So very quickly I forgot to mention last week that the best little brother had a birthday! My bro Spencer is turning 16 which as we all know is a very special one! If you see him wish him a happy birthday! Happy birthday bro I cant believe you are already 16! A lot of things will change but I know you will be able to handle them well! I am so thankful for all of the fun times we have had and will have in the future! Be safe and remember I love ya man! So this week was a crazy one. We hung out at the bus station for like 3 days but in the station I met this guy Miko. He is from Germany, about 200km south of Berlin. He was super cool and we talked for like 30 minutes! I love to meet new people!! So a few funny stories really quick. So Elder Thomas and I were walking and this girl was like hey come greet me. So we went over and she was like "Im looking for a man" he turned and walked away to a group of people I was talking to. She followed and was like "i want a man" then i said "well look at all these nice options" Pointing to the like 6 guys by me and they all like straightened their shirts and like looked nice! Then she was like "no i want a white man" and then the guys like got sad and we just laughed and were like....well sorry! Hahaha it was great! As well when we picked up 2 new white Elders that are serving here last Monday we were with Elder and Sister Pehrson. Well long story short we had 5 white Elders in the back of their truck and them in the front so 7 white people in the same truck. We drove by some matatus and this matatu conductor was like yelling "EXCESS.....EXCESS!!" and took out his phone and took a picture of the license p late and then was like shouting "Policia wapi!?" Which is where is the police in Swahili. We were all laughing so hard because you should see how they pack these matatus hahaha! It was super funny! I decided I will just include funny moments instead of saying them at the end. We had another baptism this week of Sister Monica. Her mother is a member but less active and we've been teaching her a while and she has been progressing very well! She loves the church and an RM here I am pretty sure likes her....so yeah there we go! We also got this new investigator named Okello. He is so amazing and he had an amazing first lesson with him! He already loves us and we have a baptismal date for him as well as he contributed in the 2 classes on Sunday (gospel principles, and priesthood) as well as he attended the baptism of Monica! It is so amazing and I am so humbled and grateful to the lord for putting such good people into our path. It really is a blessing! I love the missionary work and am excited for rainy season to be coming. Thats where it rains like all day every day for a few weeks! I am so thankful for all the emails and my wonderful friends, family, and other support I am getting! Keep save! Penda, Elder Merz

So lots of news for this week and I will make it short as I can. So first thank you all who wished me a happy birthday! I had a great birthday and let me tell you how it went. So the morning was the usual morning and then we had some very good appointments and lessons and then Elder Mwanziu and I had some planned appointments at the church. So we go there and Antony that branch mission leader was there as well as Brother Ruben who is the First Counselor is the branch Presidency. So in Kenya they have a very wonderful birthday tradition. Its called Washing. Its this lovely thing where you are unexpectedly being drowned in water. So those 3 teamed up and whipped out the churches fire hose and they filled buckets of water and we were running around. Me trying to not get washed and them trying to wash me. So they got me pretty good and then I got revenge on all of them. I got Antony with a bucket that got him half wet, and Ruben the same. And then i was going the back way behind the church to hopefully surprise them and right as i turn the corner I see Elder Mwanzius shoe go around this other corner. I thought to myself...pshhh this guy. So he was hiding in this corner and so I ran by with my full bucket and absolutely drenched him in the corner!!! Then we had like a huge water fight and then it started raining pretty good! So that was like an Africa birthday present to me to have it rain on my birthday when its usually just super hot! We then walked home in the rain and I got to hear that nice mushing sound of wet socks and shoes with every step. Then Elder and Sister Pehrson (the senior couple we share a compound with) brought us some reallly good pizza which is a luxury here and then we went over and they made me a birthday cake which is also a luxury so in total it was a verrrry fun and memorable birthday! One I will never forget!! Then the next thing I will tell you guys is about Saturday. So mission President Msane called and gave us some news....Elder Mwanziu is being transferred to Changombe. To Dar Es Salaam and is the new District Leader there. I didnt believe it at first and neither did he, like the rest of that night we were like what that heck!!! And I am staying here in Eldoret for another transfer! The whole Eldoret