Week 39 Post-Mortem

You will recall we did not send a blog over the weekend due to The Tigers beating the Crimson Tide...or should I say the Crimson Tide beating the Crimson Tide.  I play the game real hard for about 48 hours and then move on.  Time to move forward with the work in which we are engaged here.  So for the 1% of Americans who didn't care about the game, the 1% who were pulling for the Tide and the 98% of Tide haters, I am over it...not really, I'll probably never get over this one but as Dr Scott Peck says in the first sentence of the first paragraph on the first page of his his book...THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED, "Life is difficult."  (If you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it!)Compared to what we see here in Gulu, the Bama game was meaningless.
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I awoke a little on the sullen side Monday.  Not feeling quite chirpy, a little down.  And then it dawned on m...this week marks the half-way  point of our mission.  There is so much we need to do yet and so many good Saints and citizens we have come to love.  It is sad to think we will be comiing home in 9 months.  I am still more humbled that we've had over 16,100 "pageviews" (hits) on our blog site.  Thanks again for your interest!  It encourages us to keep on keeping on.
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I mentioned earlier our young single adults held a combined activity a few miles outside of town at the Gulu Recreational Center.  They had a great time doing things they could never afford to do on their own...this was Church sponsored so the two Church branches incurred the costs.

There was an inflatable raft a couple of kids got on.  There was a boat that looked liked one I saw on the shore of the Sea of Galilee a number of years ago. Matter of fact, the boat was so old it could have been His boat,  Merry-go round, slides, see-saw, football, hoola hoop.  A lot of laughter and fellowship.

Additionally, there was a nature walk Pam and I took.  Boy, were we surprised at what we saw.  Not just a nature walk but an actual safari.  We were really caught off guard and had a couple of near misses with the wildlife.  Some pics below.
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Our Anglican reverend who has been unfriendly on the radio towards the Church...we met with him for the third time last week.  Once before in a restaurant, in our home for dinner Monday night and again Friday at the restaurant.  He is developing trust in our mission and in our sincerity to help his people.  He is a very good man, a big heart and works tirelessly for the northern Ugandan poor.  The one thing he will not do is hand out money.  He teaches as we do...self-reliance and that means getting an education, learning a skill and putting that skill to work.
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The boat...pretty much rotted but will float.  Transom has dry rotted off the back of the boat. Notice on the back seat, a water bucket to bale out the water that leaks in.

Pam...oar in hand.

Inflatable raft.  Very hard to control.  Most of the kids that tried just turned round and round, couldn't go anywhere.

See-saw.  Tragically, as I was typing this blog post last week I received a phone call from the branch president of the girl on the ground in white blouse...Teddy Lakot.  She was planning on serving a mission having completed some of her paperwork She died last night in what appears to be a murder/poisoning by her roommate.   More on her funeral service in next weeks blog post.

Merry-go round...very fast and furious and made some of the riders very dizzy and left them with queezy stomachs.

On our safari, we first spotted this zebra...the first one we've seen in Uganda.  We were this close.  No zoom.

We rounded a corner and I was nearly mauled by this lion.  I barely escaped.  A few scratches on me but after a 2 hour struggle I finally strangled him to death.

After killing the lion, a few meters down the path I found Pam scared to death as this leopard was just about to attack her.  I used my pepper spray to chase him away.  He ran in the direction of the lion I had just strangled and was happily having supper on the lion's carcus.

This is a trick Pam learned while at the circus in Dallas last year.  We've been telling you these hippos are some of the most dangerous animals in Uganda...not so and this proves it.

Riding Big AL, Bama's Mascot, off into the sunset.  Just happened to have my new Bama shirt on.  As it turned out, I should have ridden him harder.  He was a little sluggish this day...an omen of the Bama-Auburn game.

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Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught that all people have numerous opportunities to give the gift of service to their fellowmen and that their motives in serving are all-important:

“… Scriptures make clear that in order to purify our service in the Church and to our fellowmen, it is necessary to consider not only how we serve, but also why we serve.
“People serve one another for different reasons, and some reasons are better than others. … We should all strive to serve for the reasons that are highest and best.

“… By way of illustration, and without pretending to be exhaustive, I will suggest six reasons. I will discuss these in ascending order from the lesser to the greater reasons for service.
“[1] Some may serve for hope of earthly reward. …
“[2] Another reason for service … to obtain good companionship. …
“[3] Some may serve out of fear of punishment. …
“[4] Other persons may serve out of a sense of duty or out of loyalty to friends or family or traditions. …
“[5] One such higher reason for service is the hope of an eternal reward. …
“[6] … The highest reason of all. … Charity. …
“… It is not enough to serve God with all of our might and strength. He who looks into our hearts and knows our minds demands more than this. In order to stand blameless before God at the last day, we must also serve him with all our heart and mind.
“Service with all of our heart and mind is a high challenge for all of us. Such service must be free of selfish ambition. It must be motivated only by the pure love of Christ” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1984, 13–16; or Ensign, Nov. 1984, 12–15).