February 14, 2011 - Nairobi

Anyways guess what im getting my shirt with my face on it today or maybe wed. The guy is taking alot of time on it. But anyways the fact that i will have a shirt with my face on is just awesome. I didnt get to burn my shirt, we were busy that night and came home late, and i was just tired and went to bed. But you know i might burn it tommorow. We will see. But anyways happy valentines day. i hope your doing something special in it. You know suprisingly there is some hype here for Valentines day. Ha ya but valentines day is bogus to a missionary. you know you cant do anything and you have no one to be your valentine. You know the girl who works at this cyber asked me who my valentine is when i walked in. And i told her no one and she laughed at me. But anyways ya valentines day bogus. Well yesterday was kinda bad. We went out to work with a member. And while we were heading to some appointments its started to rain. And you know its not all that good when it rains here, cause it rains alot. Anyways we got socked and plus we went to a slum that was all muddy and full of water. So not very nice, i got my nice shoes all muddy, so kinda bogus. But it was worth it we got to meet two new people who look very promising. We didnt have any baptisms this past week, but maybe this week, maybe depends. The work here is still good. Alot of people to teach. And thanks to a member we are getting some refererals. So ya its been raining here today and yesterday. And my cloths that were hanging to dry got wet. Gosh thats that bad part about rain. It always seems to rain while my cloths are hanging to dry. Gosh you get excited when there almost dry and then it rains on them and you have to wait for them to dry again. But i guess these things are just there. Well im kinda in a rush today, we are going to family home evening today, and im pretty excited for it. Esh you know family home evening is fun i find out, especially when you get the whole fam. together. But ya ill tell you how it goes. And is justin bieber that gay Canadien kid? I heard i think from a canadien elder here about him, and thats they way he described him to me. Well anyways kwaheri.
And know i love you too, and ill talk to you next week.

love, matthew

2-7-2011 One Year Mark!

well i dont mean to correct you but i will but the hump mark is on wed. not friday. And you know im going to have to do something for it you know. And of course im going to burn the apporpriate clothing, and that would be a white shirt. And i got just the right one. I got a tear in one when i was playing to close to a moving bus. But no worries me im good at this traffic crossing game. Im pretty much a pro by now. Ha i learn from the best. Anyways yes we did have a baptism this past week. And esh it was very nice. The guy we baptized was nervous for some reason. But when we got in the water he seemed to be better and after i dunked him, he seemed relaxed. And that was first time. I guess i said a wording wrong cause they made me do it again. So ya we gotta do it twice. Afterward, you know when he gave his testimony. I dont know how to describe it, he just somehow gave a powerful testimony on the church and the book or mormon. Esh again the moments that make mission so worth it. You know it makes missonairy work so much eaiser. And esh to see the happiness it brings to people, its awesome. But ya it was nice, the sister in our district came to see. And afterward we went out to eat at a really scetchy restraunt. And you know we all got beans and chapotty, but it wasnt good. I couldnt even finish, i wanted to throw up afterwards. Esh thats one of the worst food i've eaten on misson. And so you understand the restraunt it was a two tables outside someones house. And esh i regret going there but we were so hungry. Esh sister kabamba was laughing at me afterward cause i was just trying not to throw up the whole way home. Esh Esh you know though some food you just pray hard that you wont get sick from it., i went and hung out with mange again. We all went to the zl's church and played soccer. And you know its been pretty fun, just to play and relax with other missionaries. But ya mangenela was like i know who won the superbowl. Esh i didnt even know it was that time. And you know ill just barly miss next years too, only by a couple of days. But ya you know mange says hi and i did tell him about the aggies and the superbowl. And he was suprised that we eat alot of the superbowl. And you know us its just a must that we do so. Anyways im gonna get my shirt with my face on it tomorrow, im pretty excited for it. Ill for sure send you a pic. And sorry i have not been sending a pics. And today i wont, see my camera battery died today and you need it to be on to put pics on. So sorry you wont have any till next week. And ya i got some good ones for ya too. sawa kwaheri

