This will have to be quick because Hakuna time. But the week was good! We had interviews on Tuesday with the President. Elder Harrott and Elder Card and Elder Otika and i went to Subway and somehow someone snatched Elder Harrotts bag. Feels super bad for him :( But all is well. Then Wednesday we had Zone Conference. The Zone Conference went well. It was a loooong day since i had to be in Upperhill at 9 for a leadership meeting so we arose at 6 and got back and went to bed at around 11. It was great though!! Sister Torrie made some niiiiice deserts from home! Like some fudge! YOOOO that stuff is sooo sweet! It made me sick! :/ so when i get home i might die. We had some good plans for Thursday but duties call. We had to go to Mlolongo to do an interview for baptism. It went super great for my first interview and it is such a privilege to be able to interview someone who wants to enter the church and to really just be led and feel the spirit!! But it takes so long to go there and we had to wait for the lady so we didn't do anything on Thursday. Skip to Sunday. We had 2 baptisms of Ken and Solomon. I got the opportunity to baptize them and it went super great! As well as 2 recent converts gave talks in Sacrament. We also had a little party for 2 missionaries who returned home who served here in this mission! And then met with a few investigators! The week was a great week! Happy birthday to two very special people. My cousin Zach and his wonderful mother Mindy! I hope you guys have a fantastic birthday! As well as for my friends that have already been out a year or left last 20th of July like Tim and Luke. Happy 1 year to you guys this week! Congrats!! Love you all!! Love from ya boy, Elder Merz

So I forgot to mention last week but my new companion is Elder Otika! He is from Eldoret but goes home in December. But we get along super well, he is great! He reminds me A LOT of one of my best friends from home, Drew Cash. We have 2 baptisms coming up this next week. Solomon and Ken. Kens mother is a less active and Solomon is Kens good friend. We went and visited Solomons family and it went great! They never heard of our church but could see how happy it was making there son and now they want to learn as well!! The gospel really is great and no matter who you are you can have an influence. This 11 year old by his example is introducing his family to the church! On Thursday Elder Pavik my good friend came to visit us. He got moved to Busia on the other end of Kenya but they were in town for MLC. So we snuck into the Kayole 1 and 2 flat and made there house look like it was broken into. Elder Harrott and Elder Card were freaking out and then they opened one of the bedroom doors and there he was just sitting and chilling! SURPRISE we yelled hahahaha it was sooo funny! I wish you guys could have been there! Elder Pavik and I then just talked about cars because he is super into them as well. But sadly he goes home in 11 weeks! But we'll keep in touch!! We got some good new investigators this week and I am looking forward to helping them to progress! One day we were coming back from Dandora and this dude hops in the drivers seat who has NO CLUE how drive but starts going and is jerking us around because the car is manual and is flipping on the wipers and almost runs over some people and yeah it was soooo nice hahaha Elder Otika and I were laughing sooo hard!! But the actual driver didnt think it was funny...party pooper. Then that same day we are almost home and this little girl just runs up to me and gives me the biggest hug around my legs. Its just little things like that, that give you something nice to smile about! So theirs this guy. He says he is Christ. But his name is John Paul. Buut anyways yeah he is kinda crazy. So long of the short i bet you didnt know that "Christ" plays rugby. Yep it is his sport of choice. Number 12 position actually hahaha freak this guy makes me laugh! The week was a great week though and the people are progressing well. I made it though the first week as a DL so I can keep on going! Thank you everyone for all of the love and support you give to me! Hope all is going well and family you all look so great at the 4th of July parade! Love you all and miss you all so much! Thanks to everyone else who sent me pictures as well! All my love from the land of lions, Elder C. Merz

