To start of the week i went on my last exchanges with Elder Mukengela in Misikhu. the exchanges went really well! We got caught in 2 random rain dumpings and one of them got pelted with hail for some time and then the other we found some cover in one of there investigators homes! We had some really really great contacts in there area and we found many many people who they can begin to start teaching!! :) while i was on exchanges elder Jameson and Bigirindavyi told all the people that i left! They were sad haha! They were happy to see me again. I will really miss them though when i sadly do have to leave. We had another great lesson with isaac. He IS reading the book of Mormon now! That is the most powerful tool in conversion. it really helps and blesses people in all they do! He is really progressing well, i love that man. We also got some GREAT referrals from members this week! They are both fathers (so have families), speak English, and are interested to know more about the gospel. Christopher and Joshua are there names. Joshua even came to church and really loved it!! We visited Brother francis and his wife Metrine and their family. They took the Book of Mormon challenge we have given to the members and have been reading it daily as a family!! They could explain it almost perfe tly what was happening so far as well! Super exciting to see people doing it and the happiness it is bringing to them! :D Our zone also killed it this week! We all had confirmations and great great numbers! We are also excited to see where things go! I am finishing in such a powerful zone!!! :) Lots of love and wishing you all many blessings! :) Elder Merz

Where has all the time gone to? I had my last zone conference as a missionary this last week. And luckily for me it was probably one of the best ones i have ever had. We had our interviews on Thursday after working in our area on Wednesday. The interviews went really well. Even this far in my mission i continue to learn ways in which i can improve in the work and grow more. Our zone conference was basically a big counsel of things we all needed to talk about. So there was great organization and structure to it, but every contributed and talked and discussed together. It was a proper zone conference. Let me share with you some quotes that i liked from the leadership meeting and the zone conference itself. "In life you always have an influence on someone, you have no choice over that, the choice that you do have is whether that influence will be good or bad." -President Msane "Help each other, not judge each other." -Elder Shongwe We were talking about our struggles as missionaries and how we should be with our fellow missionaries. Let us love before we judge. "Change and fix mistakes before they become habits" -President Msane "Each missionary has a desire to be a better person, that's shows by seeing them out here as missionary." -Elder Shongwe I liked this one because it is so true. When i left i knew i wanted to learn and grow on my mission and become a better person than i currently was at home. that was not my motive for coming out, but each missionary has that desire for change within themselves. "Our best effort includes using our resources. Its not just doing all i can think of, but using all that I have." -President Msane I have never really thought of this that way before. Doing all i can is not just what i can think of. But i need to as well use the resources around me that i have before the Lord will fill in the gap. "There is a difference between faith and believing. Faith is not enough, we have to believe that we can be successful at what we're doing." -Elder Reck "Life without a plan us useless." -Elder Molutsi These are just a few quotes you can ponder and think on if you like. I really enjoyed all of the zone conference though. Sitting there i was getting quite hit by the fact that in a few weeks this will all come to an end. My mind was caught up on all of the memories and the small little things that i will miss about Kenya and Eldoret itself. Words can not express the feelings of the soul in how this place has changed my entire life. I love this place. There are 4 in my group who bore there testimonies. Elder Christensen went first, then Elder Fraga, then me, and we finished up with Elder Wilson. My group is so powerful and I love each and every one of them. My heart was beating and pounding so hard when it was my turn to go up. I don't really remember much of what i said but people thanked me for my testimony afterwords and expressed how they will miss me. So i guess the spirit was speaking not me. What a surreal feeling it was. We got to party it up in the Huruma flat with Elder Fraga, Ntlebi, Molutsi, Card, Bigirindavyi, and I. Man i will really miss so much from this place. What an eventful day that was, one that cant be forgotten. Lastly, we had a baptism on Sunday of Kingsley. He got interviewed on Tuesday and passed and wanted Elder Bigirindavi to baptism him. We had a great attendance for the entire program which was good. We are working with the members to build up the kingdom of God here in Mautuma. We have 2 full weeks in our area, so I am looking forward to that. I hope you all have a great week and can make small consistent improvements in your life each and every day. By doing so you will become better in ways you now are not able to experience. Happiness will flow into your life and you will see it for all those around you! Lots of Love, Elder Christian Merz

