Week 21: "LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS OF WALKING" and "Merry Christmas from Zimbabwe"

Rains turned the land into Green Field. Look! How large our area is!

Our District. Look how big our district is!

the elders need to work on their poses...

This week was A LOT of walking. LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS OF WALKING. Now that we're only focusing on Mabvuku 2nd, we have to fill up the other days that were dedicated for Mabvuku 1st. We've been walking to find new investigators and contact people so that we can have a bigger teaching pool in this ward. The Mabvuku 2nd bishopric and the rest of the ward are quite happy that they get our full attention now. Yesterday at church, many members from the Mabvuku 1st ward came up wondering why I wasn't in church with them and was saying how they thought I had been transferred to a different area because we didn't attend their ward...especially the recent converts and investigators. Ah, when it comes time to leave this area, I don't know what I'll do...I'll be a mess. Even just leaving one ward was heartbreaking but I know that it's in the best interest of the area.

Beautiful Sunset after heavy rain all day long!!!

This week was difficult in the sense that we had many fall throughs and the people that we were planning to have baptized this month are leaving for commotia (going to visit family members in the rural areas) and so they won't be back until January. But it's okay because there were many tender mercies from the Lord--speaking of tender mercies, Mom, the SPAM is much appreciated in the house. I was able to cook spicy fried rice with the spam and the household loved it! They want me to cook it at least once a week...and they also want me to cook the spicy chicken stew again. Honestly, when I come home, sometimes I'm exhausted and just want to eat something simple, but because these ones are being converted to loving Korean food, I find the extra energy to cook food for them. Plus, cooking in the kitchen is quite enjoyable with them and I cook a lot with Sister Ziqubu because we both love spicy food. I'm not going to lie, the food we eat in this house is POWERFUL. Last night, right before the power went out (another tender mercy!) we were able to cook pork with a nice marinade, chicken and pea salad, and mac and cheese...the Lord knows we love our food and didn't take that away from us, especially since it was a fast Sunday!

Investigators:

Cairo and Madrid: These are two brothers who have recently moved into our area. Their mother recently passed away and so they moved from Bindura to Mabvuku to live with their gogo. Besides the fact that they have awesome names, these two brothers are the absolute sweetest. You can  tell that they love each other and have such a good relationship with each other. They showed up at church yesterday and enjoyed it so much...I'm excited to continue teaching these ones!

This past weekend, we were able to have two baptisms, well I guess three, but one of them was a child of record. Tanaka and Hazel were baptized and confirmed this past weekend. Tanaka is such a bright kid who asks so many questions whenever we go and see him. As he came up out of the water, he couldn't stop smiling and he bore a powerful testimony. Hazel lives in Chizhanje and walked (~45 minutes) to the church ON TIME for her baptism AND confirmation. Since there heating water and such for bathing and things like that take awhile, I know that she had to go out of her way to arrive to church on time at 8 AM...but she did! I will send the pictures next week because the photos are on Sister Erickson's camera....

Christmas Greetings from Zimbabwe!!!

Creative (?) Christmas Decoration

Merry Christmas from my household

I miss and love you guys. The kids in the area probably think I'm Santa Claus because I've been giving out all the candy Mom has been sending. Also, now that it's official that I'm staying in Mabvuku, the Christmas decorations have been going up, and I even showed our Relief Society some ideas that they could do together as an activity. Sister Gondo, the Relief Society President, is overjoyed.

Mom visited LA temple with Sister Shannon and Sister missionaries

Givler family at LA Temple

Also, I'm overjoyed that Mom was able to go with the missionaries to the temple...you have no idea how much that means to them. Missionaries are always working their hardest, but when they work with unity and in harmony with the ward, ah, it makes the work so much easier. I'm glad that you have been able to help them in whatever way they can...proud of you fam!

Until next week,

Sister Park

The picture of Megan, she looks EXACTLY like Sister Colton....she's growing up!