Mothers day call...

Well, no letter this morning so I thought I would just share some of the stuff we learned when we talked to him.

1.  YES he did have Malaria!!!  He started to feel very cold last week and couldn't get warm.  He was wearing jeans, long sleeve shirts socks and jacket wrapped in a blanked and his fingernails and lips were blue.  With a temperature of  103.  They sent him to the hospital to get his blood tested and the figured out what strain of malaria it was (there are about 5 or 6 kinds) and then they were able to give him medicine to get rid of the kind he had.  He is still a little week but doing much better. (and he said in his last letter he had been a LITTLE sick....) 

2.  President Jackson is a convert to the church.  He used to be a Quaker.  They moved to Utah and wanted to go to church and after going to the Mormon church  which was down the street for about a month someone noticed they were new, found out they weren't members, got them taking the discussions and the rest is history. 

3.  When Brad first got to Uganda there were approximately 72 young proselyting missionaries...now there are about 126.  There are more African missionaries than American.

4.  The first stake was made in Uganda in January 2010 just about 6 months before Brad got to the mission.  They have many (I think he said 11) branches.. that are in a district.  They vary in size from 50 to 180 members. 

5.  Brad is still a technology nut!! 

6.  Being an AP isn't as glamorous as people think it might be.  Lots of long days, short nights, hard work and worry.  There are a few perks...
Living in a church owned building with a back up generator so you never lose power. 
Traveling around seeing all the missionaries. 
Being around President Jackson so much. 
Getting fed by Sister Jackson sometimes.

7.  His new companion is Elder Jenkins

8.  All his clothes are holding up surprisingly well... even his socks!  Not so much the inside of his shoes...  His suit jacket doesn't match his pants anymore. (the Jacket is way more faded than the pants)  One little boy asked him if he wore the wrong pants with his suit last week.... ha ha ha  :)    They soak their shirts in bleach once a month to keep them as white as they can be. 

9.  He has learned to be very frugal...living on $150 for the month.  (It will be a big culture shock for him to come back to the states)  Most people there live on $1.00 a day or less.  They grow most all their food.  Only on special occasions do they have meat.

10.  Perpetual Education Fund is BIG in Africa.  They get the education but the hard part is finding a job.

11.  Most church properties and buildings there have a guard 24 hours a day.  They all have barbed wire along the tops of the walls.   White, well dressed young men "scream" rich so where they live is a target...

12.  He has never yet seen a "real piano" with strings over there...even in Ethiopia, only keyboards but a lot of the time there isn't power... he really misses playing a "real piano".  (only 3 or 4 missionaries in the mission play)

13.  He really misses American hamburgers!!!  That is the one thing they can't get there.  There are some places that serve hamburgers but he says they don't taste like American ones.  He wants me to bring an In-N-Out hamburger in my purse to the airport for him.  (I told him it would be cold...gross!)

14.  They do alot of training there.  Part of that is having a missionary be a partner with a Melchizedek  priesthood holder to go home teaching so that they can learn how to do it. 

15.  We asked him if there are still crocodiles in the Nile (because he recently sent pics from service there and there were little boys going out in a wooden boat onto the Nile)  he said YES!!!  Yikes!!

16.  The main thing they grow in their garden is a vegetable that is much like a potato starts with an "M"  doesn't have much nutritional value. 

17.  Life for the Uganda people is very hard.  The shack homes are very typical for where people live. 

18.  He has only grown 1/4 inch while he has been gone. 

19.  He still thinks his sisters are crazy (which they are..)

20.  He is planning on finishing up his mission strong!! 

I am sure there is more we talked about... just can't remember  It was great to hear his voice. 
Keep praying for him and all the other missionaries. 

Karen