Hey Family, how is it?
I can't lie this week has been somewhat xing. We have been dominated by rain and on Thursday we had a specialized training (which was a very good training and we got to eat at a nice resturaunt afterwards) but it really took a toll on our work. Then on Saturday we went to a wedding for the 1st councilor in the bishopric (he and his wife are on their way to South Africa to be sealed now) but then we got a call telling us that we needed to be in Marimba Park at the stake center right then. So we didn't get very many lessons this week, between the rain and the meetings. It just made things hard.
Sister Gondokondo is just a sister who lives in the area. She definetly has taken us under her wing. She feeds us at least every Sunday and sometimes even more. She and her family also give us many referrals and their referrals tend to get baptized because of how powerful they are. Yes I do know Elder Clark. I know him quite well. He is my district leader, and I am even in his old area. Though only in half of it because the area was split in the transfer that I got to Zimbabwe. We actually went on exchanges on Friday and I worked with him. We went and taught one of the referrals from the Gondokondo's and when Elder Clark walked in the door at their home Sister Gondokondo was so happy because I hadn't told her that he was coming. I wanted to surprise her. It was quite funny. And yes the Elder Clark in the pictures is the same one. He was even the one that was chased by the baboons with me.
I'm glad that you were able to go to Elder Roberts' homecoming. He is such a powerful guy. I enjoyed my time with him a lot. That's funny how he got pulled over for driving on the left side of the road. Though I probably shouldn't laugh too hard because that will probably happen to me. He sent me the picture of you and him at the church. That is cool.
Stake Conference was good. President and Sister Dube both came and spoke. They know many of the members because when he was Stake President there was only one stake in Harare so he knows many people. The theme of the conference was 2 Nephi 31:20. The speakers did a very good job and I know that many people were touched by the Spirit. The family that stopped us is doing quite well. We are now teaching two of the children as well as the mother. We hope to have them prepared for the 19th of March. Hardly anyone has cars because not only can they not afford the car, but most of them can't afford the license. So yes most people use public transport. It took forever to get transport back to Glenview after Conference. We came to the conference with a guy named Taurai. We have been teaching him for about a month now and the only thing that needs to happen for him to be baptized is for him to come to church the next few weeks. He used to be a rasta guy and he is well known for it. So when people saw him walking with us and carrying his Book of Mormon they were very surprised to see him as a "church goer". When we taught him the Word of Wisdom, he told us that he had a problem with drinking. So I helped him set some goals to quit, emphasizing on prayer and the Book of Mormon, and since that day he hasn't had a single beer. That was around two weeks ago. I am excited for him, and I think that he is quite excited as well.
The baby that I was holding is named Tapiwa. He is the son of one of the members in the ward. We were at their house for FHE and so I played with him for a while. He is the coolest little kid. His uncle, Terrence Nheredzo, just left on Thursday for his mission in Kenya. He is a good guy and will do well. I received the rain coat and pants last week. Just in time too since it rained on us every day last week. It is much better than that other one. It works very well maita basa. I also received Nicole and Ali's "Christmas Present" as well as Nicole's Valentines Day package also maita basa. I'm glad that you liked the pictures. I'm going to get a picture of one of the roads so that you will understand the joke that I'm about to tell you.
Here is the joke. "How do you tell the difference between a drunk driver and a sober driver in Harare?" The drunk driver is the one going straight. The pot holes here are ridiculous. So a sober driver goes in zig zags trying to protect the car.
I got the soccer jersey because it is so hot and it was light weight and breathes well. It was just a cheap $5 jersey. I am actually getting a black elephant skin belt from a leather worker in Buluwayo. He does a lot of work for the missionaries so he comes to Harare every once in a while. Next time he comes he will have it for me. Most of the native missionaries like to go the the game parks as well because they really don't see those things all that often since many of the animals are in the game parks and many of them couldn't afford to go.
Well that's all for now, have a good week. You are in my prayers.
Love,
Elder Cecil
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
So I will start with an explanation about what has been happening the last few weeks. The week that I didn't send one we were at the internet shop and the internet connection was lost while I was typing the email to you. So I just continued to type in hopes that the connections would come back by the time I finished. But it didn't so we decided to save the email on Elder Hales's flash drive so that I could send it last week. But then when we tried to pull up the email on the flash it came up with all of these crazy symbols and things. But part of the draft saved so I retyped it and that is the one you got last week. I then proceeded to type another email and while it was trying to send it the time ran out and so it didn't send. When that happened we were about to head to the house of the bishop of the Highlands ward to go have a party for Elder Roberts so I didn't have time to get back on and resend it. Then today when I got on I was going to send it but the draft was completely gone. I hope that you will forgive me.
