"You know if you can sort of muscle your way past the gag reflex a lot of food options open up for you"-Rattatoui "I don't know what [he] just said"-Meet the Robinsons

I have been musceling my way through a lot of different foods as of late.   My comp wants me to try some kind of caterpillar.   That should be interesting.   With how many people here speak Shona and they talk so different from what I am used to that I feel like I miss a lot of what people say.   It is fun but it is difficult.   

Hey mom I finally got those letters you sent, like a month ago.   Turns out "Pouch" is a really appropriate name for the system out here.   They bring it to us with all of our mail in a great big pouch.   It is interesting, and was nice to receive those letters.   So in answer to your questions.   1.  Continue to send things to mission office, it is the safest most effective way to send things to me.   2. The memory card is in one of the boxes that I sent home(don't know which one).   3. It is cold at night, hot in the day, it is every dry currently, it is both green and brown, there are trees and desert, there are no mountains near me it is flat as can be.   4. Tell Dad that the meds bugged me a bit when I was on the plane, and I take them once a day everyday of my mission and for about a month afterwards.   5.Tell Mikayla I do have a toilet.  :)

This week was good.   We had an investigator family finally come to church, and they were originally found and taught about three months ago.   Which was great.   We had a visit from Elder Cook the Area President of the Quorume of the Seventy.   He was really cool, and we had training from President Cook.   We were told to put an emphasis on obedience and white hand book( it is really frustrating when the rest of the apartment doesn't listen) and to work on being great finders.   He reminded us that our loyalty is first to the Lord, then him, then our comps.   Which was nice, because it reminded me not to let my obedience slip, even when those around me do.   Then Elder Cook had a fireside on Marriage and family, which they are working to strengthen out here.   It was a good week, although we have had some ups and downs.

My comp is doing pretty good, but he has been sick for the past few days.   We gave him a blessing and I am sure that he will get better.   I don't have much to say about him today.

We read in the Book of James (and I am paraphrasing) that if anyone is sick to call for the elders, and they will anoint them with oil and bless them.   I love how it tells us how to perform blessings in the Bible.   

I know that the Priesthood is real.  I know that we can be blessed by the Priesthood, for it is the Power of God given to man.   I know it was restored to the Prophet Joseph Smith, and that is has blessed me and my family.

"Nymphs, they can't keep their hands off of me."

"Cool so its like a hotel for monsters?   Yean, a Hotel for Monsters, way to sum it up"

"Wow, surprise ending, my stories never end like that." 

     

Love you all.

"I love you Daddy" -Shrek Forever After "I hate spiders" -Madagascar

Hey Sorry no weekly letter last week, I had a maroongo activity with the other white people in my Zone.   The natives didn't want to go so they stayed behind.   Maroongo means "white-person" in Shona.   So yea I get called that a whole lot of the time.   It is kind of funny, kind of irritating.   But oh well.

We eat a lot of rice or sadza, a little protein and some veggies.   PB&J is my usual lunch.   There is a store but it is in town so it takes some getting to.   But they have a market around our area so we can get by.  

Happy (late) Fathers Day.  They do celebrate Fathers Day in Zim.   It was cute they had a primary presentation all about Fathers and their importance.   It made me miss daddy so much.  It feels weird that I have been out here that long.   Eight months today.   That is really interesting.   Any way I love you Daddy!!!!!   I really miss you and wish I could have been there yesterday.   I hope your day was great and that things went well.   Did you get anything good?

Okay on to mission stuff.

I had my first Baptism of my mission on Saturday!!!!!!!   It was a nine year old named Tamsonqa (don't bother trying to pronounce it you won't get it right) who's older brother is a member and often goes with us to lessons.   I got to Baptize him and it was great.   I loved it and it was an amazing experience for us both.   Yesterday he was confirmed a member and he received the gift of the Holy Ghost.   We have had a few ups and downs in our area, investigators who we can't find, investigators who live at their parents for convenience and their parents say that they don't have religious freedom in the house, power going out right when you really wanted it, and giant spiders in your wardrobe.   I hate the spiders.   They are big and they look like wolf-spiders, and they go really well with the bottom of a shoe.   I found a pretty big one in with my clothing last night, and safe to say I screamed when I saw it and proceeded to get a shoe and smash it.   Spiders 0 Elder Melot 1.   HAHAHAHAHAHA.

Elder Njuguna and I are doing great.  (Me and my comp are getting by).   I kind of figure if he wants to lose blessings for him and his family I will let him, but I will not let him do anything major.   I refuse.   I simply refuse.

 I am picking up more and more of the areas layout and Shona as the days go by.   I am making friends with members and investigators.   Elder Njuguna has a great sense of humor and he loves to have fun.   It is really cool being with him for the transfer.   We don't know if it will last much longer then that.   President Cook told all seven of us visa waiters when we came in to expect to be training soon.   So next transfer I could be separated from Elder Njuguna.   That would be sad, we have really become great friends.   He always gets cold like you Momma.   It is kind of funny.

We have bedding it is thick and warm.   It only gets cold once in a while and is warming up a little bit.   I was thinking of sending home things that President Cook said I probably wouldn't need, but I probably will just keep them.   I have not received any letters as of yet.   

"To often we assume that the people who are closest to us must know how much we love them.   We must never assume...   We will never regret the kind word or the loving action shown.   What we will regret is if these moments are not shown to those that mean the most to us."

