Yep.

Branden Michael Anderson	Mon, Aug 20, 6:52 AM (6 days ago)
to me

Welcome back

Today was just grand. Got a fresh cut from my guy Mr. Law.  Then we swing by the office to pick up some supplies and one of the american senior missionaries made this plate of brownie lookin things so I took like a quarter of the plate. And just now we're coming from Pizza Slice. One of the 2 pizza restaurant chains in this beloved country. Dominated a large pizza to myself. This day cannot get any better. 

Lemme start off with this thought I had this week. Reading jacob 5, the gauntlet, and stumble across verse 72. I've read it many times but this time what stood out was "the lord of the vineyard labored also with them".... never thought about how the lord is working just as hard right along side us. Kinda connects with what I was saying last week.  I always think of the Lord sitting on his throne and stuff but never pictures him working until i read that this week. Keep that in mind when you think your calling gets difficult. 

This week I met Ty. We are teaching this girl named Vuyelwa who is progressing super well but we had to reschedule her baptism to next month but anyways, she has a brother named Albert and he has these super nice dreads and everything about him reminds me of Ty. So whenever I talk to him I just laugh its hilarious.  Who woulda thought I meet Zim Ty lol.  Shout out Ty$.

Speaking of Vuyelwa, we had an awesome lesson with her this week and she opened up to us about her not knowing who she is and wanting to find herself so we taught and testified to her about the Pre-Earth life and it was cool to teach someone that they chose to follow God's Plan (shout out Drake) before this life.  Kinda changed her countenance too it was great.  We're excited for her.  

After one of our lessons this week we walk outside and I hear someone playing the guitar across the road so we go over and meet him and I asked him to play a song for us and he's like, "okay how long have you been in zimbabwe?" I tell him, he's like, "okay you might know this one."  Now I'm sure anyone in this scenario would be expecting like some deep shona song or maybe an african shanty or whatever but this guy in his right mind starts playing and singing the hymn "how great thou art"....... hahahhahaha. So then I play a couple songs, earn his respect and we set an appointment.  

We found this powerful guy last week!  One day we had like 15 minutes before we were supposed to go home and my comps like, "Lets try to find someone at the flats." we go and then he picks this random block and we knock on the door and this short baba comes out and lets us in, we teach him about the Book of Mormon real quick and set a return appt. not thinking much. We come back in a couple days and he is in 1 Ne. 15.... hahaha he loved the verse about how theres save two churches, one of god and the other of the devil. And he was like quoting different things he liked and he wrote down notes and questions that he had.  We taught him the restoration and he understood it perfectly and he came to church on Sunday! Participated in every class, made some new friends, and introduced himself in Elders quorum by saying, "I think I'm going to become a brother soon" Told us he's coming next week. and he told us at church that he's now deep into 2 Nephi....this guy reads so much its awesome hahaha.  Used to be an active Jehovah's witness too.  

 Did exchanges this week with an elder from DRC named Elder Tshibamba.  I always call him elder Chibaba because it sounds like his name and it means "the man" in shona lol.  Reminded me of my time with Elder Kabuya. It was a good day too. One guy we are teaching told us two to come back the next time and not with my actual comp.... Ouch hahahaha 

Overall 10/10 week. Time keeps flying by.  My comp is really good with music theory stuff so we found out the chords for Joseph Smith's First Prayer on the guitar. Love it. New favorite hymn. 

WEll. Have a good one. Love you guys. 

Stay Steady Grindin'

ChEEers,

Elder Anderson

Met this girl on exchanges. Straight from UK it was crazy hearing her accent hahaha I was trying not to laugh it was weird hearing something other than zimbabwean. 

Forgot to mention this guy. Long story short, Randomly knock on this super nice houses gate, this guy comes, he's been less active for a long time, we encouraged him with some BOM verses and he was really happy. Told us he's finna get his life in order and come back to church. Crazy how the Lord leads you to such people. 

