Transferred to Kitale

Crazy week......... wow.

So to start we received transfer news this week.  I thought for sure that i would stay in Mautuma because i haven't really been here that long... but the Lord has other plans for me now! President Hicken called me Sunday night and said that i am going to Kitale! So I'm still in the same zone, but now i am also a Zone leader here with Elder Maduna from South Africa.  That was a real surprise but hey its all according to the will of the Lord, so its all good!

Even the entire week was pretty crazy and just interesting. Has to be one of the strangest weeks probably of my mission... and also life.  I think people were taking crazy pills around here.  But none the less we got a ton of work done!

One Tuesday we went on exchanges, so i went with elder Simcock. Me and him are really good friends, we were transferred together to Chyulu and also out here to Kitale zone.  But unfortunately he got sick so we weren't able to really see anyone at all... so we were mostly just at the flat. That kinda stunk.  And then it became difficult to exchange back, so elder Griffiths and Maduna had to come all the way to us  to exchange back.  So the exchange was a bust, but not much to do about it. 

So one of the things that we decide this past week as a  zone was to get 100 member present lessons total! we have 4 companionship's, so all of us had to get at least 25 each!   So me and Elder Griffiths put the pedal to the metal and worked kabisa!  We got a ton of help from the members as well! At all of our lessons we had a member there to help teach us.  The members of Mautuma are soo awesome.  They are super willing to help and love seeing new people come to church.  Its a great attitude that they have about the work and it really helps me to work harder to help the branch grow and become better.  Satan was trying to hinder the work by sabotaging my mountain bike! But no worries one of the members, actually our land lord Bro Busolo, lent us his Indian made iron horse bike!! I was sooo excited! Haven't ridden one of those bad boys since chyulu. But the hills did dominate me haha. None the less the work continued on! We were able to get 35 member present lessons in Mautuma and the zone got 107 total!!

We were able to split again on Saturday and really taught a ton of lessons. We have a super super awesome Investigator now, Josiah! Man he is one truly prepared of the Lord.  We have really been struggling to get serious investigators lately. But the Lord has blessed us with Josiah.  He is 25 yrs old and is a great friend to Bro Daniel from the branch.  He is really loving the  Book of Mormon, and has already prayed and received and answer that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God!! I was sooo happy when he told us that! Just shows how really motivated he really is to find the truth, because we did not even tell him to pray about that, he did it on his own.. ohhh yeeeeaah!! Really wish i could continue to teach him, such a cool guy.

But ya a lot of crazy things happened this past week! I'm excited to get to work in Kitale and help the people there to find the truth and come closer to Christ. I know without a doubt that this is truly the church of Jesus Christ.  We truly have his authority and the fullness of his gospel.  What a blessing that it is for us as members, that we don't have to worry about being lost in this world looking for the truth.

But i love you all!! Have a great week and CTR!!!

Elder Thomas

Another Amazing Week

Another awesome week out here in Mautuma!

This week we got a lot done with the work.  It was awesome this week because EVERY lesson and visit we had, we had a member present to help us to teach! Its pretty amazing how much help we are getting from members.  The members out here really are trying to step up in the work.  They are really starting to see this as their work, and that we as missionaries are just here to assist them in doing the work, just in teaching and baptizing.  But they are the ones who should be doing most of the work, like retention and finding people to teach and giving referrals.  We have a lot more people we are teaching now because the members are more involved.  Even we got an awesome referral from our first councilor, which is a family!! It is super difficult to teach families in Kenya.  A lot of the time the Husband and wife live in different places, like one lives in Nairobi for work while the other stays at their home area.  But now we have a family to teach! The husband is Hudson, and his two sons Brandon and Dixon came to church which was awesome.  Unfortunate the wife didn't come.  That's another common problem.  Its like a cultural thing where someone always has to stay at the house... so they alternate coming to church. Which really isn't that good... but at least we have something to work with! But the work is really picking up right now which is awesome!

But this week we did run into a big problem... my bike is finished! ha just that the front rim like completely broke in half.  it was kind of bad.  Like metal parts were sticking out and stuff but i don't know it was a definite safety hazard.  but nothing bad happened to me.  It made it a lot more difficult to get work done, just because we had to walk a lot more, but every thing seemed to work out pretty well.  Its been a long time since i have walked so much hahah just like back in my days in Rongai! So my legs were sore... but the Lord gave me strength enough to do his will!

