When the work comes to a smashing halt I still love the mission! It has been such a great time for me and I look forward to every moment! Thank you everyone for keeping up with me and my work. I hope and pray that everyone is doing well back home. I love you guys!

Love,

Elder McLain

Every week is just rolling by smooth and well

Hello All!

Another great week for me in Ntinda. Not a whole ton happened this week. In a mild way I could say that "there is opposition in all things." Last week we had an amazing success and work load but this week was just very average. Again, as I have said before, not a bad thing!

Thanks for the great update from home. It sounds like the home life is very monotonous right now, not in a bad way. Every week is just rolling by smooth and well. It is nice to hear that nothing crazy or unsafe is happening. The boring updates are the best ones. I do miss the smoked meats a lot though. You would be surprised how often I think of it! The other day a wealthy investigator of the AP's got us all some very nice pork though. I was happy with it! We then went to a pork joint in the area that ended quite bad after they tried to overcharge us a ton and we called them out on it. It ended in them yelling at us to never come back after we politely tried to explain the 1st grade math that needed to be done to find our total sum. There are a few things holding this country back from booming. One is roads and the next is currency. Almost every place we go to we have to walk them through the transaction process. It is quite amusing sometimes.

So for our investigators we had a pretty slow week. Most everyone I mentioned in the previous email is doing well. Kwiri Charles was confirmed this week! That was awesome! Right before church we had both Irene and Esther tell us they couldn't come... That was a bummer. Luckily Irene is far enough along that we don't have to push her back another week but Esther hasn't come to church enough and so we are setting her date back to the 26th. Ibrahim as well didn't show which was a shocker. He ended up being upcountry for work and just didn't tell us. He will be pushed back as well to the 26th... Man, why can't people just progress easier! It is all okay though because I often have to step back and realize that not many missions around the world progress like they do here. As of now we have a baptism set for every Sunday of this transfer! We really are hoping and praying for each and every one. Another funny investigator is a man named Paul. So Paul has been coming to church for 2 months now. The entire time of him coming I thought that the other Elders were teaching him. When I greeted him on Sunday he replied saying, "I have yet to receive you Elders." I was a bit confused but after some discussing we realized that this man has come to church for 2 months with no discussions! We were shocked! So we set up days to meet with him and are just going to bust through the lessons in about 2 weeks. As I was planning it out with him he leaned to us and said, "don't worry about convincing me of the truth. I have already prayed and received my answer." That was such a cool experience. Quite amazing that this man found the church and was converted over 2 months with only the power of prayer. We are so lucky to have him now! So everyone right now is doing well. We also worked this week on going through the dropped investigators in our area book to recontact some people. We met up with 2 and they are now being taught again. They don't seem too serious but we are trying!

I am glad you got the stuff from Dan! I was confused for a little on where that stuff went. I hope you enjoy it! Thank you for complimenting my writing! I love to write letters and emails. It is super enjoyable.

Well, I think that is it for the week. Just a slower but good week in the mission. Today we just hung out and watched some church films and then got Ethiopian food. I heard there is an Ethiopian restaurant in SLC I want you guys to try! If you go, order Beef Tibs or Kay Wat Beef. Both are served with Enjera! It is super good! Let me know if you ever go! Love you all! Thanks for all of the great letters and support you give. It really keeps me going! 

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder McLain

I don't even feel like I have done anything that comes close to being worthy of receiving so much joy and happiness in my life

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to start with a quick thanks for the love and support my family and I have received from everyone who keeps up with us! I love you guys!

A super great week over here on the other side of the world. The area of Ntinda is still thriving and the work goes forth boldly and nobly! I had a bit of a different week due to transfers and receiving a companion a few days after transfer. But it all worked out great and ended so well!

This week was great! The beginning was a bit crazy with transfer. Elder Haines got packed and shipped of to Iganga and I got to hang out with Elder Barrington for a few days while my son came. Elder Barrington is a 6'6" 275 lb. BYU football commit. He is just a month and a half older than me on mission. We plan to room together back in Provo when we are done. He is so awesome! My new companion got here on Thursday and we met at the mission home for a little training. We enjoyed it. My son and I are a lot alike. We enjoy a lot of the same things and get along super well. Again like with Elder Haines it is just as if I am with a best friend doing the work! I have been blessed with the best companions! I don't know if it is to reward me or help me but I would like to think the latter. All in all the mission is just the best.

