Rejoice

This week my companion and I were asked to write an article for our mission newspaper about being a happy missionary. A word that is frequently used in the Zambia Lusaka Mission is REJOICE. We have no reason to be sad, or upset as missionaries... we have the fullness of the gospel and we get to share it with others. And something I've learned is that there is always one good thing to rejoice in each day. 

This week was wonderful as always!! We had many successes mainly with the familes we are teaching. 

First of all, Dave and Banet were BAPTIZED:) It was a very sweet baptism as usual, and the Elders also had a baptism and the branch president's son was baptized! They both gave very sweet testimonies, and they are fellowshipped SO WELL by the young men of the branch. as I'll say time and time again, I'm simply amazed by the youth here in Zambia and Malawi. Probably the biggest tender mercy was that Banet's mother came for the baptism. She has one son who is serving a mission in Congo, and then a daughter who just recently got  baptized and then Banet. We really hope that she will continue, but slowly the whole family will one day join I believe it:) 

Mpatso: Mpatso is powerful!! He is the neighbor to brother Mfune and has the strongest desire. Brother Mfune told us that he is always at his house asking him questions to prepare for our lessons. The funniest thing this past week was Friday.. Brother Mfune was telling us how he would have to go to work on Sunday morning so he wouldn't be sure if he would make it to church on time or not, but then he said, "But I have to go... I can't let Mpatso overtake me in the gospel" hahahaha always looking at it as a competition. But at least he is motivated. At the baptism Mpatso was like, "this will be me on November 20th" Love the enthusiasm. 

Brother Abdul and Emily: love this family!! So prepared!!! Especially abambo! When we went to go teach him on Friday he had read the Book of Mormon and he had messaged us saying, "Sisters... ever since I read this book my life has changed" he told us how he used to never read scriptures... didn't even have a bible, never used to pray. But now he is "hungering for the gospel" The sweetest thing was after the lesson he was like, "sisters you said if i prayed I would recieve an answer... but the whole dfiference i can see in my life is the desire to study the scriptures and to pray" luckily both me and Sister Mukweya have recieved our answers this way before and we could testify to him that that was his answer!!! Amazing!!! Put him and his wife on date for the 20th!! t

Rabson Family: another miracle of the week!! Brother Rabson and his wife came to church... they were really late but they enjoyed it and even stayed for the baptism... Brother Rabson wants to join and even wants his kids to be missioanries one day.. but small problem with the wife and English... she didn't enjoy church because she didn'tunderstand which is sad, but as papa con just adviced me that anything can happen and she can still feel the spirit so we're praying that one day she'll come around!!! We put them on date for the 27th! 

Less-actives: This week we put more of an emphasis on our less-actives. But we had some heart breaking lessons with them, mainly on how they can't come back to church because the leaders don't visit them or some other stuff... and the sad thing is that they have been long time members. Sometimes we have to re-evaluate our testimony.,... is the keystone of our testimony the members? the branch president? or is it the Book of Mormon? The Atonement of Jesus Christ? but sometimes no matter how much you testify, their hearts are hardened. 

Running out of time so just some quick tender mercies:

1. Brother Morris after the baptismal service asked, :"so when can that be me?" He has been at a spiritual low.... he even once went the theology school but has lost his desire, but he is loving the gospel. 

2. Exchanges with Sister Mulomba. She is one of the funniest sisters in the mission and always puts a smile on my face. Even when we had a rough morning with lots of fall throughs... she is always positive. 

3. A sister from Kalambo branch returned home from her mission and she got to spend the day with us before she got released!! Super sweet and excited to work with her!!! She served in Uganda!! We even got to pick her up at the airport... but I kept thinking, "if I landed in utah and the people to pick me up were 2 sister missionaries.... I would not be happy... haha" but obviously she was very sweet, and we got to take her to see her family.... They were so happy, espeically because many of them aren't members of the church. 

4. THE RAINS HAVE COME BY FORCE. 

anywho... have to get going to catch our flight to Lusaka. LOVE YOU ALL. 

have a wonderful week:) 

Sister Thueson

The Priesthood Power is Real

Miracles are continuing to happen each and every day!!! 

