The kid that got his mission call to my mission is one of my friends from school, his name is kirk smedly, awesome kid, im excited for him to get here. I had like 4 classes with him in high school, again awesome kid. I hope he will come to Dar cause not all the missionary's get to come here, and also because its awesome. . So ya for me this week, the thing im excited for is we are teaching a guy name Raymond and he is funny, he always calls me Jack. and he always says, "so tell me Jack" and ill be like tell you what, and he is like tell me something. Pretty funny guy, but he is inviting four of his friends to come and talk to us, and im pretty excited for that as well. So ya i sorry i dont have too much to say for this week because i talked to yesterday, pole. but ya you guys dont like my swahili? ha its weird i usually think of the swahili word of something before the english. And i now dream in swahill, way freaking weird. Ah its crazy but today im going to send you ALOT of pics so get ready for them, Even those from the MTC. So im gonna go do that now so kwaheri, mimi naku penda wewe (i love you). and ill send you a nice long email next week.

-love elder Jackson

May 3, 2010

Pole Sana,

Sorry about last week, kinda crazy. But we tried to email last week, but the network was down in Dar all last week. So no emailing, esh that sucked. By the way i've meet Rasband, i think. And and we finally saw conference two weeks ago. And by the way we sustained my comps dad in the seventy. Pretty sweet.

So last week it rained nonstop last week, tuesday till thursday. Very hard to work in. I came back to the apartment soaked. Esh these rains dont seem to like me. But Brother Mwingira tells me that this is only the start that the real storm is coming, but we will have to see. But me and Elder Mkhabela still had a good time. But wow, i have to say im addicted to Fanta and biscuits, or cookies. But ya i have a fanta a day, except for sunday, and wow it just tastes better in a glass bottle i dont know what it is. So wow im really loving my area and the people and the investigators, they are some of the most unique people i've ever meet. I can say that i love them and will miss them when i leave. Wow i dont want to leave Changombe. But anyway ill tell you about a little something that happened yesterday. So Robert a guy in the ward, awesome missionary, showed us a family and we were able to share the restoration lesson with them. The mama whose name is Julie was the one who was interested. So i can say that it was a powerful lesson, oh the spirit was so strong. And when it came time to share about the book of mormon, esh powerful. I was telling her about how she could know if the book of mormon is true, and while doing so i was bearing testimony of it, and all i can say was my heart was on fire. I dont ever think i've felt the spirit so strong. And the look on her face was priceless, ha she wanted the Book of Mormon, and she was so happy when we gave her one. But ya that was an awesome experince, for me esh, powerful. She wants us to come back this week, to teach her about life after death. But wow this lady knows her bible. So i can say that im really excited to go and teach her this week. So wow im a little tired, we walked to a place called Kardiakoo, and wow its a huge market place, HUGE! They have everything there, and its really cheap compared to the US. They even have U.S. products that would normally cost hundreds of dollars, and you can get it there for like 10 thousand shilllings which is like ten bucks. And esh its all bargining there, everyone bargins. Its crazy, but ya thats what we did today, we could not go to shoprite to buy groceries cause it was closed for some reason, so we will have to come back on wed. since we have exchanges tomorrow. And my father (trainer) is coming to be with me for a day. Still think its weird. But ya thats it for sasaivi. and again im sorry for not emailing you last week. esh Pole Sana

