MADORA!

Alright everybody before we get all caught up in the introductions and greetings  I need to show you what I ate last night...

Okay so this is sadza with fish, ma vege, and wait for it.... madora!!! The freaky caterpillars that these people love! And I ate everything on the plate except for the fish heads.  It was honestly one of the best meals I've ever had.  The madora tastes like chicken lol and was really chewy haha.  But I had a fat bite of sadza with every worm so I didn't ever have a straight taste of it.  But it was surprisingly really good!!  We had this meal at a members home last night.  The Nyamugara family!  I love this family so much!  The gogo (grandma) of the family told us to call her "mama" haha so now she's my mama.  Love it.  But the rest of the family is so amazing and super funny!  They have 2 girls staying with them and we just baptized one of them and are baptizing the other this next week!  But the night was super fun!  We talked for a long time about none other than the man himself, Donald Trump haha. It's weird how many people hear know so much about Trump.  But anyways the Nyamugaras love Trump and they always update me on what he's doing haha love it.  But yes last night was one for the books.  Sadly, the dad and mom of the family are moving to South Africa next month. They will be missed a lot!  Amazing people.  Amazing family. 

Alright so while your jaws are still dropped because you cant believe that I ate freaking caterpillars last night, lets move on.

So yes we had another baptism this week!  Michelle Tshuma!  A sweet young woman who stays with the Nyamugaras.  Somehow they are related but her real parents aren't worth mentioning and left her a long time ago.  But yes she bore a short testimony after the baptism and it was really good.  And the other girl that stays with the Nyamugaras is getting baptized next Saturday!  Her name is Shylet and I think her parents passed away but like Michelle, she is somehow related to the Nyamugara family.  And on top of that, we have two other people being baptized next week with Shylet!  So after next week we will have 8 so far this transfer and we have plans for a few more in February!  Exciting times in Marimba and Mufakose! 

Alright so my companion and I are getting along very well. I dont know why I was letting little things bother me but I put them aside and noticed that now that we are really good friends, we teach better and the days seem to go by way faster!  Really cool. He's a good elder and he will be missed after he's done training me. So the other day, there was a huge spider on the wall, (I'll attach a picture) and it was just sitting there staring at me and then Elder Till walked up to it and put his hand over it like he was about to straight up slap it hahaha and I thought he was just joking but now, this guy starts slapping at the wall with his bare hand to try to kill a spider that is atleast the size of his palm if not bigger.  And after a few failed attempts he nuked this spider with his hand.  He hit it so freaking hard and just annihilated it.  Just pasted it to the wall hahahhah I was crying.  I didn't stop laughing for like an hour and as I typed out the story right now I'm laughing again.  Ahh man I wish I would have recorded that. Also, English (not being his first language) is hard for him at times and its funny to correct him all the time but I got his back and I always know what he's trying to say haha. But yeah. Everything with Elder Till and me is going super.

So we started teaching this 19 year old girl named Desiree a few weeks ago and we tried to give her a baptismal date one of the times we taught her but she didn't accept because she's already been baptized Roman Catholic.  So we taught her yesterday the plan of salvation.  And at the end I asked her if she wanted to take part in this plan by doing one of the necessary and saving ordinances of baptism by someone who holds the priesthood authority of God.  And then after explaining that we baptize the same way that Jesus Christ was baptized, she accepted a baptismal date on the 18th!  Way cool. 

Any questions? Aight lets keep going.

So we used to teach this lady named Fungai and we almost gave her a baptismal date but then she dropped us and didn't want to learn anymore.  Recently we started teaching her aunt, Dorcas and she is progressing a lot!  And this week, Fungai sat in on our lesson with Dorcas and Fungai kept saying things about how we weren't teaching the right things and wasn't agreeing with things we said and stuff, and I just slapped her in the face with my words and with the scriptures and totally changed her view on a couple things.  And with the help of my comp, we quieted her pretty quickly.  Really cool that I've seen the promise in D&C happen, where we wont be confounded by men. 

It's funny to see people try to tell us we are wrong and then we just say, "Okay, so do you believe in the Bible?" and they always say, "Oh yes the Bible is the word of God" and then we're like, "Okay, that's great, so let us show you a scripture."  And then we prove that our doctrine is the fullness of the gospel and is taught in the Bible which everyone believes in hahahah gets them everytime.  For example the other day I told someone that it was Jesus Christ who created the Earth under the direction of Heavenly Father.  And they were all angry at me and I was like, "Okay should we read a scripture in the Bible?" hahah then I showed then Romans 6:3 and Hebrews 1:2 and proved it to them and Elder Till and I just laughed hahaha so dope.  Till has shown me so many scriptures that totally prove our teachings and the fullness of the doctrine so all the credit goes to him.

