Busia is Blossoming

Us, Elders Tuttle, Ariho, Tyler, Pakati, and Kagame

On June 11th we made another trip to Busia to teach the group of people then numbering 40, only this time we were there to introduce the first missionaries to be assigned to their town (other than the couple missionaries). Terry and I reviewed with them what we had been teaching up to that day including some hymns, the apostasy, restoration, coming forth of the Book of Mormon, the Plan of Salvation and the commandments such as the Word of Wisdom, law of chastity, keeping the Sabbath day holy, etc....when the four missionaries, the zone leader from Mbale and an elder of the church arrived. It was a fantastic moment in our missionary experience. Each elder came into the home, shook everyone's hand and sat down, it was like the army of the Lord arriving. Each elder stood and introduced himself, bore testimony and said how happy he was to be in Busia. The zone and district leaders decided what to do from that point on. They divided the people up into three groups depending on how long they have been coming to the meetings with us. So we left them...happily and a bit reluctantly....one group was on the porch, another, under the mango tree and the long-timers in the home. It was a wonderful moment but I forgot to take pictures.
Since that time the Busia elders have been diligently teaching and preparing them for baptism. The big day came on July 17th...we traveled the two hours to join up with the group as they loaded into taxi vans to travel another 45 minutes to get to Lake Victoria for the 31 baptisms.

Picture of all 31 to be baptized.

First group to be baptized

We only had 13 sets of clothes so the next group had to put on wet clothes...nobody complained!!

Elder Tyler had organized the records so well that my job of recording who baptized who was not difficult at all. It was so fun to see the joy each person felt as they came out of the water.
Some men from Majanji saw us drive through their little town on our way to the lake and walked down to see what was happening. They witnessed many of the baptisms (a couple of them had been taught by the missionaries in Busia) and wanted to have an opportunity to hear more of the gospel and receive baptism too. Terry took some time with them explaining about the Book of Mormon and gave them copies of their own, along with some pamphlets but couldn't promise when missionaries will be sent to their area. Heavenly Father's children in this land are hungry to know Him.

On our way out of Busia Terry was commenting that the car was pulling heavily towards the left and wondered why. It was only a minute later when there was a thump, thump...and we knew we had a flat tire. We pulled over off the road and within minutes we had help from three young men who were just passing by and offered to help. What could have been a very bad experience turned into a very positive one. There were so many spectators around us by the time the tire was changed I decided it was a good opportunity to give out some booklets on the doctrine of Christ and as a distraction while Terry paid the helpers a tip for helping.
We got home just before dark, tired and a bit hungry, but very happy and spiritually full.
The next day we took Terry's suit pants and all the baptismal clothes to be laundered.
We are grateful to be here and involved in such a wonderful work.