Salibonani Week 47!

Hello Everyone! How'z it? I hope you all had a wonderful week and a blessed Christmas day! :)

Things are going well here, and 2016 is about to come to an end. I basically have 1 more year and some weeks left in Zimbabwe, and time is starting to fly by. I'm about to hit 13.1 miles on this mission marathon. We are doing our best to help people in our area, and we actually had some investigators come to church for the first time yesterday. We will see what the future holds. :) I attended the Christmas party/devotional for both Luveve and Gwabalanda this week, and I even played my guitar and sang a bit for them. It was fun to sing carols and be together.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were both fun for us here. We went out to eat, played some cards, made pancakes, bacon and eggs, and skyped our families back home! It was such a blessing to see and talk to my immediate and extended family even though they are so far away. The blessings of technology! :) I am excited to see them again in about 5 months on Mother's Day. 2 skypes down, 2 more to go! 

I had a great time giving out gift bags to some of the kids here throughout the week. They loved them, and it was cool to see how it made their Christmas. It was a cool experience for me. Thanks to my family for putting it together! :)

I don't have much to say this week. Things are "Zimbabwe normal" here right now, so nothing too crazy to report. I am excited for 2017, and I am trusting the Lord to help me get through it! 

Enjoy all the blessings that come from following Jesus Christ this holiday season, and enjoy the last week of 2016! I love and miss you all, wherever you may be. :)

Go Pokes! Go Celtics! Happy New Year shamwari!

Salibonani Week 46!

Yebo! Merry Christmas everyone!

I don't have much to say this week, so it will be a little short.

It was another busy busy week as a ZL in Bulawayo! We ended up having a baptism for a guy named Narald, who coincidentally was born of the 8th of March like me, just a year later in 1997. I thought that was pretty cool. He lives in Emakhandeni, but we continue to help them out even though they have no missionaries. We also got to help out with the baptism of a child of record in Gwabalanda named Michelle! It was cool because the mother was fairly less active, and we got her to come back to church because of the daughter getting baptized. We are having major struggles in our area getting people to come to church and really commit to what we are teaching them, but we are doing our best to work hard and work smart. I know that something will come through for us soon. The Lord will always bless us for our hard work and sacrifice! We have a ward Christmas party, and a joint ward sacrament meeting on Christmas day.

It has been raining like crazy here this week. Almost every day it has rained a least a little bit. The water situation is much better now, and the bond notes really haven't affected us missionaries much at all. The rain has made it tough to wash clothes and let them dry outside. One stressful thing is that one day this week, while it was pouring rain outside, we got two flat tires at the same time! Luckily, a guy was driving by and helped us out. One thing that I love about the people here is that they are willing to help others. :)

I love you all so much and I wish you all a wonderful week leading up to Christmas Day! Wherever you may be, remember the Savior this Christmas.

Nisale kahle! :) Go Pokes! Merry Christmas!

Salibonani Week 45!

Yebo! How'z it everyone!? :)

This week has been the busiest week on my mission so far! With transfers happening, missionaries traveling all over the country, and a Christmas Devotional, I was very stressed making sure all of the zone members were taken care of. I am sure glad that all of them are settled, and that things will most likely calm down the next few weeks! It is kind of nice to have some other missionaries living with us, I always have someone else to talk to.

Elder Twikala is a sweet guy, and this is indeed his last transfer. He is a super talented artist (he draws and paints) and he has a girl waiting for him when he gets home! haha :) I will enjoy being with him for his last transfer! He was studying architecture when he was home, so I think thats what he wants to do when he goes back. He is also fairly old, around the same age as Milikafu and Njoga. 

Christmas time has arrived, and they celebrate it here too! The only difference is that there is no snow. Even if I am in Africa, I still love the Christmas season, no matter where I may be for it. We had a good Zone Conference/Christmas devotional in Gweru this week, and we got to watch the First Presidency Devotional. President Eyring was so right, this time of year really does brings us peace. We had a gift exchange, and I ended up with a light blue tie, so that's a plus! A lot of Americans put in candy from back home that was sent to them. haha :) My 'son' Elder Makalio is still in Chegutu, and he is training a new missionary, Elder Whittier. I got to see them at the devotional! I now have a grandson on my mission, I am for sure a Sekuru now. :)

As far as teaching, and bringing people to church, I am not finding as much success here in Bulawayo as I did in Harare and Chegutu. Elder Twikala and I are doing our best with the time we have been given. We have a few people that we are working with, and hopefully be baptising in the near future. Zone Leaders, especially here in Bulwayo are always running around helping the other missionaries in the zone. so we don't always get as much time finding and teaching as we want. That's our job though! We gotta do what we gotta do! :)

I am thankful for all of you, and I wish all of you a blessed holiday season. You all have so much to be grateful for. I hope you can all remember the Savior this Christmas time! :)

I love you all!

Go Pokes!

Salibonani Week 44!

Happy Holidays y'all! :)

Things are going well here in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. The transfer news came out this past weekend, and I am staying right where I am at. Elder Njoga has been transferred after serving almost 5 months as a ZL here in Blues, he is going to be a ZL in a place called Mutare, on the opposite side of the country. I am thankful for the things I learned from him, and I am excited to continue to lead the zone! Two new areas have opened here with the addition of new missionaries in the mission, and I will now only be working in Gwabalanda, not Luveve. Luveve Branch will be having their own missionaries, and I am excited to see how that branch will improve. My new companion's name is Elder Twikala. All I know is that he is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the middle of Africa. He has been a ZL for some time, and this new transfer or next transfer is his last on his mission. He is going home soon, so I will most likely be "killing" another missionary. My third! haha :) I am excited to get to be his last companion and to help him 'die' strong. Things are really looking up in the zone, and I am excited for the changes that are happening.

We do have some new Elders being trained in the Zone, Elder Horton and Elder Johnson. I am glad that I will be here to help them adjust. They have some good trainers, so things will go well for them. The house I have been living in with Elder Njoga will be receiving two new elders, and we will be very cramped. The good news is that we will get to know each other super well! I am excited to be with Elder Gordon again! He is going to be living with me and Elder Twikala, as well as Elder Aden. It will be a fun, and interesting transfer. There were so many changes in the mission this transfer! Almost every ZL companionship was changed and there are lots of people getting moved around. I love seeing the number of missionaries rise each transfer, the mission is on its way!

We got to help an 8 year old boy, Sibusiso, get baptized this week. That was a plus! All of our baptisms from last week were able to be confirmed this week. I am still getting to know Gwabalanda myself, and will be working hard to find some new people to bring to church. I hope we can help them progress!

The Bulawayo Zone, Gweru Zone, and Kwekwe Zone will be meeting up this week Friday for a Christmas devotional in Gweru! I am excited for that! We are having a gift exchange and each Zone is supposed to sing a Christmas hymn, so I will be in charge of that as well! The ZL life is never boring! :) 

I am so grateful and thankful for all of you. Please know that you will be in my heart and mind this holiday season. I love you all wherever you may be! :)

Go Pokes, Go Celtics! Nisale Kahle! Musari zvakanaka mhuri ne shamwari dzangu! :)