The Heat is On!

This week was good. We set baptismal goals for the next four months. We set BHAG goals (BHAG stand for Big Hairy Audacious Goals, ones that will make us stretch) the goals we are going to try and achieve, and then realistic goals (based on baptisms in the area in the past. And for the next four months, our BHAG goal was 35, our goal is 24, and the realistic goal is twelve. We have 7 people with a baptismal date for September, so we are feeling pretty confident that we will have seven in September, and already have half our realistic goal achieved! The realistic goal is the one we turned in to the mission president, so if things go according to our plans, we will have 200% goal achievement, and everyone will want to know how we did that! It will be awesome! Sister ChirChir and I are working very hard to acheive these goals. But the moment we set them and got all excited, people started ditching their appointments. It was hard not to get discouraged, but we are working through it, and still are confident that we will meet our goals. Like I said last week, I would love to see 20 more baptisms before I go home. And I know I can do it. It will take a lot of hard work, fasting, and prayer (formula for success), but I know we will do it. Botswana will be one step closer to becoming a stake! Unfortunately, I do not think I will be here to see Botswana become a stake. I fear it will be early next year, but I am still excited for when that happens! That will be the best. Botswana is on fire.....literally....it is HOT here again! Eish, summer is coming!

finally.....after 5 years!!!

Dumela all. Sorry there was no post last week. We ran out of time emailing, so I didn’t get the chance. And last week wasn’t very exciting. But this week was VERY excited, and a lot happened. I don’t even know where to begin. First, we had Mission Tour. And the speaker was Elder Dale G. Renlund of the 70 and area presidency here in the Africa Southeast Area. It was great. Really great. He and his wife really taught us a lot about what we need to do to perform miracles for the Lord. He says if we do the best that we can, and keep improving and progressing daily, then the Lord will make up the difference and we will be able to perform miracles for the Lord, but if we ease up, become content, and or fall backwards, then we no longer qualify for the help of the Lord, and will, of course, not perform miracles. It was just really great. We learned many other things from him on how to become more effective, better missionaries for the Lord. Also, Elder Renlund was able to go teaching with my District Leader and his companion, and they planned to take Elder Renlund with them to their eternal investigator, Brother Bakoko, he has been coming to church for 5 years with his wife, but would never agree to a baptismal date, until this week! Elder Renlund went and visited him, and now Bro Bakoko will be getting baptized one the 12 of September, and Elder Renlund will seal him and his wife together next September! Wow, we were so very excited to hear that. I am glad that for most people it does not take a general authority to get them to commit to living the gospel of Jesus Christ! But I am so glad he was able to help out Brother and Sister Bakoko. Yesterday, on our side, we had a husband and a wife get baptized! Yay! It was amazing! David and Rose Gwazarira were baptized! It was so amazing to have a husband and a wife be baptized together! Wow! It was simply incredible; words cannot really describe how that baptism was! It was very very special. They were so happy, and they are also planning on going to the temple in a year from now, if they can save enough money for it. Wow. David and Rose are amazing, David met the missionaries sometime last year and took a pamphlet, actually from Sister Kubheka and Sister Farrell, (thanks JaLeen…and a side note for you, Brother Tekane has a stake calling in the Young Men for Bots! Seriously!) and then David saw Sister Lyon and Sister Toya a few months back, and they started teaching him, and I got to finish up the teaching process, and now they are baptized and planning on going to the temple! It was wonderful! Wow, like I said, I can’t describe it, it was awesome. I can’t wait for the other families we are teaching to also get baptized. We have set a goal to see at least 20 more people be baptized from our area before I leave. I know we can accomplish that. The Lord is really leading us to some great families. So, that is how the work is over here. Other than that, it is really starting to heat up. My companion says how hot it is, and I just tell her to wait, it isn’t hot yet, just like everyone did to me last year. Haha. Botswana is hot my friends. Very hot! It is on fire! I really love it here.

