6-28-2010

So ya things here in africa are hot. And only getting hotter. And esh my area is tough, but its good to have some hard challenges once in a while. But ya were still working hard and mission is good. So my mission president comes next week. It should be interesting to see what he does the first few months. Have to sit back and see. But i think he will be a good mission president like president taylor. So as for me this week, was an okay week. I can say mission can be tough sometimes. So this past week i went on exchanges with my trainer. I got to go to ubungo to teach with him. It was good, it brought back alot of good memories of my first transfer. By the way the new president is coming next week. And this week is the last of this transfer so we will have to see who will get transfered. If i dont get transfered i will hit my 6 month mark in my first area. Which im cool with that Changombe is good, but its really tough work. My area is hard, but i like it. So something interesting happened today after we got done cleaning the flat. My comp was about to get in the shower and this lady knocked on our door. I answered and she didnt speak a word of english. But she asked if she could come in and i was like no. And she was asking where the mama was. And i was like there is no mama that lives here. And then she asked what time the mama would be back. And i again said that its just me and my companion that stay here. So she just kinda looked at me irritated so i said goodbye and slowly shut the door. Esh it was kinda akward. So ya also something weird that happened today we ran into a American. He was from Miami. Still not sure why he was here, but he says he has been here for a month doing something. But he was a cool guy, i hope we get to see him again. By the way he sounds way funny. I had a hard time understanding him. But it was cool to run into another American. Dont see many of those running around. So they are planning on opening up new area in TZ. In fact i think they are planning to make it its own mission. I think that its going to happen while im on mission. Its the swahili, many many many people dont speak english just swahili. So i think that they will start teaching in swahili soon. Im not sure though just my thoughts on this. They have had some church people come and check it out and interviewed people about the english problem. So anyways Kirk should be coming next week i belive. I think i know where he is going to be born but we will have to wait and see. And by the way im excited for uncle john. Im glad that things are starting to go good for him. I hope his business will continue to grow. So ya i dont have much time today sorry, we are going to teach this awesome lady. We taught her last week, and it went very well. Im excited to teach her again. She has a small family, husband and a child. So ill have to tell you how this goes next week. So ya also next week transfer news, man thats always some intense stuff. Ya and i heard about USA losing to Ghana. Alot of people came up to me and told me. I was like ya thats cool. I think they wanted a different reaction from me. So ya thats cool Jessica T came to hang out with you guys. I wished i could have been there to hang out with all yall. Ya there is some southern accent for ya. I told that to one of our investigators who thinks he has an american accent. It doesnt sound like one, at all so i gave him the example of the southern accent and he thought it was weird. So as for me i gotta run to a appointment. Im excited to teach it the lady is awesome.So ill have to write you more next week. So i hope you have a good week, and ill tell you how things go down. Kwaheri

love, Elder Jackson

6/21/2010

So Anyways next week is week 6 of this transfer which means ill be done with my third transfer. Crazy stuff, my comp is approaching 1 year in a couple of transfer he will be there. As for me im excited to hit my six month mark. So this week was not the best week on mission but it was okay. So it was one of those weeks where for some reason everyone just blows off their appointment with you. It was tough, it was everyday on last week, one after the other. It kinda sucked. But luckly in the middle of the week, an awesome lady in our branch (mama Mfundo) saw us and let us come in and she cooked for us. She made us tons of food, and i can say it made me feel a little better that we were having a bad week. But esh that lady is awesome, we challeged her to find someone we can teach and she accepted and started right away. She walked outside and started contacting people. I was laughing way hard, esh she would make an awesome missionary. But i know that she will give us someone when we come back this week. Awesome lady, i love her, she is just an awesome person. Esh i love her, she tells me that whenever she sees me, that i remind her of Michael Jackson. Im not sure why, maybe just the name. But i can say that it was all bad, we had an awesome lesson with a guy named junior. He was the one me and elder mkhabela taught how to pray. And when we came he wanted to show us that he had it down. So it was way good to hear him pray, ah just felt amazing that i could help him do that. So ya that lesson was awesome, he told us he got his answer when he prayed about the book of mormon and the church. And he told us that he knows its true. Freak i love those moments when you are teaching. In fact i love teaching, i never thought teaching would be so amazing. I'm so glad that i get to go out and teach someone the gospel. And its even better when you see the changes in the persons life. So esh mission is awesome. I love it. I never thought that it would go so fast though, i guess its true though when they say that time flys when your having fun. So anyways i was complemented on my swahili a few times last week, i guess im picking it up now. I can understand what the people are saying it cool. So ya pole, this email is going to be short cause i got my camera and im going to put some pictures on flickr since i havent done that in a while. So i hope you have a good week this week, and i know that this week will be good for me. So kwaheri, Siku njema. Elder Jackson

