Week 5

 It's been a great week here in Zim, we had 2 baptisms on Saturday a 14 year old girl named Shelly and a 14 year old boy named Leroy. It was a cool experience for me. This was first baptism since being on my mission and the first baptism for someone that I have taught.
I haven't had a chance to drive yet there is really not a speed limit, driving here is kinda crazy. I am surprised that there aren't any crashes as crazy as the driving is.

We are a 20 minute drive to Bulawayo other missionaries have to ride the combi bus 

and it takes them 35-40 minutes to get there. 

I am surviving the heat pretty well. Our house gets so hot during the day so we try to get out as as fast as possible in the mornings, and we try to come back after dark when it is cooled down a little. We are headed into our winter so it will stay around 50-60 degrees so that will be nice.

It has been raining alot lately and we have a couple of holes in our roof so every time it rains we get puddles in our house.

My comp is helping me learn a little Shona and Ndebele so I can say a few things in those languages.
There are 4 missionaries living in our house Elder Parker from North Carolina, Elder Ghielile (Hi-lily) from South Africa, then me and Elder Stone.
 We have an investigator his name is Mathias and he is about 60 years old and he has a son named Emanuel who is 13. We met Emanuel on the street as he was walking home from school so we started talking to him then followed him home to meet his baba (Mathias). We set up a time to come back and visit we left them with a restoration pamphlet and asked them to read it. When we met with them, Mathias had studied and marked his favorite parts on the pamphlet. Then we taught him the about the restoration and he accepted it and wanted to learn more. We have since meet with them 3 other times and they have both been to church twice now! They have even accepted to be baptized on April 7th. Mathias has been prepared to hear the gospel and knows the Bible very well but he knows that it has been changed over the years so he was excited to read the Book of  Mormon to know more.

Love you all,
Elder Rasmussen

Week 4

 Hello from Africa,
I arrived in Zimbabwe Tuesday at 10 pm it was definitely a long flight. I did made it to my area, I am serving in a place called Bulawayo but we are in a city just out a ways called Nkulaname. We took a bus to get here so we were on the bus for 6 hours. It wasn't fun at all because there was no AC and it was about 85 degrees outside.

My comp is Elder Stone he is from Farmington and has been here for 6 months now. We eat mostly rice and chicken. For lunch we stop at this little lady's house down the street from us. I've eaten sazda, I thought it was pretty gross at first but I am staring to like it now.

This week we had 2 days of contacting and we got 5 new investigators. Pretty sure 2 of them will get baptized. We have a baptism this Saturday for a 13 year old girl named Shelly. So cool.
The people of Zimbabwe are so ready for the gospel and so willing to meet and talk about Jesus Christ.

All the kids here call us keywa which means white person. The little kids are so cute and funny. These kids are always outside and playing in the dirt. They always have a smile on their face and they have nothing. It makes me realize that we have nothing to complain about back in the states.

Elder Stone and I

Yesterday we went to one of the two wards that we are assigned to cover. We meet in a pavilion with tarp walls and there was only 30 people there. I was asked to share my testimony since I am new to the ward.

I am  really liking it here in Zim!

Love you all,
              -Elder Rasmussen

Our Kitchen

Room

Pres and Sister Mkhabela

Incoming Group

Week 3

 We are happy to report that Elder Rasmussen has safely landed in Zimbabwe! He arrived around 9:15 pm on March 13th after nearly 24 hours of travel. We were so excited to get a call from him on Monday morning from the Denver airport during his first layover. It was so good catching up and hearing his voice.  He was so excited and a (little nervous) to be on his way! A sweet lady named Frana took this picture of him and his travel companions while there at the airport just before his call home. We were able to talk to him one last time just before getting on the plane in DC.

We found a website, thanks to our Pilot daughter, that tracked his flights while en route from SLC to Denver, from Denver to Washington DC, from DC to Ghana. Then from Ghana to Johannesburg and then to Harare, Zimbabwe. It was fun to watch and know where he was at, how high the plane was flying and how fast they were going and that he had landed safely.

We recieved an email from the Harare Mission Secretary this morning to let us know he had safely landed and that he would be training in the mission home and then he would be traveling to his assigned area the following day. Soon we will know where he will be.

We can't wait to hear more from him.

Week 2

 Hi Everyone!
I am good down here at the MTC! We did get our travel plans this week. I leave the MTC on Monday March 12th real early in the morning.
I have two stops and several hours of layovers then we are off to Africa. We will get to Zimbabwe on March 13th.

The food in the MTC is okay, last night we had Chick-Fil-A so that was nice to have some different food for a change.

This morning we did some temple work which was pretty cool and then ate at the temple cafeteria.

Here at the MTC we teach mock investigators
for practice some of the investigators
are really easy and some are tough and they don't
 even want to listen to you.

I can't wait to go to Zimbabwe we have only 6 days until we leave!
Everyday here we have exercise time and our favorite thing to do is play volleyball.
This week has gone by so fast, it's crazy!
We are the only district in our zone right now cuz everyone else has left. But we are getting a new district tomorrow.
We also got a Christmas tree passed down from the other district that just left.
Thanks for everything!
Love you all.
Elder Hayden Rasmussen