Look Alive

Stake Conference this week. Browsing thru the program and see that the first speakers first name is Worship.... lol. And the one who offered the benediction was named Venom.  Worship was predictable in such a surprisingly religious area of the world but Venom.... I wanna meet the parents of that blessed individual haha. 

Stake conference was cool. Elder Sitati of the Seventy came! He also attended our missionary leadership meeting and it was awesome!  I was taking all sorts of notes. Cambridge style writing Thomas Jefferson declaration of independence lookin. Mess with me lol. It was awesome tho. I love learning things out here and thinking of all the ways I could apply it in my life after my mission. He talked a lot about leading and loving people and helping them rather then being a boss-like leader (which was some much needed advice for some of these clowns lol) Mbafu and I got it figured out tho. 

Taught the Ruzande family the restoration this week and it was soooo good. At the end we asked if Brother Ruzande will bring his family to church this week and he was like, "Well i feel like I cant just leave my church really fast, I think I'll go this week and tell them that I'll be taking my family to another church." hahahaa we asked them if they would be baptized and they were all like, "Yeah of course." the baba added. "100%" hahaha so awesome. I'm so happy we were able to find this family. 

We also met this kid named Arnold who is a bright kid. Had a rough past but wants to change. After we taught him the restoration this week he said, "Alright so next time you come we need to talk about me coming to the church and getting baptized." hahah no worries bro we gotchu. 

And last but not least we saw Agnus again and she told us that shes not going to go to her old church any more and she wants to start coming with us hahaha. 

The message we have just makes complete sense.  Like anyone who has an open mind and understands how things go, will understand the message of the restoration.  So cool seeing how many people are accepting us these days.  We found 13 new people this week and gave 5 of them baptismal dates hahaha not sayin they all serious but pretty cool. 

Recently I have come to realize how much God loves us. Not trying to sound cliche or anything. But for me I have felt that love for his children.  Even the nonsense drunk baba that stood in the middle of the road while I was driving yesterday and yelled at me telling me I am a proud white man for not wanting to go around him. haha like all the people who reject us and yell at us and say the dumbest things. God still loves them with all his heart so why should I get pissed?  Brings peace to me whenever dumb things happen when earlier in my mission I would just want to beat someone haha. 

Also I'm just really happy that I have been able to build a foundation for myself upon which I'll build the rest of my life after this. Wouldn't trade this time for anything else. 

My comp is teaching my this swahili song.  Its been stuck in my head all week. Its called Sizonje. 

Still tryna do some deals to get some elephant shoes before I dip. Stay tuned. 

And thus we come to an end of another email. Never know what to say before the "Stay Steady Grindin" 

Stay Steady Grindin'

Warmest Regards,

Elder Ander$on

 This guys name is Alpha and he's a g.

Sister Mukendi. From DRC. most dramatic person ever its hilarious.

Single DiGits

Saw some more monkeys this week before our baptism.  Made my day. 

Agnus is progressing well.  We expounded the restoration to her and she was like, "Well, now I need to ask my husband if we can visit you guys and come and see what its like there so I know if what you're telling me is true." Somethin along those lines. So sick. Meeting with the husband tomorrow.

Also have this new family we are teaching named the Ruzande's.  We knocked on their gate randomly one night and it was the last gate we knocked on.  They happily let us in and we talked for a little set a return appt.  Came back and revealed the plan of salvation.  They loved it.  The baba was like, "I've been going to church for so long but never understood all these things about God's plan."  Church is true kids and coaches.

Finally saw Richard again and explained baptism to him and he's going to come to our stake conference next week (where apparently an apostle will be present.  Pretty neat.) and hopefully we can prepare him for baptism next month. He's swamped at work so its hard to see him but he still makes time for us.  Genuine guy.

Oh yeah like I mentioned earlier, we had a baptism this week! For this 9 yr old girl named Tanatswa.  She reminds me of Leah. Shout out Tim and Annie. Anyways, its a family we have been working with for a while. Mama was super less active but the previous missionaries brought her back, husband isn't a member but wants to be. And they have 3 awesome kids. We are always there. We played cards with Brother Kamuto this week and he destroyed us.  It was hilarious. The cockiest card player you'll ever see.  Hopefully we can baptize him before I go home. They need to be married first which is the biggest struggle in this country but I have faith so no worries.

