3 Months!

Well as you can see from the title it has been 3 months!  So crazy.  I'm finally done with 12 week training.  My goodness I'm so happy to be done with that.  But I am excited for the upcoming transfer!  We got the news yesterday that I am training a new missionary named Elder Thomas!!! Gonna be so dope.  Elder Till left this morning to Kwekwe and he will be the district leader that side!  But yes I will be a trainer in the same area in which I was trained, Marimba and Mufakose.  I'm happy I get to stay in the same house and I don't have to pack up and head out.  Also, I have been assigned to drive!  So I think today or tomorrow someone will teach me how to drive stick.  Lol as if that wont be the most embarrassing thing ever, getting taught how to drive, pffff.  But it will be good! Hopefully I will be able to spend all my first 6 months in this area because I love it!  The members here are so cool and the area has a lot of potential! 

So for the next couple days I honestly have no idea what is going to happen.  Because of the transfers, and the uncertainty when the new elders will get here, not even our zone leaders know what is going to happen.  So from now on, I'm just playing everything by ear.  Hopefully the new guys will get here on Wednesday so we can get to work! 

This week we were teaching a girl named Kudzi and she's like 19 or something and is super smart and she is really interested in the church but her parents are super Roman Catholic so they are very strict and make her go there.  But the other day during one of our lessons, we asked her if she believed the Book of Mormon was the word of God and she said yes and explained how it told her things she needed to know right then and is already teaching her so much!  We are really excited for her!  Her cousins are members and they told us they have ideas how we can soften the hearts of her parents so we have a lot of hope for her.

So there's this guy named Nodia and for the longest time we thought he was a member because he works for the church and we have seen him at the mission office a few times. But the other day he came to church and was like, "Okay guys.... so I need to get baptized."  And we were like "..... wait what?!" hahaha and then we found out he wasn't a member but really wanted to get baptized because he knows this church is true and he said he wants to get married and then baptized on the same day with his wife!  So we have 2 more baptisms added to our plans for this next month!  Super exciting! 

We also had a referral from some other elders in the mission a week ago, and one of the days we didn't know what to do and I suggested that we could go see this referral and Elder Till was like ehhh okay why not.  So we go to the address and find her and her name is Mary Dowa. And we got to know her a little bit and she said her sister got baptized in another city like a week ago.  Then we started to share a spiritual thought and we somehow got to the topic of prophets and she was like, "Oh there are wayyy to many prophets here and they are all false and there is so much confusion today in the world" We then went on the tell her that there is only one true prophet and she totally accepted the idea and asked who it was.  Then Till was like, "We wont make it too easy for you but we want you to find it out"  And then I asked her, "So when you find out who the true prophet is, what will you do?"  And She said, "Well of course I would follow him"  (Inspired answer amiright?)  and then she brought up the topic of baptism and she was asking about that so we answered her questions and we were getting so excited about her and then out of nowhere she was like, "So yeah next week I am going to South Africa for a month.  and I am usually only in Zim for a week or two at a time."   ....... dreamz crushed haha.  But it was such an inspired lesson and she was actually praying right when we got there.  So I really hope this one works out and then the future missionaries will teach her.  Really cool to see how the Lord has prepared people for us!

Well this concludes my thoughts for the week.  Hope you all had a wonderful week and that everything is going great.  Love you all and you all continue to stay in my prayers

Stay steady

Shakanaka

-Elder Anderson

SAHARA

No, I was not in the Sahara Dessert but it was freaking hot this week.  I still have no clue about Celsius so I'm not sure how hot it was but it was hot.  Even when its overcast, its hot haha. Ahhh man I love it.  Sweating like nobodies business haha.

This week was just short of super frustrating haha.  We had so many lessons planned and had countless inspired ideas and scriptures planned for our investigators and we barely had any lessons this week.  The majority of the lessons were with very active recent converts so they weren't too exciting.   We had days where we would have lessons fall through and even try all our back-up plans and even they weren't around.  And Saturday was the worst day because we had like 8 lessons planned with 9 backup plans and we only had 3 lessons, two of them weren't even planned.  It has been so frustrating setting up appointments with tons of people and then having a lot planned for them and they they aren't around or they are too tired or are busy cooking sadza, (which is the most consistent excuse we hear haha).  But nonetheless, we are still trucking and trying to find new people to teach.  I think yesterday we went through our investigators and dropped like 5 of them because they were never around and its becoming a waste of the Lord's time to try to see them. 

Despite the rough times this week, yesterday was a good day.  In the words of Spawnbreezy, "Its gonna be a good day after all".  At church we had 8 referrals from the ward, we scheduled 3 appointments with new investigators who all want to be baptized and we even had a lesson with a new investigator during one of the blocks!  It was a refreshing change of tone for the week.  Its always really cool to see someone bring a friend to church and then they ask us to teach them and they're excited to learn more.  The work with the help of the members is crazy good. 

On top of a more than wonderful day at church, right after the third hour we went to the Muchekwa family's home and they showed us how to make sadza!!  This is the same family who cooked my first native plate of sadza.  And it is actually super easy to cook, but its tough on your arms.  I have mad respect for the mamas that cook it every day!  They're freaking strong haha.  I'm excited to make some for all of you at home.  So good. While, we are on the subject of sadza, I feel like I'm missing something when I go a day without sadza.  So its progressively becoming my staple food as well haha.  That's all I'm going to eat in college.