So to answer a few of your questions now. They do celebrate Valentine's Day here but it is not near as big of a thing here as it is there. It is more like they mention it to each other but that is the end of it. When we contact people it is when we speak to them on the street or in the markets and invite them to come to church while sharing something to hopefully spark an interest. Most missions only have to contact like 10. It is difficult but we manage. When President Dube gave us the challenge even the APs were shocked. When it rains hard here and we ride our bikes in rivers the houses don't flood because they don't have basements and they are built like at least a foot and a half above the ground.
We had transfers this week, I'm staying in Glenview with Elder Sefatsa. So it will be good. We now know the main part of our area fairly well so we are starting to branch out a little bit. We had three baptisms on Saturday. All three were referrals from members and all three were fairly young. One was our Ward Mission Leader's daughter, Greshan Chamunorwa, she is 11. The next was the son of a recent convert from September, Tatenda Mavhiki, he is 13. Then the last one is the neighbor to our mom in the area Sister Gondokondo. His name is Ashley Benura. He is 14. They progressed very quickly so it was good. The baptisms went very well, but Tatenda got sick so he couldn't get confirmed but the other two got confirmed as well as Dexter from a few weeks ago. Next week is Stake Conference so Tatenda will have to wait 2 weeks to be confirmed. While we were starting to branch out this week we had one of those really cool experiences that was definitely divine intervention. We have been teaching these guys that stayed close to us but then they moved to part of our area where we have never been so we called them one day and set a time to go to their place. While we were in the area after finding out the address was wrong and thinking that we had just wasted an hour we were stopped by this family as we rode by. The father had been baptized in South Africa a few months ago but the mother was still living in Zimbabwe. She had been living in Buluwayo which is like a five hour drive from Glenview and was about to be baptized on the 13th but then the father came back and she had to come here. We set a time to meet them and have now seen them twice. They were even at church yesterday which is a difficult thing for them because the father has a heart condition and they stay far from the church. It made us very happy to see them. Devote, the girl who we could only teach on Sundays left for Buluwayo this week just before her baptism, I hope that she will get a hold of the missionaries there. We have been told that Shelton will be back by the end of the month so we can continue to teach him. But we have also been teaching his older brother, Stanley, who was going to get baptized on Saturday but he got a call on Wednesday that his aunt died so he had to go to her funeral. So we moved it back to the 5th of March.
I think that my rain coat and pants are at the office, have three packages there so I will see later. I got a Valentine's Day card with $5 in it from Brother and Sister Wood. As soon as I get envelopes I will send them a thank you note. But you can tell them that I really appreciate it. Well that is all I have for today, I hope that all is well at home, you are in my prayers.
Love,
Elder Cecil
So to answer a few of your questions now. They do celebrate Valentine's Day here but it is not near as big of a thing here as it is there. It is more like they mention it to each other but that is the end of it. When we contact people it is when we speak to them on the street or in the markets and invite them to come to church while sharing something to hopefully spark an interest. Most missions only have to contact like 10. It is difficult but we manage. When President Dube gave us the challenge even the APs were shocked. When it rains hard here and we ride our bikes in rivers the houses don't flood because they don't have basements and they are built like at least a foot and a half above the ground.
We had transfers this week, I'm staying in Glenview with Elder Sefatsa. So it will be good. We now know the main part of our area fairly well so we are starting to branch out a little bit. We had three baptisms on Saturday. All three were referrals from members and all three were fairly young. One was our Ward Mission Leader's daughter, Greshan Chamunorwa, she is 11. The next was the son of a recent convert from September, Tatenda Mavhiki, he is 13. Then the last one is the neighbor to our mom in the area Sister Gondokondo. His name is Ashley Benura. He is 14. They progressed very quickly so it was good. The baptisms went very well, but Tatenda got sick so he couldn't get confirmed but the other two got confirmed as well as Dexter from a few weeks ago. Next week is Stake Conference so Tatenda will have to wait 2 weeks to be confirmed. While we were starting to branch out this week we had one of those really cool experiences that was definitely divine intervention. We have been teaching these guys that stayed close to us but then they moved to part of our area where we have never been so we called them one day and set a time to go to their place. While we were in the area after finding out the address was wrong and thinking that we had just wasted an hour we were stopped by this family as we rode by. The father had been baptized in South Africa a few months ago but the mother was still living in Zimbabwe. She had been living in Buluwayo which is like a five hour drive from Glenview and was about to be baptized on the 13th but then the father came back and she had to come here. We set a time to meet them and have now seen them twice. They were even at church yesterday which is a difficult thing for them because the father has a heart condition and they stay far from the church. It made us very happy to see them. Devote, the girl who we could only teach on Sundays left for Buluwayo this week just before her baptism, I hope that she will get a hold of the missionaries there. We have been told that Shelton will be back by the end of the month so we can continue to teach him. But we have also been teaching his older brother, Stanley, who was going to get baptized on Saturday but he got a call on Wednesday that his aunt died so he had to go to her funeral. So we moved it back to the 5th of March.
