Every Day Inspiration . . .

EVERY SINGLE DAY we find things that are uplifting and inspiring!   

We are inspired by:

The students who get up for early morning seminary!  Classes start sometime between 5:00 AM and 7:00 AM, depending on the area.  Close to 100% of the students walk to class, some maybe even 45 minutes.  Rain, shine, cold, warm, -- they are expected to attend class at least 75% of the time to get credit.  And these students have spiritual depth!  We always feel the Spirit when we visit these classes!  Here are pictures of a few of the classes:

This class is usually split up into 3 different homes, in groups of 5 or 6.  But when we come to visit they all meet together, and each group has a LONG walk.  The church rents a not-so-great school for the meetinghouse.  We are studying the Book of Mormon in seminary this year.  This was an impressive lesson as they were picking out the doctrines of King Benjamin's address. 

 This is usually a larger class but we visited when some of the students were on holiday.  The one in the white T-shirt is the teacher.  He sells plastic bags in town for his living, usually starting around 6 in the morning.  Accepting the calling to teach EM Seminary was a sacrifice because he has to start work later every weekday, but he cares about his students and is an exceptional teacher.  When he heard that some of his students didn't have enough money for transport to go and hear the prophet, he paid for them to go.  

Ruth, the teacher of this class, is an identical twin.  Her sister teaches the Institute class in this same branch.  Elder Theurer picked up gospel art picture books for some of the teachers (40 cents each at the Distribution Center here) and Ruth uses the pictures to teach.  Ruth is also a great teacher!  She is a taskmaster, but also fun and inspirational!

This is actually an evening class.  The students aren't getting up early, but they will have to come after school or dinner, then walk the distance home from the class in the dark.  This wonderful teacher brought a visual aid to teach the students about the allegory of the olive tree in the book of Jacob.  She wanted to show the what it meant to graft.  Her class has grown since we last visited.

Sister Hwindingwhi is the amazing teacher of this class.  She has students with different schedules so she teaches some in the early morning, some in the evening, and then she taught this class on Saturday!  Pretty much teaching every day but Sunday.  Now, that is a sacrifice!  Three of the students in this class are below the age of 14 so they won't get credit for seminary, but they come anyway.

One last picture:  This was a Stake Young Men's Camp that went for 3 days.  Each morning at 5:00 AM they had an early morning seminary class.  This picture only shows the boys around the fire.  There is also a very large group back away from the fire, shivering and wrapped in blankets, sitting on the ground and on logs (including Elder Theurer and I).  On this day, they were talking about Abinadi and the commandments.  These young men had some impressive contributions, even at that early hour!  (One contribution will be in the GEMS section).


We are inspired by:  

Our Institute students!  They generally meet once or twice a week, in the evenings or on the weekend.  Most classes are 90 minutes.  We currently have 17 Institute classes going and they are amazing!  They will be awesome future leaders of the Church in Zimbabwe.

 

 The teacher in this class is the one wearing the hat.  The one you can't see.  But she is the other identical twin. 

Every Friday night we are responsible for an institute class in the Marimba Stake.  This semester we are having the students do the teaching.  And with only a few exceptions, the lessons are excellent!

After the lesson we have class activities.  We have anywhere from 15 to 30 students attend.  This activity was for getting acquainted and also to help them with ideas for more in depth conversations when dating.

 

 

 

One week we introduced the students to improvised American Bowling:

Elder Theurer put down a masking tape line that they weren't supposed to go past. 😁

Partially filled water bottles had to suffice.  They "bowled" in teams and it got quite    competitive!  Since it is a Friday night class, part of our goal is to get them to interact.

We are inspired by:

The faithful members of the church in Zimbabwe!  Here are just two recent examples:

I'll be honest.  I have forgotten this sweet sister's name since I spent several hours with her at the Zengeza Ward building.  We were supposed to meet the Bishop's wife at 11:00 to pick up some seminary information.  We arrived late because we were held up at another branch, trying to drop off some manuals.  We were afraid that we might have missed the Bishop's wife.  This sister, who was there waiting also, assured us that she had been there for almost an hour and no one had come to unlock the gate.  We called the bishop who was confident that his wife was on the way.
An hour and a half later she finally arrived.
We found out that this good sister was there to clean the church.  She told us that she was assigned to do it and that she would not go home until it was done.  Ultimately she had waited for almost three hours, without a single complaint.  As we left after completing our business, she was busy cleaning, along with the bishop's wife and another woman.

These two boys ( also seminary students) had a similar experience that day at the church building.   Reginald, on the right, walked for 45 minutes to get to the church, and Tinashe, on the left, 30 minutes.  They had come for a meeting with the bishop.  Unfortunately the bishop got called in to work.  When we called him, the bishop told us his wife would be able to help them.  As previously mentioned, she was very late arriving (but did I mention that when the bishop's wife finally arrived it was with a toddler in tow and a new baby on her back?).   These two boys also did not ever complain.  As the time slowly passed, we pulled a ball out of our truck and taught them to play 4-square and volleyball.  They were delightful young men who were also just there to do their duty.

Zimbabweans are steadfast and patient! 

We are inspired by:

The beautiful and spectacular scenery of Zimbabwe!  In the last month we have been blessed to go to some beautiful places.   The first place was to a largely unknown, unadvertised game park called Imire.  (PS  Game drives in Africa should be on everyone's bucket list!  What an incredible experience!  OR, even better, just come on a mission to Africa!). Here is what we saw as we drove around on a land rover:


 

This is a black sable, a member of the antelope family.  They are becoming 
seriously endangered in Zimbabwe (most likely because of poachers).

