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!

 Teddy teaching Mirembe

 Me jumping off a mountain

Going to a game park 

Found a zebra skull

The baptisms of Julius and Agnes 

Coming out of the waters of baptism

 FIFA 2019

 At a fancy cafe. Couldn't afford anything......

 Still happy

 Elder Kubs getting ready to clean the baptismal font

Our guard dog

Until we meet again Masaka!

I am leaving Uganda

Goodmorning everyone,

I hope the week was just swell for you wherever you were. For me it is still great. Masaka is still the best. The weather is still the best. The people are still the best. Everything is still the best.I am just getting my last work in before I leave the area. I am saying goodbye to a lot of people and preparing the area because my companion and I are pretty sure we are both leaving Masaka. 

I don't have much to talk about this week. The transfer is coming to a close. At the beginning of the transfer we came to the area with 0 investigators. Right now we have 3 people on track for baptism next Sunday and 3 others in the future. Masaka is so prepared. I will tell the story of one man that is special to me. Julius is a man I have mentioned before. He was sort of a street boy growing up. Many kids run away from their family at a young age and live on the street to avoid school, being beat, working etc. So Julius ran away at a younger age. He is pretty rough. All his clothes are ripped and old and smelly. He comes to church is old ripped pants and usually no shoes. He is extremely cross eyed and cant really read or see because of it. His english is small but he tries. We have been teaching him for a few weeks. This week we visit him to share one last lesson before prepping baptisms. I was also on an exchange with Elder Haines. We began teaching him about Tithing. He stopped us pretty early in the lesson and in broken English just said, "Brothers, I know what tithing is. I have been paying." He looked at us with a smile after and we just looked at him with a huge smile too! It was so awesome. He told us he actually didn't know where tithing went but he knew it needed to be paid. I can't imagine his contribution is much, but 10% is 10% to everyone and thats why we are commanded no more and no less. Julius is a powerful man. The church and especially tithing has blessed his life!

This week we got to go pretty far into the village to two places to visit some really dedicated members. The first was Kalisizo which is 26km from Masaka and the second is Kyotera (pronounced Chyotera). There we got to see a few members and had a great time. It is always cool to see parts of Uganda that no missionaries have every been. I could even say no white people have really ever been.... 

Well, thats it for the week. Stay tuned next week to find out where I am going for transfers... Hint hint I am leaving Uganda. Have a good week everyone!

Love,

Elder McLain

This is Hanifah. She was a muslim who got converted

Elder Kubheka and I 

Still loving Masaka!

 These smiles say it all. 

Playing with the kids! 

 More playing

Elder Kubheka with his plate of food

 Me with Tab's friend Figgs Hofheins who came to visit. 

He served in this mission a few years ago.

 This will go down in history.... 

We did all the official paperwork to split Masaka Branch into 2 branches!!

A plate full of glorious food!

Ugandan funerals......sad but fun

Hello from Masaka!

Well we had a really good week. It went by super duper fast but was really fun. There was a lot of work and a little bit of struggle but all went well. My companion and I are super happy with how everything is going. We spent a lot of our time locating and teaching these new investigators. At the same time we were unable to meet with a few due to some business on their part but that's okay. We actually met two people who came on Sunday and said that the church was mad and they never wanted to hear from us again. So we narrowed down and were able to meet with about 8. All in all it was a successful week.

Earlier this week we were at a members house. There is a guy here named Chris. He is less active but lives in Masaka. Chris is actually African American and fled here to hide from a gang he wanted to leave. He embraced the culture well and liked his life. On Saturday Chris was hit by a car and died. They held his burial on Sunday and we went briefly. Ugandans actually celebrate funerals a lot like weddings so it was fun! Sad but fun. 

I will tell you about the ones who are progressing well. First we have Julius. He is about 23 of so. He is a really great guy but somewhat quiet. We have taught him twice and he has a baptismal date of August 13th. He is fully prepared and working great. He was at church on Sunday. We also have Mirembe, meaning Peace. She is a villager who hasn't spent much time outside of the village. She knows very little English but we have been taking Teddy, our recent convert, to help translate and teach. Mirembe as well has a baptismal date on the 13th of August. She fell sick on Sunday and was not able to come. We hope to see her tomorrow. The next one we have is Godfrey. I mentioned him last week. We were finding and found him at a school. He was taught a long time back and is happy to meet again. He will also be potentially baptized on the 13th of August. The last is Agnes. She is living with the Branch President and is a teen aged girl. We taught her once last week. Like the others, August 13th is her baptismal date. So we have a lot of potential baptisms on that date and need to work hard. To comment on Teddy, she is doing amazing. We were able to get Teddy some reading materials like True to the Faith and Gospel Principles... She is just eating up the books. Yesterday President Robert told us that Teddy came to him at church and asked to start her mission papers. He told her to slow down a bit because she was only baptized a month ago. She is mostly finished with the Book of Mormon and is just insanely Powerful. She is a big help in teaching Mirembe. It is awesome!!

