Lock Down

These are pictures and text from Elder and Sister Taylor's blog: happiestfacesonearth.org

This week is elections here in Uganda. It is one of the most predictably violent times of the year, and almost all Ugandans and foreigners go into a kind of lockdown to avoid trouble. As missionaries, we are staying in our compound for three days. As such, we have time to be together, to play and to testify. 

God's Timing

Afoyo!

Well, this was a pretty good week. Ups, downs, and in between.

So I'm sure you are all a little curious about the title of my email today. So this week we wanted to get Jimmy and Phoebe as ready as possible for their baptism. we taught them the Word of Wisdom last Sunday and they didn't seem to have any problems with it. They have been drinking tea for most of their lives (just like everyone else here) but they weren't super attached to it. On Tuesday we saw them again and asked how it was going with the Word of Wisdom. They said they had been taking tea still. They have to live the Word of Wisdom for at least 7 days before they can be baptized so they had to be pushed to next week. Not a horribly bad thing. If anything it will help them understand how important keeping the commandments are. They felt really bad and we told them they needed to repent and to give away all the tea in their house. We gave them a call the next day and they said that it was all gone. They are so awesome and I am excited to see them finally enter the waters of Baptism. I know that they are ready.

Saturday President Chatfield came up for interviews as well to let us watch the Missionary broadcast from like 3 weeks ago.. both were super amazing. President Chatfield always knows exactly what I need to hear. It is especially awesome to get to talk to him one-on-one. The missionary broadcast was the first time in many years that they have done it. The theme was "Teach Repentance, baptize converts" They just went through many of the main points in Preach My Gospel and it was so awesome to see these General authorities teach these principles. The biggest thing I took away from it was to always have the name of Christ on my lips. As a representative of him I should bare testimony of him every time I get the chance. Our purpose as missionaries is to "Invite others to come unto Christ..." he is the center of our message. This doesn't just apply to missionaries either. Every Baptized member of the church has taken upon his name. In the sacrament prayer is says that we are "willing to take upon [us] the name of thy son, and always remember him" we need to think about him more often then we do. We need to testify of him more often than we do. I know that he lives, and is the Son of God. He died for us and became the savior not only for the world as a whole, but for each one of us personally. I love him and know him.

Well, that's about it for this week, other then that yesterday my companion and I were asked to speak in Sacrament meeting 30 minutes before it started. But then again it isn't the first time it has happened since I have been here. haha. Well I love you all and hope you always have our Redeemer's name on your lips.

Mar, Elder Hawk


You know you're in Africa when people are advertising with huge speakers in the back of their truck yelling and blasting music as loud as they can.

Pictures: Me and my Companion (I only look fat because he is really skinny and he only looks super black because I'm super white. Haha.), and us with one of the recent converts.

Godly Sorrow and Great Joy

Afoyo!

Well this week there was good and bad as you can tell from the subject line. Let me explain:

Godly Sorrow- Well we have been teaching this family for a couple weeks now and they understood really well. They read the Book of Mormon and love the messages we share. They always had a lot of questions and I enjoyed seeing them. I can say that I had come to love them. However, they hadn't come to church yet. If someone doesn't come to church for 3 weeks straight we have to drop them. The 3rd week was last week, but they gave a very good reason so we gave them one more week. This week we taught them 3 times. The first two were good, but the questions were getting a little defensive and I didn't like the way everything was looking. The 3rd lesson, we read the 4th chapter of the Book of Mormon with them and after they started asking some questions and he asked why we didn't use the Bible very often. We told him that he already knew about the Bible and so we wanted to emphasize the Book of Mormon because without it we can't have the fullness of the gospel. It kind of turned into an argument. The biggest problem I think was that he didn't pay attention to the Spirit when he read and listened to our messages. He took it for the knowledge not for the feeling. It just goes to show that the Spirit is the real teacher in this work. Without the Spirit people cannot come to know for themselves. After that lesson as we were walking I knew they weren't going to come to church the next day so I knew we were going to have to drop them. I was overcome with Godly sorrow for these people because I know that it is only through this gospel that we can make it back with our Heavenly Father. Enough with sad things, on with the good!

Great Joy- Yesterday Jimmy and Phoebe came again with their family! They are getting baptized this next week if everything goes right, as I have faith that it will. They are so awesome! They read the Book of Mormon everyday and Phoebe even translates it for their daughter into Luo! Every time we teach them the Spirit is so strong and I always leave so happy! I love their family so much and am so excited for the covenant they will be making with the Lord. The best part is that they are one step closer to being able to be sealed as a family for eternity. That is the end goal.

I testify that without the Spirit this work is 100% impossible. I know that this message can change lives if people allow it to. No one has ever gotten converted if they didn't first have at least the desire as it is said in Alma 32. I know that there is no satisfying work than that of missionary work and that the greatest happiness that comes in life is seeing others change theirs for the better and I am privileged to be a part of it. I know the effort I put in is nothing compared to what the Lord does. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is Christ's only church on the face of the Earth. In the name of The Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

Mar, Elder Hawk


You know you're in Africa when you hear and see tribal dances!

I wanted to send a video but it was too big..

Man of the North

Afoyo!

Transfers came this morning. They said that the transfer will be 8 weeks and that me and Elder Majawa are staying, again! This will be our 4th transfer together here in Gulu. Pretty crazy.

Well, this week was pretty good. Just a couple interesting things that happened this week: we got in a debate with a Nun and we had a family come to church!

So about the Nun... haha. We went to this lady named Rose, who always gives us water and snacks, even though she isn't really interested in the church. When we go occasionally her friend who is a Nun is there. Usually we just talk about our days and things like that, but this day was different. Elder Majawa asked her what the Catholic Church believed (even though he was a member of it for 18 years of his life). To make a long story short, we had a long discussion on some doctrine and she ended up asking for a Restoration Pamphlet.. haha.