So this week we did exchanges and I was honored to be with our District Leader, Elder Monesa.  This guy is powerful. He's about 5 feet tall and he's from South Africa and he speaks like 5 languages fluently. And he is the most loving guy ever and is an amazing teacher! It was an awesome day and he taught me so much about the mission and helped me out a lot!  He gave me the assurance that I'm learning well from my trainer and that I'm on my way to be a successful missionary.  Really cool.  He's super chill and super funny.  Every elder I meet is so dope.  These guys here are the cream of the crop no doubt.  Love it.  But while I was with Monesa, we taught this guy about the restoration and he was stuck on prophets and he believed there should be many prophets and within like 3 minutes I convinced him that there should only be one prophet called of God at a time.  Dope lesson.

So yeah you guys need to update me on Donald Trump because its weird having Africans tell me about my country hahahah.

The other day when we were in town, we met this guy who was selling shoes on the street and he said he could hook me up with yeezys for like $30....whaaatt... yeah this guy is dope.  He's got the hook ups. 

Everything here is so cheap haha i love it.  I dont get how missionaries run out of money here.  Elder Till and I always have extra and then we go spend it all on pizza or KFC haha

We spent a good part of this morning scrubbing mold off the floor in our house hahahah Africa right?

I'm starting to learn Shona!  I can kind of say some greetings and I can't do a simple convo with someone and I've learned some other words but its coming along nicely. I want to be able to bear my testimony and pray in Shona when I come back lol.

Alright well this concludes my weekly email.  I hope you all had a great week because I definitely did. After next week, I'll have been here for 2 months! Weird.  But I love this place so much.  I am continuing to love the people and really love being a missionary.  I know that the Spirit is the biggest teacher and everything I said above about the lessons was all led by the Spirit.  We would be terrible teachers without the Spirit in each lesson.  My relationship with my Mwari Babba (Heavenly Father)  is growing so much and I'm starting to recognize his answers to my prayers.  How cool is it that we can pray to Him often and multiple times per day!  He loves us so much and everything denotes He is there and loves all of his children.  Aight signing out.  In the powerful words Jeremiah E. Rankin, "God Be With You Til We Meet Again"

Love you all.

Stay Happy.

Stay Steady Grindin'

God Speed

-Elder Anderson

This weeks pictures.

This weeks segment of "Whats Living In My House"

And now for some of my best friends

This is JJ.  He's a stud to say the least.  

The newest member of the Mufakose Ward! Michelle Tshuma

The whole family!  Mama is the one in red. The one that made us the madora!  She is the sweetest person ever. And then Shylet is the one closest to Elder Till.  She's getting baptized next weekend! Love this family more than anything.

Rain, Sadza and 4 Baptisms!

Welcome one and all.  First things first, I sincerely apologize for the lack of creativity in my title for this weeks email.  Just put it aside and keep reading haha.

Okay so this week it basically didn't stop raining.  I think today is our first day of no clouds and Sun.  It actually got pretty cold too!  Like I was shivering at one of our lessons one day haha.  The tiny umbrella I have works good enough tho.  It sucks when we forget them and then just get soaked all day when we walk to the next appointments but its nice to take a mid day shower.  I'll attach pictures bellow because honestly it rained sooooo much.  Its not normal how much it rains here. 

Also, I ate a lot of sadza this week!  And oh my goodness it is my new favorite food.  It is so simple and so good.  It is basically just made out of flour but it tastes like cake oh my goodness.  I crave it everyday haha and there's a place in our area where you pay $1 and get a huge plate of sadza, beef/chicken, and veg.  What a steal am I right? And we had sadza at some members homes this week.  Ahh it was so good.  I have a bag of mili meal at our place but I'm scared to try and make some. 