So I love the wards we serve in.  Every member is always happy to help us with lessons or to introduce us to their friends and they are so loving and helpful.  The second counselor in the bishopric is Brother Chikenge and he teaches with us sometimes and he's so dope.  The other day when we were walking around trying to find someone to teach, he was asking me about what music I used to listen to and to my surprise, we found out we listen to the same exact music and I was so happy haha.  He's super chill and he's a powerful teacher.  All the people here are powerful. 

Funny story. So the kids here love talking to us in English, even if they just scream the word "Yes" at us, they find joy and excitement in the experience of talking english at a white person.  And usually a group of kids will see us and then they form a circle and decide to volunteer someone as tribute to be the elected on to utter some kind of English words to us.  So the other day it was the same old story and the elect one came running at us and right as he was about to say his first English words to a white man, I interrupted him and said, "Ayyyee murisei shamwari?!"  (which means how are you my friend). And the look on his face was priceless, he was so confused hahahaha and his friends were all dying laughing haha Elder Till and I were also laughing pretty hard.  The kids sometimes will be like, "ahh you arent white, you speak shona!" hahah I love the kids here.

So next week we have 1 baptism and the following week we might have some but I'm not sure.  We had a lot of people planned for the 18th but they were either never around or they wouldn't come to church.  Rough.  But yeah the work is progressing slowly right now. 

Okay so to clear any confusion I find it fit to explain to all the readers that missionary work here is straight up different.  For example:

-Baptisms are easy to find but less actives are simultaneously abounding 

-I teach 90% of my lessons under mango trees

-We never call to confirm appointments because most will say they are busy or will want to reschedule so we just show up haha

-We don't place Books of Mormon because people will just take it and then throw it away or something so we give pamphlets instead

-We are authorized by Pres. Mkhabela to leave the area at 6 if we have no appointments

-Minor disobedience issues are usually not a big deal to President because even he wants us to have fun.  Although he still gives fire if missionaries get out of hand.

-Everyone says yes so its hard to find out if people are jing or straight.

-We lose power about once every two weeks

-All the cars are falling apart

And many more things that I couldn't mention at this time.  Africa is amazing but just different. I love it.  Its also funny because some of the things in Preach My Gospel weren't made for Africa haha but its okay.  President still wants us to be PMG missionaries and its still possible but things are just done differently here.  Its so cool!

This morning we didn't have power and it cut out midway through us doing laundry, so I used the cleanest water I had and put some soap in a bucket and washed my hair and that was my shower for today haha. 

Also, we had 122 contacts this week.  Whaaattttt yes 122.  super cool. 

Well this concludes Weekly Update from yours truly.  Sorry I don't have any cool experiences or pictures this week but times are difficult in the area!  We have had progressing investigators that all of the sudden dont understand anything and are having all of these questions and concerns so its been frustrating but we are looking forward to this next week.  Mission is good.  I love you all and like always, you stay in my prayers.  All is well in Harare.

Stay Steady Grindin

Shakanaka  (Its all good)

Tonana   (See you later)

Cordially, 

-Elder Anderson

God is Great, Sadza is Good, Africa is Crazy!

What more can I say after such a divinely booming way of titling a weekly email. My goodness i think I might as well just slap my name on this and send it off. haha kidding. I hope you all had a wonderful week and hope some of you are still celebrating the triumphant victory of my New England Patriots.

First thing I want to say is that I met a General Authority this week!  Elder Ellis of the 70 was in Harare this week doing a Mission Tour and going to the different zones, for zone conference and he came to ours last Thursday!  We all got to shake is hand and introduce ourselves to him and to my surprise, this guy is straight up from none other than Burley Idaho.... what... are the odds haha super cool!  But yeah at the conference we received training from Elder Ellis and his wife and from our beloved mission president and his wife.  Elder Ellis completely broke down who God is and what he does for us and it was so dope.  And then he expanded the roles of us, the Holy Ghost, and God and then related all of them and it was super cool.  He then discussed exactly how the spirit works and totally simplified and went really deep into how it works, how we can use it and how we can always be ready to fell it.  This guy is amazing.  And then he left us with his witness that God lives, Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith saw God and His Son, and the Book of Mormon is true.  And it was so powerful to here those words uttered by someone of his respected position.  We here these testimonies all the time from apostles and the prophet in general conference but to be in person and to be working so closely with a general authority made it way cooler.  His wife and Sister Mkhabela gave great talks to but I want to talk about what President Mkhabela said.  He advised us to focus on two things.  Trusting in the Lord, and being happy.  He showed us how many times in the scriptures it talks about happiness and trusting in the lord and being not afraid but of good cheer. Really cool.  Plus, I'm pretty sure he used the exact words of the one, and the only, Bob Marley by counseling, "Dont worry, Be happy"  wow.  The scriptures basically tell us the same thing.  Bob Marley was an inspired man... haha kidding.  But yes that phrase, "dont worry, be happy" is almost always in me head now and I have been so happy recently.  This conference was dope. 

On top of the conference, the work is also dope.  This week we had 2 baptisms!  Shylet and Joyce!  Two sisters that are going to be strong members!  Elder Till got to baptize them and we both participated in the confirmations yesterday and it was so cool to do that.  We didn't give the blessing but even just being in the circle we were able to feel the spirit.  Always cool to worthily use the power and authority of God amiright? 

So Joyce is a super funny woman and always jokes with us and is super sarcastic so the day before her baptism we stopped by her place and asked if she was ready and she was like, "guys I'm sad because I'll be busy tomorrow and wont make it" and then after we felt super bad for a minute she told us she was joking hahaha. So at church yesterday, I saw her and said, "Look, so we found out that we have to baptize you again because the way we did it wasn't correct" and then she was super concerned and started asking me questions about it and I told her I was kidding and she started laughing so hard hahahaha it was awesome and then she was like "Ahhhh Iwe!" (Iwe means "you") hahah got her. She's so funny. She always messes with us.

