Hello family and friends,
So I apologize for not writing an email last week, things were so, so hard here with the internet and I just got frustrated but I have a lot to say this week!
We have two amazing investigators right now that really stick out to me so I want to write a little bit about them.
There's Rongai. Rongai came to church with one of his friend's. He said his friend was a good example and wanted to be like him. So the day he came to church he said he felt really happy and the spirit confirmed to him it was the true church. Rongai hasn't missed a Sunday since!! He is so sweet to my companion and I, he always says, "In my prayers I thank God for giving me good teachers of the gospel" then yesterday he said if he passes his baptismal interview this Friday, he will throw a party for us hahahaha.
We met Shepherd on the side of the road and invited him to church. Then felt impressed to teach a street lesson to him. So we did. He came to church the next day. His life story really is amazing. He shared how he was so bitter and angry when his dad left them and in result, lost faith in a living God. "Later on in my life, I had to stop being stubborn and realize that there was a God because if God created me, then God is there." Shepherd said that with a laugh. When we extended a baptismal date to him, he said, "If Jesus Christ was perfect and needed to be baptized, then I really need to be baptized because I sin a lot." !!! this guy is so ready for the gospel!
Fun Things:
1. I ate crocodile last week. Sister Buthelezi and Sister Anyango cooked it for us. It was amazinggg.
2. Sister Nafula and I jump roped with kids in the area and I felt like I was a little middle schooler again jumping and playing around. The kids loved it.
3. The people here in Chipadze really do love us. Everyone greets us all day long: the kids, the elderly, the mamas and even the kombi drivers. "Sister Beckstead! Sister Nafula!" Although a lot of people call me Becky... pretty funny.
4. Learning to drive a car in manual is super fun on Zimbabwe's bumpy roads.
Our district conference yesterday was so great. The main focus was on marriage and families, which is especially what they want the members to work on here with the temple coming. Our mission president, President Mkhabela also had the opportunity to dedicate our chapel. It was a spirit of the utmost reverence as he spoke in the tongue of angels. I have never heard a more beautiful prayer in my entire life, he spoke to our Heavenly Father as if he was present in the room with us. And I know His spirit was. I relate this experience to when Jesus Christ visited the Nephites in 3rd Nephi and they said the words of His prayer were too powerful to be written down. It was incredible and I testify that the moment we say, "Dear Heavenly Father", He is listening to us.
I even loved what President Parardzai shared about women in his childhood. He grew up in a society that didn't treat women correct. Women would go to the fields and work early in the morning, come home and cook breakfast, go back to the fields, come home again and cook, go back to the fields, come home again and cook dinner.... then fetch water and heat it up for their husbands to bath. Women pretty much did everything, all the hard work. President Paradzai said, "This kind of society is not anywhere close to OK for Priesthood holders."
Something that was said yesterday in district conference is something that I want to share with all of you. Don't procrastinate. You are not promised of tomorrow. Do all you can today to hold the hands of the people you love and be with them. Serve those you are with and love them. We shouldn't only serve those we enjoy being around, but everyone. This advice even applies to me as a missionary!!
I love you all!!
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Love,
Sister Beckstead