Alright yes we had 4 baptisms this week! 4 children, ages 9-13.  And they all have good fellowshippers who will keep them active and we are very excited for them!  I'll attach the pictures.  These kids are so cool!  They barely speak english so it was a struggle to teach them but it is cool to see the desire in young kids to be baptized and be members of the only true church!  And, we have another baptism scheduled next week and another the first week of February.  whaaat.  Super cool.  We also have some new investigators who already came to church and show a ton of interest in the church!  And on top of all that, we had 10 investigators at church!  (4 of them got confirmed but we still counted them haha) A lot of hope for the coming weeks.  The only thing we are struggling with is finding new investigators right now.  But both our wards made ward mission plans for this year and they should help us work more with the members to find investigators through referrals because it is way more effective than finding on our own haha.  All good things mhmm. Bho Bo

For this weeks, "The Most African Thing I Saw This Week", we got a good one.  Get this... 3 guys, sitting on a super nice couch, outside in the middle of a field in the pouring rain, using one umbrella, passing a joint around hahaha....... at 9 in the morning lol.  Ah man when we drove by I was dying it was the funniest thing.

In other news, I got the freshest of haircuts this morning. We go to this guy in our neighborhood who cuts hair in this little wooden shack that is falling apart haha.  But to our surprise this guy actually knows how to cut murungu hair. And it only cost me $2. Another steal. The other elders are jealous haha.  

So because of all the rain this week, and the intense humidity, we have mold in our apartment.  So thats dope.  But we are gonna buy some bleach tonight and try to kill it all.  Africa right?  hahaha

So I'm starting to learn a little bit of Shona! I can only say greetings and stuff but its a start haha. 

We got a new ward mission leader in the Marimba ward and I still don't know his last name.  But he has sick dreads and he's super chill.  The other day he was listening to reggae music after church and I told him to make me a list of all the music he listens to so I could look them up when I get home.  He's a G. He called us the other day and we didn't recognize the number, and we answered and he said "this is brother (some african last name)"  and we were like "who?" and he said "Guys its me, the Rhasta man" hahahaha  So now we have his name in our phone as Brother Rhasta Man.

Funny story.  Okay so yesterday at church Elder Till and I were looking for the ward mission leader and then I heard an English voice say "wow you are tall".... So I look down and see this chubby white kid in a suit and tie standing there staring up at me.... So many thoughts and questions rant through my head and it was like time just stopped.  I looked at Elder Till and was like what the heck? hahha and he looked at the kid and said "Where are you from?"  The kid was like, "Uhhh Zimbabwe" and we were like what the heck.... And then he went on to tell us he was visiting our ward with his parents because they wanted to see some friends.  The whole time I was just thinking how funny it was that I was so unimpressed to see another white person.  hahaha  I'm thinking like "Why are you here?" hahaha instead of greeting him ahh man I'm too used to seeing black people.  Sometimes looking in the mirror takes a second for my eyes to adjust lol. 

So we are teaching this guy right now and his name is Benjamin and he is a dedicated 7th Day Adventist.... but nevertheless, he is a good investigator.  And yesterday in our lesson he was super determined to prove that his church was true and to prove us wrong and correct us on things and then we showed him all these scriptures in the Bible that show that he was wrong and he kind of sat back in his chair and just thought for a second and then I was like, "Listen, in the end, one of us is right... and one of us is wrong....would you like to figure out who is right?" haha and Benjamin and his brother looked at us and said yes and then the rest of the lesson was a lot smoother haha.  Good time. 

Also the other day we had a lesson with an investigator that isn't progressing and we asked her to say the closing pray and she said no and wanted us to do it and said, "Why can't you guys just pray?"  and I was like, "Alright, so why do we pray?"  and she said, "To get answers"  and I was like, "So my companion and I have already gotten the answer that we want you to get as well.  That is why we are here teaching people for 2 years. And that is why we want you to pray." and just shut her down with the spirit and then she was humbled and offered to give the closing prayer and then she goes on to give this 5 minute long, super scripted prayer and said the same things over and over again. hahaha ahhh very anti climactic but still kind of a cool moment. We have already taught her how to pray but I think we need to again.  

I absolutely love the people here.  They are too nice.  Like we offer to help with stuff around the house when we come for lessons and they always say no no no its okay its okay. And they do so much for us!  Last week during a correlation meeting with the ward mission leader, after we were done, we were about to leave and them they stopped us and made us a super nice plate of sadza and chicken. and we tried to say that they didn't want to be an inconvenience and they were like no no no sit down and eat! hahaha it was awesome.  Love these guys.

