I better send off this email before the internet pretends it is not working. We visited many less-actives this last week. We are trying to focus on meeting with members, and less-actives and having them give us referrals who we can then teach with there help. At church we saw 7 less-actives! So i guess you could say we saw the fruits of that work. Part of our missionary purpose is to also help those people who have joined the church but are now in the group we call "less-active". These people just need some help with seeing the gospel change there lives and it is a privledge to help them. Speaking of baptisms though. I don't know if i mentioned it last week but last Sunday we had a baptism of a girl named Justine. We finished teaching her and then she got baptized. Her whole family is members but did not get baptized at 8. So we baptized her, she is 10 if your wondering. Then this Sunday, yesterday, we had 2 baptisms. Sister Matrine and one of her daughters Trizah. The husband to Matrine is a member and he baptized both of them. It has been a great couple of Sundays! Sundays are my favourite day of the week so far. We are teaching this guy named Paul. Last time we saw him his sister was there and we taught them the restoration. When we went back yesterday he said how him and his sister really love how we teach and also what we teach. He then proceeded to ask how he can join our church, it caught us a bit by surprise but we were more than happy to answer! We explained how we need to go through the lessons, he needs to keep commitments, come to church, be interviewed, and overall develop his own testimony of the truthfulness of what we are sharing with him. I am loving the people here, they are so great. On Saturday we also attended a funeral. The guy was in his 20s and was baptized in our church and then went to Nairobi and got kinda lost from the church. But he was barried here. The funeral was unlike anything i have ever experienced in my whole life. I cant explain all of it. But lets just say we had a good time. Being the only white guy in i think the surrounding 50 or more kilometers i was called upon to give a talk at the funeral. And since its like a village there was lot of people there. So i on the spot got up and gave a talk in front of like 250 people. I connected Matt. 28: 5-7 with Alma 40: 11-12. A lot of the people thanked me for my talk and said it was a very nice one. When it came to barrying they sang some songs, then some drunk guys put the casket in the hole and started smoking some weed and there was lots of noise and just something else. I dont really know how to describe it! But i loved it! We afterwords went to Bro. Donalds house for some lunch, i helped clean all the dishes for all the members of our church that went there. I love to give others help and service. My prayers and heart go out to my dear Grandpa. I love you with all my heart Grandpa. I have spent countless hours with you and i cherish them. I look forward to spending more time with you and creating even more memories and laughs. Get well Grandpa, I love you. Words can not say or share how much you mean to me and how much i care about you. You really are my best friend. Stay strong Grandpa. Love, Elder Merz

I have been moved out of Mombasa. I will miss the people and the place very much. It was one of the hardest places for me to leave. That place has a part of my heart. I am now in this tiny tiny place called Mautuma. It was about a 18 hour trip here. This is BUSH! The nearest paved road is 2 hours away....1 hour bike and 1 hour car ride. This place is so tough honestly. Its super hilly. We have bikes called Buffalos. So imagine going Mountain Biking, but on a 50+ pound massive BMX bike, that is what it is like here. But i love it. My new companion is Elder Limu, another Zimbabwean. I am excited to work with him and he goes home in 9 weeks!!! We have lots of fun so far! I dont have time today to email everyone back but hopefully next week, i seems i am saying that every week but hey maybe one day. I have pictures to show and send you so i will let them be my email for this week. Lots of prayers to my best friend, my Grandpa Fred. I love you so much Grandpa ❤ Love, Elder Merz

Lucy is a new investigator we have this week. She was a referral from an awesome member who lives in Provo who came here for a few weeks and he met her on the beach and gave us the referral and she is now progressing great!! We had a lesson with her and just got to know each other, more of an introductory lesson. She has come to church twice now and has already made some new friends with people around her age at church! We went and met with Glory at her new home. She moved from Utange and now lives in Majengo. We were able to go see where her new place is and have a very nice lesson of the Restoration. There is a lot of power that comes from the little 20 minute Restoration video. We saw it and she loved it!! We are excited to continue to meet with her as well. We did some great contacting this week and we had an incredible experience, at least to me. We knocked on this door and a lady came to the window by her door and opened it and so we talked to her through the window. We introduced who we were and gave her a pamphlet to read. She then asked if we have a minute that we could help her. We said of course. She came to the door opened up and then we had about a 20 minute conversation about families and the gospel. She very sadly got cheated on by her husband and even left being a Christian for her husband who is a Muslim. She said she went back to Christianity and believes that one day he can join us as well. We expressed the love the God has for her. How His son knows all of the pain we are going through and how the unique gospel that WE have will change not only her life but also her husbands. It will change her family forever!!! That was such a cool spiritual experience for me. This week has many birthdays!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the best brother ever! My younger brother Spencer turned 17 on the 4th and is still kickin it and slaying! Happy Birthday bro cant wait to hang out with you again!! Also to my great cousin Tim who is on his mission in Cali, he is killing it out in the field and helping so many people! He is an example to me and such an incredible person! i hope he had a fantastic birthday turning 20! Elder Bandi (my companion) his mothers birthday was also on the 3rd like Tims! So they are now only giving us an hour to email....so my weekly emails and emails back to everyone will probably be shorter since now i have no time....thanks.... the week has been very well and I wish the Lord blesses those loved people i have back in that foreign country called America. My prayers are going out to one of my very good friends Erik Haas. He was in a huge accident back in downtown, Salt Lake. He was taken to the hospital is extreme critical condition but heard he is doing well. So during this next week if anyone wants to include him in your prayers. Lots of love for you Erik. Stay strong bro! Love is in the Boost Love, Elder Merz