So this week the Flu was going around... and of course my companion and I caught it. First it started off as just a simple cold and cough, but then Thursday evening while we were in the area i got the chills really bad and came home to a fever, once again, nothing too serious but woke up feeling still sick, but still felt the need to go out and work, but luckily the zone leaders had to stop by to pick up somethings... and after I let go of my pride, I asked for a blessing and IT WORKED. wahoooo so grateful for the priesthood, and that it has been restored back here on the earth. My testimony has been strengthened.... In the blessing Elder Kabisa kept reminding me that it was according to my faith, luckily my faith was sufficient in the eyes of my heavenly father. 

Other than that this week we were able to find 3 new families who just seem amazing. One of the families even came to chruch.

1. Brother Abdul and Sister Emily. Brother Abdul is the night guard at the church, and I guess we contacted him long ago, and then forgot.. oops. but he saw us tuesday morning at district meeting and gave us fire.. so we went to go see him and his family both Wed. and Friday and they came to church. They are truly seeking for the truth, and I think they loved church. We're hoping to ut htem on date for the 20th of November. 

2. Winston and Grace. An old retired couple who are super educated, and Winston loves cracking jokes. Reminded me of Frasier back in Blantyre. They were taking notes our entire lesson.... love it. 

3. Sister and Brother Kasambwe. Probably one of the sweetest  couples. We contacted her at the ATM, and she invited us over. She lives in the super nice area, and when we get there she introduces us to her husband, and when i asked him his name, "I don't remember" turns out he had a stroke last year.... He was once an electrical engineer living a normal life and then BAM a stroke... but he can now walk and understand what you're saying. Then we later learn that her son was stabbed when he was 17 while he was visiting the village.... such a sad story. So we felt prompted to share the plan of salvation, and right as we started she stopped us to call the rest of the family to come listen. The spirit much have touched her. on the extra plus side... she gave us a coke and samoosa. 

We were able to teach Paul about the Plan of Salvation this week. and when we followed up on the Book of Mormon he was like, "I'm already on 1 Nephi 9 (after only like 2 days) and I love it. This book is true. I was skeptical at first, but this inspires me so much." This kid.... it's true that the Lord prepares people in his own timing. Then while we were teaching him about Repentance we read about the Sons of Mosiah together in the Book of Mormon and he was soo touched, and was like, "i'm so excited to get to this part" also when we followed up on conference he said one of his favorite talks was, "where else shall we go?" by Ballard. This kid isn't even a member yet, but he already knows that there is no where else to go. If we can teach him everything he'll be baptized on the 6th! 

Brother Mfune and Mpatso: So Brother Mfune was confirmed last week, adn we've been teaching his neighbor Mpatso. When we show up on wednesday we tell bro. Mfune that we're going to teach them together, and brother Mfune was almost offended and was like, "wait... i'm so much more advanced than him" hahahahah we were dying... so now we know he wants an individual lesson on his own. Mpatso is progressing very well, and Brother Mfune gave a powerful talk about repentance at church on Sunday and they're extending him a calling in the Elders Quorum!!! 

John. He is so sweet... but has a rough group of friends. We taught WOW AND LOC this week and turns out he is addicted to alcohol... we had no idea.... so I wasn't going to ask if he needed help with anything but then of course out of my mouth came the question, "Do you have a problem with any of these substances?" and he confessed that he did.... we're hoping and praying that he can get the strength to stop so he can be baptized. 

Other random things

An investigator dropped us this week because his pastor is going to give him money. come on man.... money or salvation? Missionary work is interesting folks. 

Brother Banda told us that he is going to tell his pastor that he is switching churches. HUGE DEAL. I love this family... the wife is still a pastor and not willing to give up her church, but she loves having us over. He told us to pray that the pastor allows it... I just keep thinkikng... "Brother Banda you are a grown man, I think you can make your own decision."But pray for him:) 

Well this week I was studying Amulek and Zeezrom. Zeezrom tempts him to deny his testimony and Amulek doesn't even think twice. it made me contemplate my own testimony,.... would i think twice if someone was bribing me or tempting me. I had to look deep into my own testimony and realize that no, i can never deny it. I hope we can all be like Amulek and stand strong to our beliefs no matter what the circumstance. 

NDIMAKUKONDA KWAM BIRI

ps i'll be emailing early next week because of MLC.

