When the Power Goes Out in Ndola .....

Maureen, Charliet, and Lydia were BAPTIZED and CONFIRMED. seriously the cutest baptism of my life.

Tuesday: RED ALERT: STOP EVERYTHING AND GO FIND MISSION BAPTISMAL RECORDS... Love, President Erickson. 

Yep... that was my day. Turns out our msion was missing 71 records. and so there were 71 people who had been baptized but weren't in the records and so us and the zone leaders were driving around finding all those that weren't signed and we ended up having to cancel all of our appointments that day and drive an hour to kitwe to take the records to the zone leaders. no worries we got them all in.

Sister Kunda: We found a less active who hasn't been to church for 6 years because her husband died.... she seems willing to come back and even has 2 daughters that haven't been baptized! Pray for her!

Cyprian: ahhhh he is so great... just hasn't come to church yet:( we had such a great lesson withith him about the Restoration and when we were teaching the Apostasy he asked the golden questions, "well is Jesus Christ's church on the earth today?" YES YES YES...Sister Thole just started laughing and was like, "yeah... it's on Tusha Street." and then at the end she explained that if it wasn't the true church why would still be going every single sunday for 10 years.

Faith: We put faith on date for May 14th!!! She said she has never been baptized before and she feels like she is ready!!! She didn't come to church yesterday because her hair wasn't done.... obviously waiting until may is appropriate. But before her lesson they fed us lunch and i had 2 whole fish with the eyes and everything on my plate..... i tried so hard to eat it. but i was struggling and they could totally tell haha.... oops good thing they also had beans!

Fineli: She is still progressing towards april 24th!! but funny story

Exchanges: I went on exchanges withSister Nkosi this week and they went really good! She has been on mission 14 months and we focused on being anxiously engaged and having a good attitude in finding situations. Exchanges are always fun to be with a new companion for a day!

Maureen: We went to go teach her the day before her baptism to teach her how to bear her testimony and she was so nervous haha. We had to practice it so many times. But she did such a great job and even included more than we practiced!!!

BAPTISM: so so so cute. They all got their white jump suits on and they couldn't stop giggling at each other. They thought it was so funny. And after they all gave their testimonies and they had practiced them in English so many times haha and they did it great. i couldn't wipe the smile off my face. glowing with pride. haha

also Maureens favourite song is "Angels we have heard on high" and so we totally sang it as the opening song at the baptism... in March haha.

Sunday: Okay so cutest thing ever.... our Branch Clerk lives pretty far away, and he shows up to church on his bike with his 8 year old daughter on the back and then his young baby daughter wrapped on his back... These people are so dedicated to get to church.

Funny Story: while we were planning we called Sister Thole and asked her to come teach a lesson with us the next day, and of course she said yes so i was like, "Sister Thole you're going to be exalted." and she was like, "if i were a muzungu (white person) I would be blushing right now." hahahahah i died.

Another funny story... I was contacting this SDA lady and i was like, "Happy Easter!!" and she was like, "we don't celebrate Easter in the SDA church." me: "oh okay... well um happy thursday??" she just walked away.

Such a good week!!!

Love you all!!!

I Ate a Chicken Foot ... and It Tastes Like Rubber!!

... but doesn't matter because it was such a goodo week!!!!!!!!

MIRACLES:

1. Maureen, Lydia, and Chariot passed their baptismal interviews and will be getting baptized on SATURDAY! so so happy it was so cute. after Lydia's interview, Maureen came up to me and was like, "what percent did she get on the interview??" haha she was so nervous, but she did great! 

2. We had 7 people come to church yesterday:) :) :) seriously tender mercy of the Lord. Fineli, Lydia, Maureen, Faith, Mercy, Linda, and a former investigator who just randomly showed up named Dwayne!! 

3. Found 2 new families!!! so both crazy stories... 

first Elisha/Tina: we had met a members nephew who didn't seem too interested but she kept pushing for us to see him, we show up and guess what?? HE IS MARRIED AND HAS 3 KIDS. no way... and they are so sweet, and they're not attending any church right now. Tina has pre-mature cancer that she has been battling the past year I guess, and they have a new born named Miracle. All the kids speak good english, which is always a miracle. We're meeting with them again tomorrow and i'm really excited. 

second Albert/Given: so flash back to last email where we met a bunch of guys in a workshop one being albert... anywho so we had to keep cancelling on him becuase the woman that was going to come with us had to bail... so yesterday we called and said we were going to have to cancel unless he lived with a female... and he was like, "uhhhh my wife?" wait what he's married? yeah... and THEY HAVE A CAR. big deal people. but we had a really good lesson about the Restoration and she seemed really into it, we're just hoping it's not fake. but we're meeting with them again on Saturday.. and once again they're not too dedicated to a church! 

4. Brother Mpundu (the man who got baptized a couple weeks ago...) we've been teaching his family and his 2 daughters (mercy and linda) came to church!!! I guess the wife's church has been doing a full-court press but she'll join her family some day!! We're going to put them on date this week probably sometimes in may or april... mainly we just need to see if they'll be able to come to church each week because transport money..... 

Fineli: Fineli is the district president's daughter's best friend. and we put her on date for APRIL 23RD!! taught her the word of wisdom and she has a slight problem with tea and coffee but no biggie. 

