Elder B in Zimbabwe: 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