A year!!!

This week was a week, that is all I have to say. When I sit down to write the blog entries, I can't remember what happened during the week. Sorry about that. It was just a normal missionary week. We found out transfer news. I will be staying in the same area, but with a new companion. I have been out for a year now, and I have been serving in the same ward the whole time. That definitely has its advantages. But it will make it really difficult to leave, because these people here in Botswana have really become my family. I love them. But I can't believe I have been here for a year. Time flies. Sorry this is such a short entry, hopefully something really great will happen next week and I will have a more exciting entry. But thank you for reading, and thank you for your prayers.

Key to Heaven.....

Sorry there was no post last week. Last week we had one baptism in our area, for a young woman named Daphney Motelebane. She has been coming to church for six months now. She had to come for six months because she has no support from family members. It is a actually a great story on how we met Daphney. In my first area, six months ago, we found out that the lisence plat on our car had been switched with another car in south Africa, all mission vehicles look the same so i can understand how this would happen. Anyway, so my companion and I were without a car for a couple of days while they went to get our lisence plate. during one of these we went on splists with the other sisters in our ward to their area. While two taught lessons, the other two tracted. While sister odongo and i (my current companion) were tracting this day we found Daphney ad her family. And she hasn't stopped coming to church since. Maybe we wouldn't have found her if our car had not had a problem. THe Lord works in mysterious ways. So it was great to see her being baptized. She is a great young lady, and will be a great example to her family. One day all of her family will join the church because of her example. I know it. her older sister is already taking the lessons. So, it was a great week last week. SOrry again for not posting, but I didn't get the chance to even check my email last week. And this week we had zone conference. It was great! I love zone conferences so much. We have the best mission president in the world. It was just great and uplifting. I will share one thing I learned this zone conference with you. He was telling us we need to do a better job of teaching investigators, and member for that matter, about the importance of tithing. He said something about tithing that I really appreciated. He said that they need to understand that tithing is the key to the windows of heaven. If they want their needs to be provided for, and heaven to pour blessing upon their heads that there won't be room enough to receive it, then they need to pay their tithing. It struck me at how true that is. The Lord gives us commandments so that He can bless us and take care of all of our needs, the only thing we have to do is obey, and then He will take care of everything for us. It seems so simple, yet so many people struggle with being obedient. If only everyone could realize the blessing that come through obedience, I don't think anyone would be disobedient. It is definitely not worth it. So that was one thing I learned in zone conference. I hope you all pay your honest tithe and obey every commandment, so that the Lord can bless you. It's just that simple. Well, thanks for reading. have a great week!

Oo Ee Oo Aa Aa Ting Tang Walla Walla Bing Bang

This week wasn't very exciting. The most exciting story i can tell you about this week has to do with Brother Fulukani. We have been teaching him, his wife, and two children for as long as I have been in the area, and they were teaching him a while before that. They come to church every Sunday, but did not want to be baptized. we thought it was because the wife could not understand English very well, but come to find out this week, Brother Fulukani has not left his old church officially yet, where he is a witch doctor of sorts. Not a bad one, but a traditional doctor. Africa has lots of weird traditions and things. And so he is hesitant to join the church becuase he knows that if he does he will have to give up being a traditional doctor, because he knows it is wrong, and so now the truth comes out. Wow. He has been coming to church every week for the past 6 months, and still doing his doctor things on the side. Sometimes people are very interesting. We still hope he will be able to give up his "doctoring" and join the true church. He knows it is true and will greatly bless his family. He is just finding it very difficult to leave his past behind. I guess I understand, he has been a traditional doctor for over 30 years. That would be very difficult to leave behind. So, that is the story of the week. Don't worry, we never drank or ate anything while we were at his house :) Well, the work here continues to progress. It is a very exciting time to be serving here in Botswana. I am loving most every minute of it! Thanks for your support and your prayers. Hope you have a great week, and that you enjoyed conference this past weekend.

Happy Easter

This week three sisters finished their mission, they only sent two to replace them, so the Johannesburg mission went from 8 sisters to six sisters this week. Nothing really changed for me though, I am in the same area with the same companion, Sister Odongo from Kenya. It was sad to see them leave, but the work continues. It is weird to think I am over halfway done with my mission.
Yesterday we had two baptisms. The first was for Katlego Makati. His aunt is the relief society president and his uncle is the young men's president. They brought him to church the beginning of this year, and he hasn't stopped coming since. He is working on his duty to God award, and he wants to serve a mission. He is a good kid. He is very active in the chruch. He has many friends, and is already doing missionary work. his best friend also wants to be baptized, but just has to wait for his mom to say he can start taking the lessons. The other baptisms was for an eleven year old girl, Valentine. She has been coming to church her whole life with her aunt and uncle who is the branch president of Lobatse, one of the branches in our stake. She told us one week that she was ready to be baptized, so we started teaching her, and she was baptized yesterday as well. She was cute, she did not want her picture to be taken at all. So we had to sneak one. But she was very happy to be baptized.
So, that is the good news of the week. I hope you all enjoy conference this weekend, I am sure it will be wonderful. I am excited to watch it, but the area presidency has decided the south east africa area will watch it april 24-25 when the dvds are made, so enjoy it live. Conference is always a wonderful thing. To hear from the prophet of God and His apostles. How cool is that? Have a great week.

I love Technology.......