Swag

Hello once again!! Sometimes I feel like i'm emailing everyday, time just flies too fast. 

Well this week was amazing as usual. Started off powerful with a great FHE with a RM and his wife who is a recent convert and their cute little son, and then somehow monday evening the Sisters and I all got on our matching t-shirts, leggings, and chitenges, and broke out in a dance party to gospel music. Definitely one of the funniest nights on mission. 

Willy and Chrissy: Were baptized yesterday!!!! It was probably the longest day of my life.. but we finally got to watch GENERAL CONFERENCE. and we had 12 investigators at church... but i'll get to that later:) So of course we had technical difficulties at the beginning so we had to sit there and sing hymns for an hour, and then started conference, then after the first session... snack break (when did that become church policy not sure??? but it was sweet) then 2nd session... and THEN the baptism... the guard of the church even locked everyone in so they would have to stay for the baptism, but it was great!!! They were so just giggly and happy as usual, and Brother Wilfred (the father) baptized them soooo fast... just DUNKED them in the water haha. it was hilarious. Then their testimonies after were super adorable... you can tell they practiced their testimony in English all night long, "I. DO. KNOW. THAT. THE. CHURCH. IS. TRUE....." so on so on. it was adorable. we had a interesting thing happen... the branch decided to confirm them at the baptismal service??? why?? we don't know... what does the handbook say? oh well they were confirmed along side Brother Mfuni. 

Young Men: so we have been having miracles with our recent converts Star and Blesings who are 12 years old. They both came to both days of conference and they both brought a friend each day... like who does that? I've simply been amazed my whole mission at the strength of the youth in Zambia and Malawi.... if only i had been that dedicated to the gospel when i was that age. Walking an hour and a half each way to church.And then during the conference Blessings leaned over to his friend and showed him a picture of the SLC temple and explained that the temple was where the conference was. it was definitely a tender mercy to witness. 

Paul: is completely prepared for the gospel. He came to church the very first sunday we met him and hasn't missed a sunday since. When we told the Banda family (the investigator family that referred us to him) that he has been coming to church consistently, they didn't believe us because he hasn't been going to church for 7 years. He came to conference and you could tell that so many of his life questions had been answered, and he is preparing for baptism on the 6th of November. He sends us messages every single day thanking us for helping him find the truth.... I loved our lesson with him when he told us "I want to be like Joseph Smith, and pray and find the truth myself" Most the time we have to compare investigators to be like Joseph Smith, but he did it himself. 

Willard: Willard's wife finally came with him to conference!! Little by little it will soften her heart and she will maybe let them get married, and then he can get baptized!!!! 

"This is my church" A quote that was said to us many times this week by our investigators. I loved that!!! Already considering themselves to be a member... truly beginning with the end in mind!!! Mpatso and John were the ones that said that this week, and hopefully they'll be baptized in November! 

There is tooo much to explain each and every week over email, but i'm happy and the Lord is working miracles!!! Today us sisters went to Kamuzu Dam, and we put our feet in the water and when we come out.. covered in worms!!! yikes!!! don't worry... we got them all off, but it amazed me that people bath in that water!!! 

All in all, I'm happy and the work is great! nothing to complain besides the burning heat, but no worries!! 

ndimakukonda,

Sister Thueson

HOT LIKE PERI PERI

But on the plus side... mangos are getting ripe. :) 

Wowie as usual this week flew by and it was just too good!! I love the Kalambo East area and we are just seeing sooo many miracles. Even yesterday we had many members of the branch come up to us and thank us for the hard work we were doing. Never in other branches has that really happened before, so it was definitely a rewarding day. 

Mcphearson Gift Mfune was baptized! i can definitely say that it was a highlight of the week!! Let me just tell you a little bit more about this amazing man! So we kept having meetings come up this week so we couldn't meet with him, but we finally met with him late saturday evening the day before his baptism. First we show up and see all these hand written notes on the table, which he explained are notes about the Bible and how to understand it better, then we see one that catches our eye, "Doctrine of Mormonism" hmmm... where did you find this Brother Mfune? oh he just went to the local library and copied down the whole book hahahaha. He just LOVES knowledge, and even though some things were a little false and lots of DEEP DOCTRINE, he still came for his baptism. But then we were teaching about prayer and he stopped us and was like, "can I bear testimony on that?? I have never prayed so sincerely until you started coming, and when I asked God if I should be baptized I felt so encouraged, and now I can never look back on this decision. It is worth any sacrifice, even my fiance is trying to tear me down, and she reported me to my pastor and they keep coming over trying to meet with me, but my decision is made and I am so happy." and then after his baptism he thanked me and my companion like 10 times. He will be a branch president one day. 

