WK 66 - Easter Bappy

Hey everyone I realize I'm kind of late but that's ok we just haven't had power for two days so we had to go to the church to charge the phone so I'm gonna keep this brief to conserve precious battery.

I got to eat some Ethiopian food this week and speak Amharic to the owner! 

We had Zone Conference this week which was pretty sweet. We talked a lot about the Holy Ghost and its role in the lives of members, missionaries, and investigators. I learned that perhaps the best way to invite the Spirit is to bear simple, sweet, and sincere testimony. There's no need to get fancy.

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you all had a spiritually refreshing and uplifting time remembering the Savior Jesus Christ's resurrection. We saw the Easter bunny outside of a gas station this week so of course we had to get photos. We were eating lunch one day and a catholic congregation of probably 300 came by singing hymns. It was quite the sight.

I heard a funny slang word for baptism this week. An Elder came up to me (shout out to Elder Johnson) and said, "bro I just recorded my first bappy." Well, I guess I'm calling it that now. We were able to baptize Ajok! His whole family was there and his brother Bona was able to do the Baptism and Confirmation. It was powerful to see.

Sorry for the rushed update but I hope all is well. 

Elder Miles

Scary painting

Shiro ጊዜ

Ajok and Bona

The fam

Our chapel

Kayole ZOOOOONE

Easter Bunny and random clown

The bball squad

WK 65 - We Taught a Nephite

Well. Usually there's one main thing that happened each week that I like to focus on. But this week was just a bunch of little things. We've dropped a lot of people we were teaching because they were doing the thing that all missionaries fret: not coming to church. So, the week started out slow with not many people to teach but we were honestly blessed by the end with many new people to work with. 

-We played streetball again this week, but this time it was an organized game because a team scouted us out last week and wanted to play us. So, we set up a four-quarter game with a score keeper and went ham. We lost by one sadly, but for playing one of the best Streetball teams in Kenya, I would say that's not half bad considering we are all washed up high school players who haven't touched a ball consistently for a year and a half. 

-Bashed with Nicholas again. We went back to clear up some things about our church and he wouldn't let us speak. His biggest complaint was that our members didn't carry Bibles with them and he wouldn't accept that fact that we had them on our phones. 

-We went on surprise exchanges this week. I went with the District Leader Elder Mafunga who is from Zimbabwe. His area covers the slums so we headed to Nakuru Kwa Njenga and my goodness it was an experience. It was just a village of little houses built out of those tin sheets. It was a humbling experience but I had a good time and met some amazingly powerful people. One of the boys they are teaching taught me some Shang which is Swahili slang. 

-Sometimes we still have communication with President and Sister Dudfield and they've been roasting Elders for getting buzz cuts and telling us that we can't return to Ethiopia if we have buzzed hair. 

-Ian, our friend who was baptized last week, brought a friend to church named Nephat which is pronounced suspiciously like "Nephite". We had to double check in the spelling but I still think it was meant to be. He enjoyed church and will hopefully progress fast. 

-OK other people we are teaching: we met with a man named Moses who played for the Kenyan National Basketball team for 13 years. He's high up in another church but genuinely wants to read the Book of Mormon. A man named Fred showed up to church and has a lot of life problems that we are helping to address. We are teaching a man named Ayoo who is progressing well and will probably be baptized soon. He saw General Conference and really enjoyed it. Another young man named Davis from the Congo came to church and he barely speaks English but told us that he wants to get Baptized. So good things are in the works! I love the work we have been able to do in this area! 

-Sadly, our baptism with Ajok fell through again this week due to some poor communication from the ward. They told us that they weren't showing conference this week, but when we arrived to church, they told us that they actually were and that church was starting at 10 instead of 9. Well, that was inconvenient for the Sudanese family and we had to reschedule. We found out more about Ajok this week and if you want to hear his story shoot me an email or a message and I'll tell you more about it.

God's work continues! I have definitely seen his hand this week. In this mission we quote the Standard of Truth which starts with, "No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing" and I'm starting to see that! Whenever we are working hard things just seem to work out and we find success even though we are inexperienced, way out of place 20-year-olds. That's a big testimony builder to me that it's God's work not ours.

Have a fantastic week! Give me updates about your lives! I would love to hear from you.

