Memory L4ne

Hey gang.

Back to my roots kids and coaches. This week was just splendid. 

Every member we went to was like, "WHAAAAAT".  I was so happy to see them.  Surprised how many of them remember me.  My favorite mama, Sister Nyamugara was like, "ANDERSOOOON!" when she saw me hahaha.  Church yesterday was awesome too.  Walked in to see one of my recent converts on the stand waiting to give her talk.....powerful.  And then when we were invited to bear our testimonies I could see like 5 of my recent converts in the congregation and it was awesome.  I was so happy that day. 

We started flying right as the mama eagle dropped us out of the tree.  Found 12 new investigators this week!  And 6 of them are babas.  It was awesome! 

New bishopric since the last time I was here and now they are all younger guys and are awesome.  They told us the area has struggled for the previous months but we made plans and how to change that. 

Our area is so small.  When I was here the first time I thought it was small and now there are two sets of missionaries working here so the area split.... Just look up the Mufakose ward boundaries on lds.org find a meetinghouse hahaha. But in this area there are 389 members.  Just a plethora of less actives but still many active members. Its awesome. 

Almost wet myself this week, we just parked by the chapel to plan our day and out of nowhere I hear a car slam on their brakes right next to us and some guy says, "GIMME YO MONEY" (in the most forced african american accent ever) I look over and the guy is holding his smartphone like and gun at our window..... this is where the wetting of my slacks almost occurred while my mind processed that it wasn't about to go down haha.  But then I recognized the guy from the last time I came as this crazy guy who told us that he had a ticket from Moses to go to heaven..... So I told him that I knew him and remembered what he said to us over a year ago and he loses his confidence, and his countenance sunk into his seat and then he had a normal conversation with us and drove away.  Noteworthy experience even tho it was a joke. Hands down to him tho. He got me pretty good.

The other day I was cooking pasta and it was those shell shaped things and i took one out to test it and as I was about to eat it, the boiling hot water hiding in the shell falls on my lip and just burnt it pretty bad.  I just laughed at myself and woke up the next day to a gnarly lookin scar on my lip.  Everyone was asking if I got in a fight haha.  Imagine the embarrassment of telling that story after someone asks if I got in a fight.... hahaha too funny. 

We met an interesting man this week.  We were knocking on a gate and the neighbor came around the corner and told us no one was there so we contacted that guy.  From his appearance we could see he was pretty handicapped and disabled and hard to understand but we decided to teach him.  His name is Andrew and he's super into reading the Bible and goes to church but had a lot of questions and is very intelligent. Answered his question and ended up explaining about the resurrection and he was so happy about that. He's like, "So after this life, I can have a body like you?" It was an awesome lesson. Started teaching him and his wife about the Book of Mormon last time and they are super interested.  Soooo sick. 

Working with Elder McDougal again is awesome.  Easy to work with someone you've been with before.  He has a lot of contacting ideas so that makes the days go by super quick hahaha.  Working a lot of obdience together so thats good.  

Sadly, I have 0 pictures this week.  I'll try to snag some this week.  

Much love. 

Stay Steady Grindin'

Cordially,

Elder Anderson

Back To The Future?

We got transfer news.  Kinda crazy.  I'm content. 

I'm going back to my first area, Mufakose! And my companion is Elder McDougal, the same one I was with when I was serving in Bulawayo. So 2 repeats. Previous area with a previous companion.  Makes me happy tho because all the missionaries that go to that area always tell me that the people all remember me and miss me and I lost all the pictures I took there, so blessings all over the place. And its only like a 15 minute drive from Mbare so I'm not moving too far haha. Oh yeah, and we have a car again.

Saying goodbye to some of the members here was rough.  

We had some powerful lessons this week tho.  Wanted to stay and teach some of these families but life goes on. 

We taught the Tawira's again and we brought some members with us and we taught them more about the Book of Mormon and it was awesome! Mai Tawira loves the book and reads it almost every day and feels it is true and also that Joseph Smith was a true prophet but was having a hard time understanding if the church was true or not.  It was cool to just explain to them that ALL the answers to questions and new light and understanding they have received since we met is because of this gospel and church, and because it is true and led by the Saviour.  Seemed like it got thru to them.  I hope Elder Kabuya and his next comp will continue to help them. 

Figured out one of our powerful investigators we thought was hiding from us was just out of town this week.  What a relief. Too bad I'll never see her again hahaha

Another investigator named Jane told us she wants to be baptized but she's moving to freaking Dubai this month.... hahaha so we looked up the meetinghouses that side and found this place. Made Kabuya and me laugh.

Anyways, Sorry I didn't email yesterday, my companion and I were busy moving missionaries the whole day until like 10pm haha.  But yeah thats all I got for this week, Elder McDougal and I already have a busy schedule for the week so before I know it I'll be back on here. 

