May | 2016 | maganinzim

Still Cold

Posted on May 30, 2016 by Jared Burt

Hello everyone! Zimbabwe is cold as ever! Not sure if I’ll be able to survive winters back home anymore.

This week was a good one. It started off with exchanges at the beginning of the week and I got to go with Sister Kapinga!! We were both so happy and we had some great lessons that day. Then when we got home that evening she made crocodile for dinner!

Making Chipati at a members house

With our car, we were able to go to an area called White Cliff that is in our branch and we found some great people we are excited to teach! The first day we were there we contacted some boys and we gave them a pamphlet and invited them to church but they didn’t have phones for us to contact them and we couldn’t get a house number. I was bummed because they seemed really interested and I really wanted to go back and teach them. Then the next day we were there, we were walking around looking for another house number and we had no idea where we were. Then as we were walking past a house, we saw one of the boys walk out and he waved! It was a miracle for sure! He took us to the other boys house and we taught them the next day with one of their other friends and they all came to church yesterday!

District Leader aka Elder Mhlungu aka Chipati transporter, transporting the chipatis

On Saturday, our district went to some members house and we made Chipati! It was fun and tasted delicious. Everyone stay warm and have a great week. Love you all

Sister Burt

The zone after zone conference last week

Winter Rising in Zimbabwe

Posted on May 23, 2016 by Jared Burt

Hello all,

I haven’t written lately.. it’s been crazy! But things are well in Zimbabwe. Winter is upon us and I never thought I would say this here, but it is cold!! Nothing compared to the winters at home, but after getting used to the heat, this change in weather is freezing me!

My new companion is Sister Dyantyisi from South Africa and she is fresh from the MTC! Yep I get to start 12 week all over again haha. We got a car though so now we are able to go to the farther areas that our branch covers that we weren’t able to visit before, so hopefully our branch can start growing faster! But driving here is like a free for all… good thing I’m a good driver 😉

Thanks for all your prayers and support. It mean the world.

Love you all,

Sister Burt

Trained to Trainer

Posted on May 22, 2016 by Jared Burt

We just got back from a zone activity on an INSANE hike. So I’m exhausted! But we did see 2 wild baboons so that was way cool!

On Monday night, the trainers stayed in the transfer house and they took us to get dinner at a place called Pogo’s which is my new favorite place in Zimbabwe and has the closest thing to American tasting food here! Pizza and wraps…. YUM.

Tuesday I got my new companion Sister Dyantysi from South Africa (Don’t bite your tongue saying it… I’m still working on pronouncing it) And funny story, one of the sisters training got stuck inside the bathroom and it took 10 minutes to get her out just as they were bringing the ladder in haha.

Friday morning I got a call from Sister Kapinga and those sisters had gotten robbed the night before. They woke up and all their stuff was gone, camera, money and everything. Scary stuff.

Elizabeth was baptized on Saturday!! So exciting!! But we were so sad Gibson was not able to baptize her because he was on National Duty for work. It’s a 24 hour shift that only happens once a year. So that was sad. But he did pass the sacrament and gave a POWERFUL talk in sacrament meeting about baptism! Brother Samakomva gave a powerful talk too!!

We’ve had this wave of referrals coming in from members this weekend which is super great and exciting! And we got a car today so we can go to our area that we haven’t been before because of the distance!! It feels good to drive after a long time haha.

Oh and we found 2 scorpions in our house this week… another creature to add to the list… but it was scary.

Thanks for everything! I love you all!

Sister Burt

Friend Catches Magan at Mission Office

Posted on May 14, 2016 by Jared Burt

Reeve Nield, a friend of Marijke’s (Nicole’s Mom) happened to be at the mission office in Harare, Zimbabwe on Transfer day. Magan just finished being trained and she will stay in the same area and train a new missionary from Johannesburg. We do not know her name yet so we are excited to get an email from Magan on P-Day. While Reeve was at the Harare Mission Office, she got these pictures for us of Magan and her new companion!

Reeve Nield runs into Magan and her new companion at the Harare Mission Office

Ready for Transfers after Mother’s Day

Posted on May 14, 2016 by Jared Burt

Things have been crazy! So last night after skyping, when we got home, the power was gone, still yet to have come back (Thank heavens I’ll be in the transfer house until Wednesday haha) Then this morning, the water ran out, so no water in the house and Kapinga had to finish packing and repacking and I packed then Mhlungu picked us up with Sister Anyango (training as well so we are comps for the time being) She’s hilarious. Like she’s strange, but SO funny and we went to the office, then to the transfer house to drop our stuff off then back to the office haha it’s fun though with all the missionaries around! Then we went with Elder Guindani and Robison (AP’s) to drop some elders off then they took us here to email! Then I think Mativavrira is picking us up later and we will get dinner then to the transfer house! I’m excited for these next few days! I did find out though that my comp is from Jo Burg! So I told Sister Z to promise me they would not speak tongues in the house. That is a problem with that one… She didn’t make any promises… Oh well haha.

Things are nice!

Love you guys and I loved seeing you all yesterday :))

Gogo is like grandma and her name is Sister Chakoneka 🙂 haha she’s the one who gives us food EVERY time we are at her place!!

Gogo Chakoneka

Chibage (Maize)

Flooded church building

Samakomva’s baptism

Weddings

Posted on May 2, 2016 by Jared Burt

Hello everyone! This week was good!

We have a couple new investigators who I’m excited to visit this week. Lloyd, who lives in the same house as a member family that we see and work with a lot, and Cudzai, a guy we met while contacting who came to church and was super interested! We tried going to visit David, who we found while contacting who had been taught by the missionaries before and said we could visit him then called us after a few days of not seeing us to ask when we would visit him, but when we found his house, the people there said he went out of the country and was supposed to be back already but they have no idea where he is. So we’ll try again in a week or two, and hopefully he shows up.

On Saturday we had 2 weddings! Gibson and Elizabeth, then the Samakomvas! The Samakomvas had a big ceremony and celebration. Everything was so beautiful! I choristered, and had an awkward moment when I started singing the closing song when we were supposed to be singing the intermediate song… oops!

We’ve been being fed very well lately… A little too well I might even say… We have eaten a LOT of sadsa the past couple weeks! I could probably stop buying groceries for a while haha.

I love you all! Have a good week.

Sister Burt
MaganinZim African Dresses

Us in our African dresses between baptisms and weddings

Maize at Gogo Chakoneka’s house. This is what a lot of houses looked like last week. They are harvesting the rest of their maize and the take all the kernel things off the cobs and dry them and ground them to make millie meal for sadsa. They were out there for days just shaving the maize cobs.

Edna’s little sisters Elena and Laura. They LOVE playing with my hair!