Not much time today to email so for the personal replies please be patient i will get back to you!! They announced on Sunday that the President Russell M. Nelson and Elder Holland will be coming here to Kenya! To Nairobi! Not sure if we will get to go but hey it is a huge blessing to the members here!! We are now teaching Hezbon and Silvias other daughter Rose. We are there to kind of control the lesson, but they are the ones teaching her, because we feel it is important for parents to teach there children. It has been awesome so far. She is going to be baptized on the 18th of March and we also thought that Hezbon should be the one to baptize her. Hezbon was interviewed and on Sunday he received the Aaronic Priesthood!! There has been so much progress with them!! 😃 Yesterday we didn't email because we were living in a construction site...they re-did our whole kitchen and one of our bathrooms so everything was in a horrible mess. I dont like things to be dirty and so Elder Bandi and I cleaned our flat for 5 hours yesterday and then went and saw Monica again. She came to church and is progressing well! The week went well and we had some great lessons with people. I love helping people and seeing the changes that come into there lives! It is a blessing to be able to help these great people here. We have some people that the Lord has truly prepared and we are always excited to meet with them again and again. Susan and Lilian got interviewed yesterday and they are going to be baptized this next Sunday on the 4th. Its a birthday gift for my brother! Haha They are very excited and when they were asked who they wanted to baptize them, they said "Someone with the priesthood authority!" hahaha what a perfect answer! My birthday was a great great day! We went and visited Silvia and work and Hezbon was there even there 2 daughters that are still at home, they didn't have school that day. We got some free lunch from them and shared some good laughs together. We went and saw Susan and Lilian and had a great lesson with them, and saw how the Book of Mormon is changing there lives. We went to the beach with Juma (a priest), and then went and saw Erida and Roney and had like the best lesson ever with them. We talked about the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity and the spirit was just really there. They were able to understand them well and wanted the blessings that come from following them! They fed us some really good food. ANNNNNDDDD I got drenched again...they got me with buckets of water so i went outside and then like 10 of there neighbors and a bunch of kids all got me wet as well. Hahaha i think that is such a funny tradition and yeah i gotta go home we once again. The missionaries called me or texted me wishing me a happy birthday and Sister Msane as well. The week was a great one, and my birthday was one I wont forget! Have a great week and stay blessed! Love, Elder Merz

So after i logged off last Monday we went and met with Monica as planned. We had a fantastic lesson with her and she is a very nice lady. She is 24 and has a daughter. She is interested to know more about the gospel and I have really come to see just how special the message is that we get to share with others! She texted us a few times even during the week just wishing us to have a good day! She is so great!! We also met with this lady Alice. She lives right by the church and had a good time introducing ourselves and the church and yeah!! It was good!!! We went to Chyulu again for zone conference so the week did not have too many things to report on. But one thing i really loved that is so true is what President Msane said. He is a successful businessman and his conversion story is something else!!! Him and Sister Msane both know about the game of money. But he said "The success of any person depends on how well they use their resources." That is so true and i just felt i should share that with you guys. USE your resources that you have. No matter if you have many or a few. If you use the resources you DO have you will go somewhere. On our way back after getting off the train we still had an hour bus ride to town and then another hour matatu ride to our place. Well our bus from the train broke down and we chilled there for like an hour in the hot sun packed like raisens. We had no time to see anyone so we went and did our weekly planning on the beach! At church on sunday there was around 25 white people from Burley, Idaho at church!!! Then like 4 from diferent parts of Utah and 1 girl from SLC!! I dont know why they were there but it was really....well...FREAKY!!!! Too many white people!!! But it was awesome. The church has never been so full before LOL We are looking forward to some baptisms in just a few weeks so stay posted! Thank you all so far for the Birthday wishes....its on the 23rd but i wont be on then so thank you in advance for the ones i see next week!! :) Love you all and next year...i'll be celebrating it at home.... Love, Elder Merz