All I got for this week. 

Stay Steady Grindin'

Elder Anderson

Elder Allen.  This guy goes home today.  We had a braai with him on Saturday. He's leaving his guitar for me to play while I'm here. So sick. Love this guy. 

Cooked dope food and it started steamin and I thought it was way cooler than it actually was 

These next ones are just some friends in Mbare

The only time I haven't felt like a giant.

Funniest family in the world. Vito's

Feel like a giant in this picture

Less active family, we brought back to church. 

Elder Lin. Taught me how to cook. Love this guy. gonna miss him.

Blockin in a Blinter Blongerland

Went to KFC 4 times this week. Once on the 4th, feel me? Walk into that place like I own it, they got "Gravity" from Wicked on the speakers.  Order the fattest stack of food. I'm with Jayson on that 1 Nephi 13.

I legit heard the song Gravity every time I went there this week.  Still know the words.

Rick Lantz weather report was correct this week. They were sayin it was gonna be cold for the whole week.  Spot on.  Last Monday it was hot and today its warm but everything in between was Michael Buble Christmas Album. One of the biggest struggle of my mission was waking up on time this week.  I'll admit it I'll admit it.

Stunted my suit coat to church for the first time in a coons age. 

We met President Makasi on Tuesday.  He's just a jolly guy.  Wife is the same and they have 3 children all younger than 15.  Got this little kid named Tino who was running around during the meeting. Hilarious. Funny seeing our president tryna chill his little kid because President Mkhabela's kids were all married and moved to their own places so we never met them.  But yeah Makasi is from Zimbabwe and he actually served a mission in Zim too.  He even was in Mbare for a while.  Pretty cool. He's awesome.  No complaints.

We met this guy named Ashley this week.  Has the deepest voice I have ever heard. Somethin around 25 years old and lives with his 5 brothers so we taught them the restoration and they seemed pretty hooked. Hopefully we can see somethin there.

Had some more progress with Mai Tawira. We showed up later than we said we would and she was like, "today you guys are late" And I was thinking she was upset and I asked if we could schedule another time and then she's like, "No. you cant leave without teaching me something." haha so we go inside and she told us she wanted to understand more about prayer and she showed us her notes she had taken with scriptures from the Bible and Book or Mormon about prayer. (She is too awesome) and then we taught her some more things and she was content.  Then her husband showed up for our next appointment and we finally got to teach him.  He's a sincere guy. Not like these other baba's who unload their wallets on the beer hall. After our lesson we asked him if he had any Qs and he said no but he held up the book or mormon we gave him and was like, "I'm really interested to read this book"  Pretty somethin.

This Sunday during church I had the biggest desire to keep the Sabbath day holy for my whole life.  It was kinda weird.  Never felt that way but this week I saw some families who are less active and you could just see how unhappy they were and it was only because they hadn't gone to church in so long.  They pray and read the scriptures but haven't come to church in a long time.  So yeah I'm tryna be happy so no way I'm breaking that commandment. Hope you all feel the same. God used to kill people who worked on Sunday. Let that one sink in.

Anywho. We tryna make things happen here but things are still low low. Found some new families, then for our followup appointment we see them running away from us hahaha. Ouch.  Oh well tho. Still out here. Trying somethin new this week.

We get transfer calls this Saturday so next Monday I'll let you know what the deal.

Love you all!

Stay Steady Grindin'

Elder Anderson

My G Huffaker from Colorado

This kids name is Miles lol and he's dope. Always hittin them folks and reversin together.

Split

Met another family that heavyweight believes in mermaids. 100%. Like no questions asked.  It was hilarious.  They have no proof, no 2nd hand witnesses or anything. Just a myth and they are hooked. Too funny. We try to convince them otherwise and they wont have it.  Didn't think I would ever have that conversation with a grown person. 

Saw a shirt and a hat this week, both of which I was certain they were for Meridian High School..... Crazy.  Saw some BSU stuff the other day too. 

Weighed myself today because I saw a scale for the first time in like a year. 90kgs. How much is that in pounds? 

Speaking of kgs, we bought 5.50 kgs of pork on Saturday and braai'd with some members. Sooooo good. 

We went to a wedding on Saturday for some members in our stake and it was at our chapel.  It was crazy.  Like they blasted music and when Kabuya and I left to teach people, we could hear it from down the street hahahaha. People walk by and hear Zim dance comin from the true church. Classic. 

We've been working with this less active family and they all came to church this week and the father even came early and brought his friend who is also less active so that was dope.  We had like 5 less active people come back to church yesterday so that was good.  We basically had 0 investigators.  Just 2 people who are visiting their families.  Darn.  

We had a pretty boring week.  Just one of those weeks where you have fall thru after fall thru and not much was working out haha.  But we will make things happen this week. 

