April 25, 2011 - Nairobi

Ya im getting transfered. I leave on thursday. Im not that happy to leave this area that quick. But some people thought otherwise. But ya im gonna miss this area i love it. And ya im gonna to kisumu. should be nice. Like i told everyone its on the equator. So might be a little hot. But still gonna be good. Well you know im going to be eating alot of fish now. But thats ok, i was eating alot of fish in my first area and i didnt mind. It actually was pretty good. And now im going to be eating some kisumu boys. See if you can figure out what that is. Just know alot of missionaries dont like them. And also i will be seeing lake victoria. And the missionary im going to be with is from smithfield ut. He is cool, he came and spent a couple of days with me in my area last transfer. So ya he is a cool guy. And ya im excited to go, i just only wish i could have stayed a little longer in this area. But ya nothin i can do. Anyways last week was ok. We were not able to have the baptism were suppose to. Something came up for the guy and he was unable to come to church. So they will have to push it to later. As long as they get baptized im happy. You know though i wish i could have been there for it though. Anyways remember that guy Jimmy, the guy from congo. Well he is still awesome. He studies alot. I think he knows more than most of the church members in utah. Some of the questions he asks are just like wow, you really did read. And again he told me he wants to be baptized and he will be soon. He is another one i wish i could be there for. But again i guess these things are just there. So ya thats me, oh and by the ways my new comp is not new on mission. He goes home in 4 months. I hope i wont kill him. I dont think i will but hope i wont. So i guess the next time you hear from me i will be in kisumu. Yep im really going all around kenya. And its pretty awesome. By the ways now im gonna be in the same district as the other elder jackson from zim. Should be fun. Well i love you and ill talk to you soon. Bye's.



love, matt.

4-18-11

I dont like drama i try to stay away from it. But you know, i heard mike and woody talk about drama in mission and i thought i couldnt be that bad. But oh i was wrong. There is so much drama here, even more than high school. Its just very stupid. And i have to say its just mainly sisters. But ya there was this one time that, one elder tried to stab his comp with a knife. ya that wasnt very much good. Anyways you know my comp wants to be a hr manager too by the ways. I dont know, he wants to hire and fire people. But as long as he wants to do that its all good. Anyways, we havent had transfers yet, its not until next week. But you know i still want to stay here. I could actually finish my mission in this area, i love it. Also i could finish my mission here with elder munatsi. But i dont think that will happen. Anyways i do hope at least ill be here another transfer. Im loving this area too much to leave it that soon. But by the ways, i got to watch conference yesterday. And it was awesome. I think i got the main message for me. And that is that i need to get married when i come home. Not to wait until later and get things out of the way. But just need to get married. And even elder scott was telling us about what to do when we are married. But you know what caught my attention. Was if you tell your spouse you love them. And not to assume that they love you. you know thats what kenyans do. I asked someone when is the last time he told his wife he loved her and he couldnt remember. So i hope you just dont do those things as well. Tell everyone you love, dont just assume that they know. So anyways ya i also like hollands talk. Gosh i love him, he is the one im looking forward to the most. Esh he is powerful and you know these last two talks have just been mello. Not like the one last april, woo he was on fire. But there is one thing im certain of is that that man does have angels minister to him. There is no doubt in my mind. Anyways i just like his reminder that conference is suppose to be listened to and remembered that these men are inspired and they are telling us what god wants us to do. So i do hope all you singles dudes are looking for a daughter of god. Anyways ya i just loved it. So the bottom line is that not to waste time. I dont know i find it kinda weird that they told me that. And also elder clayton did a few weeks ago as well. So i think i got the hints.


love, matt.

