Mission Tour

This week was GREAT! We had mission tour this week. Which is basically a zone conference except a general authority presides. We had Elder Watson who is in the area presidency and 1st quorum of the twelve with us. Monday night the sisters got to go do dinner with President and sister Poulsen, and Elder and sister Watson. It was fun. I got to sit right across the table from Elder and Sister Watson, so I spent Monday evening chatting it up with a general authority. Haha...It was fun. He is pretty funny. Then tuesday was the conference with him, which was also amazing. At one point he said he had a "test" for one companionship. He took out a book of mormon and said this copy was special. His eight year old granddaughter who had just recently been baptized had written her testimony in it, and he wanted one companionship to take it and give it to a family that would then be baptized. My companion and I quickly volunteered for the "test". But now I am a little worried about finding the right family for this Book of Mormon. So, if you want to pray for my companion and I to find the family that that Book of Mormon is supposed to belong to, we would greatly appreciate it. We know that Book of Mormon is meant to convert a whole family. Now we just need to find them,a nd we need your prayers to help. So thank you for that. Also this week we had two baptisms. Gomolemo Bantshang was baptized in the family ward. He is 14, and his mom is a member. He is a very bright 14 year old, kind of how I imagine Joseph Smith was at that age. While bearing his testimony he said he was hesitant about being baptized for quite a while because he thought he had to know everything, but then he decided that that was not faith. He was very happy to be baptized, and we were happy his father came! The other baptism we had was in the Singles ward. His name is Thuto Motshwarapitse, yeah try and say that one :) He has been coming to church since he was 12, for like 10 years now, off and on. His older brother used to bring him, but now his older brother his less active, but Thuto finally decided he was ready for the commitment. It was great to see him make that covenant. He was also really happy. It was great. Then yesterday we also had a fireside for the ward. It was wonderful. We have been really concerned about the unity in the ward, so the ward mission leader got us a fireside, and it was great! Everyone really enjoyed it, and we had a great turn out! We were expecting no more than 30 families, because we were going to give each family a BoM to give to someone, but the BoMs ran out before every family got one! It was great! We based our fireside off of President Hickley's talk "Feed my Sheep". You havn't read that talk, you should. It is very good. It says how every member needs a friend, a calling, and nourishment. So that is what we talked about, and everyone seemed to really enjoy it, and the bishop was really pleased and asked if we could do a follow up fireside ina couple weeks. So, that is good progression. This really should help the ward, which is what we have been praying for. So this week was great. And I am looking forward to another great week. Thanks for reading, and thanks for your prayers. We hope to find that family that needs Elder Watson's Book of Mormon very soon!!! I'll keep you updated.

It's up to you....

The first week in my new area was successful. It was great actually. I miss my old area like crazy, but I beginning to already love this new area. We are teaching great people. We also met a lot of great families this week. I love teaching families. The best lessons are always when we are teaching families and both the mma and rra (mother and father) are interested and feel the spirit. This week I was working on having the right attitude when it comes to the work. I get frustrated sometimes when it is like over 100’ outside and people don’t keep their appointments with us, and our back up plans aren’t home either. It is hot, and I get a little frustrated trying to think of what to do. So this week I decided to change my attitude no matter how hot it was. And the results were amazing. I decided when that happens to turn it over to the Lord because there must be someone He wants me to meet, or something He wants me to do. So whenever that happened this week we would pray and ask God where we needed to go, and we always find someone who needed to hear our message. There was one day, I believe it was Wednesday we only had 2 appointments scheduled all day, which meant a long day in the sun, but it was a great day because we kept the right attitudes and looked for the opportunities that were put in our path, and we ended up teaching some great people who really needed our help. Then on Thursday we had a full day of appointments scheduled, one lesson every hour all day, but guess what…not a single one of those people were home! Should be frustrating, right? But it wasn’t because we met some people who really really needed to hear the message we were sharing. So it ended being a wonderful day. It really all comes down to our attitude. We can be positive and look for the good in every situation, and allow the Spirit to lead us, or we can get frustrated and annoyed, and not be as productive all day. I am choosing to be productive and to follow the Spirit, and to find the good in every situation. That is my choice. I hope all of you will choose the same. Know that God has a reason for everything. It is just up to you to turn to Him and allow Him to show you that reason, or you can complain and miss the opportunities that are being presented to you. Well, those are my thoughts this week. I know without any doubts that Heavenly Father is aware of us, and is willing to lead us in this journey through life. We just have to allow him to. I hope you all CHOOSE to have a great week this week, no matter what.

Stretch Yourselves!

I am trying to think back on this week, and I don't think much exciting happened to report to all of you. I did get transferred.....kind of. And the new area is nice. I am glad i will still be in the same ward. Oh wait, i did think of something really exciting to report on. Yesterday my new companion, sister odongo (from Kenya) and i got to go to Kanye, and be there when a new branch opened there. It was so exciting. The Spirit in the house they will hold church was so powerful. The elders only had ONE day to work, because they arrived there Thursday afternoon, and had to plan and get everything sorted, then we had to be in by 6 pm for new years, so they may have worked a couple hours, i dont know, but friday they couldn't work because it was new years, so saturday was the only real day of working, and there were around 15 investigators there! It was amazing. I am so excited to see this new branch grow! That was definitely the highlight of my week. The church is really growing here in Botswana, since I have been here 2 new branches have opened! It is exciting, I am grateful to be a part of it!
So for new years, people here go crazy with fire works! Everyone shoots them off, it is crazy, we stood on our balcony and didn't know where to look because everyone was shooting off fire works. It was cool. So, happy new year, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, and i hope you enjoy 2010 even more. Make sure to set appropriate goals that will make you stretch! Maybe, doing one random act of service a day, or reading the Book of Mormon in 70 days....those are just a few suggestions I have already given you, but thought maybe i would remind you of them....well have a great week, and an even better year. Make every moment a worthwhile one :) Miss ya all!