Author: Jared Burt

Still Cold

Posted on 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!
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

Winter Rising in Zimbabwe

Posted on 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 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!!
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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.
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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 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 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!!

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Gogo Chakoneka

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Chibage (Maize)

 

 

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Flooded church building

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Samakomva’s baptism

Weddings

Posted on 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
MaganinZim Sadsa Meal
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.
MaganinZim Elana and Laura
Edna’s little sisters Elena and Laura. They LOVE playing with my hair!

Bees in the Font

Posted on by Jared Burt

This week was good and went by fast! MaganinZim Primary with Brichelle

Photo: In primary with Brichelle
Stabile was baptized on Saturday! It was so great and she was so happy! When we showed up for the baptism, though, the font was empty because when President Gonzo showed up in the morning, it was full of bees so he had to drain it and we had to wait almost 2 hours for it to fill back up!MaganinZim Stabile's baptism

Photo: Stabile’s Baptism
On Thursday, we broke a record of amount of food we were fed throughout the day. We were fed 4 meals plus 2 other members who were about to feed us food!

This Saturday Gibson and Elizabeth, and the Samakomvas are getting married!! That will be an exciting day. And I was honored when the Samakomvas asked if I would chorister at their wedding!MaganinZim Sadsa with kovu and matemba

Photo: Sadsa with Kobu and Matemba – Caption: “Ate them all. Eyeballs and all!!! It wasn’t even as bad as I thought. Like I could go and eat it again. But I wouldn’t choose it over like chicken haha I ate ALL of them! My companion had a harder time eating them then I did and her dad eats them at home all the time haha”

Hopefully we will be able to find some new investigators and bring our teaching pool back up this week before the transfer ends, as the investigators we have now are either not serious or have been/are getting baptized. Sometimes the work is hard because people don’t take us sister missionaries seriously, but it is always so worth it when we find people who really want to learn and we are reminded of the amazing blessings that come from missionary work.

Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Sister Burt

People Can Change

Posted on by Jared Burt

I don’t have much time today, so I’ll try to type fast, but it was a really good week!

Zone conference on Tuesday was great. Especially because I was the only one in our house who got away with doing anything on the program haha. They talked about how we use our time and how much of it we give to the Lord.

On Thursday, my companion went for exchanges with Sister Jili (training leader) and Sister Richards who has been here for just 3 weeks came and was my companion for a day! Needless to say, we got a lot of interesting reactions from people in the area when they saw 2 white girls walking around together. A little boy even started crying one time. But we had a lot of contacts that day from a lot of people approaching us. It was funny haha.

<<<<< Sister Richard’s mother’s sister-in-law is my cousin’s (Tiffany) visiting teaching companion. They made the connection and we received the following excerpt from Sister Richards email about the exchanges Magan described above. “So for exchanges, I was in Kwatzana with Sister Burt. Yes, two white girls walking around Africa. I now can see why President never does that. We left the house at 10, got to the area about 10:30, and have 45 contacts before 11. We weren’t contacting people, people were contacting us. It was hysterical! I wish I stayed in Kwatzana for a couple more days because we got some serious appointments set up.”>>>>>>>MaganinZim Sister Richards exchanges
Saturday, we had 2 baptisms, Anashe and Tichaona. Brother Irvin, a recent convert we visit, got to baptize them, which was awesome. It’s amazing to see how much people can change when they want to live the gospel. Tichaona was given a Book of Mormon 7 years ago and he’s had a lot of problems in the past, especially with the Word of Wisdom and it has been a neat experience to watch him desire to change his life.

MaganinZim Anashe and Tichaona BaptismWe went to a new meeting place for church on yesterday for the people in Extension who had to travel far to get to the chapel. We meet in an academy with all glass doors and windows. It was a little noisy at first with all the children running around, but for the 3rd hour, my comp and I went to primary and I stood in front for the whole hour teaching them primary songs! Even the 2 naughtiest ones were singing and dancing with us haha! It was fun. Relief Society didn’t get a single interruption 😉

That’s all for now! I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week

Sister Burt

MaganinZim Lake Chivero

More Miracles

Posted on by Jared Burt

Greeting friends and family!

Tuesday and Wednesday were really good days this week. We have been struggling a lot lately with our teaching pool and finding people to teach, so we changed a few things and had a lot of success those 2 days. It was a miracle! We were so excited to go to appointments throughout the rest of the week, but then on Wednesday, my companion got very sick so we were in the house all day Thursday and Friday.
MaganinZim after Zone Conf

Saturday and Sunday we got to watch General Conference! It was so great. I love every second of it! It was so exciting to hear President Monson announce the temple in Harare! My favorite talk was President Uchtdorf’s talk. I loved the parable of the lost sheep that we gave and how he said that we are worthy of God’s rescue simply because He loves us. The only thing we need to do to receive His help is to have faith and turn to Him, but having more faith means we need to be more faithful. How wonderful to know that we have a loving Heavenly Father who will help us if we just have faith in Him. I can truly testify of that as I have seen so many miracles even in just the past week!