-Thomas S Monson.

I know that a very big reason we were given the families that we have is because it allows us to learn how to love those around us and to be taken care of.   I know that families are some of the greatest blessings that Heavenly Father has given us and that without my family I would be nothing.   

Nicolas I love you so much; Jeremiah my mini me I love you and miss you; dear Mikayla I so miss you; Bryon I love you buddy, Kenji (even though I know you don't read this email) I love and miss you and wish I could hear from you; Rylee I love you; Momma I love you more then all the Marshmallows in the world, Daddy I miss you so much, and can't thank Heavenly Father enough for blessing me to have you in my life.

"There is no water in this air!"

"Now I'm gonna eat this, but I am highly offended by it.

Short and Sweet 6/9/14

Dear Momma, 

I have not received a letter as of yet.   I don't think the mail is very reliable.   I don't really know. Speaking of mail, where do I send a letter to Grandma Mc?   

I remember the game farm.   I think.   Is that where you feed the animals bread?   It will be fun, and you will love it.   We have a Baptism coming up and I will be doing the baptizing, probably.   That will be cool.

The children call me a Moroungo.   Which means white-guy.   Please tell Dad he wanted to know.   

I email from a computer Cafe thing where most of the missionaries in the area go to email.   It is a nice place with a lot of slow computers.   

I live in a house with another companionship.   It is COLD!   They don't have insulation here, so it gets bitterly cold at night.  Our food is okay.   Cereal in the morning Sadza and beef for lunch (see the picture)

 

which is very weird and usually we make our own dinner, but sometimes a member will feed us.   

My companion and I are getting along okay.   We have butted heads a bit over the importance of being obedient, but when the white hand book and the Prophet supports me I win every time.   So he is working on being obedient.  

 I am in a Ward.   Pretty small maybe 50-65 active members.   They are great members though.   They just love us missionaries.   

I don't get to use my music currently, almost half of our zone is training and so they have to have the DVD players.   I might look into a way to not have to use CD's for music but I don't know.   

I love you momma, I may try to find a way to send some things home, apparently a lot of what I brought wasn't really needed.

"I think he's trying to speak to me I just know it! Look you're really cute but I don't know what you're saying!"-Finding Nemo "It's like billions and billions of helicopters."-Madagascar

I am here in Zimbabwe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    Just wanted to say that one right off the bat.   I am learning Shona, the language of the people who live in the area that I serve in.   Not required by mission, in fact we try to teach in English, but it is hard to communicate with a lot of the people in English, so my Companion Elder Njuguna is teaching me.   I am beginning to pick it up, in bits and pieces but it will take a while before I am fluent.   You have never seen so many stars in your life.   Think of the farthest into the mountains you have gone, on the clearest of nights that you have looked up at the stars and thought "boy that is a lot of stars."   I am pretty sure that Africa has you beat, by a mile.   I have never seen so many stars in the sky, none of them which I recognize.   I think I might have seen Orion's Belt, but I wouldn't bet  on it.   

The people here are great.   Christian down to the last one of them, as far as I have met.   They are so kind and friendly, a little two kind and friendly in fact.   They will promise to do something because they don't want to make you mad by saying no, and then they wont do it.   But they will fess up to it next time you see them, which is interesting.   We have a nice chapel with a very nice fence around it.   Everything has fences or walls with spikes or glass shards on top, to keep people or animals out, I am not exactly sure which, so I just go with it.   I am serving in the Mkoba 2nd ward in the Gweru Zone.   With Elder Stimpson who was my room mate in the MTC in my District.   Which is really cool.   Lots of children here, they call me "white-y" and either stare and laugh at me or stare and then run away from me.   It is weird.   We ride around in vans called KOM-B's which are hugely over crowded and they drive worse then almost anyone in California, and I can say that since I was there.   It is not the best place to be six feet tall.

My Companion is Elder Njuguna, who is from Kenya.   He is a great guy and he is a good missionary.   We are living with two other missionaries, Elders Jakopo and Elder Seboka.   They have like the most fun in the world, they wrestle around like they are brothers fighting over the last cookie, and they are super nice.   Elder Njuguna has had me teach  lot of the lessons so that I can learn how to talk at a speed that the people can understand me, since I talk faster, apparently, then they are used to.   Which is fun, but also difficult for me, I feel like people don't understand me very well, and most the time I don't understand them.   I feel like Marlin getting ready to get out of the EAC.   But it is fun and I am learning it okay I guess.

I know that we are all Gods children.   It was interesting to see that the Church and Gospel really dosen't change when you go to another country or even continent.   You are always told growing that it doesn't but getting to see it for myself is another thing entirely.   I know that these people who I am working among are God's children as well as the rest of us.   I know that God loves all of us and that as we recognize His love we can be happy.   These people are so happy, even when it seems they have very little as far Worldly things go.   But they are happy, especially the members, because they know they are God's children.   And I know it two.   I know He lives and that He loves us.

Ma Swera Sei  (good afternoon.)

I love you all.

"I trained all those would be heros, Odisious, Persious, Thesious, a lot of ouses"

"Enormous wooden horse, two Greek!"

"What were you thinking?   I thought if I had an idea Eep would like me, plus I thought it would kill your mother."