-love matthew edward jackson

1-31-2011

Ya guess who i was hanging out with earlier today? Yep elder magenela, him and his comp came and the rest of our zone and we played soccer. Pretty fun. And i heard about the tuttles. We were looking at the people coming here. And i saw the tuttles were from farmington so you know now we have 3 rep. farmingon. Pretty nice. And ya this past week was pretty crazy. We were unable to have our baptisms. See we ran out of water again. And the guy couldnt come fix it in time, so we pushed it to next week. And i think this week we might have 3 i dont know i hope so, if we dont run out of water again. Bogus. But ya one of those crazy sundays where everyone needs you all at the same time. Crazy crazy. So ya by the ways transfers was on saturday and me and jimu are still together. Esh its awesome. And ya it should be another freaking awesome transfer. So snow though. Esh i miss snow. Here its getting alot hotter. And no we dont have ac in our apartments. And ya there is ac in the church. The church is pretty nice. They are finishing with renovations. So its really nice now. And ya imagine its pretty much the same as the chapel you go to now. The church in Nairobi is growing fast. And by the ways i like the pillowcase. You know its nice to see all those people are caring for me. And you know my comp was looking at it the other night and he asked me who is jared? And i asked why and he shows me a message on my pillow that says, Jared your doing a great job. Im not gonna say who wrote it, but all i can say was i was laughing. So you can please send someones love to jared for me ya? But esh its nice to see those things. But ya anyways did i tell you how awesome mission is. You know you meet alot of awesome people on mission. There is one family here that i love, esh they are the coolest people. And they love missionaries. And you know their home becomes your second home. So ya you know we made another t-shirt this week, it should be pretty nice. And you know i only paid like 3 bucks for it, esh its nice. Im gonna make another one with my face on it. Ya i know im pretty awesome.
But ya i have to say this area is the best area. The work is so good and the people im serving with are just awesome. Im having so much fun on mission. And you know esh when you have good people and alot of work there is nothing better. I love the members here they give us so many people to teach and they progress. And its so nice. Esh its not like the other area's ive had, this area is just awesome. But ya just know mission is awesome.

love - matt

1-24-2011

We had two baptisms this past week, and now we have 3 more this sunday. Pretty exciting stuff. Oh by the ways i forgot my camera today i was gonna send you pics, but ill do it next week. So ya crazy to think were getting to that point to where next year ill be at aggie games. Esh im getting close to a year now. And you know they say the second year goes by quicker than the first but ya i dont know how that is cause the first year went by way quick. But ya anways its awesome. . Last night we lost our keys at church and so we had to wait for the other elders to come home, and while we were waiting we knocked on our neighbors door and asked if we could chill in there till they came. And they said yes. And it turns out there are some pretty sweet people there. they are from Ethiopia, and you know just cool to talk to them. And also the bonus of that they feed us some way nice food. Like they cooked us some mashed potatoes and stuff and wow it was good. But ya we met some sweet neighbors. They have a guy from the UK living with them he married and ethoipian and now there living in kenya. And that guy was a little werid but cool. I think he is a hippie or something. he wants us only to preach peace and love. And also he told us he is an atheist. So ya interesting dude. But nice of him to feed us And ya anways i went on exchanges this past week. I stayed in my area and had my zone leader come. He is elder coles, pretty cool guy he is from california. And you know we had fun. But i was happy cause i able to show him the area and i didnt get lost. So ya pretty proud of myself. By the ways transfers is next week, and im 70 percent sure Jimu is going. Which i hope is not the case but it most likely is. Very bogus. But you know this is mission and these things are just there. But you know whenever i go to an area they only leave me 1 transfer to learn it, and then the guy that comes to me they give him 2 tranfers. I dont know thats just the way they work with me. so im glad to hear grandma got her some nice teeth. I want to see a pic of them. By the ways me and jimu now have a tradition of baking people cakes on their baptism. Pretty sweet huh. But ya anyways now im gonna bounce. So Esh i love that guy. But ya talk to you next week. I love you.

-love matt

1/17/2011

So to start i just wanted to say my comp is from Zimbabwe. And still way awesome. And ya im still loving nairobi. I dont know i just like being in a big city. Anyways ya this week was good. We made some t-shirts that are pretty sweet. We made them for our district. And i must say they are way sweet. And now were gonna make some for us in our flat. Cause its cheep and the guy did a really good job making them. Anyways ya an ok week for me. the problem was the baptism in our ward wasnt able to happen cause we ran out of water. So we have to wait until next week. And ya you know you meet alot of interesting people contacting. Esh some people here really think cause your white you have alot of money. Like yesterday while we were contacting a guy came up to me and asked me for 1000 shillings he was just like its small for you help me. Esh i hate that. And trust me it happens alot. You know it just bugs me. Its worse when the little kids come to you and ask for money esh bogus. So ya other than that me and jimu have been working hard. you know i havent had this much fun on mission. I dont know working and just having tons of fun its awesome. Esh though im enjoying alot. Im loving it. You know i just hope me and jimu are still going to stay together. We have 2 more weeks till the end of the transfer so i just hope we will.
So you guys liked my pics. Well im glad you did, that was a very fun day. And ya everything i was wearing i've gotten here. Just so you know. and those jeans im wearing are 300 dollar jeans and got them for like 10 bucks. So ya pretty nice. They are true religion jeans. Ya i was pretty happy to get them
Anyways we had zone conference this past week. And my friend kirk or elder smeldy came back from dar and chilled with us somemore and even went to zone conference. It was nice just to work with him a little. Ya anyways i hope to send you more pictures this week have to see. But anyways now i must bounce. But ill talk to you next week again. hope you enjoy your week. Kwaheri safari njema. peace.
-love matt

