the monkeys that are just everywhere. like this was all in like 5 minutes.
So monday we completed our goodbyes to the people of mabopane, had a big district dinner at a place called Mugg and Bean, then packed and slept, packing was weird, and handing over all our peoples info to the other mabopane elders, for them to cover the whole place instead of half was odd. and giving them the keys to our flat.
Tuesday we drove to Pretoria, met up with my new Ugandan Companion Elder Kiiza, and we both climbed in the 3rd car of our convoy, following the 1 guy who knew how to get to Gaborone. Our car was us two and Elder Fitz, so that was fun. We were told it would be a 5 hour drive. So we drove, up and up and up, through Fitz's former Area of Polokwane, and then 2 more hours, then we saw a sign that said Zimbabwe, 100KM, and called the lead car, which admitted it had been lost for the past 2 hours, so we made our way 2 hours back to polokwane, arriving at about 11pm, and stayed the night with them, turns out we had taken the N1 out of Pretoria, instead of the N4 out of pretoria, so we drove the 4 hours back to the office in the morning of Wednesday, and then did the 5 hour drive to the Botswana Border. We got our visa, which are 90 days, and then went to the area, arriving at about 6pm. Then the Elder who served here before us, showed us the gas station and the Ward Mission Leaders home, then they left us to find our own way back to the Flat. We are whitewashing, so we have 0 idea where anything is. we got super lost, and the next door elders came and got us.
Thursday we went through the area book, the one that contains all teaching records, adresses, directions maps, and ward leaders, only to find it hasn't been updated for 4 months, the maps are missing, the ward pages are blank, and no directions or names to those who can help, or current investigators. So we litterally just started calling down the list on the phone, getting a hold of who we could. Afterwards we made our way to the nearbye university of botswana (which is massive and way nice) and met a member, named Seirra, who is a AMERICAN RETURN MISSIONARY!!!! she has been very helpful in helping us meet investigators who live on that campus(there are many) and giving us directions. She grew up in AF and is here on an exchange program for Environmental Science.
Friday was our district meeting, in the 45 minute away village of Mochudi, so the DL (elder ruben) came and had us follow him up, but then the had something come up after the meeting and we had to drive back without guidence, we got pretty close, only going 20 minutes past our exit, but we eventually made it back once again.
Saturday, we went and met some people, and even got a bunch of new investigators. A big family who lives across the street from the chapel, saw me doing some card tricks for some kids outside the chapel and wanted me to go show there mom. She has very similar questions to Joseph Smith, so we told her the Restoration.
Sunday we met more people that i was ready for. So many names, and families inviting us over, and people who wanted us to teach there friends. Since apearently the last missionaries were a little less that willing to do there job. they are happy to see us willing to actually go out and teach.
On the Subject of my new Companion. His name is Elder Kiiza, he is a Convert of 2 years from Uganda. While he may lack a lot of the docternal knowledge long time members have, he does have a powerful testimony, that is way stonger that his grasp of the english language. Communication is hard, not gonna lie, and the cultural differences are different, but we are starting to figure out ways we can best work together as companions. Money here in botswana is different, and in oder to exchange my Rands from South africa into Pula (the currency here) i need my passport, which is locked up in the botswana mission home, 4 hours away in Francistown. So I will be using a bit of my money from home this month. Which is ok since USD buys a lot here. There is a store at the mall by our flat that sells way cool traditional african stuff for way better prices than in SA. So i expect to get a lot of take home items here.
LIfe is good.Our flat is massive, it used to have 6 missoinaries stay in it. now its just us 2 so we have a lot of space, it has 3 bed rooms upstairs and a kitchen, and a living room. And the only working a/c is luckily in our bedroom. so i can at least sleep in less than 1000 degrees. Things are only gonna get hotter. since its becoming summer. The Police and government actually do something here, unlike south africa, so the streets are clean, people dont drive like they just stole the car, and not everyone is high/drunk all the time. But in a country with only 2 million people. things are very spread out.
but yeah. Thats been my week. love you all.
Kthanksbye
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