Transfers, Edward, and Will I make it Out???????

Mon, May 16, 2011
So this week has been really great and I have spent much of it pondering ans thinking about what is required of me and my time. So anyway, I am now back in Zimbabwe and totally confused. I thought for sure I was going to be in the Zambia Lusaka Mission but I received some very surprising news. There is still one more transfer until it officially splits so I am not even going to try and guess where on earth I am going. I am just going to wait and see what happens. But they renewed my TEP for Zimbabwe and I am now serving in Lundi Park in Gweru. My new companion is Elder Monyayi from South Africa. So this last week I had to say good bye to a lot of people and that was difficult.

The Simwanza family cried and Sister Simwanza told me that she had wanted me to baptize her. But I have left and I only hope that the work will continue to progress in Lusaka. We had really seen a lot of progress and I was honestly looking forward to seeing the new mission president and being there when the mission splits. But who knows what will happen now??? I haven't the slightest idea. Oh yea!! My trainer, Elder Crossley is now AP. I laughed at him and reminded him of our friendly wager. He owes me a hymn book and a belt of some exotic animal leather. Hahahahaha

Then we have a family in our branch that had a son return home 2 days after he entered the MTC because of worthiness issues. Needless to say that caused a lot of stress and heartache to him, Edward, and his family. Then a few days ago the mom asked us if we could come and help them to open up and speak with each other again. We had no idea how we would help this family but we went and we ended up playing a game and everyone bore their testimonies and we read and sang Love at Home. It was a really comforting and spiritual experience. This family is now starting the process that will end in peace and joy. They are such a wonderful family and I felt so bad for their situation. Pray for them if you will.

Then on Sunday when we were leaving Lusaka to come to Lusaka, I ran into some problems. I didn't have an up to date visa. The stamp in my passport was old and Zambia had run out of TEP books. So even though I had my permit, I had no proof of it. And now I was trying to fly out of the country that for all intents and purposes I had been living in illegally..... do you see a problem. Well they told me I wasn't going anywhere and that I would need to stay until everything was sorted. Added to the fact that we could get a hold of no one that could help us and this situation looked bleak.

So after laughing and humming a few hymns as I waited to see what would happen I ended up just going back to talk to them. And long story short they stamped by passport and let us through! I don't know exactly why she let us through when I was illegal, except for the fact that I was needed where I was going and the Spirit prepared a way for me to go there. President and Sisiter Dube thought they would have to leave me behind. But all was well and we traveled safely to Harare and then I traveled by bus to Gweru which is where I am now. A stake was just created here and I am serving in a ward. I don't know much about this place except there is a game park where you can ride elephants(and we will be going there soon!) and that members love to feed the missionaries in our area. It is a nightly occurrence actually... I guess we won't need to cook very much.

But that is all for this week. I have gotten few hours of sleep these past two days because of travel and I am tired but I am also excited for all the fun that change brings. But honestly I thought I was staying in Zambia for sure and now I am confused. But don't worry. I don't care where I serve but how I serve. I guess I was just surprised.

Thank you for all you do! Members are the key to missionary work!

Love, Elder Steven Gay

What is wrong with me?!!, Korihor the Gate, and The END OF THE WORLD!!!!!

So this last week I have been feeling not so great. I have had some stomach problems and that coupled with very little sleep and travel.... well. Fortunately it did get a bit better after Monday but since the it has been kind of the same. Rushing to the toilet all the time and trying to motivate myself to eat. I am not vomiting which is good but it hasn't really improved much since then. Plus in Gweru it is cold! At night and in the morning I am wearing a big hoodie. But proselyting I only have a sweater, which is adequate but I hear it is only going to get colder..... ah!!!!!

We also have Korihor the gate at our house. It is difficult to open, it falls over, in fact to open it you need 2 people and when you are rushing to the toilet because you are sick and you have to sit there and wrestle with an evil gate for some minutes... hahahaha We are trying to get some one to fix it but no luck so far. Oh yea this morning the thing that holds it up(sometimes) popped off like a rocket! I am surprised it hasn't killed the neighbors dogs yet by falling on them.... So I have named the gate Korihor. I thought the name was fitting.

