Elder B in Zimbabwe: Nzou

Okay first things first, I totally got my totem this week. So something in Shona culture (and some other tribes) is having a totem which is some kind of animal and this week a member gave me mine and its Nzou, which is the elephant. So sick. And because i know all of you are going to spronounce it wrong, nzou rhymes with slow, not cow. But yeah that was one of the highlights of my week, and there's this drunkard guy that in our area that is insanely good and making stone sculptures and he's making me an elephant for $2.

On a related note with shona culture, I'm picking up more and more of the language each week. Its funny how much I understand now haha

So we found this family, the Tembo's and started teaching them last week and they are awesome. They don't go to church but its the baba and mama and one of their kids that stay there and they loved our message of the restoration and the baba committed to come to church and bring his whole family. And we told them we'd walk with them so we walked all the way there and he was the only one ready and the rest of the family was slacking so we just left to get to church on time but we got brother Tembo there and it was awesome. He made really good friends with one of our other investigators that came, Mark, and he was really happy after church. It was so cool.

Speaking of Mark, he came to church by himself this week and it was awesome. He's basically a member already haha but marriage is the problem we have to solve before he's married. With the bride price custom of marriage, finding married couples is difficult so we always have to marry them. No problem tho. Mark is awesome tho, my comp told me before I got there they were teaching him and he struggled with smoking and stuff but when they taught him, he changed and now he's given it up and he reads from the Book of Mormon all the time and we can see how the gospel is changing his life. Testimony builder for sure.

We also met this mama named Vimbai this week and she was a referral from a member and we were told that Vimbai had satanic ideas about our church and that we dont read the Bible and we dont greet people and some other ridiculous things so we met with her, greeted her, taught her the restoration using the Bible and testified of Jesus Christ rather than Satan and it cleaned her clock of all the things she heard haha. It was awesome. And she was really excited to continue learning. She doesn't really know a lot about the gospel but when we taught her she started asking questions like "Is there life after death?" and other questions of the soul and we told her we had all the answers and would answer each of them the next time we came. She's so dope, and the husband is this super humble guy that is gonna join our lesson this week so we have another family to teach!

We have found a lot of families but all of them have marriage problems hahahaha So if I stay here for the next transfer, we could have a lot of weddings.

So yeah we had 3 investigators come to church this week and it was fast and testimony meeting and two members blasted each other with their testimonies.... Like they called each other out for spreading rumors about each other and the spirit totally left the meetinghouse. It was so stupid. Then they both walked out of the chapel and went home..... but from there the rest of the testimonies were powerful and the members did a good job and talking with the investigators and explaining thats not what usually happens. So in the end it wasn't too bad. Super funny to see those two go toe to toe in the chapel though haha.

Well thats what i have for this week. My companion and I are bringing back Chegutu and finding a lot of people to teach and we have like 7 people planned to give baptismal dates too this week. So sick. When I got here there were 0 people who were serious enough for a baptismal date so I'm happy we are getting work done. And man I love my companion. The chillest guy ever and we have the same mentality about everything so we basically know what each other is thinking at all times hahaha its awesome.

So this morning my breakfast, was eggs and toast and a mango fresh off the tree in our backyard.... so sick. Mango season in Zim is crazy. literally everyone has a mango tree in their yard so their always just eating mangos hahaha and they give us some sometimes when we stop by.

I just want to say that I love teaching the restoration to people. It makes sooooo much sense its sad to see how many people are blinded here because they believe in a prophet who is stealing money from them or they go to witch doctors that do miracles and stuff and there's so much confusion about the gospel here but the restoration just confounds everything. Its so cool. Being in a place like this for over a year now has built my testimony of the restoration so much and I know its true.

Love you all and have a stellar week.

Ndonana nguva ino tevera

Stay Steady Grindin'

Cheers,

Elder Anderson