Gonzo...

So yeah this was my last week in Masvingo...  

But it was a powerful week so lemme get to that before I tell you where I'm going. 

So first of all, I got a dope hair cut again and I'm super happy. 

We started teaching this group of guys a few weeks ago and their names are Liberty, Hope, and Collins and they are the chillest dudes ever.  We have taught them a lot of lessons and Liberty reads in the Book of Mormon and Collins told us he wants to be baptized haha so we were super excited about them! Hopefully they will progress while I'm gone. 

So Friday was one of the best days of my mission. 

We had a late start in the morning because of some things we needed to situate with the new house so we ended leaving to the area around lunch time and I had the idea to grab Chicken Inn and eat it on the mountain in our area.  So we did so and after we were done eating, we were overlooking the city just chilling and this guy walks up to us and started talking to us. He had been contacted by missionaries in Harare a long time ago and was told some things about the Book of Mormon but then that was it.  But the reason he went up to the mountain that day was because he is confused about which church to go to and which prophet to follow and wanted to pray on the mountain for God's guidance..... how insane is that.  We all looked at each other like, "wuuuuuut" hahaha it was crazy.  So the 4 of us taught him a lot of things and he had so many questions answered and gave us his phone number and address for us to come by this week to teach him and his family!  So the elders back there are going to follow up with him this week but it was so crazy how we met him.  His name is Kim or something like that so I will let you know if I hear anything about him in the future.  

So then after the mountain, we went and met our Zone Leaders so they could interview our baptismal candidate.  While they were doing that we waited outside and were playing catch and then this mama walked up to us and introduced herself as Hopeful and told us that missionaries used to come and teach the people that used to live at her house.  (So she was talking about Elder Fili and I because we used to teach a family that stayed there and then they moved so we lost contact with them) She had just moved into the house and was told about us and she had also heard a while ago about our church from her sisters in Gweru.  So that prompted her to learn more about our church and we ended up meeting with her the next day, taught her the restoration and then on Sunday she brought her whole family to church......... So now Masvingo is bumping right as I leave.... oh well haha but I'm super excited abou these two families. 

But yeah so we had a baptism this week for Yvonne and it was awesome.  She's the happiest person ever and is super funny.  She lives with members so she'll be strong!  

So we did this activity at the church with a lot of young men and young women and YSA's and we just played some games at the chapel.  Near the end we ran out of ideas for games to play so we started Simon Says haha.  So out of this huge group it gets down to just me and this other guy and everyone is standing up in the front and watching us and at one point, "simon" said to dance, so I looked around and then hit dem folks crazy good! (For those of you confused, youtube hit dem folks)  So I slayed this dance in front of all of these black kids and they went crazy hahahaha they were like cheering and screaming inside the chapel and I was dying laughing it was dope.  And then afterwards, I was dancing with some other guys and it was so sick hahahaha I was so happy.  

 

Side note, we made a music video this week.  We were inspired by Since You Been Gone from Pitch Perfect and we totally copied that and made a dope video.  Maybe some of you will get to see it when I get home haha. 

Alright so leaving Masvingo was hard.  Elder Parco and I left the area and we were asked to bear our testimonies and bore mine and started by saying, "So I heard once that saying goodbye is not appropriate for times like these because that means that I will never see you again, So I like to instead say, see you later.  And I am so grateful for the knowledge we have that we will indeed see each other again."  And then proceeded to speak of the plan of salvation and my testimony of it.  I know its true. 

Then after church I took pictures with some members and then stopped by two families that I love to death. One mama is named Sister Makuwe and we call her Madam Boss hahahaha she's awesome.  And then we went to Gogo's house to sing hymns one last time and she was upset when we told her we were leaving but we sang some hymns, ate some popcorn and then we sand God Be With You Till We Meet Again in Shona.... it was amazing.  Felt the spirit. 

So now to put the suspense aside, I am now going to Bulawayo. And will be serving in Nkulumane.  It is a beautiful city!  Like the nicest place I have seen here.  So sick. Feels like back home almost haha. But yeah the thing I'm excited for is the language.  So here, apart from everywhere else in Zimbabwe, they speak Ndebele.... which is a clicking language.... hahahaha so I'm excited to learn some!  Right when I was getting kinda good at Shona, I come here. Oh well. But yeah my new companion is named Elder McDougal and is from Rexburg!  I met him once but now I'm just waiting in Bulawayo for him.  His bus from Mutare should get here in the evening. So now I'm just chilling here with my boy Elder Lamb all day.  He's also from Rexburg and we were trained in the same district so we chill.  But yeah thats the news. Also, Bulawayo is nicknamed Blues, and Blues is a lot easier to type so thats what I will refer to it as for the emails while I'm here. 