Thank you for all of your prayers. I have seen them being answered. Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Sister Burt

MaganinZim sadsa and sausagePicture is of sadsa and sausage that District Leader made last Monday. Soon I’ll be a professional sadsa cooker

A Glorious Moment

Posted on by Jared Burt

This week was a long one, but we got through it!

The electricity came back on Wednesday after 10 days without electricity. That was a glorious moment! Sadly, the fridge would not turn on, so we kept living off of bread until Saturday haha. But we have light and food now!

We’ve been teaching this rasta guy named Tchaona who was given a Book of Mormon 7 years ago, but lost his copy and was asking for one when we found him so we brought him one and may I just say, wow. This guy has a testimony of the Book of Mormon! He’s been coming to church and hopefully we can keep working with him to prepare him for baptism!

Words can not describe how excited we were last night when we heard the news that there is going to be a temple here in Zimbabwe!! Like we’re talking tears of joy! What a blessing for the people here who can now go to the temple!  I can’t wait to be able to watch Conference this weekend. What a great thing to be able to hear the words of the living prophet!

I love you all and hope everyone has a good week!

Sister Burt

Pic: Sister Bergen and Sister Ziqubu making dinner on Sunday. Macaroni and Cheese and beef curry… this is why us missionaries gain weight

2nd Email

So, like I said, this week was long and insane!

The electricity finally came back on Wednesday! We were screaming for joy when we came home and saw the lights. I didn’t even believe it at first haha! We have it now, but throughout the day it will come and go. Last night I was washing my hair and the lights went out so I was walking around the house with shampoo in my hair looking for my torch. Then although we had electricity, the fridge was broken until Saturday. And we also rejoiced when it was fixed and even took kombis to go grocery shopping and the elders picked us up. The water has been another problem since the power came back. Not sure why, but it has been black…. Black. I’ve been bathing in black water. Not sure how that problem can be fixed but hopefully something happens!

MaganinZim black waterAnd I finally hung up my mosquito net! How many mosquito bites did I have to get to actually put it up? Not sure. I lost count at 30 lol. I even have on on my earlobe! But the mosquito net is quite cozy… I feel like I’m in my own little sleeping pocket!

Remember when I said the water is black? Yes. So here is a story about that: Last night I ran out of garment so I had to wash them so I would have some to wear today, so I threw them in the washing machine (which I don’t actually even use very much) and started the wash. When it was done, I went to get them out and found that they had turned very brown and grey! They were washed with black water! Ah! so I ended up having to fill a bucket with water from the tiny filter in the kitchen and I soaked, scrubbed, rinsed, and repeated 3 or 4 times. They aren’t really white now, but hopefully the more I wash, the cleaner they’ll get.

Now about the area! It was a hard week as we didn’t have many appointments and the appointments we did have, most of them fell through and it was HOT this week! But we met with Gibson and Elizabeth and started teaching her. She said she needs time, but isn’t ready to be a member yet. She just need to learn and she’ll be baptized in no time. But she is pregnant and is moving in with Gibson next month, who is paying lebola in August, so they have to get married, so they are going to start announcing their wedding next week in church hopefully then after 3 weeks of announcing it, they can sign the marriage certificate and everything is good! Keep them in their prayers though. Elizabeth is having a hard time finding a job and she has 2 degrees- one in social science and one in environmental sciences. Gibson is looking for a way to earn some more money as well. So we are praying that everything goes well with that and the wedding and everything.

On Saturday, we went to Sister Mpala’s- an elderly woman in the ward- and taught her daughter and grandson who have been coming to church and are going to be baptized on the 16th. after we talked and ended up being there for 3 hours. Sister Mpala is powerful. She has been a member for 10 years. She is amazing. then when they were walking us to the bus stop after, I was talking with her and she was telling me about how she went to SA to the temple 5 times last year and that she wanted to go 6 times this year. Then we were talking about a temple in Zim and I told her that I knew they were going to build a temple here sometime very soon. Not sure where that came from… and little did I know that the next day they would announce a temple to be built here!! Words cannot describe how excited I am for that.

Other than that, I’m doing great and having fun! Hopefully our house will get fixed sometime… and we are hopefully going to try to use some different finding techniques to be able to have more appointments and people to teach this week! I love you all and appreciate the prayers and encouragement.

Sister Burt
3rd Email
Haha I just remembered this and it’s funny. Every day I get called many things and from many people… I’ve gotten used to it: “Hey! Baby! I love you!” But I got a new one today: “Sweetie! Sweetie potato!” lol that on is up there with “Kendall Jenner!” My companion says “This is the day companion! I’m giving you to them!” They all call her “rasta” and tell her to give me to them. It’s an ongoing joke haha. Not sure what it will be like when I go back to the states and nobody is paying attention to me! It will be nice!