I continue to be reassured every day that Zimbabwe is exactly where I am supposed to be and exactly where God wants me to be.  Can't wait to see the people here that I am specifically meant to teach and continue to be guided by the spirit in my efforts.  We taught the Plan of Salvation a lot this week and my testimony of this plan has grown so much.  This plan is perfect and so cool.  I always am so grateful that I am eternally sealed to my family and that I get to live with them forever.  I love that our Lord and Savior, even Jesus the Christ allows us to live with Him and our Heavenly Father forever and that he suffered so we don't have to.  The whole plan makes so much sense and is so amazing.  I love you all and want you to know that I know God has a plan for us and we all chose to accept this plan before we were born.  We all knew that this was the right way and the only way to reap the rewards of eternal life in heaven with our Heavenly Father.  I know this church is without a doubt the only true church led by Jesus Christ himself in these latter days.  I love you all and pray for you often.  Hope all you wildest dreamz come true. 

God Speed.

Bhoo Bho

Sharp

-Elder Anderson 

  

Shaun Chirikure

Tinotenda Chirikure

Takudzwa Dumbura

Tawananyasha Rapozo

This guys name is Blessing and he baptized the children haha. he's hecka chill. 

Zim Soccer Stadium

The rest are just more pictures of Africa

Harare

And now for the floods...

1st Transfer

Alright welcome back.  Hope you had a good week but enough small talk let's get down to it yeah?

So my first transfer is done-zo.  Its already been 6 weeks.  what...  It's going by so fast and seems like it has only been a week.  Also some updates.  I know its not about numbers but... We had 108 lessons, and 433 contacts this transfer.... hahaha wow. 

Okay so this week was amazing.

So started off with my first interview with President Mkhabela and wow that man is powerful.  He answered my questions perfectly and told me exactly what I needed to hear with my few concerns.  I followed his advice and it helped me so much.  That guy is somethin else.  He then trained our zone on using our area books and it helped us get super organized so that was a plus.  Then after the interview of course we went to Pizza Inn as a district and feasted. 

Then the next day we gave 4 baptismal dates haha.  They were all young bucks ages 9-13 but have a surprisingly strong desire to be baptized.  One of the kids doesn't even have good support from his parents.  Crazy to see the faith in these children.  So we should have 4 baptisms this upcoming Saturday! Super Dope.

Okay side note while I have this on my mind.  I have to tell you the most African thing I have ever seen. So we were sitting on gas cans, outside, teaching the Restoration to a couple of the kids we are baptizing this week, when out of nowhere I hear something in the tree next to us.  I turn and see this guy who jumped in the tree, was hanging and swinging from one of the branches making the whole tree sway and shake. And then when he fell out he was holding a mango in his mouth. He tied the bow on this grand display by saying "Hello How are you?" to my comp and I..... Pfffffff We just started dying oh my goodness. I looked at Elder Till and I'm like, "Africans" hahaha ah man.

So this weekend was Stake Conference and on Saturday evening we attended the priesthood session.  Super good.  President Mkhabela was there and he gave one of the best talks I've ever heard.  He talked simply about the priesthood, but spent the whole time saying exactly what the priesthood is and it was crazy good.  He said the priesthood is the power to act in the name of our God.  The same eternal power that He has.  His priesthood is powerful, eternal and perfect.  And he gives us as imperfect humans the chance to use this power.  But it can only be manifest according to our own godliness which comes through Christlike attributes and behavior.  Only then can we truly exercise our priesthood. He also said the the priesthood is a perfect plan of service that has and will last forever.  Amazing...  President is powerful.  Shook the chapel when he spoke haha.  Its crazy to think that the literal power of God is attainable when we are Christlike.  wow.  

And then the next day during the Sunday session President spoke again about faith and said, and I quote, "Faith produces obedience. Obedience produces blessings." end quote.  Wow.  Simple but profound.  This added to my continuing realization that faith and hope are the "anchor of our soul."  It was also emotionally rewarding to have 8 investigators and 1 returned member attend the meeting.  Crazy.

So we started teaching this guy and his name is Brother Unworried.  haha.  But he has a wife who he is legally married to and they have 8 children. And wait for it... they are super interested in the church.... jackpot am i right?  And we gave the father a baptismal date in February!  He has some minor concerns but we hope he will continue to progress! 

