Baptism of Water Kone- Daniel loves this guy!  Elder Dick is on the left

The essential wazee of Mautuma-
From the left:  Christopher who was a less active but now active member, Daniel, Edward Opiayo- Branch President, Brother Kisamba -former Branch President and Brother Songa

On the way to Eldoret, Elder Eveson went night-night

Ben served with Anziano Eveson in Italy now his brother Elder Eveson is in Daniel's mission

Elder Griffiths riding an ostrich - Kenya Nairobi Mission

Gotta be ready for anything when you are out in the bush - Kitale

June 30, 2014

FIRST.  HAPPY BDAY MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE YOU MOM YOU ARE THE BEST!!

So this week has probably been one of my best weeks in Kitale so far!

This week we had MLC (missionary leadership council) with President Hicken in Eldoret.  It was a lot of fun and a great experience.  On Tuesday we drove from Kitale to Eldoret, and had some extra time so we all got to play soccer together.  I have to say soccer has become one of my favorite sports now.  So I'm excited to get back and play with Emmy!! haha.  But on Wednesday we had the meeting with President Hicken.  We just discussed things that we need to teach our zones about, that will help the work to progress a lot better.  The 5 topics 1). Overcoming pride/ selfishness 2). How to budget your funds 3). Learning how to solve your own problems 4). Racism (unfortunately) 5). Getting over negative feelings about areas.  Some of these have become  a problem in the mission, and President Hicken wants us to help solve them.  But all of these i feel like are life long skills.  One thing i like about president Hicken, is that he is really trying to help us a lot as missionaries, but also that he is teaching us life long lessons and skills.  Also after the meeting, we got PIZZA! ya.

Also this week, we got a ton of help from the members.  So every week, we go out to Sikhendu twice a week.  And both times we went this week, we got to go on splits so we were able to get a lot more work done.  We mostly visit less active members there.  Apparently there used to be 600 members there.  But only 40 come to church every week... haha so not sure what's goin on.  But we are working on it! Also contacting a lot there looking for people to teach. 

The big thing tho this week was on sunday.... BAPTISM! This week we had the baptism for Walter Kone.  He is such a great guy, who has gone through a lot.  He first heard about the church in 2009, and became really interested in learning more, but could never find the church.  Since then, he has been going on the internet, looking up information about it.  Then 2 months ago we found him on the street and contacted him.  Since then he has come to church every week (by the way he walks 2 hours to get there). but has had a lot persecution coming his way.  A lot of his friends have been saying a lot of negative things to him about the church, and even his wife has been giving him a tough time.  She didn't want him to come, but he told her that he knew the church was true. For while, she would not talk to him if she saw him reading the Book of Mormon and was totally against everything he did.  But overtime she really softened up to the church because she saw how Walter was changing.  Even on Sunday, she agreed to come to the Baptism! It was great to have her there and the members did a good job of fellow shipping her.  It was a great service though, Walter asked me to perform the ordinance and it was a really wonderful experience.  After the baptism he got to bear his testimony and bore a great testimony.  I'm really grateful for the opportunity i have had to help out Walter come unto Christ and look forward to continuing workin with him.  Such a powerful guy, truly converted!

But other than that things are great! Elder Dick and I did a 2 hour presentation of the "Work of Salvation" dvd in Kitale branch for combined 5 Sunday. It was great, and a lot of members came up to us after and said that they had an increased desire to do missionary work.  So that was great! 

Have a great week!  LOVE YOU ALL!

Elder THOMAS

PS happy 4th of July.  and if you already didn't know that holiday is not recognized in Kenya ;(

June 23, 2014

Pretty good week.

What was really great about this week was that i got to go on exchanges with Elder Utonga (Tanzania) back to MAUTUMA! It was really cool to go back to my old area! I was able to see a ton of old members! I thought that most of them wouldn't think much of seeing me again, just because i was only there for 3 months, but all of them were super super excited to see me again! A lot of them said wow elder Thomas, you look a lot healthier and bigger now, Kitale must be treating you good! hahah ya something like that.  Its just that i don't have to bike 15 kms up hill to get to DDM's anymore haha. Although, we did get fed by just about every person that we went to see.  They were like ohhh Elder Thomas is back! Lets make him food!  there was Ugali, Skuma wiki, potato stew, chapati, cocoa, mandazi, eggs, ground nuts, and other Kenyan goodies! But it was really cool to especially see President Edward while i was there.  Also did a bapt interview there, which turned out really great. Super great being back in Mautuma tho!!!!

