25 October 2010

Its Independence Day here!!! Many people are out partying.

My companion is Elder Chitenda. He's from Congo and speaks French.  I am the junior companion. The car went  to the other area so we’ll be even more like Christ…traveling everywhere on foot!

Baptisms are mostly the same as in States. We sing , have talks, then baptize them in a tub. The tub is just outside with no cover so it just gets dirty. ( before a baptism we have to get up early and scrub the tub) and then have them bear  their testimony. They then are welcomed in by the presiding officer. Welcome to Africa!

As for the Elders serving here-they come from all over. Two  Africans for every white guy. Most of us are from the States and a few South Africans.

I would love to send more this week but the internet sucks here today. Next week I will send a long, long letter. Love you all!

18 October 2010

Not  too much to say this week. I got a new companion. He's from Congo.

I also got to perform my first baptism!! It was awesome!

I really would like some letters. I can't wait to get mail and hear from you all but we are the furthest thing from Harare so we get everything very late. Here is my mailing address.

Elder Robert Hales

Zimbabwe Harare Mission 

65 Enterprise Road

Highlands

Harare, Zimbabwe

My first baptism

My new companion

My district

The stoning of Steven

  Enjoy the pictures.

11 October 2010

The people we baptized

Some of our investigators.

I'm doing fine. We baptized 3 people yesterday and next week we are baptizing one more and the 31st we have 9 to baptize. We have pictures of a party one of our investigators invited us to. It was very fun. We are treated with great respect. Many want to email me when I get home. So cool!!! The kids have primary here but all ages are together. That’ s here in the branch. Otherwise the groups don't have anything but sacrament meeting. Our building in Kitwe is a rented house and the one here is an office building. We are very grateful for the building we have and the resources we have. We still haven't seen conference yet we'll see it soon. Transfers are coming up soon. I’m excited about that.

We just had a brii (br-i)- a BBQ and I had a HUGE steak.(at the above mentioned party) I couldn't finish it. I’m losing loads of weight here as I run and sweat. We played some soccer and had a good time. Sister Esplin and Elder Esplin tasted my steak and loved it. I’m the best cook in Zambia mission. Haha! . Yesterday I had spinach and feta bread. Sooo good but cost me a fortune. 14,000 (about 3 bucks).  Allotment has been hard this week. Allotment is the money I get supposedly every two weeks. 500,000. (100 US) So every week we have $50 to live off of. I sleep like I do back home but as I leave the AC on the bugs leave us alone. I only have 1 spider bite so it’s all good. By the way if I don’t get malaria this month there is little chance I'll get it this year. Also, Zambia is the only place where malaria is a threat so I’ll be fine. So don’t worry :)

 Oh!! Our automatic car stalls all the time. It’s crazy!!!! We named our car Josephine. We also learned that if you’re riding an elephant or lion here you can ride on either side of the road. Encouraging. Please send me my driver's license. Love you all.

4 October 2010

General Conference is 3 weeks delayed here because we wait for them to be on DVD but its all good. This week has been very quiet. I'm getting my first baptism this Sunday with Ganesh and he's cooking Indian food for us tomorrow!!!! We’re just teaching every one we can. However, on Saturday we got 230 contacts. 

Our car broke down (tire leak) and 20 kids ran away and came back every time I said hello. It was so funny! They'd yell “how are you?” and when I said ” fine. “ they'd run away and 2 minutes later they'd come back. I went to go shake their hands and it was as if I was a rock star!! They wouldn't let go and pushed each other just to shake my hand!!!! It was so crazy!! I love it here. 

What sucks is I have to eat canned jam. Eww. It is not as good as what you make, Mom. Don't worry about what I eat. I eat very healthy here (many elders here gain weight, especially Americans). I have fresh fruit all the time: apples, bananas, and nartechi (like a clementine but waayyy better). Also the toilet paper here has puppies on it! How cool is that? The grocery stores look like ones at home but with different products. I’ll get some pictures for you. It’s really like Publix, kinda. It’s called Shoprite. It does its job. 

Puppy Love

Coco

Congrats to the Snyders on the baby. Since I’m missing seeing Tinkerbell, I have Coco (branch president’s dog). She's so cute and she bites you gently and plays with you and is very cute. Till next week…Bye!