I am serving in Gweru City Ward in Gweru Stake and we meet in a Primary School. It was really great, but we are looking for a meeting house in town that will be more central for everyone. That will really create some opportunities for growth.

Oh yeah, in the news and on some flyers people were saying that 21 May was judgment day! They said the world would end and that there would be earthquakes and fires and people would be taken in a cloud to heaven. People were really stressing about it as well. One thing that was funny is that people would tell us it is the end of the world on Saturday and the we would turn around and invite them to come to church on Sunday! Hahaha Funny enough the world did not end, and they still didn't come to church. Oh well I guess they were in shock.

So yesterday after we had planned I was changing and I started noticing bumps. The first one was on my leg by my ankle. Then as I kept changing I found I was covered in bumps that were raised and red and some looked like hives while others looked like lots of bug bites gathered in groups. I just stared in horror at my marred skin. What is wrong with me?!?!! I have never experienced such strange health issues before. My companion just laughed at me. I think I might just should go to the doctor. What do you think?

We have found some really great people to teach. Like Sister Ncube. She is the wife to a less active we went to visit and they will be a great family in the Gospel. We also have been teaching this guy named Tawanda. He had some problems with the Book of Mormon and at one point even said that we should NOT give it to him. But his friend was more open and they both decided to find out for themselves. I thought that was funny.

Gweru is really great and I can't wait for some really great things to happen. Lets get to work!

Love, Elder Steven Gay

Zone Conference, busy, and busy some more

So this last week was really amazing and it was a lot of fun. Zone
Conference was a Spiritual feast if there ever was one and I felt extremely
edified and enlarged and enlightened and energized and elevated and e.... I
ran out of "e" words.... hahaha Elder Pearson of the Seventy is really
amazing and he had some very thought provoking presentations and questions.
It was great. The Zone Song went well and they really liked it. The only
flaw of Zone Conference was that the catering woman came late and we
had no food when we
were supposed to have food. Crazy I know but it all worked out. I almost
felt a bit slow next to Elder Pearson. He knows so much and I just found
myself nodding my head as knowledge was flowing at me. I hope he didn't
think I am handicapped or something. But really his knowledge is so vast and
it was amazing!

But this week has just been super busy. Missionaries were traveling because
of Zone Conference. We had to pick them up, take them places make sure
everyone was accounted for, we had sick missionaries and missionaries that
needed some counselling and advice and baptisms and interviews that needed
to take place and it was uber busy.

We had the baptism on Saturday and it went really well. We had Ida and
John who were baptized. Sister Simwanza told us she doesn't feel ready
yet which was kind of a bummer but she is great and she will be
baptized soon enough. Diana's husband doesn't want her to be baptized,
Brighton kind of fell off the planet this last week. But we will
definitely see him soon. So that is that! We will have them all
baptized soon enough. Which is awesome and I definitely look forward
to that.

I am really looking forward to the exciting developments happening in
Zambia. There is a lot that is going to happen and many doors will be
opened up. There has been opposition because of that fact but the work
will push forward and NOTHING will stop it! IT is really amazing and I
am thrilled to be a part of it. Don't know what else to say about
that.... alright.

Other than that it was just running around and preparing things for
other things and helping things that needed help. I am stoked for the
work and what is happening, I only hope I can do MORE! Ahhhhhhhhh!
Hopefully I am becoming who I need to be. I pray that all will enjoy
the blessings of full time missionary service.

Again, please be patient with the letters and mail. I am working on it!

Love, Elder Gay

Zone Song, and recipes!

So this last week as we were working on our Zone song. We decided on hymn 134, I Believe in Christ. Somehow I ended up in a trio that sings in the beginning alone! I don't even know how that happened. But as we worked on it, it was turning out well. I hope that Elder Pearson likes it. Oh yeah, there is a General Authority coming for Zone Conference. He is doing a mission tour for the Mission Department of the Church. So people are a bit stressed but it is coming together fine. So no worries. Crazy crazy that this transfer is almost over. Didn't we just start? But it has been really great. we are going to have more baptisms on Saturday. For Brighton, Ida, John, Sister Simwanza, and Diana(if she is ready). It is so exciting! And we are still waiting to hear about the branch splitting! Woot!


