So Many Great Missionary Moments . . . .

Every day here is a new adventure, bringing something to inspire us, make us smile, or surprise us.

Two weeks ago we went with one of our senior missionary couples to Bulawayo, the home of what will be the second Zimbabwe mission in July.  The Carrells had a lot of work to do and filled both of our trucks with supplies. Our first full day there, some missionaries called to say that their house had been robbed.  Stolen items included clothes, blankets, suitcases, the STOVE and the REFRIGERATOR!!!  The thieves actually had to lift those last two items over a large metal gate with metal prongs on top!  (Although it is quite safe here, the level of theft is increasing as these very poor people get more desperate.). The elders had been away for a few days in Harare picking up brand new missionaries.  One of the new missionaries said excitedly, "This is so great!  The tag line on my first email home will be 'Robbed on day one!'"  I suggested that maybe that might be a little too much for his mother for a first email. 😊

So two of the missionaries went to the police station to give a report.  The rest of us, minus the two brand new elders, went inside to see what needed to be done.  While Elder Carrell was trying to fix the damaged door, he accidentally pushed the door closed, LOCKING US ALL IN THE HOUSE!  The other door was padlocked and there are burglar bars on all the windows.  

Here is a picture of the two new elders looking in at us:

 

What a start to their mission!  But they were very fun!  Elder Dan from Coeur d'alene, Idaho, and then Elder Riggs in the back, from Boise will be on the BYU football team (Long snapper).  Elder Carrell was able to pass the elders his keys to retrieve some tools out of the truck.  Finally, after much effort, he was able to get the hinge pins out of the door.  The new elders, fortunately on the outside, pushed and hammered on the door until it released and could be opened.   

 

Elder Carrell and the Zone leaders clowning around while we were waiting!

(Elder Porio from Australia and Elder Till from Austria)

This is blurry, but it shows our grateful escape.  It was getting dark by that time.















This was the peaceful start to our morning in Bulawayo before all of the problems began. Enjoying nature at breakfast.  Beautiful Africa!!!

This tree was over Elder Theurer's shoulder.  Can you see the 6 nests hanging on the tree?

 

And this little beauty lives in those nests:

 

The calm and peace before all of the stress began:

 

After breakfast we went around looking at houses to see if anything would work for a new mission home or a transfer house for the sister missionaries.  We saw several interesting houses, but not one that would work.  We helped buy and deliver supplies to other missionary houses.  And . . . we helped inspect some missionary flats/houses.  Oh my!  😱

One of the favorite jobs that we have is visiting students and seminary classes.  On a recent Saturday, Whtiman Gauti, the Institute teacher in one of our wards, asked us to visit students to encourage them to come to class.  Here is an assortment of pictures from that fun day:

 

This is part of the Chaya family.  Faith, next to me, just turned 18 and has committed to try the Institute class.  Her "GoGo" (Grandma) is showing off a picture of Faith's father, the first black missionary to serve in Zimbabwe.  Grandma has been a member of the Church since 1980.  There are close to 30,000 members of the Church in Zimbabwe.

 

Kundai, also 18 years old, lives with her mother next door. The girls will have to walk about a half hour to get to the church for institute.  We hope our visit will be encouraging for them.

Whitman is the man on the right.  We have a potential seminary student on the left, and an institute student in the middle.  Elder Theurer teased them about which one was better looking, and the neighbors heard. (Very easy to hear -- no glass in many of the windows and houses very close together!  Plus 2 white people are an unusual attraction)  When we left, a joking group of teens had gathered to add their opinion. 

This man was outside.  He is a door-to-door salesman.  He has supplies in several very large pots.  He stops at each home on the street and calls to the people to see if they need any of his goods.

Yolanda, an Institute student, lives in a portion of this house.  It is common here for people to rent a room or two, and thus to have multiple families living in a single place. Yolanda came outside to meet with us.  She will try to come to Institute, but her biggest concern is finding a job.  She would like to do hair, but it costs money to be trained.  We are looking into PEF (the Church's perpetual education fund) and how it might help some of these wonderful young people. It doesn't show in the picture, but the side of the house is filled with bright colorful pots that Yolanda's father makes to earn his living.