But we did have a pretty cool experience this week with visiting on of the less active members, Akman.  He was really active for a long time but within the past 3 months he hadn't been coming.  We have tried to see him for a long time but has always been out, but luckily we were able to find him this week.  So we went out to see him and had a good lesson with him and asked him if he needed any help with anything. He said that he was ok with everything, but then went on to tell us why he had been not coming for a while.  He said that he really got offended by someone in the branch, and that the person really said some bad stuff to him about something that he did out of a good desire to help the branch.  He even got emotional and started to cry, which is something that you hardly EVER see in Kenya, so we could tell that he was really hurt.  It was really sad to see him like this, that he was really hurt.  But he said that he was very grateful that we thought of him and cared enough to visit him, and that he would be able to make is way back to church.  And he did come!! It was just a cool experience, just being there for someone that really needed some help and love.  Really made me think of Mosiah 18: 8-10, kind of the covenants we make at baptism, especially morning with those that morn and comfort those that stand in need of comfort.  Really cool experience and glad that we had the opportunity to help someone in need. 

Other than that nothing else to interesting this week.  I was able to do baptism interviews for 2 people in Kitale, which went well.  Also we saw a really crazy ADC (African divine church) rally/church meeting/ mosh pit/ march thing.  ahahahh i don't even know how to really describe it. All i know is that some of the churches out here in Kenya are super crazy.  Like the people had drums, flags, batons, and all sorts of other crazy stuff.  They were marching down the road singing crazy songs beating the drums and going crazy! Me and my companion were really scared! they weren't going to do anything to us (we think) but it was pretty crazy! People on the side of the road were just jumping in and joining in on the fun! hahah ohhhhhh kenya.

But things are well.  I'm really loving my mission and loving the time i have to share the fullness of the gospel with others!! I love you all!!!

Elder Thomas

FINALLY..... PICTURES

Cosmas and Daniel- he knew Cosmas from Rongai and ran into him at the district conference

Mount Elgon

Swaggin Suit that he bargained for.  The members say he looks official and smart!



Elder Bricknell of the area 70 came to speak at district conference

With President and Sister Hinken

Eldoret District conference with Elder Bricknell, Pres & Sis Hincken and the couples missionaries

Eldoret District Missionaries- Daniel's companion is on his right

February 17, 2014

Awesome week out in Mautuma! One of the Best weeks of my mission!!!

Start of the week i went out on exchanges to Misikhu again to do some baptismal interviews for some of their investigators. It was really cool to do the interviews, i love doing them because its awesome to see people who have changed their ways to come closer to the Savior and take that step of faith by being baptized. Always a spiritual experience.  Only thing i didn't like about the exchange was their flat.. Didn't have power and barely had water the entire time and rats were going crazy in their flat!  we found a dead one we we first walked in, and i thought it was dead so i poked it with a stick but then it went crazy and started running around. but we caught it. Fun times! and don't worry Mom my flat is better than that.  But a cool exchange and really nice to do the interviews!

Once back to Mautuma me and Elder Griffiths really worked this week! We were able to get 26 lessons with a member present, which is really really awesome.  President Hicken really wants members to do a lot more in the work and help us more, and the members here have really stepped it up. They have been very willing and happy to help us.  It was also really cool because on Saturday we were able to go on splits with 2 guys in the Branch.  I went with Daniel Mbagwa, 35 yr old guy who used to be really less active but has been coming a lot recently.  So it was really nice to go with him and he was a great help. We had planned to go visit some of our investigators, but once it came time to visit them, they all bounced us. I was like oh snap what are we gunna do now? But then Daniel was like Hey i got a bunch of friends interested in the Church can we go visit them??..... YES! It was awesome! I just followed him around as he introduced me to some of his friends who were interested in learning more.  So we had some great lessons with them and now have a lot more people to teach. Especially got a really cool investigator now named Josiah, who came to church and even accepted a baptismal date! So a lot of great things are going on now in Mautuma, all because the members are really stepping up here to help us. We have 8 people with baptismal dates and we are really excited about that!

Another interesting lesson with Titus this week... CHASTITY! ya that lesson is always interesting haha.  But it was really cool and he said that it was a good commandment because people are to dirty these days... ya you tell them Titus! ha so that was pretty cool, still trying to help him overcome drinking tea and coffee, but he is really reducing and has really made some good strides forward, so we hope he continues to progress and do good. 

Also this week we got a new branch presidency called... and now we have Brother Edward as president! or i guess now i should call him President Opiayo.  But ill have to send a picture of him sometime ha he is probably one of the greatest members i have met so far on my mission. Super dedicated and really humble trying to learn as much as he can about the church, and has one of the strongest testimonies i have seen. He is always asking us questions about things in the church and how things are suppose to be run.   Really awesome guy, also one of the biggest and goofiest guys haha.  But it was pretty interesting Sunday with a new branch presidency!

But really this week was one of the best weeks so far!! Really worked hard and received a ton of help from the members! I'm enjoying serving the Lord and things are looking good in Mautuma!! Love you all have a great week and hope valentines day was good!!

