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~ "Monkeys at the Beach"

Dear Family and Friends,

This week Elder Mair had another great week. We had a transfer high in member present lessons which we were both super stoked about! We didn't have too eventful of a week aside from that, but here are some of the highlights.

During the week, Elder Mair and I made a crock pot full of white bean chilli that would've one a ward cook-off somewhere. It was super nice I had it over rice for dinner three straight nights! 

On Friday, I almost got caught in one of the gnarliest rain storms I've seen since I've been in Uganda. As we were walking to the area, with the rain cloud looming behind us, right as it began to pour, the Stake President pulled up and gave us a ride to Mama Mafabi's home. Seriously such an answer to our prayers!

As for our baptism this week, it wasn't the most normal baptism and it will probably go down as my favorite, most remembered baptism on mission. I feel like Elder Mair can recount it more adequately than I can so I'll leave you his account of it.

"And to top of my week, we had the baptism of a very wonderful investigator who has progressed  in so many ways since the time I've been here.

 The baptism was less than normal...

As we coaxed her into the baptismal pool, insuring her complete safety, she mumbled under her breath that she was afraid of water and couldn't swim...

The 18 year old who was performing the baptism (his first baptism) promised her all would be well as he lent her a hand down into the pool...

He calmly reminded her that she was going to be ok and he preceded with the Baptism.

As he tried immersing her she let out a loud cry and kicked her feet up and flailed around, searching for land...

The Boy performing the baptism let her go as he nervously saw her thrashing in the pool.

As he let her go, she went under the water, taking in a HUGE gulp.

Coughing and dripping and crying, she swore in her wrath that the Boy was never to touch her again and she was NOT going back into the water.

We informed her of what went wrong and tried explaining to her that she needed to relax and bend her knees if her baptism was to be done by immersion...

We finally talked her into getting back into the water on her condition that I, a much larger person and more capable of lifting her again, was to preform the baptism.

At length, the ordeal was over and her baptism was complete. And though she was in a frenzy in the pool, she bore a powerful testimony of her conversion and she was a good sport about her incident in the water."

She has been one of my favorite investigators so far on my mission and had such a great desire to learn. I'm so thankful she was able to make this covenant in her life even though it wasn't the easiest of experiences for her.

Today, we got to visit Entebbe beach. We got to enjoy the jungle landscape and the accompaniment of a few new friends. 

Thank you for all your support and have a wonderful week!

Love,

 Elder Hazen