Kondwani: came to church this week!!! I love showing up for his lessons because he truly prepares himself, and always thoroughly reads his pamphlets. You always know if they actually read the Restoration pamphlet because they will automatically ask about the Book of Mormon at the beginning of the lesson. 

Paul: paul paul paul paul paul. This young man is just incredible, and full of words! His family is athiest, so we couldn't see him this week... but by the end of the week he finally got permission for us to come to his house to teach him, but we're just not allowed to teach his family. He has already been fellowshipped by the members so well, and has come to church the past 2 weeks. Hopefully we'll be able to teach him this week. 

John Dickson: So we met John on the street the other week, and when he saw the restoration pamphlet he asked to see our Bible. and he was super skeptical... but we saw him this week and explained the Book of Mormon and then he came to church... even though he had Malaria!!! and when he showed up... turns out his grandpa is a member of the church and they were so excited to see each other. 

Willy and Chrissy passed their baptismal interviews and will be baptized in between conference sessions this week:) They are a recent converts children so it's always nice to have the whole family become members... even if it's pangono pangono!! 

Others who came to church was Tapiwa and Dave and Willard!!! 

Wednesday: yo it was HOT. and we walked and walked and walked in the sun, and there was no electricty so none of the water they were selling was cold. We walk down to find an investigator who doesn't have a phone and he wasn't even there:( so then we start walking alllll the way back and of course more gulle wa kullu running our way with machetes in their hand, luckily we had a member with us which told us just to step to the side and hide behind a house. and then of course 3 more came... these people!! 

Sister Gwebu's birthday: a highlight of the week as well!! So we had planned to take her out to dinner that night, but we made this huge drama out of it (my companion rocks at that) and pretended like the zone leaders had to meet us at the mall to talk about transfers that something seemed super serious so we had to pick them up from their area early, then we had signs set up at spur for her birthday and when she got there she started crying she was so happy. it was fun:) 

Prospective Missionaries: We have about 14 young men working on their mission papers and they're my favorite!! Yesterday we were with 3 of them, and so we decided to have them teach us The Restoration and do a role play. oh boy.... sooo funny but they tried so hard. And they teach just like us haha because they come teaching with us so much. They all wanted to show off that they knew the First Vision so ALL 3 OF THEM quoted it int he first vision... and by the 3rd time i was laughing sooo hard. and they were wearing our nametags and just soo happy... a picture will be included. 

All in all this week was amazing as usual. There is just something special about being a missionary for the Lord Jesus Chirst. I've made it a goal to learn as much of Him as i can before I go home. I started reading Jesus The Christ again, and I know that He lives, and because He lives we all have hope. I was studying a talk this morning about the differences between weaknesses and sins, it's crazy as a missionary that you are keeping all the commandments, but yet you are more aware of your weaknesses than you ever have been before. I have many, but I know that through this experience i've grown so much. Tuesday evening we were driving home, and the Botha family had just fed us nsima with small fish (my least favorite) but i was so much filled with joy. Eating out of a small dish all together, in the pitch dark because no electricity, it just truly helps you understand what is truly truly important in this life. The gospel, and families. 

Love you all!! 

Sister Thueson

Gule wa Kullu and getting DROPPED

wow wow wow this week was one for the books!! 

I wish I had words to explain everything that happened!! 

First... transfer calls and I'm staying together with Sister Mooks!! time to work hard and labor in the vineyard for the last time! 

