Mbare

I'm leaving Chegutu.... Honestly sad about that. I will miss that place very much.  Also Mom, Rejo and Wayne. Its okay life moves on.

So I got transferred back to Harare to a township called Mbare.  Mbare is super ghetto. similar to chegutu but less out in the bush and more in the town.  I'll be the district leader and my new companion is Elder Kabuya from DRC (Congo).  He's been here for a couple months and is still learning english so I'll be teaching him still.  He's a super humble and funny guy so I'm excited to be with him. 

Last week in Chegutu was awesome.  Met President Nelson and Elder Holland!  They gave super powerful talks and they commended us for the work that we have done in this mission.  It was so cool to hear them speak and to be right there with them!  President Nelson was the last speaker and he left us a prophetic blessing that each of us would return home safely and that we would have joy in our missions.  It was pretty cool! 

I ate a large pizza this week in 5 minutes. hahahahaha

Also, I met an atheist..... in Zimbabwe hahaha crazy.  Everybody is Christian here hahaha still surprised we met that guy.

Sunday was a sad day.  Elder Ntshangase and I are both getting transferred so we both bore our testimonies in sacrament meeting.  Mom started crying.... I almost did hahaha. I sat by mom during the meeting and we sang God Be With You Til We Meet Again for the closing hymn (Rejoice is the chorister so she chose it for us) and for the last verse, I sung it in Shona and then Mom started singing in shona with me hahaha it was cool. 

Then after that we went home and packed and then drove around saying bye to different people and finished the night at moms house.  We ate dinner together and took some last pictures and then had to say goodbye.  It honestly was like deja vu to when I said bye to mom and dad when they dropped me off at the MTC.  Leaving family is difficult. 

I'm excited to be here tho. This area is super progressing and I'm excited to keep it going. My comp said they have 12 people with baptismal dates right now! Awesome.  The only thing I'm sad about is we are back to walking hahaha no car in this area.  Earning my stripes. 

I love you all. 

Sorry I dont have much time today but next week I'll talk more about Mbare and send more pictures. 

Stay Steady Grindin'

Elder Anderson

Game 6

T'was a superb week.

Met this guy on super tuesday that was super into the Book of Mormon.  Also stays right by the church.... hoping that goes somewhere.

We had zone conference on Wednesday and it was so dope.  I got to see all my guys including Elder Mokoena and Elder Fili.  Man i was happy that day. 

 President taught us a more direct way to teach people which we applied this week and its dope.  Gets straight to the point right quick. Also, met a new elder that went to Eagle High.... haha there are so many elders here from Idaho.

Met this baba named Andrew Andrew... had a strange lesson with him.

We've been trying to follow the area presidents counsel to teach first the learned, noble and rich in order to build the kingdom here so we started looking for the nicest houses and for people who speak good english haha. Pretty selective but its working. 

We baptized 4 people this week!  I'll attach the pictures.

Got a text from Wayne this week and he's like, "Nigga call me now." hahhahaha gonna miss this guy.

Had a noteworthy experience this week. We were having a super unsuccessful day and we were walking back to our car after a fall thru and I saw this kid sitting on a stone across the street and I felt like we should talk to him so we did and he was super not interested and we just left him with a restoration pamphlet and went on with the day. Fast forward to Sunday at church we see a different guy walk in holding a restoration pamphlet and we talk to him and he told us he lives with the guy we contacted and he read the book and learned a lot and wanted to come to church! How cool is that.  His name is Gift and he stayed for all 3 hours and participated in all the lessons and we set an appointment with him and he told us he was excited to learn a lot more from us...... soooo sick.  

Also, we baptized a kid named Osima this week and he's awesome and just recently his sister and aunt joined our lessons and the aunt I talked about one of the last times.  Her name is Elastica and she has been super interested in our message and she came to support Osima at the baptism and then surprised us on Sunday as she came to church! After the service she told me she wants to be baptized with Osima's sister..... I didnt know what to say hahahah it was dope. 

On Sunday we had 14 or 15 investigators attend..... ma blessings.  It was awesome to have a huge investigators class.  Confirmed all the people we baptized. Also, Wayne finally came back to church and participated in all the classes and came and helped us teach the investigators class. And then after church we had a braai with Mom, Wayne, and Rejoice and cooked a goat load of pork.  I murdered that food, man I ate so much.  Overall, one of the best Sundays of my life hahah.

Winter is back in Zim.  The other day I was actually cold. Felt amazing.  I'm super used to the heat now so when I come home it will be a sore repentance process. hahahah.

We see the prophet tomorrow.  Pretty amazing.  Will report next week.

Love you all.  Hope you enjoyed your week. 

As always,

Stay Steady Grindin'

Cheers,

Elder Anderson

Baptism last week

Reunited with Elder Fiji and Whittier

Zone Conference Shenanigans....

