a few pictures

I didn't know quite what to label this post. My parents sent these 3 images and said "please put these on the blog". OK. Done. The top one is easy. It's out cute missionaries at the MTC. The other two? Maybe dinner, before and during preparation? We'll have to wait for them to check in and comment to let us know what's going on.

{Sorry for the small image size. For some reason the pbpb blog wasn't updated when blogger did their upgrades. Sizing images isn't as easy in this old format.}

Land of the Boda Boda's

Hello from Uganda, the land of the Boda Boda's,

We took a weekend trip with Elder and Sister Thayn to Jinja to attend a CES teacher inservice meeting and to meet the members and Priesthood leaders in that area. We had so much fun with the people and we also got to eat two meals with our fingers because no utensils were provided!!

A few of the amazing things we saw were the head of the Nile, a couple dozen huge storks (with wing span of 6-7 feet), the open market with fruits and vegetables, purses, clothes, shoes and lots of people who seemed engrossed with the white people walking by, chickens being plucked and prepared for the Branch Christmas party, people catching grasshoppers around the street lights at night to take home for a snack and a million more potholes!! We stayed with Elder and Sister Harris in their home and were treated like royalty. It is remarkable how quickly we become friends with the senior couples...there is a real connection made.

We are scheduled to go to Mbale, our area of service, on Wednesday and are very excited to get there. Everyone that we mention Mbale to, says it is so beautiful and that we will really love it.
Tonight, we were stuck in traffic on our way to the mall to pick up a few more items to take with us when it seemed impossible to get across the three to four lanes of traffic to make our turn. I mouthed to the driver of a big van taxi next to us, "Would you help us get in here?" and he gave me a thumbs up signal. He then proceeded to block the traffic in each lane and allowed us in to make the turn. The people in the taxi were all smiling and we were too as we waved a thank you to them. Sure great to come across good people who are willing to help out a fellow traveler in life.

Hope you are all doing well and are happy.
Mom and Dad (Grandma and Grandpa)

Kampala

Hi everyone,

We are here in Uganda after about 31 hours of travel and have been enjoying the African experience again. The traffic is crazy here in Kampala...taxi vans, trucks full of people, Boda-bodas (motorcycle taxis) everywhere, pedestrians and cars all driving here and there. It's worse than Korea!!!

We are staying in a vacant couples' apartment in Kampala, will be traveling to Jinga with our friends, the Thayns, this weekend and will be going to our area of assignment next week. Everybody keeps telling us that we'll be given President Jackson's car since he'll be getting a new one and that our house in Mbale is really something with three rooms, no less. We are looking forward to getting there and starting the work. We met our four missionaries yesterday and they say that the area is already to set up a branch. Just waiting for approval.

We will try and write more later. We miss all of you and pray for you each day. Hope you are well and happy.

Love,
Mom and Dad