Well Shoot.....

So the computer just threw me for a loop and deleted my email right before I sent it soooo I'm going to give you the abridged version.  Sorry. 

So the guy Muashe that I talked about last week is suuuper powerful and we taught him the restoration this week and he said he prayed about it and already feels that it is all true.  We just gave him a Book of Mormon and he is super excited to start reading it.  We plan on giving him a baptismal date this week.  

Yolanda turned out to be in it just for the money but she is still interested in learning so we'll see where that goes.  

Our house is still falling apart.  At one point this week, our sink was clogged, our water pump broke, and the power went out.... Luckily we fixed the power and the sink but the pump is dead and gone hahah that thing is sleeping with the fishes now. 

We did a Mormon Helping Hands thing with the branch where we went to an orphanage and helped around the grounds.  Us elders and the other brethren did field work, like tilling the ground and stuff and man I am still sore. And my hand got murked with blisters so thats nice. Worth it though. We met some of the kids afterwards and took some pictures with them.  Its was a super fun activity. And now I know how to farm without a tractor hahaha 

All is well here in Masvingo and still loving the work.  This church is true. 

Stay Steady Grindin'

Cheers,

Elder Anderson

District pictures

I'll send pictures of the helping hands activity next week. Love you all!

There Goes Another Transfer....

Well shoot haha. 

So going into this week, we thought that we weren't going to be able to baptize Innocent and his family and we were kind of down the first part of the week because we had to decrease our goals and change a lot of plans. But when we met with them on Thursday they told us that the plans had changed and that we could carry on with the baptism for this week.  So that gave us two days to teach them all the commandments and then to do the baptismal inerviews and everything so we were super busy this weekend but everything went super well and Innocent, his sister Blessing, Charity who is Blessings daughter, and Sharon who is a cousin to them, all got baptized on Saturday! It was such a good day and they were all so happy after the service.  I am still just amazed at how crazy it was that we met them and how the Lord led them to us. Along with them, Hilton and Hilary, the two brothers we have been teaching, also got baptized.  And the other elders baptized this kid they have been teaching so we had a lot of people! It was so cool!  And then on Sunday when we did the confirmations, you could feel the Spirit so strong in that chapel when each of them was being confirmed.  The branch has been super welcoming to them too and they will definitely be powerful members!  So the first part of the week we were disappointed hahaha but now we are happy as ever.

I gave a talk on Sunday about families. Pretty fun. During my talk though, one of the curtain rods over the windows fell and made this super loud sound and everyone just turns and looks at it..... and then back at me.... and then I just slowly started to continue my talk hahahhaha it was funny.

So I forgot to tell this story I think..... I'm not sure but if this is the second time I'm telling this, I apologize. We were teaching one of our joker investigators who has never come to church and pretty much just likes to meet with us because she likes talking to white people. So we went into the lesson with the plan to simply teach the restoration and testify of it and while we were testifying at the end you could feel the Spirit there and then out of freaking nowhere this lizard falls from the ceiling and flops on the only empty couch in the room and we all just started dying hahahahaha major killjoy to the Spirit but it was hilarious.  Sadly, these investigators continued to be jokers so we had to drop them but when that lizard hit the couch I was laughing so hard.  Thats twice now on my mission where lizards have just fallen from the ceiling.

This week was also sad because our old district leader, Elder Chimtengo is leaving to go home tomorrow so we sent him off on the bus to Harare today.  It was sad saying bye to him.  We all got super close and he was a good friend and taught me so much.  And now that he is gone, I will be the new district leader.  So that's cool. hahah Did not see that coming at all but should be pretty cool.  And being out here far from everyone else, we have our own working fund and I basically have to do things that usually the ZLs take care of in other parts of the mission haha. And all of us are staying here in Masvingo except Chimtengo is now replaced with Elder Whittier who is my bro! So it will be a super good transfer! I'm so happy to stay here! Also, we get to move in to the new house in two weeks..... which is suuuper exciting haha. Our house right now is falling apart. There was another preacher with his followers having a concert outside our gate for 3 days straight this week. Each night when we got home he would start his show and they would sing and he would preach and yell nonsense gospel words at the crowd and they would cheer for him hahahaha the elect are being deceived over here. We have work to do.

