11-18-13

Hey Everyone! So this week has been crazy! There have been a lot of ups, and downs. I will start with the positives though! On Saturday we had baptisms for the first time, and that went well! We had 4 converts, and 6 child of records. I didn’t do any of the baptizing, but it was great to see so many enter the waters of baptism. For baptisms, we have to walk probably 8 or so miles to Kyambeke, where there is a baptismal font. The trip there is mostly down hill, and then on the way back we got a matatu, so it wasn’t too bad. Yesterday we had our service day as usual, and we were planning on helping one of our investigators, but then, she said that she was planting, which we usually don’t do, because we can't do it right haha. So we walked around the many shambas looking for people to help. We came across 16 mamas working in one shamba, so we knew they had to be busy. We recognized 2 of them as members, but the rest were not. It turns out they were hired to pick French beans for someone, so we asked if we could help. We then spent the next 3 hours picking French beans. I can say for sure that my back was sore. It is hard doing that when we are so tall, but it was good! We got the mamas to agree to come to church so hopefully we will see them there. I think it is funny that the French beans as we call them come from Kenya. I will now be calling them Kenyan beans. They are pretty much shipped from Kenya, to France, to the U.S. so that is how they got the name. It is crazy though. They get paid 10 shillings, or 9 cents, per KG of beans that they pick. In four hours they pick probably 20 kg’s of beans, so they make like 2 dollars at the most! It was tough work! Then after they pick them in the valley, they fill these huge bags with the beans, and carry them all the way to Kalongo. The bags end up weighing about 35 kgs, or 75 or so pounds! I was definitely impressed! So the bad part about this week is that our companionship has pretty much reached rock bottom. On Thursday in Comp. Inventory, it turned into Elder U and H just getting way angry at each other, so all day there was no spirit. We decided that we needed to meet with the mission president, because Elder H was getting so stressed out that I was worried about his health. We called the AP’s and they told us not to go out that day, and the next day we would meet with the Zone Leaders. We discussed the problems with the zone leaders but it seemed as if Elder H and U were just yelling at each other again. We have seen a little bit of improvement since Friday, but I am guessing we will be meeting with the Mission President next week, while we are in Nairobi for Zone Conference. Well that is about it for the week. As I said I am in Nairobi next week, and because of that I will be emailing on Monday, so email before then if possible! Also I wanted to ask for suggestions from anyone that may have them. I want to start holding FHE with the whole branch, so if anyone has any ideas of activities that can be done with a lot of people, that don’t really require any supplies, and are good for both adults and kids, then please let me know! Elder Janda Hey Mom! Everything is going pretty good here in Kilungu! I am almost done with training, so that Is good! I am looking forward to getting a new companion and being done with training and everything. :P That is awesome that Courtney and Maren dressed up as missionaries! The funerals aren't too extremely different. Everyone just sits around for a long time, talking. Then everyone eats some food. Then they bring the casket and all the family will say some stuff, and whatever church is in charge says a whole lot. We do a lot of service, but I want to start doing more. I think it is a better use of our time. It was definitely a bummer to miss the primary program, but I try not to be angry about it. It just didn’t make sense as to why he had me go with him, when there was stuff I was supposed to do in our area. He also told me that I was going to be planning last week right before we went to the other area. Because I was gone all weekend, and went to another church, I couldn’t make appointments. Then he was blaming me for the fact that we didn’t have any appointments. It was just annoying. Yes I am still in a 3some, and that is not going well at all. But it is mostly because of the other two. Yeah we have to walk to different villages. There are quite a few in our area. There is Kikoko, Matua, Kyanga, Kyambondo, Ngunga, Mitini, Nuzion, Nzukini, Kalongo, and Mutuyu. Oh and Kyakathungu. Kalongo is obviously the closest. And the only other ones I walk to is Mitini, Kikoko, and Matua, because Utonga goes with a branch missionary to the others. Mitini is the farthest. Its probably three or four miles. If I need new shoes it wont be a problem to find them. The biggest difficulty is finding my size. When I tell people my size, they usually just laugh haha. The President said the Visa situation is improving, and things should get better soon, so we will see. And in regards to a package, pretty much anything you want to send is good, because any American food I cant find here. Candy is good to send, like skittles, starbursts, and other candies like that, but seriously whatever you send will be good. Just don’t send rice, beans, ugali, or vegetables, cause that stuff I can get haha. Well I love you mom! Elder Janda P.S. I will be emailing on Monday next week, just to let you know.

