We went to the Couples' Flat today to watch the "Safety Zone" videos (Mom, do not watch them, you'll worry. Dad, you're okay.) It was completely crowded because the entire zone was there for it. Though, I hated watching the videos, not because they were boring or anything, but because I get paranoid whenever I learn of a new issue, now I'm worried that I have tapeworms. Great. Though, aside from that, let me say this: the couples' flat is NICE. I liked it there a lot.
It also rained a lot today, once while we were at the couples' and once while we were on the way back to our flat. I mentioned in the last update how hard it rains here, right? Well, we met a member a few minutes after it stopped, he looked at me in surprise, and asked why I was sweating. It took me a second to realize what he was talking about. My hair hadn't dried yet from the rain, and the water was dripping down my forehead; he thought it was sweat because almost all the men here have hair shorter than a buzz cut so they aren't really familiar with the concept of "hair needing to dry."
Anyway, tell Ellie to read the book of Abraham. I have my reasons, but I won't share them, because they are sacred.
4/2
Well, today was rough for a very specific reason: the power was out the entire day. From 5 or 6 in the morning, to just after 7 at night. Power outage? No. They just shut it off; no warning, no explanation, no discernable reason. That makes it nearly impossible to sleep, because it doesn't take too long for the room to heat up. Fortunately, it didn't get too hot in the room, I was only sweating kidogo, but it still woke me up. I had a: "it's quiet, too quiet" moment, and then I realized that the fan wasn't running; despair set in after that realization.
We also got to teach S.Veronica today. We taught the Word of Wisdom (aka The Law of Health), and Tithing/Fasting. It went well, there was some confusion about the consumption of pork, as well as what qualified as "undrinkable" tea. They call any non-coffee hot drink tea here, even Hot Chocolate. That took a long time to clear up. Tithing was easy to teach to her, no issues what so ever.
E.Bailey told us more about Mombosa today. Apparently, there were only "4" worthy priesthood holders in the entire branch, and half of that four were the missionaries. The third was the Elders Quorum President, and the former Branch President (though they weren't so sure about that last one). The issue? The Law of Chastity. He told us that half of the active people were excommunicated because of that (though he didn't say how big the branch was). The missionaries had to bless and pass the sacrament, as well as speak in sacrament, and teach priesthood every week. The Elders Quorum President presided and conducted every sacrament meeting. The more I hear about Mombasa, the more I never want to see that place.
"A Special Kind of Pervert"
I told this story to my parents, they started laughing, and told me that they would have to share it, so I decided to write it down for them, make it nice and easy to share.
So, there are different kinds of stores here in Tanzania. (from biggest to smallest) The first is a Mall, like you all know. The second is a grocery store like you know. The third is a single room store with the walls lined with shelves, and bars over the part of the room open to the outside. It looks almost like a prison cell. You tell the owner what you want to buy, and they hand it to you through the bars. The next kind of store is the street vendors. They just set up a booth on the side of the road and dump their wares on a table, and sell. The last kind of store, is the one that this story is about. It's literally just a guy walking around either holding his wares, or hanging them around his neck. You'll see them selling all kinds of things: watches, souvenirs, cleaning supplies, belts, shoes, ties, bras, I saw one guy selling phones once. They were probably stolen. OH? Did you notice the one thing on the list that seems wrong? Yeah, it's really funny to see a vendor walking around with a hand full of bras in either hand. You see a lot of people putting stuff on their heads to carry it here, so I'm waiting for the bra vendor who's brazen enough to put them on his head. You have to be a special kind of pervert to be a wandering bra vendor. (Parents, edit this joke for appropriateness, stop it when it goes too far) Imagine being this vendor walking up to a woman: "Excuse me miss, I was looking real close, and I think that this here green bra would fit you just right." (I have Jeff Foxworthy talking in my ear right about now) Can you imagine how many times these vendors would have been slapped in the US? I honestly wonder how much business they get. I can't imagine that it would be much.
4/3
We had a meeting today called "DDM". It stands for: District Development Meeting. They are boring, and they are run by the District Leader, my companion. He assigns everyone to do something. Chorister, Opening Prayer, Missionary Handbook Training, Our Purpose, Spiritual Thought, then we count our areas and give each other advice, then PMG training, then sing again, pray, and go home. It can be interesting if someone has a unique problem they need help with, but today we had something funny happen instead. Every companionship in the District has someone with a Baptismal Date on the 21st of April. We also get to watch the Sunday Afternoon Session of General Conference on the 21st of April at 1 in the afternoon - so there needs to be some finagling to get this all sorted out. Aside from that, nothing interesting happened today. We just dropped off some pamphlets.