The Lion's Church

This past week, we had eleven of our investigators come to church! It was great. We had prayed and fasted for more investigators to comet to church and progress, and this week it happened. Yet, we still were a little disappointed because two of our progressing families failed to make it to church. But then I realized we had eleven others at church feeling the Spirit, so all was well again. But I was sad for the people that missed. So church was really great yesterday. This week we had a very interesting experience. One of our investigators invited us to go to her church service with her on Thursday. We jumped at the chance. Her church was called Lion of Judah, and the pastors are twins from Ghana. And the whole experience was interesting, to say the least. First interesting thing, they had microphones, yet they met in a small little room, like a conference room in a building. Not very big, no need at all for microphones, and the pastor or prophet or whatever they claim to be yell into it! I just really felt there was no need for that! Also, they sing and dance. And when it is time to pray, they all pray at the same time! And the pastor decides when they finish their prayers, but listening to the pastor and the people next to me, they don’t say anything of substance, and they are all praying at the same time. I am sure they confused God, I was certainly confused anyway. Also this guy, one of the twins, was prophesying that the people who were there would not die until it was their time, until God decided it was their time to go .. I was thinking, wow what a prophecy. I could have told them that. Haha….it was just all so interesting. Everything about it. I did my very best to control my laughter. One thing I know for sure is that the Spirit of God was not there. They were feeling something, but it was not the Spirit. It was the loud speakers, but definitely not the Spirit. His sermon was confusing. To this day, I don’t have any idea what he was trying to say. Going to the true Church yesterday, made me so grateful to have the truth. I learned something at church that will stick with me. Going to the church, really made me realize who true the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is! And I am more grateful than ever to be a member. And it made me want to go out and continue to share this message with others, so they will no longer be confused. Be grateful to be a member of Christ’s church. Be grateful you are not confused. I certainly am.

It's a nice walk!

Eish, you know. Great things happen every week, every day. I know they do, but then I come to sit down and write an entry for the blog, and my mind goes blank, and I can't seem to remember what happened during the week that I could report on. Ha. I must be getting old or something. This week was great! Can't complain. Sister ChirChir and I had the opportunity to walk from the church to our area. Alot of people are complaining that they don't have transport to get to church, so we encourage them to make the sacrifice and walk. We thought it would be a good idea to experience that for ourselves, and we got the opportunity on Saturday to walk home with a few of the investigators children after their primary activity. And come to find out. It really is not that far, and the walk is not hard. It was actually a lot of fun. So now, when people complain about no transport, we can tell them the walk is nice, and that we personally have done it ourselves. So, hopefully that will take care of some of the problems we have getting our investigators to church. It was nice to see what they experience. Sometimes I think it would be nice to be in a walking mission, but then I think how grateful I am for the car, and how much more missionary work we can do because we have a vehicle and can get between appointments much quicker. The great father-led family we are teaching that I am sure I have mentioned, Makesure and Balemogi, are doing so well. They all came to church yesterday, except Makesure never made it in because the youngest, the 4 year old daughter, Mpho, was refusing to go in, he didn't want to cause a scene, so he took her home instead of coming him. We told him later that night when we were teaching, not to let that happen again, that we would sit outside with her. But we were so proud of them for coming. Next time,they all will actually make it in the building! It was great. We got to church early, as usual, and we already had 2 investigators there, and a less active that we have been working with. Church was great yesterday. Fast Sundays are always great though. So, other than that, I can't think of much else to report on. Except I do have a few updates for JaLeen FARRELL, haha. The rest of you may not really care or know who these people are, I but know JaLeen will appreciate these updates. So, JaLeen, I did get your DearElder letter. Thanks, I appreciated that, and I thought this would be the best and quickest way to give you some updates. So here are a few, and maybe...just maybe, I will send a letter with more,but we will see about that one...you know me :) But here are some updates for you. Kgosi Mothei, the less active you worked with for a while, he is engaged to Maipelo. They will be getting married in January! They are doing so well. He is doing great, and changed completely. Also, Brother Tekane baptized Matla last month! And now he witnesses every baptism we have this side! He is doing great! Bro Sima is going to England on his mission, and Mosupi is going to New Zealand! They are very excited for that, and so are the rest of us, and Dorcas is expecting her mission call any time! So, there are a few updates I thought you would be interested in. Thanks for the letter. Enjoy home! I'll be joining you all too soon!

