So on Monday of last week, I wrote late at night because we were in interviews with President Hicken most of the day. We had planned to have an awesome preparation day in Nairobi, but ended up only able to do one or two things on the list because of the length of interviews with President Hicken. That night when we got back to the flat, Elder Ita and I were sitting around talking in the main room at the AP’s (Assistants to the Mission President) flat and the APs came in and told us right off the bat that we need to give more credit to the spirit and God, and less to ourselves. This hit hard. Like a big cement truck to the face, both of us were blown away. We may consider ourselves as good missionaries and be decent teachers, but we lacked to attribute that to the workings of the spirit and instead gave ourselves credit. That got all four of us to talking and we ended up talking till midnight about many things of spiritual nature, it was a powerful conversation. Our sons (missionary trainees) came in to get their stuff and listen for about 5 minutes, then headed back down to the Office Elders’ Flat which is nearby. They totally missed out.
On Tuesday, it was Zone Conference. Zone Conferences are my favorite, and this one topped all the others. An interesting thing done by President Hicken is that he entirely relies on the spirit. If the spirit tells him to do one thing, then he does it, if it’s totally different from what he planned, then he still does it. This meant for Zone Conference he had an idea of what he wanted to do and talk about, but if the spirit told him to change that mid conference then that’s what was done. The conference was incredibly spiritual, and we watched some of the clips from the Work of Salvation, and after each one discussed what we learned and how we can apply that in our branches and in our personal service. President Hicken gave an incredible lesson on Obedience, Repentance, Hope, and Love. I dont have my notebook on me right now, but I took pages and pages of notes, trying not to miss a thing. He emphasized hope and how our hope guides us in everything we do in life. It is our hope in a life after death that gives us strength with the loss of a loved one, it is our hope in the atonement that drives us to be better and be obedient. Hope is a driving factor for all we do in life.
After Zone Conference, we had a feast of food, well at least if felt like a feast compared to what we've been eating in the hills. Sister Constollata is the cook for the food. She is a wonderful woman from the Buru Buru ward, and she cooks as though she is a Goddess of African cuisine. She made Cinnamon Chapatti (Kenyan flatbread) which were interesting, but way good. They would be nice as crepes with strawberries and icing or something of the sorts. Once we finished, we all talked for a while and embraced our friends and MTC (Mission Training Center) buds. It’s crazy that it’s already been 6 months. I feel like the MTC was yesterday..and talking to my buddies, it made me realize that the problems faced in my companionship really aren’t problems at all. Sure there may be lack of unity and some contention, but things could be far worse. When we finished talking and taking pictures and such, Elder Ita, Harding, Janda, Skidmore, and I left to go do some shopping in town. We went to the Hilton where they have awesome souvenirs and stuff at a good price. I got some tire sandals which are way comfy for 600ksh ($6.93). Usually tire sandals are incredibly uncomfortable, but these ones are nice. Later that night we ordered in pizza at 6:30 and it arrived around 8:30. It’s nice to have delivery here, but because of the craziness of the city, it is slow. We had saved our allotment for the month so we could eat nice in Nairobi, so we had plenty to spend and enjoy the good food, rather than the usual maize, beans, bread, and veggies. After giving Elder Gideon (one of the APs) a piece of pizza he immediately wanted to order some and was trying to get people together to order some because it is 2 pizzas for 1000ksh ($11.50). It was 9:15pm haha, the delivery was closed, but it was hilarious to see his acting on impulse for good food. We again had a long late night conversation with the APs. It’s nice to talk to them and be able to ask them questions and get answers and such. After they went to bed at 11:45pm, Elder Ita and I were up talking till 1:30am until we were delirious and the time before each word was like 10 seconds. We discussed our trainees and how we want the best for them and how we hope we trained them well enough. Our sons are entirely different from us and it makes it harder to see if our training is helping or not. I sure hope so, because im trying my best, but with lack of feedback it makes it tough.
