This blog covers the years 2014-2016 when we (the Robisons) were at the Ghana MTC. To see the blog covering the period 2016-2018 click on this link: http://ldsghanamtc.blogspot.com/

Sunday, October 19, 2014

So What Is The Story Behind the Three Zimbabwe Missionaries?



 Left to Right:  Sister Detere, Elder Moyo and Elder Makuni

Sister Detere was number 10 of the 182 missionaries prepared for service by Reeve, CC, and Lolly - the three women golfers.  The first day there were 12 in attendance, the second day 60 and the number grew to 182.  She is from Harare.

She heard about the gospel through her mother's friend at age 16, had the lessons and was baptized.  Her mom joined the Church 6 months later.  Her 2 sisters also joined but she lost her Dad much earlier in 2002 due to illness.  Her mother is an importer.  She travels to Mozambique and purchases shoes and handbags and then together with her sisters, they sell them to all their friends.  She does not know how she would have been able to prepare financially, spiritually, and get the proper paperwork had it not been for the three women golfers.

Elder Moyo was born in Harare and baptized in April of 2012.  He is #33 out of the 182 missionaries prepared by the three lady golfers, Reeve, CC, and Lolly.  In 2003 when he was 9 years old, Elder Moyo's dad was attacked.  Two months later he died of injuries sustained in the attack.  One year later his mother died because she contracted cancer and was unable to get medicine.  (On October 22, 2014, Elder Moyo was able to be sealed to his parents in the Ghana Accra Temple.  Sister Dube represented his deceased mother and Elder Watson represented his late father.)

When he first heard about the Church, Elder Moyo was staying with his grandfather in Bulawayo, where he was attending school.  Unfortunately, all he heard about the Church was untrue rumors.  He even heard that the Church buildings were used as mortuaries.  After he had completed school, his grandfather said he needed to find something productive to do.  His brother had him come to Harare to stay with him but did not explain what they would be doing.  When he arrived at his brother's home, he was asked to dress up in his brother's church clothes and his brother would take him to Church.  He did not know his brother was LDS.  After Sacrament meeting he was told he was going to the investigator class.  He thought it meant "police."  After Church he was still afraid of the rumors, but did have a first lesson that afternoon.  Thereafter, he returned to Bulawayo and avoided the missionaries by making excuses.  So his 26 year old brother came a second time and asked him what was going on and why he ran away.  His brother told him he had his agency and could choose for himself.  He bore his testimony to Elder Moyo and told him about the prophet Joseph Smith.  During that testimony, something special happened.  Elder Moyo felt the Spirit and from that moment forward it was he, who asked for the missionaries and wanted them to teach him.

His brother is helping finance his mission. Both are engravers by trade.  They can put lettering onto granite stone.  However, had it not been for the three woman golfers assisting Elder Moyo in getting ready for his mission, he does not know how he would have been able to come.  Every Tuesday and Friday, they trained him.  They took him for police reports, immigration paperwork, eye exams and all other preparations needed to serve his mission.  They also equipped him with a suitcase of all the items required for his mission.

Elder Makuni is also from Harare.  He was #121 out of the 182 missionaries prepared by the three women golfers.  He was taught by the missionaries in 2008 and learned about the gospel first from his brother.  He was asked to pray and in that first prayer received his answer.  It was a still small voice giving him a peace that he had never felt before.  He was baptized at the age of 18 and is now 24.  His mother joined the Church in 2010 after he joined.  His father passed away in 2009.

He earned money selling telephone cards to the people in bus terminals but would not have been able to come on his mission without the assistance of the three lady golfers - Reeve, CC and Lolly.  He started studying with them back in January of this year.

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