This week was a good week. The area is doing very well and Sister Smith and I are enjoying together! We are enjoying the new investigators we have been finding and are continuously finding more! One of the families we found this week even showed up at stake conference which was so exciting! We’ve even got a few powerful potential future missionaries on our hands! 2 of which are Tinotenda and Ronald. Tinotenda, 21, especially loves learning about the gospel and really wants to be a missionary! Another one is Mclynse, a 13 year old boy, who turns out is the son of a less active. He comes to church on his own every week and wants to be baptized this weekend!

We had an experience with the car this week.. after leaving it for not even a half an hour, we went back and it was completely dead! There was nobody around to help us try to jump it or anything, so we said a prayer that we would be able to get it started and not long after, one of our investigators, Brian pulled up to the rescue in his van! It started right up! The power of prayer is real!!

I love you all so much and hope you have a wonderful week!

Sister Burt

“Does it not fill our hearts and minds with wonder and awe to contemplate the great plan of happiness our Heavenly Father has prepared for us? Does it not fill us with unspeakable joy to know of the glorious future that is prepared for all who wait upon the Lord?”

I can tell you that it sure does for me!

I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!

Sister Burt

Hey to you all!

Another new transfer! Time is flying. I got my companion a week early this time… I am SO excited to be with Sister Smith again!! We came to Zimbabwe together all the way from America and have basically just been serving in each others areas and we are finally together now! So super excited to be with her.

Saying hello to my new companion Sister Smith!!

We’ve been having some problems with the ceiling in our bedroom and the water in our house and the ceiling was leaking the other night while we were out of water, and thanks to our beloved ZL Elder Mahlangu. He pointed out to us that it is actually a blessing in disguise that our ceiling is leaking because we could use the water from the roof for bathing lol. Perfect example of having an attitude of gratitude and joy in every circumstance. This week I am very grateful for a house to live in and for people who can fix pipes so we have water 🙂

Highlight of the week was definitely being able to watch the missionary broadcast and also Priscilla’s baptism!!

Priscilla’s baptism!

We learned a lot about the doctrine of Christ during the missionary broadcast and how the steps to living it are all gathered together… in Christ! Something that I loved that Elder Oaks mentioned is that we have been called to teach His gospel, in His way, according to His will. How great to be doing the Lord’s work! I hope and strive to be better each day at following Christ’s example and being more diligent in doing His work.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Much love,

Sister Burt

Saying goodbye to Sister Jones ❤ 

Patty’s baptism!

This week was great.

I forgot to mention that Panichi passed the sacrament for the first time last week! He did it again this week. It makes me so happy to watch these people as they grow stronger and stronger in the church 🙂

Also we had a mini road trip on Saturday haha we took the bus to Bulawayo to pick up a car and take it back to Gweru! We stopped and got lunch at Food Lovers before we came back, which was so great. I missed that place.

A highlight from the area is definitely Brother Mashingaidze. Ever since we first met him, he has just progressed like crazy and it has been amazing to watch his testimony and desire to learn grow more and more each second. We are so excited for him to be baptized and receive the priesthood! He will be so powerful in the branch. He is going through a very hard challenge right now though with his family because they don’t like that he is going to this church at all and they kind of just bash the church and bring up arguments about it, saying that he is crazy for coming and different things. You can just tell how hard it is for him and it is so heartbreaking to watch him go through this but he is staying so strong through it all. But all he wants is for his family to be able to at least see what the church is about and learn a little more about it so they can understand. The Lord will bless him because of his faithfulness though and with time and through his growing testimony and strong example, I know they will learn more someday.

A scripture that I came across during my studies was Mormon 9:27 which tell us, “hearken unto the words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things soever ye shall stand in need. Doubt not, but be believing, and begin as in times of old, and come unto the Lord with all your heart, and work out your own salvation with fear and trembling before him.” I love this scripture and it goes along with something Sister Jones and I have been working on this transfer and facing all things with faith. If we turn to the Lord and have faith in Him, He will help us with all things!

I love you all and hope you have a fabulous and faithful week!