So this last week I made apple crisp! It was quite good if I say so myself. Then I also made Chocolate Chip bars! It was kind of difficult without electric beaters. There I was struggling with my fork. Hahaha but we didn't have time to eat it. So I put it on a stool(so the roaches wouldn't get it). But the next morning it got knocked over and the glass pan shattered! I didn't even have a piece! And now it was covered in glass! Can you imagine my dismay when I toiled and worked and concentrated and then to see it on the floor covered in death causing glass shards? I was sad.... but I managed to save some of it! I picked off the glass and found the side that was least affected. I still had to throw away a lot of ti but it wasn't so bad. It was actually pretty good. Not the same as Mom's but it was still good. The biggest difference is there are no chocolate chips this side so I got candy bars and cut it up. It was a bit different but still good! Yay chocolate chip bars!


So this week was really busy organizing everything for Zone Conference and I won't bother typing about some of the less exciting things we did(like print off programs and call people to cater the food, boring I know....). We had a really successful week. We had a number of good lessons.


Funny Happenings!


*A drunk guy in the car next to me said, "Blessed are the poor for they shall inherit the kingdom of God..." I agreed so I said yes. Then he said, "But you're in a car...." Hahahaha People are funny huh?




*Elder Harper, an elder in the zone, recognized me from that dance I did with Sarah Russo and Jake Fields. Down in Cedar city, small world, huh? He saw it at Shakespeare Festival. Weird!


*Kay so this one isn't really funny. But Bro. Simwanza was sustained and set apart as 2nd Counselor in the Sunday School Presidency!


*A member said he wanted us to pray for his speedy recovery because he had just been circumcised! hahaha and ow. A lot ow. I wonder what his wife thought when he just openly told us that....


* I don't even know! Have fun!


Love, Elder Steven Gay

Home Depot?, Sweetest Potatoes, Baptisms and a beating!

So remember how our Landlord was redoing our apartment? Well we had a surplus of times and so we found out the which missionaries needed what and then we took it to them! Beds, couches, chairs, and tables! It was quite the ordeal, but it isn't over yet. The Landlord said he is putting in an office! But we got huge couches and huge beds that I have to climb to get on. Our house is becoming the CLOUD HOUSE. Hahahaha. Fun times. The sisters also had a curtain rod that came out of their wall so we repaired it. I was kind of proud of us after for fixing it. We did a good job. But this week I felt like I worked at Home Depot or something. Delivering furniture and repairing things?(Does Home Depot even have furniture????). But it was really cool. Our house looks a lot different now and it is really cool. I have this image of me being transferred to the worst house in the mission after this! Hahaha wouldn't that be funny? Yes Opposition!


So you remember Ida? The one who read like 10 chapters of the Book of Mormon? She was reading in 2 Nephi 27 last time we checked and she is probably reading in Alma by now! She is doing so great and I can't wait for her to be baptized. Would you believe she calls us to set appointments?She is very proactive about her progression which is a nice thing to see.


This week we went to see the Simwanza family and Sister Simwanza was very ill so she couldn't make it to church last week which was sad. But we gave her a blessing and she got some medicine too. And now is doing great! She made us some sweet potatoes that she had fried. They were amazing! I devoured the plate they gave us and I was asking about how to make such wonderful things. Almost like fries but better! So they are doing great and then on Sunday I see Brother Simwanza and his daughter coming in and guess who else I see? SISTER SIMWANZA!!!! She finally came to church and she loved Conference! This is the very first time she has come and she even had a huge calling in her other church but she finally came and it was amazing! I am pretty sure I looked a bit slow because I had the biggest smile on my face that I am sure people thought I wasn't all there... if you know what I mean. But I was so happy you just wouldn't believe! Oh and by the way Brother Simwanza has been called to serve as 2nd Counselor in the Sunday School Presidency! Did I already tell you that? Anyway he is doing great! And so is the whole family!