4/4
*hurk* Ahem. Excuse me, just a little something of the devil in my stomach. Anyway, I got fed by members today. I have been offered food twice before while visiting people, but I was able to avoid partaking because I wasn't hungry on either occasion, but I wasn't able to avoid it today, twice.
While we were visiting B.Steven today (less active member) he brought out Ugali, and fish. The fish was all right, if a bit...off. As far as the Ugali...no. I had successfully avoided eating it up to this point. I had gone out of my way to avoid it, but I couldn't no longer. I don't like Ugali, but it has proved to me that the Gospel is true once again. I was able to eat it all without gagging. Praise the Su- *ahem* never mind. (Dark Souls reference)
After that, we went to a dinner appointment with S.Kawinga, the Branch President's wife. E.Buthelezi and E.Bailey setup the appointment, and they used it as an opportunity to teach an Investigator, so it was nice. We hurried back after that, but weren't able to get to an appointment we set at 6, so we rescheduled for tomorrow.
Aside from that, we got kicked out of the church today. We were kinda in the way of the workers doing remodeling there, and we weren't technically kicked out, it was just too dusty to breathe everywhere we went.
That's all for today.
4/5
We taught S.Veronica again today. The lesson was also about an hour and a half long because of interruptions and extremely specific questions. We were teaching about Temples and Families (the name of the pamphlet), and the concept of Baptism for the dead just blew their minds. Oh yeah, B.Kevin, a recent convert and our ever helpful translator, was there too; his mind was blown wide open by this, just like hers was. He understood it, but he didn't understand it, so we were teaching two people. The biggest issue is that they haven't seen it for themselves, so it was a bit hard for them to grasp. When we talked about endowments the Spirit was there very strongly, and I shared what I hope was a powerful testimony of the Celestial Room. When we got to teaching about Sealing...it got ugly. We got questions about extremely specific situations. "What if my husband is Roman Catholic and..." There were four or five questions that started that way. The situations were way too specific, almost unimportant, but I can't say that their questions are unimportant, because they need to understand as much as possible. Still, it took a while.
Aside from that, we did a bit of contacting. No luck. We met some people, but they aren't serious...or at least they didn't seem serious. Time will tell.
Oh, here's something funny. There is a sister in the branch who's been telling E.Buthelezi to visit her ever since he got here. It finally got to the point where she gave him fire last Sunday, and he ended up visiting her today with E.Bailey. I'm kinda curious about what spiritual thought they shared with her. I'll have to ask tomorrow when we go visit her.
4/6
Well, we didn't get to visit S.Monica today, and it was pretty slow in general. "Simba" (the local Soccer Club) was playing today, and if Simba plays, we don't get to work. Everybody will be "BUSY".
So, there are two things I want to talk about that I mentioned in the previous paragraph. I'll start with the faster one:
"Simba" means Lion, and "Rafiki" means Friend. Now go watch Lion King with that knowledge. I don't think I'll be able to stop laughing. I need to find out what Mufasa, Zazu, Timone, Pumba, and Nala mean. Somehow, I don't think all of those are Kiswahili. They might be some other language, but I might be able to find Mufasa in Kiswahili. I'll look. (4/8 edit: I think they might all be Swahili actually, but I'm still not sure)
The next thing I want to talk about is: "BUSY". I forget what the exact phrase is in Japanese, but it's something like: "Dekiru wa dekirimasu". It means "I'll do it if I can". The real phrase (which I'm forgetting) means: "I'll come if I can" (I know the word "kuru" is used but the rest...). The Japanese would say this phrase to my father (oh, ask him, he remembers - if he's anything like me, it'll be burned into his mind from how many times he's heard it) as a polite way to say no. Well, here in Tanzania the key phrase is "Busy". There was one person we gave a pamphlet to that told us that she'd been too busy to read it, but her store was close and she was messing around on Instagram. I just looked at her with a "really?" face. People will always say that they are "Busy", but they are actually lazy, or don't care. It's so exasperating. I even get to hear it from my family when I call home to ask about the commitments I've give them. "We were too busy..." NO! I'm too busy! Ya'll have time. I don't. One thing I've learned is that if something is truly important to you, you'll find a way to make time for it. Here's something I'm started..."considering" sharing this with the investigators who tell me they are "BUSY" (pronounce the "S" like a "Z" and draw it out): "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." (1 Nephi 3:7) If you endeavor to read your scriptures every night, the Lord will help you do that, but it is up to you to follow through...I don't know, something like that.
