v-day 2011 from Botswana

Hello Family!
Hope everyone is having a wonderful Valentine’s day today. They don't celebrate that here so you will have to have fun without me...now that I think of it, I'm not sure how missionaries would celebrate it anyways?

Before I forget, we have some small world connections to make. So Elder Hughes is from Nampa and his father's name is David Hughes and was apparently in dads ward while Grandpa Williams was bishop. And then he says that his Uncle coached your (dad's) church basketball team. So pretty much we have a lot of connections with Elder Hughes (he wear glasses so all the kids here call him Harry Potter ha ha).

I am happy to hear as well that we have connections with Elder Albertson. He is the man. Missionaries here in Botswana are pretty sweet.

Mom, thanks for the photos of the green mamba and the cobra. I have not seen any more snakes, but I saw the coolest animal the other day! I to this moment do not know what it was so I will just refer to it as a mini cheetah because that is kind of what it looked like. So I was riding my bike down monkey hill at about 8:30 on my way home for the night so it was pretty dark. All the sudden this animal jumped out of the bushes and I was about 4 inches away from hitting it! It was about as tall as Missy and maybe a little longer, with a very long thick, not bushy tail. I call it a mini cheetah because its fur was exactly like a cheetah with the yellowish and then the large spots everywhere. Elder Hughes kind of saw it, but the only thing he could make out was that it was definitely not a dog or a cat, but everyone that I ask about it is convinced that I am just crazy and that all I saw was a dog. It was NOT a dog people of Botswana!

So this week kind of flew by and I don't have TOO much to say today which is good because I don't have much time due to African computers. But this week, Friday night I got a call from the Zone leaders saying that they were getting the districts of the zone together and meeting with all the district leaders (which I am not one) so they wanted me to teach all the other missionaries of the Zone while they were having their meeting. I was assigned to teach about one of the "new fundamental 8 lessons", "how to begin teaching". I was a little worried because we have been taught about these SO much lately that it just becomes repetitive and everyone gets bored. And then as you do as a missionary you never have time to prepare for anything. So for the meeting, instead of doing the EXACT same thing that we do every week, I mixed it up a little bit to see if I could get the missionaries to participate. I focused the lesson on what our goals are when we walk out of a first appointment and how we can focus our teaching around showing the individual why it is that our message is important to them. That is one of the main differences that I see with these new lessons. Instead of just going into someone’s house and teaching the restoration, it is going into the appointment and showing the person why the restoration is important for them and why they need it in their life.

I thought the meeting went very well. Most the missionaries were participating and we had some good discussion about how to improve. I am glad that I have these opportunities to give lessons because before my mission I didn't have a clue how to stand up in front of people and teach them something! ESPECIALLY something they are already familiar with.

I also had the opportunity to teach Gospel Principles this week. The lesson was about family responsibilities. It was neat because we had 17 investigators at church this week (which even for us is quite a bit. 12 of those came from our companionship which is one of the highest thus far on my mission). People really enjoy Gospel principle class so it is always nice to be able to teach that. We had 5 Baptisms this Sunday, only one of them from our side, but it was a nice service.

Oh and talk about being put on the spot this week! The branch president was talking with us before Sacrament started and he was like so did someone tell you about your talk today? I was like..no, what would you like me to speak on? And he said, oh I don't know, whatever you feel is right, but I am still not sure if your speaking or what’s going to happen. So pretty much I MIGHT be speaking in a few min over a subject which is unknown to me. I was actually pretty excited (I have come to love relying on the spirit in those situations), so I was getting all excited and then he didn't end up having me speak! It was kind of a downer.

As well, I was able to study my Elder Holland notes that I took when he visited us. One of the many quotes that stood out to me was that "you will live to see the lord pour out his blessing on Africa". I thought that was a neat quote, and this was when he was referring to the scriptures about how the first will be last and the last will be first, and his point is how Africa has pretty much been last in everything in the world, including one of the last to receive the gospel, so he was mentioning how they will be first in the future...I could expand on that, but I am out of time. Oh and dad, the second counselor in the mission presidency was educated in the States somewhere and then returned to Africa, and is now a church leader. I hope that makes sense in reference to your email a few weeks ago.

Well family I got to go

Have fun
Do good
Love you all

Elder Williams