MANGO SEASON (oh and it's HOT HOT HOT)

October 19, 2015

Hello... Rest in peace Grandpa Egg:) I know he is doing work in the spirit world and the people up there need him, I'm a little jealous the family is together but the people down here need me as well, and I REALLY NEED THEM. They teach me something new every day. I'm so grateful for the never ending amazing experiences that are happening here in Malawi.

So first of all Mango season is here my friends. Fresh mangos at the market for 25 kwacha... doesn't get better than that.
So I have like noooo time to email today because we had a district activity today where we went to a national park in hopes of seeing animals... and animals were pallibe today! haha so it was just a fun 2 hour hike in the bush of Africa. We had a guide who had this huge gun because she said sometimes hyiennas and pythons will come and try to attack the people. Still cool... also internet is crazy slow today so probably no pictures this week.
Okay soooo this week was a little slower of a week. Many many appointments fell through and so we were walking around a lot.. in the heat. I gained a testimony of making BACK UP PLANS... there is a reason they are in the planner.

updates on life:

FRASIER IS FINALLY HOME FROM BOTSWANA AND HE'LL BE GETTING BAPTIZED ON THE 8TH. seriously we weren't expecting him to be home and we walked by his house and he was outside... ahh i got so happy. He lives on his own and he was so lonely one day and we got talking and he seriously wouldn't let us leave for like 2 hours.
Yamikani is progressing terrifically! He totally loves everything that we teach and is definitely ready for baptism on the 8th as well!
Okay Henry's family is a complete miracle. We went to teach them the other day, and he told us that they pray morning and night and before bed every night they read their scriptures (well he reads and then translates for them) and then they discuss it. They read the introduction to the book of Mormon together, and then we taught them the Plan of Salvation! The parents didn't come to church this week:( but the kids did so we will work on that for next week. But still... how cute is that?
Saturday was a rouuuugggh day.. haha every single appointment fell through until we were finally able to teach one pangano lesson at the end of the day... But you know the good always out weighs the bad and I know at the end of my mission it won't be days like Saturday that i'll remember.. but all the other wonderful days we have had.
Sunday: Mandela was confirmed an official member of the church. ahhh that guy, he's so great. I'll introduce you all to him in the celestial kingdom one day.
Someone was yelling "madonna madonna" at us and so I was super flatterered because I thought that someone thought I was madonna... then we later found out that ma dohna means "my ladies" in chichewa... I'm still gonna say that someone thought I was madonna.
Well we are on WEEK 6 of this transfer so transfer news comes this week.... we'll see what happens. It's always a fun guessing game:)

Sorry that this email was lame... I'm happy and life is great and miracles happen every single day.
Love you family and friends! Keep up the good work wherever in the world you are!!
Sister Thueson

"Life changing" week

October 12, 2015

Hello Family!! Sooooo my companion says that everything ïs life changing" and this week you could say that was our theme. We had some BIG BIG things happen this week in the Mandala area of Blantyre Malawi. sneak peek: MANDELA WAS BAPTIZED. 

 Matching in denim shirts yo

 Henry's family

Mandela's baptism

first of all: ZONE CONFERENCE. MY FRIENDS THIS WAS MPONVU. Dang President Erickson is powerful. He changes my perspective on life almost every time he talks haha. Soooo first big news. NO TRACTING NOVEMBER... but it's more like NO TRACTING EVER. Our mission is no longer a tracting mission... we are no longer doing the cliche missionary thing of going door to door. Now my comp and I haven't set time aside for tracting in a long time, maybe 2-3 months because we have been too busy with other appointments.. but in some areas this may be a BIG change and kind of hard. We are supposed to focus on building relationships with members and then gaining their trust to lead them to want to give us referrals. so FUN STUFF GUYS. 
 Sister Solomone and I had to present at Zone Conference... pressure!!! But it didn't go awful haha yay. 

We each got 3 chocolate chip cookies and ice cream. Shout out to Sister Beal for making the best lunch I've had in 4 months. 

