New Companion - Elder Dimingu

Famalia,

So this past week was good, a lot happened so it was pretty crazy.

So for the first half of the week i was still with the Zone Leaders in Mtito Andei, which was good.  They are in a tough area with a lot of persecution against the church. The most common thing that people usually say is that we are either the devil worshiper church, or the church of "more money".... not sure how either of those got about but both are very very ridiculous!  I'm used to the devil worshiper one (just because that one is all around Kenya) but the "more money" one is pretty signature to here in Chyulu. People say that because the Kiswahili translation of the Book of Mormon is called "Kitabu cha Mormoni". So people hear that and they think oh, its the church of more money, they get Mormoni and more money confused... so people go around saying that we are the church of more money, so if you want money come to that church.... so ridiculous!! ahhh its annoying that people say this stuff and actually believe it. So with them, we mostly just did contacting, just letting people know what our church actually is. We also went knocking on peoples doors!!!! hahaha a first for me!! We mostly just contact people in the streets just (just because that's were most people can be found), but in Mtito, there are compounds and houses were you can knock on doors (unlike Darajani). But it was cool to do that.

But also this week i got my new companion, Elder Dimingu! and he is actually not from South Africa, but from Harare, Zimbabwe. He is a super super humble guy. He is a little quiet, but a hard worker which is great! He has been on mission for 18 months, so he will be a big help.  Also one thing about elder Dimingu is that he is VERY short and stocky... VERY. hahah.

But good things are happening here in Darajani! President Hicken and also the District president here want Chyulu to become a stake. So they are really pushing getting the Less active priesthood holders back to church. But this Sunday, it was awesome to see the branches pull together and offer us missionaries help to find these less actives. We got about 25 names of less active members to visit!!  and the branches were great because they offered to set up days were they could come with us and visit those members, which is super awesome!! Its been great working with the branch presidencies and having their support with helping us with the work.  members make a huge difference!!!

But the work is getting better here. We are getting a lot of referrals from members. Only problem is that most of these investigators that we have are really good, but they are constantly moving around Kenya, mostly for school. But its ok because maybe all we need to do is just plant that seed for now. But we had a super awesome lesson with one of our new investigators, Dorkus. She is the sister of one of the members and is really nice. She had a lot of questions  about the plan of salvation, which was soooo awesome!!  i love teaching about the plan of salvation!!   so we helped her to better understand where we go after we die, she was a little confused on what happens after death. But I'm so grateful for the plan of salvation, it truly gives our lives purpose and direction. its true!!!!!

We are still trying to prepare Cosmas for baptism, but might have to push it back a week, he was gone at a funeral this entire past week so we couldn't meet with him. 

Also in other random news i got to go to my first Kenyan funeral this week... and lets just say that it was very interesting.  We wanted to meet with one of the members, and once we got to here house we found that she wasn't there. So we called her and she said that she wasn't there, but was at a funeral close by, and said that we were invited. So we were like what the heck... but anyways we went. And it was weird because it felt more like a party than a funeral... people were dressed in colorful cloths, people were singing and dancing, and it just seemed like a social event. it was pretty weird. But one thing is that if you go to a funeral here in Kenya, you HAVE TO BE FED!! ha so i got sooo much food! ha githeri, rice, and mutombo (intestine...) ha so it was a pretty weird thing. everybody was looking at me as usual haha.

But things are good here in Kenya. i love you all!!!!

Mzee Thomas