Jan. 13, 2014 A week of working with less actives and recent converts

Hello there, 

So last week, I said I would update you on the waterfalls we went to last Monday. So we went to these waterfalls in the far outskirts of Huruma. We drove with 6 of us crammed into the back seat of a small truck and headed out to the bush. My companion, Elder Ndwandwe, was sitting on our laps, and because we were on a bumpy dirt road, everytime we would hit a bump, his head would smash against the roof and make a super loud and painful noise. Eventually, we drove up to this wide river that had some small falls up stream, so I thought "oh cool, these are nice, not as big as I expected, but still cool." Then I looked down the river and saw that it just dropped off.  I went over there and low and behold, a massive waterfall! Seriously huge! It was wide and dropped so far down! It was beautiful! What was even crazier was that just 50m upstream, there were people bathing in the river.  I felt they would just get swept away and thrown close to 150m off the falls and die, but nope they just bathed like no big deal. We were able to go down to the falls, and it was super cool, because we could even go behind the waterfalls in this cave type thing.  It reminded me a lot of Batman and his hidden Bat Cave. I took close to 130 pictures, so don’t worry you will get to see it when I manage to get those pictures home. Seeing this water fall, really testified to me of God and his creation of the world. This world is too beautiful to have just occurred by sheer chance. There had to have been a great architect of the world. Every time I see these remarkable sights of nature, it really testifies to me that God exists. So that was our trip to the waterfalls.

We discussed with him how the Lord will test people by trial to see if they are worthy of increased blessings. He seemed to understand , but still his faith is easily swayed.We discussed with him how the Lord will test people by trial to see if they are worthy of increased blessings. He seemed to understand , but still his faith is easily swayed.

This last Tuesday was our moving day. We were only moving upstairs, but still there was a whole bunch of stuff to move. Our landlord hired some young men to assist, and wow they worked fast. We began at around 8:30 am, and just moved everything in a constant chain. The two guys helping us would carry anything, and it was super strange to see them carry my suitcases upstairs before I had told them to...oh well haha. They were paid not for the time spent, but instead for the job as a whole, so they wanted to finish quickly. On Monday, we had gone to the gym, so I turned out to be extremely sore, it hurt to get out of bed. I usually have never been sore before, but after 8 months of no gym, one day of pushing myself like I used to, dominated me. We finished moving around 1:30 pm and then for the next hour or so, Elder Ndwandwe and I rearranged stuff and put up curtains and things. I made super awesome actual functioning curtains that I was very proud of.  I had to find some way to be creative while here. 

Afterwards, we went and visited Fredrick, a recent convert who has slipped into inactivity. He is a nice guy, just easily persuaded by opposing forces. He says that since joining the church, all he has experienced is trials and struggle. He says that before joining he had 600,000ksh ($7000) in his account and lived a nice life, but now he has 3000 ($35) and stays in a compound near his mother taking care of her. We left him a message on faith and obedience brings blessings.  In contrast, afterwards, we met up with Joel Ndiba on the road. He is the Elders Quorum president and wow what an inspiration he is.  For work, he has a mobile duka (shop) on a board on the back of his bike.  He rides around all day selling little knick knacks and such that people desire. He also created a knife sharpener on the front so he can put the bike stationary and peddle to sharpen knives. It’s really cool. He is probably the most humble and gospel educated man that I have met in Huruma. He knows the needs of the members because he truly cares about them and wants the best for them. He also loves the Lord and is strictly obedient because he knows there are blessings to be had. He used to walk around with a board on his arms selling things, but through obedience to the Lord, and trust in Him, he now has two bikes to sell by, and is planning to open a duka (shop) soon to sell at. He has a smart phone and a home, all because he trusts in the Lord and follows the commandments. Usually when you see people in circumstances like his, you would think they must work on Sundays to survive, but he testified to us that by not working on Sundays, and trusting that God will bless him as he does that, he says that every Saturday he seems to make enough money to not need to work on Sunday. Really an awesome guy.

Wednesday was a day I don’t want to forget. Not because the DDM (District Development Meeting) was especially good or anything, because Elder Beacom did give a nice inspiring lesson on the Book of Mormon, but it is what happened later that was so incredible. After DDM, just Elder Ndwandwe and I went to the usual garden restaurant to find out that their kitchen had entirely burned down, so they could not sell food. So we went to another place. We then went to Sister Margaret’s. She is a super nice young lady.  She is 26 with a child but no support of the husband, which is pretty common here. We had FHE with her and her roommate/ friend Anabel. It was good and we talked about all sorts of things to answer her questions and such. I tried to answer each of her questions by just using lots of scriptures and that proved to work really well. She loved being able to see how the scriptures give her answers. As it was getting late, she gave us cocoa and butter sandwiches. We continued chatting, and it started to rain really hard. It would come and go in frequent increments, but still much rain. As I looked at my watch, I noticed it close to 8:00 pm, the mission curfew.  It was still raining, but I knew that if we wanted to get home on time we had to leave then. I looked over to Elder Ndwandwe and he said "we'll get soaked!" So what did I suggest we do in that situation? well pray of course! I said "I have the solution. We'll pray for the rain to stop and it will stop so we can get home on time and dry." They all laughed at me at first and thought I was crazy, but once they settled down, I offered the prayer. It was short and simple, "please stop the rain so that we may be able to get home on time, that we may be dry, and that our stuff may also be dry." As I closed the prayer, the rain had come to a complete stop! They were shocked, but I just told them that the simple plea for help will always be answered if we have faith. We left them with that, and headed home. Did it rain again? No it did not. Did we get wet? No we did not. I call that right there a miracle, and an answer to my prayer. When we got home I told my companion "see I told you if we prayed the rain would stop."  He accused it of being a coincidence, but I on the other hand know it was an answer to my prayer. As said by president Thomas S Monson, "there are no coincidences."