Also on Sunday morning before Church we had our baptism. In which, Kennedy Chitalu, who is the little boy in the picture, was baptized! Way cool. We also watched Conference and it was amazing. I love Conference. I still think my quarterly idea is a keeper. But it doesn't really matter what I think about the matter, does it? But yea they were baptized and it is powerful and awesome. They will be confirmed next week because it was Conference this week.


Then on Sunday we found out that 2 of our missionaries were assaulted and beaten! It wasn't bad. I mean it was but they are okay. No lasting damage. Actually they look fine. But they told us about this group of like 4 or 5 guys who were punching them and throwing their bikes at them and one was punched in the head and it was pretty bad. A road was blocked because it was in a road and people were yelling and it was crazy! So we filed a report to the police and before any of you freak out. This isn't common and you have no need to worry. I write of it because it is singular and unique, if it were common then I would feel no need to write of it!


I am doing great and I apologize for the slow mail. It takes longer to get to me here I will reply I promise! If you have a question about where to send it you can go to seakrate.blogspot.com and it is on there! The work is great and thank you! I can't wait to hear back from you!


Love, Elder Steven Gay


PS Stop worrying please...... really I am perfectly safe. I am not exactly small and I have a shiny black badge that comes with a great protection system. Yay!

: The "Cloud", 1995, and the Strange Trophy

All right so they are remodeling our house and it was already an amazing house but they are bringing dining table and chairs, new beds, new couches, new kitchenware, and they are giving us an office where we can do our studies and planning and everything! It will be amazing. We have nicknamed it the Cloud House. Because everything is so nice and fluffy??? Alright so we don't really have a solid reason for calling it that but it was just one of those things and now it is a new slang term for us. If something is nice we call it "the cloud" but we say it funny so that if anyone hears us they will think we are insane! Yay!! THE CLOUD!!!!


Anyway, we were looking for some people to teach and we drove up to this house and they let us in and we find they are white people! They run a safari thingy and they have their houses there. Anyway they were all different religious backgrounds and none very similar to what we believe. One was kind of funny. He said he thought organized religion is a bunch of crap. And that Jesus Christ is only a prophet. He said he would be a tough nut to crack. But I thought it was kind of a pretense. My guess is that something happened and he became angry and has held a grudge but we committed him to read the Book of Mormon so I know one day he will invite the missionaries to share with him and he will feel the truth of it.


After that we kind of drove around and tried to listen to the promptings of the Spirit. We both were asking each other, do you feel anything? What about now? And we didn't really feel any specific guidance then the phone rang and my companion was talking an they asked for me so I stopped the car and talked to them. Then after I hung up the phone we looked out the window and saw we were stopped right in front of a gate. So we both said maybe we are being told something. So we get out(it is raining), and knock on the gate. A man comes and looks a bit surprised and lets us in. We come to find out from talking to him that he had met the missionaries in 1995 and asked them for a Book of Mormon. He said that he still had it and read it from time to time and that he really wanted to know if the book is true or not. But that last time he had moved away after talking to them. Unfortunately as powerful as this experience was, he has already moved again to a city where we don't have any missionaries yet. So I guess we were just there to remind him and to give him some encouragement. Crazy that he had just met them in passing, and then we just showed up at his door 16 years later!


We got this new investigator this week and she is great. She read like 10 chapters of the Book of Mormon, and managed to give a detailed summary of it. Plus she prayed and received her confirmation that it is true! Woot! She is great and she has a baptism date and she will most definitely be baptized very soon. Also that little boy in the painting is going to be baptized on Saturday. Yay!! There will four others baptized as well. We are still working on getting the new branch approved. So that is exciting. We met some people for the first time on Sunday when they came to church and we are excited to go and teach them. Some we have already begun teaching. So that is always fun.


My companion hates snakes and so we have had some fun times "arguing" about it. Me trying to prove that they are great and him trying prove otherwise. He keeps bringing up the Garden of Eden, and how Paul was bitten by a snake in Acts 28(But I would have bitten him too if he had thrown me on a fire). But I always win of course. Because lets be honest, snakes are so great they make a case for themselves. Right?


