So this week we got a new member to our companionship. His name is Elder Hillman. He's from Blackfoot Idaho and he's like 6'6". He was in Linlongwe in Malawi but will be working with us for the rest of the trasfer and then will most likely be with me for the next one as well.
Also what do you know about 15 investigators at church last Sunday? Mbare is powerful. We'll have a bunch of baptisms coming up on the 1st of May. So that'll be good.
Other than those 2 things nothing else is really new. We'll be leaving the office here this week and begin doing normal missionary work again. But we still don't have a house out in our area so it's going to be hard. Because we don't know how much longer we'll have our car. So we may be taking combys that side but we don't want to because most of our investigators can see us at night. And we'd have to leave back to our house by 7 if we do that. So we don't know what we'll do yet.
But ya things are good and goin along. Talk to everyone next week!
~Elder JV
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Oh what's up 4 months!?
So ya yesterday was the 4 month mark! Can hardly believe it! It seemed like last week I was saying it was the 3 month mark. But I guess that's what happens when you are just so ridiculously busy all the time.
So just to get some random things out of the way really quick. Sidewinder buses. I forgot to talk about them when I went down to bulawayo. There are buses here that have horrible alignment problems. We call them Sidewinders. They really stick out far! Like I'm not even joking. The driver has to look out the front window and his side window. They will be driving along being in their lane and then halfway in yours going straight.
Oh ya, so we just got a new assistant to the president this side. His name is Elder Lauaki. He's Tongan. But from Seattle. He is the only boy in his family and has like 10 sisters. But he's funny. We like to play jokes here in the office. And of course I do computer jokes so I was just going to do one and just sent a request to his computer to remotely shut it down and it has a message that said something like: "OH NO! WHAT DID YOU DO?! I GOT A VIRUS! I NEED TO SHUTDOWN NOW!" And he was freaking out and didn't know what to do. I gave it like 2 minutes and went over and acted like I was typing a bunch of stuff and aborted the shutdown. And was asking him all these questions. And then later I sent another one saying the virus was going to make it explode and he was getting up and going out of the room. We were all laughing so hard. I also changed the name of my computer to SYSTEM and I send him messages from my computer and he thinks the computer is talking to him. From my office I can hear things his is saying and then send him a message. And he's always like what the crap? This computer is scary it's talking to me! He still hasn't caught on yet. We'll see what happens. But ya good times XD.
Anyways still teaching. We have somewhere around 7 baptisms coming up on the 1st of May. We have way too many people to teach than we have time for. Like we are really struggling to visit the people we need to. And the funny thing is that we didn't tract or anything. These are all people who came to us. Or just showed up at church.
We were teaching Gogo this week. (Gogo is what they call grandmas) and she has been struggling for a while now. She says she gets no sleep and she can't pray and things. That every time she tries her mind is just blank and she feels like she can't. But she says she can't sleep because she doesn't know what to do with these kids that she's been left with. Her daughter died in December and left her with 2 mentally handicapped kids. And she was going on this week about how she doesn't know what she's going to do and does know how to take care of these kids and what what. But we were visiting with her and we were listening to her go on for a while and then I stopped her and just said Gogo, you are doing it. You think you can't but you are. The kids are happy and healthy and everyone is still here. Well that's the condensed story of what I told her but we left that night and came back a couple days later and she was much happier and she was thanking us and saying that she is so much happier now and that she can pray. And that she's much nicer now too. She said before that if the kids would do something, oh she would yell and beat them with a rod. She said everyone knew when gogo got upset nobody talked not even her husband because they feared the wrath! But she says now she is nice to people and doesn't yell anymore. It was pretty cool. I've had to shorten the story quite a bit for time and space reasons, but that's the essential story. It was cool.
But that's about it for this week. I will send more stories next week.
~Elder Vanderlinden
So just to get some random things out of the way really quick. Sidewinder buses. I forgot to talk about them when I went down to bulawayo. There are buses here that have horrible alignment problems. We call them Sidewinders. They really stick out far! Like I'm not even joking. The driver has to look out the front window and his side window. They will be driving along being in their lane and then halfway in yours going straight.