district is changing this transfer. Elder Le Cheminant is going to Chyulu and is Elder Harrots new companion. A sister is leaving. and lastly Elder Call who I came from Salt Lake with is leaving as well which again is super sad. Then on Sunday Jimmy and Naftal got confirmed at Sacrament meeting and then we had 2 baptisms as well. The first is brother Ibrahim who I told you guys about before. We had to postpone his to this week due to his marriage certificate. Then Naftals wife Metrim was also baptized! So Naftal and his wife and both been baptized in the last 2 weeks! It was super spiritual and I cant stop myself from smiling the entire time when baptisms are going on! I love these people and to see them make these covenants and to join this true church it really is something that words can not describe! It was super happy! We also had an 8 year old get baptized with them so we had 3 on Sunday!!! It was crazy we had over 50 people at the baptisms on Sunday, that's the most that we've ever had! Then Elder Mwanziu bore his testimony and it was sad. So after the baptisms we just said goodbye and took a million pictures together with everyone! So today (Monday) Elder Mwanziu and I split up. We got a call last night at like 8 that he was leaving tomorrow so we had to pack everything quick and yeah it was all hard and sucked. I am so grateful for him and his example and for being my mission father. I am so blessed to have served with him and became such close friends. Saying goodbye to someone im close with is the hardest. Like when I hugged my friend Kyle down at BYU and then had to drive away. Or hugging Will and Drury and then just saying see you in 2 basically. Or when Luis came over and we talked for like 45 minutes then we both had to go and just watching him get in the Evo and drive away. That stuff is the worst and it was the same with saying Goodbye to Elder Mwanziu. He is an eternal friend and I am so grateful I got to be companions with him. Dar Es Salaam is not prepared for him! Anyway to end this suuuuper long email my new companion is Elder Thomas from American Fork! I am super excited to be with him and to become great friends with him as well! We picked him up today and were are already getting along good so that is great! Pray for us and I will tell you more about him next week when I as well know more! Thank you all for the birthday wishes and I hope you all have a great week! Kenya loves you! Love, Elder Merz

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes and wishes I will get next week from you guys! I cant believe i will be turning 19 and in my last year as a teen! NOOOO i wanna be a teen! Just kidding haha anyways thank you all and Im sure it will be a great day!! Its the 23rd for any of you who dont remember or know! 😂😊 I would quickly like to wish my Brother Will a happy birthday! I am so thankful for your friendship man and for all of the fun times we have had and will have! I hope this year racing goes great for you again! Thanks for everything Bro you are the best and I miss ya! Sorry I missed doing this on the 25th Of January but oh well! So my Valentines this week was something else....SO we walking to Kapsoya. Super boring and dusty and hot. Well there's a school that you pass and as we were walking by there was 7 guys that come out and were talking about me. So I went up to them and was joking around with them and gave them all pamphlets. Then we walked for like 2.5 km together and guess what? Yep they all play rugby! So I was able to talk with them about that and they thought I was so cool and even invited me to come play with them sometime! Then we passed another school for kids and then like 12 kids were following me and yeah that was cool! Then Antony needed some date Advice and Elder Mwanziu and I are both Pisces so yeah he got a good date. Then in the Matatu home from Kapsoya our Matatu and another one were fighting over who gets to take this 1 guy. Well after like a minute of him going back and forth both of the Matatu drivers looked at each other then both zoomed off and dusted the guy...I was dying of laughing! Then I picked some roses at a store for Antony for his date and walking in town as a white guy holding roses was an experience. Like ALL the girls smiled at me and like wanted me to give them to them and even guys were like wishing me a happy valentines and wanted them! We then had a valentines party at the church and on our way home I did my first white contact! This girl has lived here for 10 years and is from Idaho but never heard of our church...I was like pffftttt WHAAAT? Like i still don't understand how thats possible but okay. We also got 7 new investigators this week. 4 of them are from me contacting them on the road and they are all super good potentials! We met with all of them last week and have plans to meet with them this week! Also we had 2 baptisms on Sunday! Naftal and Jimmy! It was such an amazing experience and I felt the spirit super strong. Looking back and seeing there lives before the gospel was in there lives to now....WOW its a change! Like they have both changed sooo much and everything else in there lives has changed for the better as well! Its truly incredible and I am so lucky to be a tiny part in this journey of theirs! I love them and am so thankful I got to see them enter into the waters of baptism and make those sacred covenants! Thats it for this week. Short but sweet! The internet is super slow but I am thankful for the last week and look forward to this next week! Love you all and thanks for the birthday wishes! Elder Merz