Well I'm happy as ever right now.  Love being here with my people.  Love all of you and hope you have a great week! 

Stay Steady Grindin'

-Elder Anderson

Hilary and Hilton, two of the kids we baptized last transfer! Still active and powerful. 

 Junior, a recent convert of the other elders but he is super good at chess and we were always talking trash to each other about who was better and finally we played on Saturday and I won the first game and was getting all up in his face and then he destroyed me the second game hahaha 

  A few more members 

Gonna miss these kids...

 Elder Parco and I with the branch president (left) and one of his counselors. 

 Madam boss and her family

 Gogo and her family!  I sang so many hymns sitting right here hahahaha gonna miss these guys.  Gogo is the oldest one sitting witht he blue socks haha

Found this one our last drive out of Masvingo.  Love this hahaha Shout out to the fam.  it was this place called Anderson Schools. 

No pictures from the baptism. Sorry. Maybe next week. 

Extreme Home Makeover

My goodness we finally moved.  3 weeks late but nonetheless, still super dope.  The house is in a low density part of Masvingo and is sooooo much nicer than the old one.  The water works, the toilets work, the gate works. Wow.... little things I never thought I'd be this happy about. Hahaha but its so good not living right next to a bar and a garage because its so peaceful and quite in the mornings.  Feels like we are on vacation.  Now I really hope I stay here this next transfer.  Mostly just because of this house. I found it so I hope president rewards me for it.

But yeah so this transfer is coming to an end this next week.  I have been here for 4 1/2 months so most likely, I'll be leaving but I'm not sure.  So next email might be from another part of Zimbabwe!

So this week was sooo busy, we had a normal day on tuesday but then we had to deep clean the old house on Wednesday to prepare fore the move and then the whole day Thursday was spent in Gweru and that was an awesome conference.  and then on Friday we moved and even continued sorting stuff out Saturday morning. And then with church on Sunday, that brings us to now hahaha but some good happened this week so lets get to it lol

So we are having some progress with this girl named Fortunate.  We baptized her cousins not too long ago and we started teaching her.  She came to church for the first time last week so we started focusing more on her.  And we invited her to be baptized and she said she needed to think about it. Hopefully that gets somewhere.

We also met this amazing family at church on Sunday.  When we got there, there were like 2 members there and then this huge family that no one knew just sitting in the back. So after church we talked to them and they stay like 85 freaking kilometers from Masvingo and have to pay $10 to get here.... which is a lot for a family that stays in a village like that.  They said they heard about the church from and friend and were given a Book of Mormon and started to read it and then they wanted to learn more! So we taught them the restoration after church and they were really into it and we are meeting with them next Sunday if they have money to come to church. Excited for these ones!  Still don't know their names because it was wayyy to hard to say hahaha

Yolanda and Yvonne are still progressing very well and we are baptizing Yvonne this Saturday and hopefully Yolanda the next week!

So this week was hilarious.  Before we moved, we had the following animals living in our house: Massive spiders, huge hairy caterpillars, rats, lizards and birds..... hahaha basically a zoo lol.  To add to the humor of this week, we almost burned the old house down.  We were doing the trick where you flick a match off a box and it lights. And there was a huge pile of dry leaves in the back yard and Elder Whittier and I were seeing if it would light from a match....... within a few seconds the whole pile was in flames and it was freaking huge! hahahah so we got some water and put it out and all our neighbors were watching us as we try to act like we have it completely under control hahah it was so funny.  

So we bought a monopoly game at the store the other day and since we come home at 7 each day, we always have a ton of time to do whatever so we play monopoly a lot.... I haven't won any games. haha

This morning we cooked a huge breakfast of eggs, bacon, and choco pancakes.... man. Made me feel at home. 