We really saw a lot of tender mercies this week that built my testimony in many ways. It is cool to see how the Lord provides when you have the desire. In a way I find myself "testing" the Lord and seeing that he really does answers prayers and desires. It isn't that my faith is lacking but more that my faith is increasing daily because of the things that I see and do. Lately I have noticed a big increase in my teaching ability. The thing I have come to realize is that most of the time I don't even know what I am saying but rather the Holy Ghost is literally taking me by the reigns and doing the work. In the last few weeks I have had an increased understanding and capability of the Spirit helping me with the work.

It is small to many but big to me that these little thoughts and promptings bring forth such great things. Being the senior companion and training has challenged me to really plan and lead the area. Countless times in the last few days I have found myself overwhelmed and confused on what to do. Every time I feel promptings to do the weirdest things and the coolest things happen! For example, my first week last transfer (6 weeks ago) we met a boy named Emma. He was smart and receptive but somehow ghosted us after our first lesson. After teaching him and moving on I honestly forgot about him. On Saturday after lunch we were left with nothing to do. I was about to say we could do some finding but then out of nowhere he popped in to my head. I had this strong feeling that we needed to go to his place. At first I thought there was no chance of him being home and that he would be in class or work but after a few minutes I said why not and we went. After 20 or so minutes of walking we arrived to his place. He was home and willingly accepted us to share with him! I was shocked and so grateful! After a great lesson we got him to come to church the next day. Emma enjoyed it a lot and is now a promising investigator. The promptings are real!

Another super cool story was with our brother Ibrahim. He was born a Muslim and converted to Christianity not too long ago. We found him a few weeks ago and have taught him most of the lessons. He refers to the church as "our church" including himself now and is so excited to get baptized on the 19th! He told us a funny story the other day I wanted to share. He and his friend were out for some fresh air outside of there work a few weeks ago and they saw Elder Haines and I marching down the dirt road. His friend leaned to him and said "Don't so much as make eye contact with these guys or they will stick to you like ticks!" After challenging his friend by greeting us, we turned and took the chance to share a message. After the message he accepted a return appointment and we are now preparing him for baptism! After he told us the story he said, "Look at us now! You are sticking to me like ticks and I love it!" Man, it is so cool how the Lord prepares people in such different ways. Ibrahim will be a really powerful convert and we look forward to his future in the church! Yesterday we came to him at his workplace and he was sipping on some coffee. We were coincidentally teaching him about the Word of Wisdom. After the lesson he committed to live it and just got rid of his fresh cup of coffee. It is so cool when people have a testimony enough to change their regular habits for a new way of life.

Right now our teaching pool is somehow small. On the bright side almost every person we are teaching is progressing rapidly to baptism! We first have Okwiri Charles. He was baptized this past Sunday! It took them 4 tries to get it right but the 4th time was the charm! So Elder Denison's first Sunday on the mission was a baptism! We also have Okot Kaifa. He is a cousin to Odongo Sam (our RC from a few weeks ago) and he has been in the village for police training. He came back this last week and we began to teach him again. He is sooo powerful! He has a strong testimony that the things we teach are true and we have set a baptism date for March 19th with him. Kaifa is a really humble guy. In our last lesson with him we got him to pray with us to ask if he should be baptized. After him saying the world's most AMAZING prayer to ask we all sat in silence and just waited. Maybe a minute later he just said he had the most relieving feeling in his chest. He is progressing well! Our next is Irene. This is a woman we have been teaching for a while now. Her problem is she can't afford transportation to church. Last week we visit her and Elder Haines and I presented the strongest lesson on the Sabbath Day. She promised to come every week and did this week. She will be getting baptized this coming Sunday! Our last really great investigator is sister Esther. She is a young woman that approached us late one night on the street. Quite honestly I think it was for the wrong reason and she was looking for a relationship or something. After a few days of cooling her down and pushing through with great lessons she really changed and started to investigate seriously. It has been about 3 weeks now. Her main problem is her family prays from a church here called Watoto. If you are curious, give Watoto a google and read more about the church that is mainly located in Africa and believes that more money means more blessings. So, Esther's family is chastising her pretty and she is hesitant. We really hope we can help her build the courage and faith to push through it and be baptized March 19th. So that is a good sized update on our amazing investigators. We love them all so much and can't wait for them to enter through the gate and onto the straight and narrow path!

