OUR KENYA "HOME SWEET HOME"

Our spacious home takes most of the space on the bottom floor of this three story building. The rest of the building is the Kisumu Branch Building.  The entry to the Branch is just outside our back door off our dining room.  Just inside the entrance to the Branch Building is the YW room and our laundry room is just off the YW room. The bottom floor also has a kitchen that is rarely used by the branch.  There are also 2 toilet's on this first floor of the church part of the building. We would love to know the history of this amazing building.  Who built this home and who lived here?   There is a full size spacious bathroom including a huge bath tub on the second floor.  At one time it had a working hot water heater in that bathroom.  Glass has been used in various parts of the building.  There are many verandas.  It must have been a work of art when it was built many years ago.  They must have done a lot of entertaining with the big open air area on top that now provides a beautiful chapel for us now.  The second floor has the Primary Room, Nursery, RS Room, Pres Okila's office and the Library.  There are two more bathrooms on this floor.  There are 4 flights of stairs to get to the chapel on the top floor.  It has a beautiful view of the surrounding area.

OUR GUARDS

You will note that this property is gated. This is very common and needed here. 

We have a guard  24/7 to keep watch and open and close the gate 

as we and other church members come and go.

This is Mary, our day guard.  She is here from 6 am to 6 pm.

Morris is here from 6 pm to 6 am.

They are very conscientious!

Mary in uniform.

Changing of the guards.  (Morris and Mary) 

They put their uniforms on after they arrive for work.

 OUR FRONT DOOR

This also shows the guard house and car port.

 Mary and Morris use the guard house or the front porch when it rains.

There is a cement bench (bottom left) and a portable chair so they can be in the shade.

Notice the size of the padlock on the front door.

This is how we secure it when we leave.

It has a large padlock on the front door when we leave.

OUR GARDENER 

Brother Miruka, our gardener comes 5 mornings each week and 

takes very good care of the plants and trees here. 

He even sweeps off our front porch.

Elder Horner found him in one of the trees giving it the needed care. 

These are pictures of the gardens and our back yard area.  

 

our backyard

 OUR LIVING ROOM

& FRONT ENTRY TO OUR HOME

 DINNING ROOM 

There is a sink in the dining room to wash your hands in.

How is that for being convenient?  

We are thankful for clean drinking water & dispenser! 

We have enjoyed candle light dinners here as our power has been out many different times. 

Who would have thought that we would be enjoying candle light dinner in Kenya?

Kenya believe it????

OUR KITCHEN

Our Kitchen has a unique little stove in it.  The top lifts up while cooking.  

The left side is electric and the right side is propane.  

The propane is our choice as we are comfortable using the gas.  

It is small but gets the job done.

The two containers on the counter are for heating water electrically.   

The only source of filtered water in our home comes through the three water filters in the kitchen.  We move the valve on the faucet and an awesome trickle of water comes out.

What a blessing it is to have this!!!

We have two dish drainers.  One is for draining our dishes and the other one is for 

draining our fruits and vegetables after they have been washed in soap and water 

then left to set a  a couple of minutes in the Jix (bleach) solution.

Our food preparation definitely takes longer but we have been blessed to stay healthy!

Our kitchen door opens into the private courtyard where we have our clotheslines.

The power went out again and we were so thankful for the clotheslines!

 OUR BEDROOM

We washed the mosquito net but

 haven't had to use it yet!

We each have a clothes closet that measures 21 inches wide x 14 inches deep.

It works adequately! 

 THE BATHROOM

The only hot water in our flat is literally in the shower head.

It works when we have electricity.

A cold shower is better than no shower! 

THE OFFICE

The office is just off the dining room.

It has a bed so we can accommodate other couples as they come.

LAUNDRY ROOM

 The laundry room is just off from the YW Room.

The dryer is ventless and collects water in a plastic container that has to be emptied.

We are thankful for these appliances!  We were surprised how long it took for these appliances to run through the cycles when we did laundry the first time.  Elder Horner is so handy at fixing things and was able to rewire the plug so we can run the washer and the dryer at the same time. 

 We are learning!

BRANCH ENTRANCE

This is the entrance to the Branch Building.

The windows to the right of the door are the windows in the end of our dining room by our back door entrance to the branch building. The windows to the right of that are in the study.

The windows to the left of the door are in the YW room.

CHAPEL

The open air chapel is on the 3rd floor.  

