week 5: mpumudde, uganda

Hello everyone! Okay first off... We got robbed last night! Haha someone broke in the window and luckily we have bars over them or they could've got all the way inside, but they broke the window and used a bunch of sticks and tied them together with pieces of torn shirt. They made a hook on the end and used that to reach in and grab things... Elder mofokeng was the only one who got things taken... they got his backpack! they stole a book of mormon(SWEET), a book of remembrance, his white hand book and 120,000 shillings! Which is a lot of money here! We called the mission office, and said they do not refund stolen money… What the heck? I always thought to myself if people try to steal money from me I would just give it to them on the streets because I would be refunded, but now I know that if someone takes your money it's gone!!! If I ever get jumped they are going to have to take it out of my hands! There have been a few times were I have felt like we were about to be jumped… 

Other than that things are going good! We are almost confident that is was a member too... sadly our branch has been stuggling with theft. I gave a talk in church about honesty and spit fire at them too! and that night is when we got broke in too. funny how things like that work…

Wow time really flies! Transfers are coming up so fast! On the 18th we will know. I wonder if I will stay or go? Personally I think, and hope that I stay. I love mpumudde and the people. We met a family this week and they are just amazing!!! there is mimi, diana, iriene, hasfa, mary, simpo, kollins, kingsford, ebrah and a ton of children! haha they are all one big family and they are just awesome! they are super elect and sweet people! this is one of the first families that i feel a real deep love for! I am way close and good friends with all the guys. today we played soccer with that family and a bunch of dudes. it was legit. that's the first time that i have really played soccer. I slid and tackled 2 guys pretty good! it was legit! one guy did a flip and landed on his back! he was totally fine and was impressed that a Mazungu could do that. haha I suck at soccer but the aggressive defensive side of me was able to come out. it was sweet! for 5 of the people in the family, they have baptismal dates! they are really smart and interested and love to learn! this family, if they join, will do great things for the church and will be leaders. especially kollins and kingford! 

Another investigator named Mubarrack is being baptized next sunday! he like broke his foot and can barely walk, and he still came to church!!! He's a stud!!!

I can't believe Ryan is going to Belgium/netherlands!!! haha lindsey and ryan will have some cool stories! and it will be good for stephanie!;) haha that so awesome! tell him congrats! 

We bought 2 chickens this week and cut off their heads and plucked them and cut them up! we are going to have a big chicken feast tonight! i am super excited for that! haha I love that i can buy animals and kill them and prepare them on this mission! It will be nice to eat some type of meat!!! I bought something called wheebix in town. It is amazing! it is like fiber and oatmeal ground up and formed into a tablet. and you eat it with milk! I love it! i usually eat it for breakfast and for dinner, depending on the night, but you should look it up, it is so good!

This week I have been studying the atonement and about the godhead... wow i have got deep into it! When i study in the morning i only study preach my gospel and things pertaining to my investigators needs, but in my spare time I love to study deeper things. A question that I have wondered and talked about with my district is, will the atonement ever end? and we have studied both sides of the question. we know that after judgement our time to use the atonement somehow ends, but in the scriptures it says the atonement is infinate and eternal! also we know that is is possible for each of us the become a god like our heavenly father. we know that he once was living on an earth like we are now. only the ones who go to the celestial kingdom and go to the highest degree can become like him. There are so many things to learn from this concept. for example, the difference between eternal and exaltation. We are all given the gift of reserrection as part of the atonement no matter what. good or evil, everyone will be resurrected.  that is the eternal part, but to be exalted it to become like god! to reach the highest potential that we can ever achieve and become like our father in heaven, like god. God has been in our shoes. literally! He has shown us the path to become not only eternal, but to be exalted. To achieve exaltation, is a very very long process and you have to be a truely spiritual individual! you have to have faith like the prophets, and then in the spirit world continue to progress, and then if you make it to the Celestial kingdom you still have a very very long time, but it is possible to become like our heavenly father! he wants us too!!! there is a lot more to study and ask about though... but i love to find out these things personally! 

I hope things back home are going well. It will be so weird to be home when i think about it! haha everytime you see someone you say, how are you. and they say fine. and you ask the same. no matter when or where it's always the same... the way we talk to everyone is far from how we usually do. I don't really remember how i used to talk... haha. we had an awesome week this week. Elder Lloyd and I focused on working hard this week! we always work hard but we really tried extra hard this week. Our numbers were out of the water!!! and we felt really spiritual and good about the week! Elder Lloyd is super legit! we have become really good friends! we haven't fought once or been annoyed or mad at one another. we want to hang out when we are home and we totally will.

I don't know what else to say this week? there is so much that happened but so little time! Love you all!
Elder Halladay