What an adventure it has been for me! From
the emails I see that each of you had a pretty good week! As much as you
all look forward to Monday I do as well. I love hearing from you guys. I
finally got mike's email. I don't know why they weren't going through.
I'm happy for Jay that he is trying to get his license. I know he will
pass that test. I had a laugh from his picture last week. I'm glad he
shaved the goatee off haha. School has started! That feels weird to me.
I'm glad Kaylee likes her classes and that Dad you have found a great
goal and purpose for your students this year. Mom tell sister Goss and
her family thank you for the treat in the mtc. It was appreciated and I
had a good laugh when I opened the package of cheese balls. I wish I
could've been there for Sydney and Paige's farewell talks. I bet they
were amazing. They will both be awesome missionaries. My companion,
Elder Odhiambo, is a convert and was baptized at the age of 14. The
missionaries found him and taught him. His dad is a member and his mom
is now taking lessons. He has three sisters and no brothers. Only one
sister is not a member. He likes to eat and drink coke. Lots of coke. He
is a sprinter not a long distance running like me. We have gone a short
run once and plan on running like three times a week in the morning. He
plays rugby and is a strong guy. He's from africa and always says he is
a lion and I am a king so together we make the lion king hahah. They
have a store here that is like a mini version of macy's that we get our
food from so I have a lot of food from home that I can get. We don't
really eat at the members homes. We always eat at our apartment but I
have had some food that's from here. I had some fried fish that was
good. I also had this fruit called akies that is small like a grape with
a pit and you suck on it. It was interesting. The island is gorgeous.
It is also very dirty. The people are amazing but their circumstances
are quite humble. It amazes me how they live and are still so happy.
They remind me of the people on cool runnings and the other side of
heaven. It's been so awesome to work with them. They are so accepting to
listening to us. I haven't had much experience with rejection out here.
They are so humble and believe in God. They are poor and don't have
much but still are happy. They don't complain. It has taught me a lot.
Back home it's like a paradise and yet sometimes we can still be so
ungrateful. My apartment is humble and yet still nicer than a lot of the
people's homes. In our apartment it is only air conditioned in the
bedroom so while we study and plan and stuff in can get really hot. I
often end up going in the bedroom to study haha. The temp outside isn't
bad because of the breeze that is there. It feels nicer outside than in
the apartment. The best part of my day is when we go out and work with
people. It brings me great joy. We are able to listen to a lot of great
music in the apartment which is awesome too. It kinda feels like a farm
out here because they have animals everywhere. There are dogs wandering
the streets all the time but they aren't scary at all which I'm glad
about. They are timid stray dogs. They also have goats, pigs, horses,
frogs, cats, bulls or cows, and lots of bugs. Yesterday I found a couple
of huge roaches in the apartment....ahhh haha they're harmless though.
The mosquitoes aren't as bad as I thought. Only at night do they get
annoying. Nothing really too bad. For travel we walk a lot but there is
also a fun transportation system to get us from area to area. They use
"buses" or vans and they drive on the left side of the road!!!. It was
an adjustment to get used to it. They have small roads and there are
some crazy drivers here haha. In certain areas is hard to get a bus and
one of those days was the day of the baptism of shantel. We were far
away at a teaching appointment and only had a short time to get back in
time for the baptism. We got a ride from some people but then had to get
dropped off because we were going on a different route. It started
pouring on us and so we started running downhill for a least a mile to
the next bus area and were finally able to make it to the church for the
baptism. The baptism of shantel was great. It was such a cool
experience. Not just because of the baptism but seeing shantel before
during and after being baptized. She progressed well while teaching her
and then after the baptism she was talking to me and asked can we do
that again tomorrow. She was really happy. It was also cool to be able
to do it in the ocean. The Smith's from PG were there and we had a good
time with them. I'm learning a lot about the basics of the gospel and my
understanding has grown immensely. I feel like I'm becoming a good
missionary and the tools given like preach my gospel are helping a ton.
PMG is inspired. I'm learning how to really love the people here. I've
felt a lot of love for them from the beginning but it's growing. We are
teaching a lot of lessons and finding good people. We teach everyone
members, investigators, recent converts, and less actives. It's so fun.
I'll write next week about the different people we are teaching. For
pictures it is too hard to send them all with the limited resources I
have and it takes a lot of time to even send a few so I thought of a way
that I could get you guys the pictures. If you could send me some flash
drives in the mail I could download all of them and send them back. If
you send quite a few I can continue to send them every few weeks or so.
Right now I have like over 300 so this is the only way I can think of. I
don't want to lose them and would like you guys to see all of them. If
you send it in an envelope and do something to protect the flash drives I
think it will work really well. Then I can delete the photos I have and
take more. It will take a few weeks I think for you to send them to me
and then to get back to you but it will be worth it. Anyway I'll talk to
you all next week! I love each of you so much! I know this church is
true!
With much love,
Elder King