The sacrament table is on the left and the small table to the right is for the keyboard.

Sister Horner is still playing for Sacrament Meeting when we attend the Kisumu Branch.

The view from the chapel is beautiful!  We can see the tops of the temple 

built by people from India.  The surrounding homes are beautiful!

BAPTISMAL FONT

Our baptismal font is in the back yard.

We are looking forward to the day when Elder Horner can fill the font.

Hopefully there will be two baptisms Aug. 10, 2014.

This is our trusty 4 wheel drive truck and 

we are THANKFUL it is a 4 wheel drive.

KEYS

Keys, keys and more keys!

Most of them are skeleton keys.

This is a picture of one of many of our alarm cocks "I mean clocks"!

Having the picture of our Savior Jesus Christ

and our family pictures  

makes it feel like Home Sweet Home!

 We  feel so blessed to be here 

and have this sweet opportunity to serve our Heavenly Father!

Elder Horner was creative and found a way to add a much needed shower curtain.  YES!!!

A warm shower is wonderful!

These are the instructions for the Electric Shower Head!

This little corner table made it possible 

to use the one and only electrical socket in the kitchen

We rearranged the furniture and moved the couches 

into the study so we have a conversation area.

The extra bedroom works out better in the smaller front room.

The mosquito net has been a blessing for sure!

Nyabondo

Wednesday July 23, 2014 we had District Meeting.  This was Sister Horner’s first ever District Meeting.   We are so impressed with our Elders.  Elder Ndaba and Elder Hiltbrand serve here in Kisumu and Elder Nysele and Elder Orenge are from Busia. 

After District Meeting, we made lunch for all the Elders and Elder Horner took them downtown so the Busia Elders could catch the bus to go back to their area.  Elders Ndaba and Hiltbrand came back with Elder Horner and the four of us made our first time visit to Nyabondo. 

Nyabondo has a faithful group of Saints eager for the day they can become an organized group or branch.  Elder Horner’s cell phone has been ringing since our arrival here with repeated invitations to come to Nyabondo.  The ride up was scenic!!!  We are serving in such a beautiful area!!!!

Something that is very rare here is a street sign. Our GPS does not work here because there are no street signs in the areas we are assigned to.  This rare sign obviously took our thoughts back home.

Turning to go up to the little church building meant going up a narrow road that felt more like we were driving inside a canal of beautiful red fertile dirt.  This picture taken through the truck window does not show the dimension or the depth of the color of the soil. 

We had no idea  what to expect and could not have been prepared for what was ahead.  We arrived at a beautiful grassy flat where they had built a small beautiful meeting house.  There was a tall red poinsettia plant on the right side of the building and a hedge that was trimmed to perfection on the right side of the grassy flat.  As we got out of the truck, our hearts were touched with the singing coming from the mud building, “Zion, Zion, lovely Zion; Beautiful Zion; Zion, city of our God!”  The spirit was so strong and we found ourselves silently thanking Heavenly Father for an experience we were about to have.  There were about 20 people dressed in Sunday attire in that beautiful little meeting room singing like an angelic choir!  What a greeting!!!  It was one of those savor the moment moments.  They were so happy to have the missionaries there with them again.  It was our opportunity to shake hands with these beautiful brothers and sisters and speak to them.  Heavenly Father does go before our face and give us words to say. 

The floor of the building was spotless and had a beautiful inlaid design in the hardened clay floor.  Someone had even brought a small vase of fresh flowers placed on the floor by the base of the wooden pulpit.  There was a small step up with two blue chairs behind the pulpit.   On the wall was a sign saying, “I will read the Book of Mormon before the end of 2014.”     

This is a scripture bag next to the hymn book.  Elder Horner ask me to speak first.  As I shared a scripture and reference the sound of all their scriptures opening in unison broke the silence.   We look forward to visiting with these Saints again! 

Friday July 25^th another knock at our door.  Bernard, a returned missionary who served in Ghana stopped by to see if he could wash windows at the church.  We appreciated his service as he cleaned the windows and screens where the entry to the church is. (this is also the back door to our flat that adjoins to the church)  Bernard had lunch with us and then mopped the 4 flights of steps up to the open air chapel.

That night the Elders stopped by on their way home.  They had been out in the jungle area and they were exhausted, thirsty and hungry so we fed them dinner.  Davis who is preparing to serve a mission and spends a lot of time with the missionaries was also with them so he ate dinner as well.