Well as you can see, all is well.  Happy as ever and honestly I love it here. I know this church is true and that the Book of Mormon is truly another testament of Jesus Christ.  I know that He leads this church.  Something I love thinking about is that everyone who has been or will be here on earth, was there in the pre-mortal council where the plan was presented and where we chose to follow it.  So it has a "familiar ring" to everyone who hears it with an open heart. I love this gospel so much.  Love you all and am so grateful for all the support and prayers.  Stay happy. 

Stay Steady Grindin'

-Elder Anderson

And Tha Drummas!

Welcome one and all. 

Well we weren't able to move due to some delays in appliances being ordered for the new house so we are enduring one more week in the shack we stay in.  So this upcoming Friday we should be able to move into the new house! 

We had another fun week here in Masvingo. 

We made districts hats that say KAWP across the front for each of our initials and they're sick.  So thats cool. 

My companion and I struggled again this week with our teaching pool. 

Munashe hasn't made contact with us for a few days now and we tried to stop by the house and the TV was on but no one answered.  So we think he has an issue with something and doesn't want to meet with us.  So we are going to take a week off and then try to talk to him a little bit later.  Sad to lose someone who was so well prepared for us to teach him.  One of the best investigators I have ever had.  

We are working with a few others who are progressing towards baptism and their names are Yolanda and Yvonne.  They are both super happy women and each of their families have a lot of potential.  We hope to baptize them at the end of the transfer which is in two weeks.  This week we also found 10 new investigators and it was awesome! 

This Tuesday and Sunday, we met with one of those new investigators whose name is Talent.  And man this guy is receptive.  Him and his friend Loyd were super in to the restoration lesson and were completely understanding the apostacy and everything it was awesome! Elder Koch and I were shocked after the lesson.  They were asking really good questions that only our message could answer.  Loyd asked us how we can know who a true prophet is so we answered him and he was like, "That was a golden answer!" and told us he has been wondering that for a long time! And then Talent expressed the same joy in our answer!  These guys are sweet!  The only concern we have is that they are both in 7th day families so that might be an issue but faithfully we'll keep working with them. 

The other new investigators also show a lot of interest so we finally are upping our teaching pool. 

We have this other guy named Liberty and he has 3 friends that normally join us for the lessons and they all love meeting with us.  And they were very understanding for the restoration lesson and we even gave Liberty a Book of Mormon this week and he has already read and prayed about it!  So we really hope they continue to progress and come to church this next week.  

In other news, we found blue food coloring the other day and made blue eggs.  

We started lifting this week at a gym that is literally the most jing thing ever.  The benches are legit wooden benches and the racks are stabilized with bricks.  The bars are just metal pipes and they use mystery weights but we still enjoy going there haha. There's a big group of guys that go there each morning so we started joining them and they all love us now hahaha

There is this one gogo in our area and she's a member but she cant really walk anymore.  But she loves us to death and we go there like twice a week or whenever we are bored and we sing hymns with her and she teaches us a little bit of shona.  Whenever we leave there I'm always super happy hahaha And the family is all members so they all join us and sing with us outside their house.  Its too much fun. 

Anyways thats all I got this week. We went to Great Zimbabwe this week again so that was fun.  Took some sick pictures because we climbed these rocks we weren't supposed to hahah. Worth it. 

Have a stellar week!

Stay Steady Grindin'

-Elder Anderson

After district meeting we sauced some pictures with the hats we made haha

The Great Zimbabwe! 

One of those Weeks....

Well the title explains itself.  

This week was too slow.  

We have two people we planned on baptizing this upcoming Saturday but neither of them came to church and we couldn't get ahold of them after church so we are kind of worried about them.  If I did the math right, we had a total of 0 investigators at church.... lol indicators were down this week. Oh well. Got a lot more to go haha

We also have 4 other people who we plan on baptizing at some point but they all were too busy to come to church.... One was out of town so that's understandable but the others don't speak English so we have no idea what they were saying haha. 

We started teaching two big families and we were really excited to start meeting with them and then in the first appointment the parents in both families told us they were 7th day adventists.  And from the sound of it, they have no interest in changing but just want to "hear the word" haha whatever that means.  So hopefully we will be able to help them come to know the truth.  

So funny story.  

This Tuesday we woke up and started to prepare for the day and President Mkhabela calls.  My companion picks up and he asks to speak to me. So I'm super nervous and take the phone and President is like, "So are we having interviews today?"  I'm like, "....so if we are, I was never informed about it."  And then the following exchange took place. 