The Family is the more important and more exciting part of the week. Here in Gulu the two biggest obstacles are marriage and people coming to church. We had three families this last week who were all married and had a great chance of coming to church. Unfortunately only one came, but that is still super awesome! Their names are Jimmy and Pheobe and they have 2 kids. This was the make it or break it week for them. If they didn't come we would have to drop them. Luckily they came and I am super excited. They seemed like they really liked the church and we have good teachers who got them involved during the lesson. We had a baptism date for them, but we are going to have to move it back since it took them so long to come to church. I am excited for what the future holds for them.

Well, not much else to report on. I love the work and Uganda. Thanks for all you guys do.

Mar, Elder Hawk

You know you're in Africa when kids are fascinated with your arm hair.

The Week.‏

Afoyo!

Well, this was kind of a slower week. Not sure why, but it just was. Just a couple of funny stories:

On Wednesday, we went on exchanges. I went with Elder Dean, which means I got to be in the truck! The bad news was that we would be doing finding most of the day, so still had to walk a lot. Haha, it's okay though. While we were finding,we came to this one ladies house and the kids were gathered around us while we were talking to her, nothing out of the ordinary. Afterwards though she said that we were the first white people that her kids have ever seen! Pretty crazy. After, we went to the gas station to grab a snack on the way to an appointment. Elder Dean decided to try this random drink. We got in the car and when he opened it he smelled it, and it was not looking good for him. haha. When he tasted it it looked like he was going to puke! It was pretty expensive though so he drank half of it. I even tasted it and it was not good. It only had two ingredients: Water and Sorghum. Horrible. But it was a pretty fun day.

Well, I am sending some pictures. One of the service we usually do, which is carrying some water jugs, or "jerry cans" to people's houses to use for clean drinking water. Well, I hope you all had a great week. I love you and wish you the best.

Mar, Elder Hawk


You know you're in Africa when you get lost in the Jungle.

 Precious little babe

The Classic Missionary Photo

The Rolex....a kind of breakfast burrito but the tortilla is more like unleavened bread and the egg is more like a patty. There is lots of green pepper, tomato and onion and you can't forget all the oil.

Zone Conference

Afoyo!

Well, this was a pretty good week. The best thing that happened was zone conference today! It was super powerful! President Chatfield is the man. He is so inspiring. Let me tell you a little about what he taught.

He talked about Moses and how the first thing the Lord did when he got to the top of the Mountain he told him to take his shoes off. Moses was very smart and learned and was even next in line to be pharaoh. He had just climbed this giant mountain and now he was telling him to take his shoes off? The Lord did this to test him. He wanted to see if he was willing to follow anything he said, even if it didn't make any sense. In our life the Lord sometimes tells us to do things that don't make sense to us. He asks us to "take off our shoes". Just like Moses, he is testing us to see if we have the faith to follow what he asks us to do. What are we willing to do for the Lord when he asks us? What are we willing to give up in our lives to follow Christ? The Lord is waiting to bless us and all we have to do is "take off our shoes."

I hope that made sense. I can't write near as powerful as he can speak. But anyways.. Let me tell you about one of our families right now too. Richard and Beatrice. They are progressing very fast. They have a baptismal date on the 31st of January, and they haven't missed church since we invited them. The only problem is that their landlord doesn't like us to come, and they are super busy. I hope that we will be able to over come these challenges and get them to make a covenant with God.

Well thanks for all you guys do. I hope your week was good and that you plan to make this week better. I love you all.

Mar, Elder Hawk


You know you're in Africa when you get a boil.

 An older couple that got baptized about a year ago

 Godfrey and Martha and their baby (and some random little girl) 

 A stand that we did to get potential investigators

 The Zone with Elder and Sister Taylor and the APs

With President and Sister Chatfield

Oh How the Weeks Fly‏

Afoyo!

Hope everyone had a good week! It went by fast for me. We did a lot of finding this week because we dropped a few families. That means a lot of walking. It's dry season here so the roads are all super dusty. It's also getting pretty hot.

I want to tell you about someone who is very dear to me. Her name is Jannett. She is about 64. We found her and her husband one of the first few weeks I was here. She has been progressing very nicely. Her husband is rarely around and when he is he never really wanted to listen to us. We continued to teach her since she was interested. Since we have invited her she has missed very few weeks of church. She reads the Book of Mormon and she has even accepted to be baptized. However, there is one very big problem. Her husband has turned from not caring to hating us and the church. We try to come and he tells us that we are trespassing. He does not want her to be baptized so we have to put it off until he can soften his heart. She is so strong and her testimony will be rock solid by the end of this journey. Sometimes the Lord lets us go through trials so that we can be strengthened. It's the only way we can be strengthened. While we are going through it we don't always realize it, but the Lord is preparing us for something. I hope we can all try to be a little more like Jannett and smile in the face of adversity, and keep firm in the faith.

I also met an Olympian this week. He is about 73 and he ran in the olympics and traveled the world for athletics. He lives in a clay and grass hut. He still goes on runs and is in very good shape. Someone else I met was a deaf woman who has even showed up to church before. In High school I took 2 years of American Sign Language. I don't remember a whole lot, but I could ask her name and sign a couple other things to her that she understood. It was nice to see a smile on her face when I sign the small things to her! I never thought that ASL would ever come in handy on my mission!

Well I received my package this week so I will be sending pictures today! I love all of you. Thank you for your love and support. Have a great week!

Mar, Elder Hawk


You know you have been in Africa awhile when you get an Acholi name. (Elder Omara)