Hey Everybody!!
I hope you're all doing well. It's definitely been a good week and a nice transition to Tshabalala. Ndebele is definitely not Shona haha. A few tips for speaking Ndebele:
-namhla (today) is pronounced like nam- thla, but without the t
-c makes a small clicking sound, x is a click in the back of your mouth, and q is like a popping sound with your tongue
-it's a lot harder than it sounds haha
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| Elder Daka and I |
Bulawayo is overall similar to Harare, but it's smaller, cleaner, and less busy. In the place where we stay, it kind of looks like some obscure town out in the middle of Arizona, which is kind of cool. People here speak SUPER good English, while the Shona people often struggled with it. Oh, and white people aren't called murungu anymore!! Instead they call me kiwa, which I actually like better after hearing murungu for the past year of my life.
Elder Daka is awesome!! He's only been out 3 months but he's a good missionary and really humble. He's fun to be around too. He joined the church in 2015 and worked diligently to be able to serve a mission. So far we've enjoyed our time together! It's fun to be with Elder Taloa again since we stayed in the same house for 3 months and became good friends. He's companions with Elder Ochieng, who's from Kenya and also just finished being trained. It's a sweet district, and there are other great missionaries in our zone!
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| Nketa District (Elder Daka, Me, Elder Ochieng and Elder Taloa) |
It's a bit tough to not be able to speak the language again, but I have found the occasional Shona down here and being able to speak to them is awesome. It's helped me make some cool connections and it shocks people a lot. This week we passed a group of teenage kids and one of them called out, murungu. My eyes lit up, and I quickly replied "Handisi murungu, uri murungu" (I'm not a white person, you're a white person!) and they went crazy. It was so funny because we could hear them laughing all the way down the street.
We are teaching this family called the Moyo family. The husband and kids are recent converts and we are teaching the wife now. They are sweet and humble people. The husband is very shy, but has a powerful testimony. It's special to be able to bring families together! We also met this young girl named Samantha and taught her about the Restoration. She's super smart and super prepared! In grade 3 she left her church because she felt like it wasn't right, and said that she'd always wondered what happened after Christ's Apostles died. It was such a cool lesson, and we extended a date for her to be baptized and she agreed! Powerful!
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| With Elder Larson and Elder Makalio |
It's been super cold and windy this week, even though the sun is shining. Hopefully it warms up soon. I have to be careful what I wish for though because September and October will bring the scorching summer. Last night we made japatis and they turned out super good. Haha mission has definitely taught me a few cooking skills; it would be miserable if I was eating PB&J all the time. Anyways, I love you guys and hope you have an amazing week!!
Love Elder Barlow
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