Monday's Come Quicker and Quicker!

Hello Family!

I can't believe it is already time to write again. These Mondays seem to just come quicker and quicker. It is good to know that Cami's school went to Gaborone for their trip. Gaborone is the where our second mission home is located. The sad news is that if she had gone on the trip I probably would have been permitted to go visit her because I am about 45 minutes from Gabs. The not so sad part is that Gabs is the rich part of Botswana. I am not sure why her school would go to build a school there, but don't feel too sad because you wouldn't have seen too much of Africa in Gabs...accept for your brother! As well, a nation wide strike of Government employees started today and who knows how long that would have lasted, so don't feel TOO bad that you missed out.

The family would be proud to hear that we got a NEW car this week and it was WHITE to go along with family traditions. I got an interesting call last week from a lady at the car dealership that went as follows:
me: Hello this is Elder Williams speaking

Her: Hello Elder Williams this is ________ from Lobatse Motors calling about the 12 new Chevy Aveo's that you ordered..........

me: ...hmmmm I'm going to assume that I am not the person you were meaning to call.

A call I will probably never ever receive again. The church was having problems with keeping their South African cars here in Botswana, so they purchased a fleet of Brand new cars for us. That was pretty nice.

Momma, I have not heard anything about my call home for Mother's Day. I am sure I will call home, but that is all I know at the moment. Details will follow. In terms of the package you are sending, thank you! I cannot remember my entire list, but just send the things I have mentioned in my previous emails if its not a problem. As well, Elder Schwab would like one of those scripture marking things you sent in that letter that got lost. Speaking of Lost mail you said Aunt Dana sent me a Christmas package? Um, thank you! But I have not received it yet. I will keep looking.

Dad, I am sorry to hear that you have been so sick. I hope you get better this week. You asked if I have been sick yet. I did get really sick about my fourth month on the mission but I'm not exactly sure what it was. Our entire district got sick at least once that transfer because of the smoke in the townships, but one night I came home feeling really sick, got on my knees in front of the toilet and threw up literally every 3-5 min for the entire night. Never been so dehydrated in my life! I got better quickly. I didn't mention anything then so that Momma wouldn't get worried, but yes, I got better!

Speaking of things I didn't tell Mom....I don't think I told the family about the missionaries in Ghana, but the story ended well so I will share it now. About the same time I got on my mission there were missionaries who were accused of sexually abusing a 14 year old girl. They didn't do it, but the girls grand father did not like missionaries so he framed them. The first significant part of the story is that one of the missionaries was scheduled to go home 1 week after they were accused of this. The country threw them in Ghana prison and the church has been working over time to get them out for the last 9 months. We had a fast (I believe it was Africa wide, but I'm not sure. One of the missionaries is from our Botswana Stake though). We received the good news yesterday that the church was able to get them re-tried and freed. The missionaries will be going home to their families early this week. Success story!

In brighter news we were able to view General Conference this weekend. It was slightly disappointing because we only had a couple investigators in attendance even though we spent all our efforts this week trying to get people to attend. But the conference itself was very nice. We were very happy to see our family that we just baptized in attendance at all the sessions, taking notes and everything. The father of the family picked up on the theme of young men needing to get married and he started giving us a hard time that we need to get married ha ha. I guess we never told him that missionaries don't get married on their missions! I told him I still have a good 14 months before that becomes a priority!

Some of the talks that stood out to me were:
President Uchtdorf Sunday morning: He talked a lot about member missionary work and how we need to simply open our mouths. It reminded me of an experience about 2 months ago. Elder Hughes and I were trying to track down a map of our area so we could mark out where members and investigators stay. During our search we ended up in an office with this man named Ernest who designs maps. We spent 99% of our time talking about maps, and then as we were about to leave I just simply mentioned something VERY brief about the church. He didn't even stay in our area so I just asked him if I could give his number to other missionaries and they could contact him. He agreed although he didn't seem interested. I gave the other missionaries his number and now he comes to church on Sundays and is preparing to be baptized either the last week of this month or the very beginning of next month. It showed me how I didn't even need to be a missionary to do something that simple.