The other day I felt like we should go visit this less-active family and we stopped by and they were grateful to see us. We even gave a priesthood blessing to one of the daughters and they wanted us to come on Sunday for dinner and now they are even wanting us to do FHE with them next week.  The kids are pretty active but the baba and mama are super less active so I hope thru our visits we will be able to help them.  A lot of less actives here in Zimbabwe so that's half the battle is finding them and also finding new investigators. Keeps us busy. 

Sunday was just a super good day because we also met two potential investigators. One named Munashe and the other Yolanda.  Munashe is a primary school teacher who is super humble and has a friend in the branch so he decided to come today and he is very interested in learning more.  And Yolanda has a friend who is a member as well and she told us that this is her church now and she wants to join hahah so we set up appointments with both of them and are excited to begin teaching.  With the recent baptisms our teaching pool is.... apana hahaha so now we have to start from scratch and find a lot more people to teach.  This week will be difficult.  We are going to do soooo much contacting. My least favorite part of missionary work.  But we have to do it to find people so we'll work hard for sure. 

Sidenote, we bought Scrabble today and I'm finna destroy my district tonight.

Yeah so thats all I have for this week but I love you all and hope you had a wonderful week. This is the best mission in the world haha. This work truly is great and marvelous. I know its true. 

Stay Happy,

Stay Steady Grindin.

Cheers,

Elder Anderson

Elder Koch and I got to baptize them

The whole group!

Blessing, Sharon, Innocent, and the kids, Munashe and Charity.  (Munashe is like 6 years old so hopefully in two years he'll also get baptized)

 Took some district pictures on Chimtengo's last day. With our district shirts haha

Masvingo Hawaii Mission

Alright ladies and gentlemen.  Twas another bho week down here in Masvingo.

So I want to start by telling this about this contact we had the other day.  So my comp and I are just walking down the street in the area and these two young babas walk by us and you could tell they were intoxicated.  One of them looked at me and said, “Hey! When is Jesus coming to save us?!”  I tried so hard not to laugh but then I answered and said, “So man, we learn from the Bible that no man knows when he will come. Even Jesus himself doesn’t know. Only God knows.” And the guy, trying to sound smart was like, “Ahh where is this Bible? I need to know since it knows.” So I replied and was like, “Sooo… yeah I just told you what the Bible says, no one knows when Jesus will come again.” And he’s like, “So you DON’T KNOW? Ah lets just leave it at that!!” And then he turns super quick and walks away hahahahahahha man Elder Koch and I were dying.

Well this week had some minor disappointments in the sense that we won’t be able to baptize all of the investigators I spoke of last week as soon as we thought. We will still plan on three of them this upcoming Saturday but Innocent and his family will be gone and visiting family this weekend and then we aren’t sure when they will be back.  So tomorrow we will find out when we will be able to give them a date.  They are so powerful though and we have no worries that eventually they’ll get baptized and that’s what matters. 

We have to start finding a lot of new investigators because we had a lot of people burn us this week and we found out they aren’t really interested.  The funny thing about the people here is that they are afraid to tell us no, so then we will show up to meet with them and they will just make up some excuse until we eventually don’t come back.  Instead of just telling us no from the beginning.  Frustrating but definitely teaches us patience haha.  Also something my companion and I realized this week that is hilarious is that whenever we talk to people on the street or even at appointments they always try to sound super preachy. Its ridiculous sometimes.  I asked this kid we met what he likes to do for fun and he told us he likes to preach the gospel….. And then on another occasion we asked this investigator how his day was, and he’s like, “Everything is going according to the plan of our great creator!” hahaha and people just always try to sound all religious around us when you can obviously tell they aren’t.  Its hard not to laugh sometimes. 

