Well Hello Family and friends,
This week I am writing this email first, so that I don't run out of time like I did last week, sorry, but sometimes I just prefer reading emails from people instead of writing. I wish there were some type of device to write everything for me and write my journal entries too, lakini Bado (but, not yet). This week seriously seemed as though it just flew by, like I feel last Monday was yesterday... I guess thus is what happens when you strive to lose yourself in the work and kick it into overdrive.
So Last Monday we got to go to a really cool Animal orphanage! Like seriously it was awesome! my first one on mission, it's called POA Place which just means "OK place". But I thought It was legit. I took tons of pictures, but I will get those to you at a later date because I don't carry cameras on me anymore, and I have to find a safe cyber to use. So your probably wondering well cool you just told us how awesome this place is, but what is it? Well it's where they keep all sorts of cool animals. Ostriches, Cheetahs, Many types of Monkeys, the worlds most deadly snakes, Tortoises, and the grand event was Lions! Yeah thats right, straight up Lion King Status there, they had a Male which was Huge and looked just like Mufasa, and then they had a female that was even bigger than the male, Lions are massive! Chronicles of Narnia makes a pretty acurate depiction of the size when they are riding on Asland.. (Just thought you wanted to know haha). Seeing these animals was really cool, they were behind cages and all, but being able to see them up close was crazy awesome. So now to the snakes, well I saw many deadly Vipers, Spitting Cobras, Puff atters, and the best of the best, the Black Mamba. (Just a note for everyone, I did a report on Black Mambas way back in elementary school because they are the worlds deadliest) The Black Mamba was much thinner than I ever imagined, I've seen neighborhood snakes back home that are much fatter. It's like the width of a Garter snake (whatever those non dangerous green and yellow ones are). I really wanted it to open its mouth because its black inside, but it was busy doing its own thing climbing up the walls. So I can check all those exotic animals off the list, but still many more to see. Oh and one thing about ostriches is they make really strange noises to each other and they totally remind me of velocoraptors from Jurassic Park. Besides the animals, they also had structures to represent the traditional housing of the local tribes. These homes are intense, each one genuine to that tribe, and has its own purpose. Like the Kalenjin Tribe (called by some the running tribe because the majority of the Kenyan running stars are Kalenjin) build large circular homes where one half is where their animals stay at night, while the other is for the family, the doors of that one are way small... Definitely not Elder Hiltbrand size, they are meant to be low so that you come in bowing, but I pretty much had to crawl to get in. I got a really cool picture of that, so I will send that maybe next week. Well, so that was pretty much our time at Poa Place. All of that for only 150ksh (~$1.50)
Now onto Tuesday, Well Tuesday was a pretty average teaching day, but I learned a whole lot about Kenyan Politics and how things work here. One of our new investigators is named Eduu, he looks a ton like my older brother Trevor, and he even acts and talks the same way too, So Trev if your reading this, you have a twin over here in Kenya. So Eduu is a really nice guy, young probably around 24 or so, he is all over the politics and business stuff here, he is running to be the County representative or something for 2017, so he is doing a lot to get his name out to the public. He claims to be all over the social media sites, so he lives on his phone. He came and met us at the church, we were also with Gilbert the new night guard for the church whom we had met and befriended at the Langas Open House before he got transferred to watch the church. (Gilbert is a really awesome guy, he is super friendly, and is always happy. He is one of those guys that when you see him smiling you end up smiling. He is not a member yet, but he pretty much acts as a member so we treat him kinda as though he is.) Well Eduu came and introduced himself and somehow we got on the topic of Politics, so all of us started talking about that. Eduu really likes to talk, so he'll talk for about 20 min telling us all sorts of stories and informing us of all sorts of things, makes the conversation interesting. Soon Stanley one of the RCs (recent converts) in the branch came and joined us, he took the day off work just so he could relax and he ended up deciding to come to the church, so that was cool. Well amidst our talk of politics in Kenya, and the chaotic scenario it is, I felt prompted to open to D&C 121: 34 - 45. It's not normal to open to Doctrine and Covenants when teaching for the first time, but it fit the scenario. We attributed it to being about the arrangement of the righteous and perfect government of God, and how it would be established and how the Kenyan Government is kind of like those whom the Lord talks about in the beginning of the passages. He really liked that scripture, and told us he would strive to apply that to his life. After meeting with Eduu, we went and got lunch across the street, a simple lunch of Githeri (maize and bean dish) and Mangos. I am loving the Mangos here, so I eat them frequently. After I ate the mangos, Gilbert saw I was about to throw away the peels, but he insisted that they are "nice" and so he took them from me and ate them. I guess they are sour like an apple which I'm sure I might enjoy, but I would need to wash the mango myself rather than just with a bit of water like they do it. We taught Edward, another investigator that evening at the church. He only knows Kiswahili, so we were incredibly thankful that we had Stanley present to assist us. That pretty much wrapped up Tuesday. Tuesday evening I told my comp that it would rain that week, but he wouldn't agree haha, we joke around each day and give our weather forcasts, we tried to name the clouds, but gave up after cumulonimbus.
