Hey friends and family!!
I hope you all had a great week! It's been a pretty busy week for us here in Eastview, mostly because we've had to be running back and forth across the zone. It definitely has been a rewarding week though! I can't believe that Elder Byrom and I are 18 months out now. I still feel so young on the mission. Time is flying by so quickly and I want to make the most of it!
 |
| Ruwa district |
Here's a little snapshot of Zimbabwe: when Shona people see a couple of murungu's driving around, they love to say little remarks to us as we pass by. Something like "hey!" or "murungu/white guys" or "this is our Zimbabwe." Every time this happens, Elder Byrom just goes, "Hilarious, absolute comedians" and we just laugh about it. Some kids also try too hard to mimic English accents when they greet us, so often time we hear "how are youuuuuu?" in a high pitched, nasally voice. It's pretty funny, until grown men start doing it to you. We just speak Shona back to them whenever they do it and it garners a few laughs from people passing by. Haha this mission is so unique and I love it!
 |
| Alice's Baptism!!! |
Alice got baptized this week!!!! It was pretty special to help her prepare throughout the week. By the way, both her and Jestina (the ones I mentioned last week) study the Book of Mormon like crazy and always have amazing thoughts and questions whenever we meet. It is so cool. Before her interview, we were going over a few things with Alice and we were discussing about repentance. When we talked about how repentance precedes baptism and asked her if she feels like she's been repenting of her past sins, she just kept nodding and saying yes. The Spirit was immediately there, and I felt this overwhelming joy and goodness in my heart. The gospel of Jesus Christ truly does change people. Alice was meeting with missionaries for several months and has gone through a lot, so it was really special to see her get baptized. When she was bearing her testimony, she shared about how much peace and joy the gospel has brought her, and how keeping the commandments and reading the Book of Mormon has blessed her life so much. It was one of the best experiences that I've had on my mission.
 |
| Out in Kumusha (rural area) with Elder Williams and Elder Tuimaseve |
My spiritual thought will be short this week. It comes from CS Lewis: "We can say we believe in Christ as we believe in the sun at noon day, not because we can see it, but that by it, we can see everything else." I know that the Savior lives, but not because I have seen Him or heard His voice. I know because through His Atonement and gospel, I have become a better person and I am filled with hope and joy. I am so grateful to be able to spread the gospel and help others to see the world through Christ!
Sorry that this is another brief email, but I hope I provided a sufficient summary of the week! I love you all, have a great week!!
Love Elder Barlow
PS Also, our mission will be having a special zone conference with Elder Hamilton next Monday, so my preparation day will be on Tuesday next week! So don't stress out if I don't email on Monday haha
No comments:
Post a Comment