Monday, November 11, 2013

The Mud Luge - November 11, 2013

Hi All,

This week Elder Alfred and I have been knocking doors in areas where stable people live. Since we have been knocking doors this week, it has not been too hard to get into the home but we have had difficulty getting beyond the first or second lesson.

One day as we continued this procedure of tracting, a man yelled at us saying, "Hey are you missionaries!'' We told him we were. He then asked us to teach him. We immediately sat down and started teaching him.

We found out that he was a successful doctor! We taught him the restoration and we made a return appointment. When we came back, he was there. This was awesome! We then taught him the Plan of Salvation focusing on why we are here on this earth and what we need to do to obtain the Kingdom of God.

After teaching him, he had a lot of questions which we tried to answer. He then said, “Well I feel like I need to pray and repent a lot. And after repenting I need to prepare myself for baptism.” What a super cool experience! This has not happened to me on my mission. We had such a cool feeling. The Lord really helped us out on this one. We did not do anything that special to deserve to meet a guy like that but the Lord just handed us a big blessing! It is so cool.

Lugazi is a great area. I really enjoy it. We do walk a lot because it is so hard to get people to teach. But it is cool to see how the people here always believe. I mean they always believe. It is a nice change and I really enjoy it. I don’t mind the work because I know it is totally worth it. :)

This week I had a funny experience. I found it humorous after the fact. So it has been raining non-stop for about the past week. At the beginning of the week, I was walking with one of the elders and we saw a bunch of kids carry “Jerry cans” of water up a steep muddy hill. As we watched them try to get up the hill, we both decided that we would go and help them up the hill and then walk back down the hill, get the cans and carry them up the hill.

As we worked our way to the kids, we were amazed at their determination to walk up the slick muddy hill while carrying 25 liters of water. They would get about four or five feet up this hill and they would instantly start sliding back down the hill. They would then start again. As we continued to watch them, we realized that this would not be an easy job. But we were up for the challenge. Hahaha

When we finally reached the kids explaining to them that we would help them get up the hill and then we would go back down the hill and then carry the “jerry cans” up the hill for them. Little by little, we helped the kids up the hill. After some effort and minute steps, we finally got them all up to the top.

After reaching the top, we worked our way back down and grabbed the next set of cans. As we were walking up the hill, I then realized it was even more difficult than we had expected. The hill was like a “Slip and Slide”! Trying to carry a Jerry can full of water just added to the difficulty. As I was working my way up, the dreaded moment started to take place! I began to slip.

I had stepped forward and then started to feel my foot sliding. I tried to dig my toes into the mud to create some type of foot hold but I could not grip the ground at all. Quickly, I decided to put the sliding foot back into the previous mud hole so as to regain my footing. As soon as I shifted my weight, SLAP, I fell onto my back (my clean white shirt) and started to fly down the hill at what seemed like the speed of light!

My shirt acted like a friction less sled that propelled me down the hill. I knew at the bottom of the hill there was a huge ravine full of water so I started scrambling trying to grab anything! The funny part was that I was only trying to grab things with my left arm because my right arm was holding the Jerry can straight in the air so that it wouldn't spill the water and waste the kid’s efforts.

As I continued to slide down this huge hill I was thinking, “OH MAN I BETTER NOT SPILL THIS JERRY CAN. THESE KIDS WORKED SO HARD TRYING TO CARRY IT UP THIS HILL!” And then the other half of my brain was saying, “STOP! STOP! STOP! YOU ARE HEADING FOR A HUGE LEDGE!!!” Fortunately, I was able to stop myself before reaching the ravine AND I had successfully held onto the can without spilling a drop of water! EUREKA! I had survived. :)

After I stood up, I looked up the hill and all the kids were staring at me in amazement. I laughed (by this point I had a lot of adrenaline in my system) and then continued trying to get up the hill. This time I made it work and got to the top with a full Jerry can of water and a very muddy shirt. :)

Unfortunately, I do not have a lot of time for emailing because I had some mission responsibilities that need attention.  I have got to go!

I love ya all and hope all is well back home or where ever you are!

Sincerely,

Elder Bitter

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