Yes Hafsaah... Sorry I forgot. Hafsaah did come to church last week but was a bit too busy this week to visit. She is having issues with her family and leaving them. She called President Robert and said not to forget about her and that she will pray and do her best to come. President Robert called us last night and said we need to work on seeing her this week. 

And yes I am totally over home sickness. I actually love to hear what you guys are doing. I am a little jealous of Top Golf but of course it will be there when I get  back. You can send me anything you want! I enjoy pictures of food too!!! haha

Tomorrow we are going to Kampala for some work permit things. I am going to get a custom suit made for 150,000shs. I think thats like $45 or something like that. I hope that's okay. It will be the one I wear home and it will have a cool Ugandan twist!

I don't have much more to write.. We had a really good week. It has been a great time in Masaka and I have grown a lot here. I love this place! Have a good week and safe travels. 

Love you all!

Love,

Elder McLain

Me and Kubheka eating sugar cane. 

Some monkeys were trying to steal it from us 

Feeding the pig to the kids now!

Feeding this kid to the pigs

 harvesting maize

Stubborn kids : )

Elder Christiansen 

(exactly like Reese Rasband hahaha)

 Masaka missionaries

some road out far in Kikukumbi

The District

A Week of Miracles!

Hey People,

We had a week of miracles in Masaka! It was amazing for us and we saw answers to our prayers. Elder Kubheka and I worked really hard and prayed for a lot of help. It was also one of my first times fully feeling the Spirit answer my prayers. Seriously I still can't comprehend the miracles that happened but they did happen and we feel super duper blessed!

Early in the week we sat down with our Zone Leaders and discussed what it's going to take to improve this area this very transfer. We felt that we needed serious goals that would stretch us to work hard. On that day we had 0 people that we knew could for sure be baptized this transfer. We also realized that week 2 (this last week) was the critical week for us to find people to progress them to baptism by the end of week 6 (the last week of the transfer). My companion and I decided to pray and ask for help to know what to do and what goals we set. We prayed and sat for an answer. After a few minutes we both felt very similar promptings. We decided we could find 3 people this week and set a goal for 3 baptisms this transfer. To add to it we agreed and felt prompted to be punctual in all things. Lastly we agreed that we couldn't do it on our own and we needed to pray hard and study hard to increase our faith in the Lord to lead us to these people. I spent a lot of my week studying how to recognize the promptings of the Spirit. Well, after doing multiple hours of door knocking every day we didn't find much success. We were just stumped and didn't really know what to do. We prayed hard and worked hard and only turned up with 4 decent investigators for the week. For the amount of finding we did that is not a lot at all. When we got to church on Sunday we expected only 2 investigators to be there. After sacrament we counted those 2 and continued through church. We began to talk to a few people around who were new faces and this is where the miracle began. I talked to a lady named Hafsaah. She was raised a Muslim her whole life and was a bit older. Maybe 50 (thats old here no offense haha). Hafsaah woke up Sunday morning and just felt that she needed to make a change. She got ready and walked 30 minutes from Kidda to Masaka town. She continued and passed countless churches and found herself, on time, to our church. She just felt prompted to attend. At the end of church she went by herself to Branch Presidents office and told him she had found the truth and that she wanted to be taught and baptized! That's only one. WE HAD 3 OTHER PEOPLE show up with no help, no fellowship and no prior contact. Our prayers were to help us find the elect and the elect to find us. Sunday was a huge day for us. To add to the miracle we had a member bring 3 different friends who all lived in our area as referrals and another member bring a friend. In total we expected 2 investigators at church and had 10!! I can't really believe it. We taught two of them. One is named Julius. He is a middle aged man who just showed up. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation and extended a baptismal date for the 13th of August which he happily accepted. The other is Agnes. She is the daughter of a member. We taught her the Restoration and gave her a baptismal date of the 6th of August. The rest are scheduled to meet this week. We have work to do!!!!

That's my good update for the week. I hope everyone has a good week and birthday wishes Tab and Rorie. Happy birthdays!! Love you guys.

