Well hello once again, these weeks really seem to vanish like smoke, its like they disappear super quickly, but you can still smell or remember them.
This week has been crazy.. crazy in regards to issues with the companionship and such, they really are taking their toll on me, I usually would consider myself a pretty stress free guy and pretty relaxed most the time, but with all the companionship issues, it causes a ton of unwanted and unneeded stress.
So on Wednesday, things went decently well, not too bad. During our DDM, while accounting for our areas, when I asked if there was anything else to bring up, the ZLs asked about our companionship inventory saying that the APs had been asking about it and wanted to know how things are improving or if they are improving period. I brought up all the problems I had with it and what I saw we were struggling with and how we can fix things. It was kind of just a situation to give the ZLs a brief overview of everything, and allow them to know what they could report to the Assistants to the President. The rest of the day wasn’t so exciting, we went to our usual hotel and found they had raised their prices by 5 or 10ksh ( $0.06 or $0.12) on every item.. It may not sound like a lot, but it adds up very quickly. We tried to proselyte in Matua and we only found one family there whom we taught. Because there were many children there circling us and listening to the message, we shared a message from 3 Nephi when Christ is visiting the Americas and blesses the children. I thought It was a good lesson for the scenario we were in. After, we tried to find more people to teach, but no one was home, so we tried to visit our investigators, but they too were gone, so we got home early. It's nice now that I’ve given my son the reigns and he gets to plan where we go each day and starts off the lessons, so it relieves that from me.
On Friday, it was a much better teaching day, because I and elder J were together, while Elder U and Peter the Branch Missionary were together. We did our comp study in the morning. Elder J and I did our planned training for the week all on Friday, because the rest of the week we had been busy in the mornings and such. The training went well, but at the end, Elder J brought something up that really helped us, he said “ do you really think just doing the planned readings and videos for training is the best way to learn?” Honestly, I felt the exact same way when being trained, I felt like dang this is pointless, and there must be a better way. I tried a different way in the beginning, but didn’t see much feedback from it, so I changed to the regular training. I told him that now doing it a second time, I was learning a lot more, but how I felt the same when my first time. We decided we needed to figure out a way that would be more effective and allow us to both learn, because we both learn very differently from one another. I decided that we could take that what we have been learning from the training, and see how we could better apply it to our teaching throughout that day, then afterwards discuss how we did, and how we can better our teaching. So that is what we did. Our first lesson was with Sis N, our solid investigator who knows the truthfulness of the gospel, but is unable to attend church because of her husband not allowing her to do so. We had planned to baptize her on the 16th, until she told us her husband wont let her attend church till next year. We still told her we would continue to teach her though. When we arrived, she was at the clinic (her place of work) with a friend, she greeted us warmly and was so glad we had come. We taught both her and her friend a lesson regarding the Word of Wisdom, we figured this would be a perfect lesson, because she being a nurse can testify of the effects of living the word of wisdom. The lesson went super well, the spirit was strong, we testified and taught, asked questions, and shared experiences. It was great, I could tell the spirit had touched the heart of her friend, because she showed great interest after and knew the truth we were speaking. After meeting with Naomi, all our other appointments fell through, so we headed to Mitini where we planned to meet U and Peter so that the three of us could head down to Kyambeke.
In Mitini, Elder J and I were hungry, so we decided to try out the other hotel in Mitini and see if their prices were any lower than the raised prices at our usual hotel. The “Base Hotel” was great, the food was pretty good and they gave you more of it, and the prices were a lot lower. We enjoyed Ndengu and Andazi, it hit the spot. After eating, we went to our usual hotel and I told them we had found a new hotel to go to. The mama did not like that at all, she told us to never go to the other hotel again, because we are her customers. She even told us we can have the regular low prices, and she will provide each of us with a free Afia drink (cost 60 – 70ksh about $.75) next time we come. Sounds good to me.. That’s how we do business here in Kenya.
After walking to Kyambeke, we relaxed and Elder Nyirenda and U went to the market and Elder Banda brought a chicken that he wanted me to kill. Personally I had not killed a chicken before, but had learned how by watching others do it time after time. I cut its head off, then instinctively chucked the head because that is what is done with a rabbit. I did however forget though that they like to eat the head… oops.. The problem with killing with a knife is they are gruesome, and blood gets everywhere. The chicken moved like crazy without its head spraying blood all over me, because the chicken tightens up, we had to pluck the feathers as fast as possible, that part is fun. It’s a race to get them off before the chicken stiffens.