After Exchanges

 Found the sacred grove of our area. 

 The Kamuto family. We're working with this baba to try to get him baptized.

View from our window at our place.  Our house is nice but its out of place here. 

RollerBlades....

We toooootally saw some dude on rollerblades the other day.... The funniest thing ever.  Came around the corner deep in our ghetto area and some guy is struggling to ride his rollerblades on the dirt and pothole roads.  We stop next to him and start talkin to him and his name is Wonder (lol) and he has friends in Australia who sent him the blades because he has a developing passion for skating.  Not really interested in us but just hilarious to see someone skating in Mufakose.  

We met this girl named Rufaro (which means "happiness" for those who would like to know).  She seemed not even close to interested and then my companion shared a verse from Alma 5 about the judgement day and she was hooked and really opened up to us about helping her and it was awesome! She's super cool. 

Had exchanges with some elders this week and I got to be with Elder Ntshangase again and it was awesome.  Missed that guy. Forgot how funny he was. True homie. Also got to go with Elder Mutema (a zimbabwean) and it was awesome.  It was cool working with a Zimbabwean! Never done it before surprisingly there arent a lot of zim missionaries here. Most of them get called out of the country. 

Also, Vuyelwa came to church with her kids! Sooo cool! She's awesome. Her kids had a blast too. Primary teachers here know how to do primary classes.  Got it down to a science. Shout out to primary teachers. Hands down to them.  Who wants to bet money thats going to be my first calling when I get home? haha.  Anyways Vuyelwa is our only investigator right now really progressing towards baptism and she's doing great. Reading the Book of Mormon almost every day and we hope to baptize her and her daughter this month!

We were cruisin thru the area and passed a house wear there were these mamas shelling maize and there was a kid who threw a bunch of it in a bag and was beating the living tar out of it with a club-lookin stick. So we stop and my comp was eager to try it so he just starts choppin at this bag with the stick to shell the maize inside and it was hilarious.  the baba there was dying but we invited him to church and he came hahahahaha new contacting idea beating peoples bags of corn. His name is Samuel and he seemed really happy to be there at church and told us was coming again next time. That'd be awesome but hilarious if he ends up progressing. 

Not a whole lot else to talk about this time. I guess I read something cool this week in the Book of Mormon in 2 nephi 26 or somethign like that that talks about how the Lord does nothing save it be for the benefit of his children.  And as I pondered, I realized that the Lord has no free time or spare time to do things for himself and to lounge around and watch the Office haha but everthing that he does is for us. 100 percent of his efforts are to help us.  Brought a lot of gratitude for me and I hope we all realize the same thing that everything he does is for us and to make us happy. 

Love the scriptures. 

Love you guys too. Have a good week. 

Stay Steady Grindin

Elder Anderson

Sister Mahuni. My mom in this area.  She let me wear her hat lol. the funniest woman in Mufakose. 

Divine, Sister Mahuni's son. This kid is crazy. 

  

 2 things to highlight here.  The kombi screaming by with the conducter hangin out the window and the young thug ridding at the back for free haha. And the band stack of mattresses.

1234 continues to follow me around. crazy. still see 12:34 on the clock almost every day.

Lyfe

Lemme just start by saying my comp knows about the muppets.  I start singing this song from the muppets christmas carol out of nowhere and he's like, "You know that?" I'm like, "YOU know that??" hahaha 

This elder in my zone, Elder Stone, taught me how to solve a "mirror cube" (this confusing type of rubik's cube) in like 5 minutes.  Honestly dont think anyone is as smart as me. 

So right after I sent my email last week about how there's peace during this elections.... riots broke out in town and we had to drive around town and take missionaries home from the mission office because they were emailing in town and had to take a kombi to the office to be safe. We took this back road around all the action but we saw trucks of soldiers and stuff. It was awesome. 

Then the next day we had to stay inside tho whole day. Surprisingly got a lot done that day. 

