Missionary Good-Byes, Church with the Hlaisekas

 

Goodbye to some of our favorite elders: Elder Payne from Arkansas and Elder Clark, from Arizona are leaving on Tuesday for their homes in America. They both served so well. We had a goodbye Sunday lunch for them. I had our Relief Society President, Susan, sew ties for me with African fabric. All the elders got to pick one out. Elder Payne is the assistant to the president along with Elder Maganga. Elder Clark and Delacruz are the social media, flats, and fleets elders. They're all been a great help to us and amazing Zimbabwe Harare missionaries.

Horray for Israel!! Elder Anderson, Delacruz, Clark, Payne, and Maganga. Horray for Zimbabwe!

We had a nice Sunday lunch with sausage pasta, homemade breadsticks, salad, and sweet bread pudding. That evening the sisters came over for a visit, so we fed them the leftovers and they were happy and less hungry after walking the streets of Harare. 

Goodbye to Sister Grace Nicol, from Layton Utah. She's going to send a hug home for Elise! We've loved the Highland sisters. Sister Nicol and Delmar have been helpful in picking up litter every Monday, Preparation Day, in front of the street where the temple is. How we love them! 2023.09.17

    It was great to witness another baptism and have our investigator family attend.

Elder Hill in the waters of baptism in the Mufakosi Ward. 2023.09.17

We were so excited a temple site worker,  Mondly Hlaiseka , his wife, Tanaka, and their daughter, Michelle, all came to church at the  Mufakosi Ward. Our friend, Langton, a previous bishop, has been fellowshipping this remarkable family and helping to employ Mondly. Mondly helped lay tile on the temple site and was excellent in his trade.

The bishop asked us both to come up and bear our testimonies. We both talked about the temple to get the members excited and encouraged them to get their temple recommends. The temple will be completed when the members are ready. We kept waiting for Mondly to arrive at church but he was late. He came in right after we spoke and heard the last speaker during the Sacrament meeting. I thought to myself, too bad he missed our testimonies; but the Lord gave us a second chance. After Sunday School we were visiting with them and we invited them to come watch a baptism taking place at the ward after church. The ward mission leader asked Bruce and I to speak on baptism and the Holy Ghost at the baptisms. Wow, twice in one day putting me on the spot! We were able to easily give talks on these subjects. I spoke on baptism and Bruce talked about the Holy Ghost. I felt God was in the details and knew this was the more important lesson Mondly and his wife, Tanaka needed to hear. I have been praying for my "weak things to become strong" Ether 12:27. I've desired this gift of speaking with the Spirit and being able to speak without preparation. I'm not good at just "winging it" and get nervous speaking in front of large groups. Since we've had a lot of practice speaking in our devotionals in small groups it wasn't as hard for me this Sunday. I feel blessed the Lord is helping me gain more faith in the power of the Spirit to help strengthen me.  Bruce had a discussion earlier with the Hlaisekas on how getting baptized was an act of faith. Mondly has expressed his desire to be baptized but they need to get a legal marriage certificate.  The Lord nor the court does not expect them to pay lobola to obtain a marriage license. Labola seems to be getting in the way of baptism for a lot of our temple site couples. It's time to drop this tradition. It's similar to "Jonny Lingo paying 8 cows" for his bride back in the 1800s. We explained every dollar of lobola they give to Tanaka's parents takes money and food away from their child and family, who have a greater need. Currently, we have Mondly, Sidney, and Cephas all desiring to be baptized but are dealing with the problem of paying lobola. We suggested they need to pray about it and make God happy not their in-laws. Following God's commandments and having faith takes action. We pray for these brethren daily and tell them with God all things are possible.

On our drive to church this morning, the conductor hangs off the back, probably because there are about 20-30 crammed in the van. The conductor calls out for rides and collects the $1.00 fee to ride. We've decided the crazy driving is "tolerant driving" or as Sister Nicols told us, "Patient Chaos"! We also loved this sign in disrepair about "Ministery of Transport and Agricultural Development". It was falling apart on a litter-invested street. It certainly is a lesson on the decline of a civilization.