Elder Thomas

February 10, 2014

This past week flew by super fast! One of the fastest weeks of my mission so far, but now it seems like every week goes by way fast. 

Had an interesting lesson this week with our investigator Titus.  We taught him the Word of Wisdom!!! So i knew that it would turn out to be an interesting lesson. So he obviously had some concerns about it, especially with coffee and tea. Those are really the two biggest things that i have seen people struggle with taking here. Its just about common for everyone to take either coffee or tea every day. But luckily we had one of our members, Evans, who is the same age with him, help us with the teaching. He was able to relate to him about how he was also struggling with these things before he was baptized.  But once he got that confirmation that the church was true, he knew that the word of wisdom was a direct commandment from God. It was great because that really helped Titus see  that others in the church have overcome the same problems that he is facing. Also it was nice because Evans was able to relate to him in a way that me and my comp could not do, both being members our whole lives hah.  But we really hope that Titus will be able to overcome his addictions and that he can continue to prepare for his bapt in March!

The main event this week was Eldoret District conference! So on Friday we went with all the missionaries from our zone to Eldoret. And to say the least it was an awesome spiritual conference!! President Hicken was there as well as Elder Bricknell from the area 70.  Both gave really strong and spiritual talks during the conference.  The 2 main points that were really talked about were Eldoret district becoming a stake and focusing more on the family.  President Hicken really emphasized members becoming more involved in the work, saying that we as missionaries are only really there to assist them in the work, while it should really be the members doing the finding and a lot of the teaching. I really enjoyed it! But its true, we as missionaries come and go, but the members are the ones who remain. So if Eldoret district wants to become a stake the members have to really step it up in the missionary work.  Then Elder Bricknell talked about how we should really do our best to work with our families in assisting each other in following the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  He was a really powerful speaker and really inspiring.  Also got to have my first interview with pres Hicken in 7 months! It was really nice talking to him and he is a great leader and mission president. i love him! Also, at the conference after the Saturday session, it was pretty crazy but i saw one of the members from my first area in Rongai! Cosmas was the former 2nd counselor in the branch but had moved back to his home in Kitale, so he was in the district! It was really cool seeing him, he was one of the first people i ever visited on my mission and he was a really awesome member who helped me a lot when i started. He was super excited to see me and came up and gave me a hug hahah! He said i looked a lot different, that i was really skinny when he first met me but now i am big!! YEAH! hah. But its awesome to see old members and friends!

But for my year mark we went out to a real legit PIZZA place! Oh my goodness it was so nice! Only problem was i haven't had that much cheese in a long time so i was a little sick afterwards.... hahah but it was way worth it!! Also me and Elder Griffiths got some way awesome suit coats for the snaggin deal of 500 shillings for 2 suit coats!! haha 6 dollars for suit coats yeahhh we know how to bargain! Lets just say that baby blue looks good on me.... hahahh!!

But not much else to report this week. The work is moving along well and I'm really enjoying serving the Lord in his vineyard of Kenya. Love you all!!!!!!

Elder Thomas

1 year mark this Week!

Famalia na marafiki,

Things are starting to pick up a little bit more out here in mautuma!

This week was pretty good as far as the work goes. We have really been pushing to get members involved as much as possible in the work, and have seen so many blessings come from it.  Members are awesome when it comes to teaching, especially in Kenya for a few reasons. One is obviously language.  I'm still really working on my Kiswahili, but only know a little bit, just enough to get by on the streets.  But members really help with teaching and clarifying in both kiswahili and luya.  Its also great to have members be able to bear testimony and really help people see that our teachings are relevant for all people.  Especially this week, we had a lesson with one of our new investigators, Donald, and he brought Brother Songa from the branch to help teach with us.  We were teaching about baptism, because we wanted to extend a baptismal commitment to him.  But the lesson was not really going as well as we wanted it to, Donald was really big into his church and did not see how our church was right for him or how it would help him at all.  So towards the end of the lesson we asked Brother Songa how being baptized in the church has blessed his life, and he was able to share his conversion story with us.  He used to be a high priest in his former church, AIC (african inland church), which is a really big status in that church.  But he shared that as he learned from the missionaries and especially read the Book Of Mormon, He came to see that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latte Day Saints was God's true church.  So he knew that leaving his church was the right thing to do, and to be baptized as a member of our church was what God wanted and needed him to do, and even though many trials and difficulties followed him after that, he has never regretted his decision.  It was powerful and totally brought the spirit in!! Even though Donald did not accept the baptismal date on that day, i knew that he felt the spirit and that it really touched him.  It also showed me how members are so essential in the work!! SO HELP THE MISSIONARIES!!