Oh ya, so we just got a new assistant to the president this side. His name is Elder Lauaki. He's Tongan. But from Seattle. He is the only boy in his family and has like 10 sisters. But he's funny. We like to play jokes here in the office. And of course I do computer jokes so I was just going to do one and just sent a request to his computer to remotely shut it down and it has a message that said something like: "OH NO! WHAT DID YOU DO?! I GOT A VIRUS! I NEED TO SHUTDOWN NOW!" And he was freaking out and didn't know what to do. I gave it like 2 minutes and went over and acted like I was typing a bunch of stuff and aborted the shutdown. And was asking him all these questions. And then later I sent another one saying the virus was going to make it explode and he was getting up and going out of the room. We were all laughing so hard. I also changed the name of my computer to SYSTEM and I send him messages from my computer and he thinks the computer is talking to him. From my office I can hear things his is saying and then send him a message. And he's always like what the crap? This computer is scary it's talking to me! He still hasn't caught on yet. We'll see what happens. But ya good times XD.
Anyways still teaching. We have somewhere around 7 baptisms coming up on the 1st of May. We have way too many people to teach than we have time for. Like we are really struggling to visit the people we need to. And the funny thing is that we didn't tract or anything. These are all people who came to us. Or just showed up at church.
We were teaching Gogo this week. (Gogo is what they call grandmas) and she has been struggling for a while now. She says she gets no sleep and she can't pray and things. That every time she tries her mind is just blank and she feels like she can't. But she says she can't sleep because she doesn't know what to do with these kids that she's been left with. Her daughter died in December and left her with 2 mentally handicapped kids. And she was going on this week about how she doesn't know what she's going to do and does know how to take care of these kids and what what. But we were visiting with her and we were listening to her go on for a while and then I stopped her and just said Gogo, you are doing it. You think you can't but you are. The kids are happy and healthy and everyone is still here. Well that's the condensed story of what I told her but we left that night and came back a couple days later and she was much happier and she was thanking us and saying that she is so much happier now and that she can pray. And that she's much nicer now too. She said before that if the kids would do something, oh she would yell and beat them with a rod. She said everyone knew when gogo got upset nobody talked not even her husband because they feared the wrath! But she says now she is nice to people and doesn't yell anymore. It was pretty cool. I've had to shorten the story quite a bit for time and space reasons, but that's the essential story. It was cool.
But that's about it for this week. I will send more stories next week.
~Elder Vanderlinden
Monday, April 5, 2010
Bonus Post
This is a small excerpt from a letter Jordan sent to my mom this week. It is really neat to see how excited he is about his mission and how quickly he is growing. She thought some of you might like to see this as well.
..."That's cool that all those new missionaries in the ward are going out. They have no idea how important the work they're doing is. I really like my companion. He's helped me a lot to get these things early on in my mission. There are a lot of missionaries that we say all the time "they don't get these things." I do see now how important my mission is and how important it is for me to bring the gospel into their lives. Also I know I wouldn't be the Father/Husband/Priesthood holder I need to be if it wasn't for my mission. I've come to see so much more about the atonement and the gospel and how it's the small simple things of the gospel that really make or break people and will keep their testimony strong. I've really seen how the mighty and powerful fall when they stop doing them and that's how they fall away. Keep praying and reading your scriptures. Don't go lax on thoughs. Everyday!!!"
..."That's cool that all those new missionaries in the ward are going out. They have no idea how important the work they're doing is. I really like my companion. He's helped me a lot to get these things early on in my mission. There are a lot of missionaries that we say all the time "they don't get these things." I do see now how important my mission is and how important it is for me to bring the gospel into their lives. Also I know I wouldn't be the Father/Husband/Priesthood holder I need to be if it wasn't for my mission. I've come to see so much more about the atonement and the gospel and how it's the small simple things of the gospel that really make or break people and will keep their testimony strong. I've really seen how the mighty and powerful fall when they stop doing them and that's how they fall away. Keep praying and reading your scriptures. Don't go lax on thoughs. Everyday!!!"
Jonny Lingo!
