White Ants

Dear everyone,

So I am not allowed to send pictures yet because the president doesn’t want me downloading stuff onto the computers so I have to wait until I go into the field. So sorry about that and I will have to work on taking pictures because at this point all I have to show is a couple pictures of the MTC and a few pictures of the landscape and the missionaries...so not too much so far. It was pretty cool this week we had a huge migration of butterflies! There were like millions of them flying around-it was like the air was painted white hahah.

Oh so a fun story for everyone. So we were sitting in class doing some personal study and this huge flying insect flew into the room and it was a super slow flyer. So Elder Morris decided to catch it. After catching it Elder Mosuba took it and ripped off its wings and just threw it in his mouth and chomped on it like it was a piece of licorice hahahah. I started going crazy trying to figure out why in the world he would ever eat that. Well apparently he is from Uganda. And apparently these big insects (They call them White Ants) are really common in Uganda. They live for about two days or so. They crawl out of the ground and then they sprout huge wings (the whole insect is about the size of half my pinky when full grown. But apparently they are really plentiful in Uganda and they catch them like crazy and eat them all the time. They say to get full on them you eat about two cups worth. I was like "uhhhh...is this common that you just snatch them out of the air and then just eat them?" Elder Mosuba and Elder Kasikka went on to tell me that they basically make traps that catch them and you usually catch with one trap about a milk jugs worth of white ants. So apparently it’s impossible to go hungry in Uganda because they kind of eat anything that isn’t poisonous hahah so I guess I won’t be going hungry any time soon :)

So I’m not gonna lie when I was preparing to turn in my mission papers I was always really worried that I was going to gain a lot of weight on my mission. That has been like one of my biggest fears for a really long time so I have been asking around and apparently I don’t really have to worry about that one :) so I’m really grateful for that one not gonna lie hahah

Oh yea I forgot when writing letters there are more rules then we knew
1. Must be only one sheet of paper.
2. It cannot be lined so it has to be like printer paper
3. When you are going to send it you cannot put it in an envelope.
4. Fold it hot dog style and then tape the long edge with one piece of tape.
5. Write the address with elder bitter and a return address.

If those aren’t followed it usually just gets tossed out hahahaha so a heads for you all hahah

And apparently others are allowed to email me while I’m in the MTC. I just can’t email them back so if people want to email me here is my email steven.bitter@myldsmail.net at the end of the email just put your home address so I can write you letters back. Once I’m out of the MTC I’m pretty sure that I can email people back.

Now back to the the important stuff. So it’s kinda crazy how humble the people are here like its truly remarkable. You can go around and talk to anyone about the Gospel and they will always listen. They don’t always accept it but they will always listen. I was talking to some of the missionaries who are from Uganda and they were telling me that the people in Uganda love white missionaries because they have read the bible and often times have never seen a white person before so they see us as like special or something. So they are always so ready to receive the Gospel from what I have heard. We had a speaker come in yesterday who had recently returned from his mission in Uganda. Apparently in Sudan (which is part of our mission) there are easily over 7000 people who are waiting to be baptized. They are not yet allowed to be baptized though. The people there have received Book of Mormons already and they have read them and are waiting to be baptized but due to some laws and the location of these people they cannot be baptized. So many people have been waiting for over 14 years to be baptized but still cannot be baptized. These really faithful people are remarkable. They are holding church meetings and reading from the book of Mormon every Sunday for multiple hours. They have literally no money and many of them walk for a day or so to meet for Sunday. When we sent missionaries there to try to figure out a way for it to work for them they attended one of the "stake centers" they had built. It was basically a huge room with mud walls. Those missionaries that were not allowed to baptize the people were greeted by nearly 1500 people all hoping to just hear their words even though they knew they would not be able to be baptized at this time. So that is real faith in my opinion--waiting for almost 14 years and just going to church and reading the book of Mormon. That really blew my mind. So the field is truly white and ready to harvest.

So a little fun fact now. They have this stuff hear that is called POP--it is so good. It’s like ground up corn that they make into a portage looking substance that it so dense that you can cut it and hold it like bread. You all should look up the recipe online and check it out. I think it would be something different for dinner that you would all like to try.

Well I’m sorry if there are any spelling errors or stuff like that but I really have to type fast while I’m in the MTC because they only give us a very limited time on the computers in the MTC. And I’m sorry if I didn’t respond to everyone’s questions in these emails.

And thanks Brendan it’s good to hear from ya. And thanks for sending all those Kari :)

And Jon yes the pillow tie worked awesome I slept so well on it :)

Well I love you all I really hope everything is going good back home.


Love,
Elder Bitter