This week has seemed to fly by! Seriously I feel I was just in Machakos writing to everyone..
So this week has been a great improvement from last week, starting Tuesday it began to improve, but it was a slow improvement. While in Machakos, after emailing, my companion and I went to the market so he could try to find a nice second hand backpack. The market in Machakos is another outdoor market, and this one I call the Machakos Slum Market. It's not really the slums because there are no slums in Machakos, but it's assembled with tin sheet metal, and sack cloth bags for a roof everywhere. We were able to find him a backpack, and while at the bag seller, we also found a Louis Vitan or whoever the designer is, purse, we asked how much it was being sold for, and they said 600ksh or about 7Usd. I’m no purse buyer, but I figure that is a stark difference than the prices in America haha. I also bought an awesome leather conductor hat, it's like a ball cap but flat on top, and all leather, only 150ksh ($1.75). I needed a hat because contrary to what everyone has been saying, the rain season is not coming. We are supposed to be deep into the rain season where it rains all day everyday, but so far we have blue skies everyday. In Machakos, we spent a nice day of shopping for good food, eating good food, and laughing with the matatu (vehicle) merchants as they came up trying to sell us stuff. I got a good laugh each time they’d come up because I had already bought the stuff I wanted so I would say “sitake” (I don’t want/need) and then say “Anataka” ( He Wants) while pointing to my comp who was sitting in the back of the Matatu. The best find in Machakos was chocolate chip cookies! I hadn’t had one of those in almost 6 month. I bought three packs so they could last me till I go to Nairobi. They made my day haha. Due to the fact our Express Bus to Nunguni had already left when we arrived at its normal scheduled departure time, I told my son we get to go on an adventure. I had to take different busses before, so I was accustomed to it already. We ended up taking 3 Matatus to get home. It was a long day of travel, but I still enjoy the Matatu rides along Mombasa road. It’s like a free Safari, Giraffes, Wildabeast, Antelope, and Buffalo. There was an incredible sunset while driving home and I was talking to the mzee (elderly man) next to me and pointing and saying Zuri Sana! (Very Beautiful) He agreed and found it funny I liked the sunset so much.
Wednesday, we were still with the Kyambeke Elders, because we had gone to Machakos with them. Elder B gave our DDM training, and I thought he did a really good job. I learned a lot and took many notes as I felt inspired to do so. The others didn’t seem so interested and were kinda dozing off or doodling. I once read a talk by President Eyring (a member of the 1st Presidency of the church) that makes any talk or sermon interesting. He recounted a story from his childhood and talked about whenever he was sitting in a boring or uninteresting talk, he would look at his father, and his father would be beaming with enjoyment at the speakers talk, and taking notes. He asked him how he is able to enjoy it so much, and his father said, “Whenever your sitting through a seemingly boring talk, try to figure out what message the speaker is trying to convey and give yourself a sermon on it.. since doing that I have never been to a boring meeting.” I have applied that here in the last few weeks, and it really does work. Those who are speaking are trying their best. They have put in preparation and hard work hoping to have people enjoy it, but sometimes it just comes down to they aren’t a very good public speaker and it is seen as boring to the congregation. Try it out, it works amazingly. After DDM, we went and ate at the hotel as usual, they had irresistible chapatti (flat bread) this time, so I made sure to buy two and enjoy them with my cow face soup. On our way home, I was in front as usual going up a hill, and I saw Big Mikes wife in front of me carrying a large load of sticks on her back, I came up and said “Unataka Msaada?” (Do you want help?) she gladly agreed and I switched her my backpack for her sticks, I then marched back to her home. It's not all that hard to carry the weight, but I have found that if I slow down or stop while doing so, it makes it much more difficult and you get tired quickly. After, we went and taught Sister Tab, she is a less active member whom I only went to once with Elder Kazomba, 9 weeks ago. We agreed last week that we would come, and when we came she was mid planting and didn’t want our help because “Muzungus are weak, and use machines for everything” (what all of Africa thinks of the White Men). She did however agree to come and let us teach her. We had Big Mike present because there is a large language barrier with her. She explained that she felt bad and didn’t want to come to church because every week when in Matua we would never come see her, but instead see everyone else. I felt terrible when she told me this, she is a wonderful lady, and there is not an adequate excuse for not coming to see her. I promised her that whenever we are in Matua now, we will be sure to come see her. After the lesson she expressed that she was very happy now and felt a burden of sorrow and loneliness had been lifted off her back. We also saw another member, Sister Con, she is less active as well, and we see her regularly. She just gives us an excuse every week as to why she didn’t come to church. Just gotta figure out a way to allow her to see the blessings that come from coming to church and being faithful to the baptismal covenants she made a little more than two years ago. On our way home, we received a call from George, Bro KK's brother. He wanted to know the color of my camera, so he can start his search. That was great news to me, its much better to pay someone 3000ksh ($35) to get your camera back, rather than spend 16000ksh ($185) in Nairobi buying a new one..