11/12/13

Hey Everyone! This week has gone by super fast it was crazy! It was nice to be in the city for a day last week, but one day in the city wore me out! I was way tired! It was nice to be there but it is nice to be back in the small town of Kalongo again! Anyways, our week wasn’t too busy last week. One of the members mother died, so on Thursday we spent a lot of our time there for a church visit to him. Then on Friday we were back there for the funeral, which took up the whole day. After the funeral we met up with the other elders in our district and went on exchanges. Elder Hiltbrand and I went to an area called Kyambeke. It was pretty nice, but I can definitely say that I missed Kalongo! That area was tough! We were on exchanges to conduct baptism interviews. We had like 30 to do, so we were travelling everywhere. We went to an area called Matuiku. To get there you hike up a long steep road to the top of this mountain. I thought the town was at the top of the mountain, but it turns out it was on the other side. So once we made it to the top of the mountain we had to hike back down the other side. It was definitely the toughest day I have had so far physically. I am still a little sore from it, but it was good. In Matuiku one of the members fed us the best meal I have had since I have gotten here. It included chapattis, rice, soup, sweet potato, and hot cocoa! That was the first time I have not been able to finish eating at a members house because I was full. That was nice because it gave me the energy I needed to get back over the mountain again. On Sunday we went to church in Ilima, which is half way up the mountain to get to Matuiku. I was already tired so that was tough, but not nearly as bad as Saturday. While we were sitting waiting for church to start a few wazungu (white people) walked in and sat down. We were wondering what in the world these wazungu were doing in the middle of the hills, because that was the first time I had seen one in a while! A little bit later the Mission office couple walked in. I guess it was their daughter and grandchildren, coming to see Kenya with them before they leave next month. I finally understand why all the people were staring at me when I got here, because I did the same thing when they walked in haha. After church we got a ride back to Kalongo with the Elders, which was nice because we didn’t have to walk. Yesterday was our service day again. We went to Kalongo, and helped the Kivikivi family in their shamba. We fertilized it, and then dug up all the weeds. It was some tough work, but after they fed us a great meal of bread and cocoa! After that we went to the members house whose mom passed away to help him. We helped him build a temporary bathroom to shower in. I didn’t have my camera or I would have taken a picture of it. After they fed us githeri, which is maize and beans. I am usually excited to be fed, but ever since I was sick, I get sick whenever I eat beans, so that wasn’t enjoyable. Githeri is one of the most common things to be fed here so hopefully I get used to it quickly! Well I hope everyone is doing well! Love, Elder Janda

