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)

Christmas

Skype photo on December 24th

Afoyo!

Well Christmas finally came. Got to talk to my family which was pretty awesome. But this week we had a lot of fun. Monday was P-Day, Tuesday the Elders from Liera came up and we had a Christmas Party. It was fun to get to know some more people from the mission and have some fun with them. We went to a fancy restaurant (for Gulu) and had some pizza. Then we went and watched a Christmas Carol. Then we had some fun just hanging out and talking. Wednesday we had a combined Branch Christmas party. We had a ton of fun getting to know more members and singing and everything. Then on Thursday we went Christmas Caroling to some of our investigators with the Taylors. We got to see Godfrey and Martha's new born baby who is super cute. Elder Taylor but together a video of us singing and stuff on his blog. I think its called "Happiest Faces on Earth." You can go check it out. Finally Christmas morning I got to talk to my family. We set up a secret Santa so we opened a couple gifts and ate some breakfast. After Lunch we went out to find families to teach. After that we went to a members house and had a feast. It was super good! Christmas here in Africa is a lot different. It is a party holiday. There are concerts and parties going on everywhere. None of them even seem Christmas related. That was basically all that happened this week. It's crazy that it is going to be 2016 next week. It's also weird to think that I will be in Africa for all of 2016.

Well I love you all. Thank you for your support and prayers. I'm glad to be in the only church that doesn't just follow Christ, but is led by him. Keep doing good works.

Love, Elder Hawk


You know you are in Africa when you are sweating on Christmas day.

This is a picture of a family that we went caroling to

The Things That Count‏

Afoyo!

Well, to be honest it was kind of a long week. We had a lot of bounces and didn't have that many lessons. The people that were supposed to get baptized this month are falling through for different reasons. We were supposed to have like 8 or so before the end of the year, but I'm not sure if we will get any. It's okay though, they will most likely get baptized early next year.

This week I had a cool experience when we were at an investigators house. He told us that his wife got into a contract to work for the next two months and she would have to work on Sundays. He apologized and said that he figured that our success as missionaries was depending on how many baptisms we get. I told him that we do have goals, but what really matters to us his him. I told him that the reason we want him to get baptized isn't because he is a number, but because we have come to love him and his family and we know that this church can change his life. That really is the truth. I think about President Uchtdorf's talk a couple conferences ago where he said that sometimes the things that you can count don't count, and the things that you don't count do count. That is especially true on a mission. I have come to love all the people of Uganda and especially the people we are teaching. I want to see them accept this gospel so they can change their life, as it has changed my life.

Sometimes in life we get caught up in the numbers. We need to stop and think about the things that really matter. This Christmas, don't get caught up in the numbers. Don't count how many presents you got or how much money you spent. Think about how you feel when you give or the smile on someones face when you just take the time to talk to them. Most of all think about what the Savior has done for us. He went through all that pain, suffering, and anguish so we could make it back to our Father in Heaven. Think about what we can give back to him. We can never repay him for what he did, but we can show him how much we appreciate it by the way we act, and the way we treat others. In the end God won't judge us on how many great things we have done, but who we have become because of them. This year give yourself to Him.

I hope you all enjoy this Christmas season. I love you all. Be who Heavenly Father needs you to be.

Love, Elder Hawk


You know you're in Africa when people switch their Ls and Rs when speaking.

Our Sweet Jerseys

(another photo, thanks to Elder Roylance)

Recognize the Lord's Hand‏

Afoyo!

What a week! It was kind of slow in terms of lessons, but the end of the week was my favorite by far. We found some great families this week. Geoffrey and Gladis, Robert and Maria, David and Jackie, and a couple others. We have been seeing the Lord's hand in our work, especially the last couple of weeks. Families are progressing!! It is so great to see these people want to change their lives. I told you guys about how our church attendance was struggling and how investigators weren't coming to church, but it's all changing. It just shows if we continue to have a good attitude and work hard and be obedient, the Lord WILL bless us. The last two week in church have been amazing! The best weeks we have had. Yesterday, was a bit better than last week. I'm not going to say how many people or how many investigators came, but every single chair in the chapel was filled. We can see the miracle that the Lord is doing in this branch and I am so happy to have the privilege to watch him do so. Don't get me wrong, me and Elder Majawa are doing what we are supposed to be doing, but I know that this success is in no way because of us. As I'm  writing I realize that this might sound like I am boasting, but in the words of Alma, "Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my own strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever."

Well, I don't have much else to say. I love the work, I love the Book of Mormon, and I love all of you. I hope all is well back home and that you are preparing yourself for Christmas. While it's getting cooler over there it's getting hotter over here. What family in need are you going to help this Christmas? Have a great week.

Love, Elder Hawk

You know you are in Africa when its 95 degrees in December.

The Chapel in Gulu 

 Chowing down

The Zone---after playing basketball  in this sweet stadium that is at the school where the guy in our compound works!

Thanksgiving

Afoyo!

Well this week I am going to tell you some more about the culture
since I haven't said much about it yet. Here goes: The people here are
in the Acholi tribe. They all speak Luo and I have learned how to say
quite a bit. Mostly greetings and such but it is a pretty simple
language. Here in Uganda there are over 40 different languages. Some
sound similar, but most are completely different (Talk about tower of
Babbel). The people here are extremely friendly, especially to guests.
If you are a guest to their home they will bend over backward to make
you feel at home and welcome.. well a majority of them. They will give
you their seat, their food(which they don't have very much of), and
anything else you can think of. Most people only eat one meal a day
around 6 or 7. Practically no homes have running water, and all the
water that comes from the tap is unsafe for drinking. So they either
boil it or they go get water from a well. They carry water in big jugs
called jarry cans. Quite often for service we carry them and they are
super heavy. Almost every road here is made of dirt, and they aren't
smooth either. There is no major store, we just go to small shops to
buy food. I cook almost every meal. When the people cook they usually
do it on very small charcoal stoves. They eat a lot of cassava,
greens, beans, and white sweet potato. A lot of men here after they
get home from work they go out drinking. When they drink though its
not your usual alcohol, its alcohol that looks like mud. They usually
share and drink out of a pot with really long straws. It's disgusting.
The women are very powerful and independent since the men are almost
always away at work. They tie their babies to their back with a
blanket or sheet and usually have something balancing on their head.
Well... I can't think of much else.. so that Gulu! It's a very small
town so this isn't typical Uganda.

On to this week. We met so many people this week! I can truly see the
Lord's hand in the work here in Bar-Dege. We find at least one new
family a day. We are trying to change the dynamic in the Branch to
families so that way it has a solid foundation. This last week was the
best week of church yet. It was so powerful! We had more families
there than I had ever seen. One investigator that sticks out to me
this week is Michael. He is the man! He is 75 and is super smart! He
understands what we teach him and is always willing to keep the
commitments we give him. I always feel the spirit so strong when we go
and I always leave happy. We have only taught him twice but I can tell
he will be a very good addition to the church. We haven't gotten tot
teach his wife yet because she has been sick, but I am sure he can
help us to teach her since he already has a powerful testimony. Well
not much else to say. I will try to talk more about the culture and
the people from now on because those are the things I'm sure you want
to hear. I love you all and hope all is well back in the states.
Remember who you are and love everyone you come into contact with,
because you never know what kind of positive impact you can have on
someones life.

Love, Elder Hawk


You know you're in Africa when almost everyone you meet has a family
member with Malaria.