Merry Christmas

12/24/13 Hey mom! Everything was good this week and like you hoped, it was pretty uneventful. There isnt really anything you can do for the boy. Just pray for him. The mission has asked that missionaries families don't send money for anything of that sort. His burial was yesterday. We weren't able to go, but I was told it was good. So we have a protable DVD player, that we are given when we train to watch the District, but he was using it for other things. After I discovered the problem I prayed for a way to come that we could resolve it without making him angry and lose his desire to work. The next day the Mission President said that all missionaries needed to return the DVD players unless they were training. We returned ours, so I am grateful that problem was able to kind of resolve itself. Most people where I am don't have TV's or computers though. To email we go to a cyber somewhere. We usually take a matatu about 30 minutes to a town called Ninguni, and email there, but that one has been closed the past couple weeks. Last week the other cyber in Ninguni wasnt working, so we went back to Kalongo and used the cyber there. But right when I got on the power went out, so by the time we actually emailed it had been quite a long time. Today we are in Nairobi for Christmas though so there aren't any problems with it today. So like I said we are in Nairobi until Thursday for Christmas which is good. Tomorrow there is a Christmas Party with all of the Elders from our Zone group. We will be calling from the AP's flat. I think I will call around 9 o-clock at night here, so it will be about 11 oclock there. The mission provides money for it though so you don't need to worry. It's actually extremely cheap to call from Kenya to America. I think it is like 5 cents a minute. But for you to call here it is super expensive. It's kind of funny how it works. I guess it's up to you if you want to invite Dalee over. It is Christmas so I am thinking her mom might not be up for that. And I only have 40 minutes so it might be kind of tough. I would definitely love to talk to her though, and President Hicken said if our girlfriends came to our families we could talk to them, we just cant call them directly. I received your package today actually. Thank you so much for everything you sent me and thank the Rogers and Mark Lisa family for their letters. Walking is definitely becoming easier to the old areas, but the new areas are a lot further and harder, so I feel kind of like I did when I first got here haha. Most people are super welcoming. There were some areas with Elder H where we weren't welcomed, but now we are welcomed again so all is well. I kind of laughed when you asked if we would spend Christmas at one of the members houses. I guess I haven't told you but most member have very small houses made of bricks and cement, or sticks and mud, and the sitting areas in them are about the size of our laundry room. :P We almost always meet outside, except for a few houses. You might have meant that though, but I wanted to let you know. :) I hope you and everyone else are doing well! Love Elder Janda Hey everyone! This week has been pretty good! Christmas is somewhat different here. It doesn't feel as much like Christmas because there aren't decorations or Christmas music or anything, but it is still good. We were on exchanges this past week so I was with Elder Banda. He came to interview six of our ivestigators who will be baptized on Saturday. He is from Malawi, and struggles with English, but he is super funny and he makes me laugh. Now we are in Nairobi for Christmas. Tomorrow there is a Christmas party with all of the Elders and Sisters in our Zone Group. I think tonight we are going to the Mission Presidents home for Christmas Eve dinner but we will see. As for Kalongo everything is going well. On Sunday I actually started the Mitini Branch choir! It is somewhat difficult being in charge of a choir, but it is fun. The members dont really know how to sing in parts, so they just all sing the melody. There were only three Elders there. The rest were mamas and young women. They sound super good already though! I hope the Branch president calls a branch chorister though, so I can just play the piano. I also started playing the piano in Sacrament. It is kind of tough because the members sing the songs differently sometimes, so when I play it as written it sounds like I am making mistakes haha. This sunday the piano lost power as well in the middle of the songs so everyone got confused. It was kind of funny. Yesterday was our branch Christmas Party. It was nothing like the parties in other places. We had a lesson from our branch president, and because people stole food last year, they didnt make any food. Instead, after the lesson every member received 1 kg of flour, which they use to make chapattis, which may be the manna that Moses ate haha. It is way good, but it is pretty much just a thick flour tortilla. Anyways, every member got a kg of flour. The funny thing was that they were even giving them to like newborns, so it was like a reward for having kids. The more kids they have the more flour they get. There was one member though who called me very angry. He has a big family I guess, but he is the only member so he only got 1 kg. He saw all these people getting like 6 kgs of flour and he only got one. After the party we went to his home and I shared the story of Simons Ryder. We told him not to let something small, or the mistakes of members ruin his faith in the church. I was also able to give him another 2 kgs of flour that the president had given us to cook, and that made him much happier. Well I hope everyone has a merry merry Christmas! I wanted to send pictures today but this computer doesnt have USB plugs, so I guess I will do that next week. Speaking of next week its my birthday! It might be kind of lame to ask for a birthday present, but it would be the best birthday present to receive emails from anyone who has the time to send them! Merry Christmas Again! Elder Janda