I also enjoyed President Eyrings talk Saturday morning about giving service. It is always good to see how much emphasis the church puts on giving to others and serving others. Dad, your story about the lady in the ward feeling uncomfortable about receiving the gift from the ward reminded me of when I was managing the city landscape crew. We had a hectic week and so to reward the guys I took the crew out to eat at Chipotle near the end of the week. Most the guys were comfortable with this, but one of my employees (my favorite one in fact) would not accept me buying him lunch. Although it was a simple thing it made me think often about the way we give to others. I like how the church does their giving. Although I am sure they give away millions every year it is always done in secret.

I would love to expound, but I just realized I have less than a min.

Well I LOVE you all! Do good! Spread the word!

Elder Blake Williams

We Baptized the Matheo Family!

Hello Family!
How is everything going? Sounds like things are starting to warm up on your side of the world, so this is where it is starting to get cold here (not a good time of the year). I am just glad I am not in a township at the moment. Townships in the winter are not somewhere you want to be. When it gets cold, they burn anything and everything they can find to stay warm, and the smoke gets so thick you can't see in front of you, so I am grateful to be in the beauty of Botswana for a bit longer! I don't have a winter jacket to wear around the house, so I am going to have Brother Banda make me a jacket if it is not too expensive.

This was the best week ever for mail! First I got the CD from the Smiths and it is SO good! Included in the CD is a DVD which I have no way of watching at the moment, but I will have to find a way. All the return missionaries in our branch love Paul Cardall so I will have to share that joy with them. I also got the photo album from the family and it was SO good! Pictures are the best gifts ever (when coupled with Paul Cardall music)! Those were both sweet, and then the next day I got a letter from the Goodes, and a post card from Heather (she is in Europe!). So yes..success.

Before I forget your sock question Momma Llama...I don't know what I am doing, but I have holes in 90% of my socks! Every time I slip on a sock it is just like "oh, I need to create a whole". I have been sewing up all my socks, so pretty much just try to find durable socks if they exists. Not like hiking socks or anything, but just slightly thicker. The ones you sent me are much better than the ones I brought with me.

Enough about socks, I feel that a lot occurred this week. First of all on Tuesday the President of Botswana made an appearance to the Lobatse (where I am serving) stadium with the president of Malawi for a soccer game. Botswana vs Malawi. It was a big deal, the president flew in on his jet propelled helicopters thinking that he was Marine One (USA presidents helicopters) or something. Then the Botswana military was there with some large rifles walking around everywhere, so I thought that was neat. Then they made a tour around Lobatse in their convoy of new BMW's. We were right next to that when they drove by us, so I THINK it was the President of Malawi that waved at us. Pretty sweet. Of course we couldn't attend the event, but everyone else did, so the work was pretty slow that day.

In terms of missionary work over all it has been a successful week! We Baptized the Matheo Family! The ones I have been telling you about. This was a big deal for everyone. The Morgans feel a connection to the family, so they came down for the Baptism, and Sister Morgan spoke and gave them a picture to remember the day. The Branch had a very good turn out for the event and all were excited for the family. They will be a much needed help for the Branch. Most importantly the family was very happy. I was able to Baptize the Mother and daughter while the Branch President Baptized the father (Leslie). This kind of Baptism does not occur too often, it was unique for a few reasons: One, They were a complete married family. Two, They found us, and the Branch fell in love with the family. Three, by Botswana standards they are a wealthy family, he is a senior manager of Botswana Meat Commission which employs 700 people in this little town. So they are one of those that reached worldly security and then realized that that is not where true happiness comes from, but they found the gospel and they are so excited. Everyone in the family bore eloquent, heart felt testimonies after the Baptism.