Elder Miles

The inside of a bus that looked cool

Me and the homies watching conference on Sunday

From left to right: Elder Ferguson, Abraham, Me, and Ajok

Ballin'

WK 64 - Witchcraft, Wizardry, and Prophethood

I have come to the conclusion that Kenya is the funniest country on the planet. Walking the streets all day everyday leads you to see some pretty funny and strange things. We laughed hard this week. 

One such occasion was when we were walking early in the morning to teach a friend. The previous day we were casually talking about witchcraft and asked a member if they practice it here. She said yes but not really. Well, this particular morning was after a long night of rain so there were huge puddles in the muddy road. But that's all they were. Just puddles. There’re tons of them. Well along the way we saw a dude squatted by one of the puddles and at the spot just in front of him the water was bubbling and flowing like a fountain, but literally nowhere else was it doing that. Was it witchcraft? Did we meet a real-life water bender? That's up to you to decide. 

We had a really positive experience and a really negative experience this week that I'll share. First the negative. A dude that we have been teaching for a while finally came to church. He's always been very kind and positive towards us and even told us that he enjoyed the service. Well, a couple hours later he called and just started ripping into us and the church because we "didn't use the Bible enough." Well funnily enough if he would have stayed for second hour, he would've seen that our discussion was ENTIRELY about the Bible. That's why you go to all of your church meetings kids. 

Positive experience: Ian was baptized. Ian was a member referral...kind of. The person that introduced us to him said he just wandered into the chapel. Come to find out a week before his baptism that his mom is a recent convert. Ian is powerful! He always kept commitments and was always one step ahead of us by reading the pamphlets. He was always willing to do what we invited him to do. I was able to stand in the circle and it was an awesome experience to hear such a powerful and willing kid become a member of God's kingdom. He says he wants to be a missionary and he's definitely in the age range so hopefully we can help him!

Ajock didn't get baptized this week because of some health issues but we are hoping to reschedule for next week. 

I have never been so excited for General Conference as I was for this month's and boy, I was not disappointed. A bunch of talks about missionary work as a missionary? That's what I like to hear. I hope you all had a chance to watch and receive revelation, inspiration, and some hope in your life. My favorite talk came from Elder D. Todd Christofferson! He taught that our faith shouldn't be based on the blessings we feel like we should receive, but rather from our relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. That is the ultimate blessing we could have anyways. 

Please! Enjoy this week! Take some time to slow down and not be so hard on yourself. Gain some spiritual momentum. If I hear that you aren't then we're gonna have some problems, ok? 😁

Elder Miles

This is pretty much what most of our area looks like

A gecko in the baptismal font

Ian

Elder Nelson's April Fool’s Day prank. Tricked us into thinking we got permanently reassigned

WK 62+63 - A Shout-out to South Sudan

Hey everyone. Good morning. It's hard to miss a week because now there's too much to talk about but I'm just going to go for it. It's been a really good two weeks though. 

-Transfers came and went and nothing happened to our household. I'm still comps with the Englishman and I'm pumped about it. 

-Last Sunday we had Stake Conference at our chapel and it was so packed that none of the missionaries were able to sit inside and listen. We all congregated outside and tried to hear what was going on but sadly the mic wasn't loud enough. So, I didn't get much from it. 

-Getting people to church has been a big struggle. Even though people seem very interested when we teach them, they keep coming up with reasons to not come on Sunday.

-I've had more meals from members or investigators in this last week than my whole 6 months in Ethiopia. 

-People like to call us random names here. "Mzungu" is a slang word for white person. We hear that a lot. For some reason people will just call any white guy they seen "John" so we get called that a lot too. One day a bus conductor called me "John Cena" and another guy called my comp "James Bond." 

-We've been working with a member in our ward named Ivy a lot. She taught us how to make Mandazi (which is like scones) and Samosas. She also introduced us to a super old couple that live in our area. She made us phanny packs too! 

-Every day we have a mandatory encounter with a drunk person. We just know that it's going to happen at some point in the day. It's usually really funny. 

-Last P-Day we linked up with some of the other Elders to go play basketball at one of the most famous streetball courts in Nairobi. We played an adult club team there and even though I'm rusty and out of shape we still never lost. 

-I enjoy walking around with the cows these days because they are everywhere. If they get in peoples' ways or do something dumb the people just smack them. 

