What a week‏

Jebale!

It was a good week. We saw Rose again this week. We taught her daughters for the first time as well! It was great. They now have a baptismal date for the 22 May. They all came to church yesterday! They seem to be very committed, I am excited to see how they continue to progress!

Dale has been going trough a very rough patch in his life. He has lost his Job, and is having a hard time finding another one. We weren't able to see him at all this week. Actually, cool story: We kept trying to call him and he kept hanging the phone. When we were closing our day, I said the opening prayer and asked if we could get in contact with him. Literally 2 minutes after I closed the prayer, the phone rang and it was Dale! He just told us how he is having a rough time. I know that the only thing that can help him in his life now is the gospel. I hope he will give us the time to share with him.

On Friday we were able to see Patrick and Elizabeth. When we got there Patrick seemed really distant, which is not like him. I asked what was wrong and he told us that he doesn't want to become a part of the "Mormon Church." Then I asked him what he had been reading on the internet! haha. Were able to answer some of their questions which gave them slight comfort. I hope that they will continue to investigate the church and find out what we are really about.

Well, Transfer news came this morning. I am staying with my companion (who is the new District Leader). I am excited to continue the work here in Njeru! I am having a blast and learning lots! Also, shout out to all the mothers! Thank you for all you do. I was very happy to get to talk to my family yesterday! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love, Elder Hawk


You know you're in Africa when you get a bad English accent (just ask my family).

 The District

 My companion is our new District Leader

 Sweet backpack

 Wippin' out the rain jackets

Greetings

Jebale!

Well, super slow week when it came to the work. Probably the least amount of lessons I have had on my mission so far. But some funny and cool things happened this week.

First, last Monday, in the evening we went to this family the other missionaries are teaching. They are way cool. Their names are Brenda and Isaac. They are getting married and baptized next week! But we went to their house and they wanted a blessing of comfort. As Elder Thomas was giving him a blessing he opened and then said, "Brother Isaac" and Isaac responded, "Yes?" hahaha! It was really hard not to laugh. Especially when Elder Le Chemenant had his hand on my shoulder and was bouncing with laughter trying to hold it in! hajkl;ha. It was hilarious.

Also, Last week we had this random lady come to church, her name is Rose. No one invited her, she just showed up. So we got her number and went to her house. We taught her the restoration, but she doesn't know English very well. So we were just going to see if she came again. She came again this week! It was super powerful. She has 2 daughters and her husband ran away, like a lot of them do here. She probably doesn't have very much money and could be many different things, to be honest she probably walked to church from her house which is pretty far, and she still came. When people decide to follow God instead of make excuses he will provide a way. She is such an amazing woman and I am excited to continue to teach her.

One more story. This one is about a pair of twins named Collins and Robert. Although they have only been members for 3 or 4 months and are only 13 years old, they make it a priority to do their priesthood duties. They show up to church every week at least 30 minutes early. They show up to seminary every week. And to top it all off they live like a 30-40 minute walk away!

This made me think about how we can all get in the habit to just excuse ourselves when things get hard, or inconvenient.  But we need to be like Rose, Collins, and Robert and just decide to find a way instead of make those easy excuses. Follow the council of the prophet and make the hard right choice instead of the easy wrong. Be who God has intended you to be. Take the chances he gives you to prove yourself as a worthy servant. He will bless you eternally for it.

Well, I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Hawk


You know you're in Africa when you find the source of the Nile.

 With a super awesome family

  at Lake Victoria/Source of the Nile

  Touching the Nile for the first time

 Our ride home one night

Good Week

Jebale!

Well, just another week here in UG. The weeks are flying by! Can't believe I am already emailing again.

Well, we have been finding some new families! We have this guy named Patrick and his wife Elizabeth. They are way awesome. Have only been able to teach him so far because she has been gone, but we met her at the very end of one of our lessons. Super awesome. Next, Dale. Dale was a referral from the other missionaries here in Njeru. We were never able to contact him, but we went on exchanges on Wednesday and Elder Thomas (my District Leader who is a white South African) called him and told him about General Conference this weekend. He showed up!! Super awesome. That night we went and taught him and his wife. She doesn't speak very good English. She is from Rwanda. He has truly been prepared. The Lord has been humbling him big. Excited about these guys though.