Elder Hughes and I had a neat experience this week. When the other guys were in South Africa picking up Elder Shwab (the greeny), we hopped onto our bikes and realized the tires were flat (tubes are the only thing I go through faster than socks). We changed the tires and then got back on the bikes only to realize that something on my rear tire was missing. We dissected both the rear bike tires so we could see what was missing. We found a spring was missing, so we started the search of looking for it. After a good 15 min we realized it was nowhere to be found. We said a prayer that we would be able to find it so that we could effectively go throughout our day. After the prayer we awkwardly looked at each other, and then I was like hmmm maybe we should take out our trash? Both of us thought that was a weird thought, but we did (which by the way baboons tore our trash apart the next day), but after taking our trash out we went back and wondered where we should look. We looked down and there was the spring! Right where all the trash bags had been! It was a pretty neat story.

Elder Hughes and I have been searching hard for new people to teach. We have started teaching less lessons for a reason. It is easy to spend most of your time on people who are not interested, and as a result you do not have time to find those that are ready for the gospel. We have been praying hard that we can experience miracles every day as we search for these people. As a result we are expecting and receiving wonderful people to teach. Among those this week were two that really stood out. One was named Morris. He is a single 38 yr old man who stays by himself, but we had a very good powerful first lesson with him, put him on date, and gave him a Book of Mormon. Another family was the Safie family. We contacted into this man in the richer part of our area (near where the Matheo family stays) and he agreed to let us come back. It was actually a very good first lesson with him and his large family. He has 5 kids, one of which is physically challenged. They are a wonderful family and really seem prepared for the gospel.

(mom I am having elder Hughes send you a copy of his email because it has a ton of photo's on it. And, thank you for Elder Alder and Robinson's emails, but I simply don't have time to read them...I will have to read them when I get home. But if you see Elder Alder's Mom tell her that he is a legend, because he is! I don't know what he is doing, but he is doing something right!)

We get to watch General conference this week! Although I am still not too sure when...They didn't announce the times in church yesterday, all they said was to look on our notice board (and it was not posted there), so then we went to the Branch President's home at night to figure out when it is (because everyone has been asking us), and long story short, our Branch President is not sure when we will watch it either...oh Africa haha. This would NOT happen back home. Either way we will see it sometime this week!

Well it is good to get your emails and letters. I enjoy hearing updates from home and those pictures Cami sent were great as well. Tell Grant to stop falling into frozen rivers!

Everything is going well, the work is great, and yes mother I am staying safe! (in fact, Elder Hughes has a journal that he ONLY puts "don't tell mom stories" in, (don't tell his Mom) and we have not added to that journal in at least 6 weeks!)
Love you all

Elder Williams

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words!

 Yep...that is my husband working out to an exercise show with his dress cloths on!!!

Saturday Mountain Drive April 9,2011

We have learned very quick that when the sun is shining you take advantage of it and head outdoors.  Saturday was a beautiful day and so we decided to take a drive and go for a hike. Well as you can see there was still  WAY more snow in the mountains than we had anticipated.  Clearly if we wanted to go for a hike we would need snowshoes....

We all laughed when we stopped to use the "washroom"and saw the little trail dug out to get to the building.  Now that is a lot of snow!
 Grant, Dad and Camille decided to go for a short hike.  As you can see we were very ill prepared!  Grant had his tennis shoes on with short sport socks!  He was determined to get to a little island in the middle of the creek.

And...he made it!  "Grant's Island"    He did however come back to the car wet up to his thighs!

 Camille has become quit the little photographer.  It is nice that she has that interest.  There is always something to take pictures of in beautiful Canada.
 This picture is so funny because there are parts of the road that have so much snow that they don't even try to plow the roads. They just wait for it to melt.

This was a beautiful little place in the river that had a family of deer at their water spot.  It was a great day.  I am looking forward to summer because I never get tired of exploring the outdoors here. It is never the same and it is spectacular!  You need to come and see for yourself!

Canada's April Fool's Day Joke!

I know that the weather has been crazy all over the world this year but we have had SO much snow!  We were thrilled because it finally was just about all melted and then this.....It snow 12 inches in ONE 24 hour period.  The good news is that is was melted 4 days later. People here say that this is their April Showers...it snows here sometimes even in May. I will say I have had my fill of snow for one year!  Bring on Spring. 

