Week 70

Nothing's gonna stop us now! -Starship

Everybody

After about three weeks of unsuccessful attempts at having our long-awaited baptismal

getting ready for the baptism
(Left to right: Trudy, Kathy, Nancy, Morris, Joel)

service it was hard to keep trying, but we were not about to let anything stop us! Starting Tuesday we got the baptismal font cleaned and started the filling process. By the end of the day when we checked we had about two inches of water, a small amount indeed but we did not lose hope! Each day following we got one step closer to a successful baptism service. With determination to no longer be caught "High and Dry" we kept the faith strong and let the water fill each day leading up to the baptism on Sunday. By the time Sunday came around we had just enough water to comfortably baptize, what a tender mercy!

When you come home to some
 missionaries trying to kill a rat...

Elder Tshimanga and I have been preparing Nancy, Kathy, and Morris for baptism and they have been ready for a few weeks now but things kept coming in the way (mostly the water issue). Nancy and Kathy are friends of Lydia who we baptised in December. They have been anxiously preparing for their turn! A similar situation for Morris, as he is the brother to Trevor, a young man in the branch. What a great day it was for the three of them!

All I can say is that this week was a major faith-boosting week, and that we are about to see some more powerful people make the step of baptism! I know that sometimes we have trials put in our path, but if we have a little faith it is so much stronger than the challenges will ever be. The blessings only come after the trial of our faith! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Winn

Water Filling!

Week 69

High and Dry -Radiohead

Me

This week we've been left High and Dry in more ways than one.

Firstly and most importantly we had to postpone some baptisms yet again because the

Church house has been out of water so we couldn't fill the font. Though it's been dry we

The Sunrise

should have a bit of a line up for this week. We have a plan to make sure that next week we should be able to continue with the baptisms.

Second, We are still stuck in the same house with the Lira district. Elder Tshimanga and I went by the place we were planning to rent this week and there hadn't been any progress made in finishing it up to be ready to live in. It's looked exactly the same for about a month now with the landlord not wanting to be rushed and making empty promises. I called brother Godfrey and he said that we would have to go ahead and rent a different apartment a little bit further away and that he would work on the contract. This place is a little bit further away but at least we should be able to move in sometime within the next week... Fingers Crossed! Hopefully in that regard we won't be high and dry much longer. It can be tiring living as eight people in this little place. Sure it is a fun party sometimes but we

Elder Tryon and I

really could use some space, study desks, and a number of things...

Third, today we once again had a fun multi district activity going up to the mountain for a hike. Yes, excuse my word choice, we got high up and it was dry like lira always is. 

I am grateful to be a part of this work even with it's challenges. I know that I am in the right place. I love you guys! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Winn

Me pretending to know Tai Chi or something

Week 68

Do you like Pina Coloda's? (Escape - Rupert Holmes)

Enjoying the view at the Chobe Lodge

Well, my time is short but it has been another great week here in Lira. The work is

Cruising through the Bush

progressing fantastically and we have some more people ready for baptism this week, so look forward to hearing about those next week. We were supposed to have one yesterday but between water issues and branch presidency members with emergencies it did not happen. God's plan is definitely in play though because his mother would have ended up missing the baptism yesterday, but she will be able to come next week!

Today we had a fun Zone Activity. We went to Murchison Falls National Park to have some fun. As we drove in we saw many animals: some gazelles, warthogs, monkeys, giraffes, and all sorts of wildlife. It was pretty neat. We eventually met up with President and Sister Collings at the Chobe Safari Lodge inside the park where we played

A hippo watching us from afar.

some volleyball and had some lunch. Our boxed lunched had pina colada juice boxes, so naturally many of you may be able to guess what song popped into my head drowning out any other sensible options.

Other than that I don't really have a whole lot to say. Hopefully this week my district will get it's house so that we don't have to live as eight people in this one house. The one we have been waiting for in Adyel should be done this week. Though, as I explained to a friend: here in Uganda "The end of the week" could easily mean "the end of the month... of February". So anyway, fingers crossed that we can ease the housing situation by the time I email next!

Anyway, I love you guys and I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Winn

Giraffes posing for us

Week 67

Turn the page - Bob Seger

We see this stuff all the time here.

"Here I am, on the road again" the old song says. Elder Gilbert and I were pretty happy to have the chance to go down to Kampala for transfer day, but as the pages turned we found ourselves stuck in Kampala a little longer than anticipated.

