6-20-11

The ways swahili here in corrupted. People use whats called sheng. Which is a mixture of swahili english, and some other stuff. Ha ya if they dont know the word for something in swahili they will just use the word for it in english. Its really bad, but i think its pretty fun. Like a really common on is (he's coming). Which is ana kuja, but people will just say instead "ana come" or there is also "im coming" which is "Na kuja" but people will say "na come" But ya there is alot more than that and its really bad. And im not really suprised that they would try to take advantage of him. Cause people here if they think your not from here they will rip you off and do all they can to get money from ya. It sucks have to deal with that stuff everyday. But luckly people in Tanzania dont use sheng. They only speak swahili like the real swahili. And alot of times people in kenya will not even understand them. Kinda bogus of kenya. But no worries i still love kenya. So ya Anyways you met someone new coming from kenya. Well thats awesome im excited for him. What is his surename or his last name? Ill look for him when he comes. I dont know if i will be in kisumu still or not. Im betting ill be getting transferred in september. But ya i hope you tell him to get ready for a culuture shock. Even my kid when he got here he was having it bad. He was not used to kenya and he tells me that transportation here is crazy. Which it is. But ya its still fun though. Anyways though ya thats pretty cool though all these people you met coming to kenya or are from kenya. I do hope ill get to meet some when i go home. But ya anyways this past week was awesome. See last tranfer we baptized pretty much our teaching pool so we are looking for new people. And this past week the lord blessed us with new people. Thanks to our recent converts we have met some. And you know i can truely understand why they want you to invite recent converts to teach with ya. Cause esh they really help out in relating to the person your teaching. I cant even tell what a lady named agneta did for us last week. She finally got through to her sister and helped her better understand and accept the book of mormon. And there is something i know that i could not have done that by myself. She really did help us out there. And ya just one of those awesome things on mission. But ya the lord is blessing our work. And i can really tell now that he is pretty much doing everything. But ya esh mission is awesome, im loving showing elder mbazima around and stuff. Its fun to watch him learn and teach. Kinda glad i got the oppurtunity to train.

So anyways ya the building im sitting on is our church. Ha ya our building is pretty awesome, still love how we have sacrament outside on the roof. How many people have that? And ya sorry i havent sent any pics for a while. But i got some good ones for ya. Like today we went to see hippos and we actually saw some. I got a pic of a mama with her two kids, not sure what they call hippo kids. But ya it was fun, we got to go out on a boat in lake victoria and you know the water actually it really warm. Kinda sucked we had to get up way early but still fun and it was worth it. So ya got some good pics for ya. So other than that mission is going good. Im loving showing my comp around. In fact i like knowing my area and knowing where im going. And i would rather do that than go and not know where i am or where im going. I just dont like the feeling. So ya now its good, dont know when i get tranferred, esh you have the stress of learning the area and the investigators. i like just knowing them. But anyways ya the work is good. And im loving our recent converts. They are giving us people to teach and even helping us teach them. Its pretty powerful and im loving it.


love, matt

6-13-11

I cant belive im training a new kid. He really is new and green and doesnt know anything. Ha this past week we had to go pick up some stuff from the store and him he takes out all of his money for the whole month and wants to spend it all now. And i was like wo chill a bit. And he tells me back home whenever we go shopping we spend all the money. But you know i talked him down and he didnt spend too much. But ya just kinda fun to show him around and how things work. But ya i've been having fun so far with him. But ya its been fun teaching with him. He is reminding me how it feels to come out of the mtc. But i think he is more powerful than me. The thing i love about him is that he is always wanting to pray for people. At the beginning or end of a lesson he always asks can i pray for you? Pretty powerful guy. Last night we had the other elders over at our flat and we were playing games with him trying to keep his mind off of home. But ya thats the news for this side. Otherwise we continue our struggle with investigators and getting htem to come to church. But you know this is mission and im loving it. So ya we were unable to go to the hipp'os last week and todya was a no go but next week for sure we are going. But we did go to the park today and see some animals again. Ha it was funny this time, there was a elementary school there for a field trip and some of the mama's came. And they had two photographers there to take pics of the animals and the kids. And it was funny when one them came up to me and elder olsen the two white guys and said that the mama and kids want photo's with you. So we agreed and you know we took like 50 pics with the kids. And then the mama's wanted to get pics with us. So we agreed there too and i know exatly where there pics are going. They will be hanging up on all of the mama's living room walls. But ya i thought it was funny. Im not sure how many homes we will be hanging in but just know that i will be haning in some african homes here. BUt ya cool stuff but anyways im gonna go for this week. Ill talk to you later. I hope you enjoy this week. Anyways bye's

