From July 16, 2012: Hardworking and at my Best; Legend of Mean Kitties

  As I recall this week I feel that it wasn't anything special.  Yes we worked hard, we were obedient, but I felt that we were going through the motions and had a lackluster result at church. I felt that with being sick and various other things on Monday, it hurt our running start for the week. On Tuesday and Wednesday we had a few meetings with the ward where the theme was centered on the missionary work which was nice. I feel that the Bishop here is really blessed by the Lord and I'm excited to see the growth here. Like I said before, I just hope that I will be able to contribute to this and not hinder the work. We have been working with two separate investigators, Margarette (17) and Stephen (21), who both have received answers to their prayers which was motivating last week. We have been working with them and it was disappointing to have Margarette be the only investigator at church and this was influenced because she is from a part member family. Regardless, she is obviously liking the ward and we have been working with the young women to fellowship her too. For Stephen, we had arranged to pick him up for church, but his phone was off and his family said he wasn't there. We have introduced ourselves to the family and we are working to be able to teach them too. One of the elder Brothers has shown interest. There is another man named Ernest (~27?) who is an instrumentalist for his church, but as he lives next to the chapel, he said he would come. We had taken him through the church before and attended institute and a baptism. After we were not able to pick up Stephen. We tried for Ernest, but his brother said he was out of the house. 
  All in all we have been able to identify more members' homes and have coordinated our effort with theirs in bringing a few of them to church. We are hoping for two baptisms this month, but it looks like we will only have one. For Elder Bladen and I, we continued our finding efforts, but it was clear that it wasn't with the same spiritual zeal as the previous week.  The days were long, rough, and empty. We are continuing to work hard, but we need to revitalize our spirits to do effective work. We are continuing to have a few leads on referrals so we will pursue them and we hope this will help revitalize us too. There is a phrase written in our apartment saying, " Are you a hardworking or an effective missionary?" I personally don't like how the saying is constructed as I feel that it implies to rationalize that the two are not needed together, but at the same time I understand the meaning and I feel that this week showed that I am a hardworking missionary, but I am definitely lacking on the fruits of an effective missionary.  As we have talked about, seeing the whole of my mission I am at my best as a missionary with the desire and intention to continue this growth. But while I'm at my best, the results are not mirroring the missionary I have become. Perhaps I will have to recount my blessings and growth. My continual challenge is to help bring progression in our investigators whether it be church or baptism and with reopening Nungua 2,   I feel that I may have some expectations that I'm just flopping at. I guess I can imagine myself on a treadmill while others are actually in a race going somewhere. Having said all of that, Elder Bladen and I are going to focus more on our referrals and identifying those who are not progressing and continue our finding and building of a teaching pool. Elder Bladen is developing more confidence and is a good missionary-great potential. Our desire this week is to be reenergized in spirit. 
  I figure I would also relay that Elder Bladen also developed strep throat on Sunday, but is feeling better now which is good. 

Also according to Kenyans, a house cat can kill a full grown person -  so like a  kitty killing someone the size of Doug Woodard. As this is an unbelievable conclusion to understand, upon further questioning we were told that the claws are poisonous. Other Africans said the size of the claws can, I'm sure in strange occurrences kill.  But they always do serious damage to the face, but to have a reputation to kill a human is a bit strange.