What a week. We had a busy week this week meeting with investigators, recent converts and potentials. Hezbon and his daughter June will be getting baptized next week on the 24th! It will be so exciting and special! Any time to get baptized and follow Christ is great. But on Christmas Eve....perfect way to Remember Christ! How special of a time it is. I wont be getting that "White Christmas" i am used to in the 801. But I have been and will be enjoying it in a few different ways. One way is by the baptisms on Christmas Eve. Seeing people change there lives and want to follow Christ it is a blessing to my soul. The light these people have and how the gospel has blessed them is inspiring and changing me as well. I wish you guys could meet some of these great people. I have been experiencing a white Christmas through the scriptures. The white pages covered in black letters that make any reader happy. The stories and life of Christ have really been a blessing to me this year. This Christmas time has been hard, but when I think about all that Christ did for me and for others. I cant bring it to myself to complain. The scriptures are the words to eternal happiness. My white Christmas has also come from sharing the Light of Christ with others. There is something special about the season and to be a missionary during this time is the best. I have been trying to give it my all this last Christmas season I have as a full-time missionary for our Lord and Savior. The light of Christ "shines" in peoples eyes and lives and I get to be a small part of it all! I may not have white snow, but i do have white sand beaches. And also because I am white.... but in all seriousness enjoy this holiday season. Do all you can to make someones day just a little bit brighter. Visit someone who is sick. Call an old friend. Give a Christmas note to a stranger. Bake some cookies for someone. Scrape the snow off of someones car for them. Go visit someone who might be spending Christmas alone. Offer a smile to a stranger. I love being a missionary. I love the gospel and Christ. I know that Christ was born for you and me. But that today he still lives. I am not even sure how I will be spending Christmas but I know I will be where i need to be this Christmas. To my dear family. Enjoy each other, even if you are far away. Call those family members who wont be around for Christmas and wish them a Merry Christmas. Have a great time at the Nelson Christmas Eve party and love those tender moments. I miss you all and hope you have had a great Christmas season so far and know that someone in Kenya loves you and is thinking about you. "Christmas is the Spirit of giving without a thought of getting" -President Thomas S. Monson "To catch the real meaning of the spirit of Christmas, we need only drop the last syllable and it becomes the Spirit of Christ" -President Thomas S. Monson "The glitter of the season should never prevent us from truly seeing the Prince of Peace" -President Uchtdorf A last thought I had this week. Remember the story of the night Christ was born. Prophets are the star that will lead us to Christ. Without them there is no knowing where we will go, we will be lost. No direction or light to follow. Our leaders or fellow church members are the angles who will come to us and help us to know what to do. Lastly we must be the shepherds. Who listen to to the angel and follow the star to get to Christ. Look up for the star, look up for Christ. Much love this Christmas season and Sikukuu njema! Elder C. Merz

This week will be a bit short because the internet connection is so dang slow. We met with Wachira this week 2 times and hard 2 great lessons. He really understands well and is interested in the gospel. I can just tell you how much more smoothly things run if the investigator is reading the Book of Mormon he is reading it and enjoying it and understanding it!! He said that the way we teach and meet with him is very different and he loves to meet with us. He said we help me actually learn and feel something different and discover for himself. That really made my week. We got 6 new investigators this week. 2 are guys that work next to Wachira. Eddie and James. We had a great lesson with them and just got to build a relationship of trust and become friends. That is a key step so they can trust us with questions and be honest and open, then we can hopefully discern how to help them the most! When we were going to visit Brother Hesbon and his family we met a girl and her 2 sisters they were nice and we gave them pamphlets. They came back to where we were a few minutes later and wanted to show us where they live so we can teach them. We went and met the father as well. We also met with them twice this last week and boy oh boy do they have lots of questions. But it has been a good challenge to be able to study and look up scriptures that will apply to their questions or questions they may have. It is exciting and they are all progressing super well, they are loving the teachings of the church. We had a Christmas party on Saturday and it went super well. We had lots of people there including investigators. Elder Call, Elder Mathemara, Elder Tshangu and I did a Light The World presentation for about an hour. We showed all the videos and shared a little testimony how we feel when we give service or how we have been blessed by someone elses service to us. it went super well. We then ate some pilau!!! Yummyyy!!! That is a quick overview of the week. And a question that came into my mind that is truly a soul searching question that is important to ask ourselves that we also asked our less-actives or recent converts. It is: What are YOU doing daily to seek the Lord? Think and ponder about that and make any necessary adjustments you need to so that you can better seek the Lord each and every day. Christmas love, Elder Merz

So this week we stayed in doors on Tuesday and for half of Wednesday. We got told we could go out on Wednesday and we tried to meet with some people but we had to be at the Likoni Elders Flat by 6 and we had to pack up our bags...so we weren't able to meet with anyone. Staying with them was nice though. There flat is super sweet. You can see the ocean from it! Then the next day we woke up at 5am. I was up like all night because my couch cushion bed kept falling apart..but no complaints! 😊 we took a tuk-tuk at 6 and went to the SGR train station and almost missed our train. We were off the Mtito Andei Chyulu for our zone conference. It was a 3 hour train ride and it was nice! First class again. We got to Chyulu and then took the ride to Makutano where we would be staying. That place is also bush!! Our zone conference was great. I really loved it! Some scriptures were shared that i really loved that i would like to share with you. The topic was about Being Our Brothers Keeper. And to me that is part of the whole idea and spirit of Christmas! So these are the scriptures you can go and look up! Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, Alma 41:14-15, 1 Sam 18: 1-3, and D&C 38: 23-25. On Sunday we had some great lessons though! On our way to see Brother Hesbon and his family we were talking with another guy who we were going to meet with but another friend showed up. She didnt live far and was interested to know more. So she took us to her house and we sat outside and talked and we got to know each other well and they are all interested to know more! We invited them to the Christmas party we are having on Saturday and they said they would all come!! We then went and met with Brother Hesbon and his family and had an incredible lesson about the Plan of Salvation! We gave 2 of them a baptismal date of the 24th and they accepted and the other 2 want to think some more about it! We will know the answer by Wednesday when we see them again! It was a fantastic Sunday and we are so excited for our Christmas party this Saturday and hope to have a huge turn out!! I love the Christmas season so much! This will be my first truly tropical Christmas but I am deeply looking forward to seeing how it is done on the coast! :) All the best as we Light The World! #LightTheWorld Love, Elder C. Merz