"Okay so are you having a district meeting today?"

"Yes, president."

"What time are you supposed to finish district meeting?"

"Between 11:30 and 12"

"And after that what are you doing?" 

"Going to lunch" 

"How long are you supposed to go for lunch?" 

"30 minutes" 

"And after that what are you supposed to do?"

"Go to the area."

"(while laughing) Okay thank you Elder Anderson. So I am on my way to Masvingo and I'm sorry no one told you but we are having interviews today." 

I was laughing pretty hard. President Mkhabela is pretty soft spoken but his sense of humor is hilarious haha. 

We did a cool activity on Saturday and played soccer at the church.  We invited a lot of investigators and members but not a lot showed up. So we started playing a small game and then people saw us playing so random guys started coming in and playing with us and it was sooo sick. We had three teams and rotated every time someone scored.  It was a blast.  Still dont stand a chance against these guys tho.  Until we started playing basketball hahahaha man back in my comfort zone again and I was making people look silly.  Super fun day.  Hopefully planted a lot of seeds with all the non members who showed up. 

Today we went to the game park again to see some animals. I would sauce some pictures on the end of this but they're basically the same as last time haha.  Got super close to some hippos.  Freaking huge things.  We were driving along side a herd of wildebeests while they were running and it was soooo sick.  Coincidentally we were watching Lion King at our dinner appointment with our branch president last night.  No one was trampled. 

We got an update on the portal this week that the Zim mission is now at 1,459 baptisms for the year so that's super cool. 

We have yet to move in to the new house.  There was a delay with something so now its moved to this upcoming Friday.  Words cannot describe how excited we are to move.  

Well that's all I got this time.  

Love you all and hope you have a solid week. 

Stay Steady Grindin'

Yours Truly,

Elder Anderson

Marvelous Work

Hey gang lol.

Another week in paradise. 

So everything is going super well here and we recently have started to find new people to teach. 

Munashe is still progressing very well and we gave him a baptismal date for next Saturday.  This guy is prepared beyond belief and is already making a lot of friends in the branch.  For real the most humble guy I have ever met.  And he has asked some of the deepest questions that only the fullness of the gospel has answers too.  He´s awesome. 

We also finally got back in touch with Shawleen.  I talked about her a little bit before but we had to stop teaching her for a while because she was never around.  But we finally found out that she was involved in this National modelling competition and that she won and is now Zimbabwe´s Miss Heroes..... hahaha definitely don´t blame her for being busy.  But now that its over we set a baptismal date for her and she is excited for it. 

Last week I mentioned Yolanda and although she missed church yesterday, she has come twice with her two sons and they all want to join the church!  The only problem is the language barrier.  They speak basically no english and they stay out in the middle of nowhere so finding a member to help us has been tough but we finally think we found a solution so it should be good this week!  Excited to work with these guys.  They are super poor but are always so happy to see us and feed us haha.  We have had sadza at 2 of our 3 appointments and each time before we leave to try to give us a huge bag of peanuts.  Love these people. 

We have another investigator named Mai Nyasha who used to be taught by missionaries and we started visiting her again.  She asked some super deep questions about the plan of salvation and was really concerned about if she would be with her family after this life.  You could see how our message and answers to her questions comforted her and she started to realize that her church probably isn´t the right one.  She told us her prophet has taught them not to read the Bible because he receives all the revelation they need.  Ridiculous hahaha and after our next visit when we taught her the restoration, she said if she gets an answer to her prayer that our message is true, she will join us. Powerful. 

Just got a hair cut today and it made up for the last guy who horribly misunderstood my directions for cutting my hair. lol. The guy today nailed it so now it doesn´t look nearly as bad. 

Another sidenote. If all goes according to the plan, we should move into our new house this week!  I´m stoked to get out of our house right now. Literally decaying before our eyes haha. 

I want to finish with my testimony of the power and authority that governs this, the only true church.  I know that the priesthood has been restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. I know that it is real.  And that it can bless each and every one of us.  I know this church is true and I am so humbled and grateful to be a part of it.  

Love you all and hope you had a solid week.  

Stay Steady Grindin

Cheers,

Elder Anderson

mormon helping hands thing last week