I experienced the biggest rejection of my whole mission yesterday.  Background info, we met this guy last week and they told us to come back. his name is Nigel.  Also some houses here have a main house and a cottage at the back that the owner rents out to another family.  Okay so we were going to check on Nigel yesterday, We knock on the gate outside, Some baba tells us to come in so we open the gate and start walking to the main house and then we hear a voice like, "Nope! Don't come here we have our own denomination!".... i look at my comp like, what in the world and then we're like, "So we met Nigel and he told us to come back." (at this point I realize the voice is coming from inside the house. The guy didn't even have the respect to come outside to tell us. Couldnt even see him.) so then he replied to that by saying, "Is NIGEL the owner of this house?! Get away! If you keep arguing you are trespassing!!" (now at this point im just kinda laughing because no one in their right mind should ever be this mad about anything hahaha heaven forbid two young men coming to teach you about Jesus.) So then I'm like, "Okay sorry we didn't mean to argue or anything but have a great day" Then he starts saying something stupid and it sounded like he said "no" to my "have a great day" .....So then I said it again and we got out of there right quick.

See ya in spirit prison dude. lol.

So yeah that was our week. Maybe a couple of you understand the significance of the title of this.  he the hath an ear, let him hear lol. 

Love you all, hope you had a superb week and maybe a dream or two came true. 

Stay Steady Grindin'

Yours Most Definitely,

Elder Anderson

Baptism

The Kamuto's plus a couple random kids

Tanatswa

Ander$on

Well we had another week of a ton of driving and not a ton of proselyting. Which was low key a bummer but no worries. We still ballin. 

We saw some monkeys just climbing around at the chapel last week. It was way cool. 

We did exchanges with the assistants this week and it was cool.  The guy I was with is Elder Josiah and he goes home in 4 weeks and he kept reminding me the whole day hahaha.  And he is a small dude but walks ridiculously fast! It's crazy.  Still tryna figure out that mystery.  Lightning McQueen speed my goodness. Fun day though. 

We found this mama named Agnus this week and she is awesome. She told us she really wants to go to heaven but doesn't know if she is doing the right things to get there.  Golden. Told us her husband is similar and always blasts churches that do things different than Jesus Christ. Golden again. Going to teach them again later this week. Super excited

Met a guy in our ward who owns a leather shop called Leather City and its in our area and he's going to make me some elephant shoes and a belt to go with it.  Deals. 

My comp and I had this deep doctrine discussion that lasted like 3 days haha talking about the pre-earth life and the spirit world but something cool that we realized is that sometimes we pass people on the street not knowing that once we fought along side them for God's plan.  That has inspired us to contact people all the time its awesome.  Thats how we found Agnus too because we thought about this. And its kind of cool because my comp was invited to church by one of his friends in 2016 and now he's been out on his mission for over a year and the friend that invited him that day is serving in this mission too.  Inspiring. Love my comp. 

Another fast week.  Running out of things to email about. Saving many things to just tell everyone in person 10 weeks from now haha wuuut. 

Love you all. Hope you have a good week. Look for someone to invite to church and do some kind of missionary work because you never know. And the missionaries in your ward will be so relieved. 

Stay Steady Grindin'

Cordially,

Elder Anderson

My name at the bottom of the board.  All the missionaries in the mission.  Sooo many missionaries here. 

Had a dope breakfast with some other elders. This super rich family cooked for us. 

feast your eyes

Switch Lanes

We drove...the whole week. Every day involved some degree of transporting people or their luggage and taking supplies to people.  There were 27 new missionaries that came into the mission this week. And we were told there are 50 more coming by the end of the year. So its just going to get more crazy. Pretty cool to see so many new missionaries and new areas and stuff.  The church is growing fast out here. Even our ward in Mufakose is splitting in the next couple months.  Awesome. 