Had a pretty cool experience this week. On Friday after our street contacting activity, elder Dick and I had scheduled some 3 appointments at the church. So while we were waiting at the church, it started to rain really hard! So we waiting for a long time, waiting for our investigators to come, but we thought for sure that non of them would come because of the rain. It started to get late and we were really getting discouraged that no one was coming. So we decided that it was probably best if just go and go visit other people. But just right before we walked out of the church, one of our investigators showed up! His name is Tony, and he was a guy that we contacted on the street. Even though it was getting late, we decided to talk with him and see how interested he was. We began to ask him about himself, and he went on to tell us how he was really looking for something to fill the "hole in his heart". He talked about how he has gone to different churches, and how even he is going to one now. But as he has gone to all of them, he is just confused about their teachings and just feels like something is missing. So he told us that he was hoping that maybe something our church, and in our teachings could help him. So we decided it would be best to talk about the Restoration. Had a really great lesson with him about it. At the end i asked him how he felt about the Restoration and about Joseph Smith. He said that he felt confused... and i was like ohh no did we not teach clearly enough? But he went on to say that he was confused because it was just new to him, but that i did make sense that God would call a prophet to restore the fullness of His gospel. He said that he would really need to pray about these things, but thats all that we ask of, to find out for oneself. So it was a really cool experience, and what made it even better was that he even came to church on sunday! So we really hope to keep working with him and see if we can fill that hole that he has. And i know we can!

Things are still going great will Walter, we will most likely have his baptism next Sunday!! He has really been progressing well, in spite of all the challenges and difficulties he has been having, especially with overcoming word of wisdom and dealing with his family.  Whats been great though is that his family, especially his wife, has been softening up.  Before, she would not talk to him at all if she saw the Book of Mormon or anything like that.  But now, she is actually really supporting him, praying together as a family, and even all of them are living the Word of Wisdom together! They threw away all of their tea and coffee!! YA!!  So we will visit with him a lot this week and just really prep him for Sunday.  I really pray that all will go well! He is such an awesome and sincere guy. 

Did a zone fast on sunday, just for all of us to find more people to teach and members to work with.  Answer kind of recieved immediatly.  Show up to church in Kitale.  Branch president sees me and says "oh elder Thomas, i hope your ready to be the concluding speaker today in church.".... Ya president why not! had 10 minnutes to prepare a 35 minnute talk.  hahahaha its ok, i talked about the restoration and apostasy.  I did ok, but not as good as i would have liked it to be.  But if i helped at least one person, than its worth it! But it was pretty interesting haha. 

But things are great!!!!!! I love serving a mission, and being in Kenya.  I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!

Elder Thomas

June 16, 2014

HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD!!!! Your are the best!!

Well this past week did not start off well at all.  Tuesday and Thursday were pretty bad to be honest.  Lots of bounced appointments, but i probably shouldn't complain about that because its the name of the game! Ha but just pretty disappointing, but both me and Elder Dick did our best to try to make the most of things.  Not a ton accomplished as far as numbers, but it was pretty productive.

 One thing that was cool that we did is that we were able to visit one of the members, Sister Rhoda who was in the Hospital for her son. PS sis Rhoda is super cool member who sometimes washes our clothes for us!  Anyways her son who is less than a year old got malaria and pneumonia at the same time, so he was super super sick.  So we just decided to stop by and see what we could do to help out at all.  She said that there was nothing really we could do, but we could tell she was really grateful for us coming to visit and cheer her up. Mourning with those that mourn, comforting those that stand in need of comfort!! Just showed me how much it means to those who are in distress when someone goes out of their way to help or comfort them. Serving and helping others is key to happiness. Also I learned how bad Kenyan Hospitals are. 1). 4 people to one hospital bed. 2). the doctors here do not know how to find a vein. They just poke randomly. 3). Smells like old people. 

Friday was super super great!!! We did our street contacting finding activity, and had 3 branch members show up, President Kwendo, Cosmas, and Silah.  And all of them were on fire talking to people.  They were really setting the example for us! All of them were chasing people down trying to talk to everyone! I was really amazed by their efforts.  Within one hour we talked to/contacted 200 people.  So hope something comes from that.  After that we went back to the church where we had some great lessons there with three of our investigators with a baptismal date, Bernard (25), Josephine (18), and Walter (40).  All of them are doing great and we hope to have some baptisms within the next 3 weeks if all goes well.  I especially like Walter! Super great and powerful guy. We gave him a word of wisdom pamphlet last time and told him to read it during the week.  As he read thru, he noticed it said not to take tea.  At first he said that he was really taken back and even kind of offended, but then he read and saw that this was a revelation from God to the prophet Joseph Smith.  Once he saw that he said he knew it was true! So he has been living the word of wisdom, even though it is difficult for him. YA! Conversion in the process!