Tuesday: We saw Willard and we had to postpone his baptism until his wedding, so we have a wedding planned for this Saturday!! wahooo:) WE had a really great lesson with him, we were reading MOroni 6 and talking abut how the Lord expects us to sacrifice and he said, "I want to sacrfice my life for this gospel" mphamvu! Even ready to go to the temple:) His prayer was sooo sweet. Probably one of the most sincere prayers talking about how things keep getting in the way of his baptism, and how he just wants to be baptized. keep praying that we can just get him married so he can be! Then Tuesday we had lots of fall throughs and the member who we were working with looks at me and was like, "Don't get discouraged Sister Thueson... remember what you taught in district meeting this morning?" Wow... getting chastized by myself. btw he always attends our district meeting, and i had presented that morning on a successful missionary

Gule wa Kullu: so the cool thing about going half way around the world is learning of different cultures and traditions. And i think this is the most interesting one so far. Soo... i'm attaching pictures that i found on google (because if you take pictures they will chase you) but it's a culture in the chewa tribe... They dress up like the pictures show, and they do these dances and stuff at a graveyard, and all these crazy rituals, and they don't really believe in God... oh and they chase people around with knives and sticks and they want money. anywho, so Thursday night we go to pick up Rose to take us teaching and we see all these people and they're all talking really loud... and we ask Rose what is up and she was like "Gule wa kullu!" and my companion starts freaking out.. and we see them pass by chasing these kids so we run in the house, then after they pass we start walking fast to the car because if they see that you're scared they will chase you..  but then they see us and so we start running and they start following yo yo yo i have never got in the car so fast. I guess there was a funeral for one of their members and when there is a funeral they all get dressed up and roam the streets, and the next day Rose told us that they would be EVERYWHERE. but the problem is we had people that we had to see in that area, so we said like 10 prayers that night, and the next day we only saw a couple but we kept our distance and they never saw us:) 

DROPPED: So we had these 2 investigators who you have probably read about in prior emails. Bro Chikulo and Anita. Brother Chikulo has been coming to church for the past 6 weeks I think and was supposed to get baptized on the 16th, and then Anita his neighbor was the one who was filling out the answers on the back of pamphlets. 

So we werent' able to meet with either of them last week, then this week we show up on wednesday to see Anita and you could just see that she was sad, just not her happy self. She said how people from her church told her that she would be punished if she kept letting us into her home, so she told us never to come back. it was pitch black, and my companion and I asked if we could pray with her but she wouldn't let us in her home, so we knelt down on the dirt floor and offered probably the most sincere prayer i've ever prayed just praying that she'll get the courage to stand up to her neighbors. 

THEN: we show up on Sunday to teach Brother Chikulo and once again you could see a complete change in his countenance. He was soo angry, and he was even drunk, and he was telling us that he doesn't need the Book of Mormon he only needs the Bible, and how our church doesn't teach anything that is good and shun shun shun. We have been out of Book of Mormons so we asked for his back... i was so mad. I straight up told him he was making a mistake... and the poor prospective missionary that was with us was trying so hard to help him. but i was finished... Shake the dust off the feet. Oh well, i was grateful that I could bear my testiomny of the Book of Mormon to him, and hopefully one day it will ring in his ear again. 

Banda Family:  we had a powerful lesson with Brother Banda and his family this week. Brother banda keeps inviting new people to our lessons, and one that was invited this week his name was Paul... and he was asking such inspired questions mainly about how one can repent and come back to God, or if one can truly go to far that they can't repent.... I knew he needed the Atonement. He says we can't teach him at his house because his family isn't religious, but he came to church on Sunday a whole hour early!!! 

funniest part of the lesson was when after teaching the pre-earth life I ask if they have any questions and Bro banda was like, "yes.... so why don't you wear trousers??" hahahaha so random. 

Random other things

1. taught 2 pastors in one lesson. always exciting

2. taught law of chastity to a 10 year old... when we asked him what he learned he said, "when i see something bad i close my eyes and run away." perfectr. 

3. sucked into a SDA debate with 3 SDA's verse 2 missionaries. 

4. mastered visiting teaching for the month. 

Started my 2nd to last transfer today and i keep thinking about how i'm going to miss walking on dirt roads, sitting on tiny stools, hearing "azungu bo" every 2 seconds (actually not) seeing a picture of Christ in every person's home, eating nsimal, seeing goats, chickens, and donkeys everywhere i go! 

We were able to watch the women's conference this weekend as sisters and it answered so many questions that I had had in my heart. I'm so grateful for the modern day prophets and apostles, and it makes me sad that so many people won't hear these inspired messages!

Love you all!!! 

Sister Thueson