8/29/11

Well the countdown for me officially starts today! Yep its a new transfer and im getting transferred to my place of death. Yep im heading out of Kisumu and headed to Eldoret two hours away. Im white washing the area with a kid who has not been on mission long, and they made me the DL there too. So i got my work cut out for me. So by the ways i only have 4 transfers left. or rather 6 months but actually less than 6 months left. Ya freaking sweet. Anyways yep my new comp is called elder Phiri from Zambia. Yep i get two Zambians in a row. anyways im going to be freezing for the next little while. Eldoret is cold and esh i always hated going there cause its cold and now i have to go live there. But its okay my area is suppose to be good. Its called Sosiani and i hear its in town. So we will see how it goes. Anyways the area was for sisters but they are closing it and giving it to the elders. So ya im pretty excited to go there and to do that. So ya im leaving like 2 maybe 3 baptisms here. kinda sucks but its okay. Anyways thought thats the news on this side of the world.. Anyways though sounds like some people miss me there. And you know what i have to say it that dont worry im coming. And in no time ill be there. You know that reminds me of a bogus saying they have here. It has to do with hurrying. But it goes like haraka haraka hakuna barraka (hurry hurry there is no blessing) Ha kinda bogus but i do hear from time to time. Anyways i was talking to andrew and he too tells me that mission is almost over and that all of us will be home soon. So we gotta make the last part of missions the best. We gotta work hard all the way too the end. Anyways though i dont have alot to say today. But im excited to tell you how the new area is next week.

love, matt

8-22-11

Well to start ha everywhere you go there is malaria so nothing to worry about. And for me im fine. Just trying to enjoy life. By the ways we were suppose to have 2 baptisms this week but it looks like we will have to push them to next week. But ya i hope everything works out with them. Anyways so with the missionary that is coming is his surename Mourice? or is that his first name? But ill look out for him. By the ways if he is replacing mange he is coming this next week. Mange leaves on friday and we have 14 kids coming this next week. So i might train again not sure. We will find out on saturday. But on other news morice the guy we live with he is getting kicked out of our house this week. Not going to be fun dealing with that. Anyways though im happy to hear that school is back in. I bet elissa is super excited. Ya anyways our mission pres came to kisumu this past week with mission mom, ap's and the nevins. And the nevins came and looked at our house and the ap's and Sister broadbent all came to our house. And they all told us that is was good and very clean and they were very happy. So ya you know how we do here represent. But ya i didnt get to see president though only like for 15 seconds he came in while we were teaching a lesson and he slapped my head and pulled my hair and that was me and president for the time he was here. I love him ha he is awesome. Anyways though i miss real hamburger and hot dogs. And also i miss american food. You know im getting sick of ugali and chapotty. ........But this mission and we endure these things. And we try our best not to complain. So ya thats all im gonna complain. I just want to say that i would kill for betos. And that is no joke i would kill for it. Anyways i dont have to much to say for this week. But ya next week ill tell you whats going on here. There will be some serious changes for kisumu and i dont know wither ill be here for them or not but we will see. But friday will be awesome we are going to Nyabondo again, i love that place. they are not enough members there to start a church but there is enough to hold meetings on sunday not like normal church just meet together. But ya we go up there every month and get to teach the people who are curious to know. And alot of them do know what we teach and are ready for baptism but the distance for them to come to church in kisumu is too far so they cant. But eventually they will be. Esh that place is awesome. Anyways though im gonna go for this week. Talk to you next week.

love, matt

8-15-11

Well another week has gone by and fetch these things really do go by fast. Seems like everything just moves so fast i dont know what to do with myself. So thats cool you guys went to the tour of utah. I hope that i will be able to go with you guys next year. Sounds cool i want to go. Anyways im still jelous you guys get to go see AVA whenever you want. Me i dont i get to be here. But you know alot of people here do ask me about her. Ya missionaries love our family i think you guys have figured out that by now.
Anyways ya you know we see here alot of old white people or just weird white people that cant find someone where they live so they come to kenya to find a wife. I dont like it, its very bogus. All the time ill see like a 60 year old white guy with a 20 year old black girl. Pretty lame if you ask me. So ya back to me passing 18 months, pretty awesome ya? Im kinda scared cause they say that the last six months go by the fastest. We will see but ya this week is going to be intense. Mission pres is coming to kisumu with the Nevins. They are coming to look at our flats and to meet with the zone leaders. And also we have Mormon helping hands this Saturday. Not still sure what we are doing, our branch president was not very specific at sacrament meeting. But i guess ill see Saturday. I remember last year i was in Webuye and we went to some orphange place or something and we built a shade spot for the people. And i had bad allergies that day. Nearly killed me. But it was fun. Im hoping that this one will be fun as well. So ya anyways this past week was ok full of tracting and contacting. And it seemed okay we meet alot of people. Always makes me happy to get invited to someone's home to teach them. Ha by the ways one of our friends that we buy fruit from asked me a question that made me laugh. She asked me why i wasnt like the other mzungu's, why i talk with everyone and even speak swahili with people. Ha she asked why im always nice to everyone and so wanting to be friends with everyone. I just told her that i love everyone and i dont want people to be afraid to talk to me. But ya she is cool, she invited us to come teach her in her home this week. And she told us that her and her friend will be coming to our church on Sunday. Ya also while i was playing with the kids outside after church my comp was teaching a investigator that come for the first time. I didnt know he was teaching him or i would have been there but its okay cause the branch pres was there with them. And they invited him to be baptized and he accepted. Kinda awesome since its his first time coming to church. Ha we contacted him on the road and he came to church. Pretty awesome ya?
And even still i have to say Nairobi is still my favorite area. Kisumu is awesome but Nairobi i had the best comps's with the best work and the best members and constantly having fun and laughing and just enjoying. Esh i miss Nairobi. You know usually they take you to Nairobi a week before you go home and im going to use that week to go and see all of my converts and members that i love. Esh i gonna miss those.
But anyways thats pretty much me for this week. But ya im gonna go for this week.
love, matt