After Zone Conference, we had a feast of food, well at least if felt like a feast compared to what we've been eating in the hills. Sister Constollata is the cook for the food. She is a wonderful woman from the Buru Buru ward, and she cooks as though she is a Goddess of African cuisine. She made Cinnamon Chapatti (Kenyan flatbread) which were interesting, but way good. They would be nice as crepes with strawberries and icing or something of the sorts. Once we finished, we all talked for a while and embraced our friends and MTC (Mission Training Center) buds. It’s crazy that it’s already been 6 months. I feel like the MTC was yesterday..and talking to my buddies, it made me realize that the problems faced in my companionship really aren’t problems at all. Sure there may be lack of unity and some contention, but things could be far worse. When we finished talking and taking pictures and such, Elder Ita, Harding, Janda, Skidmore, and I left to go do some shopping in town. We went to the Hilton where they have awesome souvenirs and stuff at a good price. I got some tire sandals which are way comfy for 600ksh ($6.93). Usually tire sandals are incredibly uncomfortable, but these ones are nice. Later that night we ordered in pizza at 6:30 and it arrived around 8:30. It’s nice to have delivery here, but because of the craziness of the city, it is slow. We had saved our allotment for the month so we could eat nice in Nairobi, so we had plenty to spend and enjoy the good food, rather than the usual maize, beans, bread, and veggies. After giving Elder Gideon (one of the APs) a piece of pizza he immediately wanted to order some and was trying to get people together to order some because it is 2 pizzas for 1000ksh ($11.50). It was 9:15pm haha, the delivery was closed, but it was hilarious to see his acting on impulse for good food. We again had a long late night conversation with the APs. It’s nice to talk to them and be able to ask them questions and get answers and such. After they went to bed at 11:45pm, Elder Ita and I were up talking till 1:30am until we were delirious and the time before each word was like 10 seconds. We discussed our trainees and how we want the best for them and how we hope we trained them well enough. Our sons are entirely different from us and it makes it harder to see if our training is helping or not. I sure hope so, because im trying my best, but with lack of feedback it makes it tough.
Wednesday was a travel day back to Kilungu, We stopped by Tusky's on the way to the stage (bus station), but half of us got separated from the others. We stopped by a watch store and found they had some nice watches, but super expensive 6000 – 15000ksh ($70 – $175). Taking a closer look at some of the watches such as a Diesel brand, you could see they are totally fake. Everything is chinese counterfeit here in Kenya. It’s frustrating at times, because there is no quality control on anything like there is in America. The bus ride home was awful, it took 5 hours and we just sat in the bus at the stage for 2 hours. The fumes from the buses always kill me and give me a headache. While sitting in the very last row of the bus with my comps in the 2 rows ahead, I felt the need to put a pamphlet on a seat a few away from me. No one was on the back of the bus, but I did as I felt and put a Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ Pamphlet on the seat. I then fell asleep till we left. Later, a man sitting in that seat read the pamphlet, front cover to back cover. It took him like 30 minutes, but I’d like to suppose he was pondering its message while reading. He then must have thrown it on the ground or something. We saw tons of Giraffes on the ride home. It was amazing how close they were to the road. Absolutely beautiful animals. Their movement and appearance is incredibly majestic and surreal. I bought some of the popular street food here, roasted maize which you can buy a small portion of the cob for 10ksh ($.12). As time passed, the man picked the pamphlet up off the ground, and read it once more cover to cover and afterwards put it in his pocket. Who knows what will ever become of the man and the pamphlet, but I did what the spirit prompted me to do and planted the seed. I also had a conversation with a young guy sitting next to me about tons of things, govt, schooling, and then ended with talk about religion and why I’m serving a mission. He was very interested, and thought it was commendable that I could devote 2 years of my life to serve God while the world says to do otherwise. Nice guy, as we were getting off I gave him a pamphlet and told him to read it and give us a call sometime, he agreed to do so.