Also on Saturday we went to Misikhu to do bapt interviews for 5 people! Took up most of our day though.  We left at 8:00 in the morning, didn't get back to kitale till 3:00!! Most of the time was taken up by riding in matatu's. Spent like 3 and a half hours just traveling! But it was ok, the interviews went great and that's all that counts.  Great to see people changing their lives to draw closer to the Saviour. 

But things are great!! Hope that Dad had a great day!! Love you all!!!

Elder Thomas

PS this week i was talking to some members, trying to use what little swahili i know, and i tried to say 'This boy wants to be a doctor' and they all started laughing. I was like what is going on?? Then they told me i said 'he wants to be a witchdoctor' ... they all thought it was funny but i didn't!! hahahaaha.

Kitale District/Zone
Elders Molosankwe (Botswana), Makazi (Mobasa), Mwashi (Nairobi), Utong (Tanzania)
Back row:  Elder Dick (North Carolina), Daniel, Moline (Canada), Eveson (Oregon)

Kitale Fun - Best zone ever!

At a less active members house with Bro Anthony. 
Working + Working with members =  Victory!

Candle light at dinner - No Power, No Problem!

June 9, 2014

Powerful week! Really starting to see some of the fruits of our labors!

Had a really...really interesting day on Wednesday. So our branch president in Kitale, President Kwendo, wanted to start going with us every Wednesday to go out an visit less active members in the branch.  Of course we were all game and excited for that. BUT! This past Wednesday, he did not tell us where we were going. He said "ya there are a few people i want us to go see, it ONLY takes 1 hour to get there." So we thought well ya that's kind of far, but hey if its where he wants us to go to help someone out so be it! Unfortunately, me and elder Dick forgot where we were.... in Africa more importantly Kenya! So if someone tells you and amount of time, you need to multiply it by about 5 and then you have the real answer haha!  Lets just say we ended up biking 40 MILES that day.  No joke! We went all the way out to a place called Moi's Bridge, which is super far almost the half way point to Eldoret.  Then we went all over into the bush area trying to find where this family lived.  It actually ended up being a great day, but super super tiresome!! Even one of the people we saw came to church! Victory! Also while  we were biking, some crazy guy started chasing after us full speed like foaming at the mouth. I'm not sure what he was going to do if he caught up to us, but hey nothing bad happened so I'm pretty sure its ok.  That's why we have the word of wisdom ;)

Thursday we got to go on splits in Sikhendu, so I got to go and work with a member named Sammy Simiyu.  He is 21 yrs old and is preparing to serve a mission.  He was really powerful! he was really helping out with teaching and talking with people.  Especially because as we were out working, a few of our appointments got bounced, so we had to start tracting.  And i don't know what it was but no one that we talked to knew English, at all! And my Swahili aint good enough to teach, so Sammy just did all the talking. Ya! That's how missionary work is supposed to be done. By members! Even we found some new investigators from it, who were super interested in the Book of Mormon! They were from Tanzania so that was cool i guess ha. 

Friday it rained super hard, but did street boarding anyhow.  Contacted 200 plus people in 2 hours, so that was great.  Our branch president and mission leader help a lot with it! They do half the contacting and teaching as well! Again, members doing the missionary work.

Saturday and Sunday were probably the best two days of the week! Super awesome!! It was just cool to see some of the people who we were visiting really start to progress and change.  In Sikhendu, there are 2 less active people that we have really been visiting and focusing on, one is Joseph Barasa and the other is Arnet.  Both have been less active for a long time, but recently have been really changing! We caught Joseph reading his book of Mormon in his shop while he was working, and Arnet was inviting friends over for us to teach!! It was super powerful! And its been really cool to see how much happier both of them are, just by living the gospel.  Then in Kitale on Sunday, had a powerful lesson with Walter.  Its been a while since we have been able to meet him (he lost his phone), but he came to church and we taught him there.  We reviewed the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. He went on to tell us how he reads the Book of Mormon everyday and has already prayed about it and received an answer from the Holy Ghost that it is true! YAAA!! Victory again.  He is really really one who the Lord has prepared.  He has been looking for the church for 3 years, and said that he is super grateful that he has finally found it.  Things are really starting to look up in our area now. 

Great week.  I love missionary work.  Although sometimes it is not easy or enjoyable, more than not it is super great!  Grateful for all the Lord has blessed me with, especially this opportunity to serve him and to have a knowledge of this restored gospel. 

Love you all.  HAPPY EARLY FATHERS DAY DAD!!!!!! Your the best!

Elder Thomas

BAPTISM!

Baptism for Emmanuel Nyongesa.  Such a great day.  Brother Paul Mukusi baptized him. 
Daniel and Elder Dick

Sister Cook and Elder Carl B. Cook of the Seventy and Daniel

Zone Conference

Missionaries at the zone conference