Week 40 The Cook

Week 40

August 21, 2017

So I’m a cook now. All the food was from yours truly.

Elder Chandler came back from Ethiopia finally!!! He was in the MTC with me, and everyone in my group left Uganda to different countries once we got hear….

Elder Mambuo is from Congo Parzival not DCR he is the tall dark one he speaks French and Lugwata and English

Elder Andriatsitoherina is the small brown one, he has 6 weeks left on mission, and he speaks Malagasy, French and English

I got a backpack today! It has an elephant on it 😉

Um not much else has happened this week to be honest, My companion gets stressed out in UG sometimes but these days nothing surprises me, I have 0 stress. The most exciting part of my day is when I leave the house to go talk to people, anyone about anything. I love the people!!

So we did a multi area exchange this Saturday and I was with some elders in Mukono (my area), we found a girl who asked us specifically for the book of Mormon, I was surprised but she had met with Elders before and they had given her a book, but she lost it. She said she missed the good feelings she got when she read it. The word of God brings power, read it and you are promised to receive it!

Love you all have a great week!!

Elder Moncur

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Week 39 Walking the Jungle

Week 39

August 14, 2017

Well another 6 weeks have passed and Elder Trippe and I are staying, but we are getting two new Elders!! Elder Mombo (DRC) and Elder Andriatsitohering (Madagascar)

pics!!

One I’m in a suit so I have to put that one in!

So the one where I’m with a guy and a girl is of my two favorite people in Mukono

Awourunga Stonic and Kigundo Lilian. They are just way to much fun and are basically my family these days

A pic of a guy on the top of a pole

Me in the jungle (we were finding)

So this past 6 weeks has been rough to say the least. Elder Trippe and I get along great, but the ward of Mukono is excited about missionary work as much as a 3 year old about broccoli. For anyone who has been a missionary before knows that getting a member referral is the best way to teach people. Well so far the past 2 months we have gotten 0… it’s been rocky for sure but the work still moves forward

So we walk, in the jungle, with a Book of Mormon in our hands and try our best!

We found a family of 8 that we were teaching but it turns out they live in another area so we had to transfer the family to another branch of the church that was closer to them. It was sad but the right thing to do. (less walking for them)

All is well in Mukono as a whole though! The things we struggle with is out of our control so no complaints my side!

Love you all hope you have a great week!

Elder Moncur

Week 38 Monkeys and dead shoes

Week 38 Aug 7, 2017

So elder Trippe had his birthday this Sunday!

Some dead shoes…. yeah those are fun to walk in. I’m getting my other pair fixed so I had to bring out the spares

… found a random ditch that was chest high,

And thank you all who were apart of writing me letters!!! I spelled “Thank you” like how the people in Uganda spell it 😉

I also got a box from my mom! It had seasoning salt in it! Imagine!!! Flavored salt! Freak what an idea

We also went to find monkeys out in the hills today and they surrounded us. Easily 40-50 were all in the trees around us. It was really cool!

So in spiritual news we are teaching this 17-year-old kid, his dad left the family and moved to a different town. And lo and behold the missionaries contacted his dad! After the dad was baptized he wanted to make things right and so he got in touch with us to go and share with the family that he left behind.

 

For now we are just teaching the oldest son who I just mentioned. And for the most part I’m pretty this kid is smarter than us; he has had the book of Mormon for 1 1/2 weeks and is already in Alma 7 (pg. 224) and knows the doctrine that apples to it.

God is the one who brings success to his children. As a missionary I’m just a tool in the workshop. The screwdriver is never the one who gets the credit for fixing the job. It’s the man who is using it. God is that master workman. And he knows how to fix every problem.

Love you all have a great week!

Week 37 in the Pearl of Africa

Week 37

July 31, 2017

So I ate this fruit thing called dragon heart! It tastes like a starburst and is crazy juicy!!

The picture of all the people is market day (every Tuesday) and

then the open landscape with all those brown buildings are stacks of bricks that people make by hand!

Um a lizard is for my sister Olivia! That is the amount of wildlife this week…

Well life is moving forward here in Mukono. Each day when I wake up I say, “Just another day at the office.” We started a “get jacked” work out plan after reading a scripture in the Book of Mormon: 2 Nephi 1:21,23. The basic thing of the scripture is a father talking to his children on his death bead. Some of his last words to his sons are, “Rise from the dust and be Men.” So the actual meaning behind the scripture is super deep and you can learn a lot out of these two scriptures! But what we took out of it was to get buff so we can become men! So as of now I’m at 125 push-ups a day with 10 minuets of abdominal workouts. Stay tuned!!

This week we walked for 2 hours straight to visit this man who stays far (hence the 2 hour walk) but if he comes to church then we can make the walk to get to him! The man’s name is Godfree and he is so happy to find a church that has answered all of his questions! He said that at the beginning of the meeting before we even started sharing! All Godfree needed in life was coming to church and seeing the service. Sometimes all it takes is a small step of faith and you get the answer.

And also this we have a man named Vincent, I think I have talked about him before about always getting the prompting to come to church. Well this week he got his answer!!! I haven’t talked to him much about it, but seeing him come to church this Sunday with a huge smile on his face. (Now with Vincent we have been sharing with him for 2 months) sometimes it takes perseverance to get an answer

Regardless how you get an answer it takes faith and steadfastness to god’s commandments. The commandments are not rules, they are directions.