-Met a lady named Emmaculate who works at the airport. She had us over to teach her family and fed us nicely. She saw some of the other Elders at the airport as they flew out to the bush. 

-One of our friend’s named Ian is on date to be baptized this coming week. We meet with him at the chapel and then we celebrate with some KFC. I've never loved KFC so much and we are pumped for Ian. 

This Sunday we were able to baptize two of our friends. One was Lucy, the snack cart girl, and we are so happy for her. She has such a solid testimony that she has found the true church. The other was Abraham, a member of that South Sudanese family we visit. They are amazing. The more and more I hear about their story and South Sudan the more I love them. The oldest brother, Daniel, is actually an RM and one of three South Sudanese people to serve a mission. And now he takes care of this whole family because life in South Sudan is not safe. Most of them are members and Abraham has just joined them. We are teaching another one of them that will be baptized soon but he's been sick and doesn't speak English so it's been delayed. I've been meeting people from South Sudan ever since coming to Ethiopia and they are the best. I can only describe them as homies. Just like the bros. So, shout-out to South Sudan.

This email is already huge sooo that will be all. Have a good week and remember that Christ lives!

Elder Miles

One big happy South Sudanese family

Me and Abraham, Ferguson and Lucy, and Mafunga and Hesbon

Mandazi pretzel because I can't get pretzels here

POST MALONE BUS

Ferguson and I with our phanny packs

Doing daily shepherding work

WK 61 - "Obama is My Cousin!!!"

Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

How's it going? This week was a bit of a slower one but that's OK because it was still enjoyable.

As we walk through our area, we often come across the same taxi money collector who introduced himself as Obama's cousin. Now every time we see him he's like, "hey my American friend remember me? I'm Obama's cousin!"

The highlight of this week was zone conference and interviews. In my interview with President Mdletshe he emphasized the importance of studying the scriptures and made some cool promises (which I'll share later). We knew that at zone conference President would be calling on one companionship to do a role play in front of the whole zone, and a week or more beforehand Elder Ferguson told me that he knew it would be us. Well, his instincts were correct and we gave the roleplay.

This week was filled with teaching opportunities and they might not have been as noteworthy as last week, but the Spirit was just as strong. I love teaching here in Kenya! Everyone we talk to wants to learn more about Christ and strengthen their relationship with God. I can genuinely say I enjoy teaching the Gospel.

Some updates on our friends: Lucy, the snack cart owner, disappeared on us after church and come to find out she went to the Relief Society President's house for an activity! It was exactly what she needed. Her and Abraham, one of the South Sudanese men, will be put on date this week because they are ready. We shared some General Conference videos with Susan and her family and they loved them! I always love sharing President Nelson's messages because I think it is physically and mentally impossible for anyone to dislike them. We met a young man named Seif this week and shoot, he's as prepared as anyone can ever be (plus he bought us mango juice so I like him).

Spiritual thought! I've been thinking a lot about scripture study. I wish I could go back in time and tell my younger self just how important it is to read the scriptures. They give us the strength to endure to the end and remind us of the commandments which is so important! President Mdletshe promised that if we study the Book of Mormon every day, then our personal witness of the Restoration would grow and not shrink. We try so hard every day to get people to read the scriptures because they truly have power to change a heart and a life. Read them!

I hope all is well!

Elder Miles

እግዚአብሔር ይመስገን

Nyayo Estate, the nicest part of our area

Tell the world we're coming home

WK 60 - I'm a Shawarma Model

After having three months of zero in-person teaching, we were very blessed to have some awesome teaching experiences this week. 

Monday: after playing some bball at the church, we came home and visited our friend Zedekiah. I think it may have been the most meager, humble home I have ever been in, and they were some of the most humble and genuine people I have ever met. We taught the Restoration seated on some cushions and his wife made us hot cocoa. 

Tuesday: we went to teach a mechanic named Samuel that we met, and he took us to a little shed where his friend works. It started out just those two but by the end of the prayer we had gained a group! It was an awesome lesson but I don't know if any of them are truly interested. We will see. Also this same day I tried a classic Kenya dish, Ugali, for the first time. Plus I learned how to make it. It's basically cooked, fluffy cornmeal that you scoop stuff up with. 

