Dear family member, friend, acquaintance, compadre, stranger, pal, relative, or random pair of eyes that happen to be gracing these words. I am typing this up as i try to wrangle together all of the thoughts and feelings. If things seem scattered, just know its normal, its me, so don't be worried. It will be a great to get some of these thoughts off my chest as one chapter of my life comes to a close. I am not sure what i can add to all of the stories and words that have been said about the experience as a missionary. I have come to know and love many amazing people that have left a perdurable effect on my life. Missionaries from all over the globe, people in the humblest of backgrounds, leaders that have truly been inspired, the plethora of them all. I have grown in many things. I know for sure that my testimony has been immeasurably changed. I can remember being petrified in the preparation for me leaving all my comforts and going who knows where, to talk to who knows who every day for the next 730 days. I had a lot of great influences, but the jump into the biggest unknown of my life was there at the doorstep. I told everyone that I was getting my mission call to England. No body would have predicted that I would be called to the Kenya Nairobi mission. It still does not seem real to me that i have been out here for as long as i have. The time has really flown by. I had no perception of what it would be like. What would I eat? What would the people be like? Could I stand the climate? What about mosquitoes? Was the church big there? Just a lot of questions I decided to keep a positive attitude and look forward to the adventure and see how it all turns out. So I waited for what felt like a good deal of time, 6 months, with a lot of my closest friends being picked off one by one on their own call the serve the Lord. The day came for my farewell and setting apart. To say a goodbye to the people who have been the closest to me. Friends and family. Some of which friends and family situations will never be as they used to when i left. Getting dropped off at the airport and giving my final hugs to my family members was one of the hardest experiences of my life up to that point. Flash forward to the MTC, it was a journey of its own and from what i can now say, is nothing like how my mission is. But the preparation and friends i made there had a monumental impact on my mission. I don't know what I would have done if was left to consider what I had gotten myself into. I didn't think I would be very good at teaching or sharing the gospel. And practicing it seemed to prove my point. I was concerned about how I would actually do when I taught real people that really need to know what I'm sharing. But I could quickly see that it had nothing to do with my eloquence or intellect. Which is good to know, I'd be doomed otherwise. I can see if I keep up with this this is going to end up being a novel. I know that all but one or two of you at this point have stopped reading or caring. But I'll try to stick with being brief. Well, relatively brief. I arrived in Africa. And it was a shock. My first 4 transfers in Eldoret was the refining fire for me. I had the best trainer out there. But a brand new area we were opening, I had no idea of how things worked here. But my perspective rapidly changed and matured as I got into the flow of things with the help of all the people I was blessed to be around at that time. Things dramatically changed on my mission in Eldoret and it was the roughest part of my entire life. Thoughts that you would never think a missionary had came to my mind as i tried to stand all of the burdens that were all of a sudden placed upon my shoulders. I did not know if I would be able to take it. But looking back i can see the Lord was really carrying me through it all. I had the smallest hope and faith things could ever get better. But by some unknown chance things slowly and gradually grew better. Including the growth that the Lord was having take place in my life. Moved to Buru Buru in Nairobi and there I was placed amongst another great group of amazing people. One of my favorite memories of Nairobi is seeing all the missionaries on P-Day, going to town on the crazy buses that transported us everywhere there, and getting a different angled view of missionary work. Before i knew it I was off to Kitale, the "bush", or so i thought. It was a short 6 weeks there before the terrifying call came from President Msane. I was moving across the entire country, over 850km away, to train a new missionary and open an area there. My body was not prepared for the humidity. But i miss it dearly. The sudden reality of humidity that wont retread. The warm moist air, the brisk ocean breeze, the soothing sound of the waves rolling up on the white sand beaches. Things were still on the climb upwards but they were better than i ever thought possible. There i met some of the best people I have ever had the privilege to meet. Great companions, great zone, putting it all into perspective it was a small slice of the cake of heaven. A hard fought bar-fight for the spot of my favourite place on my mission, as i have been blessed with areas to serve in. Leaving Mombasa was something I never wanted to happen, and to me its time still came too fast. A few short months and i was out, being transferred to the hardest area in my mission. Mautuma. I thought i knew how to be a great missionary until I was thrown into the real bush. Everything was completely different in every single aspect from what i was used to for the previous 16 1/2 months of my mission. I cant explain all the differences, but it pushed me right back down to the ground. As i tried to learn the gibbery Luuyah language, and my kiswahili was being sharpened and tested, lots of growth has occurred. It is the only "bush" area left in the entire mission and I have really got a different view of happiness and of the way of life. With its never ending muddy roads, white water rafting rain storms, and lush green beauty all around. It is another slice from that cake of heaven. Couple that with the amazing people I have met and helped to find lasting happiness here, it has really changed my life and its been an honor to finish my mission here. So now that I'm back full circle, here I am now, at the end of the line looking back at all I had done. As I consider it, I would not change what I've had throughout all this time. Are there possibly things I could change for what I think better, that would have been nicer for me or helped me improve more? Well, yeah, probably. But that's not what happened. What I have been given and what I have experienced has happened, and it's all been more than I could have imagined or hoped for in my wildest dreams. I was given some good advice before I had left, quoting from Elder Wirthlin's last talk: "Come what may, and love it." There's been so many good things that I have loved. Chapati is one of them. Same with chips mayai. Singing the hymns after we had MLC is another. I could list so many other simple things. One of the best things for sure is the people I've come to know and love. These people I've served, and who I've served with. A good number of you I am sending this email to. There's been plenty of bad. The roads here are bad. Just awful. Most of the music I've heard played out here, sorry, but being frank, I cannot stand. Being crammed in the public transport is interesting at best. I've seen more fake promises given to us than I've seen fake watches. And I've seen (and named) quite a few. And there has been a myriad of internal struggles. I don't know if I loved those things so much at the time. But going in review, particularly about those things that matter most, I am thankful for everything I've gotten. I'm grateful I've had the chance to serve the Lord and help spread the truth, at least a little. I don't really know what effects I have had, I don't know how many changes I've made, I'm not even sure how really devoted I was at times. But I definitely hope that I have played at least some small part in sharing this good word. It is good. It is so true. And I couldn't live without it. So. There it goes. It's surreal to be through. I'm really nervous now about what's next, but I guess looking back, I've felt the same way. And look where I am now. I've gone through okay, and gotten more than I could have hoped for. So there's good stuff ahead. There always is. I love each of you and thank you for all the influences you've had in my life. I wish the best for each of you. I've said it before and I will say it again, I wish written or spoken language could truly shed some light on the feelings, thoughts, memories, and experiences I have had. I hold it all dear to my heart and am happy with the person God has shaped and molded me into. Thank you all for being a part of the best 2 years for my life. May God bless each and every one of you and may his love abide with you until we are blessed to meet again. Lots of enduring love, Elder Christian Merz

