"The Missionary Your Mom Says You Are" - October 30, 2017

The Week, in a shellnut, was busy, but also was slow.

Monday we did nothing. Thats really it. We tried to do stuff after P-Day ended, but we ended up just calling tons of people, and getting lost again.

Tuesday. I dont know if i mentioned i learned like 5 card tricks with Elder Fitz, and using those we got a bunch of apointments. taught A lady who saw me doing them for a kid of a member, and she wanted me to tell her how, and i said i would if she let us teach her. She actually ended up being way interested and agreed to have us back, without the magic trick bribe. Her name is Mpho, and we went back thursday and taught her with her sister Wendy. . Met with some more members. Finally got a copy of "Teachings of the Presidents of the church: Joseph Smith" when i found a box containing about half of the prophets books.

Wednesday, We got to know the Tlokweng (Tlo-K-Wayne) part of our area. met with some popel there. But otherwise, nothing special happened.

Thursdaywas our first full day. As mentioned Met with Mpho and Wendy, A guy named Brenden about the Word of Wisdom, with Seirra the American, The Modie (mo-dee-ay) family, who are all Born in the church, so they are was strong. I made Bread, and Blessed the Rains down in africa, since they make it way less hot.

Friday, Had District Meeting, had a fun talk about crappy Trucks with Elder Ruben, the District Leader, Learned a new magic trick from a member, met more members, met the nieghbors at our flat and had some fun conversations about why there neighbors change ever other month.

Saturday, we played basketball at the chappel, met Bro Nathanson, the Less active, super rich, white, architect, from Zibabwe. He and his wife are was nice, fed us, we had a good talk about a bunch of stuff, and the book of mormon. We met with more members, and I got Heartburn for the first time in my life. took me a while to even realize thats what it was. So that kinda sucked.

Sunday, went to church. Gave our Testimonies. i subconciously had my hands in my pockets for half of mine, and some lady walked up after and asked, very pretentiously,  "are you allowed to stand at the pulpit with your hands in your pockets?" so that was annoying, I think she probabaly will not like me now. I just responded, "yeah, whats important is what you say, not how you look" and she was like "oh" and looked me up and down, with a bit of a snear and walked off. Then her mom, who she lives with, walked up and invited us to dinner on saturday, so that will be fun. me with some other people, had our first Dinner with an Motswana.( the name for the people of botswana), which was pap and chicken. her name is Sister Violet, we watched the pioneer day Motab concert with her, she loves the motab, and had a lot of questions about them, that she figured i could answer since im from utah, and see them everyday apearently, but luckily i answered most of her questions. Later we were trying to find the home of a Recent convert who Sent us a sms with direction, but then, when we followed them and were in the wrong place, wouldn't answer her phone or text back, so we asked some people walking around, and some very funny drunk man was trying to sell us trees, 'for our church', for like 20 minutes, as we walked back to our car.

So that was the week. An explination of the title was something Elder Hamilton Said to me in Mabopane, that i was thinking about this week. "Be the missionary your mom tells people you are.", and something Pres. Chadambuka said, "Don't do anything you wouldn't tell your wife you did on mission."

halloween is not even a thing, where i am at. so the fact it is novemeber was quite a suprise. \

christmas stuff is starting to come up in stores. which is also weird considering the fact it is hot and getting hotter. Everything is brown, so a recent picture i recieved of Wisconsin, legitimatly suprised me. As said in the Force Awakens "I didn't know there was this much green in the whole galaxy". I miss grass, and trees, and colors other than brown. Everything is brown. Food, nature, buildings, people. Everything.

Sorry no pictures this week. My camera is having issues, and i was messing with it last night, but then left it on my desk when we left. so next week i guess.

kthanksbye

Botswana should be called Hotswana - October 23, 2017

So this has been a week of change. 

​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

Im going to the Botswana part of the Botswana/Namibia Mission. - October 16,2017

This week has been a wild ride for sure. 

Monday- was Elder Hamiltons birthday, so we went to an "American" Resturaunt Named Rocomamas, it was actually really good, but a little over priced. Started listening to the joseph smith papers, podcast thing from mormonchannel.  had a family night with a member, played (and won) phase 10

Tuesday. taught a bunch of kids and celebrated a members birthday, started P-90X3 and died, that stuff is intense. Could barely walk afterwards, done it all week, but its getting easier. 

Wednesday we wated the restoration with a less active family, taught phime about prophets, and found tops after 5 weeks of looking, the ones you do with a string. have a lot of progressing investigators things are good

Thursday was day 100. we had a pretty normal day, nothing really sticks out, we helped an investigators grandma move some furniture

Friday was zone conference, watched a video called "missionary work and the atonement" one i highly encourage you guys look up and watch, it had 75% of the room crying. it doesn't just apply to mission, it teaches alot. then we had interviews with president where he told me and Fitz that our area is being closed down due to more missionaries going home than coming in, and there being 4 missionarys in the ward. so now there is two missionaries. but he didn't tell us where we were going, wed find out saturday night. 

