Life's Good - November 27, 2017

Due to 'various' reasons, im being transfered back to south africa to a place called Witbank, with Elder Roberts from the MTC as a companion, so life will be very fun. But before we get into that, let us go over the week shall we?

Monday we had the Soccer I mentioned but that that night we had interviews with President Chadambuka, which went nice, we discussed a lot of things, have jokes, it was nice. After that we went back to the flat, and I got a message from the AP's that they'd forgoten to give me notice that i was to give a 15 talk in Zone conference the next morning. So I "prepared" that the next morning, and we went off to zone conf. It was great, my talk actually went very well, thankful for the spirit in helping me prepare fast, and make it meaningful, and spiritual. the rest of the conference went very well. then we all ate food that Sister Chadambuka made. Good times all around. LIfes good

Tuesday, was actually the zone conference.

Wednsday, Nothing special happened, accept a read an only confernce talk from  April, since we dont have the Oct. one yet, but its by Gary B. Sabin: "Stand Up Inside, and be all in." I was very touched by the message. My circumstances here might be.... what they are, i can face it positively and "Stand up Inside" even when i lack the ability to stand up outside. Life is good

Thursday, was exchanges with Elder Ruben, we had a good time having "Thanksgiving" which was us spitting a whole chicken from a resturaunt called nandos, and haveing the waaayyy nice 'Applitini' share size drink. 1.5 litres of non-alcoholic goodness. Had  cookies and Cream Magnum bar that was the best thing ever, then we got the interview done for our investigator Khumo, and saw some other people, but had a lot of cancellations. Taught several Recent Converts about the Temples and set goals with them on Baptisms for the Dead, and the Endowment.

Friday was Black Friday, and we were under order to not go out and about until 3, afterwats we say members, had district meeting and got the details of Khumos Baptism sorted out.

Saturday was Transfer News, and  like I said, im going to Witbank, South Africa, With my favorite guy from the MTC, elder Roberts. LIfe is good, I'm way excited to be companions with him. Hes a hard worker, but he know's how to have fun. So these next 6 weeks are going to go by way to fast.

Sunday, was Khumos Baptism, which I was only barely able to attend, it went very well, had the Elders Quorrum President, Bro. Boabilwe, baptize him at khumos request. The whole thing went well, and then i left for the Botswana Boarder, with only like 2 hours to pack, we drove to a place called Mofikeng, and stayed the night, as well as all of today, with The Elders here. We had a nice big breakfast, played some games, life is good.

I have been saying "life is good in my regular conversation like, all the time now, for no reason, and it just started out of no where, but its ok. life IS good. I've been feeling better to a degree, medicine is actually working now. Christmas stuff is up, i have christmas hymns and whatnot playing in the car, wish i could wear my santa hat.

Kthanks bye

Sup. I have no clever title. - November 20, 2017

This week went fast. Lots of stuff happened.

We had FHE with the Missions second councelor, Pres. Mangenela. Had a lot of fun, played mafia, had a nice thought, ate good food. we  were there a long time, since it was 8 missionaries and pres likes to talk.

Tuesday, was pretty normal. Elder Haffen was with us a tri-panionship for the day, he's a fun guy, but nothing out of the ordinary happened.

Wednesday, I saw the doctor, we met some people, i realized hymn 235 and 335 are the same tune with different words. We had some good lessons, but again, nothing extraordinary, or really noteworthy.

Thursday, we met with a ton of people and scheduled the Baptism interviews for Brenden and Khumo, who will be baptized this coming Sunday. we say a girl named Mpho about her question from the book of mormon, had some powerful testimony sharing  about it. We met with another Family, and had a good old time, talked about the Restoration. 

Friday, was exchanges with Elder Otlaadisa (oak-laa- dee- sa) which was fun, we went a contacted in a mall, met some cool people. We met with a lot of the recent converts and our neighbor fed us a nice meal, and we explained why her neighbors change all the time.

Saturday we weeded the yard of a long time member named sister Monpane (mon- pawn- ey), shw fed us fatcakes (scones) with eggs and chicken. After that we saw some people, but nothing "to write home about." had a nice time talking with sister Cheeza, long time member, about the difficulty of members 'building up zion' in africa. Which was then also adressed by Elder Neil A. Anderson in the Area Broadcast we had Sunday, he did a much better job talking about it then we did. The Broadcast was cool. Lots of people spoke, mostly the area seventies, Sister Oscarthorp, and Elder Anderson. One thing they said that i really liked "The mere passage of time, never solves the problem" we have to go fix thing, they dont just fix themselves.

today is the zone activity, which will be fun, lots of soccer and food. tomorrow is zone conference, so ill get to talk with president and everyone, which is always a good time

life is good, the work moves on.

Kthanksbye

I am a dead man - November 13, 2017

It's so insanely hot, plus i am sick. Not a fun combo. 

I've been working on my handwriting like I said. Hope it's actually improving. 

Speaking of improvement, whitewashing is starting to stop being a problem, and things are now 100% back on track how they should be. Filled in all the empty records, had a child of record baptism, got some new people added to the pool, and 2 guys should be baptized on the 26th. 

but Monday Nothing again. 

Tuesday, Read my favorite chapter of the Book of Mormon with some members, 2 Nephi 4, had a powerful time. Very strong spirit, they loved it. They were somewhat less active, but they've been "inspired to commit harder"

Wednesday, we spent most of the morning in the flat with me sick, but later in the day we saw a few people, mostly taught the Plan of Salvation, good day, but not a lot to report

Thursday, We say Brenden about tithing, he is the one who is very close to baptism. He loved that no one is payed, that the church has no debt, and that all the money goes toward helping others. He was very impressed. He loves the Church and can't wait to be baptized, but he can only meet on thursdays, so its been slow getting to this point. Hes a student at the University of Botswana, who comes from Swaziland. Cool guy. 