Brother Justin: he is a recent convert from December... and he got the priesthood (finally) last sunday. but he was SO EXCITED TO PASS THE SACRAMENT (oh by the way he is over 50 years old) but we were teaching him about where the sacarment prayers were in teh BOM and he was like "oh I already know... Moroni, and turned right to it) then we get to church on sunday and we were there 30 minutes early and he was already there seated at the Sacrament table. Such a great guy... and he did a great job blessing the sacrament! 

Barton: good guy. Still has a lot of work to do, but he told us that once easter is over he needs to announce to the Anglican church that he is going to start keep the Sabbath day Holy by attending the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. So that's a big step... we'll see if it happens!! 

FUNNY STORY: okay so we were teaching our recent convert cletus. and we teach him on campus in between his classes. and he always has friends around so of course we invite them to join in on the lesson and we had gotten all of their names, and so sister zohner was saying the opening prayer and she forgot one of the kid's names and so we both open our eyes and i'm trying to mouth it to her during the prayer... after several attempts she finally got it... hahah missionary work man. 

All in all.... such a happy week!! I love being a missionary, and I love Ndola!! Happy Easter this week everyone... down here it is celebrated from Friday-Monday... Which I think is appropriate since we're celebrating the greatest event to happen in the history of ever. Grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ and the peace that comes as we apply the Atonement in our lives. I hope we can all take some time this week to ponder about what the Atonement truly means in our lives! 

Have a wonderful week, 

Love 

Sister Thueson:) 

No Subject

Transfer news.... staying in Ndola! wahoooo seriously falling in love with this area so I couldn't be happier!

Brother Mpundu was baptized on Saturday!! Happy happy day:) and he was late... because of mini bus problems, but he got baptized and then he bore a really sweet testimony..pretty much just thanking the branch for all of their support! but the best part was probablby sunday when he got confirmed and then ordained to the Aaronic priesthood... and people you should have seen him in gospel principles.. it was like he had this new burst of confidence and was answering every question. so great:)

Okay so there is this less-active Sister Sinikiwe who asked us to teach her sons... and so we have. And it breaks my heart because she is the one pretty much teaching the lessons every time and she knows it is true... seriously she is powerful but her husband doesn't allow her to go to church anymore. Life is hard.

Barton: (the 50 year old man who is addicted to drugs, tobacco, and alcohol) so last Monday sister Zohner downloaded the "12 steps to addiction recovery" which seriously makes me cry every single time I watch it. But we had a great idea to show it to Barton. anddddd that didn't go as well as we had hoped... he got very offended and told us that he wasn't a sex addict... (the first video is about a sex addict, and we only made it to the first video) and yeah... ad then he pulled out his guitar to respond to us in a song.. and he pretty much told us we broke his heart. sooo yeah and we haven't heard from him since... oops. WE don't know what to do anymore. but he has such a soft spot in my heart... I don't know how to help.

World wide missionary broadcast: so we're a little behind the times... but I got to watch it again this time as a zone and it's incredible. I have so so so much to improve on as a missionary... but it's gotta be panono panono.

Service: so we did a lot of service this week!!! we weeded at Sister Thole's home and it's not your usual weeding... hahah... because the dirt is hard and dry and so you do it with a hoe... but pretty much we were sweating soooo bad, and we couldn't even finish it so we had to bring the rest of our district to finish it the next week.

and then the usual filling up water at the Kapatos home!

Chanda Family: so it's this elderly couple with a bunch of kids, and she wanted her daughters to meet with us, and so we did and we taught the Restoration, and we were discussing prophets and how the prophets down here in Zambia are false (obviously said in a nicer way) and Sister Chanda was like "well don't worry the only prophet we accept in this house is T.B. Joshua... (once again if you haven't looked him up... please do.. it's so funny) and her daughters started giving her fire teling her that he didn't receive his authority by the laying on of the hands... ahh it was so great to see the family teaching each other.

Maureen: part member... she is 11 and powerful!! She comes to church on her own every week... and now we just need to get permission from her uncle to give her a baptismal date!

personal study: i'm in the book of Mosiah!! So good!! I want you to all go to Chapter 15 verse 10 and replace the word "seed" with your name... Christ has seen you... everything you've "seen" or been through.. Christ has done the same. A general authority said that we need to stop thinking of the Atonement that Christ felt everyone at once.. but instead he went through each person individually and felt what they went through. It was a very personal experience with each of us.

And then it was cool to study the bondage of Alma's people, and the bondage of LImhi's people... one was because they were wicked, and one was because they needed a trial of their faith. God knows us, and knows what we need and when we need it. No matter what we can't forget that. Trials are for our good... Richard G. Scott said that "some people are like rocks thrown into a sea of problems, and they are drowned by them. Be a cork!!!! When submerged in a problem, fight to be free to bob up to serve again with happiness" BE A CORK MY FRIENDS:)

9 months: As my 9 months is approaching next week... i'm feeling more and more in debt to my Heavenly Father who let me come serve in the Great Zambia Lusaka mission. He obviously knows me perfectly, and this is exactly what I needed. I can definitely same i'm growing as a person in ways that I never thought was possible in a short 9 months, my eternal perspective has grown, my view on repentance has completely changed, and I just love the scriptures. The people down here have taught me so much, and I wish the time would just slow down. But I love being a missionary, and I hope everyone who feels like it's right for them will serve!  

LOVE YOU ALL

Sister Thueson