Many changes. This week was a good week. We got to have lunch after our DDM with the whole District and we then went and saw brother Matika and his wife again. She is progressing well and they were supposed to come to church on Sunday together as a family but only Brother Matika was able to come. But when we taught his wife about Tithing he told us how he has been having a problem paying it himself. We had a great discussion with him and on Sunday he brought his tithing and showed us! It was great!! It made me feel really good and smile on the outside as well as the inside. We got to see Agnes our Recent Convert on Thursday in Dandora. She lives in Athi River so she goes to the Athi River chapel because it is much closer than the Buru Buru one. But she was at her sisters house in Dandora so we went and saw her. Her husband was also there and it was a miracle. The gospel really does change people. I have witnessed that many times but this time it was just different for me. When we first met her husband he was not a very good person and would get drunk a lot and Agnes even told us that she wanted to leave him and in the lesson we had before he was not engaged at all and not interested but we referred him to the Athi River Elders anyways. Well I guess he has been taught and was a COMPLETELY different person when we met with him. They were both just so happy together and just had a glow to them. It was something so different and it really touched me. the gospel really is for everyone. We went to a lesson with the sisters on Friday and we were talking with Jennifer about church. Sister Maina gave such a strong testimony about church. The whole room was just dead silent and everyone could feel a close connection and Jennifer even had some tears rolling down her cheeks it was so powerful. These people just really need to know how much we care about them and there happiness, because we really do. I want to make everyone happy. Life is hard and I think everyone should have a reason to smile each and every day. Then came Saturday. We got a referral from a member. It is her boyfriend and wants to know more so we met with him and it was just overall a great lesson. We got to be at the church for the Young Womens activity as well...so we got fed some good food. Thats always a plus! We then went with the Bishop and Brother Loviet and home taught Brother Musheme. He is this tender older guy who is the only member of his family but he is soooo strong in the faith. He is the nicest and just most genuine person. We taught him and then went with the Bishop to see a lady named Mary. We have met her a few times around where we stay and we contacted her. She is so nice and interested. We went and met with her. So she is actually from Dallas. She has family here that she was visiting but by gods grace we were able to bump into her. We went through the introduction to the Book of Mormon and she is going to read it on her 19 hour flight back to Dallas. We got her contact information and i was able today to send that referrals to some missionaries in Dallas so she can continue to learn more. I pray she gets baptized. it will truly bless her and her family. Tonight was also transfer night. We got a call from the Mission President and I am now a District Leader. I have 8 missionaries that I get to lead. It is a great opportunity for me but I am scared as well. I want to be a good leader. To help each and every one of them individually and personally. To help them become better missionaries and better people each and every day. So pray for me. The last few days have been hard on me. Elder McGrath has been transferred to Athi River and I am now a leader and I am deeply missing my family. Especially my Mom. I am very good at hiding my feelings and sometimes it just comes out. I really am not as strong or wonderful as people think or say I am. My Sister goes home in 3 weeks and I have over a year until I get to be home. I love to be a missionary dont get me wrong, it is the best thing ever! But it is also the hardest thing. I get made fun of daily, i dont get respected and things are just so difficult. Please pray for me i could really use it. Have a great week everyone and enjoy celebrating the 4th of July. The US really is such a great country! My Aunts such as Shauna and Mindy. If you take any pictures of the parade or the fireworks or any pictures on the 4th could you send them to me? Again thanks everyone for everything. Know how much I love you all and care about you. Smile and be happy. I miss you Mom. All my love, Elder C. Merz

First off I am a bit late. I dont know when holidays are so forgive me. But the biggest Happy Fathers Day wish to the two most influential men in my life. My amazing Father and Grandpa. You guys have taught me so much and have helped me to be the man that i am now and the one i am striving to become. Thank you for all that you do for me and for all of the fun memories we have. Cant wait for more and hope you had a fantastic day with family and friends! Sorry for being late but all of my love is for you two. This week has been good. We met with Joshua again and had a fantastic lesson all about the Book of Mormon! Its crazy how before i came out i couldn't talk about it for 5 minutes but now its easy to spend an hour helping someone else to understand it. We then went with the assistants for some stuff and at the place we went I was joking about getting a massage. But this lady offered herself to give me a massage...