week 6: mpumudde, uganda

 

So before anyone reads this letter, know that I am fine and safe!

So apart from being robbed last sunday night.... Monday night I got Milaria and was in a sketchy hospital at 3am puking my guts out, and couldn't stand all tuesday... Wednesday I was so sick of being in the house that I had to get out... So Elder Lloyd and I went out to work and that night we got caught up in a huge riot and we got tear gassed... 

Monday night after we were home from being in jinja town I wasn't feeling too well. so at 9pm I went to bed. I was sweating and freezing in my bed for 3 hours with no sleep at all. My stomach was feeling horrible!!! I know the word Diarrhea is a sensitive word to some people, but here in Uganda it is a word used a lot... I had diarrhea from 12-2 like non stop... And what was crazy about that is that I hadn't ate anything all day... so I don't know where it was coming from... Then at 2 I started projectile vomiting... this is the worst I have ever felt and the most I have ever thrown up. I was throwing up non stop for an hour straight!!! It was horrible.. My body was shaking over the toilet and I was about to pass out. I just thought it was food poisoning. 

Elder Balstead(one of the senior companion elders) came and picked me up and took me to a hospital at 3am. Now when I say hospital you might be thinking of one back home, but this place looked like a horror film was about to take place. Elder Lloyd (my dedicated and shocked companion) helped me inside.. There was like 3 people there and the doctor looked like a drunk man with ragged clothing.. All of us were sketched out. So they took me into the "LAB" to run some tests... I had a red bucked that I was throwing up in the whole time. some lady started going through needles... haha elder balstead the whole time was asking questions like, "what is that? where are you putting that? what are you testing for?' and things like that. This Enyabo (women) had a thick thick accent and was hard to understand, but still she grabbed a HUGE needle and stuck it into my vein and drew blood... she said she was testing for Milaria. While we were waiting for the results, the doctor told us to go in a room... so then they told me to lean over the table... They gave me a shot in the BUTT to stop the vomiting... the needle they used was even bigger than the other one! it was like 6inches long and looked like a car antenna! this one actually hurt quite a bit.. Elder Lloyd said the guy stuck it in half way, then twisted it and stuck the rest in. I was too out of it to recall everything... The women that took my blood walked in the room and said that i tested positive for Milaria... So then I layed down on a bench while Elder Lloyd and Elder Balstead got all my pills.. They were on the phone with Elder Johnson the whole time making sure these pills were the right ones. Elder Johnson is our medical adviser for the mission. They finally got it figured out and we left that horrible and eerie hospital and went back home. I took 11 pills that night and passed out in bed... my butt was stiff and sore for 3 days from that shot! and all of tuesday I was so weak... I couldn't even walk the length of the house without having to sit down. it is so stupid and I hated having to stay home. Elder Johnson told me that there is no way I am leaving the house for at least a day and a half...

Tuesday Elder Lloyd and I watched church movies, conference, listened to talks, read scriptures and slept.. we have like a 6 inch portable dvd player in the house. The studying and sleeping was nice, but having diarrhea all day sucked! I think I lost a couple pounds for sure... Tuesday I started to get home sick and missed being in America and having all of the nice things at hand that I was used to... I can honestly sum up Tuesday by saying it sucked because, we couldn't go out and see our investigators, I was homesick and sick, and I was delusional and weak...