We have a by week this weekend for the 11th but on the 18th, we have already 1 baptism scheduled with the hope of giving that date to 4 or 5 other people!  Our goal for this transfer is to have 12 baptisms and so far we are at 7! And its only half over! So exciting!  

Alright story time.  So we have been teaching this man named Alfonso, who was actually started taking lessons with Elder Till and his previous companion before I got here.   I'm still not certain which church he goes to but he is very Christian and believes only in the Bible.  And he is a hard investigator. This guy has so many questions and ideas that are pretty far off but he has so much potential!  In the past couple lessons we have been able to slightly confound him with powerful verses in the Bible (that he strictly believes in) that contradict his own ideas.  Pfff these guys just dont get it sometimes.  But yeah Alfonso is continuing to progress slowly and last lesson he said something so cool!  Towards the end of us reteaching him the Restoration lesson, he said, "yeah maybe you guys are a sign from God that I need to join the church and maybe this is my chance to accept your message."  .......We like had to check our ears if we heard him right hahha but sadly these profound words were followed by a lot of "maybe's" and him doubting his thoughts which was slightly disappointing but he continued to say he wants to find out if it is true and we told him the only way he would find out is if he read the Book of Mormon and prayed about it and then committed him to do so.  This guy has mad potential.  Exciting!

The hard thing about this mission is marriage.  The cultural way to marry someone is by the man paying he wifes family a crap ton of money and then everyone recognizes the couple as husband and wife.  I think the whole process is called Lebola. (Not to be confused with the deadly disease Ebola lol)  But yes we find a lot of really strong investigators who desperately want to be members but they aren't legally married and the family wont budge when they try to set up a legal marriage, even when we offer then the free service that the church can do.  It is a struggle and disappointing because we have at least 10 families that we teach right now, that all have to be married before we can baptize them.  But when we tell them this, they suddenly are no longer interested.  Its hard but nonetheless we are continuing to "teach repentance and baptize converts"!  Which is our mission motto basically.  haha so despite some struggle, all is well.

So the mold in our apartment came back hahaha.  its freaking everywhere but we are getting it taken care of this next week I think. 

My comp is so dope. Last night we got home and had a discussion about super deep doctrine and it was so cool.  And we are getting to be really good friends and I'm growing to love that guy.  So in Shona, "Pakaipa" means dangit or something like that and Elder Till says it so much that everyone in our area and most people in the ward call him "Pakaipa" hahaha its hilarious

I have eaten Sadza so many times this week.  Elder Till and I found a little shack in a big mess of shops in our area that sells a sadza dish for $1 and it is so amazing.  Sadza is so good.  My mouth is watering as I'm writing about it right now haha.  Man its so nice.  I think we are going to have a member teach us how to make it so I can make it for the fam when I come home! 

Here are some Shona words for your entertainment

Maitabasa - Thank you

Murise - How are you

Tonana - Good bye

diri Bho - Its okay/ I'm okay

Mamoca se - Good Morning

Masuera se - Good Afternoon

Its fun the speak a little Shona to these people because they all laugh at us all the time haha. And then they don't understand us when we speak english so they tell us to speak shona and then they laugh at us again hahahahaha ahhh man its funny though. 

Sorry I don't have powerful conversion stories or super spiritual things that happened but trust me the work is progressing and we have a lot of hope for the future.  Being a missionary is so cool.  My full time job, with my only break being Mondays, is to invite others to change their lives and come unto Christ.  During the Mission Tour Conference, Sister Mkhabela said that we know more about Jesus Christ than anyone in the world!  How amazing is that?  Its so fun to walk around with that knowledge that we are right, that this church is true, and that we KNOW Christ and proudly wear him on our chests every day.  It makes me laugh when people say we are wrong haha. I love being a part of this work and seeing the spirit work within the people we teach.  It is also cool the see the reward and blessings from following the promptings of the spirit and to feel my mouth be filled with the words the Lord would have me speak.  For me, the presence of the Holy Ghost in my life is directly related to my happiness.  And right now I am incredibly happy and I do not want to leave this place.

I love you all and you all continue to stay in my prayers.  May we all constantly build our testimonies and continue to learn more about God and Jesus Christ.  Because how can we have faith and trust in someone we don't know?  I want to leave you with my testimony that I know without a doubt that this church is true and is God's kingdom here on Earth in these latter days.  I know that the Atonement is real and I have felt it in my life.  I know that Jesus is the Christ and that God lives and that they love us so much and everything denotes their presence and this divine love. 

Again. Love you all.

Stay happy.

Stay Steady Grindin'

Bho Bhoo

-Elder Anderson

Okay picture time.

Joyce and Shylet!  the newest members of the church!

So this is Mama again on the far left but the guy on the right by Till is the Ward Mission Leader in the Marimba Ward.  He's the one that told us to call him Rasta Man lol this guy is so chill.  Also, his fiance is Joyce,  the one being baptized that is standing closest to me in the picture

Just a typical thing we see here lol.  This is how the kombis fit so many people in them, just shove them where ever they'll fit.  After took this picture, the guy opened the back and waved at us and gave us a thumbs up haha

MADORA!

Alright everybody before we get all caught up in the introductions and greetings  I need to show you what I ate last night...

