Jambo!
This week was so fun, but also stressful (like most weeks here).
This week I wanted to talk a little about the language barrier between African immigrants and the American communities they live in. I've been here for a while now and I've been amazed at what the church does for people. Spiritually, but also with physical needs.
I didn't know what Deseret Industries was until I came to Idaho because there are none in Wisconsin. But it's a thrift store chain that the church runs where refugees and low income people can work who don't speak English WHILE getting English lessons so that they can later get a higher paying job that requires English skills later.
Anyways, we went there the other day to get some clothes, and we saw so many of our Swahili church members and friends working in the back! It was fun to say hi to everyone!!
We had a baptism for our friend Winnie yesterday! It was great to see all of our hard work pay off, and of course all of her work. She loves to listen to the Bible and Book of Mormon verses we send her everyday. She can't read, so we record voice messages for her. But, she has an incredible memory, because when we ask her her favorite part, she can just recite the verses she liked almost word for word. She's so COOOL!!!!
This is the situation with many many of the people we teach here, they don't know how to read or write unless they are under 30 basically. So even if they wanted to learn English, there are so many barriers. You can't just get a textbook for Swahili to English, cause they can't read in either language.
You can't do classes downtown for immigrants to learn English because that would require transportation which they don't have. If they tried to take a bus, they couldn't read the stops or the schedule.
And even if they could read, they use a different time system than then the west! I actually think it makes infinity much more sense than our clock that randomly starts in the middle of the night. Since they are close to the equator, their days stay the same length. The sun rises and sets at the same time all year. Their day starts at sunrise at 6am. As I am writing this email, it is 11am. So in Swahili time, it would be the 5th hour of the morning. Saa tano ya asubuhi.
I'd say 3 quarters of our African friends use Swahili time, but then there's the rest of them that use French time because they're from the French part of Congo. I don't know French time yet, I just know that it is very complicated 
So yeah, I don't think people understand that some immigrants can't just "learn English" even if they have a desire to and even if they live in a big city like Boise.
It's been so rewarding to translate for our friends' job interviews and help them fill out government forms and get food. But it is also terrifying to think that if we weren't here doing this, it wouldn't be done!
For language study I started translating the Book of Mormon into Swahili. That's actually been so helpful for being able to make sentences. I'm really good at understanding people when they speak but it's still a struggle to speak myself. Ni sio rahisi (It's not easy). Obviously the Book of Mormon is already translated into Swahili, so this is purely for language practice.
Spiritual thought:
I have found a love for the Book of Enos this week while in an amazing lesson with our friend, Hamisi. It's a story about a man named Enos who goes and prays for forgiveness for his sins. I love verse 5 , it says "And there came a voice unto me, saying: Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed". When we pray for forgiveness we are not ONLY forgiven, but ALSO we are blessed, and I think that's so cool.
Those are my deep thoughts for the week. Here are some pictures!
A member gave some food to us to take home which was so so generous of her. It was really good. I am getting less picky with what my food looks like. 10/10 would not have eaten this 4 months ago.
Here is a video of how to eat the ugali and samaki.
Us with our beautiful friend, Winnie, and the lady who drives her family to church every Sunday.
Us making our weekly 5 loaves of banana bread for our friends
And then, of course, what we do with the banana bread!