One of the children we plan to baptize this week is named Tawananyasha and he is 9 years old and has a hard time understanding English and we were teaching him the Plan of Salvation... hahahaha a recipe for misunderstanding. And i was the one that had to teach about the Creation and the Fall of Adam... hahaha but I said a small prayer that he would understand and after I was done teaching as simply as I could about it, his father started to translate and Tawananyasha stopped him and said, "its okay i understood"... wow.

So there is a massive spider that lives in our room and I rightfully named her Charlotte.  Sometimes she leaves during the day but most nights she comes back. 

Did my laundry in 1 hour today.  Personal Record no big deal.  Bucket laundry is time consuming haha

The other day we got a referral from this member who has just filthy nice dreads and he's like "yeah so when is the soonest you can baptize this woman?" and we said Feb 4th. and he's like "okay so lets also make a marriage date on the 11th." hahahaha the members here will find women the think are pretty and then give them to us as referrals so we can hopefully teach and baptize them so they can get married.  Things are different here in Africa.  

Last night we had dinner with Brother Nyamugara who used to be the bishop of the Marimba Ward and his wife made us an amazing meal.  And then afterwards, his son JJ came and talked to me for like an hour hahaha he is 6 years old and is actually really fluent in english.  But he's my new best friend. Gave him a CTR ring last night and he thought it was super cool haha love him and love that family.  Brother Nyamugara also gave a good talk at conference and the coolest thing he said is not to be a spectator but a participant in the gospel.  The members are slowly dying off so this was good for the congregation to hear.  Stake Conference was amazing. 

Alright so no funny drunk guys this week sadly.  But I talked to a guy that was stoned out of his mind the other day.  He came up and said "How are you" i said "I'm good how are you" and he mumbled something and I was like "What?" and he's like "I'm high!!!" and shoved his blunt in my face hahahahaha.  It was hilarious and then I talked to him about reggae music and Bob Marley for a couple minutes and then when we left, I yelled "Rhasta Farai man!" and he was like "Ayyyyy!" hahahahaa and gave me a thumbs up.  Ahh love these guys.

Anyways hope you all had a stellar week and enjoyed the snowfall in Boise.  All we get here is a tonnnnn of rain. But its funny.  Kinda get to take a mid day shower after we sweat all morning from the sun haha.  Its refreshing.  But the mission is getting so easy.  Everything is like muscle memory now.  Teaching lessons is getting really easy too and I feel like I can answer any question that gets thrown at me (obviously not on my own but with the help of my boy the Holy Ghost).  And mission life is so nice.  I don't get why people always focus on telling prospective missionaries that a mission is hard.  Because why would you center your thoughts on that? Is not the first principle in the gospel "faith"?   haha.  I've learned a lot about trusting in the Lord, being optimistic and being faithful.  I researched "Hope" today during personal study and I loved how it says in Preach My Gospel that Hope is trust in the Lord and confidence that good things will happen.  The church is truer than true and I love being here in Zimbabwe and inviting people to THE restored gospel.  The church is true and the book is blue pffff.  Who am I kidding?

This concludes weekly update with Elder Anderson.  You all stay in my prayers and travel home safely tonight. 

Much Love 

God Speed

Sharp Sharp

-Elder Anderson



One picture for today:
i just think its funny that we have two things hanging on the wall in the study room.  A Pizza Inn box, (placed there by yours truly) and a picture of Jesus Christ.  But the picture of Jesus is covered by an electrical chord.  We need to fix our priorities hahahaha. 

One Lord, One Faith, One Month (Ephesians 4:5)

Well I've been in Zimbabwe for a month now... so that's weird.  Time is flying by its crazy.  Weeks are days and days are weeks  or something like that lol.  Sadly, I don't have that much to write about this week but I'll give ya a little taste of my last 7 days whadda ya say huh?  Also hope you all enjoyed my title which is a parody of Ephesians 4:5, a scripture that we share at least 5 times a day. 

So I think I told you guys about Mai Katsande, the one that told us she wanted to get baptized at the beginning in our first lesson with her. Sadly, they are having troubles with getting a marriage date planned and the husband is getting really busy with work and he decided to quit the lessons until they were legally married.  Mai Katsande was low key pissed the heck off when he said this but reserved herself.  Sad blow to our day but they seemed like they were serious about baptism because they gave us their numbers and promised to call us asap.  I've heard a lot of people promise things here and never follow through so hopefully these guys will come around. 