On Thursday, it was a fast day. Brother Morris was having a family visit at his home because his mother had passed away last week. The whole branch agreed to come and many of them did show up. It wasn’t just a visit for members, so there were members and nonmembers present. It was a good example to the nonmembers showing them how much we care about each of our members, especially when they are in a time of need. Branch President Kaseve told me to choose one of us Elders to give a talk. It is a really awkward situation to choose one of your companions instead of yourself, so I told him to choose and of course I was chosen. He wanted a short talk on Love and Charity, no problem, that’s an easy one. I used my Kiswahili pocket sized book to learn how to say “I would like to speak on love and charity”, the members also assisted me. When it was my turn to speak, I got up and said “Nitaka kuongea kuhusu upendo” ( I would like to speak concerning Love/ charity). Those present thought it was amazing to hear the white man speak their language, most of what I talked about I did in English, but I would use the swahili words I do know to emphasize certain points, and the congregation would better know what I was talking about. I thought I did a pretty good job. I really wanted to teach them about why we missionaries are here, and how we love each and everyone of the people here in the hills. We are here to love and serve them as representatives of Christ. After the family visit, bread and soda was provided as well as Ugali and sukuma. I gave most of my Ugali (porridge) to Elder Janda and ate the sukuma (braised Kale with tomatoes) using scrunched up balls of bread, that’s the way to do it. Ugali is not so good. On the way home, we stopped by the Maks and had planned to teach them, but I could immediately tell that brother Mak was drunk. Pombe (alcohol) seems to have a strange effect here. They can drink all morning and afternoon, but it doesn’t kick in until that evening. We could tell as each minute went by how it was kicking in more and more. We couldn’t even teach him or his family because he was interrupting us and babbling. On our way out, I bought the rabbit from his grandson. It was massive! It seriously weighed 1–2kgs. It was a beautiful rabbit, nothing like the brownish gray ones I used to see everywhere back home. We stopped by the KK’s while on the way home and Brother KK agreed it was a big rabbit. I told him that I was going to cook it for my companion for dinner so that he could try rabbit. At home, I slaughtered the rabbit with the sharp knife I brought with me from the states. I really don’t like killing things with a knife. It’s gruesome and the animal suffers. I’d prefer to shoot it by far. The skinning was different than last time because after killing it with a knife it tenses up and the skin is stuck to the body and you have to cut it off. A bunch of kids came over and demanded I give them the knife so they could do it. I resisted at first, but then gave it to them. They made quick work of it. I was impressed. They were waving the knife around and cut me accidentally. I immediately took the knife back and told them enough. They aren’t used to such sharp knifes and casually waved it around. I boiled the rabbit meat and then fried it and made a big dinner of a tomato and onion supu with fried rabbit and rice, but while doing so my companion decided he wanted to eat rice alone, so he made his own rice and I had all this food for myself. I was fine with that however, it gave me leftovers that I happily ate the next morning for breakfast. I made my son and Elder Utonga try the rabbit, and they both agreed it was really good. We agreed that for ZTM (Zone Training Meeting) we will buy 3–4 rabbits to feed the 7 of us. It will be fun.
Friday was the funeral day. I have been to many funerals so far here, but this one was different because the LDS church wasn’t presiding and instead the Catholic Church was in charge. Before we went to the service, we went to help Brother KK extend his cow pen because his cow just had a baby (which he named Utonga..?after my companion. He said he will get a sheep and name it after me.. only problem is sheep are one of the most disliked animals in Africa besides pigs.. hahaha but Brother KK really likes sheep tail meat, so that’s good.) After the service, we went to the funeral, there were many people at the funeral and everyone was just sitting around waiting for the casket to arrive from the sermon at the Catholic Church. I greeted everyone there individually, shaking their hands. I thought of it as a way to show each of them that they are important to me and God. The funeral didn’t start for a long time and finally the food everyone was awaiting was served. It was nice food, like I've said before, I like funeral food, and this time they also had Githeri (maize and bean stew) and cabbage to go along with the rice, supu and potato. Good stuff. After eating we had to leave to go to Mitini to start exchanges with the Kyambeke Elders. Luckily the procession hadn’t begun, so we didn’t interrupt anything with our leaving. At Mitini, we were supposed to meet at 4:00pm, but when I called the Kyambeke Elders, they were still in their flat in Kyambeke. I guess theyre on Kamba time too haha. They eventually arrived, and Elder Banda, Janda, and I began our long walk down to Kyambeke. I really enjoyed that walk though, it was a beautiful evening and the sky glowed with a nice sunset, it was so peaceful too and not to mention, all down hill.
