Seriously? Every time I think life could not possibly get any better, or my smile could get any bigger, it does. Let me just give you a little run-down of the amazing week I have just had.
Saturday: A big group of us went and hiked Sipi Falls. Sipi is actually three different waterfalls all relatively close to each other. And they are BEAUTIFUL! The hike was pretty intense to get to and from the first waterfall, but it was so so pretty. Also, I had a little African boy who helped me along the whole way. I have to say, I have never felt more ridiculous than when I was hiking up and down a mountain, carrying a goofy walking stick that they gave all of us, and having a 14-year-old boy wearing crocs running in front of me, and holding my hand and helping me up and down all of the tricky parts. Mzungus are pretty pathetic. The falls were absolutely gorgeous though. I really can't get enough of how beautiful this country is. I'm fairly certain that heaven looks an awful lot like Uganda.
Sunday: For some reason, Sundays in my little Mbale branch always make me super happy and super emotional. This Sunday was no exception. We had three confirmations before the sacrament (they baptize people like crazy in this country....it's incredible). Our sacrament consisted of talks from our brand new mission president and his wife. Which were wonderful. Their enthusiasm and love for these people is already so obvious, and I just couldn't help being excited with them. My favorite part of the meeting was the special musical number in between the two speakers.....which was put on by my cute primary kids. This was a huge thing for this little branch. The church has only been in Mbale for three years so it still has a lot of learning and growing to do. Primary is one of those areas that still needs a little work. I was talking to Sister Barton (our ward senior missionary) about it, and she was telling me how most of the people here don't quite understand the importance of teaching children gospel principles yet. For them, primary is a place to send their energetic little kids to be corralled for two hours, while they go to their classes. Which, in a sense, it is. But it's also so so important for kids to have this time to be taught simple gospel stories and principles so they can continue to learn and grow in the gospel all throughout their lives. These kids are so blessed to be a part of this church at such a young age, but it's a waste if they aren't given the opportunity to be using all of this additional time they have to learn and develop a strong testimony. With all that said, this branch has definitely never had something like a primary musical number in sacrament meeting. The first week we were called to be primary teachers, Hannah had the great idea to teach the kids a song and have them sing it in sacrament meeting. And that's what we did. After the first speaker, all the primary kids gathered in the front and sang all three verses of "I am a Child of God." I cried and cried and cried. Listening to primary kids sing always makes me emotional. And, like I said, the Mbale, Uganda branch makes me emotional. Those things combined with the fact that these were my primary kids, and this was such a huge thing for this little branch, left me shamelessly wiping tears from my eyes the entire time. It really was amazing.
Primary has been kind of a tough thing because Hannah and I were pretty much left alone to deal with about 20 really energetic kids for two hours. It has been a lot of work, and most of our time is spent trying to get everyone to sit down, stop leaving the room, and be somewhat quiet. Most of the time I don't feel like anything we are actually teaching is even being heard, let alone sinking in. This Sunday was a little different. Just a little. We had a lot of kids and they were all restless. I was teaching a lesson on forgiveness, while Hannah worked to keep everyone under control. Out of the 20+ kids that were in the room, I think I had two that were listening. But somehow that was enough for me, because they were really listening. I could tell that the things that I was saying were really sinking in, and they wanted to keep learning even when everyone around them was being disruptive. They answered my questions, and at one point I asked if anyone could tell us the story of Alma the Younger (I figured that would be a long shot). But to my surprise, little Ben Butali (the son of Stephen and Sarah Butali who I have talked about before) stood up and told the whole story of Alma in waaaay more detail than a lot of people my age probably could have done it. I was blown away. My enthusiasm may or may not have been a little over the top for something like summarizing a simple scripture story. But it was so great. It was such good evidence that little Ben has incredible parents (not that I didn't already know that) and he has been taught gospel principles and stories in his home while he has been growing up. I was so proud of him and his family, and it gave me so much hope for the continued growth of the gospel in Uganda. They are working so hard and it really is paying off.
Monday: We had another meeting with our little savings and loans group. And it was wonderful. Everyone saved the agreed upon amount, and our awesome leadership made sure everything went smoothly. The meeting was run with very little input from Sam and I, and I'm confident that they will be able to handle everything just perfectly after we leave. I feel like this group is our little baby that we are helping to learn and grow, and soon we will be able to send it out on its own. And its going to be so successful.
Tuesday: This was right up there on the list of best days of my life. No question. Over the last two weeks we had been working on our team fundraiser (as you know). I was so passionate about this fundraiser because I was so passionate about the people we were hoping to help. It really is hard for me to explain. I just love these people so so much and desperately want to do anything I can to help them. So, when I woke up on Tuesday morning with about 13 e-mails from indiegogo saying we had received donations (some from people that I love very very much) I couldn't help but cry....and laugh....at the same time. Donations kept coming in that morning, and by the time I left to go out to my projects, we were only a few hundred dollars away from our goal. And I couldn't stop smiling. Once again, I can't adequately put into words how I felt. Beyond happy. It was like a little miracle. Just the day before I had been stressing because we were nowhere near our goal, and we were quickly running out of time. But people are incredible, and they pulled through for us. I really was blown away by the generosity of so many kindhearted people. I really just can't even tell you how much it meant to me. I felt so loved and blessed, and also felt the love that all of these people had not only for their friends and family on the HELP team, but also for the people of Uganda that they have never even met before. I could go on and on about how amazed and grateful I was. By the time I went to bed that night, we had exceeded our goal, and by the time our fundraiser officially ended this morning, we were $500 over what we had hoped for. I don't even know what to say. People are amazing.
Wednesday: We went with David Zaale to the hardware store to start buying supplies for the school. Another incredible day. Who knew buying iron sheets and bags of cement could be sooooo great?? We couldn't stop smiling. And David was so excited! Ugandans don't show a lot of emotion most of the time, so the fact that it was so obvious how happy he was really says something. I was pretty sure I saw tears at one point. Best day.
This Weekend: Sam, Hannah, Alyssa, and I are going to Jinja for a couple of days to shop and eat and just chill. And I am so excited. It's going to be great. Jinja weekend here we come!
Mostly things here are so wonderful. We are going to go up to Bududa next week to put the mud up for the walls on the school. I'm so excited for that. I have about a million other things that I'm working on right now. Which is great. And stressful. And so exciting. So much to do and so little time!
P.S. Sorry about the lack of pictures. I have some good ones, but they are all on different cameras, and the owners of said cameras are already asleep. So you will have to wait on those.
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