Happy 23rd Birthday Carly!

I can hardly believe that my little girl is 23 today!  Boy, I know it is a cliche but 

TIME REALLY DOES FLY!  

This is the darling note that Steve e-mailed Carly for her birthday.  He cc me and it made me smile.  

Carly,
Happy birthday. I woke-up thinking of you and remembering myself being in the delivery room with mom and you 23 years ago, and being nervously unsettled about all that was going on there. (Are you impressed that I remembered this? If so, don’t get used to it as it seems I’m forgetting everything else these days.) You were a sweet little thing then and have been a joy to us ever since. As a child your personality was very interesting. I couldn’t get over how calm you were; no high-highs or low lows, just incredibly even and steady. Everyone loved you - and you didn’t have to do anything to earn it except sit there, observe, and look pretty.

My birthday wish is that you enjoy the same calm in your advanced age of 23. I hope it’s a happy day for you.
With love and wishes,

Dad

Happy Birthday Carly!  What a blessing you have been to our family! We love you. 

Residency Came through...I am staying in Botswana!

OH MY GOODNESS!! Not only is Michael Yeck getting married, but does anyone realize that his date is set for my mission Birthday!! I mean I know we are like best friends, but to plan his wedding on my mission birthday, he shouldn't have! Tell him that he is too kind!

In other news my keyboard today is the worst I have ever used in my life so if I cannot type much or if there are a lot of errors all over the place, I pass the blame on to the key board.

We got mission wide good news this week. The church has been working with the Botswana Gov. and they got residency for ALL the missionaries! How you might ask? I have no idea, but all I know is that transfer news came and went and they left me here in Lobatse! This is great news. The only changes to our district is that Elder Finlinson is leaving us tomorrow to go somewhere in South Africa, and Elder Chidzawo is going to be training! it will definitely be exciting to have a greeny in the flat.

Although I have residency now so does every other missionary so I will probably go back to South Africa next transfer.

Happy Birthday Carly! Lets see...I'm 20, so this must make you 23! so Exciting! Well happy birthday!

Thank you for the line of Authority! I really appreciate that. Thank you for the email, I knew it existed, I just didnt use it much in the past. Thank you as well for the picture you sent. That must be exciting for (skinny) Lincoln to be able to see family 4 times on his mission! There would be SO many perks of the Salt Lake mission! We do not watch Conference until the 17th of April, but I am very excited for it. It is always a dream of dreams for members here to even imagine attending conference in person. It makes me a bit sad that I took it for granted when I attended in the past.

As a side note, Elder Hughes family used google earth to check out our area. I thought that was a neat idea, so if you want, there is an idea.

Sorry if this email is boring! I have spent about 30 min typing this short update!
We will be baptizing Leslie and Tabello family next week. I will update you on that when I can actually type, and when it happens.

Well, I am having a hard time typing, so I am going to go type a few individual emails with my short time.

Sorry the email is so short!
Everything is going well
Love you all

Elder Williams

Well, because the email is so boring I decided to attach two photos. The first is of the man who I gave the priesthood to. He was also just called as the branch mission leader. He is here with his wife and we are currently teaching them temple prep. She has been through the temple, but he has not. They will be going at the end of the month! Side note, this family feeds us about once every 2 weeks and it is always the fattiest food I have ever eaten! It is good though because everyone else here always feeds us goat meat which does not taste bad, but it is almost as bad as trying to eat a piece of leather! It is always so fatty! DA's are a bit challenging here...

The second photo is of myself and one of my favorite people in the World. This is Brother Banda. I mentioned him a couple times when I first got here mentioning how weird he is, but we have grown to be best friends! That is a shirt that he made for me. To describe how close he is to us, yesterday he bore his testimony of how much he is going to miss Elder Finlinson. He seamed really sad during church and he said the reason for that is because he could not sleep the night before after hearing about Elder Finlinson Leaving! He is the Best!

OH and has Caroline gotten her mission call yet? My guess for her is Zimbabwe and my guess for Axel is Jo berg being trained by me!