July 21, 2014

Another interesting week full of the spirit, surprises, and really weird things.  But hey that's Kenya for you.

As far as investigators go for us right now, we only have like 3 we are working with.  Just this past week, we have out of no where lost a lot of them.  A big problem we have is that we have a great first lesson with people, and then after that people just seem to disappear.  Its really frustrating because we can't meet people constantly.  Either people all of the sudden get super busy, or they hear some rumors about the church.  So its been frustrating with investigators, but we are really trying to work with those ones who seem to be serious right now.  Like this lady named Jane.  she just moved to Kitale from Kisii, and is still pretty new in the area.  We found her because of her brother tho. He is a member in Nairobi, and knew the church was in Kitale, so he found our number and called us and told us to visit his sister.  Huge blessing for us! She has come to church 2 weeks in a row now and brought her 2 little boys with her, so we are really happy to be working with her now.  Blessings of members being involved in the work! We visited that deaf guy again this week, only to find out that he will be going back home to his village soon, so wont be able to see him for a while, but hey seed planted. 

One cool thing this week was that we were using the Book of Mormon a ton! Mostly reading it with less active members.  It was a HUGE blessing! Wow every lesson where we did that with less active member the spirit was really strong and we could tell that it got to the people we were reading with.  One really cool lesson we had was with Mama Daisy.  She is less active big time.  But, on Saturday we saw her and she brought up a big concern that she had that was really bothering and worrying her.  So we talked to her about it and then turned to Alma 57, about the 2000 stripping warriors.  We especially read from vs 18-21 and 25-26 and discussed this part of the story.  We related it to us today, saying these young men were really in a bad situation, that they were about to get dominated by the Lammanites.  But, because of 3 main factors, being 1) exact obedience 2) having true good works  3) solid faith in God and his will,  they were able to experience ''the miraculous power of God''.  So the same is with us.  That God wants to help us, but we need to to all we can do before he can send divine help.  We have to use our agency for good first, then his divine intervention can be made.  After we shared this with her, she was like ''wow, this makes a lot of sense''. Ya it does, its because its true!! But huge blessing that the Book of Mormon is.  Guiding us to the answers that God needs us to know in order to return back to him.  Mama Daisy came to church the next day. 

So we have been visiting less actives a lot lately, but not seeing much success.  BUT! Sunday we had 10 less active members come to church! it was super awesome!!! All of them are people that we have been working with a lot, so it was cool to see them have that desire to come back to church and take of the sacrament.  We are going to visit all of these less actives and take advantage of the progress they are making and try to help them to make it a desire to come to church every week.  But man it was amazing to see so many less actives come!

So that's the spiritual awesomeness.  here is some other interesting stuff.

1) Got offered some drug by this guy on the street.  He was snorting it and it was all over his nose and mouth.  I declined.  But he was up in the clouds for sure. 

2) Got punched in the arm by a passing crazy man.  I didn't take offense to it, because the week before the same 6'4'' crazy man headbutted elder Dick.  So i was lucky!

3) During street boarding, 10 drunk guys came up and started helping us contact people.  ya it was interesting.

4) Saw 2 little kids during the week squat in the middle of a main path and well... do their business. Looks like corn has been the meal of choice lately.

But im loving my mission.  Its great to be in Kenya serving the Lord. Im grateful for this wonderful opportunity. 

LOVE YOU ALL!!
Mpaka wakati mwingine...Kwa hereni 

Elder Thomas

Typical kinyozi pictures.  A real Picasso or Rembrandt if you will.

July 14, 2014

Orriena,

Well there is a Kibukusu greeting for you ha.

This week.  First transfer news.... I will be staying in Kitale with Elder Dick again! So that is nice.

But really this week, nothing super interesting to report about.  Except in Sikhendu tho, we are starting to teach this deaf guy.  His name is Charles.  He stays at the institute called Prince of Peace, which is just a place for those deaf people and others who have similar disabilities.  The only way we can communicate is by writing things down on paper and just going back and forth like that. He also taught me how to do a few signs in Kenyan Sign language, just greetings, saying thank you, and also saying we are going.  It was pretty cool tho, he was a super cool guy.  I was with one of the members named David Kigalu from the branch, and he was just kind of like umm what is going on around here... he seemed kind of uncomfortable. But we both laughed about it after.  It was just really weird because the entire time we didn't say a thing. 

Also, on Saturday, we went out to Natiri to help out with the open house that the elders there were having.  It took us forever to get there though! It took 3 hours total to get there. Super long, but we were happy to help out there.  The open house turned out ok.  For Elder Dick and I, we went around the market there and did some contacting, and it was nice because it was market day so there were quite a few people.  But man, in Naitiri persecution against the church is really bad.  It used to be so bad that when missionaries there would try to buy stuff from shops, people would not give them anything, because they thought that the money would be cursed.... haha ya.  Things people believe.  But now its not as bad, but there were a good number of people who totally blew us off.  But we were able to find some potential people for those guys there.  It was great to be out there helping them with the rest of the zone, trying to get the work moving out there. 

