7-19-10

Kenya is good, but its very cold, i need to go and buy a hoodie or jacket this week when i go for zone conference. Cause i often find myself freezing, i never thought i would be cold in Africa but you just never no these things. So ya sorry i was no able to email yesterday because the internet was down. It sucks the internet goes down to often in Africa. But anyways this past week went good. Im getting to know my area suprisingly. And our investigators are cool, are member are doing a good job with giving us referrals. But ya here is a little story from last week. We went to teach this old man who is not a member of the church but his wife is and want him to be taught. The only problem is that he doesnt speak english. So we went and saw him and his wife wasn't there but he was. So he invited us in and we kinda just sat there a minute in silence till i couldn't take it anymore and i started talking to him in swahili. Just simple things, then i started teaching him in swahili. I taught him a full lesson, and im not going to lie the lord did help me out cause i dont know that much swahili but i somehow taught him in swahili and understood him. Im not sure how i did it but it was a neat experience for me the lord truely helped me there. And the guy wants us to come back and teach him again. But ya just a little story for ya. So ya the people in our area love to feed us, love love love to fed us. We eat like 5 times in a day some days. In fact sunday we went and taught some two people for the first time and after they gave me and Elder Munatsi a full loaf a bread to eat there. Just bread thats it. But its all they have so you have to eat it all. But ya so far me and Elder Munatsi are having fun and working hard. Im loving serving with him its really fun. So ya our flat is okay its not as a big as my last one but its got some good security. Our landlord lives right across from us and they watch it while where out and they have a dog come out at night so its pretty good.
So anyways right now is the season for maze. Maze is just corn. So we having been eating it like crazy here. In fact we got fed maze at our appointments for today. They even gave us maze to take home. We had maze i think everyday last week. I can say that im getting sick of it, but its only starting. So i must learn to love it. So ya maze maze maze maze maze maze everything is maze. Elder come and eat some of my maze. But anyway i had some ugali here its different than it was in Tanzania, it acutally has taste to it. So its actually pretty good. And im not sure if i mentioned this last week, but there is no chips mayai here. I had to make it myself. im not the best at it but im slowly improving. I make it alot so by the time i come home ill be a pro at it and ill have to make it for ya. So ya zone conference is this week, im excited i get to see some MTC mates. Im excited to see them. Ill have to tell you how that goes. But ya thats it for this week im going to try and upload some pics here but its kinda slow so ill have to see if it will cooporate with me..

-love elder Jackson

7-12-2010

Hello from Kenya,

So first i wanted to say that i saw Kirk or i should say Elder Smedley. I had to spend the night at the ap's flat before i left the next morning. And wouldnt you know it they came in with kirk. It was cool seeing him again. Although he looked kinda nervous. Doesnt suprise me i was scared out of my mind when i got here. It was kinda bad though he had a guy from kenya who is going on his mission the next day stay with us and he talked to kirk all night. He was so loud, even me i told him to shut up like 6 times. Esh that guy came in at like 230 in the morning and woke everyone up and just started so say good morning. Ah he is crazy. But anyways kirk is going to Mombasa, its like an 8 hour bus ride like me. Luckly for him he didnt have to go alone, he went with Elder Nkohma. He is a really cool guy. So ya my new area is called like Misikhu, we live in a town called Webuye. My area is out in the middle of no where. Its a bunch of farms and corn and fields. And alot of mud houses. , we were actually in a part of our area the second day i got here and there was litterally nothing there. Just corn fields and tree's. Its alot different from my last area. Im still adjusting but ya its good to have some change. Crazy i've now seen mud houses, i cant believe people actually live in mud houses. And the first day here i saw some monkeys. i was pretty excited when i saw them. Now all i have to do is catch one and care for it till i come home. Man i want a pet monkey. . Now all i have to do is see a lion. So ya im now serving with my mtc comp, elder munatsi. he is cool im excited to do the real missionary thing with him. Our area is like 2 hours away from kitale. So we get to have sleep over at missionaries flat every week.So far the people i've meet have been way nice and way cool. And all the people here speak english, its way nice. Although i use swahili alot still. Our new flat is good, except i think we have some bed bugs. Not all that fun. But im slowly getting used to this area. It rains alot here, i think its rained everyday since i've been here. And by the way im freezing here. Im so cold, i have to use a blanket unlike dar. its a huge difference from dar. im going to have to get used to this weather. But now im scared for when i come back to utah its just going to be flat out cold. But ya the church building here is not actually a church building. its just a small house. So kinda like my last area. And i had to teach the young men and women yesterday. And my comp tells me that we have to teach something every week. But the members seem to be cool. By the way i met a guy down here who sounds exactly like michael jackson. And he is the choirister. Esh its way funny to hear him sing. And when your talking to him it like your hearing micheal jackson. Its funny. So by the way i was in the most southern part of the mission and now im in the most northern part. Quite a long distance to travel for a transfer. an hour and half plane ride, followed by an 8 hour bus ride. But anyways i gotta go, so i love you and i promise ill send pics next week, i forgot the camera today. So ill see you.

