Hacuna Matata

A PICTURE!!!!!! I GOT A PICTURE ON!! AND HOPEFULLY I'M NOT SPREADING SOME WEIRD VIRUS TO ALL OF THE LAPTOPS WE HAVE!! haha. Merry Christmas everyone. These kids kind of look high...but they're not I promise. Well, actually I can't promise that, but I don't think they are. And they are the neighborhood kids I always hang out with...Mary, Fatuma, Shareaf, Junior....awwww...I love these kids. Everytime I walk out of the gate to our house, they all yell, "DANIELLA! DANIELLA!" Or sometimes, Diana...I'll take what I can get.
Not much new out here in Lugazi. Well...there are a few developments. First of all, I got really sick AGAIN and was in bed all day yesterday. I'm feeling better now...Mom, thank Grant for the medicine for me...the prescription stuff is the only thing that has worked. I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO grateful...he must have been listening to the promptings of the Spirit or SOMETHING Cause...I was dyin.
Um...sadly, Ivan is still in Prison. We're like positive that he took our stuff which makes me SO sad...It is sad that he betrayed our trust. But, we are trying to find an alternative than the police keeping him in jail for a few years. Kristen (kristen is my country director) called her parents to ask for advice and her mom said that she would sponsor him to go to a super strict boarding school as long as Ivan was honest with us and he didn't make any contact with any of us for the rest of the summer...but Mike at HELP said that it is against HELP policy to sponsor someone for school...If we do, people will think that HELP usually does that...and we don't have the money to sponsor a whole bunch of kids. So...I don't really know what's going to happen. Poor Kristen and Melissa have had to deal with this every day this week.
Yesterday I watched my first movie since I have been here...GREASE! Haha I haven't seen it for years....It was wonderful. For a second, I felt like I wasn't sick in the middle of east africa, I was sick at my house in Alpine with my mommy a few rooms away.
The last few weeks have made me really appreciate life in happy little bubble of a place, Alpine, Utah.
I feel so grateful for so many things in America that make life so easy.
Grateful for a soft bed.
Grateful for a comfortable home.
Grateful for a family that is alive and healthy.
Grateful for a family that loves me and that are my best friends.
Grateful for a flushing toilet.
Grateful for a naked shower every day
(we don't shower naked here...outside in the open).
Grateful for privacy.
Grateful for good healthy food.
Grateful for clothing that does not have holes in it.
Grateful for a washing machine and a dryer.
Grateful for a dishwasher.
Grateful for very few bugs.
Grateful for a good education.
Grateful for the opportunity to get a good education.
Grateful for the garbage trucks that pick up our garbage and dispose of it properly.
Grateful for clean water so that I can drink from the tap.
Grateful for best friends who I can truly depend on.
Grateful for an extended family who loves and supports me and who gets together often.
Grateful for a job.
Grateful for clean grocery stores.
Grateful for EVERYTHING SANITARY.
Grateful for the medical system (even though drugs out there are WAY more expensive than here. I went to the doctor here, Dr. Nyumbi the other day and he gave me 3 different kinds of medicine for 13000 shillings...like $6.50).
Grateful for a car.
Grateful for our political system.
Grateful for a President and the ability to vote.
Grateful for the media and all the knowledge I receive...here the politics are completely unfair (they just had an election for mayor here in Lugazi and the guy who won only won because his slogan was "obama"...that's all it takes here).
Grateful to be so close to a temple and to my church building.
Grateful for my home ward that is so strong and so kind and caring.
Grateful for the opportunity to come out here and serve.
Mom, you were right when you told me that getting out of America will only make me more grateful to be from America and to be an American. I wish everyone had this opportunity. It makes me so much more patriotic. Since Monday was memorial day, we had one girl in our group sing the star spangled banner, and I almost started crying. We are so blessed and so lucky. Really and truly. To live in America and to have the gospel in my life...I am TOO blessed. I don't know why Heavenly Father decided to bless me with this much, but I hope to be able to help others with the knowledge that I have. I'm going to do everything I can to give back to Heavenly Father what He has given to me.