Sorry so long...

We have been waiting for our internet connection to be re-established after our summer in Iowa: but we are up and running and here are the last 2 updates from Sister Barber:

This week was great. Just so you all know, I am going to be famous here in Botswana very shortly :) My companion and I and a set of Elders here in Botswana were interviewed by BTV (Botswana TV) about missionary work. So, I will be on TV here in Botwana sometime this week. They asked lots of weird questions like why we dress the way we do. Maybe that was the only weird one, the rest were pretty legit, like why we would leave our families to come and do this, and why are we called Elder and Sister, and what we do as missionaries. It should be good in spreading the word. We are hoping this will open more doors for us. This week was also sad. We had a group of 4 cousins that live together that were scheduled to be baptized on Aug 23. We visited them this week, and we could just tell something was wrong. We asked what it was, and they said they didn't want to come to church anymore. They said they don't feel like church is important to them right now, and that they will start going when they are older. It was heart breaking! We didn't buy that was their real reason, but they wouldn't open up as to the real issue. But one of them, the male, Tefo, did come to church this week. So hopefully he will continue to do what he knows is right, get baptized, and set the example for his cousins! But it was so sad. I was devastated! I didn't even want to go to our next appointment, but I am glad we did because that lesson was awesome! It was two sisters and they read many chapters from the Book of Mormon, when we only assigned one, and they are really excited about the gospel that they have learned so far. So it was just the pick me up that we needed. Also, the Lord is great, because even though we dropped those four people, we invited three others to get baptized, and they accepted. So, the work is still progressing, and people are still being prepared. It is terribly sad when someone chooses to not act on what they know is true, but it is also very rewarding to extend an invitation for someone to be baptized, and see they are excited to work towards it as they accept the invitation. Yeah, those were the main things I remember about the week. So many things happen in a week, it is hard to write them all. But know I am doing well, and the work here is progressing. I am so grateful to be here in Botswana, where the people are prepared for this message.