Swahili Slang!

 Jambo! (Hello!)

It's less than 3 weeks until I'll be in Idaho, and done with the Missionary Training Center. 

    I've realized this week that the gift of tongues is real. It's wild to me how fast I'm learning Swahili.  We've only been doing language classes for a week, and yesterday we had our first conversation with a native Congan. He immigrated to Iowa ten something years ago, I think he was telling us the story of how, but I couldn't understand any of it unfortunatly.

     BUT we did manage to ask his name, where he's from, how his breakfast was, what he likes to do, how his family is, and we shared our testiminies of God and Christ in Swahili, and ended with a prayer. So I think that's a huge win. He was so sweet. I think he sensed that we were very nervous, so one of the sentances that I did understand was "Don't be anxious, you have God with you." AWWWWWW!

This week was mostly focused academically on Swahili, but also much of it was figuring out ways to use slang. We're not supposed to use slang because it's very unprofessional. But we have a loophole where if we translate the slang words into Swahili, then it's ok, because we're learning.

Here's a list of words and their appropriate usage:

Acha fujo (stop the chaos): this was the first one to be used. One of our teachers said that it was a common phrase used by parents when a kid says a bad word. We like to yell it when someone says a slang word in English.

Acha kupiga kelele (stop making sounds): can be used when people are being too noise or just annoying in general.

Ufunguo wa chini (lowkey or "key of the lower"): as in "ufunguo wa chini, the chocolate pie today was actually so good."

Wewe ni pacha wangu (you are my twin): can be used as a greeting or as a "me also" statement.

Mwongo!! (Liar!!): can be used anytime you feel like it. Very useful phrase. Usually yelled or at least loudly spoken at a person while pointing.

Kweli Saaaaaaaana (sooooooo true): used as a statement instead of "facts" or "for real" etc.

Amina! (Amen!): we were learning how to pray this week, and amina sounds so much more fun than just amen. so now we use it in everyday conversation.

Honorable mention: Ng'ombe. This word is so weird but fun to pronounce. It's translation is cow, but we just randomly say it whenever for just for fun.

Sorry there are not many pictures this week. (I didn't use my camera as much unfortunately.)

Where my companion and I do our morning scriptures study session:

Our morning view every day as we walk to class:

Flowers at the temple:

Spiritual thought:

This week we really worked hard on the "Missionary Purpose", because we memorized all of it in Swahili in just one day. (My brain hurt so bad that day! lol)  But I really like the wording of it and the emphasis on helping others to come unto Christ.

"Invite others to come unto Christ through helping them receive the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end."

Anyways, I hope you have an awesome week!

Sister McMullin