Sister Caroline Richards: Week 28: Just Believe!

Hello shamwaris!

Great week down here in the ZHM. Would you like to know why it was so great? Well I will tell you. We baptized 6 this past week which makes Sister Park and I what? The most baptizing companionship in Harare for the month of September. Mission is so not about the numbers, but they're fun to have sometimes.

Miracles for daysss are happening this side! I love the area, I love my companion, I love our car, I love everything. Never wanna leave this place. Our goal this month was 8, but due to the tender mercies of the Lord, we were able to baptize 10. Now the struggle is going to be to maintain that for next month so it wasn't just a one time thing. Sister Park and I are pumped for October, and have 14 investigators on date, so things are looking zvaka naka.

I'll start off with the funny stuff. So remember when Sister Park and I played that hysterical joke on the Zone Leaders about my comp not knowing how to speak english? Well they finally got us back this week. We're waiting in the church parking lot with the Zone Leaders about to take them to baptismal interviews, and this cop shows who looks EXACTLY like our ward mission leader. And he's just talking to us about where we're from and then he asks us where our passport are. But I was like officer before we get into serious matters, you look EXACTLY like this guy named Mabundu. Do you know him? And he gets so ticked and is like no I don't him you're wasting my time. So I'm like whoooaa alright and just fall silent. Well we all stand there and get so much fire about not walking with our passports (they're locked up in a safe in the mission office so none of us can run away) and he starts arresting us!! Handcuffs and everything!! But the spirit was telling me it was a joke so Sister P and I were not freaking out. THEN. I see little noku (bro mabundu's daughter) pop up in the back seat of the police officer's car waving at us with the biggest smile on her face. HAH. THEIR PLAN WAS FOILED. So I was like nice try officer but your niece, noku, just ruined everything for you. And everyone errupted and was like "we almost had you so good!" and blah blah blah. Can't fool sister c rich, please. Anyways so it's the first time I got kind of arrested. Overall a nice experience.

Second funny thing is we taught Bro. David Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity this week. I honestly don't know if I've ever laughed harder in my life. I thought I was about to die! He is the funniest human. He asked us to find him a wife so if he ever has a runny tummy she'll take care of him. He's going to struggle with the coffee and tea thing, but he's so committed and is trying so hard. His front tooth fell out this week and he was very excited to tell us at church on Sunday. He's getting baptized in two weeks and I am so incredibly excited!

We're teaching the greatest couple named Wellington and Nyasha. They work at the shops and we see them every Wednesday morning. They have perfect english which is so refreshing, and they understand the gospel so well. Nyasha has been praying for about two weeks to know of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and of Joseph Smith. She struggled for awhile because she felt like she wasn't receiving an answer. We went over a couple times how to recognize answers to prayers but nothing seemed to be helping her. Last week, I had the prompting to tell her to just wait on her knees after she prayed for a minute and just listen. God will speak to us if we're listening and if we just get up and go go go after we pray we may miss the response. This week, we followed up on her to see if she had received an answer. She said yes! We asked her to tell us about her experience and this is what she said: "I was on my knees and everything was so quiet. You told me to listen to my heart and my thoughts and that's what I was trying to do. And then two words came into my mind: Just Believe. I knew that God was telling me to just believe. I know that it's true and all I have to do is just believe". It was such a tender experience for me and I was so overwhelmed with this spirit of happiness that God had answered her prayers.

Overall, great things are happening and I love Zimbabwe. It's stinkin hot but I love it. What I've learned this week is that part of enduring to the end is helping endure as well. At the end of 2 Nephi 31 (a chapter used sooo much on mission) it tells us that we need to have a love of God and of all men. We need to help each other out. Life is hard. Mission is hard. A lot of things are hard. But when we help each other endure, life gets easier. The race gets easier. And you know what? The more that win the race the better.

Ndinokuda!!!

Love, Sister Richards