Weekly Update~ "Beginning to Understand a Particle of What the Savior's Love is Like"

Dear Friends and Family, 

This week was a wonderful week. In my previous letters these last couple of weeks, I have been expressing some of my frustrations with the lack of people to teach. This week, we were able to receive 4 family referrals and contacted 2 on the street. We have begun teaching 3 of those families and I am just overwhelmed as I reflect on how much I saw the Lord's hand this week. I am beginning to get more confident in stopping and talking to people on the street and I know that increased confidence has come by help from the Lord and the Spirit. I know if I continue doing what's right and continue listening to the small promptings of the Spirit, the success will continue to come. I've also been praying that when we do find families, we'll be able to teach them with power and authority so the Spirit will be able to confirm in their hearts the things we teach them are true. 

We were able to have one Mama and her 4 kids as well as 2 daughters from another family at church this week so I hope more opportunities continue to open up. As I was sitting in church, I was thinking about how blessed Elder Dowdle and I were this week.  I was thinking about how much I wanted the people at church to enjoy the service so they could progress in the gospel.  I realized that I have really grown to love these people and I truly do desire their salvation and I'm beginning to see them how our Savior sees them and I am extremely grateful for that. 

In other news, we've continued to have good experiences with brother David's family. His son, Addison, will be baptized next Sunday and Reegan was confirmed yesterday. Yesterday I also had the opportunity to give David a Priesthood blessing because he's been a bit sick lately. Reegan has developed a habit of following us from appointment to appointment after we finish teaching the family for the day and I've really enjoyed having him around. He's become my little buddy:) Being able to be with David and his family have become one of my favorite parts about serving in Lugazi and I consider it a huge blessing I've been able to get to know them.

Some other side stories:

• It was Elder Ward's Birthday Tuesday and Elder Dowdle and I found a puzzle in our closet so we decided to finish it and put it on his bed as a nice Birthday bonus gift… I really think he enjoyed it.
  
  
  
• The baseball guys have been out of town for tournaments lately so, while Elder Ray went and taught piano this week, Elder Ward and I went and played pick up basketball for a half hour in between lessons at a court nearby…needless to say, the Mzungus (White People) dominated, and I may or may not have thrown down a dunk or two.
• Andrew has been teaching me how to cook local food dishes and I am able to cook a few without his help. My favorite is cabbage with tomatoes and sauce over rice and potatoes. I'm super excited to come home and cook anything I want with a grocery store a 5 minute drive away!
  
• Rain still sucks. Yesterday it was absolutely dumping and we were caught in the middle of a field and we had to sprint to a local motel on the side of Jinja Road to wait out the storm for about an hour. Brian, one of the members was walking with us and he found some temporary cover for Elder Dowdle and I.
  
• Today for P-day, we went to the Mabira Forest about 10 minutes away from Lugazi with some members. We walked through rain forest all morning and afternoon and saw monkeys… made the trip worth it:) It literally felt like walking through Disneyland or something but I kept having to remind myself that I was walking through the real deal. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
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I love you guys so much! This week I'm going to focus on making a point of how important family history is with my investigators. Keep making time for the temple and making it so your ancestors are able to receive the saving ordinances of the Gospel!

Elder Hazen

Weekly Update~ "Waterless and Powerless!"

Dear Friends and Family,

This week would've been loads better if we didn't lose water for three
days.  We just had our water tanks cleaned-that's where we get all our water-
and the water doesn't refill until Saturday. So, after they were cleaned
we just went without, we had to fill up buckets to bathe etc. and
mostly had to eat out and we had to pour buckets of water to flush
toilets etc… it wasn't too bad though:) We also had a power surge that blew up nearly all our light bulbs in the house, our microwave, our fridge, and our toaster. But, fear not
because we saved our oven so we're still cooking big with what
resources we still have...Blessed are those who endure:) However, it
did not hinder the work, because Elder Dowdle and I were able to have a
great week.

House Water Pump

At Zone Conference, Sister Chatfield encouraged us to focus on a new
Christlike Attribute and work on developing it for the next few
months. The attribute I'm focusing on now is Patience. Since I've
begun to do that, and pray for more patience in my daily prayers, I've
seen many blessings. First of all, I've become more patient with the
people. This has allowed me to express more love to them which
motivates me to share the gospel more by stopping people to talk to
them while moving from appointment to appointment. It also has allowed
me to be more calm when things don't go as planned. As I've studied
the scriptures in Preach My Gospel about Patience, I've realized that
Patience isn't only being calm when people annoy you. It's trusting in
the Lord's will for you and his timing when you ask for things you
need and for blessings in the work. As I am submissive and trust in
the Lord and his plan, I know everything is going to work out and I
realize that more and more every day.