Okay so this is sadza with fish, ma vege, and wait for it.... madora!!! The freaky caterpillars that these people love! And I ate everything on the plate except for the fish heads.  It was honestly one of the best meals I've ever had.  The madora tastes like chicken lol and was really chewy haha.  But I had a fat bite of sadza with every worm so I didn't ever have a straight taste of it.  But it was surprisingly really good!!  We had this meal at a members home last night.  The Nyamugara family!  I love this family so much!  The gogo (grandma) of the family told us to call her "mama" haha so now she's my mama.  Love it.  But the rest of the family is so amazing and super funny!  They have 2 girls staying with them and we just baptized one of them and are baptizing the other this next week!  But the night was super fun!  We talked for a long time about none other than the man himself, Donald Trump haha. It's weird how many people hear know so much about Trump.  But anyways the Nyamugaras love Trump and they always update me on what he's doing haha love it.  But yes last night was one for the books.  Sadly, the dad and mom of the family are moving to South Africa next month. They will be missed a lot!  Amazing people.  Amazing family. 

Alright so while your jaws are still dropped because you cant believe that I ate freaking caterpillars last night, lets move on.

So yes we had another baptism this week!  Michelle Tshuma!  A sweet young woman who stays with the Nyamugaras.  Somehow they are related but her real parents aren't worth mentioning and left her a long time ago.  But yes she bore a short testimony after the baptism and it was really good.  And the other girl that stays with the Nyamugaras is getting baptized next Saturday!  Her name is Shylet and I think her parents passed away but like Michelle, she is somehow related to the Nyamugara family.  And on top of that, we have two other people being baptized next week with Shylet!  So after next week we will have 8 so far this transfer and we have plans for a few more in February!  Exciting times in Marimba and Mufakose! 

Alright so my companion and I are getting along very well. I dont know why I was letting little things bother me but I put them aside and noticed that now that we are really good friends, we teach better and the days seem to go by way faster!  Really cool. He's a good elder and he will be missed after he's done training me. So the other day, there was a huge spider on the wall, (I'll attach a picture) and it was just sitting there staring at me and then Elder Till walked up to it and put his hand over it like he was about to straight up slap it hahaha and I thought he was just joking but now, this guy starts slapping at the wall with his bare hand to try to kill a spider that is atleast the size of his palm if not bigger.  And after a few failed attempts he nuked this spider with his hand.  He hit it so freaking hard and just annihilated it.  Just pasted it to the wall hahahhah I was crying.  I didn't stop laughing for like an hour and as I typed out the story right now I'm laughing again.  Ahh man I wish I would have recorded that. Also, English (not being his first language) is hard for him at times and its funny to correct him all the time but I got his back and I always know what he's trying to say haha. But yeah. Everything with Elder Till and me is going super.

So we started teaching this 19 year old girl named Desiree a few weeks ago and we tried to give her a baptismal date one of the times we taught her but she didn't accept because she's already been baptized Roman Catholic.  So we taught her yesterday the plan of salvation.  And at the end I asked her if she wanted to take part in this plan by doing one of the necessary and saving ordinances of baptism by someone who holds the priesthood authority of God.  And then after explaining that we baptize the same way that Jesus Christ was baptized, she accepted a baptismal date on the 18th!  Way cool. 

Any questions? Aight lets keep going.

So we used to teach this lady named Fungai and we almost gave her a baptismal date but then she dropped us and didn't want to learn anymore.  Recently we started teaching her aunt, Dorcas and she is progressing a lot!  And this week, Fungai sat in on our lesson with Dorcas and Fungai kept saying things about how we weren't teaching the right things and wasn't agreeing with things we said and stuff, and I just slapped her in the face with my words and with the scriptures and totally changed her view on a couple things.  And with the help of my comp, we quieted her pretty quickly.  Really cool that I've seen the promise in D&C happen, where we wont be confounded by men. 

It's funny to see people try to tell us we are wrong and then we just say, "Okay, so do you believe in the Bible?" and they always say, "Oh yes the Bible is the word of God" and then we're like, "Okay, that's great, so let us show you a scripture."  And then we prove that our doctrine is the fullness of the gospel and is taught in the Bible which everyone believes in hahahah gets them everytime.  For example the other day I told someone that it was Jesus Christ who created the Earth under the direction of Heavenly Father.  And they were all angry at me and I was like, "Okay should we read a scripture in the Bible?" hahah then I showed then Romans 6:3 and Hebrews 1:2 and proved it to them and Elder Till and I just laughed hahaha so dope.  Till has shown me so many scriptures that totally prove our teachings and the fullness of the doctrine so all the credit goes to him.

So this week we did exchanges and I was honored to be with our District Leader, Elder Monesa.  This guy is powerful. He's about 5 feet tall and he's from South Africa and he speaks like 5 languages fluently. And he is the most loving guy ever and is an amazing teacher! It was an awesome day and he taught me so much about the mission and helped me out a lot!  He gave me the assurance that I'm learning well from my trainer and that I'm on my way to be a successful missionary.  Really cool.  He's super chill and super funny.  Every elder I meet is so dope.  These guys here are the cream of the crop no doubt.  Love it.  But while I was with Monesa, we taught this guy about the restoration and he was stuck on prophets and he believed there should be many prophets and within like 3 minutes I convinced him that there should only be one prophet called of God at a time.  Dope lesson.

So yeah you guys need to update me on Donald Trump because its weird having Africans tell me about my country hahahah.

The other day when we were in town, we met this guy who was selling shoes on the street and he said he could hook me up with yeezys for like $30....whaaatt... yeah this guy is dope.  He's got the hook ups. 

Everything here is so cheap haha i love it.  I dont get how missionaries run out of money here.  Elder Till and I always have extra and then we go spend it all on pizza or KFC haha

We spent a good part of this morning scrubbing mold off the floor in our house hahahah Africa right?