Sister Burt

ps- sorry for the no pics… here is one of me and Sister Jones

Happy February everyone! Highlight of the week: Mission tour with Elder Ellis! So great to hear from him and our wonderful mission president and their wives. Learned a lot about repentance and coming unto Christ and being happy!!

Also, they found a mama python with her babies living right outside our fence… scary… they think it is the cause of the neighbors missing dogs lol. Glad they got that taken care of!

Have a wonderful week! Thank you for your love and prayers.

Sister Burt

Tadiwa and Moisten

This week was great. We had exchanges in Kwekwe this week which was fun. And bonus, we got first class seats on the bus 😉

Gracious and Vimbai were baptized on Saturday!! It was so great. They were so excited they could hardly talk!

This week Malven took us to see Pauls Mashingaidze. The other day he just walked up to Malven and told him that he was going to come to church! So we went to visit him, and wow that baba is powerful. He is basically Joseph Smith. So confused about all the different churches and all the prophets everywhere and really just wants to know which one is the right church! We were so happy when we saw him walk into church. We saw him after and he loved church! He can’t wait to get his own copy of the Book of Mormon. It is so great how much he wants to learn and how open and ready his heart is!

I’ve been reading in 2 Nephi chapter 9 this week and I love verse 18: “But, behold, the righteous, the saints of the Holy One of Israel, they who have believed in the Holy One of Israel, they who have endured the crosses of the world, and despised the shame of it, they shall inherit the kingdom of God, which was prepared for them from the foundation of the world, and their joy shall be full forever.” How amazing! His path is narrow, but it is straight and it is the only one that leads to the kingdom of God prepared for us!

Sorry no pics today 😦 Bad internet cafe.. Will send extra next week!

Love you all!

Sister Burt

This week was great! We stayed busy, preparing people for baptism and what not.

We have been visiting Gracious and Vimbai, sisters who have been coming to church for over 6 months and have just been waiting to be baptized! I have never taught someone with such a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and of the living prophet already before! They are so amazing. And Vimbai, who just turned 19, wants nothing else but to be a missionary!! We have just grown to love those 2 so much and are so excited for their baptism!!

Sister Jones, Malven, and me, with Gracious and Vimbai!:

Panichi and Hilda’s baptism was so great. Chipo was even baptized too! She was baptized back in 2001 but her records got lost, so she ended up having to be re-baptized. Everyone was confirmed on Sunday and they gave Panichi the Aaronic Priesthood after church!

We had a cool experience this week. One of the days, Malven was in town so we were alone for the day and had to find a member’s house to see their non-member daughter. We had only been to their house once on the very first day we were in Mkoba, so we had no idea where the house was, but we decided to just walk around and see if we could find it. We felt like Nephi in 1 Nephi 4:6. We walked for a while in places that we had never even seen before, but before we knew it, we had found the house! There is no doubt that it was the spirit leading us to their house and telling us which way to turn on each road.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Sister Burt

Pics:

We got all of allotment in $2 bond notes. Powerful.

Cake and the gospel… daily visits

This week was good. Although we were kind of sad we had to leave our area for a few days to go to Harare for exchanges, we had a good time and learned a lot. We had to stay an extra day last minute, so we ended up getting to spend the night with Sister Bergen and Sister Erickson and we made brownies and had a party. It was so much fun.

At church, they made last minute plan changes and Hilda and Panichi (Punish) were married yesterday afternoon! It was so great though. Next step, baptism!!

We visited a referral we got from a member, their maid, Patty, who has been coming to church with them for many months! She enjoys church and wants to be baptized! The challenge that we face with Patty is that she is deaf. She doesn’t know sign language, so the only way she can understand people is by reading their lips in Shona, or by reading. She is the sweetest thing though and, even though it might be challenging, is willing to learn!

I love this work so much and especially how much of it there is to do here. It is so wonderful to watch people grow closer to Christ as they learn more and understand about His gospel! There is truly no greater joy than that which comes from missionary work!!

Love you all.

