Makadii Week 73!

Hello family and friends!

Another normal week for us, with lots of driving for baptismal interviews in the zone, exchanges, teaching and a baptism for 2 of our investigators. We ended the month of June with 4 baptisms in Eastview, and the zone had a great week with 28 baptisms to end the month. The total for the month in the zone was 54 baptisms and 51 confirmations. We seem to be very consistently around 50 baptisms, and have been for the past 3 month. Our two baptisms were for Shania and Nomsa, the two younger sisters of our recent converts Samantha and Vida. It has been fun to see them open up to us and the gospel, and to see how it is blessing them. After the baptism they even stayed to helped us clean the chapel on Saturday, because no one else was there to help. It was neat to see that! :) We are very thankful to have those baptisms, especially after all of our struggles we have found.

An update for my mission: In 17 months, my companions and I have now helped 90 people be baptized and confirmed members of the church here in Zimbabwe. I am thankful for my Savior and my Heavenly father for blessing me with so much success. All of the people behind that number were truly gifts from God, and all of them were prepared by Him. I owe everything to Him, we all do.

Because of the struggles we have had we decided to fast on Saturday and pray for help. During the week on exchanges, while I was working with Elder Hanson (from Washington State), we met a really awesome guy while we were visiting a part member family. His name is Augustine. I didn't think much of him at first, because everyone will listen to us, but not many will actually commit to what we teach. On the day we fasted, Elder Whiting and I went back to teach him again, and we found out that he is one of the most prepared and humble people ever. He loved the message of the Restoration and accepted all we taught him. He wouldn't let Elder Whiting finish his baptismal invitation before he said yes and committed to a date in July. He promised to walk with us to church and on Sunday morning he as well as his friend, our less active member Br. Bikoko were ready for us, dressed up in their suits. They came, and he loved church. We are really hoping that he can continue to progress. We will be doing our best to not let him fall through the cracks. It was a miracle for us! He was one of 2 investigators at church for us, and is the only one that is progressing in our area. He reminds me a lot about of a recent convert that I baptized in Chegutu named Mathias. Super prepared for the truth. The blessings will come from our fasting, prayers, and humility! 

Today we had some fun at a members house with a pancake breakfast (eggs and bacon included), basketball, American football, tennis, ping-pong, and rugby. It was the first time on my whole mission that I had real salsa. It was nice to have some fun to start off the last week of the transfer! This is the start of Week 6, and on Saturday we will find out what will change in the mission for next transfer. I am about to begin my 13th transfer and I have no idea what will happen to me. Whatever happens I will be ok! :) I will let you know next week.

Another thing of note: A member of the branch had a house fire during church and luckily his neighbors put it out before it got out of hand. Only a small part of the house was burned, so it could have been much worse. It was cool to see some of the branch members put everything aside to help the family clean up soon after church and get the house back in order. It was also cool to help out and make it a bit easier for the family after the fire.

I love you all and encourage you to serve your friends, family and neighbors as often as possible. Service is required for us to become more like the Savior! Have an awesome week. Sending my love from Africa! :)