Family and Friends,
Nakumatt is the Kenyan equivalent of Wal-Mart. It is a large department store, the largest in Kenya, and stocks just about everything you need. It is a bit higher-end than some others, but it is where we shop. It is about a third the size of Wal-Mart, but it is huge to us. The Nakumatt in Kitale just opened about four months ago. We started shopping there a month ago, and the workers started asking us about the church. President Barasa, first counselor in the Eldoret District, referred us to one of the workers, Wycliff. Wycliff invited us to some interfaith devotional on Tuesday morning. Turns out we were the guest speaker. Thankfully, Elder Flake spent 23 years in the military as a chaplain, so he was very used to speaking about religion without telling everyone else how wrong they were. They passed out small pieces of paper with a scripture from the Bible and another from the Book of Mormon. The next time that we went in there, we got swarmed with requests for copies of the Book of Mormon. Now we are teaching a few people from that devotional.
We thought that was the end of it, but they invited us back on Sunday morning for a memorial service for the Westgate attacks that happened one year ago. Elder Flake again blew it out of the water, sharing with the people how Americans are very empathetic when it comes to terrorist attacks. Great time.
On a bit of a lower note, our golden investigator, Odwour, is a former polygamist. Not a big deal, because a lot of Kenyans are like that. But he has to get approval from the Area Presidency before he can be baptized. So we postponed his baptism from next Sunday to some time in the future. Also, he is from the same tribe as Pres. Obama.
Love you all,
Jacob