Thursday was a fun service day. We went to the Eldoret Hospital to play with the children who are there with ailments and injuries. When we got there, they were all playing with puzzles and such. After just a few minutes, we were told to clear everything and make a circle. They passed out these bright colored cloths to us and the children. Then they turned on this strange instructional music and we all danced around in this circle waving the cloths and such. My arms were still incredibly sore, so it was painful when we were supposed to swing our arms around our body. There were some children standing and watching and I felt that they too may want to come and join in, so I went over and gave one of the children my cloth and found the bag of them and made sure each child had one so that they could participate in the great fun. After we were finished dancing around with the cloths, we danced around in a circle singing. I realized that in order to have fun with children, you just have to go all out and act really silly. The kids love that. Soon we all went outside so the kids could play outside. Elders Beacom, Barasa, and I were passing a soccer ball back and forth talking.  The soccerball went behind me so I kicked it back wards to them without looking, and it totally swept a little girl out. I immediately picked her back up and made sure she was still happy and smiling, and sent her on her way.  When we finally arrived back in Huruma, we went home teaching with Brother Steve, a huge Kenyan who is just big and has massive hands and feet. He is an RM from 2011, so he has a good knowledge of what needs to be done, and is always willing to help out. We home taught three families, the last being sister Sarah. Not a good idea.  We got there at 6:45, and she kept us until 9:15. She knows we have a curfew, but blatantly refuses to obey it. When we got home, we both were eating on the balcony enjoying our new view of the city and the peaceful night. I like this new flat, the balcony is really a plus.

Friday was pretty fast.  We had our weekly planning, and then the ZLs (Zone Leaders) came to check our apartment to see if there was anything that we needed fixed or replaced. We have many things needing replaced, but not much needing fixed because our flat is new.  The funny thing is, they say yes we will be sure to get you those things, but we already know they won’t come for 3 months at the earliest. It’s missionary life and a missionary flat, they don’t seek to improve them all the time. We then went and taught sister Rhoda a few new convert lessons. After which we assisted her in watering her garden of mboga (veggies).  We had to get water from a bore hole, which was really cool. Its just like a well, but they collect water by hand. So there I was standing over this hole, pulling a bucket up filling a jerry can, then doing it again. I felt like a pioneer doing that. They kept telling me to arch my back and bend over, but considering their backs are permanently curved that way or board straight, I just stood normal doing it. After Rhoda’s, we went to Brother Willberforces, the branch clerk. He is a really nice guy who also wants to see the church grow here in Huruma. After less than ten minutes, Steve arrives to come do his home teaching there. it really was funny, Steve is very persistent haha. They were watching a soap opera. They absolutely love those here In Kenya! It’s super odd how much they like them, and they like the Asian and Mexican ones. Never would I have thought that, but when they come on, they are glued to the tv. They are lame soaps too, like asian mermaids and stuff. I thought it was really funny learning this.

Saturday really wasn’t very eventful at all.  We went to the church in attempts to have an activity and we invited Less Actives and Recent Converts, kinda last minute to come watch a church movie, but only about 4 people came.  So we watched the first of The Work and the Glory movies. I love those ones, because they put into perspective the story of Joseph Smith and what he went through. Next week, we plan to have FHE and will have food and stuff so more people will come, plus we are giving them a week notice. Afterwards at around 6:00 pm,  we went and visited sister Norah, the wife of a former Branch President, but sadly the whole family has fallen into less active status. When we got there she wasn’t there, but the daughter told us to sit and wait so we did. We had brought Steve along, so we were all talking and laughing. At 7:00 pm Norah arrived, greeted us, then went into the back and prepared cocoa and butter sandwiches, after which she brought them out, blessed them, and went back to make more food. They love to make us food. It was getting late, passed curfew and the food was still not finished, so we told her we had to go, but she said the food was almost done, so we waited. The ZLs called us because it was 9:00 pm, when she brought the food out, I scarfed it down, and we thanked her, and hurried home. It hurts having to eat so much food, but its offensive if you don’t finish it.

Sunday was pretty much just church, then we went Home Teaching with Brother Willberforce and Brother Kevin Osinda, the 2nd councilor in the Branch. We visited sister Jane and Christine. It was super odd at Christine’s, because as we were sharing with her, her husband a pastor of another faith was preaching to people in the back room. odd but ok.

So that was pretty much the whole week, sorry if theres not a whole ton of detail, I will try to be better at that.

Love always,  Rushton Jay Hiltbrand

"We have not been called to be successful, but to be faithful." - Mother Theresa