Friday, November 21, 2014

Baptisms, Transfers and Goodbyes

Powerful week! But super super busy!!

Monday was Elder Nyambitas last day.... so we got to go to his farewell dinner at the mission home.  It was nice.  Just crazy how fast time flies.

We also got transfer news, and I will be staying in Upper Hill and my new comp is Elder Harris! He is from Alpine UT, and has been out for about a year and a half.  So it will be cool to be with him.  And Elder Kisekka also got transfered to another area in Nairobi. 

Tuesday I was still with Elder Kisekka and we had a good day.  Mostly just contacted the whole day.  But it was cool we really made things fun.  We were contacting at Uhuru Park (which is a pretty famous public park), and elder Kisekka saw some white people sitting down on a bench and said hey lets go contact them! I was like ummm errrrr what?? I've never done that before! He persisted though... so we did hahaha! I was like how do I talk to these people?? It was kind of awkward..... but interesting.  They were from Germany, so ya they were Lutheran.  And they were not interested. It was an interesting experience..... but hey Africans are soo much better because they are willing to listen and learn! I'm grateful im in Kenya!

Wednesday was pretty crazy.... lots of driving around picking up elders from the airport and bus stages going back and forth all day! But at about 5 elder Harris came in so we picked him up from the bus stage, and after that drove the rest of the night around Nairobi helping transport missionaries around.  

Thursday.... a lot of the same.  Except a lot of the missionaries getting transfered around had to stay an extra day for some different things, so we were just trying to keep track of all of them.  One cool thing tho! We had to split to do some different things and teach a lesson, So elder Harris went with some other elders and I got to teach with Elder Tshongoyi!! We were in the MTC together and are really good friends.  Ha we hadn't seen each other in a year so it was cool to be back together.  We were able to teach Silas again.  He came to church last week but had a TON of questions about some things that he saw.  He is pretty accustom to Pentecostal churches... so lots of getting up and shouting hallelujah and other stuff like that.  So we taught him about how the church works, and how the gospel works.  How we should be reverent and how that leads the spirit to be with us and allows us to be better able to receive promptings from it.  He was very understanding and said that it made sense.  Of course it does, its the truth! But a nice lesson.  He is doing good, but he will be traveling soon upcountry.  

Saturday was ok, mostly just contacted the whole day but we did have a few good lessons.  

Sunday.... POWERFUL!! We had the baptisms for Nifred Vike and Kevin Juma!! It was soo nice and it went smoothly.  I baptized Nifred, and Kevin was baptized by his father Livingstone (who i love kabisa he is a superstar!). Both were smiling the whole time and were just super happy! It was really cool to see both of them progress and prepare for this day.  Now we just have to continue to work with the ward to help strengthen them and keep them active in the church and work towards continual conversion.  Powerful baptisms and im super happy for both of them!!! YA!

Also after the baptisms we were able to meet with Gerrald, one of our investigators.  He is super converted.  He has been taught everything and has a really good understanding of how the Gospel works.  He wanted to wait for his wife and kids to be taught, so they could all be baptized together, but he came to us and told us some concerns that they had, and told us that he would like to go ahead and be baptized and set the example for them.  He even said that eventually, he would like to move back to Kyambeke with his family so he could be closer to them and really help them to learn the gospel and accept it.  He is super powerful! So we are planning for the 14 Dec with him.  

Busy busy week though.  I've really been enjoying my Book of Mormon reading this week, from 1 Nephi.  Nephi is my hero! He really understood what was up.  But two scriptures that I read that meant a lot to me was firstly 1 Nephi15:24, when Nephi was answering Laman and Lemuels question about the rod of iron.  He told them about how it was the word of God, but i love how he goes on to explain more about it saying ''and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish, neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them''.  The part I think is most important is the need to ''hold fast unto it''.  There is a difference between holding fast and touching.  If we want that divine help and strength, we need to put for effort to really hold on and grasp the rod.  if we just touch the gospel from time to time, we will eventually fall away and become lost in the things of the world.  So its for us to increase our commitment to following Christ and His gospel in order to receive his divine grace and support.  
The other scripture, that really relates well to this is 1 Nephi 16:16, talking about the Liahona.  ''And we did follow the directions of the ball, which led us in the more fertile parts of the wilderness.'' If we want to find ourselves in the ''more fertile parts'' of the world or of our lives, we need to give heed to the guidance of the ''ball'', or the teachings of the Savior, found in the scriptures and in the words of modern day Prophets and Apostles.  It is the only way that we can successfully navigate our way through mortality and get back to Heavenly Fathers presence.  I'm grateful for the Book of Mormon and its teachings!!!

Time is flying to say the least.... but im loving my mission and Kenya!!! LOVE YOU ALL!!

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