So recently we have found a lot of problems with the house we stay in and its starting to get dangerous for us to live there so we told President and he allowed us to do some house hunting this week and we found a super nice place for us to stay and we are hoping everything goes well and that we will be able to move in the coming weeks if I’ll still be here which brings me to the next topic. Transfers.  We’ll find out whats going to happen on this Saturday so that’s exciting.  I kind of want to stay but kind of want to go somewhere else.  I’ll let you guys no next week what happens.

On Tuesday this week we had interviews with President Mkhabela and it was the funniest day ever.  He showed up and we did this intro thing where he shared a powerful thought about the sons of Mosiah and then I was the first to go for the interviews.  So we sit down and the first thing he says is, “Alright Elder Anderson, so I want you to tell me everything you do that you shouldn’t be doing.” (Or something like that)  I was like……. Ohhhhhkayyy.  And then told him some stuff I need to work on and then we discussed some things and it was actually a powerful interview.  Every time  he gives perfect advice and builds us up a lot and it makes me hyped about missionary work haha but then at the end of the interview told me to find out what we all wanted for lunch and then to calculate the price and then that he would pay for us. So we decided pizza and then after my companions interview we told him and he gave us the money and then said, “Okay so while you wait on the pizza to be made, I need you to go to OK (a shopping market here) and buy me 6…. Grape-tizers. (which is this type of juice drink)  And then 2 waters.”  And I laughed and asked if they were for all of us and he said, “No that’s for me and then you can buy whatever drinks you want.”  Hahahaha so then we go to OK and buy the stuff and get the pizzas and come back and he takes his pizza and all 8 drinks and then he leaves.  So we all thought he left and we were just chilling and eating lunch at the church and I was talking about how funny it was that he wanted 6 grape-tizers and I was like, “6 grape-tizers! That is crazy!” And right before I finished saying that we see President walk by the room we were in and we hear his voice say, “Elder Anderson, don’t talk about he grape-tizers” hahahahhaha and they he grabbed something he forgot and then left the church. Man It was the funniest thing ever.  Of course it would happen to me with my luck haha.

We had a really cool contact one night. We went to visit a less active and then when we were leaving we realized we didn’t have the phone so we sat in the car with the light on looking for it and then this guy walked up to us and was like, “Hey are you latter-day saints?” and I told him yes and he was like, “Okay great so how can we be saved?” So I told him about the gospel and how we can be cleansed from sin and then he just expounded on his whole life situation and said he is a soldier and drinks and sleeps around all the time whilst he has a wife and kids at home and then he said, “I have been living in sin and I want to get out of this.” I then promised him that the gospel would help him so much and we gave him a pamphlet and invited him to church the next day and he was so grateful! Sadly we didn’t see him at church but we hope to see him someday this week.  It was pretty cool. Hopefully we planted a seed that will one day sprout.  He was slightly drunk when we met him but it was sincere what he said to us. 

So we made district shirts and we put “Masvingo Hawaii Mission” on them hahahaha because we always make fun of this area and how far away it is from everything else so we call it its own mission. The shirts are soooo sick. We wore them today when we went back to Great Zimbabwe Monument so Elder Koch could experience it. We danced with the people at the village there and took videos and pictures it was so fun! I’ll attach some pictures below.

After the interview with President, the first question really shook me about obedience. To be honest, I never really stressed obedience that much.  Like I still did what I was supposed to but just not too punctual or strict with it. So since the interview, my companion and I have been doing everything right and have been keeping every rule. Even the small things.  And I can already see the blessings.  It tied in with what I have been studying this week which was the story of Helaman’s stripling soldiers.  It talks about how they were valiant, courageous, and true at all times with whatever they were entrusted with.   Also later it mentions how they were firm in their faith and obeyed orders from their leaders with exactness.  These guys were powerful. But it was so cool to see the miracles that happened simply because of their faith and obedience. And it all started with what their mothers told them which was to not doubt God and he would deliver them.  I have seen why obedience is such an important part of this life and especially the work and how it is even important after this life.  Something cool about God is that he gives us a lot of commandments but promises blessings for each one.  It’s even said that he will bless us immediately for keeping his commandments.  I know God lives and loves us and that he gives us commandments to set us free and to be happy. 