Thanks for keeping up with me. 

Love,

Elder McLain

Masaka STRONG!

Elder Cook, Elder McLain, Elder Kubheka 

doing the work!

Masaka STRONG!

 Hanging with Chloe, one our recent converts daughters

Giving Elder Barber a haircut with nose hair scissors 

Harrah for Masaka!

Masaka......you have been good to our son. Thank you for blessing his life!

Hi friends and family!

Well we had a huge week in Masaka! It was one of the best weeks of the mission as far as the work goes. We worked so darn hard and had a lot of great success. It was awesome.

Early in the week we were going left and right back and forth to all of our investigators to prepare them for the baptisms. This was the big week. All of our work early in the transfer was cooked up and prepared for this very week... It was delicious. We started off hard with our investigators making sure they understood everything and would be ready for the interviews. All 3 of them did a great job. Nakato Teddy was so impressive. She is 17 and just has a strong desire to learn it all. She takes notes in our lessons and at church. She asks inspired and deep questions all the time too. One time she asked us to describe to her how the Urim and Thummim was used to translate the Book of Mormon. Yeah.... She is prepared! Gorreth and Ayub are cousins and we worked hard to make sure they could be baptized together on the same day. We had many others we had to meet and work with as well but these 3 were our key focus. Sunday came and the 3 of them met all the spiritual and temporal requirements for baptism. I was asked by each of them to baptize them and so I did my FIRST physical baptizing on my mission. Normally we encourage other ward members to baptize in order to have a fellowship for when the missionaries leave but in this case with all 3 asking me, I wasn't going to tell each of them to choose a member. So, I was able to participate in the baptisms for the very first time on my mission! It was so awesome. It was a great experience and I loved the happiness and love I felt for each of them as I watched them be baptized. They all did great in the baptism and bearing their testimonies at the end. What a great thing that all 3 of our investigators entered the waters this week. Go Masaka!

President and his wife came to our branch this Sunday. I think he was impressed with the work from our elders. We had the 3rd highest attendance of all time at 162 people. We had 5 baptisms (3 of which were from me and my companion). We also had 3 confirmations in Sacrament (2 of which were from us as well).  So, a lot of work was done! 

We got our transfer news this Saturday and I was a bit surprised. Fortunately I am staying in Masaka but moving to the other side in another district. Even better I am staying with Elder Kubheka. It will be fun and hard work for us these next 6 weeks! We will also be walking but I am excited about that. A truck put too much freedom in the work and that made it good in some ways but bad in others. I prefer walking though. 

On Saturday we took a quick stop at our Muslim friends in Bwala. They are from Pakistan and are all really fun. They invited us to play some cricket with them. We joined in a game and played. My companion played on the South Africa National cricket team before his mission so he is obviously insanely good. I picked it up really fast though and wasn't half bad myself. We had a ton of fun. Later we got back to work though of course...

I had one of my favorite weeks for studying. I challenged myself to deeply study Jacob 5 and truly understand each and every verse. I learned some amazing things and had no idea the chapter prophesied so many things. The chapter literally prophecies the time before Christ, the time of Christ, the great apostasy, the gathering of Israel and the Millennium. I want to leave a spiritual thought with you. One of my favorite parts is in Jacob 5:41,47 and 49. The Lord of the Vineyard goes down to check the trees. We can assume this is after the time of the Great Apostasy and just before the Gathering of Israel. The Lord of the Vineyard goes down to see that all of the scattered trees, even those bearing good fruit in the past, are all corrupt. The evil fruits and corrupt branches overtook the good fruits and made the whole tree bad. He then says in those three verses, weeping, "What could I have done more for my vineyard." God does all he can for his children. He is fully engaged in our lives and often times we do nothing to thank him. In fact we are almost always disappointing him with our actions. After the times of the Great Apostasy, God wondered what more he could have done. Fortunately we later read that he began to mix the good and the bad in all the scattered trees and eventually life came back to them to the point that no evil could overcome them. We are in the Gathering of Israel and each of our good efforts is strengthening the good branches and bringing forth good fruits. Let's remember this and keep up our good work. 

I hope you all had a great week and that this week is even better.  Enjoy the fun activities for the Fourth. For me I will probably buy a chicken and slaughter it for the Fourth. Stay tuned!

Thank you all for the love and support! Have a good 4th of July! We will celebrate here too!

Love,

Elder McLain 

 

Harrah for Masaka!

Baptisms in order of Gorreth, Ayub and Teddy!