 We ended the day with visiting Whitman's family.  To the right of Whitman is his wife, then mother-in-law, brother-in-law.

His family is so excited that the prophet is coming to Zimbabwe in April!  He bought his daughter a new dress to wear, and is saving up to get a new dress for his wife.  The prophet coming here is a HUGE event!!!  As we go to different sacrament meetings the people will say, "we are preparing ourselves to be ready when he comes."

We went back to the Highfield chapel to drop off Whitman.  There was a very sweet lady there with her baby and daughter.  She had come to the chapel for stake auxiliary training, only to find out that it had been cancelled.  She didn't know how she was going to get home to Chitunguiza (about 25K).  

 

She said that morning she knew she only had combi money for transportation one way, but she prayed and felt that she needed to go anyway.  So she went purely on FAITH.  When the meeting got cancelled she was despondent.  Well, it just so happened that right after we dropped Whitman off, we had to go visit a class in Chitunguiza.  We were there just at the right time to be her ride home.  What a great feeling to know that we were put in place to help her.  I wondered why she would have felt impressed to go, because God knew that the meeting would be cancelled.  But sometimes I think we need to be given reminders of the fact that He is there!!!  And that He will care for us if we do what He asks.

Saturday, one of our Institute students, Remember (yes that is his name), was getting baptized.  He attends the class that we teach on Friday nights.  We got there about 5 minutes before it was supposed to start.  No one was there.  No chairs were set up.  And the font, previously filled by the missionaries, had been drained.  They turned on the water, put a hose in through the window, and started filling pots to dump in enough water to baptize a tall, lanky young man:

Remember had to help fill the font!

Paul (left) and Shyleen (right) first invited him to church.  They are both in our class.

 

The missionaries told us that this is a common

way for men to pose in Zimbabwe.

Right before the baptism we went to a Relief Society birthday party, where I had been asked to speak.  The building is a school during the week and then rented for a church on Sunday.  Elder Theurer and I swept and moved desks while a few ladies set up.  The Relief Society president disappeared for about 20 minutes and came back, carrying a 5 gallon water bucket on her head.  There was no water in the building so she strapped her baby on her back and went to find some.  She is the lady wearying the duko (African wrapped hat).

Only 11 of the 60 ladies in the Branch came for the talks.  Another 3 came during the refreshments.  The sisters' talks were really excellent.  I loved what the last sister said about  visiting teaching.  "You need to love the sister that you visit so much, that if you have to skip a month you will really miss her!"

The refreshments -- Two pieces of cake (I already had eaten one piece), 6 "cookies" and half a bun.  This was a big occasion!  Elder Theurer and I got the biggest plates.  The others got less food on smaller plates.  They don't have anything like paper plates here so they bring a tub of dishes and then have to wash them.  Same thing with the cups.  

Okay, speaking of babies on backs . . .  I have always wanted to try that so one day at our Inservice Training, Rabecca, our S&I secretary, let me try it with her baby:

 

Poor baby!  This lasted about 20 seconds before he started to slip down.  We tried cinching it tighter but I'm not sure I've got what it takes.  😉😳😏.  But it was an adventure!  This is Rabecca and her cute children:

Last weekend was Palm Sunday.  As we were driving into Kadoma for church we were greeted by this large procession:

 Imagine this group, stretched out over 100 yards, with people singing and waving their palm branches.  Very impressive!  I'm not sure we would see this in America. 

(PS - You get a great shot of Elder Theurer's nose. 😬👃 Unfortunately there really wasn't a good place to stop so I had to grab pictures from the car)

We love, love the missionaries serving here!  Here are a few recent pictures:

     Sister Leslie from Belize came in to share some of her American red licorice with us! 😍

  


This Elder's first name is Proclaim.
Isn't that a great name for a missionary?
He is actually just leaving for his
mission to London.  He was at the 
mission office to get set apart.
I took this picture to show his mom.
His family doesn't have the internet
so they will never be able to see 

pictures of him.