😖😲 yeah my mistake. But we contacted her anyways! We then went to the church and met with Mary. Another new investigator who is progressing very very well! She is great! She just came to the church one day and wanted to know about our church and is now progressing and loves to come to church and participate and ask questions! Forward to Wednesday, we went and visited brother Matika and his wife. She had her baby 2 weeks ago! They are such an adorable little family! We aught her the last lesson, she understands super well and she really wants to be baptized. She has to come to church fist though. So we set a baptismal date with her! On Thursday we went to Dandora and met with Derrick. We had the most amazing lesson about Titihing i have ever had. He was really affected by Malachi 3:10 where it says: "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." The prove me part really hit him. Our heavenly father is promising us sooo many blessings from following tithing that we wont have room to receive them. And how we must prove him if he wont do that. That hit him very big and it was a great learning experience for me as well! The last thing i would like to quickly share is how i find it weird how people dont think i am 19. They think i am older because i am so "tall and strong". Weird. And the girls here have a hard time believing i am not married. What the freak man. What is happening?? We had a great week and hopefully our normal cyber that we go to will be open so we dont have to come to this crap place. Oh how i love typing something and seeing it appear on the 80s computer screen seconds later. Karibu Kenya. But anyways thanks for the emails and the love! Kenya is great so far and i am so thankful and honored to be a missionary here! As ell as no pics this week because of the email place. Pole! Nakupenda, Elder C. Merz

On Tuesday we had Zone Conference and it was great! Super super long but it was great! We left our flat at 6:30 to get to Upperhill and then we left at like 5:30. Elder McGrath and I walked to town and there was a tooon of people at the stage where we get a bus to go home. We managed to hop on a bus but it got full then people got off and we sat there for an hour and the bus didnt even start up. So one guy called the management and they told him that there are thugs along the road that are stopping all the buses and stealing from people inside and they even light a bus on fire!! So we walked through Nairobi at night (I loved it so much! I miss being out at night!) So we walked for like 20 minutes to the Upperhill Elders flat and stayed there with them until like 8:30 then we got picked up by an Uber with Elder Harrott and Elder Card. Our Uber was the best! He was roasting the matatu drivers the entire time and cutting them off and saying just how much Hooligans they are! We were laughing soooo hard! He then started saying that Obama is the most useless President in history. I asked him if he had a family and he said yes 4 girls. But Elder McGrath thought he said cows so again i was dying and he then told us to take his 2 twin 18 year old daughters on a date. Sorry man! Patrick is my favorite Uber ever! Then on Wednesday we went to a fireside that Elder Sitati from the 70 was at. It was suuuuper cool!! Again we left at like 6 and we went with the Mlolongo Elders as well as Elder Harrott and Card. We stood in line for a bus for an hour then got on and came home. Again got to be in Nairobi town-center at night! I also saw an RX-8, the new 2017 Land Rover Discovery, and a blue Evo 9! The Evo is my fav! Thursday was fun as well. I went on Exchanges in Mlolongo with Elder Barnard and it was great! On the way there cops were stopping Matatus and buses and seeing if they were too full. If they were the cops would take the conductor and put them in the back of the police truck and then take them all to jail. There was a big crowd there watching so we all just watched and laughed at them. Friday we switched back and this old lady almost got hit by a matatu backing up and then we almost got hit by some bumper car matatus. Then they all ran from the cops I was like what the freak is going on this week!?!? We then almost rear ended a car that cut us off and slammed on its breaks in front of us then we passed it going the other way and saw it pulled over hahaha!! That's what he gets freaking idiot! We then went and saw Jeremiah and his family and he took us out to a hotel after meeting to eat!! It was super un-expected and great! He is suuuuch a great guy and hope to have him baptized on the 2nd of July. We also so Derrick and had a great lesson with him. We really need him to come to church though. Then on Saturday we had to do a baptismal interview so we went to town and then went to the Masaii market. That is the worst place ever. You go there looking at cool African stuff and i can promise you that you will not leave without buying something because being a white guy there there was like 10 guys trying to get me to get something following me around. So yeah i left with some stuff. We then went to do the interview and a white Evo 9 FLEWWW past us and i was like ahhhhh!!! I freaking love Evo's! We then went to our bishops and got fed dinner by him and got 2 referrals from him which is great! He is such a nice and great bishop! Its good because he loves us as missionaries as well. Sunday was also filled with fun. Sister Sharon got confirmed and all the classes went well. We also had 2 great lessons with 2 of our investigators. Marian and Ken. Ken brought like all his friends to church and they want to know more so we got 7 referrals from him! All he did was ask them if they wanted to come to church!! It was great! He is 11 by the way and that's why they came. They both have baptismal dates as well!! This week was great and full of adventures! I hope that you all have a great week as well and enjoy the little things! Stay safe and know a person in Kenya loves you haha! Until next week! Love, Elder C. Merz