but ya thats it for this week, Siku Jema

4-19-2010

So monday went to the Bry and the ZL's were there and the AP's called the them to tell them transfer news, which i didnt think would affect me and my trainer cause your suppose to be with your trainer for two transfers, but the lord saw best that we should only be together for one. So ya me and Elder Machanzi are one and done. I now have a new comp. his name is Elder Mkhabela from South Africa. A really nice and awesome guy. He is also a very big guy. very big. But so far i can tell you that im loving serving with him. He is a powerful missionary. He has been out for 6 months. Its funny cause when we walk together people think that he is my body guard. pretty funny stuff. But in reality he is just a big teddy bear, he has a really gentle voice. And also im loving teaching with him, its really cool, just kinda feed off eachother. But its been up to me to show him the area. Its kinda scary but i havn't gotten us lost yet. But Elder Mkhabela was astonished at how big our area is. And im not gonna lie, but im proud of myself that we havn't gotten lost yet, or gotten in the wrong dollaz. But we will see about thursday, were going to a part of our area that im not to sure about but i will seek help from the lord cause i know its only him that can help me out. So ya thats been the week for me. I've been making all the appointments, leading our discussions. Kinda awesome. But luckly for me Elder Mkhabela is a quick learner and is already getting to know the area. Saturday night i took him to go eat chips Mayai, and he absoultly loves it. In fact after this we are going to get some. As for my trainer he was made a ZL in my area. So its him i have to call to tell him that we are home safe with no concerns. Yep it will take some getting used to, but it will be alright. And to answer you yes, i do iron my shirts, in fact the missionary couples just bought us a brand new one, im not gonna lie, we are spoiled here in Dar. Its really nice. But now Elder Machanzi is a ZL in our district. So i have to call in to him to tell him we are home safe and no concerns. kinda werid. But he told me that he is homesick for Changombe. And last night when i was telling about the people we saw and who came to church i think i really got him home sick for Changombe. But i will sure miss him, but its okay cause Elder Mkhabela is here and he is awesome. Im conviced he is good luck cause this last week we were able to see two people named (Raymond and Mwakalasya) that i've havet seen since i got here. And this guy Raymond i asked him why he wasnt coming to church and he told me he was to busy. But i kept digging and he told me that whenever its time for church, its time that he absoulty doesnt want to go. And i told him that, its that time you need to go to church the most! and he agreed and told me it was to hard, but i looked at with some serious intest look and made him promise me that he would come to church this week, i knew he couldnt say no. And as it turns out, he came to church yesterday. And we are meeting again with him and some of his freinds this saturday. Im pretty excited for it cause he also told me that he had an experince about when he was praying if the book of mormon was true and he told me that he felt something that he never felt before and he told me that that feeling assured him that it was true. And im not gonna lie i was way happy to hear that, i wanted to jump in the air and give him a hug, but i refrained myself. So ya pretty awesome week. And Mwakalasya we were able to visit him and we found out that his brother died last week. And he is going through a rough time. So we are trying to help him out in anyway we can. We are going over to his house tomorrow to make sure he is doing well. So ya thats pretty much it for this week. Also Elder Mkhabela loves to contact, but no one knows english, so he is learning swahili. And i can say that both our swahili skills are improving cause of alot of contacting. I really miss riding a bike, im sick of walking and riding in Dollaz. yes, i do iron my shirts, in fact the missionary couples just bought us a brand new one, im not gonna lie, we are spoiled here in Dar. Its really nice.

the animals i've seen are alot of cats, 1 or 2 dogs, and like a million chickens. CHICKENS are everywhere, its ridiculous. They wake me up at like 4 in the morning. Ah but other than that nothing really, although we have seen a few rats in our apartment, in fact one ran by my companions foot pretty intense.

Remember that you can do nothing without the Lord.

Elder Jackson

4-12-2010

Shikamo,

Why hello, how are things? And no we didnt have our baptism. Because Jackson hasnt come to church for two weeks. But yesterday we ran into him and found out he was in a accident, and he is okay just a little beat up but is planning on coming to church this sunday. so we will have to push his baptism to a little later date. Were thinking 2 May, beacause thats when another investigator of ours is getting baptized. Her name is Anna David. She lives on a island with her Uncle and Aunt. There last name is Baptist. I thought it was funny, that the Baptists are Morman. And we are going to try to give a guy name Komilius a baptimal date soon. I love that guy, he is really awesome and i also feel bad for him. Beacause yesterday when we visited him we started to ask him how he came to Dar Es Salaam. And he gave us basically his life story. It was really sad, his parents are divorced, He lives here alone, no family. He is 20 years old and is struggling to make it. He never finished school because there was no money. And then when i found out how much school here costs it really suprised me. 50 american dollars a year. He only has two years left! When i found out how much it cost, it was really hard for me because i have 100 dollars that i wanted to give him. He told us that he want to finish school so badly but he just doesn't have the money, he doesn't even have money to have a place to stay. He is staying at a friends house for free but not the friend is threating to kick him out. So as he was telling me this i was thinking that i have the 100 dollars and i could put him back in school. But as a missionary we are not allowed to give money out. And its really sad because komilius is not the only one like this, there are so many i see them everyday and its really sad.

So ya enough with that depressing stuff. We had me and 7 other missionary's. We had it at Kinondoni's chapel. It is very nice, just like Ubungo's chapel. And ha our chapel is no where near as nice as the chapels you've seen. I'll have to send you pictures next week of our church, its pretty ghetto, but still sweet. . It was really awesome, President Taylor and his wife are some pretty cool people. They only have one more transfer until they go home and we get the new mission president. I still am not sure how that will go, but i do know it will be the AP's who will be running the show for the first few months when the new mission president arrives. Kinda crazy So Zone Conference they really stressed to us the importance of the Branch mission leader and the branch mission president. And how we need to use them, and how we need to help them magnify there calling. So we are going to meet with them later this week. After Zone confererence we went to a t-shirt shop cause we made t-shirts for our zone. But they guy who was gonna make them didnt show and so they were not made. So today after this we have to go to Kinondoni to pick them up and also we are having a zone brye or however you spell it there. It should be fun. Also it took us 4 hours to get home from zone conference because of traffic, its a half hour drive with no traffic. And our Dollaz was packed. Like we were two feet away from the door and we wern't sure if we could get out in time. But here is something that may suprise you, that im eating tomatos. yep kinda weird i cook them alot here. Although there is one thing you need to try, not very healthy but i love it, its called chips Mayai, or fries and eggs. See if you can look it up how to make it cause its really good. im still trying to perfect it, but it will take a while.

