I know this update is a little late but we had some major connectivity problems yesterday. We can get on line tonight though so here goes. After 15 months of these I wonder what we can send each week that is not just a lot of the same. This was a pretty good week though. Because of the funeral in Kilili on Tuesday I let my companion spend the day in the flat with her primary lesson material work that she gets ready each month and I took the Assistants to Kyambeke for baptismal interviews. Jacinta from up at Ilima came down and did great as did Francis and Joseph from Kyambeke. Martin also from Kyambeke showed up a little late and I think got a little flustered so will try again in a few weeks. Because some of them live in situations where they speak nothing but Kikamba I think their understanding of the English words is very tough even though they read it very well. I constantly have to remind myself to slow down when talking with people that we aren't around that much. It strikes me as a little unfair to demand that these people must understand the English language in order to be baptized but then it would really create problems to try and provide materials in all the different dialects and provide church services in the same different languages so we just keep doing the best we can and encourage them. I really have a tender spot in my heart for those natives in my age group that really want to join the church but suffer from the same hardening of the brain cells that all us senior citizens have. The young people learn Swahili and English in the schools but even that does not guarantee that they understand all the words they learn to read.
We attended our final Primary Program in Sacrament Meeting at Kyambeke and it was just as great as the other two. They even had the primary children act as choristers for each song to include the ones that the rest of the congregation joined with them on. What brave little troopers and they did their parts so well. After the block meetings we held the baptisms for Francis and Joseph. Michael, the young man we baptized 3 weeks ago, provided the talk for the service and did a very impressive job. He has also accepted a call as second councilor in the YM Presidency and really has the young men fired up. They restructured all the auxiliary organizations and the branch is really responding well. Two weeks ago they had 156 people in attendance for Sacrament Meeting and this week it was 167. The church records show them with 181 members which is a pretty impressive percentage of attendance. There are quite a few non-members in that count. There are several of those who just don't understand English well enough but continue to faithfully show up each week. There are also several other investigators of which we are teaching several and others who just want to check out the church and we soon hope to be able to teach. Michael had two of his brothers with him and a neighbor. Not sure where the request to split the branch is at in the system but the little stone cut out with no hands does seem to be gaining a little momentum there in the Kulungu Hills.
We have some 20 or so people from Ilima and Kyambeke in Nairobi this week working on their passports for travel to the temple scheduled for February. I am starting to be a little concerned about the Kilili folks as their passports aren't back yet and their trip is only 4 weeks away now but Victor tells me they should be coming right away. The folks in Kyambeke have gotten enough moisture to sprout their maize so they are putting the beans in the ground. Ilima is a little short yet and there has been no rain in Kilili. We have had a bunch of moisture here in Nairobi so things are very green here now. The people up country are just now saying it is time to start raining there so I hope it does.
May God bless everyone for another week.
Elder & Sister Bishop
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