Dude at the bottom left wet to Rocky haha chill guy

This was the 4kg stack of pork we cooked on Sunday !!

Family picture.  Love this picture. Rejoice, mom and Wayne

Before the braai with Ntshangase and Mwamba

Bought these massive potatoes... 

Knights Of The Round Table

Due to being in Africa, we watched conference a week late. Saturday morning we show up on time at the meetinghouse and it was the 4 of us missionaries and our branch clerk..... that was it.   So the clerk started it and to give people motivation to come on time the next day.  It worked. We also had 9 investigators come to view it. Powerful.  One of them was this mama we contacted like 2 weeks ago that said the normal Zimbabwean "Ahhh eldas I will come" but she was actually serious! lol.

Conference was suuuuuper bho.  My goodness I learned a ton. After those talks, my testimony is like Brady hitting Gronk in the corner of the endzone. Just immaculate.  Sheesh. 

President Nelson was just dishin out holy ghost fire the whole time.  THE prophet of God. Every time he spoke I felt the spirit. After his talk during the Sunday morning session I had the strongest desire to obey and follow the gospel I've ever had in my life. It was cool.

We met this guy named Brother Chimbandi.  He stays at the far side of our area super far from the chapel and he attended the other elders' church service so they referred him to us.  We met him on Saturday and man. This guy is prepared.  Told us he met the missionaries in Gweru while he was rushing to work one morning and it was at a time in his life where he was looking for a good church to bring his family to.  After meeting the missionaries, he went to church every week for like a year and his two sons got baptized but him and his wife needed to be married first and it never happened. And then just recently he moved to Chegutu and he had been asking around and looking for the church and he finally found it last month and has come the last 3 Sundays! Awesome.  We could see his strong testimony of the church and how excited he was to find it. We are now making plans to marry and baptize him and his wife. Brother Chimbandi told us he was excited to be apart of the church and willing to serve in callings and do his best to help the branch.... sooooo cool.

Last week I sent a picture of a family that was going on vacation so we weren't going to be able to see them until after the transfer.  This week we were working in the area around their home and we walked by and the mom came outside of the house out of nowhere and shouted, "ELDA ANDASON!" hahahaha so we came and she told us the vacation they planned ended sooner than they thought and now they are back and she wants us to come and continue teaching her. So sick.  This one will join the church one day.  I hope so.

Sadly, we found out that the father of one of the families we are teaching committed suicide this week.... the worst news we could have possibly received.  Going to approach that situation with a lot of prayer.

Elder Morrison and I gave each other haircuts this morning... Nice.

We had interviews with President Mkhabela this week and it was so powerful.  He told me in my interview that I should keep doing whatever I'm doing because our district is doing very well and our zone is relying on our district...... I was like, will do president. haha.

Had this fluent conversation in Shona with this mama that stopped us and asked us about the church.  Felt good about myself. Put all the neighbors to shame because they thought I didn't know anything.  Nobody gossips me anymore.  I always just say, "Ndazvinswa" Which means, "i heard that" hahahaha got em.

My companion and i were supposed to have 7 baptisms this week but two of our investigators went on vacation for the school holiday..... nice. haha but they told us they want to be baptized the week they come back. 

Some weird thing the kids do here is throw things under cars when they drive by. Anything from glass beer bottles, to huge sugar cane poles hahaha like the other day I'm driving behind this car and this kid kicks a glass bottle from across the street and it flies and the car in front of me nails and shatters the thing with its front tire and then the kids all ran away laughing hahahahaha. War zone. Using their god given soccer mastery in a strange way.

That was my week

Love you all. God speed.

Stay Steady Grindin,

-Elder Anderson

Took these pictrues at our meetinghouse. This is how people keep cats and robbers from getting in haha. Weird having shattered beer bottles lining the walls of our church here hahahaha some things are just different here. 

Easterz

We had some powerful lessons this week. Lemme talk about some. 

1st. I mentioned Sis. Tom last week a little bit and this week we taught her again about the Book of Mormon and it was one of the most powerful lessons I have taught.  We gave her the book and started talking about it and she was understanding everything and she even understood why we have it before we taught her why.... so sick.  So after we finished teaching her I asked her how she has felt about all the things we are teaching her and about church.  And she was like, "Well.... I am learning sooo much from you guys and at the church, I have felt peaceful and happy and it feels as if I have known these people forever but I'm still new.  It kinda feels like I'm coming home.".......I just looked at her for a moment and then was like, "So Sista Tom will you prepare yourself to be baptized?" She happily replies "Yes" and then after another pause she was like, "So when will I be baptized?" haha so sick. It was dope we weren't even planning on inviting her to be baptized but the Spirit was super strong in that lesson.  Sista Tom is awesome. Still not even sure how a Zimbabwean is surnamed Tom.... She is lightskin so maybe.... haha

2nd. We taught this guy named Wezo who we have only taught once and we see him a lot but he's always busy with work but this week we finally taught him again about the Book of Mormon and he was excited because he had a lot of questions and we answered all of them and he totally understood everything.  And then afterwards he's like, "Wow... well guys this weekend I'm going out of town on holiday but next Sunday, expect me with me family at church" sooooooo sick.  Love this guy.  He speaks really good english so teaching him is easy. 

