Well hello there everyone,
So I have now officially been in Kisumu for one whole week, it’s actually more than that, but yeah you get the point. They say that Kisumu time goes fast, but I would say that the time anywhere goes fast when you enjoy what you are doing. This week has been pretty fast, but a roller coaster none the less.
So on Monday of last week, I literally felt horrible. I felt as though I was going to die when I was getting in bed. My body was really just not feeling right and my head was really hot. I took some cayenne pepper right before bed, and when I woke up the next morning, I had sweat like crazy throughout the night, but I felt so much better than I had prior. Later that day, we went to teach John Matua, he is a kamba who sells beautiful crafted souvenirs like Helen does. We let him ask questions and focused the lesson on the things that he didn’t know or wanted to know more clearly. He chose to talk about prayer, because Kenya is considered to be a praying country and there are always prayers offered, so we helped him to understand what prayer is, why we pray, and how we pray. After the lesson, he really understood better. We then went and taught a man named Felix, the guard who we taught last week. He is 20 years old and a recent convert. He is a really nice guy and whenever he talks, he always says "I mean um.." Really a cool and friendly guy with a nice sense of humor. While in town, we were looking for some sunglasses for me because I must have misplaced my other ones. We found a guy selling pants and it’s so funny to find thrift shop tags for 95 cents yet they are selling the pants for 500ksh ($5.70) or more. Also, whenever you go to a restroom here, it costs 10ksh ($.11) and then if you by chance need more toilet paper you must pay another 5ksh. ($.05) One of the interesting things here is that all movies and series are only 50ksh ($.57) for the whole thing. Everything is illegally copied, but that’s just the norm here, like 25 movies for 100ksh on one cd.
On Wednesday, we were going to go and visit Helen and then we see this Land Cruiser filled with wazungu (white people) pull up at the souvenir place and out comes this man and states "hey you guys like tracts!?" and gives us a pamphlet sort thing, turns out he is from northern California, an interesting guy, knew the church. We went and visited this little primary school after meeting this guy who insisted on us coming and greeting the children. We went and he wanted one of us to talk to the children and give them encouragement. We weren’t sure what to say, but I then just felt to go through and to ask all the kids what they want to be when they grow up. Every one of them said Doctor, Policeman, Teacher, or Pilot. I talked to them about the necessity for them to work hard and really do their best and then if they do so, they will be able to achieve what they want. We then met with a young man who we are trying to help get on mission, he is a good kid, just needs that encouragement to go. Elder Ndaba wasn’t feeling very good while we were walking but he was able to make it through the day. We made a challenge for my companion to jump 3000 jump ropes in 1 hour, (he says he can jump all day everyday), so I had to challenge him to do it, but we didn’t do it till thursday night.
Thursday we went and cleaned the couples flat, hoping to earn some brownie points when they come. We are receiving new couples so we wanted to show how awesome the missionaries are in Kisumu. After cleaning we had lunch, and I took an extra large spoonful of cayenne pepper, then we were heading to get on a matatu and while walking across the road, a shoe seller hailed us so we paused and turned, and then next thing we know, I get hit straight in the back of the head by a Tuk Tuk (three wheeled taxi) that had a large pole of metal protruding from the back, that knocked me down a bit, and it sure did not feel good. There was no blood, but the welt was about a quarter in size with a line going down, everyone was just looking like "pole, pole" (slowly, slowly). That night My companion attempted to jump rope 3000 in one hour. He ended up doing 4500 in 58min and 3000 in 33min, so yeah he did well, I was pretty surprised at his determination.
Friday, we then went and had some teaching appointments and then gave a sick baby a blessing. Our couples arrived on Friday and we just happened to run into them while at the Nakumatt (grocery store). They are from Heber City, Utah, their name is the Horners. They are super nice and it’s going to be very nice having them around and working with them. They invited us out to dinner that night and of course we accepted. We went to this nice place and had some delicious food. They were also with the office couples so there were 6 of us at dinner, a nice time and nice first day with the couples here in Kisumu.
Saturday we went and visited Cyprian, he is a super nice crippled man who used to be a carpenter, but was beat up a few years ago and it ended up crippling him. It’s sad how badly people get beat here, and how often they do. We shared with him forgiveness then left and ran by the couples really quick to pick up some supplies, and they invited us in for lunch. It had been a really long time since having a ham sandwich with lettuce and mayo! It was delicious! After, we went and taught a young kid named Steve Beako, he is 12 or 14yrs old, but he is brilliant. He has already read the Book of Mormon 4 times this year, that’s amazing!! When we were heading home, we picked up some rat traps to make catching the rats easier. We have two, but one of the traps killed one of them, but nasty thing is that the next morning we found that the other rat had eaten alot of his buddy.
Sunday was the couples first Sunday in Africa. It’s amazing to see someone so fresh from the states. I still remember when that was me and how I was. The Branch President kept repeating "Welcome to our circle! Welcome to our circle!" I had the privilege of teaching the gospel principles class and I thought that it went well about the Sabbath Day. I find it important to get lots of participation so that everyone learns. After church, we attended Branch council, but left before the end because it wasn’t really applying to missionary work and it was going in circles. My companion made Omena, these tiny minnow like fish for lunch. They were good, but he insisted that I tell him they were the best I ever had. They were good, but not something I’d say was the best. I did enjoy the ones Elder Nyirenda used to make. We also had a dinner appointment with Sister Susan. It was fun. She likes to talk alot and she had two other ladies from the branch there who love to laugh too. One loves to state " the church is true, the food is there" haha. Later the other elders in our zone came for exchanges, so we were with them on Sunday night and we ended up playing monopoly until 1:30 in the morning, that game is too long... 9 - 1:30..
Well that is pretty much the week for you right there, in a jist kinda just the details of what happened, sorry if its short or not interesting, I’m trying to type as fast as I can because we have an appointment,
Well keep it real, I love you all,
Elder Rushton Jay Hiltbrand
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