Slow Week

This was not a very exciting week. It was one of those weeks on mission when almost every single appointment you have made falls through, those of you who are returned missionaries know what I am talking about. It was also very hot this week. So, it was alot of fun having no appointments and spending the day contacting and tracting in the friendly sun :) But things like that happen. Even our great, progressing investigators were not available to meet with us, but we met a lot of great people, so it wasn't so bad. I just hope this week goes better, because I am not sure I would survive another week like that. So, I don't have much to report this week. But the month of November was very exciting the Johannesburg South Africa mission, record settting, and we are also having a record setting year. Here are the statistics received from my mission president. I thought you might be interested in these, I was anyway. It is really amazing the work we are engaged in here. So here are the statistics:

Dear Elders and Sisters,
Please note the expression of appreciation from our Area President, Elder Koelliker, for the wonderful work you are doing bringing many souls unto Christ. It is worthy of note that in November, the large majority of our missionary companionships (80%) had investigators enter the waters of baptism.
Another milestone of note is the first Sacrament meeting of the new group in Mochudi, Botswana which took place on December 6. It was remarkable that 56 individuals attended the wonderful meeting.
Just short note to document two milestones in the mission.
1) This past weekend the new Tzaneen South Africa District was formally created, consisting of the five branches Mokopane, Polokwane, Lenyenye, Tzaneen, and Modjadji.
2) The mission baptized 196 individuals in November—this is a record monthly high. This brings the year to date total to 1,528.

I am pretty sure that last year the entire year they had less than 1000 baptisms, this year is much better. we are working hard everyday, and the work here is progressing in remarkable amounts. This truly is the Lord's work, and He is preparing His people. I am so lucky to be a part of the Lord's army at this exciting time.
Sister Barber

Pictures

Coming Soon! I have Ashley's memory card and will post pictures this week. Happy Holidays everyone.

Happy (Late) Thanksgiving!

This past week, Sister Nkohla and I decided we need to do more service. So we decided to do a random act of service every day. And we dubbed it RAS. So every day we are trying to do a RAS. It is great. We decided to do this because we listened to a talk by James E. Faust on how we need to do service daily. So we are trying, and President Monson talked this past conference on charity, so we decided we need to do it. So we have been doing our best to complete on RAS a day. And it is not as easy as it sounds. We offer to help people all the time, but they don't always accept it, so a few times we had to do service for the other missionaries here because people weren't letting us serve them randomly. But it was a good week, and it made a huge difference in the work. This past Zone Conference we were told this quote by Henry B. Eyring where he said to a future missionary, "Show the people Jesus Christ loves them by the way you treat them." So, we are doing our very best to try and portray the Savior's love for these people in Botswana every day through RAS and other ways. This week really was good, I have no complaints, but then again I rarely ever have complaints :) Have a great week, and thanks for reading.

Temple Work

This week was amazing. We had the wonderful opportunity to take some recent converts to the temple to do baptisms for their family. We had one of our recent converts go. She had so many names ready to do, and she got to do four of them. Her mother and father, grandmother, and brother. She was so excited, and can't wait to go back to do the other ones. I was so happy she had the opportunity to do that. The temple is a special place! And that is the goal for each of our investigators, is for someday to get them into the whites of the temple, and this week we got to do that. It was such a neat experience! One I will definitely never forget. Our recent converts testimony was definitely strengthened from visiting the temple, and getting to bring that same joy that she has received from the gospel to her family on the other side. Words cannot describe this experience. That is the great experience for the week, all else is nothing really compared to that, so I will leave this entry short and sweet, just like my experience was. Thanks for reading. I hope one day you all can go to the temple and do work for your family, it will be something you never forget :)

Happy Veterans Day (Wednesday)

This week was another great week here in Gaborone. Two more of our investigators entered the waters of baptism. One of them you should know, Rebecca Mangisi, the amazing old, retired lady, who says the most profound, and inspiring things, yeah, she got baptized this week! It was wonderful. She was so happy, she wants to frame her baptismal program  she is great. So, it was an amazing thing to see her enter into that covenant with her Father in Heaven. Our other baptism was Mphoentle Gaonosi, who is an amazing young single adult. She is still in university, but she just got hired as a full-time producer for Botswana TV. The Lord really blesses His children, and they come into His fold. She is only 20, and already a full-time producer for the most watched station in Botswana. We were very happy for her as well. I really wish I could take credit for these two baptisms, but I can’t. I really didn’t do anything, at all. The Spirit gets all the credit for these ones, and the Book of Mormon, both of them accepted the 70 day challenge, the same challenge I gave to all of you, and their lives have changed because of it. That book is powerful! I’m not sure if I shared this before, but I will share one of my favorite quotes from Sister Rebecca Mangisi, while talking about her love for the Book of Mormon, she said that she understands so much more, and she said, “the bible is shallow in its content”, and she is right, the Book of Mormon, is so simple, and explains the doctrines so simply and straightforward, where the Bible leaves confusion. Again, I testify that the Book of Mormon, and the restored gospel of Jesus Christ truly changes lives. I know it. I have seen it.

