I Wasn't Too Clueless this Week...
My New Companion!
So.. I was wrong. My companion is not from Australia and is not Tongan... He is actually from Samoa! Which is even cooler! Apparently he is the first Samoan to be in the Zimbabwe mission! And people here think that we are brothers or something. haha But he is such a cool guy. His name is Elder Young Yen. He is quiet and more on the serious side, but has the desire to do good and has a strong spirit with him. And I am honored and excited to be working with him. A really cool connection though, Elder Young Yen had a really good friend from back home who served in Africa, Sierra Leon to be exact. And that good friend of his served in the same mission and was companions as someone in our branch! Bro Griffith!! Who is the son of Bro Mukwiera! It was such an amazing connection. Definitely an icebreaker into the new area for Elder Young Yen. But I am looking forward to these next 12 weeks with my new companion. Oh and also, he set a good first impression by sharing with me some of his Snickers that he brought!! Miss those candies soo much! And nothing gets to my heart better than some good ole sweets! haha
So Here's my Week:
Tuesday and Wednesday:
So Basically we were in training meetings and met our new companions, then we headed back to our area by night time and let my companion unpack. Yeah it was jammed packed those days... haha
Our Clueless house:
So When transfers came out I kept joking how for the next 2 weeks our house is going to be so clueless, well because, there are 4 people in our apartment. Me and my companion and Elder Odunga and his companion. And when transfers came, we found out that we will both be training a "greenie" for our first times, AND Elder Odunga will also be the District leader for his first time! Haha so yeah, we both don't really know what we are doing. But hey this week wasn't as bad as I thought it would be!
The First Day Leading the Area:
It wasn't so bad! But man is it tiring! I didn't realize how much energy it takes to lead in planning, walking to appointments, and teaching people! Aye! Takes so much energy! Now I'm really gonna sleep well! But it was good! We went out and taught about 4 lessons! 3 with members since a couple of the people we were teaching didn't know English that well! And am so thankful for those members! Makes my life much easier! Overall though it was good! Everyone we taught could understand and Elder Young Yen taught well too! It was a successful first day.
Teaching with Hand Motions in Kingston:
Tuesday was the true clueless day! Haha so we went out to Kingston to go and "try" to teach some people. (And note: Kingston is the area where not too many people know English very well, mostly Shona) Our initial plan was to find a member, Sister Kufumu who was currently in Kingston to help us teach. Except the only problem was... we couldn't find her...But we ended up running into someone that we taught before, who knows English!!! Which was nice. So he came up to us and said that he has been looking for us for some time and he wanted to continue to hear our message! IT was a miracle! So we planned to meet him next Wednesday! But he helped direct us in the direction where we thought we would find Sister Kufumu and then he headed off. But right after he left. Some people (about 10 of them) called us over and wanted us to teach them a message. However none of them knew English very well... One could speak just a little. So I started to teach about the Restoration. But just when I started 12 other people came over to hear, or maybe just see me attempt to teach a lesson in Shona. So like 22 people were there surrounding us! So with the very little Shona I knew, I taught them that God love his children and the meaning of the word restoration. I used so many hand signals and anything I could find to help teach! I used my bag to teach the word restoration by placing it on the ground, taking it away, and then replacing it back. Then I would explain how restoration means to bring back exactly how it was, So I would grab something else and replace it with my bag and say Iowa! (Meaning no) Then grab my bag and place it back and give a thumbs up! Haha it was quite the experience! And it was pretty fun! So we never actually found Sister Kufumu in Kingston, but at least we survived with what we had!
Baptisms! + Gift of Tounges
So this week we baptized two Sisters! Like I have said so many times before, I always love baptism days! Always makes me happy! Also Elder Young Yen and Elder Horlacher, the two new Elders in our house, got to baptize! It was so cool to see!
But an amazing miracle that happened. So we went to the sisters house (Friday before the baptism) because we need to interview them. Since Elder Odunga was doing other interviews, we had to wait for about 20 minutes for them to come. So while we were waiting, we talked. Except here's the miracle! So the Sisters can understand English pretty well, but they can't speak it. And I can understand Shona just a bit, but can't really speak it. So for 20 minutes I was able to have a conversation with them without much miscommunication or awkwardness in it! It was awesome! Definitely power of the gift of tongues, because I just started hearing a bit of Shona in conversations like a week ago!
Well I hope that everyone is doing well I love you all very much!!! I'll send pictures of my comp and other things! Love you all!
Elder Parco
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