On Wednesday, we had our Usual DDM, but this time Elder Nyirenda and I wanted to set Zone goals with the Zone so that the work can flourish here and so the fruits of the area can be harvested. Eldoret is seriously so fruitful, it just takes obedience, diligence, and prayer. The main struggle I have seen here in this mission is that missionaries don't enjoy contacting many people. My companion and I contact a lot, and it proves to be very fruitful. We set the Zone goal for contacts as 500 per month, this may seem low, but compared to past contacting numbers, it's quite high. If we talk to everyone, then everyone has the chance to hear the gospel, if we don't, then those who are out there just waiting to talk to us never will, because they are too shy or are waiting for us to make the first move. The contacting we have been doing has been really fruitful, sure the statistics are 1 in 1000 contacts are baptized, but that one is still incredibly important. We aren't here for the masses, but rather for the one who has a open and honest heart. Setting zone goals was a bit rough from lack of participation, but I know that if applied then the Eldoret Zone will blossom. After 1.5 hours of setting zone goals, we then had a nice training by my companion regarding patriarchal blessings. We found a neat little reference book in our flat while cleaning it (we have done some deep cleaning, and are currently looking into making some small improvements)[totally off topic but...] Also while cleaning we were blessed with a sweet new toaster! YES I say BLESSED, because when you have a clean apartment you are more able to have the spirit present, so we checked a box that hadnt been opened in years, and low and behold a new 4 slot toaster! It really was funny when we found it, I was like "Companion!! We have a new toaster!!" yelling from the room I was cleaning. Yeah the little things manage to bring such great excitement. So the rest of DDM was good, afterwards we went and found a new hotel to have lunch, we are on a streak of finding cool new places. It's a hit and miss process. Once we returned back to Langas, we taught Simon, he is our 21 year old progressing investigator. He is so awesome. He comes from Tanzania, so he knows Kiswahili perfectly, can understand English, but speaking English is a bit harder. We were finishing the Plan of Salvation with him, I gave him my Kiswahili Triple Combination because he really wanted one, that made him stoked. He has already read the Book of Mormon, and is always looking for more to read, so that should help him. The lesson went really well. Before he left, another young investigator we have named Benson came, this was our first lesson with Benson, and having Simon present was a big help. I like to call those kinds of lessons "Investigator Present Lessons" because its like having a member present. Benson is really smart, and understands quickly so it makes teaching a bit easier for us. Benson and Simon just happen to live in the same area of Langas, so that made them like instant friends. Having a friend in the gospel really helps a great deal.
Thursday my weather forecast came to pass! We went to the hospital for service as usual, and had a good time there. Sister Anderson one couple missionary read a book to the children, about some giant that is charmed by a boys annoying ukulele playing and starts dancing all crazy till he is tired. This totally reminded me of Chensei the young boy with a mental handicap from the hills. Chensei used to love dancing and no matter what kind of music we would play he would dance and go wild till he became tired. That kid had incredible stamina for dancing, so it usually took a long time to tire him out. After service we went to a new restaurant again. This one was good tasting, but not enough food to satisfy us. The prices weren't so bad on the menu, but when the bill came, they were much higher... They just said "oh sorry we haven't changed the prices on the menus yet" that was lame, and irritating, but like I said finding good new restaurants is hit or miss. Next we quickly ran to Bata, the most popular and established shoe retailer in all of africa, so that I could buy some gum boots. I bought some for 799 ksh ($9.25) they should last me the remainder of mission. As we were going to the Matatu stage, it began raining. My comp and I were sitting in the front passenger seat, I next to the window, and the window was down with no way to pull it up, so the matatu conductor and I pried the window out of the slot and pulled it up. Karibu Kenya ;) by the time we got home to our flat to drop off stuff it was pouring. We grabbed a few things for FHE and then set out to go to Family Home Evening at a members home that is far, so there we were standing on the side of the road trying to get a matatu, but none were going to where we wanted. We thought "okay if we walk to the next stage then there must be one" So we walked there and found none going to where we needed. I sure was glad I bought boots that day. My comp used some old small ones that were in our flat, so we had to look awesome trudging along in our gum boots. What was really cool and probably my favorite part about the rain that day was the lightning, there was lightning everywhere!!! the skies were lit up constantly by it, and it looked super close, but it was a ways off. Still fun though. Because no matatus were going out to the place we needed to go and it was getting close to 7:00 we called up the member, sister Jane and rearranged for another day. We then returned home.
