Week 45: "GWERU! It's definitely different from Harare"

GWERU!

It's definitely different from Harare...it's a pretty small town! Here, people speak both Ndbele and Shona, but mainly shona. The area I'm in charge of is the Gweru ward which pretty much covers most of town. Our area is actually very big, so we've been using combis/walking for most of the week. BUT, it's definitely nice to take a break from driving haha

sister bergen and i!

this area is much tougher. for the past transfer, it was pretty much closed, We're pretty much starting from a clean slate for this area and so this week we've been contacting for most of the week. sister bergen and i have opened up the area again. the more productive areas are about 15 km out of town and most of them don't have money for transport. i think this transfer will definitely be humbling, but sister bergen and i are surprised because God has already been able to bless us with miracles/investigators! It's kind of difficult for our area because most people we speak to actually live in the other missionaries' areas so we've been sending lots of referrals this week.  

cooking the usual: sadza, chicken and covo!

We live with the other Gweru sisters in the same house. This transfer was so inspired though because I'm living with Sister Smith!! Why am I so excited?! Because she can cut hair! So yes, she cut my hair this week...Sister Bergen was in denial because she wanted my hair to stay long, but I was all smiles! At that point, I didn't care if I looked like an elder with short hair, it just needed to go!

Investigators:

Learnmore/Ruth: We were able to teach them this week and they are a wonderful couple. They came to church on Sunday and have agreed to be baptized! However, they will need to be legally married first and we hope that the in-laws will agree for their legal marriage. They are very prepared, and I hope they will continue to progress towards baptism!

Brother Zhou: As we taught him, we found out that he had actually been taught by previous missionaries, but wasn't interested. But, we still asked if we could teach him to which he agreed. At the end of our lesson, he expressed how everything made sense this time around! He even came to church on Sunday. The only complication is that he is moving around back and forth from here to kumusha and so we'll be teaching him at a much slower rate. But he agreed to be baptized! We will just have to communicate well with him so we can continue to teach him!

before the haircut

. during the haircut

after the haircut...i was about to cry because i was so happy my hair was gone

For week one in the area, it was great and the Lord was able to bless us with success. The ward kindly welcomed me into the ward by having me give a talk (haha), but at this point, I don't really mind giving talks anymore. We were able to have nine investigators come our first week which was pretty amazing! I hope the following weeks will continue to produce similar results.

I hope everything is great back home. Love you guys!

Sister Park

(Also, I will probably be sending shorter emails since I'm emailing in an internet cafe now...)