Hope you all have a good week thank you so much for the support!!

Week 36: Weekly Report Email Thing… Birthday recap

July 24, 2017

So my 20th birthday was probably one of my favorite birthdays so far! Only other one was probably when I was 7 (we had a wicked cool water gun fight in my back yard with loads of kids) or when I turned 17 (we watched the new Godzilla and ate pizza with my family).

My birthday dinner was rice and spaghetti with a fish!

A guy who is a cake decorator made me a sweet cake!

And there was an activity at the church so lots of people were around to dump water on me (its a tradition in Africa) so I was soaked most of the night…

also the power was out most of this weekend as well so headlamps were very useful for this week as well!

One cool thing this week was a new investigator we got. His name is Vincent and he is from the north of Uganda in a place called Gulu. The man is very smart and is a very staunch/ stubborn person. Frankly we were confused why he likes meeting with us so much, and in his own words, “As of now, I don’t see any difference between my religion and yours, but every time you call I get a feeling that I should come and visit with you guys.”  After a talk about the Holy Ghost and how God can answer prayers in 100’s of different ways and that one of those ways can be promptings/ thoughts, he seemed still just as stubborn in most aspects, but you could see the small difference in his eyes.

I’m happy I get to share with Vincent.

Elder Trippe and I are getting along great; we actually like being the only missionaries out in the middle of Africa! It makes the reality of how important our work is that we are the only ones!

Thank you all for the birthday wishes again, truly it means a lot! Hope you all are safe and sound!

Week 35 Oh Nelly

O nelly, what a week.

So these pictures are all of the normal things I see in UG. The Jerry cans are what are used for water. They come in 20, 10, 5, and 2 liter jugs. Most people carry them 1k-2k away to their homes. Some people make a business out of it by selling each 20L can of water for 400 shillings each.

The gate is what we call a compound. Most are 2-3 meter walls with broken glass, razor wire, and electric fence on top. Sometimes all 3!

So my primary source of food is eggs. Eggs go on everything no matter what. For dinner we have this thing called Rolex (it is just chapatti and eggs with some veggie’s). It comes on the form of a taco looking thing and it used to be called “rolled eggs” thus the word Rolex came to be!

As for what people do for work here, basically if it has value someone is selling it. Most people have 3X3 meter shops with soda, water, and snacks and there will be 6 shops right next to each other selling the exact same thing. So supply is high and demand is low, and so everything is DIRT cheap.

Also lots of street venders, especially at night. Most people eat once a day and that’s at night. So soon as the sun goes down. The food comes out. All types of meat, fruit, bread, porridge, rice, Rolex, and fry stands appear on the roads. Also a very popular form of transport are taxi motorbikes called boda boda. Boda’s came from the word Border when the bikes used to carry people only from country to country. But now it has spread to all over Africa.

For me this week it’s just been the usual. Honestly I don’t really know what to talk about. I turn 20 this next week… that’s cool! These next few weeks things should be bumping, but as for now we are still setting up the groundwork for the next month.

The work is sweet here in UG. I love the people. This ward is my family now. I have been here in Mukono for 6 months and it has felt like 3 weeks. Some missionaries know how long 6 months can be in one area, but for me this is way way fun!

But that’s it for this week sorry it has not been too exciting!

Love you all!

Elder Moncur

Week 34 Trippe

Week 34

July 10, 2017

Elder Trippe from Cali!!!!!

4^th of July was celebrated with a few burgers with cheese and Pringles

Sugar Cane fields

So I’m training this new missionary from California and we are the same person, we both run make dumb jokes and love the work of the Lord!

We went to the falls again just so I can break him in to the life of Uganda!

Also with other news we are only 2 missionaries in a crowd of 2 million people hear in Mukono so lots of work to do! We never have down time these days it is insane! As a mission we are doing a book of Mormon 90 day challenge, where we read it all in 90 days! And we are going to highlight anything that talks about the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, and endure to the end!

So I’d likes to tell a story about a man who we have been teaching for the past 3 months, I’ll call him JOHN. John is a teacher and a well to do man. He loves the gospel but he is not 100% married to his wife who lives in the west. Well after a long talk about how it is important to be married so that you can be fully following the commandment about not committing adultery (the law of chastity) but sense she stays so far it is expensive to go out there. Well a month or so latter John had $ saved to take a 10 hour bus ride down to where she is and to get married. Once he got there though he found out she wanted nothing to do with the LDS church or Christianity as a whole. So on the long ride back John decided that this disappointment was an answer to his prayer. Just before he was not to sure if he wanted to marry this girl and was just doing it because he knew it was the right thing to do. In doing so he found his answer!

We can take this story to our own lives. Sometimes answers are given through ways of disappointment. If John had not acted in faith to spend all that $ to go see her he wouldn’t have found out what he wanted. He would still be stuck in the same place he was 2 weeks ago trying to decide to follow Christ. I know all of us can do this as well and “just do it”

I love you all hope you have a great week!

Love

Elder Moncur

PS: This picture is to show the “irony” of wearing a CTR (choose the right) shirt behind bars LOL