Friday I put my new and improved morning routine into place, if anybody thinks walking all day and then waking up at 6:30 the next morning is easy, guess again. It's tough, but we do so because we know that obedience brings blessings. I got into a spell where I would wake up, flop over onto my knees still in bed and say my morning prayer, then sit there and think or study while lying in bed, or a lot of the time I would go into the other room and sit on the couch and either dose back again, or stare blankly at something. I knew I needed to improve on this, so I determined myself to wake up at 6:25, Roll OUT of bed onto my knees and pray kneeling next to my bed, then go and take a shower to wake myself up. I would like to exercise right away after saying my prayers, but my stomach has been really screwed up since theThursday of the previous week. Anyways, I did this new routine and it worked wonders! I was wide awake for my personal study, and I could actually focus. The wondrous blessings that come from Exact Obedience. For teaching during the day, we arranged to meet with Simon, and when he arrived he had two other guys who he had met outside the gate with him. Their names are Moses and Douglas, we sat down and gave them an explanation of what the church is and who we are. It was a powerful discussion, and I could really feel the spirit working through us as we testified of the truthfulness of the gospel and shared with him the Book of Mormon. (just a interesting thing, sharing the Book of Mormon with people is probably my favorite thing here on mission, whether its while teaching or contacting, I love it, and I become really happy while doing so. There is great power in the Book of Mormon. Dont believe me? I invite you to test what I'm saying, read it.) I could tell they were feeling the spirit, Moses told us "I know this book and this church will change my life, I just feel... Home." Its amazing what the spirit can do in a lesson, without the spirit, missionary work would be impossible. After teaching Moses and Douglas, we taught Simon, he had many questions now because after giving him the triple combination, he read the entire section we assigned him (D&C 76) then all of the Book of Moses and the Book of Abraham. He likes deep doctrine, so he wanted explanations, we answered his questions to the best of our ability, then curved the discussion into the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Simon is set to be baptized on the 30th of this month. Although that morning it was warm out, the rain came in the afternoon, and created a great deal of Mud, so we had fun plopping through the mud. The only shida (issue) with rain season is disease spreads like wild fire. Malaria spreads because it is wet all over and spawning time for mosquitoes, and then other diseases like Cholera and Typhoid because all the trash and fecal matter everywhere gets wet and creates nasty smelling mud. This is the case in the slum part of our area, it smells AWFUL! all the time. My comp told me the first time, he just said welcome to the Ghettos, learn the ghetto ways and the smell won't bother you... Its such a bad smell, I don't wish it on anyone to smell it or smell that way.
(Story) so, on Friday night, someone tried to get into our flat at around 11:00pm. I was in the middle of saying my nightly prayers and my comp was asleep and then all of a sudden someone turns the handle to our front door and attempts to jerk it open. This was sketchy.. especially the fact that that night we had no power because of a power outage, and it was raining. I sat there with my headlight pointing at the door to our room, just waiting to hear the sound of the front door break open. Before I had gone to bed, I was pretty sure the front door was locked, because my companion usually does it each night, but I felt prompted to double check and low and behold it was unlocked and partially opened. I locked it then went to bed. I can only imagine the outcome if I had ignored that prompting... Well we were protected throughout that night, so obviously God did hear my prayers to protect us.
