May 29, 2017 - Learning As We Go

Hatcliffe

Hey everyone!!

I hope everybody has had a good week. Everything is going pretty well here in Zimbabwe, nothing really to complain of. We had some pretty cool experiences this week. That's the wonderful thing about being a missionary: it's never boring!

Hatcliffe

This week Elder Horton and I spent a lot of time finding new investigators. When I came to Hatcliffe, our teaching pool was incredibly small, so we've done our best to build it back up. We found 14 new people to teach this week! It's funny because those 14 come out of talking to about 100 people. Here in Zim, everyone wants to learn more about the Bible and about Christ, but few truly understand our purpose as missionaries, which is to help them become converted unto the Lord through repentance and baptism. Hopefully these new people will be blessed with that understanding. It's always fun to talk to strangers! They call us mafia all the time, which is not what we are haha. There are so many good people here and I love how we have the time to say hello to everyone we pass on the street.

On Thursday I taught an entire lesson in Shona!! That was really stressful and really hard, but so cool. Elder Horton taught while I translated for our investigator and it worked out ok! I have been blessed to get to know the language pretty well. I don't speak it completely fluently, but most people we meet say I speak perfect Shona. It is a blessing to make friends and create smiles as we talk to people in Shona. 

Spencer and Nield family

That night we had the amazing opportunity to have dinner with the Spencer's and their family. If anyone knows of Reeve Nield, she is a relative and was also there. They are such amazing people. We had a delicious dinner and talked about missionary work and the charity/relief work that Reeve and her organization have been doing. The Spirit was very strong and it was a wonderful evening. They are a very interesting and cool family and we loved the experience.

Sister Gutu was baptized on Saturday!! She is so powerful and so happy all the time. Her little kids are adorable and love to play with the varungu. It was a great experience for Elder Horton and I. We had a ton of appointments fall through this weekend, which was unfortunate, but we didn't waste any time and we contacted tons of people. As missionaries, we don't always reap the harvest, but we definitely take part in sowing the seeds of conversion.

Sister Gutu's baptism

Sunday was great as well. Our ward is super powerful and the members are very strong. It's been uplifting to be in this area so far. Haha Elder Horton has a couple of board games with him, so we've been playing those a lot. Watch out everyone, when I come home I'll roast everyone in Settlers of Catan. We also made cake and homemade mac n' cheese, so that's been an adventure. As a missionary, you learn all kinds of things about the gospel, about the world, and about yourself. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have been given to grow, even though it has been hard sometimes. The refiner's fire is always hot, but when we endure, we emerge better than we were before!

Have an awesome week everybody!!

Love Elder Barlow

Can you find the snake???