June 23, 2012

Friday was dedicated to writing the Church History in Kenya.  I have collected a lot of information but keep putting it off because of my poor skills in writing.  Bruce and President Broadbent gave me a blessing so we started at 8:30 the following morning and didn’t quit until 7 that night.   Saturday we were at it again adding and editing.  It’s now about one third completed but the best part, tying in Kilunga Hills and Kilili is my project for Monday.   Oh there is just such great history here and I hope I can do it justice.  After it is written we will start to combine and organize the pictures that have been collected.  I am not a historian so I am surprised I have been blessed with such a strong desire to write this story.  Tomorrow we will attend Mitini for Sacrament meeting.

These are some of the early pictures of the church in Nairobi Kenya

First group baptized in Ilima

Here is an entry from what Rachel-

“Elizabeth and Richard Matuvi came from Nairobi and stayed at Gideon’s House (where the chapel now stands in Ilima).  I found them there.  Richard had come to start the church.  There was only Elizabeth and their son Wendell,  1 Book of Mormon, 1 Bible, and 1 Hymn Book.  Elizabeth taught me, she said “We have a new church, welcome”.   Then I came the next Sunday and a missionary couple were there named Whaley’s.   I talked to my husband Dennis he agreed to come.  We were told to bring a chair to sit.  After 2 month we were baptized in the Kiusyi River".

Converts, two International Missionary couples, and Dennis Child (in the back) around 1985.  Dennis, an American, living/working in Nairobi with his family shared the gospel with Gideon Kasue from Ilima.  I get excited and wish I could tell you all the details.  It is just amazing how Heavenly Father works his wonders to prepare. 

Bruce’s Entry

The last couple of days we have been working on the life stories of the people. Well we have worked for a long time collecting them and Sharon has been typing the stories. Then she gives the people a copy of their story with their picture. They don't have cameras so they are so excited to get a picture. Now she is typing up the general history about the church here in Kenya and I have been putting the life stories together with their pictures and saving them to a thumb drive. That way it will be easy to forward to anyone that would want copies and very easy to store for the future to be added too. The people just don't have any written history about their families and most of them don't even know when they were born. The stories of their sacrifices and successes are so amazing. Most of them tell a story that pulls at your heart strings. Through all the trails and heartache they have developed a strong faith and are such a happy accepting people.

The weather has been really dreary and cloudy tonight it is raining pretty hard. They have just started to harvest their beans so the rain is bad for the beans but good for the corn. The problem with that is the beans are planted with the corn in the same rows.

Most of the people in the Hills are out of food from the last harvest so they are eating daily from their gardens and the harvest doesn't look like it will supply the needed food to last until the next harvest. To dry or to wet they don't have any way to control the water to store for irrigation or to drain it away if they get too much.