"I could marry his sister without having to pay any cows."

Jambo sana rafiki yangu!

Yeah, you got it right haha. Ol Busia is great. This place is growin on me. I am getting used to being out here where we don't hear about anything. The mission calls Busia 'Outer Darkness' cause it's so far away from everywhere else. Not bad though haha. We do have some awesome investigators right now! Katy and Dago are going to get dunked next Sunday hopefully. The Wafulas, the one after that. They are super close to getting the money. I just hope the rest comes before the 29th, because if it doesn't then they won't be getting married. But yeah, they are awesome. Still going strong. They've been taught everything many times, so it's a little hard to find things to teach them. They did feed us the other day though, and it was super nice. We were actually fed a few times this week, it was really nice. The branch is improving. They were discussing really good things yesterday in all the meetings, and the Branch pres and his active counselor went to go visit a bunch of less-actives yesterday. So things are getting better. But, I guess things are getting worse in some respects, but I'll tell you all about that when I am home! haha I have definitely learned many things to NOT do in my future. Ahh no, the guy we visited didn't show up to church. It's hard, because he literally makes no money, and lives off of his own garden out in the bush, and he can't come to church unless he has some form of transport, which costs money. Times are tough.

Oh man, I forgot that the church back home is like, super organized. Nice man, tithing settlement. I think that is a really good thing, because like you said, people get a chance to meet and talk with the Bishop. Man, if there is one thing I have learned out here in Busia, is that I have to 100% support my priesthood leaders. They are called by God, and if they are actually doing something wrong, they will be released by God. This church is run on Revelation, and people here just don't understand that yet.

Not too many adventures or fun stories this week. On Tuesday, we went to go dig in a member's garden. You gotta understand, that every time we go to any sort of service, everyone says that I can't work. They think because I am white, I have never done any sort of work in my life. So it's always super surprising to them when I can dig better than my African colleagues. Anyways, we get diggin, and we just had a huge area to cover, so we were there for a while. After about and hour, I looked up and there was just this huge crowd staring at me. Remember, I'm the only white guy in Busia. It was so crazy for them to see me digging. So that was fun. When we were leaving after we finished, some guy came up to me and told me that I could marry his sister without having to pay any cows. Gee, thanks. I'll make sure to keep that in mind.

Sweet! I love mail. Don't worry about sending packages. Honestly, they are just a huge expense on your part.

Awwwww, man, I really miss Thanksgiving. It's one of MY favorite holidays because of YOU. Man, your cooking is unreal, Mom. I don't think you will want me to cook next year, because I will just make posho and beans. I would much rather have what you can make! haha WAIT WHAT? Vi died??? Sheesh... no one told me that. What happened?

So, work is going pretty well. I am learning some really interesting things from leadership so far. I have come to find that being a leader means taking the blame for things that aren't always your fault. Often. haha. But yeah, things are super good. I went on my first exchange with Elder Melese this week, and it was super powerful. I learned a lot from that guy. He is still pretty green, so it kinda helped me re-kindle my fire I guess. And again, it is super weird being comps with a Ugandan. Most things that I could laugh about with any other comp I have had, just aren't funny to Elder Jemba. I have to think very differently when I am with him. But it is nice, because it helps me understand Ugandans a little bit better. I like it.

Thanks for being amazing. I love ya! Have an awesome week, and stay fresh!

Elder Beardall