October 23, 2017 - One Step at a Time

Hey friends and family!!!

How's your week been?? I cannot believe how quickly time is flying. This week has been an incredible one, and I don't have much time to write about it so I'll get right to it!

Our new house

On Wednesday we got moved into our new house. It's a two man house in Tshabalala and it's actually pretty nice. I'm not a huge fan of living in two man houses, but things are looking pretty good. They split the Nketa elders because there are a bunch of Zimbabwean missionaries that are waiting for their visas to go on their missions elsewhere that are now on hold in our zone, so now our district has 10 missionaries. It's pretty crazy, but mission life is all about adapting to new circumstances. 

We taught Perseverance about a couple of the commandments this week, specifically the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom. She is so powerful and is such a joy to teach because she reads the scriptures and teaching materials and basically teaches us all the principles! Hopefully she will be baptized in two weeks!! She really has been a shining star in our teaching pool. On Friday we had exchanges and I went with Elder Tuimaseve. He's from Missouri and he visa waited in the California Fresno mission for a few months before coming here. He has a great desire to be obedient and is killer at the ukulele. He even taught me a few chords and we wrote a song, which was awesome. Brother Bongani also came and worked with us. He has been less active for the past little while but has become more active as we have taught him and he asked us out of the blue if he could come teach with us! He was a huge help to us and was really powerful and it's so incredible to see the changes that are happening in his life! On our visit to Perseverance, she had told us that she had an amazing singing voice, so I told her I'd sing for them if she sang for us. We were blown away, she's phenomenal at singing and basically put me to shame. One of the awesome parts of my mission has been meeting so many talented people in Zimbabwe!

Bulawayo Town

This week we found 10 new investigators, and on Sunday we had 8 investigators come to church!! That's that's the most that I've ever had during my time here in Tshabalala. There's a 12 year old girl named Andile that we've been teaching, and she brought her mom and cousin sister to church with her yesterday!! Things are really starting to look up and it's incredible. It has been a journey here in Tshabalala. It has been difficult to help people progress in the gospel here, but through our diligence and obedience we've seen some miracles. Life itself is a journey where we are trying to become more like Christ, endure hardships, strengthen our weaknesses, and serve others. I love Ether 12:27, which teaches us about how our weaknesses and shortcomings are there to humble us, and that if we turn to Christ He will make us strong! It reminded me of Elder Holland's talk at the most recent general conference about eventually becoming perfect and not beating ourselves up because we aren't flawless yet. The path back to God is there and all of us are trying to find our way back to Him, no matter what trials and struggles we face. The Savior suffered for all of us so that we don't have to walk this mortal life alone. The Holy Ghost has been sent to comfort us and guide us throughout the storms of life. And I testify that as we put our trust in God and face life's challenges with faith rather than fear, we will truly progress. 2 Timothy 1:7

The undefeated soccer team:
Elder Lamb, Elder Barrus, me, Elder Tuimaseve, Elder Makalio

I love you all, have the best week ever! you don't know how much you mean to me!!

Love Elder Barlow