Wednesday morning we set off for Kampala. The plan was to get my truck into the shop a bit early so that a service and some minor repairs could be started and completed with enough time to spare that would allow us to make the return trip on Thursday morning along with all of the other transfers. We spent most of Wednesday in the Office with the Office Elders. We managed to sneak away with the office elders' truck for long enough to visit some of Elder Gilberts converts, run some errands, and get some lunch at a nice restaurant (some nice spicy pork burritos at Java House). We kept going with a blind expectation that the plan was still A-go. Wednesday evening 

Turn the page to Thursday morning after our morning run with President Collings, and

this too...

seeing off everybody else who was transferring, the truck hadn't even been taken into the garage yet, and was still waiting in the queue. We began to brace ourselves for an extra night in town. The transfer crowd at the Kololo Chapel dwindled down to just us, another sister, and the assistants. The AP's drove us to KFC to grab lunch and then dropped us right back where we started... the office.

We tried to stay busy there, and not go too crazy. Thankfully Elder Hyer is good company to be around. Eventually we got hungry and went to another fancy restaurant called Cafe Javas for dinner, once again in the Office Elders truck. Night two was spent at the AP's apartment. We had to hand was our clothes so we had something to wear on Friday. 

Turn the page to Friday. This time around our faith that the truck would soon be finished was diminished enough that we made some plans to go and proselyte with some nearby Elders. We finalized some things at the office, got a van to drive over there and arrived in time to join them for lunch. Once the Biscuits and Gravy were gone (Thanks Elder Palmer and Elder Godfrey) we headed out the gate to get to work. Not an extra moment went by before Brother Godfrey called informing us that the truck was ready to go. However, there was a catch... we had to wait at the office for one more thing. Things were looking bleak for hopes of even heading back Friday night, but everything was taken care of by 5:00. With a little hesitance we were given the clear to go back that night, but if it had been any later we would have stayed another night.  As we drove back we got a call from President Collings asking if we were okay. We were a bit confused. Turns out, we narrowly missed a huge storm complete with swirling clouds hitting Kampala. All we saw was a light drizzle... made it back home around ten.

Anyway, we were glad to have made it back Friday night because we have many people to get ready for baptism and the area needed us. We couldn't bear the thought of our companions trying to juggle two areas full of work any longer. I am grateful that everything worked out just right! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Winn

Don't be like this guy... He's trying to sleep and drive

Week 66

Wild World - Cat Stevens

Our Baptismal Service

This week has been pretty normal. Last time you heard from me I was in Kampala for an

I promise these ones are not missionaries,
 they are monkeys next to the nile

extra unanticipated night. We left Kampala at like 5:00 AM and got back in time for our lunch appointments. President Oyet and his family hosted us for our Christmas Lunch. We saw some nice scenery on the way back. It was a pretty memorable Christmas Morning as we crossed the Nile (It gets a lot bigger as you travel north... Imagine that!), saw an Elephant cross the road, and found some monkeys and baboons playing frogger (or Crossy Road) in front of our truck. I didn't really take any pictures over the course of the week though, so you get the ones you missed out on last week of this wild world we live in. This week has been pretty Routine. I will tell you about the people we Baptized last week.

Pictured you will see ten people we had prepared. Six from our branch (Adyel) and four from Lira Town. Elder Tshimanga Baptized Violet. Violet has been faithfully attending church and paying tithing for years. She had previously been turned away from baptism for various reasons, one being that her father has two wives. We found no reason that she should be denied baptism and helped her prepare. At the time of her confirmation on Sunday she had tears of Joy running down her face. She has been waiting for this for so long... I couldn't hold back the tears myself.

Lucy was also baptized. We started teaching her when we were approached on our first week by Sister Ephrance (The Relief Society President), and Elder Sibinda and Elder Mbaki finished teaching her when they entered the area.

An Elephant Crossing the Road

Lillian was the mother of a young member named Daniel. He is preparing for a mission himself. He helped us teach her along with his siblings Mirriam and Isaac. Elder Gilbert ended up baptising her.

I Baptized Isaac, Mirriam, and Lydia. As I said before Isaac and Mirriam are a part of Daniel's Family. They are powerful kids. Lydia is the Girlfriend of our Elders Quorum President, Brother Isaac. I still remember our first and second lessons with her very clearly. At the end of our first lesson we invited her to be baptized, and I felt really good about December 22nd even though we could have made it a week sooner. She was shocked at the idea. "I'm just so happy", she said "That's my Birthday!". The next time we saw her, we followed up to see if she had prayed and received an answer about what she taught. She had prayed, but said she wasn't sure if she had received an answer yet. We discussed for a few minutes about how we receive answers to our prayers, and how the Holy Spirit testifies to us of the truth. Soon she was very confident in her newly found testimony and hasn't doubted since!

I hope I have done their stories Justice. I simply can't express how special it has been to be involved in the conversion of these amazing Brothers and Sisters! Each individual has had a very specific and fine tuned experience in finding the truth, and I am grateful for the privilege I've had to watch the process!

I Love You guys, Have a great week and a Happy New Year!

-Elder Winn

At the Nile