Hopefully everyone had a good week this week. I know that I did, it was a somewhat busy week, but at the same time it was somewhat slow. The end of it was really awesome though!
So this week I have been really happy, I have been feeling good and have really felt as though I am progressing, I am doing better. You know, each of us are God's investigators, and when we accept His will and determine ourselves to follow the plan which He established for us to be better and happier, then we progress and no longer does life seem so hard, but rather it starts to make sense and our fears begin to turn into faith and our sorrow into Joy, This is how I have been feeling this past week, and have made a new determination to be a progressing investigator in God's grand teaching pool.
Tuesday we had some good lessons. We visited brother John who is still less active, but is progressing and also taught Lavine, the daughter of Brother Paul. We had a great lesson about the premortal existence and she committed to be baptized January 25! Later in the day we taught brother David about the Word of Wisdom, we felt the need to start teaching him the commandments a bit earlier so that they don't come as a big surprise or anything later on. Eesh it was an interesting lesson, sometimes you just wish that they would understand that God gives commandments for the blessing and growth of his children, not for their bondage or sorrow. It was apparent that the main problem he has with the Word of Wisdom is Tea. It is very cultural here and due to that it makes many people have a hard time separating from it. He desired evidence from the Bible of where it says to not drink tea, well it's not there. But that should not matter. If Joseph Smith was a prophet and the Lord called him to be the prophet to restore the true church and gospel back to the earth, then the latter day commandments that the Lord reveals to him are commandments and if we obey we are blessed, if we do not obey, then we lose the blessings we could have had. It all comes down to whether Joseph Smith is a Prophet, because if he is then as in times of old, the Lord may reveal to him direction and guidance for the blessing of Heavenly Fathers children and whatever is revealed is scripture and is as though the Lord were to have spoken it himself.
Wednesday we had a lot of bounces, we were able to get a lot of contacts and meet with some more great people, but due to a big exhibition in the sports ground, most the people we were able to contact were from far away, or were more interested in selling to us rather than listening to what we had to share.
Thursday we had a nice District Development meeting, in which I gave the training on "The Power of the spirit in Conversion", that morning while trying to figure out what to train on, I was in a total stupor of thought, but then I felt that I needed to train on that specific topic, while standing up there training, pretty much everything I had prepared went out the window and it ended up being the same topic, but much different than I had thought. It is interesting how the spirit works, sometimes at that particular instance someone needs to hear something in particular and you are the vehicle for delivery. So I may have sounded pretty jumbled and all over the place, but the spirit was there, and clearly got the message across. In the afternoon we met with David and continued to discuss the Word of Wisdom. He is very set on the fact that he does not have to give up tea because he feels it is not a sin. Well one thing is, it shows that until he understands that these things are not there to restrict him, but they are the Lord's means of helping us get through this world of confusion, then he is not able to progress forward. I really love David, and want to see him have the great blessings that are in store for him from the Gospel, but he must exercise his agency and be ready to receive the blessings God has in store. We also taught Walter about all the priesthood ordinances of the Aaronic Priesthood. He was really excited to tell us that he had passed the sacrament last week and was really looking forward to blessing the sacrament this week. He is such a good guy, a true kingdom builder.
Friday we had our weekly planning as usual, and correlation then had some lessons in the afternoon. During our Weekly planning we were trying to put together a bunch of Scripture cards to give to a member for the twelve days of Christmas. Our mission President has instructed for each companionship to do some sort of twelve days of Christmas to help them feel the spirit of Christmas and have a fun time with it. So through kneeling prayer, we discovered who we needed to do it for Grace. She lives out in Mbeme which is about 20-25 min matatu plus about 40 min walking. It may seem far, but we really felt that she needs it the most to help to lift her spirits. So On the Twelfth day of Christmas, 12 scriptures came to you, reminders of the birth of Christ who died for me and you! Yeah we're pretty creative haha. We had a lesson with Agnus at the church afterwards, she had some questions regarding the Book of Mormon ch 13. so we helped to answer those questions and got into conversation to how families can be together forever and how Our loving Heavenly Father gives a chance for all his children to be saved, through ordinances performed for the dead. She had never heard of that before and wanted to learn more, so we arranged for another appointment later this coming week.
Saturday was a packed day as usual, and we hadnt scheduled lunch, so we were relying on angels to lift us up and preserve us as we ran place to place. We were all over Kisumu. As usual, Saturday is one of our busiest days, we also went out to Graces to drop off the gift for the first day of the activity. Davis walked with us the whole day, so that was awesome. Lots of lessons, and lots of walking.
Well Sunday was a very fulfilling day, we had the primary program at church, and they did an awesome job with that. It was a lot like primary programs in the states, all the kids got up and said their name and "and I have a talk" then quoted a scripture. Then all the children sang together. It was a long program but good. Throughout the day, we had a correlation with the sisters, with the branch mission leader, gave a blessing, and went tracting! So with Tracting... my companion and i are convinced we must be doing something wrong, because 5 out of the 7 doors we knocked opened and all of those that opened we were able to teach a lesson, one in particular after we had introduced ourselves she asked "so... did you want to come in and teach us?" We were all like Yes! so we went in and taught about the Restoration and helped to answer her concerns as to why there are so many churches in the world, this is a problem that has been on her mind and as she had attended churches in the past, she felt as though they weren't built upon a proper foundation so she left and decided that she would no longer attend church. Also while teaching her, she was informed that a friend of hers had died, so that brought up some questions about whether we will live after death and so on. It was awesome! Then another door we knocked on, we just hear a "Ingea" Meaning enter, so we walk in and sit down and taught another lesson... It was so cool! It was both of ours first time actually knocking doors, we loved it and have planned to make it a regular part of the schedule! We have always been told tracting is so unsuccessful and all that, but it definitely turned out to be powerful here! After returning to the church, we found the Busia Elders there and they were with the couples and the couples fed us chicken soup and rolls for dinner. Great day!
So there you have it for the week, it was really an uplifting week and has helped me to get back up and on my feet and run run run. Thank you everyone for the support and love, This Holiday season is a wonderful time and I hope you all enjoy and feel the true spirit of the Holiday as you remember the birth of our savior!
Love always,
Elder Rushton Jay HIltbrand
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