Sorry there was no post last week, but I ran out of time before I finished and sent the post to my sister. So, I will recap on two weeks today. What I wanted to say from last week was how exciting the work is here in Botswana. We had stake conference last week, and we watched a live video feed from South Africa. We are still in a South Africa Stake, but I know that will change very soon, because at this stake conference here in Botswana anyway, we had over a hundred more people in attendance than they did in South Africa. The chapel, and cultural hall were full. there was not an empty seat. We even had over flow in the Relief Society room. Every chair in the building was being used, there was standing room only. All of the missionaries had to stand, and there are now over 30 missionaries in Botswana, and two branches in Botswana weren't able to make it becuase of the distance to travel! So, needless to say, the work is progressing at an ever increasing rate. One branch that just opened in a village, Kanye, at the first of this year, brought 59 investigators!!!!and the only members they have, which for now is 7!!! Wow! The work here is just amazing to see. I have seen so many changes already in Botswana since I have been here. I am praying they will become a district, if not a stake before I go home at the end of this year. They need it, they deserve it! That was my main update from last week.
This week was good, we had two more people interviewed for baptism, they will be getting baptized next sunday. One is an eleven year old girl who has been coming to church her whole life with her aunt and uncle, but never got baptized, and now she is ready. She is quiet, but she is good, and knows she is making the right decision. The other is Katlego, he is 17, and the nephew of the relief society president in the ward. He has been coming to church since the beginning of this year with his aunt and uncle. And he desires to serve a mission! He is a good young kid, and will make a great missionary one day, baptism is just the first step in his goal of becoming a missionary. He has a very humble testimony, and it has been great to teach him.
An update on the family we gave the Elder Watson book of mormon to....Well, right now things are shaky..It is not having quite the immediate effect we were hoping for. This family is great, but when we leave the house, something happens and they don't read the book of mormon. So, it is not quite working as we had hoped, yet. We still have faith that it will change their lives, we just need to be a little more patience, and exercise a little more faith, and pray even harder for them to accept this gospel. Satan is working very hard to keep this family from progressing! So, please keep them in your prayers. We won't give up on them yet, I know that book of mormon is powerful, i just hope one day very soon they realize that as well.
Well, thanks for reading, and thanks for your prayers in my behalf. Enjoy your week. Enjoy March Madness.....but please, don't give me any updates....they are distracting :) ok....maybe just a few would be alright! Thanks! Enjoy it double for me!

sidenote: Ashley told me she will have a 3 week delay before they will get conference, so ocnference week if you would send her a little snippit on your favorite talk, or what you got out of conference I'm sure she would LOVE it.

Faith

This week was Zone Conference. It was great. We talked about how we need to have more faith in the work. I have been thinking alot about faith lately and what it actually is. And I have decided through scripture study and prayer that faith is more than just belief. It is actually very deep and implies alot. So, as I need to apply more faith in finding I need to do ALOT. I was reading in Mormon the other day about faith. I believe it was mormon 9. When it talks about miracles and things like that. and twice he says we must believe, NOTHING DOUBTING. So, that is what started me thinking about faith this week, and then it happened to be the topic of zone conference. It is great how that always seems to work out. So, in application to my missionary work, and you can apply to your lives for whatever situation you are in, but in my case, involving missionary work I decided that often time we pray for things, to find wonderful families to teach especially, and we pray thinking we have faith, but then after the prayer, we go to work, and start letting doubt creep in. Saying things like...there are not families home at this time, these people wouldn't be interested, etc.....lame doubts like that, and that is not FAITH. Doubt and faith do not exist in the same sphere, it is impossible. So, in order to have faith we need to doubt nothing. When we ask God to bless us with things we need to trust and actually believe He will give it to us, doubting nothing. I am sure Joseph Smith had no reservations or doubts when he went to the grove to pray, and he recieved his answer. We can have the same answers, if we will pray the same way he did....with FAITH, nothing doubting. Well, that was my lesson for the week that I thought I would share with you. Just take sometime this week to evaluate your faith, do you really have it? If not, fix it, start trusting in your Father in Heaven, and really believing He will answer your prayers. Because He will, if you let him by not doubting. Sometimes it just takes some patient perserverance, if you know what I mean. Well, the week was good, we worked hard, and have FAITH that the Lord will bless us for our efforts, that He will begin to trust us and lead us to those families He is preparing to receive this gospel. Thanks for reading, thanks for your prayers, they are much needed and appreciated

Way to go Red Devils!

We had another baptism this week. Boipuso Mogale was baptized. She was brought to church by a friend, and wanting to make a change and make her life meaningful this year, and she chose the right way to do it. She is great. She was so excited to be baptized. She has such a strong and sincere testimony. We started teaching her beginning of this year, and she progressed so easily, and was more than ready to be baptized yesterday. One of those "golden" investigators as people call them. But once again she proved to me, that we do nothing as missionaries, and the investigator who let the Spirit teach them, and recieves that witness for themselves are the ones ready to make the commitment. With very little help of the missionaries. I wish all investigators were like that, but unfortunately most are stubborn and hard hearted. So, I am grateful when the ones like Boipuso come around. It is just wonderful to see. So, that was the highlight of the week. But another wonderful highlight of my week, which has kind of distracted me ALL week and held me in suspense, was whether or not my basketball team, the Springville Red Devils won the state title, and I was so happy to find out this morning through my sister, that they DID!!!! So, I just want to say congratulations to all of my Red Devils!! I am so proud of you! I wish I could be there to celebrate your hard work with you, but nevertheless, know that i am celebrating over here in Africa, and that I am very proud of each one of you! so congratulations!! You guys earned it! RED DEVIL PRIDE! and Thank you for letting me be a part of your program!