We have 2 absolutely golden investigators right now! One is Jeremiah and the other is Nicholas. I think I told you about them last week. We met with them again this week and Jeremiah even had us over to his house and introduced us to his family. One of our other investigators named Elizabeth the one that was super pregnant. Well she had her baby on Tuesday night! Its a little boy!!! We should be seeing her possibly on Wednesday! One of our investigators sells Chapos at a stand and he got some new neighbors. They sell vegetables. Well we got waaaaay tricked....turns out there are twins that work there and we got tricked super hard by them! It was super great! One of them left and she was wearing like a skirt and a short sleeve shirt and the other one came back and she was wearing all long stuff and we were like oh you got cold? She totally played along with it and then a few minutes later her sister came back and we were like whaaaaat??? We had 2 investigators come to church that we were super excited about! One has never been but loves the lessons and knows them super well and the other one comes but not in a loooong time but she came as well! We had great great lessons when we met with them as well! We have 6 people with baptismal dates! And working on making it more people. We also had a baptism of Sister Sharon!! Her husband who is a member baptized her and he helped us with all of the lessons and it all just worked out suuuper well!!! So I was about to lose my marbles this week. They have tribal music that they play and it haaaaaate it sooooo much!!!! And this Bus was playing it soooo loud i was about to yell at the conductors and the driver! They are also doing tons of construction by our place and we have to walk though it because well this is Kenya and thats normal and this big excavator filled with rocks was trying to take me out! It was like swinging at me and then dumped its rocks riiiiight behind me! It was scary!! Then there was this old guy who was arguing with another guy and he said "I will blow you to he-ll!" and we just started cracking up laughing! It was funny! We also saw a siiiiiick black E60 M5! It even had an exhaust and it flored it right in front of me so i got to hear the scream of that amazing V10....I miss cars.... Anyways its been a great week!!! I am requesting for family and friends to send me pictures of us together! I dont have like any and I wanna make like a little album of pics from home! So email them to me! :) Thank you and love you all! Love, Elder C. Merz

Every week we text our investigators and potential investigators and just remind them about church. Well 2 people texted us back and said basically "Never call or text this number again" at first I laughed but then i realized it is a sad thing. So yeah we will probably text them again anyways. After our DDM (meeting of missionaries every Wednesday) we were invited over by one of our members to have lunch. It was super nice! To be with all the missionaries in our district and just to make more friends. The father who is less active, bore his testimony and it was super strong and powerful! he was saying how one day missionaries one day just contacted him and he was interested to know more so he got taught and his whole family has been baptized and his son has even served his mission! So just 1 little seed definitely can grow into a big tree. Even a forest! We also visited a friend of one of our members who lost her child at birth and we were able to really give her comfort and support. She is not a member but was smiling a lot by the time we left. It was a cool experience because us and like 15 of her other friends came with us to all give her love and support. Then on Saturday on of our recent convert families we helped them enter there stuff into family search so that they can soon do temple work when the temple is announced! On Sunday we had a great day. Agnes was confirmed and then we met with this referral from one of our recent converts named Fredrick. He came and we had a lesson with him and WOOOW! The lord really does answer prayers and provides for us. We prayed to find someone who is ready, who can speak good English, and is ready with his family. Well that is exactly him! His name is Jeremiah! Hopefully more news about him in the upcoming weeks! I love you all and thank you so much for all that you do! Hope the Utah weather doesn't fry you all....but now you know how i feel! Love you anyways! Pics....Elder Harrott cutting my hair....and then Elder Card and McGrath joined in haha! And us at the Gitongas house after DDM. All my love, Elder Merz