Getting Acquainted With Harare and Zimbabwe

Our 16 hour flight to Zimbabwe was long (from Thursday morning to late Friday night), but it was better than expected.  From Atlanta to Johannesburg we sat by a lady who was a former bureau chief for NBC news and later Al Jazeera in Africa.  She was an encyclopedia of information about the continent of Africa.

The other senior missionaries, along with our CES coordinator, picked us up.  

Our "flat" was a pleasant surprise.  The Selchos and the Carrells (the other senior couples) had cleaned and fixed up the place, and stocked it with some staples.  The furniture and decorations are property of the mission; many of them are left by previous couples who have lived here.  The blankets were extras from the other couples.

This living area is smaller than it looks but it is very nice for Zimbabwe!  We have a little table on the other side of the couches where we eat and study.

We have everything that we need in this kitchen.  

This is our ventilation system.  Every room in the flat has several of these.  You can see that the ones on the outside walls are directly open to the outside (which is most of them).  There is no heating system in the flats so we froze in July (the coldest month) because the cold air comes right in.  We're not sure yet how many different "critters" will enjoy coming in through our vents when the weather warms up.  😳

Standing outside our flat.  The other mission couples live close by.  There are 43 units in our area, mostly older retired people (I guess that describes us as well 😉 ).  The whole area is gated and we are let in and out by a guard.

This is Maxwell, one of the guards.  The other two are Ben and Jerry 😊.  We practice our Shona on them every day, as well as with the guards at the mission complex.  Our first Shona lessons came from President Banda, and now everyone is trying to help us.  Shona is the primary language here, and although most people can speak a little English, the people talk to each other in Shona.  Church meetings are supposed to be in English, but that doesn't always happen.  They often go back and forth.

Our very first Sunday, we attended the Chegutu Branch, just under two hours from Harare.  It is behind these walls.  The "chapel" is like a very large carport and there are some classrooms in attached buildings.  About 110 people attended on this Sunday, filtering in slowly as the meeting progressed. As the room filled, a young teenage boy got up from his seat, tapping a friend to come with him. They escorted the new arrivals to the seats that they had previously occupied.  As more people came, this one boy saw to it that they all found a place to sit.  It was very sweet to see him serving the people. 

The people in this branch are very poor.  Most of them would have walked from 1/2 to 1 1/2 hours to church.  The branch president has been a member of the Church for only about a year and a half.
 They are so friendly and respectful.

Many of the homes in Chegutu would look like these above.  There is rarely water/indoor plumbing in the home, so they have to get it from wells or carry it.  Even some of the nicer homes only get water every other day.  Some people have electricity and can cook inside, but the poorer people (which is many of the people in the more densely populated areas) cook outside with wood or charcoal.

This home might be one of the nicer homes because it has a yard.

You can't see it well here but most of the people grow gardens if they can.  The land is very fertile, and the people rely on their gardens for eating, or, they try to sell the produce to earn some money.  The unemployment rate here is  above 95%.

Our S&I (seminary and institute) Coordinator is Terrify (Terry) Banda, the man on the left.  When he was born, his father wanted to give him a strong name, so someone told him to use the name Terrify.  He is a very strong member of the Church, but he is gentle and kind, and truly wonderful.  Brother Banda grew up in a poor family.  His father was a gold miner.  There used to be lots of mining in the country, especially diamonds and gold, but now either the government has confiscated the mines or the taxes are so high that they can't afford to operate any more.

The man in the middle is Elder Mikasi, an Area Authority Seventy.  He is also our Area Director for S&I.  He came here to train us and we all did a Fireside together for our Institute students.  We had 190 students attend, almost filling the whole chapel.

In Africa they use a lot of American words for their names.  Here is a sampling of just a few that we have run across:  Blessing, Persistence, Polite, Precious, Pride, Wisdom, Einstein, Memory, Confident, Pardon, Forget, Calm, Trymore, Decide, Rejoice.
Brother Banda named his oldest daughter Shmily, an acronym for "see how much I love you".


In the city of Harare, you can find some nice stores.  This is a picture of how the "shops" look in the poorer, more rural areas.  A tire shop --- only here they spell it Tyre.  Some of these kind of shops might say Salon, Cell Phone and air time, even one said Dentist.

No one can say our name here so we have a tiny piece of paper under our last name on the missionary name badge that says, "Tyre".

This is the Harare Stake Center.  Our office is inside this building.  Across the parking lot is the Mission Office.

Inside the mission office we also have a small Church Distribution Center and President Banda has an office here as well.  The mission president lives in another area of Harare.

This is a picture of Elder Theurer walking out toward the gate and the street.  You can see that the area is fenced in.  There is always a security guard on duty at the gate.  To the right is a very large piece of land owned by the Church.  We have been told that this land is being looked at as a possible site for the  Harare Zimbabwe Temple.

Walking onto the potential temple property.  The flowers are beautiful here and there are lots of beautiful trees.

This is actually a poinsettia tree (as in the plant we get at Christmas, if you put it in your yard instead of throwing it away).  It will have more blooms soon because we are going into spring.

The Bird Paradise is growing wild here.   Imagine it without the weeds.

We have some nice chapels and Church buildings here.  The following are just a sampling:

We love this one -- the Kambuzuma Branch.  

This is the baptismal font at the Kambuzuma Branch.  When they need it, they lift it off, fill it, and it's ready.

Each church building has a good well for their water supply.  This one is at Kambuzuma but they all look the same.  At certain times during the week, members of the community (in each of the units) can come and get water for their families.

This is the Harare South Stake Center.  This is

the largest of the two stakes that we are in charge of.  It has 11 units and covers a large area.  It takes us about half an hour to drive here, unless we take a wrong turn, which has happened several times.  That is our truck parked in front.  We are so blessed to have a truck because the roads are terrible!

