Aug 25, 2014 Transfer News and a quick week.

Well Hello again, 

So let me begin with the Transfer news because I know you are surely wondering about it.. So this time around there were no transfers here in Kisumu or Busia, everyone is staying the same, the only difference is that we received two sister missionaries, Sis. Odungo, and Sis. Maduwa. Sis. Odungo is one of the sisters coming from Sierra Leone who is originally a Kenyan. That sure would be tough to have to change missions right in the middle of the mission you are serving and unable to say goodbyes before leaving, but we have no reason to be sad or fear, for the Lord works in mysterious ways and sometimes when we see something that we feel makes no sense, to God it makes perfect sense. Our other sister, Sis. Maduwa is from Uganda and served there for 4.5 months awaiting her visa and working permit, and has now been in Kenya for another 4.5 months. Its way nice to have more missionaries here. It really will help to build up the branch and possibly open the way for another branch to be established in Kisumu. Also it makes us feel so much more like an actual zone and actual Zone Leaders.

Also shout out to my younger brother Grant who has just joined me here on the African Continent. There are now two Elder Hiltbrands here serving the people of Africa, and bringing our Heavenly Fathers children to a remembrance of things which they once knew. So Welcome to Africa Elder Grant Hiltbrand!

Okay so now for the week, so this week went by very quickly, just a lot of things that we had to do. On Tuesday through Friday we had Steve Boaz, one of the member missionaries with us to proselyte and help us with member lessons. We had to prepare for the coming of the sisters, so we ran around gathering food storage to equip their flat with. We had a busy teaching day and saw Brother Wycliff, one of the students who we are still preparing for baptism. His baptism is scheduled for the 30th of the month. We had a great lesson with Walter. I love teaching him, he is always so optimistic and happy about things, always has a smile on his face and really resembles how the gospel can bring light and joy to one’s life. We visited some of our RCs (Recent Converts) who seriously look like twins to me, but they are a year apart. I haven’t seen many twins here in Kenya though. In the evening we had a visit with brother Nicholas who is the acting branch clerk. He is a really nice guy and we discussed going to brother Cyprians. The branch agreed to tear the structure down (his house) and rebuild because the first time that it was done it was a bit weak and wouldn’t last, so we were determined to redo it and make it strong. That night we had a phone call with a member in Qatar who is currently working there and his wife is our investigator. It was pretty cool to hear about the church up there in a place I would have never thought there to be a church. He says that there are 300 - 500 people in attendance at the branch each week. All of the people are like him, up there for working purposes and on contract with their working places, but none the less, the church is there!

Wednesday we went and assisted in the building of Cyprians home. We were only building the structure and then the mudding was planned to be done on Saturday. The Fundi (machine) that brother Nicholas brought did a really nice job and made quick work of it. After building, the day was a very average day and we went and had a few teaching appointments because many of the ones that we had planned bounced us...

Thursday we received our sisters!! We weren’t very sure as to when we would receive the sisters, so we planned a full teaching day but arranged it so that we could shift things around just in case of them showing up. Steve came over with the camera cord that I needed for my camera, my previous one got lost last Monday while at the cyber... so I have been searching for a new one. He wanted 1300ksh ($15) for it, but I was set on 1000ksh ($11). It took a long time to get my price, but I eventually got it haha. We met the couples at the church and they had two referrals there for us. Their names were Felix and Ronni. We had a powerful lesson with Elder Horner present (Senior missionary), it was probably the best/ smoothest first discussion that I have had on mission. It was powerful for sure, really a nice lesson. My companion and I are much more in Sync now with our teaching. To give you a little of background about both Ronni and Felix, so Ronni was the actual referral from the couples. He came up to them while they were down town getting their car fixed and he told them that when they had arrived, he had felt something different about them. The Horners being awesome and ready to share the gospel with anyone had a short discussion with him and gave him the details for the church and arranged to meet during the course of the week. Now Felix has a much more interesting story, which we actually learned on Sunday night. So Felix had just shown up at the church and when we arrived, Elder Horner was sharing a bit with him about the gospel. So now to his story, he was walking up the road from his home, on his way to go and buy a rope in the market in which he was determined to use to hang himself. Well something told him to come to the church. He had never been to it before, but he felt that at that moment he needed to come to the church. Well that’s when we met him. After the lesson he no longer had the desire to hang himself and determined himself to give up alcohol completely.. previously he had greatly struggled with alcohol and just felt that life was against him. The Gospel provided hope, it gave that opening to the light in his life so that he could turn around and feel the love of his Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ, oh how wonderful the gospel is. God truly works in mysterious ways and prepares his children to receive the gospel. That evening we received the sisters, on our way to get them, the matatu we were on broke down and we had to push it... just our luck!

Friday was our weekly planning and after doing so we spent the majority of the day showing the sisters around the town so that they could get some things from the markets and such. It will be tough for them to white wash the area (start out completely new), but it will be a bit easier for them because we are here and will be able to help them to build up their teaching pool. In the evening, we were able to have one appointment with Sister Helen and Brother Alias, it was a good teaching visit and afterwards as we were taking Boda Boda's (bicycle taxis) home, the one I was on was going really slow, and then all of a sudden the pedal snapped right off.... I felt sorry for the man, he got me another Boda Boda to ride on and then he walked away with his broken bicycle, pretty sad sight to see :/

The mudding of Cyprians home took place on Saturday. It was a fun time, mudding the home was definitely  a new experience! We had a lot of fun with it, there was actually quite a few of us that showed up to participate in the mudding. The sisters jumped right in and weren’t afraid to get themselves dirty! Goes to show we have awesome sisters! We weren’t able to finish the whole house, but we were able to do a good amount of it. It is done by stacking rocks on these stick guides that are nailed to the main beams, then using mud as a sort of cement you pile it on then another rock then mud and so on and so on. a bit primitive, but none the less, really a cool experience and now I know how to make a home with very little materials. After mudding, we rushed home and washed up so we could go teaching. We had arranged to do splits. I took brother Steve Baraka with me who had just been baptized recently, he is such an awesome guy, comes from a very privileged and wealthy family, but is the most humble guy i have met. His father is a well known Pastor and owns a large international chain of churches, but Steve came to a knowledge of the truth of the restored gospel and look at where he is today! As we were teaching, it began raining super hard and we had to cut the lesson a bit short because it was getting almost impossible to hear with the banging on the tin roof. It was a good experience for him though. When we got back to the church, we had a correlation meeting with our Branch Mission Leader. he is a return missionary and really has that desire to magnify his calling , so it’s great to have someone helping us out a bunch.

Making chapati.

Sunday was a day of interesting experiences. I had my first opportunity to name and bless a baby. It was a bit nerve racking at first though because I was asked very last minute. It was a really cool experience though, the couples told me that I did a good job and explained that it’s a rare thing for men to be able to name and bless a baby prior to their own, so I count it as a privelege. In correlation with the Ebola scare going around here, we have all been advised to not shake hands but to rather bump fists, it’s a bit strange at first, but it turns out okay. We taught after church and then in the evening we had some super intense thunder and lightning storms that sounded to be right on top of us... Storms here in Kisumu are intense because of the close proximity to the lake.

Overall it was a quick week, full of learning and teaching, this next week should fly by again though, we have many things that we have to do and places to go, so it will make things pass so quickly, I already feel that this last year of my mission is going by so quick, it’s like tomorrow I will be home!

Well until next week,
Love, Elder Rushton Jay Hiltbrand
p.s. feel free to send dear elders this way, it is always appreciated and very much enjoyed, missionaries love to receive them. We may be a bit slow at responding, but know that everything is so very appreciated.