6-6-11

My old comp elder Larsen is going to Nairobi to die. Ya he is finishing his mission with mange. But ya as you know im training and my new comp is Elder Mbadzima from Zambia.. He comes on Thursday this week, so this week im chilling with elder olsen till our new comps come. Which by the ways im going to be a trainer and a district leader Oh by the way the other elder jackson, or the black jackson is replacing mom's son elder mangenela. And im pretty excited for it. He will make a good ap. We were joking last night that they would send me instead of him just as a joke. So ya that should be fun. Still think its funny im training by the way. But anyways should be good. So anyways im happy to hear Jimmy was baptized. Esh that guy was golden. We had 4 baptisms from us and 4 baptisms from the other missionaries so ya it was sick. We confirmed everyone yesterday and wow it was awesome. I got to confirm two of them. Which is always an awesome experience. But ya saturday was fun the baptisms and we had a branch party. We are celebrating two years that the church has been here in Kisumu. And it was fun, actually it turned into a water fight between missionaries and some members. Ha actually we threw elder jackson (black one) into the baptismal font with all of his clothes on. esh awesome and then he got all of us one by one with a bucket of water. But we got him back with some water ballons. But in all it was a good day. Esh though im happy munatsi is having success there in upper hill. You know Munatsi got stuck with his branch missionary again. So he is going to have one for 3 months. Esh i bet next transfer though he will train. Since we have like 11 kids coming in. And the tranfer after that there are 12 coming in. Anyways ya the big groups are going to start leaving soon. Starting with mange's group. And then my group is the last of the big groups to leave. But ya pretty excited with all these new missionaries coming in. So ya thats it for this week, but ill talk to you later. Have a good week bye's.

love, matt.

5-30-11

We are going to the couples tommorow to make an attempt at Navijo tacos. Ha though the new couples here are cool but struggling a little. The new couples here are bad they are have a culture shock and its bad. You can barley get them out of their flat. the only time they leave is to go to the store. They live right below the church, so they dont need to go anywhere for church they are litterally there. But ya kinda funny the way they act and the way they talk. ha She always say that she doesnt like the food here cause it taste's like Kenya. So i guess kenya doent taste good. But as for me i think its just fine. Just a little sick of it but its overall fine Ii got some new shoes on the street. The guy wanted 1900 shillings for them and i bargained him down to 700. Ya i know pretty awesome they are good shoes ecco's. But ya i wearing them now and its pretty comfortable but ya i will keep my old shoes i guese. Im not really sure what im going to do with them. But anyways mom, i got some good pics for ya that im going to send next week. Nice ones of kisumu and lake victoria. Also im going to see hippos next week as well should be pretty exciting. . But you know morice the guy we live with his garden is looking good. Although its full of weeds and he likes it. He is going to eat them he says. He made for us the other night its called Mbogus, all i think he did was go to a plant and take a few leaveas and boiled them. And ya its pretty nasty. Anyways though, im bouncin for this week.

love, matt.

5/23/11

Sounds like summer is getting close there. Did you by chance hear about that guy that pridicted the world was gonna come to an end this past week? Cause everyone heard it here. And wow everyone was talking to us and asking us about it and we were like ah this guy is bogus. Go read your scriptures. We even had a mama in our branch call us and told us that her kids were sad that they wouldnt be bapitized before the savior came. Which their baptisms are 2 weeks away. But anyways we told her the world is not ending and that they will be baptized soon. Kinda made me laugh though everyone here thought for sure the world was coming to an end. But you when it was suppose to happen, nothing did. And everyone was like oh, well i guess it wasnt gonna end then. So ya made me laugh. Anyways besides that, things here are good. Im espically happy, cause we just got the go ahead yesterday for one of our investigators to be baptized. He had to wait and see since his father was a polygimist. So we had to get the clearance from the church. And it finally came yesterday. So ya that made my week. His name is John in case your wondering. He is an old mizee in his 60's but he is cool. He accepted to be baptized a few weeks ago just needed the clearance first. So ya he is happy to hear that he can now. And ya i think in fact we have 5 baptisms on the 4 of june. Which is gonna be an awesome day. Another one is named Agneta, she works at the big hotel here and president B gave us her as a referral. And she also will be baptized on that day. Kinda cool huh? Well i thought so. So you know i work in a ghetto as they call it here. But you know its just normal to me now. And i love it. Anyways ya the place is called manyatta. Pretty big place and im still getting down. And i have to do it fast cause im pretty sure that elder larsen is leaving me soon. And you know one of my friends here elder dalling has to learn his area in 4 weeks cause his comp is getting kicked out of the country. Not only him a handful of missionaries. The immigration department has had it with us and are not kicking us out. So now there is an emergency transfer for some to Tanzania. Pretty intense stuff though. Pres. sent a text to the mission asking for a mission fast to soften the hearts of the those people. But im not sure how fast its going to soften. So ya we are having some serious businsss with them. By the ways transfers is in two weeks. Just so you know. Ya i've seen lake victoria. Its ok, not all thats its cracked up to be. But that ok. I liked it. The cheetahs by the way were just at a animal park. And we had to talk to guys into letting go in there and pet them. But you know evenutally we did. But anyways ya im gonna go, so ill talk to you next week. Bye's like always.

