Oh My Goodness,,,
The biggest spiders I have ever seen in my life, live in my house. On top of that, there are flies, termites, roaches, huge millipedes, mice, and even scorpions in our house. I wake up every morning and get ready in a house that is slowly falling apart that has barely any appliances. We have to filter even the "filtered" water. My companion and I shove ourselves into kombi's every morning to get to town. The streets smell like a mix of urine, feces, and BO. Everyone stares at us and calls us "murungu" which means white man. About half the people we try to talk to are drunk. About half the people are fluent in English. Its hard for people to understand my accent. And we walk all day every day in the heat of this African Summer.......
but I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!
As sarcastic as this may sound, Zimbabwe is an amazing place. Everything I said above is as true as the Book of Mormon. But I love it here!! Honestly this first week has been so crazy to just be thrown into the culture and everything but it has been so fun!
So the last few days in the MTC were very boring but it was super hard saying bye to all my close friends. Also, the 15 hour flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg wasn't too pleasing. But I finally ended up in Harare last Tuesday. I spent the night at the "transfer house" with a bunch of missionaries. The next day we spent most of the time at the stake center in Highlands, Harare with President Mkhabela and his wife, at training meetings and interviews. We finished the day at the Mkhabela home where Sister Mkhabela made us an amazing meal. I don't know what half the stuff was but I piled my plate, finished it, and got seconds. I'm pretty sure Sister Mkhabela likes me now hahaha. The Mkhabela's are so cool and funny! Love them. But then I met my companion and we went to our house so I could unpack. So my companions name is Elder Till and he's from Austria....what... super cool. He has been an awesome companion and has helped me adjust to this culture a lot. He's also helped strengthen my testimony a lot. And he has a dope accent. But sometimes he doesn't know how to say english words and its pretty funny. But he's been good!
So far the food here has been superb! A lot of chicken and sadza! All good things. No caterpillars or termites yet. Stay tuned.
So kombi's. Kombi's are the notorious taxis of this country. They are vans and cars that are literally beat to death and falling apart where they shove like 18 people into the vans and like 6 or 7 in the cars... Its insane. But it's so funny to see how many people the conductor jams into to them! I have a hard time fitting in them and my comp makes fun of me for it hahaha but its only 50 cents a person so its worth it I guess. Also some of the drivers look out for us and wait for us so they can drive us. They feel like they'll have more business if they have us in them. The cool thing about these kombi's are that some people will put subs in them and then play reggae music super loud and it sounds soooooo good. Makes me miss my car. And the music they play is super good.
So yeah everyone stares at us. I guess I can't blame them because the white missionaries are literally the ONLY white people here. And some of the kids have never seen a white man before. And that's why they yell MURUNGU at us when we walk by. Also, the kids know how to say "how are you!" and "I'm fine" hahaha so they say that to us a lot! Super funny.
The money here is a mix of US dollars and "bond notes" but mostly USD. But all the bills are super dirty and they have the nickname dirty dollars. Like they're straight brown sometimes and you can feel the dirt on them. It's bad but pretty funny. I'll save a couple to bring home.
So the first day that I walked the streets as a missionary, the first lady we talked to was like, "So I need to you tell me something. When is the end" and then my companion went off about the second coming and answered her question. Then the next guys we talked to were these two drunk friends. I took one and my comp took the other. Mine said that he used to be rich and play soccer professionally. He then told me his name was Mr. Potato and after a long confusing conversation we gave them Word of Wisdom pamphlets. And just before we left, Mr. Potato pointed at me and said "I like this one! He looks like a soccer player" lol funny experience. Talking to the drunk people is probably my favorite thing to do.
Another cool thing that happened when we were walking the streets. This guy came up from behind us saying "Men of God! Men of God!" so we stopped to talk and his name was Robert Farai and he wanted to know more about the Book of Mormon! So we taught him and answered his questions and he's excited to meet with us again.
One of the recent converts is Brother Mupamba and he likes me a lot already just because I'm tall hahah but its a start. And he's really cool.
So at church yesterday, I bore my testimony in two wards. Marimba and Mufakose (these are the two areas we cover). And it was really cool. But I couldn't tell if the congregation understood me or not. Still cool. And I met both bishops and the mission leaders and a lot of other happy members. The mission leader of Marimba is the funniest guy I've ever met. His name is Peter Panya. (lol I wonder if his parents know who Peter Pan is) Anyways he's really funny and at church, the bishopric wasn't there so before the meeting he ran to us and was breathing hard and said, "The bishop is gone, his counselors are gone, the elders quorum president is gone, no high priests, the teachers quorum president is going to conduct this meeting!" hahaahahhahah I laughed so hard. Luckily the bishop finally showed up. Then later we were talking to Peter about him finding a wife and he said he had some "progressing investigators" lol he's hilarious.
The poverty here is shocking. I don't have time to describe all of it but it's sad. Regardless, the people are still so so happy and are so friendly! It's so humbling to me. And the country is so beautiful besides all the trash everywhere. Palm trees and lots of green and blue skies. Awesome.
Sorry for the long email. It's been two weeks since my last and I hope you all read this whole thing. I want to finish with a dope scripture I read in the Book of Mormon. 2 Nephi 7:8. I challenge you all to read it. The coolest part is when it says "Who is mine adversary" and just slaps the devil in the face. Anyways. I love this country and love the people and love the opportunity I have to serve here! I love all you guys and you all stay in my prayers. God bless from Harare.
-Elder Anderson
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