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

March Madne$$

As a district we had 7 baptisms on Saturday! 5 were ours and the other 2 were from the other elders.  It was awesome!  I'll attach some pictures.  Everything almost went wrong before the baptism started hahaha. 

We told the branch presidency for like 2 weeks. It was announced in sacrament meeting for two weeks. We called the week leading up to it, and called the day before. Everything was about to go well..... and then. 

1st.  1st counselor shows up and then leaves with the keys before unlocking the doors. 

2nd.   Branch president shows up later and doesnt have his 1st counselors number to call him. 

3rd.  The two candidates for the other elders are nowhere to be found

4th.  Finally get the keys, get inside and we had exactly enough baptismal clothes.  Nothing to spare. Close one. 

5th. Branch president asks us "Who is presiding?" ............ Ntshangase is like, "YOU ARE PRESIDENT you hold to keys for this branch!" hahaha

Scheduled to start at 11. Started at 11:45 lol. Went well tho.

For some reason this week i was sooooooo tired. Went to bed on time and woke up on time but just tired.  Today I'm good tho.  Slept in a little bit haha.

We were freaking busy this week too.  Preparing 5 people for baptism along with all our other appointments. Like Tuesday and Wednesday, we had like 15 lessons hahaha, 

We saw the phattest grasshopper thing ever at the meetinghouse.  This thing was snicker thick.  Could have spoken to me. My goodness that thing was massive. Legit the size of a snickers bar but then you add the legs and the wings and stuff.  A small bird basically. 

Not counting the ones we baptized, we had 8 investigators at church! Awesome.  Going to baptize two of them in the coming weeks.  Also met 3 kids that need to be baptized. 

One of the guys we want to baptize is named Osima and he is the best friend of Tapiwa and Tanatswa, two of the boys we baptized this week, and after the baptismal interviews, Osima told us he wants to be baptized too.  He's also come to church the last two weeks. Nice. 

Didn't kill anything this week.

Recently I noticed that when I say brother or sister, I pronounce it brotha and sista haha.  I hate making the "errrr" sound that we americans are so well known for. hahahaha. 

So that was my week. Busy as ever.  And we have another busy week ahead of us. Our schedules for Tuesday thru Thursday is filled with appointments hahaha.  Losin ourselves.

Love you all.

Stay Steady Grindin'

Cordially,

Elder Anderson

All who were baptized. And one baba that baptized his daughter.

Tapiwa and Tanatswa

This is jadah who was baptized by her father, Brotha Chinga

Destine.  Marvelsee, his older brother in the black shirt, is a member.  Jadah, the little girl just hopped in the pic for some reason. 

After the baptism with tapiwa and tanatswa

Me and Rejoice. Before sacrament meeting started we were making fun of how disorganized our branch is.  Felt like I was talking to Sam haha.

Mom taught me how to wash our big blankets.  By stepping on it in a bucket hahaha. 

Chicken and sadza. My favorite.

Chegu2

Transfer news came..... staying in Chegutu with Elder Ntshangase.  Our whole district stayed the same.  Nice.

I messed with Mom and Rejoice so much.  Right after the zone leaders told us the news I texted mom and said, "We got transfer news......" (this whole week i was telling them that I was sure i was leaving haha) and then I waited to tell them until the afternoon hahaha Rejoice said she would beat President Mkhabela if he would have transferred me hahahaha.

So.... I totally killed a goat this week.  Since I honestly thought I might leave, I told Wayne and Mom that we should have a braii. So they told me the missionaries in the past used to get a goat.  I was obviously down, so we took wayne with us out in the bush outside our area to this little village and bought a goat for $22, tied its legs, threw it in the trunk and came back to moms house and dropped it off.  After our appointments that night.  We got back to moms and I'm like, Älright guys lets do this." Wayne grabs the goat, holds down the body and mom gave me the knife..... A little bit later we skinned it and hung it in their kitchen.  The next day we took it to the butcher and then feasted on this thing.  It was so good.  I'll send pictures of the experience.

Also killed a snake this week.  We were driving back from Kadoma flying down the freeway and my comp was like, "Dude! Snake"  and we see this 4 foot snake struttin his stuff across the road so I veer over and ran over it going 120km/h.  See ya in the millenium big boy.

I freaked out these kids the other day.  I get irritated when kids call me murungu and yell how are you over and over again so this week, there were some kids in front of moms house and they were going off so I'll pulled up fast, threw the car in park and hopped out and said, "WATI CHII?!?!" which means "what did you say?" hahahaha one of them held his ground but his buddy ran away saying "handizivi" which means "i dont know" hahahaha.  Told them I was joking afterwards but I'm hoping to humble these kids so they dont think its okay to call me white man and scream at me whenever i come by hahaha.

