"in the middle of freaking Africa!"

My adventure is still going and crazy as ever.
I think I’m just getting used to being in Africa now.
I used to say to myself every few
days “I’m in the middle of freaking Africa!”
Nowadays I don’t say that as much.

Jinja is a pretty big city but it has lots of
parts to it. So Bugembe is just like a suburb kind of,
of Jinja. Bugembe used to be where all the rich
lived in Jinja but than people just starting
building mud huts everywhere so it has a lot of people,
mostly children, just everywhere. A lot more Muslims
here too than there are in Kampala for
some reason. I can’t even guess how many people are
in Bugembe because
it would be pretty hard to get a good count.

Speaking of Conference I listened to the Afternoon
session of the April 2010 conference and I nearly
cried like 5 times for reasons I
don’t even know! I think it’s because I realized
I’ve been taking all the blessings and things I had
in the United States for granted.
Honestly I even took for granted being able to go
to conference live with Clayton because I fell asleep
when we went! Even being with my
brother was truly a blessing I would never give up
and will never give up. Also the family stories
they told really touched me. I love
hearing President Eyring just announcing things
because you can tell in his voice, that he is just
so close to the spirit of God, he has
such emotion with each word he speaks.

Well enough of that. My week was short as usual.
I feel like I’m always here emailing now. Well last
Monday the highlight of my day was
buying new sunglasses since I lost both of the pairs
I had brought out here. They are fake RayBans.
They say “Roy & Bon” on the side. They’re
pretty legit though.

Tuesday was teaching as usual and we left a Book
of Mormon with these two girls as well as
read with them 2 Nephi 31. I’ll realize
that was a bad decision later on in the week.

Wednesday we had lessons and a Family Home Evening
with a member and her recent convert sister.
It was pretty good and we’re trying to help
them both stay active in the church

Thursday we had a District meeting and Elder D
set a goal for Bugembe to have 10 baptisms this month.
I thought it was reasonable but apparently the Zone
Leaders thought it was not an achievable goal.
With 5 per companionship we could do it. For us
we have those planned out for the next 3 weeks so
it will depend on Elder D and his comp
to get their 5. Maybe we’ll help them out and get 6 haha.
The Zone Leaders and everyone else in Jinja set
goals for 4 baptisms for the
month per district so we’ll have to show them
that if you aim high, even if you miss, you still
fall high. We had also gone back to those
two  girls and their mom came and answered and
said she didn’t want us deceiving their daughters
into another religion.
On Saturday we went to the hospital to see
Sister D’s brother who had hot water poured
on his leg and it hasn’t been healing. We gave
him a blessing and were there for Sister D.
We also saw a member who just had twins but
lost them both shortly after. It was really
sad. The woman has been inactive in the church
for 6 months and her husband is an active R.M.
who we’ve been trying to get him to bring
his wife back to church. We were just there
to show them support and
it was a really solemn and humbling experience.
I haven’t felt so bad for people in a long time.
We told them we were always there for them
though.

Sunday was a good Sabbath day.
We were going to have 2 baptisms for
our companionship but one of the guys couldn’t
get work off so we set his back for next Sunday.
O was baptized though and it’s good to
see him and his two friends all baptized. J
even was found worthy
to receive the Priesthood for next Sunday.

Today we are going to go to Bugagali Falls
after emailing. I hear they
are pretty sweet so I will make sure to send you
guys the pictures next week.

I have been noticing in
the scriptures a theme that shows God’s love for us.
It’s about mercy and justice and how God is both.
Because of Justice we need to repent
and make sure we are clean if we are to enter Heaven.
Mercy allows us to get there. A good analogy of this
I heard in a talk was about the
Civil War and a soldier who was on guard duty. He fell
asleep during the night and his battalion was attacked
and many men were killed. The soldier on guard duty was
held responsible for the men killed and
sentenced to death. A week before he was to be
sentenced to death. the mother of the soldier sent a
letter to President Lincoln. She said
“Before this war I had 4 sons, and one by one I’ve
lost them all. I’m left with one, and he is sentenced
to death. Please spare a devastated
mother of having to lose all 4 of her sons.”
President Lincoln wrote her back and said how the boy
deserved the punishment for his crime,
but that he would allow him to go, not for his sake,
but for his poor
mother’s sake. This shows the kind of love and
mercy the Savior has for us. When we get to be
judged, Jesus will be there pleading our
case, saying he took upon him our sins, so that
we could enter Heaven.
Heavenly Father will then say,
“I will let them in, not for their
sake, but for your sake, my only Begotten.”
Oh how much are we loved.


Elder Welch