We have some great new investigators and guess what?!?!!? You remember Brother Simwanza? He helped us with our car and we baptized him and his family? Any way I ordained him to the priesthood and he was also called to be 2nd Counselor in the Sunday School Presidency! This guy is amazing!


When we were contacting I found this guy who didn't come to church(shocker...) but he had an earring in. Which is pretty common for the guys here but here is our conversation,


"Do you believe in God?" I ask seriously.


"Yes, of course" he replies indifferently.


"Do you believe he is your Father?"


"Yes, I do." He replies a bit more seriously.


I look right at him and say, "Do you think He is happy with what you have on your ear?"


"No," He solemnly realizes.


I hole out my hand and tell him, "Let me help you." Then he takes out his earring and I commit him to never put another one back in. Hahaha but now I have this fake gold stud and I don't know what to do with it.... right now it just some strange trophy. Maybe I will just throw it away. But isn't that funny? I thought it was funny. :)


Oh yea me and my companion made a giant samosa! We got a glass 9x13 and lined it with some dough we made and fill it with mince and tomatoes and onions and potatoes and other things and then we baked it. It actually turned out really good so we called it, are you ready? Cloud Pie! Yay! Oh by the way if you want to send me any recipes I would love them. It might be nice to make something I know I will be able to eat, especially chocolate chip bars! I need to make that! Yum!


We had Zone leader council and President Dube said some pretty nice things about me and said I should "pat myself on the back." Which was cool. It was a good feeling to know that he was proud of my service and he thought I was doing well. It made me feel like a cloud.... hahahahaha I really will miss him when the mission splits(and no I don't know anything for 100% sure but I have deduced as much). But I love you all and I get to watch Conference this week!!!!!!!!! Yay! Conference is powerful and I definitely need to listen/watch it! It has been too long! Do you think that if I asked President Monson he would do a General Conference quarterly?


I hope your week will be filled with clouds!


Love, Elder Steven Gay

(C)ecilia, (T)ransfers, and (R)at!

So this week has been super busy and I don't even know how much has
happened. But a lot! Well this last week we got transfers and I didn't
even think to write about it last week to tell you that I might be
going or staying or whatever/whathaveyou because I was completely
certain that I was staying. And guess what?!?!?!? I was right..... :)
I am staying and my new companion is Elder Sibanda, he is from
Botswana and is super powerful. We are going to have a great time
together and we are going to work, work, work! Yay!!!!

This last week we baptized Cecilia, the sister-in-law to Bro.
Simwanza. She was so excited and she just had this light about her on
the day of her baptism that it was amazing(but that could have just
been the white clothes :) just kidding, her countenance was super
powerful.) So Brother Simwanza, who is super powerful himself, gave
his testimony on Sunday and can I just say that he is amazing? Because
he is. People bore testimony about his testimony! He has a fire
burning inside that is inspiring those around him! He could very
possibly lift Lusaka Branch single handedly. Amazing!

So this last week Bonface, our manservant, found a rat in the yard.
They killed it. But this rat was a bit different. It was huge! No joke
and no hyperbole, it was the size of an average cat. They were so
excited to show us and they cooked it! I kind of jokingly said they
should save us some and they said of course, of course. But we left
and I thought they wouldn't really save it. I was wrong. Very wrong.
We came home and they saved us an entire leg! I opened the oven and
much to my surprise found a rat drumstick waiting for us.

So what was one do with food that was lovingly prepared for them? You
eat it of course! And that we did. And guess what? It was really good,
and I am being completely honest, it was delicious. I know,
RIGHT?!?!?!?!I couldn't believe it tasted so good! Especially because
I was there when they were burning the hair off and that smelled
awful. But the meat is tender and just good actually...... try not to
think I am psycho, but just know that it was yummy:)

If I remember anything next week then I will definitely tell you but
just know that mission is amazing and that you should all serve! Woot!

Love, Elder Steven Gay