We are back to our YSA Activity Days. Above we are playing "Four Square", destined to become a favorite. Below we are playing "Pressy Pressy", one of the favorites for the locals.

Some of the local fauna in uganda. The bat was found in our apartment. It took quite an effort to capture it. We then took a picture of it and let it go. It was really mad.
The dogs are purebred Uganda dogs. They are "free range" and everywhere. They come it three colors; brown, black and brown and black.

He ain't heavy. He's my brother.

This is a very common scene here in Africa. It's very apparent; the love and support siblings have for one another. Very nice to see.

Helping Hands

We participated in the Church's "Mormon Helping Hands" event. We visited a babies orphanage. They are licensed for 50 children ages 0 to 4 year and currently have 40. They have a great facility but it is a challenge for them to keep it up. We prepared food, cleaned play areas and rooms, sorted clothes, cleaned the building and planted trees. About 75 of us had a great day. And darned if I know why I can't make this post look like I want.

Cardboard clock

The clock at our institute had been broken for about eight months. So I took another broken clock and used the parts to create this beauty out of cardboard. The locals are impressed but don't truly understand how.

Out-The-Door

This is our new mission president(Jackson). The Church has a very sussinct transfer program. President and Sister Christensen picked up the Jacksons at the airport Wednesday afternoon and spent the evening together at the mission home. They did some business thursday morning and all the seniors met for lunch. Prior to lunch we all said goodbye to the Christensens and they were off. The rest of us had a very long lunch getting to know each other. The previous Sunday night the senior couples met with the Christensens for dinner at the Rotheys and had an emotional departure. Change is one of the constants in the mission field.

Christine

This is Christine and Sister Beachley making Chapattis. They are considering making a cookbook of Ugandan foods. Chapatti is a staple that everyone knows how to cook. However, Christine makes the best.

Christine leads the music in our Ntinda bramch. She also teaches Sunday School and is in the Branch Relief Society Presidency and teaches Institute. We often caller her President Christine.

Meet Nephi. He is the grandson of a couple Sister Beachley and I home teach. As you can see, he's not nearly as excited to see me as I am him. I did get him to wave at Sister Beachley as she took the picture. The kids here are so much fun.

This is our Family Home Evening group of young
adults. We are playing a scripture game. It started
quite small but is now regularly about 20. I think
a lot of them come just for Sister Beachley's treats.

Career Workshop

This is our latest "Career Workshop" class. Two days, sixteen hours. A really good class. I think Sister Beachley and I are getting more tan. What do you think?

What is that noise?

I noticed this tree trunk under Elder Barlow's truck one afternoon. I approached him and asked if he had been hearing any unusual noises. He obviously responded in the affirmative. He said he had been listening very carefully but couldn't figure what could be the problem. When I showed him the problem we had a great laugh. They are often taking expeditions in the wild, uncharted country and this is not a totally out of the ordinary expectation.

These are the tomato plants we are growing on on our balcony patio. This is one month's growth. Should have some edible fruit in another month. Penny is sending some more seeds. Those should arrive in about a week, or maybe six months. Ya never know.

Seat belts do save lives!

And miracles do happen. This is the result of Elder Flinders avoiding hitting a bicycle unexpectedly crossing the highway. There were four elders in the truck. Just moments before, one of them in the back seat reminded the other he should be wearing his seat belt which he buckled. They all walked away with no injuries. Elder Flinders tried to find the bicycle rider to assure him they were okay, but he took off probably thinking he had killed someone. Not to worry. We don't drive this highway very often.

This is Mimi. She's about the cutest thing I've seen in Uganda. During our priesthood meeting she wandered in our room and climbed up into my lap. She likes to play with my arm hair. Just one of the many blessings here.

For our activity day we played "Ultimate Frisbee". We couldn't find a real Frisbee so we used a very soft ball. We found some pseudo Frisbees but thought it might not be a great idea to be knocking out teeth.

As many of you know, I can't get enough pictures of these kids carrying water. The little boy here is "in training", carrying a small jerry can that holds about a quart of water.

This is the graduating class from the first career workshop we had the opportunity to teach. It's an excellent two day program created by the church and required before students can get a Perpetual Education loan. Very fun people to teach.

This is a photo of the front end our our car. Fortunately, not too serious. Since it was done by a government vehicle, the police said nothing would be done, after all..."This is Africa".

Below is a photo of some traffic. Here we are on a two lane street with all the cars going in our direction taking up both lanes. Very typical. Haven't had a chance to ask them, "WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?"

Activity Day

This is our first "Activity Day". We had 18 young single adults. We played Speed Scrabble, Pounce, Idiot, watched a movie and ate popcorn. It was a big hit and expect to have many more.

Safari....NOT

This ant was found in our office. The coin is roughly the size of a U.S. quarter. Don't wanna know how much these guys can carry.

How about that escargot? A little rice and you have a meal.

There's a reason we hire professionals fool!.

Elder Beachley was doing some electrical work, trying to get the computers connected to the internet. The white spot is plastic fused to his hand. Should come off in a few days.

Ahhhhhhhhhh! I'm told this is a python. I'm sure you're aware I don't want to know a lot about it. This one was run over in the street about 150 meters from our office. Obviously the locals were impressed as well.

This is a video of a "REAL" rain storm taken
outside our office.

We were fortunate to witness the creation of the first stake in Uganda. It was one of the most spiritual events we have ever attended. The two Saturday sessions lasted over five hours. On Sunday we disolved the Kampala Uganda District, created the Kampala Uganda stake, upgraded five branches to wards and sustained seven bishops and the first Patriarch in Uganda. This picture was taken a full hour after the conference. No one wanted to leave.

These two beautiful babies were not quite as impressed with the proceedings as the rest of us. I can imagine fifteen years from now their parents telling them about how they were there to witness the creation of the first stake.

All of the sisters in the district choir wore their "gomez's; traditional Uganda dresses. They even brought two extras for the "mzungus"(white people). Elder Beachley had the opportunity to sing alto for the men's quartet that sang at the priesthood leadership portion. Another first.

This is our first Christmas in Uganda. We are so grateful Bekah and Luke were here to share it with us. Kampala doesn't have any stockings to hang so we used these hats. The small Christmas tree is adorned with pictures of all of our family members. A great blessing initiated by Katie.

Luke-vs-Warthog

Luke decided to take on a warthog. As you can see, Luke isn't doing so well. The tusks on these things are nothing to mess with.

Child Beggar

This is one of the sad tales of Uganda. Parents often send their small children out into the traffic to beg for money. It's terribly unsafe and the police don't do anything to control it.

This boy was happy to see his picture in the camera.