And i do think ill be with my comp another transfer, i think, we'll find out later tonight. And my and my comp get around by alot of Dollaz and alot of walking. And sorry i have a hard time getting picutures of a Dollaz cause people dont like to have their picture taken, unless you have there permission. And if you take a picture of a dollaz with 50 plus people in it and they see you. You will be running for your life cause they will chase you and prob break your camera.

But ya thats pretty much it for this week, So ya we gotta go so Kwaheri

Love, Elder Jackson

4/5/2010

Hi!

How are you doing? How is life? Ha and i know i look skinny but i do eat, ALOT. Ha my comp tells me im a real missionary now because im always eating while im cooking something. Ha but ya me and my comp have started a new goal to work out everyday and become ripped. Prob wont happen but its always good to aim high. So this week was alot better than last week. I wasn't sick at all and im starting to know the dollaz but still a little confusing. So this week it has been raining alot, i have some pics to show you of the rain and the big puddles of water. So ya East africa is good, and i did my laundry again in a bucket today, im starting to get good at it, but i still cant wait for when i get to use a washing machine again. But its just a little sacrfice im doing for the lord.

Ya i did not watch conference or even listen to conference cause no one could get it. So ill have to wait till the Ensigns come out and Ill read the talks. Im sure they were awesome and im excited to read them. Ha so i dont know if you knew that the offical car of Dar is the Toyota Rav4. They are litterally everywhere, in fact i just looked out the window and saw one drive by. Also i didnt know exactly how many Muslums (not sure how to spell it) are here. But there is so many. They are all over the place. Ha so ya last week we were introduced to a guy name Nyamusi by his cousin Okanda. We taught him the first lesson and it went really well. And we were going to leave but he stoped us and said his mama was preparing food for us. Cause whenever there is a mizungu in the house they always have to give them food. While waiting for the food one of Nyamusi's friends came over and she didnt agree with our church and wanted to bible bash. Not good for business. So we tried to stay away from that and we ate our food and its part of the culture here for the people you visit to escort you for a ways. And Nyamusi and his friend escorted us and Nyamusi's friend wanted to bible bash again and so she and my comp. started to really get into it. Until finally i stepped in, bore testimony and made my compainion leave. He was really bugged by her and was afraid that she would tell Nyamusi to never see us again. But i just told him not to worry about it, and it turned out that we are going to see him again this week. So ya there is a little story of last week for you. Also today we went to a place where there is a bunch of small shops like everywhere. Its just a huge maze, we would have been lost if we didnt bring Partrick with us. So while we were there me and Elder Machanzi bought some smaller bags to carry since my back pack is to big for when we get in packed dollaz. And we also bought some Tanzania jerseys, they are awesome ill send you a pic of them. And again just so you know i do eat, ha my comp. makes sure of that! So ya things here have been really good, except for the rain, we only had two investigators come to church because of the rain. It can really be a downer sometimes, but you got to look at the positives, that we that two is better than none. So ya now me and Elder Machanzi are trying to work on progressing our investigators but it can be tough when they dont come to church. But we wont give up on them. Ya so tonight we get to go to a young single adult dance. We dont get to dance but the older couple told us to come and be social. And i think it will be intersting to see how they party over here. My buddy Roma is going to wear some pick pants and pick tie and i dont want to miss that. So today bought groceries again, me and machanzi bought together and we dropped about 30,000 on them. Also something i've noticed is that im starting to lose my american accent or however you spell it. By the time i come home ill sound like an east african. But ya im still working on my swahili skills, they are improving. Also my English class wants to teach me swahili, so after we have english i usually stick around for 10 or 15 minutes and they teach me new words and how to prounounce them. Ha still kinda crazy i teach english twice a week. I think its funny cause i never thought i would be doing that. Its even advanced english, my comp teaches the beginners english. So ya things here are going well, and this is the last week till the end of the transfer. The pres is coming here on Friday for zone conference. Should be interesting. So i hope you have a good and happy week.

So i hope you have a good week So Kwaheri, Siku Jima

- Elder Jackson