To catch a thief, new area, accident, balancing Circadian Rhythms

I just want to try and tell you the story of the robbery and how we caught him. We knew he was coming in through the roof and down through the attic door. We used tape on the door to prove that. We were really planning a way for someone to stick around in the house with a machete to beat the guy(s). But it worked out that we didn't have to do that at all.

Elder Metemi made a good point when he suspected a member that lived just next to us. So to be honest I never realized that our neighbor was a member. He's kind of less active and quiet. Anyways, I saw him one day standing outside of his gate on Sunday and I went to him and asked him very seriously, "Cephas, how are you? Do you have anything that you want to tell us? Are you sure?" We were robbed on Saturday, so I asked him what he did the day before. He went to the Young Single Adult activity in Kampala all day. So that took him off the list, and Elder Metemi felt good. Then on Monday he came to us at the young single adult family home evening at the church and told us about his young cousin that just came from Kampala to live with them because he's on "Holidays" from school. He told us to make sure that we lock our doors because he thought that maybe his cousin was trying to sneak into our house. We told him about the robberies that happened and then we found out that the last time his cousin was there was a few months ago, when the first robbery happened! Cephas told us that his cousin was trying to sell him a 1GB flash disk, and the night before he heard him playing music in the boy’s quarters behind the house where he sleeps. He even said that he saw him with a digital camera a few months ago!

So we went home that night and Cephas told us that he was going to check in his room to see if he could find any of our stuff for evidence. That night we went to the Forbe's to tell them about the whole thing. As we were sitting there talking at about 9:00 p.m. someone knocked at their gate. The first thing that came to my mind was that it was another thief. We went to the gate and it was Cephas. He told us that all our stuff was in his room and that we needed to act now, because his cousin was planning to leave to Kenya in the morning. We went straight to the police and told them the whole story and wrote up some statements. We only took four officers with us initially because we had to drive them and that's all we could fit in the back of Forbe's vehicle.

So we showed up and there he was standing at the boy’s quarters with his uncle. Only 17 years old. His name: Jarius. As the police were beating around the bush with him, I turned to Elder Krueger and said, "Are those Quicksilver's?" Kruger looked at the sandals he was wearing and said, "You're wearing my sandals!" As he said that, I looked just inside the door, and there were my speakers and CD player. Krueger asked if he had his American money, but Jarius denied. A few minutes later Krueger walks out with a $20 bill in his hand just laughing, "Where'd you get this?" And as he looked in the wallet again he found a bank transaction receipt for the other $50 that he exchanged. We gathered all the things that he had stolen in the past week, but he still denied all the other things he had stolen the pervious months before.

There was a point where the officer asked him his name, but when he told him, the officer misunderstood. As he wrote the name he thought he heard, I saw him write, "JEALOUS", which was so ironic that I laughed out loud.

At one point as everyone was trying their best to get him to confess, he said to Sister Forbe's, "What is the name of that one there?" as he pointed to me while wearing handcuffs. She told him my name and he said that he wanted to talk to me alone. We went to a small room and he told me how bad he felt. We spoke about the Law of God concerning the whole matter, and he said that he had no choice and that he would confess everything. While we talked he got a message on his phone. He had me reach into his pocket and I opened the message for him. It was from his mom and it was written in another language. I asked him what it meant, and he said that his mom was very upset with him. So much that it was making her sick. Apparently the word of his arrest had already made it back to her. He gave me the phone and told me to come and visit him in jail.

Well, I did get him to confess some stuff, but he still lied about a lot. I gave the phone to the police and came to Nsambya with no visits to Jarius in jail. On Thursday as we were walking around, I received a phone call from Jinja. Elder Metemi informed me that the police were able to get him to confess everything. They went into Kampala and recovered his digital camera and went back to Jinja and recovered my basketball shorts. The best I can figure is that they must have beaten him really hard in jail. But I think he's out now. Not sure why, but at least we have our stuff back, and I'm sure he learned a lesson.

I'm at my new house in my new area with my new companion. It's right near Kampala, so things are a little different. I deal with people that have a little more money, but at the same time, the poor are still plentiful.

When I showed up at the house, it was pretty trashed. Apparently it used to be a four man house, but then turned into a two man house, and there have been a few missionaries who recently just died there (finished their missions there). So there was a lot of stuff sitting around. And the one desk I use for studying is being eaten by termites I'm pretty sure. But this morning we really cleaned the house up. I'm living with my companion, Elder Mabaso from South Africa, Elder Roberts from Palmyra, and Elder Sammy from Kenya. It is once again a four man house. Elder Roberts is training. I rode with him here from Jinja zone. He was serving in Walukuba. He was actually companions with Elder Prier when they also just got robbed. I think in the past year there have been two thieves killed that were trying to break into missionaries' houses. One was shot by a guard. And the other was beat so hard by the neighbors that he died in the hospital.

Earlier this week when we first came to Nsambya, we were walking around the main part of town while Elder Mabaso was kind of showing us around the area. The roads are very tight, and the cars in Uganda always seem to try and pass you as close as they can either way. But this week a big truck came a little too close to Elder Roberts and its big side mirror hit him right in the back of the head. Luckily the blow was softened because the mirror just folded back, but it still scared me. I had the guy pull over, and I wanted to call him an idiot or something, but he didn't understand English. So through my broken Luganda I was able to get his name, number, address, and then told him that we were ashamed of what he did. I'm pretty sure he understood me. But Elder Roberts is fine.

I just got something very nice from Elder Wright's father. I told Elder Wright about my "sleeping disorder" and how sometimes I just get really tired throughout the day. He told me about the company that his father works for and the products they offer that help people with those problems. Apparently he e-mailed his Dad about it and now I have something called a GoLITE that I sit in front of every morning for 30 minutes to help keep my circadian rhythm in balance. (I say that as if I know the science behind it...) But to be honest I have felt a difference. You might want to look into it and try it out.

http://www.apollohealth.com/golite.html

Don't worry about sending things like pillows, blankets, sheets, or towels. I'm covered in those areas. And to be honest, I think my Christmas list is complete. You can go back and check through the e-mails that I've sent. Don't worry if you don't send everything that I've asked for, I wouldn't expect you too. I just thought that this year I'd actually try and make a wish list. Have a great week. "Thanks for appreciating." (A popular Ugandan saying)

Zac