Elder B in Zimbabwe: December Shenanigans

Ya know when everything is going super well and then one little thing can make everything not go super well anymore? That's kinda how this week was. Lemme explain.

So we found 8 new investigators this week and gave a couple of them baptismal dates! 4 of them came from this returned missionary named Stewart and he wants us to teach his whole family because he is the only member so we taught them and 2 of his brothers came to church yesterday! So sick.

There's this little girl named Gugulethu that always comes to church but no one in here family is a member. She's like 7 years old but the smartest person ever. And one day she told us she wanted us to come and meet her family so we did this week and we found out she has two siblings that are older and always come to church but aren't baptized. Hahaha So we are gonna start teaching them this week. And the parents are super chill about everything and they dont even go to church to we are hoping to work with them and get them to come as well! They promised to come to church yesterday but they didnt come. Whats new? lol

Also we met with the Thandile's again the other day and man they are so cool. We taught them about the word of wisdom and they were so willing to drop coffee and tea and follow it. It was crazy. They obviously had some questions but they totally understood why God gives us that commandment and they said they would have no problem leaving it. We asked if they had any concerns or questions at the end of the lesson and brother Thandile was like, "Ahhh no I'm just... happy" and then they both expressed how grateful they were to be taught about the true gospel and man it was so powerful. Love these guys. They'll be baptized on the 16th!

So everything was going super well until Saturday. We planned to work all day in Pumula so we started off by visiting some new investigators that side and we told them both about church and described where it was and everything and they committed to come! And then we went to the meetinghouse to visit the members that live there and the baba told us that church on Sunday was going to be in Nkulumane for both groups...... So a whole week of telling our people in Pumula that church would be in Pumula.... and then he tells us that.... Saturday afternoon...... hahah so we spent the rest of the day telling people that church would be in Nkulumane but its super far to walk from Pumula and its hard to describe the place we meet at there and man. It was a struggle. We talked to some members that said they would help us but then they it didn't really work out. So we had 0 of our Pumula investigators at church...... Man I was so upset hahaha last week to have 8 people, 5 of them with baptismal dates come to church and then this week to have 0..... Now we have to postpone their baptisms for later in December. We should still be able to meet our goal for December which is 8 baptisms! So that should be awesome! And we had 5 investigators come from Nkulumane so that made things a little bit better. Man it was just frustrating to have all these plans and then everything changed the day before church... hahahaha man. Oh well. Akula worries.

There were so many members at church yesterday! People I haven't even met in the last 2 months here hahaha a lot of less actives decided to be active this week.

We had the funniest elders quorum activity hahaha so last Sunday the elders quorum invited us to help them go and visit less actives this Saturday so we gladly agreed and showed up at the time they told us, and there were 3 people there. hahaha eventually two more came and then we split up to do the visits and two members came with us to go see this family and then they weren't around so we went to the store, bought some refreshments and met the other group back at the church hahaha. The epitome of an elders quorum activity lol so funny.

I figured out how to say, "I'll beat you" in Ndebele. Its "ngizogutshaya". haha try that one on for size. Also I finally figured out how to make the "Q" click so that made things a lot easier. Can you guys imagine me bearing my testimony in a clicking language....whhaaaatttt. Coming soon.

Well that's all I got for this week. I'm excited for this month! My last Christmas in Zimbabwe... 1 year ago tomorrow was my first day in Zim! Weird. Anyways i hope you guys are all finding joy thru the Light the World thing. Its super easy to do as a missionary hahaha but the Lord expects all of us to be missionaries. Ye are the light of the world. I know that my redeemer lives and I know he leads this church.

Also, Happy birthday sis.

Stay Steady Grindin'

Cheers,

Elder Anderson

A Couple Videos!

One of them is just kinda what our house and neighborhood looks like and the other is me messing with some kids. I always get annoyed at how much they yell "How are you?!" at us so I say it back to them all the time to give them a taste of their own medicine. Enjoy.