I'm starting to learn Shona!  I can kind of say some greetings and I can't do a simple convo with someone and I've learned some other words but its coming along nicely. I want to be able to bear my testimony and pray in Shona when I come back lol.

Alright well this concludes my weekly email.  I hope you all had a great week because I definitely did. After next week, I'll have been here for 2 months! Weird.  But I love this place so much.  I am continuing to love the people and really love being a missionary.  I know that the Spirit is the biggest teacher and everything I said above about the lessons was all led by the Spirit.  We would be terrible teachers without the Spirit in each lesson.  My relationship with my Mwari Babba (Heavenly Father)  is growing so much and I'm starting to recognize his answers to my prayers.  How cool is it that we can pray to Him often and multiple times per day!  He loves us so much and everything denotes He is there and loves all of his children.  Aight signing out.  In the powerful words Jeremiah E. Rankin, "God Be With You Til We Meet Again"

Love you all.

Stay Happy.

Stay Steady Grindin'

God Speed

-Elder Anderson

This weeks pictures.

This weeks segment of "Whats Living In My House"

And now for some of my best friends

This is JJ.  He's a stud to say the least.  

The newest member of the Mufakose Ward! Michelle Tshuma

The whole family!  Mama is the one in red. The one that made us the madora!  She is the sweetest person ever. And then Shylet is the one closest to Elder Till.  She's getting baptized next weekend! Love this family more than anything.

Rain, Sadza and 4 Baptisms!

Welcome one and all.  First things first, I sincerely apologize for the lack of creativity in my title for this weeks email.  Just put it aside and keep reading haha.

Okay so this week it basically didn't stop raining.  I think today is our first day of no clouds and Sun.  It actually got pretty cold too!  Like I was shivering at one of our lessons one day haha.  The tiny umbrella I have works good enough tho.  It sucks when we forget them and then just get soaked all day when we walk to the next appointments but its nice to take a mid day shower.  I'll attach pictures bellow because honestly it rained sooooo much.  Its not normal how much it rains here. 

Also, I ate a lot of sadza this week!  And oh my goodness it is my new favorite food.  It is so simple and so good.  It is basically just made out of flour but it tastes like cake oh my goodness.  I crave it everyday haha and there's a place in our area where you pay $1 and get a huge plate of sadza, beef/chicken, and veg.  What a steal am I right? And we had sadza at some members homes this week.  Ahh it was so good.  I have a bag of mili meal at our place but I'm scared to try and make some. 

Alright yes we had 4 baptisms this week! 4 children, ages 9-13.  And they all have good fellowshippers who will keep them active and we are very excited for them!  I'll attach the pictures.  These kids are so cool!  They barely speak english so it was a struggle to teach them but it is cool to see the desire in young kids to be baptized and be members of the only true church!  And, we have another baptism scheduled next week and another the first week of February.  whaaat.  Super cool.  We also have some new investigators who already came to church and show a ton of interest in the church!  And on top of all that, we had 10 investigators at church!  (4 of them got confirmed but we still counted them haha) A lot of hope for the coming weeks.  The only thing we are struggling with is finding new investigators right now.  But both our wards made ward mission plans for this year and they should help us work more with the members to find investigators through referrals because it is way more effective than finding on our own haha.  All good things mhmm. Bho Bo

For this weeks, "The Most African Thing I Saw This Week", we got a good one.  Get this... 3 guys, sitting on a super nice couch, outside in the middle of a field in the pouring rain, using one umbrella, passing a joint around hahaha....... at 9 in the morning lol.  Ah man when we drove by I was dying it was the funniest thing.

In other news, I got the freshest of haircuts this morning. We go to this guy in our neighborhood who cuts hair in this little wooden shack that is falling apart haha.  But to our surprise this guy actually knows how to cut murungu hair. And it only cost me $2. Another steal. The other elders are jealous haha.  

So because of all the rain this week, and the intense humidity, we have mold in our apartment.  So thats dope.  But we are gonna buy some bleach tonight and try to kill it all.  Africa right?  hahaha

So I'm starting to learn a little bit of Shona! I can only say greetings and stuff but its a start haha. 

We got a new ward mission leader in the Marimba ward and I still don't know his last name.  But he has sick dreads and he's super chill.  The other day he was listening to reggae music after church and I told him to make me a list of all the music he listens to so I could look them up when I get home.  He's a G. He called us the other day and we didn't recognize the number, and we answered and he said "this is brother (some african last name)"  and we were like "who?" and he said "Guys its me, the Rhasta man" hahahaha  So now we have his name in our phone as Brother Rhasta Man.

Funny story.  Okay so yesterday at church Elder Till and I were looking for the ward mission leader and then I heard an English voice say "wow you are tall".... So I look down and see this chubby white kid in a suit and tie standing there staring up at me.... So many thoughts and questions rant through my head and it was like time just stopped.  I looked at Elder Till and was like what the heck? hahha and he looked at the kid and said "Where are you from?"  The kid was like, "Uhhh Zimbabwe" and we were like what the heck.... And then he went on to tell us he was visiting our ward with his parents because they wanted to see some friends.  The whole time I was just thinking how funny it was that I was so unimpressed to see another white person.  hahaha  I'm thinking like "Why are you here?" hahaha instead of greeting him ahh man I'm too used to seeing black people.  Sometimes looking in the mirror takes a second for my eyes to adjust lol. 

