or in English...
How are you? My name is Sister Thueson and we are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! Thank you very much! See you later!
I wish I could tell you how many times those words have come out of my moths... haha seriously I just walk around all day saying muli bwanji muli bwanji or if it is morning i'll say "masuka bwanji" or if it is evening I say "maswela banji!" and they always respond "dilibwino ka anu?" and then I saw "dilibwino zikomo!!" yeah... that happens
probably every minute of every day haha.
Welcome to Malawi... where everyone speaks Chichewa and broken English. but we are able to talk to most people, I've just really learned how to simplify my English!! Okay so for those of you who aren't my family and haven't heard... I'm in the Blantyre Malawi zone! Seriously it's the best zone. but it's been a pretty interesting
experience. My companion and I are white washing (which means neither of us have been in the area before) + we don't have an area book because our area wasn't assigned to a companionship before + i'm a greenie and I don't know anything + we have the biggest area, but the smallest branch in the zone. STRUGGLE IS REAL MY FRIENDS... but I'M HAPPY HAPPY. and we walk at least 10-15 miles a day.
Fun Facts about Malawi:
1. it's currently "winter" here... I'm sweating bullets and everyone is in like 3 sweaters. haha so I'm very interested to see the Summer.
2. I want to be an African woman in the next life. They seriously are walking up hills everyday with like 50 pounds of who knows what on their head, and a baby on their back. They are my idols. (Jane and Kari could do it)
3. Everyone is nice... and everyone will talk to you about Jesus Christ... seriously everyone, so we never really get doors slammed in our face (and because they don't really have strong doors to slam) But because they all talk to us, they get my hopes up that they're interested when they really aren't.
4. There are like 40 different religions and church buildings in just our area. And we're not allowed to proselyte near another church soo..... it kinda limits us.
5. Malawi was the poorest country in the world a little while ago, but they're making their way up I think:) The inflation is crazy here!! 1 US dollar = 465 Malawian Kwacha. They have a 1000 dollar bill, and my wallet is just packed with cash.
6. Blantyre = utah. ish. it has mountains and that's all I care about:) but that means that we are walking hills everyday. It's like a never ending hike haha. But I love hiking so it's great.
So there is a quick overview of Malawi. But I have lots more to tell you so buckle in:) oh and I'll break the news right now... I brought the wrong cord to the internet cafe so.... no pictures this week:( next week I promise.
MTC: So the MTC was great!! I forgot my journal as well, so I can't really remember a lot of details about the last week at the MTC, except that it was a great experience and I already miss all of the people from there!
Traveling to Zambia: So we had to wake up at 4 so that we could get to the airport, and we had one last goodbye with everyone, and the 5 of us got taken to the airport. 3 sisters and 2 elders! For some reason none of the African elders and sisters wanted to go to Malawi... they said it was too rural. like what? they're the ones from Africa and
they were the ones scared to go there... so it became the joke about who would get sent to Malawi. but the flight was good... dad the pilot was bad... very shaky take off and landing, and he turned too sharply in the air. BUT they did give us lunch for just a 2 hour flight...
Africa >>> US. and I had my very first macaroon... who would have that I would have my first macaroon flying from Joberg to Lusaka. But then we landed in the smallest airport ever... and we met the AP's and our mission president and his wife!! We got to the mission home and had some lunch and then the president talked to us for a while and same with the AP's. President Erickson is awesome, seriously the spirit was so strong while he was talking. He made a very interesting point about how we aren't here to "spread the gospel" because if that were the case then we would just go to every tiny village and we could baptize hundreds... but what good would that do? they have no chapel, no one to fellowship them, etc. We are here to establish a kingdom. We need to make center of strengths in the areas we are at.... we need to be full purpose missionaries. This work is not just about baptizing, it's about helping the less actives, the recent converts, the members, and strengthening the branch. We need to keep the end in mind when we are teaching, it's not just about seeing them in white at the baptismal font... it's about seeing them dressed in white making covenants in the temple. just food for thought. Then he told us where we would be
serving and who would be our companions. Sister Owusu-Afriyie and Elder Essilfie were staying in Lusaka, Sister Bingham and Elder Tema were heading to the Copperbelt, and i was going by myself to Malawi. We were all very happy about where we got picked to go:) Then we had one on one interviews with the President!
The STL's then came to pick us up and took me and sis. Bingham to their flat for the night. Sis. Bingham and I were able to talk for a long time and we just laughed about all the funny things that happened at the MTC** Seriously I really hope sis. bingham and I get to be in the same zone at some point... I already miss her, and I bet she is doing amazing in the Copperbelt:) We became so so close in just 2 weeks... ahhh she is just the best. The next day we flew to Lilongwe and had a 6 hour layover there... there were 5 of us traveling to Blantyre together and it was the longest 6 hours haha but then we finally got to Blantyre and got taken to our flat.
My Flat: There are 4 of us sisters in the flat. Me and my companion Sister Solomone, and then Sister Muthengi and sister Browning! Sister Browning has been in Blantyre her whole mission (8 months) and the rest of us are brand new. They are the best. We are all seriously sooo different but we get along great... we just listen and sing wicked
songs like 24/7. I guess the music rule isn't super strict... just anything uplifting:) since we have to be in by 5:30 we have a lot of time to be together, laughing about dumb things. it's just great:) My companion and I get along really well! She has been out 10 months and she has been in the Copperbelt her whole mission so neither of us know chichewa:) so it's a struggle but it's good! We have clean water in the kitchen of our flat, and then the bathroooms... no one really knows because it could randomly freak out at some point.