General Conference was excellent! One of my favorite talks was by Elder Robert D. Hales. It is something I have been thinking about a lot lately. I have been trying really hard to discern my thoughts from the Holy Ghost. It gave me some personal Revelation and I hope it will help me in the future. We got to watch all the sessions except for Priesthood, but we will probably watch it this week in church.

Well, not much else to report. I hope you all had a great week. I love you all.

Love, Elder Hawk


You know you're in Africa when you are drink juice or water from a thin plastic bag.

 Juice in a bag (which tasted delicious)

 Exchanges with Elder Thomas from South Africa

 A store named after my home <3

Jinja and Iganga Zone Conference

Picture: Courtesy of Elder Hart

The Week‏

Jebale!

Time flies! This was kind of a slow week for the work, but there were some good and bad things. Tuesday I felt horrible. I was super sick. I called Elder Chabra and I had to stay home. It wasn't fun. The next day I was feeling a little better. We went to Zone Conference, the last one with President Chatfield. It was super powerful. He is the man. He talked about how in life we have these small things in life that keep us from reaching our full potential. We need to strip ourselves of pride and be willing to change those small things so that we can reach our full potential.

The next day I read in Ether 12:27 about how if we humble ourselves before the Lord he will make weak things strong. The Lord gives us these weaknesses to humble us. In Alma 32 it talks about how we either choose to be humbled or the Lord will humble us. If we choose to be humble we receive more blessings than if the Lord humbles us. It is especially important to humble yourself in the mission field. It isn't just our salvation that is at stake, but those we are teaching the gospel.

On Thursday and Friday, not a lot happened. We are finding a lot more families, but none are very serious yet. Saturday I got to go on exchanges with Elder Le Cheminant . We were in the MTC together in the same District. We had a ton of fun that day! We were in his area and we had a lot of good lessons.

Well, thanks for all the support. I couldn't get through this without it! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love, Elder Hawk


You know you're in Africa when you drink water out of a bag.

 Njeru District Ties at Zone Conference

 "accidentally climbed a mountain while proselyting"

Lake Victoria

Our apartment is one of the nicest in the mission

        

Fast Week!‏

Jeble!

Wow, this week flew by. It makes it faster when you are getting used to everything. It was a great week though.

We found some good families. One of them is Augustus and Christine. They are an older couple. We have taught them a couple times, and they seem to be enjoying the message. However, there is one problem. Christine only has one leg. In the States, this wouldn't be a big deal, but here it would cost a lot of money for them to make it to church. I am not sure how that is going to turn out, but I hope the Lord will provide a way. We also have this guy named Julius. We met him this week, and we usually don't teach YSAs often, but we taught him and he ended up coming to church, and he loved it! Not much else is happening. My district is super fun though. We are always laughing.

Well, thank you all for your support and love! Keep up the great work!

Love, Elder Hawk

Elder Hawk with a little girl named "Pretty"

The Church Building

Elder Hawk & Elder Haines
"The AZ Boys"

Njeru!‏

Jebele!

Well, I got here to my new area Wednesday night! So Njeru is basically one big hill. It isn't that bad to walk though. The area we usually go to is kind of far so we use taxis a lot. It is kind of the bush still, but we are only like a 7 minute taxi ride from Jinja town. My new companion is Elder Gangire. He is from Malawi and is a way awesome guy! Our apartment is super nice. Well, nicer than my last apartment. Our district stays in the same complex as us. They are Elder Thomas and Elder Le Chemenate, who was in my district in the MTC! The area has a lot of potential. I am excited to do what I can to help these people receive the gospel. Also, I am in a ward!! We had 88 people at church yesterday and there were 127 last week. Church was way awesome. We had 8 conformations, 4 from each area. Not much else to share today, but I am sure I will have more next week! I love you all and hope your week is fantastic!

Love, Elder Hawk


You know you're in Africa when you can fit 15 people in a 8 passenger van.

 Me and my companion

 The District

 The Hill

The Bishop making bricks