June 30, 2014

FIRST.  HAPPY BDAY MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE YOU MOM YOU ARE THE BEST!!

So this week has probably been one of my best weeks in Kitale so far!

This week we had MLC (missionary leadership council) with President Hicken in Eldoret.  It was a lot of fun and a great experience.  On Tuesday we drove from Kitale to Eldoret, and had some extra time so we all got to play soccer together.  I have to say soccer has become one of my favorite sports now.  So I'm excited to get back and play with Emmy!! haha.  But on Wednesday we had the meeting with President Hicken.  We just discussed things that we need to teach our zones about, that will help the work to progress a lot better.  The 5 topics 1). Overcoming pride/ selfishness 2). How to budget your funds 3). Learning how to solve your own problems 4). Racism (unfortunately) 5). Getting over negative feelings about areas.  Some of these have become  a problem in the mission, and President Hicken wants us to help solve them.  But all of these i feel like are life long skills.  One thing i like about president Hicken, is that he is really trying to help us a lot as missionaries, but also that he is teaching us life long lessons and skills.  Also after the meeting, we got PIZZA! ya.

Also this week, we got a ton of help from the members.  So every week, we go out to Sikhendu twice a week.  And both times we went this week, we got to go on splits so we were able to get a lot more work done.  We mostly visit less active members there.  Apparently there used to be 600 members there.  But only 40 come to church every week... haha so not sure what's goin on.  But we are working on it! Also contacting a lot there looking for people to teach. 

The big thing tho this week was on sunday.... BAPTISM! This week we had the baptism for Walter Kone.  He is such a great guy, who has gone through a lot.  He first heard about the church in 2009, and became really interested in learning more, but could never find the church.  Since then, he has been going on the internet, looking up information about it.  Then 2 months ago we found him on the street and contacted him.  Since then he has come to church every week (by the way he walks 2 hours to get there). but has had a lot persecution coming his way.  A lot of his friends have been saying a lot of negative things to him about the church, and even his wife has been giving him a tough time.  She didn't want him to come, but he told her that he knew the church was true. For while, she would not talk to him if she saw him reading the Book of Mormon and was totally against everything he did.  But overtime she really softened up to the church because she saw how Walter was changing.  Even on Sunday, she agreed to come to the Baptism! It was great to have her there and the members did a good job of fellow shipping her.  It was a great service though, Walter asked me to perform the ordinance and it was a really wonderful experience.  After the baptism he got to bear his testimony and bore a great testimony.  I'm really grateful for the opportunity i have had to help out Walter come unto Christ and look forward to continuing workin with him.  Such a powerful guy, truly converted!

But other than that things are great! Elder Dick and I did a 2 hour presentation of the "Work of Salvation" dvd in Kitale branch for combined 5 Sunday. It was great, and a lot of members came up to us after and said that they had an increased desire to do missionary work.  So that was great! 

Have a great week!  LOVE YOU ALL!

Elder THOMAS

PS happy 4th of July.  and if you already didn't know that holiday is not recognized in Kenya ;(