Wk 18 DTF Apr 24

Dan takes a minute and drops a line.  In this case, his Dad has been sick so he said, "I hope you feel better soon".  Always sending us his love.  But that's it for this week.  We figure he is holding the computer for his companion to type on it...Wrong!

Soo, right now he has a companion that is pretty amazing at sharing stories about the goings on in the mish.  I will post his letter here and got his mom's permission.

Elder Tucker also has a twin currently serving in South Africa - Capetown

Enjoy!

Apr 24

So this week was absolutely fantastic.  We didn't get much time to do missionary work because we had zone conference and interviews and the Kyulu elders came It was super fun. Also I got to see Elder Le Chem. again!! 

(There you go buddy.)  A couple of the elders had only been in Kyulu which is like the bushiest bush of all the bushes.  So when they arrived here they were like oh my gosh! People, cars, this is amazing! There is a white guy! Who isn't a missionary! It was quite funny for me, who has yet to serve in the bush. 

Anyways  here are some fun stories for you.... enjoy!

Story mosi: "Oh frick this mzungu can speak"

This was said by a matatu driver who tried to charge us more money than the locals.  So unlike Eldoret in Mombasa the Matatu price is not fixed, and it takes a lot to get a good price if you are two white guys.  You should never pay over seventy but they sometimes charge us like 150.  That's ksh by the way not dollars.  So we tell this condu we are going to Mtwapa, and he is like 150 so we are like " psh nope we will pay fifty! He get's mad, we say sixty he's chill."  We get to city mall which still about thirty bob from our destination, and this dude stops the matatu and is telling us to get out unless we pay fifty more.  What he didn't know I understood what he was saying to the driver so I was prepared.  I guess it was kinda funny to see a white guy totally ranting at this man in kiswahili and we ended up still having to pay ten more, but it was fun.  He was very angry he couldn't scam us.

Story mpili: Pizza!

So pizza here is crazy expensive; you can only get it in the big cities like Nairobi,Eldoret and Mombasa.  So the Kyulu elders don't spend any money on transport and other city stuff so they brought some cash to spend whilst in the city.  Elder Car.'s only request is that we buy pizza and go see the beach. We went to the beach to watch the sunrise one morning and it was beautiful!  I will share some pictures with y'all.  Alafu tuliende ku pata pizza and it was super funny because he had no clue which one he wanted so he is like " I don't care if it has cheese it's fine just make it huge!" It was a great night.

Zone conference was cool learned some stuff. Got told to do better on things, you know the usual.

Anyways have an amazing week! love you all! don't forget that when life gives you rotten mangos try to throw them at monkeys across the street.

Tutoanana badhai

Elder Tucker


Apr 17

Few subjects phrased as movie quotes" I'm not dead yet". Junior Companion to District Leader!" "I 'm melting, meltiiinnggg!"

Sorry for no letter last week, let me give you sum of last p day-(Monday)and tuesday.  Leave the flat at eight, arrive at bus station at nine, ride a bus to Nairobi for eight hours, get in a car for another hour to get to the Assistants flat. Stay there for a while, it is about seven pm stayed there til there till ten ish. Went to the mission home and stayed up all night talking to Elders C. B. and Elder T. cause we all had long bus rides Tuesday and wanted to sleep on the bus. Left mission home at seven, sat on a bus for twelve hours and made it to MOMBASA!!!  Then we were going back and forth between Bamburi area and Changamwe because, one of the Cahngamwe elders had yet to arrive and so we had double duty for a bit but now we are good.

Okay so little about my new area.  I am in Bamburi which is essentially the Beverly Hills of Kenya.  It is absolutely beautiful here. It's only 2 feet from the sun, I swear it is VERY HOT.  Our house (that is right we have a whole house for one companionship, is nicknamed "The Palace" however still no oven or washing machine, we do have a staircase though which is cool) is about a ten minute walk from the beach which would be super sick if we could swim, but hey still cool. If you walk the other way you end up in the jungle which is full of monkeys. ( even more proof I am the real tarzan)  The branch is super cool. I felt really uncomfortable though cause we had like fourteen white people.  I haven't seen that many white people in four months so it was hard to speak english and be normal so instead I bore my testimony in Swahili and all the africans were like "What the frick this white guy speaks swahili?!?!?" It was great. I was made district leader which was cool.  I got the subject quote from Elder C. ( it is in the "Best two years" and promised him I would put it in my email, but honestly it doesn't mean a whole lot. The only difference between a DL and a normal missionary is people report their Key indicators to me, vs me reporting to them. My comp's name is Elder F. he is from Texas, and he is super dope.  He has been here for three months so I mostly follow him around and talk to people. I am super excited to be here and work in Mombasa.

Couples stories from this week:

Number One 

Elder Tucker, do you like hills? This was a quote from an Elder in Changamwe, another area in Mombasa.  We were working over there for the day, and my response was.  Been a while since I have seen one but yeah man I like them.  Wrong answer.  The whole day Elder F and I are chasing this other elder while he walks with what he calls "gears" which essentially is walking like road runner.  He is hauling butt up and down and all around these hills in Changamwe, Elder F and I are lost, and sweating,and freaking out like there is no tomorrow cause if we can't see this guy, we don't get home tonight, cause Mombasa doesn't have roads.  We went up and down like five valleys and such all day, then tried to teach lessons in the middle of panting trying to catch our breath.  It was fun.  Sometimes missionary work is hard, sometimes scary, sometimes fun, and sometimes it is just plain HOT!

Number two

This morning I convinced Elder F. to go running with me * insert maniacal laugh* ( I will convert him to the ways of an endurance athlete) anyways, so I was like "hey man where should we run?" and he said "lets go to the beach!" So we ran to the beach then we ran like intervals from one side of the beach to another. When leaving I talked to a man who wanted me to buy a ebony key chain from him, at first he tried to screw me over but he quickly found out I was not a tourist and knew swahili, so he lowered his price quickly.  I will probably go back and get one some other day cause they were actually super sick. Morning run on the beach; Bucket list Check!

Anyways hope y'all have had a good couple weeks, shoot me an email if you want sometime, have fun! I will try to get a picture of some of the monkeys, but they are frickin fast.