So we are teaching this guy right now and his name is Benjamin and he is a dedicated 7th Day Adventist.... but nevertheless, he is a good investigator.  And yesterday in our lesson he was super determined to prove that his church was true and to prove us wrong and correct us on things and then we showed him all these scriptures in the Bible that show that he was wrong and he kind of sat back in his chair and just thought for a second and then I was like, "Listen, in the end, one of us is right... and one of us is wrong....would you like to figure out who is right?" haha and Benjamin and his brother looked at us and said yes and then the rest of the lesson was a lot smoother haha.  Good time. 

Also the other day we had a lesson with an investigator that isn't progressing and we asked her to say the closing pray and she said no and wanted us to do it and said, "Why can't you guys just pray?"  and I was like, "Alright, so why do we pray?"  and she said, "To get answers"  and I was like, "So my companion and I have already gotten the answer that we want you to get as well.  That is why we are here teaching people for 2 years. And that is why we want you to pray." and just shut her down with the spirit and then she was humbled and offered to give the closing prayer and then she goes on to give this 5 minute long, super scripted prayer and said the same things over and over again. hahaha ahhh very anti climactic but still kind of a cool moment. We have already taught her how to pray but I think we need to again.  

I absolutely love the people here.  They are too nice.  Like we offer to help with stuff around the house when we come for lessons and they always say no no no its okay its okay. And they do so much for us!  Last week during a correlation meeting with the ward mission leader, after we were done, we were about to leave and them they stopped us and made us a super nice plate of sadza and chicken. and we tried to say that they didn't want to be an inconvenience and they were like no no no sit down and eat! hahaha it was awesome.  Love these guys.

I continue to be reassured every day that Zimbabwe is exactly where I am supposed to be and exactly where God wants me to be.  Can't wait to see the people here that I am specifically meant to teach and continue to be guided by the spirit in my efforts.  We taught the Plan of Salvation a lot this week and my testimony of this plan has grown so much.  This plan is perfect and so cool.  I always am so grateful that I am eternally sealed to my family and that I get to live with them forever.  I love that our Lord and Savior, even Jesus the Christ allows us to live with Him and our Heavenly Father forever and that he suffered so we don't have to.  The whole plan makes so much sense and is so amazing.  I love you all and want you to know that I know God has a plan for us and we all chose to accept this plan before we were born.  We all knew that this was the right way and the only way to reap the rewards of eternal life in heaven with our Heavenly Father.  I know this church is without a doubt the only true church led by Jesus Christ himself in these latter days.  I love you all and pray for you often.  Hope all you wildest dreamz come true. 

God Speed.

Bhoo Bho

Sharp

-Elder Anderson 

  

Shaun Chirikure

Tinotenda Chirikure

Takudzwa Dumbura

Tawananyasha Rapozo

This guys name is Blessing and he baptized the children haha. he's hecka chill. 

Zim Soccer Stadium

The rest are just more pictures of Africa

Harare

And now for the floods...

1st Transfer

Alright welcome back.  Hope you had a good week but enough small talk let's get down to it yeah?

So my first transfer is done-zo.  Its already been 6 weeks.  what...  It's going by so fast and seems like it has only been a week.  Also some updates.  I know its not about numbers but... We had 108 lessons, and 433 contacts this transfer.... hahaha wow. 

Okay so this week was amazing.

So started off with my first interview with President Mkhabela and wow that man is powerful.  He answered my questions perfectly and told me exactly what I needed to hear with my few concerns.  I followed his advice and it helped me so much.  That guy is somethin else.  He then trained our zone on using our area books and it helped us get super organized so that was a plus.  Then after the interview of course we went to Pizza Inn as a district and feasted. 

Then the next day we gave 4 baptismal dates haha.  They were all young bucks ages 9-13 but have a surprisingly strong desire to be baptized.  One of the kids doesn't even have good support from his parents.  Crazy to see the faith in these children.  So we should have 4 baptisms this upcoming Saturday! Super Dope.

Okay side note while I have this on my mind.  I have to tell you the most African thing I have ever seen. So we were sitting on gas cans, outside, teaching the Restoration to a couple of the kids we are baptizing this week, when out of nowhere I hear something in the tree next to us.  I turn and see this guy who jumped in the tree, was hanging and swinging from one of the branches making the whole tree sway and shake. And then when he fell out he was holding a mango in his mouth. He tied the bow on this grand display by saying "Hello How are you?" to my comp and I..... Pfffffff We just started dying oh my goodness. I looked at Elder Till and I'm like, "Africans" hahaha ah man.

So this weekend was Stake Conference and on Saturday evening we attended the priesthood session.  Super good.  President Mkhabela was there and he gave one of the best talks I've ever heard.  He talked simply about the priesthood, but spent the whole time saying exactly what the priesthood is and it was crazy good.  He said the priesthood is the power to act in the name of our God.  The same eternal power that He has.  His priesthood is powerful, eternal and perfect.  And he gives us as imperfect humans the chance to use this power.  But it can only be manifest according to our own godliness which comes through Christlike attributes and behavior.  Only then can we truly exercise our priesthood. He also said the the priesthood is a perfect plan of service that has and will last forever.  Amazing...  President is powerful.  Shook the chapel when he spoke haha.  Its crazy to think that the literal power of God is attainable when we are Christlike.  wow.  

And then the next day during the Sunday session President spoke again about faith and said, and I quote, "Faith produces obedience. Obedience produces blessings." end quote.  Wow.  Simple but profound.  This added to my continuing realization that faith and hope are the "anchor of our soul."  It was also emotionally rewarding to have 8 investigators and 1 returned member attend the meeting.  Crazy.

So we started teaching this guy and his name is Brother Unworried.  haha.  But he has a wife who he is legally married to and they have 8 children. And wait for it... they are super interested in the church.... jackpot am i right?  And we gave the father a baptismal date in February!  He has some minor concerns but we hope he will continue to progress! 