We were able to go on exchanges with our Zone Leaders, Elder Robinson,
and Elder Empey on Friday as well. Elder Empey was assigned to work
with us for the day and because he is only a few weeks from going
home, I tried to apply the things he was teaching Elder Dowdle and I
throughout the day. I've realized that you can never fine tune or
practice skills in proselyting enough and there's always something
that can be improved. He gave us a lot of advice for how we can
improve and strengthen the branch and our area.

Currently, we only have 3 investigators with baptism dates- Reegan,
Alfred, and Addison. Reegan and Addison are brothers and are both
Blind David's sons. I had the opportunity to baptize Reegan who is 9 years old
yesterday in the pouring rain which was quite an experience. The
rain filled up the font behind the church completely full so I had to
hold Reegan up during the performance of the baptism because he was
too short to stand. I'm very excited for David and his family. He was
very emotional and was elated that another one of his children
received the blessings of baptism. Another one of his sons, Isaac,
lives in another city and is being taught by the missionaries as well
and is being baptized within the next few weeks.

Completely Filled Up Babtismal Font

Rain Filled up the Font to the Top!

Reegan and Elder Hazen

Alfred has a wife and has been coming to church every week for a month
now, but we haven't had the opportunity to teach her yet because she's
been in the hospital. We were able to go give her a blessing Thursday
evening and she gave birth to a healthy baby boy Friday. We are hoping
they will all be able to progress towards baptism together when she
gets home.

As we have been trying to replenish our teaching pool, it's been
difficult but I know our efforts aren't wasted and things will begin
to improve in the area this week due to the fact we received 8
referrals last week.

I'd like to share a small thought from what I learned in my studies
from 1 Nephi 16. In this chapter, Nephi and his family continue
through the wilderness and he describes his experiences as they were
directed by the Liahona where to hunt for food for the family. One
day, Nephi's steel bow broke and they were unable to obtain food to
feed their family. As the circumstances grew more difficult, more and
more people in the family began to murmur until Lehi himself was
murmuring. However, Nephi shows a lot of his character by submitting
to the Lord in his time of trial and relies on the Lord on where to go
after he fashions a bow and arrow out of wood. From this we can learn
that attitude determines the outcome of situations. All of Nephi's
family was going through the same circumstance but Nephi looked at the
situation with an optimistic point of view and acted, and with the
help of the Lord he was able to accomplish his task. I look at it the
same way with Elder Dowdle and I's situation with replenishing our teaching
pool. Many missionaries have gone through trials like this before, but
it's all about how we view the situation. I have been trying to be
optimistic and I know that as I'm patient with the Lord's timing, he
will help us find new families to teach.

I love you all!
Love, Elder Hazen

"Instagram Surprise!"

Rob and I got a message on our Instagram with this picture.  It was from a woman visiting Lugazi and she noticed our Boy in the Smoothie Shop.  He was not hard to miss, she said she saw him getting smoothies 3 times that week and had to get a picture of him to send to us.  I just love kind people who take the time to brighten someone's day!

Weekly Update~ "Zone Conference, Starting From Scratch and Running Around in the Rain!"

Baptisms

Future Missionaries

Public Service Announcement

Baptism

Dear Friends and Family,

  This week was another great week in the UKM! We were able to have Zone conference as well as Zone development meeting.  It was great to be able to hear from so many of our mission leaders and get our minds refocused. In both Zone conference and ZDM, President, the AP's, and the zone leaders emphasized improving our unity within the mission among companionships, districts, etc. (No issues in Lugazi because my district has become some of my best friends). We were able to talk about teaching simply and refocusing our efforts on teaching families because of the need to build the foundation for the church in Uganda. We were able to set new goals as a mission and as zones and everyone is ready to improve upon next year and help these countries progress by receiving the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

  We are finally getting some moisture again after a a few dry weeks.   Elder Ward and I took advantage of it last week after it began pouring in what became one of the gnarliest storms I've seen since i've been in Uganda. It didn't phase us, as we ran around the compound while Andrew yelled at us to get inside. Do missionaries still have fun? Yes, Yes they do.

  As promised, I wanted to update briefly about our teaching pool and what has been going on around here with our investigators and recent converts. Elder Dowdle have been baptizing our solid investigators lately, which has been good, however we have been having difficulty finding new families. We have been starting from scratch and have focused our efforts on that. Since we've done that, we definitely have been seeing the Lord's hand as we have seen new referrals trickle in. Right now, we are teaching Reegan, one of David's sons. I don't know if I've told you about David, but he is one of the most powerful people I have ever met and he never ceases to amaze me. He is blind but still makes an effort to come to church every week. Visiting with him every week makes my day because he has such a positive outlook on life. Elder Dowdle and I are hoping that teaching David's children will motivate his wife to begin letting us teach her so we can progress their family all together. Reegan will be baptized Sunday. We are also teaching Julius Caesar, who is a college student who is the oldest in his family. He found Elder Dowdle a few weeks ago and asked us if we could come to his home and teach him and his family because he's been looking for a church for him and his family to join. We've been teaching him, and he has been accepting all of our commitments and contributes to all lessons on Sunday. He is awesome. So far his family hasn't been too interested, but hopefully it'll change in the future. Also, Isaiah, who has become one of my best friends here, went back to the village for a family emergency. I miss him a lot, and know I may not be able to see him any time soon, but I know he will help the church grow wherever he is. 