WOW it's November

11/4/13 Hey everyone! So, this week has gone pretty well! I have recovered from my sickness so that is good! Unfortunately, on Wednesday my companion woke up super sick, so we were stuck at home for another two days! But he is doing better now, so we are finally able to go out like normal. Last week we were supposed to have transfers but things here have been crazy! I really enjoyed this past Sunday. The primary program, or presentation as they call it, will be this Sunday, so I went to primary this past week, and was helping them with their songs and things like that. I am really looking forward to being able to have the presentation, and I think that I will for sure be going to primary a lot more often on Sundays. I understand why Christ loved children so much, and tells us to be like children. Right now a lot of the members are getting angry with us for stupid things, and also are quick to break commandments, even after we teach them about them like the same day. It can be frustrating having to deal with that, but the children love you pretty much no matter what and are innocent. It is a stress reliever for sure being able to go to primary. The rain season also started this past week, which is good and bad. It is good because the peoples crops will begin to grow and we won't have to worry about a drought. It is bad because the power is out a lot! This means bucket showers and doing things by flashlight or candle. Also if I don’t email one week you know why. It shouldn’t be a problem, but I want to warn you just in case. This week we are in because it is the first week of the month, and we have to come to pull out our money. It is a big city, but it was like a 3 hour trip to get here. On the way I saw another Mzungu. I totally freaked out, because that was the first one i have seen since I got here! It was weird. I should be able to get some good food here though because they have huge supermarkets, so that should be exciting! Well that’s about it for this week! I love all of you and hope everyone is doing well! Hey mom! I am feeling a lot better so that is good. Don’t worry about sending me the conference talks, we should get the magazine here in a couple of weeks. Brother Kivikivi is doing a lot better! He has been able to make it to church, and he should be able to walk without crutches by next month so that is exciting! The service day was hard, but it was a lot of fun. I try to serve every day. Whenever I see someone carrying water or a load of sticks and they are walking towards our destination I try to help them. The language is coming along pretty well. I spend a lot of time each day studying, but it is still difficult. My companion has decided he doesn’t want to put time into studying the language and thinks it will just come naturally, so a lot of the times I am the one who has to try to speak to people. Dalee said she was so happy that you took her to the Lion King, so whether it was a surprise or not, she definitely enjoyed it. Kenya is doing well. It stinks that my companion is the way he is, but the Lord knows that I can handle it, and it will make me a better missionary having to deal with it at the beginning. Don’t worry about cutting and pasting the emails. I knew it was just the basic stuff, so you are fine to keep doing it. I just thought it was funny. Feel free to keep doing it, I wasn't trying to make you feel bad. That sounds awesome with Courtney’s soccer. Hopefully tryouts go well and everything. I love you too mom, and I am grateful for your testimony. I know this is where I am supposed to be at this time as well. At times it is difficult for sure, but I am able to find strength in the Lord and keep moving on. Love you! Elder Janda

10/29/13

Hey everyone! This email will probably be pretty short because my week was not very exciting! On Thursday night I woke up with super bad stomach problems, so I was bed ridden Friday and Saturday. That was no fun, but I am doing a lot better now. My stomach still hurts a little, but I am able to go out so that is all that matters. The mission doctor says it was probably food poisoning, most likely from some cabbage I ate. Unfortunately, because I was sick we had to cancel the baptisms we had planned for Saturday and reschedule them for this month. On Sunday I was luckily feeling well enough to go to church. We were supposed to start watching conference at church this Sunday, but that didn’t happen because there was no power. When we have power we will be watching a session every Sunday, until we finish. On the way home on Sunday I passed one of the sisters in our area, carrying a big bundle of firewood. I helped her carry it to her home, but that thing was heavy! I will include a picture of that.Sunday night my companion and I made some chapattis, which is like a thick tortilla. They turned out pretty good, so that was nice! On Monday we decided to go to Kikoko, instead of Matua, for our service day. The first house we went to was Brother Kivikivis. A few months ago he got in an accident where he was hit by a big truck, and has been stuck at home since then. During the day his wife goes and works in the farm, so he is stuck alone with his one year old son. We asked if we could help with anything, but he just wanted us to stay and talk to him because he was so lonely, so we sat and talked to him for quite a while. That was a lot of fun, and it was really cool getting to know him better. After that we went to one of our investigators, the Maquimas. We went and helped dig out weeds in there Shamba (farm). That was hard work but it was a lot of fun. They are super nice and afterwards they gave us some sugarcane to chew on, and a lot of beans from there shamba. I have some blisters now from all that digging but it was good! This week is the first week of my second transfer, so tonight we will find out exactly what that means. I should still be with my trainer because the training program is 12 weeks, but we will find out if our other companion will stay in the hills with a new companion, or if he will leave and two new elders will come into this area. It should be exciting either way! Well like I said, this week was short, so I am sorry the email isn’t as exciting, but I love you all and will hopefully send a longer email next week! Elder Janda How far away is water creek? I am assuming water creek is referring to where I go fetch water for people. It is about half a mile or so from there house. But it is steep downhill and then uphill with water. Do you have to boil your water? We have a filter and the water we get is pretty clean so we don’t need to boil water to drink. We do have to boil water in order to take a shower, because there is often no power, because the water is freezing otherwise. How do you cook your food? We have a tiny camping type stove that we cook all of our food on. I wish we had an oven so I could make some better foods but not very many areas have an oven. Do the spiders/bugs bite? Some spiders and bugs bite, some don’t. The ones I have to watch out for are ticks, because those are somewhat common in one of our areas, and banana tree spiders. I haven’t seen any banana tree spiders, but I guess they are huge and are pretty dangerous, but luckily they are rare. Do you see lots of scary animals/bugs? There aren’t really any scary animals or bugs in my areas. There are a lot of stray dogs that run around, but they are pretty friendly. What is your bed like? ground, board, mattress? I have a mattress on a frame. It is just a normal bed. Do you have nightmares about bugs? I don’t really worry about bugs too much because they aren’t a big problem. Do you feel skinny? do you workout? is the service physically demanding? (John) I definitely have lost a lot of weight. I have had to cut some new holes in my belt already, so that was good. I lift weights in the morning sometimes, but the area I am in is pretty physically demanding so we haven’t been working out too much. We are going to start running every morning though now that we are more used to the area. Who cuts your hair? There is a barber in our town so we just go there. It only costs fifty cents, but all they can really do is shave your head. I was actually the first American that one of the barbers ever gave a haircut so that was cool. Where'd you get our shoes? I brought my shoes from home. They work well where I am, and they have super cheap shoes everywhere here so when these ones wear out I will get some more easily. Have you thought about eating spiders for protein? (Eric) No, the meat here isn’t that bad. Have you seen a lion? I haven’t really seen any wildlife yet, because the area I am in is a lot higher up, where they don’t go. Are there chances to hunt? We don’t go hunting, but in some areas you can go on safaris on P-days. What's your transportation? My transportation is mostly my feet. To get to the main town on P-day I take a matatu. It is a 12 seater van, that they usually shove 20 or more people inside.

