Brilliant

Disclaimer: I know I have quite a bit of non LDS friends reading this blog and I'm going to put it out there that almost this entire post is about church today as was another post a while back.  So...skip ahead if you'd like and sorry for the heavy use of church lingo and minute details I wanted to remember!

If asked how today was, I would answer as Kate often does to that question, "Today was brilliant!" Church was so wonderful and now that this is my 4th time there, people know my name and I know theirs.  When we got there, Sister Rose, the Bishop's wife, grabbed Charlie and ushered him away from me and onto the organ. For the first time ever on an organ and in a brand new ward, Charlie played the prelude music at church.  He caught on to the organ quickly and played beautiful music.  It added such a wonderful tone to be able to walk into the chapel while listening to hymns...not that this wards need any help in being reverent.  The Bishop got up and thanked "Brother Charlie" and announced to the congregation that he would be playing an interlude hymn after the first speaker.  This was clearly news to both of us as he shot me a wide eyed look and I motioned for him to stay at the organ!  So there he sat, perfectly still and with a straight back for the entire duration of Sacrament Meeting.  He played a beautiful interlude hymn while the congregation listened and then the second speaker stood up.  The speaker was a 15 year old young man who the bishop had said was filling in due to the original speaker not attending.  He went on to give a very serious, earnest and well spoken talk on...wait for it...chastity.  Ok, name me one 15 year old you know, who could get up last minute and give a straight faced talk from the pulpit that would rival any adults on the same subject matter without ever getting so much as a giggle or smirk!  I marveled at this until I realized that for these people chastity can literally be a matter of life and death.  This is a very serious subject to this nation in a way we can't comprehend in the states.  In the paper every single day, there are articles about how to combat HIV.  Today, for example, was an article titled "Will sexual abstinence ever really work to combat HIV?"  I don't want to belabor this subject, but I was taken back by the maturity of this 15 year old.

I spent the second hour in nursery with Kirabo while we tried to talk about the parts of the body.  He was not at all interested and I haven't been able to ever get him to answer when I ask him where his eyes are, etc.  He did hone in once we colored pictures of the body.  The leader brought out a small pouch filled with little half inch remnants of crayons mostly in black and white.  I found one yellow and that became the hot item. We found a few crumpled bits of paper and we drew bodies on them for the children to color.  Since this is my last week here, positive thinking, I've been thinking on the gifts we will give the orphanage, social worker, Kirabo's uncle and village, etc. and I would like to add ward to this list.  I think I'm going to head to the store and buy some crayons and other basics for the nursery!  

The third hour, Kirabo and I joined the primary children for singing time and sharing time.  All the children were together and I counted 13.  They can have up to 30 total but many were gone for holiday.  Charlie was asked to conduct all the songs so he stood up there while trying to remember Scripture Power from a few years back.  The rest of the songs were from this year and Kate was excited to find many similarities.  They each volunteered when the children were reciting the articles of faith and once again I marveled on these childrens' incredible restraint, reverence and strong grasp of the gospel principles.  Most of the children, including the young ones, had the articles of faith memorized.  Then, Charlie and Kate were able to contribute by having a strong command of the language in the scriptures when reading aloud.  It was fun for Charlie and Kate to see the similarities they share with these Ugandan children and also the strengths these children had and the strengths Charlie and Kate were able to bring.  They complemented each other wonderfully and it was a very sweet experience for all of us.

We capped off the day with an invitation to the Bishop and his wife's home.  It meant so much to be invited into their home.  She made it clear I was to stay about 20 minutes. :)  (This is the wife of the husband who a few posts back about the ward, kept putting everyone on a time constraint when they spoke!) We couldn't go empty handed so we brought one of the USA soccer balls and pumps we had brought.  They served us sweet bananas, biscuits and orange soda.  Sister Rose, as she is called, has 6 children including one set of twins.  Her two boys, ages 22 and 24, who I have known over the course of the last month, were there as well.  I was a bit nervous about overstaying my time, and well, just nervous in general, so I worry I asked too many questions.  When I stopped, there was a long silent pause, and well, I struggle with silent pauses.  They asked us about what differences we saw in our two wards and what they could do to improve and be more like our wards.  I was a bit taken back by that question and started to tell them my impression of their ward.  They are a ward full of beautiful and passionate singing, fervent testimonies in which they are put on a time limit because they all can't wait to share their burning testimonies, and children who are incredibly reverent and respectful of their teachers and leaders.  They were shocked to find out we bring bags of "church toys" to keep our children quiet.  Because our wards are comprised of many people who have grown up in the gospel and we have access to many resource materials to supplement our study, we have a strong grasp of the doctrine.  However, because their ward is comprised entirely of 1st generation converts, they have so much passion.  I told them how amazing it is that they say almost verbatim the same language we do and as a result, there is very little difference between our meetings.  I assured them that it is not just their ward who could learn from us, but it is our wards who could learn from them just as much.  Charlie commented aloud, that he wished there was a way we could do an "exchange." We at times can struggle with complacency and taking the gospel for granted, and they are bursting at the seams with gratitude and passion for the gospel and it is indeed infectious.  

While tomorrow marks a very anxious day for us, Tuesday marks a very exciting day.  We have been working hard for the last few weeks to be able to bury Kirabo's mother in a proper grave with a tombstone as a way to honor her. 

This is her grave as we saw it.  It is the heap of dirt covered in grass.  We called Kirabo's uncle, Godfrey, (his mother's brother) and asked if it would be o.k. to plaster a grave and add a tombstone, and he responded that he's been saving up to do just that and it will take him 5 more years.  (She passed away over 3 years ago.) We were touched he cared enough to try to save his precious earnings in order to honor his sister.  He straps containers of water called jerricans to his bike and delivers them as a way to earn his living.  We picked him up last week and he selected the plaster and tombstone and he took a day off work to take the men down to the grave site 3 hours away.  He has been so helpful and gracious throughout this process and we are so indebted to him.  It breaks my heart he doesn't speak English and I really worry about not being able to keep in touch very well.  He did call me the other night and this was how our conversation went:
"Hello, Rebecca?  Godfrey!"
"Hello Godfrey, how are you?"
"Greetings!  Greetings to you, (pause) to your sister, (pause), to your children, (pause) and to your son."
"Greetings to you Godfrey."
"Greetings and goodnight."
"Goodnight Godfrey."
"Goodnight and Greetings."
"Goodnight and Greetings to you."  (at this point, I'm sweating)
"Goodnight"
"Goodnight"
We hang up.
We've been trying to figure out what we can do to help Godfrey.  He is family now.  I'm thinking offering to pay for English lessons is a start...

Godfrey has notified the village and all the people that have taken part in Angella's and Kirabo's life to come meet us at Angella's grave on Tuesday.  Of course where there is a gathering, there is food.  We offered to pay for the feast they are preparing.  James got nervous about how much the food would add up to for the village.  It is going to cost $12.00. I think we will survive this expense.

Have a wonderful Sunday and good luck to everyone going back to work and school and heading into the Christmas festivities!  I can hardly believe it's the Christmas season having missed Halloween and Thanksgiving!

Love to you all,
Rebecca  
xo