I think that my rain coat and pants are at the office, have three packages there so I will see later. I got a Valentine's Day card with $5 in it from Brother and Sister Wood. As soon as I get envelopes I will send them a thank you note. But you can tell them that I really appreciate it. Well that is all I have for today, I hope that all is well at home, you are in my prayers.
Love,
Elder Cecil
Monday, February 14, 2011
Mangwanani (good morning) Family,
This week has been pretty good. The baptisms didn't go exactly as planned. Shelton is still away, what happened is his mother was sick so she came her to go to the hospital and he went there to take care of the place there. Devote, the one who we thought wouldn't be ready because we could only teacher her on Sundays was in Chitungwiza and couldn't make it back so she will be baptized on the 19th. The other girl, Samantha who was supposed to get baptized wasn't ready so we need to continue working with her. But we did have one get baptized yesterday after church, his name is Dexter. He is a really good guy, he is 18 but his English is really a struggle for his but he always reads and comes to church. It was a nice baptism, and we even have a real baptismal font here.
The Lion and Cheetah Park was so much fun. Our entire Zone piled into a big Urvan so that we could stay together. The lions were so cool. We just drove through this caged area that was like their natural habitat and we got to take pictures and we even drove right next to one that was gigantic. If it would have swung its paw at the Urvan it could have done some damage to it. Then we went to a place that we could get out and walk around. There was this huge turtle that was 300 years old. His name was Tommy, we got to touch him and take pictures with him. His head felt so cool. There was a bunch of other caged lions that were around the area. There was some little baby lions that were only 2 months old. If you paid $5 you could go in their cage and even play with them. They were so much fun, we quite enjoyed playing with them. It was well worth the $5. There were many other animals in some other cages. The cheetah was kind of lame since it was caged and just sat and looked at us. But there was a hyena that was pretty cool. Then there was the baboons. They weren't in a cage except for the old baba because they said he was quite dangerous. But me and Elder Clark, our district leader, decided that we were going to go and hold the little baby baboons because they looked fun. The adults, however, didn't like us getting close to them so they freaked out and came after us. So we ran like crazy. Our zone leader, Elder Murdoch, said he thought one grabbed my foot because it was right behind me and I kind of stumbled. But as any normal person would do we decided that we would try again, but this time be sneaky about it. We were about to pick them up when the baby freaked out and the adults came again, and chased us even farther. It was awesome. We then went and drove through the rest of the park seeing some zebras and wildebeests and ostriches. I even saw Pumba and his family. The Elder Hales went and caused a stampede with the zebras and wildebeests, which of course was quite powerful. All in all it was a powerful Zone Activity.
That's great that those guys have been doing well in wrestling. I am happy for them. Also it is good that you are getting some things done at the school I hope that all goes well.
Love,
Elder Cecil
This week has been pretty good. The baptisms didn't go exactly as planned. Shelton is still away, what happened is his mother was sick so she came her to go to the hospital and he went there to take care of the place there. Devote, the one who we thought wouldn't be ready because we could only teacher her on Sundays was in Chitungwiza and couldn't make it back so she will be baptized on the 19th. The other girl, Samantha who was supposed to get baptized wasn't ready so we need to continue working with her. But we did have one get baptized yesterday after church, his name is Dexter. He is a really good guy, he is 18 but his English is really a struggle for his but he always reads and comes to church. It was a nice baptism, and we even have a real baptismal font here.
