Sister Caroline Richards: Week 27: Kutsungirira

Family and Friends!

Another great week down in the books of mission. I hit 6 months last week (what) and time is flying! It does feel like I've been gone for a lifetime, but I can't believe I have less than a year left. Crazy.

This week was super great, though. Nick got baptized which was a complete MIRACLE, I got my hair plaited, then I got sick so I had to go to the doctor, then we had a 3 and a half hour Zone Meeting (I was questioning whether I could confidently sustain my Zone Leaders at the end of that meeting), and then to top it all off, we had FIFTEEN investigators at church. Successful week? I think so.

Nick was super involved in Roman Catholic before he joined the church, so it was a tough decision for him to make. From the start he had a very powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon, and I think that ultimately was the deal breaker. Once someone knows the Book of Mormon is true, everything else falls into place. Hearing his testimony after his baptism, whoa. I almost cried. It was so incredible. He sounds like he has been a member of the church for years! Now we're starting to work with the rest of his family this week. His brothers are convinced that marriage is horrible or something so that will definitely be an interesting conversation to have. But I'm just so happy Nick finally got baptized. He'll be such an amazing missionary!

Remember I told you about David last week? Well he's the shoe repair man who we visit on the corner and is the funniest person alive. All the ward missions (like 7 of them) come with us every lesson because David is just so stinkin funny. I think it makes him feel special. Anyways we taught him Gospel of Jesus Christ this week, and the last thing in the lesson is enduring to the end, or in shona, Kutsungirira. So I say the word kutsungirira and David freaks out. He like gasps and almost falls over and is like "Seetah Reechahds!! Even I think that's bad!!" So I'm thinking what the heck did I just say. I've taught this in shona like 500 times and no one has ever freaked out before. Well, apparently my "t" was evident enough (thank you, Utah county, for corrupting me) and he thought I said "kusungirira" which means self inflicted death. So yeah. Not exactly the point I was trying to get across. But with the help of our ward missionaries who speak fluent shona, we were able to get that cleared up reaaaaal fast. The guy laughed and laughed and just thought it was the funniest thing. He remembered how to end his prayer this time around, and the second he opened his eyes he looks at sister park and me and gave us the biggest high fives and said "I remembered how to end it! Remember how I ended it last time? I've been practicing!". Hah. The guy's a hoot.

So I got my hair plaited this week (braided) and it was fun but probably the most painful experience of my life. I only lasted three days with it in because it hurt so bad. Those ladies pulled my skin tiiiight. Anyways I got fire from every mama I saw because they told me I'm not as beautiful with my normal hair. Hah. Thanks! People here are so brutally honest so it makes life pretty interesting hahaha. Then I got like this throat infection nonsense that I had to go to the doctor for. They got me all drugged up and I'm all fine and healthy for the mean time.

Last thing I wanted to share is that I've really gained a testimony of the simplicity of the gospel this week. We're teaching 6 kids right now who speak almost no english, so we have to really simplify every lessons we teach. But as we've simplified, it's given me a simpler testimony of the gospel. It's true that the gospel is so simple that a child can understand it. Not even just understand it, but live it. It doesn't have to be complicated or hard. We shouldn't put any extra burden on ourselves. Life is hectic enough. If we let the gospel simplify our lives, we will have a clear focus on what really matters.

Well. Life is zvaka naka this side. Iri bo! Love you all, and remember to pronounce your T's!!

Love, Sister Richards