Month: July 2016

Nakiranai’s Baptism /3 Nephite’s Priesthood Ordination

Posted on by Jared Burt

This week was such a great week! We were able to see a lot of people and the work has been very fruitful!

We had a baptism on Saturday for Nakiranai! Teaching her has been quite a unique experience. She doesn’t speak any English whatsoever, so we have to have someone there who can translate everything we say, which takes a lot of patience. And she is super quiet and doesn’t say much anyways. But as we continued teaching her, we saw her testimony develop and grow as she prepared to be baptized. I wish we could communicate better so we could learn more about her, but the little we know is that she doesn’t know how to write or even what year she was born in. But you can see how much she has come to love the gospel and know of it’s truthfulness.
baptism on Saturday for Nakiranai
The baptism was interesting.. with the combined wards, there were 5 people getting baptized and all of them had a lot of family and friends they brought with was great, but when we got there, the font was not filled and the water was not working properly! They decided to just have everyone wait and they would get it filled, so finally after a couple hours we were able to hold a powerful baptism.
Sunday was pretty special too. Nakiranai was confirmed and Effort, Munashe and Craig received the priesthood! It is so wonderful to watch them grow so strong in the church and now they are preparing and getting so excited to serve missions in a few years!
The branch we are in is so powerful. Being such a new branch, it is so wonderful how untied all the people are and how excited everyone is about missionary work. Especially the branch president, President Gonzo. They all want to do what they can to help us with missionary work and to help the branch grow!
I love Jacob 1:7-8: Wherefore we labored diligently among our people, that we might persuade them to come unto Christ, and partake of the goodness of God, that they might enter into his rest, lest by any means he should swear in his wrath they should not enter in, as in the provocation in the days of temptation while the children of Israel were in the wilderness.
Wherefore, we would to God that we could persuade all men not to rebel against God, to provoke him to anger, but that all men would believe in Christ, and view his death, and suffer his cross and bear the shame of the world; wherefore, I, Jacob, take it upon me to fulfill the commandment of my brother Nephi.
Missionary work is so great and it is wonderful to see the change the gospel brings to people’s lives especially during these times of great hardship.
I love you all.
Have a great week.
Sister Burt

Be Efficient, Smart, and Effective

Posted on by Jared Burt

Ok so this week was great, but I don’t have much time so I’ll try to make this quick!

Tuesday we had Zone Meeting, which was nice, we talked about goal setting and having faith and being efficient, smart, and effective missionaries.
July 2016 Zone Conference.JPGWednesday we got to have interviews with President. I love President Mkhabela.
Thursday we saw as many people as we could in the area before we left for exchanges in Chitunguiza.
Friday I got to go to the area with Sister Ziqubu and Sister Bergen! It was so fun to be with Sister Bergen again! I missed her tons and learned a lot from the exchanges.
Sister Bergen feeding the bunnies.JPGSaturday night, my companion made mphogoqo, maize meal, sadsa type stuff, but not sadsa, with sour milk… tried eating more than 3 bites… but I like trying new things!
Sister Shekede's son, Kyle.JPGOther than that, nothing too exciting. Things are well! Just trying to get people to come to church, which can be hard sometimes, but we are working with the branch and planning new things to get people at church!
"Our package"-Elder Gundani.JPGWish I had more time, but I’ve got to run!
Hope you all have a great week.
The church is true! Love you all
Sister Burt

Have Faith to Open Your Mouth

Posted on by Jared Burt

This week was a great week!
We had Zone Conference on Wednesday, which was so powerful! President Mkhabela asked the question “Do we have faith to open our mouth and preach the gospel?” We then discussed Doctrine and Covenants 33:7-10. I learned from these scriptures that we just need to open our mouths and preach the gospel with all our hearts. Even someone like me who is not very mighty in speaking will be able to say the things that need to be said if you just have faith that the Lord will put in your mouth the things to say. And why wouldn’t He especially when we are engaged in such a great cause? Having faith to just open my mouth and not be afraid of knowing what to say is something that I have been working on and it has been amazing to recognize the spirit with every person I talk to. I love 2 Nephi 1:27 “And it must needs be that the power of God must be with him, even unto his commanding you that ye must obey. But behold, it was not he, but it was the Spirit of the Lord which was in him, which opened his mouth to utterance that he could not shut it.”
Missionary work is great.
We were able to find lots of people this week and we are excited for our baptisms at the end of the month!
One of our recent converts, Lovemore, just got a job and it was cool to see his testimony grow as he connected getting the job with a blessing from being baptized. The Lord truly blesses His children.
Nothing much else to say except that the week was blessed! I love you all! Have a great week.

Sister Burt