Well that’s all I got this week. Love you all and so grateful for the emails each week. Glad to hear all is well back home and I hope you all have a good week.

Stay Steady Grindin

Cheers,

Elder Anderson

Perpetual Views

This was the group we danced with. It was so much fun hahaha The guy sitting next to me was such a bro.

Bucket Baths....

Alright brothers and sisters.  This week was nuts.  My goodness.  I feel like I have said this a few times but in Zimbabwe each week is just a new adventure with a lot of unexpected stuff.  So lets dive right in shall we?

Alright so first of all, we currently have 7 people with baptismal dates in August so that’s awesome.  Innocent and his family, Hillary and Hilton and Shauleen. I haven’t spoken much of Shauleen but she is 18 years old and is basically a member now because she has been coming to church forever and she’s had all the lessons from missionaries but the problem was that her father thought our church was satanic so he wouldn’t let her be baptized. And now this week we got news that the father is now okay with it! Our branch president, Pres. Makombe talked to the father and showed him how his ideas were nonsense basically.  Sweet.  So now she will finally be able to be baptized!  Innocent and his family are still so powerful and progressing very well.  Also Hillary and Hilton are so sick. They stopped coming to investigators class and now are going to young mens classes haha.  Already making good friends.   This transfer has been a struggle but we have these investigators scheduled for August 12^th which is right before the transfer ends.  And I might be transferred so I really hope I get to see them all get baptized. 

On top of that, we were able to find 8 new investigators this week including one baba.  And the story of how we met him is coming up haha.

We also were able to go to a part of our area called Rodin which is suuuuper rich and low density and it felt like I was back home. But we knocked gates and found a few new investigators and some potentials. So we plan on going back there this next week. We nicknamed Rodin, “the land Bountiful” haha

Alright so that’s all the good stuff that happened.

So it all started on Thursday.  So recently in the past weeks, our water heater has been leaking so we have to take cold showers in the cold mornings here haha and sometimes it doesn’t leak and then all we have is freaking boiling hot water.  So Thursday was one of the boiling hot water days so taking a shower was almost impossible and I would like put my head under the water for like a second and then back up really quick and wait until I could bear it again and then repeat haha. So I’m just covered in soap and I hear the water start to slow down and I’m thinking, “Ohhh fetch.”  So I suffer thru the hot water and try to rinse all the soap off super quick and then the water runs out like right as I was done. Close one amiright?  Felt like a success until I realized we then had 0 water left… So then when we came back to the house on Thursday we still didn’t have water so we drove to town to buy some 5 liter things of water.  And then we came home and did the necessities with the water and went to sleep. The next morning we woke up hoping we would have water and… hapana.  So we drove to town to buy some more and on the way we say many people grabbing buckets and going to the boreholes (which are water wells were people go to pump clean water. And they always work because they aren't connected to the city)  and when we get to the main road to town, there was a wreck on the bridge to get to town…. So the whole road was backed up and terrible traffic not even moving.  And the drivers here are terrible to that made it worse.  So we finally get out of there and try the only other road to town and it’s the same thing…. Backed up and like 5 lanes on a two lane road all the way to town.  At this point we’re all like, “What is happening?!?!” haha so we decide to drive back home and we call the branch presidency and we come to learn that there is a water crisis and that all the water in Masvingo is turned off while repairs are being done.  And there will be no water from the city for 3 days hahahahaha so we then go to the church which has a borehole and we were talking with Brother Jaka of the branch presidency and he told us he would borrow us some buckets to use to bring water back to the house.  So then we freaking buried ourselves in the culture and waiting in line to fill water with buckets and took them back to the house and made a few trips that morning so that we could have enough to last the next couple days. The cool thing was that all the other churches didn’t have boreholes but ours did.  Testimony builder haha just messin.  So a ton of non-members were coming there too to get water and the branch presidency was smart and started giving church tours and that’s wear we met the baba I mentioned earlier and he was the happiest guy I have ever met and he was so interested in learning from us.  But yeah the 1^st half of that day, all we were doing was getting water hahahaha it was so funny.  It probably freaked a lot of people out to see white people doing that.  I wish you all could have seen the looks on their faces.  Honestly some people legit think that we are absolutely LOADED with cash, only because we are white haha. So they think we just come here and enjoy vacation and spend all sorts of money on who knows what haha.  But yeah it was such a funny day.  I felt super Zimbabwean.  Humbled me to know that some families have to do that every day to have water at their homes.  And so on top of all this, all 4 of us elders here in Masvingo are sick and we were all sick that day when we had to fetch water and it was so funny.  Then we came home with that water and I had my first experience with bucket baths.  Heated up pots of water on the stove and then used a cup to pour water on myself for a shower hahaha.  Quite nice.  10/10 would recommend.  So yeah I have taken a few bucket baths this week and we haven’t been able to do laundry but luckily today we woke up and had water filling in our tank so we all took normal showers again with cold water.  That day with the water crisis, we ended up getting to the area at like 3 pm haha but we still worked that day and found new people.  And today all of us are feeling way better and I think we will all be healthy very soon.  The whole thing just made me laugh.

