On Tuesday we went and saw Sister Dorcus at her home. She is a Kamba and all kamba's loooove githeri. So she made Elder Otika, Bro. Wafula, and I some githeri. It was veryy good buuut she gave us MASSIVE plates and each an avocado. Now these avocados were not normal. They were bigger than softballs! We ate, and ate and ATE!!! That was for lunch. Didnt have dinner that night and the next morning had a small breakfast! We also heard on the news that was playing at her house about the next James Bond! The next one is coming out like Nov. 8th 2019 and it will be Daniel Craigs last Bond film! Excited for that! We taught her about tithing and fast offerings and it went great. We talked about that in the Gospel Principles class we have the Sunday before so it was great! We went and taught Lilian again but this time it was a bit different. We only got to see her for about 10 minutes because she was leaving to go meet up with her family for her cousins funeral who just passed away. But we shared with her scriptures about the Resurrection and about the spirit world and you could just see in her face peace. That lesson was a hard one for me and the entire time i had a lump in my throat like in just a few seconds im gonna start to cry, and eventually a few tears rolled down my cheeks but it was great to just share those truths with her. Families and temples. We went to Sister Stella's house and talked about families and temples with her and her mother. Stella is preparing to go to the temple and her mother who is not a member wanted to know more about our temples. So we talked about the importance of temples today and baptisms for the dead. We prepared super well and almost every question she had we had at least 1 or 2 scriptures just from the bible to read. It was great to have her ask us a question and then to be able to have her open HER bible and read the scripture and then she was like hmmm well okay it says it right here!! We then shared with her some nice temple videos on YouTube from Stella's computer and it went great! Families and temples are the 2 best things!! We also met with John twice this week and he is really progressing well! Something that he loves and that stands out a lot to him is the atonement. And how perfect and wonderful to have stand out to someone. If they understand the atonement they understand Christs role and importance in there life. I hope we will all understand and apply the Atonement in our lives. I also got to do another interview. This guys name is Elphas. he is a great guy and was making me laugh in the interview!!! He was saying how he needs someone big and strong to baptize him so he doesn't drown in the water and have to jump out like a fish. He then asked if i could do it and i explained that i couldn't haha! Then after the interview as we were walking out and he saw the other Elders he said "He asked simple questions! He must have omitted the hard ones!" and we all just burst out laughing! Hahaha it helped me to realized though that the gospel really is simple! Sunday was great! In Priesthood Brother Osienya was roasting Brother Shikuku. They were saying how the quorum should give some money to help one of the guys who is getting married and Shikuku was complaining a little bit. And then Osienya was like Shikuku things are different. "In your day you find a wife by going and fetching water" it might not sound funny but EVERYONE was laughing! And then we had 2 baptisms of Sister Dorcus and Brother Felix. The bishop baptized both of them and they're testimonies afterwords were so strong! They were so happy and just looked so fresh and new and changed. I love to see that change in people it is the best feeling and thing to see. That has been my week. I hope you all have a great week and for my people in UT. Enjoy the nice fall you are going to have! :) Until next week, Elder Merz

So they are saying no more plastic bags here in Kenya. And they have a nice punishment to go along with it! $40,000USD and up to 2 years in prison! Hahaha niiiiice right? So to start off the week we got on a bus and it was all good. They are doing a lot of consturction around here and the bus we took like backed up and just drove on the wrong side of the road a few times and did a few U turns in places we werent supposed to but EVERYONE does that so it is okay. But then a police man hoped on and yelled at the driver and conductor and made us drive straight RIGHT back into the first jam that we got out of. Then later on we went to Mlolongo and I got to do an interview for them. The guys name is Daniel and from Nigeria and just a greeeat guy! I love to interview people especially people who know so much already and who are so ready to follow the example of Christ! Daniel was fantastic though. He showed me so much respect and called me Sir. I dont think I have ever been called Sir before, only call other people Sir. But now i know why i was taught to call people sir at home. Because it makes you feel good and shows how much respect you have for the person. Go read Revelation 3:21 its a nice scripture. Mary our recent convert was getting upset the other day when we met with her....not because of us. But because she was wondering why people hate, bash, degrade, or disregard our church. So we just helped her to understand that it is part of being a follower of Christ. And helped her to remember that Even Christ wasn't accepted and loved by everybody. She is doing so great though!! :) So the guy that lost the elections took the elections to court because he felts there was massive cheating. And there was.....the party that one they said that all of theyre people (mayors, judges, officials) (the kenyan equivelant of those) they said that they ALL won by 54% of the votes. Its like come on guys! If your gonna lie or cheat AT LEAST do it where it might be a little bit convincing!! So yeah they are going to have elections again but EVERYONE seems to be happy about it so things are going well so far! I would lastly like to share one thing. I read something this last week and it said this "Parents, grandparents, and leaders, your message must be clear." Then it continued to go on and talk about the importance of setting a good example. Here are some words i would like to add on that. In showing our (your) children we need to be clear. By our example they will see our commitment to follow Christ. Prayer they can see. But something that came to my mind was with scripture study. Yes the gospel library is a great app and tool to have! But make sure you have and use real tangible scriptures! because if your child doesnt see the screen of your phone or your focus ont he word of god they will just think and see the example of you always on your phone. And they will follow that screen to face attitude and not learn the importance of reading the scriptures. Read with them from the tangible pages of the word of god. And from the screen show them videos or other benefits of the technology. Hope you have all had a great week and have a great week this next week! Love you all and thanks for all the love and support! Elder Merz #1 The internet is now sucking so I will have to send pictures at a later date.