Wednesday: after district council, we usually eat at a nearby shawarma place. This week there was a camera crew there with lighting and everything taking pictures and videos. They got a nice shot of me unwrapping my Shawarma so check out the "Shawarma Grill" in Nairobi social media and you might see my cuticles in action. 

Thursday: Sat down with our friend Joel who makes bead bracelets and he asked us to tell him a story. So our "story" was really just the Restoration. But he was actually quite interested and asked a lot of good questions. 

Friday: kind of the same thing as Tuesday but at a car wash instead. Taught some dudes and a huge group gathered. Mostly kids though. They seemed more interested. 

Saturday: God couldn't let us have a perfect week because I woke up sick as a dog. I slept pretty much all day and then we ventured out and taught Susan. She's our African mama and is very sweet and honestly seeking truth. We are trying to get her to read the Book of Mormon right now. 

Sunday: I think the highlight of the week came on Sunday. We got asked by a member from South Sudan to come over and teach his brother. We taught a lot of people from South Sudan in Ethiopia and it was the best and this was no different. We were expecting maybe two or three people but as soon as the member let us in we turned the corner to probably ten massive Sudanese dudes. Most of them were members and they had SOLID testimonies. We taught the few of them that weren't members with their help. 

Long email so short spiritual thought: Christ is so quick to forgive! Never forget that. The moment we say we will do better and mean it is the moment Christ forgives us. We will slip and fall still, but if the intentions are there, Christ and his grace are there. I am grateful for a Savior who is so merciful. 

እግዚአብሔር ይመስገን

Elder Miles

A nice dirt road

Embakasi (at day)

Embakasi (at night)

My bois Bob and Pat

Elder Fry and I

Kenya Matatus (Buses)

Week 58+59 - Greenie Again

It has been a major 180° degree, flip-flop, world turned upside down, where the fetch am I moment over here for me. On the first day I had the same feeling as I did on my first day in Cali which made me feel like a brand new missionary again in Kenya. It's been a crazy fun and busy week so let's begin. 

-I am still in Nairobi, in an area called Embakasi which is in the south-east part of the city. It hit me right away that we were pretty spoiled during our online work time because this area is nothing like where we were living. For one it is the dustiest place I have ever been in my life. The whole apartment gets coated every evening. There are cows on the streets and little shops everywhere with some nicer places scattered between cinder block apartment buildings. There are often smells on the street that I have never smelled before. We don't have an oven or a washing machine so hand-washing is our new go-to and my new worst enemy. 

-My Kenya comp's name is Elder Ferguson from Manchester, England! Yes...the dude's accent is so sick. I'm already learning cool new British phrases like jumper, chav, and gone off. We live with another companionship: Elder Fry, a fellow Ethiopia missionary and his comp Elder Mafunga from Zimbabwe. 

-The work style here is very different from Ethiopia. In Addis we waited while people came to us, here we walk absolutely everywhere and visit everybody in their homes. Do I like it? Yes. And no. My legs hurt. The first couple of days it poured on us, and then the last few days have been beyond blazing hot. 

-Despite all that I love the work. The people here are so humble and love to hear messages about Jesus Christ. We called a lady named Ruth (who was referred by an Elder I knew in Cali) who is golden, and then she introduced us to her sister and niece who are also golden! If we just say hi to people on the streets, they want to know what we are doing. 

-We go to church at one of the Stake Centers in Kenya. The ward is awesome! They had us new missionaries bear our testimonies. We had one friend come to church named Lucy. She owns a food cart near our house and she's super fun. 

-Other little details: for district council we got lunch at a Shawarma place and a bunch of the other Ethiopia missionaries were there! We got ganged up on by severe alcoholics who tried to get us to go into their booze shed. All the kids call us Mzungu which means white person. Instead of goats, cows rule the streets here in Kenya. I'm picking up a little bit of Swahili as we go. 

Because this email is already so long my spiritual thought will be short. The work is true! Have you read all the prophecies in the scriptures about the spreading of the Gospel and the gathering of Israel? Well, I am seeing first hand that these prophecies are being fulfilled. This work is real! 

እግዚአብሔር ይመስገን

Elder Miles

Elder Ferguson and I

Cow Town

The Embakasi area

On the roof of our apartment building

Goodbye President Dudfield!