One of the children we plan to baptize this week is named Tawananyasha and he is 9 years old and has a hard time understanding English and we were teaching him the Plan of Salvation... hahahaha a recipe for misunderstanding. And i was the one that had to teach about the Creation and the Fall of Adam... hahaha but I said a small prayer that he would understand and after I was done teaching as simply as I could about it, his father started to translate and Tawananyasha stopped him and said, "its okay i understood"... wow.

So there is a massive spider that lives in our room and I rightfully named her Charlotte.  Sometimes she leaves during the day but most nights she comes back. 

Did my laundry in 1 hour today.  Personal Record no big deal.  Bucket laundry is time consuming haha

The other day we got a referral from this member who has just filthy nice dreads and he's like "yeah so when is the soonest you can baptize this woman?" and we said Feb 4th. and he's like "okay so lets also make a marriage date on the 11th." hahahaha the members here will find women the think are pretty and then give them to us as referrals so we can hopefully teach and baptize them so they can get married.  Things are different here in Africa.  

Last night we had dinner with Brother Nyamugara who used to be the bishop of the Marimba Ward and his wife made us an amazing meal.  And then afterwards, his son JJ came and talked to me for like an hour hahaha he is 6 years old and is actually really fluent in english.  But he's my new best friend. Gave him a CTR ring last night and he thought it was super cool haha love him and love that family.  Brother Nyamugara also gave a good talk at conference and the coolest thing he said is not to be a spectator but a participant in the gospel.  The members are slowly dying off so this was good for the congregation to hear.  Stake Conference was amazing. 

Alright so no funny drunk guys this week sadly.  But I talked to a guy that was stoned out of his mind the other day.  He came up and said "How are you" i said "I'm good how are you" and he mumbled something and I was like "What?" and he's like "I'm high!!!" and shoved his blunt in my face hahahahaha.  It was hilarious and then I talked to him about reggae music and Bob Marley for a couple minutes and then when we left, I yelled "Rhasta Farai man!" and he was like "Ayyyyy!" hahahahaa and gave me a thumbs up.  Ahh love these guys.

Anyways hope you all had a stellar week and enjoyed the snowfall in Boise.  All we get here is a tonnnnn of rain. But its funny.  Kinda get to take a mid day shower after we sweat all morning from the sun haha.  Its refreshing.  But the mission is getting so easy.  Everything is like muscle memory now.  Teaching lessons is getting really easy too and I feel like I can answer any question that gets thrown at me (obviously not on my own but with the help of my boy the Holy Ghost).  And mission life is so nice.  I don't get why people always focus on telling prospective missionaries that a mission is hard.  Because why would you center your thoughts on that? Is not the first principle in the gospel "faith"?   haha.  I've learned a lot about trusting in the Lord, being optimistic and being faithful.  I researched "Hope" today during personal study and I loved how it says in Preach My Gospel that Hope is trust in the Lord and confidence that good things will happen.  The church is truer than true and I love being here in Zimbabwe and inviting people to THE restored gospel.  The church is true and the book is blue pffff.  Who am I kidding?

This concludes weekly update with Elder Anderson.  You all stay in my prayers and travel home safely tonight. 

Much Love 

God Speed

Sharp Sharp

-Elder Anderson



One picture for today:
i just think its funny that we have two things hanging on the wall in the study room.  A Pizza Inn box, (placed there by yours truly) and a picture of Jesus Christ.  But the picture of Jesus is covered by an electrical chord.  We need to fix our priorities hahahaha. 

One Lord, One Faith, One Month (Ephesians 4:5)

Well I've been in Zimbabwe for a month now... so that's weird.  Time is flying by its crazy.  Weeks are days and days are weeks  or something like that lol.  Sadly, I don't have that much to write about this week but I'll give ya a little taste of my last 7 days whadda ya say huh?  Also hope you all enjoyed my title which is a parody of Ephesians 4:5, a scripture that we share at least 5 times a day. 

So I think I told you guys about Mai Katsande, the one that told us she wanted to get baptized at the beginning in our first lesson with her. Sadly, they are having troubles with getting a marriage date planned and the husband is getting really busy with work and he decided to quit the lessons until they were legally married.  Mai Katsande was low key pissed the heck off when he said this but reserved herself.  Sad blow to our day but they seemed like they were serious about baptism because they gave us their numbers and promised to call us asap.  I've heard a lot of people promise things here and never follow through so hopefully these guys will come around. 

We had some good lessons that made up for this disappointing experience.  We taught 3 families and the father to all of them basically said the same thing to us this week, which was, "Guys I honestly just want to know the truth"  Ahh so cool!  So we are super excited to teach them!  One of them is named Brother Unworried lol and he has 8 kids and 3 of them we could baptize with the parents if they accept!  Super exciting.  We had 2 other people we were hoping to give baptismal dates to and we couldn't meet with them this week but these 3 families that show a lot of interest give us a lot of hope!  Also during one of the lessons, the fathers name is Brother Alfonso and we were teaching him about the pre-earth life (not always easy) and we showed him Jeremiah 1:5 which says "before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee" And he was still struggling with it and still believed life started at birth and then we showed him some other scriptures from the book of mormon and he still didn't understand and then Elder Till start going off in his broken english trying to explain it and I was like okay lets go back to Jer 1:5... How could God have known Jeremiah before he formed him in the belly, if there was no pre-earth life? and he paused and was like  ".....okay that's a good point" hahaha, ahhh man some of these guys we just need to say the simplest of things and then they finally get it.   Funny stuff.

