Sister Caroline Richards: Week 33: Moto in the Ghetto

Hello my friends!

This week was crazy, but really good! I'm now in Epworth, which I'm convinced is THE HOTTEST PLACE ON PLANET EARTH. Moto means "fire". And Epworth is like the way ghetto of Harare. So I call it Moto in the Ghetto. Kinda catchy but mostly sad because it's so. stinkin. hot. My companion is from Uganda and is named Sister Namugenyi. She is the cutest and we are having so much fun together! She just finished her training, but things didn't go so well, so it's like training all over again. I'm getting better at understanding her accent. We're seriously having fun together though. She the queen of contacting so we contacted about 5 million people this week, and we had 14 come to church so it was awesome! Good things here in Epworth.

I'll send pictures of the warm welcome I got from the animals in our home (happy halloween for sure). The house has been kind of an adjustment, but it's okay! We're washing by hand and bathing out of buckets again, but everything is bo bo. Oh yeah! So our District Leader has this thing of saying "bo bo", which is short for "iri bo" meaning it's okay, or it's good. So Sister N and I have picked it up and always say bo bo. And now all the little kids chase us around in the area and say "bo bo, seesta leechahds, bo bo!". It's stinkin cute.

The work here is moving! We had a wedding this weekend, and had two couples get baptized! We were able to extend a couple more baptismal dates this week so everything is bo bo. Trying to get the wedding organized was a mess though! We had to run to town and get passport pictures and call the whole country of Zimbabwe to try and find a marriage officer and all these crazy things, but it ended up turning out really nice! Pictures to come.

This week, I accepted a challenge from our District Leader, Elder Monesa. He challenged the district to try and just take a Book of Mormon to the area to teach with, and leave our bibles at home. I was a little hesitant, but this whole week I only took a simple copy of the Book of Mormon with me. I was scared because I didn't have any of my markings, and was nervous someone would ask me a question that I could only answer with the bible. But no! ALL questions can be answered with the Book of Mormon. The spirit really guided me in certain situations to know exactly where to turn and what scriptures to use. People here know the bible like the back of their hands, and as the Book of Mormon says, "we need no more bible!". As missionaries we need to open from the Book of Mormon and read with our investigators so they can gain a testimony. My testimony of the Book of Mormon and of the guidance of the spirit grew immensely this week, and I'm so grateful for the conversion power of it's words!

The Book is blue the church is true!!

Love, Sister Richards