We had a good lesson with the police officer we are teaching.  We taught him about the Book of Mormon and he was super interested and said as we taught him about the restoration he felt something inside him.  Powerful.  Met some of his buddies and contacted like 4 more police officers. Some of them were jokers tryna waste our time but who knows.  Plantin seeds i guess.

Taught this other baba Sakwa about the Book of Mormon and he loved it. He was telling us how he was going to read a lot in it and he was really excited to read it.  T'was awesome. 

The other day I was studying in the morning and I got to Jacob 5.  Gathering of Israel is something else.  We talked as a house for like 2 hours about it hahaha.

Church is true. Same with the Book of Mormon.  Y'already know that tho. 

This week is the 4th of July.  Sooo happy.  Last time I had a bonfire and this time I think I'm gonna go to KFC for lunch and braai some pork for dinner. Enjoying that day.  Love Zim but..... Proud american. Tryna find fireworks too. 

Today we played soccer with like 20 elders at this country club and it was dope.  I been feelin soccer becaue of the World Cup.  Didn't do that bad today.  Progressively less and less terrible each time I play.  We also played a skelly game of football and it was dope.  Throwin it deep hittin someone screamin down the side. Brought me back hahaha. Made me remember going 1-8 senior year hahahahaha

Oh yeah and the mission split today! So I'm still apart of the Zimbabwe Harare Mission and our president is President Makazi from Bulawayo.  YEAH. Not really a mountain moving thing.  Woke up, our alottment cards and airtime refill and we have a new president.  Still haven't met the guy. I'll keep you posted twhen that happens. 

Also, we met this mama at OK "where the nation shops for less" (yes there is legit a WalMart type store chain here called "OK".... hilarious.  

New mission president and potentially a new president of Zimbabwe.... In the same month.  and US Independence day.... My goodness.  

There were some diamonds in the rough of this week.  Lookin forward to teach all the people we couldn't see this week. Hopefully I'll have more people to talk about next week. 

Love you all. Really felt all the support and prayers comin my way.  Can't thank you enough for that.  Have a stellar week. 

Stay Steady Grindin

Elder Anderson

Brai!

Bomb

Someone tried to kill the president of Zim this week. Set off a bomb on the stage where he was speaking in Bulawayo.  President got out without a scratch but it injured like 50 people.  Pretty crazy.  Elections comin in hot July 31st.  Don't know what kinda stuff is gonna go down.  We just chillin as missionaries tho.  No one messes with us so I'm not scared.  Anxious to see what goes down as we get closer to elections tho.

Even the other day this drunk dude was callin us satanists and telling us to go back to our countries and was using the f word quite a bit.  We just turn to him and greet him in shona and then he cowers away from us still tryna talk hard hahaha. Stupid. No backbone.

Also, everyday we walk by this guy on the street and he's gotta have like 50 years under his belt and he always looks at me and salutes me and says something like, "Afternoon, chief" or "how are you captain." Sometimes even goes out of his way to put down what he's holding and salute me.....

We've been keeping up with the world cup because that's all anyone ever talks about and every member is always watching it.  People get crazy too haha. Its awesome.  We played soccer in the streets with these kids the other day. Love doing that.  Makes me feel like I know how to play haha. Never had a thing for soccer back home but now its so sick.  Those games get crazy. This one mama we visited was sooo into the game and was acting like mom watching BSU play hahahaha. Felt like I was home.

We found 8 new investigators this week and most of them are awesome! 

One family is just two sisters that live together with their gogo and we contacted them and they seemed not really serious but we followed up with them and they were super prepared for our message and it was a super good lesson!  One of them came to church this week too!

Also, met this baba named Sakwa a couple weeks ago but this week decided to follow up with him and we passed by his place and he was waiting outside for something and he remembered us and gladly let us in and we had a dope lesson with him.  It answered a lot of his questions and he told us as we were walking out that he was about to go to visit his friends but then something told him to wait and he was happy he waited.  So sick.

Also having continued progress with Mai Tawira.  She is one of the best investigators i have ever taught.  She's been speaking with her husband about our lessons and apparently he agrees with our message.  So sick. (we havent met him because he always comes home late but i think we will see him this week) 

Finally things are starting to look good in the area.  Been happy about that lately. Our schedule this week was super busy. 

Also got a call this week that was more than awesome. The elders in Chegutu called me and they gave the phone to one of my old investigators and she told me she got baptized!!  I was so happy! haha Made my day.

Printing out a picture of President Mkhabela and me and then taping that thing on my planner in remembrance. 

Tying a bow on this email.  My week was good. Hope you guys enjoyed yourselfs. 

Shout out Trump. Make America Great Again. lol

Stay Steady Grindin'

Love you guys

Warmest Regards,

Elder Anderson

lunch venue for this week. Dhana's dolla dealz.