Weeks 10/15 and 10/22/13

10/22/13 Hey Everyone! This week was great! I learned a lot! On Wednesday, we had DDM, which is a district development meeting. I was asked to train for it, which was a little scary considering I haven’t even been out for a full transfer yet, but I was excited for the opportunity to teach what little I have learned so far on my mission. I discussed the importance of having the love of Christ as missionaries. I focused my lesson on Elder Uchtdorf’s talk, “You are my Hands”. It went super well, and the spirit was super strong during the lesson. Here in the hills people struggle with a lot of things, but especially the Word of Wisdom. A lot of times, missionaries will yell and get angry at them, and because of this they continue to break commandments and people hide from us when we come to teach them. I have learned that it is so important to love people through their trials and sins, the way the Savior has for me through the times in which I have sinned. On Thursday I was able to go on exchanges with the Zone leader, who will be finishing his mission next week. He was able to give me a lot of advice! It was way nice to go out and teach with someone who has had so much experience. While we were out, I went to meet a Sister who I had not yet been able to teach since I have gotten here. She was pretty quiet throughout the lesson, but at the end, she asked Elder Mulondo where she could get a Swahili copy of the Book of Mormon like the one we had been using during the lesson. I gave her that one, because I knew she could use it a lot more then I could. She got so happy it was unbelievable. It was inspiring to think how much it meant to her to be able to read the Book of Mormon, and receive guidance from Heavenly Father. It made me think how I take that kind of thing for advantage way too often. On Friday we had an Elder’s Quorum activity at the church. The Branch President asked me to teach them about the Word of Wisdom, and more specifically Pombe, or beer. I had them compare the benefits of drinking with following the Word of Wisdom, and how any benefit of drinking lasted a few hours, while the benefits of following the Word of Wisdom lasted forever. I felt the spirit strongly as I taught and I hope that it helped someone with their problem or drinking. On Sunday, I decided to attend Primary, because I love being with the kids of the ward, and I missed my days as a primary teacher before I came. It was amazing! Things are somewhat similar to in America but there are a lot of differences. One thing I thought was super cool was that whenever the teacher asked a question all the kids would stand up and yell “Teacher! Teacher!” while snapping there fingers to answer the question. Even though it got loud it was awesome to see how eager they were to learn and to answer questions. During Sacrament Meeting it hit me how much I really love this place, and I got a little sad thinking I will have to leave one day. Luckily I still have at least 5 months probably. :P Well those were the highlights from my week. I hope everyone is doing well. If you have any questions for me feel free to email me and I will answer them! Elder Janda Hey mom, It is always super tough to get back into a schedule after having a break, but it is nice to have a schedule as well. That is one thing I really love about my mission is keeping a planner for each day and having my day scheduled out. I am glad you and dad are doing better cause I don’t like to hear you are sick. Tell Sister Dawson if she is grossed out by that kind of stuff I will bring her a giant spider home. I will send a picture of it.  That is super nice of Dalee to drop Courtney off. She is definitely a super generous girl. It would be great if she is still around when I am back, but if not then all is good. I don’t really worry about it, I know that God has a plan. The goat was a lot of fun, but it was way gross watching it get killed. I am looking forward to cook for everyone when I get back though. Even though you will probably prefer something else. Ugali na ndengu is a really good dish I make. Ugali is just the corn flour and water that I made that one time, but the flour is a lot better for it here. And ndengu are these small green beans. I add onions and tomatoes and some spices to it. It is way good. It is a lot of fun learning Swahili but it is difficult for sure. I feel bad though, because I feel like I know more then my trainer sometimes and he seems to get frustrated by that but oh well. It is just because I study a lot, because I really want to learn a lot more by the time I am done training. There really aren’t any icky stories of bugs yet. There are flies and spiders all over our bathroom which is gross but that is it. We had quite a few meeting but it was good. We have not had any apostles yet, but I am hoping one will come eventually. They have before. Tell John I said congratulations! I love you mom, and am so grateful for everything you have done