Happy Valentines Day everyone! I hope it is a great holiday for all of you! Remember to show your love and appreciation for those around you. Strangers, neighbors, enemies, and especially your families and close friends! So this week went by suuuuuper fast! We had a Zone Conference on Thursday and Friday and then a District Conference on Saturday and Sunday. The ZC was for all the missionaries and then the district conference is like stake conference. It was super full on Sunday it was fantastic to see everyone from everyone in our district! So the last 4 days just flew by! So Im not sure if you guys remember Naftal and Jimmy. They were the ones that had the problem with the church a few weeks ago. Well Naftal got married in the church and comes with his whole family and told us that when he didn't come to church for those few weeks that he didn't feel happy and he just felt that he needed to be at church. So for the last like 5 weeks hes been coming with his wife and kids and going to lessons with us and hes really seen what the church is about and he is good now! Very good in fact! And then Jimmy is the same way! He always wanted to change and not want that and he has. He is not married nor has kids yet but he as well has been coming to church the last 5 or 6 weeks and helps in the lessons that we have on Sundays! So those 2 are getting baptized this next week!! I am super excited for that and pray that it will work out! There is also Ibrahim who as well comes with his whole family, his wife is an investigator like Naftals wife and he has a super strong testimony in the church. He had to wait to get his certificate as well but he is very very ready and good and is also getting baptized on Sunday! So we have 3 planned for this Sunday! I would lastly like to quickly share with you guys a scripture or two that I like and read this last week. Alma is talking to his son Helaman in Alma 37. In verses 4-14 it talks about the Book of Mormon and its coming forth in the latter days to "future generations"....or in other words us. It also talks in verses 8 and 9 about the power of the words in the Book of Mormon as well as the Book itself. It says how it brings us closer to our Heavenly Father and knowing more of his son Jesus. Its a super great chapter and just something that made me happy when I read it and I invite you who get this email to read it as well and pick out for yourself something that you like or something you learned and got from it. I am so grateful and thankful for the Book of Mormon and how ALL of us no matter what our situation is, where we are in life, it doesn't matterHow it can bless all our lives and we can find answers to our any question by reading it and praying. Thank you for joining me for another episode offfffff Funny Moments from Africa...haha. So we contacted this super nice guy this last week and we had a little 10 minute lesson with him. That was great not funny. The funny part is when we were leaving he asked how my family back in Sweden is. I was like umm what? He was like your from Sweden aren't you? I was like ohh yes I am.....and im from the US. Mostly the US but all of my family is well....thank you for asking LOL. Then one day we were walking in town and there was like a group of 12 guys just hanging out, not scary just like hanging out. And as we walked by one of the guys was like "Mzungu I'm broke can you help me with some money?" Then I say without even thinking "I'm broke too, I was gonna ask you if you could help me!". Then him and all his friends laughed and yeah it was a great time! I am glad that I can have fun and make others laugh while I am here! I also say a guy wearing a jersey of my boy Clay Matthews! Anyways that is all for this week and I again wish you all an amazing Valentines! You all get some love from Kenya! Have a great week and be safe! I love to hear from you guys! Love, Elder Merz

Soooo for this weeks email I have some stuff. So our 1st counselor in the Branch was in the hospital and he got out and we went and visited him at his house. He had a question for us about 1 Nephi chapter 8. It was suuuuper cool to be able to help him understand what it is saying and what it means and you could just see the smile on his face! It was one of the coolest lessons I've ever had with a member! That day I also got an answer to a prayer. That morning I prayed to have someone put in our path so that we could have a new investigator to teach. Well after seeing Brother Mulati we were walking back to town and giving out pamphlets. Well this one guy I contacted was suuuuper happy to take the pamphlet and I had a little lesson with him and then he said he wants to know more and that on Sunday he will try