The Lion and Cheetah Park was so much fun. Our entire Zone piled into a big Urvan so that we could stay together. The lions were so cool. We just drove through this caged area that was like their natural habitat and we got to take pictures and we even drove right next to one that was gigantic. If it would have swung its paw at the Urvan it could have done some damage to it. Then we went to a place that we could get out and walk around. There was this huge turtle that was 300 years old. His name was Tommy, we got to touch him and take pictures with him. His head felt so cool. There was a bunch of other caged lions that were around the area. There was some little baby lions that were only 2 months old. If you paid $5 you could go in their cage and even play with them. They were so much fun, we quite enjoyed playing with them. It was well worth the $5. There were many other animals in some other cages. The cheetah was kind of lame since it was caged and just sat and looked at us. But there was a hyena that was pretty cool. Then there was the baboons. They weren't in a cage except for the old baba because they said he was quite dangerous. But me and Elder Clark, our district leader, decided that we were going to go and hold the little baby baboons because they looked fun. The adults, however, didn't like us getting close to them so they freaked out and came after us. So we ran like crazy. Our zone leader, Elder Murdoch, said he thought one grabbed my foot because it was right behind me and I kind of stumbled. But as any normal person would do we decided that we would try again, but this time be sneaky about it. We were about to pick them up when the baby freaked out and the adults came again, and chased us even farther. It was awesome. We then went and drove through the rest of the park seeing some zebras and wildebeests and ostriches. I even saw Pumba and his family. The Elder Hales went and caused a stampede with the zebras and wildebeests, which of course was quite powerful. All in all it was a powerful Zone Activity.
That's great that those guys have been doing well in wrestling. I am happy for them. Also it is good that you are getting some things done at the school I hope that all goes well.
Love,
Elder Cecil
Monday, February 7, 2011
No real email this week :(
But he sent me a quick one that said he would have loved to be at the Aggie basketball game last week with Wild Bill as the teapot. And for those of you that know "F", he said he got some funny looks as he laughed out loud at her latest antics.
That's it. Better get a good one next week!
But he sent me a quick one that said he would have loved to be at the Aggie basketball game last week with Wild Bill as the teapot. And for those of you that know "F", he said he got some funny looks as he laughed out loud at her latest antics.
That's it. Better get a good one next week!
Ali got a short email too. This MUST be shared:
Funny story about the Lion and Cheetah Park. I actually did get chased by some baboons this time, not joking. Me and a guy named Elder Clark were going to try and hold the little baby baboons and the adult ones didn't like that too much so we actually were chased by them. It was scary but of course we had to try again so then they got really mad and chased us even farther. It was so much fun. Also speaking of turtles, we saw this massive 300 year old turtle named Tommy, his head felt so cool. Also I know a few missionaries who have clicks in their names. But where I am right now people only speak Shona. But there is some places where clicks are used.
Peace out.
Funny story about the Lion and Cheetah Park. I actually did get chased by some baboons this time, not joking. Me and a guy named Elder Clark were going to try and hold the little baby baboons and the adult ones didn't like that too much so we actually were chased by them. It was scary but of course we had to try again so then they got really mad and chased us even farther. It was so much fun. Also speaking of turtles, we saw this massive 300 year old turtle named Tommy, his head felt so cool. Also I know a few missionaries who have clicks in their names. But where I am right now people only speak Shona. But there is some places where clicks are used.
Peace out.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Sorry I wasn't able to write to you yesterday, we had Zone Conference and I forgot to tell you last week. We were given a new theme for the year. "Cast our into the deep, twofold." Meaning that we need to fish in new water and double our efforts. One of the ways that we have to double our efforts is how many contacts we get each day. It used to be 20 each day but now it is 40. Each companionship was to get 280 contacts a week, now it is 560. President Dube promised us that we would see a big increase in the work.
Yes the picture with the other missionaries was at the temple, the reason I was looking at the camera was because I didn't think that it was working, then it took the picture. But we didn't have time to do it again because we had to go to our session. The picture with Elder Dube was at the MTC. It is just inside the main entryway.
I probably won't send the card with Elder Roberts. We have found another place that we can send a few pictures at a time so I will be able to send them sometimes. You don't need to print the pictures and send them to me, there is a place we can print them for very cheap. Today I couldn't send you pictures because we are going to the Lion and Cheetah Park today so we had to email at the mall so we could all meet at the same place. I did get the package from Kim and Scott, tell them that I really appreciate it. The reason I don't know if I have received things yet is because we email before we go to the office. But I do know that I have a package today I just don't know who it is form.