for me in my life! Elder Janda 10/15/13 Hey everyone! Another great week here in the hills. It was very short though, because we had ZTM, and there were Elders staying at our flat Monday through Friday. ZTM was super good though. We went over the Standards of Excellence for the mission, and it turns out that we are exceeding all of them! President emailed us and let us know that our companionship is leading the mission in numbers. And we are in one of the areas where it is most difficult to do so! We slaughtered our goat this week. Well we didnt slaughter it, we paid a member to do so. By paid I mean we gave him the intestines, head, and legs. It was good to have some fresh meat, and a nice meal. But I have started to make some new stuff every day. I make either rice or Ugali na Ndengu every night. The Ugali na ndengu is way good! Although this week was short we had a lot of great experiences. On Friday we taught the doctor in Kalongo. She is the one that speaks English super well. The spirit was super strong, and I committed her to baptism! She was the first person I have done so with. On Saturday we taught a lesson entirely in Swahili! Our native companion was on splits in another area, so it was rough! But I was impressed by how much I knew after only a few weeks of teaching myself. Yesterday was a super short day because someone from the mission came to give us pots and water filters, but we went to one of the members houses and they made us boiled potatoes and bananas. They were a weird kind of banana you had to cook, but it was way good. It was way filling too though. I was the only one to finish an entire bowl. We think the mama was trying to defeat us, and I will not be defeated haha. Here, a lot of the kids are scared of white people. Partly because elders in the past have chased them away and now they are scared. It made me mad at first because I love kids, but this week I was sitting outside, and this big group of kids came along, I went down and they were scared of me at first but eventually they were all coming up and giving me fistbumps and stuff. IT was awesome. It would be even better if I could understand what they were saying but oh well. And for my spiritual thought of the week, we had just finished emailing and gone back to the flat. I was sitting inside reading my bible, and I heard a goat yelling. We still had our goat at this point, so i went out to make sure it wasnt getting attacked by dogs. It was fine so I went inside, and a few seconds later I heard a goat yelling again, but it seemed closer. It was fine so I went back inside and for a third time I heard a goat yelling, but this time I was sure that it had to be the goat. So, I went outside and just stood there to wait to see if it yelled again. As I was standing up there a man ran up to me and told me that he was taught by a missionary a long time ago, but when that missionary left, the missionaries stopped coming. He told me that he wanted to be taught again. I realized that the sound of the goat was the spirit prompting me to go outside, as weird as that sounds. Had the spirit said, go stand outside, it would have been difficult for me to do, becuase it wouldnt really make sense. But because we had a goat, the spirit knew that I would go outside if I heard it yelling, and I would be there for that man to walk by and see me. Sorry if it doesnt make sense but it was definitely a cool experience. Well I hope everyone is doing great and I will talk to you next week! Elder Janda Hey mom! The cruise sounds like it was a lot of fun! we will definitely have to go on one when I get back! That is awesome that you have been listening to conference! I am really looking forward to being able to hear all of the talks and receive lots of spiritual revelation! That's hilarious that Clark called up Morgan! I knew they were going to be close to each other, so I was curious if they would ever see each other. Don't worry about me not having money, I was taken care of. My companion fed me and everything, it is just nice to be able to choose what I eat now. And no I don't really need anything. They have everything here I need to survive. I can eat the meat it is just super gamey so I don't really like that. In my other areas I will probably have more meat, and whenever I go to zone conference. There aren't really any problems with bugs. Dalee told me you were worried about the ticks but I was clean. They stay away from me, because they don't like my arm hair. It is kind of funny. And there are no mosquito's at this altitude so we are good. :) It was good to have all those elders here, but I was surprised. They talked a lot about movies back home, and a lot of them weren't appropriate movies. I usually just went into the other room though. It was a lot of fun having that many people to do stuff with though. Definitely stay healthy mom! I don't want you to get sick while I am all the way over here. I love you mom! Thanks for being so amazing! Love, Elder Janda