So anyways quick funny thing here so this is the land of the people carrying things on their heads and also paying cows for their wives! Ya like in Jonny Lingo. Except the church doesn't encourage people this side to watch that movie. They already don't have very much. But anyways the church discourages lebola(paying for wife) now. They actually put out a message to the members here saying they are trying to do away with it. Mostly because it constitutes your wife being more of property and have rule over her because of it.
But anways this week, scary sketchy hospital time 10!~ We went to visit this family in our area to give a blessing to the child who is in the hospital. So we went to the childrens ward. Oh ya right when you walk in there is this picture on the wall of a doctor painting a baby with black paint. It's like little kid style painting on the wall. It was funny. I wanted to take a picture but knew I shouldn't because I'd be given fire! But anyways it was after dark when we were there and the hospital and gnomes and clowns on the walls and there was paint chips of the wall and rusted metal beds and such and bars on the windows. Walking through I felt like I was in an old scary movie and there were little kids crying which made it worse.
But anyways we have some new investigators this week. It's the Kandawazvika family. Which means "throw when arrive". Don't ask me why but that's their name. But they are the happiest couple with one kid whos 5 named blessings. But Martha is always like "oh that's so beautiful to know" They are so cool and happy all the time. And they are really understanding the things we are teaching them. We need to get our other investigators baptismal dates. We'll let you know more on those next week hopefully.
Also we went to a memorial service today. It was pretty crazy. It was for a family member of one of our investigators. The family was roman catholic and they were doing the whole singing, dancing thing, playing the drums and such. It was pretty african. And then they preach and talk about the deseased. It was all in Shona. And they put us in the program. I had to give the opening prayer and my companion had to give a 10 min presentation. He did it on part of the Plan of Salvation from the Book of Mormom and took scriptures out from it OH YA!!!
But ya time is short and have to go to a braai at President Dube's house and watch conference. Talk to you all next week!
~Elder JV
Pictures:
1. Home
2 and 3. The chapel is the one in my area. Which also happens to be the sketchiest place in Harare but has the most powerful chapel in the country currently till there is a new one!
4. Scary face in the office for Adam Alex and Regan!
5. William Gondo is one of our investigators, he's powerful. That is the first time we caught him in his suit! He doesn't wear it to church yet because he has to wear it for work everyday. He works for the government doing something I can't really say. But we found out.
But anways this week, scary sketchy hospital time 10!~ We went to visit this family in our area to give a blessing to the child who is in the hospital. So we went to the childrens ward. Oh ya right when you walk in there is this picture on the wall of a doctor painting a baby with black paint. It's like little kid style painting on the wall. It was funny. I wanted to take a picture but knew I shouldn't because I'd be given fire! But anyways it was after dark when we were there and the hospital and gnomes and clowns on the walls and there was paint chips of the wall and rusted metal beds and such and bars on the windows. Walking through I felt like I was in an old scary movie and there were little kids crying which made it worse.
But anyways we have some new investigators this week. It's the Kandawazvika family. Which means "throw when arrive". Don't ask me why but that's their name. But they are the happiest couple with one kid whos 5 named blessings. But Martha is always like "oh that's so beautiful to know" They are so cool and happy all the time. And they are really understanding the things we are teaching them. We need to get our other investigators baptismal dates. We'll let you know more on those next week hopefully.
Also we went to a memorial service today. It was pretty crazy. It was for a family member of one of our investigators. The family was roman catholic and they were doing the whole singing, dancing thing, playing the drums and such. It was pretty african. And then they preach and talk about the deseased. It was all in Shona. And they put us in the program. I had to give the opening prayer and my companion had to give a 10 min presentation. He did it on part of the Plan of Salvation from the Book of Mormom and took scriptures out from it OH YA!!!
But ya time is short and have to go to a braai at President Dube's house and watch conference. Talk to you all next week!
~Elder JV
Pictures:
1. Home
2 and 3. The chapel is the one in my area. Which also happens to be the sketchiest place in Harare but has the most powerful chapel in the country currently till there is a new one!
4. Scary face in the office for Adam Alex and Regan!
5. William Gondo is one of our investigators, he's powerful. That is the first time we caught him in his suit! He doesn't wear it to church yet because he has to wear it for work everyday. He works for the government doing something I can't really say. But we found out.
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