One Day Late!

I'm sorry this is one day late mom!

Although it is transfers, our district did not go to South Africa. We did however go to the Botswana mission office which is supposed to be about an hour away to pick up some supplies, but we ended up going a couple hours in the wrong direction and getting lost in Botswana...life of a missionary!

We eventually made it to the mission office and we had mail! I got a letter from Axel and a package from the Rousseau's! The got my girl scout cookies! The RIGHT girl scout cookies! I am so excited to eat them, so if you could please tell them thank you for me that would be great. I will write them a letter, but I am sure that will take quite a while to get there from Botswana.

Sounds like you are having fun with Family week? Not sure what that is, but it sounds pretty nice. The world needs family weeks! Make sure to keep me filled in on the family activities. Other than that it sounds like everything is going well. Tyler and Kaylee lucked out with a Keller trip! Oh, and Tyler, I have been able to view a few photo's of possible matches for my "mini cheetah" and so far the closest match is a "Serval". It looks like that, but the photo of the Serval that I have seen has a short tail, and the animal that I saw had a fat long tail. The search continues... If it was a Serval though I am glad that I wasn't 4 inches further down the road or I would have hit it and it probably would have been mad!

Mom, as a side not, did you know that our mission has a website? I have never been on it, but Elder Hughes mother was making reference to it.

Another Side comment, I have decided that I really like those "merona" ties you sent me a while back, so if they are cheap and you happen to be buying me other ties, you should search those out.

I'm sorry, I will be a little scatter brained today with this email, but dad asked about the differences in my South Africa and Botswana areas, so I would like to talk about that for a moment.

South Africa is kind of crazy. It is not a beautiful country, very flat, brown, poor. It is a nice place, but if you are looking for some beauty, South Africa is the wrong direction to look. Botswana however is very sweet in terms of Beauty. It has rolling hills which closely resemble small mountains. It is a green country and has a lot of those flat topped Africa trees.

Life in South Africa (by the way when I mention South Africa I am referring to the townships where most missionaries are and where I come from) is fast and people everywhere, while Botswana is slow. Life just kind of rolls along here and I really enjoy that.

Wild life in Botswana is actually existing. In South Africa, not so much. Everything cool has been either killed or put into a game park.

The Church in South Africa is definitely growing, but it is also already built up. My ward where I come from has about 8-900 members while the Branch I am in has about +-100, average attendance is 45-55.

South Africa definitely has its up sides. It is a different world, and there are stories after every day. You always run into new things all the time, and your joy comes from the people.

Botswana though is definitely the place that missionaries like to be. It is new, and what you would think of when you think of Africa. I would say most missionaries don't get the opportunity to serve here though. It is very far from the main mission office, so president has to trust you quite a bit before he sends you to a new country. As well it is away from the good medical, so if you are always getting sick they will probably keep you near the office.

I have not had any promising news on residency though and I suspect that I will be transferred back to South Africa in about 5 weeks time. It will definitely be sad to go, but I am grateful for the time that I have been able to serve here. And I have also been blessed with one of the coolest areas in all of Botswana! Wild life, town, village, rich, poor, pretty much anything you could want in an area, it's here!

AH! time is out, got to go.

Love you
Elder Williams

ps. Dad, can you try to salvage my password vault information from the computer before you get rid of it? I realized that I did not back that up!