So ya not too much this week. Just keepin busy. We should have some baptisms coming up after I get done doing audits in Zambia. Then going to Bulawayo. Then also doing mission tour with the President for Zone conference. I'll be going back to Zambia and then to Malawi for that. And that's about the second week in March I think. We have to figure it all out that's why it's all crazy. But a lot of people are doing really well.
Also I wanted to share with everyone the most powerful shirt I've ever seen. I got it actually from one my best friends who's on mission right now In Richmond VA. A mister Elder Lowry. I still don't know how this kid draws these things. But I thought it was sweet. So that's what the pictures are. Oh and the gangsta ones are what happens when black people get a hold of you. The want to make you a baller or somethin. It was done by an Elder who was going home a couple of weeks ago. When they were in our house.
Also we found out this week that we finally found a replacement couple for the office. But they won't be here till the end of March so I'll still be doing financial stuff till then and be just as busy as all get out till then still.
But I'll take more pictures of some things here and show you what the country is like.
Bye for now.
~Elder Vanderlinden

Slashin Grass‏

So this morning for half our P day we went and did service. In the form of slashing grass. Lawnmowers are hard to come by here. But also they prefer slashin grass because it's cheaper and doesn't take petrol. But takes much longer. But there is a roundabout in front of our chapel and it had like 5 foot high grass and weeds and it was hard to see cars and things. So we decided to have an Elders Quorum service project and slash the grass. It took about 8 of us 3 hours to slash it. How you do it is basically with a sword with a bent end and you just whack at it for a while. Lots of blisters and sore chest/arms/hands/fingers. But it looks nice now.
So every Sunday we have an investigators class at the chapel. It was completely full this past week. We barely had any room to come in. There were like 20 people in there. We don't even have time to teach all the people that want to learn. They just keep coming. Our area is really just exploding. But the people we are teaching ish they are powerful! William Gondo is sweet. That dude is so intelligent. And it's nice we don't have to simplify our language we can just talk. But that dude just gets it. He works for the government. But we left him a BOM last time we met with him and we asked him if he was reading last night. And he's like ya, I'm in 1 Nephi......15 now. We were like whoa! And asked what he learns and he goes into Lehi's vision and goes into the part where Nephi explains it. His favorite verse was the one with the rod of iron being the word of god. And he said it really just jumped out at him. Many other cool things we talked about in that lesson but he was like referencing it to some parts in Revelations and stuff. Ah but he just gets it. He says so many cool things like "I feel as if I already knew this and I was just kinda remembering it." We're giving him a baptismal date here soon for sure. We're also teaching Amos. He stays with a member. He's a tenant there. And she is a powerful member. She gives us so many referrals and people just keep coming for lessons. She's going to fill up a whole bus with people to come to church on Sunday or something I swear. But Amos is cool. He came to help slash grass this morning with us. Dean is sweet he keeps telling us I want to learn it all. I want to learn fast and things like that. We're still working with Brother and Sister Maponga. He likes the TV Joshua too much. And we're still waiting for him to kinda calm down. We're teaching a few others but aren't too far along with them yet. We have way too many people to teach.
But other than that. Pretty much flyin solo in the office now. It's kinda ruff because there is alot of things I don't know how to do but have to just figure them out.
Also I decided that my companion is how I would imagine my brother in law Blaine would be on mission. I swear he acts just like him. And would have the same type of humor and so forth. It's not a bad thing or anything, I just think it's so funny.
But I think that's all for this week right now. I'll let you guys know how things are progressing.
Oh also. I found out that 4 of the people I was suppose to baptize in Lilanda got baptized last Sunday!!! I was so stoked when I heard. I was also sad I wasn't there for it. Because I worked with those people from the start. And I was suppose to baptize them if I wasn't emergency transferred early. But I'm gonna go visit them when I'm back up in Zambia in a couple of weeks. But that's 4 to my list of Baptisms already. That's kinda weird to think.
But I'll talk to you all next week.
See ya.
~Elder JV

The Mission Office‏

So My LDS Mail just changed over their system to google mail. POWERFUL! Because google is awesome. So it's sweet. But it gave me a new email address now. It's jordan.vander.linden@myldsmail.net Don't ask me why it's that. It chooses it for you. But it's sweet. I find it funny that the church even uses google apps. Some of you should be familiar with that. But that's what they use now. So you can now email me on that now.

The office is crazy! There's alot of things you don't think you'd ever do on a mission. You find you do alot of them. For me it's becoming the senior financial secretary for the mission and being in charge of all the money on the mission. People will ask what did you do on you mission and I can say I was an accountant for a while. Don't think I'll take that path but I've done it.

Also on mission you learn there is so much to this gospel and this church and you will learn so much! So many things you think you know and then they can just change. And you realize you only knew a small portion of it. One example is the atonement. The atonement is just huge! Like really huge! There have been so many new things that I have learned and gained a great testimony of.

Also in a new area, Mbare. It's sweet. We're having to start from scratch though and build our teaching pool. So besides being in the office we are out teaching. And we are busy! There aren't enough hours in the day. But we have some investigators now.

The first is Noel Maponga and his wife. Noel actually just came to church on sunday. So we sat with him and helped him out and have seen him a couple of times. He kinda has a pentacostal attitude towards everything. Man that guy can talk ish. And the whole time when you are teaching every 2 seconds, this isn't a joke. "It's true..., it's true...., Exactly..." Just over and over. It's kinda a distraction. But he understands. We ask him a question to make sure he's getting what we're saying and he gets it. But he just eat everything up and just believes everything. Like I fear I could say something bad and he'd believe it. But I guess it's good we're teaching him. He knows and says there is something different about our church and that's what drew him to it.

Also we have Dean. Cool story about Dean. We had an appointment drop and we we're trying to see what we could do. So we decided to talk to this member in our area. Her name is Sister Macheke. Originally we were going to go somewhere else but my comp said we should go see her. So we went and saw her and she said that just today she was talking with a guy who's really good friends with her. And kinda like another son to her. And he was asking her about the church and was telling him that the missionaries could come see him. So we show up and she takes us to him. And we start teaching him. And he's real excited to learn. He keeps telling us I want to learn as fast as possible. But he asks good questions and has a real desire to change his life. It's powerful. So I'm excited. The people here just want to know the gospel!

But ya. Lots to do here and we don't have enough time. We're busy from 6 in the morning till 9 at night. But then again it's also transfer time so maybe it'll cool down next week. But I also have to go up to Zambia on the 21st to do some audits of a district and some branches. Weird.... But ya more on that in the weeks to come. But that's all for now.

~Elder JV