On Thursday, it was thanksgiving, well at least I thought it was. I thought the previous week was Thanksgiving, so I had two this year.. We did service at the Mutukus digging and cultivating their shamba. While doing so, we kept finding tons of spiders, not little ones, but big ones the size of an orange, the poisonous ones when they grow bigger and older. Yes they get bigger than that. I am in africa, the home of dangerous bugs and animals. After service they fed us a huge Ugali cake (cornmeal mush) with sukuma (braised kale with tomatos). These are times I’m glad my comp loves Ugali and eats fast. I don’t like Ugali very much and I eat slowly compared to him. On the way home later that evening after teaching, I purchased a rabbit for us for our Thanksgiving dinner. This rabbit was truly a fighter. When trying to see Naomi at the clinic, he ripped through the bag he was in (their claws are massive!) and ran around the clinic. I had to carry him home by the ears and everyone looked at us as though we were crazy. Elder Janda wanted to kill him this time since we probably won't be together much longer, he wanted to know how to do it. I did the skinning and gutting as normal. I have become a pro at it. We made a nice dinner of rabbit and potatoes, then played Monopoly Deal. Thats how Thanksgiving is done in Kenya.
Friday was pretty uneventful, we taught Winfred in her shop/ hotel (restaurant) and had our eyes burned out by the smoke. It just makes us look emotional as we try to cope with the smoke. I dont know how they can sit in the smoke all day and feel nothing, its craziness. After teaching we went and found Big Mike and talked him into coming to Mitini with us for the Young Mens activity. We arrived and no one was at the church, so we decided to go eat as we waited. I promised Big Mike I would pay for him, so he happily encouraged us to go eat food. There’s a reason Big Mike is called Big. haha, gotta love him though. At the Church after eating, President Kaseve had me update a bunch of records in the computer. When it comes to computer stuff, I am always the one they ask. I guess I’m blessed with the ability to quickly figure things out. Afterwards we walked to Kyambeke.
Saturday was Baptisms in Ilima, a total of 36 people baptized. It was an amazing sight. It was funny. At first the baptismal font was filled to the brim, this is a deep baptismal font, so if we had kept it at that level, the kids would be fully submerged just standing there. We had to lower it, but after 36 baptisms it lost a ton of water. After the baptismal service, we headed to a funeral in Wautu. We arrived and the funeral had already begun meaning we had missed the food. That was a bummer because that’s the best part. We sat there for 3 hours till it finished listening to the speeches in kikamba, didnt understand a word.. The grandkids of the person who died are way wealthy and it’s a stark difference from those in ukambani. The grandkids were coming from Dubai, and America. That night we had to stay in Kyambeke because Elder Utonga was feeling ill, that was no problem, we made some really nice food, and watched some church videos. With transfer news next week, it’s always fun to guess where your going and if your going. The transfer sheet gets all marked up with guesses and stuff, but as the AP’s say, you can guess all you want and never get it right. It’s done entirely by revelation not by man made decision.
Sunday was Fast and Testimony meeting in church. We attended the Kyambeke branch and I bore my testimony of God’s work in this area, and the faith and love of the people. It was a nice meeting, possibly my last time being in Kyambeke. The young men loved to talk to me. They come up to me and act as though I’m their big brother or something, even though most of them I have just met. They circled around me and asked me questions. I asked them their ages and they were all way older than they look. With Africans, if they look 13 they are actually 16. It’s crazy how they age so slowly. After church later in the day, we broke our fast with a nice meal of Ugali and supu (soup) with Smokies, it was great because I was actually craving Ugali.
Monday was a travel day back to Kalongo, because Utonga was not feeling good we agreed we would wait for a mkombozi to take us to mitini. I am trying to be more submissive and humble in interacting with Utonga, and it seems to be paying off. The Mkombozi was taking forever, we waited an additional 2 hours for it and it never came, so when Utonga said "okay we can walk a little" I gladly did so. I wasn’t going to say it, because he was the one not feeling well, and it’s seen as a command.
Well the companionship is doing so much better and much more unified. Next monday night we find out transfer news, so maybe next week I will be telling you I am leaving the hills. We will see though.
Love you all, Elder Rushton Jay Hiltbrand
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