Our Area: so I briefly explained our area earlier. It contains Napiri, new napiri, Mt. Pleasant, Cholaclosa, Mandala, Queens, Waterboard, and probably some more but we don't know anything about it because we don't have an area book haha. So we don't have any lessons or investigators... we just contact all day long! wahoooo I just talk to
everyone I see. on Friday the ZL's took us around a bit to see our area and we met some people that they had been working with, which helped a little... but we don't know our way around the area so we don't really know how to get back to their houses hahahahaha. I was frantically trying to write notes down to remember but.... it didn't
work to great.
Teaching makes me happy: So I have a couple cool experiences about how God truly prepares people to hear the word of God. We have met 2 golden investigators while contacting (well... who knows if we'll see them again, but the first lesson went great) the first was William... we were just walking through the village/town/area/thing and his whole family was just outside so we just introduced ourselves and started talking. They had some time so we just sat down outside and started teaching. Then it started getting good... then he asked the golden question of "where do we go after we die?" My face just lit up and i couldn't stop smiling. helllooooo plan of salvation baby! so I whip
out my pamphlet and started teaching him.... and he liked it. he was a little confused with the 3 kingdoms but we left him with the pamphlet and he said he would read it with his family. MONEY. Then... later that day we started heading home, and for some reason we were kinda heading home early (I repented don't worry) but we were walking through town and this artist came up to us and asked if we were mormons... cha-ching. and he just kept walking with us, we got to know him a little bit and I told him that my brother was an Artist as well (thank you Steve) and he started asking us questions, and some how the Book of Mormon got brought up. I whipped one out and explained it briefly to him, and then he kept wanting to know more and more. So i taught him some random things (guided by the spirit of course) about the atonement, and about joseph smith. and then he asked about polygamy... ahhhh but i answered it by just saying we don't do it anymore and he was just like "oh that's great, I was just really
looking for the truth about that and you answered my question" halleluajh. he was money.
He left and gave us his number so we can teach him again. I get seriously so giddy after we teach a lesson... i don't know what's wrong with me. But my companion says it's contagious... so that's good!! The coolest part about teaching by the spirit, is literally I can't tell you what I said after I taught the lesson. I have no idea really what came out of my mouth, but I just talked and the Spirit filled my head with words. mission rocks.
Our Branch: So... we were soooo excited to go to church to meet the members of our branch so that we could use them while we were teaching and help strengthen them. I had to lead the music... and during the first song there were serioulsy only 10 people there. eish. I had to bear my testimony which was great, and then by the last song we probably had 50 people. Oh did I mention that we have a chapel?? It's beautiful. Everyone knows our church as "Top Mandala behind Indebank" don't ask... that's just how it is described. There are another set of elders in our branch, and then the Beals are working in the branch as well.
Funny stories: Here is the best part of the email:) soooo the kids here call white people "azungu" and so whenever they see me they say "azungu bo!" (bo means hi in chichewa) . but a lot of the kids are too scared to say anything directly to me, so you can just hear them whispering to eachother "azungu azungu azungu" it's hilarious... i'm
pretty much a celebrity. But you can only say "bo" to kids... because it would be disrespectful to say it to an adult, but when I say it to kids we always end up having a competition who can say it lower and who can say it longer... it's pretty funny.
another funny thing is that whenever I speak Chichewa to adults... they laugh at me half the time... maybe i'm saying something completely wrong, or maybe it's my accent I have no idea... but yeah there's that.
So at church we sing accapella unless we're in the chapel, and the conductor will always sing the first line by themselves and then go, "1, 2, 3, sing!!" I dunno why I find it funny.. but I do. Let's hope I never have to do that because i'm tone deaf.... eish.
Whenever I tell investigators that i'm not married they always get so confused, and always tell me that I should just get married to a Malawian.... hmmmmm ayi zikomo.
We didn't have power my first day.... welcome to Malawi!
I tried blow drying my hair.... and it exploded. never doing that again. Don't worry, i didn't get hurt.
Mosquitos are real. But Doxy seriously makes you invincible. but of course my mosquito net had holes in it, so I had to cover those with tape. But don't worry... the Beals brought me a new one today.
I already have a shoe tanline!!!!!! The sun is real here, and were walking in it for hours every day. once again... we walk A LOT.
THIS IS MY FAVORITE STORY SO IF YOU DON'T READ ANYTHING READ THIS ONE:
okay... so my companion and i were walking through the market one day and out of the blue everyone starts freaking out!! screaming, celebrating, giving each other high fives, running up and down the streets and it totally threw me off guard. I quickly figured out that two Malawian futbol teams were playing each other and that the Bullets had just scored and everyone at the market was listening to the game over their phones. So me, just trying to be the white tall girl fitting in with all the Africans, started running around giving everyone high fives and yelling and celebrating with all of these guys. And the people were getting so hyped that I was cheering for their team (at the time I had no idea what team was what... but i figured out later) it was hilarious and probably the highlight of my
week. Just try to picture me running through a tiny african market. yep hilarious. Turns out I was cheering for the Bullets... but I shouldn't have done that because they were playing the Wonders, and one of the recent converts in my area is on the Wonders and when i met him I told him that I would be his biggest fan.... so i accidentally lied. eish.
That's about all the funny stories I have for you all. at the end of everyday I sing "It's a great day to be alive" It's a country song. but yeah it really is a great day to be alive when you're serving the Lord in Malawi. Church is seriously true and I see lots of tiny miracles every day, I hope I answered many of your questions!! once again, I'm sorry for no pictures. but next week for sure:)
ndi ku ma ko ndani!!! (I love you!).
Sister Thueson:)
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