We had some good lessons that made up for this disappointing experience.  We taught 3 families and the father to all of them basically said the same thing to us this week, which was, "Guys I honestly just want to know the truth"  Ahh so cool!  So we are super excited to teach them!  One of them is named Brother Unworried lol and he has 8 kids and 3 of them we could baptize with the parents if they accept!  Super exciting.  We had 2 other people we were hoping to give baptismal dates to and we couldn't meet with them this week but these 3 families that show a lot of interest give us a lot of hope!  Also during one of the lessons, the fathers name is Brother Alfonso and we were teaching him about the pre-earth life (not always easy) and we showed him Jeremiah 1:5 which says "before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee" And he was still struggling with it and still believed life started at birth and then we showed him some other scriptures from the book of mormon and he still didn't understand and then Elder Till start going off in his broken english trying to explain it and I was like okay lets go back to Jer 1:5... How could God have known Jeremiah before he formed him in the belly, if there was no pre-earth life? and he paused and was like  ".....okay that's a good point" hahaha, ahhh man some of these guys we just need to say the simplest of things and then they finally get it.   Funny stuff.

So some of the "English"  names that parents give their kids are so funny!  Some examples

-Nomatter (female)

-Lovemore (male)

-Smart (male)

-Forgive (male)

-Unworried (surname)

And then they'll have like Robert or Bruce or something totally American hahaha 

Also when you leave someones house, sometimes they say "Sharp sharp" which sounds like "shop shop" because of the accent but its how they say bye or okay hahaha.  I've started saying it a lot. 

We had 4 investigators come to church this week!! What?? crazy.  2 of them we were about to stop teaching so that was cool!  One of the others shows a lot of promise and is young but very interested in the church.  And the last one really didn't want to be there and always seems like she's about to murder someone when we teach her so we might drop her haha.

We also had a lesson with this guy who had a lot of internet questions this week and he was formerly a Seventh Day Adventist....  two ingredients that make a lesson just awful haha.  And then we gave this guys mother a restoration pamphlet and she read the first vision page and just laughed and said very rudely, "Wow this is so false and not true!!"  And Elder Till and I laughed back at her and then quickly got around to saying a prayer and leaving.   As we walked away I looked at Elder Till and I'm like "I wonder if we'll teach them in spirit prison" hahahaha ahhh man these guys.

We taught this other 7th Day guy and at the end of our lesson he was like, "Okay next time, if you explain to me why you believe Sunday is the Sabbath Day, then I'll start to believe you guys are the true church".... If only it was this easy with everyone. 

It's funny how many people feel that they need to teach us about the Bible because we claim that it may be unclear at some parts.  They get all defensive and claim it is the word of God and the Bible is so clear and there should be no other books or no modern prophets and stuff and we're always like, "Alright,  look around,  there are countless churches that claim they believe the Bible to be the word of God and the only word of God... yet they have different beliefs, different faiths, and different baptisms....." hahaha then they just change the subject since there is nothing they can say after that to defend their ideas of the Bible.  hahaha regardless, I still have learned a lot from the Bible and like every member of the church believe it to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly. 

Also, I love the Book of Mormon. My goodness it is awesome.  Whenever we have spare time, I read it and can see the wars and the stories playing like a movie in my head.  So dope.  Teaches me so much and I love sharing scriptures from it to investigators.

.... aside from everything, whoever said that cockroaches are invincible was a ruthless liar because there are a ton in my house and I have killed plenty of them with no struggle.

Also our goals are crazy,  the standards that president set are 35 lessons every week, 4 baptisms every month,  5 investigators and 5 returned members to church every week.  Man it is definitely a high goal.  Hopefully we can get closer to the goal in coming months.

My companion and I are still doing good. he's a good comp and helps me a lot but I have ideas on how we can get work done better. Funny thing, we got money yesterday and pulled out 210 dollars from a machine, and i told my comp to put it away and then we could count it in the car, and then he's like "no its fine" and just whips out all this cash and starts counting it in front of a ton of people and I'm like duuuude!!!!! hahaha geeez.  too funny. they all got wide eyes and just stared at his hands and started to get closer to us hahaha I'm like dude! I didn't just throw that idea in the air up for grabs, I was imperatively telling you to put the money away hahhahhaha ahhhh man