Also this week we were able to start up our Scripture study class in the branch! Every Friday at 2 pm everyone is very welcome to come!!!  but it was a really good start to the class.  We invited all members to come and to bring any friends that they had that might be interested.  We thought that this would be a great way to find new investigators and also help the branch read the Book of Mormon more and gain a testimony of its truthfulness as well. So me and my comp teach the class and read over a chapter or 2 from the Book of Mormon and discuss what is happening and being taught. And We had a pretty good attendance of 8 members and one new investigator!! So it seems to be starting off well and we hope that it will continue to be successful as we continue on.  Also had a good priesthood activity this week, where we had 4 investigators in attendance!! So that was really exciting to see investigators coming out to these activities and enjoying them while also learning more about the restored gospel.  Even a lot of our investigators really participate in church.... especially Priesthood meeting haha.  It was funny because our investigator Titus, helped clear up a question in priesthood class... about temples... something we have not even taught him about yet.  But ya it was pretty awesome, he is an awesome guy and is really progressing well!!

Interesting things happened in church Sunday! On the spiritual note, we had 9 investigators come to church which was sooo awesome!! I was really happy about that because the past few weeks have been really tough with investigators coming to church, having a really low turn out. But this week was awesome and it was such a great blessing a feeling seeing all of them come to church to be there to feel of the spirit and participating in the classes.  So that was the spiritual awesomeness. In other interesting news, we had a little 3 year old girl pee in the middle of the church courtyard in between classes.... ya i was in disbelief. At first i thought she was just squatting doing wall sits or something, but upon closer inspection nope.... nope she was peeing. Just on the ground no big.  Also me and my companion taught young women's class..... we were in our Gospel principles class with a few of our investigators, when all the sudden ALL of the young women in the branch come into our room and just stack up in there.  I really wasn't to happy about it because the teacher didn't prepare a lesson so she just told them to come into our class.   Also we had a member in testimony meeting share more of a story about how he saw some kid get beat up by the police, wasn't sure where the gospel connection tied into the story but he did get very animated and even came part way into the congregation while bearing his testimony/ telling the story.  I was trying not to laugh but it w3as pretty funny hahahah.  But hey another interesting and spiritual Sunday in MAUTUMA!!

But i come up on my year mark Friday, pretty crazy.  Its been one of the best years of my life, and i have learned so much that i never would have learned if i had not come on a mission.  Going on a mission is one of the greatest blessings that i have received in my life. And i really look forward to this next year to see what's in store!!!!!

But i love you all!! Have a great week and look to become better everyday!

Elder Thomas

Also i got to go to mount Elgon National park this week! It was awesome!!

January 27, 2014

Jan 27 at 5:20 AM

So sorry i don't have a lot of time to write, power has gone out 4
times today and its not so reliable at the moment so ya!
This week was really awesome, we got a lot of help from branch members
with doing the work. Almost all of our lessons had a member present
and it was awesome.  That is one thing that pres Hicken  really is
pushing for is getting more member present lessons, so we are doing
our best to follow his counsel.  We also got to go on splits with
some of the priesthood holders in the branch, so i got to go with a
prospective missionary, Evans. He has been a member for 6 months and
already wants to get out on his mission! I told him that you have to
be a member for a least one year before you go out and he was like
oh... hahah he was all sad and stuff after that ha but he is awesome!
It was kind of funny though, because while i was with him we went out
tracking, and we pulled up to this super old mamas house. She knew
zero English, so i just had Evans translate for me. So he started
talking to her for a while just getting to know her. So after a
minute or so of talking he turns to me, dead strait face, and says
"hey guys what? this is my moms sister...." i was like "umm your
aunt?" he was like "yeah i guess so..." ohhh my goodness he didn't even
know his own aunt and she didn't know him!!!  hahah it was funny and
weird and cool at the same time i guess. She also had a Brittney
Spears poster in her house so that was cool, really spiced up the
atmosphere of the home! But it was cool going on splits with Evans and
we really got a lot done.
Also this week we got to do service for a less active member, and got
to cultivate and dig in her shamba.  It was cool because got to talk
to her son who is also less active for while while we worked with him.
It was cool to work for them because they had been going through some
serious problems for a while, like the mom fractured her leg and
doesn't have sufficient money to get it properly fixed, so they were
really grateful for us coming to visit them and help them out. It was
a really cool experience.
Also established 2 bapt dates with Titus and Caroline this week! It
was cool because i got to do both of them with Evans, so he got to see
how to give a bapt date question. So I'm excited for that! We will cont
to work with them and help them prepare for a day in March.  But they
are really awesome and the Lord has blessed us with these awesome
people to teach.
But I'm glad that Joe is a deacon now!!! Ya pass that sacrament Joe!!!
Ha but really that's awesome Joe, another priesthood holder in the
family and a future missionary in the making!

Love you all have a great week!!!!

Elder Thomas