Thank you all for the birthday wishes! We had a GREAT day! My companion started it off sweet by making me breakfast in bed! It was delicious. Then we got to go to the orphanage with a family from our ward! It was so much fun to spend time with the kids and they even sang happy birthday for me 🙂 we also got to teach a big lesson with the older ones! It was so much fun!!

If I am here in Gweru for one reason only, that reason would be George. We found George near the police compounds while finding our way back home one day. I’m not sure exactly what his job is, but I think he is somewhere in the high ranks of the ZRP. He gave us directions and we invited him to church. He recognized the church because he knew his uncle was a leader in our church. His uncle is Elder Dube from the seventy, and from the way he talks about his uncle and their experiences he has shared, it is very evident that he has a very close relationship with him and he looks up to him a lot. He was asking us about the Book of Mormon as well and we made a return appointment. When we went back to visit him, we had a POWERFUL lesson. He had read the pamphlet we gave him and had a TON of questions about the church and different things. It was powerful as we were able to answer his questions and the way he understood and accepted the message was AMAZING. I felt and recognized the spirit working in many ways, more than I have in any other lesson I have ever had. After such a long time of seeing his uncles example and even the example of other family members, I really think George’s time has come. He is prepared for the gospel now. One of the last times he was with his uncle, he even told him that he wants to baptize George! And now he is finally starting to see why. The gospel is so amazing the blessings it brings are life-changing! I just love it so much!

I love you all and hope you have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Sister BurtThis week we WALKED a TON. I learned my lesson the hard way too that it’s safe to always carry an umbrella just in case the floods come haha.

My new companion is Sister Jones!! She is SO great! She is 25 and is from Arizona and her and her younger sister, who is serving in Soda Springs in the Pocatello Idaho mission!, are the only members in their family!

The apartment we are staying in is a bit rough, but we got it cleaned up a bit and they fixed the hot water this week, so we can now shower! And it has a really steep winding staircase to get to the bedrooms so it’s kind of cool haha. When President was in town, he came to look at our apartment and said that if we end up staying in this area, he wants to find us a different apartment.

The area is a lot different than all the other areas I’ve ever served in since I’ve been here! We haven’t been able to go to all the part of our area though because we don’t know where they are and nobody else really does and there aren’t really any members who stay in all of them, so it’s hard. But they are huge areas with huge houses and huge lots with huge gates and empty streets!!! We aren’t in the ghetto anymore… haha. We really felt it on Thursday when we spent all day walking gate to gate, knocking on each of them and praying someone would come haha. Then it started POURING on us! Great missionary stories to tell 🙂 But the zone leaders have been great to help us while we are still trying to figure things out and learn our way around.

Friday we had the Christmas zone conference and we got to watch the first presidency Christmas devotional which was so great! Then each of the zones got to perform Christmas songs. Our zone was by far the best. We did cool versions of Away in a Manger and Far Far Away on Judeah’s Plains! I played the piano and there was some snapping and dancing and at the end of all the other performances, President made our zone go back up and perform the second song again hahaha. We had a nice lunch tho and a fun gift exchange andit was just a fun day.

Church was good and we get to attend in the nice chapel which will be nice! We ended up having some investigators there because some members brought some kids from the orphanage to church for the first time, so we are going to go visit them at the orphanage on Wednesday and I’m super excited to see how that goes!!!

Also the other night, I made chapatis for dinner and I was pretty dang proud of myself… the were so nice.

Anyways, I hope I covered most things… We are just trying are best to follow Aaron and his bretheren’s example in Alma 21:16 by teaching whoever will let us teach them and going wherever they will let us in! “And they went forth whithersoever they were led by the Spirit of the Lord, preaching the word of God in every synagogue of the Amalekites, or in every assembly of the Lamanites where they could be admitted.” We just can’t wait for the blessings to come when the people are brought to a knowledge of the truth like in verse 17! “And it came to pass that the Lord began to bless them, insomuch that they brought many to the knowledge of the truth; yea, they did convince many of their sins, and of the traditions of their fathers, which were not correct.”

I love you all so much. Thank you for everything! I hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season 🙂

Love,

Sister Burt

Proselyting in the rain!!

Christmas devotional! with Anyango and Ngwenya

I burnt my fingers like crazy while making chapatis haha. It was worth it tho 😉

Me and Sister Jones 🙂

Well this week was pretty exciting!

Malvern was baptized which was so great! And I will now be serving in Gweru with Sister Jones! We are both new to the area so it might take a while to get used to things… but I am excited see new places and meet new people! Also LOVE the Light the World challenges for this year! What a great way to celebrate Christmas and remember the Savior!!

Don’t have much time today, but I love you all and hope you have a great week! 🙂

Sister Burt

In Gweru – “They have no money – but they have started using bond notes.”

Farewell to Sister Anyango in Gweru.

Malvern’s baptism!

Last Sunday in Mzilikazi branch

Am going to miss Sister Anyango SO much!!