Then once again President gets up and blows my mind. So here in Malawi and Zambia we are trying to establish the kingdom" not "spread the gospel" and so we are really trying to build stakes here in the mission. WE have 3 districts and one stake... because guess what stakes lead to? TEMPLES. and what to temples lead to? EXALTATION. and that is the end goal my friends... these people need temples. I never realized how lucky I was to have 12 temples within 2 hours of my house. But so we are trying to build up the church strong in certain areas to one day have a stake. Blantyre has the potential to become a stake soon... we just need it stronger. so I like to think that currently we are building the foundation for the temple... one day I pray that there will be one aroud here.

But yes Zone conference was just wonderful.

Henry's Family: So we started teaching this family with 6 kids! They were a referral from one of our recent converts!!  The mother doesn't speak any english and only 2 of the kids speak english... so we have to have all of the lessons translated. Which is kinda hard for us as missionaries because it is hard to see if they are truly understanding. BUT THEY ALL CAME TO CHURCH SOOOO THEY ARE WONDERFUL. I think they will take a little longer, but 3 of the kids are over 8 so they can be baptized as well. But i'm super excited for them, and we might try to teach the mother english!

Yamikani: he is so great... he used to be so closed off and now he just seems so happy and smiling and me as a missionary with missionary goggles on am convinced it's because he has gained a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. just some of my thoughts

Madilitso: We had yet another random person just show up to church. How does this keep happening? I dunno but major tender mercies from the Lord. He was investigating the church down in Cape Town but he moved back to Malawi and so now we are going to start teaching him!!

okay so Sunday was just such a wonderful and amazing day.

1. MANDELA WAS BAPTIZED. My friends.... we did it. We got him baptized. oh he kills me... he never doesn't make me laugh. After he was dressed in his white jumpsuit he was just running up and down the hallway saying "mponvu mponvu" meaning powerful powerful. hahaha what? he was just sooooo stoked to be baptized. he couldn't even control his excitement. The whole time we were taking pictures he was just flashing different hand signals and whatever. And then when he was bearing his testimony after he just kept cracking jokes... but there really was a spirit there. Sometimes to feel the spirit it doesn't need to be dead quiet, but you can feel it through the joy someone has for the gospel.

2. KHUMBO BLESSED THE SACRAMENT. and he did it perfectly. He was just beaming with excitement to be able to use his priesthood.

3. HENRY'S FAMILY CAME TO CHURCH.

So sunday was just a happy happy day. SANGALALA KWAN BIRI.

Personal Study: I studied the book of Mosiah this week and man it's poewrful. especially chapters 3 and 4 just bear strong testimony about Jesus Christ. I've been thinking a lot this week about the Faith the people in the Book of Mormon and Old Testament had. They had faith in a christ who hadn't even come to Earth yet. Today we have so much evidence and scripture about Jesus Christ's life and sometimes it's still hard to have faith that he sufferered and died for us, but these people they just had so much hope and faith in the future, and they will be so blessed for their faith.

Well family that was my week. I'm constantly amazed at how Heavenly Father helps to make sure his work is progressing... because it is HIS WORK. We wouldn't be able to do it without his divine assistance. Me i'm just a girl walking around Blantyre with a name tag... but when guided by the spirit i'm able to witness kwan biri miracles.

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH. 

T-MINUS 2 WEEKS UNTIL I GET TO WATCH GENERAL CONFERENCE.

Our flat is now a ZOO!

October 5, 2015

                       

sooooo helllo familia.Let me first explain the subject. Our flat has become a home for many animals.. this week we hosted probably 100 cockroaches, 3 huge spiders, a lizard, and a dead chicken. you know... living among the animals. the spiders live on the walls and my aim has gotten pretty good... i take a big bundle of pamphlets and throw it at the spider.. it takes me at least 3 times to hit it. but I always kill it:) and I also have a fun game where I drown cockroaches... they hide in our rags and then I put the rag in the sink and then drown them. hahaha seriously the struggle is so real. I was so sick of killing animals that I just let the lizard chill on the ceiling and then by the time i woke up it was gone. 

oh and i should probably explain the chicken.... I will later on okay:) 

okay... so first thing Sister Thueson isn't as lucky as some of you other missionaries and she has to wait until October 25th until I get to watch conference... BUT I'M SO EXCITED. I have just heard how amazing it was and so i'm stoked to be able to watch it. 

