Halfway through the last transfer.

I apologize for not sending out a weekly email the last 2 weeks.  All is well in the Uganda Kampala Mission.  The transfer is halfway done, and it seemed like the transfer started yesterday, Oh boy.  But right now, we are enjoying the work that is getting done.  We started interviews with some of the zones already, and the Assistants are providing training for the missionaries.  Our focus is we invite, they commit, we follow up.  So in other words, we are doing our best to boost our committing skills.  We are having a really hard time getting people to come to church so we prepared some really great insights that will help them.  We even included an old 70’s BYU short film called the phone call, and we made the missionaries apply it to commitments.  We’ve been doing our interviews at the mission home for most of the zones.  When we have time to kill, we would practice our roping on a dummy steer that he has in his yard.  President Chatfield is a huge cowboy kind of guy and he’s been in the rodeo for ages.  So he teaches us how to rope, and it’s a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, the mission home got closed down for refurbishing, because the new mission president is coming in a month.  So we’ve been kicked out of our mission office and now the mission home.  But it’s all good.

This past week, we had our Mission Leaders Council, and it was my last one.  I’ve learned a ton from all of those meetings that I’ve gone to.  I’m just grateful for my leaders and the way they inspire me to work harder and become better.  OH!  And we had a baptism this past Sunday.  His name is Floyd and his parents are both members.  He’s probably the smartest kid I’ve ever met.  Even smarter than me.  But we’ve been teaching him and he’s just a powerful kid.  And his parents have been doing a great job of teaching him at home about the gospel.  So it’s kind of just one of those things where we happened to be there.  Nonetheless, we are grateful that we took part in the teaching process.

On Tuesday, we travel to the north.  We hit Gulu first, then Lira, Mbale, and lastly Iganga.  So we’ll be having our road trip week for interviews this week.  Pretty excited and it will be my last time traveling around Uganda.  I’m so grateful for the mercy and love that the Lord has blessed me with.  Many a times, I just think to myself that you should be the most perfect missionary considering where I’m at right now.  But I still make a ton of mistakes and fall short.  The fact of the matter is that grace is not something that we need when we start our journey towards salvation, but it’s a continuous energy source that keeps us strengthened when adversity comes.  Yesterday we did some tracting and we ran into a drunkard.  Hilarious guy, bless his soul.  And he was dazedly lecturing us on why we didn’t talk to him before.  He said he saw us but we didn’t go over and talk to him.  I knew exactly why we didn’t go and talk to him…… because he was drunk, and you could tell from a mile away.  But it got me thinking about how some people must feel when we don’t talk to them about that gospel.  There are some that long for something greater than themselves, and we sometimes in our everyday lives look past the fact that we have the most important message in the world.  I’ve taken for granted the power of the message and the blessings of the spirit that the message brings.  No matter what circumstances we may be in in our lives, we must always reach out to others and invite them to come unto Christ.  I love the restored gospel, and even if I fall short, the Atonement can lift us up, that we may take the Spirit as our guide.  Never take for granted the blessings that you have in your life.  Have a great week!


Elder Wilson