Prank with a twist, conference

I don't need water. We have more than plenty. I just need to remember to drink plenty of it.

My new companion is Elder Krueger. He's actually a really cool guy. I felt good about that, because we had already planned to do the prank his second night whether he was cool or not. So I was glad that he was. He definitely seemed like the type that could take a joke and laugh about it together. So Friday night we got home a little late, as planned, and the other elders (Ray and Metemi) were very ready inside the house. We were just going to do the the same thing that we've been doing. "Pretend that the house is being robbed." They turned off the main breaker, so the power appeared to be off. I gave him the keys to get in the house, and told him to get the flashlight off the table in the main room, which was obviously very dark. That morning I had showed him our matooke plantation behind our house. It's about half an acre all fenced in. But I told him that through the plantation was another door that led to the police on the other side. So when Elder Ray banged some pots and broke some glass, I screamed "go to the police, go to the police!" I ran around the house and into the back door. He was still stuck on the front porch though, because I kind of closed the door on him when he wasn't looking. When he finally got out Elder Ray and me watched him run very fast to the plantation where he then heard Elder Metemi screaming Swahili and banging the fence with a machete. He fell on the ground turing around so fast and ran back to the front. At that point the joke was over, because we knew he was cornered in with the gate locked. So as we were going to the front to get him, we heard him banging the front gate a little. I thought maybe he was trying to get it open because you can't jump it. There's big spikes on the top. But when we got to the front, we realized that's what he did... He jumped it! So we opened the gate, and he wasn't there. We called his name, and he was gone! The three of us stood there confused. We didn't know what to do. So we started to run up the one street. Nothing. We ran the other way, nothing. We ran about a mile to the church, nothing. He disappeared. This is when real concern started to set in. The facts started to run through my head. He was brand new. Two days in Uganda. He didn't know a single place in Jinja. He was scared out of his mind. And it was dark! Just a lot of different things... So we stopped in the middle of the street, said a prayer, did some silent repenting. I called the Forbes (mission couple that live near us) and broke them the bad news. I ran to their house while the other Elders went back to our house to wait for him. I drove around with Elder Forbes for a while looking for him. We said another prayer, and I said, "Maybe he's at the police." Now this was a long shot being that the real police sation was about three miles away in the middle of the town which he obviously had no clue to get to. We showed up and sure enough, he had been there and was already on his way back to the house with a bunch of officers. We got to the house and he was there with about eight officers and the other Elders. Wow. He told us that he rode on the back of a pedal boda (bike taxi) all the way into town. Well, actually half way there he told the guy to get on the back because he wasn't pedaling fast enough. And when he got to the police, the boda man asked for 5,000 schillings, which is about ten times the amount of the real price. So he paid him. In the end everything was cool. The joke was kind of on both of us that night, and in a way it united the house more. We're real close now... But we've decided that we're not going to do that prank anymore for a couple of different reasons. It went too far, and even if we did do it again, it's not like we could get a better outcome than that. I think we topped it off. Me and Elder Krueger are going to have plenty more memories to make, I'm sure.

The joke obviously went too far, but in the end, I'm glad we did it. I think he is too. It's just a memory that we'll always remember. The first time he rode on the back of a boda was at 9:30 p.m. going through the streets of Jinja to the police because he thought that his house was being robbed. He said that as he was riding the bike he thought to himself, "I can't believe this is happening. I can't wait to write to people about this." We just lucked out nothing terrible happened. Just the answer to prayers. Elder Ray said that even he and his companion prayed about it before we did the prank. He said that in their companionship planning session just before we got to the house, he said a closing prayer and asked God to watch over them that the prank would be fun and safe. But I sweating bullets when we couldn't find him. Maybe that was God showing His sense of humor, I don't know...

Elder Kreuger is an awesome guy. And he knew all about me before he came for sure! He had read all those letters I wrote and checked all the pictures you posted. So it's a good opportunity for both of us. We were all sitting around when President was announcing who was going to be with who. When he announced that "Elder Krueger will be with Elder Wright," he got vocally excited. Something along the lines of "I knew it!" But I can tell that we will really enjoy being with each other, and I'm sure we'll both have a chance to learn a lot from each other.

I listened to the two Saturday sessions, a little bit of President Eyring Sunday morning, and then our connection came back when President Hinckley was speaking. And at church we watched all the sessions from April. So it's been a serious conference weekend. I'm tired. We were up to at least 12:00 Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. But now it'sP-Day...

I did hear Elder Holland's talk. It was awesome, but his always are. For some reason I really get into his talks. He's just cool. I was told that we shouldn't have favorite apostles or something. But if could, I would say that mine is Jeffrey R. Holland.

Alex didn't get baptized. He stopped coming to church and we still haven't met with his brother about the whole thing. I did see him the other night though. He told me that he still reads the Book of Mormon. But he keeps it hidden so that his brother doesn't find it. The district is good. We have four Sisters and four Elders. So it's four companionships with a total of eight people, myself included. It's kind of a weird district being that I have the sisters and the zone leaders. But I like it that way. No one has any reason to be fake to me. The sisters have nothing to campaign for and the zone leaders campaign to the A.P.'s, not me. Actually, these zone leaders are the farthest things from campaigners. I just like the situation right now. I told Elder Krueger that he got it too easy for his first area. Everything is just cool.

Have a good week!
Elder Wright