Planning, funeral services, Moses, transfers, Keny family baptism, re-baptized member

To my understanding my group will be released on Sept. 3. If we have parents coming to get us, we can stay around another week or so. If not, they're sending us home that day. So in our situation we need to tell them what date to buy the ticket for. It would be us to figure out how long we're staying, etc. As far as the Safari, you read my mind. I'm all about the Gorillas. BWINDI. But, I've been told it's about $500 per person, per day. I saw plenty of pictures from Murchison, and I didn't see much that impressed me. I've run into a few people that were in that type of business, but I was never able to set anything up with them. I was teaching a woman in Jinja whose brother works at Bwindi. But now I'm in Nsambya... We'll figure something out.

I got the DVD. Unfortunately I haven't had the chance to watch it yet. Hopefully later today. Still no package from Dusty and Dallan. It's frustrating. Especially when they tell me that they have a package for me, and then they hand me a little padded envelope. I kind of thought, "Not exactly the package I was thinking of... Oh hey, my DVD, cool."

We did get to watch the Funeral service. It was really choppy visually, but the sound was fine. They showed it at the Kololo chapel Sunday at 2:00. There were actually quite a few people that came. I was a bit annoyed getting there. The taxi conductor was cheating us with his price. We managed to get a taxi at the park and fill it full of missionaries so they would take us straight to Kololo. Then he charged twice the amount once we got there. I hate when these Ugandans try to take advantage of missionaries. Anyways, I had to do some praying so I could actually feel the Spirit at the service. I also enjoyed the last slide show. As well as what was said by Brother Burton and Elder Packer. As much as the Apostles have Brother Burton speak, I almost think he'll be the next Apostle. Or maybe it's just tradition to always have the Bishop of the presiding bishopric speak. I don't know.

Cool story about a guy we met named Moses. This past month we've been having over a hundred people at church. But last week it was raining and only about 60 people came. There was a man who came dressed in a suit. He sat in the back row and no one recognized him as their investigator. We found out that he just walked by the church a few days earlier a felt that he needed to visit this church after seeing the sign post. He walked from Kansanga in the rain wearing a suit to come that day. That day the branch passed out copies of the teachings of Joseph Smith. I thought it was a little weird to give him one. But he took one. We met him later on Tuesday at his house. We found that he had read the first fifty pages of the book and was very ready to hear more about the restoration. We went back later in the week and he was on page 260. The man seems very ready for the church. He offered us tea and we rejected. He asked if it was a tradition of the church. We said, "Kind of..." He told us that he wanted us to teach him all the "traditions of the church" so he can start living them. He came again this week and brought us a full bag of matooke.

Transfers were announced. I'm staying, but Elder Mabaso is going to Ethiopia to be with Elder Shenjere. I'll be receiving Elder Soko who is currently a District Leader in my old area in Jinja. He was with Elder Krueger for a transfer and he seemed to like him. So it sounds like I'll have a pretty cool companion. Also Elder Roberts will be staying in the house and be receiving Elder Mabundu, my second companion. So we'll have a couple of guys from Zimbabwe with us. Maybe I'll pick up a little more Shona.

By the way, I've been trying to update my account for my application for college. And the internet is so terrible that it's not working at all. I've probably spent close to two hours total, and I've not accomplished one thing. It keeps making me sign into my account like it doesn't trust my location or something. Maybe you can see what you can do.

If you give an Elder a blessing of comfort and counsel, is it appropriate to start the ordinance by saying "Elder SURNAME", or should you actually find out his full real name? I specifically told Elders to use each others real name. But then I watched Pres. Christensen give a blessing by just saying "Elder SURNAME." I think the Spirit will help us understand the exceptions to the rule sometimes. For now, I'll just try and follow the book on stuff like ordinances.

The Keny family was baptized Friday. It was a nice experience to see how everything worked out for them. They definitely received a trial of faith. But they proved faithful, just as Keny said to us. He was supposed to be interviewed Thursday for his baptism. The children had already been interviewed the Friday before. So we planned to have him interviewed at 11:00 a.m. but he wasn't there. We called him and he said he was coming at 5:00 p.m. but he wasn't there. Then we went at 8:00 p.m. and called him and he said he would be there in 20 minutes. We waited over an hour and he never showed. Apparently his bosses kept him very busy. We then left as his oldest daughter Florence was crying because she knew she couldn't be baptized if her father wasn't. So on Friday he took the day off, was interviewed in the morning, and went and got his marriage certificate from the Local Council to verify he was legally wedded. And they were all baptized at the church at 6:00 p.m. with about 40-50 members coming to witness. Then immediately after I took all their standard works and other books to their house. Florence was in a completely different mood. Jumping up and down smiling. Now we have to work on teaching the mother enough English that she also can pass a baptismal interview.

A member here in Nsambya was just rebaptized after being excommunicated. That usually happens here when people steal money from the church. But apparently after he was excommunicated he went to preach at some Pentecostal churches. They were a little skeptical when he was using funny scriptures. But when he started talking about Angel Moroni they kicked him out. He finally overcame his embarrassment and started his path to rejoin the church. He's now back, and very powerful. When I first came I only knew him as the man that always said, "Amen" the loudest. But now he's bearing testimony and giving talks, praying, etc. He definitely has a powerful testimony.

Have a good week! Happy Birthday Dad.

ZAC