4-11-11

I saw Jimu this week, he came to nairobi for zone conference. Esh i was very happy to see him again. Ha he told me when he got to nairobi, he was home. Just goes to show that our area was awesome. And we did have fun together. And you know this is stilll my favorite area. Members are the best and the work is good. And you remeber that guy i told you about who looked up the church after talking to a sweedish guy. Well he accepted to be baptized on sunday. Esh freaking sweet. Again it just shows what talking to someone about the church can do. But anyways back to that, i got to hang out with jimu for a day. And it was awesome. He bought me a swahili, shirt and a bag. So again pretty awesome. And you saw the pics of the hospital. ha that was a fun and crazy day. Esh i cant belive we got the bounce castle into that small hall. Didnt think it could fit. But ya eveyone seemed to enjoy it. I got alot of pics of that day. And the christmas party. So ya for service, we just kinda do anything. We help member with whatever. Sometimes we go to the orphanage. It just depends. Like this week were going to a members to help them with yard work. And by the ways i love that family. Ya i know english class in Dar was fun. And i miss those guys and some of the crazy questions they would ask me. You know any english word they would find they would bring it to me and ask me what it means. It got hard when they were taking rap lyrics and asking me what they meant. Or they ask me a few swear words and tell me to explain. You know its kinda crazy to think that i was there a year ago. Doesnt seem that long ago. ya we had to go to a big mizugu market to meet an investigator. Seemed that our contacting did pay off. But anyways ya there is some nice mizugu things there that i didnt even know they had here. It reminded me of home too much and was even making me feel uncomfortable. Im still very much excited for jimmy. The guy who came to church. The guy who looked up the church on the internet. And by the ways that guy is awesome. He is powerful investigator. Although he has a sad story. He is a refugge. He is from congo. Some people had a dissagrement with him. And they wanted to kill him, so they went to his home, and he wasnt there but his wife and kid were. And when they didnt find them, they killed his wife and kid. So he had to leave the country. Kinda intense stuff. But it was good to share the plan of salvation with him. He was happy when i told him he could see his family again. But all i know is that that guy is powerful. And he wants to be baptized by the ways. He asked me on sunday after he told me he got his answer when he prayed about joseph smith and the book of mormon. So ya as you know it was a pretty awesome experience. He is excited to be baptized and wow he is very smart. He understand things. Esh he think on every word you say. Ha on church even he was contributing in sunday school, and priestood. People thought he was member. Kinda funny since thats only his second sunday there. But ya this week should be an awesome week. We get to see conference on saturday. And im excited for it. You know last october i never got to see the preistood session, kinda bummed me out. But i hope i will get to this time. Anways ill talk to you next week.

love, matt.

4/4/11

I had an interview with the Mission President a few hours ago. It was good, just talked about my comp and my area. And i found out my old comp. Elder jimu, who is opeing a new area in mwanza Tanzania. He is in the branch presidency there. Awesome. Im excited for him. The church is just starting there and he right there helping it. And ya im excited for conference. Although we wont see it, for another few weeks. I think at the end of this month i think we will see it. And im looking forward to it. You know its kinda bogus that i have to wait that long to see it. But i guess these things are just there. Anyways ya so i can tell you a short story about us walking to email today. On the way we got stopped by a guy and he starts telling us that we are devil worshipers. And that our church is the devil. And you know me i dont like standing for those things. So me munatsi, and sister missionary blasted him. And still esh that guy was being bogus. He refuses to belive that we belive in christ. He only trusts what he hears from people who have never been to our church. Sometimes people can be stupid. But we got his number and he wants to meet with us later this week. So ya im going to unload on him next time i see him. But ya just something bogus that happens every now and then. Other than that though everthing is good. We are working on finding people to teach. We have been contacting, and members are helping us out as well. Its nice. And you know last week we had a guy from congo come to church. He doesnt know much about it. He meet a guy from sweeden on a plane, and he was a member of the church. And he talked to him for 20 minutes. And told him when he gets to nairobi, to look it up. And so he did, got on the internet and looked it up and came. We are meeting him later this week. He is very very interested. But it just goes to show what talking to somebody can do. Like president says, its one of those miracles. Well ya anyways ya i had an awesome week. And it sounds like you guys did too. But anyways ya thats it for me, and i think mange did like his hat and picture. Oh by the ways pres. ordered pizza for us today. That was a score. Pizza doesnt happen very often for us. BYE'S ALL YALL'S

love, matt.

3/28/11

Hey
You know kenyans, and TZ both dont care about time. Like at all. Its just there. If you tell someone to be here at this time they wont show up till like 45 minutes to 2 hours past the time. And its ok cause they are in no hurry. And i have to say even me im starting to be like that. You know i hope people at home will be cool with that. Just you know there is no hurry in africa. And its ok, everytime we have an appoitment, you expect the person to be late. And if they ever tell a time like 20 minutes away, you just add another 20 minutes to that and thats the actual time they will come. So basically if they say 20 minutes they mean 40 or more. But you know dad thats waht i love about africa, there is not rush. I dont know what everyones rush is anyways. Just cool a bit and enjoy life. Why are we always rushing somewhere. Just chill. And as for the accent well i cant promise that i wont have one, when i come home. Ha when pres. daughter came here with her husband, he was telling me that i have an accent. And so did the tuttles. And they can understand me kind of. Now that im thinking about it i did have to repeat myself a few times. But not too bad i think. And thats pretty awesome i have a new cousin. Im super excited for uncle john. I hope you tell him congrats for me. But anyways, in kenya i had a pretty good week. We had some confirmations done, and it left me pretty happy. This was our first week of real work, you know no interuptions, esh last week was to much busy. Ya though now for me's and muntasi, we are now looking for somemore people to teach. And on sunday we got some referrals, man i love members in our ward. They just know when they need to help us out, pretty awesome. So yesterday too was good. We were at elder usi's house. His daughter is leaving the U.S. She going to attend BYU-Idaho. She seems pretty excited for it. So she invited us over for dinner. And you know it was nice, but they be big peoples there. And all i can say was it was awesome. And you know it was fun. But ya other than that my week was pretty boring. We manly just stuck to finding people. You know contacting at all that fun stuff. I never relized though how rude someone can be when you go up to talk to them. There are some real jerks out there. But you know me i cant let someone get the best of me. So ill mess with someone if they are being a jerk. But you know i never really thought about some of that stuff. And i realize back home, i would never go up to someone and just start talking to them. And now you know it just comes naturally. Kinda cool. But ya that was pretty much my week. And by the ways me and munatsi are still having fun. Fetch i love serving with him. I think that why the lord wanted us to serve together again. But anyways, ya thats me for this week. I hopes you yourself have an awesome week. And whoever reads this. Oh by the ways i just thought of something i have now starting to say hello with an s on it. Also how are you with an s on it. I think im turning more kenyan. I just say it now i dont even think about it. Kinda weird. But anyways i talk to you next week.
love, matt.

