Hey friends and family!!
No worries, I am doing fine and so are the other missionaries. We are all safe and the situation right now is pretty peaceful. Thank you for your prayers on our behalf and for the people of Zimbabwe!!
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| Elder Magoha called this picture, The kiwa and his disciples. I laughed pretty hard |
This email will probably be a little bit shorter just because we didn't do as much thanks to the circumstances here (which most of you probably understand much better than I do). On Wednesday I was on exchanges with Elder Tuimaseve and we were just beginning our personal study when we get a text: don't go out and proselyte today, stay indoors. We had no idea what was happening, so we basically proceeded to have the most boring day ever. We cooked some food, played the ukulele, and read the scriptures a LOT. You can imagine our excitement when they told us that we could go back to teaching the gospel on Thursday. I'm grateful that things are peaceful right now and that we can continue doing the Lord's work.
On Thursday we taught Nonceba, Natalie, and Charmiso again. They had a TON of questions about the restoration, but they were more argumentative and they kept overreacting as if they didn't really want the answers. Eventually the Spirit took over and we were able to teach and testify. We read from the introduction to the Book of Mormon together. Charmiso was reading and she got to the end of the second paragraph where it says that the Lamanites are among the ancestors of the Native Americans. When she got to the word "ancestors" she looked up in horror. It was one of those things where you try to stop something in slow motion. Of course, all three girls started freaking out because they thought ancestors referred to ancestral spirit worship. We spent like 10 minutes trying to set the record straight, and it was super frustrating. We even used a thesaurus they had laying around. Finally we got them to commit to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. I don't know how these people would react if they came to the USA during Memorial Day. Natalie unfortunately refused to take the Book of Mormon, which made us kind of sad. Hopefully someday she'll have the desire to search for a testimony of it.
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| The area |
We also got to teach Netsai this week. She's Perseverance's cousin-sister and we met her a few weeks ago. She's only about 20 years old, but she had 3 kids under 3 years old from 2 different fathers. She's busy and stressed and has a lot of trust issues, but has a fun personality. We were able to meet with her and introduce our message to her. We testified about how the gospel blesses families, and she started telling us how she does not want to get married because of the situations that she's been in. However, we explained and bore testimony about how marriage and family are ordained of God and how He opens doors for those who are faithful. I can't wait to keep teaching her because I know how much this gospel can bless her and give her hope. The gospel of Jesus Christ is all about hope and peace. Our problems won't just disappear, but we will have the strength that we need to get through them and become the people that we have the potential to be!
We had a unique experience with Andile and her family this week. We finally met her father. Our first meeting with him was very unique, in the fact that he stumbled in heavily intoxicated. He basically told us it's ok to teach his family, in a very sluggish manner, and we almost had a misunderstanding about him thinking that my companion wanted to marry Andile. Oh boy. Our second meeting was much better. He was sober and listened to the lesson that we taught. I really hope that he might find a desire to change and be an even better father to his family. The gospel is all about repenting and progressing, changing who we are to follow the Savior, and I testify that there's hope in the cleansing power of His Atonement, no matter what we struggle with.
I'm making progress with the language! We went to visit Martha, an older woman who came up to us and asked us how to join the Church. Unfortunately, she only speaks Ndebele and hardly any English. However, I was able to have a short conversation with her in Ndebele and I told her what time the church starts and how the people at church speak Ndebele and can communicate with her. Then lo and behold, she came to church! Score one for the kiwa!! (or more accurately, for the Holy Ghost because I can't take credit)
We met Marvellous this week, a 14 year old girl who's older sisters once met the missionaries some years back. She's super awesome and actually keeps her word. She was one of the 13 investigators we had at church on Sunday!! It was incredible. We watched an area broadcast from several of the church leaders and it was really inspiring. All the counsel was specifically for Africa and God's love for this beautiful continent was constantly expressed. It was an awesome experience. We had a lesson with Andile, Diana, and Janet after the service and it was super awesome! We're hoping to baptize all three of them along with Munashe and possibly a few others this week. The Lord has really placed some amazing people in our path and I'm so grateful for all that He has done for us and for the people we meet.
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| Soccer today |
Today we played soccer and rugby with the other missionaries, some members, and their friends. It was a lot of fun and we were able to meet some great new people and have fun playing sports. We have quite the busy week ahead and we have our work cut out for us, so I'm sure I'll have much more to talk about next week! I love you all and I love this work!! Have a fantastic week!
Love Elder Barlow
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| Cool rain shot |
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