Okay now on to our next segment, Funny drunk guys this week

The first one we found on the side of the street and we were teaching him about how drinking is bad for you and how there are so many blessings that come from keeping the word of wisdom.  He was very stubborn and kept saying he was already blessed enough haha.  But somehow we got on the topic of prophets and we was saying how all the prophets here in Zimbabwe are fakes and started saying bad things about them.  We then told him how there should be one prophet and he agreed and we told him how he could find the one, true prophet but he kept talking about drinking.  So then we started talking to his friend that was sitting next to him and the first guy interrupted us and very loudly asked how old I was.  So like I always do, I asked, "How old do you think I am?"  and he paused and then said 19!  And I said nope 18.  he's then like "Oh it must just be that you're about to turn 19."  I'm like "Well actually I turn 19 in a month."  This guys jaw drops and he stares at me and slowly starts to smile and then screams, "I must be a prophet!!!" hahahaha immediately after our convo about one true prophet.  Drunk guys.  amiright.

The next one wasn't as funny but this guy came over to us and started accusing us and saying what we are doing is wrong and then he said I looked like this guy he knows.  And he said "yeah that guy is an idiot."  So I asked if he was saying that I look like an idiot. And he's like "...yyyyeah"  pffff meanwhile I stand like a foot taller than this guy.  I almost dropped him.  haha.  

Anyways I love this gospel and love being a missionary.  I get hecka tired every night but its so worth it.  Even the bad days have good things to talk about.  I love what my dad said to me in an email last week.  He reminded me to "touch the line".  For those of you unfamiliar with this term, it refers to running lines or suicides as punishment during sports (running the length of the court or field),  and if you don't touch the line each time,  it doesn't count.  Its a discipline thing that my dad taught me when I was young and now thinking about applying it to the mission has helped my mindset a lot.  Touch the line.  Wow that's my new life motto haha love it. But yes I look forward to becoming a great missionary and being as productive as I can.  In President Mkhabela's weekly email to me last week he challenged me to make a difference in the mission this year.  No pressure haha but I have faith I can get stuff done.  Still diligently working for my first baptism.  Hopefully by the end of this month I will be able to update you guys on that because our monthly goal is 8!  Hope all is going well and I'm sad that I wont get to meet my new niece for two years!  I'm doing fine in Zim so don't worry about me.  Love you all and wish you the best.  Like always, stay steady yeah? The church is true. 

Stay Steady Grindin'

Sharp Sharp

-Elder Anderson

Happy New Year, Am I Right!

Zimbabwean new year is a freaking riot. 

Okay so our adventure started out with a very slow day of teaching and then we left the area to pick up the other elders in our district from Kambuzuma.  From there we went deep into the middle of Harare and ate a fat dinner at KFC... and oh my goodness the chicken there was something else.  It was by far the best KFC I have ever been to.  It was fried perfectly and they put this chili powder stuff on the chicken and the fries and it was amazing.  Also, we downed a huge thing of Fanta and they had "sadza nuggets" on the menu haha.  Not the best thing in the world but I was a fan.  We all had a lot of allotment money left so we spoiled ourselves.  We are definitely going back there soon.  Then after we chilled at KFC for a while,  we decided to go back to the Kambuzuma Elders' house to watch the Restoration movie. Party right?  hahaha But on our way home we bought a 4 FOOT LONG ROMAN CANDLE... like what the heck.  Everyone was buying them so we decided we might as well.  Then we stopped by Pick and Pay and bought some soda and a cake.  After enjoying ourselves at the house, we decided to be disobedient and wait for midnight.  Then we went outside to shoot off this roman candle and right at midnight everyone in the neighborhood was going crazy!  The people we all yelling and shooting fireworks and singing and freaking out it was awesome! And we could see fireworks in the distance in every direction!  Party in the Z. I. M. pffff.  It was awesome though.  This lady came out of the house next door and she was wearing her white robes, that she went to church in, and was just banging on the fence and signing and screaming. It was dope.  I can only imagine what it would've been like in the city haha. 

Anyways I'll try to talk more about some spiritual stuff rather than me being disobedient haha. 

So yes we got the car fixed and now it is helping us a ton!  We have been able to get to the area quicker and to stay later to teach more people! 

