TRANSFERRED.... Ndola Bound

January 18, 2016

Heeey family!! The most unexpected call of my life came on Friday night... seriously we were 100% positive that transfers wouldn't affect us.. but late Friday night our zone leaders call to say that Sister Solomone is staying in Lusaka and her new companion will be Sister Tuai and that i'll be transferred up to Copperbelt to be companions with Sister Zohner and i'll be staying STL in that zone. They speak a different language... wahoo Bemba time.

I was so shocked... I was so convinced I was going to stay in this area for a looonngg time.. but God works in mysterious ways. They always ask missionaries that are elaving the ward to bear their testimonies... and I just stood up there and cried. because it was just so unexpected haha... When I told one of the member's i'm closest with that i'm leaving (Sister Jane) she just started crying... aish it broke my heart.

After 7 months of being together... of her training me, serving in 2 different countries... Heavenly Father is finally separating Sister Solomone and I.. only 1 transfer before she heads home. I'm so grateful for her and for all she has taught me!! But i'm excited to learn new things from a new companion! 

But the work goes on! This week was great great great. Seriously we have started really builiding relationships with the members that we had members working with us almost every single day, and some days we had 2-3 with us all day... Which led to a major increase in our member present lessons.. the highest we have ever had and so hopefully we'll be able to keep that up:)

FUNNY STORIES: so we had a fall through one day and so we went to go serve one of our investigator's mother who doesn't speak english... and we can speak broken chinyanja that we can communicate... but we wanted to wash her dishes because it was right after lunch.. but her buckets were empty and so we offered to take them and fetch for water. We insisted on taking 2 buckets each but she didn't let us and told us we could only do one... We walk a ways and fill up the buckets and then of course she just casually puts hers on her head and starts walking while I try to carry it... haha I didn't even make it like 50 feet. I had to keep switching hands and it was spilling all over me and everyone was just laughing at the azungu. Eventually a man came and helped me carry it half way... EMBARRASSING

another funny story.... (picture included) we went to go teach this stubborn man who won't accept the book of mormon.. but a member told us to give him another try and so we did... any who his nephew was there and he came in and said he wanted to hug the azungu and so i hugged him, and we finished the lesson and he just stayed there the whole time.. adn then when we got up to leave he just started bawling... and kept crying out "azungu.. azungu.." it was so sad.

Tender Mercies: aish so many tender mercies of the week.

1. the 2nd counselor in the bishopric calls us and tells us to meet with his cousin Kalumba. He is so great, and asks very sincere questions and he even came to church. We put him on date for sometime in February!!!

2. Hagaii... cutest 13 year old boy ever... He has come to church the past 2 weeks and we are started teachign him.. but then we started teaching his family as well. He came up to me yesterday and said "Sister Thueson you promised me you would give me a Book of Mormon and now you're leaving" and he was just so sad. haha it was cute.

3. Virginia.. the one who brought her family to church last week. She got sick on sunday so she couldn't come.. but we went and visited her and she told us that her husband is coming with her next week (we had never met her husband, but the way she talked about him made us think that he wouldn't be interested and that he would be intimidating) but we met him on Sunday and he is seriously so so so nice. and he was so excited to come to church, and ahhhh A FAMILY! During the lesson Virginia just kept saying, "wouldn't it be so nice if Jesus was here on earth to teach us so we could know what was really the truth?" and my companion and I both just wanted to shout "WE ARE REPRESENTATIVES OF JESUS CHRIST AND WE TEACH THE TRUTH" haha but we just tried to say it in a calm way.. But we told her just to pray.. She is on date for the 14th of Feb!

just too many miracles to count. Almost all of the investigators that were being taught by the previous missionaries are not progressing.. and so we have had to drop them, but we have been able to find so many new wonderful people, and that is why I got pretty sad to get transferred.. but Sister Solomone has promised to keep me updated on their progression.

I've loved my time in Lusaka and even though it has just been 6 weeks i've become really close with so many people, and they will be dearly missed. I've especially become really close with the young women because they love working with us and teaching with us. Truly the future of the church rely's on the youth.. and they are powerful.

LOVE YOU SO MUCH... until next time (from Ndola)