*Happy Birthday Dad & Shayla*

New Post #1

Sorry for the short delay I was temporarily unable to post to this blog, but all has been fixed and there are 2 new posts from Sister Barber to read. Enjoy!

This week was Sister Nkohla’s birthday. So we decided to do a photo scavenger hunt in honor of it. That made the day a lot more entertaining than normal. We decided we would look for photos of: 1. Dirtiest child 2. Funniest sign 3. Strangest stray animal 4. Funniest outfit and 5. Prettiest flower. My favorites were the dirtiest child and funniest sign. There is this one family that has the dirtiest children I have ever seen! They are members and live in very humble circumstances, and we knew their youngest would be very dirty, so we got some good pictures of him. It was fun. That may sound rude, but they are a great family, and we love them so much, and their children may be dirty, but they are really cute, so we got some pictures of them . Also, here in Gaborone, there are lots of crazy signs come to find out  A lot of people use Gas in their homes, so there are a lot of gas companies, with lots of funny slogans. My favorite gas company name is Lovely Gas, and its slogan is Lovely Gas….For Lovely People. So we took a sign of that one, and then my other favorite one is Easigas…free home delivery…..hahhaha….this makes us laugh nearly every day. Good times. Also, here in Botswana there are A LOT of interesting stray animals, horses, cows, donkeys, goats, all roam around wherever they feel like it, and this to me, is very strange, when we jog in the morning we run right by horses and donkeys and cows, in the middle of the sidewalk, and on the streets. Quite different from back home. So, we had fun this week. As far as missionary work went this week, it seemed this week everyone ditched our appointments, which is not so fun, but the ones that we got to meet with were great. We have been challenging a lot of our investigators to read the Book of Mormon in 70 days, by reading 8 pages a day, and a lot of them have accepted the challenge, and are really enjoying it. We just had one recent convert finish the challenge, and he LOVES the Book of Mormon, and one investigator will finish it way before the 70 days is up. The Book of Mormon is powerful, it changes people’s lives. And I am lucky enough to get to see that every day. We have two investigators getting baptized this coming week, and we didn’t do anything to convert them to the gospel, they both accepted the challenge of reading the Book of Mormon in 70 days, and the Spirit did the rest. The Book is powerful. That is all I can say. If you are up for the challenge, do it. It will change your life, I can promise you that. Eight pages a day. It is not a difficult task. It can be done. If investigators who have never heard about the Book of Mormon before can read it in 70 days, I know you can too. So challenge yourself, make yourself a calendar and time line, and get it done, and see how the Lord will bless you. Go ahead. Test him. See if He will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out blessings that there will not be room enough to receive them.  Until next week.

Finally - Some new posts(#2)

I have survived another transfer! I can't believe I have been out here for three transfers. I did not get transfered, but my trainer did! So, I have a new companion, Sister Nkohla, from Johannesburg South Africa (yes she is serving a mission in her home mission). But she is great. We work so well together. We will do lots of great work together. I am very excited for this new companionship. She is already a much harder worker than my trainer was! Which is very exciting for me. This week, a lot of amazing things happened. It was a great week. They formed a new ward in Botswana, a singles ward, so we cover two wards now, the family and the singles ward, so we get sacrament meeting twice on Sundays, but it is great. The new bishopric is amazing, and so excited about missionary work, so I am excited to see the singles ward grow, and it will also help to focus on families in the other ward, and also finding families to teach. Yesterday, Sister Nkohla and I got ditched for our last appointment, so we had a little over an hour to find something to do. We were going to check on our investigators who did not make it to church earlier in the day, but then we passed this worship service being held, and we decided to go and check it out. It was just out in this field, in a tent, and some pastor had apparently come from South Africa. It was so interesting to me. There were probably only 30 to 40 people there, but the pastor or "prophet" felt the need to use a microphone, and not only use it but yell into it! Everytime he would start a new thought he would yell, and both sister nkohla and I would jump a little. Not only was he yelling into the mic, but he also had an interpreter following him around, and also yelling into his mic in setswana (the language of botswana). And to add onto the noise, everytime the pastor starting rambling on about something that was supposedly "profound" this other guy would start playing music in the background. It was quite the sight to see. It was very interesting to witness this worship service after attending the service at the true Church of Christ. It was such a difference. This pastor was trying to do all he could to drive the Spirit of God away from his sermon, and he did a very good job, the spirit was no where near the tent! Also, during part of his rambling on about nothing that made any sense, a guy in the front row, starts "speaking in tongues" and raising and lowering his arms. It was so funny. Oh man, so many times I wanted to laugh, but actually most of the time, I just wanted to hand out pass along cards, and invite all of those innocent souls to come and see how the true church worships. They would definitely feel the difference. I was glad I got to experience that. It was a lot of fun to see how others worship, and it made me so grateful to be a member of the only true church on the earth. What a blessing it is not to be confused, and to know where to turn to for peace. I am so grateful for the restored gospel. And seeing these other people worship this way, only made me that much more grateful to be who I am, doing what I am, and I pray each and every person in that sermon will have the opportunity, in this life to experience the Spirit in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.