The other day we had a super slow day and I was just not in a good mood.   We had been walking in the heat and our first 4 appointments got cancelled because the people were all gone...  And then at around 5 pm that same day, we met a member who wanted to show us some potential investigators and we ended up having 5 lessons and some were to whole families who were interested!! It was awesome!  After that I was much happier!  One of these new investigators is named Mai Katsande and her husband is a less active member and a soldier for the Zim Army.  At the start of her lesson, we asked what she expected from us and she was like, "Well ya know, I just want to learn more about the church and know everything from start to finish, and learn more about the book of mormon, and I wanna get baptized and then start going to church with my family..."  and she continued to mumble about some other things but i didnt listen because i just looked at Elder Till and was like whaaaattt.  haha So yeah she's super interested and going to be a great investigator.

Then I think the day after that it was another slow day and we finally got to a part member families home and taught one of the nonmembers a lesson and then everyone told us they were super sick and asked for priesthood blessings.  So my companion and I gave 4 that night! It was cool!  We've given quite a few since I got here!  Its cool to put the priesthood to good use! 

So this guy has been coming to church a couple times and we started teaching him last week.  His name is Brother Zuva and he has two kids.  He told us his life story and wow.... He grew up kinda going to church and then stopped going when he moved out of his parents' house.  Then he got married and had 3 kids.  Recently in 2012 his wife passed away, and last month, his oldest daughter got bit by a black mumba snake and died instantly. then on Christmas day he was driving with his friends in the rain and the car slid off the road and rolled a few times, and everyone died but him...  We were in shock after hearing this.  But Brother Zuva found the church after his wife died and has only recently started going and he is very excited to be a part of the only true church and he told us that when he joins, the remaining part of his family will come with him and he will encourage all of them to be baptized!   And he is the most humble guy ever and told us he had been through a lot but that he humbled himself to God and he was super grateful for the gift of life and for the family that he still has.  This guy is golden.  I can't wait to teach him again.

Our teaching pool is getting very big!  Its exciting to meet all these new people and start teaching them.  But like last week, I have taught the Restoration so much hahaha I am going to have to get used to that.

I finally tried the pizza here at Pizza Inn! And it was surprisingly good!  Like as good, if not better than the pizza in the states!  Going back there this week.  Also they have this stuff here called 2 Min Noodles and its just African top ramen but theyre so good.  I'm buying a lot more after we email today.  They have a steak flavor and its amazing.

Elder Till and I are getting super close!  We make each other laugh a ton! Its dope.

So last week we finally got to an ATM and got some money!  So the thing is that here in Zim, the money situation is tight.  The people have to wait in line all day at the few ATMs here and hopefully theyll get some money.  So there are always huge lines every day and it was especially crazy during Christmas.  But we went at night and took out money but the only bills left was $2 bond notes... So we took out $210 and got 105 bond notes hahaha just a fat stack of money it was pretty funny.  

The kids here are still amazing!  They just run up to us and ask to touch our arms and our hair.  haha  And Brother Mupambas granddaughter is named Mako and shes like 3 or 4 and shes the cutest girl ever.  She always comes out when we are teaching Mupamba and she hides behind his chair and peeks around the corner at us and then I'll look at her and then she screams and laughs and hides behind the chair hahaha she's awesome! And she loves saying hi to us whenever we come over!  She might be my new best friend.

Its cool how my favorite things to do have changed completely.  Now I love reading and studying the scriptures all the time,  I love reading Preach My Gospel,  I love talking to strangers,  I love highlighting scriptures,  washing dishes, wearing church clothes, eating sadza, listening to and singing hymns, walking through the city, and meeting new people, and serving people.  Also, doing my laundry in a bucket is kind of fun haha.  Its really cool to be so happy.  Even when we have a rough day I just sing Dont Worry Be Happy and then Elder Till whistles along with it hahaha. I love how true and perfect this gospel is and I know without a doubt this is the only true church.  I am starting to notice when I feel the spirit a lot better and I love being a missionary.  Wearing the name of Jesus Christ on my chest every day is an honor.  yesterday this guys car died right in front of our gate and they were hurrying to get the car out of the way because they saw we were trying to get in and they were kinda panicking and stuff so I got out in the rain and helped them push it down the street and they kinda just smiled and shook my hand haha.  Hopefully they'll start to see past my white skin lol.  Anyways I love this place more each day and love serving the Lord as a missionary. Family and friends, you all stay in my prayers and I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and took time to recognize the Savior.  Also I wish you all a happy new year of 2017.  2017 years since Christ was born and we still feel his love all around us.  Love you all and hope all is well in the other promised land.

Stay steady grindin'.
Be happy.

-Elder Anderson

Pictures from first area

Kombis