New Years in Kenya is probably the biggest holiday celebrated, so it gets pretty packed with people on the streets and in the super markets, but everyone goes around greeting one another with Happy New Year and strives to be a bit kinder and better as they attempt to keep their New Years Resolutions.
I will keep this short because I've got only a few minutes, we've been having to do some unplanned errands and changes so its taken a lot of the day.
So for the week, we have been doing a lot of teaching, we have had 30+ lessons this week, and have had to take care of some stuff for the zone, so day's get pretty hectic. Each Day we have been trying to go and teach Sister Christine in preparation for her baptism this past week. So on Tuesday, we went and had a "Make it or Break it" lesson with two of our investigators who have not been very serious recently, so we read with them Moroni 6:1-3 about the requirements of baptism and the necessity to keep their commitments, because it will help them to grow. They both committed to be better at keeping their commitments and attend church weekly, so we hope they stick to it. That evening we taught Elizabeth, the girl I had mentioned last week and the lesson went really well. We have seen that if she will read the Book of Mormon then she can be totally turned around and find much greater understanding.
Wednesday we had a good DDM taught by sister Muduwa about being a successful missionary. It's interesting to see how different people consider a missionary to be successful. It's not numbers that matter, but a growth in understanding and testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ and the recognization of the necessity of His atonement in our lives as we follow the guidance of His chosen prophet. After church we taught David finishing up the Gospel of Jesus Christ and then hurried out to teach Christine again. It being New Year's Eve, there were many people moving around and the buses were filled, as many people go to the village for the holidays, or they put on these big events and parties in town that everyone attends.
New Years! We had a very busy day on New Years. We were invited over for lunch with a member and she invited a bunch of other members and some investigators as well, so it made for a good time with lots of food. We had some lessons in the morning before lunch and then after lunch we walked out to Mamboleo. It was a pretty far walk, but we are used to walking here, our shoes keep pushing and so do our spirits.
Friday was spent mainly doing planning for the coming week and we also had to purchase a new refrigerator for the sisters, so we had to go and do some price checking. Made for a really exhausting day! But got it all taken care of so everything's good.
Saturday was packed with powerful teaching appointments. We had some really good lessons with the Wafulas, Christine, Joan and her family who are less active, and some others that we are teaching. Each day we get home exhausted and totally drained. It's the hot season now, so we sweat a lot and walk a lot, but it's all worth it. We enjoy it as we do it! This week I have been trying to utilize more object lessons. I love those kinds of teaching because it helps them to remember much better. One of the lessons we taught was about our spiritual batteries and the light of our testimony that can help us get through the trials of life. I have a small flashlight that holds three small batteries and each battery represents something like prayer, scripture study, or sacrament, then we go through and show them what happens when we remove a good one and replace it with an almost dead one and go all the way down till its so dim that it can't light much, then we put good ones in representing when we start doing those things again, and it becomes bright and can then help us to get through the darkness of the world and trials that we must venture through in this mortal probation. Are your spiritual batteries charged?
Sunday we had a baptism, the perfect way to start out the new year, Sister Christine was baptized. It was a great church service and my comp and I got to teach Priesthood about Home Teaching. We make a pretty awesome companionship, teaching together is powerful. After church we had the baptism and there were many in attendance. Elder Griffiths did the baptism, it was really awesome. Then after church we went tracting and got our first door closed. I can't say door slam because they actually shut it really softly, but none the less they weren't interested. But one of the apartment towers that we tracted was really welcoming and we ended up teaching some really powerful lessons. I really enjoy tracting, I feel it is a very productive finding method here, it may not be in other parts of the world, but here it works.
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| The LDS church building? |
Well sorry this is so short, but I'm all out of time, I love you all and wish you a Happy New Year!
Love always,
Elder Rushton Jay Hiltbrand
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