On Saturday, we had baptisms, the whole service went very well, we got to the church at 8:00am and started filling the font, the font filled so slow! Its like watching paint dry I told the others. After it filled, we began the service at around 10:00am, the scheduled time. Those baptizing and those being baptized all changed before hand, then came and joined the others in the meeting. I had changed into a jumpsuit type thing, and when I came out, Elder Nyirenda who was also baptizing and had changed jokingly laughed and asked if I was being baptized too, because usually it’s the baptismal candidates that wear the jumpsuits. I went and changed into a one piece thing that looked like white pants and a white shirt, I felt much better in that, and it looked more like what we should wear. The baptisms went really well, I baptized our two investigators, E and S, the spirit was strong and it was such a joyful feeling to baptize E. I could see and feel her happiness, she has waited so long to be baptized, never knowing if she ever would, because of her mental impediment. It was a happy day. After the baptisms, we returned to the ZLs flat to wait for a funeral to start. At 2 we went down to the market to see if it had started yet, it was supposed to begin at 12:00, but calculating for Kamba time, we figured 2:00 would be an okay time to show up. Big Mike, Muzungu, and Peter were waiting still and said it hadn’t started and everyone was still at the Catholic church. We waited for 2 more hours then the procession came, we were so sick of waiting around and knew if we went we would have to walk home, so we just left without going to the funeral.
Sunday was confirmations, it was a good Sunday. The confirmations went well and after confirming E, I could see the happiness in the eyes of her family. They sure were happy that she is finally a member. It has been a long wait for the entire family. After Sacrament meeting, we watched conference as a branch. It was one of the ones I had already seen, but I got so much more out of it this time. It was so good. I took lots of notes. I used to take notes on everything that is said, but I am working on taking notes according to the spirit. After Church, we returned home, and I made Chapatti, they turned out pretty nice and I made a whole bunch of small ones so I could eat them like tacos. As I was cutting my vegetables to make a sort of supu for the rice, Elder J was making chapatti next to me. He likes to use a lot of oil and use high heat, so it makes it a lot more dangerous. I was just cutting when all of a sudden a huge thing of burning hot oil flies out of the pan and lands all over my arm. Instantaneously burning me and causing me to say some words not recommended to be used by missionaries. I currently have 20 oil burns on my left hand due to this instance. I tried to cool them down so they wouldn’t leave too bad of marks, but right now they still look bad, theres 6 big ones, and the others are smaller and fading. I absolutely hate getting scars, and especially when they are not self inflicted. That really sucked, never will I be in the kitchen again when Elder J is making chapatti.
Yesterday, or Monday was a interesting service day, we had planned to go do service for a investigator family, we went and found them in the shamba, they were planting beans, and I figured we could help with that, so they gave me one of the sticks and some beans, while Elder J and U stood back and watched. Planting isn’t as easy as it look. The hardest part is chucking the darn bean into the hole you just made. These kamba mama’s are pros at it! They laughed at my attempt, but hey at least I tried. Afterwards we tried to find more service to do, and we found 16 mamas picking French beans in a shamba. We asked if we could help and they agreed. We spent the next 3 hours hunched over picking French beans. The women get paid 10 ksh ($0.09) per kg of beans that they pick. In four hours they pick probably 20 kg’s of beans, so they make like $2 at the most! That really is tough work. It’s killer on the back. These people here have backs of steel from all the stuff they do. After picking they washed and weighed the beans and put them in sacks to take back to Kalongo. Each sack weighed 35 – 40kgs (about 75 lbs), and the mamas were going to carry it on their backs. We were going to carry some for them, but I made the decision it would probably be better if we didn’t, because our backs are not conditioned for that weight like theirs, and it would not be good if anyone got hurt. So the interesting thing with green beans/ French beans, is that they are picked in Kenya, shipped to France that night, packaged in France and marked with France then sent to America the following day. The beans we picked will be in America before Friday. So next time your shopping for green beans, just know they could possibly have come from Kenya. After getting home, we waited for the Kilili Elders to arrive, its nice to have them here, they really relieve a lot of stress, and we spend hours laughing and talking.
Well, there you have it, there’s the crazy week with a companionship that is somewhat seeking improvement.
To get a scriptural Idea of how I feel, read Alma 8 when Alma is rejected by the people and his heart is full of sorrow..
Next week I will be in Nairobi for Zone Conference.
Love you all, Elder Rushton J Hiltbrand
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