Wednesday I spend the day studying and eating and drinking as much as I could! The first half of the day I was resting, but the last half I couldn't bare to be in our home any longer! So Elder Lloyd and I went out and worked! Although I was super weak I was able to press on. I was praying all day that God would give me enough strength to at least see our progressing investigators. God answered my prayers and I was able to walk a couple miles around Mpumudde. So everything was going awesome that night and we were in the middle of a lesson when we heard 3 loud explosions... immediately after we got a call... President Katimbo (the Mpumudde Branch President) called us and said to go home immediately and that a riot broke loose on Kamuli road. (Kamuli road is the main road that everyone uses to get around). The other Elders worked on the other side of Kamuli road and that was the only way for them to get home. We called them and told them to stay at a members house until we figured out what was going on... Elder Lloyd and I walked to the bottom slope of Kamuli road to see what was happening. The walk to the road took about 30 minutes and it was dark at this time. we talked to some people to find out what was going on. Turns out that a taxi hit a bota bota.(a bota bota is a motorcycle that takes people around. like a taxi) So the taxi hit the bota bota and killed the driver a women and her baby... And after the taxi hit them people started to stone the taxi driver and killed him too... a riot broke out and the 3 explosions were concussion granades to break up the riot. The people who told us this said that we could now get through ahead. So we started to walk up the road to see if it was safe enough for the other elders to come home... when we were half way up the road I looked up and saw what looked like fireballs flying everywhere in the sky... I showed Elder Lloyd and we immediately turned and ran... Those fire balls were "Rocket Propelled Tear Gas Canisters" being fired out of a gun! The police started shooting them at people and down the road! One of the canisters came wizzing past me head and they were bouncing of boulings and the ground and exploding all around us! I turned my head to look behind me and I saw one flying right at me so I ducked and the canister hit Elder Lloyd in the shoulder and knocked him on the ground... I helped him up and we continued to run. This whole time we hear people screaming, metal bouncing off metal and asphalt and even bodies followed by the load explosions of the gas... The tear gas was filling the street and areas around us and everyone was couching and choking.. One canister exploded a few feet infront of us... We were then engulfed in the gas... Immediately I went blind and started hacking for my life... It felt like my face was on fire and little needles filled with gasoline were being injected into my pours. we turned back around and ran to some little shops. we couldn't see and were crawling around and trying to regain our vision... someone opened a door and pulled us inside. A large group of people were in this small little shop and we were washing our eyes out with water... I finally could see again, but my face and lungs were still on fire. we heard more screams and for tear gas explosions and waiting in that little shop for it to stop... after is was quiet we made our way into the jungle to get off the road!!! we found a pathway and eventually our way home... the other Elders took a 3 hour long detour to get home! But they didn't get Tear Gassed. The police were tear gassing and beating people to clear the road... The police here are so stupid! I honestly at one point thought I was going to get the crap beat out of me by police with the double respirator masks, but the Lord protects his servants and the missionaries. Now I look back on this experience and laugh! How many people can say they have been tear gassed? This is definitely the mission of missions! You gotta love Ugandia! 

Besides the Milaria and getting tear gassed this has been a really awesome week! We had 4 baptisms this sunday and it was a super powerful and spiritual experience! I was able to baptize Walter, Phillip, and Joan, while Elder Lloyd baptized Flourence. Walter is a 19 year old kid who Elder Lloyd and I found tracking in the Market at the beginning of the transfer. I am so glad that we got to be here for his baptism! He is one of the ELECT few that I know we were led to by the spirit! Walter will be a powerful and strong member of the church and a wonderful and worthy priesthood holder. He wants to serve a mission and he is super smart! I love Walter and can't wait to see what he does for the church. Flourence is the mother to Joan and Phillip. She is 33 and joan is 13 and phillip is 10. They have been coming to church for over a year, but haven't been able to be baptized because her husband wants nothing to do with the church and they never got married. She was able to get a letter from her husbands parents saying they have been together for 17 years and they approve of the baptism. They have been waiting to be baptized for a very long time and it was awesome to be a part of their progression and decision to be led into the waters of baptism and repentance. They are clean and pure now and if they endure to the end and apply their faith to repentance and take the sacrament every sunday to renew those covenants and apply the atonement and be cleansed again, they will inherit the kingdom of god. 

I love my mission and I love everyone who has been an example to me in my life. Family, Friends, Teammates, Coaches, Leaders, Teachers, and others have molded me into the person I am today. I hope that I can always be progressing and trying to become like the savior my whole live. I hope all of us can look to our perfect example that our loving heavenly father has given to us for direction in life. God is always there. He is waiting for you to open the door and let him into your life and waiting for you to apply your faith so that he can then take your burdens upon his own shoulders! I love you and I know god loves you. 

Elder Halladay