A Week of Sickness - September 9, 2013

Hello world!

I’m alive. It has been a boring week. I will try to write something worth reading.

I spent Monday through Thursday in three places—my bed, the couch and the tile floor. My bed is not the greatest. It is made out of foam. Arghh! The couch in our apartment is more comfortable than my bed. Finally, the tile floor in our apartment is nice and cool. Sometimes I just felt so hot that I couldn’t stand the bed or the couch.

The reason I spent so much time in those three places was because I was sick. On about Monday of last week, I felt weak and tired. So I slowed down. On Tuesday I was completely out of commission. I felt lousy on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I was in the house the whole day. There is nothing to tell about that experience.

On Friday, we went out and taught for about three hours. We were able to see our key investigators. This was really important because we had not seen them for a long time. Finally, Saturday came around and I felt that I had enough that strength to work the whole day. Hooray!

On Sunday, something cool happened. We were at church and William showed up!? I thought, “You are supposed to be in China.” I asked him about it and he told us that his flight was moved to the 9th of September thus allowing him to attend church for one more Sunday. It was so fun to see him. He then invited us for dinner.

Of course we accepted! I expected the normal Ugandan fare—chapatis, kalo, posho, katoga, chavuvu etc. This is always served when we are invited to dinner. (Being invited to dinner does not happen often.) We walked into the home and there sitting on the table was noodles and sauce! Woot, woot! I was pumped to have a meal from back home! :) It was so nice to have something that wasn’t flour and water mixed together and then cooked.

After the blessing on the food, they looked at us and said, “Don’t be shy! It is all for you. We have already eaten. I looked at the food thinking, “Oh man this is going to be brutal! How are we going to finish it all?”

One of our investigators is an older man named Tony. We have been teaching him for about five weeks. He is progressing well. He is a happy and humble. He is very kind to us. As far as material things, he has nothing. His home is so small that when we come to visit him, we have to sit outside because we cannot all fit in his home. Yet he is amazing. He runs a small business that is growing rapidly.

His business is making and selling Ugandan pancakes. (Nothing like American pancakes.) They are a fried snack that people here love. And he makes the best ones in all of Jinja. I came to this conclusion because he sells more than any other person. He makes tons of them each morning and night. He sells them all each day. Tony is paying for his children’s schooling. His wife and children live in their village while he lives in Jinja trying to make money so his children can have an education.

Tony is to be baptized this coming Sunday (September 15). We are really hoping and praying that he will move forward with his decision to follow Jesus Christ by being baptized, by immersion, by someone holding the priesthood authority. If he does follow through, he will be an example for the rest of his family.

I know this was a short letter but that is all I have for today because my work week was so short. It is a bummer being sick in more way than one.

But thanks everyone for all you do. I love and appreciate you all.

Sincerely,

Elder Bitter