1-10-2011

I gotta tell the highlights of last week. First we had a baptism on Saturday. And that alone was awesome. I was the one who got to baptize her, so i was pretty excited. And you know it was great to see her, and she brought her daughter and i got to meet her for the first time on saturday. And she is a cute little girl. She kept rubbing my hair though. She really likes it. And the her mom started rubbing my hair. Kinda weird but they were loving it. OH by the ways i got my pictures back. So ya still just adds to my week. Also Elder Smeldly the one i went to high school with came and worked with us in nairobi. Cause he was having visa issues. So it was nice to work with him a couple of days. I really missed that kid. Its good to see some people you know. Anyways I gotta tell you again My comp is sweet. I dont think i've enjoyed a transfer as much as this one. This area is just awesome. And my comp is one the sweetest i've had. So ya and its cool to see the pres alot. He likes joking alot and i love it. ANd the ap's are the coolest we've had. In short the mission is just awesome right now. Anyways also something not so good this week. Was when i was helping the sisters wash a members close for their service i got some shida's on my fingers. You know my hands just arn't meant for washing cloths. I need the washer and dryer. Esh its rubbing the skin off my fingers and it really hurts. But you know this is mission and you dont get do these things for forever. But still i give these guys props for doing it their whole life. But ya while i was washing sister kabamba was laughing at me cause i was washing them funny to her. But me i dont care as long as they are clean. Oh also something i found out that makes me want to go back to dar es salaam. The official language in Tanzania has been changed from english to swahili. Everything is now in swahili. So now i want to go back so bad. Esh they are teaching in swahili and i want to be apart of that. So i hope they send me back to TZ. Esh i cant belive they did that after i left they should have done that when i was there.
-love Jack

1-3-2011 - Nairobi

Right now its pretty hot So today was good we had a brye at our flat and the whole zone came over and partook of it. It was pretty fun, except now we have tons and tons of dishes waiting for us at home later. Man i hate doing dishes, i wish i had a dishwasher. I hope you enjoy those things. We may think they are small but esh im dying for those over here, no one has them. Anyways, guess what? We got a baptism on saturday, and im pretty excited for it. Its gonna be awesome. We promised her that we will bake a cake and bring it for her on saturday. Esh by the ways i didnt get a cake exaclty on my birthday. But me and my comp made one the next day so no shida. My birthday was awesome by the ways. I was enjoying kabisa. I think you will figure out what i did for it, if you look hard enough. Anyways about ya cooking. Mission has taught me alot of things, including cooking. And i can cook almost anything simple. If that makes sense. ya i didnt realize how easy it was. The only problem is that the dishes afterward. But ya me and my comp we like to cook, if we have money we will cook kabisa. Anyways, something else i wanted to tell you. You remember when we went over to the old mission pres of here house. And he told us about the slums that are very dangerous and missionaries are not suppose to go there. Well guess what thats in my area and i've been there many times, and we are teaching many people there. In fact we have one going to be baptized this month who lives in there. Its the biggest slums in kenya. And esh you dont know poor until you go there. I cant even begin to tell you about life in there. Anyways love it though, there are alot of people in there. So i didnt tell you that to worry ya but just wanted to tell you that cause you know its kinda awesome that im serving in the biggest slums in kenya. Ha esh really dirty. Anyways ya i got one of the packages and wow it was nice. And i got the pics of elissa, and all i can say is that she is growing up. Esh like i told her things have changes since i left.. So ya sorry this email must be short today. Im in kinda of a rush. I gotta go do something awesome really soon. Its gonna be awesome. Oh ya about new years, ya people are more crazy here about it than christmas. You should have seen all the people who were buying alcohol. Esh everyone was buying, and buying alot. I guess thats the way it is, get as drunk as you can. But ya also at midnight they had fireworks. Many fireworks. Sounded like a war was going on. So ya new years eve just know people get drunk and set off fireworks. I hope your enjoying the obama-land life. Ha still cant belive that kenyans think he is kenyan. anyways talk to you next week.


-love matt