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

The last 2 weeks i have kept many different transactions and thousands of shillings spent all in my mind. From many different money sources (my monthly money, personal money, and our zone working fund). But i have remembered it all in my head and then was able to account for it all later on and could remember the exact days and amounts of all the money that we spend on things. And in the end after the accounting, everything all lined up. I am quite impressed by my mind! Linda, one of our investigators, is so awesome!!! We had a few lessons with her this week and she reads the material we give her and keeps her commitments we give her! She has great questions and her heart is really being opened to receiving the message. Its a cool relationship we have because she doesn't see us just as missionaries. But even considers us her friend. She opens up to us, trusts us, and really love it when we come! She even cooked us some lunch which was really nice! We also got to meet with Yusuf again, the muslim guy we are teaching here. We go to his mosque and teach him and he is the best guy. He has SUPER good questions and like every time we go he expresses how he loves how we actually help people to understand. He has questions that literally we have to think about and we for sure don't have all the answers for. So it is a nice challenge for us. Our branch mission leader is also giving us a lot of help! He calls us and tells us we should go visit our Ministering families and wants to take us to go visit some less-actives. He is really such a great help to us. He has a positive attitude towards things, like how we biked quite far to go see a less-active who was not even home. She just smiled and we laughed as we rode our bikes together back to mautuma. He even took us to go and minister to our assigned families who 2 of them are less-active families and they both came to church with there whole family on sunday, so there is the fruits of our work! Some interesting things for the week. I had to draw water from a near by well to be able to wash my clothes because no water at our flat, as well as i had to do it in the little sunlight i had. But i got to wash with the company and stories of my great companion Elder Bigirindavyi. Apparently as well, a girl cant get married here until she knows how to slaughter and prepare chicken really nice to the liking of her possible husband. Haha so girls at home dont complain. You would probably scream even just seeing a chicken flap its wings. Elder Big's birthday was on the 22nd. It was a nice day and our last appointment just next door to where we stay (where Sharon, Barbra, and Racheal live) i planned it out with them that after the lesson when we were going that they would "wash" him. It all worked out according to plan. he got some nice big buckets of water dumped on him 😂😂 Last thing for this long email, HAPPY BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK TO MY DAD!!! I am so thankful to have him as my father and for all the many things he has taught me and helped me with. His influence and love and direction in my life has really helped me become who i am today! All the best birthday wishes to you Dad! i love you soooooo much! Cant wait to see you in a few weeks! :) Racheal was also baptized on sunday!! it was a really great day and time! She was glowing like an angel and was standing out like a Princess! She is one of my best friends here and is like my adopted younger sister! Love her! "If the world is to be improved, the process of love must make a change in the hearts of men." - President Hinckley Love, Elder Merz P.S. - hope you like our new ride, the big road smoother machine....

The week we got a whopping 1 day to work in our area, Wednesday. It was a really great day none-the-less. But wow. We took like the only car that goes to mautuma, we hopped in and hopped it would take us to somewhere where we could get to Eldoret faster. Luckily it worked out really nicely and we got to Eldoret in 90 minutes! We had our interviews with President Msane and the next day our Zone conference. Somethings that stuck out for me is how when we pray, we must pray with real intent. That means that you are willing to act and submit to the will of God no matter what the answer may be. Whether it is a yes, no, or wait. I also liked the quote from President Benson that says "Vision without work is a dream; work without vision is a drudgery; work coupled with vision is destiny." We went and visited some members from Eldoret that i missed a lot. One in particular was sister Jane and her family. They were all super excited and happy to see me. We got fed and played/talked with the kids. It was seriously so nice. We also went and taught a really cool blind lady who is investigating the church in Huruma. SO we got to work with Elder Fraga and Ntlebi. It was a super cool experience! She even has a Book of Mormon in brail that somehow we were able to get here! We had our district conference and it was really cool to be able to see some people from mautuma be sustained to receive the Melchizedek priesthood! The talks that were given were very powerful and if the members apply the things that they talked about and learned, we will see great progress in the branches here in the Eldoret district. Thats about it for the week! Have a great week all! Love you! Sincerely, Elder Merz