BIG NEWS: MANDELA PASSED HIS BAPTISMAL INTERVIEW AND WILL BE GETTING BAPTIZED ON SUNDAY. WAHOOOOO hahahaha this guy. I love him so much. he is so so funny. 

BIG NEWS ROUND 2: KHUMBO RECIEVED THE AARONIC PRIESTHOOD ON SUNDAY. he was so so happy... he went around telling everyone. it was adorable. 

BIG NEWS ROUND 3: 2 of our Less-actives who seriously haven't come to church in FOREVER like before we got here they both came to church on sunday and one even bore his testimony:) it was just so great. and one of them is on the Blantyre futbol team and the branch made a sign up sheet for supporters to go to his game on Saturday.. ahh i love people. THE CHURCH IS TRUE. 

RANDOM FACT: IT IS SOOOO HOT PEOPLE. I wish I could explain the sweat... but i'm jusst always wet. sorry for the gross detail but it is necessary. But I feel like i'm camping because I either always smell like sunscreen, insect repellent, or sweat. yummy. 

TENDER MERCY TIME: okay soooo one of our recent converts Naledi always brings these 2 little kids to church who are her neighbors. But THIS WEEK SHE BROUGHT THE DAD. and we are going to teach the whole family on Wednesday. goodness seriously Heavenly Father keeps blessing us with families it's amazing. 

okay so Tuesday: I had to present at district meeting. hollla. Fun stuff I presented about my FAVORITE SECTION IN PMG PAGE 10 "a successful missionary" and it actually went pretty well.... It is just weird to present in front of missionaries that have all been out at least a year. but it was a humbling experience for sure... and then of course we get the news that Sister Solomone and I have to present at ZONE CONFERENCE TOMORROW... IN FRONT OF THE PRESIDENT HAHAHA YIKES. yep.... we get to present about getting referrals from members.. and it's pretty funny because we got no referrals this week. ironic right?

Anywho... we went and taught Frasier (our 72 year old investigator) the law of chastity. He is a widower and so truly you would think this would be easy. BUT PSYCH. He kept going off about how hard it is to keep the law of chastity.... Dude... you're 72. hahaha my companion and i were so confused. But he finally accepted it and said that he would live it. HALLELUJAH.  He was supposed to get baptized next week... but he left for Botswana and we don't know when he'll be back:( 

Let me tell you about some investigators:

Yamikani is really progressing and should be getting baptized on the 25th!! and hopefully Tenson as well! and maybe even Frasier?? 

Fisher's Family: they're wonderful. The wife didn't come to church on sunday though:( so we really need to stress that this week. But Fischer was there! But here is where the chicken comes in. so on Saturday we finished teaching them and I stood up to leave and he was like "where are you going? we have a surprise" he then whips out his knife and takes us outside and picks up a chicken and just slaughters it. WHAT? yep welcome to Malawi Sister thueson. Then he cuts off his head AND THE CHICKEN KEPT MOVING... WITHOUT A HEAD. AHHHH SO WEIRD. But then he plucked all the feathers off of it, took the guts out, and they put it in a bag and gave it to us... uhhhhh a poly and an american don't know how to cut a whole chicken and cook it. But we tried it.... and we failed. seriously I will attach a picture of us trying to cut it in our sink hahaha. 

Other funny story: We were walking home one night and this random lady came running up behind us and grabbed both of our hands and just took off running. and she was just laughing hysterically. seriously I got so winded (Blantyre is full of hills and running up a hill with a backpack at the end of a day... not fun) but after she left i couldn't stop laughing. oh man. 

Khumbo came and taught with us one of the days and man he is mponvu. Seriously he will be a powerful missionary. He contacts every person he sees. He never stops amazing me. 

Okay sorry this email is seriously so so so random. But I hope you all enjoyed it:) This week was wonderful, and the people we are teaching are wonderful, and I'm so excited for Mandela's baptism on Sunday!! 

I LOVE YOU ALL AND I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON AND MALAWI. And I never stop being amazed at the tender mercies that happen every day. 

Nima Ku Konda

Sister thuey