We had zone conference this week and Elder Kevin S. Hamiliton of the Seventy was there.  It was soooo powerful.  That guy is awesome.  He gave an awesome talk about the area plan for South-East Africa and then opened it up for questions and a lot of people asked about the marriage problem in Zim.  (basically, the tradition is that you have to pay your wife's family a lot of money and then they say you are married, normally it takes a lifetime for the baba to pay this price because of the poverty here and the family wont let them get a legal marriage until they pay it.... big problem hahah) Elder Hamilton said that all the traditional and cultural things dont even matter. What matters is that they keep the commandments.  Their goal in life should be exaltation, and anything that keeps them from ahieving that is not of God. Powerful.  Something he said at the end was "Elders and sisters....It's all true. All of it." And those words hit me hard.  It was so profound to me and it was like the cherry on top to my testimony.  When he said that I could feel the definite truth of everything we teach and testify of. It was a solid day.  Got a banana milkshake at some diner afterwards.  Super good.

Something we discussed in district meeting this week was the power of the Book of Mormon.  For some reason, I had never thought of how powerful this book really is.  We talked about how the Book of Mormon should be a standard unto the nations....a standard.  Powerful.  PMG says we should pray for a vision of how we can use the Book of Mormon more effectively and I can see it now.  My comp and I recently started using it a lot and have seen how powerful it is.  Our recent convert Stephen said he couldn't read it last week because his daughter took it to school and was reading it during her breaks...... She's getting baptized this weekend.  Keshias and Vimbai, this couple we have been working with, started reading that book together and now Vimbai (who previously professed her self proclaimed calling of a prophetess) now wants to be married and baptized in this church.  There is something about that book that is hard to describe.  Means a lot more to me now.

So yeah we are hopefully going to baptize 5 people this coming Saturday.  We'll be super busy this week! 

Two of them are brothers, Tapiwa and Tanatswa and they brought their roman catholic mom and aunt to church with us and they enjoyed it and their going to support the boys in their baptism.  Also, we are seeing how our message is teaching the mom and aunt a lot so we hope to invite them to be baptized as well!

They joined our group of 13 investigators at church this week! So cool.

We are also teaching this small family and they are awesome.  The mom understands our message completely and wants to join the church and even the father wants to be baptized and the kids are ages 10 and 8 so we are making plans to marry them and baptize the whole family this transfer.  Nigel, the father has this illness that he is slowly recovering from which might slow the process a little bit but he is a penitent man and wants to be baptized and follow the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

The district presidency reorganized our branch finally so now we have active leaders and they will help us so much.  The last few weeks we have overflowed and almost ran out of seats during sacrament meeting! Which is awesome because when I first got here it was a lot different.  The branch is growing! And less actives are coming back.  Yesterday, this baba that has been less active for a year asked us to walk with him to church after we shared a message with him about the book of mormon.  Sooo sick.

Obviously we just had an awesome week and with faith, we will have a lot more members this transfer.  Loving the work. This church is true.

Stay Steady Grindin'

Sharp fede

-Elder Anderson

The Boys

Elder Mwamba and I at this village. (We were on exchanges that day)

The Guys tying up the goat..

After we skinned it...

Wayne's shades 

So.... this morning the lock in our bathroom door jammed and I was locked in the bathroom and then Elder Morrison had to bust the door the get me out hahahah crisis averted.

March

I ate cow stomach the other day. The natives call it "maguru" or "matumbu". I've also heard people call it tripe. So out of those three, maybe you can use your smart phones and ask siri what it looks like. It looks like the rough side of a kitchen sponge and smells like feces.  So the sadza mamas have to fry the living tar out of these things and soak it in seasoning for the smell to go away but if they do it right it honestly doesn't taste bad. 

All the pizza inn girls know me too well now so when i walk in they're always like, "large peri peri chicken with a coke?" I'm like, "Obvious" hahaha 

We had 12 investigators at church! No big deal. haha I think I talked about a guy named Keshias and how he has a prophetess wife who was being nonsense but she humbled herself and came to sacrament meeting! She said it was nice so thats dope.  And we had most of our people on baptismal date come so its awesome.  Also, we finally weren't chosen to teach the priesthood class. Then after church we ran home and grabbed eggs and bacon and then took it to moms and broke our fast with mom and rejoice by having breakfast for lunch.... so sick. Superb day.