This is the Marimba Park Stake Center, the second of our two assignments.  We have been visiting all of the wards in this stake to see if they would be willing to follow the area presidency's request to have early morning seminary.  Many of the students in this stake start school at either 6:00 AM or 7:00 AM.  That necessitates for some of them starting at 5 or 5:15 AM.  The vast majority of students walk to school, for some a very long way.  It has been SO INSPIRING to hear their responses.  The stake president told them that he felt very inspired that early morning seminary was direction from the "watchmen on the tower" and that it needed to be done.  But he also said he wanted to hear their thoughts.  One seminary student said that it would be like starting the day with a prayer.  Another young man said that it would be like breakfast, and that, "my mouth is watering already."  These people are SO obedient!!!  One mother said, "If this is what we have been asked to do then why are we even discussing it?  Let's just figure out how we're going to make it happen."  They have set up extra classes in homes near the schools.  Some of the homes have only a few chairs, so they will get some from the church.  By the first of September, early morning seminary will be rolling out in this stake and I believe they will receive many blessings because of their obedience.  Now, Elder Theurer and I just have to figure out how we're going to get to these early morning classes for visits, when it takes about 45 minutes to get there.  

This picture is from the Chitunguiza Ward.  This shows what many of the units do.  They divide up the land around the building and let the members grow gardens on the property.  This is a huge blessing for the members.  

Elder Theurer is standing with one of our Institute teachers and her son.  She was taking care of one of the gardens.  

These are a few of the "GEMS" that have come from our experiences over the last few weeks:

* "Remember, Heaven will not be filled with those who have never made mistakes, but with those who recognized that they were off course, and who corrected their way to get back in the light of gospel truth."                                                        --Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf

* "One of God's greatest gifts is the joy of trying again."

   "Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow'."

                                                                               -- President Thomas S. Monson 

* "You can change!  You can be anything you want to be in righteousness."

   "Keep trying, keep trusting, keep believing, keep growing.  Heaven is cheering you on today,

    tomorrow, and forever!"                                     -- Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

* "Our Heavenly Father did not put us on the earth to fail -- but to succeed gloriously!

                                                                                -- Elder Richard G. Scott                                                                               

* "Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured."      -- President Gordon B. Hinckley


* "Ordinary people, who consistently do small and simple things that are right before God,
     will bring forth extraordinary results."         -- Elder David A. Bednar
                                                                              

* "The purpose of the Gospel is to make bad men good, and good men better, and to change
    human nature."                                                  -- President David O. McKay


* "God cares a lot more about who we are, and who we are becoming, than about who we
    once were.  He cares that we keep on trying."    -- Elder Dale G. Renlund

(These are all from a youth camp that we were part of called, Be the Change)


We love you all!  
Elder and Sister Theurer

Zimbabwe Map:

We are serving in the capital city - Harare.  The population is over two million people and growing! Our mission covers the entire country.  We have been asked to coordinate the seminary and institute programs for two large stakes:  Harare South Stake, with 11 units, and Marimba Park Stake with 9 units.

Zimbabwe is right above South Africa, and also bordered by Botswana, Zambia, and Mozambique.


Everything Started at the MTC:

The first thing we did was get our missionary badges.  So exciting!  And then we got to tour the new buildings and additions to the MTC.  Our apartments were like little hotel rooms, and the building was situated close to the cafeteria and bookstore.  They treat the senior couples really well!

For one of our classes they brought us to this huge mural of Moses being caught up into the mountain where he spoke with God face to face and got to behold His glory.  It is one of multiple very large murals in the new buildings.  We were asked us to spend some quiet time pondering on the meaning of this experience for Moses, and it's personal meaning to us.  (Moses chapter 1)

 This group became our District at the MTC.  (Left to Right)  Sister George was leaving to Guatemala to be the Area Mental Health Advisor; Sister Bown was headed to Australia to teach English to Chinese missionaries and to help in the office; the Griffiths were off to Milan, Italy to help with the office and MLS; The Theurers, our MTC teacher Sister Anderson, and the Bills, who would be handling Humanitarian Services for the South Pacific Region.  It was exciting to see people being sent to every corner of the world.

 This picture was on the wall in one of the halls at the MTC.  You can see that this is a picture of elders baptizing in Africa.  If you look carefully, you can see the men on the shore have axes and machetes ready as they are watching for crocodiles!  Fortunately that is not how they do it in Zimbabwe. 😉

We would like to include just a few of the NUGGETS  that we loved from our experience at the MTC:

* If it doesn't challenge you, it won't change you.

*The Lord only asks us to sacrifice that which is valuable to us.

*"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, "Wow, what a ride!"
(from Marjorie Pay Hinckley)

*The final judgment will be about who and what we have become.  It is our divine destiny to become like the Savior."

*We get the tender mercies so that we can recognize the reality of the Savior, but not so often that we don't have to exercise faith.

*If you don't know how to rescue, you won't be a very good God.

(The next few are all from a talk by Elder Bednar about the Character of Christ)

*Christ always turned outward.  There was no focus on self -- always others.

*A testimony is not enough.  You must be converted unto the Lord.  Conversion is consistently being true to what we know -- increasingly becoming a saint.  You don't get that because you want it.  You have to lose yourself and become more like Christ.

*The Atonement provides an increased capacity to do good and become better.

*Repentance is Re-Turning to God.  (We can substitute the word "turn" for repent).

*(His promise)  According to your desire and your diligence to study and adopt the character of Christ, you will be blessed with every spiritual gift that you need, now and in the future,  such that you will never fall away.

We love you all!!! 

We can be reached at:

brian.theurer@myldsmail.net

mejken.theurer@myldsmail.net