Thanks so much everyone for the good reports on home. I am glad that Provo hasn't blown up or anything while I am away. I miss home but not in a way that effects the work. Uganda is home for now and I know I am supposed to be here! The missionary work is the greatest blessing in my life. I don't even feel like I have done anything that comes close to being worthy of receiving so much joy and happiness in my life. I look forward to another week in Ntinda! I love all of you guys so much! 

Have a great week!

With so much love,

Elder McLain

This is my home and I love it here

I love every inch of this kid! And I especially love his letters. This one made me smile.....and laugh. OUT LOUD! I think he's going to miss Elder Haines : (

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone had a good week wherever they are in the world. If you have forgotten, I am in east Africa here in a nice place called Kampala, Uganda. It is probably the best country on the earth and I am sure if there were some National Geographic poll that the world would agree. I can easily say that this is my home and I love it here. Ntinda is my current area and I have been here for just over a month. Last week I got the exciting news that I will be the trainer of a new missionary by the name of Elder Denison. I don't know much about him besides his name and a thumbnail picture of him. He is from Salt Lake City and I am super excited to spend the next two transfers with him here in Ntinda. Elder Haines is going to a district called Iganga to be a Zone Leader. Iganga is out in the bush really and is a scenic and pretty place. He will enjoy a lot. Elder Njezula is going to open an area in Busia which is the farthest east you can go in Uganda before hitting Kenya. It oversees Kenya and they even work with the Kenyan elders! It is an area I hope to serve in one day! That area is the actual bush! They teach a lot of Massai people (Look them up) and it just seems really cool! The two of them get sent out Wednesday morning and my companion comes Wednesday night from Provo MTC! It will be really cool.

As for this week we had a really busy one. It was full of random errands for the coming transfer and many dinner appointments before we send off my beloved companion Elder Haines to the land of Iganga. He will be in more of the "what you expect when you think of Africa" part of the mission. I am excited for him and the things he will do there.

Here in Ntinda the work is pushing along. I am really fortunate to serve in a place that sees so much joy in conversion. We had a very fruitful week and found some promising investigators.

We had a few really great experiences this week. We found one investigator named Emma that I will tell you about. On Tuesday morning we had all of our appointments bounce us and we were left without anything to do. As we left the apartment we got a call from a member that there was a man at our church who wanted to meet us. So we flew like bullets up to the church and met this man named Emma. His mother was investigating the church sometime back and he found her small small books in her house. Somehow he located the church and we taught him. He was so powerful. It is a lot different for us to teach people with a real desire to learn rather than us just knocking their door or something. When they want to know they listen well and ask a lot of questions. So we taught him Tuesday. He asked if we could teach him regularly Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 10 am. We happily agreed and met with him 3 times this week. The man continues to progress well and is very smart. He is for an elect man that has been prepared at this time for the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a real tender mercy for us that day and this whole week. He was our only new investigator for the week. Our guards Charles and Enoch continue to progress well. We also tracted into a man named Ibrahim the other week I forgot to mention. We met with him once and the lesson seemed very forced. When we struggled to meet with him again we just decided to drop him. When I was at church this Sunday I was rushing somewhere between classes and saw him sitting in a chair at the back! I did a double take and then greeted him! After all 3 hours he came to us and told us he loved church so much. We met with him again last night and taught him the Plan of Salvation. He took it so well and we are getting him a Book of Mormon today. He also asked for a Gospel Principles book because he enjoyed it so much! Ibrahim is great! We should baptize 3 or 4 on March 12th. We look forward to it and I am sure my "son" will be very excited to see baptisms.