                      

Sister Kayembe from the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) created and ordered this sash for herself for her return home.  The front says, "Zimbabwe Harare Mission, Return With Honor"  and the back says, "J'ai combattu un grand combat  Enos 1:7"  Meaning, I have fought a great fight.  Everyone in the DRC speaks French.  Our amazing missionaries pick up English very quickly!

Sister Mkhabela counseling Sister Kayembe.
Our mission president's wife is a great
teacher, always full of wisdom and very supportive!  And she has a fun sense of humor.

A few of our elders at a recent zone conference.

Elder Josiah from Kenya, standing with Elder Richardson from Texas.  Our Kenyan elder love to run and is very fast!  He is apparently as quick on his hands as he is on his feet!  This sweet elder sent Sarah a get-well message in Zulu when she was recuperating from her hip surgery.

                               

As I mentioned earlier, on April 17, we will be blessed to have a visit from President Russell M. Nelson, recently ordained as Prophet of the Church.  He, along with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, will visit two countries in Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe.  The people are s excited!
We were told last night that some are even trying to come from Mozambique, Botswana, and Zambia.  The public affairs missionaries have rented the largest and nicest hall that they could find here.  It can seat up to 4500 people, so we hope that will be enough room.
People will struggle to find transport money but we think many will sacrifice and come.  Otherwise, it is going to be televised in all of the church buildings in Zimbabwe.  The missionaries are going to be blessed with our own hour and a half with President Nelson and Elder Holland (and their wives).  That will be our best adventure of all!


And now the GEMS that we have collected over the last few weeks:

Prayer in the hour of need is a great boon. From simple trials to our Gethsemanes, prayer - persistent prayer - can put us in touch with God, our greatest source of comfort and counsel. Ezra Taft Benson
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ezra_taft_benson_556120

Prayer in the hour of need is a great boon. From simple trials to our Gethsemanes, prayer - persistent prayer - can put us in touch with God, our greatest source of comfort and counsel. Ezra Taft Benson
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ezra_taft_benson_556120

Prayer in the hour of need is a great boon. From simple trials to our Gethsemanes, prayer - persistent prayer - can put us in touch with God, our greatest source of comfort and counsel. Ezra Taft Benson
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ezra_taft_benson_556120

"Prayer, in the hour of need, is a great boon.  From simple trials to our Gethsemanes, prayer-- persistent prayer-- can put us in touch with God, our greatest source of comfort and counsel."

"We should pray frequently.  We should be alone with our Heavenly Father at least two or three times each day."
                                                  (These two quotes are from President Ezra Taft Benson)

Thoughts from Zone Conferences:  

"We need protection from Complacency, Distraction, and Pride.  Satan can take advantage of both strengths and weaknesses.  Remember your Purpose!"

"The Lord knows your weaknesses and He wanted you anyway." 

"If you doubt yourself, you will not be a miracle worker."

"You must believe enough to act.  Faith is complete trust in God, accompanied by action."

"The song says, "I am a child of God, and He has sent me HERE." (We are not where we are by accident).

"A testimony is a gift from God; Conversion is what we give back to Him." 

"Agency -- it's not like we're damned if we make the wrong decision; it's more like we FORFEIT."  

"Obedience brings blessings.  Exact obedience brings miracles."

 (These thoughts were from Elder Hamilton, Southeast Africa Area President and President Mkhabela)


"Listening is not being quiet, but wanting to hear."
                                                                         - Sister Mkhabela

"Don't be afraid to lose a friend.  Be afraid to lose Jesus Christ."
                                                                         - President Mkhabela

 "If you spend your time judging others, you will never find time to love them."

                                                                         - President Henry B. Eyring

 
                                                  

As always, we send our love and very best wishes to you!
Elder and Sister Theurer