Week 7 - July 13, 2020

Foreign mission in the states:)

JAMBO! Habari? (Hello!  How are you?)

I've officially started calling my mission a foreign mission in the states because dang.  There's so many things that I get to learn about the culture and language of these people.  I love it so so much. 

So, if you're wondering how my Swahili's going, it's actually going really well!  Not to brag, but I am already speaking better than the Elder who has been here for a transfer longer than me:) I love the language so much and want to just sit there and study it all day.  The hardest part is not having a place to start, and it's all up to me.  So, I'm doing the best I can to study the vocab I'll use most and the grammar. Eventually my vocab and understanding will build, which is awesome!  My favorite word right now is "labda" which means maybe/probably. 

Here are some fun things that happened this week. 

1. FOOD!  So, as you may have guessed, African food is very different from American food.  I see the craziest stuff. Luckily, I've learned how to describe my gluten free diet in Swahili so they don't get offended when I can't eat it, because a lot of the food isn't gluten free.  The craziest thing we got fed this week was fufu and fish.  But, the fish was not cleaned or cut at all.  It was a full on fish, head, eyes, fins, bones and all.  I attached a picture!  

Fufu is also just flour and water mixed together and tastes like bready playdoh.  I haven't eaten since it made me sick, but I'm not too mad about that haha. 

2. Moving Msafiri- There is a man named Msafiri, and he lived in this tiny apartment with his kids and grand kids.  On Friday, we helped him move.  We walked in to help and they were still cooking, nothing was packed, and they didn't have anything to put the stuff in.  It was crazy!  We got to work and helped them move all of their stuff in like three hours.  It was awesome.  The only thing that was sketchy was that their house was INFESTED with cockroaches.  And when I say infested, I mean infested.  We would open the cupboards and at least 20 crawled out of the food.  We also got one of the bags out of their closet and as soon as we set it on the ground, cockroaches swarmed out of the bag.  It was so gross!  They didn't seem to care though hahah.  Also, their bedroom had black mold CRAWLING UP THE WALLS.  It definitely was not safe to live there.  

I felt so bad for them. But, it really opens my eyes to how grateful I am for the life I've been able to lead and motivates me to help them even more. 

3. Swahili Hour!- We've started doing this thing where we only speak in Swahili from 9-10:30.  It's hard but it's amazing for learning the language!  It's super fun, actually. 

Here's my spiritual thought for the week.  It's from the Sermon On the Mount in the Bible.  I studied mostly the footnotes from the Bible and how it relates to the Book of Mormon.  I love how much the Book of Mormon and the Bible connect and support each other.  One of the footnotes is based on from Matthew 5:3, which reads "Blessed are the poor in Spirit: for they shall Inherit the kingdom of God."  It connects to the Savior teaching the Nephites in the Book of Mormon, but what he says there, is 3 Nephi 12:3, which reads, "Blessed are the poor in spirit who come unto me."  I love the clarification that we get from the Book of Mormon.  It teaches us that not only do we need to be humble and teachable, but we need to take action.  That's what faith is. Believing and then TAKING ACTION.  We shouldn't ever be stagnant! 

Anyways, it's been a great week!  Hope y'all are doing well!

Pictures of the Week

1. Hiking!

2. The sweet girls who drew all over my face with dry erase marker

3.  Llamas and sheep that live right by our house

Nakupenda KABISA! (love you lots!)

-Sister Copeland <3