We also had our fun times. For all the hard work we do we have to enjoy some side things. For example last P-Day we went to this totally ghetto photo studio and got nasty portraits taken. They turned out glorious and they are hanging on our wall now. It is hilarious! (see below)

A random side note. Ugandans use a lot of ginger (pronounced jinger with a hard g sound) in their drinks and food. I don't know why but I have come to hate ginger taste because of it. We get served things like hot ginger milk and other ginger drinks a lot. Heck we even had this nice passion fruit juice the other day and they just had to add a load of ginger to it. I just tip it back and chug it though. It makes me sick every time! I hope I get over it one day... Haha.

This mission is the greatest and happiest time of my life. I love every single day! Loosing yourself in the work is the best thing and really helps you enjoy the mission so much. 

Well, That is my kasmall update this week. I think I will have a nice update next week for sure. I will attach some pics though! Thank you all for the nice love you give me every day. You guys are the best. Uganda is the best too. I don't wanna leave!

Love,

Elder McLain

p.s. 

This is Agoot. A little South Sudanese girl that is darker than dark. She is awesome. Yeah so her older sister Atong got baptized a few months ago and we go to visit the family like twice a week. South Sudanese are THE BEST and nicest people. We love their family!

"Our Comp Photos. Just Beautiful."  - Elder McLain 😂

Every Day Is Super!

Hey guys! 

Wow, another great week! Not much out of the ordinary happened but those are the kind of weeks we love! When the work goes forth and smoothly you can't complain! Elder Haines and I are having a blast together. Every day is super. We teach with a lot of unity too which is a big plus. The spirit is always there when we teach and testify. This area is just awesome and I am happy to know that I will be here for a little while. 

Our week was just smooth sailing. We taught great lessons and continued to progress our investigators. It looks like the 5th of March will be a great day for Ntinda. Many baptisms! It all came down to Sunday when only 3 of them turned up to church... Agh. We taught so many and only 3!? That can be a bit frustrating. That is how the work goes though. It can't be a perfect week every week. Bless those 3 that came! 

Something that will make you happy. There is a mzungu man in our ward that married a Ugandan. I might have told you about him last week but his name is Brother Emeral. He is a really great guy. He is married to a Ugandan girl. He actually met her when he was super young and his Dad sponsored her in school. Over time they met in person and boom... married.  He started to have his wife cook us lunch every Friday! So we have gone two weeks now. It is great food and just really fun to spend time around a white guy that isn't a missionary! Haha. We just enjoy it a lot and have a great time. it is always just nice to hear an American accent and talk in our American accent for a little! The food in Ntinda is the best. I don't go a single day here unsatisfied with the food! 

Our stake is on fire right now with missionary work. They are doing a huge effort and even a stake fast to help us. Yesterday at church they handed out papers in a combined 3rd hour and made every member write like 5 referrals for the missionaries to teach. If you do the math that is like 1,345,005 new referrals for us! So we look forward to a busy week this week teaching all of them!

I think that is it for the week. Look forward to some pictures coming soon! Thanks everyone for just being so great. Keep being great. Keep reading your scriptures. I love this church so much. I love my mission so much. I hope you all have a great week! 

Love, 

Elder McLain

Another perfect week

Can it get any better than this? Well each week he continues to surprise us with his ability to be a little happier than the week before. It's got to peak right?! I don't think so. Not for Colby.  So grateful for where he is, what he's doing, and how he is serving. Love our missionary!

Hey everyone,

I hope you had a great week. Couldn't have been as good as mine though because you probably aren't serving a mission in Uganda. And if you are, lucky you!

Well, this week was another perfect week. It blows my mind that I get through week after week with more and more joy and love for missionary work. I can't even put into words my love for this place and this work. The mission is just the best. Sorry family, but I dont really wanna go home!

The work is amazing right now. Ntinda is extremely fruitful and prepared for the Gospel. Our teaching pools are constantly full and we struggle to see most of our investigators in the week. Right now we have a few really great investigators and look forward to a couple more baptisms in the coming weeks.