Saturday- we had our ward party, spent the entire morning cooking 450 hot dogs, and filling up 600 water balloons. We did a tug of war, some sack and 3- legged races. Did a bunch of water balloon games and a big fight at the end. People loved it. at the end we had 20 litres of pretty good ice cream we got for like $10.  then we were driving back and our car overheated, but we barely made it to a garage, and found we had a coolent leak, but got it fixed and made it back at about 9 , just in time for transfer news.

Im going to Broadhurst, Botswana, and my companion is Elder Kiiza. We will be whitewashing, as in both of us will be new to the area. Im in the same zone as Elder Fitz still who is giong to molepolole, and also whitewashing. So excited for that. 

Sunday was mostly saying goodbyes. It was kinda sad, but also pretty fun, got a lot of people to sign a notebook. Ill attach a picture of what the elders quarum president Shiko did.

Life is good im good. im typing this way fast since LDS mail was down for like an hour so i am rushing to get these all done, so sorry if i dont send some individuals emails. we have somewhere to be that we cant miss in like 20 minutes. Love you all, look up that video 

kthanksbye​

The End of the World as we Know it. - October 9, 2017

It has rained so much and the lightning and stuff has been awesome, but  the African people are calling it the apocalypse which has been funny.  They have some crazy superstitions about lightning. you cant wear red, you cant have your phone on, or anything electric, if you are warm thats bad, you need to sit in cold bath, since its attracted to heat. so we havn't been able to see as many people since they are hunkered down

But Monday, both Elder Hamilton and Elder Fitzgerald got ht with crazy food poisoning from we thing the refresments at general conference, since half the ward got it too, i didnt have any luckily, but we were in the flat all day, and i watched the 3 hour video version of the illustrated old testiment which was neat. but they were dead men, the sickest they've both gotten on mission apparently. 

Tuesday we took it easy, since Elder Fitz was still recovering, mostly just saw members. We Went to Brother Jayson, the guy who is the best, and cheered him up since he just got his wisdom teeth out by a terrible dentist, the guy cut the nerve in half accidentally, so he was dying. played cards with him and discussed referals. it was an african card game named shooga. hard to explain i might make a video of it. 

Wednesday was a wild ride. WE got invited to "preach" at a rehab center, so we went there and it was a big half fallen over tin barn, where the residents sleep on the floor and are allowed to smoke as they please. according to the government worker in charge, its completely illegal for them to do, but no one cares. so that was fun. Later we watched the Restoration movie with an entire family of investigators, and the loved it. so thta was good. We went to KFC since on Wednesdays you can get 5 pieces of original recipe, 5 hot wings, and 2 large fries for R100, so like $7.  

Thursday. we did litterally nothing, since all our apointments cancelled, and it was pouring so no one was out walking or answering doors. so we went and talked about referals with various members and got dinner with the ward mission leader. 

Friday, we had an iron chef at district meeting we won with jalapeno popper casserole, mixed with funeral potatoes. it was way good, everyone elses food was good too. we played chair soccer for like an hour and then ultimate frisbee. Then we taught some kids who are friends of a member and had dinner with Sis. Gaygey, who makes way good pap and chicken.

Satueday, we watched the restration video with a members family who is not members. did district tranfer predictions, everyone thinks im gonna be moved to botswana. Then we went back to the flats to do call ins and ate McDonalds. 

Sunday was good. got to watch the sunday afternoon session. it was awesome. Loved Elder Anderson and Elder Callister. After that we had some food with members, Sister Masimine and Sister Nao, and then went back to the flats and made brownies. 

Things went very well, we had 5 of our 5 progressing investigators come to church, Amogalang is being baptized next week, and Segkoma the week after that, then Masego and Oodi, and then Phime. if all goes according to plan. Life is good in Mabopane, transfers come in on saturday, so we'll see where the lord puts me for the next 6 weeks. 

Love hearing from you guys as always, please send as much as you can. 

Kthanksbye

The jalapeno popper casserole

Good morning USA, October 2, 2017

Hello to everyone. 

Monday like I said we had to go to a different email shop due to the public  holliday closing our usual one. We didnt really do a who lot. The Storms have started so pretty much every night is crazy awesome lightning storms. so thats been way fun. 

Tuesday i went on exchanges with the Zone Leader Elder Reber, we played tag with some kids, went to a day care, and taught some people. taught my first white person. John Voster

Wednesday, we played basketball with a lot of people got some investigators, got invited to a hip hop b-ball tournament, put Phimes friend Tebogo on date, and watched the restoration video with them. 

Thursday we taught an entire family. mom, dad, and 3 teenage kids, the restoration and the LOVED it, this apearently doesn't happen to often, and having a father led family would really help the ward, and keep them all strong in the Ghospel. so expect more on them. 

Friday we were at the WonderPark mall buying some bread since we had allotment again, and we decided to get ice cream, and some guy annonomysly payed for us. So i got a taste of what being a stateside missionary is like. but jokes aside it felt good to know that members are out there. because they're arnt alot. 