So Saturday morning I woke up and informed my companion of what had happened, he is a heavy sleeper, but told me that he too had heard the attempted break in and just thought that I was in the other room.. When I told him I wasn't he was like shoot... we need to be sure to lock it and keep the key far from it each night.. Saturday morning I started reading the New Testament starting in the book of Luke. I want to build my knowledge of the ministry of the Savior and who Christ is, so I am looking to read the New Testament then the Book of Mormon again followed by Doctrine and Covenants. I really enjoy my studies each day, when I ponder them the rest of the day, I remember them so much more. "First seek to obtain my word.." We taught two new investigators today, the first being Bonface, he is a university student and can only meet on Weekends, he had some questions and concerns for us about things that pastors or churches had confused him on. We helped to answer his questions by using the scriptures. I am becoming much better at having scriptures come to mind, and utilizing the scriptures to support all my points as I seek to have the spirit guide me more. It really helps. As we were wrapping up with Bonface, our next appointment arrived, his name is Newton, Our lesson with him was really interesting, not like anything I have had to deal with before. He came with many questions, but didn't want to discuss them, but rather just seek to convince us that we are wrong. He says we may preach and teach of Christ, but he believes that our foundation is not on Christ. The name of the church says it simply "The church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter - Day Saints" we tried to encourage him and challenge him to read the Book of Mormon, but he said he read some and threw it away. That means he didn't even read a whole chapter. If you read just one chapter of the Book of Mormon, you will know of its truthfulness, that is a guarantee. It is the power of the Book of Mormon. Well yeah so our lesson with Newton wasn't even quite a discussion, but instead was him trying to say we are wrong, we couldn't even stay on one topic, and hit probably 50 different topics in 1 hour.. we agreed that we will meet at a later day, and we will talk about only one topic that time. Later that night, while we were at the flat for the night, I turned on my radio, it played for a few minutes then stopped, I wasn't sure what was wrong, so I went over to it and jiggled the power cord to make sure it was in right, then my long lived and convenient radio exploded.... That was the sad death of my beloved radio. The transformer inside must have exploded, it is still in tact, but if you smell it, it smells horrible.. Thank you bogus surge-protector, you killed my radio.
Sunday morning I was awaken by the incredibily loud church across the street. I don't know why, but for the last week they have been having a "crusade" and keep loud music on the entire night, then in the morning they make it even louder. I don't know why they need to be so loud, it's funny though how when the power goes out or it's raining, they don't have church, because they can't use their super loud speakers.. the place they meet is a small sheet metal structure that measures maybe 20 x 15, but their speakers are large enough for an opera house... The interesting things you find in Kenya.
We got to church early, and found some investigators already there, an hour early, thats what we like to see! We stood at the gate and ushered people in. Every week my companion and I must help with the sacrament, because most people come late. I had the privilege to teach Gospel Principles class about "Gods Covenant People." It turned out to be a great lesson, I could feel the spirit present and there was a lot of participation. We taught about how in order to be entitled to the promised blessings that God gave to Abraham, we must enter into the covenant through baptism, and because we are not perfect, we must partake of the sacrament each week to renew those covenants we have made. I made the lesson really visual by drawing alot on the chalk board, and I think that really helped alot. Afterwards, Benson informed us that he wants to be baptized the same day as Simon, so we moved back Simon's baptism with his permission from the 23rd to the 30th. We hadn't even challenged Benson to baptism, but I believe the spirit he felt while at church led him to make that decision. After church we had a great lesson with Moses, Benson, and Symon regarding the Restoration. It went really well, and Moses said he loved his experience at church, he has already made lots of friends, and feels like part of the family. Afterwards we had lunch at our flat with a young man from the branch named Hassan, he is a nice kid, and loves the missionaries, so he came to have lunch. We had Ugali and Chicken necks for lunch, it filled us all. Afterwards Nyirenda and I did our weekly accounting, and started studying for the training we will be giving on Wednesday at Zone Conference.
This next week should be quite busy with zone conference and picking up the elders coming to stay in the zone for the conference, so it will most likely fly by! Sorry about not writing last week, I didn't have the determination to do so, and the time, but hopefully this weeks makes up for the loss. I had planned to write it by hand during the week, but then next thing I knew was the week was over.
I know this church is true, If you don't, you have the great privilege to find out for yourself. No one is trying to convince you, I as a missionary am not in Kenya to Convince, but rather to INVITE, I invite you to read the Book of Mormon, and pray to know of its truthfulness. It will change your life for the better.
I love you all,
Elder Rushton Jay Hiltbrand
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