So we have a few great investigators right now. Charles is actually one of our guards. It was quite out of the blue that we just shared small small with him and he just came to church. Now he has come 3 weeks in a row and will most likely be baptized in 2 weeks. He is probably about 25 years old and a great guy. We are also teaching another guard named Enoch. We tracted into him at his work place and have taught him a few times. He as well is very powerful. He is only 17 but just awesome. He should be baptized in 3 weeks. Another investigator is a young girl we met at church yesterday. Her story is very unique. She is from Tanzania and speaks very, very little english. She had a friend that came with her to church and when she accepted to be taught after she told us a great story that her friend translated (in broken English and Luganda mixed (my Luganda is coming along small small and so I can understand some few things)). So she had prayed to ask God to guide her to the true church. That night she had a dream that she was at a church that only spoke English and even had some few Mzungus. She thought about it and knew her friend attended such a church and knew she needed to go with her. So she came to our church! She said it was just like her dream too! When we taught her her friend translated into Swahili for her and she accepted everything so quickly. She even accepted a baptism date of March 12th and smiled so big when we asked her to be baptized. After we closed the lesson and were leaving the church we held back while Topista and Esther walked off to go home. When we were talking we saw Topista literally swinging her arms out and spinning in circles just overfilled with happiness. She knows she found the truth and can't wait to join the church. It was an awesome experience. To top it we have a key indicator of 3 investigators at church on Sunday. We sadly only had 2 at the start and it wasn't until after church that they approached us and we realized she was our 3rd. That was a great tender mercy for the week! So the work goes forth only by the hand of our God. He is the one who brings the tender mercies every day. The real question is are our eyes open enough to see them.

My companion and I are enjoying each other so much right now. Elder Haines is awesome! This week we had a funny scare. At about 3am the power went out and our fan turned off. I woke up because I about drowned in sweat. When I was awake I realized the shower was on. Not only was it on but I could hear someone in there! We had just talked to a member that night before about how he had been robbed so you can imagine the stuff going through my head. Dont be scared mom because we have really good guards that guard our house with bows and arrows and spears. Talented warriors no question. Anyways, I looked over and saw what I thought was Haines figure in his bed and that really made me freak out. So I eventually heard the shower turn off and flipped out so I jumped up and went to wake Haines. When I hit his bed he wasn't in it. I was so out of it that I literally thought "Oh man they got Haines already and then they are coming for me!" So I just prayed and asked for some helped and jumped back in bed. Keep in mind I am half asleep this whole time. After a minute of sitting in bed the bathroom door opens and someone walks out. Since the power was out he just had a small flashlight. It was Haines all along! I just sat there and asked what the heck he was doin. Turns out he was a bit sick and couldn't sleep and felt a shower could help. So we had a good laugh! Hahaha. I think it was funnier in person and not over email. Sorry if my humor has gotten lame.... haha.

I am so happy to hear about Sam!! Yess!!! I was even thinking about that recently! I can't wait to see where he goes! I will have to think of my guess for him and you can put it down when he opens it! Hmmm:

State Side: McAllen Texas!

International: Tegucigalpa Honduras

Haha that is my guess. We will see!

Question, did you ever get the chance to listen to The Mortal Christ talk by Jack R Christensen? I really hope you have or will. Even Tab I would hope to listen to it. (Wow my grammar is really going out the window!) Let me know!

 I am having a hard time wording sentences these days because Ugandans have a different way of wording things. I am sure you have noticed some few random grammatical changes in my letters.

Well, all is great right now. The mission is far better than I could have ever imagined. The work goes forth every week and gets better every day. I love my mission and my companion so much. The work is out of this world right now. I can't write enough or express enough my love for this place and the work. I look forward to every day. Thank you all for your love. 

With love,

Elder McLain

Pictures from Ntinda

Colby sends us pictures almost weekly. Here's a selection from Ntinda where he is currently serving. Ntinda is a more established part of Kampala and includes neighborhoods where many government ministers reside.

Fake In-n-Out.

The Ntinda elders. Colby's companion is Elder Haines on the right.

Happy to be serving!

On the edge of town.