Also Mom, it is Landon Abbott, not Jordan. Jordan is the older one. But you are right that they are wrong, the Zimbabwe Harare Mission is the most powerful mission.
Shelton is still on track to be baptized on Saturday, we haven't seen him since Friday but that is because he has been out of town. We will only have 4 baptized on Saturday though. The one girl I mentioned will be baptized but two of the others won't. One of them is a 14 year old kid named Ashley (you will find that I have met several males named Ashley) that will get baptized but he just isn't ready yet because we only get to see him on weekends because of his school. The other is ready but her husband randomly decided that they were going to move. He isn't against her being baptized or anything like that, but he just decided that they were going to move so they are gone, and there are no missionaries where they went. Sister Mhlanga, the less-active, came to church on Sunday with her sister who just happened to be the other less-active that we were seeing. The sister has been at church the last couple of weeks and wasn't hard to get to come but Sister Mhlanga was very scared about what the other members would say. But the members welcomed her as if she were a family member that they hadn't seen in a while, it was wonderful to see. I have now had a complete conversation in Shona. I contacted this guy and we talked completely in Shona. I have no idea what we said anymore but I could understand and reply in very simple terms. It was powerful.
The rainy seasons last until around April or May. This week we were dominated by rain three days in a row. One day it rained so hard that we had to stay inside a member's house for 3 hours because it wasn't safe to go out. When we finally left the water came up to the pedal on our bike that is on the bottom when you pedal. It was crazy. I would have taken a picture if it wasn't still raining. I haven't seen or heard about any political unrest here in Zimbabwe but I have heard about some in Tunisa and Egypt.
I'm glad that you were able to help out Coach Jeff. I am sure he really appreciates the work. I am sending him a letter as soon as I can find envelopes. They are short in supply. I have a few letters in which that is the case.
I hope all is well at home and I love you all.
Love,
Elder Cecil
Yes the picture with the other missionaries was at the temple, the reason I was looking at the camera was because I didn't think that it was working, then it took the picture. But we didn't have time to do it again because we had to go to our session. The picture with Elder Dube was at the MTC. It is just inside the main entryway.
I probably won't send the card with Elder Roberts. We have found another place that we can send a few pictures at a time so I will be able to send them sometimes. You don't need to print the pictures and send them to me, there is a place we can print them for very cheap. Today I couldn't send you pictures because we are going to the Lion and Cheetah Park today so we had to email at the mall so we could all meet at the same place. I did get the package from Kim and Scott, tell them that I really appreciate it. The reason I don't know if I have received things yet is because we email before we go to the office. But I do know that I have a package today I just don't know who it is form.
Also Mom, it is Landon Abbott, not Jordan. Jordan is the older one. But you are right that they are wrong, the Zimbabwe Harare Mission is the most powerful mission.
Shelton is still on track to be baptized on Saturday, we haven't seen him since Friday but that is because he has been out of town. We will only have 4 baptized on Saturday though. The one girl I mentioned will be baptized but two of the others won't. One of them is a 14 year old kid named Ashley (you will find that I have met several males named Ashley) that will get baptized but he just isn't ready yet because we only get to see him on weekends because of his school. The other is ready but her husband randomly decided that they were going to move. He isn't against her being baptized or anything like that, but he just decided that they were going to move so they are gone, and there are no missionaries where they went. Sister Mhlanga, the less-active, came to church on Sunday with her sister who just happened to be the other less-active that we were seeing. The sister has been at church the last couple of weeks and wasn't hard to get to come but Sister Mhlanga was very scared about what the other members would say. But the members welcomed her as if she were a family member that they hadn't seen in a while, it was wonderful to see. I have now had a complete conversation in Shona. I contacted this guy and we talked completely in Shona. I have no idea what we said anymore but I could understand and reply in very simple terms. It was powerful.
The rainy seasons last until around April or May. This week we were dominated by rain three days in a row. One day it rained so hard that we had to stay inside a member's house for 3 hours because it wasn't safe to go out. When we finally left the water came up to the pedal on our bike that is on the bottom when you pedal. It was crazy. I would have taken a picture if it wasn't still raining. I haven't seen or heard about any political unrest here in Zimbabwe but I have heard about some in Tunisa and Egypt.
I'm glad that you were able to help out Coach Jeff. I am sure he really appreciates the work. I am sending him a letter as soon as I can find envelopes. They are short in supply. I have a few letters in which that is the case.
I hope all is well at home and I love you all.
Love,
Elder Cecil
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