Another week, I hope you all had a great Easter Sunday
along with a great week. It really is important to remember the meaning
of Easter and what it means for us rather than the candy that may be
tied in with the day.
Seems as if I hit my 6 month mark from leaving Oregon for my mission last week- time fliiiiies.
Well I'm back in Tanzania- I was transferred on Tuesday to Arusha. I'm about to learn Swahili fast, being indulged like this.
Just kidding. There wasn't any transfer news for my companion or
myself, but both Elders in Kilili were transferred so there are no
Elders there currently for this transfer. Now there are only 4 of us in
the whole zone.. just like when I was in Mwanza. Kilungu and Mwanza
zones are the 2 smallest ones in the mission.
Yesterday at Church we were able to watch both Saturday
sessions of General Conference which was super nice. Pretty blunt on
morality topics towards the rising generation- which is the best way to
put things.
It was nice seeing conference close to after it happened- as we
didn't have to wait for it to be translated into Swahili like they do in
Tanzania. In Nairobi they loaded it onto a flash drive and sent it out
here.
Since all the boarding schools don't start til the 5th of May there
are still lots of youth in the area with not much to do except work in
the shamba and hangout with friends so we are organizing a soccer game
for this Saturday which should be fun and an opportunity to meet people.
Speaking of youth being out of school- one of their
families we taught twice before their kid came back. The family told me
they have a deaf son and said he knows sign language, but the family
does not so they have to gesture to communicate with him. Now that he is
back, my companion and I were walking on the road and met a group of
people and it turned out one of them was him. I was able to sign with
him just a bit. With my 3 years of sign language class in high school it
seems I have forgotten a lot of it. Maybe it was just me somewhat
similar to being 'star struck' and not knowing what to say.
Anyways,we had a short convo and hopefully we will be able to meet with
all of the family this week and I will be able to translate the
lesson for him that we are teaching- even if it is a lot of
finger-spelling because I don't know many gospel related signs, and the
differences between Kenyan sign language and American sign language..
This past Friday
we met a guy in the market who introduced himself as a member in Athi
River (close to Nairobi) and was visiting his girlfriend's family for
Easter weekend. Great family- they have us over just about every Monday
night for Family Home Evening. After some conversing, I found out he
served a mission 2008-2010. I asked where and he said Durban. I asked
his areas and he mentioned that his first area was Pinetown/New Germany
which is where I served while I was there! That was cool talking about
the area and having a flashback looking through my journal that
night for members' names. Then talked to him again at church, and found
out that he and his companion found a guy named Michael, made a return
appointment with him, went to his house and started teaching him and his
family. Eventually he was transferred, and later in his mission after
following up with other missionaries he found out they accepted to be
baptized. The best part- it turns out, while I was there, Michael was
married for all time and eternity to his wife in the Johannesburg
Temple. That was cool to share with him.
In other news- some may be surprised to know that I ate
Avocados this week- now that mango season is finished, avocado season is
here with too many huge avocados.
Two
questions I received to answer for today- How many people there don't
speak English or Swahili? Very few that we have met don't speak Swahili,
and if they do only speak the tribal language of KiKamba they are
older. Adults that don't know us like to greet us using 2 Kamba
greetings- both of which we know the Kamba reply to, so they are all
shocked when we hit them back with the reply then ask them the other
greeting.
How many not African people are there? Here in the Hills: a grand
total count of 0. In Nairobi you can see them here and there, in
Machakos I've seen one. People are sometimes surprised/shocked to see me
and my companion when we are out and about since we are both white.
In answer to a few questions I have got in mail
and Dear Elders, here are the responses (with a few repeats from emails prior) ... sleeping in a net is fine, it
might be weird going home and not sleeping in one; my companion's name is
Elder Beacom, he is from East London South Africa right by the beach-
one of the most southern parts of the continent; I am the junior comp as
of now; I never have problems sleeping because of how much we walk and
all the hills; haven't had any problems with dry skin/sunburns at all and
I haven't had to wear sunscreen at all which is really nice.
6 months of the best 2 years is already finished- a bit crazy to think about. I'll be home in no time.
Have a greaaaaaaat week wherever you may be and whatever may be going on.
Love Elder Eveson
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| Check out the Size of these Avocados! |
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| Elder Mutie and his girlfriend. Elder Mutie served his Mission in Durban. Small world! |
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| Stick of Sugar Cane from outside our flat |
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