love, matt.

5/16/11

You dont want this weather im getting into now. you know its way too freaking hot. Im dying. Esh but at least it not as hot as dar es salaam. But still very hot. Anyways did i tell we have a garden in our front yard. yep the member that kinda lives with us is growing it. It looks nice. he is growing beans and somethings else i not sure. But ya he is just a little gardener. But cool guy he sometimes cooks for us. Oh by the way we had a tin foil dinner the other night and it was awesome. We have a little brye stand we used and all i can say was it was awesome. We are going to make enchallada's sometime this week, we have the sauce just need sour cream which i highly doubt we will find around here. Anyways ya just some things we made, Oh by the ways i learned how to make a cake from scratch. Pretty easy by the ways and we even cooked in on the stove. We dont have a oven but it was pretty good. We might try it again this week. Im pretty excited to tell you that i did something that you have never done and many have not. And that is that i got to pet a cheetah. It turns out that missionaries can sweet talk some people into letting you do some cool things. Yep last week i got to go into the cheetah pin and got to pet them for few minutes. i just got something checked off the bucket list... And of course i got some pics. Ya i was excited ill send you some no worries. But ya i was pretty excited for that. But ya i told you last week about a lady who couldnt be baptized cause of poligamy. Well she cried when we told her she couldnt be baptized and we werent sure how she would react. She just kept saying ill never recive the full blessings. But we told her she would. We even went to president and asked that she be put on the home teaching and visiting teaching list which he did. But you know she still very uneasy with it very torn up and sad. So ya the way she reacted is by coming to church the next sunday with her husband and her two sisters. And she wants us to teach them which we are. And to tell you the truth that is one of the most powerful testimonies i've ever seen. The fact you cant be baptized but you still want the best for someone who can be. But ya that really touched me and put true conversion on a whole new level. But ya thats the big things that happend this past week. And about the meeting house, ha no chapel. But we have a 3 floored building that we meet in. And we hold sacrament meeting on the roof. Pretty cool though ya? Anyways though im gonna go for this week. Well bye's till next week.

love, matt.

5/2/11 "By his feet you shall know him" - Kisumu

So is it true that it snowed there this past week. My comp just showed me a pic of salt lake and it had fresh snow there. And ya i do hope that there will be no flooding this year. Especially for us that last time sucked. So anyways my week went pretty good. I did have to sit in a bus ride for 8 or so hours. Ha i can remember when i used to not like 2 hour rides to somewhere, i thought they were too long. Well now they are nothing at all. You know it seems everytime you get transferred here your either on a bus ride for 8 or more hours or on a plane to another country. Quite alot for tranfers. But im loving it, im slowly making my way all around kenya. Anyways ya kisumu is awesome by the way. Im loving it so far. And my comp is way sweet. Ha kinda werid to be with an american but it has been fun.
Anyways i saw utah state's new schedual for football this year. Looks good although playing aburn first game, pretty intense. And yes by the ways my comp is a USU fan. And plus the other missionary here is from logan ut and also a usu fan. So you we are all together here in kisumu. There is only 4 missionaries here by the way. And 3 of us are from Utah. Elder Jackson is from Zim. And by the way thats awesome Curtis Marsh was drafted im excited for him. And thats sweet anderson kinda helped him out there. So by the ways kisumu is hot. And it has rained everyday since i got here. But only at night. The day is always sunny and hot and then when night comes it starts raining. And also my new flat is big. Very big. The biggest i have had on mission so far. And my comp is sweet. Im loving my area so far. And the church house is a little different but i like it. ITs a 3 floored building and we have sacrament on the roof. Pretty sweet i think.
love, matt.