Well this was quite the week we had out here in Kitale... ha.
Firstly. We were expecting to go to Eldoret just for one day to have interviews with Pres. Hicken. But that didnt happen. Instead, last second everything got changed around, so we just went south of the Equator to KISUMU! It was soo cool to go there. We were there from Tuesday to Thursday. We had some extra time while there, so me and Elder Dick got the chance to go out and around in Kisumu. We first went to Lake Victoria and checked it out, it was pretty cool but also pretty dirty, people go to it and wash their cars in it ha. After that we just walked around the town and just contacted people. And while we were walking around, all the sudden i look thru the gates of this compound and see some Zebras and impalas! I was like oh snap we got to get in there. Turns out it was it was the Impala sanctuary national park. So we walked around and enjoyed all the animals and the nice view of Lake Victoria. We went off roading a little and somehow got into the zebras area and got super close to them haha. Then! I knew that this place was notorious for people getting to pet cheetahs... so i found the closest worker and bargained big time to get into the cheetahs cage! 10 minutes and 300 shillings latter we found ourselves in there. It was way cool, the cheetahs were super cool and while we were petting them they were purring big time ha. Lesson learned, if your persistent enough, you can get anything! But really cool trip.
On Friday, we had a really great lesson with Odwor, Walter, and his family. Since Walter is now a recent convert, we are really focusing on getting his family to follow his example. But we had a really nice lesson about the Book of Mormon with all of them. The spirit was really strong and we felt pretty confident that all of them would start reading the Book of Mormon. One funny/kind of bad thing tho. So Walter lives really far from the church, and Odwor lives even farther away from him. So while we were talking to Odwor last week at church about where he stays, we got the impression that he lived past Walters place on the same road. So we thought it would be great for all of us to meet at Walters place, thinking it was a central point. We were waaaay wrong. We actually doubled Odwors travel.... he actually lived in the complete opposite direction. So instead of him traveling about 12 kilometers by bike, we made him go about 20 or so.... haha we felt sooo bad! But Odwor is such a positive happy guy, he was just happy to see us! So it all turned out great. Odwor is really a powerful guy and progressing really well.
Also this week, we had kind of a do or die lesson with one of our investigators, Elizabeth Njoroge. She is a sister to one of the members in the branch Bro Nd'ungu (his son was in my MTC group by the way). We have been teaching her for the past month or so. Every lesson we have had with her has been really powerful and spiritual, but when it comes to her coming to church she never comes. So we talked to her about how we love coming to see and visit with her, but we told her about our purpose as missionaries. We even had the branch president with us and he made a huge impact on the lesson as well. After the lesson, we were really unsure if she would come to church or not, but we had faith that she would. And she did!! It was soo cool seeing her come to church. A really big step for her. It was cool just seeing one person make a big step towards coming closer to Christ. For people here, going to church is a really big social thing (even more so than spiritual). So for someone to leave their initial church and to take a leap of faith towards what they have come to know to be true, its awesome to see! I'm really grateful that is preparing his children, even in the little ways, to receive the truth. Its upon us tho who already know the truth to reach out to those others who are still searching, and help them up.
Other than that a nice week. Had 9 less actives at church!!! WOW! 2 of which were Paul Muricho and his wife. We have been workin super super hard with this family (since i have been here) and have seen no progress. But i guess the spirit must have been working within them and they came! Soooo awesome!
But time is really flying and its crazy. Probably one of the fastest weeks of my whole life haha. But i love my time serving the Lord. One thing i picked up this week from reading the Book of Mormon was in 3 Nephi 6-7. It talks about how the Nephites and Lamanites of this time went from Righteousness, to complete wickedness in a very short period of time. But in Ch 6:14, and 7:21, it talks about the few people who did not fall away. In both scriptures it describes these people as being "converted unto the true faith" and "converted unto the Lord". This is why they did not fall away, even when things got tough and even while there was complete wickedness around them. It was because they were converted, having that sure knowledge of what they knew to be true. They had received a sure knowledge from the Holy Ghost (vs.21) and became "firm, and steadfast, and immovable, willing with all diligence to keep the commandment of the Lord" (vs14). This is why they did not fall, but stayed firm and true. We must all convert ourselves! And it comes through constant effort and time keeping the commandments, studying the scriptures, and praying for the strength to overcome.
LOVE YOU ALL!!
Kwahereni!
Elder Thomas
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