P.S. Everyone speaks english down here, its really nice. And when i speak swahili they get really excited and say this mizugu knows swahili. the people like it when i speak swahili.

-Elder Jackson

7-5-2010

Some intense stuff happend this past week. But to start off, if you want your mouth to drop to the floor you should come and attend some fast and testimony meetings here. I can say i've heard and seen it all. Some things are just like why? but its good, they dont totally understand but they mean everything in a good way. And yes church is conducted in english but they occasionally trail off in swahili. And by the way i took my worm pills, and if you dont have worms you dont have any serious side effects. But as for me i took the nini's and the next day just sucked! I was hurting so bad. It felt like something was trying to tear its way out of my stomach. Not fun at all, i was in pain the whole day. But i was ok after. So i think i had worms. But a side effect everyone has when they take it is a metal taste. Your mouth tastes like metal, everything you eat drink taste like metal. Including water, water was the worst. All i know i used to enjoy food, but when i took that it just wasnt the same. Not good, im not looking forward to taking it again. Its suppose to be every six months but they gave it to me early. So ya i was not able to email yesterday cause the internet was down. Always sucks! But ya today im saying my final goodbyes to the members. Im leaving dar tomorrow. I fly out tomorrow morning, and then prob will be put on a bus for 8 hours to get to my area. Not some fun stuff. Im headed for Kenya. To a small village called Kitale. Im going to be with my MTC companion. Elder Munatsi. Im excited and nervous. Im not happy to be leaving elder Mkhabela, he is an awesome guy. Im gonna miss him , he is a good missionary, and also he has become a very very good friend. I hope he makes it to salt lake one day so i can see him in my home town. But im still curious to see what will happen after this transfer. There is some talk that my group might be training. But you never know. But as for my tranier, elder Machanzi he is going to kenya as well. He is going to a place called Chyulu. Its like out out out in the middle of no where. you get to ride whats called the Iron horse. Which is a very big and heavy old bike. So im not sure if he is happy about that, but ill see tomorrow. It kinda sucks to be leaving but still good to go to a new area. And also everyone speaks english in kenya so i wont have to worry so much about the swahili thing. Cause esh its tough, especially in changombe. Im going to miss it like crazy though. But ya this past week was amazing. I know the lord helped us this past week. We found two people seeking the gospel. And both are amazing. One is a muslum and to turn to christianty is a very big thing. But he has a desire to learn more. You should see how he looks when we taught him. Its just one of those excitement and happiness. Although we have to get permission from president broadbent to continue teaching him. Cause you have to make sure that everything will be alright for him and his family. Muslums frown heavly on another muslum changing to christian. But he doesnt care, he wants to know more. And esh when we teach him you can just feel the spirit. Its a undeniable feeling. I love those moments. It has helped me stengthen my own testimony. And now i can say without any doubt that this church is true, and the book of mormon is true. And i know if you read and pray about it, that the holy ghost will tell you whither its true or not. But as for me im loving serving the lord, and have never regreted it. . Know that i love you, and miss you alot. And i cant wait till i see you again. So ill talk to you next week in Kenya!

-Love Elder Matthew Edward Jackson aka "jack"

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