I was pretty funny when we met with the baba at his house the other day because when we showed up he was like, "Oh let me go grab my books" and then he comes back in the room with a 3 combination, BOM D&C and PoGP and we were like.... What? hahaha and then he told us he got a cop during the church tour. We taught him a short lesson and he had already ready in the Book of Mormon and is super happy and excited to learn from us. 

Thursday through Saturday, there was a stage set up legit right outside our house and there was as prophet who was doing shows there where he would stand up and yell nonsense gospel words at the people and then after, he would go around and cast out demons from everyone hahahaha The evidence of the apostacy is everywhere here.  It was crazy to watch the guy though.  He would be there for like 3 hours each night just doing his thing.  Sad how many people are deceived by this stuff.  It is legit the fulfilling of the verse in Matthew 24 which talks about false prophets and false Christs who will deceive even the very elect by shewing signs and wonders.   I recorded some videos but they’re too big to email so I’ll show you when I get home in like 15 months lol.

So yeah those are the crazy things that happened this week.  I was seriously just laughing thru all of it because it was just funny.  Times like that make me realize that I’m legit in Africa right now. Sometimes I forget that for some reason. 

In other news,  I got a terrible haircut this week.  So now all my long hair is gone.  I described to the guy perfectly what I wanted him to do and then next thing I know, the guy just destroys the top of my head with the clippers and cuts off all the long hair and I was like……. Nice. And then afterwards he was like, “Yeah I watch on TV and sometimes I see the people cutting white mans hair so that’s how I learn.” Hahahahahah yeah I can tell bro.  Can’t wait to get a real hair cut again.

 Well thats all I got.  Still love being out here and and enjoying so much.  I really like teaching people haha and teaching them about families especially because Zimbabweans love their families.  And especially when we get to tell them that families can be together forever.  How powerful is this knowledge that we have.  Its sad to see that people think its every man for himself after this.  But God gave us families for a reason and I know that they are ordained of God. The most spiritual, happy, and peaceful times in my life have been with my family. We actually get to teach a FHE today at the Munaki home and they are inviting a lot of nonmembers so I'm excited to teach about families and how the gospel blesses them because I have witnessed this in my life.  I love God's plan for us and the gospel of Jesus Christ more than I ever thought I would haha and I know all of it to be true.  

Love you all and hope you enjoy your week.  

Be Happy

Stay Bho

Stay Steady Grindin'

Cheers,

-Elder Anderson