Elder B in Zimbabwe: I Speak of Promised Lands, Soil as Soft as Momma's Hands...

Zim is truly the Promised Land. The title of this email is a quote from a song by Chance the Rapper so not my own words but the flow was nice.

Alright This week was super cool. Hopefully I remember everything dope that happened. I tried to make a list before I came to the internet cafe but my mind was racing.

Well to start off, I'll give an update about Noddia and Jesca. So we had them planned to be married and baptized on Sunday (yesterday) but when we got the church, the water wasn't working so we couldn't fill up the font... Soooo we rescheduled it to next Saturday. We still went through with the wedding and it was so cool to be there and they asked us to be the witnesses and I think next week, I'll be the one to baptize them. I would be honored out of my mind. But yeah these guys are so cool and they were so happy when they got married and they are very excited for the upcoming baptism! And on top of that, next Saturday we have 2 more people being baptized. So a total of 4 on the 18th of March! So sick. And then I think we might have a few more for this month and if not then they will all carry over to April!

So my companion Elder Thompson is pretty chill! Its cool being with another American and he has a lot of potential to be a great missionary. Already improving. I'll attach a picture

The weather recently was been actually kind of cold. Maybe because I'm just getting used to the temperature here but I woke up in the middle of the night one time and I was legit cold and like shivering haha. Its been nice though. The people here all wear coats and like bundle up in blankets and its only like 50 F. haha weeeaaakk. But yeah we have just been enjoying ourselves walking around in our short sleeved white shirts and it feels so refreshing.

Alright first cool story! So we had planned originally to meet with Dorcas, one of our investigators the other day and when we passed by, her children said she wasn't home. So we went a little down the street to one of our other investigators, Tatenda, and the family said he wasn't home. So we turned the corner and walked a long way down the street, on the way to another backup plan and then heard a whistle and as we turned around we saw Tatenda with the member we usually teach him with and we were so relieved haha. So we taught him a powerful lesson and gave him a baptismal date! And if you think the story isn't cool enough....buckle up. So during the lesson, there were some kids walking by the house and they saw us teaching and started yelling "Murungu!" at us for like 5 minutes, while we are trying to teach and it was super annoying and then Tatenda told them to go away. Then out of nowhere Dorcas came walking up and said hi to us and told us that we could come teach her after the lesson with Tatenda. So afterwards when we got there, she told us that she was actually asleep in her room and that the children that were screaming "Murungu", woke her up and she came outside because she knew we were the only murungu's in Mufakose hahaha. Mannnnn it was so crazy. So at first we thought we weren't going to see either of them and then one thing led to another and we saw both. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Next story. So the other day we didn't have lessons planned for a good part of the day so I told Elder Thompson that I wanted to use the time to proselyte in a part of our area that I had never been. So when we got this area, we started walking and I saw a guy who was doing some yard work outside and I felt like I should talk to him so we stopped and introduced ourselves and asked how is day was and then eventually, I was like, "So have you ever seen guys like us before?" and he said "Yes..... what are you a prophet?!?" hahaha I'm like no dude I just wanted to talk to you haha. Then he went on to tell us that he was taught by missionaries 3 years ago and then they just left and never came back. So we scheduled an appointment and he was pretty interested and he remembered a lot about what the elders taught him. So Bho.

The other day we were driving through the area and this guy just screamed at us as we drove by and said, "What are you doing to my country?!?!" It was so weird hahaha

We were walking though town one night when we went to get dinner as a district and we walked past this guy and his eyes just got wide and he was like, "WHAT!" hahhaa he was so happy and just yelled what?! haha man these guys act like they've never seen white people before lol.

We were trying to find shoes the other day in town and we walked past this guy who said he had size 13 for me and our district leader (and man it is so hard to find my size here) and the only ones he had in our size were like these off brand brick shoes and I was like, "My man, even you know these shoes aren't cool" hahahaha made the other elders laugh pretty hard.

So we have been praying for and trying to find more fathers to teach because as a mission we have set the goal to focus on father led families. So on Friday we were trying to contact referrals and we had a name that was Mai Tanya, (Mai means mother, its like the nickname they give every women that has a child) and we got to the house and met Mai Tanya and her Husband who is a father and they both showed a lot of interest and really learned a lot from us and wanted to learn more. Sick.

We had a Bible bash with this guy and it was so funny. Every time I backed him into a corner, he asked another question that he had and it was so funny. I was smacking him with scriptures and just melting his face with my rebuttals haha but man this guy is blinded and isn't prepared for us so we are going to drop him. He has a 24 page document on his computer of pure internet questions about our church and some of the questions are ridiculous. He told us he will print it out for us hahaha this guy. He didn't dent my testimony at all though so that's good.

So recently, I have adapted to driving in Africa and it is soooo fun haha. Rules? Pffff as if. Don't worry though, I'm not stupid but weaving in this traffic is so fun! And I've been getting way better at driving stick so its super fun. I missed driving. And I think the mission just got some new cars so maybe we'll get a new one.

So to end the email, we went to Lion and Cheetah Park again! And man I got some good pictures So I'll kindly attach them. But yeah this week was so fun! And so cool to meet people who are prepared for us. I love being out here and being a missionary in Zim. This place is so sick haha. I know without a doubt this church is true and Io cannot deny it. Love you all. Hope you had a good week where ever you are and that all of your wildest dreamz came true. Much love from ya boy over here in Harare.

So Bho.

Stay Steady Grindin.

-Elder Anderson