First Transfer!!!

 I have some BIG news!!!  I am no longer going to be serving in Riruta. I am being transferred. I am going to Chulyu.(pronounced: CuLu)  I don’t know if you remember when we were at the dinner with that guy from Kenya and we were talking about places to go. We talked about Chulyu, how it is soooooo far out there in the bush, so it is going to be a real man vs wild trip :) oh and good news, because the people live miles apart we get bikes. :) but not the bikes that we think of. we get the good old Iron horse bikes :) so that will be..................fun. :) Chulyu is going to be crazy fun! just out there helping people build their houses out of mud :) its going to be great! :) But along with that news is some other, my comp and I are closing this area for Elders, now there will only be sister missionaries there. And that’s not really a good thing,  sorry to say that but its true.  When we told the people in the ward like the bishop and the mission leader, they were not too exited about it. They just said that the sisters have big shoes to fill. And that made me feel good :) so both of us are leaving. Like I said I am going to Chulyu and Elder Sumsion is going to Mombasa. I don’t really know much about my new comp. all I know is that his name is Elder Oten and he is from Nigeria and that he came to Kenya in the group after me. So new things are ahead. But I do have to say that saying goodbye to these people here was soooooooooooooooooooo HARD!!!!!! I have faith that everything will work out…. but with our investigators.. I just want to see all of them through to the end. And the members and I have gotten so close to each other! It is sad to go but I am looking forward to the next step. It’s all part of a mission so I just need to push forward with faith and love the next people just as much.

 No one here does the whole Thanksgiving thing. So you are going to have to eat extra just for me :) does that sound good ?:) plus on that day I will be on a super long bus ride to my new area. We got transfer news on Saturday and I leave this week on Thursday.  So not much is going to happen. But it will give me a lot of time to think about what I am thankful for :)

So it has rained like every day for the past week :) mostly at night. But we still have to deal with the mud, because that is what happens to the "roads" here. they turn into a soup that turns everything a nice brown :) there have been sometimes we would have to go fishing for our shoes. :) makes things fun :)

 Sorry I opened the Christmas package; the snowmen should have stopped me. :) but they didn’t. but thank you for the Frisbee and the cinnamon bears… sent from heaven :) I tried to make them last a long time but we all know what really happened :)

I was going to send a package home today, but it turns out that it would be over 10,000 KSH or over $100 so I don’t think I can send things home to you.  :( but I will try to send pics on a cd. that should work out ok.

T-Cakes:

I know I never want to forget about here so I bet it feels good to remember things :)

P-days here can be super fun or really boring. like we have gone and played games with other missionaries and also we got to see some cool things like snakes and animals and stuff. I have some pics that I want to send home. I am trying to make a CD or something. but when you have nothing to do they really suck. SO I got a dartboard. :) lol, it’s so cool! I am lucky to have got it too. :) but it will move around with me and help me stay in a good mood :)

I have learned that President B. will let us email family & friends as long as it doesn’t hurt the work, so if they want, let them send an email out :) or in that matter anyone in the ward or family friends :) I would love to hear from more people!

Well that is most of the news for this week :)
know that I love you!!!!!!!
Your son
Elder Hodges

This is an excerpt from an email I received from another MM after asking for information about the Chulyu area.

Dear Gaylin,
Our son Elder Ashtonn Jones has been serving in the Chulyu area for about 2 months he absolutely loves it there. I know when he was being assigned to his new area Pres.Broadbent told him that he was going to the promised land. Ashtonn has been very humbled by serving in Chuylu it's a very poor area the missionaries have an actual home with running water, electricity a refrigerator but no washer and dryer they wash their clothes by hand. But the other people in the village are not so fortunate. Ashtonn is a different person now and is very grateful for what he has. But I know that he has been truly blessed to be there he said in one letter that there is no where else that he would like to be. So they walk tons in fact he has already worn out a pair of shoes because they walk so much. They eat lots of fruits,rice,beans and he has even showed us some pictures of him killing his own dinner which consists of sheep and chickens but he said they only eat them about once a month because they aren't cheap. They have 4 branches there and the members are very helpful to the missionaries. They do a lot of service there Ashtonn has even helped build a home there and it only took one day. He is excited because there are a lot of members who want to be baptized. His favorite things in Chuylu are Mt. Kilimanjaro and the little kids that like to touch his skin all the time because some of them have never seen a white person before.  We hope that this has helped in some way let us know how your son is doing.

Sincerely,
Daneane Jones