Masai Village

From beautiful sunrises to strange looking bugs, the Masai Mara was an experience we will remember and treasure. You can't go to this area of the world and not go to visit the people after which it was named, the Masai. They are a nomadic people whose existence revolves around the raising of their cattle. The mainstays of their diet are: milk, meat and blood. They are a polygamous society where the women have to make their own homes out of sticks, mud and cow dung. Each home had the same floor plan...not much variety or interesting architecture for our tastes. Their village was enclosed in a thorn bush fence, the center of the community is used for corralling the cattle at night and the little calves are actually housed in the homes so they don't nurse the mothers dry before the people can get their supply of milk the next day.
Ky, our guide, was very intelligent and was able to answer all of our questions about their society and the future they have before them.

Terry, taking part, wearing the lion hat while the natives chant and dance by him. Sister Thayn's turn was next.

The women came out to greet us after the men did their chanting, dancing and jumping routine. I was so concerned with the baby that had flies all over its face I really couldn't enjoy the women's song very much. The women had their ears pierced and had many decorations hanging from them and around their necks but most of them were not very pretty.

Masai Mara Trip

We spent a couple nights and three days of vacation in the Masai Mara of Kenya to witness for ourselves the great migration of wildebeests and zebras that occurs during this time of year...only we missed it because the animals left early due to drier conditions. Oh well, we had a wonderful time anyway. There were plenty of animals to watch, appreciate and learn from including elephants, cape buffalo, wart hogs, mongoose, hyenas, lions, cheetahs, wildebeest, zebra (those that didn't go across the river), crocodiles, hippos, baboons, impala and other DLT's (deer-like things). We traveled with our good friends, the Thayns, which made it all the more enjoyable. We stayed at Governors Camp which is unfenced, so wild animals have been known to wander through the area...in fact, a couple days before we arrived there was a big lion that passed by in front of our tent. You may ask how we know that?? From the big paw prints in the dried mud!!
We are always amazed at the Creator's skill and His handiwork. The animals, birds, plants, sunrises and sunsets were so appreciated by us all. Hope you will enjoy the pictures from our trip and marvel at His great blessings to us, His children.




This group of elephants were so congenial. They stayed in this position for awhile allowing us to take movies and just enjoy watching them. The bird to the right is a saddle-billed stork. Can you see why?




This Secretary bird must have wanted to get away from the annoying jackals that like to chase them.






Here is an unusual site during the day, a hyena taking home a treat for the little ones.


Our guide and driver, Joseph, was very knowledgeable and at times could tell us what the animals were thinking; like the experience of the male impala who tried to stop one of his females from running away only to loose his entire harem of about 40 females to another male. It was so interesting watching the drama and having Joseph interpret it all.

Fantastic Help

From May to the middle of August, Mbale was blessed to have close to 30 young people from Help International, many of them BYU students or alumni. The Mbale Branch was a recipient of much of their good works because they attended church with us and took part in Primary and Relief Society and taught the Teacher Development class. Some taught keyboard lessons every Sunday morning and English and Business classes during the week. They painted classrooms, built a school roof making possible for the school to open this week and much more.












They traveled around town and country on the back of a boda boda or in taxis...not an easy way to go!! But they were all good sports about it and were all kept safe for which we were grateful.
We will miss them but wish them success in their educational and career endeavors.

Marriages

Here in Uganda there are many traditions that are not good for the people. One of these is 'bride price' where a girl's family asks for goods such as cattle, goats, chickens, blankets, etc. in exchange for their approval to marry her. Most are so poor that it is almost impossible for the men to provide such goods, so the couple will just live together without any form of marriage, have their children, and the families don't seem to object to it. When the missionaries teach couples like this they are unable to baptize them because they are not living the Lord's law of chastity. If the couple is truly converted we provide a way for them to be married without any cost to them. Some seek permission from the families, some don't. Since we have been here in Mbale we have been involved in getting five couples married (three more pending). The only problem is, Mbale has not yet received the government's approval to have marriages performed at our building, so we have to transport the people to Jinja which is two hours away.

Paul and Scovia were the first to be married. He was baptized the Saturday following their ceremony. She was baptized a few weeks later. He is now the Elder's Quorum Pres.

Wilson and Catherine had miracles occur that allowed them to be married. Catherine followed Wilson into the waters of baptism and they have been stalwarts in the church.

Samson and Jackie were so happy to be married and be baptized the following Saturday.

Sam and Jennifer were married a week ago Saturday and baptized this Saturday.

Nisha and Joseph on the right of this picture are a happily married couple now and will continue to be taught by the missionaries as they prepare for baptism.
It is so fun to be involved in this work of joining families together and bringing them into the Lord's church.

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.

Mbale Branch Organized

I know that most of the entries on this blog are way over-due but our internet service and electrical power has really given us a fit for months on end. A couple days ago we had our IT guy from Kampala here and he has worked wonders.

Anyway, on June 5th after such diligent work of all the Mbale missionaries (to the right), our church group was organized into a Branch with a new Branch Presidency (the President being a new member of only three months), an Elders Quorum Presidency, Relief Society, Primary and Sunday School Presidents and Sunday School teacher. President Jackson, the mission President, came and did all the interviewing, calling and setting-aparts and where needed, ordinations. It was an awesome day and the Branch has been growing ever since.

Pastor Friends

It has been a privilege and blessing for us to get to know a number of pastors in Uganda. We have enjoyed our visits with them which in Mbale are usually on Mondays. We call our P-days such not as a Preparation Day but as a Pastor Day. We first met Simon and Ambrose when we stopped at Faith Radio to see about getting the Mormon Tab Choir program on their station. It turned out that they don't have good enough equipment to down load the program but we have a great friendship developing.

Ambrose, Elder Rix and Simon

The next pastor we met in Mbale actually stopped us in town as we were going into Bam to do a little shopping. He had noticed our name and he made a comment that his name was almost the same...REX. So he gave us his card and invited us to his church for the Wednesday fellowship.

Rex in the rain.

The reason we were assigned to Mbale was to befriend and teach William, the pastor of the Restored Church,....he broke off from the Reorganized Church when they started to change their doctrines and more or less discarded the Book of Mormon. It's been a slow process but he has now said he wants to be baptized and will work with his members to bring them along also.

Brother William with his granddaughter.

Then last but not least, is our friend in Busia, Silas. He is the head pastor in that area and is getting close to retiring. We met him on our first visit to Busia and have seen him almost every time we have been there. On one visit he asked us for a Book of Mormon and has been reading it...the last time we heard, he was already in the book of Helaman and was really enjoying it. You will see in the pictures his love of the scriptures by the look of his scriptures.