  Yesterday, in our branch, we had  the Primary Program. It was honestly one of the most spiritual experiences I've had on my mission.  Being able to see how much these children have learned and see them bare their simple yet powerful testimonies. The gospel is simple and is meant to be simple, it was cool to be able to feel of the sweet spirit children bring to the church. It reminded me of home and of my days in Primary and made me so grateful to have been taught the very same things growing up. I love you all so much. 

Also, for all you who want to know, my mailing address is:

Uganda Kampala Mission

Nakawa House Ground Floor

Plot 7 Port Bell Road

P.O Box 8989

Nakawa, Kampala, Uganda

In case you wanted to drop a written note:) 

Love,
 Elder Hazen

Weekly Update~ "Goats and Hoes"

Dear Friends and Family,

   This week was a very busy, productive week. We were able to welcome in the New Year (by being home by 6:30 and not sleeping), we were able to visit many members and new investigators, Elder Dowdle threw a few kids, we were able to give a few hours of service, and we were able to have a few baptisms. But I'll explain everything in detail in a second.

   I'd first like to start off by saying Happy Birthday to my beautiful mother and wanted to let her know I'm sending all my love from here in Uganda.

   This week was much-needed because Elder Dowdle and I were finally able to see some of the fruits of our labors these past few weeks. I was very thankful to see the Lord's help. On Wednesday, we got invited over for food by a RM who got back from the Johannesburg South Africa mission a few years ago. He is a cook at a local guest house in Lugazi.  We didn't know what to expect. We were absolutely blown away. He made us rice, beef, and potatoes covered with an amazing gravy. It was amazing! 

   On New Years Eve, there wasn't much clebrating on our part in public due to the fact that we had to be home at 6:30. However, we had a bonfire in our driveway and we burned our Christmas ties in.  I was getting a bit tired of mine...wearing the same tie for a month straight can get boring. At around 9:30, the power went out in the house, so we thought it'd be a good idea to go to bed... or so we thought. For all you wondering, yes, they definitely celebrate New Years here. They celebrate by blasting music in their houses until the early hours of the morning... there were at least 4 trucks driving around our neighborhood playing music so that definitely didn't help things. At around 3 in the morning, the noise began to die down…but then, our guard Steven took it upon himself to keep the party going. So, he took a pair of sticks from the remains of our bonfire and began smashing them together and screamed from time to time "HAPPY NEW YEAR". On Friday, we woke up with a grand total of 4 hours of sleep…so yeah basically I hate New Years now haha. 

   We were able to go to one of our recent converts, Sunday Toko's farm and dig in his yard for a few hours.  Digging in yards and gardens for people in the branch has become my favorite thing to do for service lately. 

A few other miscellaneous stories from this week:

• Elder Ray bought a chicken and slayed it in our back yard...it was a bit entertaining to watch him attempt to chase it down before beheading it.
• Elder Dowdle was swinging kids around while we were waiting for an appointment at someone's house and jokingly asked one if he wanted to be thrown…he said yes, and tossed him into a patch of grass a few feet away...hahaha he didn't like that very much and needless to say, I died laughing. 

   This week, we were able to baptize 3 of our investigators this Sunday. (Pictures will be sent next week…sorry I apologize).  Samuel and Clement moved to Lugazi recently and one of the branch members, Francis, built a great friendship with them, which made teaching them very easy. They have accepted everything we taught them from the very beginning. I'm excited for the contribution and strength they'll add to the branch. The third investigator we baptized is named Jackie. She, like Samuel and Clement, was very accepting of everything we taught her. Her sister, Susan, is already a member. We had a wonderful baptismal service, and I'm so thankful for the Spirit that has helped us teach them.  I'll talk more about the area and our investigators next week. 

   This week, I've been studying the Atonement more in depth and I've learned that my Mission is a lot like the probationary state of testing and progressing that our Earth Life provides as part of the Plan of Salvation. I've come to realize that submitting my will to the Savior is not only the intelligent thing to do, but it's the ONLY way that I can progress and become what he wants me to be in this life and the life to come. If I lose myself for these two years, I'll be able to develop into the type of man I want to become, one that can answer to each of the Lord's calls, one that can be a supportive husband and father, and priesthood holder. 

I love you all. Have an amazing week! Have fun working on your New Year's resolutions,

Elder Hazen