Friday, Went to the memorial service of an elderly member, we sang a lot at it, but it was pretty "Mormon" style thing. We went to see the investigator Prince, who's mom was sick, so we gave her a blessing. Saw a new investigator named Detere (Dee-Tear-Ay). had a good lesson about the Restoration, but his english is poor, so we need to take a translator with us in the future. 

Saturday, we went the burial of Bro Matatla (Ma- Ta-Kla) which was nice, they dedicated the grave, and sang alot of hymns, both Our hymns and the Traditional Motswana (word for Botswana's people) Hymns. But it was very hot and some people fainted. Its been consistently around 40C. (104F).

Its been a strugle not just staying in the car with the Aircon blasting. then we saw Kefeletso who is starting to seem less interested since we told her us coming doesn't mean she doesn't need to go to church, and that we dont just give out money. SO probably wont be seeing her much longer unless she starts to actually keep commitments. Had dinner with A member named Sister Mopane, and talked about Enduring to the end. Ill ask those who read this to go read 2 Nephi 31. 

Sunday was Nuts. The meeting was pretty normal, but during priesthood, the Ward mission leader says, "hey drive us to the Gaborone West Chapel, we dont have any baptismal suits and we have a child of record baptism today." So we drove over there, stole their suits and then ran back, just in time to have it start on time, but it was a stressful hour, because apparently, we were supposed to go get the suits, for the baptism no one told us was happening, so they got mad at us, until the Ward mission leader stepped in and told us it was his fault for not telling us.  

Today, We went and played soccer. It was 8 Elders since they're all here in town to go to dinner with the Second Counceler in the Mission Presidency, President Mangenela. So we're gonna go have a good time there tonight, but we played soccer, ate tacos, then had to find a new email place, since our normal one was closed.

The Clouds here are cool. Nothing Beats the African Sunset, wish i had a camera good enough to take better pictures. Upload speeds here are worse then the normal place, might have to send the pics next week. 

 

---

Heber J. Grant is a pretty neat guy - November 6, 2017

Bread

 Our Flat

 A bunch of baby duck and the guard swans a member has

a picture a member took without me noticing. I need a haircut, but most people turn me away because "we don't know how to cut white people hair, we dont want to mess it up, and it might ruin our clippers since its so long"

Happy birthday Addie. totally forgot it was halloween since no-one here even knows what it is.

So a few matters of buisness or whatever.

When is daylight savings so I can adjust my home clock, i have now been out 4 months. Heber J. Grant has inspired me ( more details in main body ) this ward is having a primary program next week, and it is forever managing to get hotter.

But Monday, was nothing again. P-days here are boring since my comp doesn't want to do anythign and the closest other missionaries are an hour away.....

Tuesday was Not Halloween. zero spooky spirit. But the zone leaders spent the night at our flat on there halfway point to the mission home for a meeting. they told us that zone conference will be the 19th and we are getting to Seventies, Elder Palmer and Elder Neilson (not The President of the Twelve). So that will be cool.

Wednsday, met with a recent convert named Torquil and his fiance Veronicah, She has crazy problems with anxiety that we are trying to help her with, and thats been going well. met some more members and saw some new investigators. 

Thursday we "Tracked down" one of our investigators who moved named Kefeletso, and taguht here, she was trying to get us to come, but lost her phone so we couldn't find her, but we met her brother on the street and he gave us directions. Finished the Elder Bednar Question Book of Mormon Challenge thing for the first one. The Question was 'how can I comfort those in need?', started it in the MTC, finishing it was powerful, those last chapters of Moroni are always my favorite. Started the next one with the question, 'How can I Always Remember Christ?' just hit Lehis Vision. 

Friday,we had a pretty normal day, and after meeting with a family who lives about a 20 minute drive away ( our area is like 45 min wide) they gave us directions for a faster way, but they forgot to tell us one of the turns and we took a 20 minute detour down a fun, but very bumpy dirt road through absolutely nowhere, in a Hyndai I-20, look it up and tell me if it seems like a nice offroading car, since its not. 

Saturday, met with our investigators mom, who is very much "We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible" Kind of person, but she wants us to come back and keep talking to here, so well see how that goes. 

Sunday, had Fast and testimony, lots of strong members in the ward. When we got home after getting fed/ checking some families, I was reading 'Teaching of the Presidents of the Church: Heber J. Grant" and I have been inspired by his quality of persistence and teachings (i read the whole book already) to do some real self improvement. Many of you know I am a very obsessive person. I generally don't have a problem doing the things i set out to do, assuming the involve other people/ are for others. but when it comes to fixing the problems with myself I am aweful at actually doing it. Those who have spent a long time around me know that I will Obsessivly talk about somethings and then never do them. So im gonna fix that, turn the 'curse' of my obsessiveness into a blessing of persistence. and i've set a few goals. starting small. one thing is im actually gonna start to consistently exersise, and two is im gonna improve my handwritting (something many of you will agree needs to happen). so thank you President Grant. Gonna actually do something about myself for once. 

But life is good. time flies by. its already november, if i was home i would have just finished the Marching band season. so thats wild. its already the second term of school. Christmas is just around the corner. But life is good, the work is good, the spirit is strong and the sun is so hot. I want to send videos but the upload speed makes it imposible, the few pictures ill send have been uploading the whole 15 minutes i've been typing this email. 

kthanksbye

"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​