3-21-11

So ya i had a very good week. You we had mission tour, and stake conference. We had mission tour with elder L whitney clayton of 70 presidency, and elder Koliker, of the seventy. It was nice. They talked alot about marriage. And how important women are. They said in a marriage there is never on above the other. They are equal in everything. And they gave us a little reminder in manners. Like stand when i lady comes to the table, or when i lady walks into a room, hold the door open for them. And just a reminder to how we should treat them. They used examples like president broadbent and his wife and it was really nice. And they also gave us a question period. Where we could ask them any question that we wanted, but they will not answer any deep doctrine questions. So that was way good, and i learned alot. And by the ways i dont like deep doctrine, it wont help you at all in salvation, so i stick to the 5 that will. 1. faith in Jesus Christ, 2. repentance, 3. Baptism, 4 Recieving the gift of the hold ghost by the laying on of hands, 5. Endure till the end. Those 5 will get you to the celestial kingdom, not any deep doctrine. But anyways ya i again i learned alot from mission tour and it was way awesome. So ya besides that we had all the missionaires in kenya come to nairobi, and it was pretty fun to see everyone. There was one guy in my MTC group who i havent seen since the MTC, i saw him there. And i was excited to see him. By the ways his name is elder jackson, from zim. But ya finally saw him, and it was nice. So ya that was the highlight for me this week. And it was nice, the stake conference was good they got a new stake presidency, and people gave testimonies. And i didnt get alot of it since i was in the back, and i couldnt really hear. But still good. Sorry this email will be shorter but you know these things are just there. BUt ya im going talk to you next week, love you. BYe.
love, matt.

3-14-11

Well hi mom,

But ya my week was really crazy. So first ya we had tranfers this past week. And at first i was originally suppose to get a branch missionary as a comp. But elder munatsi, who has been sick. So i just got a call and now im with him. Which i have not problem with. And by the ways elder munatsi is my mtc comp. In case you forget. But you know me im very excited for it. And you know im so happy that i get to be his comp again. But ya besides that also my week was made even more awesome. We had 4 baptisms this week. And i was privlidge with going swimming with them. Esh i dont think they like it when i dunk them. But me i make sure that they get all the way under. You can say i slam them a little. But you know i get the job done. And it was way awesome. I cant tell you how happy everyone was. All i know was that everyone was smiling. And bob came up to me afterward and gave me a hug. And he was just smiling and thanking me. I dont know but it was just im able to be hear and serve the lord. But ya we also got the rest of a part member family baptized. And the baba or rather father, story is very interesting. His 13 year son was the first to be baptized in the family. And every sunday he would always knock on his dad's door and he would ask him if he wanted to go to church with him. His dad told him no but thanks. But everyweek he would come ask his dad but he wouldnt. As time went the boy got his brothers and sisters to start going. And eventually, he said let me just go and see where my kids are going to church. And he went and loved it. And he started to go himself everyweek. Even this boy got his family to start living the word of wisdom. No tea or coffee. Instead they started to take cocoa everyday. So it just goes to show how one person can influence his family. Just by simply asking if you want to go to church with me. Anyways i just wanted to share that story with ya. But ya their baptisms went well and everyone is very happy.
all im going to say about usu is bogus. complete bogus. I dont understand this 12 seed stuff. wow i really thought they would have been higher. But nothing they can do now, all they can do is beat kansas state. Which they better. So it will slap those people who gave them a 12 seed in the face. But anyways i hope they come to play that day.
Ill talk to you next week.

love, matt.