to have time to come to church! It was a direct answer to my prayer. So I learned 2 things from this. THe first is that we need to pray if we want help and answers. The second is that god hears each and every one of our prayers. The third is that for him to provide an answer we MUST have faith and then with faith comes action. Without action nothing will happen. Its like if i would have prayed for that but then not given out pamphlets or talked to people. It never would have happened. We must do our part and then trust in god to provide the rest. One of our investigators Naftal that I told you about who had that problem. Well he had a church wedding last Wednesday! We didnt go....because we didnt even get informed about the occasion but when we heard we were both shocked! Him and his wife have been coming with their kids to church the last like 4 weeks as well so on the 19th we will baptism him! We also have 2 other baptisms for the 19th so hopefully we will have 3 on the 19th! :D I am super excited for that! This week we have a zone conference and a district conference so this week is already busy! And this email will again be a little bit short because we are attending a family home evening with a branch member and need to go to that! So thanks everyone for the emails and I wish you all a safe next week and to be joyous!! Weekly moments of laughter: So right after emailing last week we went shopping. Well yeah I saw like 12 white people and 2 pretty English girls in the supermarket and I was just like pshhh what the heck!? Like honestly what is going on. Then this week we went to this place called Annex. Its about 8 kilometers from town and we went there in a Matatu but the people we were supposed to see werent there so we decided to walk back. And on the way this crazy guy came to us and walked with us for like 2.5 kilometers and he took Elder Mwanzius bag of chips. I was laughing but then got annoyed because he kept following us. He would have followed us alll the way home so we told him we had to go another way and crossed the street and went down this other street. He kept walking for a little then crossed as well and was looking for us. Sooooo we raaaan through this petrol station and were hiding behind cars and buses and then we crossed back over the street when he wasent looking and booked it down this street so he couldnt see us., Hahaha it was soooo funny I wish I could make my emails better to show you the amazingness of that experience but it was great! And lastly I dont know why I am saying this to all of you but I guess every now and then I talk in my sleep....so early last week in my sleep I guess i said "Pants? What the heck!" haha some dream I must have had. And then I also guess that when I go to sleep I just pass out in like 5 minutes. I went to sleep later on that week and Elder Mwanziu was laying in bed and then I like shouted "Are you kidding me!?" he thought i was joking around but then when he got up and looked at me I was asleep.....soooo that's nice hahaha All my love, Elder Merz

This week has been one of the hardest weeks missionary work wise. We had an INCREDIBLE amount of bounces. We would have plans to meet with people and then we would go to the meeting point or walk for an hour to their home for them to not be there. Then we would either call and their phone would be off or they would be like oh yeah sorry I had to go somewhere....so then wed walk another hour and half to meet with someone else for the same story!! But by the end of the week we were able to meet with a like 14 people in 3 days so that was super nice! I also got to sit in a real car this week! It was super nice but the inside smelled like how my Civic does and so it made me homesick for that car hahaha. This week we also saw 3 white joggers in 1 day and i was like WHAT THEEEE! Like what are these guys doing? Pshh whatever haha. I would just like to say thank you. Thank you to all of my friends, family, teachers, and leaders and just everyone that has talked with me about the gospel or taught me in the gospel. Its really really cool how we'll be teaching a lesson and then they ask a question and I will randomly recall a lesson I learned. It doesn't matter if it was 4 months ago or 10 years ago, its just amazing how that works and happens and then to see how it helps that investigator!! This is another short week of writing because we had bounces like everyday and me describing the walking would not be to interesting i think. Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, left foot, right hand, right knee, left ear.....yeah boring right? Haha So i heard that in my home state of good old Utah last week at one of the resorts they got 70 inches of snow in 1 storm. Yeah you guys are lucky. OF COURSE that would happen while i'm gone haha! But luckily for me the last 2 nights its rained all night so I get to fall asleep t rain...but not just any rain...Kenyan rain! Its super nice I love it!! I would also like to give a shout out to my amazing Sister. On last Friday 1 year ago my family changed. My sister left on her mission and I am just so thankful for her example and for being able to look up to her and see how shes changed so much on the mission! It'll be 3 years without seeing her but its worth it because we are doing the work of the lord! Funny moments: So if you know me I love to make others laugh. As well as laugh myself. So we got in a Matatu that was already packed but we got to sit in the front 2 seats by the driver. But we had to crawl through the drivers seat because the passenger door was like welded shut (that's smart). So elder Mwanziu went first then I hoped in put my hands on the steering wheel looked back and was like "Alright lets go!" and everyone laughed hahaha it was great!! I am also now an African model. SO i got this super super nice custom African paint vest. And at the place I got it I am there first white customer as well as I introduced a new product so they took a bunch of pictures and I'm gonna be in there magazine now showing that a white guy has shopped there and to promote the new product! NIIIICE hahaha Anyways love you all and hope you have a great week!! Looooove, Elder Merz

So this week was another great week! So we got to meet with one our investigators Elvis is his name. We haven't seen him since the beginning of December but we met with him at his home and he was suuuper nice and remembered everything that we taught him before! Especially the big points about the Restoration like the Priesthood, Apostasy, and about Joseph Smith and the whole Restoration which was suuuper cool! Hes just been super busy at work and his boss doesn't let them have Sundays off, but we now know what days and times we can meet with him! Something I have also come to love is the investigators prayers. They are sooo thankful to meet with us and pray for blessings for us and our families and to find more people to talk to! Its like what the heck!? YOU are still deciding whether or not to accept the gospel but they just have so much love and respect for us and I guess see or think that we are good guys! So i really love their prayers I cant explain it but they are the best! This email will be a little bit shorter because I am giving you guys a homework. So this last week I read Alma 32. And the ending is what I would like you guys to read. It talks about Faith and is suuuper good and easy to understand. This is how our Faith should be and Faith is pretty much the starting point for the gospel. If you dont have Faith in God or Jesus Christ then well.....you gotta start from there haha! So the parts I especially want you to read are verses 26-43. I would also like you guys to search up the talk called "To Whom Shall We Go?" from Elder M. Russell Ballard. October 2016. Just google that and it should come up! It should help any of those who are lacking faith or don't know their feelings about being a member of our church! Its a great talk and I hope it helps! Some news for last week but 1. So i forgot to say last week that i got 2 letters that are the best! One was from a Primary class from my home ward with all the little kids. They all drew me a picture and wished my Merry Christmas and it touched my heart because I love kids and just to get that was a complete surprise and I loved it sooooooo very much!! I also got a monthly letter from some of my good friends who are on missions as well and just to hear their testimonies and there experiences is the best! I love to get that letter and I am so thankful for the strong group of friends and family that I have!! I also got my Christmas packages FINALLY!!! So thank you all for who contributed and dropped something in there! Especially the letters that I got! That was the best part and I put on some Christmas music as i read them all so I had a Christmas in January as well! I wish i could thank everyone personally and will be forever grateful!!! You guys are the best and I am so thankful for all the love and support I have from home! Moments of the week: So this week we were in a huuuge dust tornado! Like a real tornado not some tiny little thing. Like a full on tornado valley tornado! ....Okay not that big but it was big and was kinda cool haha!! Also here they know about traffic. So there is like 1 lane going each way but when its traffic time they will turn 2 lanes into 6 somehow so its funny to see haha! Another crazy thing is how here if you are passing someone that's not good enough. You will see people that are passing being passed in like a third lane to there's double take overs here! 😂 This church that is right by our chapel had like a parade as well that we walked with from town and they had like a marching band, 20 piki-pikis, and a lot of other cars that just took up the entire road so yeah it was crazy but good music to walk to lol. Lastly we were in a World Rally Cross Matatu! We were heading back from Kapsoya and its all dirt roads and hills and turns and this guy was going like 60 kph and apexing the turns and we were just like a rally Subaru hahaha it was super cool and fun! I loved it! That's all for this week! Thanks for all the emails and I love to hear from you guys! I pray for you all and wish for you to all be safe and have a great week! Kenyan love, Elder Merz