Safari, rain and service, snake, trademark BoM, convert talk, release date

I just got off the phone with President Christensen. He's still not sure if the official release date for our group will be September 3 or August 27. He's thinking of releasing the whole group a week early because of so many requests regarding school. Hopefully he'll be calling me back before I finish this e-mail.

You're right, the Safari sounds awesome. And the bungee jump was already on my mind. I've been there and seen it, just haven't jumped yet. The prices are such a rip off though. Tourism must be a huge income for this country. But from an American point of view, if it's only a $300 difference for an upgrade [on the safari], we might as well do it. It's not like we'll get another chance. And then when we go to Jinja we'll eat Kikamando for dinner. Only 500 shillings.

It's a tough choice to make to miss a testimony meeting here in Uganda. If they had enough time, I think every person in the congregation would stand and speak.

We've been having quite a bit of rain this past week. On Tuesday we received a call from Elder Lumbala saying that one of the members' houses fell down. We went and found that that was about right considering his vocabulary. A large cement wall that stays behind their house had too much rain building up behind it since a proper irrigation system wasn't built. Well, it fell. Right onto their house. That caused their brick wall to also fall into three of their rooms completely destroying everything that was in the rooms. So we did some service and removed all the bricks from inside their house and shoveled a lot of the excess mud that entered, even though they have dirt floors. They were really grateful and the church is trying to help them out while they find a new place to stay.

It rained all night one night. And when I woke up, I was cold! I actually went and put on a long sleeved shirt while I prepared for the morning. Everyone in the house did. Later that day I saw a snake. Finally. I was doing some tracting with Elder Roberts and we saw a chicken kind of going crazy attacking something. It was a snake. Not very big, maybe two or three feet long. But it seemed like it was going to be an easy catch. As all the local neighbors were picking up rocks, I was looking for a stick. I kept telling them, "Soko linda, lindaco", hoping they would wait and not kill it. By the time I got a stick, it disappeared into a big muddy puddle. No idea how it got away with all the people watching it. Hopefully it won't take another 16 months to see one. I don't have another 16 months.

I got the DVD as well as the package from Dusty, Dallan, and Kayla. It was a good one. Definitely wasn't expecting fifty packs of candy cigarettes. So if they were trying to surprise me, it worked! The DVD is awesome. I saw a couple of repeat pictures. Maybe you did that on purpose. I see what you mean about that picture with Elder Ray. Even I remember wondering why he posed like that. But it worked out I guess.

Still no call from President Christensen. I guess you'll have to wait until next week to find out the official release date. I'll be going to a zone leader’s council tomorrow, so maybe he'll announce it then. We have a general authority coming for our next zone conference. That means he'll be the one organizing it. So I'm wondering exactly what it'll be that we'll talk about tomorrow.

Dad, thanks so much for updating that profile for me. I've been trying to check it and it just keeps sending back to the sign in page. Frustrating...

Seth does seem like a pretty impressive person. I'm sure he'll make a great church leader one day. I also find it annoying when people get up and give their big irrelevant introduction. Even though we've all done it. I've even pondered how important is it to even say "good morning bothers and sisters." Here in Uganda when you say that, the congregation actually answers back. All of them... "Good morning." So I'm also in the habit of doing it.

My new companion is Elder Soko from Zimbabwe. He's a good guy. Once again though, he's younger than me on mission. The only person that has been older than me on mission has been Elder Masa, my trainer. The ironic part is that just about all of them have been older than me in age. Elder Soko is 20. I've realized the nice part of being a zone leader is that your companion will always be a good Elder. He has to be if he's also a zone leader. So depending whether or not they keep me in this assignment, I should have some good companions for a while.

Earlier this week I lost my Book of Mormon. I have a specific one that I always walk with everywhere, all day, everyday. Kind of my trademark or something. But I lost it. I had been carrying it for about a year now. I felt bad about it. I almost felt like saying a prayer to find it. But I decided it really wasn't that big of a deal. Then the next day, a guy pulled up to us at a petrol station while we were waiting for someone. He held up my Book of Mormon. I then realized it was the guy that had randomly given us a ride to town. I had left it in his car. Maybe I was supposed to. He was a Muslim who respected Christianity. He told me that those who read have the most knowledge and that he would love to have a copy of the book. So I got his number. Maybe something good will come from it.

Yesterday at church one of my recent converts gave a talk. Actually she's the one that was just baptized the week before. Baptized and confirmed one week, giving talks the next. It was very good. She's only 12. But she appears to be much older. She gave a great talk on the Word of Wisdom. I helped her prepare it using "True to the Faith." I think she only looked at her paper twice. And then she bore her testimony and ended by saying "I know that my Redeemer lives, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." The whole family is progressing very fast. The father will be receiving the priesthood next week, and it sounds like we will also be sustaining him in a calling. Not sure what yet.

Mom, thanks for always trying your best to make my Valentine's Day special. Maybe one day I'll have a steady girl in my life so you won't feel so obligated to do so... You're the coolest mom in the world.

Have a good week.

ZAC

PS Just got word from President Christensen we are being released September 3rd.