May 16th Letter

So last week we had some water problems and they have continued very much into this week. So the plumber came and he fixed the toilet, right? Right! But somehow he broke the sink! I went in to turn on the water for the washing machine and I touched the handle and the pipe beneath the sink snaps, no not ruptured or began to leak. The thing full on snapped and I am trying to turn off the valve but it is not working. The bathroom is flooding again I am running around trying to switch the valve off, but the pipe to the sink branches off before the valve. Which genius thought of that? So it is dark and we now have a makeshift pool in our bathroom(we dammed the bathroom with blankets). I am trying to call anyone and everyone but for some odd reason NO ONE is answering their phone. And I mean no one. I even tried calling President Dube. So the house is flooding and I have no way of turning the water off and no one is answering. I try fixing it but the pipe is completely broken.

Finally I get a hold of someone an hour after the incident has occurred. They hyave me running around the house looking for a valve to the entire plot. But we can't find it very well in the dark. We find it finally but it is inside an ant hill. My companion reaches inside and turns the valve. We run back to house but the water is still running so we start searching for something else all the while my companion is being eaten by ants. Finally we check the valve again and turn it the other way, again being attacked by ants. But we check the house and the water is finally off. So the plumber came back and fixed it halfway. Then in the morning he came back again to finish. So we had no water for a while and so I bucket bathed. Fun! Then we went to a meeting and came back for lunch and before we get inside I can drip drip drip and I just sigh and walk into the bathroom. This time the water was coming from the ceiling! yay! And the bathroom is again flooded. We call the plumber and he comes back and tells us about how the hot water heater is broken and needs a new flood tray because the old one is rusted. Why they make rustable metal devices that are designed to hold water, which causes metal to rust I have no idea. Why not stainless steel? Or even plastic? But we won't dwell on the that for now.

So the plumber leaves and we try to shower but now no hot water is coming out at all! So he tells us to plug it up and turn both the hot and cold water on so we are getting soaked trying to plug the shower. Finally he just comes back and fixes it again. But maybe we should just let the plumber live with us, I think that would be easier for everyone. But this week has been fun I have gotten to swim on mission! Woot!

We are going to sing a modified version of The Circle of Life for Zone Conference. But me and my companion changed some of the lyrics and it is now The Gospel of Christ. I think it will be a lot of fun. We saw Bremner and he taught us the Gospel of Christ and the Word of Wisdom. He even used scripture references from the Bible and The Book of Mormon. He set goals and wrote down experiences where living the Word of Wisdom has blessed his life, because he was already living it. He just said he didn't know why. The mom had a stroke and can't talk but she still understands and she was trying so hard to tell us she wants to be baptized but she just couldn't get the words out. But her testimony was just as powerful as if she had spoken.

Then one night we had two dinner appointments. The first one fed us a ton! And we had a big lunch(I was trying to cheer my companion up, he was having a rough day). So we get to the next appointment and I am praying that they didn't cook. But sure enough after the lesson, they bring out very large plates of food. Filled to the bursting with Sadza and Matemba(baby whole fish, bones and all) and chicken feet!!!! I struggled, oh did I struggle. But I got most of it down, my companion didn't get any of it down. After we said we were done they were hurt that we didn't finish but I didn't know what to do.

We had a baptism on Sunday that went really well. She bore a powerful testimony. Then after we went and taught some lessons. after our last one we were walking to the road to catch transport when our investigator starts telling me this story about how a member completely chewed her out over something that didn't even matter. From what I was told the member went way over the line and could have prevented her from ever joining the church. So I haven't decided what to do about that yet....

But this week has been very exciting and filled with very wonderful people and hopefully we'll make use of the bad and make it good!

Thank you for all the love and support!