Domboshava Cave and Teaching a Whole Village

        Our strength is increasing here in Africa! Not only physically but spiritually. We find strength in our Savior, Jesus Christ. We can do all things in Him! "...for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." Ether 12:27 

I am seeing this scripture come true in my life. We're doing many things we never thought were possible. The most exciting is to testify and be led by the Spirit in sharing the gospel.

    We went and explored Domboshava Cave and the national monument on Saturday, June 24th. It reminded us of Lake Powell without the surfing. Google Maps sent us on a wide goose chase to find the national monument and had us turn left into some quarry field instead of going right. We asked some woman out in the bush collecting sticks. Luckily, she gave us pretty good directions and could speak English. The Domboshava National Monument is large rock formations and a cave with cave painting art from the ancient Elund civilization. We hiked up to the "top of the world" and received a beautiful view of Domboshava below. We loved holding up the balancing rock above. 

"Look, I found a squatty pottie!"

        The cave art was some of the best I've seen with figures of an elephant, impalas, giraffes, zebra, rhinos, cape buffalo, etc. There was a hole that served as a tunnel and chimney flume up to the "squatty pottie". Maybe the ancients used it as a stove?

                Dombo-shava cave with paintings or petro-glyphs 2023.06.24

Cave art above and a beautiful colored lizard. The lizard took on the colors of the lichen, alga and fungus, growing on the rocks. I've never seen a lizard with so many colors of the rainbow.

        After our hike, we were going to the truck in the parking lot and Bruce saw a cemetery on the hill. He wanted to go check it out. I thought it looked like a private lot but followed him up the hill. Two men from the village below started toward us to question what we were doing on their private property. We apologized and introduced ourselves. They were very friendly, Webster and Weddington, and we told them about our missionary work and meant no disrespect. They had just buried their mother the week before and showed us her grave. Then they took us down to their family to meet their widowed father, Kennedy Maponera. There were 3 generations living there and about 6 families. We gave them all a Book of Mormon. They graciously accepted about 20 books and said they believed in Jesus Christ and would love to read another testament.  We also bore testimony of the resurrection and that they would see their wife/mother again. I told Kennedy to read Alma 40-42 to bring him some comfort. The father said he was on the board and chaired a disability charity and would like some help. We told him we could pass his name along to our friends, who run "Eyes for Zimbabwe" and the Peterson's over humanitarian church services in our mission. The church has built over 500 boreholes for communities in Zimbabwe to have fresh vital water for their villages. We loved meeting them and following up by sending them photos we took.  

Sharing the gospel with a whole village of family members in Domboshava. Moyra, Webster, Weddington, and Kennedy pose for a photo at their kitchen hut. This hut is where they do all their cooking.

Another great golf lesson Saturday morning with the pros. I'm hitting much better with the coaching, maybe 50% improvement on the driving range. We love Reeve and Lolly! 2023.06.24