6-14-2010

So thats good, Jared is finally leaving, and i know that feeling of waiting for the mission to come its not good. But esh you need to enjoy the mission, mine is going by way to fast. Tommorrow i've been out for 4 months. Pretty intense stuff. And you can tell Zach happy birthday and that i've had a hot sauce here that i know with a surety he couldnt handle. cause i've been able to handle the hot food, here but this stuff i had, it just got me. I had just a little like as big as your fingernail with some rice and my mouth was on fire. I dont know how they make it or whats in it but man my mouth was on fire for the next two hours. Esh it was funny, cause i had it at the Baptists house, and they told me that my face turned bright red the first bite i had. And by the way i got both my packages! and wow i was way excited for the gatorade, and i introduced it to my comp. and he loves it. And the gummy worms are freaking awesome. ,its hot and only getting hotter. I hope im not here for to much longer cause summer is coming and its scary. And can i tell you how annoying the world cup is. Everyone watches it, when we try to teach them they are like oh no not today the world cup is one. So its kinda frustrating. And ya i've heard those horn things. They are annoying. So you cut your hair eh? do you like it? is it way different then when i left? So ill have to see a pic sometime of it. But ya by the way Anna david was baptised yesterday. Esh is was way nice. She was way excited for it, and it was cool, we had her uncle baptize her. And her uncle's name is John baptist. And so we had that joke that john the baptist is back and baptising again. ya i thought it was pretty funny. But ya im glad she finally got baptised, its about time. . So ya it went good, and she was very excited for it, although she wanted me to baptize her but i thought it would be better if she had her uncle do cause family is just better. So ya good, week saw alot of people. And the bad thing is the world cup, everyone is watching it, and pres taylor told the elders that there will be no world cup watching, but ya i kinda already assumed that since were not allowed to watch tv. But ya its going to crazy this transfer, we dont have zone conference since the new mission president is coming. So i will have to see how that goes down. but it should be good, im excited for the new one, but im gonna miss pres taylor and his wife they, are really cool people. But ya thats it for this week, i hope you enjoy your week. So as for me im gonna go so kwaheri.

-Love Elder Jackson

6-7-2010

But anyways as for me last week, was okay not great but okay. Im gonna make this week good. In fact this week is anna's baptsim. Which im very excited for. And im hoping to see some cool less actives and bring them back to church but we will see. So ya did you get my pics of the ferry or the jungle? cause they are both awesome. Our area covers a place called gogalamboto and its all jungle. Its pretty sweet, we teach a guy named thomas that lives there. And i suprise myself that i can get through that place cause some areas are pretty sketchy. Like im pretty sure that a lion might come out of now where or a big snake. Esh its cool though i never thought in my life that i would be in a area like that. So i enjoy it. And i can now say that i've seen the atlantic ocen, the pacific, and the Indian ocean. Pretty cool, the indian ocean is suppose to be warm, but sadly i wont probably every find out. So ya its hard to belive now that this transfer is already halfway over. I cant belive it, its going by way to quick. Oh buy ya i gotta tell you about last friday, we were in a dollaz coming home and the police pulled over the dollaz. And he started to yell at the driver and then the conductor. And then he came on the bus and started to yell at the people on the bus, pretty crazy. It turns out that, the dollaz we were on was not suppose to be on that road. It was suppose to be going to a different place, but they choose to take an alternative route and pick up some people. And esh the policeman was mad, and was going to kick everyone off the bus. So what did the conductor do, he just gave him some money and the cop took it and walked away. That simple. But ya corruption here is extremely bad. So ya i thought you might like that story
So summer huh? well its been hotter here then the summer there and its winter. Im scared to think about what real summer is like And i hope Woody and JR wont be forever single. Esh if they really want to get married, all they have to do is come here and say i want to bring a girl back with me to america. And immedialy they will have swarms of girls around them. Esh its bad, the girls here love americans. And ya i dont have Cindi's email. But you can just tell her that i've been told by many here that im no longer a mizungu, im a tanzanian. Yep thats right im black.. So ya its hard to belive that arron is at 5 months. Crazy, and im approching quickly four months. Next transfer ill be out 6 months, and gosh its going by way to quick. But ya this past week was an okay week. Im hoping that this week will be better. But ya we finally saw one of my favorite investigators this week, Raymond. He has been busy with college exams. But i love teaching him cause he usually ends up teaching us something. That guy is awesome. He is a missionary himself. he asks us for pamphlets and book of mormons, so he can give to his friends. Esh its amamzing. All we need now is for him to come to church. He comes every now and then, but i want him to come every week. But esh that guy is powerful. And a quoteable line from him is what he ask me everytime i see him and that is "So tell me Jack" ha im always like tell you what. and he is like just tell me. But ya also this week thanks to my new friend Onesmus, i was taught about tribal jokes. Tribal jokes are just mean pranks that a person from one tribe does to another. Like he was giving me examples of how one can take a tv of a guy from another tribe and he cant do anything to stop him. But he can come to his home and take some things from him also. And when someone in tribe dies, another tribe will come and laugh at the mourners. Pretty messed up. But as a tribal joke to me and elder mkhabela. he made us eat ALOT of rice. like my comp had 4 big bowls of rice. And i had 3 and a half. But esh way to much rice. He just kept adding more and more. Until it was all gone. And for himself he only had 1 bowl of rice. So ya after we finished, me and my comp were dying. Like i didnt want to move at all. i just wanted to sit there until it stopped hurting. So ya now im scared about what he might do this week, but we will see. me i now eat things which i never ate back home. Like tomatos, onions, peppers, and some weird vegetable stuff down here. But ya its good. Have you ever had papia fruit? i think thats how you spell it. Mama mwingira made it for me last friday and it was really good. I like it a lot So ya thats pretty much it for this week. I hope that this week will be good for you. As for me im gonna make this week good. Sawa well as for me im going to go, so kwaheri eh? i love you and miss you.

-Elder Jackson aka Jack