Only 3 transfers left

This week was alright. It ended very nicely. A young man I had taught in my previous area, Kabo Gugah was baptized in the singles ward. It is nice that the wards are so close, because I was able to attend the baptism the Elders were having in the family ward, and still make it in plenty of time to see Kabo get baptized in the singles ward! Kabo is a great guy. His friends are all members, and it is about time he joined them. That group of young single adults is great. We call them the Mmopane Saints. They live in the village of Mmopane just outside of Gaborone, and more and more of their friends keep getting baptized. Karabo Tshekoyakgosi was baptized in May, and now Kabo was just baptized yesterday, all from the influence of a few great saints. So, the Mmopane Saints keep growing, and they keep spreading the gospel. Which is just so remarkable to see. I miss Gwest. But Broadhurst is great as well. I am really enjoying the time I have had here in Botswana. It is the best place on earth. I am not sure if I will be able to leave. I was telling my companion yesterday, that they may just have to kill me and send me home, because I am not sure I will willingly get on a plane to leave this place. It is such a wonderful place, and the people here are so amazing.

Zone Conferce

This week was another good one for us here in Botswana. We had zone conference this weekend, and after zone conference, Sister Poulsen went with us to our lessons. She took pictures of the families we were teaching, and she is going to put them up on the mission website, so if you are interested, you could peruse the mission website and see pictures of me and some of the families I have been privelaged to teach and get to know. That was fun to have her go teaching with us. It was kind of funny because the Elders were all very nervous about who President Poulsen would go with, no one wanted to go with him, whereas the sisters were all very eager to have Sister Poulsen come with us. I am glad she ended up coming with us though. It was great to have her join us. Zone conference was very good. It always is. We talked about keeping focused on the work, and not letting our minds wander. It was good. It was what I needed to hear, because sometimes my mind does wander. Especially during lessons, because I have taught these principles so many times, I sometimes start to think of other things. So, it was a good reminder to stay focused, and to be where your body is. Self-mastery is extremely difficult, but I know I can master myself. It will just take some hard work and diligence. But I am working on it every day. This week we were supposed to have a couple we have been teaching get baptized (by Elders of course…sisters don’t baptize….thanks for the advice Ed!) but the rra’s mother went into acoma, and so he had to rush home to Zimbabwe to take care of her, so their baptism has been postponed to whenever he gets back. That was very sad, but we had such an amazing lesson with him and his wife on the plan of salvation and on temple work. It was an amazing lesson. The Spirit was so strong. Afterwards we were all in smiles and felt at peace, even during this difficult time. The plan of salvation is a perfect plan created by our perfect Father for our happiness. We can indeed find peace in this life even during the most difficult times when we know the plan of salvation, and know that it is true. This gospel is such a comfort and bring so much joy and peace into the lives of those I am so privelaged to meet and preach to every single day. I know God loves us, and that Jesus is the Christ. And this knowledge really does sustain me through my every day life. I don’t know what life would be like without this knowledge, but I know I would experience the joy I get to experience every day!

Tell everyone I say hi and miss them...
and tell shayla not to be stupid with her scooter!
And tell blake to just get married already. Thanks.

Happy 4th (a little late)

This week I made the move from GWest to Broadhurst. It really wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was hard saying goodbye to the ward I have served in for the last year, but things are great this side of town as well. Serving here in Gaborone is different than any other mission for sisters I am sure. Because we serve in the same town between two wards the entire time. So, I will still get to see everyone from Gwest from time to time, which will be nice. Things are great here in Broadhurst. We have a couple from Zimbabwe, David and Rose, getting baptized this coming Sunday. They are great! We are also teaching a couple of other great families, so things are great this side. I look forward to the next few months I get to serve here. My new companion is Sister Chirchir from Kenya. She is great. She is such a sweet girl. She is the nicest person I have met. She is so dedicated to her calling as a missionary. We will have a lot of success together. That was pretty much the week. I am still adjusting and getting used to the new area. It is a lot smaller than my last area. So far, it appears that most of it is not as wealthy as my last area, but that means the people are humble, and ready for the gospel, the only problem we will come across is getting people to come to church, because they will not have means of transportation. But we will see what we can do about that. I should have more to report next week as I get more familiar with the people and the area. And I look forward to seeing the baptism of David and Rose this coming Sunday. Mission is great. Well, thanks for reading and have a great week, oh and happy Independence Day. I forgot it was independence day yesterday, until one of the Elders introduced himself and said his favorite colors were red, white, and blue because it was the 4th of July. So, happy Independence Day, and remember true freedom comes from living the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the best of your ability!!!