Friday was that basketball tournament, and we played in our white shirts and ties, and won it. They were all like, "how are these well dressed White Guys beating us so bad?" it was hillarious, really helped get the name of the church out there, and earned us alot of respect. so that was good.

Saturday we had a Zone activity air softing and then Conference. it was weird to watch it in a chapel, and we still haven't watched sunday afternoon, i heard about Elder Hales, so thats sad. I took a lot of good notes, and we had a decent amount of people show up. even Phime and his friends came to the one in the morning! 

Some notes from Conference::

God will bless you for your best

Avoid the 'Toxic Perfectionism' of comparison and the social media lens 

Read the Family Proclamation and study it deeply and apply it. Like 50% of talks mentioned it. 

                  Salvation is a personal matter, but Exaltation is a family thing

Let God know you are willing to follow his way

Elder Hollands Entire Talk

Humility is something to always strive to have more off. The heart of the widow. Casting in their all knowing that their faith wil be rewarded. 

Gain more that just a testimony of the True-ness of the Book of Mormon, but of its power and Application. 

Light is always there, morning always comes, but sometimes all we can do is wait for the light to retuen , or we can go to the right place, and leave the shadow  (all of President Euchdorfs Preisthood session talk is my favorite one.)

Christ is a souse of healing.

Dont loose focus on Eternal Goal

We can become Fearless though Trust in Christ, and trust  is a two way street. 

Elder Fitz has a bunch of pictures im tranfering over to my flash drive right now, will try to send, but only have a little time left, so might have to next week

Love you all, thinking of the you, the work is good

kthanksbye

 Our chapel

Puppy

 Elder Hamilton

 Funny sign in the City of Sunnyside

Elder Fitz getting braids put in by a member

Pictures at the Big  Abandoned stadium 

Average day's planner 

Elder Hamilton buried in a tomb of blankets we were delivering 

Creepy hair salon 

Car accident 

 Us making a district lunch after district meeting with AP Gilbert in town (middle Elder)

Drawing 

Kids at the day care 

Pheme, Tebogo, Jabu, and Ornille (right to left, Jabu and Ornille are memebers) watching Restoration video on those tiny DVD players 

Message for the Institute 

Elder Fitz breaking his shoelace 

Chicken Feet.  Not even joking, they eat that.

Me in some traditional African clothes on Heritage Day

Week 9, I did a things - September 25, 2017

So, since I did an absolutly terrible job of writing in my journel this week, im not really gonna go very day by day,so my bad. 

the things we did though,

We went back to that big abandoned stadium and got some super cool pictures. those will be included. I drew some pictures last monday. that was fun. 

Tuesday we went and met with a 13 year old member named Jabu, he took us to some of his friends and we goofed around with them and taught the Resotration, 2 of them were way interested and we kept teaching, and both are on date for baptism. Theyre names are Phimi (peemee) and Tebogo (teh bo ho) They should be baptized by the end of October, theyve both come to church and are way interested.  We also taught Sekhoma (Say comb ay) the son of a less active who already knows all the lessons and will be baptized in two weeks, and Amogalang (ammo ha lang) Who will be baptized probably next week. We've been making progress with Masego (ma say ho) and found a time when she's actually home, but she still is super consistently coming to church and we hope to have her baptized by the end of october as well. 

We were going to go see a member named Beverly and her brother Divine on tuesday, and some guys stopped us to invite us to there non-profits first meeting. it was about impoving the more slummy parts of Mabopane and helping orphans. We actually went to it saturday and it was legit, I got some pictures but they were well organized and hat a lot of people show up, they asked us to preach to the crowd about how god loves them, so we kinda did, told them about our church, what we do, and read some scriptures. so that was a wild ride. 

There is a guy named Sabastian Marube, who we've been working with a lot, i cant remember if i've metioned him before, but he is a inactive with a huge grudge aginst the ward, we ran into him on the streets the other day, and said if he came to at least sacrament meeting, we'd give him a 2 litre coke, which worked actually, so we gave him the 2 litre that night, and talked to him. he's actually a well decorated runner. and saturday he ran a casual 30ks because he didn't have work. so that was fun, were gaining a lot of trust with him. 

something ill send a video of is we did a trust fall in district meeting and it went pretty ok, until we decided to do the biggest guy in the district and me and another elder, Elder Sudburry, slammed our heads together, so that was fun. 

Fun fact, the most popular childrens show here is Ben 10, which i watched all of growing up, so that makes me a cool guy to all the little kids when i can actually name the characters. were gonna make a meatloaf today. so woo hooo. 

gearing up for general conference. its gonna be fun to watch in a chapel. we'll see how many people actually show up. 

we had to go to a diferent internet cafe than normal and this on appearently take 5 hours to upload pictures for last week, and this week next week, so sorry to dissapiont i got some videos and a lot of fun pictures. so get hyped. im gonna mess around with this computer and try to find a way to send them that wont take 3 days. 

kthanksbye