So some of the "English"  names that parents give their kids are so funny!  Some examples

-Nomatter (female)

-Lovemore (male)

-Smart (male)

-Forgive (male)

-Unworried (surname)

And then they'll have like Robert or Bruce or something totally American hahaha 

Also when you leave someones house, sometimes they say "Sharp sharp" which sounds like "shop shop" because of the accent but its how they say bye or okay hahaha.  I've started saying it a lot. 

We had 4 investigators come to church this week!! What?? crazy.  2 of them we were about to stop teaching so that was cool!  One of the others shows a lot of promise and is young but very interested in the church.  And the last one really didn't want to be there and always seems like she's about to murder someone when we teach her so we might drop her haha.

We also had a lesson with this guy who had a lot of internet questions this week and he was formerly a Seventh Day Adventist....  two ingredients that make a lesson just awful haha.  And then we gave this guys mother a restoration pamphlet and she read the first vision page and just laughed and said very rudely, "Wow this is so false and not true!!"  And Elder Till and I laughed back at her and then quickly got around to saying a prayer and leaving.   As we walked away I looked at Elder Till and I'm like "I wonder if we'll teach them in spirit prison" hahahaha ahhh man these guys.

We taught this other 7th Day guy and at the end of our lesson he was like, "Okay next time, if you explain to me why you believe Sunday is the Sabbath Day, then I'll start to believe you guys are the true church".... If only it was this easy with everyone. 

It's funny how many people feel that they need to teach us about the Bible because we claim that it may be unclear at some parts.  They get all defensive and claim it is the word of God and the Bible is so clear and there should be no other books or no modern prophets and stuff and we're always like, "Alright,  look around,  there are countless churches that claim they believe the Bible to be the word of God and the only word of God... yet they have different beliefs, different faiths, and different baptisms....." hahaha then they just change the subject since there is nothing they can say after that to defend their ideas of the Bible.  hahaha regardless, I still have learned a lot from the Bible and like every member of the church believe it to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly. 

Also, I love the Book of Mormon. My goodness it is awesome.  Whenever we have spare time, I read it and can see the wars and the stories playing like a movie in my head.  So dope.  Teaches me so much and I love sharing scriptures from it to investigators.

.... aside from everything, whoever said that cockroaches are invincible was a ruthless liar because there are a ton in my house and I have killed plenty of them with no struggle.

Also our goals are crazy,  the standards that president set are 35 lessons every week, 4 baptisms every month,  5 investigators and 5 returned members to church every week.  Man it is definitely a high goal.  Hopefully we can get closer to the goal in coming months.

My companion and I are still doing good. he's a good comp and helps me a lot but I have ideas on how we can get work done better. Funny thing, we got money yesterday and pulled out 210 dollars from a machine, and i told my comp to put it away and then we could count it in the car, and then he's like "no its fine" and just whips out all this cash and starts counting it in front of a ton of people and I'm like duuuude!!!!! hahaha geeez.  too funny. they all got wide eyes and just stared at his hands and started to get closer to us hahaha I'm like dude! I didn't just throw that idea in the air up for grabs, I was imperatively telling you to put the money away hahhahhaha ahhhh man

Okay now on to our next segment, Funny drunk guys this week

The first one we found on the side of the street and we were teaching him about how drinking is bad for you and how there are so many blessings that come from keeping the word of wisdom.  He was very stubborn and kept saying he was already blessed enough haha.  But somehow we got on the topic of prophets and we was saying how all the prophets here in Zimbabwe are fakes and started saying bad things about them.  We then told him how there should be one prophet and he agreed and we told him how he could find the one, true prophet but he kept talking about drinking.  So then we started talking to his friend that was sitting next to him and the first guy interrupted us and very loudly asked how old I was.  So like I always do, I asked, "How old do you think I am?"  and he paused and then said 19!  And I said nope 18.  he's then like "Oh it must just be that you're about to turn 19."  I'm like "Well actually I turn 19 in a month."  This guys jaw drops and he stares at me and slowly starts to smile and then screams, "I must be a prophet!!!" hahahaha immediately after our convo about one true prophet.  Drunk guys.  amiright.

The next one wasn't as funny but this guy came over to us and started accusing us and saying what we are doing is wrong and then he said I looked like this guy he knows.  And he said "yeah that guy is an idiot."  So I asked if he was saying that I look like an idiot. And he's like "...yyyyeah"  pffff meanwhile I stand like a foot taller than this guy.  I almost dropped him.  haha.  

Anyways I love this gospel and love being a missionary.  I get hecka tired every night but its so worth it.  Even the bad days have good things to talk about.  I love what my dad said to me in an email last week.  He reminded me to "touch the line".  For those of you unfamiliar with this term, it refers to running lines or suicides as punishment during sports (running the length of the court or field),  and if you don't touch the line each time,  it doesn't count.  Its a discipline thing that my dad taught me when I was young and now thinking about applying it to the mission has helped my mindset a lot.  Touch the line.  Wow that's my new life motto haha love it. But yes I look forward to becoming a great missionary and being as productive as I can.  In President Mkhabela's weekly email to me last week he challenged me to make a difference in the mission this year.  No pressure haha but I have faith I can get stuff done.  Still diligently working for my first baptism.  Hopefully by the end of this month I will be able to update you guys on that because our monthly goal is 8!  Hope all is going well and I'm sad that I wont get to meet my new niece for two years!  I'm doing fine in Zim so don't worry about me.  Love you all and wish you the best.  Like always, stay steady yeah? The church is true. 

Stay Steady Grindin'

Sharp Sharp

-Elder Anderson