Despite all those goings on, we managed to find 14 new people to teach this week. 

We scheduled this service thing with one of the people we teach named Vuyelwa and we ended up doing her laundry with her for like an hour, and then her neighbor (who's a member) wanted us to help her with the garden and then their other neighbors (who are members) asked us to help them with pounding and crushing maize. So 1 project turned into 3. Real fun. 

We also saw this car that was stopped in the middle of road so we helped him and jumped his car and apparently he met missionaries in South Africa and was okay with us coming to teach him.  And he's a really sincere baba and really wants to learn from us to find out what is true. Really open minded guy. So yeah thats cool. 

I made a list this week of all the things that have changed about me since I started my mission and it was crazy.  

It was pretty cool doing service this week.  There exists an emotion and perspective thats hard to describe when you lose yourself in doing things for other people.  Charity, gratitude, something like that. 

Anywho, this week was awesome. Time keeps speeding up its weird.

Much love, 

Stay Steady Grindin,

Elder Anderson

Us with Vuyelwa after we did laundry, I acutally taught her over a year ago when I start my mission haha. And now she's progressing very well.

 We were stuck in traffic when everything hit the fan the day of elections haha

 Couple of bros

My trainer, Elder Till and his other trainee Elder Maluleke

Concept

Worry not, I'm ok.  Monday we weren't allowed to go to town because everybody was voting for the presidential elections.  Tuesday we had a meeting the whole day and now they are giving us time to email.  August 1st. Great day to be alive. 

These elections are the equivalent to Christmas Eve if you think about it.  Imagine you are currently a 40 yr old Zimbo and you have had the same president your whole life and you have seen the country on a downhill the whole time and finally the chance for a change with fair elections.... Crazy right?  Actually no, we had to go to the mission office on Monday and drove thru town and it was the quietest, most peaceful day ever.  So cool.  But yeah. Zim is on the come up. Watch out haha. 

Speaking of Monday, I played basketball for like 5 hours.  It was so nice.  I'm dogging it right now tho. Ridiculously sore.  My team was stacked and we were just rotating thru other teams of missionaries that would play us.  Way too fun. Still got it.  Drained a 3 right in one of my AP's faces.  Checked the ball to him to start their possession and he nails one in my face.  Commendable. 

Totally saw some guy in my area wearing a Lowell Scott Middle School Chargers sweatshirt.....WHAT are the odds. 

We stumbled upon a lunar eclipse the other night.  Rejoiced about that for a short moment. 

We started teaching a scientologist baba..... Interesting experience. I'll let you now how that goes. One title given to the Savior in the Book of Mormon is the "God of nature" so we'll probably find some common ground haha

Something amazing that we've seen these past two weeks is how powerful the Book of Mormon is.  We just go around contacting people and ask, "Do you know this book?" or "Do you want to know more about this book?" And it hooks almost everyone. Its so cool. The other day we were doing companion study on the side of the road and this mama walked by and we talked about the Book of Mormon with her, she set an appt with us, we go back, powerful lesson, the whole family is interested and she came to church on Sunday. So cool. Her name is Chipo (which means "gift" if any of you care haha) So thats has been awesome.  I never really understood how important it is.  Now we always carry on in our hands and talk to everyone about it and we have found some awesome new people to teach.  Its awesome how many questions it can directly and indirectly answer.  True book any time of the day. haha

There's a new elder in the mission from Arizona named Elder Neff. Super cool dude.  He told me he gave the missionaries a ride one day before he left and one of the elders was Elder Williams and he told Elder Neff to tell me hi haha.  Shout out Tuck. Love you man. 

Just a stellar week.  We have been soooo busy its crazy.  Always got somethin to do.  Its making the days go by real quick. 

You know the usual, Church is true, Joseph translated the book. God is great. Love you all so much. Wouldn't be here without you and your prayers. 

Stay Steady Grindin'

Cordially,

Elder Anderson