Weeks 10 & 11!! - Practically Trilingual At This Point

Okay everyone,

This one's gonna be a wilde ride. We have my last few days in the ULM to cover and my first 1.5 weeks in the ZHM ahh!

Soooo basically my last few days in the ULM consisted of a lot of tears. Leaving that mission was probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I had the absolute best trainer Sister Gray and she prepared me so so well for Zimbabwe. I'd honestly be so lost without her. Saying goodbye to Sister Gray, Sister Munk, and Sister Pun was honestly the worst thing ever. I'll always cherish my time in the ULM<3

The trip to Zimbabwe was a wild ride. We were flying and travelling for 2 days. We flew from Salt Lake to Atlanta to Johannesburg and then to Zimbabwe. Aside from literally almost missing our flight out of Johannesburg, travelling went pretty well! I was flying with Elder Hill and Sister Nicol who came straight from the MTC. She's the sweetest! We all had Chick fil a in Atlanta as our last meal in America. After that we found a big group of elders in the airport that were all flying to different missions in Africa. One of them was going to Harare! Zimbabwe gang:)

When we finally landed in Harare and made it all the way through the airport, we walked out the doors and saw President and Sister Judd and the AP's. When I tell you I started crying. I've been waiting for that moment for 7 months. President and Sister Judd are absolutely Incredible and I'm so grateful to be here with them.

There are about 130 missionaries in this mission and only 16 Sisters with 11 of them being from Africa. My companion is Sister Musanga from Zambia. My first area is Hatcliffe which is in the Harare North Zone and let me tell you, President Judd recieved some major revelation on that one. We live a 3 minute drive away from the mission office and the mission home and so I get to see them almost everyday which is SUCH A BLESSING. Its making the adjustment much easier.

My area is one of the poorest in the mission. I thought the Dominican Republic and Belize would've prepared me and it definitely helped but the poverty here is another level. Somehow though its almost exactly how I pictured Africa to be like. Red dirt streets and kids running around everywhere. Street contacting here is a DREAM. I do have to admit though that I thought I'd be walking among the elephants and the lions. I've seen some cool lizards and spiders though...The language barrier here is actually huge. Everyone here speaks Shona and we're only allowed to teach in English so the teaching is slow in that respect. Hopefully by the end of this I'll have an accent haha.

P.s. Sister Treese (people really do propose to you here) and Sister Pun (sadly none of the kids here like me. They all glare at me and call me Morungu (white person) so that profile pic isn't coming anytime soon)

I don't want to make this email too long, so here's a list of highlights from the ZHM so far:

-orientation at the mission home

-huge teaching pool

-gave a talk in sacrament with only a few hours notice

-exchanges in Kambuzuma with Sister Malu

-David's baptism

-Sister Judd came to church with us

-tried Sadza

-President is trying to get me certified to drive here (we'll see how soon that actually happens) I'm so scared lol

-have a pretty good farmers tan that I'm working on daily iykyk

-learning Shona

-STLs came from Mutare and Kambuzuma to stay with us