Pakaipa

Alright so this week was a mess hahahaha a rollercoaster of emotions and all sorts of whatever. So I'll start by giving a brief overview of the first part of the week because ish hit the fan starting on Saturday.

So lets start off with a good thing hey? We have a powerful investigator named Melody who was taught a ton by missionaries in another city called Chegutu and went to church every week but she recently moved here to Masvingo and now we are just preparing her for baptism. She already has a lot of friends that are members and whenever we teach her she gives amazing answers to our questions. She's super ready to get dunked.  So we are excited for her baptism this upcoming Saturday.

We have another investigator ready for baptism named Shaolin but her father thinks we are Satanists.... So hopefully we can 180 his view of us this week so she can be baptized with Melody. 

We also found two new investigators this week that were referrals from some sisters in our zone.  Their names are Grace and Pumzi.  Its funny because my companion calls Grace, "Crazy" because when reading her name, thats how he pronounces it hahahha. I tried to correct him the other day but he was like ehh whatever hahaha and Grace doesn't care so now it just makes me laugh whenever he says it. Anyways, we taught them a powerful first couple lessons  about the gospel of Jesus Christ and then they came to church! So cool. They even promised to come next week so we are excited to start teaching them.

So now the rollercoaster is on a slight decline if we are still following said analogy.

We have this guy we teach named Prevail and his brother is named Proclaim and he is our branch mission leader.  So Prevail was super humble and we had an amazing first lesson with him and gave him a baptismal date and then we went back to teach him the Word of Wisdom because Proclaim told us he had a problem with alcohol and smoking. So we start teaching him and Elder Fili explains the first part about what the Word of Wisdom is and what we should start away from.  And then asked Prevail what he understood about it. And then he just started going off about how his mother raised them going to Zaoga (another church) and then just stated talking nonsense. Like just saying random things that made no sense for like 3 minutes.... So Elder Fili just looks at me and then is like, "okay okay okay lets just start over." So we did and then asked Prevail again, what he understood. and he just starts going off again talking about random things.  So we start laughing and then repeat the same thing like 5 times. And then Elder Fili was like, "okay lets say a closing prayer" hahahaha and then we left with Proclaim. Proclaim then told us that he has been having mental issues so we decided not to teach him for now.  Then a couple days later we drove by his house again and he was outside walking around without a shirt on and speaking nonsense and like screaming and preaching and doing all sorts of stuff, insomuch that the neighboring children became scared and retreated to their homes. So now we are just going to stay away from there for a little bit until Proclaim can figure out what to do. So there goes that investigator. I feel bad though because he was so powerful during the first lesson and then within a week he goes a wall.

K now the ish begins to hit the fan.

On Saturday we were driving to town to buy food for Sunday and whilst driving thru town we were almost to the store and then this drunk guy starts wandering out into the road and right as we drove by he like throws himself into the back left side of the car. Like homeboy shook the car. And then we pulled over and parked just down the road and the guy gets up and runs over to us and starts saying all this stuff about how we ran over his foot or whatever (keep in mind that he RAN over to the car...after we "ran over his foot") and I'm like, "dude, you walked right into the car." Then homeboy just gets fired up and starts giving all of us fire and then for some reason singles out our DL, Elder Chimtengo, and he starts cussing him out and giving him fire and yelling and making all this noise. (Meanwhile literally everybody in Masvingo is staring at us.)  Luckily some other drunk guys came over and attempted to tame homeboy but no success and he just gets even more fired up at Chimtengo. It was super cool to see how many people came to help us though. Zimbabweans are pretty cool. And then one of the drunk guys started talking to me and i contacted him, and the whole time, homeboy was just yelling and saying all this stuff and finally this security guard came and helped us get away.  We were all shook.  Gained a lot of respect for Chimtengo though because the whole time he said nothing. And homeboy was saying like terrible things to him that aren't worth telling you. Anyways fast forward to Sunday morning right after sacrament meeting. One of the young men that is my best friend already came up to me and said, "hey there's this guy outside who wants to talk to you." So I'm thinking its some member or investigator or something and then I walk out of the chapel and see homeboy just chilling outside the church........ i was like........what.... hahaha so i go talk to him and he's like, hey I'm the guy you hit yesterday. And I'm like, okay haha let me go get my companion. So the 4 of us elders come back to the guy and start talking to him.  We come to find out that this guy filed a report to the police..... So we step aside and call President Mkhabela (who is a very successful lawyer) and he told us to go file a report too on Monday (today).  So then we got our branch presidency and a member who is a police officer together with homeboy and we talked about things and the guy just wanted us to like help him to go to the hospital or something or give him money. He was like whining that Chimtengo didn't say sorry to him.... hahaha and then he made up how that morning his foot was very swollen and he couldn't walk. And he was walking just fine on Saturday and before we had the meeting with him and the branch presidency. As time went on, homeboy finally knew that he was wrong and that if anything went to court he would lose big time so then he told us he wanted to withdraw the case and everything.  So then this morning we get up and go to the police to file the report and the police were saying that homeboy already came in and withdrew the case. And then they told us its all good and we could leave.  So we left and now its all over. 

This comes to show how desperate some people are to get money here.  Kind of sad. But man this guy was being so stupid, and we were all shook thinking we would go to court or something and then the guy withdraws the case.... Man this weekend was so weird.  hahahaaha I'm honestly glad i have another funny story to tell though. 

Yesterday for fast Sunday we got to here the testimonies of the members and I love testimony meetings here.  Back home people get up and say all this stuff they are thankful for and tell stories that have nothing to do with their testimonies.  But here the people get up and legit say what they KNOW to be true.  A true testimony meeting and it is so cool to be there. Just simple testimonies reassure mine each fast sunday.  Love it here.  Ate a ton a food for dinner after breaking my fast. Had a plate of sadza with some members and then came home and we made pasta with meat and this sauce and i had a phaaaatttt plate of that too.  I feasted.  

After the police department this morning we went for a district activity to the dam in Masvingo and took some cool pictures.  So I'll attach those. 

So yeah there's my week.  Pretty crazy hahaha.Hope you enjoyed the story haha.  Church is still true. lol. Love you all and hope you have a great week. You all stay in my prayers. I know this church is true and I love the (quote) "beautiful simplicity of the restored gospel" (end quote). God speed guys.

Stay Happy

Stay Steady Grindin

Cheers,

Elder Anderson

Elder Chimtango

There was this tiny chapel on one side of the lake haha...

Elder Parco and Elder Fili