Transfer to Lira-May 12, 2014

Dear People That I Know:

Hello everyone I am tuning in for the last time at "Breaker’s Cyber Cafe". After today I will be in Lira. Yes, I have been transferred. Sadly, I will not have Elder Stewart as my companion anymore. I will miss that guy.

I don't know very much about Lira but from what I have heard it is the kind of place that we all picture in our mind when we think of Africa. Everyone says that you will teach in grass huts and eat odd things. I don't really know for sure how it all works or what that place is like but I do know that it is HOT. Lira is in the northern part of Uganda. They eat a lot of Kalo, cassava, and g-nut. I have been told that will be my new diet. You now know as much as I do about Lira.

I will be traveling to Lira on Thursday. It takes about 7 hours to get there. The distance is not that far but the roads are terrible. My new companion is Elder Sithole (Sit-o-lay). He is from South Africa. I am excited. I think that it will be awesome. I am looking forward to experiencing the northern area of Uganda.

So this past week was really great. Elder Stewart and I were trying everything possible to find new people to teach. We wanted the next transfer to be set out for the new group. We wanted everything to transition smoothly and stay on track. And we saw a lot of blessings come as we were trying to work our plan.

As we were looking for people over the past week, time and time again people just fell into our laps. It was just remarkable to watch the Lord work. As we were tracting and searching, people were just welcoming and very receptive of the gospel. From these experiences, we have started teaching a family and a set of brothers. They are both awesome.

I will share about the family. The parents are in their mid-twenties. They need to get married but their relationship seems really good. They have two daughters. The oldest is nine years old and the other is four. They are such a happy little family. They are educated. (They can read and speak English.) This is such a blessing. The parents’ names are David and Mama. The daughters’ names are Sutup, and uhhh well I forgot. (Bad!) They are awesome!

They all came together to church yesterday. They were super late but I was so glad to see that they made it. They all went to their respective classes. After church, I was so grateful that they were happy and excited. The kids were dancing through the halls and the parents were smiling as they left. It was a great reward to see their family so happy after attending three hours of church. As usual when we thought nothing was going to play out, the Lord took over and it was better than we had hoped.

Well in conclusion, I will tell you about our farewell meal that we cooked in honor of our mothers back home. The meal consisted of 4 kilos of beef, 2.5 kilos of potatoes, 2 kilos of tomatoes, enough onions to feed Uganda, and some carrots. This was thrown in two crock pots. We cooked it for about 13 hours. (The meat was marinated in a mixture of spices plus a little mustard and a lot of BBQ sauce.) After it was cooked, we used the drippings and made gravy. We had a loaf of bread (specifically Supa loaf) with the stew. The meal was a bit pricey but totally worth it. We wanted to celebrate and honor our mothers.

But the best part of the day was not the meal but the CALL home. It was awesome!!! Sure love ya family and it was awesome talking to you all. Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!

Keep up the good work everyone!

Sincerely,

Elder Bitter