08-08-11

WOW IM FREAKING OUT ABOUT AVA! FETCH ITS ABOUT TIME! ITS BEEN KILLING ME THESE PAST THREE WEEKS. She looks beautiful by the ways. Esh i just got homesick though when i was looking at pictures of her. I already want to hold her. Ah 6 more months but actually by the end of this week i will be under 6 months. Ya i know pretty awesome. Anyways though your week sounds busy though. And somehow fun and depressing. By the ways my favorite scripture for work of the dead is in 1 peter 3:18-19 and 1 peter 4:6.
The pic of obama G-ma is up. Ya sorry it took so long but the cyber we went to last week wouldnt let me upload any photo's. But no worries its not up and i put some other photo's us on there as well. Ya its pretty awesome. Here most time people run away from ordinances, so its up the missionaries to do them. Like for everything. Esh so it wouldnt be a bad idea if we had a little practice doing somestuff. Maybe they wont be so afraid of them.
Anyways i find that kinda funny that someone stole my bike. Ha never thought that it would happen at my actual house. Kinda funny that it even was returned. Ha sawa i guess he wasnt man enough to actually steal it. But thats okay i guess. I kinda want a bike when i come home. Anyways though ya nothing too new this week. Just know that we got bounced again....like alot. Kinda annoying. But this is the work. Hey by the ways just so you know this is week 4 of this tranfer. Just thought you should know. We are still finding people by the ways. I hope we will be able to find some more this week. With all this talk of food places and AVA, has now made me very homesick. And i feel kinda sad im not there. But again its okay this is mission. Anyways though i've got not much to say and i cant have anything better than AVA., Stay awesome. PEACE!

Love matt.

8-1-11

Ha ya i forgot to tell you by the ways i got our phone stolen two weeks ago. And the rule is if you lose your phone you have to pay half of the price of the new phone you buy. But ya losing the phone was my bad. Ha i was in the cyber and the computer i was using stopped working so i need to switch to a different computer and i left the phone at the comptuter i was at. And it was like 5 minutes when i relized i didnt have it and when i went back to check for it, it was gone...And i had elder keno call it and it was turned off and long gone. But its ok the next day we went and bought a better phone and we even got to keep our number which was good. The only problem is that all of the people in our phone are gone. So we have to start over and get everyone's number. But ya besides that nothing too much going on this week. We had alot of people bounce us which sucks. In fact i dont think i've been bounced so much my entire mission. But you know these things are just there. But we did sure contact alot of people. We even ran into some Korean missionaries. For some church not exactly sure which it is. But anyways this Korean chick invited me to go to Nairobi with her. And i was like im good thanks, maybe next time. But ya she was very touchy kinda freaked me out. She even stole my pen, and then like 20 mintues came and found me and gave it back. And i swear they were following us around. But ya just one of those weird missionary experiences.
And ya by the ways ill look for sebastion when he comes. Hopefully ill get to meet him before i go. So ya not too much more going on here. Im just praying for some more people to teach. But as for life im loving it. Ha the members here are awesome by the ways. Im going to miss them when leave this place. Esh you dont know what they go through. Like the guy we stay we with, his wife left him cause he joined the church. Or people lose friend cause they joined the church or they are hated cause they joined the church. Called a devil worshiper every day its tough. I have so much respect for them, cause its hard sometimes for them. But they are always strong. Esh im happy to have been here during the early days of the church you get to see the true adversities. And face freaking hardships that are just tough. So ya we were suppose to have a baptism this saturday, but our investigator has to go visit her grandma for two weeks. So we have to push two weeks which sucks but its ok as long as she willl be baptized im happy. Speaking of which she is a very funny girl. She is even a few month younger then elissa but she stays with her cousin who is her support. So she is good for baptism. But the only problem is her dad is a polygamist. So she has to be interviewed by someone in the mission presidency. Esh polygamy sucks! It really is a problem here. Esh And i hate it! drives me crazy you have to make sure the person you teach is not a polygamist or married to one or is a son or daughter to one. IT sucks! But anyways thats just mission here. Still think its awesome im the only one in our family who got to leave the states for mission. And of most places Kenya, makes it that much better. I know everyone says this but i truly do believe my mission is the best. I mean really how many mission's have two mission languages? But anyways though im gonna go for this week..

love, matt