So this week has been a wild one, tons of stuff has
happened, its been really stressful, but we were able to make it through
okay.
Starting last Saturday, after we had finished emailing, we
went home and stopped by the Christensen's (one of the senior office couples) to pick up new working funds. We
were there for a little while talking, whenever we go there, you can never
expect to be very quick, but it's always enjoyable around them. All the couples
here are a blast. So eventually we left and made it back to our own flat in
which when we opened the door, we found it to be filled with water... a pipe to
our water heater had broken and in consequence filled all but the bedrooms with
water. So we got the buckets and towels to start mopping it up. Elder Nyirenda
took advantage of the situation and washed his clothes on the floor using all
the water that was there, it was pretty funny as he scrubbed then threw his
clothes on the floor to rinse them. I was in the other room using towels to
soak up water then ring out in a bucket. By the time I finished drying the main
room, I had rung out over 60 Liters of water, it doesn't sound like much, but it
was enough to cover half the floor in the sitting room. The Wooden floors got
somewhat ruined because of the water, so now they are starting to rise up. With
a busted water heater, we had to take bucket showers for the next couple days
until it could be fixed.
Sunday was a busy day, we had 9 lessons after church, and we
taught all of them at the church. The Bishop, Bishop Orina, referred us to a
family whose 4 daughters desire to be baptized. The family has been less active
for some time, but now they have figured things out and come back to church. So
we are teaching their 4 daughters, Edith 8, Rose 11, Monica 14, Whitney 15. One
of the 4 girls is a child of record (born after the parents had joined the church) but would like to be taught with her
sisters, so there's no problem there. She just won't be a convert baptism. We
were doing splits after church teaching and I was teaching these four girls
with some members, wow, they are really smart! I was amazed! Even Edith was
able to answer all the questions I would ask. It will be a great blessing to
their family once they have all been baptized. The youth add a huge strength to
families.
Monday was a busy office day then we were to take an Elder
to the airport so that he could fly home, he had finished his mission a bit
early so that he could go home for school. Well we left the office at 2
thinking that we would have plenty of time to get there, because they only
close the gate 1 hour before. That was a terrible mistake, we got out of the
office and found horrible traffic... All over Nairobi town they have been doing
traffic engineering stuff and are planning to remove the round a bouts, so it
has been causing unexpected traffic. Sometimes it's empty, while other times,
it's packed! So we got to the airport at 3:25, and then my comp and I waited
around for a while just in case, well one hour later we got a call that he had
missed his flight. We both felt terrible. We made a promise that we would
not be late for another flight, we will always arrive 3 - 4 hours early so
there is no chance of missing it. Sister Christensen was able to quickly book
him on an early morning flight the next day, so we headed home with him.
Traffic was awful.. by the time we got home it was 830, just a long exhausting
and stressful day..
Tuesday we arose at 4:00am, drove the Elder to the airport
by 4:30, then were home and back in bed by 5:00. His flight wasn't till 8:25,
but we weren't taking any chances. We went proselyting in the morning, we have
a few people that are progressing to baptism, so we have been really trying to
focus on them. We were able to teach 3 lessons, but then had to hurry out to
the airport to pick up some sisters who were arriving for the Sisters
Conference on Wednesday. We took a new way there, one which is actually the
truck by pass and goes all the way around the town, it was a really nice road,
smooth driving, and quick. The road is more out in the country side, so you get
to see more of the outskirts of town, not so much congestion. We made it to the
airport in good time, picked up the sisters then headed home dealing with traffic
because we went through the main city. We made pretty good time though, so it
wasn't bad. Elder Shakespeare had purchased Pizza and KFC for all the sisters to
eat the night before, and we living close by got an invite, tons of pizza. We
get treated to food a lot here, like 4 times a week.. so I'm gaining weight...
I've got to reduce before I get home. haha.
Wednesday was the Sisters Conference. Sister Hicken had put
it all together. It was powerful. We got the sisters to the office at 7:00 so
that they could be there for breakfast at 8:30 and so that we could finish
setting everything up. I was assigned to conduct the meeting, and due to
President doing an interview for a new couple, he had to come a bit late to the
conference. It all came together really nicely. Each Sister was assigned a
topic to give a 10 min training on. Then my companion and I each were assigned
different topics and were asked to speak for 20 min each. I was assigned
"Living what you teach" or being an example. I thought it came
together well, I could feel the spirit a lot. That is something I have learned
is so important. It's crucial we have the spirit because it has an effect in
every aspect of our life. If we want to find success, and happiness, it comes
from having the spirit with us always. When without the spirit, it makes you
feel miserable and discouraged, but with it, you feel on top of the world and
realize how everything is part of Gods plan. Elder Nyirenda gave a really nice
training on Covenants. He had been studying different talks for weeks, in
preparation, and he did an excellent job. Overall the conference turned out
well and I feel it accomplished its purpose in bringing more unity between the
sisters and helping them to know they're hugely important role to the work in the
KNM (Kenya Nairobi Mission). After the conference my comp and I had to go out to the airport to pick up
two Elders flying in from Eldoret to go to the Ghana MTC. One was Daniel, who
we worked with a lot while in Kisumu, and the other came from Mautuma where
Elder Griffiths began his mission. We have made friends with the workers at the
airport parking lot bathroom. They sit there all day and clean it when it's
messy, so we first contacted them, then while waiting, we have been talking to
them. Really nice people.
Thursday we were dropping the sisters off at the bus stage
and airport, so we arranged with the Office Elders to take care of getting the
sisters to the Bus stage while we went with the Dar Sisters and two Elders to
the Airport. We dropped them off at 9:20 for their 12:00 flights and gave each
of them a Book of Mormon to place as they flew/waited. The rest of the day we
were in the office, after President Hicken finished scheduled interviews, we worked on
Transfers. It's busy in the next couples weeks, so we have to get started early.
The mission will be reducing in numbers pretty quickly going forward, so it
takes much pondering and prayer to decide what needs to be done.
Friday we stopped by the office to drop off a returned
missionary to be released, then talked with President for a few moments
regarding transfers then. We were able to go out to our proselyting area to
teach. We had planned to teach Florence, Fiona and Samuel the remainder of the
lessons so that they could be baptized on Sunday. Well in going through the
Baptismal interview an issue came up so there will have to be an interview with
President before baptism. It's not a bad thing, it's just part of complete
repentance, so that at baptism, you may feel completely clean. So we have postponed the baptismal service till next week. We were able to teach a total of 6
investigators, and then were traveling to a dinner appointment at the Baddus,
to meet the office elders there, but traffic was bad, so we had to just head
home.
Well there's the week in a nutshell, pretty busy, but good.
Hope everything is going well with each of you and that you are able to feel
the spirit in your life.
Love always,
Elder Rushton Jay Hiltbrand
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