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!