I don’t think I have ever walked as much in one day as I did on Saturday. The Kyambeke Elders had set up 16 interview appointments for me, and some of the kids to be interviewed lived on the other side of the giant mountain of Matwiku. It was a lot of walking for sure. I really wanted to do Matwiku for sure, so I had no issue with it. Elder Banda and I walk at a similar pace, so we were marching up the mountain as my son followed behind. He told us in the beginning though that he was going to walk his own pace, so it wasn’t a problem. We interviewed a bunch of kids for baptism, the only thing with interviewing kids, is each one takes 20 – 30min, multiply that by 16 and yeah that’s a lot of time. No way we could finish in one day. We went to Sister Elizabeths home. She is an incredible member who is a pioneer of the church here in Kenya. She has been a member more than 20 years, sent children on missions, and works to magnify her calling. She loves to feed the missionaries, so she fed us Chapatti, rice, sweet potatoes, and a meat supu. It was the meal needed to get back over Matwiku. By the time we got back over Matwiku it was 3:00pm and we still had 12 interviews to do. We did as many as possible, but there was no way to finish in one day, so we said we would do it after church. That night there was no power for a while, because thieves had supposedly stolen the Kyambeke power transformer.. Karibu (hello) Kenya..
Sunday was one of my favorite so far. We attended the Ilima Branch which is one of the Kyambeke elders' two branches. It felt like we were having church in the jungle, it was so peaceful and nice. The branch functioned amazingly, just as a branch should. From what I saw, everything was done right and reverently. The Olsens, the office couple for the mission showed up with their daughter and grandkids so that they could experience the hills. It was funny to see more Wazungus (white people), we were totally confused until the Olsens walked in. During the Sacrament meeting, Sister Elizabeth gave a talk about “the rescue”. She said something interesting that I hadn’t thought of before, “sometimes we can be ‘less active’ although we come to church each week. We must ask ourselves "do I pay my tithing, do my home teaching, and magnify my calling?” If we are doing just enough to get by, then really it's not enough. I thought that was a good thought, and something to think about. After the meeting, We greeted the Olsens, and they introduced us to their daughter. It was nice to talk to people using English, real English, and they could pronounce my name! We talked for a while until Elder Janda and Banda rounded up the kids needing to be interviewed. After church we still had not finished all the interviews, so we decided to postpone all Ilima baptisms till the 30th of the month, that way no one gets offended. The Olsens were incredible and offered to give us a ride back to Mitini, which we gladly accepted. On the way down from Ilima, there was a car trying to get around the Olsen’s truck, and in doing so, it got stuck in mud and dug its back tire in deep. I looked over to Elder Olsen and we both knew what we needed to do, so we all jumped out of the truck and walked over to try to lift the guys car out. It felt like something you would see in a missionary movie. We couldn’t lift the car out because it was a truck loaded with furniture, but luckily Elder Olsen had a tow rope, so we pulled him out and went on our way. I love Kyambeke area, the people are so loving and friendly and strong in the gospel. We will be heading there again the next three Fridays for exchanges and baptisms, so that’ll be nice.
Monday was a service day, and we did a ton of digging in the shamba for the KK’s. We had to fertilize each maize stalk, and when I was jumping down a ledge to get to the lower shamba, my bag of fertilizer exploded, so I was picking it up with my hands and throwing it on each stalk. Sister KK got a laugh out of it. We were exhausted after, so we sat and talked to Brother KK for a while. He told me that George has a trace on my camera, and is following it up to see if it is for sure mine. The suspense is building! The rest of the day, we did some teaching at Brother M's and ate a whole load of Githeri(maize and bean stew). My son can’t eat much because last time it made him super sick, that means Elder Utonga and I have to pound down the mountains they give us. We went and visited Brother Mak to check up on him because of finding him drunk last time. He wasn’t feeling good. He said he was now scared of pombe because it made him sick and made his chest hurt. I guess that goes to show, God works in mysterious ways. Elder Utonga bought a rabbit last night for 100ksh ($1.00), he must have really liked it when I had him try it. Before I made it, he said he could never eat it because it's like a rat in his mind. Rabbits are way good meat here, and cheap too.
So that’s it for this week. It was a great improvement from last week.
Thank you all for all your love, prayers and support. It is much appreciated.
Love always, Elder Rushton J. Hiltbrand
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