Sister Burt

Surprise!! We got transferred Monday night, we got a call from the Zone Leaders saying that we would be working in Mkoba for the rest of the transfer. Whitewashing twice in one transfer! So on Wednesday they took us to our new area. But can I just say that I LOVE Mkoba!!! It has been quite some time that they have gone in Mkoba 5th branch without missionaries before us, and it has always been an elders area, and we are loving it!! I have LOVED being back in a more ghetto area, taking kombis every day, all the fruit trees, being offered coke or mazoe in EVERY house, roasted maize being sold on the sides of the streets, and there are donkeys everywhere here haha!

This is what it feels like being a missionary in Zimbabwe 🙂 There is SO much work to do in this branch! It is amazing!! We have a powerful senior companion, a member named Malven, who is 25 years old and is about to send in his mission papers!! So cool. He is the branch clerk and the branch mission leader and is so great. He knows the area and all the members, non-members, less-actives, and investigators! There are so many people here ready for baptism and who have been coming to church, they have just been waiting for us! The members are so happy and have given us the warmest welcome. There hasn’t been a single day in the area since we have gotten to Mkoba that we have come home empty handed haha. Day 1 we got TONS of grapes and pomegranates aka chibage chi varungu (white people maize haha), Day 2 we got a huge bag of mangoes and a WHOLE CHICKEN from Sister Sibanda… I LOVE that woman haha she is hilarious and just powerful.

Day 3 Sister Jones got a picture from one of our investigators they had hanging in their home! And day 4 we got more mangoes!!! The branch president is great too. President Magaya! We visited him and his family the other night and we ate popcorn while he told us crazy mission stories from his mission in Johannesburg haha! I’m also super happy because there is a keyboard in the chapel we attend, so I get to play in sacrament meeting!

There are so many people here just waiting to be baptized! There has been so many people to see that we haven’t even been able to see nearly all of them! One powerful couple I am so happy and excited for is Punnish and Hilda! They stay with a member and Hilda has been coming to church for a little over a month and wants to be baptized! We started teaching the two of them but we do have to have someone to translate because they don’t understand english much at all. Before either of them are baptized, they have to have a marriage license and when we brought it up, they accpeted it just like that!!! They are just so ready and excited to be baptized! So now we have their marriage and baptism lined up for the 21 of January!! We are so excited for them!! 🙂 The love I have for the people here in Mkoba 5 already is crazy. We have seen so many miracles in such a few amount of days. Some other investigators we have are the Zhwawu’s! Elizabeth and Priscilla.

They live right across from the chapel and Elizabeth is in a wheelchair so we told them we would come pick them up for church on Sunday. We got there early and they sent the son or someone our to tell us they would meet us there. When things like that happen, that usually means, they won’t be coming. So we went to church a bit disappointed, but oh well. Then, before sacrament meeting started, while we were talking to President Magaya, they came saying a lady needed help getting in with a wheelchair because the door was jammed shut and they couldn’t fit it in the one door. So we went out with them and there they were!! We were SO happy!!! They were able to get her inside thankfully and when we visited them after church they said the loved it!! They were super excited about it and even came home with a nice stack of books the branch gave them! So powerful. We were sad to find out the Priscilla stays in SA tho and won’t be here for long 😦 it’s ok tho! she will go back home and be taught with her husband and be baptized some day 🙂

We saw a guy named Glorious who just stays by our apartment and wanted us to visit him.. he wouldn’t tell us which church he goes to… but turns out we are pretty positive he is some kind of prophet hahaha we went to teach him and he started opening the bible basically trying to prove the restoration wrong then he ended up prophesying about our lives and it was weird. When he started prophesying about me, he said it was the first time in his life ever getting something wrong about someone! lol I guess I just have hard vibes to read. He told us about how the day he saw us, God told him to talk to us because there was something he had to learn from us and something we had to learn from him…. but he promised that next time we come, he would be quiet and let us teach him hahahaha.

Also we have pets in the house now! Haha shhhh…. They are HUGE cockroaches, like nothing you’ve ever seen before that like to chill around our house. We have Steven, Henry, Bertha and Joy. Steven is dead… he got killed be the washing buckets and the ants took him away. Also we have a lizard named Randall.

This week has been an answer to prayers. I have a testimony of this gospel and have seen so many amazing miracles happen because of it!! And there is nothing that brings me more joy than to see God’s children find the gospel!

I love you all!

Sister Burt