What a week. What a week!

Dear Family,

What a week. What a week!

Well apparently the church never worked out the relationship with Botswana and the residency problem has only gotten worse. I was unaware of this until Tuesday when I found out that I am one of the few in the mission with residency and as a result I am back in Botswana. 30 minutes away from my previous Botswana area (Lobatse). I successfully went from the richest area in the mission to the most rural. My new area is called Kanye, it is 100% village, and we actually live right in the middle of the village. This was actually a little bit of a funny call because when I stayed at the mission home a couple weeks ago I made it a point to make fun of the showers that the Kanye zone leaders have to use. Everyone was laughing really hard and I thought it was because the stories about the shower were funny but apparently everyone in that room, including Sister Omer, knew that my next assignment would take me to be a Zone Leader in Kanye.

We also have one of the smallest branches in the mission. In fact we only got sustained as a branch yesterday during stake conference. I have also been called to be the 2nd counselor in the Branch Presidency, I will be over the finances of the branch. My companion, Elder Gauti, is the Elders Quorum President. Elder Finlinson (good friend from Lobatse, he also was blessed with residency and we are once again in the same flat together) is the first counselor in the branch. And Elder Larson who was in my group, we knew each other from BYU when he used to beat me every day at racket ball in our racquetball class. I actually just found out yesterday that we were also in the same bowling class? Well he is the Branch President for a few more weeks until they call an official Branch President.

The largest advantage of being close to the Former area (Lobatse) is that I have already had the blessing of meeting up with the recent converts that I baptized. One Saturday we had a Botswana leadership meeting for the leaders of the branches. Although we are the only Elders in the mission serving as branch leaders, we were told to attend and surprisingly I was able to see many of the members from the Lobatse branch, including the sweet Moteo family on that Saturday. The others I was able to see them the next day at Stake Conference. It is SO great to see those that I had the opportunity to baptize and to see that they are still growing in the gospel. There were also a few that I was teaching but had no information on whether or not the were ever baptized. Not only were they baptized, but were strong enough in the church to make the hour trek down to Stake Conference.

I was also over joyed to learn how much of an impact I must have left for some of the members of that branch. Normally when a missionary leaves, memory of him quickly leaves as well. But rumor quickly spread that Elder Williams is back in the country and many were very. very excited to hear of my return. I look forward to the exchanges and baptism interviews that I will be able to do there in the near future.

I even had the opportunity to meet the missionary who was in a Ghana prison for 9 months. I cannot remember the exact words he used, but he said something along the lines that it was crazy but he enjoyed it.

I should also mention that Elder XXX from my MTC group, the one that went home because of home sickness is in my zone! Because of Emergency transfers we were able to make him District Leader, and I will be doing an exchange with him tomorrow to train him how to be a District leader. I am excited for him!

Eish, there is so much to mention today! I must mention that you can now mail letters and packages to Botswana:

Elder Blake Williams
Botswana Mission Office
Box AD 172 ADD (ph 7132 0394)
Postnet kgal
Gaborone, Botswana

It is sad to hear that some of my letters have not been making it home. I just sent a CD home a couple days ago, so look for that. I am sorry to all if you have not received a letter from me that you were expecting. I try to keep detailed track of the letters I receive and send so that I make sure to reply to all the letters so if you have sent one that I did not reply to, it is PROBABLY a TIA and just got lost in the mail. Mail is still very much appreciated.

Mom, in terms of my package. I don't really need a Christmas package, but what would be really great is if you could somehow organize some little presents that I can give to friends in Lobatse. I was trying to think of what that would be but people here really enjoy pictures, so maybe like a picture of Christ in a frame to sit on a shelf (I try to get that for my recent converts anyway, but it is kind of expensive for me to even get the cheap frames). Or you could go the direction of something Christmasy. I don't really know, but if you could be so kind to just fill my Christmas box with something meaningful that I can give to them that would be appreciated. Please don’t spend a lot of money though. And if you have already sent a package for some reason, then don't worry about it. Thank you in advance!

Well my last story is that I was talking to the former AP (we are pretty good friends), and he said that there was a missionary who was really struggling and was on the verge of going home off his mission and he told the mission president that he would really enjoy being companions with Elder Williams. I don't even know this missionary! I have met him once before, but could probably not even pick him out of a line up.

That was probably the biggest compliment I have had in years!

Love you all
Elder Blake Williams