We always love to see the Zebra!  (Here they pronounce it "Zeh-bra")

A small family of Impala.  Our guide told us that one male usually has about 20+ females in his herd.

 Can you say Hakuna Matata?  It's fun to watch these warthogs
prancing around and digging in the dirt.

These are Blesbok, another antelope species.  

 It's a little hard to tell, but this is a hyena hiding in the trees.  He is a lot bigger than he looks here!

 

The rhinos know that when they see the land rover there will be food, so they will come close.  They actually look a lot less menacing when they are eating, maybe even cute?  Their horns are very sought after.  Poachers will kill a rhino just to get his horn.  The game park keeps the horns cut very short so that there is no temptation.  Plus, there are always guards patrolling the game park with very large guns. 

Giraffe have always been a fascinating favorite of mine!  And it's so much better to see them in the wild, just a few feet away!  

But if you're a giraffe, it is sure tough to eat!  That must be why they stay so thin.

 

Are elephants everyone's favorite?  Then they saved the best for last!  First we saw them in the wild, and then three of them ambled in to the place where we were having lunch!!!  They have been fed there before and we were more than happy to accommodate them!

 Elder Theurer, our delightful guide Anyway (yes that is his real name), and Elder Selcho.

 Next adventure:  We were asked in May to go to Mutare, 4 hours away, to do an Inservice for the seminary and institute teachers there.   We stopped at Nyanga National Park on the way to see a completely different and beautiful landscape.  Mountains!

 The carpet of beautiful, flat, green trees are the acacia trees -- especially loved by the giraffe.

Mutarazi Falls (a series of stunning waterfalls coming out of rock cliffs) is in Nyanga National Park.  Mutarazi Falls is the highest in Zimbabwe and 2nd highest in Africa.  If you look very carefully above this picture of the Falls, you can see a sky bridge that goes across the gorge.  There is also a zip line that crosses beside it.  We arrived at the Falls just before dark.  We rushed along a sometimes obscure path to get a few of these pictures because it was starting to get dark.  We were worried about the trip back -- a no good, awful, very bad dirt road that took an hour to drive the 18K to the Falls.  Fortunately the views made the trip worth it.  Now, to be clear, you couldn't have paid me, even if we'd had tons of extra time, to go on that sky bridge or the zip line. 😳😱

Although Zimbabwe has beautiful rolling hills, this is the area with the most mountains.  We visited and partially climbed Mount Nyangani, the tallest in Zimbabwe.

On the way back from the mountain we visited examples of historic pit houses, thought to have existed up to 2000 years ago by people who emigrated, bringing with them domestic animals (sheep and cows), pottery, tools, and weapons.  These people also farmed, raising millet and sorghum.

 You can see how their homes were built quite low into the ground.  There is a group of homes and storage buildings all built together around an open area.  You can see the tunnel opening that goes into the central open area.  The animals were kept there for protection.

Elder Theurer is demonstrating how the animals came into the center area.  We all scraped our heads in that tunnel.  The cows and sheep must have been on the small side.

 

The large central areal for the livestock.

And last, we are inspired by: 

The GEMS that we have collected over the last few weeks:

 

"Carefully answer this question in your heart, in your conscience:  'What do I need to do to draw closer to the living Christ?'

  How many would acknowledge that if you and I were to really do these things, marvelous results would take place in our lives. Why do we wait? What are we waiting for?  What are you waiting for?"                   (Steven R. Covey)

"If you are enjoying something that is not good, then you are calling evil good."

                                                                  (President Mkhabela)

 

"Are you active in the Church or active in the Gospel?"  

                                                                  (President Wicho - Harare Mission)

"Some people fast to cleanse impurities from their bodies.  Fasting also cleanses impurities from our spirits."

                                                                  (Rainans, a YSA from the Kadoma Cluster)

Two acronyms that I have recently enjoyed:

          G. R. A. C. E.  =  God's  Riches  At  Christ's  Expense

          S.  I.  N.  =  Simple  Instruction  Neglected

"The power of the priesthood heals, protects, and inoculates every righteous man and woman against the powers of darkness."

                                                                  (Sheri Dew)

"It takes time to get our lives tangled up.  We can't expect them to be unraveled in a single day."                                                          (Brad Wilcox)

"The Sabbath is a whole day, 24 hours.  The Sabbath is not finished when church is over.  It lasts all day."                                        (A Marimba Stake youth at the Young Men's Camp)

Once when President Brigham Young was asked why we are sometimes left alone and often sad, his response was that man has to learn to “act as an independent being…to see what he will do…and try his independency—to be righteous in the dark.” 

                                                                 (Quoted by Sister Mkhabela at Zone Conference) 

 

If you have felt the influence of the Holy Ghost during this day, or even this evening, you may take it as evidence that the Atonement is working in your life. For that reason and many others, you would do well to put yourself in places and in tasks that invite the promptings of the Holy Ghost.

                                                                     (President Henry B. Eyring)

“[God] has infinite attention to spare for each one of us. He does not have to deal with us in the mass. You are as much alone with Him as if you were the only being He had ever created. When Christ died, He died for you individually just as much as if you had been the only man [or woman] in the world.”

                                                               (C.S. Lewis)

💕We continue to be so grateful for inspiration from all of our friends, from the examples that you have set for us, and the experiences with you that have blessed our lives.

We love you!

Elder and Sister Theurer