This week we got 1 day to work in our area. Saturday. We had our monthly MLC on Thursday. It was a really great meeting that we had together. A lot of it was more focused towards missionaries but i would like to share a few things from the meeting that I think would be good to share. We watched a video by Elder Uchtdorf and here are a few things he said that i liked. He said how as missionaries we are here to make true disciples of Jesus Christ. Go study and look at what a disciple of Jesus Christ really is. It has a great meaning for me. Also he talked about how referrals are important to get from members. But we "cant take the responsibility away from each missionary of becoming a fisher of men." He also stated "Should we fail at the first 2 and great commandments, we will not be successful in building the kingdom of God." It was a really great MLC and i learned a lot. Luckily i still have one more left on my mission. At MLC i also got to meet a new senior couple to the mission. Elder and Sister Turner. They are from Birmingham, England! I talked with them a lot and one of the nights they shared stories with us and we talked about England. What a place. They kind of opened up my mind a little bit and gave me some new thinking. They are such a great couple. I love people from England! They are like my old English grandparents. Traveling back from MLC was (and always is) a blast. Its so fun to travel for 8 hours with Elder Fraga, Ntlebi, and Bigirindavyi. We have all become such good friends and just laugh and talk the whole time. As well as we contacted the people around us and got them in on some fun as well. We traveled to Eldoret and the next day had a spectacular correlation meeting with President Kogo (the district President). He submitted the stake papers and are hoping at the beginning of November Eldoret will be a stake. We did our meeting a little bit different and we all brought up concerns or ideas for how we can improve and counciled about them together or what we each thought. It was a really nice meeting and it was good to see that he even had a full page of notes of things he can do or whatever he was writing. But a full page of notes none-the-less. As i said we only got 1 day to work in our area because on Sunday we had to travel again all day to do some baptismal interviews, which is always an experience that i enjoy to have. But we met with our investigator Isaac and read some of the Book of Mormon with him. We are really focusing on that with everyone here. Because both Elder Big and I saw a huge change in Mombasa when we focused on that there, and from what the missionaries there say, they still do that and it has a big lasting impact. We also met with Racheal, Sharon, and Barbra. We left them to read the Book of Mormon story book and they DID!! They are great RC's. They have really come to enjoy reading it and when we asked them to explain what they read they did almost perfectly! I am really trying hard to just enjoy each and every last thing that comes my way on my mission. What an experience it has been so far and what an experience it will continue to be! Love you all, Elder Merz

So i forgot to ion last mention last week that Elder jameson came here to the zone to be our district leader. Somehow last week when i packed up my stuff i forgot to pack a white shirt...one of the only things that is a constant in what i wear! So thanks to him i got to borrow one! For our investigators birthday, Racheal (the one who was just baptized), we splashed her back and she took it like a champ! She didnt even try to run she just accepted the fact! That same night her and Barbra brought us some little snacks, it was super cute! Those girls are the best! They are my younger sisters since i dont have any! One day at lunch the place we usually go was SUPER full. So we were cracking jokes with all the guys and then we contacted them all, it was a cool random experience i thought i would share haha!! We also did some service for 2 of our investigators. they have shops, and we organized and cleaned them for them so they look super nice! They were very appreciative. Its important to serve our investigators as well as everyone! We also served one of our members and became shamba boys for a big part of a day. We helped him to harvest his maize. Woooow there was a lot of maize to harvest but it was all good! :) i got about a million pocky things on my clothes though haha! I'd also like to share a quick experience of how prayers are answered. One morning when we were leaving i prayed for us and said specifically that we would be able to find a family that speaks english, the father is self-reliant. Throughout the day we worked hard and were busy and the last hour we had we were contacting people and went to this home and the father welcomed us inside. We sat down even! He is a teacher, knows great english, has a little family. So it was an EXACT answer to our prayer! We need to have faith that the Lord will provide for us and help us! I love when you can recognize little things like that in your life!! :) I dont have much time this week but love you all lots! Only 5 weeks left! Loove, Elder Merz