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Week 4: Arrival in Zimbabwe.


Hey so I will start with the trip that started Monday at 4:45 and ended Thursday afternoon. I was supposed to meet 11 other missionaries in Atlanta, but they weren't there, so I flew to Johannesburg with my room mates then they went straight to Zambia, so I had to stay the night in South Africa alone. That was interesting, but I was fine. Although it did send the mission office into a panic when Elder Williams didn't show up with the other 11. It turns out their flight was a day earlier. 


             I am in Masvingo and the church only has one small branch here. My companion is Elder Owuor and he is from Kenya. All the people here speak Shona as the main language. So I started to learn the greetings and all the people start to laugh when this white boy speaks Shona. I don't know why but they think it is so funny. 


            One day we were walking by an elementary with all the kids outside and they all started to chant “Marungu, marungu, marungu.” Then whenever the neighbor kids are out front, they yell “Hello marungu” “How are you?” Marungu if you didn't catch on yet means white. Every street I walk down the people stare at me then I say masuresa and they all start laughing and start speaking Shona to me and I have to try to explain that I don't actually speak Shona. Even though most people here speak English I still only understand half of it because their accents are so thick. 

The cool thing about Masvingo is that the people are eager to learn about the gospel. We have people yell at us to come over and talk to them because they have heard about the church and want to learn more.


              The problem with our area is we are white washing it right now because the previous missionaries lost all the trust of the members and people. And the AP's haven't given us area maps yet so none of us know the areas and we are all just teaching around town not knowing where we should be or where we should be focusing our teaching areas.

            The food here is sonza, sonza, sonza. It tastes bad by itself, so I just bury it in the food you scoop it up with. I am running out of time and can't remember anything else, but the culture is different for sure, but it is fun!


Have a great week!
Elder Williams

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