"For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things." 2 Nephi 2:11 This week has been a much better week than the past ones. We were able to meet with some of our investigators and had some great great lessons with them!! We had some miracles happen this week though. So the first miracle is that we were waiting at a supermarket for someone for an hour and we gave a few people some pamphlets that would take one, and then we went inside and got some water so we wouldn't thirst. The lady at the till was very wondering who we were and we gave her a pamphlet and we wrote our number on the back. That night she texted us saying she wants to know more! But the best part is that she came to church EARLY and she really really enjoyed church! Most people want to meet with us and have a lesson or whatever before they come to church. So that was definitely a miracle and after i send this email Elder Bandi and I are going to have a lesson with her! The second miracle is that we got bounced by someone we had planned to meet with and so we did some contacting in the area. We contacted some people and as we were leaving I saw this guy and something just told me to contact him!! So we contacted him. Harold is very very friendly, nice, a family guy, and it was like a golden contact, he even said he'd come to church. We invited him again on Saturday night and on Sunday HE CAME!!! He stayed for the whole of church and really really enjoyed it! He says he will be back next Sunday and bring his family! The Lord really will place people and opportunities in our path if we are doing the right things and are open for them!! The third miracle is an experience with tithing and fast offerings. So we visited Hezbon and Silvia and Silvia told us her miracle. She showed us a 20,000 shilling check for the family, but more specifically for June, to pay all of her school fees until she graduates from High School. And here a lot of families struggle to pay school fees for there children but that is definitely a miracle for them!! Silvia also told us how at Hezbons work there was a massive break down and the company was going to go bankrupt and he would be out of work. But one of the MP's (Or like one of the political leaders in the area) payed for the entire thing to be fixed and helped Hezbon keep his job and he even got a promotion from it!! The Lord really does us to PROVE HIM (Malachi 3:10) with tithing and fast offerings and see if he wont open the windows of heaven for us. I really love that word Prove. It is like a challenge, the Lord is saying "Try me i dare you!" before they were even baptized they started to pay tithing and fast offerings once we taught them about it. And they continue to do it, and now they are seeing the miracles of the Lord because of it!! This week has been so nice. We even gave Susan and Lilian baptismal dates of the 4th of March. Right on my little Brothers birthday! So that is how i plan to celebrate his birthday! Remember to keep positive and don't let life bring you down. When you are down it is a time to stand up, and go again. Never give up and keep trying. With anything! I have been able to feel the love, peace, and comfort from the people i care about most. I invite you to just ponder about these words: Opposition in all things. Think of how you can turn the negative oppositions in your life around! Have a great week and happy Valentines Day to all you lovers out there. I know i'll be spending it with someone special......Elder Bandi 😂😂😂 Love, Elder Merz

The week was up in the air and floated away like a balloon. So on Tuesday Elder Bandi arrived here in the middle of the day so almost our whole day that day was ruined because it can take some time to travel between different parts of our areas and so we had to stay close by. So we went and did some contacting basically all day. Elder Mathemera, Elder Breidenbaugh, and I. Wednesday we had DDM in Likoni which was very very good. We set very specific goals and are going to be accountable to each other. I have learned to really love setting goals and achieving them, or doing all i can to achieve them! But after DDM we waited FOREVER to catch the Ferry back to the other side and then I had to go do an interview for the Changamwe Elders waaaaaaaaay out in there area. Like the farthest place! With the traveling to get there and the interview and traveling back to our area. We arrived back in our area at 7:15. So that was our whole day. Thursday was a pretty good day. We had some lessons and did some great contacting and are finding some new people to meet with and teach! Friday was another halfday in our area because I had to do an interview for the Likoni Elders at 6:30 so we also had to stay the night with them. Saturday was a great day. We met with some of our investigators and we went and visited a member Sister Lydiah. She is super nice and self-reliant and actually had some good questions we had no idea the answers too!! She was the first person to also offer me some juice or ICE CREAM! Believe it or not we took the juice! Sunday was the best day of the week though!! We got a new investigator. Had 3 full and very very good spiritual lessons and they all learned a lot! I really love our investigators and am seeing the miracles of the Lord working though these people. With this girl Glory I learned to sometimes shut up. Sorry for the harsh words but sometimes i get to excited to reply that i dont get the whole message or point they are trying to get across. But i was quiet and the spirit worked in all of us in that fantastic lesson! This week will be a much better week. I love being a missionary and helping others to answer the questions of there soul. Or even to help them receive answers to there prayers. I have a strong love for everyone here. Christian, Muslim, anything. They all have touched my heart and I look forward to every morning going out in the super hot being cooked and fried all day just to even help one person!! Kwaheri nakupenda, Elder Merz