Since I was exalted to district leader we had to do exchanges with the zone leaders this week. I was with Elder Hansen from Cali.  We were just making each other laugh the whole time so it was a chill day.  Took some pictures of their area which was low density but also lower class. Really cool place.  

I took pictures of our car on Tuesday to show how dirty it got in one day.  It is impossible to keep these things clean.

We met this guy the other day named Arnold and he was super interested in the Book of Mormon so we gave him a copy and when we met him the next time he was on 1 Ne. 14 hahahaha and he was telling us the story exactly how it happened and we were stoked.  He even came to church last week with his kid.  So cool.  Hopefully this wont be the last time I write about him.

We get to meet Elder Hamilton of the 70 this week.  Nice.

No longer buying a guitar. Gonna wait til I come home. Stay tuned.

Walked in on mom watching a series about how animals are tired of people and decide to work together to overrule humans.  Writing that down to look up when im home.

Getting my suit tailored this week.

Our branch is getting reorganized this coming Sunday. So excited for that. It has kind of been chaotic lately.  Branch president less active, 1st and 2nd counselors competing for dominance, no branch mission leader. And the rest of us just tryna hold it all together.  So finally President Mkhabela is gonna fix things. 

Good things comin.

So yeah it was a good week. Just amazed at how fast time goes.  Its already the 5th of March... how. Love you guys.

Sharp.

Elder Anderson

Exchanges in Kadoma with Elder Hansen

Another picture of our area

Car on Tuesday, Cleaned it Monday....

This crazy storm that was coming to Chegutu.  It rained like 5 or 6 times this day... ridiculous hahaha

The rain made some new rivers on the sides of the roads hahaha

Sunday 

12:34

The majority of this week was suuuuper boring.  We just had a lot of appointments fall thru and people "weren't around".  It's hilarious because we will show up to a house and ask if the parents are around and then the kids will say yes and go to call them and then they're like, "She said she isn't around" hahahah we're like, "Okay go back and tell her we passed by" nonsense.  Makes me laugh tho.  

So all the zone leaders in the mission got smart phones a while ago and they give it to us sometimes for us to do family history work with members and investigators and this week, we helped mom with it and we sent 3 names to the temple. It was so cool. The spirit was there.  After we helped her, Mom pointed at a picture of one of the other missionaries that used to serve here and she was like, "Ahhh Anderson.... you now passed this one and now you are my favorite" hahaha awesome.  She also reserved names of her sisters so she can be baptized for them one day.  

More and more kids are calling me Anderson instead of white man.  

Yesterday, Stephen, our recent convert, got sustained as the 2nd counselor in the sunday school presidency.  Powerful.  We are teaching his daughter right now who will be baptized this week or next week. 

We had a powerful lesson with Keshias this week.  HIs prophetess wife was busy healing someone somewhere else so we just met with him.  He opened up to us a lot because he said after we taught him, he realized everything his wife is doing is wrong. And the church they go to is wrong and doesn't teach the right things.  He told us he was worried about his wife because he wants her to be apart of our church but she doesnt want to.  And he told us like 3 times that he knows the church and book of mormon are true. hahaha  he's too powerful. So now we're making a plan with them to get married and then to baptize Keshias because he wants to be baptized as much as I want to listen to young thug right now. He came to church again this week and was ealier than us! 

Speaking of church, we had 14 investigators in at sacrament meeting...... soooo sick. and the other elders in the district had 10.  We out here haha. But yeah we met this guy named Tapiwa that was taught a long time ago and was almost baptized but he had to leave Chegutu for something but now he's back!  And we met some awesome new people that came with members and we set appointments for this week. Blessings on blessings on blessings. 

Made our car look brand new this morning. then it rained and turned all the roads to mud. drove from our house to the internet cafe. and its already dirty agian.  #zimbabwe

Also heard that the prophet is coming to Zimbabwe.  Almost positive I wont get to see him tho.  

So for those who dont know, whenever it is 12:34, is exactly when I check to see what time it is... its like it follows me.... Like today after we cleaned the house in the morning, I showered and went to put on my watch.....12:34.  Happens every day.  Super weird. 

Stellar week in the end.  

Love you all. Stay blessed. 

Stay Steady Grindin'

Elder Anderson

back at our house after I got soaked on my birthday

Brother Stephen

Rejoice loves this dress and mom and I always make fun of her for it hahaha

Wanted to attach this video of the rain we were in the other day.