3rd.  We met this Jehovahs Witness mama named... wait for it... Elastica..... hahaha so we are teaching her nephew and he will be baptized soon but this time Elastica (haha) joined the lesson and we talked about the restoration and she had a lot of questions about prophets and she told us "So the Jehovahs Witnesses dont belive in prophets." and I could see she was kind of confused and I was like, "So what do YOU believe?" and she said, "...Well I believe in prophets".  Haha pretty cool lesson. I hope we helped plant a seed that will lead her to the truth. 

Powerful week. We found some new people to teach and we had 13 investigators at church!  

Also, my comp is awesome. I love this guy. The other day we were chillin eating pizza and he told me that he was in a gang in highschool and got in to a lot of bad stuff. There was 8 guys in his gang and he told me how happy he is that he left them and joined the church because out of the 8, 3 are dead, 4 are in prison, and the 1 is on a mission in Zimbabwe (my comp). how awesome is that?  

Our recent converts are powerful!  Stephen received the priesthood and blessed the sacrament yesterday and his daughter Theresa bore a powerful testimony about the Book of Mormon! She said, "I know the Book of Mormon is true.  Believe me, I have read it and it has blessed me with something I have been lacking all these years." So sick.  

Our missionary work is going super well these days the only problem is the branch.  Unorganized and their was almost a fight between the relief society sisters in the two branches here because of this activity this week.  So as soon as that gets settled, this branch will grow in no time. 

Keshias, our powerful baba moved this week...... right next to moms house hahahha man I thought they meant they were moving out of town but then they told me the address and I was so happy.  So we still get to work with him and his wife to get them married and baptized.  

This weekend was ironic. Easter weekend is a big deal to these people so to remember the Savior, they had an insanse level of alcohol consumption..... Parties on every street, zimdance music blasting. It was sick. we enjoyed the music but not all the breaking of commandments.

I feel like im gaining weight. Nice.

All good things here in Chegs. We stay steady grindin.  

We have to postpone our baptisms to next Saturday because we will watch conference this weekend.  No worries. 

That's all for this week. Love you all. Church is true. 

Cordailly,

Elder Anderson

The guy next to me in the black shirt is Tapiwa, we just baptized him.  His mom loves us and she was told us she was going on vacation with her family and wouldn't be back until May which is after the next transfer and when we told her we might not be here, she was very upset and gave my companion and me super nice glass mugs. She is awesome. She goes to another church but I think one day she'll be converted.  

Rejo. my sister.  She would get along well with Sam.  She calls me mukomana murefu which means (tall boy) and I call her (muskana mfupi) which means short girl haha. 

Cheguters

Not a whole lot happened this week. 

Our recent convert Stephen started bringing all his kids to church with him! Also just got set apart to be our branch mission leader! Also going to receive the aaronic priesthood this week. Also taught a powerful lesson in sunday school.  I love this guy.  He has a daughter that is about to turn 9 so we about to baptize her.  Still working on the wife.

Got a dope haircut this week.

We had a poweful investigator drop us this week..... darn.

Started teaching this new mama we call Sis. Tom.  She's dope and she has been to church like 3 times and is loving it! We've only taught her once because she is super busy but she's awesome.  Not at all sure why her surname is Tom.

This week I was cleaning the kitchen and I overheard Elder Mwamba playing his music in the other room and I thought i recognized the tune and when I started to listen I heard, "...  I beleeeiive I can flyyyyy" hahahah I was dying. Started singing along with him. Congolese elder with that song. Too funny. 

We found some new investigators this week that should progress very well and we are still excited to be working with Keshias and Vimbai still.  Keshias has been super busy with work because in order for them to get married, he needs an ID so now he's working hard to do some deals with his buddy at the town office so he can speed up the process for him.  I love this guy.  He wants to be baptized and join the church so bad!  His whole family can be baptized too! So excited for them. Might not happen while I am here in the area but I know one day Keshias will be baptized. 

Nothing really exciting happened this week. I've started to notice how normal things are in Zimbabwe to me now. Things that are completely different from back home.  I love it here haha.

Also just got news that there will be a missionary conference when the prophet comes and all of us get to meet President Nelson and Elder Holland.........unbelievable. Be jealous. 

All is well.

Deuces for another week! 

Stay tuned.

Stay Steady Grindin'

-Elder Anderson

Saw this huge lizard at our house

Wayne let me try on his J's

Mom and me with this huge banana leaf