Elder B in Zimbabwe: A Week In The Life....

Time is truly flying. Monday's feel like every other day. Had a decent week. Feel obliged to provide a run down. Here goes nothin. lol.

Aight so this week started with a Zone Conference on Tuesday that literally lasted 6 hours.... So the whole day was shot hahaha. Funniest thing ever though. One sister spoke and gave a talk on how we should go about teaching our companions to speak the mission language.... Turns out she's the only sister in the whole mission right now that is teaching a missionary how to speak english.... So none of us were listening and almost everyone fell asleep. And she was assigned to speak for like 20 minutes.... Makes me think President Mkhabela was giving us another taste of his hilarious sense of humor hahaha. Otherwise, the conference wasn't too bad and I took some good notes from the speakers. We had 3 zones together for it so I was able to talk to a bunch of elders I haven't seen in a while. Super fun.

Then we got to work starting on Wednesday.

We met some really cool guys this week and we were divinely led. We had this appointment with one of our progressing investigators named Tatenda and she is super cool. But she wasn't around so we left and saw this guy next door doing laundry and he was looking at us and we said hi to him but I felt like we should go talk to him so we sat down and chatted for a while and we found out he has been less active for the last like 20 years and he used to come to church a lot and he was a teacher in elders quorum and we had a good talk and he committed to come to church next week! So cool. He was jacked too hahaha wearing a wife beater and was huuuuge.

Then another day we needed to get the car cleaned and we dropped it off to this guy Moses who always does an amazing job for only $4 so sick. And then that made us walk to the lesson and on the way these two guys stopped us and were like, "Okay I have a question, we have been having an argument and I need you to settle it. So do you guys listen to music?" hahahaha I was like.... yeah. And One of them was like, "I win! See? I told you!" hahahha and we ended up talking to them and they both are poets and song artists and they make music and just chill all the time. And they were interested in the church so we are going to meet with them this week. They even promised to come to church one of these weeks. Lame excuse of a promise but its something. And the cool thing is that if we didnt wash the car, we wouldn't have met them. So cool.

Another cool story, we were teaching the Tatenda i spoke about previously and she has in the past been kind of apprehensive and not really sure about things. But when we finally saw her this week and when we got there she was reading the Book of Mormon. So sick haha but we taught her the gospel of jesus christ and gave her a baptismal date. And she straight up told us that she knows the Book of Mormon is true and that she feels so peaceful when she reads it and that she has already seen the gospel bless her life. It was so cool because I was then able to relate with her exactly and bear my testimony and man it was so cool. So she will probably be baptized right after I get transferred. And she's going to be married to a member so she'll be strong!

We finally got everything figured out with Loveridge, the kid who we baptized and confirmed with two different names. He accepted the date of the 6th so that will be cool.

So recently I have been pronouncing my words a lot better and haven't really been speaking like a nasally American and it is so cool. Turning into a grammar Nazi though. Like my companion is till young on mission and he calls the Book of Mormon the book a Mormon and it makes me so mad hahahha. And when he prays he says, in the name a jesus christ amen.... hahaha. Granted, I used to do that too but I've since changed my old ways. 1 Corinthians 13 verse whatever about leaving childish things hahaha.

But yeah the people here make fun of us for the way we speak and its so true. We speak with our noses half the time and now that I point that out to you, all of you will be self conscious about it hahahahha kidding. The pressure here is too real so I have been trying really hard to change my voice almost hahaha man.

We have a young recent convert who is teaching me a lot of Shona so now I can almost bare my testimony and say a pray in Shona! So cool. Its really cool to hear people speak it and be able to understand what they are saying! I'm not even supposed to learn the language but I still think it will be cool to speak it! it sounds so cool too! For example, to start a prayer you would say, "Mwari baba vari kum soro ku denga" and then to close you would say "Ne muzita ra Jesu Kristu, Amen" hahaha man its sick.

The other day we climbed the "mountain" in our area to take a short cut to one of our appointments. The height thereof was that of a small hill but even that allowed us to see quite a bit. Its funny what these guys think a mountain is. Got some cool pictures. They'll be attached.

My comp and I made chicken tacos the other day. Weird to eat something like that in Zim but it was still good.

I must be losing weight because I have to have all my slacks tailors because I resemble a small elephant walking around in some of them haha oh well.

Anyways love you guys. I know this church is true. I know the Book of Mormon is true and I know that this is the Lords work and I am so happy to be a part of it. Love you all so much and you all stay in my prayers. Hope you have another good week and enjoy living in the best country in the world... Besides Zimbabwe. Honestly this place is amazing. I'll never forget the words of a white resident of Zim that I met on the plane ride here. She told us, "Ya know God lives there right?" So true. Amid all the confusion, the Lord is preparing those people here to be apart of his fold. So cool. Love this so much.

Stay Bho.

Stay Steady Grindin.

Cheers guys,

-Elder Anderson

This guy was mad chillin in our room. I feel so bad for him hahaaha he's obviously been thru some crazy stuff. The stories this guy could tell.... man.