Happy Cadiaian Thanksgiving

Blue comment written by Stacey.

Dear Family,

Once again I cannot believe how much you vacation! (It is Canadian Thanksgiving so we went to British Columbia for the weekend)  1 goal I have developed on my mission is to see the world at some point. I would rather do it much sooner than later. I have come to the knowledge that apparently America is the Utah of the rest of the world. Don't get me wrong, Utah and America are my favorite but I have realized that I need to at least SEE the rest of the world.

I will answer any questions you had first so I don't forget:

1. Yes I am over my sickness. I feel bad though because I got a couple investigators sick. I stayed home for two days and thought that was way too long, but apparently not. And no momma, I do not need med. I can get any medicine here that I need.

2. How am I adjusting to my new area and my new callings? Now that is a good question. The callings were an easy adjustment. I kind of felt like a zone leader in Nelspruit because I was so far away from everyone and we had a ton of technical problems all the time. We have a very small zone with only 6 areas, so I do not have to deal with too much technical stuff. We just have call in's with the Assistants and President pretty often to discuss the missionaries and motivating them, etc. We have a very good zone though with young obedient missionaries, so that makes life SO much easier.

Branch Presidency is pretty fun though. Elder Finlinson is one of my favorite missionaries so it is good to serve with him in the Banch Presidency. Elder Larson is the Branch President for a few more weeks. I don't know if I told you about Elder Larson, but it is an extremely small world. Elder Larson was probably the only person I did not get along with in my BYU racquetball class. We were the best two in the class so we had to play against each other each day but we were so "close" that we didn't even know that the other had a mission call! Pretty crazy. He was always negative about everything and I tried to stay away from that. Well small world we got on a plane together to come to Africa and it wasn't until then that we realized that we were going to the same mission! Take a couple steps forward and we are now in the same flat, in a Branch Presidency together, in a Botswana village! Does that ever happen!? I think not. But it did, and I am glad that it did because after a fairly tense day or two of working on the Negativity issue we have actually become really good friends. The stake President has asked that we train all the Men in our branch on the church handbook to prepare them for when the Branch leadership gets passed from missionaries to members of the Branch. We started that this week and that was pretty interesting teaching people about a handbook that I have not entirely read myself. That is like a missionary trying to go on a mission and testify about the Book of Mormon without fully reading it. So I will have to read that handbook this week.

In terms of Botswana. Botswana has been a large transition for me all over again. Nelspruit is like a little slice of America and Botswana is very far from it. It is almost like I have to adjust from America to Africa all over again. I must admit it has been much harder to adjust than I thought it would be seeing as how I have already served here, but I feel like I am finally making the adjustment.

3. It is sad to hear about Missy. Not too much to say other than that she was a great dog and will be missed, but you did the right thing by putting her down. It is slightly ironic that it happened this week though because I was pushing to buy a dog this week...I usually don't write danger stories home so the fact that I write this one tells you that it is actually far less dangerous than it sounds, the problem has been taken care of, and no you have nothing to worry about. That being said here is the story:

At the beginning of the week we realized that a light was missing on our bike. Pretty normal seeing as how we ride a lot and it could have easily just fallen off somewhere.

Next day we realized that the bikes (which we keep in our house) had all the lights broken off of them. The lights were gone but the broken pieces were on the ground. We thought that was really weird and came to the conclusion that some kid must have come in while the door was open and we were in our rooms or something.

Next day: Alarm oddly goes off in the middle of the day.

Next day: We were in Lobatse for a district meeting and while we were there we saw a really cheep cake so elder Finlinson bought it for us. When we got back to Kanye we put it on the table, set the alarm and left. When we got back that night we planned and then all four of us got really excited for the cake. We went into the kitchen and found a missing cake. We were all trying to figure out who was playing the joke but after about 30 min we realized that no one was joking and that our bike pump was also missing. We kind of freaked out a little because we pieced a lot of pieces together and realized that not only did someone have a copy of our keys but that they knew the code to out alarm as well. NOT a comforting feeling being in the middle of Africa and then finding that out.

Mom is probably wondering where the part about her not worrying comes in. Here: The next day we changed the code to the alarm and got all new locks. I wanted to fulfill my dream of getting a doberman pincher, but we decided that the cake theft had not stolen enough for president to clear a pet dog...So this is the TIA of the week. Someone had access to everything we owned (which was thousands of pula at the time), bikes, and technology but instead they choose to take a cake and some bike lights.

Other things from the week: We got south African mail this week and I had two letters! NEITHER from the United States. One was from my new pin pall family the Stanford's from Canada and the other was from my friend Alex from New Zealand who I went to school with at BYU. Sounds like she is getting married soon so I am pretty excited for her. What is up with people getting married so much while I am on my mission!

-One of our investigators who has a chicken farm needed help killing and preparing his chickens so we helped clean 144 chickens this week. Another member who I have become quick friends with has 400 that are due in about 2 weeks. I thought this news would bring a smile to dad who has always been trying to get his children to slaughter and clean a chicken...(Oh and he also cooked the insides of the chicken for us. So I can add that to my list of African foods. And he taught me the African way of eating a chicken foot which includes eating the bones.)

-I gave a long long talk yesterday.

-I have a missionary in my Zone I need you to do something for. His name is Elder X from Africa. He is about 4 months on mission and he has had to learn English. He is a good good person and companions with Elder XX who he thinks the world of. I do not know exactly what you can do for him but his parents are not members and I get the impression that letters and emails are very slim if not non existent. I do not imagine he will have anything for Christmas, but if you could at the minimum send him a physical letter of encouragement or something that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Alright well I am out of time.

Remember the church is true.

Thanks for everything

Love you all

Elder Blake Williams