"Some pretty sad news"

Hey Momma B,

Looooooooong long week for me haha. Lots of disappointments again, and some other things that really don't help. Yeah, I found another snake yesterday. Don't worry about that though, mom, I'll be fine! I've gotten good at killin stuff with a stick! hahaYeah, the whole marriage dowry thing just keeps on repeating itself. Every time we get a great family or a couple that is progressing, we find out they aren't married and refuse to work it out until dowry is paid. So not much going on in terms of investigators right now. We are trying to find families, but it's just getting ridiculous because of all these traditions they have for selling their daughters. Sometimes it's hard to see the fact that I'm called here for a reason. Hard to gain hope sometimes. There seems to be a lot more frustrations here than anything. I'm trying to stay positive, but a lot of the time the people here won't let me. But, there are always good things going on, I guess. Nothing too significant. We have some really cool people in the branch here, and a lot of people who know nothing about the church still. We were fed by our recent convert, Roggers, and his girlfriend Grace. They are like, the power couple of Walukuba. They are gonna get married in September. They just rock, plain as that. Oh, and along with all the stuff happening this week, I have some pretty sad news. There has been a total of 4 deaths this last week in the Walukuba area. 3 on the lake, they all drowned and their bodies haven't been recovered yet, and then the other one was our investigator. Mark, who was really showing some great promise, was 23 years old. He was driving up to Soroti (somewhere up north), and he was in an accident. We had an appointment with him, and he said he would be there in the morning, but we get there, and hear the news. So, that's pretty much how our week went.

No, we probably won't really do much for Easter. Ugandans have their big ol Mass on Easter I think. There was a bunch of commotion yesterday for Palm Sunday. We'll see how it goes. Recipes... Anything. Seriously. All of them are amazing. I miss just any home-cooked meal at all haha.

It's always good to hear you guys are busy. I can relate! haha Thanks for feeding the missionaries. We all really appreciate it. Well, maybe some more than others... dang states-missionaries don't know what they have... Don't worry, I'll be as chivalrious as I can when I take my bike out of my truck.... Oh wait. haha No, we really don't have much support from the branches here in Uganda. Very rarely do we get fed, and it's just a hassle to get people to do stuff. Yeah, I know Elder Lamb. He's a pretty neat guy! Haha he was in Iganga last transfer so I would see him a lot, but he's over in Kololo right now. I'll have to ask him if he knows Janna.

That really was super nice of Pres, Hunter. From what I hear, he told my ZL's that HE set me apart... liar! haha They just met with him briefly. How was his Uganda trip? How much money did he give ya? What ward did he go to? Probably Kololo. That was really nice of him. Tell him thanks, yeah?

I'm tryin to just keep chuggin along. It's difficult at times, but I only get 2 years to do this, so, I'll rest when I get home. Haha yeah, I'm still emailing a few friends, but don't worry, I'm not letting it distract me. Thanks for the love Momma. Let me know if there is anything special you guys want to know about Uganda. I don't really know how much I've told you about the culture or anything. Alrighty then, have an awesome week!

Love ya!

Elder Beardall