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