Oct. 9th, 2013

Hey mom! Another great week in Kilungu hills. I am going to stop writing the day by day emails unless that is what you guys want. The days are pretty similar each week so it would be repetitive. I am getting a lot more comfortable with everything each week and I am having more and more fun everyday. So, some cool experiences this week. We were able to give two blessings this week. I annointed them with the oil and then Elder Utonga gave them the blessing in Swahili. We gave one lady a blessing because she couldn't walk, and then we went back two days later and she was walking fine! The faith of the people here is amazing! The amazing thing is that neither of the people we gave blessings are members. They trust in God so much, it is truly a humbling thing to see. So I finally got money this week, so that is good. I can now buy my own food. I don't eat anything exciting though because I don't eat the meat, because it hangs at the butcher for a few days, and I would rather not get worms. So I usually eat eggs and toast for breakfast, and a big bowl of rice and guacamole for dinner. Avocados are super cheap here. You can get a huge one for like 20 cents. Yesterday we had one of the members make a ton of chapatis. They are just like thick tortillas. We gave them the flour and the oil and they made the food, so that was nice. Today I will do a lot of shopping, so from now on things should be real nice. Right now there are five elders at our flat and tomorrow there will be 8. Our zone leader Mulondo will be going home at the end of this transfer, so we bought a goat name supper and are going to slaughter it and cook it up for a goodbye feast. It should be a lot of fun. Right now it just chills outside our flat, and we feed it our leftovers and everything. Its gonna be kind of hard killing it now that we got so close. I struggled the first few weeks with being guided by the spirit, but an amazing thing happened this week. We were sitting in a lesson and it wasn't going too well. I was starting to feel like we should end it and have her review the stuff we were teaching and then go back later. Because I am so young I was nervous to make an executive decision like that, so I just went with it, but then my companion did exactly what I was prompted to do shortly after. It built my confidence that I can receive guidance from the spirit and be a better missionary because of that. Well, that is about it for this week. I am growing stronger and stronger every day, and I cant wait until I am done with my training and finally an official missionary. I love you all, and thanks for all the emails. Feel free to email me! It is great to hear from you all! Hey mom! I don't know how conference was, I won't listen to it until next week! but I am sure it was awesome! I hope your cruise was fun, and you got that break you needed! That is awesome that Emma got her call and to Africa pretty much! That is what I am talking about. It is really crazy how many sisters there are going into the field! It is good though because they can be better at it then men! So I got your letter last Wednesday! It got to Kenya sometime between when I first got here, so Sept. 18th, and last Tuesday, so Oct. 1. Sorry it doesnt really tell you how long it takes, but it does give a rough estimate. I am supposed to teach piano every week, but no one has shown up yet, so we will see if I ever end up actually teaching it. I love you mom! Thanks for always being so amazing! Elder Janda