Anyway, I had rotten luck this evening, literally, both my eggs were rotten. I cracked one into the skillet and most of it evaporated the second it hit the pan, and it looked like there was blood in the yolk. The second one looked the same as the first (from the outside), so I didn't even bother trying to crack it - into the trash it went. That kinda hurt since an egg is 300TSh FOR EACH EGG. You can't buy anything in bulk here. It's all individual. You go up to a shop and ask for toilet paper, tell them the brand, and say how many rolls you want. BTW Toilet Paper here is...ahem...not the best, and it's 500TSh per roll, for the cheapest stuff available. I've even tried the "good stuff" (1000TSh per roll), I actually think it's worse than the cheap stuff. For those of you in the US who looked at those numbers, did the conversion, and said "That's pretty cheap." All I can say is: "NOT to a Missionary." We be broke. :3
4/7
Sho!!! We got to see the Afternoon Session and Priesthood session of Conference today. They were both recorded, but it was still nice. The Afternoon Session was all right, and Elder Holland did an excellent job, but he needs to find glasses with a thinner frame for when he speaks. You can't see his eyes with the current ones. (I know you've all seen Conference at this point, I'm just adding my input)
As far as the priesthood session...it was good, but the First Presidency really knocked it out of the park with their three talks. I like President Eyring a lot, but he hasn't really touched my heart before like this, and I have to confess that the only talk I remember of President Oaks' is his "Good, Better, Best," but they were both POWERFUL this session. As far as President Nelson well...yeah, he's the Prophet of God, and you told me not to call you to repentance, but the Prophet is, so go listen to him, I'll join you. I need to improve anyway.
One thing that E.Bailey picked up on is the fact that they kept talking about our bodies, and about the importance of "sustaining" our Prophet through our actions, so from this side of Conference (having seen only two sessions) it seems like the changes to the Word of Wisdom are true, but by the time you get this, we'll know for sure. As I'm writing this, the Sunday Morning Session just ended. The suspense is "killing" me. Aigh. We know nothing. Argh.
Anyway, to speak a little about the miracle of Creole. My Mother sent me with two little cans of the stuff - one for each year. I don't think It'll be able to last. I have discovered that the claim on the tin that: "it goes great on everything" so far holds up. I've put it on: Noodles (Instant Ramen), Eggs (Fried), and Bread (discovered that one by accident). Hey, I don't eat that much at the flat. Just stuff I can buy cheap. Lunch is a celebratory affair for me, I eat out.
I'll call this little thing "Food Concerns." I have long decided to avoid dinner appointments as much as possible, and I have a new reason for it: improperly cooked food (food poisoning). The standards aren't as clear here. There is 1 restraunt I'm 100% certain is good, everything else is a risk, and eating at members is gambling.
You know...I think there are two things in my life that prepared me the most for my mission. Was I truly prepared before I came out? NO. But there are aspects that I've been able to easily adjust to because there are experiences in my life that have prepared me.
The first I would say is The Boy Scouts of America. It really is too bad that they lost the Church's support, because they are a really good organization, they just have some foolish policies. I've found that knowing all that I do from scouts has really helped me in a lot of different aspects of my mission: From Cooking to First Aid to Money, I've found that scouts has helped me in many aspects of living here in Africa, away from "Mommy" for the first time.
The other thing that I really think helped me was Home Teaching -yes, it's called Ministering now, but what helped me was HOME TEACHING, not Ministering- I got used to teaching people, preparing a lesson, extending invitations and commitments, and following up. All of those things are excellent skills for a Missionary.
I also think that my job in door to door sales helped a lot. I got used to rejection, I got used to walking for long hours in the hot sun, I got used to talking to everyone, and greeting everyone I couldn't talk to. It's interesting to see the Blessings in my life from my experiences, still would never recommend door to door sales to anyone though.
Side note: Hakuna Matata is Swahili.
4/8
Aigh. Well, it's P-Day. I'm doing this update while waiting my turn to cyber.
We went to Quality Center this morning. It's like what a mall would be if it almost never got customers. Most of the shops were closed, and it was almost completely empty. There was a "fun" center there, we went there as a zone and it was "fun." It was a like an overpriced, run down, empty Fun Park. I gave them 10000 (screams in agony) for credits, and I got to play a racing game twice, and a basketball game twice. I will admit that it was pretty cool having the highscore on the basketball machine for an hour before E.Ikahihifo (pronounce it Japanese!) beat my highscore. Literally nothing else happened. We were there for hours, and most of it was either waiting, or trying to figure out what we were doing.
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