I'm trying to remember but I don't think we had a full day in the area this week. Every day there was something to do hahaha. But we had another lesson with Richard and it was awesome.  Elder Mbafu and I sat there with him and expounded the scriptures about false prophets and answered a lot of his questions and at the end he's like, "Well i guess next time I want to know more about baptism." Siiiiiick. It was awesome.  

We also met this new guy yesterday right before we were about to call it a day.  We both saw this cool house with this prehistoric ford sitting outside so we wanted to see who lived there. The guys name is Munya and he's this college student, very intelligent, told us he has tons of questions about the gospel and doesn't understand why there are all these different ideas. So happy to meet people like that. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and he was so happy to learn about it and really wanted us to come back.  Man I'm pumped to teach this guy. 

Basically the only cool things that happened this week.  Met a surprising amount of muslims this week in our little finding time.  

Mbafu and I are mad chillin. Already enjoying.  Teaching me a little bit of Swahili.  Similar to Shona so its cool. 

And that brings us to the end of this email. Thanks for joining us today we hope you enjoyed and please subscribe to my channel and check out some of my other videos lol.

Stay Steady Grindin'

With the utmost sincerity,

Elder Anderson

Realest ZLs this side of the Mississippi.

This lil girls fro is wild'n out. This is Vuyelwa's daughter. Her name is Crystal but everyone (including us) call her Kikido.

Summer '16

And thus begins my 16th transfer. 

New comp, Elder Mbafu from Tanzania. Same area. 

My last comp, Elder McDougal is the new AP.  Basically trained him for it. 

Super excited for this transfer though! Elder Mbafu and I are already bros. 

Tried this new fruit this week referred to as "african chewing gum".  Forgot the shona word for it but its the weirdest thing in the world.  Maybe you can google that and find a picture of it. 

Also, a family fed us Sunday night and part of the dish was broccoli..... Been sooooo long since I ate broccoli. 

Speaking of vegetables. We knocked on a door this week and this little girl came out and we spoke to her in shona to try to see if any adults were around and eventually we asked her for her name and she said what sounded like, "salad" and I look at my comp and back at her and ask again and sure enough this lil girl said salad and then we had her spell it.  S-A-L-A-D-I.  Saladi.  But in shona sometimes they dont pronounce the "i" at the end of words.  Made me laugh. 

We had another lesson with Richard, the one I spoke of last week and it was powerful.  We taught him the restoration from the top and he understood everything so perfectly and we invited him to pray at the end of the lesson. After he prayed, we all paused for a second and then asked him how he felt.  As he described how he felt, The spirit was so strong in that room. It was awesome.  After the lesson for like 20 minutes as we went to the next lesson, I felt the spirit testify to me of the truth of that message and of Joseph Smith and just felt a stirring inside me.  If the restoration isnt true, I dont know what is haha. 

Randomly contacted this one baba this week.  His name is Isaac but this dude reminds me of Raymond from Everybody loves Raymond.  Watched that show maybe twice in my lifetime but I know it enough to say that Isaac talks just like Raymond hahaha Exactly the same.  Anyways, he's actually a very penitent man and he came to church this week! Downside is he's moving back to Bulawayo this week. But he told us to make sure missionaries meet with him after he moves.   Really cool how the spirit just leads you to people like that. 

We had a missionary fireside with the members in our ward on Sunday and President Makasi attended and he told us it was an "inspired" fireside. We did this thing where we had the members choose from a list of 40 ways they could do missionary work.  Awesome. 

In other news, I saw a couple monkeys in our area this week. Always good to see some of those things hoppin around. 

Yesterday we spent the WHOLE day driving around Harare hahaha so thats why this is coming today. Also had to say goodbye to some of my bros going home this week. That was hard. 

Still Stay Steady Grindin tho 

Elder Anderson

Hunnid Gang. 

Throwin up 3s in all these pictures with 3 months left

My man Huff. Elder Huffaker goin home to Colorado.  

Elder Carpenter from Rupert also goin home. 

 My trainer Elder Till. The Austrian himself. Also goin home.

 Elder Green from New Zealand. The G. Homeward bound

Singular brand name. These kombis have no idea lol. 

 Sunset

Love You Mama!