Other than that not much else this week.  Rough Sunday, only had one investigator at church. But, whats great is that Walter is still doing great.  He loves coming to church and even brought his daughter this week.  So I'm happy that at least he is progressing well in the gospel.  YA!

Sorry not much else this week. But YAAAA for Emmy reading the Book of Mormon in 30 days!! That is super fast!! The Book of Mormon is a huge blessing that all of us can take advantage of.  All we have to do is read it and really look for things that we can apply to our lives.  Read it!!!   LOVE YOU ALL

Elder Thomas

Daniel just relaxing.  The Uganda border is on the other side of the river.

Daniel with Paul Muricho and his wife.  One of the less active members they are trying to reactivate.

Uganda

July 7, 2014

Another nice week here in Kitale!

Tuesday, we got to go one exchanges with the Elders in Naitiri, so for
me i stayed in Kitale with Elder Makazi.  He is a new missionary (only
been out 1 month) and he is from Mombasa.  He is a super guy! Really
humble and hard working. He was a huge help with teaching while we
went out tracting. Almost all the people we saw while I was with him
only spoke Swahili, so he was able to do a lot of teaching.  Also met
with this Seventh Day Adventist guy who was trying to give us a hard
time about which is the real day of worship.  I'm not going to lie but
we dominated him ha.  He was asking us all sorts of questions, but we
had the spirit with us and had answers to all of them.  We will visit
him again this week and really see how interested he is tho.  Also
with elder Makazi we set a bapt date with one of our investigators
Tony! Super cool guy.  First time we met him, we were getting to know
him and he said that he has been going from church to church looking
the truth.  And while he has been lookin he said that there has just
been ''a hole in his heart''.  So we took advantage of that and taught
about the Book of Mormon.  He was super interested and also accepted a
bapt date for August.  So im super excited to work with Tony!! Such a
cool guy.

On Friday we did our street boarding activity, and got a ton of help
from the members of the branch. We had the branch president, 2nd
councilor, and a priest age guy named Dismus.  Man, all of them were
really setting the example for us! This was the first time that Dismus
came with us (mind you he is 16), so i thought that maybe he would be
a little nervous at first with contacting people.  But he went strait
to work! All he asked us was ''how do i do this?'' We just told him to
introduce yourself, talk about the church/pamphlet, and ask if they
want to learn more.  Then he was off on his own contacting left and
right haha.  One thing i have really seen though is that Kenyans are
way more bold and open about religon, so they don't fear at all about
talking about it.  but it was a great experience.

After the Street boarding, we went to Bro Walters place for the first
time (prior, we had always been meeting/teaching at the church). He
lives FAR tho!! In a place called Rafiki. Two hour walk...  and he
always comes to church, never has missed.  But it was really cool to
see his place and be with his family.  He was super super excited for
us to see his home and be with his family. Even his wife was really
glad to have us over.  Before this time, his wife hate the church big
time.  No joke.  But after she came to the baptism, she has been super
interested ever since.  So we are planning on teaching her now, along
with some of her kids!! Even Walter talked to us after about how he
wants us to start visiting and teaching them. So we are really excited
to start teaching family and help bring them altogether by way of the
restored gospel. YA! Also walter got confirmed on sunday ;)

Also had a awesome lesson on Saturday in Kitale with this guy named
Bernard.  He has been wanting us to prove everything about our church
and the Book of Mormon thru the Bible.  So he had a ton of questions
for us, and elder Dick and I did a awesome job answering them. We had
an answer for everything he asked.  But just the thing that hit me
most was just really the need for all of us to just read the Book of
Mormon.  He had tons of questions, which was great, but all he really
had to do to get the answers to his questions was to just read and
then pray about the Book of Mormon.  Those with a real desire and the
faith to act will receive an answer.  Simple as that. But I'm really
grateful that i have been able to do this in my own life, and even
more grateful that i have received and answer for myself.

But a pretty great week.  Still really workin to get the Less active
members back to activity.

Today tho was a awesome P-Day.  Me and Elder Dick went to the boarder
of Kenya and Uganda.  Took an Hour and a half matatu ride on dirt road
to this place called Suam. Really cool! got some ugandan currency,
hung out in the market, and got a look at Uganda haha. It was really a
lot of fun.

But other than that things are great!!! Love you all!

Elder Thomas

PS also we are recieving transfer news tonight.  I have been in Kitale
for about 4 and a half months, so i think i will stay. but we will
see!